I’ve decided I’m going for the Completionist badge for this quest by the end of the year 😬🙃😅 Is anyone interested in doing a buddy read on my last 3 titles?

• Anna Karenina
• Things Fall Apart
• A Tale of Two Cities

(I also have One Hundred Years of Solitude but it’s paused at halfway through 😮‍💨)

I have a couple buddy reads coming up, so I probably shouldn’t start anything until late August or early September.

Let me know! 🥰

Hi everyone! I finally added 10 new books to the Found Family in Fantasy Quest, which means we have officially reached 50 books! 🥳 Halfway to 100!

These additions have been building up for quite a while. I haven’t added any new books over the last few months because life was very busy and I simply didn’t have the headspace to properly look through recommendations and decide what I wanted to include. I did, however, have a growing list in the back of my mind (and in my Google Doc!) the entire time. So rather than thinking of these as ten books being added all at once, imagine them as the additions that would probably have happened gradually over the past few months 😅

For this batch, I especially wanted to add some slightly more obscure titles, move away from adding even more cosy fantasy, and bring in a wider mix of fantasy subgenres, different kinds of found family, and more diverse representation.

Here are the new additions: Mad Sisters of Esi - Tashan Mehta One of my own priorities Mythic, folkloric and wonderfully strange fantasy centred around found sisterhood. This is the only one of these ten I have personally read so far, and I absolutely loved it. I genuinely cannot recommend it enough. It is beautifully written, imaginative, emotional and just such a special book!! You can read my full review here!

A Broken Blade - Melissa Blair Suggested by Jordyn Dark epic fantasy following an assassin who becomes increasingly connected to a rebellion and the people within it. I wanted it for its developing chosen-family element, darker tone, queer representation and Indigenous authorship.

Godkiller - Hannah Kaner Suggested by Ministaxx Dark adventure/quest fantasy about a godkiller, a child, a small god and a knight becoming an unlikely travelling group. It brings a strong found-family dynamic together with queer, disability and mental-health representation.

The Water Outlaws - S. L. Huang Suggested by Storyteller Wuxia-inspired martial fantasy about outlaws forming a fiercely loyal community. I really wanted something that expands the Quest beyond more traditional European-inspired fantasy while still having a strong chosen-family core.

Kill the Beast - Serra Swift Suggested by Jordyn A darkly funny fairy-tale/monster-hunting adventure with revenge, redemption, queer friendship and found family at its heart. It sounds like a really fun way of bringing a different kind of quest fantasy into the list.

The Last Sun - K. D. Edwards Suggested by eol.eol Queer urban fantasy with action, mystery, trauma and a very strong chosen-family element. I especially wanted this one because Urban Fantasy is still less represented in the Quest than some of the other subgenres.

Sanctuary - Andi C. Buchanan Suggested by BookBun Supernatural/haunted-house fantasy about a queer, neurodivergent and disabled found family who have made a home together. This is one of the more obscure additions and also one of the books where found family seems to be especially central to the entire premise.

A Long Time Dead - Samara Breger Suggested by MiniButMighty Sapphic Gothic vampire fantasy with a queer vampire household and found-family dynamics. I really wanted something darker and more Gothic in this round of additions.

Queen of Faces - Petra Lord Suggested by catlikesreading Dark fantasy with dark-academia elements, rebellion, magical body-swapping and a group of outsiders forming their own bonds. It also brings trans representation and a biracial trans author into the Quest.

All the Scattered Stars - Via Luino Suggested by ReadQueerBooks YA contemporary/eco fantasy set in a future Venice, following a persecuted magical minority and a protagonist trying to protect her found family. This is another particularly obscure title that I’m very excited to have discovered.

I hope some of you have fun discovering these books through the Quest! 🩷 A big reason I enjoy doing this is finding books that aren’t necessarily the titles we all see recommended everywhere already.

If you’ve read any of these, please tell me in the comments! I’d love to know what you thought, whether you enjoyed them, and whether you would recommend them. Especially since Mad Sisters of Esi is currently the only one of the ten that I’ve read myself.

And now that we’ve reached 50 books, we are officially halfway to 100! 🎉 The remaining 50 definitely won’t be coming anytime soon. After this bigger batch, I’ll probably go back to not adding anything for quite a while and let the Quest grow slowly again.

I hope you enjoy the new additions and maybe find a new favourite among them! ✨

Honestly tho it is a shame that w how beautiful Rebecca Ross’s writing is that it doesn’t seem she has been able to figure out how to build up a romance. There is a reliance on tropes and shared history that is hidden behind little quips and nicknames but they fail in my opinion to capture any true yearning. I would just like to see these two characters be put through some real trial and tribulations between the other that actually brings them closer.

hello suckers,

we're approximately halfway through DraculaDaily (calendar wise, not % progress wise) and I'm curious what people think! - have you kept up with reading? audio or emails? - have you DNFd? if so, why? - what's been the most enjoyable part of reading along with DraculaDaily? - anything that's been frustrating? - if you previously read Dracula, are you enjoying this format? or if this is your first time would you recommend it to others? - tell me any and all thoughts about the concept!

I've had mixed feelings so far! I'd never read Dracula front to back before, though I've read many, many retellings/inspired works so I feel I know the original story pretty well. I do like reading the book in the order of dated events, but I definitely like some entries more than others (e.g. Jonathan/Demeter entries were really atmospheric but I find Mina's a bit boring 😭), and this does influence my excitement and drive to read the entry of the day as it arrives in my inbox. maybe I should make the switch to audio for certain entries I don't love reading?

I've seen some comments that the format has caused DNFs, which I completely understand. I'm currently in the opposite camp that I do think I would've DNFd it had I not had the emails delivered to me, but I'm also not sure if that's just because we're only 25% through and it's been months! it is fun to reflect on the length of time for the book events to have taken so far though. given there is 75% left to pack into the same amount of time, I'm guessing the pace is about to pick up and hopefully become a lot more engaging.

If you want to know more about DraculaDaily read this post! 🦇