I wanted some brain rot and this managed to be too juvenile and too smutty

There's no plot, there's too many fart jokes, and the characters couldn't be in the same room without humping each other

I am so conflicted about this book. The romance between the two main characters is really well done and exceptionally sweet.

The rest of the book … less so. The fantasy world makes no sense.

The premise is that the ruler has to be fragile and beautiful to prove they are divinely favoured. Fierre does this by starving himself which is encouraged by his doctor.

⬇️

This wasn't for me. I loved the sound of a cosy queer cottagecore fantasy but struggled to stay interested.

Nothing clicked. I didn't really like the characters, I wasn't interested in the world or plot and I kept having to force myself to carry on reading.

There's also some controversy surrounding this book and the author's response to criticism.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the #ARC

The book follows Josh, a 15 year old boy that fakes his own death to disappear into the Laurentian Mountains.

This was a gentle and slow read. The survivalist descriptions were fascinating and description of the landscape really added to the story.

Overall an interesting and educational read.

Thanks to #Netgalley for the #ARC

A very enjoyable return to Widdershins

The Tiny Bookshop game was released a few days ago. Cosy game where you own a mobile bookshop.

I played and enjoyed the demo ages ago

I've never read this but hockey rival romance adaptation sounds fun

Currently 99p on Kobo. I've seen this on a few people's TBR

#ukkobodeal #99ponkobo

#99ponkindle #ukkindledeal

This was an interesting exploration of toxic masculinity.

I might not be the right audience for this book. It's well written and the pacing is good. I needed more plot or something. I was often bored as I read.

I am trying to organize myself for October, these dates are fluid but these are the upcoming reading challenges;

#QueerBC buddy read
#AfterDarkBingo
#BodyCountBingo
#GottaCatchemAll Spooky edition
#CasttheDie
#HauntedShelf if #Scarathlon isn't running

I'm going to try and stagger things and give people plenty of time to prepare and plan.

I love the layout of the book, it made it very easy to read and kept me interested. Unfortunately, the content wasn't as impressive.

This is an introduction to ADHD and should be treated as such. There's a lot of useful information, it's a bit skewed towards ADHD is a super power which I don't like, and some of it is a bit patronising.

⬇️

Unnecessary misogyny. Ground breaking.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. I ended up listening to the audiobook as I had a free Audible credit and wanted to sit outside.

July #2025Stats

It's bugging me that it's not straight, I'm going to have to move everything ... Not right now

I bought Now It All Makes Sense by Alex Patridge and Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa

You can see where I stayed in bed to read over a 1000 pages of A/B/O mpreg fiction

#MonthlyWrapUp #PuddleJumperWrapUp

I'm still focusing on reading books I've already got or taken out from the library

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I'm going to have to buy my own copy of this and put sticky notes in it. There's a lot of good stuff that I'll need to read several times to get it to sink in.

Huh, glad that's not just me

During August we'll be reading the last book in the Kane Chronicles - The Serpent's Shadow. The Kane siblings must battle Apophis and save the world.

How have you been finding the books so far? Excited to read the final book?

I haven't enjoyed this series as much as others. I've been finding the characters frustrating and the romances are questionable

#RiordanverseReadalong

This is the discussion post for July's #QueerBC author Nino Cipri

Several people read Finna, did anyone read anything else?

I didn't read this author hence the generic questions 😅

It's time to pick September's #QueerBC author!

Vote here: https://forms.gle/mNA853mU4e2UHKFt7

August's author is Alice Oseman, I've seen a few of you have already read something!

July's author was Nino Cipri, the discussion post will be going up soon

October buddy read suggestions will go up mid way August

Another month has gone! It's now over half way through the year. Disgusting!

How is everyone doing with #GottaCatchemAll ?

I've got the difficult prompts left or ones I know I'll hit in October/December

We are at the half way mark with Ship of Magic for #RealmofElderlings buddy read or challenge

Who has started/finished the book?

How are you finding it in comparison to the Farseer trilogy?

Use spoiler tags if necessary!

We'll be reading Ship of Magic through August and then Mad Ship September/October

Everyone is doing great, these are chonky chonky books. I've really enjoyed the buddy read on SG and seeing what people think as the read

My August #Roll100 picks

I've read the Rick Riordan one (go me!). Valley of the Wolves is on my ARC backlog and I still want to read Rage of Dragons

I've got some library books to tackle first but hopefully I'll get to one of them

August #Roll100 is here! It's very hot here so I went with my red, flamey dice to really slam it home how hot it is

Roll 1 = 15
Roll 2 = 69
Roll 3 = 41

Templates are in the GDrive. Tag me @PuddleJumper if you want to share what you are reading

I'll be doing #CasttheDie in October so start thinking about the spooky or murdery books you want to read then. Information will be posted in September

https://cozymysterybookclub.com/bookblast/

For anyone that needs to get more free Kindle books!

This had a lot of interesting ideas but was poorly executed. The writing was clunky and often a sentence would contradict itself which was very confusing.

I'm going with pan because the writing was hard to read. Any good ideas were lost.

This book has been adapted into a live action drama ... This A/B/O book with male pregnancy. I'm living for it!

It's not the first live action A/B/O adaptation, that's Pit Babe though they did skirt around it and made it more of a kink for the main couple.

Anyway, I decided I must read the original and it's terrible. It's very much of its time and just not good. I'm having an amazing time though 😅

#HoloNet is a new monthly reading challenge set around different Star Wars characters

Each month will feature a different character and you'll read prompts connected to that character, for example Plo Koon‘s prompts might be Dad energy, lightning, or unusual anatomy

You can read any genre of book, you don‘t have to read SW books

Comment to be tagged, further information below

I picked this up because it was described as ‘queer YA fantasy debut set in ancient Pompeii‘

I was intrigued by the fantasy element. I don't read historical fiction set in Ancient Rome as I studied it and I get caught up on the details.

Unfortunately for me, the magical element isn't really that present. There's several different plots going on and the political and social plot was given more time than the magic and I wasn't that interested.

Coming in October! I really enjoyed the first in the series, it's a great spooky magical YA

Looking forward to the second one

I did not like this book. It was very simplistic in it's interpretation of institutional sexism, racism, colonialism, cultural genocide, and religious brainwashing.

All of the characters were one dimensional, there was hardly any worldbuilding outside the dense magical info dumping, and it was very predictable.

I need to clear down some ARCs, I've got some from last year and I feel guilty about ... But not guilty enough to prioritise them 😅

#NetGalleyGroup @AllDebooks

Thanks to everyone who recommended books for #PrideRec2025

I‘ve compiled them all in a spreadsheet, if I‘ve missed any I apologise;

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b5uE_jgB6R8MyPd8uXPMASiAKDHat_CUsQ3qi_2d...

I found several that I want to read so hopefully other people do as well!

August's #QueerBC author is Alice Oseman!

If you've read anything by them then drop a recommendation in the comments or let people know what you are reading. This is definitely a popular author and I imagine few of you have read them before.

July‘s author is Nino Cipri. I've seen that several people have read Finna. How is everyone finding this author? Are you planning on reading anything?

⬇

I'm not sure I'll carry on with this series, I'm finding it incredibly boring and I'm losing patience with the characters.

The world is ending in 5 days and there's no urgency. The MCs go off to do non related things. It's so frustrating especially when other RR books have that urgency, that tension, and danger.

⬇️

I think I disassociated when reading the last book because WTF is this Anubis stuff?

Sadie is 12!

This was mis-marketed. It's classed as YA, described as queer teenage fantasy, and has a very bright cover.

It's middle grade, maybe the younger end of YA, but the writing is juvenile and the characters are unlikeable.

There's darker themes that I wasn't expecting and they weren't explored well. There's a forced outing scene as well.

If I knew this was middle grade I wouldn't have picked it up.

Another good book. I liked this a bit more than the first because I liked the family drama!

I took the book back to the library so here's a fox!

I really enjoyed this, it had a great balance between romance, mystery, and history

My favourite fantasy series. First time I've re-read it in over 10 years and it's still as good as I remembered.

I do need a break before the next book. Maybe something cheerful and not as complex?

#RealmofElderlings

A bunch of my library holds came in ... To add to the massive pile of library books I got last week and I'm currently reading a book over 800 pages long

I don't think I'm going to get to these anytime soon 😅

Doing an audit of all my books after donating a bunch and clearing out some space. Yikes, I haven't read many of my actual physical books.

I was going to do this for e-books too but er that might look even worse!

I'm reading my 1998 edition of Ship of Magic and the pages are like tissue paper!

This is more of a thriller mystery than a cosy mystery. This may change as the series goes on as it's set in a small town with a gay bookstore owner.

The town felt alive and vibrant. I enjoyed the characters and I'm looking forward to seeing more. The ending was a little bit ridiculous but I was okay with it.

Look at this stunning 90s book cover by Michael Whelan. Magical.

Here is the book club's leaderboard for the Farseer Trilogy. I know we lost a few which I understand, sometimes this trilogy is a merry go round of pain and 1st POV doesn't work for everyone.

Do you agree with the ratings? What was your favourite book?

Time to vote for the August #QueerBC author. This year's is flying by!

So keeping that in mind, start thinking about some spooky and wintery books you'd like to suggest for the October and December buddy reads

It sounds ages away but it will sneak up on you!

July's author is Nino Cipri. Looking forward to your thoughts and reviews

Vote for August's author here: https://forms.gle/fF4BD1pa9f1RnL98A

I read some terrible books this month! It was really disappointing and I don't feel like reading much now

#MonthlyWrapUp #PuddleJumperWrapUp