a wonderful children's book teaching children that it's okay to miss someone and helps parents get a jumpstart on discussing emotional self-regulation. kaylani juanita's art is the cherry on top!

a cute book about a cute girl going around her neighborhood with her dog and spreading joy while waiting for the cloudy weather to dissipate. the art is absolutely adorable, colorful, and expressive!

cover artist: olivia duchess

6 stars

ya i'm moving medusa up on my priority tattoo list. i, medusa is my first 6-star read of the year and i wouldn't have it any other way. it's written like a "young adult" novel because of the innocence of the character but the violence and politics are very much adult. tyla collier's performance went above and beyond narrating this novel. i highly recommend immersive reading both the audiobook and ebook/physical if you're able.

that friend reminds me of every white girl comedy from the early 2010's but for tiktoker millennials. i'm sure that's the point and i love a full cast movie for my ears but everything else about this book was horrible. the amount of privilege and entitlement was like retail trauma from the pov of the karen. i cannot care about a character who relies on their daddy's money for everything, stalks a person's social media to manufacture a delusional meet-cute, is rude and fragile to everyone regardless of whether or not she knows them, uses her daddy's money to start a podcast after getting laid off because a frenemy started a podcast, and someone who thinks borat is a compelling political satire. for once, i think i'm too smart for a book.

cover artist: ???

the random racism kept taking me out of the story. it was like a freight train coming out of nowhere. give me the gothic lesbian vampy vibes. not...whatever that was.

10/10 no notes. required reading for every leftist.

this book is overwritten, fatphobic, a poor representation of ocd, and weird in a way that's not compelling of an unhinged feminine rage-type of novel—something that is largely absent. this is torture porn. i strongly believe some passages are written with chatgpt or some kind of generative AI which is just so galling to me, exacerbated by the fact that the author stole the cover art without crediting. i also believe her other book "sugar" is ai-generated because, upon closer inspection, the picture is pixelated, the cherry placement does not make any sense, and there are many things wrong with the mouth/teeth. PLEASE respect illustrators and commission real human artists. i'm curious how her tradpub team will edit this but also i don't care anymore. i'm tired of begging creatives to respect illustrators. it's so upsetting.

cover artist: stolen from whyn lewis - author claims to have compensated the artist but no word since. not to mention, this is getting traditionally published and the cover is 100% inspired by the original piece. kinda just wish the publisher reached out to the original artist and compensated her to use her art as this piece is heavily attached to 'shy girl.' the lesson: just don't steal from artists, including generative AI, and teach your friends, colleagues, and loved ones not to engage in anti-artist antics like this.

(the office's "they're the same picture" meme with "immortal" and "never ever after")

and just like that, a once beloved 6-star auto-buy author became a 1-star hate-read.

non-spoiler review: never ever after is worse than immortal, but not by much. the positive things were that i buddy read this with my book bestie theboneforest so i wasn't suffering alone, the physical books and art were well-made, the worldbuilding (set, outfit descriptions, food, etc) was beautifully written, and natalie naudus knocked the narration out of the park. setting aside my immeasurable disappointment, this is objectively a poorly-written book. so many things made this an excruciating read: the neutered fantasy elements, the retconning of character traits, the inconsistent pacing, the weak character relationships, the egregious use of "telling" and not showing, the abuse of deus ex machina, and the narrative whiplash. even the lush worldbuilding was no more than set dressing after the opening 15%, unlike the beginning where the world was pivotal in driving the plot and serving the characters which played a major role in my enjoyment. is it a common romantasy thing where writers have to make their fantasy world take a backseat entirely and everything has to be spelled out for the reader? i wish the romance were prominent and compelling enough to drive the story but the "romance" didn't even exist other than what readers were told. the plot abandoned the cinderella retelling aspect after about 15% and then readers were subject to what i can only describe as a looney tunes version of twilight "but make it chinese" for the remainder of the novel. it was all bad.

everything made me SO mad because nothing made sense, the reader's hand was held throughout the entire book, the story sometimes moved glacially slow with unnecessarily repetitive chapters or super fast without meaningful development, all while bouncing rapidly from place to place, there was no semblance of a plot, and none of the characters matter—not even the main character! people would disappear for chapters at a time, making the "story" more stagnant. there was no way for readers to stay connected with the whopping cast of characters and the mc's flaccid personality made her just as forgettable as the side characters despite readers being trapped in her head for 51 chapters. i will literally forget her name next week.

i couldn't even tell people what the purpose of the book was except to pad the genre with more diversity maybe??? or god forbid a special editions cash grab?? what were they trying to say with this book because fuck if i know! whoever had a hand in sue lynn tan letting these last two books release needs to stop pressuring her and let her cook longer because these were shallow and boring. the main characters for this book could've been swapped with the ones from immortal and the story would not have changed. spider-man web dangle me over a bridge, i could not tell you anything about these character's motivations because it simply did not exist. i wanted to dnf after the cinderella retelling and the magic at the beginning was abandoned because nothing else did it for me. never ever after quickly and sadly turned into a hate-read.

i knew her releasing two books in a year was a red flag. i'm never buying a sue lynn tan novel again. i don't hate her. i'm just sad and disappointed because she's capable of better.

i'm exhausted by my hatred for this book so let me just amuse you with my descent into despair during the course of my buddy read; rants will be condensed. excuse my language and poor punctuation but also idc anymore because i hate this book.

organized by chapter and SPOILERS AHEAD: -01: this was a VERY good introduction and i really hope the momentum keeps going. sue lynn tan is good at starting her books with explosive openings and drama.

• 04: is it bad that in my head i was like, "noooo 小龍 (little dragon) became 小籠包 (xlb)" 😭
• 09: i'm invested in the relationships way more than immortal. also bodyguard romance vs royal romance?? jin wins this for me but we'll see how this develops. it's already like liwei and wenzhi-lite (from her daughter of the moon goddess duology).
• 12: i'm literally so damn confused why they're tutoring her and essentially grooming a complete stranger to be the next queen??? that's the third person, upon first meeting, to imply there's something more going on between her and zixin (the prince) evEN THOUGH THEY'VE ONLY HAD ONE CONVERSATION!?!? things are also progressing so much slower in this second part and i can see immortal rearing in its ugly head 😭 i don't like it, jin come baaaaack!!
• 14: okaaaay i seriously thought yining was smarter than this like for a moment she was like "ya this guy who gives me butterflies imposes egregious taxes on the poor and i'm also a victim of his monarchy but lemme save him" HUHH??? whaT ARE WE DOING 🤡 we had JIN1!1! that chemistry was SO good!!! honestly that whole fight i was rooting for all of the luigi mangione's 🥴 you're not gonna have a bunch of poor people talk about their dire circumstances and not have me be on their side. i don't get the chokehold this crusty-ass, weak-ass, cringy-ass idiot prince has on her 🙄
• 15: fina-fucking-lly jin is back. NOTHING happens when he isn't around. he gave her a quest, he banters, he's handsome, and he moves the plot while she's just reacting to everything that happens around her and i don't like that. i also don't understand why she doesn't trust jin but puts all of her eggs in a basket when it comes to zixin despite all of the red flags. i'm going crazy LOL i enjoy flawed characters but she's downright stupid and contradicts herself every other page.
• 16: it only took zixin saying he's gonna commit mass murder of entire bloodlines, no tax relief for his people, and him knocking into a servant girl only to have her whipped for yining to open her fucking eyes! we're more than 1/4th of the way through the book!!! this bad pacing is killing me but i hope it picks up now that we have a goal, motive, and possible chance to see thorn valley. the map in the book is huge. there's no way we don't see it (future me: we don't see it 😭).
• 20: YOU SEE!? yining can pull up on jin with such a flirty move like that yet the cringiest lines from zixin makes her heart go aflutter???? PLEASE! she's a professional grifter which comes with being a very good liar which also comes with good acting and smooth flirting. ain't no way i can be convinced that a character like yining would've fallen so easily for jin, let alone zixin. so much of part 2 was out of character for her. THIS is what i expected.
• 27: "stop seeing only what you want to." "stop pretending like you see nothing." this might have been romantic if it weren't for the fact that they haven't had a single conversation about themselves and don't know each other outside of their mutual suspicions of zixin 🫠
• 30: this is literally the same thing from immortal: "i promise i'll tell you later" > has every opportunity to say so but doesn't until forced to > payoff wasn't worth the edging. i wish the lesbians were the main characters. also it feels like we've been to so many different settings and yet the needle has barely moved.
• 31: the reveal came out of nowhere. also what a dumb way to get to it. i don't get why the witch was so adamant about protecting jin, even going so far as being like "i don't like thorn valley but he doesn't deserve someone from iron mountains because i hate them more" implying yining wants jin...and why does this lesbian care??? like you have a whole girlfriend. i also absolutely HATED jin saying "when you bet against yourself, you'll lose even if you're right" like wHaT dO yOu mEaN!? jin lies to her and yining is stupid—THIS IS NOT A COMPELLING ROMANCE NOR ROMANTIC LINE AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
• 33: did she ever mention having a sister and being bonded in such a way??? i literally don't feel anything for these characters. also girl why tf are you mad at jin for??? he and his people are infiltrating iron mountain because they're victims of the royalty's tyranny just like you!!! this is so much of her having a pity party with little to no awareness of how anyone else is affected. i can't stand people like that.
• 35: what the fuck is this emotional whiplash??! and within two pages of one another!?? yining accused jin of liking her because she thinks thorn valley (his home) needs mist island's (her origin) magic to survive, he asks if she thinks that's the only reason why he "cares," she accuses him of saying anything to get what he wants, he says, "just like you?", and she admits he's right. then he says AGAIN that she's assuming shit about him when he won't say outright whatever tf he means!!! and then LITERALLY on the next page jin gets jealous thinking about zixin talking to yining and touching her, acts like a possessive boyfriend, forces her into a hug like EW, and she LIKES it even though they were literally just roasting each other and accusing each other of having ill intentions??? TELL ME HOW TF IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A COMPELLING RELATIONSHIP!?!? they still haven't had a conversation getting to know each other AT ALL.
• 41: everything is so surface level and we keep getting told EVERYTHING. "i say this so he thinks this. i do that so he does that." she needs to trust her readers more. this hand holding is beneath her writing capabilities.
• 44: i hate these characters so much. yining has literally done nothing but be reckless and stupid. i don't understand how she thinks she can outsmart and outmaneuver a studied, manipulative, and combat-trained prince and his army, UUUUUUUUUGH. ALSO WHY DIDN'T SHE PUT THE RING ON?!!? like what is this pretense she thinks she's keeping uuuup 🙄
• 47: i'm sorry i'm laughing so hard at the image of yining trying to chip away at an enormous powerful jewel with a tiny dagger 🤣 also how tf would she be able to connect that zixin's sister planted the dagger and wanted him dead like she's not that smart?? i know it's supposed to be like "GASP" and this moment is supposed to humanize zixin as if we forgot his mass murders, egregious taxation of the poor, and abuse of service workers—all because a dragon is nice to him??? it's really giving that scene from community where britta was like "i can excuse racism but i draw the line at animal cruelty" 😂😂 even though he also subjected the dragon to endless cruelty...
• 48: there's so much build-up and potential for interesting female characters only for them to be dumbed down in their second arc. how is zixin's sister supposed to read as conniving, cold, and calculating when other characters constantly undermine her. she just sounds so dumb. and within the same chapter she's been pushed to the sidelines and back to doing nothing. also the attempts to redeem zixin, using the dragon as deus ex machina...I CAAAAN'T!!! there's too many dumb things happening 😭
• 51: THAT'S IT??? what a nothing book omg??? i think this might be worse than immortal because of all of that shit only for NOTHING to happen whether politically, romantically, or ANYTHING!! and each chapter keeps ending with verbose nonsense. omg this is sooo bad 😭

uk cover artist: maxine vee us cover artist: colin verdi

you know that cozy feeling you get after finishing a good book, as if it's just wrapped you in its blanket and you've been settled in its warmth but didn't realize it until you took a sip of your favorite drink? that's this book for me. what an incredible love story to people of vietnamese diaspora the crossbow of destiny is. i am absolutely in love with brandon hoang's viet fantasy storytelling and crave more. cảm ơn 💖 i immersive read this novel with the audiobook and physical and elyse dinh did a wonderful job narrating. her performance in banyan moon was outstanding so i was ecstatic to hear more from her!

cover artist: yuta onoda

dauntless is a good book with a lush filipino world, interesting magic system, and compelling discussions on cultures clashing. my big gripe is that the relationships weren't fleshed out, took oddly unexpected turns, and could have spent more time developing. i expected certain characters to get with others because it was setting up to be like so but the direction it took was sudden and weird. amielynn abellera did a wonderful job narrating the audiobook and i highly recommend immersive reading!

cover artist: sarah gonzales

freedom is a constant struggle is a collection of speeches and interviews by angela davis that cover a variety of social issues. i strongly recommend immersive reading this or just going with the audiobook because angela davis narrates it herself and her delivery is riveting. readers can't help but stay hooked on her every word. black lives matter, free palestine, free the world from settler imperialism and colonization, and rid us of toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and transphobia.

eva evergreen is a cute, charming, and whimsical middle grade fantasy that i recommend in any library. as an adult reading this, i question many of the adult's failure to intervene. however, i think it's a great novel for kids to learn about building a community, how to be a good friend/neighbor, and how to unify in protest and make your voice heard. these are important values for kids to learn, especially in this day and age where resistance is vital to defending vulnerable people constantly having their lives upended by the violence of authorities.

cover artist: shan jiang

idk anything about tristan and isolde so i went into this purely because of the cover and that it's an indie-published book pre-genAI. this is what i've gathered from the first novel about the main characters:

• cassi: does nothing for the entire book and is surprised by the consequences of her actions.
• lyana: manic pixie dream girl + sheltered princess = petty but in a "petulant child" way and not a smart, fun way.
• rafe: stoic, broody, "dark" white boy who yearns for manic pixie dream girl but is the worst at communicating.
• xander: one of the highest EQ out of the entire cast yet still somehow the king of cuck and ignoring red flags.

i get why this was popular back when it released and i've seen black reviewers enjoy the black representation with regards to lyana's features. the raven and the dove has a lot of great things going for it like the yearning was good, the politics were intriguing, the tropes were enjoyable, and the worldbuilding was interesting. however, it was marred by writing techniques that made the book 200 pages too long especially with the constant repetition and unnecessary fillers. other than that, it's not a bad book. it is miles ahead of most recently-released romantasy novels i've read because of its strengths where too many romantasies are severely lacking. i will probably continue with the series sometime in the future.

cover artist: salome totladze (morgana0anagrom)

another case of me aging out of insufferable YA tropes.

cover artist: jessica coppet

another wonderful palestinian regency romance added to my collection! i was also delightfully surprised at the inclusion of early physical/occupational therapy (bonesetters)! i loved the mystery and the scandalous drama. it was exactly what i wanted.

i hybrid read this physically and my only gripe is the audiobook (again). they used the same actress as the first installation and this was even worse. the character has a palestinian family and...idk i'd look into reviews by other palestinian/swana readers to speak on a white woman using a cartoonish accent for the mc's family. it felt so gross listening to it. the voice and cadence zara hampton-brown chose for all of the men were also the same so the love interest sounded almost exactly like the antagonist. they were all like 1800's palpatine and it was hilarious. there are plenty of swana narrators and performers. zara is fine but she can't be the only one and avon needs to do better.

the viscount made me do it is fun, it's got gossipy men, and a great yet subtle political message (don't be racist!). diana quincy is a top-tier regency writer for me and i can't wait to read more from her!