So, because there was so few books purchased during the month of July, I decided to just combine them into one post. I know, I know~ Usually I have a good number of books that I purchased in a single month, but with the move and my barely going out at all...there was not much to even post. With no further adieu~
I acquired 1 book, and read 11:
Book Haul
1) Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby - It looked good. I couldn't turn it down. At first I thought it would have a gay couple as the main characters and that we would be following their lives in this backwater town. I was only off by a single generation. It is actually following their parents after their...well...you'll see. It looks amazing and I will have to find a way to toss it in during August. Perhaps during the ATLA readathon?
Wrap Up
1) The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo - It was okay. I certainly was not expecting the story that we got. I went in blind, like I tend to, and thought it was a retelling of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and that none of those characters would play a role in this story. Boy was I wrong. Apparently it was set during the same tale only, it was more. I didn't exactly care for it, but it was like a train wreck where you couldn't look away. I gave it a 3.25/5 because...well, if you take out the references to dark magic, it was actually pretty funny.
2) The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki - What utter nonsense was this? I think I gave it a 1-2.5/5. I don't even remember. I think on StoryGraph it's still unrated. I was totally right in referring to this as the sexcapades of Genji before I even started reading it. It really is. I reached a point about 2/3 through where it became more of a grudge match and I wanted to see just how much worse it could get. I'm warning you all now. It ended with what would amount to pedophilia. He groomed a child to be his future wife. Dude was just weird and gross.
3) Jason and the Golden Fleece by Apollonius of Rhodes - I already was familiar with this story. A bit through (laugh if you will) Percy Jackson and then a bit through other various movies, books and shows about Greek myth. I needed a book to fill the prompt of characters on a mission/quest. This worked. They were on a quest to get the golden fleece. It was good. I liked the story and how well it was translated out of Greek.
4) Cute Little Lenormand by Sara M. Lyons - I am a huge fan of most versions of divination, and I heard about the lenormand on one of my various divination groups. So when I saw this available at the local bookstore (by local, I mean half an hour away), I had to get it for myself. I am glad I did. I like the way that you read the cards. The information was quite interesting and provided a few almost meditation questions to ask. I look forward to actually using the cards for reading one of these days.
5) Chinese Fortune Reading Cards by Sharina Star - I picked up this set of oracle cards when I went on a trip with a friend of mine into a cute little town. She had business elsewhere and I had to have them when I saw them. They are pretty and fairly easy to read (despite my not actually using them). I read through the book and figure this is a good deck for a once a day card draw, probably in the morning. I am looking forward to the use of them.
6) Brothers of the Wild North Sea by Harper Fox - Oh boy. See, I am a fan of spicy m/m romance novels. I will grant that. This was so spicy. We follow a monk in Britannia in the 600s...I think it's the 600s, anyway. The monk is part of this little monastery that keeps getting raided and oh my word. They go through a lot. I don't want to say much and ruin it, but trust me, if you like spicy Vikings and spicy monks...go for it.
7) Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes - Another book for a readathon (the Tarot readathon actually). This one filled Seven of Wands, the first book in a series. I cannot remember why I bought it, but I enjoyed it. These people have been separated for hundreds of years and are suddenly coming back together in what I assume will be a bloody and violent conflict. I liked how Cleo was confident and stood up to her father, the King, when she knew she was right and he was not. The basic premise was pretty good and I can already foresee an enemies-to-lovers trope somewhere in the series between Cleo and Magnus. Whether they know it yet themselves or not. They seem perfect foils to one another. The bright, airy princess and dark brooding prince. I'm calling it now.
8) Fearless Tarot by Elliot Adam - I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm sure he meant well, but it screamed too much "love and light" to me. The kind of nonsense spouted by the people who are religiously damaged and want to make it seem like they are totally not the bad guys. I will do my best to glean the most useful information from the book, but I will probably not return to it as anything more than a reference guide.
9) The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang - Definitely my favorite of the trilogy so far. We will see what The Burning God has to say. We follow Rin and the rest of the Cike as they now learn where they truly stand and what value they have to the people. It was an interesting turn of events from the end of The Poppy War, where we thought all was finally settled. I am concerned about what is going to happen now that the majority of them are gone. I think only Rin and a sparse handful of them even remain. This should prove very interesting.
10) Persephone Unveiled by Charles Stein - I am not a devotee of Persephone myself, but I do like learning about all of the gods in the Pantheon I follow, so when I saw this one available at a shop that rarely even carries anything about Greek deities (the fad is Norse apparently), I had to grab it. I liked the book insofar as what it did talk about. We didn't get much Persephone-specific lore. We were told a ton about the ancient Eleusinian mysteries though. The history, suggested order of events, timelines. It was quite fascinating, if not what it was I thought it would be.
11) The Fireman by Joe Hill - I don't remember what originally drew me to this book last year (2019? I don't even remember that). I knew going in that the book was going to be good. He writes like his father, and I don't care who you are. He literally just looks like his dad. Anyway, the whole premise was amazing. I loved the way we actually hear the entire thing from the perspective of a pregnant woman. I wish it had worked out better though, in the end. I feel bad for them. I loved the novel and was definitely surprised all throughout.
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