courtinthepages

18 | she/her | aspiring author, journalist, and voracious reader | either writing, reading, running, or caring too much about everything | most alive i've ever been, but kiss me and i might drop dead

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My Taste

The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)

Reading...

Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals

62%

courtinthepages commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

NachoCheese

Shout to the void (pt8)🪐

Well well well.. would you look at what time it is! What’s a complaint (big, small, dramatic, silly, serious) that you need to shout to the void?!💭

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courtinthepages commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

HalJreads

Edited

Writing a book about vivid Dreams?

Hi everyone, I have super weird and realistic vivid dreams. Do you think dreams would adapt well if I wrote a book? I've been wanting to write a book for a while and maybe the dreams are a sign to finally write one. 🤣 What do you think? Any writing advice?

courtinthepages commented on courtinthepages's update

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courtinthepages commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

vulpecula

With the new readalong books...

So how many new books did y'all end up adding to your TBR/Interested? One? Two? All of them?

I already had one on my TBR that would work for the summer readalong, but I ended up adding all of the other three PLUS one for the Pride Special Event. One day, perhaps I will get through my TBR list. (I whisper longingly into the wind.)

courtinthepages joined a quest

Sourcebooks Summer of Swoon ☀️🍒👙

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Limited Time Quest (May-Aug 2026): A curated lineup of 6 sunny, swoon-worthy rom-coms to fuel your summer reading. Join us and dial up the heat!

courtinthepages wrote a review...

courtinthepages

May 02, 2026

3.0

Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 3.0Characters: 4.0Plot: 3.0

🫙

⚰️

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hmmm i wanted to like this one but a lot of it felt forced to me? caroline was a very wishy washy character, james was your average villain male character, and eliza and nella were both incredibly passive. penner uses POV shifts as a way to create suspense at just the moment you don't want the POV to stop, and it's more annoying than effective considering that this novel isn't, you know... a thriller.

full review eventually but I've barely written reviews as of late and i want to make sure I remember things when i come back to this

Format: Audiobook

courtinthepages commented on ominousspectre's review of The Lost Apothecary

ominousspectre

May 01, 2026

2.5

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

Ahh, I really wanted to like this. I love everyday history, and the idea of blending a researcher and those whose story they're trying to uncover is really cool. I didn't care for how this played out though.

Very predictable for what's kind of meant to be a mystery. I REALLY hate miscommunication tropes, and this one was eye rolling. Also, CAN SOMEONE TELL THIS POOR CHILD WHAT A PERIOD IS?!

I really didn't care for Caroline's POV or storyline. It felt like what I imagine every Hallmark movie 5-10 years on looks like: Girl gives up her dreams for small town business boy. Oh no! Turns out he's unfaithful! Perhaps she should have considered her dreams all along?

Which listen...I love a story of women learning to live for themselves, this one just didn't hit. Also the husband was comically evil. Like girl the abusive red flags just became apparent to you??? There was never a teeny inkling till just now?

courtinthepages finished a book

The Lost Apothecary

Sarah Penner

A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course. Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman. Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register. One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose - selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register. In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate - and not everyone will survive.

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Silver: Finished 10 Main Quest books.

courtinthepages is interested in reading...

The Lion Women of Tehran

Marjan Kamali

From the nationally bestselling author of the “powerful, heartbreaking” (Shelf Awareness) The Stationery Shop, a heartfelt, epic new novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran. In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.” But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives. Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences. Written with Marjan Kamali’s signature “evocative, devastating, and hauntingly beautiful” (Whitney Scharer, author of The Age of Light) prose, The Lion Women of Tehran is a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young, and the way love and courage transforms our lives.

courtinthepages is interested in reading...

A River Enchanted (Elements of Cadence, #1)

Rebecca Ross

Jack Tamerlaine hasn’t set foot on Cadence in ten long years, content to study music at the mainland university. But when young girls start disappearing from the isle, Jack is summoned home to help find them. Enchantments run deep on Cadence: gossip is carried by the wind; plaid shawls can be as strong as armor, and the smallest cut of a knife can instil fathomless fear. The capricious spirits that rule the isle by fire, water, earth, and wind find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home. Adaira, heiress of the east and Jack’s childhood enemy, knows the spirits only answer to a bard’s music, and she hopes Jack can draw them forth by song, enticing them to return the missing girls. As Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together, they find they make better allies than rivals as their partnership turns into something more. But with each passing song, it becomes apparent the trouble with the spirits is far more sinister than they first expected, and an older, darker secret about Cadence lurks beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all.

courtinthepages is interested in reading...

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

Nghi Vo

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

courtinthepages TBR'd a book

Ace of Spades

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully. When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too.Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures.As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly?With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.

courtinthepages commented on a post from the Founder Announcements forum

lucyPagebound

Summer 2026 Readalong picks & Pride 2026 Special Event

Hi everyone, we're excited to share the 4 selections for the Summer Readalong, running June through August AND 5 selections for the Pride Special Event in June! We announce Readalong titles a month in advance to give everyone time to place library holds. Head to the Seasonal Readalong page & Special Events page to see 2 badges, the full list of selections, and add the books to your TBR (on the app via the More/hamburger menu on the Home tab, on desktop via the Discuss page).

SUMMER READALONG:

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross: A romantasy based on Scottish mythology, it has limited sexual content with a heightened focus on world-building that leans cozy, making it a great entry point for those who don't typically read romantasy. The protagonists defy the typical archetypes, which makes it fresh for veteran romantasy readers too!

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali: Set in 1950s Tehran, this historical fiction book follows two girls, Ellie and Homa, whose fierce childhood friendship is tested by class divides, betrayal, and the upheaval of the Iranian Revolution.

The Empress of Salt & Fortune by Nghi Vo: A feminist high fantasy set in an empire reminiscent of imperial China, this Hugo Award-winning novella is short but powerful.

The Stranger by Albert Camus: A classic of twentieth-century literature originally published in French, this is the story of an ordinary man drawn into a senseless murder in Algeria. It explores the philosophy of Absurdism.

PRIDE:

Last Pride was our very first Special Event, and this Pride marks 1 full year of quarterly Special Events! The goal of these is to encourage diverse reading, and while we have loved how the PB community has embraced these events, we also recognize their quarterly cadence makes it impossible for us to recognize all the voices we would like to each year.

Choosing the Special Event for summer was quite difficult for us; PB is a thriving queer & allied space that absolutely should celebrate Pride, but also as an American company, we very much wanted to celebrate Juneteenth as well (for our international friends, Juneteenth is the official celebration of the emancipation of enslaved people in the US). We ultimately decided to make this a Pride event, since we have such a large international community and Juneteenth is a US holiday. However, we feel strongly about recognizing and celebrating Juneteenth, which leads to the following:

Next year in 2027 we will have a year-long limited time Main Quest hosted by Pagebound with the express purpose of promoting diverse reading. With this Quest, we can promote all the voices that are not highlighted in a quarterly Special Event.
For this Pride, we recognize Juneteenth and the intersectional nature of justice with Harriet Tubman Live in Concert. If you are looking to recognize both holidays this Readalong, we highly recommend this pick! Authored by Bob the Drag Queen, this is an alternate history where Harriet Tubman pairs with a gay hip-hop producer to create a Hamilton-esque Broadway musical about her life.

BONUS: We have a new Limited Time Quest launching today: Sourcebooks Summer of Swoon featuring 6 romcoms running May through August. Check back later this afternoon to see the book list! Hint: 2 of the books have giveaways that just dropped 👀

Excited to read with everyone in the coming months!

Happy reading, Jennifer & Lucy

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