Category: books

ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker

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Book Review: The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker

I think you all know how obsessed I am with Japan and Japanese culture by now. Though a lot of that interest is pop-culture focused, I’m both a history geek and a myth & legend fanatic at heart, so there are other areas I’m interested in too. This interest and my love of YA books meant that The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker was a must-read for me, and I was lucky enough to get an ARC through Harper360’s newsletter. I’m super grateful for this one, even if I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I hoped.

This book follows Ren, a half-Shinigami half-Reaper girl who has been living in 1890’s London her whole life. She was bullied for being different, and the only person who really cares for her is her younger half-brother, Neven. One day she injures another Reaper with her shinigami powers and has to go on the run. She heads to Japan with only her brother for company, desperate to become a Shinigami.

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Adult, books, Reading, tbr, Young Adult

Books I Want To Read Before the End of 2021

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books7 Comments on Books I Want To Read Before the End of 2021
Books I Want To Read Before the End of 2021

We’re in the final month of the year. I can’t believe we’re so close to the end of 2021! I’ve not yet completed my GoodReads challenge, and I’m not sure I’m going to, but that’s okay. I’ll just read what I can and see if I can manage it.

Today I want to list a few of the books that I plan on reading before the end of the year. I have another ARC to read, and I plan on reading a few Christmas books too, but I won’t be listing those today. These are just a few books from my physical TBR that I want to get to.

I’m not going to be listing them in any particular order. All of these books are in series. In fact, two of them are sequels, so I won’t be going into too much detail. But if anyone would be interested in a buddy read, let me know.

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Adult, ARC, books, Review

Book Review: How To Survive A Modern-Day Fairy Tale by Elle Cruz

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Book Review: How To Survive A Modern-Day Fairy Tale by Elle Cruz

Before now, I haven’t really posted many, if any at all, negative reviews on this blog. If I DNF a book, I don’t really feel like I should review it. But when I’ve received a book as an ARC…I should probably still be talking about them.

How To Survive A Modern-Day Fairy Tale is a romance novel that sounded a lot of fun. It follows Claire, a Filipino-American bookworm who decorates cookies as a side hustle and likes to please her family. When she meets Nate, a handsome billionaire, she’s instantly attracted to him, and after he rushes her off to Paris, she has to try to figure out her way around their relationship.

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Adult, books, Young Adult

Fae Book Recs Part 2!

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Fae Book Recs Part 2!
Fae Book Recs Part 2!

I posted a post with a few fae book recs a few months ago. I love reading about the fae and folklore. But I’m not interested in the typical Shakespearian inspired fae we often see. Courts are fine, provided there’s some fae variety, but that’s rare. I’ve been wanting to talk more about fae books, yet I’ve not really read any that advertise that they’re fae books.

So instead, I’m recommending a few books that feature the fae. These creatures might not be labelled as fae, but they’re folkloric creatures that can class as types of fae. Isn’t that fascinating? I’ve read and adored all the books on this list, so I recommend you check them out too.

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Adult, ARC, books, Review

Blog Tour: The Country Village Winter Wedding by Cathy Lake

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Blog Tour: The Country Village Winter Wedding by Cathy Lake

It’s hardly a secret that I adore chick-lit, and I’m starting to find more romance that I love too. I’m always looking for opportunities to add these sorts of books to my TBR. When I saw The Country Village Winter Wedding tour was being organised by Compulsive Tours, I signed up right away.

October is a little bit early for this sort of book, in my opinion. But it was still a fun read to curl up under a blanket while enjoying a hot chocolate.

This book follows Hazel, who has just moved into Little Bramble. She’s trying to get her wedding business off the ground, and luckily Clare and Sam need her help. Elsewhere in the village, Jack has come to stay with his sister, Bella. And he’s trying to figure out what to do with his life.

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ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: Fall of the Argosi by Sebastien De Castell

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Book Review: Fall of the Argosi by Sebastien De Castell

I said I was reviewing the first in the duology in preparation for reviewing this one, and I’ve finally gotten around to it! I adored this book so much, and I’m so honoured that I was able to participate in the bookstagram tour for this one. You can find my post and mini-review here.

Set months after the first book, Ferius has been living with Durrall and Enna. She was learning the way of the Argosi, but after making a mistake, she ran away. Now she’s stumbled upon a mysterious curse known as the Red Scream. With the help of an Argosi her own age called Rosie, she tries to hunt down the person spreading it.

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ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen

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Book Review: Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen

This is honestly one of the most beautiful books out this year. The cover is stunning and is the main reason that I was interested in this book. The plot did interest me too, but this was total cover love.

Skin of the Sea follows Simidele, who is one of the Mami Wata. She’s a mermaid who harvests the souls of black people who die in the ocean thanks to slavers. One day she comes upon a boy who is still alive, so she rescues him. She didn’t know it was against the rules and had to go on a journey with him to make amends for her mistake.

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books

Looking for Indie Recs

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Looking for Indie Recs

As a book blogger, I’m obviously very lucky to get offered indie books to review every now and then. I’m super picky about which I accept though, as I only have so much time. I’m also on the judging panel of the BBNYA awards this year, which has given me the opportunity to read even more indie books.

When it comes to those I accept to review, I seem to have a lot of good luck. These indies books are great and I can happily scream about them.

Yet when I go to buy indie books that I’ve seen online that I’m interested in…I keep DNFing them. I don’t know why this is. It’s not like I’m not ordering books that don’t interest me. But when I actually get to them, they aren’t working.

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books

Non-Fiction Books I Want to Read

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books2 Comments on Non-Fiction Books I Want to Read
Non-Fiction Books I Want to Read

You don’t really see me talking about non-fiction very often because I don’t tend to read it. That’s not because there’s none that interests me. There most definitely is! I adore history and I want to read more on it. There are even a couple of history books that I own, but I struggle to focus on it. I don’t want to be sitting and reading about facts like I do fiction, it just doesn’t work. So the history books I’ve bought just aren’t getting read and I want to change that.

I need to somehow find a way that I can sit and read them. It might be that I need to just read a little bit at a time along side my fiction. It would be very little, not even full chapters, but I really want to do it. I want to learn more history and watching documentaries just isn’t enough. So today I’m going to list the books I own, why and what I’m hoping to learn! There might not be much on some of them, but maybe you’ll be interested too!

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ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

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Book Review: Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

I’ve never read Jane Eyre before, but the moment I stumbled across Within These Wicked Walls, I knew I had to read it. This is a YA historical fantasy retelling of the famous novel set in Ethiopia. It’s fascinating, atmospheric and everything that I could hope for. But even I noticed that aside from a name and a fire, there wasn’t very much of Jane Eyre in it.

Within These Wicked Walls follows Andromeda, a debtera – or exorcist – who creates amulets to rid people of the Evil Eye. Her mentor had kicked her out so now she’s on the look for a patron, and Magnus Rochester is the only one who’s offering. His house is cursed and more dangerous than she expected, but as they slowly fall in love, she knows she would do anything to free him.

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