WeAreTheKat

20% bookblogging, 80% art reblogs. THINGS I LIKE: fairy tales, ladies with swords, dragons. Lovingly explicit descriptions of economics. Arranged political marriages. Messed-up queer fealty dynamics. Court politics, footnotes, baroque worldbuilding, morally grey queer women. Ask me about my tag system!

[wearethekat]

About

Expect 20% bookblogging and reviews, 80% art reblogs.

THINGS I LIKE: adult SFF, fairy tales, ladies with swords, dragons. Lovingly explicit descriptions of economics. Arranged political marriages. Messed-up queer fealty dynamics. Court politics, footnotes, appallingly baroque worldbuilding. Morally grey queer women.  

TAGS:

all my book reviews are under #my book reviews. I have reviews further organized by month, so reviews from October will be under #october book reviews and so forth.

for posts collecting the links for by month for all my book reviews, #monthly book overviews

Reviews of advanced reader copies are under #netgalley

Roundups of new releases I'm looking forward to in the coming month are under #monthly new release posts

General book recommendations under  #book recommendations, things that I personally plan to read shortly under #on the tbr

Books will generally be filed both by title and by author’s name, and sometimes also the series name.

I sometimes also tag fandoms separately. Commonly tagged fandoms here include #lotr, #the locked tomb, #queen’s thief, #discworld, #wheel of time

All pictures of cats are under #KITTY

Miscellaneous tags: #on tumblr, #classics, #opera, #presented without comment, #poetry, #short stories,  #art, #ladies with swords!, #DRAGON

My Goodreads for reference. Anyone who follows me here should feel free to friend me on Goodreads, just mention your tumblr username in the request so I know who you are.

[dtaphanel]

The Magician, private commission for Claire.

insta | masto | portfolio | prints | kofi | patreon

[bailiesartblog]

Worlds Apart — the Harpy and the Mermaid

[drachenmagier]

Looked at the colour test paper and went "wait, what if I..."

Aka: Doodling around, but even less of an idea what the heck I'm doing than ever before. :D

[nervouspearl]

"If you have weapons, you can leave them here."

[wearethekat]

May Book Overview

The Moon Blessed King (Lindsey Byrd)

A Wall is Also a Road (Annalee Newitz)

Shadowheart (Laura Kinsale)

After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine vol. 1 (Liu Gou Hua)

Wickhills (Premee Mohamed)

Platform Decay (Martha Wells)

The Republic of Memory (Mahmud El Sayed)

The Last Contract of Isako (Fonda Lee)

All Hail Chaos (Sarah Rees Brennan)

Thrice Married to a Salted Fish vol. 2 (Bi Ka Bi)

Make Me Better (Sarah Gailey)

Radiant Star (Ann Leckie)

The Many (Sylvain Neuvel)

Annihilation (Jeff Vandermeer)

Startup Hell (Caitlin Rozakis)

Never After (Alexis Hall)

The Tapestry of Fate (Shannon Chakraborty)

The Fake Divination Offense (Sara Raasch)

Amplitudes (ed. Lee Mandelo)

Palaces of the Crow (Ray Nayler)

The Lowest Healer and the Highest Mage (Hiyodori)

Wildflower (Becky Jenkinson)*

Copper Coins vol 1 (Mu Su Li)

*ARC review delayed at publisher request

DNF

Death's Daughter (SA Barnes)

Verity Guild (Mai Corland)

[zestydoesthings]

A few more dragons for the current #CreatureFeature. The DRAGON theme runs till 3rd September (at least) so plenty of time to join in! All you have to do is draw dragons and tag me and #CreatureFeature in the posts! 

[cross-mountain]

kitties in watercolours from January, which I wasn't able to properly scan until now :')

{art print}

[cross-mountain]

Foxglove! Watercolors on A4 paper

{print}

[drachenmagier]

For all those who are tired from having to deal with the current sparkle-hysteria. d: Have a REALLY bummed out dragon.

(Saint Claws is not amused d: ).

[drachenmagier]

Guys, the stores started to have Christmas Cookies.

[wearethekat]

upcoming Kate Elliott book (Jan 2027) is a companion/follow-up to the Witch Roads duology, described as "sapphic romance amidst a tale of palace intrigue"

YAAYYY WOMEN. Palace intrigue also very good. I immediately went to put it on notify me on Libby. Thanks for letting me know, I hadn't heard yet!

blurb for the benefit of everybody else:

In the Flower Court at the heart of the palace, Dorven embarks on a mission to discover the truth about his sister’s disappearance with his loyal companion, Kyuri. Careful to not enrage the ambitious Crown Prince Minaylin, they form an unlikely bond with Sulia, a sharp-tongued palace attendant. Power struggles and the deadly Spore threaten the empire, challenging them to unravel the mysteries and rescue those unjustly imprisoned. Amid the chaos, Kyuri and Sulia grow ever closer, leading them on their own adventure away from the shadows of the palace. Embracing their new-found freedom they search for a hopeful future together, away from the conspiracies of the empire.

[allofthedoodles]

A little springtime ghostie 🪴✨

[wearethekat]

May Book Reviews: Copper Coins volume 1 by Mu Su Li

Every time I finish a danmei novel, it's like (dying in the world war one trenches voice) I remember... women... I remember their voices... but I always come crawling back because the genre hits such a nice balance between the romance and the fantasy plot. In Copper Coins vol 1, dragon Xue Xian is stuck in the body of a paper doll after being attacked and nearly killed. After a monk is summoned to exorcize him, Xue Xian is deeply furious at living in Xuanmin's pocket as a paper doll while the monk gets into supernatural escapades.

This book was presumably originally released as a serial, and it's split cleanly into two discrete supernatural investigations with two more volumes to complete the series. The tone is firmly supernatural action adventure, and I'm deeply fascinated to learn how the author expects to transition it into a romance arc when there was no sign of it here. Bear with me for a moment, for I am about to make an extended other fandom reference. In the long-running webcomic Girl Genius, minor antagonists are captured and placed in cute mechanical "dingbots", where they continue to offer unhelpfully snarky commentary while being carried around by the protagonist. Xue Xian has the exact personality of an evil dingbot. He lurks antagonistically in Xuanmin's pocket and makes frivolous remarks and causes problems. He refers to the monk exclusively as "bald donkey." I am so curious how this story is going to take a hard swerve into romance with only 2/3 of the series to go. I had never contemplated dingbot x protagonist romance before... Meanwhile, Xuanmin is mostly distinguished by his icy implacability (not very romantic either), although he's obviously cursed AND hiding some kind of secret.

Fun, a touch plottier than normal, and extremely light on the romance. I'll probably pick up the next volume when my library does, because I want to see how this turns 0ut.

[aylameridiandrawsstuff]

practice time

[drachenmagier]

The world might be a scary place when you're small, but also full of adventures. <3

Have some mice for Monday and may your week be glorious. :D

Prints and Commissions HP - BSKY - Insta - Kofi - Mastodon 

[niqvassieart]

based on a photo i took in the Gion district of Kyoto :)

[the-evil-clergyman]

The Fairy’s Birthday, from Holly Leaves Magazine by W. Heath Robinson (1925)