I’m so glad this didn’t end like volume one because I would have been inconsolable until volume four. This series and making me cry in the middle of the night😭

(thank you solaris publishers through netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review)

❝Fidelitatis Et Perseverantiae❞

Kings, queens, politicians, religious leaders, business moguls; these are powerful people in the history of the world and in the background, hovering over their left shoulders in the shadows, are the Enderboughs. A family that can trace its lineage to the earliest of humanity, whose traditions are older than some countries’ independence and who every 40 years hosts a family reunion. Strictly family is invited to this reunion—no partners who married in and definitely no dating prospects—but Ross Enderbough who fled to America to live away from his family’s influence, forced to make the trip, brings his girlfriend Elena. Elena, who knows that her boyfriend comes from ‘old money’ but has no idea that everything she believed about that term will be changed once she steps into the family mansion, Enderby.

There’s always that one novella that completely captures me. In Terrible Worlds: Revolutions, it was Ogres and depending on the third novella Tchaikovsky releases in this Terrible Worlds: Transformations series, ‘Preaching To The Choir’ might be that one novella for me. While ‘Saturation Point’ reminded me of Annihilation, this reminds me of ‘‘Ready or Not’ and I was completely entranced. I read this in one sitting. Adrian Tchaikovsky did it again.

Also referring to an American as “baggage back from the Colonies.” had no right to make me laugh as hard as it did.

Stop. This was adorable 🥹🥹

❝Omnia mutantur, she said, nos et mutamur in illis. All things change and we change with them.❞

The Zone; an ecological horror; an ever-growing biomass inhabitable to humans. Dr. Jasmine Marks fresh from university worked under Dr. Fell researching the Zone but that was twenty years ago and now she’s being called in for a rescue mission. The last time she was in the Zone, two of her fellow researchers died, so she isn’t exactly excited to be back but with barely any more information on the Zone in the last twenty years, she is considered top in the field.

They lied. It isn’t a rescue mission.

This reminded me of Annihalation. I’m yet to read the book but I have watched the movie and the plants as horror is something that’s done there as well. That ending? Amazing.

(thank you tyndale house publishers through netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review)

Originally self-published and now getting a re-release through a traditional publisher, When We Blinked tells a story of redemption and second chances. Newly divorced and back to work after four years as a stay-at-mum, Seraphina is ready to start dating again yet she finds herself torn between three men: her ex Connor whom she successfully coparents with, Jack the man she met through a dating app and Graham, someone she meets through work.

What she doesn’t know is that Jack and Connor are the same person. When the truth comes to light, Sera is forced to ask herself: Is falling in love twice truly possible, or is it finally time to move on from her failed marriage?

This was a fun read. Nothing really stood out for me but I enjoyed myself nonetheless.

❝Power brings a man many luxuries, but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them.❞

When Tiro, the confidential secretary (and slave) of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events that will eventually propel his master into one of the most suspenseful courtroom dramas in history. The stranger is a Sicilian, a victim of the island's corrupt Roman governor, Verres. The senator is Marcus Cicero—an ambitious young lawyer and spellbinding orator, who at the age of twenty-seven is determined to attain imperium—supreme power in the state.

Of all the great figures of the Roman world, none was more fascinating or charismatic than Marcus Tullius Cicero. And Tiro—the inventor of shorthand and author of numerous books, including a celebrated biography of his master (which was lost in the Dark Ages)—was always by his side.

Compellingly written in Tiro's voice, Imperium is the re-creation of his vanished masterpiece, recounting in vivid detail the story of Cicero's quest for glory, competing with some of the most powerful and intimidating figures of his—or any other—age: Pompey, Caesar, Crassus, and the many other powerful Romans who changed history.

If someone told me a few days ago that this would be the book to get me out of a slump and also end up my most surprising five-star read of the year, I would have called them crazy. When going through my owned books searching for anything that could help me out of a slump, I stumbled upon the Cicero trilogy, a series I had bought so long ago at the recommendation of one of my favourite booktubers but just never picked up. By chance, a review describing it as a court drama set in ancient Rome popped up on my feed and I decided why not? I read the entire Part One in one night. Part Two took longer because I had other responsibilities but I read it quickly as well. I struggled putting it down. I have never been so entranced by a story and I think a major part of it is that I’m not that well versed on Roman history.

I knew of Cicero but not much about him and those I did know much about were Pompey, Caesar and Crassus, better known as the First Triumvirate. Reading this and finding out how heavily involved Cicero was with the three of them was a delight. The engaging writing, well-written political manoeuvring and Cicero’s endless witticism made this an amazing read.

I will forever remember how Chapter 9 made me feel. It was 3am in the morning and here I was cheering like one of the plebeians watching Cicero absolutely destroy Verres in court.