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I've been really slacking off on Dreamwidth things as I scramble to finish my DAI replay before Veilguard comes out... I'd say I'll hopefully catch up after that's done, but then I'll be playing Veilguard, so... But for now here's my September + October reading round-up! Again mostly graphic novels, but also a few books I'd been looking forward to that all released around the same time.



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Summer reading post! I'm finally sitting down and going through what I've read in the last few months so I can do a reading update lol. It's mostly been graphic novels and romances of varying genres because I'm predictable. Summaries and thoughts under the cut though I may be lazy and do some copy-pasting from my reviews on Goodreads...


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☆ I finished reading Bloom into You! It grew on me by the end, I enjoyed the main characters' individual development and the conclusion to their story. It had a happy ending, of course, and it was sweet getting to see the little time-skip at the end. Plus the art is very pretty, so I'd definitely recommend the series to anyone looking for a f/f romance with a little high school drama. I especially liked the message that love isn't just feelings, it's a choice you make over and over. Their struggles/character arcs felt more real to me than those stories with the grand love-at-first-sight style romances (which are very fun! but not particularly realistic).

Not sure if I'll bother watching the anime since I've just got so much other anime I want to watch haha, but it looks like there's a light novel side story with Sayaka as the protag which I may look into, I really felt for her while I was reading so I'd love to read more about her.

☆ I also finished my Crooked Kingdom buddy read with my friend! Still such a good duology. If anything I was even more emotionally wrecked by this series the second time around than the first lmao, I literally cried at the end of Inej's final POV chapter. Ketterdam is such an interesting setting, it's like a character all on its own, so while CK felt slow at times compared to how the momentum of SoC was always moving forward it was worth it to see all the character development/relationship growth/etc. I'd love a third book with the Crows if Bardugo ever wanted to go back to this series. (I'm not particularly enamored with her current series, I'd be absolutely thrilled if she did another Grishaverse book next lol. I was floored when I found out Bardugo wanted to do at least 5 books in the Ninth House series, like first of all is Alex going to fail college and have to repeat a year or something. What kind of plot could possibly keep this going for 5+ books. BUT I digress.)

Anyway yeah we're trucking along and have started on King of Scars, though I'm only a couple chapters in so far. I've realized I barely remember anything that happens in these last two books?? I have a few specific memories of plot points that I THINK are probably from the second book? So it's like I'm reading this one totally anew so far. My buddy read pal didn't like Zoya in the original trilogy so I'm hoping these books turn her opinion around because I love Zoya.

☆ And lastly, Honkai: Star Rail release! I actually haven't even downloaded it yet lol I was waiting to see if they were going to announce a Playstation release date but as far as I can see they haven't. So I guess I'll just download on PC to start and if they finally do release a Playstation version I can switch over. I haven't played the other Honkai game(s?) but I do play Genshin and Star Rail looks neat so I definitely want to check it out. Anyone else planning to play?

☆ Welcome to all the new people I've added recently! Hopefully you find something worth your stay here. :) Feel free to comment on any of my posts if there's anything you want to say, but don't feel obligated if not. I've put together a quick intro post stickied to the top of this journal with the basics for future friending reference.

☆ TV-wise, I've started on season 4 of Star Trek DS9, I'm about halfway through so far. Personally I don't think I like DS9 as much as the other Trek shows I've seen (TOS was my first and still my fave, but I've also watched TNG and most of the recent shows like Discovery, Picard, SNW). DS9 has its good moments though (I recently watched the episode where they get stuck in Bashir's fake James Bond holosuite program lmao), it just feels like the episodes are more hit or miss to me. It's still Star Trek though so it's not like I dislike it or anything. I hate to say that Quark is probably my favorite character in this one lmao he's so funny. His interactions with Odo too, like why are you making me ship the little Ferengi man and Mr. Smooth-Face. I say this lovingly to Odo, he's really funny to me too.

(Still making my way through reading Crooked Kingdom and I had the horrible thought that the Kerch are basically the Ferengi lmao they both run their society on profit.)

☆ I also finished up the current season of The Mandalorian. Non-spoilery thoughts but cut anyway just in case. ( + )

☆ I'm trying to get back into writing fic again, or at least I want to try lmao. I used to write a lot more often but these days, like with the blogging, I just never seem to get around to it... I browsed through DW comms for writing comms, I miss those old prompt table type fic challenges so I found a few of those that look interesting. I might use the table from 100ships for inspo first, that one looks fun and I think the concept would be a fun challenge! I started writing a Nikolai/Mal ficlet while in the middle of reading Siege & Storm but didn't even finish it and that was what, 4 books ago lol. I know I just need to get motivated and get better with my time management so we'll see how it goes.

☆ Other than that, not much to update on. I finally (after 6 years) got a new laptop but it's terribly ugly because it's an Asus gaming laptop so I need to cover it up with stickers. Yet I am burdened with the curse of never wanting to use my stickers on anything...oh the permanence of it all. I'll have to fight my instincts and pick out a selection.

☆ A brand new start! I got it into my head to try and start journaling again because I missed the good old days of LJ and DW and such, spent several days crafting a username and layout and browsing for comms to join...and then didn't post anything for ages lmao. So we're off to a good start. Most of my time is split between going to work and chilling at home, nothing particularly exciting, but here's what I've been into lately.

☆ With the second season of Shadow and Bone imminent I had decided I wanted to do a re-read of the whole series and got my friend to do a buddy read with me since she'd never read any of the books before. ( + )

☆ I'm also finally going to finish Persona 5!! But P5 Royal this time lmao. Back when the game first came out I got it and played up to the pyramid palace, died in an incredibly annoying way after not saving for a long time, rage quit, and then literally didn't pick the game up again. So after *checks watch* six years I will finally beat Persona 5. I'm enjoying it a lot though, there's a lot more stuff added to P5 Royal than I realized. Maruki and Yoshizawa are fun new additions, I'd already gotten a little spoiled on Yoshizawa's story over the years but there's still a lot I don't know. I've only just finished Madarame's palace so I've still got a bit to go before I reach where I left off.

☆ I've been getting back into watching more anime/reading manga again too, so that's been most of my media time other than gaming. I finally watched The Witch from Mercury which was really good, I love the characters and the school setting. I didn't realize that it wasn't complete though which is both great and a bummer because I want to know what's going to happen next but now I have to wait!! Suletta and Miorine are so cute, let them be lesbians or else...

So currently I'm working on the other recent lesbian fan anime lmao Lycoris Recoil. I'm only about 4 episodes in, personally the plot isn't as, idk, gripping to me yet? But I'm enjoying the interactions between the main girls (they went on an aquarium date....), Chisato especially is super cute and I love her personality. But yeah hopefully the plot will pick up now that the establishing eps have happened.

☆ Manga-wise I'm working my way through both Oresama Teacher and Bloom into You. OT is very stupid lmao but it's by the creator of Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (which I love) so the art is pretty and it's definitely funny. The characters are even wackier than the ones in GSNK but they're a lot of fun. Meanwhile Bloom is much more subdued haha I've only finished 4 volumes so far and honestly I'm not super into the main pair yet? Like there's nothing wrong with them, the setup is interesting, but I'm a sucker for the pining best friend trope so I'm just sad for Sayaka most of the time. Find someone who appreciates you that way girl!!

☆ ANYWAY that's enough of that for now, I'm just rambling into the void at the moment about fandom stuff no one's going to read, so. I'm going to attempt to look for some friending memes and stuff if those still exist, see who's active on DW to follow these days. If anyone does see this, stop by and say hi \o/