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laufire · 5 months

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🩸 COVER REVEAL: THE SANGUINE SORCERESS 🩸

A blood-soaked tale of feminine rage Centuries before the events of When The Stars Alight, Serafina Stilia prepares herself to be sold off into marriage. Descended from an immortal race of demons, their might is plentiful, but their lack of fertility proves to be a crippling weakness against other races in a cursed land of scarce resources. With territorial wars ongoing, the constant demand for fresh warriors weighs a heavy burden when failed births or excruciating death is an almost guaranteed certainty for childbearing. Unwilling to play the role of sacrificial pawn in her society’s imperial regime, Serafina continually strikes out against her violent father’s attempts to control her destiny and turns a lucrative suitor away at the door. However, the suitor is not so easily dissuaded, and her refusal only serves to embolden his determination to possess her. After her reputation is left in tatters by his unwanted advances, Serafina must carve a path to liberation from the fury of her honour-driven father. Or die trying.

If you like tales of revenge; if you like portrayals of imperfect (because fuck the idea of "perfect") victims; if you like unlikeable, righteously furious women; if you like stories about characters going down a dark path... and if you follow me, there's a higher chance than average that you like all of the above... I wholeheartedly recommend you read "THE SANGUINE SORCERESS", a short indie novella coming out soon.

It's set in a truly original, alternate fantasy world, written in delectably descriptive prose. And if you enjoy it, I can't recommend the author's other works enough. You can find them following the other links in the post, or following her here on tumblr dot com, as @aninkwellofnectar.

Credit for the cover goes to Rachel Bostick.

"THE SANGUINE SORCERESS" IS ALREADY AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER.

#signal boost #book rec #book recs #books #bookblr #fantasy books #novella #adult lit #indie author #indie books #writers on tumblr #the sanguine sorceress #the essence of the equinox #id in alt text #captioned

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jessread-s · 8 months

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✩🩸🌙 Special Edition Collection:

Obsessed is an understatement. Keep scrolling to read my full review of “Immortal Longings” and see why I had to get my hands on EVERY special edition of Chloe’s adult debut!

Gong makes a name for herself as an adult fantasy writer with her explosive debut “Immortal Longings.”

As with her other works, Gong draws inspiration for her novel from Shakespeare—specifically from his play “Antony and Cleopatra” in this instance. Her fictional world encompassing the the kingdom of Talin’s capital twin cities, San-Er, closely resembles Kowloon Walled City— an ungoverned and lawless territory that was once the most crowded place on Earth. Though the walled city was demolished in real life, Gong keeps its memory alive in her writing through her intricate world-building and descriptive prose.

Gong completely leans into the fantasy genre with “Immortal Longings,” which I thoroughly enjoyed. She establishes that those who have a strong qui are able to jump between bodies. This ability is crucial to the people of San-Er’s survival, as the twin cities have high rates of prostitution, gambling, and drug abuse. Additionally, jumping is beneficial to those competing in the King’s Games—a series of games hosted by the monarch of Talon where 88 citizens fight to the death to win unimaginable riches. The reader is able to alternate between the perspectives of two of the king’s players: Princess Calla Tuoleimi and Anton Makusa.

Princess Calla is a fierce cat lady who rocks bangs and leather jackets. She killed her own parents (the former rulers of Er) to bring down the monarchy, is no stranger around a sword, and isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. After years of hiding, she enters the games in secret, dead set on finishing the job she started by killing King Kasa—the ruler of San. Her chance meeting with Anton, however, throws a wrench in her plans.

Anton is a master jumper who was exiled from his life as an aristocrat. If he wins, he hopes to use the winnings to pay off the debt he owes to the hospital for keeping his childhood love alive while she is in a coma. While she is the one to give Anton’s life direction, Calla is the one to give it purpose.

On their own, Calla and Anton were merely surviving, but together, in their unexpected alliance, they find a way to live. The spark that develops between them reaches a fever pitch leading up to Gong’s first steamy scene, which is as violent as it is delightful.

Aside from Calla and Anton’s points-of-view, Gong supplies the reader with chapters written from August, Pampi, and Yilas’ viewpoints. Through them, we learn of every betrayal, deception, and ruse. Despite this and knowing in advance that “Antony and Cleopatra” is a Shakespearean tragedy, nothing could have prepared me for the whiplash I experienced at the end of “Immortal Longings.” I’m afraid my heart won’t stop pounding until I get book two of the “Flesh and False Gods” series in my hands.

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

@chloegong

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charliesopus · 9 months

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This was a labor of love and the most complex piece I’ve ever made.

7096 stitches, 98 hours. 2-strand on 18ct.

I was just so in love with this book cover, I couldn’t not.

The book is Crush, the second installment in the Crave series by Tracy Wolff :)

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mendingbone · 9 months

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i keep seeing people in their late teens/early twenties having a "[X] content intended for younger audiences does not feel satisfying to me anymore but i don't know where to start to branch out into adult fiction" moment and i thought i would give some recommendations for adult fiction for my fellow creepy crawly queer people. all or at least a LOT of it will be on the darker and more fucked up side bc i primarily engage with horror and thriller media personally but feel free to add on with more or recommendations from other genres :)

edit: i am continuing to add to this list so there might be new recs (highlighted in pink) in here every once in a while! also want to add that there's a variety of POC, queer, and disabled authors in here as well, i am also all of the above (asian, bi/aro, poly, disabled) and tried to incorporate as many of their wickedly talented, compelling narratives as possible. that's all, happy reading!

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers

A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E Schwab*

A Dowry of Blood, S.G Gibson

Animal, Lisa Taddeo*

A Ripple of Power and Promise, Jordan A. Day*

Bunny, Mona Awad*

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi*

Cursed Bread, Sophie Mackintosh*

Dark Places, Gillian Flynn

Dead Girls Don't Say Sorry, Alex Ritany*

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk*

Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh*

Fruiting Bodies, Kathryn Harlan*

Goddess of Filth, V. Castro*

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski

If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha*

Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao

Jackal, Erin E. Adams*

Juniper and Thorn, Ava Reid*

Kindred, Octavia Butler*

Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin*

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee*

Rabbits, Terry Miles*

Scorched Grace, Margot Douaihy*

Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn

She is a Haunting, Trang Thahn Tran

Slewfoot, Brom*

Sorrowland, Rivers Soloman

Summer Sons, Lee Mandelo

Supper Club, Lara Williams*

The Centre, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi*

The Change, Kirsten Miller

The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling*

The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher*

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter, Soraya Palmer*

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri

The Locked Tomb, Tamsyn Muir

The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling*

The Red Tree, Caitlin Kiernan*

The Unfamiliar Garden, Benjamin Percy*

Vicious, V. E Shwab

Wake, Siren, Nina MacLaughlin*

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher*

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chardwic · 2 months

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Books I've Read in 2024: Bride by Ali Hazelwood

"You don’t know anything about what it’s like to find your other half, I would take anything she chose to give me—the tiniest fraction or her entire world. I would take her for a single night knowing that I’ll lose her by morning, and I would hold on to her and never let go. I would take her healthy, or sick, or tired, or angry, or strong, and it would be my fucking privilege. I would take her problems, her gifts, her moods, her passions, her jokes, her body—I would take every last thing, if she chose to give it to me."

#nalitsource #nalitedit #bride #ali hazelwood #lowe x misery #booksociety #brideedit #misery lark #lowe moreland #paranormal romance #na lit #new adult lit #books i've read #*mine

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spillthewinemedia · 4 months

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These booty gifs 🥵 paint it red babe 😍

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lets-get-lit · 3 months

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If we don't have each other, we don't have anything.

- S.E. Hinton , The Outsiders

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nicollekidman · 3 months

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god the thing with books is that there is room for literally everyone in every age group with every taste from every walk of life and every preference!!!!! it's literature!!!! a foundational part of humanity!! but publishing trends are squeezing kids/teens out of genres and markets created specifically for them to chase the childadult contingent, while at the same time, romance/erotica (which is healthy, fun, has always existed) is being marketed aesthetically similarly and to the same audience of what used to be YA. so now there's a very weird collapse that is simultaneously putting adult romance in front of children, squashing teen stories, and sanitizing actual erotica. it is VERY weird but it is not an issue with authors suddenly being bad or women suddenly being stupid perverts, it's a direct result of the publishing industry and how books are being sold/published/marketed

#middle teens being pushed out of YA #YA being marketed to immature adults #and /erotica/ either being completely sanitized or on the other hand ridiculed #for being exactly what it's supposed to be #is all resulting in a very counterproductive mash #my advice to people in my age group is to read some goddamn lit fic once in a while but #its a publishing issue by and large

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laufire · 1 year

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COMING OUT ON JUNE 2023: "WHEN THE STARS ALIGHT" BY CAMILLA ANDREW

Thanks to tumblr I've been fortunate enough to meet incredibly talented artists of all kinds. Among them, one of the greatest privileges this site has let me enjoy was that, last year, I got to read earlier versions of the two first instalments of this wonderful series: "The Essence of the Equinox". Now, I get to read the definite version of this indie book, and soon will be able to hold what's setting out to be a gorgeous print edition in my hands ^-^

Alongside some other short stories and a novelette I've read as well, tEotE portrays an intricately built magical world that's a welcome change of pace from the modern fantasy I had been finding trite, woefully misogynistic and repetitive in the last few years. That level of depth and originality in the worldbuilding alone would've been enough for it to carve a space into my heart, but it doesn't stop there.

I've always been a fan of descriptive, lyrical prose; the kind that makes you want to pace yourself and sit back to enjoy a good turn of phrase and daydream about the lovely (or terrible) scenarios it presents. If that sounds like something you'd enjoy, you'll find plenty of both here. On a personal note, I recommend reading on a full stomach: the food descriptions are particularly mouth-watering xD. But my favourite bit is how the different settings come alive in the narration, especially the contrasting dream-like Soleterea and the nightmare-inducing land of Mortos.

Other points in its favour for me, and I'm willing to bet, for a lot of the people who follow me, are its larger-than-life leads and its female-majority ensemble of characters, all of whom are varied and fascinating in their own right, with important roles inside the story, and who'll you get to meet in earnest thanks to an expanding omniscient narrator.

Princess Laila Rose of Soleterea, from a powerful race of fallen stars in humanoid form, is the protagonist of the trilogy. In fairness, she's not the first character in the 'verse that truly caught my eye; that honour goes to a particular Mortesian blood sorcerer who you won't properly meet until the second book (which is intended to be published a year after this one). But she quickly rose in the ranks and has become one of my favourite characters, period; in this and any other canon.

First of all, she's the uncontested star (no pun intended) of the story, outshone by none (that one, I admit, was on purpose). She's a firm idealist whose optimism is put to the test in her journey; she possesses endless charm and a silver tongue, as well as difficult insecurities that make her all the more endearing to me. She's at the centre of everything, and the dynamics that spark around her are another one of the selling points of the series: from her toxic and most defining relationship with her Impératrice and mother Amira, to her complicated friendship with her guard and past paramour Lyra; and, of course, to the intense, passionate and doomed romance that propels the series.

The novel's plot is kick-started when Laila's work examining potentially dangerous magical objects leads her to discover what seems to be a demonic monster encased in a block of ice. He turns out to be Dominus, a prince of a hidden immortal race: the Occassi, from Mortos; a kingdom as different from the idyllic Soleterea as it can be. When he gets free Laila travels with him on a diplomatic mission to establish contact and relations with this species. This puts her right in the middle of that country's dysfunctional royal family: a heartless king, his reluctant heir, and an ambitious bastard son: Darius Calantis.

I find him to be the best representative of Mortos' realm, in a similar way that Laila is for Soleterea. He's suave and shrewd and intellectual in a land that puts little value on anything of the sort, more interested in brute force and military conquests. His frustrated ambitions, routinely suffocated by a tyrannical father, might find an outlet thanks to this new realm. He is, definitely, another character to look out for ;)

Finally, I'll say that most of all, this book both subverts and surpasses expectations. For example, as someone who tends toward scepticism when it comes to romance (especially that of the female heroine/villainous male character variety), I nonetheless loved every choice pertaining to the romantic subplot in this book. And I must insist on how after this one, an even better sequel (with some of my most beloved characters in the series!) awaits you ^-^

You can find an official synopsis here on goodreads or storygraph, where you can add the book to your to-read list. I also recommend following the author @aninkwellofnectar on tumblr (and on her other sites) for updates, because "When The Stars Alight" will be available for pre-order very, very soon. As of now, she's offering Advanced Reader Copies as well, if that's something you guys might want to look into.

Oh, and before I forget: there's a short story by this author published in the Fall Into Fantasy 2022's anthology. It tells a tale from Laila's mother's youth, Amira. On top of being a delight for fans of cold, complex female leads and tragic sapphic romance enjoyers, it'll offer you a taste of the author's style and the world she's created.

I ask that if you're interested, or think someone you follow might be, you reblog this to give a boost to this talented indie author!

#signal boost #book rec #book recs #books #bookblr #fantasy books #adult lit #indie author #indie books #writers on tumblr #writeblr #the essence of the equinox

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jessread-s · 1 year

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✩🪦🕯Review:

Bardugo’s adult fantasy debut is masterfully written.

I thoroughly enjoyed how the novel alternates between both Alex and Darlington’s perspectives. The longer I occupied their minds and uncovered their flaws, motivations, and fears, the more I grew attached to them as a result.

Additionally, I appreciated how Bardugo organizes “Ninth House”’s timeline by idea instead of by chronological order of events, which was a breath of fresh air. I was constantly on my toes as each chapter haphazardly moved backward and forward in time, caught off guard by the clever plot twists and shocking reveals in connection with the fantastical murder mystery storyline.

What made Bardugo’s novel even more enjoyable was her world-building. Much of the novel takes place in the New Haven area, specifically on Yale’s campus. Bardugo does a fantastic job immersing the reader in Yale’s atmosphere by providing detailed descriptions of the campus architecture, drawing the reader’s attention to defining landmarks, and weaving in the institution’s history. Her magic system is entirely unique and revolves around Yale’s many secret societies. Built on Nexus’ of power, the fictional Lethe House is meant to regulate their activities. Different abilities are attributed to each of the nine houses (illusions, elemental magic, shapeshifting, necromancy, portal magic, divination by use of reading entrails, etc.) and I loved trying to figure out what role each house played in the murder plot.

This book easily made my favorites list! I cannot wait to get my hands on “Hell Bent” and get my Darlington fix!

➤ 5 stars

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

@flatironbooks-blog

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zannareesewriting · 1 year

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#adult art #literature #writing #adult literature #adult lit #adult writing

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libertyreads · 2 years

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Book Review #117 of 2022--

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. Rating: 4 stars.

Read from October 13th to 14th.

I just took an account of the books I read in the first two weeks of October and realized I’ve finished 7 books so far. That’s basically a book every other day. Who is she?? I don’t know her. All joking aside, I knew I absolutely had to get another T. Kingfisher into my October reads this year after reading and loving The Hollow Places. And I was stunned that I enjoyed this one just as much as that one. These books are so different but also just so good. If you’re looking for something spooky or scary for the Halloween season, look no further than T. Kingfisher.

There are a lot of things happening in such a small book but nothing feels like it doesn’t get enough attention. It feels very well thought out and intricately plotted. And the author relies on some well known character tropes that helps the reader feel like they know the characters in such few pages. It’s a trick that is done just right so that the story is exactly as long as it needs to be and still making the reader care about the characters. It’s done SO well. I love the settings and the travel that these characters have to do while plotting the death of a king. It has some old school Fantasy vibes without actually being old school Fantasy.

I think the main thing I struggled with was comparing it to The Hollow Places which was the first T. Kingfisher I’ve ever read. Which might be the detriment of reading these two so close together. But once I accepted that this book was a whole different animal I got along with it better and struggled with the comparisons less. I also wish I could get a better understanding of the magic. I feel like that with any soft magic system so I’m not surprised that I have this complaint. But I don’t feel like I want 25 pages of exposition or magic training to show me how the magic works. Because this feels like it’s perfectly paced and adding that in would just throw it off. I think I just like a soft magic system less.

#Nettle & Bone #Nettle and Bone #T. Kingfisher #T Kingfisher #book review #book reviews #booklr #bookblr #bookstagram #books read in 2022 #2022 reading challenge #goodreads challenge #goodreads #books #book #adult literature #adult lit #spooky reads #halloween reads

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laylakellyvip · 16 days

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Whats your favourite

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hauntingfaerie · 17 days

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𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔰𝔢 𝔟𝔬𝔬𝔨𝔰 𝔰𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔢𝔡 𝔪𝔢 𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔬 𝔴𝔥𝔬 𝔦 𝔞𝔪 𝔱𝔬𝔡𝔞𝔶 🕸️🖤

#goth lit #gothic lit #goth literature #gothic literature #books #young adult books #ya fiction #goth #gothic #goth aesthetic #gothcore #gothgoth #purple goth #whimsigoth #𓆩♡𓆪

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hussyknee · 7 months

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The Career-driven Emancipated Woman Can Barely Boil Water trope is extremely sexist and white feminist. I've been waiting thirty years for feminism to move past this classist girlboss bullshit and I'm clean out of patience. Even aside from the gross devaluing of traditional female labour, grown-ass adults should be able to feed themselves and their families regardless of gender. If you're abled and have had the resources to learn basic life skills but you've elected not to because you think you can always pay people to take care of your ass, you're a privileged nitwit who's trying to weaponize incompetence.

#sorry not sorry #generations of women have not worked themselves to the bone to keep your ungrateful asses alive #for you to wear being an incompetent adult-toddler as a badge of honour #cooking cleaning and laundering aren't rocket science #girlboss feminism needs to be killed with fire #writing #tropes #feminism #internalized misogyny #chick lit #romance #strong female characters have done untold damage to intersectional feminism #knee of huss #classism #white feminism

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