While I really enjoyed CC1, or rather its ending, which made me give the book 5 stars, I never fully clicked with the series (it must be the setting, I don’t typically enjoy urban fantasy). I tried to read CC2 for years now, but I never get past the 100 page mark. Vaguely knowing about the introduction of the „Maasvers“, especially in CC3 - do you think the next book(s) in the ACTOAR series depend heavily on the overarching plot(s)? I think I remember having read about SJM talking about this topic but I do not remember. Will full enjoyment of future books depend on having read all of them? What are your opinions on this?

The little I know about this book is that it's really well done, has well done male written spice 😱 and is darkkkk. So I should love this one, gonna try it on audio since my July TBR is packed and I want to take a break before I listen to DCC 7.

The debate about whether Booktok (or any social media, for that matter) had a more positive or more negative influence on reading has been ongoing. There can be arguments made for both sides: On the one hand, Booktok did get many people back into reading. It helped many to find community and people to talk to about what they read. And if you follow enough different Booktokers, the recommendations you get are actually very diverse. Thanks to Tiktok, I've picked up loads of very different amazing books, books I'd never have read otherwise. On the other hand, it does sometimes feel like Booktok made the book industry into fast fashion. There is always the next over-hyped book you just HAVE to read, and often they really aren't that good (though, bad books have always existed, we just see them more now). It also bothers me that what is popular on Booktok heavily influences how current books are written and advertised. Certain tropes and stereotypes seem to appear in more and more books, and sometimes books seem to be written solely to fit those tropes. I think Tiktok also changed how most people buy books. Of course, more and more people ordered books online even before Tiktok. But I think most people stopped just strolling trough bookstores to see what might catch their intrest. Instead, many readers, me included, seem to suffer some FOMO and order what everyone else seems to be reading. The biggest issue, however, is Tiktok is still a biased algorithm that (1) favours white, male and cis/straight voices and (2) runs on money, meaning that many of the very popular books showing up on our FYP ended up there because publishers paid Booktokers to promote them. I don't think that there is one definite answer to this; booktok has both up- and downsides and I personally think that the positive outweighs the negative. But i'd love to hear other opinions on this!

That's not a little girl. Nope. No way. That's a goddamn CHIMEI SHIFTING IT'S SHAPE IN ITS OWN SHAPE SHIFTY WAY