readbyrebekah

🕯️avid reader of dark academia & fantasy 📝 ✨find me on instagram & tiktok!✨ 📍🇬🇧 | she/her

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The God and the Gwisin (Fate's Thread, #2)

readbyrebekah TBR'd a book

13h

Carnival Fantástico

Angela Montoya

Carnival Fantástico by Angela Montoya, is a dual-POV YA romantasy pitched as Hotel Magnifique meets These Violent Delights, in which Esmeralda Montero, a thief pretending to be a fortune-teller, competes for the starring role at a magical traveling circus in the hopes of gaining the wealth and respect she's always longed for. But when the irritatingly handsome boy who once broke her heart resurfaces and warns her that carnival is more sinister than it appears, Esmeralda must decide whether fame and fortune are worth their deadly price.

readbyrebekah finished reading and wrote a review...

13h

The God and the Gumiho (Fate's Thread, #1)

readbyrebekah

Nov 28, 2025

5.0

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.0

☕

🖤

🌃

I LOVED THIS!!! this whole book truly is an absolute delight. a fast read, a fun read, you get all the feels and it’s just SO GOOD.

if you want enemies who actually hate each other, then here you are. both of them go through much development, you really get to see how they think with their POV’s and why they interact as they do. Seokga is up with one of my favourite MMC’s ever because he goes on such a JOURNEY in such a short about of time (i forget this whole book is like, 2 weeks?) and it actually feels believable! I’m not meant to like him, and yet i cry at the same time he does.

The plot is silky smooth, and i know nothing about Korean mythology whatsoever so don’t let that stop you if that’s what you’re worried about. sometimes Hani felt a bit brash and occasionally the modern language pulled be out of the immersion, but it’s so few and far between i can hardly knock a star off

readbyrebekah finished reading and wrote a review...

13h

readbyrebekah

Nov 28, 2025

4.0

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 4.0Plot: 3.0

🌑

⏳

🦴

My god i loved this! Unsure why people said you have to be smart to read this etc, because if a word is truly important to the overall story, then Kuang explains what it means and why. This was quite simple for me to pickup and just go with the flow.

I understand lots of gripes about the middle slowing down, however this felt natural to me, as if Alice is truly lost in hell and her writing. This is an excellent insight and commentary on academia, women & sexism in academia, the stress of academia and...everything to do with academia. This is my first RFK novel, it won't be the last!

readbyrebekah commented on intj.reads's review of Eternal Ruin (Immortal Dark, #2)

13h

intj.reads

Nov 20, 2025

4.0

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

WHAT THE FUCK

readbyrebekah wrote a review...

13h

readbyrebekah

Nov 28, 2025

4.0

Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 4.0Plot: 3.0

🌙

📃

🍷

Book two follows off and perfectly compliments book one; A story of classism, immoral actions and a disgruntled found family, Girma's writing is extremely heartfelt and real!

My gripes with this one are the same as the first- some things went back and forth for way too long, and we still didn’t quite develop our characters outside of how they interact with Kidan. the book could have been much shorter, but also same as last time- i’m not mad about it!

The twists and puzzles and turns in this made me want to keep reading and unfold the mystery of house Adane, and we sureeeeee did exactly that.

readbyrebekah started reading...

13h

The God and the Gwisin (Fate's Thread, #2)

Sophie Kim

Seokga the No-Longer-Fallen is looking for his love. Since he lost Hani and was reinstated as a god, nothing has felt right - and he's been desperately searching for her reincarnated form ever since.But when the red thread of fate leads Seokga to a cruise down the river of the dead, the woman he finds isn't Hani . . . she's Yoo Kisa, and she has no memory of him whatsoever - with seemingly no interest in regaining it either.But when the Heavenly Emperor of Okhwang is murdered, Seokga and Kisa must solve the crime before the cruise ends. And as the mystery draws them closer, they will have to decide what they truly mean to each other.There's something bigger at play aboard the ship, something that holds the key to their fated connection - and the very fate of the world.

readbyrebekah made progress on...

The God and the Gumiho (Fate's Thread, #1)

Sophie Kim

77%

readbyrebekah is interested in reading...

Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her. Beautifully written, Water for Elephants is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford.

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Silver: Finished 10 Main Quest books.

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A Dowry of Blood (A Dowry of Blood, #1)

S.T. Gibson

S.T. Gibson's sensational novel is the darkly seductive tale of Dracula's first bride, Constanta. This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . . Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband's dark secrets. With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.

readbyrebekah is interested in reading...

Blood Over Bright Haven

M.L. Wang

Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling. An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant. What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power. Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance? A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist. (Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)

readbyrebekah is interested in reading...

Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)

Leigh Bardugo

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her? Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

readbyrebekah is interested in reading...

Babel

R.F. Kuang

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization. For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . . Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

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Made for the Movies 🎥⭐😎

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readbyrebekah commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

readbyrebekah

Edited

Winter Readalong - what will you pick?

Firstly i think the 2026 one is bugged as it says that 2025 has already happened, and that 2026 is up next…

Secondly, i plan on reading Emily Wilde! i’ve been meaning to for ages and now i finally have a reason. but if it remains bugged, and 2026 is up next then im not sure what ill pick as nothing seems too interesting. maybe A Wizards guide to Defensive Baking?

eta; yes i know many people have pointed out that its not a bug, but i found it very confusing 😅. i probably wont participate this year as theres just other things id rather read on my very long tbr (mine is physical, so if it doesn’t fit on my shelf then im not allowing myself to buy a copy to put it there). if they spanned more genres or had more options that would’ve been great, but i also sometimes like how concise they all are and limiting your choices

for me: i don’t read classics- they’ve never agreed with me. i like romance in moderation and im already planning on reading two in december, i don’t read adult fiction, and the last pick sounds okay, but not something id jump on.

i’ll ready emily wilde next year or in spring, but i love that everyone is excited for this winter!

Post from the Pagebound Club forum

readbyrebekah

Edited

Winter Readalong - what will you pick?

Firstly i think the 2026 one is bugged as it says that 2025 has already happened, and that 2026 is up next…

i’ll ready emily wilde next year or in spring, but i love that everyone is excited for this winter!

readbyrebekah started reading...

The God and the Gumiho (Fate's Thread, #1)

Sophie Kim

In this sly and dazzling contemporary fantasy, the most notorious nine-tailed fox in Korea pairs up with a trickster god–turned–detective to track down a wrathful demon . . . before it can destroy the mortal world. Kim Hani has retired from a life of devouring souls. She is, simply put, too full. Once known as the infamous Scarlet Fox, she now spends her days working in a coffee shop and annoying a particularly irritating, if unfairly handsome, trickster god as often as she can. That god is Seokga the Fallen. Exiled from the heavenly kingdom of Okhwang, he now begrudgingly resides in the mortal realm, working toward his redemption and suffering through his interactions with the particularly infuriating, if sneakily charming, gumiho barista at his favorite café. But when a powerful demon escapes from the underworld and threatens to end all of humanity, Okhwang’s emperor offers Seokga an enticing bargain: Kill this rogue creature, as well as the legendary and elusive Scarlet Fox, and he will be reinstated as a god. Hani, however, has no intention of being caught. Seokga might be a trickster god, but she has a trick of her own that he’ll never see coming: teaming up. As Seokga’s assistant, Hani will undermine and sabotage his investigation right under his overly pointy nose. Sure, she’ll help him kill the demon, but she certainly won’t allow him to uncover her secret identity while they’re at it. As the bickering partners track their case down a path of mayhem and violence, the god and the gumiho find themselves inescapably drawn to each other. But will the unlikely couple stand together to prevent the apocalypse, or will they let their secrets tear them—and the world—apart?

readbyrebekah paused reading...