Recent Reviews

🥰I ran to buy this one, volume 2 of Oddities by Eli Brown. It's black and white illustrated and very beautiful series for #mglit and up #fantast #historicalfantasy #parallelworld

5 stars

So cool. I love this world and the characters. A group of Oddities (women with powers/magic) fights the Vermin (undead constructs, half machines/half animals, horrible monsters) from terrorizing the United States (a parallel historical steampunk world that is being attacked by Emperor Bonaparte). This group of women is heroes. While the men fight in the war, they save those left behind from these monsters. In this volume, we'll focus on defeating the Underking. The scene where they see this monster for the first time is vivid, scary, and epic.

This is one of my favorite historical Steampunk Fantasy series. I love the characters as a found family. It is filled with black and white illustrations. Middlegraders who love complexes world building and unique magic-system who want an adventure/ horror will also appreciate this series, not just older readers.

#middlegradeseries #25releases #2025releases #middlegradefantasy #actionandadventurebooks #bookstagram #themooncussers #oddity #Oddities #walkerbooks #elibrownauthor

Just finished this book and took 4 full pages of notes. I can't stop recommending it. It will release as an audio on November 4th and feels like an uplifting, inspiring, and educational symposium on LONELINESS, how it affects us, generate, and how to stop seeing it as a villain but start listening to ot to take positive action.

Very well presented, with socially and historically conscious, diverse concerts and inclusiveness. As a Chicago resident, this book helps me rethink my 3rd places.

👉Don't miss this one, not only inspires us to connect more, to do it right, to build trust and safe places, but also to stop apologizing for things that are healthier to us as individuals, but also as a community too.

Author Don Martin @simon.audio thank you so much for this amazing opportunity to jump into this early audio.

@bydonmartin

Under 5h

#selfhelp #nonfiction #socialpsychology

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You may recognize Don Martin from your social feeds, and in his forthcoming audiobook Where Did Everybody Go?, Don takes listeners on a loneliness deep dive, all the way from the conception of the term itself in the 1800s through the death of the American mall and rise of social media. In the bestselling tradition of Mary Roach and A.J. Jacobs, Where Did Everybody Go? Illuminates the complexity of this misunderstood social phenomenon and why people need people.

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Loneliness connection friendship on adulthood the art of community relationships friendships mutual aid

#25releases #2025releases #recommend #audiobooks #augustarc

Loved these two thrillers, so different and unique.

Motherhood is a thrilling read 5 stars

Read a #netgalley from @stmartinspress

UAU did not expect those plot twists towards the end. It focuses a lot on motherhood, a young single mother who is superprotective but doesn't let her son be diagnosed. He is on the autistic spectrum, and sometimes, it's hard for her to control him. He has issues at school, but she loves him, and to her, he is only young. She wants to do it all on her own. All of this is well written, but this is a thriller, so there are different aspects (is the house haunted? Is her husband a good person? How did her brother die? How did her parents die? What is true, and what is a trick of the mind? Will the house watch them?) The turns and twists won't let you put this book down around the 60%

Also by @macmillanusa

#stmartinspress #26releases #2026releases #youdidnothingwrong

⛈️The storm 5 stars from the author of The Heiress @ladyhawkins comes #thestorm in January 6, 2026

My review has semi-spoilers

Skip it if you want

I liked the end of this one a lot. It's an easy read and probably predictable to some pro readers, but even if we guess who I think it's harder to guess the how and why. Unveiling all of that is the journey. This is not a romance thriller, and men are portrayed as unreliable, who we frequently associate with having power and being a terrible person. I like that the Storms get a new symbolism after reading this book. Gives their female names a higher meaning. At its core, it's a woman's strong friendship story.

We get access to different PoVs, to letters, and to the past. At one point, Landon makes me really mad. I wish I were a storm to wash him away and others like him from the land.