We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is: Cover Freebie (Pick any topic related to book covers. You can make up your own topic or pick one from the list of previous ones!)
July… What happened in July? Honestly, I ain’t got a clue. It was my first month on a retainer contract (meaning I have 3-days of work per month) and “suddenly” finding myself with a heckuva lot more free time resulted in me getting very comfortable very quickly with doing nothing particularly productive every day. 😅 *big sigh* I guess you can say that I have a very lazy + avoidant personality, so I tend to really stick to my comfort zone, which means that I (mostly) allow myself to shove my head in the sand and just exist in ignorant bliss. I am the question hound in the “on fire” comic strip turned meme where the house is burning down and the hound is sat at the table saying “this is fine” (at least for now).
In other news, well, there really isn’t much other news. I managed to be productive a few times over the past month by doing a spot of spring cleaning here and there, but otherwise, I’ve just been languishing the days away… I’m trying not to be too hard on myself cos this is a big life change and I’m very much a creature of comfort and routine, so it has messed me up a bit. But I hope that August will see a turn around at some point. 🙂 Here are some photos from gaming, bookstagram, book mail, and my catto. 🐈
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today.
I’ll be spending the rest of my Sunday night in bed finishing the final two short stories in the Magic & Mystery Collection. The sixth book is Battle of the Round House by Tananarive Due, an author that I’ve been keen to check out. The final book in the collection is The Cairndale Orphan by J. M. Miro. I don’t think I’ve heard of Miro before, but I’m keen to give them a read.
What book do you have in bed with you this Sunday?
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Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here are the rules:
First lines:
“The farmer is dead, he is dead and all anyone wants to know is who killed him. Was it an accident or was it murder? It looks like murder, they say, with that gunshot wound to the heart, so precise, it must have been intended.”
Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?
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When I saw Mehsi @ Twirling Book Princess post the Summer Sweatalong Book Tag yesterday, I thought the timing couldn’t have been more perfect because the days have been sweltering lately! 🥵 The minute I step outside, I start sweating so much that it feels like I’m drowning in it and it’s truly the worst feeling, lol. But I digress… 🫠
If possible, I’ll only be using my 2026 reads to answer the prompts in this tag!
Despite spending the majority of my life living in the tropics, I have to say that I really can’t stand the heat. It’s pretty unfortunate because I still live in the tropics, lol. 😫 I don’t know why it is but I always sweat buckets while the majority of people I see here don’t sweat a drop (even though I know they feel hot). Feeling heat is so uncomfortable because it shows up on my skin in unflatteringly splotchy ways but it also makes me itch like mad! 😅 So, I guess you can say I love the cold. Obviously, I’m not talking about -30℃ weather, but I do love bundling up in sweaters and getting cosy in layers. It’s always so much easier (for me) to heat up than it is to cool down. You can’t exactly strip down and walk around in your birthday suit, but you can wear all the layers to get warm!
Honestly, this one really surprised me—not only because of how much I loved it but how much I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I was reading it. I didn’t want to put the book down for a second and I kept reading it every moment I could. It was so good!
I think I picked this up at 10pm thinking I’d read a chapter or two and go to bed. I wound up finishing this at 4am! A stunning and emotional second book by Katouh.
I’m tweaking this a bit because I’m a rare re-reader, but I could probably re-read this one straight away. I read it back in March but it honestly already feels like I read it so long ago (not in a bad way). I’m pretty sure that if I re-read it now, I’d probably notice a lot more clues, and that would be fun to notice. Also, I just love this series, and Ana and Din, in general, so re-reading this would be no hardship!
I could actually use the entire trilogy for this prompt, but it was the second and third books that really had my heart going! This was such an intense, dark, and fantastic ride. 😍
I feel like I took a really long time to read the first book in this duology (like over or about a week) but I read this sequel in two days! It was another unputdownable book for me, and I was eager to learn more about the secrets of this island and what would happen to the characters next. It was a very satisfying conclusion! 😌
Surprisingly, I can give an answer from my 2026 reads and the honour goes to The Bloodsworn Saga by John Gwynne. I buddy read this with Becky and after finishing the first book, we decided that we couldn’t wait long to keep going, so we didn’t. 😂 This was such a dark and intense epic fantasy and I loved every gritty, painful and infuriating moment of it!
I absolutely adore this book. It was such good fun and I loved that the historical fantasy setting was so unlike others that I’ve read. Not to mention that our protagonist and her crew are older characters who have been through things. The banter, lore, and well, the adventures definitely kept me up late and I wouldn’t mind losing sleep again if it meant more adventures with this crew!
And that’s it for the Summer Sweatalong Book Tag! I won’t be tagging anyone today, but I’d love to see your answers if you decide to do this one. Happy reading, folks!
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:
We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is: Books I HAD to Have Immediately but Still Haven’t Read (this is a throwback topic from 2022)
Happy Monday, book pandas! 🐼 I’m excited to be back with another Fantasy with Friends post today.
Fantasy with Friends is a discussion meme hosted by Briana and Krysta on Pages Unbound. Questions are posed every Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works. The yearly schedule is available on Pages Unbound so you can prepare way in advance! Don’t forget to leave a comment and link on the scheduled day so your post can be linked up. You can also tag @pagesunbound on Twitter and/or Bluesky!
Today’s Fantasy with Friends question:
What are some interesting witches in fantasy? Is there a certain portrayal of a character that makes them a “witch” vs. a “sorceress” or other magic worker, in your opinion?
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today.
I’ll be spending my Sunday night in bed with Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher. This is the last book in the Saints of Steel series (so far?) but after very quickly finishing the third book, we decided to power through the last one so we can complete the series. I haven’t been reading much, but I’m enjoying what I have read so far with Kingfisher’s classic witty characters, charming interactions, and cosiness!
Also, I think this cover might be my favourite of the lot. It’s so pretty (especially irl)! 😍
What book do you have in bed with you this Sunday?
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Nine Goblins
Publisher: Titan Books
Pub Date: 20 January 2026
Genre: Cosy Fantasy
Panda Rating:
(4.5 pandas)
From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Nine Goblins, a tale of low fantasy and high mischief.
No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude, and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all this, and might throw in “cowardly” and “lazy” too for good measure.
But goblins don’t go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind enemy lines, goblin sergeant Nessilka must figure out how to keep her hapless band together and get them home in one piece.
Unfortunately, between them and safety lies a forest full of elves, trolls, monsters, and that most terrifying of creatures…a human being.
Mass murder (including animal deaths, all occurring off-page but described on-page when discovered), displacement
Must protect the goblins at all costs!!! Oh, this cosy fantasy novella was just so freaking adorable and I adored it to bits! I love Kingfisher’s books so much. She never fails to deliver a freaking good, weird and quirky time, and Nine Goblins was no different.
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