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LaurasLibraryCard

she/her Love to read romance šŸ’š I'm 100% open to book discussions, debates, and recommendations!

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LaurasLibraryCard commented on anaconda's review of Entered in the Alien Bride Lottery (Khanavai Warrior Bride Games, #1)

4h
  • Entered in the Alien Bride Lottery (Khanavai Warrior Bride Games, #1)
    anaconda
    Jan 24, 2026
    2.0
    Enjoyment: 2.0Quality: 3.5Characters: 1.5Plot: 1.5
    šŸ‘½
    šŸ’
    šŸŽ„

    ✨ Alien M x Human F ✨ Insta Lust ✨ Forced Marriage ✨ Game Show Plot

    TLDR I fear I’m too woke for this. Won’t rate it one star because I can acknowledge that this book was just never going to be one I enjoyed and I realised that pretty much as soon as the MMC was introduced and he was the exact type of MMC I loathe with a passion. Others might find it great and fair enough, more power to them

    Plot Summary Humans are enslaved/oppressed by an alien race and have to sacrifice women into forced marriages every year to stay safe. Humanity is only kept alive so they can take women and use them for breeding. What a loaded beginning, I’m sure this is totally not going to end up with crazy misogynistic themes…

    The characters are Cav, a gruff alien Lieutenant who doesn’t even want a wife but also gets hard if the wind blows too hard, and Natalie, a human woman who got picked in the lottery to be forcefully married off and impregnated by her oppressors. Surely she will stand on business and not fall for the literal first male she sees, right?

    Writing āœ”ļø The writing itself is pretty decent. The narrators do a good job. It’s not extraordinary but I didn’t want to only say negative things. Still, there are some pretty cute lines and moments scattered in between everything else, and that’s worth mentioning I think

    Plot āž– The similarities to Hunger Games with the entire deawing ceremony are uncanny. It’s almost like an AU fanfic. I mean the characters aren’t the same but the world building and vibe concept is pretty much the same.

    āž– The balance between smut and plot was a bit off, because there wasn’t all that much plot but also not all that much smut so… It’s mostly just… lust in internal monologue, I guess?

    Charachters āœ–ļø The MMC’s introduction is him viewing humans as lesser beings and then jerks off to to just normal headshots of women 🫩

    I would accept whatever wife was matched to me, fuck her, impregnate her, and report back for ship duty.

    Charming. His opinion doesn’t really change, like… ever.

    āœ–ļø The FMC insists that she is going to avoid this marriage at all costs, only to give up her entire life back home, her aspirations and dreams, for a man whose biggest pro is ā€œnot as misogynistic as everyone else here.ā€

    Worldbuilding āœ–ļø The alien race seems culturally no different from the humans. It’s easily forgettable that they even are different aside from having blue skin and stuff.

    āœ–ļøThe dehumansation of women and the way the entire setting treats them is akin to a 4chan user’s free-use-enslaved-women-fantasy. I just don’t like the entire premise of this world. Human women are kept around like breeding livestock, paraded like dogs, assaulted for entertainment…

    āœ–ļø Humans seem to be just completely passive about this. No one actually cares that this is happening to their women, they treat it like an infomercial. The entire story has no emotional weight because of it. Even the FMC is more annoyed about possibly being off planet for a couple years than she worries about being bartered off as a broodmare. To me, there is nothing appealing about this world

    — (For the record, if you enjoy this; no judgement. I personally just hate these types of stories because books are the one place I want to be free of the patriarchy and misogynistic men, so this stuff grates me.)

    6
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  • LaurasLibraryCard commented on ifyouonlyknewthehalf's update

    LaurasLibraryCard commented on astral.projection's update

    astral.projection made progress on...

    23h
    Daughter of the Forest  (Sevenwaters, #1)

    Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwaters, #1)

    Juliet Marillier

    36%
    9
    3
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    LaurasLibraryCard commented on a post

    22h
  • Boss level (?) Quests

    Will there be something above the starter pack quests? For those that for deep into a genre? Also will there be a dark romance or erotica side quest?

    9
    comments 12
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  • Post from the Titan (Romancing His Stone, #1) forum

    22h
  • Titan (Romancing His Stone, #1)
    Thoughts from 28% through chapter 6
    spoilers

    View spoiler

    2
    comments 0
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  • LaurasLibraryCard made progress on...

    22h
    Titan (Romancing His Stone, #1)

    Titan (Romancing His Stone, #1)

    Jillian Graves

    28%
    8
    0
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    LaurasLibraryCard wrote a review...

    1d
  • Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know
    LaurasLibraryCard
    Jan 25, 2026
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:
    šŸ™„
    🄱
    šŸ—£ļø

    I listened to the audiobook, and while I liked that it was narrated by the author, I disliked the full cast or immersive experience thing they were going for. Some minimal music or transition music is fine, but there was constantly background sounds that were distracting to me. The inclusion of audio from interviews "so you can hear the real thing" instead of just their words would have been cooler if the audio quality wasn't all over the place and sometimes made it hard to hear or understand the interview.

    The book's actual structure also annoyed me, maybe it was because I was dipping in and out, but I felt like he frequently did not make a point without 20 examples in the middle: A. So my point... 1) example 1/2 2) example 1/2 I. aside / further information 3) example 2/2 4) example 2/2 B. So that's my point: summarized in one sentence

    And this format is repeated for each book's chunk, it felt like I had to constantly wait for the point to be made and then for the examples to retroactively be explained. Throughout the course of this whole book that were really only four points made, I feel like this could have been an article instead of 380 pages.

    1. default of Truth 2. transparency, expectations and stereotypes 3. mismatch: we are bad lie detectors 4. coupling: x event is linked to y situation / place

    I also personally felt that many examples were popular or had a lot of media coverage or were fucking serious and then were not really handled in a way that I thought was done sensitively; example showing Brock Turner's defense, a racist's excuse, or a pedophile's point of view.

    I did feel like arguments made overall were backed by legitimate and respectable peer-reviewed studies. I completely agree with Read with Cindy's review on Goodreads!

    5
    comments 0
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  • LaurasLibraryCard wrote a review...

    1d
  • Deaf Utopia: A Memoir—And a Love Letter to a Way of Life
    LaurasLibraryCard
    Jan 25, 2026
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:
    šŸ³ļøā€šŸŒˆ
    🤟

    I saw this book randomly recommended on Instagram, but ultimately I was only mildly interested because I didn't actually know who this guy Nyle is.

    There was definitely a writing style as if the book's audience is hearing over being Deaf, with a lot of remarks about deafness as a culture and a way of life-- it felt like he was trying to assure the reader the whole time how he's totally normal, but like yeah, obviously? Except for being hot enough to get on TV? I just already have the understanding that ASL is a language, that Deaf people can do anything too, that they're not dumb, that hearing people suck at being helpful with lip reading and are insensitive... Was I simply too aware of Deaf topics already? This was bordering on so much educational and info dump content for a hearing audience. Like okay, you're Deaf, but also white, privileged, come from a loving family, and are super hot.... Otherwise this content was vaguely "oh yeah, I did reality TV and explored/discovered my sexual identity" ....

    Reviewers seem split regarding the reality TV elements, in my opinion if you like the TV shows then their inclusion feels like cool 'behind the scenes' info, but if not then that content is not something you would care about. I see comments regarding how the writing was somewhat simple or choppy and also repetitive. I agree with other reviewers that this was a love letter to the Deaf community and to the family that raised him.

    3
    comments 0
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  • LaurasLibraryCard wrote a review...

    1d
  • The Water Dragon’s Bride, Vol. 8
    LaurasLibraryCard
    Jan 25, 2026
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:
    🌊
    šŸ‰
    🫧

    View spoiler

    2
    comments 0
    Reply
  • LaurasLibraryCard is interested in reading...

    1d
    Swordcrossed

    Swordcrossed

    Freya Marske

    3
    0
    Reply

    LaurasLibraryCard commented on a post

    1d
  • reading a different translation of arabian nights?

    this is truly an amazing quest!! so many exciting works that i can’t wait to readšŸ’—šŸ’—

    regarding tales from 1,001 nights/arabian nights. i have read the 2019 Penguin selection of Lyon’s 2008 translation. in this quest, does only the Burton translation count towards the quest or? how does it work in general with quests when u have read a different edition/translation?

    i consciously chose Lyon due to wanting to avoid victorian era censoring and the freedoms Burton might have taken with the text. according to my understanding, the latter reads more poetic, but the former is more accurate and also more readable to the modern reader. but maybe the translation by Burton is one of the things that made this a classic?

    15
    comments 9
    Reply
  • LaurasLibraryCard commented on anaconda's review of Entered in the Alien Bride Lottery (Khanavai Warrior Bride Games, #1)

    1d
  • Entered in the Alien Bride Lottery (Khanavai Warrior Bride Games, #1)
    anaconda
    Jan 24, 2026
    2.0
    Enjoyment: 2.0Quality: 3.5Characters: 1.5Plot: 1.5
    šŸ‘½
    šŸ’
    šŸŽ„

    ✨ Alien M x Human F ✨ Insta Lust ✨ Forced Marriage ✨ Game Show Plot

    TLDR I fear I’m too woke for this. Won’t rate it one star because I can acknowledge that this book was just never going to be one I enjoyed and I realised that pretty much as soon as the MMC was introduced and he was the exact type of MMC I loathe with a passion. Others might find it great and fair enough, more power to them

    Plot Summary Humans are enslaved/oppressed by an alien race and have to sacrifice women into forced marriages every year to stay safe. Humanity is only kept alive so they can take women and use them for breeding. What a loaded beginning, I’m sure this is totally not going to end up with crazy misogynistic themes…

    The characters are Cav, a gruff alien Lieutenant who doesn’t even want a wife but also gets hard if the wind blows too hard, and Natalie, a human woman who got picked in the lottery to be forcefully married off and impregnated by her oppressors. Surely she will stand on business and not fall for the literal first male she sees, right?

    Writing āœ”ļø The writing itself is pretty decent. The narrators do a good job. It’s not extraordinary but I didn’t want to only say negative things. Still, there are some pretty cute lines and moments scattered in between everything else, and that’s worth mentioning I think

    Plot āž– The similarities to Hunger Games with the entire deawing ceremony are uncanny. It’s almost like an AU fanfic. I mean the characters aren’t the same but the world building and vibe concept is pretty much the same.

    āž– The balance between smut and plot was a bit off, because there wasn’t all that much plot but also not all that much smut so… It’s mostly just… lust in internal monologue, I guess?

    Charachters āœ–ļø The MMC’s introduction is him viewing humans as lesser beings and then jerks off to to just normal headshots of women 🫩

    I would accept whatever wife was matched to me, fuck her, impregnate her, and report back for ship duty.

    Charming. His opinion doesn’t really change, like… ever.

    āœ–ļø The FMC insists that she is going to avoid this marriage at all costs, only to give up her entire life back home, her aspirations and dreams, for a man whose biggest pro is ā€œnot as misogynistic as everyone else here.ā€

    Worldbuilding āœ–ļø The alien race seems culturally no different from the humans. It’s easily forgettable that they even are different aside from having blue skin and stuff.

    āœ–ļøThe dehumansation of women and the way the entire setting treats them is akin to a 4chan user’s free-use-enslaved-women-fantasy. I just don’t like the entire premise of this world. Human women are kept around like breeding livestock, paraded like dogs, assaulted for entertainment…

    āœ–ļø Humans seem to be just completely passive about this. No one actually cares that this is happening to their women, they treat it like an infomercial. The entire story has no emotional weight because of it. Even the FMC is more annoyed about possibly being off planet for a couple years than she worries about being bartered off as a broodmare. To me, there is nothing appealing about this world

    — (For the record, if you enjoy this; no judgement. I personally just hate these types of stories because books are the one place I want to be free of the patriarchy and misogynistic men, so this stuff grates me.)

    6
    comments 7
    Reply
  • LaurasLibraryCard commented on robyn00's update

    robyn00 made progress on...

    1d
    When the Tides Held the Moon

    When the Tides Held the Moon

    Venessa Vida Kelley

    64%
    27
    12
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    LaurasLibraryCard commented on LaurasLibraryCard's update

    LaurasLibraryCard made progress on...

    1d
    Wed to the Alien Warlord (Accidental Alien Brides #1)

    Wed to the Alien Warlord (Accidental Alien Brides #1)

    January Bell

    77%
    12
    6
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    LaurasLibraryCard made progress on...

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    Wed to the Alien Warlord (Accidental Alien Brides #1)

    Wed to the Alien Warlord (Accidental Alien Brides #1)

    January Bell

    77%
    12
    6
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    LaurasLibraryCard commented on xjunieverse's update

    xjunieverse set their yearly reading goal to 12

    3d

    xjunieverse's 2026 Reading Challenge

    1 of 12 read
    Die drei ??? und die Teufelsklippe (Die drei Fragezeichen, #218)
    9
    1
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    LaurasLibraryCard commented on xjacqueline's update

    xjacqueline set their yearly reading goal to 26

    6d

    xjacqueline's 2026 Reading Challenge

    0 of 26 read
    12
    1
    Reply

    LaurasLibraryCard commented on a post

    2d
  • Wrong Place Wrong Time
    Reading Update from 37%

    She's been told by the PI that someone is dead, but Jen has already met them in the future, so why does Jen believe the PI's findings?? Is this another instance of Jen not understanding how chronology works when going backwards??

    5
    comments 4
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