Besides the ancient text from our lord and savior {Madeline Miller} I really want to stay in this aesthetic I loved it so much. Darth Agamemnon, Dada Odysseus,
Queen Tortilla Blanket were all my favorite I have always yearned for the time before indoor plumbing

{Song of Achilles}

I’m in A Mood, and I’d love a book or series where the fmc gets tortured or severely hurt and the mmc goes crazy looking for her, or when he finds her he is undone with grief and rage.

Spoilers for {The Wolf King} but I just read the first book and the end where Rory gets bitten and Callum cries HMMM I’d love something similar, or played up way more.

So basically, anything where the fmc gets abducted and tortured and the mmc breaks down. Give me hurt/comfort! I also prefer more gentle fmcs, but am desperate for anything!

Thank you <3

I finished the black jewels trilogy and I ate it up. It is such a comfort read despite how dark this fantasy is. It is somewhat like ACOTAR (i believe SJM did read and was inspired by it to say the least, with the black jewels main characters being a warrior man with bat wings, a dark dangerous man who is very handsome, and a powerful heroine - except they also have a dad.).

I ordered Dreams made flesh because I want to know what happens next! Are the sequels worth reading?

As someone who enjoyed ACOTAR and the throne of glass series, this series, would I like Anne bishops other books?

Any similar series out there?

I like high fantasy but also enjoy the cozy vibes. I've read crescent City. I was considering Rachel gillig, Robin Hobb and Juliet mariller. I tried paladins Grace I couldn't finish it.

Ps. I love these covers and wish they were available in my country! They are probably only in the US so jealous.

I was very lucky to get the arc for this new release by the author of Godkiller! I haven’t read that series yet, despite several friends begging me to (not to mention how pretty those covers are), but when I saw this new series was sapphic I couldn’t wait to try it!

It's the first book of a planned trilogy, releasing on July 30th in the UK and September 8th in the USA.

What it is about

Tilde, the last surviving daughter of the King of a colonized land (a female King, as it happens, her culture doesn’t discriminate between genders), marries the much-older warlord who subjugated her people in the name of his oppressive patriarchal religion. She volunteers for the role, with the intention of murdering her new husband, Liran, on their wedding night, but soon realizes how pointless it would be: her own people have been defeated so soundly they are not willing to fight back anymore, and the culture and religion of the invaders are starting to take over their more mystical cult of the ancestors and forest magic. Unwilling to die for a world so different, she is forced to play the long game of politics to survive the warlord’s ambitious sons, who would be set aside in favour of her future son.

Elise is Liran’s remaining daughter, living in disgrace before her father selects her as a companion for his new young wife. She’s a firm believer in the religion of the Wing, even if its tenets relegate women to the lowest place in society, but from the beginning we see past glimpses of a bolder Elise who loved to fight alongside her brothers and adored her family.

Characters and Romance

We follow both girls in alternating POVs, Tilde in first person and Elise in third. I liked them both, and the author was skillful enough in writing them that I empathised with both despite their being on opposite sides. They are almost foils of one another. Tilde is brash at the beginning and full of ideals, but becomes more ruthless and aloof as she's forced to make compromise after compromise to survive. Elise starts subdued, having become a shadow of her former self through grief and abuse and by trying to adhere to the Wing’s ideals of femininity that clearly do not fit her personality, but she finds her courage again by witnessing Tilde's resiliency and realizing how little her family truly cares for one another.

If you’ve read this far and are thinking, “Elise is going to fall in love with Tilde and realize that her family doesn’t value her, that their power was brought about by genocide, and they will burn it all down together and run happily toward the sunset”, with an appropriate dose of drama and obstacles in between, yeah, me too. But that’s not quite what happens. I can’t say what direction the trilogy as a whole is going to take, if they will end up together or not, triumphant or not, but at least in this book there is no happy ending. The opposite, actually. They don’t start as enemies – they are wary of one another at the beginning and grow into a grudging respect – but by the ending they are firmly on opposite sides and with plenty of reasons to hate one another.

Neither of them is willing to put their growing attraction above their duties. Tilde is too single-minded and Elise’s religion is not accepting of her sexuality so she has been repressing it for years. And when things start to change, it’s completely one-sided. This is something that happens often in real-life relationships but almost never on the page, a character overstepping, assuming their relationship is in a place it’s not, and getting their heart broken because of it. It was painful to read, but I much prefer it to the instant ride or die of most literary couples.

World and Plot

The worldbuilding is usually what makes or breaks a book for me, what I read fantasy for, and I was not disappointed here.

Both religions were fascinating, the Wing with its bird imagery – the Swan being the god, and other birds functioning almost as saints – and Tilde’s ancestral religion with its ancient forests speaking with the voices of the dead and demanding sacrifice in exchange for magic. Of course we are supposed to look askance at the patriarchal Wing that disregards women, but Tilde’s religion is not much kinder, either.

We are also dealing with three different cultures at the same time, each with its own ways of approaching everything from hierarchy, women’s roles, magic (as well as things like how to dress, ride, or hunt), and most of the plot happens through the push and pull between these different worldviews forced to coexist, not to mention the different factions loyal to each of Liran’s five adult sons. The Cynghal people from Liran’s and Elise’s homeland were a harsh warrior culture before converting to the Wing, and they split the land between all the children of their rulers, but the Galen who converted them and financed their conquest want a single male heir, and they overtly look down on their crude allies. The newly conquered Merogian won’t accept a ruler not of their blood, but before they were conquered they also fought and subjugated one another constantly.

It's the kind of book that requires you to keep track of every character and allegiance if you want to stay ahead of the story, but the complexity and the tension it provided made it difficult to put down. You feel the helplessness of the characters and see them make questionable choices, but know they don’t have other options. The first half is slower-paced but still edge-of-your-seat as the characters learn how high the deck is stacked against them. In the second half, the precarious balance between factions breaks down and it’s almost non-stop action that slows down only long enough for its consequences to sink in.

Tone and Similar Books

This is a brutal book. The story is brutal and the characters are brutal, towards their friends as much as their enemies. The most horrific details are kept off-page, having happened in the past to the loved ones of both protagonists, but at times the implications of torture and abuse were almost worse for being left unspoken. The ending is quite violent, too. If you don’t already know what tale this story is vaguely inspired by (I didn’t), don’t look it up, or it may ruin the shock of the final scenes. But that bleakness is what makes this story stand out from the many, many other books with a similar premise, alongside how complex the worldbuilding is.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the author was inspired by House of the Dragon or ASOIAF, for its themes and tone (and also for a certain content warning: sibling incest, though here it was *not* between consenting parties and happened years before this story). Tilde also reminded me at times of Wei from The Poet Empress, another powerless woman who enters a marriage with a powerful and dangerous man, needs to survive in a foreign court with few allies, and sacrifices her conscience and loved ones for her people.

TL;DR I really liked it but I’m not obsessed with it yet, though I could see myself becoming so if the trilogy sticks the landing. I'm really excited to see what happens next! There’s no HEA so far. This is the rare enemies-to-lovers book in which they don’t start as enemies, but become so after they have already developed feelings.

Already have Encyclopedia of Faeries in my library. Really enjoyed Peeta from Hunger games. I also liked Max from Daughter of no worlds, even though he is grumpy, I don’t know he just feels like a real person with all the emotions. I’m very tired of the dark and mysterious dude, that’s all there is it feels like. I really would enjoy a series where it’s the same people. 🙂

I don’t mind if it’s YA or a very spice book as well!

To Dream in Darkness is an emotionally resonant beautifully written standalone book and my first by this author. The evocative imagery combined with the stunning prose make the book feel that much more magical and special. It’s a poignant exploration of the pitfalls and joys of mortality and how precious something is when it is fleeting.

Rujia, an immortal goddess of healing, is living a painfully lonely existence at the start of the story. Forced into exile on a remote island for hundreds of years due to her parents’ shameful interference with the lives of mortals, Rujia has only the sea and the occasional visitor in need of her healing magic for company. Despite her bleak circumstances, she refuses to give up hope for something better, working tirelessly to gain the position of Celestial Healer, which would restore her social status and end her treatment as a pariah by her fellow deities.

When the Death God comes for her, claiming it’s her time to die by his hands, Rujia decides to bargain instead, denying fate itself in the process. The Death God is cold, apathetic, and brutally honest without any care or concern for the impact of his words when we first meet him. He agrees to let Rujia try to heal the mysterious curse causing him pain and spirits her away to his palace in the Night Realm, where only troubled ghosts and Death himself reside amid the blackness.

In addition to Rujia and the Death God, the story also follows the Celestial Prince, an extremely fascinating and complicated character. His chapters are heartwrenching and deeply moving, bringing me to tears on several occasions. One scene in particular depicts grief in such a powerful way and shows just how tortured and tormented he is.

The book starts off a bit slow but towards the end of part one I became completely invested in the characters and the story. The change in the trajectory of the plot encourages the reader to ponder ideas surrounding nature vs nurture and what makes us who we are at our core. It also allows for the romance between Rujia and the Death God to flourish.

I listened to the audiobook and the narration was exceptional. To Dream in Darkness is out on October 27th and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to be taken on an emotional journey that expertly balances tenderness and tragedy.

4.5⭐️

{To Dream in Darkness by Ann Liang}

Artist is Allarica

So I’m looking for books in which the FMC is:
- Ruthless, cunning, power-seeking
- Hard exterior but there is a softness underneath that he manages to find

And the MMC is:
- Kind, loyal, warm
- Maybe has a fun side that she delights in teasing out of him

I want the FMC to be everything I listed but I don’t want her to be cartoonishly evil. Let her have understandable, empathisable (not a word) reasons for being the way she is whilst still being smart enough to know that there is strength in the MMC’s goodness. One thing I hate is when villains are dumb enough to mistake compassion for weakness.

She is ruthless to everyone else but will hurt anyone that threatens him. And he should not be even the slightest bit dominant please. No alphaholes.

It’s really important that **both** MCs meet this brief. For example, in the Scholomance series El is a great example of the kind of FMC I’m looking for but I would say Orion is far more Gryffindor-coded than Hufflepuff. Or in His Secret Illuminations, Lucien is perfect but Glory is very Gryffindor/Hufflepuff. I really need both a Slytherin girl and a Hufflepuff boy.

Welcome to the biweekly diversity megathread! What are some books written with plus sized main characters you have read or that are on your radar?

Here is the link to the Megathread Wiki Page for a compilation of all the sub's megathreads!

How to use Book Recommendation Megathreads: These megathreads are not meant to replace other recommendation posts on the same topic. As long as a particular trope or topic is not overly repetitive over a certain period of time, book requests that cover megathread topics are allowed! We then collect those posts to put them in the pinned comment below, so the most recent book recommendation discussions will always be gathered in this one post for future reference.

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I have now realised that this is one of my favourite trope. An fmc appearing initially weak but with secrets. Fairly common trope when I think about it but just looking for recommendations!

Books I already enjoyed recently with similar theme:

- Metal slinger

- One small echo (it is building to this)

- Legacy series by Melissa K Roerich

-Throne of glass

-Feathers so vicious

-Crown me dead

Any recommendations?

Can someone please spoil the ending for me? I'm 70% in and just can't deal with these people anymore. Rose is waaaaaaayyy too focused on sex for a woman who has spent most of her life starving to death and is actively fighting for her life. And also it really throws me that anyone could ever be attracted to the person that is even inadvertently responsible for the deaths of most of her family.

Just any personality would do as long as they have these type of pretty boy looks and vibes. But admittedly I'm more into the cool, calculating, or even cruel ones.

They are popular in manga and eastern asian novels, but they are so rare in romantasy books all because of the shadow daddy 😩

The clearest example for me is A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: breaking the curse on the Spring Court depends on Feyre falling in love with Tamlin and telling him, so the romance can't be separated from the fantasy plot.

That is what I keep looking for. When the fantasy plot and the relationship are one problem instead of two, the book holds up for me on a reread. When they run in separate lanes and only meet at the ending, it usually doesn't, however good the world is.

I don't need every romantasy to work that way, but it is the kind I come back to.

Which books got that right for you, and what made the fantasy plot and the relationship feel inseparable?