Little Stories

The Vampire Kisses Series by Ellen Schreiber

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The book review is going to be different in the fact that I am going to do one giant post about that review of all 9 books in the series instead of doing a short review of every book individually. The series itself is a bit dated, with the first one published in 2003 and the last in 2012. I read the first three(ish) when I was in middle school and then completely forgot about them until recently when I was browsing one of my favorite online stores, thriftbooks.com, so of course, I bought them all. I will keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but there is a chance for them.

Vampire Kisses (Vampire Kisses #1)

Raven is a Gothic Queen who lives among the boring residents of her small town that she affectionately calls Dullsville. She much prefers to stand out and is constantly going toe-to-toe with the school’s most popular guy, Trevor Mitchell. Between putting Trevor in his place and having Monster movie marathons with her best friend, Becky, she is completely obsessed with the idea of becoming a vampire herself. That’s when a mysterious new family moves into the old and crumbling mansion at the top of the hill, the only place in Dullsville that Raven finds beautiful. Rumors begin to fly about the new additions to the town; one in particular is that they are vampires. Raven is immediately intrigued by the Sterling family, especially their son Alexander, who is the Gothic Prince she always dreamed of, but he may also be her ticket to achieving her dream of becoming a vampire.

Raven is everything I wanted to be when I was in middle school. She wears all black all the time and sports black lipstick proudly (something that, as an adult, I do proudly whenever I get the chance, and my mom is constantly lamenting my nearly all black wardrobe). She is also very outspoken and comfortable in who she is. She doesn’t let anybody tell her what she should wear and how she should act. On the other hand, her best friend, Becky, was everything I was in middle school: shy, soft-spoken, and scared of her shadow. While Becky, like Raven, is a social outcast, she tends to blend in more with the residents of Dullsville and is mostly a social outcast due to her socioeconomic status, causing her to be an easy target for bullies like Trevor.  Trevor is Raven’s foil in every way possible. He is the stereotypical preppy handsome soccer jock that is just a gigantic douchebag. He even comes complete with his ever-present sidekick, Matt (who, in all fairness, isn’t as bad as he seems). On the other hand, Alexander was (and very well still may be) my dream guy. He was my first fictional crush, handsome, dark, mysterious, and romantic.

Everything about this novel is like reading a romantic comedy, from Goth Girl meeting Goth Guy to her messing it up to the makeup. It’s cute and sweet and basically like catnip to me right now. The ending does lead to the reader wanting more and with several questions. All in all, it is a strong start to the series as a whole.

Kissing Coffins (Vampire Kisses #2)

In true vampire fashion, Alexander has diapered into the night without so much as a goodbye, leaving our Gothic heroine heartbroken and on a mission. Raven starts her search in the town of Hipsterville, an outcast mecca full of Gothic haunts, vegetarian bites, and hippie delights, by visiting her eccentric Aunt Libby. Hipsterville is everything that Dullsville isn’t, and it’s the perfect place for a vampire to blend in. First on the list of places to look for her Gothic Prince is the Coffin Club, a safe haven for vampires and vampire wannabes alike. The Coffin Club is everything Raven has ever wanted, a place to fit in, but this particular club holds more than she bargained for when she meets Jagger, a “friend” from Alexander’s past and the reason he went to hiding.

Jagger is an intoxicating Goth who makes Raven’s heart race with fear. He is everything that is terrifying about the dark underbelly of the Goth world, and he’s out for revenge. Jagger is the only new character added to the series in book two (besides Luna, his twin sister, who gets introduced near the end). He isn’t very fleshed out as a protagonist, especially when compared to Trevor. Trevor’s motivations for tormenting Raven are based solely on the fact that he is obviously in love with her but can’t reconcile that with the life he is expected to have. Jagger, on the other hand, is motivated by revenge on Alexander, but his way of achieving that is a bit muddled and not very planned out, yet he has character traits that indicate that he is very calculating. I didn’t find myself doing the “no no no” bit in my head at the climax of the novel that I did with the first. On the other hand, Luna seems to be an interesting addition to the story, although the reader doesn’t know much about her since she is introduced so late. I am interested in seeing how she does and what she is like.

The second novel is, in my opinion, weaker than the first, but it still makes me want to continue with the story. I live for the small moments between Alexander and Raven. Although I will say that I wish that the relationship between Becky and Raven had been written better, I feel like female friendships in novels that focus on romance are never written very well. Raven tends to leave Becky in the dust in favor of spending time with Alexander, which, to be fair, is par for the course for not only romance novels in general but for real-life high school entanglements.

Vampireville (Vampire Kisses #3)

Alexander is back, baby! Raven’s Gothic Mate is back in the Mansion, and they are hot on the trail of Dullsville’s newest undead residents, twins Jagger and Luna. Both of them are out for revenge against Alexander for his wrongdoings against the Maxwell family. Jagger and Luna have set their sights on Trevor for different reasons. Jagger envies Trevor, his ability to play soccer, and the fact that he is the most popular guy in school. With her brother’s guidance, Luna is looking for an eternal love match and has settled on Trevor. As much as Raven detests her nemesis, she’s not about to let him turn into a late-night vampire snack, or even worse, turn into the undead before she herself receives a true love bite from Alexander, but the more Raven tries to convince Trevor to stay away, the deeper he gets. Of course, Trevor is reveling in the fact that he seems to be king of the in-crowd and the outcasts.

As predicted, I liked Luna as a character. She brought Pastel Goth to the scene, and I was here for it. Raven and Luna are very similar to each other; they are both outsiders who want to be insiders of the vampire world. Although Luna has accomplished this. There was a nice scene with Luna and Raven where it highlights that both girls just want a friend that fully understands them, and there is a possibility that they could be that for each other. We also see a bit more development from Jagger. All he ever wanted was to be like Trevor; all he ever got was darkness and being an outsider. I loved that there were more Becky and Raven moments, too! Although the friendship between them still isn’t as strong as I personally would like a female friendship to be portrayed, it is getting better.

All in all, I like the third installment in the series. It’s a bit stronger than the second, as Jagger and Luna make a better villainous duo than Jagger does on his own. We also see more of Raven second-guessing herself when it comes to actually becoming part of the undead. I feel like there is a nice flow to the books that I am enjoying.

Dance with a Vampire (Vampire Kisses #4)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cemetery… BAM preteen Vampire! Raven and Alexander thought they had finally rid themselves and Dullsville of the Maxwell children when Billy Boy, Raven’s tween brother, made friends with the ghostly-looking new kid in town. Alexander and Raven quickly realize that the miniature Jagger walking around is, in fact, Valentine, Jagger and Luna’s little brother, and he has set his sights on Billy. Our Gothic Heroine has a lot on her plate, from trying to spend time with her Vampire Prince to keeping her brother from being a late-night snack and prom. She is a pretty busy girl.

Maybe it’s his age (11), but Valentine has a certain innocence that both Jagger and Luna lack. There is just something about him that makes you want to take care of him. I mean, he’s only a kid, and it’s obvious that his motives for being in Dullsville are very different from those of his older siblings. He is just trying to find his siblings and reunite his family, something he blames Raven and Alexander for. Valentine has the ability to read people and know their own innermost thoughts, something he uses to try and figure out where Jagger and Luna are. In order to get close to Raven, he makes friends with Billy Boy and his Nerd Mate, Henry. I love that Billy plays a bigger role in this book. It’s obvious that he looks up to Raven and wants to be close to her even though they have drastically different personalities. Seeing the brother-sister bond was super nice! Another thing that I love seeing is the relationship between Raven and Trevor. As much as I LOVE Raven and Alexander, I’m not going to lie; I am low-key rooting for Raven and Trevor! They have a nice Yin and Yang thing going on, and I’m here for it. It’s probably the Enemies to Lovers in me.

So far, I think the 4th book is my favorite. You get to see Raven interact more with the “supporting” characters, which is really nice, and you also get to see more of Raven’s internal conflict when it comes to actually becoming a vampire. This book is a good midpoint to the series, and I look forward to what happens next.

The Coffin Club (Vampire Kisses #5)

And Alexander is gone again… at least this time, we know where he went. It’s finally summer break for Raven, and the only thing she has on her mind is spending her nights with her sexy vampire boyfriend; the only problem is that her sexy vampire boyfriend went to Hipsterville to return Valentine to his siblings. So Raven does what any normal Gothic teenager in love would: visit her Aunt Libby in Hipsterville and surprise her boyfriend. Her summer of dancing the night away at The Coffin Club with Alexander is turned upside down when she stumbles upon a secret club underneath The Coffin Club.

First of all, I want an Aunt Libby. I have some seriously cool aunts, but having a hippy one would be cool. Aunt Libby is a completely free spirit, and while she was introduced in Kissing Coffins, we get to explore her character a bit more in-depth.  I feel a kinship to Aunt Libby mostly cause I wanted to be Raven in middle school, and in adulthood (or as adult as you can get at 23), I am becoming Libby. She is unabashedly herself, except when she is at work, but who is themselves at work; she is also perpetually single, so we are basically the same. We also get introduced to three more vampire friends: Scarlet, Onyx, and Phoenix. Scarlet and Onyx are pretty cool; they immediately accept Raven as their own. On the other hand, Phoenix is a cool purple-haired motorcycle-riding badass that Raven is very drawn to.

So, this was probably my least favorite in the series for a couple of reasons. One because it had so much potential to be so good. We get introduced to a conflict in the underworld that could definitely change things for vampire-kind, but it never goes too deep into the conflict, and there never seems to be tension. Which, as a reader, is kind of a letdown. Another reason I didn’t like it as much was because there was no Trevor, whom I adore. The way Trevor and Raven jive together just gets me. I love their banter. Also, another reason was that *SPOILER ALERT* Phoenix and Alexander are one and the same (which, to be honest, you could see from a mile away. Like it’s hella obvious), but Raven doesn’t know this till the end, and during that time she definitely did not tell Alexander that she had been going to The Coffin Club by herself even when he asked her not to because it was dangerous (which it was) and she definitely did not tell him about the Dungeon. If my boyfriend (if I had one, to begin with) caught me in a lie, you best believe we would have it out. Raven and Alexander not so much, which bothers me. It’s just another long list showing that their relationship is pretty superficial. They don’t really talk, nor do they argue. It’s kind of the pre-Edward and Bella, but not nearly as creepy and stalkery.

Vampire Kisses #6-9

Well, hello there…. long time no write. I will get around to posting a life update soon, but I wanted to finish off this post that I have had in my drafts since 2018. I finished the last book in the series, Immortal Herts, in July of 2021. That being said, I pretty much remember nothing. I gave the last 4 books in this series 3 stars each, by the end of the series it was all just so repatative and dull. Spoiler Alert: at the ripe old age of 17/18, Raven makes the choice to become a vampire and spend the rest of eternity with Alexander. If I had finished this series when I was in high school, I probably would have agreed with this statement, but 26-year-old me absolutely did not. There is no chance in hell that they last for an eternity. This series is a good trip back in time to the height of the early 2000s vampire obsession, but if you expect excellent writing and character development, you will not find it here.

In Memoriam

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My Sweet Angel. My Menace to Society. My Charzard, Char-Char, Bubs, and the million and one nicknames I gave you over the last 15 years. Charlie Girl. You were an absolute light in my life. You brought joy and love to everyone you ever met. I will remember your trills and screams for dinner and cookies. I will remember your love of walks and sticks. I will remember the laps you used to do around the living room without ever touching the ground. I will remember it all cause you left your mark on my life. I heard once that grief is the love we have for someone when it doesn’t have anywhere to go. I agree with this cause; only love can hurt this like this. My heart is shattered, but I know you aren’t in any pain anymore. I know you crossed that rainbow bridge with nothing but joy and love. I also know that you had one hell of a welcome party up there. Until we meet again, my sweet angel girl, RIP. Charlie Girl 03/17/2011-01/15/2026.

In which I once again return from the dead…

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Hello! I would like to formally reintroduce myself…My name is Jacqueline, but most of my friends just call me Jackie. I am 30 years old, and I still live with my parents (have you seen our economy lately?!) I am an only child, so I do spend exuberant amounts of time alone and mostly tend to prefer it that way. Work tends to use up most, if not all, of my social battery. I work for a major airline as a gate agent. I find this to be a soul-sucking existence, but my coworkers make it worthwhile, and I am forever in supply of a great dinner party story. I spend most of my free time reading, doomscrolling till I have an anxiety attack or fall asleep, whichever happens first, depending on the news cycle that day. To be very, VERY crystal clear here: I did not, nor have I EVER voted for the Orange Mussolini that is currently in office. To me, Black Lives Matter; Love is Love, no matter who or how you love; Women’s Rights are Human Rights; Science is Real; Free Palestine; ACAB; and really just do what you want with your life as long as it hurts no one, including yourself. Now that that is out of the way, other things I enjoy doing are cross-stitch, I am a huge TV and movie junky (some of my comfort shows and movies are Gilmore Girls, The Nanny, Criminal Minds, The Librarians Franchise, and The Princess Bride), and I love to journal and write. I have a 15-year-old rescue dog named Charlie, and she is the love of my life. Unfortunately, our days are sadly numbered due to her age and failing mobility, but I am going to love her with everything I have, even after she crosses the rainbow bridge*. I run an online book club called Books & Babes that is for women by women, and it is my pride and joy.

So I think that is enough of a reintroduction to a little old me. Now that I have risen from the proverbial grave a year later (let’s be real, more like 5 years, as I made 4 posts in 2024). What can you expect from me and this blog? Great question, glad you asked!! This post will serve as my 2026 roadmap and document my subsequent descent into madness, cause 2026 me is feeling VERY ambitious this year, but first, let’s do a quick rundown of 2025: I read 126 books this year, which is the most amount of books I have ever read in a year….ever. I joined 3 book clubs this year, in addition to the one I run. I had about 20ish failed talking stages, went on 10ish dates, give or take, and had 0 relationships. I saw Alex Warren, Kesha, Bowling for Soup, 3OH3!, LOLO, Simple Plan, Jimmy Eat World, and The Offspring live in concert. At the Simple Plan concert, I was three feet away from Pierre at one point, and I swear I died a little of joy. I made a whole bunch of new friends. I turned 30 and celebrated with amazing people and an amazing cake. The Big Sad got me on more than one occasion. I spent on average 3-6 hours on social media A DAY (I was there. I was the one who did it. Yet that is actual insanity to me.) I did not accomplish most of the goals I had at the beginning of 2025, so much so that I don’t remember what they were, other than my reading goal, which I crushed. So, in short, while 2025 had some very good things happen, it mostly majorly sucked ass; I am determined to not to have 2026 suffer the same fate.

My 2026 goal is simple, really, and yet there are a lot of moving parts to it: End the year as a better version of myself and be as happy as I can be. I have lots of projects and stuff I want to do this year, and with any luck, we will have a better year. We’ll start off with the stuff in my personal life:

Personal:

  1. Journal every day
    • I am doing Morning Pages basically right when I get up in the morning, after my morning routine in the bathroom, getting dressed for the day, and making my bed, but before going downstairs and having breakfast.
    • I am also doing three guided journals in the morning: Better Every Day and Dig Deeper, both by Inside Then Out, and Back to Me from Full Bloom Inspo. Dig Deeper and Back to Me are both at your own pace and aren’t dated, while Better Every Day is dated. I have gotten a new Better Every Day journal every year for the last 3 or 4 years, and I have been using the Same Dig Deeper and Back to Me journals for the last couple of years cause I have been so inconsistent with this practice. This year, I want to change that.
    • I do my 15 minuet creative writing sprints with my Morning Journal. Basically, I pick a random writing prompt from Pinterest that speaks to me, and I write for 15 minutes. These short stories are hardly ever finished, though if a prompt really speaks to me, I will continue writing it till it doesn’t anymore. This exercise is just for me and for fun; no one will ever read them.
    • This technically falls under Spirituality, but I do this in the morning with my Morning Journal stuff, so Imma put it here. I do my morning tarot pull and journal about it in my Tarot Planner from Writual Planners.
    • As for my Night Journal routine, I update my daily planner from Archer & Olive, update my reading bullet journal, my period journal from Cycles Journal, and update my reading planner from Always Fully Booked. I also use the It’s All Good mental health mood journal from Messy Nessy Designs, and I pull a card from the Conversations With Your Inner Self deck from Zenfulnote and journal on that.
  2. 26 Things in 2026. These are just 26 things I want to accomplish or do before the year’s end in 2026. And they are as follows:
    • Go to the Ballet
    • Go to the Opera
    • See a Comedy Show
    • See a Play/Musical
    • Have a Museum Day
    • Take a Day Trip
    • See a Concert
    • Go to the Zoo
    • See the Zoo Lights (my local zoo puts on a Christmas Lights display I have always wanted to see)
    • Take a Vacation
    • Get a Facial
    • Get a Massage
    • See the Symphony
    • Got to a Hockey Game
    • Got to a Renaissance Fair
    • Have a “Taste of (insert my city here)” Day (basically this is where I pretend to be a tourist in my own city)
    • Take a Ghost Tour
    • Go to the Beach
    • Go to the Aquarium
    • Go on a Weekend Trip
    • Go to an Amusement Park
    • Go to a Famous Landmark in my city that I have never been to before
    • Go to a Museum in my city, which I have never been to before
    • Do an Indie Bookstore Crawl
    • Go on a Girls’ Trip
    • Visit another Country
  3. My 2026 Vibes playlist. This one isn’t really a to-do, but I did want to share. I make one of these playlists every year; it has the same number of songs as the year (i.e., 2025 had 25 songs, 2026 has 26 songs, etc.). I make this playlist by putting my Liked Songs on Spotify on shuffle, and I take the first 26 songs that come up. I use my Liked Songs playlist as a folder to come back to new music when I come across it, so I don’t forget, so it’s a mixed bag of new to me and well-loved songs.
    • Screaming Underwater by Alex Warren
    • Love Gets Me Every Time by Shania Twain
    • Hotel Ceiling by Rixton
    • Corneliea Street by Taylor Swift
    • Let it Roll by Superchick
    • Everything I Do is For You by Amira Elfeky
    • Labour by Paris Paloma
    • Hoist the Colors by Malinda
    • You are In Love by Taylor Swift
    • Suffocate by Kayzo ft. Bad Omens
    • Man by JoJo
    • Forget You by Tadhg Daly
    • Dirty Thoughts by Chole Adams
    • Feed the Machine by Poor Man’s Poison
    • Brittle by Icon for Hire
    • Real Groove by Kylie Minogue
    • Exile by Taylor Swift ft Bon Iver
    • ABCDEFU (Angrier) By GAYLE
    • Rain by Sleep Token
    • Be My Escape by Relient K
    • Waka Waka (Esto es Africa) by Shakira ft Freshlyground
    • Hold Them Down by The Cast of Epic: The Musical
    • Exterminate, Regenerate by Chameleon Circuit
    • Regenerate Me by Chameleon Circuit
    • Take Me to Church by Hozier
  4. Have a better sleep schedule
    • This is just me and my Hatch against the world. I received my Hatch as a Christmas gift two years ago, and I really do love it. I am hoping to be much more consistent about going to bed and getting up at the same time every day. The goal is to be asleep between 2:00 and 2:30AM every day and wake up between 10:00 and 11:00AM. So far, we are inconsistent with this, but it’s a work in progress.
  5. Disconnect from my phone and break up with social media
    • I have a CRIPPLING addiction to TikTok and Instagram, mostly TikTok, and it’s high key ruining my life. I didn’t really track my screen time consistently last year, but between December 14th and 31st, I spent 59 hours 25 minutes on TikTok, 1 hour and 47 minutes on Facebook, and 4 hours 11 minutes on Instagram. That’s 65 hours and 23 minutes on social media for two weeks. That is not good, nor is it good for my mental and physical well-being. So the game plan is as follows:
      1. Use the Forest app’s newest feature, Time Guard, to lock down TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram from 11AM to 10:30PM every day. (I have been using Forest for YEARS its what got me through college, and is a great app to help you lock down your phone and focus on what you need to do)
      2. Use the downtime feature on my iPhone to lock down pretty much everything else from 12:00AM to 8:59AM so I can actually get some sleep.
      3. Charge my phone on the other side of the room so I can doomscroll in bed. Eventually, I want to get a Bluetooth landline phone in my bedroom so that I’m available if there is an emergency in the middle of the night, but I can charge my phone in a different room.
    • So far, this plan has been really helping and despite a tiny setback, has been going strong, but we are looking for consistancy not perfection here.

Health (Mental, Emotional & Physical) & Wealth

  1. Meal Prepping
    • This is mostly to make eating at home easier to accomplish. One of my main pinch points is not having enough energy to make dinner or lunch every day, and also not having enough money to eat out every meal. While I do want to eat healthier, I also want it to be easy to do. So I am meal prepping twice a month for two weeks at a time, so that all I have to do is pull a meal out of the freezer and call it a day. Basically, I am making my own frozen dinners.
  2. Moving More
    • I want to move my body more by going on walks and stretching more. I have noticed in the last few years that my hips are incredibly tight and my ankles sometimes feel very weak. I also have been having circulation issues that I am working with my PCP on. If I lose weight doing this, then great, but that is not the goal here. The goal is to build muscle in my lower body, work on lung capacity, flexability and mobility. I have set up a treadmill on our screened-in patio to help with this. Honestly, I haven’t used it yet, but I have been dealing with some stuff that has really pulled my motivation, but I do feel it coming back.
  3. Practice Mindfulness
    • This is another way I am going to be working on lung capacity and lowering heart rate, by making sure I practice breath work and meditate every day. I used to be very anti-meditation, as I am very much not a sit and be still person, but I have learned to really love a guided meditation. I have two apps for this Celtic Whispers, which is a meditation app that focuses solely on Celtic traditions and mythology, and Balance, which is more in line with traditional meditation apps. I use Balance’s morning and night meditations that are super quick, and I use Celtic Whisper for my longer meditation, which I like to do after I do my morning journal with an ice eye mask on.
  4. Daily Brain Exercises
    • I have this deeply rooted fear that my mind is just going as I get older. I am determined to be the lady in the nursing home who is as sharp at 98 as she was at 18. To do this, I have a daily routine of Brain Games. The first app I use is Impulse, which gives you a daily workout, but also has IQ and personality tests, as well as other games. I particularly like the candy sort game when I am bored. Impulse is a lot more math heavy then the other app I use, Elevate. Elevate also gives you a daily workout to do, but it leans more towards writing and speaking. Elevate also has a daily Crossword, Wordbend, and Colorlink game you can play. I do all three daily. I also play the NYT Mini Crossword and Wordle (I even make my own Wordle that is bookish themed for my Discord book club), and lastly, I use an app called Spark, that is made by the same company as Elevate, and it has three daily games to play This or That, where you sort cards based on theme, Chrono, where you sort events on a time line, and Links, where you sort cards based on how they are linked together.
  5. Operation Fix my Finances so I can maybe one day actually retire. I really don’t want to get into financial specifics on the internet, but I am definitely a shopaholic. That scene in Confessions of a Shopaholic where she is chipping the credit card out of an ice block is pretty close to how I operate my current financial situation. I don’t really live above my means on paper, but I am such an impulse spender that it really adds up, and I basically live paycheck to paycheck. So my goals here are pretty simple:
    • Save money
    • Follow my spreadsheet budget
    • Use cash as much as possible
    • Write down every purchase in my notebook
    • Financially educate yourself
    • Curb impulse spending

Continuing Education & Hobbies

  1. Personal Curriculum. If you haunt the same spaces on TikTok as I do, you have heard the words personal curriculum a lot in recent months. I was deeply intrigued by this. So I decided to make my own. I decided to just screenshot my spreadsheet for this cause; typing it once was enough.
  1. Reading. When it comes to my reading, I have a lot of very ambitious goals I want to accomplish. As previously stated, I read 126 books last year, which is the most books I have ever read in one year. This broke down to 22,523 pages, 616 hours, 25 minutes listened across 60 audiobooks, 41 Ebooks, 16 paperbacks, and 9 hardcovers. I completed 44% if the PopSugar Reading Challenge and 47% of the Build Your Library Reading Challenge. I feel really good about this, but I feel like I can do much better so this years reading goals are:
    • Read 150 books
    • Read 30,000 pages
    • Listen to 650 hours
    • Complete the PopSugar Reading Challenge (https://www.popsugar.com/books/popsugar-reading-challenge-2026-49464689)
    • Complete the Build Your Library Challenge (https://buildyourlibrary.com/2026-build-your-library-reading-challenge/)
    • Read My 26 Books for 2026 list. These are all books that I have either been highly anticipating and haven’t read yet, or books I have been procrastinating on reading.
      • The Happy Ever After Playlist
      • Say You’ll Remember Me
      • Great Big Beautiful Life
      • Accomplice to the Villian
      • Brigands & Breadknives
      • For Whom the Belle Tolls
      • Project Hail Mary
      • Dungeon Carwler Carl
      • Love Song
      • The Night We Met
      • The Velvet Knife
      • Under the Oak Tree Vol. 1
      • Adversary to the Villian
      • Gods & Monsters
      • The Priory of the Orange Tree
      • Mate
      • Hot for Slayer
      • Bound
      • First
      • Caught Up
      • The Song of Achellies
      • Divine Rivals
      • Heavenly Bodies
      • The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
      • Sinner
      • Empire of Shadows
    • Complete a 75 Booked Challenge
    • Read 30% or more in the Read Across America Challenge
    • Finish out at least 12 series that are currently in progress (I currently have 76 in progress series I need to finish. SEVENTY SIX YALL!)
    • No buying books for 324 days. If I do buy a book, I have to walk a mile for each book bought.
    • Blood and Ash/Flesh and Fire Reading Challenge. This is one of the most likely to kill me. I started the Blood and Ash series when it first came out, and now that it is FINALLY drawing to a close (just 3 more books to publish, I believe) I am going to read the whole mutiverse and get it over with.
    • 2010s Angels. I have this deep-seated suspicion that Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Fallen by Lauren Kate, and Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton are actually the same series. So I want to reread them all and compare and contrast.
    • Read 100 books by August 31st
    • Complete all the reading challenges in Always Fully Booked and the monthly challenges from Sweet Bean Plans (which is where I get my monthly stickers for my reading bullet journal.
  2. TV and Movies. I am a huge TV and Movie junkie and they are some of my favorite ways to intake a story.
    • Watch 104 movies
    • Finish 5 TV shows. I have so many TV shows in progress that I can’t ever tell you how many there are, but according to the app I use to track my shows, I will catch up on all my episodes on September 30th…..of 2109. So 84 YEARS from now. So I really need to pick up the pace here and start clearing out the backlog.
    • Start Project Star Trek. This is where I watch all of Star Trek in release order. That’s over 1000 episods accross 14 shows and 13 movies. This will take me years, but I want to start it this year and see how far I get.
      • Star Trek: The Orginal Series
      • Star Trek: The Animated Series
      • The first 6 Star Trek films
        • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
        • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
        • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
        • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
        • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
        • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
      • Star Trek: Next Generation
      • Star Trek: Generations
      • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
      • Star Trek: Voyager
      • Films 8-10
        • Star Trek: First Contact
        • Star Trek: Insurrection
        • Star Trek: Nemesis
      • Star Trek: Enterprise
      • Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: Into Darkness, Star Trek: Beyond
      • Star Trek: Discovery
      • Star Trek: Short Treks
      • Star Trek: Picard
      • Star Trek: Lower Decks
      • Star Trek: Prodigy
      • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
      • Star Trek: Section 31
      • Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (NGL watching this one as it premieres, will watch when I get down here again tho)
  3. Finish 2 Cross-stitch projects

Spirituality

  1. This one only had one goal. Buckle down and really start to dive into my spirituality and craft. I have DOZENS of books to read and take notes on. I would like to read one a month, so hopefully I’ll finish 12 this year.

That concludes my 2026 roadmap to a better, definitely more mad 🤪, me! I will hopefully be doing check-ins on my progress on my various projects, book reviews, and general life updates as the year progresses.**

*As I was working on this post (it took me a while to actually sit down and finish it and polish it off), we did have to make the decision to put my sweet angel girl, Charlie, to rest. Her quality of life had rapidly declined, and she was at least very uncomfortable and at worst in a lot of pain, due to the arthritis in her hips spreading to her forelegs. She could barely walk, let alone get up, and was rapidly losing interest in food. It was the hardest decision I have ever had to make, but it was the right one for her.

**On a much less sad note, I mention A LOT of apps I use, and I just want to say that not one of them was sponsored in any way. This is a subatomic blog. It’s not even big enough to be a microblog. I just really like data, and I use a lot of apps to keep my self oraganized and in motion. The apps mentioned I pay for with my own money and are probably only half of what I use on a day to day.

Midnight Musings #4

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Hello! It’s been a while. I had lofty ambitions of actually keeping up with this at the beginning of this year and now it is October and here I am making my first post of the year at 5 something in the morning,,,, but what are you going to do. Time flies when you feel stuck in a holding pattern you can’t break free from. It has really been a year. I would say I have better hopes for 2025 but to be completely honest I don’t. I’ll be 30 in June and well I’ll be 30 so that a thing about to happen that feels like it really shouldn’t be. I have accomplished nothing the way I wanted to, and this isn’t what I really wanted to discuss in this edition of Midnight Musings. What I have been musing about in the early hours of the morning when the rest of the world is asleep is my yearly autumnal rewatch of Gilmore Girls.

Gilmore Girls has been, and will always be, one of my favorite and most comforting of shows. Everything about it feels like it’s fall. Maybe because Stars Hallow feels like it’s constantly in a state of perpetual fall. So I tend to rewatch starting in September and ending in late October or early November depending on how much I binge. I own all 7 seasons on DVD, just in case it is ever removed from streaming (also when I got the DVDs Netflix was still sending movies via mail). That being said there are story lines that I tend to really dislike. April being introduced, Lorelai getting married to Chris, Rory dropping out of Yale, Rory cheating with Dean, and Emily using Chris to break up Luke and Lorelai. Basically most of Seasons 5,6, & 7. I feel like Rory’s character kind of takes a hit starting when she goes to Yale, actually, if we are being honest her character starts to take a hit the more time she spends with Emily and Richard. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Emily and Richard (especially Richard) but they are a part of a world that Lorelai ran from as soon as she could because she wanted something warmer and more lively than what it could provide. Which is completely fair. Lorelai built a world for her and Rory that was full of love, color, and warmth. She filled it with eccentric people who only offer support and love. I think as soon as Rory started at Chilton she was sucked into the glitter and the flash of the upper class. She did things, like coming out to society, to make her grandmother happy and the more she did these things the more Emily felt as if she had a do-over in Rory. She felt as if she had failed with Lorelai but with Rory, she had the chance to have the bright brilliant daughter of good breeding that she always wanted and this very much causes problems for Rory later in the series. It also causes problems for Lorelai cause the closer Rory gets to her Grandparents the farther she gets from Lorelai and the more that Emily seems to think she not only has control in Lorelai’s life.

There are a couple plots I DESPERATELY wish I could change. The first one is that I wish that Luke and Lorelai got together when Rory was in high school. After Lorelai broke it off with Max would have been best. Or if we could just take out Max altogether that would have also been nice. I never really cared for Max and their relationship always felt weird and forced to me. I would have loved to see Luke and Lorelai together for longer and see Luke being a bigger father figure to Rory than he already was. I kinda also wish that Luke and Lorelai had been friends for longer. Like maybe he was one of the first friends she made after moving to Stars Hallow when Rory was little. I just would have really loved to see them move into the Twickham house and maybe have had one or two more kids. I think Luke would have made such a great dad. I still think it would have been interesting to see Chris, Lorelai, and Luke co-parent and it would have us all from all the Chris and Lorelai drama. The April storyline still could have been used as well after Lorelai and Luke were married and maybe pregnant. April could have appeared and it would have added even more drama and I think fans would have liked it maybe better (probably not though) cause at least it wouldn’t have caused a breakup. Also, I think if Luke and Lorelai had been involved when Jess showed up I think it also would have gone a lot better for him. I think he would have graduated and I think he would have worked through a lot more of his anger issues. I don’t know if Jess and Rory would have dated though cause that might have been a bit strange at least till they were both out of the house though I think that might have been better for them. Just being friends while Jess worked through most of his angst.

Though if I go with everything happening the way it already does I personally think that Rory should have gone with Jess when he asked her at the end of season 4. She wanted to and it would have saved us from the whole Dean thing which I absolutely hate. I credit Rory sleeping with Dean as the start of the Rory Gilmore Downfall. It’s when she truly begins to spiral. I think if she had spent the summer in New York with Jess she would be better for it, I can see her and Jess in a dingy apartment with her working at a paper as an intern or something. Lorelai would have been pissed for sure but she would have come around eventually. In this scenario, I don’t know if they would have broken up or not. Rory definitely would have stayed at Yale, I can see Mr. Why Did You Drop Out Of Yale? letting her drop out of Yale, plus when they were together he was always supportive of her dreams so I’m pretty sure he would make her go back and I think he would have just followed her back. So I kind of anticipate them going and staying together which is tough cause I am in fact Team Logan or at least I used to be. I may have just talked my way into Team Jess. I just really love her and Logan together I think they suit each other the best and they really could have been great, So yeah definitely still Team Logan.

I am getting tired now… So here are some rapid-fire plot lines I would change: Lane getting together with Zach in any capacity. Lane should have become a famous rockstar, or at least a semi-famous one, and they should have introduced a new love interest or brought Dave back (they could have recast it after a season or two sure people would have noticed but really if you have seen one skinny white brunette actor you have seen them all). Rory should have said yes to Logan and just had a long engagement. I think Rory should have given Marty a shot or at the very least they should have had them remain friends. I really liked the chemistry between Rory, Marty, and Paris. Collin and Finn should have met Madaline and Louise somehow in some way. This one is a little less plot and a little more character but, I think Rory should have been more steadfast in her journalistic career, I would have liked to see her more as a shark and less as a mouse when it came to it, She let every little thing derail her. She couldn’t take a single bit of criticism from anyone. When Dole wouldn’t print that one article, when the ballerina didn’t like the review, when Mitchum said she didn’t have it all of these things sent her spiraling out. I just would have liked to see her be tougher about it a little more Paris-like. Speaking of Paris I would have gotten rid of the whole professor storyline. It was weird and gross. I am beginning to not be able to think straight so I think that is going to be the end of the more than likely nonsensical Midnight Musing.

SHE LIVES! (In the loosest sense of the term)

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Well, hello there! It has been quite a while since I have posted anything here. I never set out to take any kind of break, but the last time I posted on here was way back in 2020, which chronologically speaking was only 4 years ago, and yet it feels as if it was an entire lifetime ago. To be perfectly honest, I haven’t done much in the last 4 years. I started a new job working as a gate agent for an airline, which is really fun and entirely soul-sucking. I did start seeing a therapist regularly again, and she thinks that my bipolar II diagnosis may have been a misdiagnosis, but we are still working some things out. I would love to tell you that I have met someone in the last four years; alas, my standards of wanting the bare minimum are still too high, so I remain single. I still live with my parents and spend the majority of my time reading. What can I say? I am a creature of habit, and those habits are staying in bed and hiding away from the world. The TikTok addiction is still going strong and perhaps has taken over my life, as my new love language is sending TikTok to my friends. I basically curate their own For You Page every day; really, the otta starts thanking me. Other than that, my days go by in much the same way as they always have.

In 2024, I hope to at least change some of that. I have a resolution to start saying yes to more things, to do more things, and to make more memories with my friends and family. I want to travel more, see more, do more. Really, my goal is to become the best version of myself that I can possibly be in a year’s time, and I hope to come back to this blog on a more scheduled basis. I have yet to decide (and frankly, I don’t know if I ever will commit to one) on a schedule. You may faithful (imaginary, I’m sure) reader can expect more book reviews, life updates, a Midnight Musings or two, and maybe even a movie review if I’m feeling saucy. I think I am going to try and post at the minimum monthly, but I will aim for weekly, and we shall see where that gets us.

June & July Wrap Up

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This summer has simultaneously felt as if it has been a 100 years and just a blink at the same time. I honestly don’t even remember what happened in June, so I really have no excuse on why I didn’t post an wrap up. July on the other hand was hard for me. My company decided to move my store location to a bigger store so we closed the last week of July and packed everything up, moved and then unpacked and staged for the next two weeks and then finally reopened last Friday. So I was working a lot in July and it left me physically, mentally and emotionally drained. With the store reopened my schedule is finally getting back to normal so I am starting to feel like normal. So with out further adieu here are my June and July reads.

Squad 312 is back and they are here to save the universe.

Aurora Burning was one of my most anticipated releases of this year and it did not disappoint me. Since this is a sequel I won’t be going in depth on the plot to avoid spoiling the first one, but I will say that this book broke my heart in the best way possible at the end. I laughed, I cried, I screamed. Finian is still my favorite. Kal and Auri are one of my favorite couples of all time. Everyone please for my sanity go read this series. Its on my all time favorites. Not surprisingly this was a five star read for me.

I have so many feelings about the ACOTAR series that I literally have not been able to shut up about them since June (though technically I read A Court of Frost and Starlight in July). I even have a playlist on Spotify that I update regularly (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/265tcEUdIEQVQ9NIAXPfyN?si=OUq8XDicSDazdU74Em-k-Q) with songs that remind me of the series. I do plan to do an in depth analysis and review of this series cause I think there is a lot to unpack with these books. This series has my #1 spot on my favorite series list. I have already pre-ordered A Court of Silver Flames. Nesta is one of my ABSOLUTE favorite characters and Cassian is my man! Again unsurprisingly all three of these were five star reads.

Civil War reenactments have never looked this good.

I’m not going to lie to you this book felt very strange to read in today’s political climate. I will give it props for pointing out that Civil War reenactments are inherently racist and that there really isn’t anything romantic about a Plantation home. I read this directly after A Court of Wings and Ruin which was both a good thing and a bad thing. Compared to the masterpiece that is ACOWAR, Confederates Don’t Wear Couture doesn’t hold a candle to it, but it is so different that it did help me avoid a reading slump. This is also a sequel to Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink. As far as contemporary romances go it was cute and easy read. I don’t think I would recommend it to anybody unless they were looking for something hella specific, but I did enjoy it so I did give it 3 stars.

Wanderlust in a book.

Now for a contemporary romance that I absolutely LOVE!! Love & Gelato is the perfect summer read, especially during a pandemic where none of us are going anywhere remotely vacation-y. After the death of Lina’s mother she gets sent to live with the father she never knew about in Italy of all places. Lina is less then thrilled about leaving her best friend, Addie, and everything she has ever known behind, but she soon learns that there is more to her move to Italy then Lina thought. She comes into possession of the journal her mom kept during her time in Italy and Lina begins to unravel the mystery of what happened between her parents and along the way she makes some friends and even meets someone that maybe more. I loved the romance in this book not only between Lina and Ren but Lina’s parents as well. It was so cute and I cannot wait for the third one in this series, Love & Olives, to come out later this year. Love & Luck (which I read in March) is the second one in the series and Love & Gelato is the first, Though it you don’t have to read them in order. If you are a fan of Anna and the French Kiss trilogy then you will adore these books. 5 stars from me!

Their love could cost them their lives.

As you probably have noticed I have been trying to finish up series I have started. Here’s yet another sequel. The Rose & the Dagger is the sequel to The Wrath & the Dawn. I will forever love Khalid and Shazi, but I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I loved the first. I wanted more romance, more magic, more conflict, more tough choices. Just more. It was still a 4 star read though.

Women Supporting Women

Oh look another sequel! I honestly didn’t realize I read this many sequels in the pas couple of months. This book gave me MAJOR The Surface Breaks vibes. Their plots and themes were incredibly similar. I did love the story and much like The Surface Breaks I want more. I felt as if this book was a build up to something more and it ends right before everything goes down. Sea Witch Rising takes place about 50 or so years after Sea Witch and had a backdrop of the very beginning of WWI. I did love the first one better, but this was still 4 stars.

You are stronger then you think you are.

This book was given to my mom by my Great Aunt and then my mom passed it down to me a few years ago when I was going through a hard time. This is a children’s picture book and yet I will never read it and not cry. It has such a beautiful message for those who suffer from depression or any other mental illness. It always makes me feel less alone and reminds me that I do mean a lot to my friends and family and how sad they would be with out me in their lives just like I would be sad if they weren’t there. Its a great tool to discuss mental illness with children and a great story to remind adults that they are loved even when the darkness doesn’t let them feel that love. Five stars for me!

This time its more then just a game… its life and death.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love the Caraval trilogy. Legendary is no exception. I normally am not a fan of love triangles, but this one was just so well written that I loved both and wanted her with both I’m not going to lie. I fell even more in love with Julian and Scarlett. Five stars!

Midnight Musings #3

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Warning: This Midnight Musings is going to be about sex, rape, rape culture, and will also contain cussing. Also this is all of the top of my head and my own opinion.

Hi! Welcome to Midnight Musings brought to you by insomnia and depression. So I was scrolling on my phone and I decided that I was going to watch some Netflix, as one does, cause I was obviously not sleeping anytime soon. So I popped on Netflix and decided to watch 365 Dni (365 Days), because I have heard so much about and it and well I was… I would really like to say disappointed but I knew going in that I was most likely not going to like it… really I was just flabbergasted. The whole movie is just a high budget porno with better acting and no “money” shots. The plot, the term plot is used very loosely here, is that Massimo is a mafia boss who has an obsession with Laura and kidnaps her and gives her 365 days to fall in love with him before he will let her go. This movie started as a Wattpad book and really the only Wattpad trope that this movie is missing is that Massimo isn’t a werewolf (honestly would have made the movie better). The first 20 minuets or so of the movie is just really filler cause it sets up absolutely nothing other then to say why Massimo is the boss. After having a fight with her boyfriend on her birthday vacation to Sicily, Italy, Laura runs away to the streets and eventually gets kidnapped by some of Massimo’s men. When she wakes up she is in a extravagant room that is eventually unlocked and as she is trying to find the exit she turns to see a huge ass portrait of her and she is caught off guard and then Messimo is behind her saying “Are you lost, Baby Girl?” (Also I would like it known that there is one man and one man only that is allowed to call me Baby Girl and that is Shemar More.) She faints, cause duh, and when she comes to he explains that he has been obsessed with her for 5 years and basically stalking her and he has now kidnapped her and is giving her 365 days to fall in love with him. Which is just so fucked up. Like if you want someone to love you maybe… I don’t know… try asking them on a fucking date first?! Like Massimo his fucking HOT he could have just asked her. Anyway I digress, after she understandably tells him to fuck off he spends the next 10 minuets being VERY rough with her telling her that “he won’t touch her without her permission,” which he TOTALLY does like a lot. Like he’d fondling her breast .5 seconds after saying that. He’s also like “don’t provoke me. I don’t know how to be gentle.” Of course she is feisty and what I assume the author imagines a bratty submissive to be like. Really she is just really hot and cold one second she’s all up in his business and the nest shes telling to get fucked. She makes one VERY WEAK attempt to escape and eventually submits to him. Laura claims to be in love with him even though they have known each other for 2 months and have really haven’t have any kind of conversation that doesn’t involve some kind of twisted foreplay. He also refuses to tell her exactly what it is he dose and keeps her in the dark about basically everything.

Most of the sex scenes in this movie are graphic and rough. They are a distorted image of what it means to be a Dominate/Submissive relationship. At one point he chains her to a bed, with out her consent, and has another women preform oral sex on him as she is forced to watch. There are also several scenes where he says things along the lines of “I am going to fuck you when I want, where I want, whether you want to or not.” The whole thing is sick and twisted and a perverted view of what it means to be a part of the BDSM community. Yet a quick scroll through any social media under the hashtag 365 days and you will see hundreds if not thousands of women and young women (15-17) that are absolutely in love with Massimo and think his treatment of Laura is perfect and that’s the kind of relationship they want to have. When as a society have relationships and dating become so fucking toxic that we look to things like 365 Dni or even 50 Shades of Grey and go “you know what that relationship is better then the one I am in/have been in and that’s really hot.” Like I get wanting to have really hot sex. I do. I too want to have earth shattering sex, I just want to do it with someone who loves and respects me enough to not only have conversations about what gives us BOTH gratification but also the limits of those gratifications and the tolls they can take.

The BDSM community is one of constant communication. Partners have to communicate what they are and are not okay with, what their safe words are, what are hard limits and what are soft limits. BDSM sessions can be mentally, emotionally, and physically taxing and thus after care for both Dom and Sub is incredibly important to keeping communication, trust, and love in the relationship. I am so sick and tired of seeing people take this and turn it into some toxic ass fetish. Movies and books like 365 Dni and 50 Shades of Grey take the rough sex of the BDSM world, but none of the communication or after care. Hell in 50 Shades, Christian ignores her safe words entirely, is unnecessarily rough taking her virginity, and leaves her alone after a particularly violent session to crash. All of that is some toxic ass bullshit. I can also not stress this enough, YOU CAN NOT SIGN AWAY YOUR CONSENT! I will never understand why movies like these, that perpetuate toxic stereotypes, rape, and unwanted violent sexual acts, become so popular and women find them so “hot” and “sexy”. I know healthy relationships that function aren’t always the sexiest thing, but they can be.

A Court of Thorns and Roses spoilers ahead.

Take Rhys, form A Court of Thorns and Roses, for example. I will have a comprehensive review of A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Wings and Ruin up in July, but Rhys and Feyre’s relationship was so beautiful to read and MY GOD WAS IT HOT AND STEAMY! Chapter 48 and 55 told me I was single in about 65 different languages. Rhys respects Feyre and lets her do things on her own terms. He never forced her to do anything and always let her make her own choices. He treats her with such love, respect and humanity. He knows hes in love with her and that she is his mate really early, but because of that bond all he wants for her is to be happy. He is willing to let her marry Tamlin because he thinks it will make her happy. It isn’t until she asks for help that he comes to her aid. So not only is their relationship built of friendship, trust, mutual respect and constant communication, BUT they have some of the smuttiest sex I have ever read and I have read A LOT of fanfiction. There is a way to present healthy relationships in media with out loosing any of the steamy factor and yet screenwriters and authors alike choose to perpetuate toxicity instead. In a world of Christian Greys and Massimos be a Rhys. Find a Rhys. Cause ladies we don’t have time for this toxic bullshit anymore.

May Wrap Up

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I have my reading mojo back, baby! May was a really goo reading month for me and I was able to read 6 books. 6 seems to be my cap for the amount of books I read in a month but I am hoping to break that in June.

Shes the Republics IT girl. Hes the Republics most wanted. Together they hate each other.

I read the Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu when it first came out years ago and I loved them. Last year she released a new book in the series, Rebel, and I wanted to reread the first three to remind myself what happened, cause it has been awhile, before I read it. I still love this trilogy and it is very reminiscent of things that are going on in the world today. The story takes place years in the future and the United States has been divided into the Republic of America and The Colonies of America and they have been shaped by massive floods. The Republic and The Colonies have been at war for decades and The Republic has devised a system to create the best soldiers based on genetics and skill called the Trial. June is The Republics prodigy. She comes from an affluent family and is the only person to score a perfect score on her Trial. Day is The Republics most wanted criminal, but they have no idea who he is. He is basically The Republic’s version of Robin Hood. Through a serious of events they are thrown together and they uncover evidence that suggest The Republic may not be what it seems. This is a classic enemies to lovers romance full of espionage, conspiracies, and dystopia realness. I gave this four stars mostly because the romance, despite the enemies to loves plot, it was a bit insta-lovey and it is paced kinda slow. There is a lot of action in it but it was just a tad bit slow. If you love the Divergent series or The Hunger Games series then you will love Legend and I will pretty much always recommend it to people looking for a good YA dystopian.

They want to kill each other. They don’t succeed.

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK! So much so I literally sent my friend a copy and made her read it too. This is the first Kathryn Purdie novel I have read and she is such a beautiful writer and I am totally hooked and ordered another one of her books while I wait impatiently for Bone Crier’s Dawn. Bone Cries’s Moon is based off the French folklore Les Dames Blanches or The White Witches (which is the same folklore that Serpent & Dove is based off, but trust me they are very different stories.) The story is told from the point of views of Sabine, Ailesse, and Bastien. Sabine and Ailesse are Leurress’, or Bone Crier’s, that gain the graces of the animals that they ceremoniously hunt, by taking, carving, and wearing the animals bones. They then use these graces are then used to ferry the dead to either Tyrus’s underworld or Elara’s heavens. Sabine only has one grace bone and finds it difficult to take the life of the animals she needs to. She is sweet and loyal and Ailesse’s best friend. Ailesse is fierce and passionate and dreams of joining her mother in ferrying the dead through the gates. To do this she must collect three grace bones and then complete a ritual to lure her amouré, or her soulmate, and then killing him in order to prove her loyalty to Tyrus and Elara. Bastion hate Bone Crier’s ever since one of them killed his father. He has dedicated his entire life, along with his friends Jules and her brother Marcel, to learning about them and waiting for his chance to kill one of their kind. Of course neither Ailesse nor Bastian’s plans go to plan and everything goes awry. If you loved Serpent & Dove you will adore this book! Sabine was my favorite character cause I love her strength and her loyalty to her friend and man she has some MAJOR character development. I love the romance between Bastion and Ailesse. This is the creme de la creme of enemies to lovers (the trope I will die with). I CANNOT wait for February 2021 for the squeal! 5 stars and everyone needs to go read it like ASAP!

Nerds Unite in the Line!

This is just a cute little read about two Star Wars nerds in a line and what that means to them. Its about 60 pages long and just a super cute short bit of fluff. If I am being 100% honest I would love more from this story, but I love it for what it is. Perfect if you are in a reading slump.

Saving the kingdom is a thankless job

Poison was actually published posthumously which is pretty cool. This book gives me like Princess Bride/Monty Python vibes. It has nods to modern life, like apartments and room service, but in a definitely in a middle age type setting. Kyra is a Master Potioner who is on the run for trying to assassinate the the princess… who happens to be her best friend. Unfortunately her assassination attempt failed and in order to save the kingdom she must succeed in killing the princess. In order to try again she needs to find the princess, so with the help of a very adorable pig and an incredibly handsome, slightly annoying stranger named Fred she sets out to do just that. This again was a good quick, fun, fluffy read. The pacing was a bit off and it does feel like it was missing some things, like it wasn’t 100% flushed out. I would definitely recommend it if someone was looking for something specific but I wasn’t really like a mind blowing journey. It was a three star read for me. It was good and it was enjoyable but it was no Bone Crier’s Moon.

Beauty and the Beast with a Fae twist!

So this was a combo between Tik Tok made me read it and Tik Tok made my best friend read it and thus made me read it. And I am so glad that I did! There is so much to unpack with this book cause really its just a moment. Feyre’s family has fallen from wealth and now can barley put food on the table. It is up to Feyre to put food on the table since her father can’t move with his busted knee and her sisters are too busy lamenting over their old life and how far they have fallen. On a hunting expedition Feyre kills a wolf that ended up being a faerie in wolf’s clothing. The fae are a vicious and cruel race that humans fought a war against 500 years ago and have a fragile peace with. To atone for the fae’s murder Feyre is whisked away to the land of Prythian to live out the rest of her days in the Spring Court. Tamlin is the master of the house that serves as her gilded prison. I loved this story so much! The first half of the book is the Beauty and the Beast story we are all familiar with; the second half is where everything gets flipped on its head. Lucian is my man and I love him. He is just the epitome of a sass king and snaps for Lucian. Feyre on the other hand isn’t my fav heroine in a book. She can be annoying at times and I feel like she needs to pay attention more. I love Tamlin I do, but if you are at ALL failure with the hype that is the ACOTAR fandom you know there is better (and there is better). This was another five star read for me and everyone needs to pick it up ASAP. Like seriously go and read it right now. I mean it.

My babies!

I read this book back in August of 2019 and I RAVED about it. Well….. I STILL LOVE IT. This book gives me life and if you want to read my full review it is in my August wrap up. This is one of my all time favorite books and again everyone needs to read it yesterday.

Life Update

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I FUCKING DID IT! I just took my last final of the semester and I got a 90! Which means that I will officially graduate with an Associates of Arts degree. I took me 7 years of going to school on and off, mental break downs, one suicide attempt, one round of intensive outpatient treatment, at least 5 different medications, and MANY hours of therapy, but I am here. I have a degree. I had a good cry (of happy tears), a dance party to Try Everything and I am going to make myself a funfetti cake. I have a long way to go before I achieve my dream of being a librarian, but I am one step closer to being there and I am so relieved and happy! I am also so incredibly proud of myself for doing it. CAUSE I FUCKING DID IT BRO!

Basically my happy dance!

Quarantine Days 43-50

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Today is going to officially be my last day of quarantine updates as I return to work on a regular biases today. I am not going to lie I am feeling really anxious about going to work today. I just feel that everything is changing so fast that by the time I get used to things they immediately change and I am not so great with change. I only got like 4 hours of sleep last night cause I just could not sleep and I spent most of yesterday feeling really blah and tired. I was just so unmotivated and unproductive. The rest of the week before that was pretty good. I had a really nice system down that was really nice. I am going to miss being home all the time. I was definitely made for staying home. I just prefer to be by myself and talk to the three people that I actually like. I dislike the outside world greatly and harbor 0 desires to return to it, but it is only 6 hours. It will be okay. Its all going to be okay.