WWW Wednesday – 24 August 2022

Annoyingly, I’ve only just realised that the Vol 5 graphic novel for Fence is called RISE. I’ve been calling it RIVALS for weeks. Like, everywhere. It’s in my reading spreadsheet and my journal and probably here somewhere on my blog with the wrong title. Maybe because I ordered it around the same time as I did American Royals 3: Rivals. I thought it was a new trend.

Anyway, as per usual, I loved this. In my opinion, Fence can do no wrong. Except not be another 150 pages longer than it is. I love that it ties in with the novels written by Sarah Rees Brennan (but only if you know what’s happening), and also that you can read it on its own.

And most importantly, I hope that this series continues on. It’s been a while since the last installment and I think people thought it was done. But, it’s still out there ― making gains. And we love it for that too.

OK, so technically I DID finish Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood on 25 August. Which means it should be in next week’s wrap up. But I finished at 1:45am on the Wednesday. So since I stayed up late to finish it, several hours after starting it, I’m counting it in this week’s list.

If you love Ali Hazelwood books, then you will love this. It’s cute, fun, quirky, bantery, and filled to the brim with a whole bunch of STEM words and settings. It’s enemies to lovers. They have a history. I definitely should NOT have stayed up reading this, because for a moment I thought Ali even threw in a ‘there’s only one bed’ situation… but now I am questioning this. I don’t think there is. Maybe I’ve just been watching too many rom-coms lately.

BUT, on the flipside, if you’re wondering whether this is worth your energy and you haven’t whole-heartedly loved the last book and 3 novellas, maybe give it a skip. It feels very cookie-cutter Ali Hazelwood. And while I enjoyed it, I’m starting to see a lot of patterns.

Surprising, probably no one, I picked up Husband Material by Alexis Hall about 5 minutes after my copy arrived in the mail. To be fair though, that 5 minutes was spent reading Fence Vol 5.

And I did read Love on the Brain in one sitting after I had started this though. But that was mainly because I was on the couch with a cat on my lap. And I could reach my iPad, but not my book.

Husband Material, so far, is fun and funny. And I love Oliver’s serious steadfastness to Luc’s cynical disaster-fueled mess. They’re both such different, but amazing, characters. It’s so good being back in their world with them. And I can absolutely see why people are loving this book.

I am still partway through (although not as far as I would like) Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa. Soph at Bookwyrming Thoughts picked this for me, and I’m really enjoying it. When I’m not reading contemporary romance books… 👀

I am now about 60 pages in, and definitely need to start dedicating actual brain space to the plot because I think I will need to concentrate. There’s a few things going on and we’re seeing lots of characters (and a strangely high number of deaths for 60 pages).

As I said last week, this is my first Kagawa book, so that’s exciting. And, I don’t own the rest of the series, so please be prepared for me to panic scream a lot if this ends on a cliffhanger.