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brightsword

Librarian with a taste for romance and speculative fiction.

503 points

0% overlap
Brandon Sanderson Universes
Fated Mates Book Club: Romance Books for Novel People
Level 4
My Taste
Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)
The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe, #1)
Devil in Winter (Wallflowers, #3)
Tress of the Emerald Sea
Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (Cecelia and Kate, #1)
Reading...
Lost Wax: Essays (Crux: The Georgia Series in Literary Nonfiction)Destiny's Captive (Destiny, #3)Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1)

brightsword finished reading and wrote a review...

2d
  • The Spellshop
    brightsword
    Sep 13, 2025
    4.5
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5
    🍓
    🌳
    🌵

    There is something about the idea of restoring an overgrown cottage that satisfies a very particular itch in my brain. Probably the same reason I love Stardew Valley.

    I really enjoyed the variety of species without the text getting too technical, and that the book engages with difficult topics without ever really making the reader feel unsafe. I'm so glad for the extra push the Fall Readalong gave me to read this book!

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    Level 4

    Level 4

    500 points

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    2d
  • Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
    Thoughts from 55% (page 292)

    What the heck is soda bread and why have I never heard of it?

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    2d
  • A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell, #1)
    Thoughts from 8%

    Is heard this series being recommended some years ago, and when I recently found it at a discount I bought the first without much of an idea about it. I had not expected the narrative voice to be quite so entertaining? This is very, very promising.

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    1w
  • The Spellshop
    Thoughts from 1%

    Alright I'm only on the first page and was wondering, how do you pronounce Kiela? In my mind it's kind of like Kee-la or something. Also, her assistant is a... plant?? Haha it's quirky already! Am really looking forward to this read!

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  • Destiny's Captive (Destiny, #3)
    Thoughts from 32% (page 117)
    spoilers

    View spoiler

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    1w
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
    LanieBun
    Edited
    Thoughts from 71%

    "If you want your child to learn these skills, don’t let her hear you call her “shy”: she’ll believe the label and experience her nervousness as a fixed trait rather than an emotion she can control. She also knows full well that “shy” is a negative word in our society. Above all, do not shame her for her shyness."

    Growing up it was always like "Wow she can actually talk." "She speaks" and that pushed me further back. As an introvert I am trying to stay away from extra attention. Every action I took i thought "What will they say about me now?" If i didn't do anything I still managed to have some comment about being quiet, and all eyes would still be on me.

    Even today it plagues me. I was in an interview over the summer, and mentioned I was an introvert, but I do what I need to do. (Like this book talks about) and one of the ladies made a comment about "loving introverts" and how "i should just spend a little time with her." As if I needed to be fixed.

    This book has been a struggle. It isn't a call for society to change and be more accepting. It's a call for me to embrace the side of me thay has been put down my whole life.

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  • Post from the The Spellshop forum

    1w
  • The Spellshop
    Thoughts from 4% (Chapter 1)

    I do think I will like this book, but my immediate reaction, as a librarian, was "Kiela, you think the revolutionaries aren't going to at least take over the library?? I know you know knowledge is power, girl. Also, don't literally live at work, my god!"

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  • brightsword started reading...

    1w
    The Spellshop

    The Spellshop

    Sarah Beth Durst

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    brightsword wants to read...

    2w
    Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist

    Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist

    Jennifer Wright

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