The time has finally come- interactive digital bookstore maps (and other guides) are now live for paying members!

These maps are the complete guides to bookstores in the area at time of writing. Every pin includes my thoughts and pro tips along with links to my video spotlights (if already posted!) This has been my big goal for so many years and I can't wait to share this with everyone! The ability to buy one of guides for $$ coming soon but for now you can access to everything for just $5 a month :)

So far there are just three bookstore guides- Brooklyn Manhattan and London but more cities coming soon :)

I also have general city guides (not just books, but restaurants, shopping and more!) for Washington DC, London, Greenpoint in Brooklyn and more!

Everything can be accessed here- https://www.bookmoretravels.com/member-content

The passcode has been shared over on the members discord!

✨ 9/10

I laughed out loud on the subway because of this book. It's funny, sweet and heart touching at the same time, with a flavor of spice and tension.

Quick synopsis - Cricket went viral, but in a bad way. To escape the trolls - virtual and the ones in her family, she goes to a winery, which also acts like a shelter for women who have seen the dark side of Internet and ai. She meets Heath, a single dad and the stay-in handyman of the house. Cricket finds friendship, love but more importantly confidence and self love 💕

My review - The topic is so sensitive but Pippa Grant has presented it in a humorous way while maintaining the sensitivity. The found family trope is so strong in this one. I think halfway into the book, I had started to consider the characters my family. 🤌

And the spice! First of all, I love a good tension between characters and this one delivers it. The alternating point of views kept me on the edge. It's a torture I like 😉. Then the actual spice is hot.

And in the end, when they both stand up for each other 😭 if I ever want a man written by a woman (who doesn't) I would like Pippa Grant to be one of the authors writing him.

The book felt a little slow at the halfway point but picked it up soon. Do read this one.

Author - @pippa.grant

#romancebooks #bookrecommendation

Game of Thrones meets Black Sun meets Assassin's Apprentice meets The Priory of the Orange Tree (I know!!!)

Tomorrow, Aug. 4, is release day for The Castle and the Cloister by Laura E. Weymouth.

A new duology, it features a begrudging "Chosen One," forbidden romance, a prophecy, and complex, morally grey characters.

"The Priory of the Orange Tree meets Black Sun in the thrilling launch of a political fantasy duology following three people--a refugee, a heretic queen, and a priest--as they attempt to shape the fortunes of a continent shattered by war."

Now, I'll read anything with Priory as a comp title, but I'm especially excited for this one for a very particular reason: one of the main characters is a mother.

Fia is a refugee and a mother of a young child, whose safety motivates much of her plot arc.

Why does that matter?

While pregnancy and new motherhood is a common fiction trope, it is often presented as the aspirational culmination of the plot. Main characters who are mothers seldom are permitted narrative space to pursue complex lives beyond and alongside motherhood, particularly in high fantasy.

When pregnancy or the birth of a child is so often the end of the story, it perpetuates the idea that parenthood, specifically and especially for women, is the end. The character has reached their conclusion, and now is no longer a protagonist with any arc worth exploring, with nothing further to lend to the story. Their maturation is complete, their role is now predetermined.

High fantasy especially is often guilty of casting motherhood and indeed all matters of the reproductive cycle (menstruation included!) as a background condition of little consequence to the present story. If she is in the story, she is often the obstacle the protagonist must overcome, or a plot device that makes the protagonist more sympathetic (in this case, she’s usually dead).

Stories that put mothers and their children in central and plot-driving roles counter this narrative. I love to see it.

The author writes: ‘THE CASTLE & THE CLOISTER is political intrigue and religious machinations with a constant undercurrent of "I miss my baby" & "when is the last time I nursed this baby" & "I would burn the world down for a baby"’

Other (very excellent) high fantasy books with main characters who are mothers include Robin Hobb's The Liveship Traders Trilogy, N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth Trilogy, and Shannon Chakraborty's Aminia al-Sirafi series.

Let’s talk about the books we read in July incase you missed the discussions over on discord. If you haven’t yet please make sure to click the link on my page to join because that is where all the discussions we held!

Our “fantasy” pick was the Hunger Games. I read the entire trilogy in July and this was my second time reading this series! I can’t believe how well this series holds up even after 15 years. At this point in my life, YA books are very hit or miss for me and lately I haven’t been enjoying them as much. But the hunger games truly is so amazing and can be very dark and heavy for a YA story. I absolutely love this series so much and will definitely jump into the prequels in August.

Our thriller pick of the month is Molka by Monika Kim. Another fantastic thriller/horror by this author, she is definitely an auto buy author from now on. I knew spy cams were a thing but I didn’t know the extent of the problem especially in Korea. This story was absolutely vile and disgusting but educational at the same time. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Even though it’s a fictional story, what happens is a real experience for some women. I didn’t love the paranormal aspect of the book I feel like we could have done without that. But other than that, it was a great book and I would definitely continue to recommend it to people!

Wish it was already Halloween?

Well with these 10 books you don’t need wait until October to get in the mood for spooky season

Heartstring Duet by Liv Zander

This story is dark, macabre, a bit revolting at times.. and absolutely unputdownable.

House of Rayne by Harley Laroux

The story is moody, spooky, and dripping with gothic vibes

The Shepherd King duology by Rachel Gillig

Gothic fantasy done right

Death Meets Cute by J. Penner

Such a cute and funny cozy fantasy

Victim or Villain by L.T. Ryan, C.R. Gray

A thriller, but add romance?

Hide the Witches by Miranda Lyn

Enemies working together, high stakes, slow burn, witches in hiding...

Cursebound by Sadie Kincaid & LJ Morrow

Mafia romance… but make it paranormal...

Loving A Vampire Is Total Chaos by Aura Hayes

Murder investigation, fated mates, possessive vampire MMC...

Ask for Andrea by Noelle W. Ihli

It’s a haunting and emotional ride...

The Nightmare Bride by Shaylin Gandhi

The crumbling manor, the storms, the nighmares...

Would you read any of these?

Let's keep going, I think. I'm taking feedback LIBERALLY and JUDICIOUSLY so please feel free to comment and yell at me or DM me things you have and want to do away with immediately. Also, I have a second work-in-progress I'm going to start sharing, too, that is more of my baby project I adore. I thought it would be too abstract for the world, but I don't think that anymore.

Thank you all for sticking with me for this. It's so fun!!

Chapter 3: Labyrinth

Castor hated summer as much as he hated himself. He forewent a helmet and still sweat beaded and rolled down his temples. He stood over the iron gate that let in a steady stream of carriages and horses into the courtyard like a sweaty lord looking down upon his kingdom of colorful ants. He wiped a hand along his brow and motioned to the stoic, still man on his left, “If you think you can handle this rabble, I’m going to go find Tullis and see if he’ll let me out of the gala.”

The last thing Castor wanted to attend was a gala. As prize or eyes, he wasn’t in the mood today. His head thumped with the beat of his heart, the light stabbed at his eyes, and he was fairly sure he was still drunk. It was a miracle he’d woken up in his own bed after what he’d gotten up to--lords and their parties and the vice of forgetting, just for a while. 

He made his way through the maze of halls, ignoring the strangle crackle the Labyrinth Castle always sent up his spine. He hated this place. Something in the structure just felt wrong for no discernable reason. It was designed to disorient, the intention was to serve as a last bastion should the Empire’s capital ever be invaded. It sat over a lattice of tunnels that ran amok under the city, partly to feign partly to guide. The only ones who knew the system were the Emperor, the Prince, and Arbor Tullis - Captain of the Guard and longtime hater of Castor Tartenna. 

Not because he was the Traitor General or because he was a perceived hedonist or for any sort of loyalty to the Dawn. Castor had bitten half his ear off and spit it back in his face sixteen years ago. The man had never gotten over it, even now as he stared down his oversized nose at the hulking general. A decade earning his medals in the military, building a reputation, proving his loyalty, and still, Tullis could not get past having half a left ear. 

Castor grinned at him, “We seem well-fit for the receiving of our noblemen. I’d say you have it under control, my good man.”

Tullis pursed his lips, “I am nothing if not good at my job, General. Which includes securing the grounds, yes.”

“The Emperor asked me to help coordinate the guard since half of it are my boys down there,” Castor shrugged and looped his thumbs through his swordbelt. He knew how to lean on the worst of his wounds, “I can take command tonight if you’d prefer to be home with your wife.”

Tullis straightened and frowned, wrinkling his weathered nose at the implication, “I am well equipped to handle this evening, thanks. This is my castle, these are my men. We do not need additional… conflicting suggestions to our orders.”

“I’m here, may as well utilize my expertise,” Castor leaned back just enough to channel the arrogant casualness he knew drove Tullis mad. “After all, I have run several campaigns up in the north. And at such a young age, too. The Emperor called me a prodigy, you know.”

“I am aware,” Tullis’s tone was flat, annoyance woven through every cracked line of his face. “With respect, General Tartenna, guarding a palace and swatting the hands of the Forestmen are not the same thing. If I need your insight, I will send for it.”

He raised his brows in innocent confusion, “Are you dismissing me then?”

Deference to the older man’s authority. Mockingly, of course. He couldn’t help himself, he was who he was. Still, Tullis flicked his cool dark eyes back to the parchment in his hand, “I am, General. Enjoy your free afternoon in Hoardann before your next orders come in.”

Before you’re sent back to subjugate your own people, he meant. Castor ran his tongue along a canine and pressed until it hurt, the only thing stopping him from lashing out at the Captain. If he spoke, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from using a fist to do it. Instead, he nodded and turned, leaving the office door open in his only act of petty recourse. In the hall, he walked among the nobles and the soldiers, nodding and greeting whoever recognized him and politely respecting the glances that would rather he didn’t. 

His style of self destruction was well known and well enjoyed by most of the court, but an open secret is still a secret. He forced himself to sit in the discomfort of it, the bitter knowledge that he bedded the same nobles that called the Valenese council cockroaches, leeches, ungrateful ants. It was the least he deserved, even if his reasons sounded noble on paper. 

The heat of the capital was stifling in the cool shadows of his time in the north. He missed the mountains, the open valleys, the many-antlered elk that roamed the land. He missed the cold. Armor and leathers slid off him in a way that felt less relieving and more sickening. He handed off each piece to a page outside his quarters in the barracks for cleaning, a job he remembered with no fondness whatsoever. 

He was free for the time being to linger and stall until he got his orders to go back to his men and do what he did best: hunt for his lost princess.

***

The guard lifted a hand and helped Keelie down from the carriage. She didn’t miss the way he glanced twice at her face and pretended not to do the same with her generously low neckline. She smiled and batted her lashes, ever the unknowing innocent Matilde Hofstadler as far as these oafs were concerned. Beautiful and deadly and the chosen champion of the obscure Lord Calvin Yeates, better known as Finneas Asper. 

Tobin had gifted him a real place, a real crest, real colors, and a real surname. Everything else would go up in flames if it so much passed by a more scrutinous administrator than the one Tobin employed, identity kept under lock and key of course. He was not a man to easily betray the names of his assets, but Keelie got the impression that whoever’s lives he had stolen for this ruse were no longer around to fight about it at least. 

Finn motioned to servants and directed staff with the irritated disdain of any minor lord fussing with new help. He fanned himself, plucking at the rich purple jacket and leaning to speak so only she could hear, “They have to do this nonsense in the summertime? All this stonework, nowhere near the river, walls too high to let in a damned breeze. It’s insanity. Madness.”

“You’re just heat-grouchy, Fins,” she would rather die than admit he was right, pact or no. “Let’s let these lovely plebians show us to our rooms and out of this sun, right? Maybe you can get a nap in, sleep the edge off this mood of yours.”

He made a face and she turned before he could say anything else. The page who had been sent to escort them was maybe ten, already up to her shoulder. It didn’t take much, most people were taller than Keelie. She followed him and tried not to stare as the castle unfolded around them like intricate papercraft. A veritable maze of false hallways and coded signs indicating where to find different rooms, all of it covered in an opulence she had only ever dreamed of. Marble and stonework so intricate she was sure the art had been lost. Fresh flowers lined ornate tables, ceilings painted with murals of the sky, and stairs. Stairs upon stairs upon stairs. If Keelie ever bought her own castle, she was ripping out all the stairs first. 

By the time they reached the wood-and-brass door to their assigned suite, she was fighting the burn in her legs and the hot air in her throat. No matter how well-maintained she kept herself, stairs had a way of never being something she could conquer. She could run four miles and hardly feel it, but a flight of stairs remained her greatest adversary. The boy opened the door and bowed too low--a new addition, then--motioning them inside. 

Keelie fought the urge to gasp and remembered that she was a high lady of status who was unimpressed by royal finery. Plush blue couches on gilded frames, woven rugs with scenes from the founding myths splayed across the gray-veined white tile of the floor. A large writing desk and lantern in the far corner, chandelier set in the high curved ceiling, and a blessedly shaded balcony behind several enormous glass-paned doors. Right beside the sofas stood the most beautiful bookcase with the most organized set of books she had ever seen in her life. 

The slender door on the left was open and exposed her trunks, the right was open and clearly belonged to Finn. The page boy let them take in their surroundings until Finn mastered his expression and turned his bored face back to him. 

He cleared his throat and began a clearly practiced speech for them, “Your assigned servant will alert you to dinner and events, she will bring you anything you ask if you simply ring the bell by the door,” he indicated a string that must connect to an intricate series of other strings, “at any time of day or night. You are invited by his majesty the Dawn Emperor to enjoy any and all delights the Labyrinth Castle has to offer. He looks forward to seeing you at the gala at the seven bell this evening.”

He paused, playing the list back in his head before nodding his satisfaction with his own work. Finn grunted affirmation and waved him away with a hand. It was easy for an insufferable man to be an insufferable lord, apparently. When the boy shut the door, Keelie let out a silent scream and gestured wildly. 

“Finn! Look at this place!” She took off across the room and examined the books on the shelf, pausing to let the cool, shady breeze waft over her face. “It’s unbelievable. It’s bigger than my rooms and Tobin’s combined! And did you see the mural in the grand entry?”

He raised a brow at her and shrugged out of his jacket, then his velvet vest with a sigh of relief, “I thought the castle gave you a strange feeling?”

“It does,” she waved him off, “but it doesn’t mean it isn’t beautiful inside. Can I not appreciate a bit of opulence and menace?”

He fluttered his shirt to air the sweat off his skin, too hot to want to talk anymore. He muttered something about needing to change and vanished into his room only to shout with poorly concealed delight, “Individual washrooms!”

“Stop!” She ran into her room and let out a cry of delight. She had fully prepared to share with him, possibly with all of the other noble Houses gathered in the palace. The knowledge she had access to a great brass tub and a basin that was solely for her use was more than a small relief. 

Keelie paused and cocked her head to listen for Finn. She stuck her head back into the living area and saw he had closed his door. She exhaled in relief. All the sweat and sun and heat was killing her, but being forced to endure it because Finn was practically up her ass the whole ride had been torture. She tugged at the thread of not-magic in her veins, the cooling sensation a release from the heat of midday. Just a little. Just enough to keep her cool. It wasn’t Oisha who blessed her--it was Parnas, god of water. The sea, rain, rivers, all of it. Parnas had blessed her with the barest brush of not-magic. At least the barest she was willing to touch. 

In her mind, she had learned how to touch the thread of her gift just enough to do small things. To heal herself, cool herself down, but never daring to plunge herself in and find out where that thread would take her. Every time she tugged a little bit free, she could sense it. A vast, enormous beast chafing at her unwillingness to set it free. 

It was a dangerous risk to use not-magic in the castle so close to the Black Guard, she knew that, but she also knew if she didn’t she would burst into flames and die. So, the risk was worth it. However those predators located anyone with magic, she didn’t want to know. She cooled herself enough to survive a few hours and then let go of the thread. 

***

Finn lay on his too-comfortable bed and stared at a ceiling without cracks in the plaster. He absently rolled the cool, black stone around in his hand Tobin had sent him off with. Smooth, inky black rock that no light seemed to pass through. It ate the rays of fading sun that crept across the floor and tried to reach him. Strange stuff indeed. If he focused on it too hard, he thought he heard it humming. 

He had his mission and he would see it through and gain his freedom. The Emperor was having massive quantities of the stuff shipped in and Tobin wanted to know why. Finn caught the subtext like he always did--find out why and anything else he could manage to pry free from this gaggle of preening sods. They weren’t a dumb bunch, Finn was not so foolish as to believe any of them were less than smart. So many lords and ladies played parts as a means to an end, the dunce nature of them typically just for show. He knew who to start with and could make his introductions tonight. Provided, of course, Keelie didn’t stomp all over the fragile work he was here to do. 

They had their pact, but she was still Keelie. 

He had to remind himself he wasn’t being fair. He found her obnoxious and cold, arrogant, and oafishly clumsy, but all of that was by the standards of a Whisper. To everyone else, she was a viper. A graceful, unassuming, beautiful death dancer who could kiss them or kill them and they would never see it coming. 

By the standards of the Guild, she was a blind dog in a butcher shop. 

He made himself roll out of bed, groaning against the stiff muscles in his neck from a long and miserable carriage ride. He closed his eyes and took a breath, running himself through a few stretches before something nagged at his mind. He paused, tilted his head, and paid it a modicum of attention. 

The wrongness Keelie mentioned thrummed a little in the air. No, he opened his eyes and stared into his palm. It thrummed in the stone. He frowned and set it down on the side table, shaking the peculiar vibrato from his bones and returning to his routine. Still, his attention flickered back to the stone and he couldn’t help but wonder if he had been hearing a conversation between the polished rock and something else. Something that made the hair on his neck rise. 

He finished his stretching and drew a quick bath, scrubbing the salt and heat from his skin. He wasn’t as fickle and expensive as Keelie, that reflex long since burned out of him, but he did still prefer finery when he could afford to spare for it. Tonight, however, was different. Tonight he needed to make enough of a show to seem like one of them without so much of that show drawing the wrong kind of attention. Acceptably forgettable. 

He tousled his mousey brown hair in the current style, modeled after the Day Prince if he remembered the barber’s gossip correctly, and frowned. He looked like he just woke up. Which he had, but what about that was fashionable these days? No matter, he kept himself moving and ignored it. Slate gray trousers and a matching vest embroidered in plum thread in an abstract pattern of winter, beautifully ironic in the oppressive summer temperatures of Highwind.

Part of him wanted to forego a shirt and risk the scandal, but he knew better and opted for a light, loose, off white thing that laced at the collar. His final touch was a plum colored half-cloak, decorative and the heaviest thing he could stomach wearing in the pervasive heat. The stone would hold onto the sun and expel it back out all evening. Finn grimaced and threw open his door, acutely aware that the seven bell was not as far off as he had hoped. 

“Keelie,” he rapped his knuckles on her door and heard her huffing and shuffling and making all manner of exasperated sounds. “Please be ready, we have to find our way through this blasted maze of a palace.”

“Calm down, I can tell time!” She snapped back, muffled through the wood of the door. 

He wandered the living area while he waited, running a hand over the crisscross wood of the dining table, inlaid with an intricate brasswork outline of a unicorn. He smiled slightly. Unicorns had always seemed so impossibly silly, but comforting to him at the same time. Matriarchal steeds of magic and purity, the tales insisted. Moranthe legends said the unicorns fled to the northern forests and hid among the Valanese elk, which is why they had so many points on their antlers. 

Grimly, he wondered about what kind of difference a return of the unicorns would have made to the Tempest War and every horrible thing that had come after. What a difference any of the ancient, mythical creatures lost to legend and time could have made. Before he could wander down the path of the elves, Keelie’s door opened and he turned. 

He breathed in sharply, hating himself for it. For all her considerable flaws, Keelie was irksomely beautiful. She and Saskia both in such different, starkly opposing ways. Keelie was light and color to Saskia’s dark and looming. For a consort, there was so much menace in Saskia that he wondered not for the first time if she and Keelie should switch roles. The reality of what Sas did for Tobin, though, quickly chased that thought away. He had no interest in subjecting anymore beautiful young women to that particular business endeavor. 

Keelie had chosen the inverse of Finn. Deep plum trimmed in silverwork that captured the blowing, wintry winds of Ghislara--a tiny northeastern province that fell quietly and without fanfare to the Empire. Rarely heard of, often forgotten, and only belonged to the control of House Yeates. Wealthy enough to command an invitation, forgettable enough for nearly all of the Houses to be unfamiliar with its nobles. 

Her gown swept the floor in a bloom of unstructured silk and something diaphanous that glimmered in the fading light. Her shoulders exposed, he could see how pale her skin really was. They had joked at the Guild that she could illuminate the dark for them if she took off her cloak, but now he saw how much of it hadn’t really been a joke in the end. The neckline brushed scandalously low, obscured behind intricate black lacework that formed a snug collar around her throat. Rich, purple amethysts studded the curls in the lace, cut in fine teardrops to keep from weighing down the lace.

Her silver-blond hair was coiled and braided into a crown around her head, gathered off center by a silver and amethyst comb shaped like a gnarled branch. Amethyst teardrops hung from her ears and made her bright green eyes a little dimmer, easier to ignore. She had painted her lips a dark shade of pink, eyes brushed in a soft pattern of grays that accented the dark lace. 

“Your hair looks ridiculous,” she frowned, wrinkling her nose. “Come on, we’re going to be late.”

WELCOME TO AUGUST, mis internet amigxs!

We're entering the month before Latinx Heritage Month which means a typhoon of books are coming your way this month, but before you get to the drop, some announcements...

AUGUST BOOK CLUB

As a reminder, we're reading The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (audiobook) this month!! This noir truly captivated me and I'm so excited to chat with you on Discord about it.

We're also continuing Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer (Audiobook) for those who are on the Summer School journey with me.

VOTE FOR SEPTEMBER FICTION AND NONFICTION READS

Our September book club poll for both our fiction and nonfiction sidequest reads are up for another couple of days on both Bindery AND Discord. Get your votes in before the polls close! Official announcement will be made before the end of the week! (the error with voting has been fixed and you CAN vote twice now!)

And now onto all the August Latine releases on my radar!!

AUGUST 4th

Literary Fiction

Take What You Can by Naima Coster (Audiobook) One of my most anticipated Latine reads of summer is finally here! From the author of What Mine Is Yours comes a work centered on friendship, class, new motherhood, and independence.

Romance

Drawn Together by Mercedes Ron (Audiobook) SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE! This forbidden love story is giving The Bodyguard vibes.

AUGUST 11TH

Romance Fantasy

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Audiobook) My favorite Silvia Moreno-Garcia is getting the Bramble romance treatment--re-release of the classic threads magic fantasy novel, Silvia's only work not set in Mexico, that I can best describe as Age of Innocence meets The Prestige

Short Story Collection

Pinen by Daniela Catrileo and translated by Jacob Edelstein (Audiobook) A fierce, tender collection of stories about the lives, traumas, and dreams of Mapuche youth in modern-day Chile

Romance

The Replay by Leonor Soliz: Second-chance sports romance--Breaking up with Dominic Wright was the hardest thing I've ever done. Working with him years later is making me forget why I ever did.

AUGUST 18TH

Romance

Mutual Discord by Liana De La Rosa (Audiobook) Contemporary romance debut from our historical romance queen, Liana De La Rosa! 2 PR leads, forbidden love, friends to lovers, a love triangle?!?! I'm already sat.

Old Flames by Nadine Gonzalez (Audiobook) What happens when a horror and a fantasy writer check into a haunted Air BNB? If fate has its way, the star-crossed lovers will find each other in this world or the next?

Mystery

Sleeping Sisters by Jennifer Givhan (Audiobook) Centers fight for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous Latina girls and women--inspired by actual events (the West Mesa murders in Albuquerque)

The Secret Dinner by Raphael Montes (Audiobook) Look, I'm only 1/3 into this mystery taking place in Brazil, but it's been the WILDEST of roller coaster rides I have been on this year.

Pop! by Angel Luis Colon Adult (Audiobook) organized crime thriller about an assistant who wants to take out their incompetent boss.

Translated fiction

The Loneliest Tree In The World by Mariana Salomao Carrara: Brazilian translated work about a family of tobacco farmers through the eyes of various objects in their home—an old mirror, a pickup truck, a protective work smock, and a sick, loving tree.

Nonfiction

What Will They Say: A Liberating Guide for Latinas by Denise Soler Cox (Audiobook) Adult Nonfiction Self help? Exposes 9 common Latinx cultural taboos no one dates discuss and shares her road-tested advice to blast through them and reclaim your power. Available in both English and Spanish.

Chancla: Healing Our Families, Ourselves, and Our Culture Through Nonviolent Parenting by Leslie Priscilla (Audiobook) Available in both English and Spanish.

The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War On Democracy by Gil Duran (Audiobook)

Picture Book

Please Pass the Tamales by Silvia Lopez (Audiobook)

Middle Grade

The Hungry Forest by Kaela Rivera (Audiobook) From the author of the Cece Rios series comes a new middle grade adventure.

AUGUST 25TH

Literary Fiction

Crocodopolis by John Manuel Arias (Audiobook) Costa Rican author, Arias, is back with a tale of sibling rivalry, family secrets and the fate of a nation.

Dey by Edwidge Dandicat (Audiobook) Taking place in Haiti, Miami, and Brooklyn, a woman whose sense of self and family are called into question when she gets caught in a random act of violence one sunny Florida day.

Middle Grade

No Place On Earth by Andrea Beatriz Arango (Audiobook) Middle Grade Puerto Rico A boy forced to move from PR to Yellowstone National Park after his mom and dad separate and she gets a job there. Gustavo has chronic nightmares and when he gets to the park, he starts seeing one of his classmates in his dreams. When something bad happens in dream Yellowstone, Gustavo is the only one who can help his friend.

Sing Me A Story: Latine Short Stories in Verse by Latine Authors, edited by Aida Salazar (Audiobook) Middle Grade Anthology Poetry: short stories in verse about the power of music.

Don't Wake Up by Cassandra Ramos-Gomez (Audiobook) Another installment in the Doll Island middle grade horror series

xo,

Carmen

Happy August! I was on a roll last week, finishing up some books that had been lingering for me. And they were mostly pretty darn good, too! An excellent way to wrap up July. Books marked with a * were gifted to me and books marked with a ^ I was paid to read.

Moss'd In Space by Rebecca Thorne* - Listen, I knew this book was gonna be a slam dunk for me, and I was right. Found family in space is my favorite subgenre by a mile, and then you make it cozy and add in a sentient moss computer? Let's go! I really loved the main trio, and I also liked that the romantic element was in the background (or basically nonexistent) for most of the book. Thorne says she was inspired by Murderbot, and you can easily see that. Basically, if you're looking for Murderbot with less murder, this is the book for you.

A Different Kind of Justice by David D'Alessandro^ - I never would have picked this up if it wasn't assigned to me in my side gig for Books Forward. It's just not my jam. Man looks back on his life and the grudges he's held and decides it's time to enact his own justice. Okay. The one thing I did like about it was the way it highlighted how Italians used to be considered a nonwhite other in this country.

Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon* - I really like Rendon's mystery/thrillers centering on missing Indigenous women. They are painful reads, but I'm such a fan of her headstrong women who take things into their own hands even when it scares them. The audiobook is narrated by bookstagram's own Erin Tripp, and she's just the best.

Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim* - A fascinating premise - what if when you crossed a border, there was a chance you split into multiple people, with one of you staying behind and one continuing on? This book was more of a character study than I anticipated, and I think it could have been a little shorter since there was a lot of ruminating over the same questions throughout. That said, I cannot stop thinking about it and what I would do if I found myself in Soyoung or Yujin's predicaments.

Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry* - What a funny little book, and I mean that in the sense of funny-haha and funny-strange. Think if Douglas Adams wrote something with a medieval bent. This story takes all kinds of strange turns, which is a feat for something that's less than 200 pages. I already can't wait for the sequel.

Where There's Room For Us by Hayley Kiyoko* - I didn't know I needed a cozy YA sapphic historical romance, but I did! Listening to this book was like snuggling into a warm blanket. There's not a lot going on plotwise, but I was so charmed by the sisters in the central family and their loving, chaotic relationships. The central problem was fascinating and also a bit strange - in this world, queerness is completely accepted, but land and titles still only pass down through male heirs. So it didn't always logic, but it was sweet enough for me to stick with it. Also, Kiyoko and Jemima Kirke are both A+ narrators.