

PALI_RM finished a book
3d

Mixed Signals
B.K. Borison
Layla Dupree has given up on love. Sheās waded through all of the fish in the sea, each one more disappointing than the last. Apparently owning the bakery at Inglewildās most romantic destination does not help oneās love lifeādespite her best efforts. All she wants is a partner who gives her butterflies, not someone who ghosts her at dinner and leaves her with the check. Good thing Caleb Alvarez has the perfect solution. After saving Layla from another date gone bad, he has a simple proposition: One month of no-strings dating. Heāll do his best to renew her faith in men while she rates his dating game. Itās a win-win situation. All the benefits of dating, without the added pressure of feelings and unmet expectations. But thereās one ingredient they havenāt considered. The chemistry between them is red hot and the urge to take things to the next level is more tempting than Laylaās double fudge mocha brownies. Will the heat between them boil over? Or will it be another case of mixed signals? Mixed Signals is a sweet and steamy small-town romance. Our story features a bashful man who can rock a Hawaiian shirt, a hopeful and dreamy bakery owner, enough sweets to give you a cavity, and your favorite Inglewild residents. Mixed Signals is a standalone romance and the third book in the Lovelight series, a collection of interconnected novels.


PALI_RM is interested in reading...
1d

We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People
Nemonte Nenquimo
From a fearless, internationally acclaimed activist, We Will Be Jaguars is an impassioned memoir about an indigenous childhood, a clash of cultures, and the fight to save the Amazon rainforest and protect her people. Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuadorās Amazon rainforestāone of the last to be contacted by missionaries in the 1950sāNemonte Nenquimo had a singular upbringing. She was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. She played barefoot in the forest and didnāt walk on pavement, or see a car, until she was a teenager and left to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city. But after Nemonteās ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her to return and embrace her own culture, she listened. Nemonte returned to the forest and traditional ways of life and became one of the most forceful voices in climate change activism. She spearheaded an alliance of Indigenous nations across the Upper Amazon and led her people to a landmark victory against Big Oil, protecting over a half million acres of primary rainforest. We Will Be Jaguars is an astonishing memoir by an equally astonishing woman. Nemonte digs into generations of oral history, uprooting centuries of conquest, and hacking away at racist notions of Indigenous peoples. Ultimately, she reveals a life story as rich, harsh, and vital as the Amazon rainforest herself.


PALI_RM TBR'd a book
2d

Foster
Claire Keegan
Claire Keegan's piercing contemporary classic Foster is a heartbreaking story of childhood, loss, and love; now released as a standalone book for the first time ever in the US It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas' house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household--where everything is so well tended to--and this summer must soon come to an end. A story of astonishing emotional depth now expanded and newly revised in a standalone edition, Foster showcases Claire Keegan's great talent and cements her reputation as one of our most important and prodigious storytellers.


PALI_RM started reading...
2d

A Sorceress Comes to Call
T. Kingfisher
A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesnāt have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friendāunless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers donāt force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers arenāt sorcerers. After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordeliaās mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Faladaās sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordeliaās mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister. Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.


PALI_RM finished a book
3d

Mixed Signals
B.K. Borison
Layla Dupree has given up on love. Sheās waded through all of the fish in the sea, each one more disappointing than the last. Apparently owning the bakery at Inglewildās most romantic destination does not help oneās love lifeādespite her best efforts. All she wants is a partner who gives her butterflies, not someone who ghosts her at dinner and leaves her with the check. Good thing Caleb Alvarez has the perfect solution. After saving Layla from another date gone bad, he has a simple proposition: One month of no-strings dating. Heāll do his best to renew her faith in men while she rates his dating game. Itās a win-win situation. All the benefits of dating, without the added pressure of feelings and unmet expectations. But thereās one ingredient they havenāt considered. The chemistry between them is red hot and the urge to take things to the next level is more tempting than Laylaās double fudge mocha brownies. Will the heat between them boil over? Or will it be another case of mixed signals? Mixed Signals is a sweet and steamy small-town romance. Our story features a bashful man who can rock a Hawaiian shirt, a hopeful and dreamy bakery owner, enough sweets to give you a cavity, and your favorite Inglewild residents. Mixed Signals is a standalone romance and the third book in the Lovelight series, a collection of interconnected novels.


When a book opens with an authors note about how this is a work of fiction about animals and to not get hung up on it I expect to have to overlook things like how a snake medical examiner could draw blood samples, not misogyny and racism.
What is the point of creating a whimsical animal world if you're going to keep the hallmarks of problematic human society? Incompetent police? Multiple husbands/fathers that view their families as something to escape and avoid? Prejudice against certain species? Not to mention the WILD anti-Asian racism against the panda restaurateur, and our MC female reporter having the last name "Vixen" so that people get to call her a vixen, constantly.
I just don't get it. Like, why? If we were making commentary or subverting tropes, sure, great. But it really didn't feel like we were. It really just felt like the author spent no time contemplating the ramifications of leaning so heavily on stereotypes and tropes, or maybe considered just enough to inspire a "he he, don't take it seriously!" opening note.
I wanted to love this, and I was totally bought in for the first while, but it quickly dissolved into obnoxious trope after offensive stereotype, on repeat. Such a bummer.
Luckily my library hold for book 2 has a bit of a wait so I have time to contemplate if continuing is worth it. Let me know if you've read book 2 and it gets better?


PALI_RM commented...
6d
Ughhh that's sooo disappointing I was really excited about this quest and the super cool badge! Thanks for your review and the heads up, as tempting as the badge is, they're def not for me.


When a book opens with an authors note about how this is a work of fiction about animals and to not get hung up on it I expect to have to overlook things like how a snake medical examiner could draw blood samples, not misogyny and racism.
What is the point of creating a whimsical animal world if you're going to keep the hallmarks of problematic human society? Incompetent police? Multiple husbands/fathers that view their families as something to escape and avoid? Prejudice against certain species? Not to mention the WILD anti-Asian racism against the panda restaurateur, and our MC female reporter having the last name "Vixen" so that people get to call her a vixen, constantly.
I just don't get it. Like, why? If we were making commentary or subverting tropes, sure, great. But it really didn't feel like we were. It really just felt like the author spent no time contemplating the ramifications of leaning so heavily on stereotypes and tropes, or maybe considered just enough to inspire a "he he, don't take it seriously!" opening note.
I wanted to love this, and I was totally bought in for the first while, but it quickly dissolved into obnoxious trope after offensive stereotype, on repeat. Such a bummer.
Luckily my library hold for book 2 has a bit of a wait so I have time to contemplate if continuing is worth it. Let me know if you've read book 2 and it gets better?