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It's been 100 years since I did a book update!! I just kept putting it off and then reading more books which only made me put off writing anything longer lol. But here we go finally! Regular fiction and graphic novels here, I'll probably do a separate post about the manga I've been reading. What about you guys, read anything good lately?
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat (★★★★★) [goodreads]
Prince's Gambit by C.S. Pacat (★★★★★) [goodreads]
Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat (★★★★★) [goodreads]
The Summer Palace and Other Stories by C.S. Pacat (★★★★★) [goodreads]
A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles (★★★★★) [goodreads]
Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]
GRAPHIC NOVELS
GremoryLand Volume 1 by A. Rasen (★★★★☆) [goodreads]
Cuckoos Three by Cassandra Jean & Mosskat (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]
The Marble Queen by Anna Kopp & Gabrielle Kari (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat (★★★★★) [goodreads]
One of my favorite series of all time. This is my first re-read, as I originally read the books back in 2017, I think. In the process of typing up this entry I changed my score from 4 to 5 stars for this first book because who was I fooling trying to pretend to be objective. Everything about this series drives me insane. It lives rent-free in my head. I spent 7 years going "I need to re-read Captive Prince" until I finally re-read the damn thing.
There's no romance in this one, just the setup for the enemies to lovers plot and the overarching political plot, hence why I originally only gave it 4 stars. It's good, and necessary for laying the groundwork for the rest of the series, but I know it's going to get better. On a re-read there's so much stuff to pick up on that makes everything even more interesting/devastating, I love Laurent so much. Damen too of course, but being in his head for the POV you obviously get a better view of his character from the start than Laurent's. If you've only read this series once and are considering a re-read, I highly recommend it because it's almost a whole new experience going in knowing everything.
Prince's Gambit by C.S. Pacat (★★★★★) [goodreads]
Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular. 500 stars. My favorite book of the trilogy. Zero critiques. I had somehow completely wiped certain events and twists from my memory since my first read so I was just as shaken this time around as the first time. The enemies to lovers arc of this series is sublime. Pacat keeps you on your toes the whole time with both Damen and Laurent's relationship and the overall political plot. The absolute ideal of a romance series that's also plot-heavy.
Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat (★★★★★) [goodreads]
Finishing the Captive Prince series and feeling like you want to just lay facedown on the floor for an hour. Genuinely one of my favorite series, these books were good the first time around yet somehow manage to improve even more on a re-read with full knowledge of all the twists and turns. Damen and Laurent are fantastic characters whose romance hits all the harder for it. They live rent free in my mind for eternity.
I wish I could write more eloquent reviews for these books but I don't even know what to say other than I love every part of them. Following Damen through the story, learning about Laurent and the political machinations of both their countries and how Damen and Laurent get tangled up in it all, the wild shit that happens early on that you don't understand until later... Pacat's writing in general is wonderful, the romance and emotions and drama is so peak!!!
The Summer Palace and Other Stories by C.S. Pacat (★★★★★) [goodreads]
I know, you're probably like sheesh isn't she done going on about this series yet. No! This is a collection of CaPri short stories set during/after the main series. What I wouldn't give for 500 more of these... The Summer Palace is the highlight of the collection, a brief look at what happened after the events of Kings Rising and a chance for Damen and Laurent to begin to work through what happened between them and with their families. Also it's so damn sweet. 😭 The Adventures of Charls is so funny, great outside POV of Damen/Laurent. Green but for a Season made me sad about Jord all over again, I would've liked this one to be longer, but it was fun seeing baby Laurent in the flashbacks. Pet was the most surprising one, Ancel wasn't my favorite side character but I loved him/this story!
Now I begin psychically projecting my thoughts through the ether to Pacat until we get a Nikandros story. Please join me and together we can make this happen.
A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles (★★★★★) [goodreads]
4.5 stars rounded up. This is another M/M Regency romance, a sequel to The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen. Both books are set in Romney Marsh in Kent and feature a family of smugglers and their non-smuggling love interests. Luke Doomsday, a young side character in the previous book, is all grown up and causing trouble for Major Rufus d'Aumesty, who has unexpectedly found himself an earl inheriting a manor at the edge of the marsh and whose uncle is determined to contest the validity of his inheritance.
I quite enjoyed this book and didn't really have anything nitpicky to say about it. I liked it more than the first for sure (which wasn't bad, just less my cup of tea). The Luke/Rufus romance in this one was much more engaging and I liked their dynamic a lot, as well as the angst around Luke's subterfuge. Luke as a character was very good; this definitely is a series you want to read in order to get Luke's full backstory/not get spoiled on the events of book one.
Overall these books aren't what I would recommend first as a KJ Charles fan (that's The Will Darling Adventures for me) but they're still worth a read for any Regency romance fan, the first for the unique setting and the second for the character dynamics.
Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]
An F/F fantasy Regency romance this time! But sadly a bit of a disappointment to me given how fun the premise sounded. In a world where gods and fae and magic are real, Maelys Mitchelmore finds her entry into high society hindered by an irritating curse. She ends up enlisting the help of a woman rumored to be a witch who murdered her family to inherit their fortune. Shenanigans abound. Oh also the whole thing is told from the POV of Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream, who has been cast out of Oberon's court and has to make a living like a mortal, thus the story.
I debated rounding this up to 4 stars for a bit, but in the end I decided to keep it at 3. As much as I enjoyed this book for the humor, characters, and historical fantasy setting, it did not hold up quite as well as a romance and thus I did not enjoy it as much as the couple other historical romance books from Hall I've read. The story being narrated by Puck was fun but didn't really let the book delve into the characters' heads, and the structure of the book (having a major climax in the middle) left the second half sort of dragging. Hall's writing is just as entertaining as in previous books, and I liked the gods-and-faeries-are-real Regency setting, so it was still an entertaining read, just not a super convincing romance. I'll probably still read the sequel/companion book that's coming out later this year.
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]
I picked this one up on a whim because it sounded interesting even though it's horror, which is not generally my thing. It's a novella about a mermaid (the kind that eats people) and a plague doctor who come across a village of "immortal" children controlled by a trio of surgeons they consider like saints. Lots of gore and body horror in this one. The mermaid narrator was the most interesting part to me, but the overall story didn't quite hook me like I wanted. And the prose is lyrical almost to the point of being too abstract in places, which, combined with too much thesaurus-heavy vocab, made it kind of annoying to read at times. Perhaps those more into horror would appreciate this book more than I did.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
GremoryLand Volume 1 by A. Rasen (★★★★☆) [goodreads]
I say horror isn't my thing and then here's a horror graphic novel lmao. But we had volume 1 at the library and a coworker rec'd it so I figured why not. A theme park horror comic that originated as a Webtoon. I zoomed through the whole book in two sittings, and it definitely did its job of making me interested in continuing, as the book ends on a cliffhanger with even more questions that need answering. The art's decent, with some certainly creepy/disturbing sections. My main gripe is that some of the messaging is very like...'after school special PSA dialogue spoken directly to the camera'-esque, almost like this was a middle grade novel or something, which it obviously isn't. But it's not a major problem or anything, and I'd still rec this to anyone who might enjoy a "trapped in a psychological horror theme park that's trying to kill you" comic.
Cuckoos Three by Cassandra Jean & Mosskat (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]
This left so little an impression on me I didn't even remember I'd read it until I looked back at my Goodreads shelf. I didn't even write a review for it. So I'm just going to copy-paste the blurb for it: "Murry Summerfield, relentlessly decent son of the farmstead, meets Jacob Durris, charming but troubled new neighbor. When he discovers why Jacob has moved out to the countryside, Murry has his hands full keeping his friend happy and dealing with his own blossoming feelings." It was kind of like a less sappy Heartstopper?? The art was nice and it was a cute read, but ultimately didn't really stick in my mind.
The Marble Queen by Anna Kopp & Gabrielle Kari (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]
A fantasy F/F romance graphic novel about a princess with an anxiety disorder who manages to get herself into an arranged marriage with the queen of a neighboring country without actually realizing she's marrying the queen and not the queen's brother. Along with the romance plot, there's some political machinations happening and the threat of war looms.
Sad I didn't love this one as much as I wanted to. While still enjoyable, the overall feeling I had was that things could have been developed more, both with the romance and the plot. The romance is sweet but not particularly engaging, and with the plot things seems to happen out of nowhere or get solved too easily. The interior art isn't the same style as what's on the cover, and while I liked it, the more simplistic designs made it a little hard to keep track of the various side characters. Also not a huge deal breaker but the font chosen for the text was kind of hard to read? Which was distracting. It's a quick and easy read and the character designs are nice, so if F/F fantasy arranged marriages are your jam it's certainly still worth a read.
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As a matter of fact though I did read a book I really loved this weekend! It has been so long since I've sunk into a book and just sucked it down in a day, but this one got me. It was called Venomous Lumpsucker but I'm gonna hold off writing more until my own journal post about it >:T
I should finish Captive Prince at some point... also The Salt Grows Heavy sounds kinda like my jam...
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that's definitely A Title lmao the blurb I just googled sounds interesting though. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts!
*chanting softly* finish Captive Prince, finish Captive Prince
and The Salt Grows Heavy is pretty short, like 100 pages? so it's a quick read if kind of esoteric writing + surgical body horror is your vibe
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Someday I hope to read Captive Prince!
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Snotgirl high five! I have no idea what's going on with that comic, I think it's still on hiatus?? no idea if it's ever coming back...
🥺 pwease... I hate to be like "you won't be disappointed!!" in case you actually don't like it sjdhfsjh but oaauugh it's so good you won't be disappointed.
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I really need to get on that.......
The Salt Grows Heavy sounds like something I'd like too. 100ish pages is probably just the right amount for extremely wordy prose haha.
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Yeah I'm not sure I could've taken a longer book written like that haha. Novellas are always very hit or miss with me it seems, but at least they're short so I don't feel like I wasted my time or anything.