avatarPagebound Royalty Badge

fearbite

1598 points

0% overlap
Cozy Fantasy
Fall 2025 Readalong
Pagebound Royalty
Gothic Literature
Found Family in Fantasy
Dark Academia

fearbite entered a giveaway...

2w

Simon Books giveaway

Livonia Chow Mein

Livonia Chow Mein

Abigail Savitch-Lew

In the vein of Happiness Falls and Family Lore, a gripping story of family history and political upheaval centered around a Chinese family-owned restaurant in Brownsville, Brooklyn and its impact on the neighborhood’s Jewish and Black residents over the course of a century. In 1978, two tenements on Livonia Avenue in Brownsville burn to the ground, killing one resident and displacing dozens of others. It remains unclear who set the buildings ablaze, but the survivors are convinced the culprit is Mr. Wong. Who exactly is Mr. Wong, and what allegedly drove him to this extraordinary act of violence, is the question that consumes this novel as it plunges into four generations of Wong family history. First is Koon Lai, an immigrant who runs a Chinese restaurant on Livonia Avenue; second, his son Richard, a man desperate for his own chance at the American Dream; and third, Jason, a poet who seeks his escape in the bohemian counterculture of the 1970s, but finds himself an unwitting participant in Brooklyn’s gentrification. In the 21st century, Jason’s daughter Sadie returns to Brownsville as a journalist, determined to unravel the mystery of what happened decades earlier on the night the buildings blazed. Joining together the present and the past is the community organizer Lina Rodriguez Armstrong, who was also displaced by that fire and who has spent the intervening years fighting for the rights of Brownsville’s residents and organizing a Livonia Avenue community land trust. A stunning debut from a new talent, Livonia Chow Mein contemplates how the American pursuit of freedom relies on a collective amnesia and challenges us to consider what it would take for us to truly live in harmony.

print25 copiesUS only

fearbite made progress on...

2w

The Art of Charming a Changeling (Pigments and Paramours)

Sylvie Cathrall

8%
1
0
Reply

fearbite wrote a review...

2w
  • Yes, Chef
    fearbite
    Apr 16, 2026
    4.0
    Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 4.0Plot: 4.0

    View spoiler

    1
    comments 0
    Reply
  • fearbite commented on a post

    2w
  • The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association
    Thoughts from 49% (page 178)
    spoilers

    View spoiler

    3
    comments 3
    Reply
  • fearbite entered a giveaway...

    2w

    Heiner de Wendt giveaway

    Dawn of Silence (The Grave Palace, # 1)

    Dawn of Silence (The Grave Palace, # 1)

    Heiner de Wendt

    The Grave Palace – an epic fantasy trilogy Accompany Arkan, Jijiro and Narynel on their journey from Delvaroth to the the heart of the Ocean of Ash – the Grave Palace, seat of the Seven Oblivions. Fighting against his ruthless brother as well as monsters, aristocrats, spirit beings and undead, the three misfit heroes face powerful enemies as much as their own past. Dawn of Silence – The Grave Palace 1 An icy dread seeped into Arkan’s bones. Vampires, spirits, dreamscapes…How was an ordinary thief like him supposed to handle this? On a mission to find his sister, Arkan finds himself at the center of a dangerous conspiracy—orchestrated by a terrifying foe from his past. He must band together with a vampire hunter and an illusionist on the run to save a city from the undead. But an even greater darkness casts its shadows over the reforged world of Ashandri. Dawn of Silence is the beginning of a dark epic fantasy trilogy. Follow a found family of adventurers in a diverse world of high magic, ancient secrets and political intrigue.

    ebook100 copieseverywhere

    fearbite entered a giveaway...

    2w

    Simon Books giveaway

    The Bright Years

    The Bright Years

    Sarah Damoff

    One family. Four generations. A secret son. A devastating addiction. A Texas family is met with losses and surprises of inheritance, but they’re unable to shake the pull back toward each other in this big-hearted family saga perfect for readers of Mary Beth Keane and Claire Lombardo. Ryan and Lillian Bright are deeply in love, recently married, and now parents to a baby girl, Georgette. But Lillian has a son she hasn’t told Ryan about, and Ryan has an alcohol addiction he hasn’t told Lillian about, so Georgette comes of age watching their marriage rise and fall. When a shocking blow scatters their fragile trio, Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents. Years later, Lillian’s son comes searching for his birth family, so Georgette must return to her roots, unearth her family’s history, and decide whether she can open up to love for them—or herself—while there’s still time. Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life novel that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love.

    print10 copiesUS only

    fearbite finished a book

    2w
    Yes, Chef

    Yes, Chef

    Grace Reilly

    0
    0
    Reply

    fearbite started reading...

    3w
    Yes, Chef

    Yes, Chef

    Grace Reilly

    0
    0
    Reply

    fearbite wrote a review...

    3w
  • How to Cheat Your Own Death (Castle Knoll Files, #3)
    fearbite
    Apr 13, 2026
    4.5
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 4.5Plot: 4.0

    View spoiler

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • fearbite left a rating...

    3w
  • Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy, #2)
    fearbite
    Apr 09, 2026
    4.5
    Enjoyment: 4.5Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5

    View spoiler

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • fearbite left a rating...

    3w
  • Assassin's Quest (Farseer Trilogy, #3)
    fearbite
    Apr 09, 2026
    5.0
    Enjoyment: 4.5Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5

    View spoiler

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • fearbite left a rating...

    3w
  • Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1)
    fearbite
    Apr 09, 2026
    4.0
    Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.0

    View spoiler

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • fearbite entered a giveaway...

    4w

    Simon Books giveaway

    Like This, But Funnier

    Like This, But Funnier

    Hallie Cantor

    For fans of Dolly Alderton and HBO’s Hacks, a whip-smart, laugh-out-loud funny debut novel about faking it (and “making it”) as a writer in Hollywood. TV writer Caroline Neumann is thirty-four and mired in professional envy and self-hatred. Even Harry, her usually supportive therapist husband, thinks it’s time for her to press pause on her career ambitions and focus on getting pregnant, despite Caroline’s serious ambivalence about having children. When Caroline accidentally stumbles on Harry’s patient session notes and offhandedly mentions what she finds in a meeting with a producer, the momentum of Hollywood takes over. Before she knows it—and unbeknownst to Harry—Caroline finds herself pitching a TV show about the deepest, darkest secrets of her husband’s favorite patient, a woman known to Caroline only as the Teacher. Amid the indignities of the Hollywood development process, Caroline must balance her burning desire for professional validation against her own morality and the health of her marriage. And when Caroline forms a real-life relationship with Teacher herself, the lines between art and life begin to blur further, shaking up Caroline’s understanding of what it means to be the “likeable female protagonist” of her own life.

    print10 copiesUS only

    fearbite commented on a post

    4w
  • A Tale for the Time Being
    Thoughts from 1%

    1% in and I feel like I was not prepared for the type of book this was going to be. Am I wrong?

    15
    comments 9
    Reply