WWW Wednesday – 13 July 2022

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones was beautiful and amazing. It honestly felt like it was written specifically for me. I loved it so much. I just wish that I had read it in 2018 when I bought it, because then I could have been screaming about it for the last FIVE YEARS.

The book is all about fae magic and a curse. It’s got some slavic/germanic style lore in it. There’s this whole element about music and composing. And also the lengths you would go to for your family. It’s also beautifully written.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this to you if you loved books like The Bear and the Nightingale (Katherine Arden), The Darkest Part of the Forest (Holly Black), The Wolves of Mercy Falls (Maggie Stiefvater), and Hunted (Meagan Spooner).

Below Zero is the third (and I’m pretty sure final) instalment in the STEDMinist series by Ali Hazelwood.

It was… good? Fine? I enjoyed it. But honestly, all her books are starting to feel a bit ‘samesies’. Or I’ve just read way too much romance lately. Which could very much be the issue.

Also, I’m not mad at myself, but I’m weirded out that I rated this and Wintersong the same. Because they are not. Or maybe they’re both 4’s in very different ways.

Honeslty, it’s taken me a week to write this very tiny block of text and I’m kind of hopped up on allergy tablets. I’d say I’d come back to this, but honestly I haven’t written a monthly wrap up since February so who even knows what I’m blogging these days.

OK, so I know I just whined a bunch about reading too many romances or something, but hear me out. A Proposal They Can’t Refuse by Natalie Caña is THE BEST romance I’ve read this year. (Maybe.)

Ok, so firstly, it has every single trope that I love. Childhood friends. Enemies to lovers. Fake dating. Only one bed. Being blackmailed by elderly relatives (also, who even knew this was a trope I would love?) It’s also Latinx own voices.

Secondly, it’s just so well written. Like, I read a lot of romances that are ‘fine-good’. Sure, they may have elements of great, but sometimes I just want to read something happy, and romances scratch that itch. (Metaphorically.) THIS was actually really good. It felt like the author poured their soul into it. And for a debut novel, what more could you ask?

Kiss Me Now by Melanie Jacobson actually comes before Kiss The Girl, which I read back in… April? March? Sometime earlier this year. Strictly speaking I don’t think you HAVE to read them in order, but you can I guess.

It was… fine. Just an averagely-good romance. Honestly I want more stories about the grandmother because she seems like she’d be up to a lot of high-jinks related fun. Like, if we can get her with the grandfathers in A Proposal They Can’t Refuse, I would love to read that story. Matching grandparents is my new favourite trope.

This one has a small-town romance sweetness to it, like the Ravenswood books by Talia Hibbert, or Virgin River and Sweet Magnolias on Netflix.

Yes, I finally read The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas. I bought an ebook copy of this not long after it came out in 2021… And then it just languished inside my kindle app. As so many of my ebooks do.

BUT, I decided last week that now was the time to start reading all the things that I’ve been saving on my iPad. So I read it. And it was better than I was expecting (which is always nice).

In terms of tropes, it sounds similar to the above. Fake dating. Enemies to lovers. Only one bed. Family issues. Etc. It’s also own voices Spanish. While it’s definitely a lot of fun, there’s still that undercurrent of serious issues which gives the book some depth. So good!!

Yes, I am currently back on the fantasy band-wagon (kind of), and have started A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova.  In fact, I made a deal with our very own Fictionally Sam, and so Sam got to choose this pick. (I picked a book from her TBR, so it’s all very fair. I’m just delayed getting started…)

I have technically only read 1 page so far, but it seems good. I do have to say, that I feel like I’ve been prepping myself to read this though. Wintersong is technically about a deal made with Der Elfkönig, which is The Elf King, in German. And before that I read Book of Night, written by the Fae Queen herself, Holly Black. So this feels fitting.

It is also my very first Elise Kova book (despite owning… several) so, fingers crossed that I love it!!