August crashed in with work and all that everyday normal life and stuff, putting a damper to my preferred way of life, ie. reading all day long 🤣 Still, I found myself even getting into a bit of story writing mode there, setting my books aside for a few days to write a novella of my own (The Refugee), which ran off on its own and I just struggled to keep up and get it written down! I have always done a lot of writing myself, too – blogs, short stories, poems, diary, novellas… though less in the recent years than I used to. Like many readers, I too have harbored the dream of some day publishing my stuff, but so far been simply publishing them in my creative writing blog Writings by Marilka.

In books my August ended up being 15 books of varied length (mostly in the regular range of 350-400 pages, with one novella in the mix and some 400+ ones), altogether 5646 pages. A pretty good month, with prett good books, some disappointments, but also some of top books of the year, like the Dearly Beloved duolgy and Immortal Rose.

• Sea of Charms (Spellshop 3), by Sarah Beth Durst – Charming fairy tale, as these always are, even though this one was a bit thick on the guilt-ridden shielding and the pushing the other one away “for their own good”, throwing a bit of a shadow on the otherwise lovely story.
• An Arcane Study of Stars, by Sidney J. Shields – Mixed feelings, enemies to reluctant lovers, secrets and ancient plots, where mere mortals are but pieces on the game board of powerhungry gods. One of those books I loved and hated in equal measure, loving the story but kinda hating both the protagonist and antagonist.
• The Dearly Beloathed duology: The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy & The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy, by Brigitte Knightley – One of the absolute best reads of this year, this enemies to lovers story does it elegantly and with lovely eloquence and finesse, without the infuriating dwelling and wallowing and sheer martyrdom (at least no much), changing if not the world, at least enough of it to accomodate their love.
• Heathermoor (Of Quirks and Curses 2), by Shannon Mayer – A wild ride from start to end, this middle book of the trilogy, leaving off in another damned cliffhanger (because, naturally). Secrets revealed, the truth unveiled, but can they save the world from evil or not?
• Prince of Swords (Arcana Academy 2), by Elise Kova – Another middle of the trilogy book, leaving me totally flabbergasted at the end. It was a “well, damn!” of a turn of events, after another wild race to save the world, in the unique concept of this world, as in erasing and recreating it.
• Adversary to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain 4), by Hannah Nicole Maehrer – Another “well, damn” ending, though this one with a resigned sigh, rigth after the anger of “no, you can’t end the series this way!” had burned away. It left me kinda sad, it wasn’t the endind I would’ve wanted, so it kinda deflated the otherwise fun and enjoyable experience of this last Villain book. [Edit. Just learned there is to be a fifth one!]
• The League of Dangerous Young Ladies, by J.A. Morgenstein – A young adult adventure with daughters of those goth monsters like Moriarty and Moreau and Frankenstein, racing to beat the bigger evil with the possibly smaller evil, in a game of, yeah, saving or ruling the world.
• A Witch in Notting Hill, by Alexandra Paige – A sweet palate cleansing magical realism romance about not only finding love, but finding also friendship and, maybe first and foremost, yourself in the process.
• No Charm Done (Oak Haven Witches 3), by Emily Grimoire – The delighful whimsical third last book of the series (losely set trilogy), where the third Melrose sister is in the spotlight, flipping in and out of time and space with the handsome con man (confidence man, as he prefers it) Elias, to change the fate of Oak Haven once and for all.
• Parcel of Stardust, by Ines Johnson – A novella made up entirely of letters (and a few other missives an news articles), a delicious delicate snack of a book.
• Rainbow in the Dark, by Ronnie James Dio (with Wendy Dio and Mick Wall) – Dio’s memoir up to mid-eghties, as he had it planned, even while living several decades more and another one passing before the book was edited and finally published. A thoroughly enjoyable read, even for a not-a-fan (of his music). Plus, it made me a fan – of his pre-Rainbow band Elf!
• A Date with Death, by Kelly Creagh – Expecting a comedy, I got a rather deep and sensual story instead. It was fun and funny too, but I rather loved this love story for how real it was in it’s unreal setting. A highly satisfying story.
• A Deadly Education (Scholomance 1), by Naomi Novik – First book of this YA trilogy, that barely reads as YA – I mean, the characters are teen, but it’s somehow easy to forget it because their youth barely plays into the story. A unique kind of magic and school system, where survival is not a given.
• Immortal Rose, by Alexandra Bracken – Hands down one of the top reads of this year. Magical realism mystery romance is but a diluted way of describing this beautifully written book, a mystery in a Victorianesque setting, in an imaginary version of Victorian England and London. The storytelling is exquisite, naturally slowing down the reading pace, begging for each word, each sentence to be appreciated and savored instead of simply devouring the story. But, fuck, that ending! Waiting for book 2…

Aug 9, Last night I finished the Dearly Beloathed duology (by Brigitte Knightley), a slow burn enemies to lovers romantacy written in equal parts (British) dry sarcasm and exquisite flowery beauty, in a setting where the duality of predefined good and bad, right and wrong is an absolute, weaving the inevitable love story in the supposedly impossible inbetween where the (preposed) right feels wrong and the (presumed) wrong feels right, where good and bad are not black and white.

This story, too, also includes the “I was hurt once so I cannot dare love anymore” trope that really is one of my least favorite ones, but somehow here it was handled in a way that didn’t make me pull my hair out. It wasn’t a guilt-ridden wallowfest, but more of a matter-of-fact attitude. Same for the mandatory “I push you away because that’s best for you (read: me)” martyrdom bit. Probably it was the style of writing, possibly the dual-POV, perhaps it simply wasn’t overdone.

In comparison, these aforementioned themes put the annoying damper on the otherwise so lovely and charming story of The Sea of Charms (by Sarah Beth Durst), that I read (on Kindle) before this duology. Just makes to show that the same themes, the same emotions if you wish, can be dealt with in many ways, some of them irritating, some not so much.

Aug 13, Just finished Prince of Swords (Arcana Academy 2), by Elise Kova. Well, DAMN. That’s all I can say. Well, damn. Yes, the good kind of well damn. Loved the book, but what an ending! And now to wait a year or smtg for the finale. After this twist. Well damn!

I also finished Adversary to the Villain (by Hannah Nicole Mahrer) today, and that one, too, left me in a stunned silence. This was the end to the Assistant to the Villain series and well. I did not quite expect this ending. Nor did I particularily like it. It could’ve gone one of two ways, and I hoped for the other. I imagined the other would be the author’s choice too. But nope. I’m left a touch disappointed. Feeling a bit torn.

In a way, I had two rather similar blows hit me, the difference being that in case 1, there’s another book to remedy the situation, while in case 2 that was it. Well, damn.

Aug 18, Quite often when I read (auto)bios/memoirs of musicians, I’m also intrigued into exploring their music, or music they talk about, that I don’t know – I mean, influences, early career, sidesteps, encounters, intrigues… all that not-so-widely-known jazz (well stuff at least I knew nothing about previously), but also just their music I hadn’t listened to before. While I obviously like to read books by and about artists I specifically dig, I also like to dig into books by (and about) artists I’m simply curious about, whose person I’m interested in even if I’m not a particular fan of their music.

Currently I’m reading Ronny James Dio’s Rainbow in the Dark, and while I don’t particularily like his singing voice when he got into heavy metal (I have something against the vibrato, and that sort of overporwering sound), he is an interesting persona. I mean, I got curious when having some discussion with my husband, and here we are. He doesn’t go into all that philosophy and such (that first got me interested) in the book, focusing on the musical side of his life, but I do enjoy the book a lot. And best of all, it lead me to some fab new music!

I don’t suppose I’ll be trying to listen to Dio (band) or Black Sabbath any more than I ever have, since I already know what I do and don’t like regarding those, but I did get curious about his early band, that had quite a few names along the way, with singles released under three of those names, and three albums under the name of Elf. The music of Elf from the early 1970’s is a delightful mix of Jerry Lee Lewis, old Chicago jazz, deep Southern R&B, 50’s high school dance rock ‘n’ roll, and 70’s British rock. I mean, style-wize they’re all over the place, and I totally LOVE IT!

Aug 20, What a delightful gem of a novella this – Parcel of Stradust by Ines Johnson – was!

A sweet snack of a book, a love fairytale written fully in letters and some notes and news articles. Not my favorite style, in general, but quite enjoyable at best. And this was quite “at best”, at least for me 

Aug 25, I spent my Sunday and last two evenings writing instead of reading, though this romantacy I wrote felt more like interactive reading, the story seeming to write itself as I went. When I started writing this story, I didn’t know what was going on, how things were going to unravel, or even what those things were. I knew where the story began, just not why, or what had happened to Matthias. I knew there was going to be romance, but I didn’t know who his love interest was going to be. I knew the events and fates of Matthias and the Dragonarans were entwined, because of course, but I didn’t know how. And I sure as hell didn’t want both Matthias and his love interest to be so awkward, but what can I do? They both were. So I really didn’t know how they would ever get beyond gaping and shy hand brushes, or if they really ever would.

It was a fun trip, the characters having a life of their own, me seemingly just along for the ride, acting as Matthias’ scribe, discovering the story as I wrote it.

Read the story: Writings by Marilka: The Refugee

July, that was mostly my summer vacation, back to work only for this last week of the month – during which I managed to finish only one book because, well, life happened in addition to work 🤣 My vacation on the other hand was a total staycation, with very little other activities going on than reading (and a bit of painting, I painted 3 book inspired acrylic pictures). The page count of 10146 tells the story of my vacation better than the book count – five of the books were complete trilogies, so actual book count would be 25 if I had read them all as separate books. An excellent vacation! I hardly crave for anything else. More sun and warmth than we got (again) this year, but otherwise.

• The Bone Door, by Frances White – One of my top reads of this year, for sure! This is a beautiful book of new beginnings and second chances, of friendship and loyalty and trauma and love. Sometimes you need a clean slate, a memory wiped, to be able to build anew, to fix wrongs, to untwist what was twisted by time.
• The Floating World, by Axie Oh – A middle-schooler story, starting a trilogy(? maybe?), where one is hunted for who she is, for varying reasons, and the other a hired hunter turned ally, who battles his inner monster, a monster he fears. Kinda lovely, kinda delighful, but I didn’t love the book. I’m not the target audience exactly, though that doesn’t always bother me. Jury’s still out whether I get the next book or not, when it comes out.
• The Magiford Supernatural City trilogies, by K.M. Shea – all them supernaturals have been out in the open for some decades, living among humans, trying to maintain a polished facade of unthreatening benignity, while there’s battles and politics and danger brewing within the supernatural communities, a threat of war even as magic is slowly dying. And Magiford Supernatural City is in the very heart of the heat.
  • Hall of Blood and Mercy – Hazel is a wizard, a wizard heir to be exact, but when her parents die, there’s a coup, and instead of managing to take over her own Wizard House, she’s forced to flee. By sheer chance she ends up in the strongest vampire Family in all of Midwest, and that just so ends up being the best thing that could’ve happened to her, as it pushes her over an edge or few (sometimes literally), finally releasing her full potential. And finding eternal love, obviously.
  • Court of Midnight and Deception – Leila is as unlikely to be a fae queen as it gets, the half-fae farm girl raised human, but as fate would have it, that’s exactly what she becomes: the new Queen of the Night Court, because the Night Mares chose her. Unfortunately, if she wants to live, she needs to not only embrace the new role, but also win the scheming court over, AND marry within a couple months. Of course, the unlikely becomes a new dawn for the fae, and the marriage not only a power match, but that of undying love.
  • Pack of Dawn and Destiny – Pip is a Werewolf Hunter raised by wolves, part of the Northern Lakes Pck while not (at least not in her mind). She’s tried to leave the pack before, especially with her mixed feelings about the new Alpha she hates to love and loves to hate, but it’s not that easy. And then the attacks on the pack start, and she’s determined to save her wolves, bringing her and her Alpha closer, close enough to realize he really is HER Alpha. In more ways than one.
  • Gate of Myth and Power – Elves were all killed centuries ago in a war between them and other supernaturals. Or were they? Chloe certainly thought so, until she finds herself stuck as a house cat (since that’s what she can uncannily turn into, while no one seems to know why or how, as she’s not a shifter) in the home of an elf, and not just any elf, but an Elven King of might unmatched. There she learns that elves most definitely aren’t extinct, and the surviving king is not what she’d been taught elves to be (what most of them were, to be honest), and obviously her own secret comes out eventually too, with less drastic results than expected – quite the contrary in the end. The love kind of contrary, but not only that.
  • Magic on the Main Street – Chronologically, this book’s events happen at the same time as the Pack of Dawn and Destiny, and though I first thought I made a mistake reading it last (publishing order), this order actually worked better in a way. This is more of a standalone than the other 4 trilogies, while obviously connected. The love story of Vampire Slayer Jade who left her Slayer family to join the Magiford Supernatural task force because she wants to protect not hunt, and a super-old loner vampire elder who used to think love, an especially loving a mortal, was a weakness to avoid at all cost. Another unlikely couple, another epic romance, another mystery to unravel as the task force struggles to keep the city safe.
• The Lost Book of Lancelot, by John Glynn – One of the many Arthurian retellings, this one a bittersweet LGBT version of the story of Lancelot, with plenty of love and tragedy, and hard choices and a surprisingly satisfying ending! I loved this book 💜
• The Fatal Unpleasentness at Netherfield, by Claudia Gray – Mr. Darcy Jr. and Miss Tilney have another mystery to solve and a secret to keep, when Mr. Hurst ends up poisoned while Jonathan is visiting his aunt and uncle at Netherfield, and persuades Aunt Jane to invite Juliet to the house without telling the elder Darcies about it – as they’re not supposed to socialize anymore. Needless to say, the mystery is solved, but what’s to become of Jonathan & Juliet’s romance?
• A Dance of Serpents (A Curse of Crows and Serpents 2), by Lauren Dedroog – I really loved book 1, but this one was such a tangle of scheming and plotting and politics that I got a bit frustrated with the lack of fun banter and consistent relationships – as everything shifted and twisted and no truth was the truth. Again, not sure if I’ll get book 3 when it comes out. Time will tell.
• The Unicorn Hunters, by Katherine Arden – Another book of political scheming, this one historical fantasy or magical history or what you want to call it. Based on France aspiring to conquer Brittany by way of marriage, Duchess Anne of Brittany carves herself and her Dutchy a different future with the help of a unicorn and not just a little bit of magic.
• Anathema (The Eating Woods 1) and Eldtritch (The Eating Woods 2), by Keri Lake – First, I was triggered by the powerless women at the absolute mercy of men. Then, I was triggered by the utter single-minded stupidity of the protagonist. Then, I was triggered by the all-consuming evil that seemed to be everywhere and unbeatable and thus, the world devoid of hope. Also, it all got a bit too long-winded for me. There will be a third book, and yet again, maybe, maybe not. Humph.
• This Immortal Heart, by Jennifer Saint – Mesmerizing and lovely, the lovestory of Aphrodite and Ares, the battle of love and war. This retelling of Greek mythology was just the balm I needed after all the darkness of those books I read prior to this one. Sure, there’s a lot of scheming on Mount Olympus too, but it’s not the same. There’s tragedy and sorrow, but there’s happiness and love and hope. And a happy ending!
• The Gilded Blade (The Grandest Game 3), by Jennifer Lynn Barnes – The grand finale, with all the mysteries and secrets of the entire Inheritance Games saga finally revealed, putting an end to games, allowing life to begin for them all. The banter, the relationships, the distinct and delightful characters, the weaving of all threads… a work of art, this was. The entire saga was, for real.

Jul 2, My first July read: The Bone Door, by Frances White. An amazingly beautiful journey accross trauma and hurt to love and humanity, to friendship and family, to absolution. A soul-ripping tale, I think it broke me a bit, only to heal me a bit more.

Jul 7, The thing about reading retellings of legends and myths is that no matter whose POV, no matter how novel the story, there still are the major events to heed by, lest the story lose its connection. So, you always know those tragic events that break your heart are going to happen, as much as you want differently. Of course, the looser the legend itself, the more renditions and variations of it exist, the more leeway the author has for the retelling.

Nearing the end of The Lost Book of Lancelot (which I accidentally got in large print, annoyingly enough), by John Glynn, I was thinking along these lines, bracing myself. Glynn must be a sucker for happy edings too, as he manouvered his story, still within the confines of the legend, into one as satisfying as it gets, making the impending doom of Arthur and Camelot only a hint, a comment of what was to come, ripping it of it’s significance for Lancelot himself. All in all, I loved this book 💜

Jul 19, When I started reading the 5 Magiford trilogies (by KM Shea), I figured they’d take me maybe 5-6 weeks to finish, even on vacation, since my general reading habit is to read print books in the daytime and Kindle only in bed in the evening. However, these books have been so captivating, that I’ve been pulling a lot of “just one more chapter” late-nighters with them (since there’s no early wak-ups in the morning) AND there’s been the occasional day when I simply was not able to free my mind enough to read anything else (I even had dreams of continuing to read on my Kindle, my own mind conjuring the story, and simply dreaming of the stories). So, yesterday I finished the fourth trilogy and started the last one, a bit less than three weeks after starting the first one.

The protagonists of these books are mostly delightfully relatable for me – honest and straightforward “virtuous fools”, as Killian Drake puts it, uncomplicated even when emotions are complicated. Taking their respective proverbial bulls by the horns, being open about their reasons and feelings and dealings. At the same time, their parings remind me of my gruff husband and I felt like if these characters were stripped of their magic and thrown into a suburban mundane life, they’d be us 🤣

Jul 23, Against my expectations and anticipations, I ended up speedreading Eldritch (Eating Woods book 2) instead of taking my time savoring the story. I had high hopes for Anathema and Eldritch, wanting to love them, like I loved Nocticadia (also by Keri Lake), but I didn’t. Anathema I didn’t speed through, while I hate the women at the mercy of men trope, and found the protagonist kinda stupid at times, but Eldritch got into that whole undefeatable evil that is seempingly everywhere and always a step ahead kind of darkness, that really doesn’t sit well with me. I guess I don’t really like the dark stuff, I want to read stories with hope. I’m undecided about the finale of this trilogy, coming out in the autumn. Let’s see.

Jul 30, Last night I finished The Gilded Blade, the grand finale for not only The Grandest Game trilogy, but the entire Inheritance Games saga, and wow did this book blow my mind! I mean, I loved the book, same as all that came before this one, but I was blown away by the sheer ingenuity of the plot that Jennifer Lynn Barnes weaved from the very beginning of the Inheritance Games. The twists and turns and underlying secrets that finally got revealed – that oen couldn’t even fathom before. That were just so easy to dismiss as those kinds of mysteries that just are a fact of life. Barnes must have a whiteboard setup rivaling that of the Hawthorne Hall to have kept it all straight throughout! And what an ending-not-an-ending to it all❣️