#hrcyed 2

[robert-and-dave]

in need of some new (this month) and anticipated release recommendations for a reading challenge! can go all the way up until next june in release date

I read mostly queer litfic, classics, and YA that leans towards new adult, but am literally open to anything that tries to convey any sort of message. Nonfiction is perfectly fine. I was considering You Have A New Memory for my July read, but the price tag is just… wow! Most Ardently was also on the list but didn’t make the cut because I didn’t feel like reading Pride & Prejudice first 😭

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Review // Falling Hard for the Royal Guard

From her bedroom in the Tower of London, twenty-six-year-old Maggie has always dreamed of her own fairy-tale ending.

Yet this is twenty-first century London, so instead of knights on white horses, she has catfish on Tinder. And with her last relationship ending in spectacular fashion, she swears off men for good.

And then a chance encounter with Royal Guard Freddie forces Maggie to admit that she isn’t ready to give up on love just yet… But how do you catch the attention of someone who is trained to ignore all distractions?

Can she snare that true love’s first kiss… or is she royally screwed?

Read for HRCYED 2.0: house pets

This... wasn't for me. That's not to say this was a bad book, I would've DNF'd it if it was but it started to feel like a slog to drag myself through this book. I'm still learning my way through romance books and what I do or don't like with them. With that being said, let's get into the book.

The good:

Cromwell! The goodest of cats, he's just a baby.

I learned quite a bit about beefeaters, life in the Tower of London, and the history of it all

The bad:

I really didn't care for Maggie, or Freddie for that matter and with a romance that is the biggest downfall

The relationship didn't feel very developed at all

I was just mostly really bored reading this and dragging myself through it.

Final rating:

☆☆☆

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Review // Dating and Dragons

Quinn Norton is starting over at a new high school and hopes that joining a D&D game will be the trick to making friends. The plan sounds even better when she’s invited into a group that includes Logan Weber, the cute and charming guy she met on her first day of class. But this isn’t your average D&D campaign— this group livestreams their games and enforces strict rules: no phones allowed, and no dating other group members.

Quinn is willing to accept the rules, even if it makes Logan off-limits. And she quickly learns that doing so won’t be a problem, since Logan goes from charismatic to insufferable as soon as she agrees to join. As their bickering—and bantering—intensifies inside and outside the game, Quinn can’t help wondering: Is Logan’s infuriating behavior a smokescreen for hidden feelings? Quinn is risking it all, and the twenty-sided dice are rolling!

Read for HRCYED 2.0:

Even Bigger Rainbow: Teal

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A year or so ago, I read Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce and I really enjoyed it. As a forever DM and avid DnD lover, it was everything that I needed and wanted. Suffice to say, Dating and Dragons was even better than the previous installment.

This is not a series, so you can read either book first. Dating and Dragons follows Quinn, who's recently been kicked out of her prior DnD group as she gets invited to join a group that livestreams their campaigns.

The characters were strong, even the side characters, and I genuinely bought the romance but what hit me was the storyline with Quinn's grandmother. I also really loved the livestreamed DnD campaign aspect of this book (and the mentions of Critical Role).

Final rating:

☆☆☆☆.5

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Review // A Beautiful Evil

Pandora is the first human woman – made by the gods on Olympus for one simple to love and be loved by her new husband, the titan Epimatheos.

The only problem? He wants nothing to do with her.

Hurt and confused, Pandora struggles to find meaning in her new life. What's the point of being given all these gifts by the gods, if she can't get this infuriating, awful, frankly very rude man (with an admittedly quite nice face) to love her? Maybe she's failing at her life’s purpose. Or maybe she's destined for an entirely different one . . . ?

As Pandora and Matheos work to uncover why she was created, that fated connection between them feels increasingly difficult to ignore. And with that comes terrible risk. Because Matheos’s traitorous brother, Prometheus, is a seer – and before the gods captured him he issued a final that Pandora and Matheos’s love will be humanity’s doom.

So . . . what do you do when faced with an all-powerful love . . . that just happens to threaten the end of the world?

Pandora’s about to find out.

Read for HRCYED 2.0

New release: August

Even Bigger Rainbow: Green

I will read Bea Fitzgerald's shopping list at this point. Something about the way she writes these retellings of Greek mythology grabs me, the way she is able to write and craft these stories just really works for me.

A Beautiful Evil is no different. The prose was beautiful (haha) and served the story well. The story of Pandora is always an interesting one, and while she does change some story elements (as with all of her books) it never fully bothers me to a point where I no longer enjoy the book.

The only thing that I really hope for the nearby future is that Bea gets to write a New Adult or Adult variant of these stories. I love all three of her Greek mythology retellings, and I don't want a more mature version for the 'spice', I think she could do so much with a bit more of an older audience.

Also, one final part: Pandora as a woman with autism. It was so well done, from the sensory issues to decrypting conversation, I felt myself relating so much. While Pandora in her world would never have the 'language' to call herself autistic, Bea has confirmed she is in fact canonically autistic.

Final rating:

☆☆☆☆☆

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Review // Not Quite Dead Yet

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.

She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm.

Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.

She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:

Jet is going to solve her own murder.

Read for HRCYED 2.0: Favourite HRCYED 1.0 prompt

This is Holly Jackson's first Adult novel and I am in fact at a point where I will read Holly Jackson's grocery list. That being said, you could have told me this was YA and I would have believed you. Besides mentions of the main character turning down a proposal, she read quite young still and I had to keep reminding myself this was in fact an Adult novel.

The start took a while to get going, there were a lot of names and people that were important being set up but once the attack occured it got going. And my oh my can Holly Jackson write a mystery/thriller. Until the end, I did not know for sure who committed the murder and I was shocked by the ending. It really got me. While this still doesn't quite touch the levels of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, this definitely comes very close.

Final rating:

☆☆☆☆.5

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Review // Kiki's Delivery Service

Witch-in-training Kiki is always up for a challenge. So when her thirteenth birthday arrives, she's eager to follow the witch tradition of leaving home alone and finding a new place to live that's in need of magic.

Kiki lands in the seaside town of Koriko and expects that her special witch's power wil easily bring happiness to the townspeople. But gaining the trust of the locals is trickier than she expected. Luckily, with her faithful and funny cat, Jiji, by her side, Kiki soon discovers that friendship – and magic – can be found in even the most ordinary of places.

Read for HRCYED 2.0: adaptations - animation.

This was a perfect cosy read, something that felt like drinking a warm cup of tea on a cold day. I already knew the Studio Ghibli film, which I really loved, and I can now see how well Ghibli did adapting this book.

Kiki is a sweet character and I loved following her journey with Jiji (considering naming a future cat Jiji, if I get a black cat). This book is about her coming of age, learning how to be a witch, and while I'm definitely not the the target audience I still had a wonderful time with this book.

Final rating:

☆☆☆☆

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