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I read Maiden in the Foxcombe

Title: A Maiden in the Foxcombe Author: Tanya SM Kennedy Tags: adventure, mysterious, main character without love interest, she's ace-coded, dystopia, young adult Spice: None Cliffhanger: No CW: misogyny, child neglect, emotional abuse, confinement, cultural gaslighting, religion, graphic injury detail (let me know if I should add more)

A fantasy-dystopia where maidens are kept apart from society and taught how to be good housewifes, until failure Kardin breaks the mold and become a soldier. Meanwhile, Marsda learns how to live freely on the outside of society as an unmarried woman.

A Maiden in the Foxcombe is a fairly stereotypical dystopian young adult novel. Kardin lives in a walled in city where there is rampant sexism and classism, a dwindling food supply, and monsters that roam outside ready to tear young women limb from limb. Kardin doesn't cook or clean and has no interest in marriage or motherhood, which makes her a failure of a maiden. On her way to the Cell, the boogeyland for maidens, she catches her lucky break when Commander Lef recruits her for the Foxcombe. 

I think there's a lot of interesting ideas in how Kardin interacts with the world.  She has very strong Merida-energy, she wants to explore and read and fight, not get married and be forced into a life as a housewife. Personally, I read her as a demi-romantic asexual as her feelings of not wanting marriage or children or romance in a world that is hyper-focused on those exact things and feeling alienated because of it hit very close to home. I want to see her uncover the mystery of the neylon, and more importantly, I want her to meet Marsda and the other Sisters. One of the aspects of this book that I was not prepared for was the inclusion of Marsda, the other narrator. She is a very accomplished but "plain" young woman who was exiled to the Cell. Upon first glance it is a cave system populated by women, but Marsda quickly learns that it is a community where the sisters work together to survive. However, because they are outside the walls, they are within range of the neylon and their fearmongering training keeps them inside the caves most of the time, limiting the amount of freedom they truly have. 

I thought that by the end of the book Kardin and Marsda would meet and introduce each other to their ways of life, but that's not what happens at all. Hopefully it happens in the sequel. 

Other than that, I am glad that Kardin and Glend have a good friendship, with no weird unrequited love to be seen because they have very strong sibling energy. I do wish there had been a little more interaction between Lef and Kardin, they have mentor-mentee energy, but there's just not a lot of times where they speak to each other. 

I wish there had been less of the training chapters. After awhile they just dragged. In general, I enjoyed the book and I look forward to the release of the sequel. I would recommend it to someone who wants a queer-coded dystopian story with a medieval setting. It's a fun, if trope-y, ride with interesting characters, varied character dynamics between men and women, and a mysterious world. 

#a maiden in the foxcombe #maiden in the foxcombe #tanya sm kennedy #indie book #young adult #bookler #dystopia #with a dusting of medieval fantasy

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My current fav ship dynamics

#assistant to the villain #evie x villain #this is them

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I Listened to Batman Unburied

Title: Batman Unburied Author: David S. Goyer Tags: psychological, thriller, suspense, superheroes, hero/villain character dynamics Spice: None Cliffhanger: No CW: cannibalism, serial killer, child abuse, experimenting on a child, attempted assault, squishy gore sounds (let me know if I should add others)

While technically an audio-drama podcast, I'm counting it among my things "read" this year because I ingested a story and engaged with the characters.

Read More for Review (Spoiler-Lite)

I have listened to a lot of audiobooks in the last few years, including many by GraphicAudios (my favorite audiobook publisher) and Batman Unburied is an immersive, well acted, and well written audio-drama that tells a very good story with Batman as one of the main characters. I went into Unburied completely blind, so when I was listening to the first two episodes, I literally thought that they had taken an alternative universe route with the Batman cast. We meet Bruce Wayne as a forensic pathologist examining the latest victim of serial killer the Harvester. During his exam, he is stabbed and the Harvester finishes Harvesting the organs of the victim.

It was around this time I had to take my first break. I feel like I have a fairly strong tolerance for blood and gore and violence, but the sound effects used in the scene where the Harvester is digging into the victim are very tactile. You can hear the sounds of the squishing and the breaking, and personally it was just a bit too much for me to handle as I ended the first episode at two in the morning.

Bruce wakes up and in pure Batman fashion, continues to investigate the murders in a way very familiar to those who have seen too many police procedurals, plus a little B&E for flavor.

While Bruce is puzzling out the truth, we learn that Barbara Gordon is investigating the disappearance and presumed death of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Her investigation leads her to working with Edward Nygma a.k.a The Riddler, who has figured out Bruce Wayne's secret in his spare time.

I honestly really love the dynamic between Babs and Eddie here, they are equally intelligent and have a fun rhythmic banter that makes their interactions the highlight of the show. Personally, I found myself falling down a shipping rabbit hole almost immediately when I got the enemies-to-lover slow burn vibe. I guarantee I'm going to be chasing down that high in a book very soon.

Once the team reunites midway through the series, it's a fact-finding race to the finish line that I really enjoyed. I've already been recommending this series to everyone I know who likes Batman, but I've also been warning them about the CWs because I know that they are a lot.

#batman unburied #review #2023 #podcast #audio drama #david s. goyer #bookler

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For anyone who doesn't know, Biblio is a shop that lets you buy from independent booksellers all over the world - the focus is on used books, but a lot of the sellers offer new books as well.

It's great for people like me who are often looking out for weird out of print academic volumes or specific printings of certain books.

It's also often charming; sometimes the booksellers include little paraphernalia from their bookstores, usually bookmarks. At the start of the pandemic I used biblio to order "A Journal of the Plague Year" from one of my favourite bookstores in a city I no longer lived in because I was feeling... Well. Like everyone did at the start of the pandemic. And when it arrived, inside was a heartfelt handwritten note offering me thanks and reassurance that the bookseller must have realized that anyone ordering that particular book at that particular time must have needed. Ordering through biblio frequently manages to give me the sense that I've just strolled into a bookshop in [Germany or England or the United States or another province or Greece or or or] and approached the clerk with a weird request and they've muttered "will let me see now," and then trundled along to their shelves and pulled out the exact volume I was after. It manages to give me this sense even though functionally it's not really different than placing an order on any other site. I love it.

(Also, even though many of the same booksellers have a presence on Amazon, I've noticed that the same books from the same shops are often cheaper on biblio.)

It's also more than a way to connect stores and allow people to shop; there are resources on book repair and curation and all that on the site as well.

Anyway support independent booksellers.

#booklr #books and reading #used books #useful websites #i have some series i'm def gonna use this for

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Book Reccs - Villain Edition

Does anyone have any good book recommendations for a book or series where the hero(ine) has the choice between a hero and a villain? Literally any setup works, I'm not picky as long as the characters are good.

#bookler #book reccs #reading request

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I Read The Masked Fae

Title: The Masked Fae Author: Shari L. Tapscott Tags: historical, fantasy, romance, fae prince, not really a love triangle, grumpy male lead, beauty and the beast retelling Spice: Fade to Black Cliffhanger: No CW: familial abuse, ruling through fear, attempted murder, implied murder of a child, human slavery (let me know if I should add others)

Read More for Review (Spoiler-Lite)

When I realized partway through this book that there were very strong Beauty and the Beast elements I had to take a moment to assess how I predictable I am. One of my favorite versions of the fairy tale involves Beauty living in the castle and being visited in her dreams by a beautiful and mysterious prince that gives her cryptic messages and advice. So when the Masked Man starts giving Alice cryptic advice when he visits her on her balcony at night, suffice to say I was having a great time.

The main female character is Alice. She is a talented painter that is going to the home of the local Fae aristocracy in order to bargain for the release of her older brother, who gambled away their home in a game of cards. She's fair and witty, and exceptionally stubborn. I enjoyed her taking the knowledge that copper was poisonous to Fae and getting herself a small weapon, however, I thought her use of the tool left much to be desired. She was fun, but I think I just wanted her to be a bit more kick-ass.

Brahm is the titular Masked Fae (who is also the first prince of a matriarchal fae kingdom) who dons the mask in order to help lost humans return to their side of the bridge before they get caught by goblins or nefarious fae. It is through Brahm that we learn most about this part of Faerie and it's history, which is about ten different shades of fucked up. He is a broody, intelligent fae prince who loves his siblings and his people and does his best to protect them with the truly limited power that he has. His backstory lines up really well with his personality and I genuinely just want all three of the siblings to all be happy.

The world of this book is very dynamic and it feels like we are only seeing a small sliver of the larger world, which I really appreciate. It definitely feels like the type of world where multiple stories could take place on the same continent and all be very fresh because the reader would uncover various pieces of the world through all of the different characters.

The plot was pretty fun, there's a scene involving acorns in a childhood fort that I thought was extremely cute. However, I thought that the finale felt a bit rushed, though perhaps that was the point considering it felt like a lot of things happened in a very short amount of time.

Overall I would recommend this book to someone who likes fae romance and wants something on the cleaner side.

#bookler #the masked fae #shari l tapscott #fae romance #fantasy romance #also the weird love triangle between alice and both of brahms personalities was hilarious #i'm excited to get my hands on the sequels about brahms siblings #especially drake #cuz that one also involves eleanor and i gotta know #also i read this one via audiobook so if I spelled the names wrong that's why #2023

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I Read Assistant to the Villain

Title: Assistant to the Villain Author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer Tags: fantasy, romance, grumpy-sunshine dynamic, office romance, mystery, humor Spice: None Cliffhanger: Yes CW: multiple forms of abuse, especially familial abuse and neglect, attempted rape backstory, attempted murder, prison isolation (let me know if I should add any) Read Below for Review (Spoiler-Lite)

Reading Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer tickled the part of my brain that watched Ella Enchanted as a kid and loved the visual world building of movie-Kyrria. It has a very fun fantasy-medieval world with modern conveniences like coffee and clocks. That said, the true stand out elements of the story, are the characters.

The titular Assistant, Evie Sage, is an overly optimistic and clumsy girl that ran into her most ideal job. She's an interminable busybody who keeps the office in tip-top shape to the point that it literally can't run properly without her after only a few months. She could very easily be really annoying, but honestly I think she resonates as very relatable, especially as you get further into the book and learn more about her parents and the situation they put her in. It's also really interesting to watch as her inner dark side becomes more and more apparent.

Her boss, the Villain of Rennedawn, is in my humble opinion, a lot more quirky and grumpy than he is actually scary. It's established quite quickly that the Villain is only truly heinous to those that deserve it, which is pretty common for this character archetype. A Villain with a heart-of-gold if you will. I really like him because he has a lot of little character details that make him feel more squishy, especially his love for sweet and milky coffee, get the boy a latte machine. His relationships with his family members, while brief, are quite enlightening and I'm curious to see how they will develop in the future. He has some things that he has done that I believe will come to bite him (or maybe not) in the next volume.

Evie and the Villain balance really well and have extremely fun banter and chemistry. I look forward to witnessing how their relationship will expand in future volumes.

Personally, I think this is quite a good book for a first time author with a unique idea. I think she had a really good grasp of the characters, which to anyone who has seen her TikTok videos shouldn't be surprising. However, I think the world-building could be fleshed out more as I would have liked to see and understand more of the anachronisms of this world and I hope she adds more in the next book. I am also looking forward to more time spent with the side-characters and how the relationship webs out even further (especially Blade and Becky). A lot of questions were raised and answered in this book, but just as many were left for the next installment.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has seen her skits and was interested in what stories these characters could get up to if properly developed. Also to anyone that was a nice and light fantasy book with light romance and a mystery.

#bookler #assistant to the villain #review #evie sage #the villain #2023