Emma Donoghue is an auto-buy author for me and Learned by Heart is yet another proof of why.

I am already a dedicated Lucy Foley fan so I am so happy to have received The Midnight Feast from Netgalley. I have enjoyed all of Foley’s books thus far

I rated Lizzie Pook’s debut, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter a well-deserved five stars, so I salivated over her new release, Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge until Netgalley pitied me and gave me an advanced reader copy.

Drawn in by the ballet connection, stayed for the deconstruction of gender in dance history.

The first quarter of Midnight in Everwood is perhaps a little slow. I liked it, but I was not amazed.

I was a fan of Alexis Henderson’s debut, The Year of the Witching, so I have been pumped to dive into another of her creepy narratives. House of Hunger takes a vampiric approach and has a sapphic storyline like one of my favorite vampiric fiction works: Carmilla.

The whole possessive brother trope is tired

I enjoyed Cross the Line by Simone Soltani, but it was cringe AF. The writing style was really cringe as well, but I have nothing specific to point to as “evidence.” It’s just vibes.

Original Grimms’ fairytales vibes. If Frozen were more gruesome and focused on discrimination.

It took me a while to understand the world’s magic system[s] in The Wolf and the Woodsman, but I got it in the end. I think.

She does not even like this job! Haven’t we all been there?

✨ uncomfy ✨

I love Juno Dawson’s writing – please come and rip my heart out, Juno!

I wish I had read it when I was 15.

Blaming my current sleeplessness on Elizabeth Macneal herself

Elizabeth MacNeal is back! Creepy historical fiction! Her narratives disturb me so much. I love it. I am patiently waiting for her to disturb me again.

Another hilarious literary success for Jesse Q. Sutanto. The charm of Dial A for Aunties continues in Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers with an appropriate puzzling and silly death.

It’s a bit on the nose that fiery Carly has wild red hair, but I choose to believe she’s the ballet Anne Shirley just needing a chance to grow into herself.

Marcus is one of my favorite leading men in a romance novel (up there with Jacob in Act Your Age, Eve Brown, Alex Claremont-Diaz in Red, White, and Royal Blue, and Keiran in Sweethand).

If you’ve ever wondered “What if All the Light We Cannot See were actually good?” Wonder no more.

Like putting on an old favorite pair of fuzzy socks you thought you’d lost.

V. E. Schwab’s newest addition to her formidable oeuvre delighted me.

Kept me guessing (mostly)

I got a copy of The Loch by Fran Dorricott through Netgalley and I very much enjoyed it.

The Vaster Wilds is the nature imagery book Where the Crawdads Sing wishes it could be.

Lauren Groff is an auto-buy author for me now. I started with Fates and Furies and The Monsters of Templeton, and I have been solidified into a diehard fan through Matrix, which is why I have been salivating over this advanced reader copy of The Vaster Wilds.