Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
Hello, hello, friends! ✨ The Magical Readathon: Orilium Autumn Equinox 2023 ✨ is. nowover which means another semester and another year have come and gone at Orilium. Can you believe it? I can’t. 😂 Now that classes are over, it’s time to wrap up what I read and see how Meeska fared this semester. Much like it was IRL, the Autumn Equinox was pretty low-key but that didn’t stop Meeska from just making it to the finish line, lol. We’re a mess! But on that note, let’s take a look at what got read this semester. As always, thanks to G for continuously making this one of the best and most magical readathons out there! 💜✨
If you’re confused and don’t know what I’m on about, you’re totally fine. Check out this video by our super lovely host and creator of this wonderful magical readathon, G @ Book Roast!
Guild Tier Status: Exhaulted (360 pts)
🎶August slipped away into a moment in time…🎶
August felt like it got over in the blink of an eye! Work started to pick up again this month but I also took a long weekend break to get away to Bali to visit my aunt and cousin and to hang out with the whole family. My sister also sent me some things from Japan through a friend of hers and that little package made my day a few weeks back! Overall, it was a pretty decent month 🙂
Role Playing
Publisher: Montlake
Pub Date: 1 July 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating:
(4.5 pandas)
Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal―he’ll be more social if she does the same―she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.
Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.
Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.
When they finally meet face to face―after a rocky, shocking start―the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.
Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?
Homophobia, racism, bigotry, forced outing, toxic family, parental death
TL;DR: If you’re looking for a cosy, heartwarming and hopeful story about older characters finding their people and being accepted just as they are; for a story where people find joy and comfort in gaming and online connections; and for a story that’s equally entertaining but that’s not without it’s heavier moments, I would 100% recommend this book!
Read More » Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
Hi friends, I’m so excited to share my review of Shucked by Kate Canterbary! Special thanks to the author for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Shucked (The Loew Brothers #1)
Publisher: Vesper Press
Pub Date: 22 August 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating:
(4.5 stars)
His best friend’s little sister is not an option.
No one ever accused Beckett Loew of being the nice Loew brother, especially not Sunny duJardin. Stuck back home in the quirky town of Friendship, Rhode Island, Beckett is scrambling to save his family’s oyster bar and take care of his teenage brother. He doesn’t have time to deal with the beautiful, sunshine-y owner of the new vegan cafe next door too. His best friend’s little sister may be all grown up, but Sunny’s still a distracting pain in his side.
No one expects much from Sunny duJardin, especially not Beckett Loew. She’s not worried about her older brother’s tall, dark, and broody best friend or battles he insists on waging with her everyday. She’s not the same kid he teased years ago. Now, she composts his type for breakfast.
They’re all wrong for each other.
Bitter rivals.
Complete opposites.
Off limits.
Except they can’t keep their hands off each other.
They tell themselves it’s nothing more than a steamy summer fling until secrets spill and real trouble comes their way.
chronic illness (epilepsy), mention of childhood bullying, putting the fun in dysfunctional families, parents who turn into accidental criminals, incarceration, open door spice, suspense and moments of peril, happily ever after, no cliffhanger.
TL;DR: Shucked had me feeling all the lovely chaotic emotions, which was perfect because these characters were exactly that: lovely and chaotic, lol. Sunny and Beckett were the perfect combination of grumpy sunshine with a bit of age-gap and brother’s best friend/childhood nemesis sprinkled in. The tension was exquisite and their hate-to-love banter and button-pushing was hilarious! Let’s just say I am so ready for the next book in this series and I need it now, please~!
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Special thanks to Rylee from SparkPoint Studio and the publisher for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Love & Resistance
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Publication Date: 04 July 2023
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Panda Rating:
(4.5 pandas)
Seventeen-year-old Olivia Chang is at her fourth school in seven years. Her self-imposed solitude is lonely, but safe. At Plainstown High, however, Olivia’s usual plan of anonymity fails when the infamous Mitzi Clarke (influencer, queen bee, bully) makes a pointed racist comment in class. Olivia knows what she must do: let it go. But Olivia is tired of ignoring things just so she can survive. This time, she defends herself.
That is the end of her invisible life.
Soon, Olivia discovers, and joins forces with, the Nerd Net: a secret society who has been thwarting Mitzi’s reign of terror for months. Together, they plan to unite the masses and create true change at Plainstown High.
But in order to succeed, Olivia must do something even more terrifying than lead a movement: trust other people. She might even make true friends along the way… if Mitzi doesn’t destroy her first.
Bullying/Cyberbullying, racism (use of slurs), xenophobia, parental abandonment, divorce
TL;DR: Love & Resistance is a YA contemporary that has an intriguing premise and delivers on it too. The story covers some tough topics such as bullying, racism/xenophobia, and the toxicity of social media culture. Although it was at times heartbreaking and emotionally angsty, it was also powerfully hopeful and I appreciated the approach the author took to handling the tough situations that Olivia and her group of friends find themselves in. I’m sure many readers will be able to relate to this story and the experiences of these high schoolers. This was a great debut by Chen and I’m looking forward to seeing what the author puts out in the future.
Read More » Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
An English Bride in Scotland (Highland Brides #1)
Pub Date: 25 June 2013
Genre: Historical Romance
Panda Rating:
(3.5 pandas)
From New York Times bestselling author of The Husband Hunt , The Heiress , and other beloved historical romances, comes Lynsay Sands’s An English Bride in Scotland, the first book in a new series set in the wilds of the Highlands.
Annabel had planned to become a nun. But when her mother arrives at the Abbey to bring her home to marry a Scottish laird—her runaway sister’s intended husband—her life takes a decidedly different turn.
And though Annabel isn’t the wife he’d planned for, strong, sexy Ross McKay is taken with his shy, sweet bride.
Annabel knows nothing about being a wife, running a castle—or the marriage bed. But her handsome new husband makes her want to learn. When Annabel’s life is threatened, Ross vows to move the highlands itself to save her and preserve the passion that’s only beginning to bloom.
TL;DR: This book doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously and neither did I, so therefore, neither should you! It’s simply a good, silly, fun and sexy time. If you go into this expecting the plot to be serious and the characters to be anything more than one-dimensional, you’re bound to be disappointed and you might as well skip it. BUT if you want a quick and mostly painless (though not for the characters) romance to pass the time and aren’t averse to general ridiculousness, multiple concussions and orgasms, then why not give it a go?
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