Review: A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

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A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

Published: 5th October 2021 | Publisher: TorDotCom | Source: Bought
Alix E. Harrow’s Website

It's Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it's the last birthday she'll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no-one has lived past twenty-one.

Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate. From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, discussion of terminal illness, inevitable death, reference to sexual assault, violence against women.

Continue reading Review: A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Links with an asterisk (*) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Published: 8th June 2021 | Publisher: HarperVoyager | Source: Bought
Ava Reid’s Website

A dark, evocative and unforgettable fantasy debut steeped in Hungarian history and Jewish mythology, perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden.

Stories don't have to be true to be real...

In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king's blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.

But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he's no ordinary Woodsman - he's the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it's like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they're on, and what they're willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all. From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features vomit; blood; bullying; animal cruelty; racism; violent, visceral descriptions; violence against women; mutilation; self-harm; self-multilation; torture; and sexual assault.

Continue reading Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Spotlight on At Midnight ed. by Dahlia Adler

I don't normally do spotlights for books or bookish news posts anymore, but I had to for this book because I absolutely cannot wait for this book! My excitement is ridiculous, I'm telling you.

Last Thursday, Dahlia Adler - Queen of LGBTQReads, YA author of novels including Cool for the Summer, Just Visiting, and Home Field Advantage coming later this year, and editor of Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe retellings anthologies, That Way Madness Lies and His Hideous Heart respectively - revealed the cover for her latest anthology, At Midnight. A YA anthology of 15 diverse fairy tale retellings, At Midnight is publishing on 22nd November 2022 from Flatiron Books.

At Midnight ed. by Dahlia Adler

Fairy tales have been spun for thousands of years and remain among our most treasured stories. Weaving fresh tales with unexpected reimaginings, At Midnight brings together a diverse group of acclaimed YA writers to breathe new life into a storied tradition.

Fifteen celebrated authors reclaim classic fairy tales for a new generation

• Dahlia Adler, “Rumplestiltskin”


• Tracy Deonn, “The Nightingale”


• H.E. Edgmon, “Snow White”


• Hafsah Faizal, “Little Red Riding Hood”


• Stacey Lee, “The Little Matchstick Girl”


• Roselle Lim, “Hansel and Gretel”


• Darcie Little Badger, “Puss in Boots”


• Malinda Lo, “Frau Trude”


• Alex London, “Cinderella”


• Anna-Marie McLemore, “The Nutcracker”


• Rebecca Podos, “The Robber Bridegroom”


• Rory Power, “Sleeping Beauty”


• Meredith Russo, “The Little Mermaid”


• Gita Trelease, “Fitcher’s Bird”


• And an all-new fairy tale by Melissa Albert.

Once upon a time... 

StoryGraph | Goodreads

You've got to check out Dahlia's Twitter thread where she lists each story's title, and the spins on the original fairy tales we'll be getting in At Midnight. A gender-reimagined, sapphic Rumlplestiltskin from Dahlia herself, a hijabi Little Red Riding Hood from Hafsah Faizal, a trans Snow White from H. E. Edgmon, an Indigenous Puss in Boots from Darcie Little Badger, and many more! And if you're taking part in my Fairy Tale Retellings 2022 Reading Challenge, it counts for the prompt for a collection or anthology of fairy tale retellings, and several others! Honestly, it's going to be incredible! So get pre-ordering!

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Review: Women in the Picture: Women, Art and the Power of Looking by Catherine McCormack (#Ad)

I received this eProof for free from Icon Books via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Links with an asterisk (*) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Women in the Picture: Women, Art and the Power of Looking by Catherine McCormack

Published: 6th May 2021 | Publisher: Icon Books | Source: NetGalley
Catherine McCormack's Website

Art historian Catherine McCormack challenges how culture teaches us to see and value women, their bodies, and their lives.

Cultural archetypes have long been used to subjugate women, binding them within the restrictive roles of Venus, bride, wife, mother, and monster. These portrayals echo throughout the paintings and sculptures of western art―Titian, Botticelli, and Giambologna―and more contemporaneously in fashion photographs, ads, and across social media. By society empowering men to represent women, women imbibe a distorted vision of themselves and their bodies, coming up against notions of impossible beauty, idealized passivity and violence, and horrifying Medusas.

In this impassioned work, art historian Catherine McCormack evaluates the production and display of portrayals of women, exposing the underlying meanings, whether overt or symbolic. She counters them by turning to women artists like Berthe Morisot, Beyoncé, Suzanne Lacy, and Faith Ringgold. These women have been overturning confining depictions of identity, sexuality, race, and power to explore the breadth and multiplicity of women’s visions of their own lives. From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book discusses sexism, rape, racism, slavery, violence, violence against women, women in the moment of death/women's dead bodies, and their representation in art.

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My 2022 Reading Journal

One of my goals for 2022 was to create a reading journal to help better keep track of my challenges and reading. Previously, I would have a page set up on my blog for my reading challenges, a page set up for all the books I read in a year, and I would use my notes app on my phone while reading. However, I would always fall behind with updating my pages, and the notes app would just be used for keywords. I would always end up filling everything in later, having to go through my various app shelves to remind me what I had read over the last few weeks, and what challenges they fit. It just wasn't working. So when I saw someone on Instagram had blogged about their own reading journal, and saw the different ways they could be used, I was inspired. And I thought you might be interested to see what it looks like, and how I use it.

Continue reading My 2022 Reading Journal

Review: Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan (#Ad)

I was received this eProof for free from Hodder& Stoughton via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Links with an asterisk (*) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan

Published: 23rd November 2021 | Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton | Source: NetGalley
Natasha Ngan on Twitter

"Don't struggle, Lei-zhi. It's time to take you back to the Hidden Palace. You're going home." The final pages of Girls of Storm and Shadow brought a jaw-dropping conclusion that had the fates of Lei and Wren hanging in uncertainty. But one thing was certain - the Hidden Palace was the last place that Lei would ever consider home. The trauma and tragedy she suffered behind those opulent walls would plague her forever. She could not be trapped there with the sadistic king again, especially without Wren. The last Lei saw of the girl she loved, Wren was fighting an army of soldiers in a furious battle to the death. With the two girls torn apart and each in terrorizing peril, will they find each other again or have their destinies diverged forever? From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads


My other reviews of Girls of Paper and Fire Trilogy:
Girls of Paper and Fire | Girls of Storm and Shadow

WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features ableism, starving, drugging, violence against women, discussion of rape and sexual assault, torture, and war.

Continue reading Review: Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan (#Ad)

Ad: Titles with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Links with a circumflex (^) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Most Anticipated Fantasy of 2022 - January to June

It's 2022! A brand new year that will bring us a hell of a lot of brand new books! So today I'm sharing some of my most anticipated 2022 fantasy novels - in which I'm including an horror and a dystopia, because they're sub-genres in my opinion - from January to June. There are others, but I think 27 are enough to be getting on with, don't you? So on with the books!

The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman* (4th January, Hot Key Books)

Four siblings. A country in ruin. One quest to save them all.

Vira is desperate to get out of her mother's shadow and establish her legacy as a revered queen of Ashoka. But with the country's only quarry running out of magic - a precious resource that has kept Ashoka safe from conflict - she can barely protect her citizens from the looming threat of war. And if her enemies discover this, they'll stop at nothing to seize the last of the magic.

Vira's only hope is to find a mysterious object of legend: the Ivory Key, rumoured to unlock a new source of magic. But in order to infiltrate enemy territory and retrieve it, she must reunite with her siblings, torn apart by broken relationships and the different paths their lives have taken. Each of them has something to gain from finding the Ivory Key - and even more to lose if they fail. Ronak plans to sell it to the highest bidder in exchange for escape from his impending political and unwanted marriage. Kaleb, falsely accused of assassinating the former maharani, needs it to clear his name. And Riya, the runaway sibling who cut all family ties, wants the Key to prove her loyalty to the rebels who took her in.

They must work together to survive the treacherous journey. But with each sibling harbouring secrets and their own conflicting agendas, the very thing that brought them together could tear apart their family - and their world - for good.

First in a duology from an incredible new talent, this Indian-inspired fantasy debut is epic, fierce and magnetically addictive, taking you on a thrilling journey where magic, a prized resource, is the only thing between peace and war. From Goodreads.

Bookshop^ | Goodreads

Continue reading Most Anticipated Fantasy of 2022 - January to June

Ad: Titles with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Looking Back Over 2021, Looking Forward to 2022

Happy New Year! It's now 2022 and time to look forward to this new year's reading, and the bookish goals for the year - or at least the things we hope to achieve.

But before I dive in to 2022, I'd like to take a very brief look at some of my favourite books read in 2021.

Favourite Books of 2021

I didn't have the best reading year in 2021. There were times when I just didn't read a huge amount, either due to not feeling it or not enjoying the book I was reading. And to be honest, there weren't a huge amount of books I really loved. So instead of my normal break down of my fave books in various genres/categories, I'm just listing the few that I really, really enjoyed last year. All images link to my reviews, except fot the last, as I've not reviewed it yet.

Continue reading Looking Back Over 2021, Looking Forward to 2022