Boars of Valor

I read tarot cards and am actively learning astrology. I love to read. I love to llearn and am always exploring new ideas, especially the esoteric.

[boarsofvalor]

Book 24:Heir by Sabaa Tahir//Started 7 May 2025 & Finished 14 May 2025 (Libby ebook)

I did not realize I missed the world of An Ember in the Ashes so much. It was nice to be back there. I wish they got to live without so much chaos and pain, but that would not be life. I just love the way Sabaa Tahir writes and how her stories absolutely break you heart, and give you hope in the smallest possibility. An automatic read author.

I have been very appreciative for how authors make characters real. They are not perfect, and you still root for them in their nuances. I think Sabaa Tahir is excellent at creating characters with layered depth, and the way the story evolves to expose their complications is an emotional rollercoaster.

Quotes:

“Only a divine entity could bestow good fortune.”

““Watch your back. The air is wrong. The ghosts are restless. Something’s coming.””

““Tell the stories, my love.” Noa squeezed Aiz’s hands. “We all need to hear them. Tell them with wrath. Tell them with hate. But do not give up. Despair is death.””

“Darkness perhaps, for there is beauty in the dark, and strength.”

““For it is the same heart that remembered the dead children all others had forgotten. The heart that gives first, takes last. I know the strength that lives within your heart, Aiz bet-Dafra. It is time you learned too.””

““Old people know things we don’t because long ago, they didn’t listen to their elders either,””

““Sometimes the power of a story is greater than anything else on earth.”

“Yes, friends, she realized. She’d stood in front of them, ready to defend them with her life against that thing. They weren’t fellow travelers or chance acquaintances anymore.”

““For the people” was a blood-soaked shield brandished by tyrants everywhere.”

“Sometimes, the only way to blunt the violence of twisted magic is to confront it with its opposite.”

[boarsofvalor]

Book 23: Flowers of Fate: Dark Raven Chronicles by Hilary Emeny, Steve Hutton//Started 30 March 2025 & Finished 6 May 2025 (My ebook)

I did not love this character in book one. I was not excited to spend time with her initially. I did grow to appreciate this character by the end of this. It really is a character arch driven continuation of the first book. Not at all what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed it and am excited to continue the series. This installment really shows the magic of character growth, and how that is such a poignant element in story telling.

Quotes:

“He loved the smell of preserving fluid and old books. Being close to death soothed him.”

“the unmistakable scent of copper and roses the hallmark of magic.”

“Something huge and powerful was at work and even if that power was her champion, its greatness scared her.”

“Every human soul took the form of a tree floating above the head like a crown. On rare occasions the tree was uniform, but most carried branches bearing differing leaves and fruit. Although Neet didn’t fully understand the symbolism he grasped that a tree in blossom showed a soul at peace, a bare tree indicated a soul who was mean or cruel and a twisted tree bore witness to a soul who was cunning. Sometimes there was no tree at all, just a dormant seed. Neet had seen many human souls down the centuries but nothing like hers.”

“It had been cut clean through the middle separating the roots from the crown, it could mean only one thing – she had travelled to the place of death and returned.”

“Those pieces of paper can start wars of bring down empires.”

“he saw for the first time that although their lives were as short as a raindrop that falls to earth, within it they experienced a richness unknown to him.”

“There were more names for war deities than days in the year, it was a sad reflection on humanity’s prime obsession.”

“He once obeyed through fear and helped her make a terrible mistake, but now he had a better reason: friendship.”

“They gathered from the corners of the Earth, because the most frightening are often the most afraid and needy for solace.”

““Red-rivers,” he smiled, what did man do best if not unleash red-rivers?”

““But this is purgatory, the machine steals everything of worth. This is a spiritual vacuum.””

“Although his mind was vast and intelligent, he took a spider’s form because it was perfectly adapted to manage the weave. But on occasion he also thought like a spider; with implacable patience and iron logic.”

“"“why is there money for war but not shoes?””

“It’s said that the first thought we have about something is often the purest; that gut instinct that comes in a flash, before a moment later it’s swamped by questions, doubts, and hopes.”

“You’re a witch, spells and words are your power.””

[boarsofvalor]

Book 22: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier//Started 4 April 2025 & Finished 20 April 2025 (Ink Drinkers Book Club via Fable App: Classic by a Woman; Library Book)

It took me a MINUTE to get into this. Like I was not considering putting it down, but I wasn’t invested. Then, I became intrigued. I made ideas in my head and was eager to see if I was onto something. It would be a lovely autumnal book. It is very spooky and foreboding like a fog.

Quotes:

“They can be my secret indulgence. Colour and scent and sound, rain and the lapping of water even the mists of autumn and the smell of the flood tide, these are memories of Mannerly that will not be denied.”

“Tact was a quality unknown to her, discretion too, and because gossip was the breath of life to her this stranger must be served for her dissection.”

[boarsofvalor]

Book 21: Quicksilver by Callie Hart//Started 1 April 2025 & Finished 8 April 2025 (eBook)

I wanted to see if this was worth the hype. It comes up a lot with other books I have enjoyed. I liked it. I will be continueing the series. It was fun and it moved fast. It kept me interested. Some part were strange. A good time. It is not becoming my personality or restructuring my book boyfriend list, but it was fun.

Quotes:

“As a resident of the Third, if you weren’t dead or dying, then you were hungry, and there wasn’t much a starving person wouldn’t say to quell the ache of an empty belly.”

“They despised him for his suns-bleached clothes, his dirty skin, and the hollows beneath his eyes. But mostly, they despised him because any one of them could have been him. Luck dictated where you ended up in this city.”

“And what do you do with a fire? You blockade it. Trap it behind a wall. Give it nowhere else to go until it burns itself out and dies a quiet death.”

“Except our fire hasn’t burned out the way she’d hoped it would. We’ve been reduced to embers, yes, but the coals that lie beneath the ash of my ward are still hot enough to burn. Do you know much about metalwork, Captain? I do. It’s under the most unbearable conditions that the sharpest, most dangerous weapons are forged. And we are dangerous, Captain. She’s turned us all into weapons. That is why she won’t suffer my people to live.””

“Honestly, she should have died a lot sooner, but the girl never did know when to give up.”

“I had no understanding of what it was I was doing, but if this was a world-ending gift, then good. Fuck this city and fuck this world.”

“We’re Fae. We don’t behave like you. Don’t think like you. We don’t operate by the same moral guidelines that some of your kind do, either.”

“A DREAM of death and liquid fire. No.”

“Back when true mating bonds existed. Unions between true mates were blessed with marks from the Fates. That’s where the tradition of inking our hands originated from.”

“I’d vowed I’d never care about anyone enough to experience this kind of pain again. But here I was, shattering.”

“Cold as ice, the voice cut through the air like a scythe.”

[luh4en]

[boarsofvalor]

52 weeks?

52 wins across different mediums.

[boarsofvalor]

Quarter 2 Reading 2025

April May June

[boarsofvalor]

BEFORE BOOKSTA CHALLENGE

This may have been done before but I haven't seen it so I created my own prompts! Share some books you read before joining Bookstagram using the prompts in the post! 

Be sure to tag me so I can see your posts if you do this!

📚 A Book That Got Me Into Reading- The one that hooked you for good.

-Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone was the first book I visualized, showing me words could be magic. 

-The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins reminded me of my love for reading during my college years where reading for enjoyment was sparse (summer 2008).

-Philippa Gregory’s collection that I read chronologically cemented my lover for historical fiction and created my fascination with learning the real stories behind the fictional ones.

⏳ A Book I’d Reread (Just to See)- Does it still hold up?:

-I picked up The Book Thief by Markus Zusak to help a student I was tutoring with an essay. I loved this book and felt it was such a different version of a WWII tale. I purchased a copy for this exact prompt. As I have read so much more, will I still adore this one?

❤️ Favorite Pre-Bookstagram Read- The one that still lives rent-free in your head.

-A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell was found in a search for digital books to fill my iPad with for a trip to Ireland. I may have researched to find it, but it is one I often find myself recommending because it is an extraordinary story of a real human. I love a nonfiction that reads like fiction.

🤫 A Book I Never Talk About But totally read — and maybe loved? 

-Stiff by Mary Roach was fascinating. However, its topic is not one that pops up in normal conversation. I enjoyed everything I learned in this book. It was recommended by an anatomy professor.

-Wordslut was a YouTuber’s recommendation. I want to own a copy. I loved this, and will talk about it when the moment arises. I feel like that is rare since I am no longer deep into my etymology/linguistics habit hole. Every so often it will pop into my head. The jarring yellow of the color to say remember me, why haven’t you purchased a copy to notate yet?

🌟  A Book I Thought Everyone Had Read- …but turns out, not really. 

-NOT A BOOK, but a IRL bookish related answer. I do read a lot of mythological retellings so it fits in bookish world in my head. But I am always FLABBERGASTED when I refer to a myth and am met with questions that have me telling the tale. WHY? I just assumed we all learned it. I did not realize I went down this knowledge train myself. It is common, so when someone does not know the story of say Persephone and Hades…it catches me off guard.

👀 A Random Book I Picked Up (and Finished!) - No hype, no recs — just vibes.

-This prompt was hard because my memory sucks.

-White Oleander by Janet Fitch was in my house, so I read and loved it. I want to reread it. I still have that copy from High School.

-The Radium Girls may have been a YouTuber recommendation or/and the cover is really cool. Love this book too. 

Thanks @Biancamoodreads for inspiring this walk down book memory lane.

[boarsofvalor]

The Hierophant, Mary Magdalene, and My Confusing Relationship with Catholicism

A Reflection

[boarsofvalor]

Book 20: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins//Started 21 March 2025 and Finished 31 March 2025

FUUUUUCCK. 

I feel like that covers it. 

Anyway, I really appreciate this world. It allowed college me to read for fun with vigor again. It is amazing to be able to learn more about this world years later. It is just a work of art how Suzanne Collins weaves these prequells into the series. If you read the series, you know basically how this is going to go. You walk in knowing this is not going to be pretty. No fun will be had here. And it still rips your heart out and stomps on it, and then picks it up and shredds it into teeny tiny pieces. 

I need to read her other series.

Quotes: (Beware they are spoilery)

“She says that’s just a teaspoon of trouble in a river of wrong.”

“For the first time, I understand that when they show the reaping live, it isn’t really live.”

“The moment our hearts shattered? It belongs to us.”

“A world of words to wrap herself up in. Each book’s as precious as a person, she says, as it preserves someone’s thoughts and feelings long after they’re gone.”

“From this point on, the Games evolved from pure punishment to unapologetic entertainment.”

“Sometimes she cries because things are so beautiful and we keep messing them up. Because the world doesn’t have to be so terrifying. That’s on people, not the world.”

““No. Just hauled me in. Less about what I played, more about how it drew people. Everybody’s real upset this year, so many kids. They needed a place to be together, to raise their voices. Sometimes the hurt’s too bad to bear alone.””

“Hoping for something better could be dangerous; it could blind me to the reality of my situation. I remember how Mamaw always said, “Where there’s life, there’s hope.” But from where I’m sitting, hope seems a lot like white liquor. It can fool you in the short run, but like as not, you’ll end up paying for it twice.”

“Eyes on me, 24/7. I will not be allowed to die. I will be resurrected by the Capitol for their entertainment.”

“I didn’t want to let them him, her and Peeta, but the walls of a person’s heart are not impregnable, not if they have ever known love.” (I AM LITERALLY CRYING WRIRITNG THIS OMG, THIS FUCKING BOOK.)

[boarsofvalor]

I loved making this. Going to make more. I PURCHASED! the pattern from The.Lucky.Mermaid on IG through Etsy:https://www.etsy.com/listing/1021381790/90s-bead-lizard-pattern?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1&dd=1&logging_key=6a3862bf82a3eddba73b0043390ee37e41bbf92b%3A1021381790

[boarsofvalor]

Book 19: Peony in Love by Lisa See// Started 20 March 2025 and Finished 30 March 2025

My friend was reading this in a buddy read with her sister. I liked other books by this author and request to join. I ended up finishing it first. I would say it took me a while to appreciate and like this book. The other ones i read were different and I did overall prefer them to this one. However, the way culture was explored in this book and humanness was very cool once I moved past the strangeness of it all.

Quotes:

“Sold for pork? I was to be married in exchange for bride-price gifts, which included pigs. Perhaps Willow and I were not so different after all. Neither of us had any say in our futures.”

“We were brought together by a failing world and found companionship.”

“Ghosts, like women, are creatures of yin—cold, dark, earthy, and feminine.”

“During the following months, I found no answers, but I began to regain my strength, find my resolve, and once again remember that I, like all women and girls, wanted—needed—to be heard.”

“Both of us had been doomed because we’d been born girls. We’d both struggled on the precipice between being worthless or valuable as a commodity. We were both pathetic creatures.”

[boarsofvalor]

Book 18: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard//Started 2 March 2025 and Finished 21 March 2025 (Library Book

I am enjoying this series. I plan on continuing it. A few books have numped it down on priority, but still planning to pick up book 3. I think this falls into one of my default vibes in terms of books. This is a genre (how we classify books baffles me) that is my go to. 

This series is making me reflect on what makes me as a reader fall head over heels into a book. Like the world around me is no longer real and I have fully been wrapped between these covers when I am reading… This book did not give me that feeling, but Ember in the Ashes series did for EVERY book. However, they have a similar feel and vibe. So, I wonder what nuanced difference exists and how it differs from reader to read. Also, how it differs from the moment when the book is read, and what is read around it. Like if I read this first, would another book in a simialr vibe fall flat because I was still reminiscing of the experience of the last one? Just some random nerdy reader thoughts…

quotes:

“I’m the greatest weapon on a ship full of warriors, and they don’t seem to know it.”

“Any sensible person would call them my enemies. Strange, my enemies know me best, and my family doesn’t know me at all.”

“Now I fear he’s becoming the shadow in my mind, worse than a hunter, worse than a ghost. At least I’m not alone in his hauntings.”

“If only they were the monsters *** believes them to be. If only things were that simple.”

“It is not death I fear, not anymore. I’ve faced dying too many times to be afraid of it.”

[lovertm]

pathetic affirmations (button sets, part 2) by Claire Thompson

[fictionalrelapse]

i feel like this is so violet and xaden core and no i will not be explaining

[important-cat-pics]

@important-cat-pics

[camping-by-the-fire]

[boarsofvalor]

Book 17: A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen//Started 11 March 2025 & Finished 12 March 2025 (Libby eBook)

I did not want to put this book down. I am so happy the sequel comes out this year. I cannot wait to continue this tale. I find vikings and their lore fascinating and this was such a fun ride.

Quotes:

“It was because there was no demand in his touch. No sense that he intended to take anything from me or to use me the way so many others had. A touch entirely without agenda beyond chasing away the cold.”

[boarsofvalor]

Book 16: Athena’s Child by Hannah Lynn//Started 3 March 2025 & Finished 9 March 2025 (My eBook)

I wanted to read a Medusa retelling. I am so happy I chose this one. I really loved this retelling. It is part of a series, and I was not planning on reading the others…but now I might because I really enjoyed the way this retelling wove the myth with the complex human emotions that are often overlooked or just completely ignored. 

Quotes:

“Medusa grew from monsters, but she was not born of them.”

“Men or boys? The line was so close, and Medusa had never learned when the change occurred.”

“With dawn, came hope.”

“Trust does not require answers, Perseus. Trust requires acceptance.’”

“The gods, like the rich of the world, push their agendas onto those whose voices are not loud enough to speak for themselves. The women. The weak. The unwanted. And no one shouts for those who need it the most. Why would they? To shout for another is to risk losing something yourself. And man cannot see beyond the depth of his own reflection.’”

“She knew that true words from a man were more valuable than shallow gifts from a god.”