#young women books

[whitneydaniell]

by: Phyllis Dixon Published: Jul 25, 2023 Genre: Contemporary, Adult, Fiction 320 Pages, E-Book Courtesy of NetGalley

★★

GoodReads Synopsis:

An insightful and dramatic novel of women’s friendship, feuds, and fame as a 1990s pop music group, reminiscent of Destiny’s Child, reunites for a second shot at mega-success and must deal with both the new demands of today’s social media and the same old traps of yesterday. Perfect for fans of Terry McMillan and Sheila Williams.

Angel. Carmen. Doreen. Jade. Talented Memphis girls who had a brush with pop music fame—guided by Carmen's warm-hearted mother. But when she was elbowed out for a bigger manager, Carmen walked too. The bitter breakup shattered the Diamonds' never-easy “sisterhood” —and cost them the big-time Now a reunion offers a fresh start, just as mid-life struggles are pushing all four to the brink.

My Review:

This was a quick and easy read but, the story itself was very predictable and underwhelming.

The story of The Diamonds is told through the point of view of each member, with two (maybe 3) chapters told by them as a group. Jade, Carmen, Doreen, Angel, and Ms. Gloria really give you Xscape, plus Mama Joyce or, Destiny's Child, plus Ms. Tina.

One of my biggest issues with the story is, how quickly the pacing of the chapters - it all seemed rushed and I had no concept of the timing of the story. From what seems like just a few days is really months. There is a car accident and then a few chapters later, it has been a whole year. It feels like so much was put into each storyline but, nothing was really fleshed out. The characters have no substance.

Carmen spends most of the story making rash and immature decisions without thinking of the long-term (or even short-term) implications of her actions. Most of her behavior is not the way I would envision a 40-something-year-old woman.

Doreen has a sordid past with her husband and to their credit, turned their lives around. However, for most of the story her husband, James is selfish, controlling, unhelpful, and rude! I hated that for Doreen and wanted her to stand up for herself.

Jade, oh Jade. Naive as they can be but also, with a husband who is literal trash. Her personal story and journey were much more confusing to me. Again, the pacing just didn't allow for her to be fully fleshed out.

Angela (Angel) is BIG "I just want to be solo" vibes. While she does have some redeeming qualities, it comes late in the story. From the jump, she rubbed me the wrong way.

Another issue is, when we jump to the present-day Diamonds, what year is the present day? The prologue says that the original group got together in 1991, then six years later they were stars and preparing to tour internationally when Carmen quits, this would be 1997. Then 20 years later is 2017 and the story runs for a little over a year, let's say 2 (I think). By my math, if its 2019 and Doreen is 40, then in 1991, she would have been 12! Something about the timeline is throwing me off.

Final thoughts: It reads like a Tyler Perry play or film. Lots of emphasis on God even when it's borderline ridiculous. "God is the best lawyer. We just need to pray," that is a direct quote.

One-Word Summary: Laughable

#Intermission #Phyllis Dixon #books about black women #books i read #tbr 2023 #fiction books #books about music #contemporary books #young women books #2 star reads

[historicity-was-already-taken]

overwhelmed by love for tema schneiderman

Tema's Kennkarte (identity card), in the name of her gentile cover, Wanda Majewska, issued in Cracow, May 14, 1942. Courtesy of Bronia Klibanski.

And here she is with Lonka Korzybrodska and Bela Hazan [L to R: Tema, Bela, and Lonka; courtesy Yad Vashem]. These are the faces of Jewish women who put grenades in their underwear, braid illegal newspapers into their hair, and actively hit on Nazi guards to avoid having their belongings searched. Only Bela survived. One day I'm gonna order a print of this photo and the one in my avatar and have them framed.

#she's one of the five women my book is centered on #there are five now #i can't not include the young doctor who euthanized babies and the elderly to save them from treblinka

[bonebabbles]

average day in the tiktok warriors fandom

he's. he's literally described on the page as enjoying the feeling of making cats viciously maul each other. He gets "validation" for his feelings constantly through Gray Wing and his other sycophants kissing his ass, and still maliciously and intentionally torments them. He beats women and children for telling him no

What they want is BREEZEPELT. This describes BREEZEPELT. BREEZE. PELT.

The cat who is ACTUALLY reprimanded by authority for being angry all the time?? The one whose dad screeches at him for having basic needs?? A character who is explicitly shown to be manipulated by an evil force because they're the only ones who validate his feelings??

THAT Breezepelt?? Ringing any BELLS?

Lemmie guess. Tiktok probably doesn't like Breezepelt much because if you acknowledge that he's a child abuse victim, you can't keep woobifying Crowfeather into a sad boy. Lol.

#INCREDIBLE briainrot on tiktok #Clear Sky literally has a scene in Book 2 where all his cats gather around and validate him #During that speech where he decides to steal more land by killing more natives #Frost is one of them and then he still shoves Thunder's face into his wound so he ''knows'' why Frost needs to die #Clear Sky is CONSTANTLY getting his toes sucked and having people tell him he's the bees knees #You see he was just slaughtering indigenous people and beating women and children because he's sad :( #How dare you call him a heartless monster he's just angry :((( #(Meanwhile Clear Sky is in the background slobbering over a young woman with traits that remind him of his kid) #Re: the simple truth that people are more interested in sorrowful abusers than messy victims #Because that's what Clear Sky and Crowfeather are. And they will DESPERATELY find ways to woobify them further #so that they can keep ignoring the children they abused.

[aceredshirt13]

having read nearly all of the Jeeves short stories, it’s so funny to me that Bertie’s bisexuality manifests as casting a wide but shallow net at girls and a narrow but ridiculously deep net at men. He thinks girls are pretty on a reasonably frequent basis, and has tried to marry at least four women thus far (not counting the unwanted engagements), but when it doesn’t work out he’s over it in 24 hours. Meanwhile he shows absolutely no interest in and never gives flattering depictions of 99% of the men in his life, but will praise Jeeves to anyone who will listen, wax poetic about his appearance (and get defensive on his behalf about it when a child insults it), and is absolutely inconsolable when they are separated.

(also Bertie is in no way allosexual. he is canonically terrified at the thought of reproducing. and due to the narrow but deep net on the other end I don’t imagine he’s going around sleeping with loads of men, either. that man’s either demi as hell or just entirely ace)

#red randomness #jeeves and wooster #bertie wooster #reginald jeeves #wooves #jooster #100 and up neat #finally determined my take on Bertie orientation and had to get the thoughts out #granted I have only read the first three short story collections + Extricating Young Gussie (re: none of the novels or last two stories) #so I can’t speak for the few stories following that or any of the novels #but this is my StanceTM #curious to see what that pastiche Jeeves and the Wedding Bells is like and whether or not it matches this #because if it’s focused on a Bertie het romance then I have trouble seeing it #he truly doesn’t seem invested enough in women for it to carry a whole book??? #they’re more like crushes or cheery whims #while Jeeves is so close to his heart that he can’t bear to be without him. a source of comfort as a person beyond just what the man does #side note there are two pastiches I’ve heard about that put Bertie with Bobbie Wickham and that sounds untenable lmao #Bertie would be at his wit’s end #also I heard she gets a guy later anyway?? and at this point Bertie’s already fallen out of love with her besides??? #truly the greatest sin of those two pastiches is separating him from Jeeves though. good fucking luck #it also sounds like the show is kinda different?? but I’ve never seen it #anyway I’m rambling without all the information so maybe this is total nonsense but hey!

[fallenangelontheceiling]

I’m breaking my No Tumblr For Lent rule because I really have to share -

I’m 65 pages into Mansfield Park and I can’t stand Edmund. He’s objectively a Good Person (which I can already tell is going to be a rarity in this narrative), but god is he insufferable.

The Crawfords are flakes, but at least they’re entertaining flakes so far.

Austen is always scathingly snarky but this is the first time I think she comes off a bit self-righteous??

#jane austen #mansfield park #btw I already know how the book ends #which is NOT HELPING #the moral of Austen’s books is imo #young women need to leave the damn house #even Lizzie who is already sparkly comes into her own when she leaves #Anne definitely benefits from getting tf away from her Dad’s #afaik Fanny never gets that? #besides visiting her bio family in Southampton #which is literally a manipulation tactic to say #haha see you could be poor and stuffed like sardines #see it could be worse! stay with us it’s your only option! #Fanny clings to William and Edmund because she never finds her people #she starts the novel not valued at all #and ends it valued only as so far as her Aunt finds her Helpful #however #I might be looking at this with too much of a 2024 morality #but that hasn’t really been an issue with other Austen novels #so… is it me? is the problem me? #not to be all women need to be xyz to be interesting… #wouldn’t Fanny make a great sympathetic villain #let my girl be jealous and bitter and totally in denial about it #that would only work if she felt emotionally entitled to Edmund #god this book is such a chore

[a-a-a-anon]

appreciation post for Lise Mayer!! she co-wrote The Young Ones (and The Bachelor Boys book, additional material like when they did Comic Relief, etc), which is well known. but she also wrote for other things in the alternative comedy scene like Rik Mayall and Ben Elton's comedy tour (source: BBC Breakfast Time interview)! and, something I didn't know until recently: she co-wrote/wrote for Kevin Turvey! she's not credited in his television appearances, but see below for sources.

i really loved the podcast episode she did with Alexei Sayle about TYO, you gain a lot of insight into her perspective! she also mentions misogynistic treatment like being asked to go make tea when they were doing script readings, not getting invited to a big BBC party because it was presumed she'd be Rik's plus-one, and getting groped at the BBC bar. it pissed me off on her behalf and partly prompted this post.

some specific accolades/accreditation/fun facts:

Rik crediting her with writing/conceiving the Kevin Turvey non-joke "All right, biting political satire: What do Lech Walesea and Menachem Begin have in common? They’ve both got foreign names! What do you mean it’s not funny?" (x)

Alexei Sayle in Thatcher Stole My Trousers crediting Lise with co-writing Turvey: "Lise was, like Linda for mine, a vital part of Rik’s career, co-writing both The Young Ones and Rik’s character Kevin Turvey..."

a 1987 source for Lise co-writing Turvey: "The assumption that women do not write comedy scripts was one with which Lise Mayer, co-writer of The Young Ones television series, has also had to contend. She started writing for Rik Mayall’s Kevin Turvey in the television series A Kick Up the Eighties..." (x)

Rowland Rivron (comedian who toured with The Comic Strip gang and lived with Rik and Lise) in What the f*** did I do last night?: "[Lise] also had the unenviable job of standing at the side of the stage when Rik was performing, and jotting down anything he said that was unscripted. If it got a laugh, it would be woven into the next night’s routine."

the only time i've ever seen a Rik Mayall/Ade Edmondson/Lise Mayer writing credit: for a poem called Distance which was collected in this anthology! Rik and Ade seem to have acted it out (or at least a version of it) in this 20th Century Coyote performance

Rik on Lise writing TYO: "‘She discovers different things: the comedy of embarrassment and awkwardness – she draws out the cheating and stealing that goes on in the house.’" (x) (Lise also says her "favorite comedy was always the comedy of embarrassment" in the Alexei Sayle podcast)

Rik: "... Lise Mayer wrote this great scene where I find a tampon in a handbag and it's my birthday party and I think it's a present because my character is Rick, who is such a git, he didn't know." (x)

Helen Lederer in Not That I'm Bitter, writing about being on The Young Ones: "[Lise] was known to be the brains behind it all, particularly the more surreal elements…"

she and Rik chose the bands (x)

Lise: “We’d have a table read at which point we’d discover that the script ran over an hour long, and then I’d have a sleepless night editing it.” Alexei: “You did that?” Lise: “Usually me, yeah…” (she later explains they'd present the script Monday and rehearsals were Tuesday, Wednesday-so she literally had one night to edit!) (x)

facts from the blu-ray commentary tracks:

Rick's yellow dungarees in Interesting were based off a picture of Lise in a similar pair

Lise wrote an essay about the tampon joke in Interesting so that the BBC didn't cut the scene (though they still edited it)

Paul Jackson (producer) credits Lise with arguing "you are seriously telling me that we cannot refer on television to something that happens to 50% of the population for about 30 years of their life? and we're not allowed to even refer to it" to make an executive back off about the tampon joke in a meeting

Lise came up with Neil's flowerpot covering in Nasty

Vyvyan/Vivian's name comes from Lise having lived in Vyvyan Terrace, Bristol

Lise thought of the cast switching costumes in Bambi (one of my favorite moments!!) (/end of commentary track facts)

this is guesswork, but i've seen Ben Elton and Rik Mayall's handwriting and i'm pretty sure the editing/handwriting on the bottom left on this script must be Lise's, which gives insight into what/how she wrote: (x)

i feel like it's easy for people to overlook or minimize Lise's impact, something that happens to female creators far too often. i hate when women's identities are framed around their association to a man-girlfriend to Rik in this case-which was the norm whenever i saw Lise discussed in articles/books/online discussions about TYO. it's important to know she was a writer and co-creator with her own identity and (underappreciated) contributions. The Young Ones (and Kevin Turvey, and things we don't even know she goes uncredited for) would not have been the same—or wouldn't have even existed—without her!

#women in comedy are everything to me. lise was the one who did the typing to amalgamate the TYO scripts AND edited them down in 1 night... #women have to work so hard to prove their place in male dominated fields. she deserves her flowers!! #lise mayer #rik mayall #the young ones #kevin turvey #ben elton #britcom #in berserker! ade says vyvyan is named that because he and rik loved Vivian Stanshall #so i imagine lise gave the spelling? which is quite important i would say! just interesting to know the Full picture #also i reallyyy wanna know when Distance was actually written. it was collected in an anthology pubished in '84 #but it very well couldve been written before (as other works in that book were written before 1984 as well) #basically im wondering if Lise contributed to 20th century coyote sketches?? i wouldnt be surprised bc she wrote a lot for rik

[xxsweaterweatherrxx]

Hi!! It's been a while since I've been on here so I don't know if this will reach anyone--BUT. I'm here to promote an online book club I've started! ♡

https://bookclubs.com/clubs/6021847/join/89e066/

It's super new and trust that we will have an exciting TBR list!! For the book tok girlies, this is for you!! We'll have loads of fun in this safe space & great discussions. I've been finding it difficult to connect with people after graduating from uni, so if this sounds like you, join us!!

Share this link if you'd like! <3 I'm in Calgary, AB but this is open to anyone!

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

#bookblr #books #reading #bookworm #booktok #book club #goodreads #book review #booklr #book recommendations #tiktok #young adult #20s #women #bipoc

[itimetraveller]

Accepting only love

Is what will help us heal in this world

Love never hurts

It only heals the soul

There's no misery in love

Only in lust

Lust and love are not the same

Always remember that

And keep reminding it to yourself

Every single day

#love quotes #life quotes #positive quotes #life #relationship quotes #relatable quotes #new poets society #love poem #book quotes #poetry #quote #inspiring quotes #quotes #cute quotes #inspirational quotes #motivational quotes #movie quotes #quoteoftheday #romance quotes #book quote #teen quotes #beautiful quote #life quote #relationships #women writers #wealth #dead poets society #greek poetry #young poets #poets on tumblr

[coochiequeens]

Never forget and never forget that the first victims of Auschwitz were young women.

When Nazi Germany occupied much of Poland at the outbreak of World War II, the parents of Erna and Fela Dranger sent their daughters over the border from their home in Tylicz to the eastern Slovakian town of Humenné. Their cousin Dina Dranger went with them. Erna, 20, and Fela and Dina, both 18, found jobs and settled in with the local Humenné Jewish community. At some point, Fela moved on to the Slovakian capital of Bratislava with a friend.

The girls’ parents thought they had sent their daughters to safety. But on March 25, 1942, Erna and Dina were among the nearly 1,000 teenage girls and unmarried young women deported on the first official transport of Jews to Auschwitz.

Told by Slovakian authorities that they would be going away to do government work service for just a few months, the Jewish girls and women were actually sold to the Germans by the the Slovaks for 500 Reich Marks (about $200) apiece as slave labor.

Erna Dranger (Courtesy of Heather Dune Macadam)

Fela Dranger (Courtesy of Heather Dune Macadam)

Very few of the 997 girls on that first transport — or any of the other early transports — survived the more than three hellish years until the end of the war. Erna, Fela and Dina Dranger beat the odds, with the sisters going on to raise families in Israel and their cousin Dina settling in France.

The story of what happened to these and the other women on the first transports to Auschwitz is told in “999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz,” a compelling new book by Heather Dune Macadam. (The Nazis had planned to deport 999 Jewish women on the initial transport, but Macadam discovered typos on the list — now held in the Yad Vashem archives — making the actual tally 997.)

See rest of article

#January 27 #Holocaust Memorial Day #Women in war zones #Auschwitz #999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz #Heather Dune Macadam #Books about women #Books by women

[lotstradamus]

what books did you read on holiday?

Vicious by V. E. Schwab (beloved reread)

In Memorium by Alice Winn (as sad as everyone said)

Four Shots in the Night: A True Story of Spies, Murder, and Justice in Northern Ireland by Henry Hemming (not as good as Say Nothing, but pretty good)

The Emporer and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang (this is being incorrectly marketed as romance/romantasy which is why the GR rating is low; it reads like a folktale, it's erotic in period-typical language and it's great!)

and a bunch of ARCs:

Nicked by M. T. Anderson (hilarious)

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer (Narnia meets Fillory from The Magicians)

Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy (I absolutely loved this. FINALLY someone who understands what a slow burn is!!!)

Private Rites by Julia Armfield (I'm sorry maybe I'm not a cool sad girl or whatever but I just don't like her stuff)

The Wildes by Louis Bayard (brilliant)

#answered #books #my wife isn't a big reader but she got sucked into Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll and it messed her UP

[july-19th-club]

i think there's horse sexism in the kentucky derby . field of twenty horses, right? plus a couple more runners-up that can swap in if somebody has to drop out . not a single filly in the lineup. which obviously doesn't mean i think that like ... the HORSES are sexist . but i imagine that in a field where most of the top trainers are men themselves, there's more of a focus on training the colts that come across their paths, and perhaps even more colts being selected to be trained towards these big races in the first place . a horse is a horse is a horse, they all go fast, but there's probably an unconscious bias from breeders, trainers, owners, etc that prevents the field from being more diversified

#most jockeys are very small men also . as opposed to average-small women #you'd think there'd be more women jockeys . simply because of the odds of being short or slim enough to ride a horse fast #but it's mostly guys #okay scratch that . most of the small-time people i know who are horse people are women. the local tracks are probably full of em #but the guys whose names you see every year? are guys . glass ceiling like any field but it's extra stupid in this one #because not only does it cover the human people involved in the sport. it extends to literal farm animals #starting to think the thoroughbred series lied to little old sixth grade me you guys ........ #lkajsldkfj . i read those books and i was like . okay so the american horse racing culture is flooded with plucky young women . babe no #q

[bakasara]

far-right conservative: queer spaces are full of predators, groomers, pedophiles who perpetrate sexual abuse on children or are looking to. this drivel is totally not a moral panic fuelled by deep-seated transphobia and homophobia, I just know real abuse is happening every which way though there's no such evidence! we need to censor bad literature - queer weirdo shit that makes me uncomfortable - and limit all interactions between queer adults and minors, as they are always suspicious. it's to protect the children!

young fandom LGBTQ+ convinced they're a progressive leftist: queer spaces are full of predators, groomers, pedophiles who perpetrate sexual abuse on children or are looking to. I'm [insert LGBT label here] and totally not queerphobic, it's just that fandom is unusually full of degenerate freaks wanting to perpetrate real crimes, though there's no such evidence! we need to censor bad literature - queer weirdo shit that makes me uncomfortable - and limit all interactions between queer adults and minors, as they are always suspicious. it's to protect the children!

#been saying this for years #before conservatives got so aggressive with the ''protect children from grooming via book banning'' rhetoric #before ''no drag queens near children'' and '' trans women are men looking to rape cis women in bathrooms'' #and now conservatives are explicitly spouting that rhetoric to a T #and tons of fandom teens and young adults continue to espouse the same ideology and do leaps to tell themselves they're different #🤷‍♀️

[maaarine]

Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Understanding Life Experiences from Early Childhood to Old Age (Sarah Hendrickx, 2015)

"Something that often comes up in my conversations with women with autism about the causes of their frustrations is why people say they will do something and then don’t do it or do something else.

The discrepancy between people’s words and actions is not only stressful due to the change in expectations that has to be processed (hard work), but also because it is not true and therefore illogical.

There is nothing that stresses a person with autism more than a lack of logic or an unnecessary lie – we find it baffling.

The unanswerable question of autism, which is always accompanied by a creased forehead, is: ‘Why do people do that?’"

"Enjoying an intense interest in one or more subjects is a core element in the profile of autism, but differences in the specifics of this profile are noted between boys and girls.

Boys’ interests tend to be object-based – trains, dinosaurs, space – while girls’ interests tend to be people- or animal-based – soap operas, fictional characters, animals and celebrities.

This qualitative difference can explain why girls’ behaviour may not be noted as being unusual, due to the ‘typical girl’ nature of their interests. (…)

Knowing everything about a subject makes it known and provides a sanctuary from the anxiety and stress of a feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen most of the time.

Animals in general are a popular interest as they are far easier to deal with than people for many females with autism: their intentions are clear (no hidden agendas), their non-verbal language is minimal (cats don’t pull too many facial expressions), their needs are easily identified and their attachment and affection are unconditional and unchanging.

Some girls identify so strongly with animals that they imagine or wish themselves to be one."

Episodes: Young Royals 3x06 and 3x02

#young royals #television #sarah hendrickx #women and girls with asd #book #autism

[bonebabbles]

Ill get into this later but the Star Flower x Clear Sky romance shit is legitimately some of the most rancid canon ship stuff in WC without full out having an on-screen Bramblesquirrel argument. I can't believe people legitimately take away that Star Flower has any canonical agency here and try to spin this like girlboss shit

You understand that what Clear Sky likes about this very young adult is that she "obeys" him, subjects herself to bad conditions, and tells him that she's soso loyal that she promises to never leave, yes? While holding up her 1 absolutely insignificant ""betrayal"" as morally equivalent to Clear Sky's murders, beatings, and starvations?

Played as a manipulation this would be interesting. But it's not. She is basically an 18 year old who thinks she's so awful she deserves a serial killer, while his mouth starts watering that his reward has finally come. In their second interaction.

#Like do we know this and we're rejecting it because it's horrifying? #Or do we legit not know and have just absorbed this from fanon material #This is not a girlboss this is a very young and probably VERY traumatized girl throwing herself at the worst man in the franchise #As he gets his kicks on how he can order her around and she just listens #Guy whose victims are exclusively women. #Dotc hate #How did they pack THIS MUCH uncomfortable garbage in the last 2 books???????? #Bones reads dotc

[uwmspeccoll]

More Folktales

With Women’s History Month coming to a close, I offer you one final book that caught my eye first by the lovely gold accented cover, followed by the stories and illustrations inside. 

The Book of Saints & Friendly Beasts was written by American author Abbie Farwell Brown (1871-1927) and illustrated by Fanny Young Cory (1877-1972). It was first published in Boston and New York by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. in 1900, printed at the Riverside Press and designed by the incomparable Bruce Rogers. The book contains twenty-two stories that focus on a different saint and animal in each tale as well as illustrations that coincide with a handful of the tales.

The Book of Saints & Friendly Beasts was actually Brown’s first published book and was intended for a younger audience. She was inspired to write the book after her trip to Chester Cathedral in England in 1899. The animals that coincide with the tales were inspired by the moral tenets of Christianity, which I found to be quite interesting. This book and its initial publication was what led to her career as a children’s book author.

Fanny Young Cory’s desire to draw began at a young age, where she drew on anything that she could. She made her first sale in 1898 to The Century Magazine, and once her career blossomed, she did covers and interior illustrations for various other magazines. Her most enduring effort, however, and one she considered to be her finest work, was a project she started as a means of relaxation and came to be known as The Fairy Alphabet.

View more posts from our Historical Curriculum Collection of children’s books.

View more Women’s History Month posts.

-- Elizabeth V., Special Collections Undergraduate Writing Intern

#Women's History Month #folktales #women writers #women illustrators #Abbie Farwell Brown #Fanny Young Cory #the book of saints & friendly beasts #children's books #Houghton Mifflin #Riverside Press #bruce rogers #Elizabeth V.

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread    

The Art of Prophecy

Wuxia inspired epic fantasy

about a spoiled prophesied chosen one who’s never been in a real battle

the greatest war artist of her generation takes things into her own hands and decides to train him, but things go wrong and they both have to go on the run

martial arts, bounty hunters & assassins, some steampunk vibes, mentor relationships

no romance!

this is so fun and funny I loved it.  the MCs three awesome baddass women and one pathetic teen boy and i love them all

#The Art of Prophecy #wesley chu #aroaessidhe 2023 reads #fav #this is so great i loved it so much!!! #also natalie naudus audio narrator! #i wrote 'women!!!' like 3 times in my notes zkjdgfd #no romance books #**i do feel like there might be a little in book 2? will probably be pretty minor side things tho #one of the MCs is a chaotic lesbian(?) assassin. im pretty sure the boy is gay? some kind of queer #also i love the cover so much shoutout to Tran Nguyen and designer Cassie Gonzales #also this had been on my periphery for ages but i saw someone say 'older lady training teen boy' and came running #--then i also saw a review that said they spend a significant part of the book separated; which was probably good to know going in (they do) #but i think they will be together more in the next book. their dynamic is great #she accidentally adopts a different young person in the meantime anyway LMAO