Title : Queen of Shadows Author : Sarah J. Maas Also by this Author: Crescent City Series : Throne of Glass, book 1 Age Category : Adult Published by:  September 2015, Bloomsbury Publishing Pages: 648   p. Genre:  Epic fantasy About Queen of Shadows Celeana has returned to Adarlan, with the information she was seeking from her aunt in Wendlyn. Much has changed, since the last time she has set foot in the capital city. She has now embraced her true identity Aelin Galathynius, the Queen of Terrasen. She will be the one, standing in the way of the King's plans. She will fight to free her friend and her cousin. Unite her crumbling kingdom and overthrow the king. An ambitious plan will her people stand by her and help her achieve victory? My thoughts on Queen of Shadows Disclaimer: This review will contain spoilers for the book, if you haven't read the book, it is not advised to continue reading this review. The books by Sarah J. Maas seem to become long the further you get into a series. Queen of Shadows was a lengthy one, with 648 pages, yet it was never boring. The first three books have been a setup for this book. Where we are back in Adarlan, in the capital city, and living there is more dreadful than it felt in the last two books. Dorian is now being possed by a demon, Chaol is being a real ass, Aedion is imprisoned by the King and Arobynn is trying to get Celeana back. This is where the story starts, and it feels heavy and dreadful. The book does a really good job of showing the reader, the feelings of the characters, but also shows a lot about the surroundings. It creates a certain atmosphere where everything seems lost, and we are holding on to little glimmers of hope, at the time. Celeana is now Aelin, and the book addresses her in this way. The characters that knew her from before, needed to get used to the new name, and she would also correct them. At the beginning of the book, Aelin sets out to rescue her cousin, who she thought was dead, Adion, who is being held by the King. It was supposed to be a lure to trap Aelin. She has a good plan in place to rescue Aedion and manages to do so. I felt that she got off easy, it was just too easy. I have thought about this a couple of times, and I have a theory of why it might have been so easy. Either the demon underestimated Aelin, or the King in his way tried to be disobedient. Either way, this part of the book was a bit of a letdown for me. Fortunately, this book is multiple points of view, and the chapters will switch point of view often. This book gets really dark, and I mean disturbingly dark. It makes me wonder if it was intended to be for a young adult audience. It was always my understanding that it is a young adult book, but the content in this book is really on the edge if you would ask me. I would not consider this for an audience under sixteen years old. The disclaimer at the beginning of this review is there because I want to get into why I found some of the parts of the book so disturbing. The dark side of the book is not so much tied to Aelin, but overall Manon is in a much more difficult position. In book three Manon Blackbeak, of the Ironteeth witches, was introduced as a character. We see her become Wing-Leader of the witches and she is now sent to Morach. For a while, we don't know why the witches are there. At first, I thought it would be to protect the tower, which has trapped magic, but after a while, the true horror of their purpose has been revealed. The witches are there to breed with the Valg demons. Unwilling test projects in a breeding program of horrors. I thought this was so disturbing, that I had to stop reading for a bit to process this information. Even though the above information horrified me, I just continued reading, it was so incredibly well written, that it keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Yes, it has some slower parts, but even in the slower parts of the book, something is happening. I also like the new side characters that were introduced, Nesryn, Elide, and Lysandra, all very strong female characters of course as that is what Sarah writes best. The other thing I like about this book is when we first got introduced to Manon's character in book three, I wondered to what end it served, then in this book, the character has a lot more pages, and there is much more depth to why this character is one of the main characters. Up until now, it was the character that was not connected to the rest of the characters, like Chaol and Dorian were there from the start and knew Aelin. Manon on the other hand knows of Aelin and Dorian, but up until now, these characters have not met. I love that there was a meeting between all the main characters. It seems like such a small detail but it makes me so happy. There are a lot of these small details in this book, that help the story along or close the book on a character. We do not have to keep wondering what happened to them. I think this might be the best book out of the series yet. Rating Queen of Shadows The Throne of Glass series seems to be less popular than the other two series, but so far it is working wonderfully for my taste in books. This series is a very well-crafted epic fantasy book, it has all the world-building you want, and it has a wide variety of characters. The first two books are a little different from books three and four, I think there are much more elements woven into the storyline in these two books. Queen of Shadows to me is even more compelling than Heir of Fire. There is never a dull moment in the story. The characters go through hell and back. And the story gets so dark, it is delicious and addictive. The reveal at the end of the book did come as a surprise to me, it was not what I was expecting. It is another one of those moments to treasure, in this wonderful fourth installment of the Throne of Glass Series. You know what is coming, the rating will be as the other books in the series 5 black cats coming your way Queen of Shadows. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : Heir of Fire Author : Sarah J. Maas Also by this Author: Crescent City series Series : Throne of Glass, book 3 Age Category : Adult Published by:  September 2014, Bloomsbury Publishing Pages: 565   p. Genre:  Epic fantasy About Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas Celaena Sardothien has survived in Adarlan for a long time, first in the salt mines of Endovier, now she is the King's Champion, but that is all about to change, as she is sent to Wendlyn to face her heritage. My thoughts on Heir of Fire When I first started the Throne of Glass series in 2014, I could not have imagined that the story would become as broad as it is becoming. I mean this as a compliment, not a criticism of the series. For years I have read only the first two books of the series, which mainly focus on Celaena, some side characters have their chapters, but the main focus remains Celaena. Heir of Fire begins upon Celaena's arrival in Wendlyn, she is in a lot of hurt and doesn't see the point in saving the world anymore. The way that Celaena acts at the beginning of the book makes her a very unlikeable character. It almost stopped me from reading further and never picking it back up again. However, I did pick it back up, out of pure curiosity thanks to the Fairyloot merch that said the book contains dragons, wyvern to be exact. I am delighted that I have pushed through on this series, because this third book, is something else. The amount of world-building done within this book is amazing and one of the things that makes me want to continue with this series. I can already confirm that I have now also finished Queen of Shadows, which I am also very excited to talk about. We are not talking about that one yet, we are continuing with Heir of Fire here. This part of Celeana's story is all about learning about her heritage, as we found out at the end of book two, that Celeana is Aelin, the assumed dead heir to the throne of Terrasen. Aelin has been Celeana for so long that, she does not know how to be Aelin anymore. She has put a wall around the trauma she endured as a child and would like to keep that in place, to not have to remember what happened all those years ago. To be able to learn about her fae powers, she also has to deal with her past, a past that has been haunting her for years. For the entirety of the book, Aelin remains in Wendlyn, learning how to use her powers and lots of time is spent training with Rowan. The rest of her time is mostly spent in the kitchen with Emrys and Luca, two of my favorite new side characters in this book. They are so wholesome, they give the dreary setting some cozy happy vibes. If we had only followed Aelin's story, the book would have been very boring, as she spends a lot of time training. The series has multiple points of view from the start, the main character is Celeana/Aelin but we also get chapters from Chaol, the captain of the Guard, and Dorian, the crown prince's point of view. Some smaller characters here and there are also added to help the plot. In this book a new character is added to the existing cast, enter Manon Blackbeak. Manon is an Ironteeth witch, these witches are badass. These witches are the stuff of nightmares; they come with iron teeth and iron claws/nails. They would not think twice about ripping a man apart. We first meet her when she is hunting but gets called home to meet her grandmother. Through Manon, we get some more insight into what the king is planning for Erilea. The king has ordered them to train with all the witch covens and ride the wyvern that the king has been breeding secretly. If Manon wins the war games she will become Wing-Leader, leading the army of witches. I like what Manon brings to the table. Through Manon's perspective, we can learn about the witch covens and their history, but it also gives us some insight into what kind of army the king is building. Meanwhile, we still have two pairs of eyes in Rifthold, through Dorian and Chaol's perspectives. They are both struggling with Celeana leaving and on top of that Chaol is struggling to figure out where his allegiance lies. These multiple points of view are something I have been enjoying so much, not only give this insight into what the character thinks but also help with the world-building. I love this world even though it is becoming darker by the minute. Rating Heir of Fire Even though I have some criticism as to Celeana's character, especially at the beginning of the book, when you get through her rough patch it will get better. Luckily there are plenty of chapters filled with other characters like Manon, Chaol, and Dorian. This keeps you entertained when Celeana is not her lovely self. There is always a slow beginning of the books I have read so far from Sarah J. Maas, she likes to build up her stories well, with lots of character growth and world-building. The downside to this is that some of the parts of the book are very slow. It is always worth it in the end when everything wraps up, into an epic finally. The endings are so damn good that I always end up giving these books 5 stars. The same goes for Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas, 5 Cats rating for another masterpiece in the highly successful Throne Of Glass series. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : First Grave on the Right Author : Darynda Jones Series : Charley Davidson, book 1 Age Category : Adult Published by: St. Martin's Press Pages: 310 p. Genre: Urban fantasy About First Grave on the Right "This whole grim reaper thing should have come with a manual. Or a diagram of some kind. A flow chart would have been nice." Charley Davidson is a part-time private investigator and full-time grim reaper. Meaning, she sees dead people. Really. And it's her job to convince them to "go into the light." But when these very dead people have died under less-than-ideal circumstances (like murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she's been having about an entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all. He might be something else entirely. But what does he want with Charley? And why can't she seem to resist him? And what does she have to lose by giving in? My Thoughts on: First Grave on the Right This book is so much fun, I am a big fan of urban fantasy settings. The book certainly falls in the urban fantasy category, as it is set in this world, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The main character of the book is Charley Davidson, she is the one and only Grim Reaper and is the funniest character I have ever encountered. She has such a good sense of humor that part makes the book much lighter than it is. When I first started reading, I thought it would be a light-hearted book, more of a paranormal romance than an urban fantasy read. I could not have been more mistaken, as this book has a lot of depth. It has an unexplainable, mysterious, sexy as hell entity, pun intended. The mystery around this character is only resolved at the end of the book. In between figuring out this mystery, we are also figuring out the mystery of the dead lawyers. There is a lot of detective work, and murders to solve. I liked that it not only focussed on the supernatural aspects but also on the humans in the story, such as Cookie and Charley's uncle and the family dynamic. It all feels very well-thought-out. The only thing that does not get explained, and I have been dying to know, is the following. If she is the only reaper in the world, shouldn't she be moving around a lot more to collect all the trapped souls that did not cross over? Are they left wandering the world, or do they eventually end up on Charley's doorstep, no matter where they came from? Lots of times in books, these questions will be explained at some point in the story, however at least it is not explained in this book. The reason for this might just be that the whole reaper thing never really gets explained to Charley, so she doesn't know her purpose in the world. This considering what we have learned throughout the story might very well be the case. By the end of the book, there were some 'aha' moments where parts of the mysteries got resolved, but I feel there will be lots of things to dive into for the next books. This book reminds me a bit of watching Ghost Whisperer, as this also has some more disturbing scenes, that might be nightmare-inducing for some people. Then there is of course the sexual tension between Charley and Reyes that was great. I loved this part, and I loved that one scene where it put Charley in a very awkward position. I laughed a lot during reading this book, the humor is so good in this book. The big conclusion at the end of the book came as a bit of a surprise to me, which is good, I like it when I can't figure out beforehand where the book is going. There are enough loose ends in the story, that we will have a lot more world to delve into in the next book. However, it does not feel forced, it feels like this part of the journey is done, and a new adventure will begin in the next book. Rating First Grave On The Right This book is hilarious, like watching an episode of Supernatural on paper. There is so much humor woven into the story. In contrast to the humor, there is also a lot of darkness and almost horror elements. Overall, I enjoyed this book, it was very well-balanced and just fun. Sometimes you just want to read something lighthearted and quirky, and this book delivers that in a supernatural manner. 4 cats for this one. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Almost spring! I am glad because I am done with the weather we have been having, I hope we will get more 20-degree sunny days when I can sit outside to read my books. This week's prompt is Movies/TV shows that would have made amazing books. The thing with this one is, that most of the things I have watched already have existing books for it, I could not think of 10 of them, here are a few though: Bones, Lucifer, and Grimm. I am swapping the current prompt for last week, as I have not been able to post in a while. I am figuring out how to balance my new life, which is a bit of a struggle as I am still dealing with my mental health, I have good days and bad days. That being said let us dive into 10 books I would like to read this spring. Evocation - ST Gibson I am so excited that I can read this soon, I got approved on Netgalley for an eARC of this, and I can't wait to get started on this. First I will need to finish The Famine Witch by Stephen Black, which is pretty good so far, it is a historical setting. It is set in Northern Ireland which is something different from the USA for once. Anyway, Evocation is about the occult, mediums, and the devil, sign me up any day for such a story. Circe - Madeline Miller I have read the first couple of pages of this once, I did not continue as I was in the middle of another book, maybe I should have because I haven't picked it up since. I feel a little sad about it, I love any book that focuses on a part of mythology, it being Greek or German or Keltic all of them fascinate me. Authority - Jeff VanderMeer I mentioned in my new to me authors post back in January that I wanted to continue reading more Jeff VanderMeer books, I enjoyed Annihilation, which was a strange and beautiful story. Beautiful Darkness - Kami Garcia & Margareth Stohl I loved Beautiful Creatures when I read it back in the day. As I have discussed before I am really bad at finishing series, like about 30 more series, I still need to finish this as well. I might as well start early this spring. Witches of East End - Melissa de la Cruz Did anyone enjoy the TV series when it came out? I must say I enjoyed that one as well, such a pity that it got canceled after one season. This book is a re-read for me, I want to highlight it as a Witchy post because these are cozy traditional witches. Kingdom of the Wicked - Kerri Maniscalco I have been obsessed with the cover since it came out, I want to find out if the hype train is worth it. I guess I will have to read it now, I have the beautiful Fairyloot edition of this book. It is even more gorgeous than the regular edition. Rebel of the Sands - Alwyn Hamilton I meant it when I said I want to finish some series this year, this book was phenomenal, I read it in one sitting, and ended up reading until 3 o'clock when I first read it. This book is amazing and I am ashamed that I never continued the series. Storm Front - Jim Butcher Urban fantasy is a genre I enjoy and would like to consume more of. The thing is I am a little bit scared of starting this, it is a long series, 17 books and counting. You have already read how good I am with finishing series, is this worth the commitment? Let me know if you read any. Pantomime - Laura Lam A main character who is both male and female, that is what piqued my interest. This is an older YA release from back in the day when the initial hype started. My copies of this series are also signed as I met the author at Dutch Comiccon. Honey Witch - Sydney J. Shields This will be coming out on the 14th of May. It sounds like a cozy witchy story. Sometimes you don't need high stakes, as Legends and Lattes has proven. Sometimes you just want to read something uncomplicated and cute. This sounds like such a book, read cottage, tiny Isle, and witch training. What is on your spring TBR? If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

It is that time of week when I post a top 10 things to read. The prompt provided for this week by The Artsy Reader is new to me authors I discovered in 2023. That was just too hard so we are going with new to me authors that I have not yet tried but want to in 2024. I own so many books, of authors I have never tried. So below are some authors of which I own books but haven't read anything or haven't read enough and authors that intrigue me to try them. 1. T. Kingfisher T. Kingfisher is a pen name used by Ursula Vernon. I just want to say, such an amazing pen name, that was the first thing that intrigued me. One of my favorite Booktubers Ashleigh of A Frolic Through Fiction has been a big fan of her work and when she first described one of the books I was like yes, give this to me. I need this in my life. Also, I want to read more horror books, I enjoyed Mexican Gothic and House of Hollow, which were my first two horror books. T. Kingfisher's " What Moves The Dead " revolves around fungi in horror. So I am looking forward to that. I do not own any of the T. Kingfisher books at the moment so it doesn't have top priority but I hope I will manage to read at least one this year. Also, horror fairy tale retellings are something I am down for as well. 2. Travis Baldree I think in the fantasy book world if you haven't heard of Travis Baldree yet, you have been living under a very large rock. As Legends and Lattes have a hype around it that is the likes of Sarah J. Maas. It has been read, reviewed, and mentioned by almost all my favorite Booktubers, and has been all over the place. It is such a cool thing to see an author come from self-publishing a book, getting picked up by traditional publishing, and seeing how it has grown into the hype it has now. I like these kinds of success stories. No, getting that out of the way, a cozy story about an Orc wanting to open a coffee shop, sounds just like my kind of read. I got this one for Christmas and I can tell you that I have already started it last night, next to Queen of Shadows, which I am also still reading. I was so surprised that I got this one, I had not expected this book, but I am so happy to have it and finally read it! 3. Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones has made a name for himself in the horror genre as well. The title of his book The Only Good Indians , got stuck in my head, so when I saw it in the books store you know what happened, I took it home. There are in total 4 books on my want-to-read list, I just keep piling them on, so I should at least see if I like his writing style. Also, can I just say that I love the cover for The Only Good Indians? Anytime you put a deer on a cover I am bound to at least consider buying it. The same goes for foxes by the way. 4. Brandon Sanderson Brandon Sanderson is still as popular as ever in the fantasy and science fiction genre. All of his series are highly regarded and have been on my to-read pile for the longest time. Brandon Sanderson scares me a bit, I don't exactly know why, it is not that I am scared of reading big books. Says the girl who just received 2 over 800-page books. So that is not why this author scares me. I think it is more a case of What if I do not like it? I will be divining in with sky-high expectations, so what if I don't like them, is not something I would like the conclusion to be. I own Elantris , so I could dive into my first Brandon Sanderson book whenever I feel like it. 5. Joe Abercrombie If you haven't figured it out by now, I am a fantasy reader. So it is probably not surprising that I am posting almost all the greats in the genre. This was kind of accidental though, back to Joe Abercrombie. I do own the first book in the First Law trilogy, called The Blade Itself. It is currently sitting nearby where I am writing this post, down on the windowsill, with a couple more books all staring me down, fighting for my attention, shouting, when are you going to read me? There is a change, my boyfriend decides to pick it up before I do, this has happened before, and he has devoured the Green Bone Saga in record time. I wish I could read as fast as he can, so I can finish more books on my TBR. 6. Jeff VanderMeer I have read Annihilation the first of the Southern Reach trilogy, it was such a fascinating book, full of strange things and not a clue as to what we are dealing with in this strange piece of our world, but is it? I kind of like this sort of mysterious story, it was very well executed and so damn cool. And yet I still have to continue reading the rest of the series. I am sure that I am going to love it, and I am curious about what else he has written, all the covers of the other books are so bizarre and I love them for it. Before I can treat myself to any of his other works I will have to finish Southern Reach first. Wish me luck it will take me a while probably. 7. Jim Butcher Now having all the epic fantasy writers down, let's move on to some urban fantasy. Jim Butcher has been on my wish list for years, however, there is where his works remained until last year when I finally picked up the first book of the immensely popular Dresden Files, Storm Front . I have a special place in my heart for urban fantasy, I have enjoyed the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs and Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. The above were both written by women, I am curious if there is a difference between the urban fantasy worlds women write and males write. I think Jim Butcher will be a great place to start. 8. Jay Kristoff The books that first caught my eye were the books you can see here on the right, the Nevernight Chronicles, which is also sitting on that same windowsill, other unread books on my shelves are the Empire of the Vampire in the stunning Illumicrate edition and in my upstairs library there is also a copy of Illuminea. I think my first attempt will be at the Nevernight series, I just want to know if I will love what is beneath the beautiful covers. 9. Diana Wynne Jones Howl's Moving Castle is by far my favorite of the Studio Ghibli films, it is my go-to movie for when I am sad or mad or just want to be happy. I have not read the source material yet that was written by Diana Wynne Jones in the 1980s. I want to fall in love with the world of Howl's Moving Castle in a new way. Also, I have always thought that there was much more to the story than we see in the film. I want to find out which parts are different or missing. Would you be interested in reading about a comparison between the movie and the book? Let me know and I might try this out. 10. Nicki Pau Preto Concluding this list, is the newest, new to me author, Nicki Pau Preto. I was an active FairyLoot subscriber for as long as I could afford it, I had to cancel my subscription a while ago as I could not anymore. But not before The Bone Smith arrived in my mailbox. I think Fairyloot has outdone itself with this edition. Also, the synopsis caught my attention and this now is a must-read book for 2024. What do you think of my free interpretation list of this week's TTT? If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

I have seen almost all my favorite Booktubers do this, going through their physical TBR, so it is high time to tackle my TBR. No I have not made a video for you all, as I am definitely not comfortable with video yet, maybe sometime in the future but for now I have done a head count and came to 223 books. Oops that is actually less then I anticipated but it is still a lot of books to get through. Some points of clarification, this to be read pile only includes fiction, non-fiction is an entirely different story, I did not think it was fair to include this, if you want to see a list of these books, let me know in the comments. I do track my non-fiction reading progress on Goodreads, but I do not have a TBR or anything going for this, at the moment. Also I have excluded all manga and graphic novels from this list, I want to keep this separate as I feel this is just a different category all together. I am not going to track these on my Goodreads, that is just for actually full length books without pictures so to say. Also for if you did not gather this from the title, ebooks are also excluded from this list. A TBR for this would be impossible to make, I have around 3000 books on my Amazon kindle account, these mostly consists of free ebooks, lots of them by self-published authors, every once in a while I do try to clean this list up, remove all that I am not interested in. I mostly read these as pallet cleansers, or when I do not know what I want to read then I pick up something that looks interesting. And usually around Christmas I pick up some of the Christmas romances just because I like the feeling it gives me, they almost all give me the Hallmark Christmas movie feel, except for Christmas Magic , which is actually a really well done fantasy story. I am not going to go through the entire list of 223 book, but you can find my entire list here on Goodreads . Let me know which books I should prioritize! I thought it would be fun to at least highlight some of the books that are there, so let's get started shall we? The longest book on my TBR The longest books on my TBR are both bind ups of series, the entire Earthsea series by Ursela Leguin, counting 1008 pages total and the Duivel trilogy by Adrian Stone, which is a dutch paperback edition, signed by the author, very nice guy by the way, this also has 1008 pages. However it doesn't really seem fair to have them be the largest book, so the largest single book award goes to Kingdom of Ash, the conclusion of the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. I am hoping to finish this series this year, as I really should finish all the series I own and started. I am currently half way through Heir of Fire. I am loving how the world got so much bigger there is even more world building then in the first 2 books in the series, so I thrilled, so I am pretty sure I will be able to stick it out now until the end. What do you think of the reprints that have been happening for this series, I honestly don't get the cover change, I absolutely love the original covers for this series. The shortest book on my TBR The shortest book on my TBR is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, I have always thought this would be longer, it is only a 120 pages, if I remember correctly the movie was rather long. I have a couple of classics in English in the same editions as this one, they kind of scare me as I have tried to read Emma in the past, I had a real hard time with it and did not finish it, so I am not sure if I will ever attempt to pick this one up, or any of the others that I own, maybe I should make a challenge out of it, as they are all pretty short, except for Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book with the highest average rating on Goodreads. Well that is interesting, the book with the highest average rating is Kingdom of Ash 4.67 (430.212 ratings, 42.947 reviews), the conclusion of the Throne of Glass series, which we have already talked about as being also the book with the largest page count. It has a rating of 4,67 (21.386 ratings, 4290 reviews). So we are moving on the with the runner up, with an average rating of 4,65, is another conclusion to a series, Jade Legacy, by Fonda Lee. Boyfriend is currently devouring the Green Bone Saga, he is on to the second book Jade War and he is loving it. I own the beautiful Illumicrate editions of these books. He can of course not tell me anything about it, because I still need to read them, but it sometimes works very well that he has read a series before me, because he will push me into reading and finishing a series so that we can talk about it together. That is what happened with the Arc of Scythe trilogy. The book with the lowest average rating on Goodreads. The book with the lowest average rating is Wormwood by G.P. Taylor with a rating of 3,10 (1814 ratings 174 reviews) , this is a book I found when I was in London, in a very cute vintage book store. It was such a joy to visit a bookstore with so many unknown books. I picked it up because at the time I thought it looked interesting, however, I am not sure if I will ever read it, it just doesn't call out to me like some books on this TBR. I think it is considered a science fiction book, which is also not my main reading genre. Other books in the lowest regions of the TBR are Witches Steeped In Gold average rating 3,21 (5.606 ratings, 1.504 reviews) by Ciannon Smart and Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar average rating of 3,30 (7.807 ratings, 1927 reviews). I am not surprised by the last one, but I was by Witches Steeped In Gold scoring so low, it was so hyped at the time it came out and was part of many book boxes as well. It is on my Witchy reading list for 2024 as well, so I guess I will find out. The book that has been on my TBR the longest The book that has been on my TBR the longest is Living Dead In Dallas, book two in the Sookie Stackhouse series, by Charlaine Harris. This is one of the books that came home with me from Canada, I have lived there in total 1,5 years. The last stay was 6 months in Manitoba where I have done an internship. I bought this book in my favorite book store in Brandon. I read the first book Dead Until Dark on the train from Manitoba to Toronto. I do not recommend this by the way, just fly from Winnepeg, it is the same price and twice as fast. I never gotten around to pick up the second book, I did enjoy the first. Now I feel like I would have to re-read the first before I can move on to this one, plus I would want to have the rest of the series too so I can continue, else it will end up like this one being stuck on my TBR for years. Let me know in the comments if the series is worth my time, I am curious to your opinions. The book that I have added most recently to my TBR I got this for Christmas from my boyfriend! I am so excited to read this, and I hadn't expected to get this one, I was really suprised that he remembered that I wanted to read this. The hype for this one has been enormous and I want on that train! You can take a look at my TBR, you can find it at my Goodreads , your always welcome to send me a friend request if you would like to get in touch with there. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

It is that day again, Tuesday, time for another top 10 post. I hope that you stick to it until the end because this is going to be a long one. It took me longer to write than come up with the goals itself. I hope you enjoy my goals and that it may inspire you to have goals for yourself or just to take the next step in your life. Blogging goals  1.        Write more posts and post regularly. This is something I have been struggling with for a long time. It is very difficult for me to find the time to sit down and write a post. A lot of thought and research goes into the posts I write, so it also takes me a lot of time to finish any posts. This year I hope to change this by setting the bar low. I want to start with posting twice a week. Two posts should be a manageable amount. I want to do this for both of my blogs. I got a second blog, where I write about music, something I thought would be as easy as writing about books, but it turns out that it is a bit more difficult for me. Music is even more personal than books, I still need to find my flow for this blog, it will be something I will also be working on.   2.        Add translations to all my posts. When I started out blogging on my previous blog, Ice Cold Passion , and before that Ice Queen’s Bookshelf, I wanted to create content for both an international audience as well as my own country. I know it is ambitious to have all my posts available in two languages, but it is something that I have wanted to do since I started. I am glad I finally made the switch to a different platform for blogging, my sites are now built with Wix, which has a built-in function that makes it easy to offer your site in multiple languages. I have already tried to do this for Finding Flight Cases but I have not yet managed to translate everything yet, so I want to change that. As for Witchy Reads, posts are currently only available in English. And for now, it is fine, I want to focus first on goal one, getting posts out twice a week. When I have mastered that, I want to continue with this second goal. I think that this might even be a multiple-year project, let’s see how far I make it this year.   3.        Include Witchy content. This one is specifically for Witchy Reads, with witchy content I mean not only read Witchy fiction but also non-fiction books, but also broader than only reading books. I would like to have informative posts about witchcraft, spells, and divination. To help me explore my journey into this. My post on the Yule bread I posted at the end of the year is one example of what I want to do. I want to dive deeper into my spiritual side, and I want to take you all with me on the journey, letting you also know what works for me and what does not. I hope this will give me the balance I need in life, reconnect with nature and will make me overall a better person.   Personal Goals  4.        Be nicer to myself. This may seem strange as a blogging goal, but it does thigh into my first goal a bit. 2023 was a very hard year for me, I have come to realize that I want more out of life. I had started exploring this more, what do I want? What do I want to achieve in life? What do I still want to learn?   I have concluded that what I have been doing for years is not healthy for me. The amount of work and responsibility that I took on to my plate was insane, and it has been giving me health problems for years, because I went over all the boundaries my body was giving me. I did not understand why, I kept doing this and decided to get help.   At first, I did not know where to start and where the heart of my problems was based. After a while, I figured that out and I found a specialized therapist who kindly put a lot of things in perspective for me. She helped me realize that things needed to change, even though it meant taking a step out of the “safety zone” that I had created for myself.  In the end, it also meant leaving the company I had built together with my sister.   This was the hardest decision I have ever made, but it is also the best decision I have ever made. It was the cause of all my health issues. Now I can start healing and explore what I want to do with the rest of my life, dreams I want to achieve.   5.        Continue my musical journey. By the end of 2023, I have started doing some of the things I have been wanting to do for a long time. One of those things was taking singing lessons. I want to learn how to sing correctly and to see what I can really do with my voice. I love singing it makes me very happy. I want to continue my lessons and hope that I can also find my own sound and which genre I want to sing. I also want to learn how to play guitar, specifically electric guitar, I have had some lessons in the past but never continued as other things were more important at the time. Now that I have more time for self-care I want to see if I can learn how to play and play the songs I love. Reading Goals 6.        Finish at least 1 book a month This is also in line with being kinder to myself, and not pushing myself too much to get stuff done. If I do not manage to do what I have planned, I still have some wiggling room left for myself. The goal overall this year is to reset boundaries that have been destroyed. Also, I to not overwork myself and be oké with not doing anything occasionally.   I have set my Goodreads goal a little higher than 1 book a month since I have the feeling that this is going to be a great reading year. I have set out to read 25 books in 2024. Currently, I have already finished two books, both I started in 2023, but was not able to finish before the end of the year. I hope I will finish one of the non-fiction books, I have started as well in this month.     I am currently reading Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas, which I think would be too ambitious to finish before the end of the month. I am now a hundred pages out of the 600 pages, I am not going to push myself too much. It would be a good start if I do manage to finish it. Then I have tackled 4 books in one month!   7.        Lower my To-Be-Read pile. There are over 200 books on my TBR at this moment. This is only counting the physical copies, this excludes any old ARCs, which I will get to in my next goal, or any eBooks that I own. I am also not counting any non-fiction books that I own.   It would be awesome to lower my TBR by a hundred books, that would unfortunately not be very realistic. I will also be adding some books to my TBR, I have two books incoming this month, and on Saturday five books arrived.   A realistic goal would be twenty books, this would already be a great achievement.  I might add a monthly post where I track my progress, as an extra reminder. I think that would be fun.   8.        Finish old ARC’s. I still have some old Advance Reading Copies, that I would like to get to this year. I stopped to read and review books I think in 2019, as I just felt overwhelmed by the number of requests I got and felt that I needed to accept all of them. I did not know how to say no because I felt honored that they found my little blog and considered me. I went through all my old requests and narrowed it down, there are a lot of them that I never am going to read so I filed them all.   There are two books out of all these old requests I still want to read. The first is Tomorrow Wendel by R.M. Ridley, the premise still sounds interesting, so I want to give this one a chance even though it is old and has only 25 reviews on Goodreads.  The other one is The Emerald Tablet, which I started reading back in the day, but I was not in the right mind for it to finish it.  This is science fiction, I want to try to read a couple of science fiction books to see if this genre is something to read more of or just let go in its entirety.   There are also a couple of Netgalley books that are from around the same period that I want to get to. There are six in total, two sequels, one I have read but did not write a review for, and four random choices. If I do not read any of these this year, I will let them go, file them, and let Netgalley know why I decided not to read them.   There is one more, the only physical advance reading copy I have ever received. Jill’s Talisman it is called, this book is in Dutch and the author Dieter Ryckewaert reached out to me and asked if I wanted to read and review his book. I did indeed read the book, but never put up a review for it. I want to correct this, re-reading the book and writing the review it deserves, as the book was really good.   9.        Finish series or let them go. Yesterday I spent some time putting together a spreadsheet of all the series I have started but never finished. There are some series I own in its entirety of which I have only read the first book. For example, the Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched, Hush Hush, and Shiver. I just read the one book and never made it to the second book in the series. I feel a little shame, as these were all very popular series.   This just must change, I am going to finish the spreadsheet, as I know I am not even halfway done, and then start finishing series. I have already started this process, as I am currently reading Queen of Shadows, the fourth book in the Throne of Glass series. I am having a very good time with this series, so I plan to finish this in the first half of the year.   To keep myself motivated I can read a second book non-series next to this, so I don’t get bored with the series and stop reading it again. If a series is not keeping me interested or I am unable to finish a book in the series, then I will just have to let the series go. There are so many of them I don’t need to read all of them, especially if I do not enjoy them.   10.  Buy missing books out of the series I have started. This seems to contradict lowering my TBR, and that is why it is the last one in this top 10 goals, it is oke if I do not manage this for all the series I have started. Let me first finish the series I already own in its entirety. This is just for when my reading year is becoming incredible and I want to consider this. It is not very high on the priority list. It is also in a way a motivation to finish the series I have started. There are a couple of reasons why I don’t seem to finish the series, not owning the sequel is one of them. These goals all go together and support each other. This was not intended but they do.   What are your goals for this year? Let me know in the comments. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

How is your beginning of 2024, have you started any new years resolutions? In all honesty I have not yet sat down to figure out my goals for this year, I think they will involve a lot of reading, singing and guitar playing. More about my goals for 2024 later this month. For now let us dive into the upcoming book releases in the first half of 2024, I have picked out 5 Witchy reads for you and 5 non-witchy reads that I am excited for this year. Initially I wanted to do 10 witchy reads but that turned out to be very hard and I am also excited for some other releases so I thought this would also be more representative of what I am looking forward to. The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland, release date: 30 January 2024 . A new book by Krystal Sutherland, I am so excited for this one. I loved House of Hollow so I am excited to dive into something else by this author. Also it has a powerful witch, that was all I needed to put this on my wishlist. I hope this is as creepy as House of Hollow. The nice thing about this book is also that it is a standalone, which is nice for me as I am not good with series. Projections by S.E. Porter, release date: 13 February 2024. S.E. Porter has also written various young adult books under the name Sarah Porter. This novel is her adult debut, and it sounds fascinating. A sorcerer sending out projections of himself into the world because he could not have the woman he loved. This concept sounds fascinating to me, and I think this will be very dark and sometimes that is just what I want to read. Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr, release date: 20 February 2024. This sounds like a wholesome kind of read. A cozy read to keep you company until A Witches Guide To Magical Inn Keeping is released in September. Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli, release date: 20 February 2024. Witch and Witch hunter falling in love. I have yet to read Serpent & Dove which of course is the first book you will think of when you hear this premise. This sounds like a great read, and of course perfect for this blog. The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields, release date: 14 May 2024. This is a debut author, and I have not yet heard anybody talk about this release, so I thought I would give it a little bit of love here. This also sounds like such a cozy read, sounds like a summer with witches to me. And there are bee's so that means there must be flowers as well, that makes me happy. House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas, release date: 30 January 2024. I think this one is on almost all the Sarah J. Maas fans wishlist already, maybe all of them have already preordered it. I think of all the releases on this list this is certainly the most hyped. And I am all for this hype because I loved House of Earth and Blood. I have yet to read House of Sky and Breath, but that is oké because then when I have finished it I already own House of Flame and Shadow, as I am going to order it right when it comes out. The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna, release date: 13 February 2024. Are you seeing my trend yet? This is the conclusion to the Gilded Ones trilogy. One of my goals is to finish some of the series I have started. I am incredibly bad in finishing series. So I am trying this a new way, now since this is the last installment in a trilogy, it will be an achievable goal for me to finish this series this year. I am thinking of preordering this book so that it will motivate me to finish the second book, and then when the pre-order arrives I can dive right into the last book. It will so good to finish a series this year. I am also working on finishing Throne of Glass this year, I am on to the fourth book now. An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson, release date: 13 February 2024 . I read: dark academia, dark magic and vampires, sold. I have not tried any dark academia books but I am eager to get into this. Also vampires! I have not read any vampire books in a while I kind of miss reading vampire books. Good excuse to pick this up. A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal, release date: 20 February 2024. Just the title alone is enough to put it on my TBR and I am not even English. Then there are vampires. Are vampires making a comeback this year? I approve! Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan, release date: 27 February 2024. Water creatures are not usually my cup of tea, nor are pirates or anything else set at sea. However something about this sounds so damn good. What are your most anticipated reads for 2024? If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : Thrones of Glass Author : Sarah J. Maas Also by this Author: Crescent City series Series : Throne of Glass book 1 Other books in the series : Crown of Midnight Heir of Fire Queen of Shadows Empire of Storms Tower of Dawn Kingdom of Ash Age Category : Young adult Published by:  September 2014, Bloomsbury Publishing Pages: 565   p. Genre:  Epic fantasy About Throne of Glass Ten years ago, magic disappeared from the world of Adarlan, a kingdom ruled by a vicious king on a glass throne. He wants to conquer the world and needs an assassin to do his bidding. In the slave camp of Endovier, awaits an assassin who wants her freedom, she enters into a contest to become the King's Champion, to be released from the hell she was living in. Twenty-three killers stand in her path to freedom, can she defeat them all and become the King's Champion? But something evil lurks in the castle and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying, horribly, one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival. And a desperate quest to root out the source of the evil before it destroys the world. My thoughts on Throne of Glass The first time I read Throne of Glass I was blown away by it. The second time I read it was equally mind-blowing. While I am rewriting this review, which was first published on my other blog, Ice Cold Passion, I am still astonished at how well it still holds up. The story starts in the mines of Endovier, it is here where we meet the arrogant main character of this book, Celeana Sardothien, an assassin who has been captured and is paying off her debt in the slave camp. Until one day the crown prince and the captain of the guard show up at Endovier with a proposal Celeana just could not resist. Fight for your freedom in a contest of killers and become the King's Champion, the King's Assassin. Celeana can't resist such a proposal and become's the crown prince Dorian's assassin. In the first part of the book, there is a lot of training and some smaller challenges, it is relatively fast-paced even though not much happens. The second part of the book is much more interesting, I love that Celeana is growing as a character, and making some new friends along the way. I love the character Nehemia, she is such a lovely character. Why this series has become such a hyped book is understandable, although I think the hype for A Court of Thorns and Roses is a lot bigger. I think that TikTok has gotten something to do with this. I feel that Throne of Glass has been forgotten a bit by the Sarah J. Maas fans as we now have two more series to set our teeth in. However, I am yet to finish any of the series by Sarah J. Maas, so I am starting at the beginning. It all started with Throne of Glass. The feeling I got when reading this book for the first time, I had not found in a book since Twilight and L.J. Smith's works. The getting so caught up in a book that you forget that you had other things planned, forgetting to eat and drink, reading until deep in the night because you just have to know how it ends. That feeling is the greatest compliment I think you can give a book/author. It tells me that something was good. It also makes it very hard to write a review about such a book. These feelings are so hard to describe to anybody who hasn't had this experience. I pointed out before that the book is mainly focused on Celeana for this story, but there are Chapters from different points of view as well, such as Chaol the captain of the Guard, and Dorian the crown prince. Another character who makes an entrance is Kaltain, one of the nobility who madly wants to win the crown prince's heart. I like that it is not written from a single point of view, which in my opinion can sometimes limit the world-building of a story. When Throne of Glass was released, there was a lot of hype around it, mainly in the English-speaking book world, it took a long time before it was translated into Dutch. At that time the English hype for it had ended, I have the feeling that it did not get the same amount of hype in the Netherlands as in other countries, and I kind of feel sad about that because it is a series worth picking up. I think in the Netherlands it missed its mark time-wise. Also, the Dutch original covers are ugly as hell, this does not help either. I am glad that I own the beautiful original covers of all the Throne of Glass books. Rating Throne of Glass This book is amazing, with great character building, a very addictive writing style, and a fast-paced story for you to devour. I love all the characters even though Celeana can be a bit of a bitch, but because we also learn a lot about what she went through this is still explainable. I love that this story has multiple points of view, it helps a lot with the world-building and makes the story that much more enjoyable to read. Throne of Glass is always mentioned as a young adult series, and this first book can be read as young adult, the starting age I would suggest for this first book in the series is appropriate for age 14+. I also like that this has a well-rounded ending, there is room for the next book, but this part of the character journey is done. It does not end on a major cliffhanger, which I have come to appreciate. I will be continuing the series, and I hope to finally finish it in 2024. Overall you can already guess what this one is going to be, 5 stars for Throne of Glass. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

The theme today was supposed to be your top 10 books of 2023, however, I did not finish 10 books last year, let's just say that 2023 was not the best reading year. I have read 2 non-fiction books, in the fiction department I have read three full-length books, a novella, and two short stories. That was it for 2023, my favorite of the year was of course House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas, this was also the longest book I have read in 2023. So what I wanted to do instead today is go through a top 10 list of Witchy books I want to read in 2024, this list will not consist of new releases, as we will be discussing those later this month. I have chosen 5 books that are on my TBR and 5 that I will probably be adding throughout the year. I am not going into detail on why I picked this today, as I am a little short on time as I have been sick the last two days. I am feeling much better today so I do want to bring you my list, hope you find some new witches to enjoy. Witchy books on my TBR that I own Witchy books on my TBR to collect Looking forward to reading what your favorite books of 2023 were! Happy Reading Irene If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

Title : Hidden Gifts Author : Christine Pope Series : The Witches of Canyon Road book 1 Age Category : Young Adult Published by: Pages: 382 p. Genre: Urban fantasy About Hidden Gifts Miranda has known since her teens that she is supposed to marry a stranger. Long ago her mother made a bargain with the Santa Fe witch clan, in exchange for their help fighting an evil warlock. Miranda's parents have tried everything to save Miranda from this arranged marriage but the Santa Fe witches do not accept, even if Miranda has no powers of her own. Or does she? When she arrives at Santa Fe, her power sparks, just like the spark between her and the man she is supposed to marry. Can she figure out how to control them? My Thoughts on Hidden Gifts Happy New Year everyone I hope you have had a wonderful New Year’s Eve! Wow, 2024 already and this year is going to be an exciting year for me, with lots of changes. I am looking forward to this new chapter in my life. Before I dive into this review, I want to say that this review will contain spoilers. I just wanted to do a bit of a discussion for this one as this will be our first Witchy Read of the month! I never read about an arranged marriage story before, this was the first one for me. It was a little bit daunting for me, as I am not a big fan of being bound in that way to someone. What I liked about this story is that we get to see all the insecurities Miranda our main character feels about being shipped off to Santa Fe, not knowing anything about the guy she is to marry, and having no clue what he looks like. It would be my worst nightmare. Not only do we see Miranda’s side of the story we also have Rafe’s point of view. He also is not pleased about the arranged marriage, and he clashes with his mother about this every step of the way. However, he does also respect the family obligations, and when he finally meets Miranda, he starts to develop feelings for her. I also like Cat, this is Rafe’s sister, she tries to make Miranda feel at home, she is a great character, and we also see that she tries to protect Miranda from her mother. I think Cat makes the story a lot more pleasant for the audience. She is that bubbly fun friend we all want in our lives. Another side character that seems to be very nice to Miranda is Simon, she meets him on the bus when she travels to Santa Fe, and they hit it off, she feels very comfortable with him. He seems nice enough however, the book takes an interesting turn in the end. I had not seen this one coming, as Simon turned out to be the bad guy in this story. He also is not a normal human but also a witch, that was the most surprising part of the story. I hated the ending; Simon had put a curse on Rafe. The curse made Rafe tell Miranda in public that he did not wish to marry her. Crushing her soul and driving her right into the arms of Simon. This part was all fine but what came after is the part I have a problem with, it was the ease with which Miranda accepted Simon’s magic, no doubts, no mistrust nothing. And in the end, she accepted Simon’s help to train her without knowing a damn thing about it. Come on, I know that she has grown up sheltered and is a bit naïve, but this is just too easy. I would have also liked to see that the story wraps up a bit more, not just ending on the scene I just described. It could have given us more of a tease so we will be eager to read the next book in the series. For me this ending fell a bit flat, I would continue the series, but the ending really could use some improvement. The witchy rating of Hidden Gifts On the witchy side of things, we have a coven, we have witches with individual powers. We do not have a whole lot of spell casting or usage of power in this book. There are some splashes here and there like Miranda finding her power of being able to talk to ghosts and jump from one place to another. There is a lot of individual use of powers, but not joined as you see in some witchy stories. I like that these witches have adjusted to modern times. The setup for this book is great but I would like to dive much deeper into this covens magic. I hope that the rest of the series goes into more depth on that front. The focus of this story was more on the world-building and character-building. It was important too, to make the characters likable and believable. Overall we had average witchyness so therefore I give it three cauldrons: I want more. Overall rating I loved the overall feel of the book; the character-building seems very realistic. I like that we are building up a relationship with our characters and there is a lot of overall world-building. The one letdown was how this book was wrapped up. It just ended in the middle of a scene, or that is what it felt like for me at least. I like that even though a book is part of a series, it either ends on a cliffhanger that keeps us begging for the next book, or we get a rounded ending with some open ends that will leave you wondering if they get answered in the next installment. The ending leaves this book stranded at three cats. Just another side note, I would not have picked this up based on the cover alone, I picked up the Witching Hour box set which contains 10 full-length witch books, I was just searching for something fun to read. The cover does not tell you anything. about what the story is about. It would not have been a trigger for me to pick it up. Luckily I am a sucker for boxsets on Amazon so it got my attention through that. I don't want to be rude, but I do want to tell you my honest opinion, and I hope that that will be appreciated. If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.

When we are young, we learn that animals can talk, witches fly on broomsticks and make potions in their big cauldrons, and dragons are real. The older we become, the less magical and happy the reading materials become. I don’t remember what books were read to me; I don’t think there were many beyond a book of bedtime stories, and I think it involved bears. I do remember when I was around 10 that I used to listen to fairy tales like Rumplestiltskin on CD. Around that age, I was already reading a lot. The works of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, and Monica Furlong were among the books I enjoyed as a child. Although I have read a fair amount of contemporary and historical fiction by Dutch authors, such as Carry Slee and Thea Beckman. Even then, I loved books with witches and other unworldly creatures better than other genres. I remember when Harry Potter came out; I remember how much I enjoyed reading the series. I think those books and those of Monica Furlong were the foundation of my love for the fantasy genre. A genre that is highly underrated in Dutch society. Since April this year, I have been working in my local library, so I have a sense of the books that are being read in this part of the Netherlands. The best-visited section of the library is the children’s books, for the age range 0 up to 12 years old. Parental reasoning is often that my child's reading is important for their education. I am not always sure if the kids actually enjoy reading, but at least they know books. There are some bookworms, but they are rare. This section of books is filled with fantasy and science fiction; it is where you will find the most books in these genres. And that is my point: as we move from children’s books to young adult, the amount of fantasy has decreased by 50%. In the young adult section, there is a lot of literature, romance, thrillers, and war-related books. The topics become more serious. Also, those are the books that are borrowed the most. Every time I walk through the library, I think to myself, have we lost touch with our imagination? Why can’t we enjoy more cozy books that make us feel good, instead of murder, warfare, and thrillers? Have we become so bleak a society that we need to fill our heads with such negativity? This sounds like looking down on people for their reading taste. Please know that I am happy that people are reading. To me, it does not matter what you read as long as you are enjoying yourself. What I am trying to grasp is why a lot of people enjoy books that are centered around murder, war, and trauma. And can repeat this cycle over and over without a break. Of course, not all fantasy is cheerful either, but at least it is not reality. You can easily disengage from the world that you know is not your own. Thrillers, war books, and even historical fiction make it more difficult to disengage yourself from that world. Another well-read part of the library is true stories; it does not matter what topic they are about, there is a large variety. If you can read these kinds of stories, good for you, much respect. A large part of these stories also deals with heavy topics, something I just can't read about anymore. Non-fiction is something I read alongside fiction books; these are mostly books I read to learn something new, business, mental health, self-help, history, and mythology are favourite genres of mine. Books in the mental health and self-help department, I can only handle small amounts of these books at a time. Which means it will take me months to finish such books. I read these books as part of my healing journey, so sometimes they hit home. I stop right there and take the time to process my feelings, and continue reading something lighter. Another example of how I switch up my reading is the following. When I have finished a book that left me sad or was just really hard, like for example The Hunger Games. I tend to read something lighter afterwards, too. In case you do not know, The Hunger Games deals with trauma, revolution, and war. I loved the series, but after I finished it, I needed a break from dystopia.  My next read? The Baby Dragon Café is like a Hallmark movie with dragons. A cute romance with baby dragons, no high stakes, just something cozy. That is what I need to balance out the more thought-provoking books. If I had picked up A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes right after reading Mockingjay, I think I would have either not finished the book or I would have gone into a huge reading slump that could last for months. What I am trying to say with these examples is that there is a maximum amount of bleak, negative, dark content I can consume before I need something pink and fluffy. The same goes for my TV habits. I need large doses of happiness, positivity, and fun in my life as well. If I don’t, my point of view on life might become negative. This is also the reason I will never re-read New Moon by Stephenie Meyer or Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay; these books left me feeling so depressed.  I am just wondering if all those people who read thrillers, war books, and true fiction and never change to something light and fluffy, if those people have become sour. If their outlook on life can remain positive, and if they ever get bored with such topics. It astonishes me daily that there are a lot of people who read only one kind of genre, which is not always on the cheery side.  Let me know your thoughts and comments on this. I would love to hear how you feel about this. What are your reading habits? Do you switch genres often? And if maybe there should be more books with talking animals, adventures, and magical lands for adults? Have we lost the ability to love magic? If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on  Finding Flight Cases.  If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore,  Arcane Archives.  I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.