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🌙 Book Blogger | Dark Romance & Fantasy Books
Through words, I share the kind of stories that stay
For readers who love fiction that lingers

For no other reason than to show off my shelves... For no other reason than to show off my shelves...🤭

Which ones are your favorite?

#BookishShelves #BookshelfAesthetic #BookishSoftLife #CozyBookCorners #TheDiaryOfAReader
The beginning of a new month means a reading wrap- The beginning of a new month means a reading wrap-up for the previous one. 

✨️WELCOME to my October 🍂 Reading Wrap Up! ✨️

Here are the highlights:
📚 10 books
⭐️ 5 five stars 
💀 4 DNF
🥳 and I hit my reading goal of 150 books!!!

☆ Sierra Simone has cemented her place as a favorite/autobuy author with Bitter Burn (5☆) and The Sleepover (5☆)

☆ I FINALLY finished The Fury of the Gods after a month, and it wasn't my favorite.

☆ I started getting into Monster romance with The Dragon's Bride by Katee Robert (4.5☆), and I have... questions.🤔

☆ I completed a series with Empire of Reckoning and Ruin by Nina Frost (3.5☆), completely unnecessary? definitely. fun? also, yes!

And the four books I DNF'd were:
🔫 The Librarians 
👾 The Library at Hellebore 
🎃 If It Makes You Happy 
👻 Cinder House

What book defined your October — the one you can’t stop thinking about or the one you had to put down?
Tell me in the comments so I can add (or avoid) it. 👀

(Save this post to look back when November ends — it’s always fun to see how much changes in a month of reading.)

#octoberreadingwrapup #monthlywrapup #bookstagramwrapup #readingrecap #bookrecap #bookstagramcommunity #bookishwrapup #bookinfluencer #bookreviewer #booklover #romancebooks #fantasybooks #darkromance #monsterromance #readersofig #bookishlife #thediaryofareader #sierraSimone #kateeRobert #ninafrost #bitterburn #thesleepover #bookishsoftlife #readingupdate
It's the end of the year. You're staring at your r It's the end of the year.
You're staring at your reading goal, wondering how you're going to reach it
and here I am, sliding onto your timeliness to show you exactly how 🙃

Welcome to Novella November!✨️

short books, big emotions, and the perfect way to close the year with stories that push you over the edge!

These are the ones that for between busy days and cozy nights, that reminds you it doesn't take 600 pages to feel everything (although I'm not opposed to 600 pages).

Whether you're trying to hit your goal or just craving something quick that gives you all the feels, Novella November is here to save the day. 😀

Okay, reader math time ⏲️ 
How many books are you away from hitting your reading goal?

#NovellaNovember #ShortReads #BookishCommunity #ReadersOfInstagram #BookLover #BookishSoftLife #CozyReads #BookRecommendations #RomanticFantasy #DarkRomanceBooks #FantasyReads #ReadingChallenge #BookishVibes #BookBlogger #BookInfluencer #EmotionalReads #StoriesThatStay #TheDiaryOfAReader
It's officially NOVEMBER! How did we get here so It's officially NOVEMBER!

How did we get here so fast!

This year had flown by in lush chapters, thumping playlist, and late night rewatches, and I'm not mad about it!

📖 What I’m Reading: An Arcane Inheritance

🎧 What I’m Listening To: The Library at Hellebore

📺 What I’m Watching: I Love Lucy (because comfort TV never misses)

☕ What I’m Drinking: caramel apple tea and denial about the year ending

🕯️ What I’m Manifesting: soft mornings, quiet joy, and the million dollars (multimillions) the universe clearly owes me

Your turn: what’s your “what this week”? Tell me what’s keeping you cozy right now (book, show, song, or snack). Let’s build a November moodboard together 🤎

#NovemberReading #BookishSoftLife #CurrentlyReading #CozySeason #ReadersOfInstagram #BookCommunity #BookInfluencer #FallReadingVibes #ReadingGoals #Bookstagram #Manifesting #CozyVibes #TBRUpdate #BookishVibes #WhatImReading
THE LIBRARIANS by SHERRY THOMAS mini REVIEW Somet THE LIBRARIANS by SHERRY THOMAS mini REVIEW

Sometimes, a story has all the right pieces. Secrets, murder, a library (a readers' dream), and yet it still makes you forget to feel them. 

That was my experience with The Librarians by Sheery Thomas, a new cozy mystery released by Berkley that promised tension, found family, and hidden truths between the stacks. But two chapters in I'd felt like I'd been reading for a hundred days and a hundred nights. The writing? Utilitarian. The tone? Quiet... too quiet.

It's not a bad book. It's just didn't breathe the way I wanted it to. Tge characters skim the surface of what they could be (even with all the secrets their hoarding), the pacing DRAGS, and the spark that should ignite a good mystery novel never quite catches. It wants to be warm and cozy and sharp all at once. Cozy fiction with a pulse but ends up somewhere in the middle.

I decided to shelve it at 30%. Not out of dislike but because of disconnection. I couldn't care about the characters, their secrets, or who actually was the unaliver in the whole scheme. It just wasn't for me.

Oh well! Another story shelved, another emitter of what I crave in a good book.

✨ You Should Read This If You Like…

📚 Small-town secrets & quiet mysteries
☕ Cozy fiction with a hint of suspense
💬 Found family in unexpected places
💔 Slow-burn tension over fast-paced thrills
💡 Character-driven stories that simmer, not spark

Thank you to Berkley for sending me an advanced copy to review. I have a full review up on my blog. 

Let's talk DNF guilt. Do you push through or close the book when it's not clicking? Tell me the one that lost you completely 👇

#TheLibrarians #SherryThomas #DNFDiaries #BookReview #MysteryBooks #CozyMystery #BookishCommunity #ReadersOfInstagram #BookBlogger #Bookstagram #BookishThoughts #MysteryFiction #BookishSoftLife #CurrentlyReading #BookRec #BookAesthetic #BookishLove #BookishConfessions
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Be honest...are you finishing your TBR? Or pretend Be honest...are you finishing your TBR? Or pretending like January’s a fresh start? 👀

I've got a few picked up already. 

🔥Katabasis by R.F. Kuange
👥️Lady of Darkness by Melissa K. Roehrich
🗡The Book of Azrael by Amber V. Nicole

are holding steady near the top.

But then there are the ones whispering from my shelves: Zodiac Academy (the Twisted Sisters always tempt me), Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake, and The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington.
And now I’m wondering… Do I start them this year or let them wait for a clean-slate January?

the eternal reader dilemma.

✨ Should I start Zodiac Academy or save it for next year? Comment and help me decide ✨

#TenBeforeTheEnd #BookishSoftLife #ReadersOfInstagram #TBRGoals #BookStack #FantasyBooks #RomantasyReads

ten before the end • books to read before the end of the year • end of year reading challenge • book stack • tbr list • tbr goals • reading challenge • fantasy books • romantasy books • book recommendations
IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY mini BOOK REVIEW Sometimes, IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY mini BOOK REVIEW

Sometimes, a fall romance book looks like everything you could ever want... on paper. A cozy small town, autumn leaves, a hit of 90s nostalgia, but it still doesn't land. Not in the way you want it to.

If It Makes You Happy by Julie Olivia, follows Michelle, a newly divorced ad exec who goes to Copper Run, Vermont, to help her family's bed and breakfast. She's grieving, guarded, and so tightly wound she's like a loaded spring. It's hard to root for her.

Cliff, the single dad baker she meets, is warm, patient, and everything you'd want in a small town romance hero, but their chemistry never really sparks anything within me.

The writing is lovely, the setting any pumpkin spiced persons dream. Crisp air, bunting on lampposts, the smell of crisp clean autumn air in the background, but the pacing DRAGS, and Michelle's walls never come down (at least not to the point of me reading) I wanted cozy and comforting. I got quiet and frustrating instead.

I ended up DNF'ing this one, not because it's bad, but because it wasn't for me. If you love slow, introspective romances with strong small town vibes and a heart dose of nostalgia, this might still be your perfect autumn read 🍂

Huge thanks to Berkley for sending me an eARC of this to review. The full review is up on my blog. If you want the full tea (or pumpkin spice latte)

🍁 Hit save if you’re craving all the 90s feels.
❤️ Tap like if you love autumnal vibes.
🏡 Share this with someone you’d love to escape to a bed and breakfast with this season.

#fallromancereads #romancebookreview #cozybookstagram #smalltownromance #autumnreads #dnfreview #90saesthetic #berkleyromance #bookishsoftlife #thediaryofareader #bookreview #ifitmakesyouhappy #fallromance
#fallreadingvibes

cozy fall reads • autumnal vibes •fall romance aesthetic •90s nostalgia books •pumpkin spice season •cozy book recommendations •slow burn romance •autumn book recs •bed and breakfast romance •October reads
What's a line from a book that still takes up spac What's a line from a book that still takes up space in your mind?

Sometimes, it's something heart shattering.

Like this one from The StarlessSea:

"Once, very long ago, Time fell in love with Fate.
This, as you might imagine, proved problematic. 
Their romance disrupted the flow of time.
It tangled the strings of fortune into knots....
But the world is strange, and endings are not truly endings.
No matter how the stars might wish it so.

Occasionally, Fate can pull itself together again.
And Time is always waiting."

And sometimes...it's something absolutely unhinged.

Like in Bitter Burn when Mark says, "Forced to seduce my own wife. Tristan, come over here and get on your knees. Take pitt on me in my derelict state."

Because the lines that stay with us aren't always the ones that break us. Sometimes, they're the ones that makes us laugh, or remember we're alive.

So tell me yours, what line still scrolls through your mind?

Hashtags:
#bookquotes #bookishsoftlife #darkromancebooks #romantasyreads #BitterBurn #fantasyromance #bookishcommunity #bookreels #readersoftiktok
#readersofbookstagram #TheStarlessSea

book quotes, emotional book quotes, funny book quotes, romantasy, Bitter Burn quote, fantasy romance, dark romance, bookish soft life, bookish reel
Have you read Malazan or its prequel series? What Have you read Malazan or its prequel series? What did you think? 👀

Esslemont’s world feels like one of those epic fantasies you plan to read for years, until one day you decide it's finally time dive in. Then you pause and realize just how deep it goes. 

All of the magic, betrayal, gods, empires. It’s the kind of lore that reshapes what you expect from fantasy. I guess that's why many say it's a masterpiece.

Would you ever start a series this dense… or does that intimidate you a little too?

✨ Tell me your Malazan thoughts below, reader to reader. ✨

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#MalazanEmpire #IanCEsslemont #MalazanBookOfTheFallen #EpicFantasy #FantasySeries #HighFantasy #BookDiscussion #FantasyReaders #FantasyBooks #Bookstagram #BookCommunity #FantasyBookRecommendation #TBR #BookLover #BookishDiscussion #FantasyAddict #ReadingCommunity #BookishThoughts #EpicReads #BookishConversation

Malazan Empire books, Ian C. Esslemont, epic fantasy series, high fantasy books, dark fantasy reads, fantasy book recommendations, must-read fantasy series, bookstagram fantasy, fantasy book lover, book blogger
✨️Happy Release Day to Of Gold and Chains by S ✨️Happy Release Day to Of Gold and Chains by Samantha Ziegler! @samanthazieglerauthor ✨️

“You will not know happiness or love. You will only know the basest and grimmest of human greed, anger, and revenge.”

That’s the cost of trading your soul, and Elyse pays it willingly to save the one she loves.

I had the pleasure of beta-reading this book, and trust me when I say… It’s dark fantasy done right! The entire series is moody, magnetic, and downright scrumptious. 

Magic, vengeance, and heartbreak are all tangled in a story that asks how far love will go before it becomes ruin.

If you crave morally gray heroines, haunting worlds, and fantasy romance that hurts so good, you’ll want Of Gold and Chains on your shelf.

📖 From the world of the Black Skull Chronicles, this release cements Samantha Ziegler as one to watch in dark fantasy fiction.

✨ Hit save if you love dark fantasy romance.
🖤 Comment “vengeance” if morally gray characters are your obsession.
🔥 Hit like for every dark fantasy book that’s left you wrecked and wanting more.

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 #OfGoldAndChains #SamanthaZiegler #BlackSkullChronicles #DarkFantasyRomance #FantasyRomance #DarkFantasyBooks
#FantasyBooks #BookReleaseDay #FantasyReaders #BookBlogger #BookishCommunity
#BookstagramFeature #BookishGirlies #ReadersOfInstagram #BookishSoftLife
#TheDiaryOfAReader #BookishRecs #BookishAesthetic #DarkRomanceReaders #FantasyBookLover #MorallyGreyCharacters #FantasyWithTeeth #VengeanceAndLove #MagicAndRuin #SoulForLove #EpicFantasyReads #BetaReaderLife #BookishVibes #NewBookRelease2025 #FallFantasyBooks 

of gold and chains | samantha ziegler | black skull chronicles | dark fantasy romance | book new fantasy | books | fantasy romance release | morally gray heroine | revenge fantasy | dark magic | fantasy | fantasy book recommendation
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