tinkaton | 073 ☆

Trying to bang out this post before the end of the year and I just barely made it lmao. The reading round-up for November and December! As you can see, I made good on my promise to re-read The Last Binding trilogy.

FICTION

The Last Binding Trilogy by Freya Marske (★★★★★) [goodreads]

Historical, Fantasy, Romance. Set in an alternate Edwardian England where magicians have their own secret society, book one starts off with the non-magical Sir Robin Blyth accidentally being assigned to a government post meant to be the liaison between England's magical and non-magical society. After he's cursed by mysterious attackers, he gets caught up in a magical plot that threatens all of England's magicians--one of whom is Robin's new coworker, Edwin Courcey, a magician looked down upon for not being particularly powerful. This overarching mystery/conspiracy plot goes across all three books, with a new pair of characters as the main focus in each book. Book one is M/M, book two is F/F, and book three is M/M again, if the covers didn't give it away lol. Other characters include: Maud, Robin's headstrong younger sister; Violet, a magician who ran away to America and became a vaudeville actress; Lord Hawthorn, an ex-magician and Edwin's bitchy ex-boyfriend; and Alan, thief, journalist, and writer of pornography.

I feel like I praise these books so often I don't need to say anything else lmao. This is the series I just spent over 100 bucks on special editions, I love it that much. This was my first re-read and I loved it just as much as the first time around. The characters are SO fun, the romances are wonderful, and Marske's prose really shines here. I love the found family aspects and how funny everyone is together, it was such a highlight of book three with all the characters working together. If I could force people to read anything, it would be--actually it would be the Captive Prince books--but this would be the SECOND top choice if I could force people to read just one thing lmao.

The Will of the Many by James Islington (★★★★☆) [goodreads]

Fantasy, first in a series. In a setting based on the Ancient Roman Republic, the Catenan Republic runs on a hierarchy where the lower tiers of the pyramid cede their literal Will to the upper echelons, leaving the lower ranks drained and the upper class physically empowered. Orphaned ex-prince Vis is sent to the prestigious Academy in order to learn the truth about a murder that occurred there years ago, and to find out what other secrets are being hidden.

My friend has been trying to get me to read this for like a year and I finally got to it lmao. It's like 600 pages!! I'd say the only reason this didn't get 5 stars is 1) the first 30% of this book could have been cut down imo and 2) the prose itself is fairly average; there's no poetic turns of phrase here. But it makes up for those two things with its interesting characters and an intriguing plot, and I really like the world building. (I took Latin for 5 years in school lol I love a Roman-themed anything.) There were some wild twists/events that really had me gasping when they happened. And the end of this book creates a ton of new questions I can't wait to learn the answers to (hopefully) in the next book!!

GRAPHIC NOVELS

The Book of Bill by Alex Hirsch (★★★★☆) [goodreads]

Fantasy, Horror. Tie-in to Gravity Falls featuring everyone's favorite Tumblr sexyman triangle, Bill Cipher. I was a big fan of Gravity Falls when it was airing, and I heard good things about this book, so I decided to pick it up from the library because why not. And it was a very fun read! Genuinely made me laugh in a few places. Lots of spooky imagery and cool artwork. Would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoyed the show.

Lore Olympus: Volume 7 by Rachel Smythe (★★★★☆) [goodreads]

Fantasy, Romance. Cue me cheering every time Ares has a single line of background dialogue. It's kind of incredible how this series is so long but the main plot only shows up every 10 chapters or so. Yet I'm still reading it, so I guess we know who's winning the war. Seven volumes in, I finally cave and admit I enjoy Hades. *insert 'you are not immune to propaganda' Garfield meme here*

I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner (★★★★★) [goodreads]

Historical, Romance. George wears men's clothing, has just inherited a failing family estate, and has a crush on their best friend, Eleanor. Eleanor wants to be a proper lady, but she'd much rather spend time with her two best friends, her cousin Charlotte and George, and insists she's never going to fall in love. Of course, that's when a new suitor comes to town.

This says it's inspired by Jane Austen, but it's pretty much just an Emma retelling, which is fine by me. I had a lot of fun with this one--the art is cute, there's some good humor, and the plot and drama are engaging. Plus I'm just a sucker for gay Regency stuff, so. Definitely recommend for fans of any of the above mentioned things.

Over My Dead Body by Sweeney Boo (★★★☆☆) [goodreads]

Fantasy. A girl goes missing from Younwity's Institute of Magic right before the Samhain festival. Her friend, Abby, is certain something suspicious is going on and decides to find out what happened--both to her missing friend and in the similar disappearance of another girl from the school many years ago.

I felt kind of bad giving this two stars so I bumped it up to three, lmao. The art is very nice, but there's not a lot going on here otherwise. It was mostly vibes, the story never really hooked me and the characters were just okay.

073 ☆

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