We’re three friends that may share some book recommendations, but not all of them. In fact, Jessi leans towards sci-fi/fantasy the most. Mae is a wonderful toss-up of fiction, and non-fiction (while always expanding upon herself, which kudos, Mae). Kelsey leans toward romance nearly every single time, and is a bit of a YA junkie too. Which means not every post will be the same, so maybe that means there’s a bit of everything.
That’s not to say we haven’t all enjoyed the same books too. You can see that from our top 10 books from 2020. But if you find you like one of our tastes more than the other, we promise we won’t be offended. We’ve got a tag for that. No matter who you like, search our blog for whoever you like the most! You’ll find Jessi at #jessireads, Mae at #maereads, and Kelsey at #kelseyreads.
If you’d like to get to know us, you can find a bit about each of us by clicking the links: Jessi, Kelsey, and Mae.
If you’d like to see our Top 10s from 2020, here’s the links for that too! Jessi, Kelsey, and Mae. (Links coming soon!)
Want to check out our TBR lists? Well, you’re more than welcome to but full disclosure, they’re a little out of control. Jessi, Kelsey, and Mae. (Links coming soon!)
We’re just getting started so this post is probably going to grow as we do, but we’ll keep it pinned.
If you’d like to follow our various reads, you can find all of them on Goodreads. Jessi, Kelsey, and Mae.
If you happen to sign up for Book of the Month Club, help some girls out to get some credits. Use Jessi’s link to sign up here. Use Kelsey’s link to sign up here.
To truly know someone is to differentiate between who they once were, who they are now, and who they're capable of being. Hermione realises the duality of one man as she rectifies what she knows of the past and begins to understand the pieces of who Draco Malfoy is now: a father, a son, and a man.
Preview:
“Why is the grey one in the centre?”
Hermione didn't even need to think about it. “He just… is.”
“He?”
“The block, I mean.” She cleared her throat. “Yes, the block.”
Keenly aware of just how close her dad was watching her, Hermione tried not to fidget.
Tried and failed.
“The block is a person and he’s at the centre of your canvas?”
“It’s not like that.” Hermione waved him off, handing him back the paintbrush once she finished cleaning it in the water and drying it on the cloth he kept nearby.
No changes once a prompt has been claimed, so be sure you pick wisely
ONLY ONE PROMPT PER PARTICIPANT
Each prompt may only be claimed ONCE - you may not claim a prompt another participant has already claimed
This fest is open to both authors and artists!
Full fest rules here.
Thank you to everyone who submitted prompt suggestions and a HUGE shout out and thank you to @noncanonlove being amazing and helping me enter the prompts.
Join us on Facebook and the For the Love of Fests Discord (with a dedicated channel to the Dramione RomCom Fest)
~~~The sight of a wet Draco Malfoy in tight black swim shorts made Hermione stumble mid-step; the rubber sole of her shoe caught and squeaked oddly against the wood floor. If the noise hadn't alerted him to her presence, the muttered curses as she tried not to drop the bamboo plant definitely did.
Her traitorous eyes wandered down his back. The kitchen island served as a visual barrier between—
"You're early."
"You're… wet."
Malfoy stood to his full height and all Hermione could do was watch as every muscle in his back moved with the gesture. He turned to face her, giving her a full view of—well, him. Bold and unapologetic, old scars on his chest and all. This was his home and he was well within his rights to walk around in any state he chose.
"I just finished my morning laps in the pool. You're an hour early."
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." —Friedrich Nietzsche
Hello! It’s mae and I took the month stepping back from tumblr, but we’ve come to the end of the month and T. S. Eliot is always quotable. Always relevant.
I usually think of humility in a certain light, but I think it reveals itself in little ways. Simple ways. Apologies. Conversations. Kindness. Listening. Observing. Living in the paradox that life is long, but moments are fleeting. Learning from all failures, and striving for better.
I’m 68 books into the year, and excited knowing there are so many more I want to read! 💙✨Books, stories, essays... they all find ways to outlive their authors. They tie us to people and ideas and cultures that we’d never otherwise know. They reach for something larger than ourselves. Their words remain printed and easily read long after the author’s spoken words have dissipated.
Earlier this week, I got to participate in the Box of Chocolates collaborative Valentine’s Day fest hosted @deckthehallsdhr, and I wanted to share this additional aesthetic I made for the story :)
Story summary: Every Valentine’s Day, it appeared on her desk. Same time, same wrapping. A single box of chocolates. After four years, there was one wizard that Hermione hoped they were from. On the fifth year, everything changed.
“I looked up your mother’s photograph. I don’t think it’s depressing. I don’t think it’s hopeful, either. It’s life. When everything goes to hell around you, the only way to go is forward. The kids on the swing set know it. The guys with the guns know it, too.” —Declan Murphy, Letters to the Lost
The Weight of Ink, Economic Facts and Fallacies, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent, Discrimination and Disparities, Illumine, Finale, Legendary, Defy the Stars, Defy the Worlds, Defy the Fates, The Innocence of Father Brown (audiobook), Chaos Rising, These Broken Stars, Scythe, United States of Socialism: Who’s Behind it. Why It’s Evil, How to Stop It. To Sir Philip, With Love, The Beast of Beswick, Orthodoxy (audiobook), Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume 1, A Curse So Dark and Lonely, A Heart So Fierce and Broken, A Vow So Bold and Deadly, Light of the Jedi, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Winnie-the-Pooh, Into the Dark, The Wind in the Willows, Quick Service (audiobook), A Damsel in Distress (audiobook), The House at Pooh Corner, Carry on Jeeves (audiobook), The Code of the Woosters (audiobook), Love Thy Body, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, The Mating Season (audiobook).
It’s a variety! And that’s how I like it! P. G. Wodehouse audiobooks read by Jonathan Cecil have become one of the best finds of the year. There have been some heavy reads in there, and I still find myself processing and musing over them. The best is that I don’t agree with everything, and neither the books nor the authors would agree with all of my considerations. The opportunity to read and learn is there, though.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Rating: 3
Genres: YA, Contemporary, LGBTQIA+
Tropes: coming of age, slow burn, self-discovery
Content Warnings: homophobia, internalized homophobia, transphobia, violence, hate crimes, murder, animal death
Recommended if you enjoy: medium-paced, emotional, insightful, reflective, character driven, diverse, flawed characters
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“Through that telescope, the world was closer and larger than I’d ever imagined. And it was all so beautiful and overwhelming and I – I don’t know – it made me aware that there was something inside of me that mattered.”
I’m going to start by saying that I loathe myself for giving this a 3 and considering lower. I actually really loved about 90% of this book, and it was the ending that fell flat for me. But, let’s start with why I loved it.
“I didn’t know exactly how to say what I was holding inside me.”
First: Aristotle is ultra relatable. He’s rough around the edges, knee-deep in the tumultuous teen years, and is questioning everything inside of (and around) him. If that isn’t every teenager, I don’t know what is. He’s angry because he’s treated like a child, secrets are kept from him “for his own good”, and we get to see the ramifications of that play out as he begins to test the waters of being social after he meets Dante.
Second: As much as I raged against the writing style for the first hundred pages, I actually appreciate what Sáenz has done. So much of Ari is captured in these broken, repetitive, short sentences—it’s an added layer of character development that I didn’t appreciate until later in the book when pieces began to click for me.
Third: I’m sorry, y’all, I’m old and have a teen son and so I related hard to the parents in this novel. The way these parents failed and succeeded and admitted to their faults, and tried their best through their own traumas, spoke to me. They didn’t always get it right, arguably they failed in spectacular ways, but when it mattered for Ari and Dante, they showed up and were there, and offered unconditional support.
Now to the 10% I struggled with.
“This was what was wrong with me. All this time I had been trying to figure out the secrets of the universe, the secrets of my own body, of my own heart. All of the answers had always been so close and yet I had always fought them without even knowing it.”
Sorry, not sorry, but I really hated where the brother’s storyline went to. It felt unnecessary, and what’s worse, we get no actual closure on anything to do with it. It’s plopped down, discussed for half a second, chewed up, and we move on. I can forgive terminology due to the time period. I can overlook the discomfort that, yet again, a book has reduced trans issues to a plot point, because: 80s realism. But, to have Ari sit down with his parents and be told he’s gay (again: in a self-discovery book), and then to have him realize it’s true, only to discover what his brother’s done to land in prison and then just… move on from it… felt disingenuous.
Like. There was no question from him, that this person he’s put on a pedestal has committed such an atrocious crime. He’s just like “yeah I think I’ll write to him!” as if there weren’t a million questions and emotional conflicts to be had over it. It felt glossed over, and it made me uncomfortable.
I almost wish Ari had discovered his brother’s crime early in the book. It would have added a layer to the narrative, even more of a hesitation for Ari to discover the truth about himself and what that meant in relation to someone he idolized. Instead, it just felt tacked on for the shock factor of the 80s realism vibe—an incredible let down to me.
Also, like many other reviewers, I struggled with how Ari was sat down by his parents and told he loves Dante, that he’s gay. Part of me gets it—he’s not very good with other people’s emotions and he’s woefully ignorant of his own feelings; he just doesn’t understand sexuality in the way a lot of teens seem to (and, quite frankly, I would have preferred Ace Ari for this reason). Buuuuut, I think part of the potential in the book was for character growth—for Ari to have that “aha!” moment. And it really didn’t… happen. It was flat. A whole two pages dedicated to this major realization.
This may be a book I go back to reread next year. It’s highly nuanced, and admittedly I may have missed some of the finer points given its a multiple award winning novel. I can’t wait to see what they do with a movie, and I’ll be interested in where the sequel goes from here.
“Maybe everyone loves differently. Maybe that’s all that mattered.”
Brigid Kemmerer is a fearless author when it comes to tackling the nitty gritty of the heart. She delves deep into the quagmire of chaos, fear, pride, anger that resides within everyone, and wades through it all with pointed accuracy. I think my favorite, though, is watching her work through theme of love in all its various forms. Love in family in hard, and full of sacrifice, but also rewarding. Family is the one we’re born with, but also the people we find and choose to call our own. To stand with and beside for better or worse. Love in friendship runs deep, and hurts just as much, sometimes even more so. Romance isn’t all butterflies and soft, tender moments—it’s often tried and tested in the form of choices.
Choice plays such a crucial role in Brigid Kemmerer’s New York Time Bestseller Cursebreaker trilogy. There are choices made within the family unit that feel gray, but they’re made in love. There is even the choice with who characters decide to fall in love with. Brigid isn’t afraid to allow chemistry between characters that could have led to a dramatic love triangle. She took her characters down a different road, though, and allowed them the choice. The choice to love and let go. The choice to stay for one, and find someone else for another.
She also explores the hard choices made in love. Once they choose to open themselves to love, what now? What sacrifices are made? What revealing conversations are necessary for transparency? What does love look like in wanting for and pushing for the best in someone? When is it important to hold someone accountable, and when is it more important to give grace and forgiveness? Brigid has an authentic and unwavering approach to all of these questions in this beautiful, harrowing trilogy, and more.
Read this trilogy. Please, please read. In a time when love is too often written and perceived as little more than a flighty feeling for hormonal adolescents, we need to remember that love is stronger than that. Choices made in love and to love make it stronger. It reveals the worst and finds a path to the best. It’s not the easiest, and often requires more of the characters then they believe they can give—as it does with us.
Sometimes there are ties that break and it is for the best in the end, but an age when the go-to messages are that cruelty and oppression are made in little daily choices, it’s easy to forget that love is, too. Love is found in choices to stay and fight. Love is found in moments bold and grand, but also in the soft, gentle heartbeats of togetherness. It’s not the easiest choice we make, but it’s the most rewarding. This trilogy from Brigid Kemmerer shows us that time and time again.
A Curse So Dark and Lonely, A Heart So Fierce and Broken, A Vow So Bold and Deadly: buy them all! Read and savor the captivating journey! Thank you for them @brigidkemmererwrites
