Deadhouse gates crushed my heart-but so darn good. GGK is high on my priority list but one of those authors I think I’m gonna just need to pick up. Oathsworn has just entered my radar! Might have to be my intro to the monster hunter type sub genre

So encouraging to hear that Malazan is continuing to blow you away, I am getting more and more excited to add it to my 2025 priority list!! And I agree on the Finlay Donovan audiobooks, those are pure comfort listens. I need to get back to that series. Also, I hadn't heard much about the new Lucy Foley yet so nice to know that you enjoyed it! Hope you find some good 5-star faves again soon!! 🥰🥰

I've heard some reviews that Guy Gavriel Kay has a pretty icky male gaze-y writing style where female characters are concerned (throughout his whole bibliography, but specifically in Under Heaven, if I am remembering correctly), so as a female reader, that has always turned me away from his books. How was your experience with this in The Lions of Al-Rassan? 🤔

I read 10 books in june Here's what I read in July Summer on the bluffs by sunny hostin Broken horses by brandi carlile memoir The royals next door by Katrina halle Truly madly deeply by Alexandria bellefleur The neighbor favor by Kristina forest Taming 7 by chloe Walsh Fourth wing by rebecca yarros The wolves of midwinter by Anne rice sequel to the wolf gift Wild love by elsie silver You've reached sam by Dustin thao

❤📚❤️ Great reviews, thank you. More books are added to my list! I enjoyed Small Things Like These last month, as well.😊

Glad to see you loved Deadhouse Gates and Lions of Al-Rassan, both are some of my favourite Fantasy books of all-time. I actually just recently started a re-read of Deadhouse Gates.

I missed your discussion on Lions, so glad you loved it!! Its my third favorite Guy Gavriel Kay book, but that means its still basically perfection 😂

I'm glad that you enjoyed Deadhouse Gates, it's definitely one of my favorites in the Malazan series. I think you will love Memories of Ice, another great book in the series.

Thank you for the review and kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Maybe Merphy would have liked it if there were literal Lions. As always glad to see more people hopping on the GGK train, we have plenty of room.

Glad you all enjoyed it even though Murphy didn't lol. I absolutely loved this one, I was drawn in pretty much immediately and it is in the running for my all time favorite novel! I think this was the only time I was actually invested in a love triangle lol

Excellent insights all around! I loved how you all discussed the loyalty conflicts in this book. I got chills all over again remembering certain parts. 🥲 Guns of the Dawn is so fun! I reread it via audio and felt like I connected to it a little more that second time. Enjoy reading and rereading it!

Hobb and GGK have been dominating my favourites of the year so far. Loved Liveship Traders but loved Tawny Man even more. Fool's Errand is a strong contender for my favourite Fantasy book of all-time!

Great discussion, I wasn't confident about Merphy but i was that you'd like it, Grace. Glad to see Ben and Bryce were fans as well. This was my 2nd GGK (I read Tigana first) and it made me a fan. I've since read almost all of Kay's standalones (I'm currently reading A Song for Arbonne but Dragon Keeper has taken priority 😅) and Lions remains in my Top 3. I really enjoyed it, and know very little about Spanish history. The best way I can describe Kay's work overall is "a more chill Robin Hobb for History enthusiasts". Jaddites is indeed loosely based on Christianity but with a Greco-Roman Sun Cult twist. Kindath practicing Moon worship for fertility and guidance and a lot of pre-Islamic cultures did worship stars. I'm not religious or spiritual but i love that Kay's created clear standins for Christianity, Judaism and Islam but shifted things around to keep things interesting and to avoid sterotyping and be as respectful as possible. Of all of Kay's books, Lions has my favourite ending. Guns of the Dawn is awesome! Will you read more GGK?

This video didn't show up on my subscription feed... Luckily I searched your name and found it

The Oathsworn Legacy sounds really good! Ive heard literally nothing of this book or its author on booktok or booktube, so maybe it's a hidden gem?

Yay! Thanks so much for reading Blood of the Stars. I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing which one ends up being your semi-finalist!

I love that you just dived right in with the longest books! Thank you so much for reading for my team! ✨ I'm intrigued by so many of these

nooooo MAISEY NOOOOOOO🐱 but the shelves are AWESOME💖

Great reviews!

Oh here’s your channel. I couldn’t find it originally. I’m glad you enjoyed the book even if it was a bit of outside your usual box. I’m just surprised you thought Cort was only a BIT of an A-hole considering how hard I leaned into his dickish personality. 😂

Exciting reviews!! I had been super curious about The Black Crown especially because of that refreshing perspective, so I am happy to hear that it's executed so well. And okay consider me totally sold on The Oathsworn Legacy, that sounds like a wonderful character-driven tale for me to devour! Curious to see how the rest of the batch turns out, happy reading 🤩

I just started Oathsworn so this is good encouragement to read faster.

Starting with the longest was a very smart move! My spinner wheel system saved the longest for last lol 😂

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Gardens of the Moon is good

Love the books you list. 2024 has been a great year of reading for me too. I too read the “Age of Madness” trilogy this year and absolutely loved it. Abercrombie at his most masterful. I’ve also read the first two in the Farseer trilogy and am almost done with “Way of Kings.” So looking forward to reading the rest of the Realm of the Elderlings and Stormlight entires in the coming year. All interspersed with my perpetual Wheel of Time re-reads (still the GOAT in my book). And then on to Malazan in 2025! Thanks for your recommendations. I really liked the Katherine Arden trilogy (read it last year).

Daughter of the Forest is so so so good!

Yessssss the Bloodstones!

I just found you and I love your video

Oooh that is definitely a surprising fave of the year pick, only makes me more eager to try Keegan! And heck yes, Winternight still deserves all the love!! Also, I feel you The Familiar... that was just such an aggressively fine book ouch. I hope you enjoy the books you are anticipating 🥰

Ooh some fantastic books ! Adore Girl in The Tower and might reread it this Christmas period. Very excited to get to the final first law trilogy, currently midway into Red Country and thoroughly loving it. Foster sounds fantastic, I'll need to look it out. Our Wives Under The Sea sounds amazing and Im gonna actually go pick that up today because that sounds amazing !!

Grace, just wondering how long it generally took you to read each book. How long for the whole series? Thanks.

This reminds me, I need to start my semi-annual reread of the Winternight trilogy. 🤣

That Jurassic Park book is really pretty!!

I finally read The Girl in the Tower this year and it's definitely my favourite in the trilogy as well. Such an incredible book!

Overall I absolutely loved What Moves The Dead, but I'm kind of torn about it as a horror story, because for me Alex Easton's character got in the way of the horror element, but at the same time, Alex's personality, humor and narration was my favourite thing about the book!

You've had suuuch a great year!! I really need to try some Keegan. And love your love for Gentleman Bastards, you are making me want to reread that so badly!! Also very encouraging to hear your thoughts on Malazan 🤩

You've made me want to read Foster again so badly! Also perfect explanation of Gardens of the Moon, i think the biggest hurdle the series has is the expectation created by the audience lol

Your explanation of Gardens of the Moon is one of the best I have heard on Book Tube.

Here's my favorite reads so far Interview with the vampire by Anne rice Tales of the body thief by Anne rice Miss memory lane by colton Haynes memoir Out of shape by gracie gold memoir Stars in your eyes by kacen callender Good luck with that by kristan Higgins Pack up the moon by kristan Higgins Birthday girl by Penelope Douglas The wall of Winnipeg and me by Mariana Zapata

These all sound really good!

i found the wager to be absolutely stunning. i kept having to remind myself that this really happened and people had to go through this impossible ordeal. reading-wise it’s compelling like a mystery thriller. i loved funny story. read my first emily henry, beach read (UK version) last year, loved it and had planned to read her books in order. when funny story arrived a couple months ago i made the “mistake” of reading a page or two, and couldn’t put it down. i also really enjoyed wrong place wrong time - listened to the audiobook last year. ha, i ordered the husbands just before watching your video. it sounds like a lot of fun, but i’m also intrigued how this idea will resolve in the end. ..and you made me impulse-purchase the other side of night, plus add some titles to the endless wishlist. 😅 great haul! have a lovely weekend and happy reading! 💜

Just discovered your channel today and my TBR got so much longer already! :'D I'm very interested what you think about these books and will try some of them as well x3

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You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is indeed a damn catchy (or punchy?) title, very curious to hear what you think of the story inside! And no doubts you are going to love The Blood Stones and Wrong Place, Wrong Time! 🤩

You Feel It Just Below the Ribs sounds so interesting!!

Wrong Place Wrong Time sounds messed up. Relics of Ruin was great! I enjoyed it even more than I did Empire of Exiles. The mystery factor really ramps up in it. Ancillary Justice is such a cool novel. Not sure how it holds up today when it's probably been replicated, but when it was first released it was a banger. It's very character/politics driven, so should be right what you're looking for. Silverblood Promise is great, don't go into it expecting something like Lynch though - that's kind of doing it a disservice. It has a adventurous element to it that's behind the comparison, but they're very different books. Pretty awesome haul overall!

Glad to see Malazan is off to a good start so far! My Book of the Month for April was Fool's Fate. May was a weird one for me. It was a month of indecisiveness, randomly picking up books and DNFed/NFNed on a whim very quickly. But what I did finish I really enjoyed. *Epic Fantasy* Wars of Light & Shadow 1: Curse of the Mistwraith - I liked it a lot, Lysaer and Arithon are great characters. I did struggle at times, especially in the 2nd half, with the high magic elements, its not a hard magic system but there's a lot at play. The prose is very rich and elaborate but not overly so. I think I'm gonna treat this series like I did Malazan, and read it over the course of a couple of years. Carried over from April. *Mystery* Shutter Island / Dennis Lehane - I'll certainly be reading more Lehane, this was fantastic! Book of the Month!!! *Sci-Fi* Warhammer 40k - Gaunt's Ghosts: A Ghost Return (re-read) - Short story prelude to a much longer series. I'm already a fan of Abentt through his comics, especially Sinister Dexter. *Steampunk* Books of Babel 1: Senlin Ascends (re-read) - Carry over from April. I had gotten 40% into a re-read of The Blade Itself via audiobook and just wasn't feeling it, I NFNed Robert McCammon's Swan Song and M.L.N Hanover (Daniel Abraham)'s Unclean Spirits for now. And I re-read Part 1 and the first set of Interludes for the Way of Kings.

I just finished this book the other week and I agree with your rating. It was a (somewhat generous) 2/5 stars for me. This is, though, really the only WoT book that felt like a true slog to me. Apparently, regarding the prologues, somebody told me that Jordan would release the prologues before the rest of the book, so the fact that they are so substantial is due to that. Like it was a trailer of sorts for the book. I've done exactly zero legwork in corroborating that assertion, but it *feels* right