#stand alone novel

[tempest-melody]

Book Review: Tress of the Emerald Sea

Title: Tress of the Emerald SeaAuthor: Brandon SandersonPublication Date: 2023Publishing House: Dragonsteel Entertainment If you have been following this blog for a while you know that I fell in love with the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. When I heard that he was publishing some standalone novels in The Cosmere, this is the shared universe of many of his novels, I knew I had to read…

View On WordPress

#Book Review #Book Suggestions #Brandon Sanderson #Mistborn #Reading List #Stand Alone Novel #The Cosmere #Tress of the Emerald Sea

[pheonixrainbow15]

THE SUN AND THE STAR SPOILERS

"'That doesn't sound like me,' Nico said, trying to play a deadpan, but Will gave him a stern look. Nico laughed. 'Okay, Okay, fine. Maybe that sounds like me.'"

Page 88 of tsats

"'That doesn't sound like me.' [...] 'Okay, perhaps that is true,' the god (Hades) allowed."

Page 439 of tsats

Like father like son.

#tsats #the sun and the star #nico di angelo #pjo hades #will solace #solangelo #I took out the what was in between the second quote because of MAJOR spoilers #look the page up in the book is you want to see what i left out #the father-son parallels were interesting #and this was probably the only place I could post about it #“Oh Pheonix you dropped off the face of social media for a few months!” #Yeah I was busy reading most of the books in the riordanverse #PJO #HOO #TOA #I've never read a book so fast #let alone a series #let alone THREE series' #and a stand alone novel #In only a few weeks #10/10 stories #10/10 books #hades #tsats spoilers #the sun and the star spoilers

[littledigits]

Brynn doenst flirt but you can watch him chop wood and do chores in his cabin

#art #ocs #brynn #he can be on a romance novel cover but standing on his own in the corner please #leave him alone hes gotta prep for the winter #:( he just wishes he could grow a full beard #be a true lumberjack #alas..fae genes..

[studybcddy]

so pleased with my growing collection of secondhand, very well loved agatha christie books 📚

#studyspo #studyblr #bookblr #books #problematicprocrastinator #myhoneststudyblr #notebookist #agatha christie is my go to author for whenever i need something comforting but still stimulating enough to keep me hooked #and she has never let me down #i've actually read all her poirot books and am slowly making my way through her miss marple ones #as well as the other stand alone novels 🤓 #could not love her books more <333 #mine

[aceredshirt13]

Wodehouse Adaptations

Hello everyone! So, a while back, I made a Google Doc documenting Jeeves adaptations, and a different Google Doc documenting non-Jeeves Wodehouse adaptations. However, I decided it would be better to just combine them - and also add a bunch more that neither past document had! So now I present to you... the Ultimate Wodehouse Adaptation Doc!

It's got all the adaptations I could find on the Internet of Jeeves, Blandings, Psmith, Ukridge, Mr. Mulliner, Golf Stories, Uncle Fred, and Drones Club stories, neatly arranged by medium and date. If you're only looking for adaptations for a certain series, there's a handy-dandy emoji categorization system, so all you have to do is pop one of them into CTRL+F and it'll take you to any adaptations marked with that!

Naturally, if you know of any errors in the doc, or see anything that's missing, please let me know! Thank you very much, and enjoy!

#red randomness #jeeves and wooster #blandings #blandings castle #psmith #ukridge #mr. mulliner #golf stories #uncle fred #drones club #p. g. wodehouse #not including all the adaptations of stand-alone novels and plays #because i only have so much strength in my body #and also a lot of those stand-alones don't even have adaptations #anyway this was so very much work to collect #so i hope it is useful to you all!

[aroaceleovaldez]

The sun and the star isn't in my country yet and I was really excited about reading it but after reading your blog I'm low-key scared...

On a scale of 1-10, how much would you recommend reading it anyway?

It depends. Obviously everyone's personal preference is different. Generally though, as far as I've seen, things seem to be divided more or less along the lines of:

If you enjoy low-stakes, cheesy, "tropey" stuff, "fluffy" stories, etc. If you have a higher tolerance for quality of writing (i.e. "bad" writing doesn't put you off). If you are on the younger end of the fandom. If you don't mind fics or etc where characters act "out of character" or you're not a huge stickler for details. If you are a huge Will and Nico fan and all or a good amount of the above is true (or if you're relatively apathetic towards Will and Nico. Basically if you aren't super picky about them being done "right"), you will probably not mind TSATS, or at least not think it's as horrible as most people are saying.

However, if "OOC" characters, incorrect details, and cheesy/"tropey"/too much "fluffy" stuff is not your vibe, or you have low tolerance for quality of writing, if you're on the older side of the fandom, or if you were looking forward to drama and high-stakes stuff and angst or hurt/comfort or horror, you will probably dislike TSATS. If you aren't super invested in Will and Nico or Solangelo you will probably find it boring (unless you hate Solangelo and think it's funny). If you are a stickler for Will & Nico/Solangelo details/continuity you may be disappointed.

I would generally say a decent litmus test for how you'll react to TSATS is how you felt towards TOA - if you really really liked Trials of Apollo, you will probably find TSATS fine. If you really hated Trials of Apollo, then reading TSATS will probably be a nightmare for you.

None of these things are bad, obviously. To each their own. But that's the best guide I can offer you. Most of what I say stems from a very structural and analytical standpoint, so things like character/detail consistency, writing quality, and etc are things that I tend to focus on. If you do not care about those specific topics at all, then you may just think it's "eh." You usually figure out if you hate it or not by the middle of the book, if not earlier by like, the big flashback chapters. So yeah. Hopefully that helps.

#tsats #the sun and the star #pjo #riordanverse #Anonymous #ask #completely devoid/removed from all riordanverse content. like ranked as a Book On Its Own. i'd say its maybe like. 3.5/10 #mostly because as a companion novel it DEFINITELY does not stand alone. it would not make Any Sense #and its still Meh Quality. but there are worse things to read for sure

[lexwritesgayshit]

Why is it so difficult to find recs or goodreads lists for adult speculative fiction by authors of color that aren't full of books that are a part of a series? Please, I just started retraining my attention span. Your book series sounds amazing but I cannot commit 8 books! Where are my beloved stand-alones?

(Throw "available on Libby" on top of everything, and I'm struggling)

#authors of color #speculative fiction #dark fantasy #urban fantasy #paranormal books #horror #horror books #paranormal #stand alone novels #novellas #lex rambles #booklr

[mermaidsirennikita]

Weekly Book Recs: 9/22-9/29

Duke of Depravity by Scarlett Scott

A very classic historical--pair a drunken, PTSD-ridden war veteran duke with a takes-no-shit governess who's actually spying on him because he's suspected of treason? It's delicious. This is the first time I've read Scarlett Scott, and I love the heat to her books, the wit and sense of humor matched with melodramatic emotion. The air is a bit... Tessa Dare meets Elizabeth Hoyt. Which is a really good combo, I've gotta say. Will definitely read more from her soon.

The Billionaire's Fake Fiancee by Annika Martin

Annika Martin's Billionaires of Manhattan series always evokes the sense of a truly great cinematic romcom. A lot of "romcom" novels are not actually funny, and she has such an upbeat sense of humor in her writing, along with some serious sex appeal. I didn't love the third installment after super enjoying the first two, but this one was a return to form--it may be my favorite yet. You pair a hairdresser obsessed with daytime soaps and Hello Kitty on a yacht with her stern client who hates everything she represents (... or rather, he's obsessed with everything she represents) and force them into a fake relationship... You have magic. Actually, fake dating is so ubiquitous in contemporary at the moment that it often doesn't work--but here, it so does. A fabulous "grumpy hero has a love realization" moment included.

The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert

Kind of wild that I've been bitching about being bored with fake dating lately, only to recommend two fake dating books back to back. But in my defense a) they're both really good and b) they both came out a few years ago, back before the trope was quite so exhausted. Anyway! This is great. I'm a sucker for a good royal romance, and this hits. Ruben's a very "nice guy in the streets, fuck you and leave (consensual) bruises in the sheets" type of hero, which is difficult to resist. And he's a Danish-ish prince! But where Talia Hibbert really excels is in writing great heroines, and Cherry is no exception. No nonsense yet bratty (in other words, the ideal match for Ruben) with a tough veneer that masks a very sweet, very kind heart. It's super hot--there's a moment where he tells her he likes to take control in bed, and has an "oral fetish", as if these are potential problems--but it has a soft center. TW: domestic violence (not between the couple). #23for23

Her Errant Earl by Scarlett Scott

A classic "marriage in trouble by way of his dipshittery" book, short and sweet--or not so sweet. I personally enjoy a cheating book. In this case, Will and Victoria never really had a relationship before he began cheating; he marries her to appease his father, sleeps with her once, and is off on his way for six months. But it doesn't hurt her any less, and so you have a lot of groveling, some secret keeping, and plenty of righteous anger on her part. It's not complicated, and it could stand to be a bit longer. But if you want a good long grovel with actual misdeeds to make up for? This is it.

Her Lovestruck Lord by Scarlett Scott

Another "low-down cheating dog" book, as the second installment of Scott's Wicked Husbands series (a series with a premise for me if there ever was one). In this case, however, Maggie's husband Simon never bothered to consummate the marriage before ditching her--because he was already in love with a married woman, who subsequently dumped his ass, leading him to accidentally deflower his wife at a masked sex party, during which she was planning on cucking him in revenge. Whew. And I kind of fucking loved this one. Whereas Will of Errant is a rake through and through, Simon is stern. And possessive as fuck. And so confused, because he does not love wife!!! But why is wife all he can think about??? Why wife so pretty??? This one is for the "alpha male is downed by love" crowd, with a charming heroine and a third act twist that I didn't love, but--I did love the subsequent angst. Definitely scratched an itch.

#romance novel blogging #book recs #weekly book recs #books #book reviews #also read and super enjoyed the ever so angsty soulbound by kristen callihan #and am adoring forevermore so far #but! i don't think those two truly stand alone and so i'm not including them here

[dyrewrites]

Before Deluca is at 35k words.

That's it.

That's the post.

#writing rambles #imma go scream now #this was supposed to be a distraction #now it's going to be a stand alone novel that can be ignored when reading the series it ties into #or read first last or in-between for fun backstory on the main character

[americanrecord]

have planned 10/26 chapters and the outline is 12.2k…brevity!

#sorry everybody but i fear i may have stumbled upon the genre i was born to write #hardcore realism #domesticity… #mundanity! #i’d rather sever off my arm than set aside my actual kids but it’s nice knowing stand-alone novels will work out for me when i previously #believed i would be cursed with series bc i could never configure a clean wrap up #✯ — diary entries. #† — death is nothing at all.

[miirshroom]

Miquella Thoughts

Seems to have been a lot of Elden Ring discussion lately about Miquella as a Griffith reference from Berserk. I have not read Berserk, and rather than make half-formed guesses about that I'd rather tackle the question of Miquella's motives from other perspectives.

I've been reading one of my old favourite fantasy trilogies recently - the Mage Winds by Mercedes Lackey. It occurred to me that this is probably one of the sources of my strong negative feelings towards blood magic. Blood magic appears in at least 3 other storylines in the same setting, in one way or another. But the villain of this trilogy is a blood-path mage named Mornelithe Falconsbane.

Blood sacrifices, violence, enslavement and compulsion are the typical traits of a blood mage - pain and energy from cutting a life short are what fuel this power. And one of the main interests of this particular blood mage is in experimenting with creating twisted creatures to use as weapons - combining animals in unnatural and tormented ways. Also Falconsbane made cosmetic changes to himself to become a sexy cat man. Like a lynx. After testing them on his unwilling and abused daughter. Unanimous agreement among protagonists that he's a beast with no redeeming qualities. 

A twist is that this villain is also a body snatcher. He set a spell a few thousand years ago powered by the energy of his own death that would let him survive in the void until a blood descendant is born with a sufficient level of mage power. Remember how I mentioned that 3 other storylines involve blood magic? Turns out the same guy is responsible for 2 of them. The spell is keyed to activate the first time the mage attempts a basic fire-lighting spell, which is typically the first spell learned by an untrained person. Blood magic spell activates and he takes possession of the body and destroys the original personality. But in this particular case he slipped up and the original person that he stole his current body from has been a prisoner in his own mind for decades. So the nature of the conflict shifts towards the climax of the trilogy. There is an absolute evil monster to be destroyed, but there's also an innocent person worth saving underneath all that. And the stakes are raised because killing one guy won't solve the problem - they need to break the immortality spell so that this ancient evil will never return.

Back to Elden Ring. In general it seems that Radagon's lineage is cursed in a way that involves blood magic. There's a connection hinted between Radagon and the Leonine Misbegotten - which are twisted and tormented manufactured chimera. There's a connection between Radagon and the Thorn Sorcerers who wear red cloth around their heads mimicking flowing red hair (or Messmer, but it's all the same lineage so I see little difference). There are also the cessblooded Omens, who should of course be counted as well because Radagon is Marika.

And there's Miquella who practices blood magic in watering the Haligtree and is capable of feats of craftsmanship beyond his years, as if perhaps he is working from the memories and abilities of something far older than his physical form suggests. The Bewitching Branch seems to pretty explicitly reference a compulsion spell (as well as using the sacramental bud as a component - more blood magic), which in my experience is never a thing used by protagonists in any story. Unless maybe your protagonist is a vampire. So, never used by protagonists who are good people and don't see human beings as sheep for slaughter. As a side note, I recently watched the 3 hour-long ContaPoints video on Twilight and I am...connecting some dots about the roles of Mohg and Varre in the story (I have also never read Twilight).

I dislike trying to make guesses about whatever exactly Miquella is up to. He's associated with dreams, which do not necessarily need to follow the same metaphysical logic as the rest of the Lands Between. But still, there are these vibes that I keep in mind until further information arises. From one perspective I suspect that Miquella thought to enter the Shadowlands and conquer this Land, so that he could manipulate the Lands Between from the shadows. This is the Jungian perspective of animus, which has recently become my favourite pseudo-psychology to dismantle.

From another perspective, it is possible that the Shadowlands is something like the void in that story I mentioned. There is an immortal lich who was fled to lurk in the shadows and waits for a chance to be reborn, and Miquella has chased him here to stop that from happening. This thought also dovetails with some planting that I've noticed that combines the King in Yellow with Koschei the Deathless. It starts back in Demon's Souls, I think - where the yellow monk cloth takes the shape of a tornado when it possesses a victim (The Koschei travels with tornados).

What's also up to interpretation is how literally or symbolically this is all being handled. Like, Mohg emerging from Miquella's blood is a very literal way to depict cursed blood full of demons. And it seems confirmed as of the DLC trailer that Miquella has deliberately left behind his empyrean flesh (same as Ranni, who also has sleep powers and travels in dreams. Coincidentally.).

It was to this land that Miquella departed. Divesting himself of his flesh, his strength, his lineage. Of all things Golden.

As tempting as it is to speculate further on what exactly Miquella has planned for the DLC, all I'd say now is that I am dubious about his former intentions in the "waking world" of the Lands Between - not just of whether they were good intentions, but of whether they were ever realistic to achieve. But regardless of the past, there remains a possibility that the decision to abandon his metamorphosis plan coincided with a change of heart that resulted from the new perspective offered by the Shadowlands.

#elden ring #Like it's cool that Miquella is willing to provide safe haven for the misbegotten and albinaurics and such #But also those guys suck - they aren't some vibrant cultural heritage being oppressed but instead the products of twisted experiments #In hindsight I bet Lackey drew inspiration from the Death of Koschei the Deathless and the Firebird for Mage Winds #And then 3 years laters was like hmm actually why not just do a stand-alone novelization of 'the Firebird' #Also FromSoft fans need to read a book other than Berserk #Like there are interviews with Miyazaki and GRRM about their favourite stories but research is a thing and other people work on these games

[white-weasel]

This week’s Mythic Quest once again has me thinking about the message of how your art, whatever you truly put your heart and emotion in, will always be worth it even if it’s not what people would deem successful

#c.w’s commercially unsuccessful novels have young Ian something to love and unlocked his own creativity #Ian’s game of the story and world he shared with his mother inspired Poppy despite the fact it was a free web game with no acclaim #just GOD everything about the mythic quest flashback/stand alones make me emotional #mythic quest #mythic quest season 3

[alliluyevas]

did anyone else read that book series that started with a book called “tunnels” with the subterranean secret civilization that was kind of steampunk and the main character was looking for his adoptive father and also his younger sister turned out to be a set of evil twins. i read the first two books and then for some reason never kept reading but i have regularly been like i wonder what happened in that batshit ass series and excitingly my local library system has all six (6!!) total books so it’s time to find out

#i personally love dropping series and picking them up years later. i read mortal engines in like sixth grade and thought it was a stand #alone novel and was like god but that's a bleak ending and then like 2-3 years later realized it was a series lmfao

[mothmoira]

mark oshiro works hard but i work faster

#the sun and the star #solangelo #solangelo standalone #nico di angelo stand-alone #nico novel #playlist #nico di angelo #will solace #percy jackson #Spotify

[bam-stroker]

FIRST DRAFT OF DRAGON ROMANCE NOVEL IS FINALLY DONE!

O my goodness, I'm gonna sit in this joy for a minute before I think on editing land. I started this up as a silly little thing in 2020 to cope with The Shit of that time. It was just for funsies until this year when I realized I actually really love writing, and went through a flurry of discovery for my voice as a writer as well as that romance/smut are areas I absolutely love to dig my little skeleton hands into. This one is for sure the passion project I'm dragging out of the closet to make happen. But I really love the characters and the story so it's fully worth it to me.

One step closer to being able to share it with you all next year :')

#we poppin the BIGGEST bottles #dragon romance novel #royal rogue #spooky rambles #writing process #writers on tumblr #i've done a lot of editing along the way so truly it shouldn't be too rough #now i can finally write the fuckery they get into post ending #*rubs hands together like a villain* #tbh might just have that smut be stand alones #depending how long they are

[ashtray-girl]

with more ppl discovering (or re-discovering) anne rice’s works bc of iwtv, i do hope that they will give her other books a chance as well. like, ‘cry to heaven’ is my all-time fave novel and if handled well i do think it would make for an incredible tv show.

#it's a stand-alone novel & it has nothing to do w/vampires tho #but MAN i wish more ppl knew abt it #i 1st read it when i was 16 & it literally rewired my brain #(also it's queer af) #anne rice #iwtv #cry to heaven