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A reader in their 30s. BA (Hons) in English Literature. True love enthusiast.

[thebooklibrary]

Currently trying to pick my next read...

[thebooklibrary]

Currently trying to pick my next read...

[thebooklibrary]

My April wrap up - 12 books, completed my 26 in 2026 + 2 (3 of the 31 are May finishes).

I'm now upping my goal to 52 books.

[thebooklibrary]

I finished Beautiful Venom and I felt like it both could and couldn't be 100 pages shorter. I mean, I enjoyed the concept of humanising Kane in his own way but I can't ever quite get over the lol yolo attitude of ignoring the very clear violation of the FMC. It's like she gets amnesia or something. A solid Rina book but the non-con trope is not for me.

I need a shorter read so I'm picking up:

[thebooklibrary]

I wanted to get sweet venom and tripped into buying your knife, my heart, my blade your back and lights out as well. 15% off be still my heart.

[thebooklibrary]

I DNFed God of Malice for similar behaviour so things aren't looking good. I intellectually understand that it's what if the monster only cared about you trope but when the monster is also violating you, I think you should also consider murder.

[thebooklibrary]

Illumicrate Afterlight #April26 box and my first!

It's Enemies to Lovers by Alisha Rai. I'm not a huge contemporary reader which is why I wanted a box to branch out my horizons and wowee. This is stunning. Gorgeous. Colours? Divine. Art? Stupendous.

Little bummed that there's creasing in the dust jacket but I prefer that the book is okay over anything else.

I'm going to look forward to this bad boy.

[thebooklibrary]

I read 23 of 25 in 2025 but I have blown through my 26 in 2026 target this year.

[jeansbookshelf-deactivated20250]

I got 60 out of 1000 😂

1000 Books You May Have Actually Read

Based on the number of ratings each book has on Goodreads. And if you haven't read them, maybe you can use for a literature bucket list.

[tinyasafirefly]

Anyone who says they’ve read all 1000 is a liar because one of them is a huge cookbook and no one is actively joy reading that.

[mbrainspaz]

with some of these it’s like “fuck, I did read that,” and with some it’s like “Oh fuck, I did read that.”

I got 99, but I counted a few that I had only mostly-read before deciding I didn’t like them and never finishing them.

[tempest-in-diy-earrings]

Damn, I’ve only read 97 of these.

[thebooklibrary]

Finished Shield of Sparrows this morning and am moving onto Rites of the Starling.

I really enjoyed the world building and how easily I was able to immerse myself in it. Odessa was naive but by external means and she didn't let that be the reason to stay ignorant. Her progression felt natural.

Were the big secrets obvious? Yes. But the smaller ones were interwoven so well that I didn't feel like I was being beaten over the head with plot.

Overall, a really enjoyable and solid book.

[thebooklibrary]

I did a palate cleanse with this queer novella by Lucien Burr. It was like a delicious bite of a cake but only that. The bit that had my fork empty is where it ended and the complexity surrounding Alaric, Hal and Perrin. Blessedly, this is going to have a full novel called Second Chances later this year and I can't wait to see if this actually becomes what I hope it does.

Now, it's time.

Shield of Sparrows was gifted to me at Christmas and I am still procrastinating but with the Rites of the Starling's release, she's finally having her moment. Chapter 1 down.

[thebooklibrary]

I took a detour and read some lowkey not draining dark queer romance because my brain can't work and read romantasy. BUT. I finished Starside and let me tell you. I knew a guy was something but. Yeah. 👀 Gonna need book 2 soon to see how that goes.

Overall, I enjoyed Starside but with a lot of Fantasy not just Romantasy there is a lot of dead space where I'm like. Who is that? Oh never heard of again. Wow, we cared and now we're getting 2 minutes of loose end tying up. Great. Oh let's shove all the hooks for book 2 here.

Again, don't get me wrong. I personally haven't read Lightlark or anything else from Alex before so I was a blank slate for this and I really like the world she built and I look forward to the drilling down on Aris and Raker. It was good, maybe even great (reveal had me gasping even when I clocked something), but it wasn't perfect, you know.

[thebooklibrary]

I picked up a copy of this secondhand because I saw the paperback cover and it was a no.

[thebooklibrary]

I'm almost 40% of the way into this and both not a lot and a lot has happened.

Do I know about the protagonist? Sort of.

Do I know anything about the anatogist? Not really.

Do I know anything about the people she's met? Kinda.

What act are we in? Not sure.

I like the world, the premise and the mythology which was slightly different from what I understood it to be from the chatter so that's cool. I simply need to know when the meat will arrive. I need to chomp.

[thebooklibrary]

[thebooklibrary]

[thebooklibrary]

I'm newish to the Rinaverse and all of her audiobooks I've listened to are great but is it me or is a strong choice to have Teddy Hamilton voice Niko and Yulian?

Maybe it's also because I read the books before I listen to them so when I hear TH as Yulian, he doesn't sound how I imagined whereas he fits Niko very well.