i'm bee (she/they), my friend rose (any pronouns) and i run this book blog where we give recommendations and answer asks!
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some things:
book recs come out twice every week on wednesdays and saturdays! we do short summaries on books we've read recently that'd we've really liked and want to share
also, we release monthly recs on every twentieth with a bonus playlist that goes with the book!
please no dms here, but if you'd like you can ask for my main (rosa isn't on tumblr sorryyy)
asks are always open, so feel free to send one! pretty much everything from book recs to opinions to general questions are accepted, just be polite please
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tag system whoooo
for asks: #socializing n stuff
recs from bee (sat): #buzz buzz
recs from rose (wed): #flowers wither gardens die
twice-a-weekly recs: #twice is nice
monthly recs: #bees + flowers = garden
and then all the general ones: #[book title] #[author] #book recommendations #bookblr #books
Things that I knew about: that the mass incarceration of people in the USA , particularly black men, has direct ties to/is an extension of slavery.
Things I did not know: this specific shit about Louisiana HOLY FUCK this is evil.
Iâm from Mississippi and itâs like this in my home town. Enslaved prisoners clean roadways, pick cotton, everything theyâve done since before slavery was supposedly ended. What they teach in schools is nothing but propaganda.
hi everyone!
if you've been keeping up with our reviews you'll have noticed that our posting schedule has been...well, we haven't really been sticking to it. both of us talked a little while ago and we agreed that we just don't have enough time anymore to read and review books for this blog, and it was getting hard to read things for our own entertainment (like sequels) at the same time.
that said! we'll still aim to post at least one review each per month, and we won't be dropping the monthlies anytime soon. is it a bit shady of us to make this announcement on the day of bee's review? maybe. and we're sorry TvT
sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for sticking with us so far,
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire SĂĄenz
âŞď¸ romance novel âŞď¸
where do you find the secrets of the universe? in the desert? in the rain? in a dog? does it have anything to do with love?
ari is fifteen and feels like he is falling behind. at this age, you should already have the world figured out, right? and how is he supposed to ask anyone if they have? not like he knows anyone apart from his parents. until he decides to go for a swim (despite the fact that he, uh. canât swim) and meets dante, who is supposedly allergic to air. this kid is weird. but so is ari, and they spend their entire summer together just hanging out and talking. trying to figure out what it means to be mexican, whatâs real and what isnât, and who has the right to shoot birds with bb guns for fun. trying to figure out the secrets of the universe. with two perspectives that are different in nearly every way, itâs not long before they have to figure out something.Â
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reading this book and listening to sad music was a bad, bad idea (three days grace, if you were wondering). i have read this book before, but holy shit was it worth reading again. ari doesnât feel like heâs doing life right, canât figure out his parents, and is frustrated with himself for it. he has anger and doesnât know what to do with it. he gets mad at his parents and dante and the world and he gets mad at himself for doing that. and god is it painful. especially when faced with dante, who seems like such an easygoing person, whoâs a teenager but is crazy about his parents. who is? seeing ari finally come to terms with himself and dante is justâahhhhhhhhhhh.
*warning: i tried my best, but this contains spoilers for the throne of glass series
epically long, epically awesome book series are the hardest to finish. not because they're long and boring, but because once you get to the end, you're done. it's over, and you know everything, and you'll never ever be able to read it for the first time again. but sometimesâsometimesâit's not over. because there's a prequel.
celaena sardothien has a LOT of history. over and over again, her path has been inevitably tied to hundreds of others', for better or for worse. and many of those knots led to debts; specifically, people indebted to her. which is helpful, yeah? when it comes to fighting a war against an unbeatable enemy and stuff, it's great. and funnily enough, a lot of those debts happened in the span of one year. one year, in which celaena's entire life was upended once, then again, and again and again and again. see, debts have a way of doing that. debts... and love. so this book is what happened beforeâbefore endovier and the competition and the king's champion and aelin and the crown of fire. before all of that, celaena was just a cunning, lethal sixteen year old assassin. nothing abnormal about that, right?
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as i said earlierâlong, awesome book series are the hardest to finish. so after i finished the final book in this particular series last weekend... oh, it was torture. never going to get to read aelin's story for the first time again, never going to hate rowan for a bit for the first time again, never going toâokay, i could keep going, but i have to actually review the book at some point. so. i'm so, SO happy this book exists, because i would have been mentally dead for weeks not having anything good to read. but reading the stories behind all of the debts that force aelin's allies to her aid in the main series? so entertaining, without even mentioning the other thing. which is to say: sam. they're so cute together, even when they're in their fighting stage, and not at all what i expected (in a good way). which the great thing about backstories, right? everything is there, but it's always so different from how you imagined it... and so. much. better.
hirka knew from the beginning that she and rime, grandson of one of the twelve great councillors, lived in different worlds. and sheâd never cared. right up until the point she found outâŚwell, there were no wolves.
meaning, there were no wolves that stole her tail when she was a child. it was just a story her father told her, told everyone, to make sure no one ever found out that she was deadborn. a threat to the council, the seer, and everything everyone could possibly believe in (well, excluding ravnhov. we all know mannfalla has never been able to get their attention). she was the rot. a disease. and for that reason, she canât go to the riteâa ceremony meant to protect everyone from the blind and to prevent an invasion. but if she doesnât show, people will start to wonder. kolkagga would be sent to hunt her down. and thereâs already a dying council member out for her blood.
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at first i thought the pretense for this book wasnât my thing. but then i started taking more interest in the concept of the rot, and eventually giving the worldbuilding the appreciation it deserved. i liked how even though hirkaâs the protagonist and sheâs supposed to be âspecialâ, kuro (a raven) didnât miraculously get attached to her right away. even by the end of the story heâs not permanently stuck to hirkaâs side. and then we have the revelation that is vetle. iâve seen thereâs a sequel to odinâs child, and iâm hoping that whenever i get around to reading it, more of his nature is revealed to us. it doesnât seem right to drop his lore and then not say anythingâŚi must know moreâŚ
thereâs something so inexplicably tempting about getting away from your own life, even if itâs just for a moment.Â
this is the goal ari strives towards while trying to escape to baltimore with his band. he knows, though, that getting away from his parentsâ bakery isnât going to happen anytime soon. ariâs parents are short on money, and heâs going to have to help out if thereâs going to be any food on the table.
thankfully, ari has a solution: hire another chef, to help his parents out instead of him. but the town seems to be full of crazy people, and theyâre all who show up. thereâs people ranging from having âno experienceâ to âhearing messages from godââvery helpful, right?Â
to top it off, ariâs dad is laughing at him, just for trying to get away. what does he think ari is, a circus clown? the only thing ari feels he can do is escape to the city with his band for a bitâŚeven if itâs not the best decision.Â
but someone knocks on his door when he comes backâa completely normal person! asking after the job! meet hector, an amazing baker whoâs staying in his auntâs house and has recently broken up with his boyfriend. heâs practically ariâs oppositeâhe loves to bake, after all. meanwhile, ari canât seem to escape it. itâs quite literally his life. but all things considered, maybe itâs not so bad with hector around.
and so begins a new chapter in ariâs story. sure, he still hangs out with the others and works at the bakery, but everything feels a little more comfortable now that hectorâs involved. somehow he seems to make everything more manageable, and suddenly ari isnât as eager to leave anymore. but with every relationship comes troubleâtrouble that, in this case, could potentially burn ariâs sweet new life to the ground.
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from bee
the first thought i had when i saw ariâand rose can vouch for thisâwas that HEâS SO BABY. the first panel we see him in, he just looks so squishyâŚi realize that sounds a little weird. please trust me when i say this is a compliment to panettaâs illustrations. my initial impression of him was that he was a shut-in type, but as i started reading more i found out that heâs more outgoing than i originally thought? that was a nice surprise.
plus thereâs ariâs band, and if you know me you know i am uh. prone to band drama. anyway, i do think they shouldâve been harder on cameron (because boy is he a bitch). and then we have ourselves hector, who has this ambiguous but super sweet relationship with his friends (?) from back home. we said earlier that heâs ariâs opposite, and itâs trueânot only their feelings about baking, but the way they approach relationships and lots of other things too. luckily, opposites seem to attract, and even if they crash and burn ari and hector will be able to pick themselves back up.
from roseÂ
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this is exactly the kind of book you come across while going on a late-night graphic novel spreeâand can i just say, itâs so much better than all the other ones i found that night. the entire book ranges from sweet to angry to romantic to downright chaotic, and itâs all the better for it. hector is somehow simultaneously everything ari needs in his lifeâŚand everything he wants to get away from. and what better relationship to have than that, right?Â
to top it all off, all of ariâs other relationships are complicated as hell. his dad just canât understand why he doesnât want to stay at the bakery, and his band canât understand why he doesnât just leave (and one of his bandmates is kind of a bitch about itâŚbut whatever, right?). hector is the only person who ari feels like he can relax around, even if itâs just a little bit, and you totally feel that throughout the entire book. whenever someone else walks into the room, itâs like everything becomes ten times more complicated. but whenever itâs just the two of them? oh, theyâre adorable.
hello from bee and rose! with upcoming exams for the both of us, we'll be really busy for the next two weeks and won't be able to post any reviews during that period. we'll be back on january 29th with rose's review, so please wait for us until then!
itâs quite literally a lawâwhat goes up must come down. but how do you stay up, or at least delay the crash? answer: fly with the monster.
kristina met the monster on a trip to albuquerque. they were introduced by adam, the neighborâs hot boyfriend, and sheâs never been able to let go of its hand since. on that trip, kristinaâs perfect track record is slashed apart and made new by kristinaâs wilder, more enticing selfâbree. she returns home to reno, not as ready to transition back to normal life as she thought. itâs been a month, but the monster is still watching her, taunting her, prompting her to do a toot, just a little one, with chase from the water park. if there was any chance before, thereâs none nowâkristina slips away from her family and old friends, opting for new ones that can supply her with crank. what brendan does is going to change her life, and kristina will wish sheâd never been on her period that time in albuquerque.
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this might be a weird point to start off with, but i think one of the most realistic things in this book was kristinaâs recurring periods. it might have just been setting up for that ending, but stillâi liked how it was actually an inconvenience to her, and especially her having sex. past that, i like how her relationship with her mother was written with the free verse. by stripping all the unneeded words away, youâre really getting just whateverâs at the core (namely frustration). despite that, thereâs a lot of uncertainty kristina has about coming clean to her family, and thereâs this one scene in the kitchen where she comes really close. that make it or break it moment put me on edge.
Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
âŞď¸ holiday romance novel âŞď¸
snowstorms tend to be quite chaotic. the most chaotic snowstorms are those that make the people living through them go crazy. they're the ones that result in multiple feet of snow, an abundance of dares, extremely late holiday gifts, risky shortcuts, late-night parties at a fast food restaurant... and so on and so forth.
that's exactly the kind of snowstorm that has just hit gracetown, burying everyone there under several feet of snow on christmas eveâand stranding one particular train on which one particular girl rides. this sets off a chain of events over the next few days, a chain of events that seem absolutely insane and unrelated, and yet are, undeniably so. from now to the end, three stories will be told: one girl will fall in love as she takes a risky shortcut with a stranger, three friends will journey through the snow-covered roads to win a race to their local waffle house, and the fate of an adorable tiny teacup pig will fall into the hands of a lovesick barista at starbucks. it's all positively insane, and romantic, and chaotic, and all-around mind-bogglingâbut hey, that's what snowstorms are for, right?
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this has to be one of my favorite holiday romances ever, if only for the irony that comes from seeing tiny references to characters from other mini-stories in each story (so that didn't make as much sense as i wanted it to, but if you reread enough times, you'll probably figure it out). each author tells their character's story a little differently, with small differences in tone and level of emotion and writing style in general. but none of that takes away from reading all three stories together; if anything, each one feels a lot more authentic than it would if one author had written all three of them. and no matter who's telling the story, one thing is always the same: the humor. the things that happen to these characters are so absurdly implausible that they're all absolutely hilariousâand yet they all make complete sense, because, as we've established: snowstorms. cause. chaos. don't agree with me on that? well, i didn't either, at least not at first. but a book like this will make you look at what happens after a snowstorm like never before...
all great weapons have to have a name. coveleski, for example, is the giant killer.
barbara thorson has absolutely zero interest in motivational speechesâshe kills giants for a living, after all. itâs what she tells the new âtherapistâ, sophia, and pretty much everyone who asks. things are escalating, and a huge titan may be on its wayâŚwhich isnât good, because titans are way bigger than normal giants and also, a lot worse. but with coveleski, barbara doesnât have anything to be afraid of. not the titan sheâs about to fight. not taylor, the school bully. not losing sophia when theyâve only just become friends. and not her mother, either.
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guysâŚbarbara is so tinyâŚnot just physically, but sheâs only in fifth grade tooâŚi think thatâs what makes her âgiant killerâ act so important. she doesnât know any other way to cope with the circumstances in her life, so she turns to science fiction (which, honestly, valid. her imagination is really fucking cool). barbaraâŚplease go live out your childhood to the fullestâŚitâs okayâŚyou donât need to fight giantsâŚjust go out for pizzaâŚafter i finished this book i knew that she would stay with me for a while. and because i canât go one graphic novel review without doing this, iâm gonna compliment the art. every time the characters touch, you get the sense that theyâre fused together.Â
the world is a shithole. celaena sardothien has known that her whole life. she's been well aware of it through all her years of training to become a deadly, formidable, unstoppable assassin. but she isn't just any assassin. no, she's the adarlan's assassin.
and then, after years of terrorizing the continent and its rulers, she was captured. and sent to slave away in the brutal labor camp of endovier. there, every day is another struggle for survival. every day sees celaena's rage building and building inside her. rage at the world, at the land in which she lives... but mostly rage at the man who rules it all, the king of adarlan. so when his son, crown prince dorian havilliard, shows up at endovier with an offer for celaena's freedom... well, let's just say she's not his biggest fan. but how can she turn down the one man who has the power to free her? so with him she goes, to participate in a competition at the castle, a competition that will determine her fate for years to come. to win, she must defeat twenty-three other competitors and become the king's championâhis assassin, his lackey, his slave, whatever word you prefer. and then after four years, she'll be free, to do whatever she wants. celaena has no doubt that she will win. she's adarlan's assassin, after all; how could she not? but there are other things in that castle, things willing to kill and maim and torture everyone and everything there just to get what they want. and in the end? well, she might just be the only thing stopping the world from going to hell, again.
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i started this book expecting something not half badânot great, but not exactly terrible either. but within the first few chapters... i was hooked. i read the whole book within two days, and could not wait to start the second. sarah j. maas writes with the most beautiful kind of suspense; everything is clear and explained, and yet still leaves you hanging on every word, needing to read the next chapter, unable to put the book down, even when it's three am. and the characters. the angst. the painful number of frustrating oblivious interactions celaena has with both chaol and dorian. the dog. it's enough to make me want to tear my hair out, to be completely honest with you. but it's so worth it, because there's always some new tidbit of information waiting around every corner, some new little piece that'll make everything snap together... and then shatter it all again. there are an endless number of twists and turns, an endless number of questions that have yet to be answered, an endless number of things that you just have to keep reading to find out. so, needless to say, my initial opinion of this book was wrong. dead wrong. it's not not half bad, or good, or great. it's fucking incredible.
itâs quite like a fever dream. except thomas hunterâs dream has an ongoing plot, and every detail is real enough that he can recall them all.
heâs not even sure which world is reality, and which is the one in his head. every time he falls asleep in denver, he wakes up in a strange world divided by a river, divided by good and evil, divided between the black and colored forests. strange bats try and help thomas regain his memory after he stumbles out of the black forest, and although it all seems surreal, none of it feels out of the ordinary. and every time he falls asleep on this planetâor is it earth?âhe wakes up in denver. itâs just a matter of which is real and fake, until he learns from the bats of a virus that has the capability to ravage the world in three weeks. now thomas has to consider the possibility that the two worlds are connectedâand furthermore, heâs got to make everyone believe him.
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after i finished black i immediately looked for the sequel and found that itâs part of a circular seriesâcurrently i am very, very excited to read the other books. at first it seems obvious that the world with the bats and elyon would be the dream world, right? but as i read more, i slowly started imagining both realities as actual realities, despite how insane the two situations are. and then elyon. oh god, elyon (that was a pun, by the way). the way dekker writes thomasâs experiences in the lake is breathtaking. here we have a grown man submitting himself to love for aâŚchild? and thereâs tanis, whoâs a bit of a nuthead but i like very much. iâm looking forward to seeing what his fate was in the next bookâŚ
Make my Wish Come True by Rachael Lippincott & Alyson Derrick
âŞď¸ holiday romance novel âŞď¸
four years ago, caroline beckett's best friend (and first crush), arden james, up and left their small, christmas-driven town of barnwich for a career in hollywood. now, arden is hollywood's favorite infamously hot and reckless teen actress, and caroline has spent her high school years creating the perfect portfolio to help her become get into a top-notch journalism program. everything's going great for both of themâarden is landing role after role, constantly in the press (although not always for the best reasons), and caroline is living out a happy life in barnwich and ignoring every single piece of news about arden.
and then the unthinkable happens. arden auditions for her dream role, the one she's been striving for her entire career, does beautifully... and is told that she's too "artificial" for it. so she and her agent flip the story, spilling out arden's background as a girl from a small town with a small flourish: this whole time, she's been secretly pining away for her childhood crush, caroline herself. now, arden's heading home for the holidays for the first time in years. and even though convincing caroline to play along is easier than she expected, the two still have to somehow make it through their twelve days of (fake) holidates looking like they've been secretly in love with each other for four years without letting their real feelings spill over and making everything messy and complicated. easy, right?
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to me, this book will forever be proof that you should always listen to your hopeless romantic of a friend when it comes to holiday romance novels, because they know better. but anyway, all of that to say: i LOVED this book. for me, holiday romances tend come off as either far too cheesy, way too focused on the holiday and not so much on the romance, completely lacking in world-building beyond the stereotypical, or all of the above. but. this book falls into none of those three categories. the entire story is painfully realistic; even though arden's a hollywood star, her character never feels outlandish or overdramatic, and her feelings are just as messy as anyone else's. and even though we see plenty of barnwich's christmas-y side, the town still has so much life outside of that. edie's diner was my personal favorite, because there's so much life there, no matter what time of year it is. and finally, the romance itself. it's so frustrating to see how oblivious both caroline and arden are, and all their cute little moments together will leave you wanting to bang your head into a wall. but they're so perfect together, and it's impossible not to be rooting for them until the end.
suzette jensen (pronounced yensen, thank you very much) throws her all into providing a good life for her daughter, hanna. but what if that kid just doesnât fucking deserve it?
hannaâs getting to be out of controlâit was already established that she hated her mother and absolutely adored her father. suzette is starting to feel abandoned again, like in her teens when she was first struggling with crohn's disease and alex was the only support she had. but about hanna. thereâs something fundamentally wrong about that kid. itâs not just tantrums over a toyâshe set a garbage can on fire, cut suzetteâs hair, sent a boy to the hospital, and wonât say a word unless sheâs acting as marie-anne. is this all just a result of really, really bad parenting? has suzanne missed some really obvious technique that therapists were hinting at all those years? is she just going insane?
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i looked on goodreads after reading this book and was genuinely surprised. i honestly thought the rating wouldâve been higherâi even went to see what people thought of the medical aspects, and overall there were pretty good reactions? anyway. iâm super excited to share this book because itâs probably the one iâve enjoyed the most over the past couple weeks. thereâs suzanneâs unending fight with pressure and her own body, and her constant worrying whether sheâs doing good as a mother and wife. and then her and alexâs guilt at the end, i justâaughhhh. plus we get half the story from hannaâs perspective, and i think the reasons behind her actions were not only explained well, but are also apparent and consistent throughout the book. i adore the word choice used from her perspective, they really make it seem like youâre looking into a seven-year-oldâs mind.
ellievsbear
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dailybridgerton
stormborns
germansingergirl
pixelskylines
gummygunk
