Lights Out by Navessa Allen
Series: Into Darkness #1
Published by Slowburn (2.14.2024)
Genres: Adult, Dark Romance, Romance
Format: Audiobook, 416 pages
Length: 13 hours, 36 minutes
Narrator: Elena Wolfe, Jacob Morgan
Source: Library

I want someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it.

Trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

I want things most people don’t, craving darkness and depravity instead of light and love.

Josh Hammond has spent his life avoiding the limelight, but his online persona is another story. At night, he posts masked thirst traps for his millions of fans to drool over, but one follower has caught his eye: Aly. After reading a comment begging him to break into her house wearing a mask, he decides to take her up on her offer.

Together, Aly and Josh live out their darkest fantasies, unaware that Aly has captured the attention of someone else. Someone with far more sinister intentions than a little light stalking. As Josh turns from predator to protector and the stakes heighten, he must ask himself how far he’s willing to go for the woman he’s obsessed with.

My thoughts

I kept hearing about this book over and over, and even though this isn’t my typical genre (I am a SFF girlie, through and through lol), I wanted to know what the fuss was about. I was on the fence going into this, and trying to keep my expectations low, because let’s face it – BookTok has let me down before (side eyeing you, Quicksilver). Surprisingly, this one worked for me! I’m quite shocked I enjoyed it, lmao.

Not gonna lie, this reads like a BookTok girl’s fanfic. But let me tell you, I ate that shit UP, haha! In the first half, I was SO onboard. Super sexy, heavily muscled and tattooed masked man breaking into your house and stalking you, but like…in a total golden retriever, watching over you, keeping you safe kind of way? I’m not sure what it says about me, but it was hot as hell! Especially since she was already obsessed with him (and kinda stalking him first). A romance where he’s obsessed with me as I am him, YES PLEASE. Where is my sexy protector/stalker guy?

The audiobook was a great choice. I thought Aly’s narrator was decent, but not spectacular. However, Josh’s voice was sexy AF and I loved it! Especially the parts with the voice modulator – he sounded like Adam Driver in the Kylo Ren mask. WHEWWWW.

The other major component in my enjoyment? FRED!! Oh my gawd I loved Fred, haha. It was adorable that he loved Josh.

While I loved it in the first half, the last half kinda lost me a little. The mafia/murder thing seemed WAY out of left field to me, to be honest. There were also a few times where the spicy content got a little cringey for me. Maybe I’m just too vanilla, lmao, but I don’t like pain or fear in the bedroom, so those parts were not my jam. (And, um, THE KNIFE?! Nope, sorry, that’s just like the gun scene from Haunting Adeline, aka not appealing to me, not even remotely. Getting a hard, unyielding object shoved into your vajayjay? No thanks!)  There were also parts where words used in descriptors and things they said to each other gave me the ick. (I was listened at work, so sadly didn’t bookmark any of them.)

Overall though, this was surprisingly enjoyable read!

Overall Assessment

Plot: 3.5/5
Premise: 4/5
Writing style: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 3.5/5
Feels: 3.5/5
Narration: 4/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 4/5

The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie Wen Zhao
Series: The Three Realms Duology #1
Published by Penguin (3.4.2025)
Genres: High Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook, 400 pages
Length: 12 hours, 52 minutes
Narrator: Annie Q
Source: Library

Nine years ago, the war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore Àn’yīng’s family apart, leaving her mother barely alive and a baby sister to fend for. Now the mortal realm is falling into eternal night, and mó—beautiful, ravenous demons—roam the land, feasting on the flesh of humans and drinking their souls.

Àn’yīng is no longer a helpless child, though. Armed with her crescent blades and trained in the ancient art of practitioning, she has decided to enter the Immortality Trials, which are open to any mortal who can survive the journey to the immortal realm. Those who complete the Trials are granted a pill of eternal life—the one thing Àn’yīng knows can heal her dying mother. But to attain the prize, she must survive the competition.

Death is common in the Trials. Yet oddly, Àn’yīng finds that someone is helping her stay alive. A rival contestant. Powerful and handsome, Yù’chén is as secretive about his past as he is about his motives for protecting Àn’yīng.

The longer she survives the Trials, the clearer it becomes that all is not right in the immortal realm. To save her mother and herself, Àn’yīng will need to figure out whether she can truly trust the stranger she’s falling for or if he’s the most dangerous player of all . . . for herself and for all the realms.

My thoughts

This book is rather hard for me to review, because my feelings about it are so hot and cold that I have trouble pinning down exactly how I felt about it. In the first half, I was hooked. I absolutely LOVED the world and mythology! It had strong Inuyasha vibes, and I was intrigued. I also really loved the idea of the immortality trial.

However, right around the halfway mark, it started losing me. I began to get frustrated and annoyed with Àn’yīng’s constant contempt for Yù’chén, despite the fact that he did SO much for her. No matter what he did or how many times he helped her, she was utterly AWFUL to him. It was unfair the way she treated him, and it actually started to piss me off. It was exhausting, to be honest. He would do something nice for her – [View post to see spoiler] WHICH SHE DID NOT DESERVE AT ALL – and then she would just spew vitriol at him and remind him how much she hated him. It made me hate her. Listen, I get that his kind killed your father and left your mother a zombie, but damn. He couldn’t help what he was, or that he was born. Thankfully she did come around, eventually. [View post to see spoiler]

It was pretty rough for a little while because of that. There was also the introduction of a possible love triangle that pissed me off; then the characters saying each others’ names CONSTANTLY started grating on my nerves and making my eye twitch (I was in negative emotion override, okay), and I actually considered DNFing for a hot minute there. Thankfully, shit hit the fan in the last quarter and made up for it.

Another complaint was that I didn’t connect to the characters like I’d hoped I would. I didn’t care about any of the relationships, either. The sister relationship should have been a driving point of this book, and ultimately I didn’t care about her sister or what happened to her at all. [View post to see spoiler]

It also didn’t help that there were no stakes whatsoever. Character is in grave danger? MAGIC! Character is grievously injured? MAGIC! I hate hate HATE when magic solves every problem with little to no effort or cost, removing the stakes and entirely robbing me of emotional investment. It also didn’t help that Àn’yīng was constantly a damsel in distress. She kept being saved instead of saving herself. Any time she got in a tough situation I knew it would be fine, because either a) one of the guys would step in, or b) she would be magically healed in an instant. *sigh*

The lack of stakes made the trials a bit underwhelming. I was expecting a lot more from them. Sure, a couple of characters died, but it was people we didn’t even know (and that literally didn’t even have a name, just a number). I expected a lot more from this book overall, honestly – it was one of my most anticipated 2025 releases. Color me disappointed.

I will say, though: The last 25% BROUGHT it!! Crazy ass revelations left and right (some I saw coming, some I did not)…so much happened that my mind was reeling! I loved getting the backstory of her father and finally learning all of the secrets he was keeping. [View post to see spoiler] I’m honestly not sure I want to read the second book, knowing that.

First half: 3.5-4/5
50-75%: 2/5
Last quarter: 3.5-4/5

Overall Assessment

Plot: 3.5/5
Premise: 4/5
Writing style: 3.5/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 2/5
World-building: 4/5
Pace: 3/5
Feels: 1/5
Narration: 3.5/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 3/5

Past 5 star books posts

5 star books of 2018
5 star books of 2019
5 star books of 2020
5 star books of 2021
5 star books of 2022
I didn’t make a post for 2023, oops
5 star books of 2024

5 star books of 2025

This number is usually low, since I’m a picky rater. I actually had 14 in total (out of 51 books finished), but 10 of them were re-reads, so that means I only had FOUR new 5 star books this year, again. If you don’t count re-reads, my 5 star books only account for 8% of what I read all year. Ouch.

New 5 star reads

 

5 star Re-reads

 

Almost 5 star reads

Here’s the ones that came super close, but fell just a tad short, so I gave them 4.5 stars instead!

 

5 star predictions from 2024

Books I knew would be 5 stars

Books I hoped would be 5 stars

 

  

• Heavenly Tyrant –  ★★★★
• Compendium of Lost Tales – ★★★★
• Fateless – ★★★★★
• Beasts We Bury – DNF
• Bane Witch – ★★★★
• The Scorpion & the Night Blossom – ★★★
• The Notorious Virtues – DNF
• Lightfall – DNF
• His Face is the Sun – ★★★
• Thrum – ★★★★

5 star predictions for 2026

It’s SO hard for me to predict which books I’m going to love (as you can see above, heh), because I just never know. Sometimes I expect to love something, and don’t; sometimes I don’t think I’ll like something at all and I end up loving it. I have high hopes for these, though!

Books I know will be 5 stars

It doesn’t have a cover yet, but if Red God comes out in 2026 like it’s supposed to, it will definitely be 5 stars!

Books I hope will be 5 stars

How many 5 star reads did you have this year?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Anticipated releases I’ve already got my hands on

   

Last year’s most anticipated releases

 

• Compendium of Lost Tales – ★★★★
• Rebel Witch – ★★★★
• Fateless – ★★★★★
• The Beasts We Bury – DNF
• The Last Bookstore on Earth – ★★½
• A Language of Dragons – haven’t read yet
• When the Bones Sing – ★★★
• Onyx Storm – ★★★★★
• Water Moon – haven’t read yet
• Cold Eternity – ★★★★

Here’s my post from last year!

Reading/blogging resolutions

1. Hit at least 100 books again. Welp, I didn’t do that. I ended up having to lower my Goodreads challenge goal to 50, and I ended the year at 55 books.
2. Branch out and read different genres. I was shit at this, lol. Almost everything I read was some branch of SFF.
3. Hit 100% ratio on both Netgalley and Edelweiss. I went higher on NG again, oops. I started the year with 7 on NG and 5 on EW. I now have 9 on NG (to be fair, I’ve read 5 of them and just need to review them) and still have 5 on EW. Ugh.
4. Only accept review books if I’m ready to read them immediately. I did pretty good with this because I rarely get requests from publishers these days.
5. Catch up on reviews. I wanted to get in the habit of reviewing books as soon as I finish, and I definitely did not do that. I reviewed a few that I had strong feelings for, but that was it. I don’t even want to know how many reviews behind I am now.
6. Blog more consistently. I say this every year, but this year was exceptionally bad because I posted like 5 whole posts. Jesus.

1/6. Yikes.

Lifestyle resolutions

1. Actually get my shit back together. Focus on myself for a while. GET DIVORCED! I did finally get divorced in January, yay!! I am SO happy to have moved on from that chapter of my life. I don’t know about getting my shit together, though. But I did find contentment in being on my own!
2. Get back in shape. Get back to where I was in health and fitness and get my foundation back. This was hit or miss. I did poorly early in the year, but started doing better in the last half. I was religiously tracking meals on MyFitnessPal and maintaining a calorie deficit for a few months. I even lost 7 lbs. Unfortunately, the depression of the holiday season stole that momentum and made me gain those pounds right back. I still haven’t been lifting.
3. Get back to healthy habits. Didn’t do super great at this, either. Still spent too much time on social media, went to bed too late and had trouble getting up in the mornings, and was overall pretty lazy.
4. Get my savings account back to what it was. I did pretty well on this one! It could be higher, but I’m happy to have a decent savings. Hopefully taxes in April don’t take that away.
5. Stay debt free (credit card wise). I did pretty great on this one, too! I still owe a little bit on the TV and PS5, but it’s almost paid off. I use my main credit card regularly, but I’m great about paying it off every month. It only got a little too high once, after vacation, and I’ve paid it off again! I’m so proud of myself for maintaining control over my debt.
6. Replace the sliding door and windows. Welp. This didn’t happen….again.
7. GET BRACES! Jesus Christ, I suck.
8. Clean out the big shed. ….guess what? Lol. “One day” is apparently my mantra now.

Wow, 2.75/8. I suck, but it’s .75 higher than last year, lmao.

Every year I hope it will be my year. It’s getting really depressing to post these.

2026 Goals & Resolutions

Reading/blogging resolutions

1. Hit 75 books. I’d love to get to 100 again, but I’m going to be more realistic with my goals this year so I don’t hate myself when I make this post next year.
2. Read one non-SFF book every month. Or the average of one a month, anyway. So 12 total.
3. Clean out old NetGalley and Edelweiss reviews. Hit 100% on NetGalley. I have a couple books I’ve read, several I’ve DNFed, and a couple that I will not read. I need to get these books off of my accounts! I doubt I’ll get to 100% on EW, but I want to at least get 1-2 off of there. I think 100% on NG is doable, though, because other than the ones I’ve mentioned, there’s only one older book I haven’t read and one new one that I just added.
4. Only request/accept review books if I’m ready to read them immediately. Review them and send/post the review as soon as I finish them.
5. Review books I read as soon as I finish. I desperately want to do better with this in 2026. My memory sucks and there were so many books I read and didn’t review that I remember nothing about.
6. Try to catch up on some reviews. I doubt I’ll ever fully catch up, but I’d like to at least review a few of them from the past couple of years.
7. Post on the blog more than 3 times, lol. At this point I’ve given up on my desire to blog consistently – it’s never going to happen. But I would like to at least post a little bit from time to time, instead of not at all.

Lifestyle resolutions

1. Give myself grace. Learn to love myself again. I have absolutely sucked at life for the last couple of years, but I’m also realizing that I need to be more gentle with myself. It’s been really fucking hard since my parents died and then going through the divorce; and while I’m learning to live in this new life on my own, I miss having someone to lean on. I did find contentment this year being on my own, and I’m usually fine being alone, but these last couple of months (going through the holidays, namely) the loneliness was soul crushing. All I ever wanted was to find my person, but I really want to go back to focusing on myself and what I do have, and not worrying about what I don’t (or can’t) have. It’s just making me miserable.
2. Find a routine. Limit social media. I really want to get back to waking up early and going to bed on time. Stop doomscrolling social media until late at night. Stop hitting snooze on the alarm until I HAVE to get up. Get up early enough in the mornings to get on the treadmill.
3. Start lifting again. I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to how much I used to do it, but I at least want to lift 3x a week. I hate how weak I’ve become.
4. Cook more. I actually really miss cooking and trying new recipes. I’ve been pretty lazy this past year and doing a lot of easy toss-in-the-oven stuff and microwave stuff. I’d love to meal prep more often, too.
5. Focus more on hobbies. I kinda lost my hobbies the past couple of years. I did do a decent amount of cross stitching this year, but other than that, I haven’t been doing any of my hobbies. I’ve barely even been reading – I actually read zero books in November, which hasn’t happened since October of 2017. Ope.
6. Get to $15k in savings.
7. Do something on the house. I’d really like for this something to be the sliding door, but I also want to remodel the den. I just want to do at least one thing to improve the house.
8. Find an orthodontist and make an appointment for a consultation. Take the first steps to get braces. Even if I don’t officially get them in 2026, I want to at least start the journey to get there.
9. Start on organizing the big shed. Even if I don’t finish it, I at least want to clear out a little bit of it.
10. Journal. I used to do this all the time and I haven’t done it since my parents died. I have the worst memory ever and I’d like to keep track of major events in my life, how I’m feeling, and progress I’ve made. I would also really like to make a gratitude jar kinda thing where I write down the really good things that happen to me and put them in a jar, so I can go through and read them at the end of the year.

I tried to make my goals into more attainable, baby steps this year, so I don’t feel like a total failure next year yet again.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’m back to combining my Novel Heartbeat Awards with Top Ten Tuesday!

Top ten books of 2025

*doesn’t include re-reads

Top 5 science fiction

 

Top dystopian

Top 5 high fantasy/Romantasy

Top urban fantasy

Top horror

Top 3 out of my comfort zone

 

Top 3 mystery/thriller

Top 5 standalones

 

Top 5 audiobooks

Here’s my picks for the books with the best narration that I listened to this year! I did count re-reads here, but only if I had never listened to the audiobook before. (It seemed unfair because the same ones would win every year I listened lol!)

   

Top 5 covers

*of books I read in 2025, not 2025 releases

What were your top books of 2025?

The end of year survey was created by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page-Turner

Past surveys

• 2011 end of year survey
• 2012 end of year survey
• 2013 end of year survey
• 2014 end of year survey
• 2015 end of year survey
• 2016 end of year survey
• 2017 end of year survey
• 2018 end of year survey
• 2019 end of year survey
• 2020 end of year survey
• 2021 end of year survey
• 2022 end of year survey
• 2023 end of year survey
• 2024 end of year survey

(It’s crazy that I’ve been doing this survey every year for my whole blogging career!)

2025 Reading stats

Number of books read (total): 52
Number of re-reads: 13
Number of DNFs: 11
Number of audiobooks: 41 finished, 8 DNFed
Most read genre: Science Fiction (holy shit, second year in a row?!?! It hasn’t NOT been High Fantasy for a decade except the last two years! Technically, fantasy is still my top genre, if you add all my UF, HF, and Romantasy together. But usually just HF alone beats out everything else!)
Average rating: 4.1

Best in Books

As always, I’m excluding re-reads!

1. Best book you read all year?
Empire of the Dawn

2. Book you were excited about & thought you were going to love more but didn’t?
Spark of the Everflame

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?
Good: Lights Out
Bad: Flock

4. Book you “pushed” the most people to read?
Red Rising and The Lotus War!

5. Best series you started? Best sequel of the year? Best series ender?
Series: Fateless or Shield of Sparrows
Sequel: Onyx Storm
Series ender: Empire of the Dawn

6. Favorite new author you discovered?
Devney Perry

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
Lights Out

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Empire of the Dawn

9. Book you read that you are most likely to re-read in the next year?
Dawn for sure, I need to listen to the audio!

*side note: I said Cat Magic last year, and I didn’t re-read it lol

10. Favorite cover of a book you read this year?
When Bones Sing

11. Most memorable character of the year?
Princess Donut!

12. Most beautifully written book you read?
Empire of the Dawn

13. Most thought-provoking / life-changing book you read?
This question is always hard for me, as I don’t usually read those kinds of books.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL this year to finally read?
The Dungeon Crawler Carl sequels

15. Favorite passage/quote from a book you read?
I was terrible this year (again) and didn’t save any quotes >.<

16. Shortest & longest book you read?
Shortest: Memento (84 pages)
Longest: Empire of the Dawn (800 pages)

17. Book that shocked you the most?
Maybe Flock? Shocking because it was SO BAD, lmaooo

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
Gabe and Phoebe from Empire of the Dawn!

19. Favorite non-romantic relationship of the year?
Gabe and Dior (also Dawn)

20. Favorite book you read from an author you’ve read previously?
Dawn, again lol

21. Best book you read that you read based SOLELY on a recommendation from somebody else/peer pressure/bookstagram:
Shield of Sparrows! My bookstabestie Christy (@cbookaddiction) recommended it.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read?
Uhh, I guess Josh from Lights Out

23. Best 2025 debut you read?
Silver Elite

24. Best worldbuilding/most vivid setting you read?
Empire of the Dawn

25. Book that put a smile on your face/was the most fun to read?
Probably any of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books!

26. Book(s) that made you cry (or nearly cry)?
Empire of the Dawn, Onyx Storm, Sunrise on the Reaping

27. Hidden gem of the year?
Fateless by Julie Kagawa

28. Book that crushed your soul?
Sunrise on the Reaping

29. Most unique book you read?
Any of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books

30. Book that made you the most angry (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
Flock. It gave me PTSD from all the fuckboys I dealt with as a young adult and I HATED it.

Blogging & bookish life

1. New favorite book blog you discovered?
I didn’t look at any blogs this year :(

2. Favorite review that you wrote?
The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?
Theories & Questions for Onyx Storm (CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?
YALLfest, as always!

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life?
Shannon Spann giving me a copy of  A Stage Set for Villains after I missed the ARC drop! You’re amazing, Shannon!

7. Most popular post on your blog (whether it be by comments or views)?
I’m pretty sure I didn’t get comments on anything this year. I don’t ever have engagement anymore because I haven’t been putting the effort into it.

8. Post you wished got a little more love?
Any of them XD lmao

9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
I don’t have anything for this from 2025

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of the year?
I mean, kinda lol. I really wanted to get to 100 books this year, but halfway through I lowered my Goodreads goal to 50. I did end up hitting 50, so at least there’s that.

Looking ahead

1. One book you didn’t get to last year but will be your #1 priority this year?
The Everlasting

2. Book release you are most anticipating (non-debut)?
The Bloody and the Damned

3. 2026 debut you are most anticipating?
To Cage a Wild Bird and A Stage Set for Villains!

4. Series ending/sequel you are most anticipating?
RED GOD.

5. One thing you hope to accomplish or do in your reading/blogging life?
I really want to have zero books on my review shelves, at least on Netgalley. I’ve read all but two of them, I just need to review them!

6. A 2026 release you’ve already read & recommend to everyone:
I don’t have one for this because I haven’t had a chance to get to any of my 2026 ARCs, oops.

A closer look at my 2025 stats

Pie charts made with Canva!

Rating stats

I am super proud that my 3 star and less sections only accounted for about a quarter of my books this year! Having such a large percentage of DNFs really helped raise my overall rating.

(The small magenta slice is 2.5 stars.)

Genre stats

Welp, back to fantasy & sci-fi dominating my pie chart, lmao. I didn’t do so hot at branching out this year. I’m also shocked that the sci-fi chunk is so large!

Format stats

That audiobook slice gets bigger every year, lol! Audio is the bulk of my reading now, because I listen daily at work and can get through 2 or 3 books a week (I listen at 1.7x-2x speed). I don’t have much time or focus to spare for physical reading anymore, sadly. I’m still doing really well at not accepting many review obligations so my ARCs/eARCs were fairly low. All of the paper ARCs were from YALLfest. It’s freeing not to have as many obligations and to just be able to read what I want to!

(The small unlabeled slice is paperback.)

Series stats

Just like last year, I didn’t read any anthologies this year; and I only read 2 novellas. I am wildly shocked that the sequel percentage is so high, because I usually suck at series!

Year published stats

Like last year, the chunk for books released this year was high, but I had a better mix of new and old than I had last year. I tend to hype myself up for new releases and then put off reading them for years XD

Pages stats

My 0-400 chunk was higher than last year, but I still read quite a few bigger books this year!

What do your reading stats look like for the year? Are there any books on my list that you agree or disagree with?

Haul

Bought

• Red Rising by Pierce Brown (anniversary edition)
• Sorcery Rising by Jude Fisher
• Wild Magic by Jude Fisher
• Magician Apprentice by Raymond Feist
• Light Bringer by Pierce Brown (Sub Press edition)
• Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff (deluxe UK edition)
• Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff (Waterstones)
• Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff (Goldsboro)
• Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff (Illumicrate)
• Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff (US edition)
• Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff (Barnes & Noble)
• Ship of Spells by H. Leighton Dickson
• Fallen Gods by Rachel Van Dyken
• The Dark is Descending by Chloe C. Peñaranda
• Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen (Illumicrate)
• Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (Fairyloot)
• A Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett (Fairyloot)
• Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
• The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning (signed copy)
• Empire of the Dawn tour dust jacket (signed)
• Ollivander’s wand shop sign, from Ren Faire

  From subs

• Fateless by Julie Kagawa (LitJoy quarterly)
• The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley (Illumicrate, July)
• Voidwalker by S. A. MacLean (Illumicrate, August)
• The Isle in the Silver Sea Tasha Suri (Illumicrate, October)
• The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers (Illumicrate, December)

Freebies

• Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff, ARC (thank you, St. Martin’s Press!!)

What I’ve been up to

I usually do a monthly breakdown when I go months in between these posts, but honestly my life this year was a blur. Here’s a few highlights:

May

I did get to see Motionless in White like I talked about on my last Heartbeat Monthly, and THEY WERE AMAZING!! It was my favorite performance since I saw Avenged Sevenfold (my favorite band) for the first time waaay back in 2006. During Eternally Yours, CHRIS POINTED AT ME!! (At least, I’d like to think it was at me. I was wearing a pink BLEGH shirt!) It made my whole night and I’ll never forget it! I saw them at Sonic Temple – I ended up going two days (it’s a four day festival), and I even went solo the second day. I had so much fun! I also saw Ice Nine Kills for the first time and they were fucking phenomenal!

July

Inkcarceration was in July, that’s always fun! Saturday (my birthday) was pretty fucking miserable, though, because it was POURING in the last half of the day. The highlight of that weekend was seeing Three Days Grace and Architects, they were amazing! I’ve seen 3DG before, but it’s been years. I got a little emotional at that show! Slipknot headlined one of the days, and they were SO GOOD live, but unfortunately I had to leave that show early. Because I was soaked through my poncho, my phone got wet…well, it was dying and I tried to charge it and messed it up worse. It wouldn’t charge at all, and the friends I was with didn’t want to see Slipknot, so they left. I had no idea where they were parked and wanted to make sure I could find them, so I had to leave before my phone fully died. Thankfully it ended up being fine after I soaked it in rice overnight.

August

I saw Skillet in August, they were amazing as always! Was kinda bummed that they didn’t have anyone opening for them, though.

November

YALLfest was in November, of course! I did what I have done in past years and went to Florida first to spend a week on the beach, then hit up SC on my way north for YALLfest. You can see my full recap of the event HERE!

The beach was fantastic and much needed. I went deep sea fishing (which I haven’t done since I was around 20, with my dad) and caught a bunch of fish, including snapper and jack. The snapper was to die for! I also went on a dolphin boat tour – sadly I didn’t see any dolphins, but I got to see some during deep sea fishing so that made up for it.

After YALLfest I ended up going to see Atreyu because they were playing in Charleston (funny enough, the venue is literally RIGHT around the corner from the YALLfest events – and I never even knew it was there, wild!) and they’ve been on my bucket list for YEARS. I’m so happy I finally got to see them, they were fucking amaaazing!!

And, to make the month even better, at the end of November I also got to see Story of the Year (also fucking amazing live!), so I got to cross off two bucket list bands!

Current obsessions

TV: I started rewatching Stranger Things before season 5 came out, and I forgot how much I loved it. I’ve been on a huge ST kick for a couple of months, especially with season 5 vol 1 & 2 coming out!

Music: Hallucinations by Khordhell and Motionless in White has been my hyperfixation song for a couple of months

Games: I started playing Fallout 4 sometime around spring, and let me tell you. That game had me in a CHOKEHOLD for months! It’s all I did there for a while. One of my days off I literally played for 14 hours, lmao. Definitely a new favorite!

Crafts: I’ve been cross stitching a lot the past few months!

Things I’m looking forward to

THE STRANGER THINGS FINALE!

See anything you like? What did YOU get last month? Link me up!

YALLfest haul

Signed books

Books I brought

These are the books I already owned and brought with me to the festival to get signed!

• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (LitJoy)
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
• All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & C.L. Herman
• The Last Dragon of Mars by Scott Reintgen
• Red City by Marie Lu
• A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek (Illumicrate)
• Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek (Waterstones)
• Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek
• His Face is the Sun by Michelle Jabès Corpora
• His Face is the Sun by Michelle Jabès Corpora (ARC)
• The Floating World by Axie Oh (Fairyloot)
• Renegades by Marissa Meyer
• Wires & Nerve vol. 1 by Marissa Meyer
• Wires & Nerve vol. 2 by Marissa Meyer
• Heartless by Marissa Meyer
• The Floating World by Axie Oh (ARC)

Bought at the festival

• A Fate So Cold by Amanda Foody & C.L. Herman
• YALLfest hoodie (not pictured, oops)
• YALLfest shirt
• YALLfest button
• YALLfest poster

Freebies from the festival

• The Bloody and the Damned by Becca Coffindaffer
• Red Star Rebels by Amie Kaufman
• The Ruins Beneath us by Sasha Sloan (SIGNED)
• A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon Spann (SIGNED)
• Call of the Dragon by Natasha Bower
• The Celestial Seas by T.A. Chan
• The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss
• I Don’t Wish You Well by Jumata Emill
• Aftermyth by Tracy Wolff
• The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst
• Stolen Midnights by Katharine Quinn
• Carnaval Fantástico by Angela Montoya
• She Knows All the Names by Michelle Jabès Corpora (SIGNED)
• Devious Prey by Scott Reintgen
• Reasons We Break by Jasmeen Kaur Deo (SIGNED)
• Young World by Soman Chainani (SIGNED)
• The Dragon and the Sun Lotus by Amelie Wen Zhao
• Tons of swag! Including a couple totes, lots of buttons, countless prints and bookmarks

YALLfest recap

Yay for my 11th YALLfest! I flew solo again this year.

Friday

I learned from my mistakes last year, lol! I made sure to get a hotel Thursday night and arrive super early to the Friday events. My plan was to get merch first (it always sells out really fast), then drive over to the John L. Dart library for Fierce Friday, which I managed to snag tickets for. I arrived in the area around 11:20…and it’s a good thing I went way early, because the parking garage I literally ALWAYS park at was blocked off for some stupid ass reason. There was some event happening at the same time, so every. single. parking garage was full. I wasted a lot of time circling around looking for a place to park, until I finally gave up and just parked on the street somewhere that I’m pretty sure wasn’t legal, lmao. It was about 1/2 mile from Blue Bicycle Books so I had to walk, but it was fine. I grabbed the merch I wanted and my car was still there.

I drove to the library to wait in line for Fierce Friday, which was thankfully not very long yet. I got there a little after noon. I spent the two hour wait reading a little and chatting with random people. A little before the event started, they opened up the book tent to purchase books in exchange for priority tickets for signings. I bought A Fate So Cold to get one.

This was only my third time attending Fierce Friday, and it was by far the most stressful one I’ve been to. My first complaint is how fucking far away it was from the main square – two whole miles, which is not walkable in a decent time frame. I really wanted to see A.B. Poranek, who started at 2 pm, but I knew I’d need to get in line early at FF so I went there first. The second complaint is that even after getting tickets to the actual event, several of the authors also required their own separate tickets. It wasn’t like that before, they just capped the lines.

They came through to hand out tickets fairly early – I wanna say around 2:10-2:15 (it started at 2:30), and I probably should have gone to see Poranek as soon as I got the tickets I wanted. I was hoping to Uber over to see her and come back, but was stressed about when to do it. I stayed, hoping I could get through Axie Oh’s line quickly enough to go do that and come back in time for Marissa Meyer at 3:30. My friend Rahma joined me in line sometime in the hour before it started, so I had some company!

When they let us in, we stopped by the goodies table (I got a Grisha pencil case and tote, and THE BLOODY AND THE DAMNED!! Ahhh!! I was so freakin’ stoked because it’s my second most anticipated 2026 release and was my #1 drop I wanted of the whole weekend!) and then I went straight to Axie’s line. There was only one person in the regular line, so I decided to save my priority pass for Marissa. I knew Scott Reintgen was at 4 and wanted to get through Marissa’s line quickly so I could go see him. As we were standing there, people started piling into the priority pass line. I asked one of the volunteers if ALL of the priority pass people would be let in before us, and she said yes. (I am STILL fucking salty about this.) So I started to panic that I wouldn’t have enough time and went to the end of the priority line. I was kicking myself for not just getting into it first, but also didn’t want to waste my priority pass. And you know what? You know fucking what? They were NOT letting everyone in the priority line go first, they were alternating one from the regular line and then one from the priority line. I would have been next if I’d stayed where I was in the regular line. I was so fucking pissed, ya’ll. I went back about 15 people in line because of that. And I ended up not being able to leave for Poranek because the line took so long. When I realized I wasn’t going to make it to see her, I decided to just go back to the regular line (it was about the same length as the priority line) and save the pass for Marissa. I ended up being one of the last people through Axie’s line and got bitched at because I had her sign 3 books and my tote, and she was about to sign a TGWFBtS print for me when the attendant came and cut me off. So I didn’t get that print or my poster signed.

On my way out I hit up Amanda Foody & C.L. Herman. By the time I got back in line for the 3:30 authors, I was WAAAAY at the end.

When I got in, Marissa’s priority line actually looked longer than the regular line, so I took my chances in the regular line. Aka the priority pass was a total waste of money. Oh well, at least I got a pretty book that I was able to get signed. So there’s my third complaint: “priority passes” were a complete fucking scam and a waste of money. They sold so many of them that there were probably more people with those than there were in the regular line, so it actually ended up taking longer with a priority pass. I will not be buying one next year.

While I was in line, I noticed that Axie was standing around nearby chatting with Marie Lu, so I was able to run over and get my poster signed after all! Marissa’s line took forever and I didn’t get out of it until 4:40. I was in a bit of a panic because Scott had been signing for 40 minutes and they don’t usually go past an hour. I got an Uber to Off Track Ice Cream (3 miles away because it was on the far end) because I figured it’d be faster. It took 20 minutes to get there because traffic was so awful, and my Uber driver was stressing me out because he was honking at people at lights – like, where tf are they gonna go?! They can’t go anywhere! I made it right at 5:00, and by some miracle he was still there and I was able to get my book signed.

I grabbed ice cream while I was there because I was starving – I got Pumpkin Chess Pie and it was pretty good, but not spectacular or anything. I walked for a bit in the direction of the library while I finished my ice cream, but my Maps was saying it was a 40 minute walk and I was exhausted, so I just got an Uber back to my car.

I learned from my mistake last year (in which I decided to save money on DoorDash and go get my own food, wasting an hour and a half of my life to go to a restaurant that was only 8 miles away) and just splurged on DoorDash to the hotel. I got a birria sampler, elote, and churros from Poseidon’s Playground and it was delicious!

Saturday

7 am

Last year I showed up way late and regretted it, so I planned to arrive early this year. I wanted to be parked and in line at 7 am, but I didn’t get up early enough and was dragging ass. I ended up running into the same problem as I did Friday – my usual parking was still blocked off. This has never happened before. I ended up having to park in a garage on the other end of everything, which was really inconvenient. My usual garage is a central location. The whole reason I wanted to go early was because I wanted to get in line for the Twinkling Tomes event, which was my #1 of the day. I drove past around 7:10 and the line was already really long. By the time I got over there at nearly 7:30, it was easily 20 people past the cap (50 people). I gave up on that line and headed over to the Wednesday line, which was my #2 pick. However, the ticket I wanted most was the multi book drop, and I was so far back that I knew it’d be gone by the time I got up there. Those multi book ones are the first to go. So I also gave up on that line. I ended up going over to the Underlined line instead for Cirque du Story tickets, which was high up on my list for the day. I was planning to go to the second drop for that at 11, but it worked out that I got them early because it freed up time for me later.

While in line for that drop, I met a really cool new friend – Cloe! She was home from college and at the festival with her mom. I whiled away the hour and a half wait chatting with her. I was happy for her company, because the wait went much faster! Her and her mom ended up adopting me for the day and we tag teamed standing in lines and holding places for each other. I’m so grateful to them for helping me out, it’s very hard to be at YALLfest solo and not have line buddies! (Thanks Cloe and mom, you guys rock!)

8 am

While we were in line, someone came over with a wristband for the flower crown crafting event, which was already being given away over at the museum quad. They said there were plenty, so we ran over to grab one. It was pretty funny, because Cloe was in track and I was trying to keep up with her sprint over to the quad, and I am NOT a runner lmao. I thought I was going to die!

9 am

As soon as we got our Cirque du Story tickets, we circled right back into the Underlined line for the 9:30 ‘what’s your aesthetic?’ drop. The drop was pretty cool – they had mood boards for each book, and you were given a marble to drop in the jar at the mood board of your choice. I chose the space aesthetic and snagged a copy of Red Star Rebels!

When we were grabbing our books, one of the gals at the Underlined booth said something about a dragon book and asking her to talk about it (?? I have no idea what was going on, but I wanted to know about dragons! Haha) so we went over to ask and she handed us copies of Call of the Dragon, which looks freaking awesome!

10 am

After that drop, we went to get in line at the museum quad with Cloe’s mom (I’m embarrassed that I didn’t get her name!), who was first in line for the flower crown crafting. We spent the next hour doing that and listening to Sasha Sloan chat about her new book, The Ruins Beneath Us. She was SO nervous, it was adorable! She talked about getting the book deal and how excited she was (she thought when they emailed her about the book deal that they were playing a prank on her, lol). Then she came around to meet everyone and sign the copies. Cloe had an amazing idea to ask for a quote from the book and Sasha picked “nothing happens for nothing.” I thought it was a great idea and was going to have Sasha add it to mine, too, but she had already moved on and they were running out of time for the event. I was told she’d be at the Hyperion tent later, so I planned to circle back. Flower crown crafting was fun!

11 am

After leaving the flower crown event, I had just enough time to get in line at the Simon booth for tickets to the Aftermyth & Girl of Lore drop at noon (Simon tickets dropped an hour before each giveaway). The line wasn’t too long so I was through it quickly. That gave me time to run over to the Hyperion tent to see Sasha again and get that quote in my ARC as well as get my poster signed, which I’d forgotten as well.

I went directly from Sasha’s line back to the museum quad area to wait for Gayle Forman. She was super friendly! I’ve been trying to get her for a few years now to get my copy of If I Stay signed, and somehow always miss her. It was great to finally meet her!

After meeting Gayle, I went over to the line for Cirque du Story to stand with Cloe and her mom, who were in the front of the line again.

12 pm

Cirque du Story was so fun!! There were 4 books available, and you had to play games to win them:
The Dragon and the Sun Lotus: Bingo – you got a card with things like “an audiobook addict” or “will use anything as a bookmark” and you had to go find people that fit each category to get a bingo
The Faraway Inn / Stolen Midnight: Plinko – where your piece fell on the plinko board determined which book you got
Carnival Fantastico + tarot cards: Pin the feather on the peacock
Wings of Starlight tote: Ring toss

I did bingo first because Sun Lotus was my most wanted drop, then played plinko and got Stolen Midnight. While standing in line for pin the feather, they announced that once everyone had played plinko, you could play again to try for a different book. I was going to do that, but Cloe’s mom ended up playing again and getting a copy of Faraway Inn for me because she’s freakin awesome! I wasn’t going to get a tote, but I ended up going for it anyway.

After leaving Cirque du Story, I booked it way over to Lit Alley (about 1/2 mile away, near Blue Bicycle Books) to see A.B. Poranek, since I’d missed her Friday. Her dress was so cute!!

I got through her line in time to run past the car and do a quick book dump and grab a snack. Then I headed straight back to the museum for the 1 pm ticket drop for the 2 pm Devious Prey giveaway.

1 pm

There wasn’t a line for the ticket drop, and I was a little early. I asked at the booth and they said to just come by at 1, so I went and stood in line for the Penguin pin drop instead.

After snagging the Penguin pins and a ticket for Devious Prey, I went all the way back to Lit Alley to see Michelle Jabes Corpora. Her line was pretty short despite it being pretty close to 1. When I was in line, I noticed that people had ARCs of A Stage Set for Villains in the line next to me. I asked where they got them (it was a drop I really, really wanted!), and it was apparently a drop only at the ticketed signing, which I didn’t know about. The tickets dropped with the other ticketed authors a couple weeks before the event, so I had missed it entirely. I was pretty bummed. I tried to ask if there’d be another drop anywhere else, but no one knew.

Michelle was wonderful, and she was giving away ARCs of She Knows All the Names (which I didn’t know about) – I got the LAST ONE!! I was so excited!! She signed it for me, too, which made me happy because now I’ve come full circle since I got an ARC of His Face is the Sun last year at YALLfest. She had a bomb ass necklace and earrings, which you can’t really see in the pic, sadly.

2 pm

I made it back over to the publisher square around 1:30 and got in line for the 2:30 ‘escape into another world’ Penguin drop. When 2 pm hit, I ran over to the Simon booth to pick up my copy of Devious Prey.

While in the Penguin line, there was a line next to us for Young World (which they were promoting the shit out of, by the way). The line was INSANELY long so I didn’t bother trying to have someone hold my spot. However, when it got to the very end I got a wild hair and went over to see if there’d be any copies left. And you know what? There was ONE left after all the ticketed people went through, so I was able to get it! It was pretty freakin’ rad! Lady Luck came through for me a second time! Soman Chainani was standing at the booth so I was able to snag a pic (the books were already signed).

I’m pretty sure I got a wristband for the Meet Mayhem event at some point during this line, too.

For the Penguin drop they were using taglines for each book – space (Celestial Seas), maybe romance?? (I forget this one, but it was for Gods & Comics), and tiger (Prodigal Tiger). I really wanted Celestial Seas so that’s what I picked, and thankfully there were still copies left!

3 pm

I didn’t have anything else to do until the Mayhem event, so I decided to get in line for the Duck, Duck, Murder drop at Underlined. I stood in that line for a while, and there was a line forming next to us for Penguin. I asked someone in the line what it was for, and apparently it was for Marissa Meyer’s new book, the Escape Game. The line was surprisingly short. The girl I asked said they were handing out tickets soon, so I decided to leave my stuff in line and hop over to that line. Well, they didn’t hand tickets out soon. I was splitting lines and it actually really stressed me out and I will not be doing it ever again lmao! I did not make friends in the Underlined line (where I left my stuff), so I was paranoid about leaving it for so long. They handed out tickets in that line first, so I ended up having to run over and grab a ticket then go back to the Penguin line to get a ticket there. The guy behind me in that line was really nice about saving my spot, thankfully.

While I was standing in the Penguin line, I overheard one of the ladies in front of me talking about her book. I was curious and asked what her book was called (it’s Princess Knight and sounds cool af), and she was nice enough to give me a couple of prints for it! She ran off at some point to hide her book somewhere for someone to find. When she came back I asked if it was a contest or something, or open to anyone, and she was like ‘you can totally go try to find it, I just left it on the museum stairs.’ So I SPRINTED over there to look for it. Sadly, it was gone already. When I got back to the line, she checked Insta and found the story of the person who’d found it, and I guess they’d picked it up almost immediately. Womp, womp.

So, here’s where it got even more stressful. Both drops were at 3:30 and the Duck, Duck, Murder line started moving first. I went back to that line because it was moving. But because of the nature of the drop – you had to pick a “murder duck” out of a mini pool and the color on the duck told you what book you’d get – it was moving SUPER slow. The Escape Game line was moving much faster while I was stuck in the other line. I was worried about losing out on that one, so I ran over real quick and grabbed a copy. I came back to the Duck line in the same spot I was at, and was like “is it ok if I come back?” to the chick that was behind me. I don’t think she was happy about it honestly, ope. Like I said, I won’t be doing that again! Only if I make friends that are cool about holding my spot. Going alone is really hard.

After that drop, I headed over to the museum quad to get in line for the Mayhem event.

4 pm

In the meet Mayhem line I was right behind Ansley, the wife of my YALLfest buddy Chris that I’ve mentioned in past recaps, so I got to hang out with her a bit! She’s cool AF too! I enjoyed hanging out with her and her friend Parker in line and chatting. Chris had invited me to go with them to see Atreyu at a venue called the Music Farm that is literally RIGHT there (like, HOW did I not know it was there when it’s literally nextdoor to the parking garage I always use?!), but I declined because I’d spent so much on vacation and had to leave to come home super early the next morning. Ansley mentioned it again and I was even more on the fence and told her I was considering going.

The Meet Mayhem event was literally just friendship bracelet making. I wasn’t in the mood to do so – it was tiny beads and therefore tedious af. Elise Kova and Shannon Spann were both present to sign posters, but there were no books involved, sadly. I really only wanted to attend the event because I knew Shannon would be there and was desperately hoping they’d have another drop for A Stage Set for Villains.

I saw a friend I’d made in a previous line standing in line for the posters (I feel terrible but I forget her name!! We never exchanged numbers), so I went and hopped in line with her instead of working on my bracelet. She said she was going to ditch as soon as she got the posters signed to see if she could get in line for the magic 8 ball drop at Sourcebooks, so I decided to go with her. When we got up to the table, I said hi to Shannon and told her that I had seen her earlier and was sad that I missed out on getting a ticket for her signing. She was like, “you got a copy of the book though, right?” and I told her no. AND YA’LL, SHE PULLED A COPY OUT OF HER BAG AND HANDED ONE TO ME!!!! *sobs* She was like “shhh, don’t tell anyone, I only have a couple left.” It made my whole fucking day, I felt sooo special! And on top of that, she even signed it for me T.T

I think that might just be one of the best things that’s ever happened to me at YALLfest in all the years I’ve been going. THANK YOU SO MUCH SHANNON, you rock!!!

After that I packed my stuff up and told Ansley I was going to the 8 ball line and followed my other friend over there, where her husband was in line. We both jumped into that line and I was feeling pretty weird about it because we probably pushed people past the cap. Ansley ended up coming over to stand with us, too. When we were closer to the tent, we saw a line next to ours and one person had a book with a really cool cover. I asked about it so I could add it to my TBR and she was like, “oh the author is here signing and she’s got 25 copies available. There were only 18 people in the line, so Ansley and I decided to jump over to that line instead and just ditch the magic 8 ball line. I was starting to feel bad about cutting anyway, lol. So I got to meet Jasmeen Kaur Deo and get an ARC of Reasons We Break signed.

I had ditched my poster because I didn’t think I’d see any more authors after Michelle Jabes Corpora, so I was feeling a little salty about that. I didn’t get Shannon to sign it, either. Sad face.

After we did that, there was pretty much nothing left. All the publishers were packing up, so we went our separate ways.

I did end up deciding to go see Atreyu with Chris and Ansley, and Rahma came with me too! I’m so glad I went, because they were AMAZING!! Finally got to cross them off my band bucket list.

In conclusion

Here’s what it looked like in the past:

2013: saw 8 authors (missed 2) // brought 20 books
2014: saw 5 authors (missed 8) // brought 34 books
2015: saw 7 authors (missed 4) // brought 21 books
2016: saw 11 authors (missed 1) // brought 28 books
2017: saw 16 authors (missed 0) // brought 25 books
2018: saw 16 authors (missed 0) // brought 42 books
2019: saw 9 authors (missed 2) // brought 18 books
2022: saw 3 authors (missed 2) // brought 16 books
2023: saw 6 authors (missed 0) // brought 5 books
2024: saw 4 authors (missed 1) // brought 10 books

Authors I got to see:

• Axie Oh
• Amanda Foody
• C.L. Herman
• Marissa Meyer
• Scott Reintgen
• Sasha Sloan
• Gayle Forman
• A.B. Poranek
• Michelle Jabes Corpora
• Shannon Spann
• Jesmeen Kaur Deo

I didn’t miss a single author this year!

Previous years’ recaps

• YALLfest 2024 (Fri & Sat)
• YALLfest 2023 (Fri* & Sat)
• YALLfest 2022 (Fri* & Sat)
• Missed 2021 – was on my honeymoon
• Missed 2020 – cancelled due to COVID
• YALLfest 2019 (Sat only)
• YALLfest 2018 (Fri & Sat)
• YALLfest 2017 (Fri & Sat)
• YALLfest 2016 (Sat only)
• YALLfest 2015 (Sat only)
• YALLfest 2014 (Sat only)
• YALLfest 2013 (Sat only)

* = attended Fierce Friday

Extras

Tips for YALLfest

Jan-March haul

Bought

• Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan (Waterstones special edition)
• The Half King by Melissa Landers (deluxe edition)
• Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
• Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (Target edition)
• The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall (deluxe edition)
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (LitJoy special edition)
• Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli (Owlcrate special edition)
• The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland, paperback
• He Waits for You Beyond the Dark by Kristen Simmons, ARC
• He Waits for You Beyond the Dark by Kristen Simmons
• Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (German edition)
• Iron Widow & Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao (Illumicrate special editions)

  From subs

• Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao (Illumicrate, January)
• Capitana by Cassandra James (Illumicrate, February)
• Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe (LitJoy quarterly)
• A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson (LitJoy quarterly)

January Wrap Up

Books I read

* = audiobook
^ = re-read

• Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao* – ★★★★
• The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold* – ★★½
• Sunreach by Brandon Sanderson* – ★★★★
• Memento by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman^* – ★★★★★
• All Systems Red by Martha Wells^* – ★★★
• Artificial Condition by Martha Wells* – ★★★
• Ashes to Ashes by Jennifer Armintrout^ – ★★★★½
• Impact Winter by Travis Beacham^* – ★★★★½
• Impact Winter Season 2 by Travis Beacham^* – ★★★★½
• Impact Winter Season 3 by Travis Beacham* – ★★★★½
• Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells* – ★★★★
• Lightfall by Ed Crocker – DNF
• Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros^* – ★★★★★
• Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros* – ★★★★★

Pages read: 3,662
Average rating: 3.92
Favorite book read in January: Onyx Storm
Least favorite book read in January: The Last Bookstore on Earth

February Wrap Up

Books I read

* = audiobook
^ = re-read

• Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros^* – ★★★★★
• Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman^* – ★★★★★
• Aurora Burning by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman^* – ★★★★★
• Aurora’s End by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman^* – ★★★★★

Pages read: 1,991
Average rating: 5
Favorite book read in February: Aurora’s End
Least favorite book read in February: n/a

March Wrap Up

Books I read

* = audiobook
^ = re-read

• Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman* – ★★★★
• Lights Out by Navessa Allen* – ★★★★
• The Bane Witch by Ava Morgyn – ★★★★
• Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven* – ★★★
• Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli* – ★★★★
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern* – DNF

Pages read: 2,165
Average rating: 3.8
Favorite book read in March: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario
Least favorite book read in March: Our Infinite Fates

What I’ve been up to

January

My highlight going into the new year was that I got a new TV! Finally! I’ve had the clunky old dinosaur TV from my parents’ house for a decade, and just never got around to replacing it. It wasn’t even HD, I had to get all kinds of adapters for everything for it. Best Buy was having a really good sale on TVs, so I splurged and bought a 75″ smart TV and fireplace stand. I love it sooo much! I was obsessively watching all my favorite movies for the first couple of weeks because I was so gaga over the quality after having that crappy non-HD TV for so many years! XD

February

I discovered pretty quickly that my old Blu-ray player did NOT have good quality with the fancy new TV. Unfortunately, all the high quality ones were over $300. I’d been wanting a Playstation for YEARS (I always said I wouldn’t get one until the old 360 died, and it’s still going strong lmao), so I went out and splurged on that, too. (Thank you, Best Buy card and 0% APR for a year!) So, most of February was spent on that haha! I also bought Stray, which I’ve been wanting ever since it came out, and I finally got to play that! And let me tell you, I am OBSESSED. It rocketed right past Skyrim into my first place slot for Favorite Video Games of All Time. I beat it within 24 hours, then played it all the way through another 5 times in the same month and earned every single trophy available, including the “beat the game in under 2 hours” one. I love it SO MUCH, and I never thought I would ever in a million years cry over a video game, but the ending had me sobbing! What a wonderful game! I wish I could erase my memory to play it again for the first time. It was magical. I NEED a sequel asap *cries*

March

The only thing that happened in March was HorrorHound! One of my favorite clients asked me to go with her because her husband wouldn’t. We had a blast! I saw Devon Siwa (Final Destination) and Barbara Hershey (Once Upon a Time) in passing. Corey Taylor (lead singer of Slipknot, StoneSour) and Spencer Charnas (lead singer of Ice Nine Kills) were both there and I really wanted to see them, but photo ops were expensive and I didn’t really want to spend the money. It was so fun to just walk around and check out all the booths of horror themed merch and see all the costumes!

Current obsessions

Movies: I finally saw Mufasa and LOVED it! I cried lol!

TV: I binged The Flash (re-watch) and I forgot how much I loved it. Especially season 3, I am OBSESSED with dark tortured Grant Gustin, he’s so fucking beautiful *sighs* However, I forgot how terrible it got after season 5. I ended up making it about halfway through season 6 and gave up, oops.
I also finally started watching What We Do in the Shadows, and it is hilarious!!

Games: STRAY, it’s my new favorite video game of all time! Also Overcooked, the hyperfixation on that game has me in a chokehold, ya’ll.

Things I’m looking forward to

Sonic Temple is in May! I GET TO SEE MOTIONLESS IN WHITE! AHHH!! I am beyond stoked, they’re my second favorite band and haven’t been anywhere close enough for me to see them. I can’t wait!

See anything you like? What did YOU get last month? Link me up!