hi friends! a beloved pb pal of mine, @vampiresgf, is going through tough times and a couple other pb pals and i thought it would be great to ask for everyone's support for our dear friend! she is an incredible person and one of the first friends i made on here. if you are in the position to support or share with your community, it would mean so much to us! please see this link to read her story and any words of love would be much appreciated :)

link to read/support/share here!

WE LOVE U VAMPY!!!! 🫂💕🌻✨

with love and gratitude, @moski, @moss-mylk, @raindrop

I keep trying romantasy and hating it, but I know there is good shit out there. Can you all help me?

While I am on the aroace spectrum, I know I can enjoy a good romance. One of my favorite series as a child was Anne of Green Gables, and I had Anne of the Island (the one where the romance plot thickens) basically memorized. My reading taste now leans more SFF and litfic, but I crave some good romance. Unfortunately, a lot of the popular choices have been a miss for me. Can you recommend me a romantasy or romantic SFF based on my reactions to these popular books? I'm sorry in advance for hating on some people's faves--it's just personal taste!!! It's my loss for not enjoying a thing!!

The key criteria are prose and character depth/development. I HATE tell-not-show writing or YA/fanfic-y language. "He growled" = Immediate DNF. No preference on spice or gender, but no dubious consent or shallow insta-love please.

1. One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig: intensely disliked the stereotypical, brooding alpha male descriptions and self-insert FMC. Overall felt very juvenile, did not like the "poetry." I did like the worldbuilding and the foggy, dark forest vibes. Prose was 2.5/5.

2. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: the worldbuilding was orientalistic, but more to the point the main romance was a snore. No chemistry, plays into racialized femme/butch dynamic. I could not tell you why they loved each other. Also there was an unnecessary SA plot at the end? Wtf. Prose was 3/5.

3. Can't Spell Treason without Tea by Rebecca Thorne: a big, boring nothingburger. The relationship was just lesbians talking to each other in therapy speak (plz don't come for me cuz I do this as a queer femme). I did not care about what happened next. Prose was 3/5.

4. Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree: It was cute for a while before it got too repetitive. The romance was okay but a little underdeveloped. Side note, I'm lowkey starting to think cozy fantasy is small business capitalism propaganda. Prose was 3.5/5.

5. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan: Promising world-building and excellent vibes, and was invested in romance for first half. Disliked execution of love triangle and felt like the MMC's character never quite developed enough complexity. I was more invested in the mom. Prose was 3.5/5? Harder to tell because I listened to the audiobook and the narrator's voice made everything sound better.

6. Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett: Here is one I liked! The relationship felt believable, I liked the slow burn and liked getting to know each character as individuals. Prose was 4/5.

7. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone : This is where the prose was prosing too hard (too flowery) but the chemistry between two agents that don't even interact in real time was compelling. It got too saccharine towards the end, but overall enjoyed it. Prose was 4/5. (docked for purple prose).

Y'all, my taste can't be all that special. I LOVE immensely popular series like the Broken Earth Trilogy, The Realm of the Elderlings, and the Green Bone Saga. Please help me find the romance of my dreams! Where is the well-written tension and yearning? Where is the growth that accompanies a relationship journey?

Have you ever read a dictionary cover to cover? Or an encyclopedia? A thesaurus? A car manual? A very niche magazine about tractor engines?

My mum tried to get me to read the dictionary cover to cover when I was a child, but I only got to the end of c before getting too bored. I did read an encyclopedia of the human body, though.

On flights I read the evacuation and emergency pamphlets cover to cover every time 🫡

Before using a new piece of equipment/machinery I'll literally read the manual cover to cover like a book before touching anything 😂

what are people's opinions on author's changing the covers of their books?

clarification: this is in reference to an author who changed the covers of their books (specifically the new ones. that haven't even come out yet) half-way through the series. so you won't have any of the "old" covers on the newer books and won't have any of the "new" covers on the older books.

I wonder if you’ve ever encountered people who say they never read fiction because it has no application in life. Twice in my life I met such people. Their reasoning simply is that fiction is not real, made-up, so they won’t be able to use it in their lives. Therefore, they are not spending their time reading it. At the same time, they both like to read, one of them is a lawyer, another — an academic. They just only read books containing facts. I think it’s a very peculiar type of thinking. As someone who sees so much value in reading fiction, I think they are missing out on so much.

Hello friends! I love being a lesbian and it's my favorite week of the year. What is your favorite lesbian novel? What's your favorite thing about being a lesbian?

I have to go with Emily Austin as my favorite lesbian novels! And my favorite thing about being a lesbian is de centering men and mixing masculine and feminine qualities

Hoping this brings some joy and love to your feed :)

Bonjour Bookaholics!!

Here is your question of the day: Have you ever judged someone for what they were reading, both positive or negative?

Hello PB, I come to you with a rec search

So many romance books are small town vibes, and don’t get me wrong I love the small town romances and eat them up like I can’t get enough! But I am a big city girl living a big city life and relationship, and would like to see this in some more of the books I read. If you have any recs for good romance books set in the big city life I’d love to hear them!! I love the vibes of First-Time Caller & And now back to you. Give me meet cutes, workplace, bars & clubs…idk I’m down for any type ☺️🩷🩷

I’m going to try and stop myself from ranting about this for too long but my god! When people find out I read a lot and enjoy reading, the response I usually get is “oh I haven’t read ten books in my whole life how do you do over a hundred a year?” Or “I haven’t picked up a book up since I was a kid” and I just think???? What? How can you take pride in aiding the statistics that suggest that we, as as a collective, are not as well-read as generations before? I get people live busy lives, but to take pride in just not picking up a book since you were a kid is a horrifying thought to me.

Edit - my GOD y’all came with such good arguments for and against this and all the discussions are so considerate and polite so thank you all for creating a safe place for people to share their opinions on this 🩷

Anyway, rant over 😭

Hey boundlings 👋🏻 I used to one of those that had to buy series in full, have the physical books, or else.

However, few years ago, I fell off the reading wagon because I welcomed my daughter into my life and only recently did I get back into reading.

I noticed that on social media, everyone's chasing after the latest e-readers or prettiest edition of the covers and having aesthetically pleasing shelves, which is honestly fine.

Yet, at the same time it feels harmful to the environment with the amount of waste generated and for young viewers, it would make them feel some type of way if they aren't able to attain this lifestyle.

Personally, I purchased an e-reader and I've only been borrowing books from my library. I'm sad that I can't "own" the books. But, it's the best financial decision for me at this point for where I'm at in life.

As an adult, I do feel the "FOMO" factor kicking in because I do not have the prettiest decorated e-reader and I only read borrowed books.

I've been trying to steer away from consuming such content, yet I enjoy watching them at the same time to get recommendations or just for fun!

What do yall think? Have yall experienced this feeling before? Or even, you're in the position to have such a lifestyle which is so great, how do you budget what to spend on?

Curious with what everyone thinks!

The nominations for this year's Hugos are in! (one of the big SFF awards, along with the Nebulas and Locus) Which have you read? Which would you recommend? https://www.lacon.org/hugofinalists/ I don't know if it's new this time, but they also include works that were nominated by withdrawn for various reasons (I know there's been a lot of controversy in the past with opaqueness around nominations).

Including the lists for some of the larger categories below, with a ✅ if I read it and ⭐ if I really enjoyed it.

Best Novel ⭐✅A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape) Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow; Gollancz) Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US) ⭐✅The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Tor US; Tor UK) ✅The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor US; Orbit UK) ⭐✅The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape)

Best Novella Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom) Cinder House by Freya Marske (Tordotcom; Tor UK) ⭐✅Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Tordotcom) ⭐✅The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom; Arcadia UK) ✅The Summer War by Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK) ⭐✅What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK)

Best Series ⭐✅Emily Wilde by Heather Fawcett (Del Rey US; Orbit UK) ✅October Daye by Seanan McGuire (Tor US; DAW) ✅Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (Tor US; Tor UK) ⭐✅The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison (Tor US; Solaris UK; Subterranean) The Craft Wars by Max Gladstone (Tor; Tordotcom) White Space by Elizabeth Bear (Saga Press; Gollancz)

Lodestar Award for Best YA Book Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman (Random House Books for Young Readers) Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee (Feiwel & Friends) ⭐✅Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen (Henry Holt; Hodderscape UK) Oathbound by Tracy Deonn (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press) ✅They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK)

Astounding Award for Best New Writer (sponsored by Dell Magazines) Sophie Burnham (2nd year of eligibility) ✅Kamilah Cole (2nd year of eligibility) ⭐✅Antonia Hodgson (1st year of eligibility) Molly O’Neill (1st year of eligibility) H.H. Pak (2nd year of eligibility) Jared Pechaček (2nd year of eligibility)

Any recs for dark romance beginners? I do not want to read 🍇/SA but that's my hardest line. Thanks!