
jinlingsuncle started reading...
1d

Slaying the Vampire Conqueror
Carissa Broadbent
She was commanded to kill him with a single strike to the heart. She didn’t expect her own to betray her. Sylina has sacrificed everything for her goddess–her soul, her freedom, her eyes. Life in service to the Arachessen, a cult of the Goddess of Fate, has turned Sylina from orphaned street-rat to disciplined killer, determined to overthrow Glaea’s tyrannical king. But when a brutal vampire conqueror arrives on their shores, Sylina faces an even deadlier adversary. She’s tasked with a crucial mission: infiltrate his army, earn his trust… and kill him. Atrius is a terrifying warrior carving an unstoppable path through Glaea. Yet when Sylina becomes his seer, she glimpses a dark and shocking past–and a side of him that reminds her far too much of parts of herself she’d rather forget. Sylina’s orders are clear. The conqueror cannot live. But as the blood spilled by Glaea’s tyrant king runs thicker, her connection with Atrius only grows stronger. A connection forbidden by her vows. A connection that could cost her everything. Slaying the Vampire Conqueror is a standalone fantasy romance set in the Crowns of Nyaxia world, full of heart-wrenching forbidden romance, dark curses, and epic battles – perfect for fans of The Bridge Kingdom and the From Blood and Ash series.


jinlingsuncle finished a book
2d

The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King
Carissa Broadbent
Love is a sacrifice at the altar of power. In the wake of the Kejari, everything Oraya once thought to be true has been destroyed. A prisoner in her own kingdom, grieving the only family she ever had, and reeling from a gutting betrayal, she no longer even knows the truth of her own blood. She’s left only with one certainty: she cannot trust anyone, least of all Raihn. The House of Night, too, is surrounded by enemies. Raihn’s own nobles are none too eager to accept a Turned king, especially one who was once a slave. And the House of Blood digs their claws into the kingdom, threatening to tear it apart from the inside. When Raihn offers Oraya a secret alliance, taking the deal is her only chance at reclaiming her kingdom–and gaining her vengeance against the lover who betrayed her. But to do so, she’ll need to harness a devastating ancient power, intertwined with her father’s greatest secrets. But with enemies closing in on all sides, nothing is as it seems. As she unravels her past and faces her future, Oraya finds herself forced to choose between the bloody reality of seizing power – and the devastating love that could be her downfall.

jinlingsuncle is interested in reading...
2d

Behind Five Willows
June Hur
From the New York Times-bestselling author of A Crane Among Wolves comes a warm and romantic homage to Jane Austen set in historical Korea, about a reader and a writer who secretly fight against government book banning and find themselves irresistibly drawn together. As the dutiful second-eldest daughter of a poor family, society would have Haewon believe that her only hope of a decent life is to marry well. But during a time of rampant government censorship and book banning, she instead works as an illegal book transcriber in order to make a little extra money. It’s dangerous work, but she loves it―especially when she gets to transcribe the work of her favorite author, known as Black Lotus. When her older sister becomes smitten with a wealthy young gentleman, Haewon is roped into chaperoning them during their courtship. Which wouldn’t be so terrible... if it weren’t for the young man’s uptight and annoying best friend who also accompanies them. As the only son of a noble, Seojun has a lot expected of him. Wealth. Status. Respectability. Certainly not frivolous and often illicit activities such as reading fiction. But Seojun loves to do something even more scandalous: writing. He’s kept his work secret from his father and friends, but with each passing day, the pressure of being his father’s son and the dispiriting actions of the government make Seojun question the purpose of it all. The only thing keeping him going are the encouraging letters he receives from his transcriber, known only as Magpie. When his best friend falls hard for a girl of lower social status, Seojun finds himself forced to act as chaperone to the infatuated couple―along with the girl's younger sister, who is as irritating as she is judgmental. But as Haewon and Seojun spend more time together, they begin to suspect they may have judged each other too quickly...

jinlingsuncle is interested in reading...
2d

Doctor Who: The Monster in the Cupboard: A 2000s story
Kalynn Bayron
*Part of the six books for six decades collection*When the Doctor and Rose stumble across thirteen-year-old Lily, they both agree she needs their help.Lily thinks there are monsters in the closet, hiding under the bed. And that they've taken her mother and brother - who went missing months ago.When asked about the monster, Lily can only say it's made of immense light and power. Rose and the Doctor must find out who and what the creature is, and where it's taken Lily's family.It is a search that will take them from the Cardiff Rift right back to the childhood of Lily's grandmother, and another disappearance all those years ago . . .

jinlingsuncle TBR'd a book
2d

Tress of the Emerald Sea
Brandon Sanderson
#1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us deeper into the Cosmere universe with a rollicking, riveting tale that will appeal to fans of The Princess Bride. The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?

jinlingsuncle is interested in reading...
2d

The Secret Romantic's Book of Magic: Twelve Spellbinding Romantasy Stories
Marie O'Regan
A gorgeous collection of 12 original fantasy romance stories from bestselling & beloved authors. Featuring Olivie Blake, Kelley Armstrong, Katherine Arden, Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Tasha Suri, Melissa Marr and more. Enemies become lovers, rivalry turns to romance, and convenient marriages create true love in these twelve addictive tales. Expect chemistry, heat and dreams come true... Olivie Blake Kelley Armstrong Katherine Arden Hannah Nicole Maehrer Tasha Suri Melissa Marr Megan Bannen A. G. Slatter A. C. Wise Kelly Andrew Kamilah Cole Eliza Chan

jinlingsuncle TBR'd a book
3d

What Once Was Mine
Liz Braswell
What if Rapunzel's mother drank a potion from the wrong flower? Desperate to save the life of their queen and her unborn child, the good people of Corona search for the all-healing Sundrop flower to cure her—but mistakenly acquire the shimmering Moondrop flower instead. Nonetheless it heals the queen, and she delivers a healthy baby girl with hair as silver and gray as the moon. With it comes dangerous magical powers: the power to hurt, not heal. For her safety and the safety of the kingdom, Rapunzel is locked in a tower and put under the care of powerful goodwife, Mother Gothel. For eighteen years Rapunzel stays locked away, knowing she must protect others from her magical hair. But when she leaves the only home she's ever known, wanting only to see the floating lights that appear on her birthday, she gets caught up in an adventure across the kingdom with two thieves—a young woman named Gina, and Flynn Rider, a rogue on the run. Before she can reach her happy ending, Rapunzel learns that there may be more to her story, and her magical tresses, than she ever knew.

jinlingsuncle TBR'd a book
3d

Small Pleasures
Clare Chambers
Now available in the US—the dark horse literary novel that has taken Britain by storm! In the best tradition of Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ann Patchett—an astonishing, keenly observed period piece about an ordinary British woman in the 1950s whose dutiful life takes a sudden turn into a pitched battle between propriety and unexpected passion. A BEST BOOK OF 2020 PICK: Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times Ireland, Daily Express 1957: Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper in the southeast suburbs of London. Clever but with limited career opportunities and on the brink of forty, Jean lives a dreary existence that includes caring for her demanding widowed mother, who rarely leaves the house. It’s a small life with little joy and no likelihood of escape. That all changes when a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth. Jean seizes onto the bizarre story and sets out to discover whether Gretchen is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys, including Gretchen’s gentle and thoughtful husband Howard, who mostly believes his wife, and their quirky and charming daughter Margaret, who becomes a sort of surrogate child for Jean. Gretchen, too, becomes a much-needed friend in an otherwise empty social life. Jean cannot bring herself to discard what seems like her one chance at happiness, even as the story that she is researching starts to send dark ripples across all their lives…with unimaginable consequences. Both a mystery and a love story, Small Pleasures is a quintessentially British novel in the style of The Remains of the Day, about conflict between personal fulfilment and duty; a novel that celebrates the beauty and potential for joy in all things plain and unfashionable.

This book was such a cozy read, where whimsy and magic battle logic and reason in the most perfect way possible while Charlie tries to figure out her life and herself as she's forced to choose between her old logical world and a new one where magic is present in a way she would have never imagined.
And all the characters were great, I couldn't help but love every single one of them. Even the townspeople whose names weren't mentioned and only appeared for a couple of lines left some sort of impression! I feel like every single character in this book has an actual purpose and impact on the story (aka Charlie's decisions and way of thinking).
The best character of the whole book, however, is Hemingway, without a doubt lol (yes, I might be biased because he's a sassy orange cat with a superiority complex and beef with old books and paperwork, so what)

jinlingsuncle finished a book
5d

The Next Chapter Bookshop: A heartwarming cozy small town romance with a touch of magic! (Leafwood Falls Book 1)
Brooke Skie
A heartwarming cozy small town romance with a touch of magic!What happens when a high-powered attorney inherits a small-town bookshop that seems to have a mind of its own?Charlie Whitmore has her life perfectly planned out. As a rising star at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, she's on the fast track to partnership, with spreadsheets for everything and a five-year plan that doesn't include any surprises.Until her beloved Aunt Beth dies and leaves her a small-town bookshop in Vermont.Oak & Ink Bookshop has stood in the heart of Leafwood Falls for nearly a century, beloved by locals for its uncanny ability to match readers with exactly the right book at exactly the right time. Charlie's plan is assess the shop's value, list it for sale, and return to Manhattan before her corporate career derails.But Leafwood Falls has other ideas.Between a cantankerous orange cat named Hemingway with very specific literary opinions, a shop assistant whose organizational system defies all logic, and a community that instantly adopts her as one of their own, Charlie's quick business trip stretches into weeks. And then there's the bookshop itself—with its creaky floors, mysteriously moving books, and secrets hidden within its walls.As Charlie dives deeper into her aunt's legacy, she finds herself torn between two worlds and two Lawrence, a sophisticated developer with plans to transform the town while preserving its charm, and Ethan, the rugged local contractor whose quiet demeanor hides unexpected depths. One represents the safe, successful future she's always worked toward; the other embodies the authentic connection she didn't know she was missing.With her carefully constructed life unraveling, Charlie must decide whether she's just passing through—or finally finding her way home. Because in a bookshop where stories have a habit of finding the readers who need them most, perhaps the most surprising story of all is her own.Perfect for readers who loved THE BOOKSHOP ON THE CORNER, THE LOST AND FOUND BOOKSHOP, and THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY. A heartwarming story about second chances, finding your authentic self, and the magic that happens when you open yourself to possibility.