whimsicalmeerkat
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whimsicalmeerkat TBR'd a book
3h
The Red Winter
Cameron Sullivan
A devastating love story. A bewitching twist on history. A blood-drenched hunt for purpose, power, and redemption.
In 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears most: the terrible Beast of Gévaudan has returned, and the French countryside runs red in its wake.
Sebastian knows the Beast. A monster-slayer with centuries of experience, he joined the hunt for the creature twenty years ago and watched it slaughter its way through a long and bloody winter. Even with the help of his indwelling demon, Sarmodel – who takes payment in living hearts – it nearly cost him his life to bring the monster down.
Now, two decades later, Sebastian has been recalled to the hunt by Antoine Avenel d’Ocerne, an estranged lover who shares a dark history with the Beast and a terrible secret with Sebastian. Drawn by both the chance to finish the Beast for good and the promise of a reconciliation with Antoine, Sebastian cannot refuse.
But Gévaudan is not as he remembers it, and Sebastian’s unfinished business is everywhere he looks. Years of misery have driven the people to desperation, and France teeters on the edge of revolution. Sebastian’s arcane activities – not to mention his demonic counterpart – have also attracted the inquisitorial eye of the French clergy. And the Beast is poised to close his jaws around them all and plunge the continent into war.
Debut author Cameron Sullivan tears the heart out of history with this darkly entertaining retelling of the hunt for the Beast of Gévaudan. Lifting the veil on the hidden world behind our own, it reimagines the story of Europe, from Imperial Rome to Saint Jehanne d’Arc, the madness of Gilles de Rais and the first flickers of the French Revolution.
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whimsicalmeerkat wrote a review...
3h
whimsicalmeerkat
Jul 13, 2026
Jul 13, 2026
5.0
Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0Audiobook: 5.0
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This is a lush, beautiful story and I can’t believe it’s a debut! The writing is compelling and I fell in love with the characters. The ending is devastating and it’s taking the strictest willpower not to start the next book immediately. I loved this so much and will definitely be reading it again.
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whimsicalmeerkat finished a book
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Princeweaver
Elian J Morgan
‘A lush reimagining of the English conquest of Wales… a debut not to be missed’ C.S. Pacat, NYT bestselling author of the DARK RISE series‘A glittering love sharp as blood and beautifully woven with magic and myth’ Holly Race, bestselling author of SIX WILD CROWNS‘A lush, lingering heartache of a book… reminiscent of The Goblin Emperor. Morgan is a shining new talent in fantasy’ Annabel Campbell, author of THE OUTCAST MAGE‘Princeweaver is a dark and tender folkloric love story, flowering with yearning and intrigue’ Tasha Suri, bestselling author of THE ISLE IN THE SILVER SEA‘Rich in Welsh folklore and steeped in slow-burn yearning, PRINCEWEAVER is a tale that will leave readers breathless and desperate for more … An absolute gem of a debut novel’ Kalie Reid, author of THE SACRED SPACE BETWEEN
Their marriage is to save a warring kingdom. But in the process, it might destroy them bothBorn with forbidden, nature-infused magic in an occupied land, anxious apothecary Meilyr survives by keeping his head down. Until he ends up engaged to invading prince Osian in order to save his brother’s life. Now, he is in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse to hide his true self.When nobles in Osian’s court are gruesomely murdered by the same magic that flows through his veins, Meilyr realises someone is seeking revenge for his homeland. As suspicion towards him grows, he and the prince work together to uncover the killer or risk losing the crown – or their lives.Between court politics, unwieldy magic and a murderer on the loose, Meilyr must keep his wits about him. Especially as his feelings for Osian grow deeper with every passing day…Combines the court intrigue and slow-burn yearning of A Taste of Gold and Iron with the folkloric grounding and lore that readers of Naomi Novik and Stephanie Gerber will enjoy
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whimsicalmeerkat finished a book
4h
Princeweaver
Elian J Morgan
‘A lush reimagining of the English conquest of Wales… a debut not to be missed’ C.S. Pacat, NYT bestselling author of the DARK RISE series‘A glittering love sharp as blood and beautifully woven with magic and myth’ Holly Race, bestselling author of SIX WILD CROWNS‘A lush, lingering heartache of a book… reminiscent of The Goblin Emperor. Morgan is a shining new talent in fantasy’ Annabel Campbell, author of THE OUTCAST MAGE‘Princeweaver is a dark and tender folkloric love story, flowering with yearning and intrigue’ Tasha Suri, bestselling author of THE ISLE IN THE SILVER SEA‘Rich in Welsh folklore and steeped in slow-burn yearning, PRINCEWEAVER is a tale that will leave readers breathless and desperate for more … An absolute gem of a debut novel’ Kalie Reid, author of THE SACRED SPACE BETWEEN
Their marriage is to save a warring kingdom. But in the process, it might destroy them bothBorn with forbidden, nature-infused magic in an occupied land, anxious apothecary Meilyr survives by keeping his head down. Until he ends up engaged to invading prince Osian in order to save his brother’s life. Now, he is in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse to hide his true self.When nobles in Osian’s court are gruesomely murdered by the same magic that flows through his veins, Meilyr realises someone is seeking revenge for his homeland. As suspicion towards him grows, he and the prince work together to uncover the killer or risk losing the crown – or their lives.Between court politics, unwieldy magic and a murderer on the loose, Meilyr must keep his wits about him. Especially as his feelings for Osian grow deeper with every passing day…Combines the court intrigue and slow-burn yearning of A Taste of Gold and Iron with the folkloric grounding and lore that readers of Naomi Novik and Stephanie Gerber will enjoy
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Teach Me Something New and Oddly Specific 🐟🚀🦇
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This Quest is a collection of micro-histories inspired by the List "Teach me something new and oddly specific," winner of Q2 2026 community voting.
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One and Done Fantasy ⚔️🐉🧝♀️
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This Quest was inspired by the List "One and Done Fantasy" by hannah, winner of Q2 2026 community voting.
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Graphic audio worth it?
So I’ve just started book 1 as the graphic audio version and I can already tell that I’m going to want to continue the series. However…the graphic audio books have several months of wait time on Libby, whereas the regular audiobooks are available to borrow now. For those that have read the series, are the graphic audiobooks worth the wait?
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whimsicalmeerkat wrote a review...
3d
An absolute delight of a book. The epilogue made me teary.
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Thoughts from 88% (page 347)
this book is so peak but im not smart enough to understand it fully
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The Right Way (The Way Home, #3)
May Archer
"The right way is the one where we end up together...And to do that, we need to survive this." A brilliant, obsessive mind is the heart of Sebastian Seaver’s genius. It might also be the thing that costs him everything he’s created and everyone he’s ever loved. Consumed with the need to destroy Alexei Stornovich, the Russian mob boss who murdered his fiancée and parents, nothing can turn Bas from his plans of revenge until he’s eradicated every last one of them. By any means necessary, and at any cost. Drew McMann learned early that the key to success is control. Control carried him through law school and helped him keep Seaver Tech together through tragedy. It helped him survive the brutal murder of his sister Amy, his parents’ divorce, and the revelation that the seeds of their destruction had been planted by someone he had considered family. It’s how he’s hidden his love from his best friend Bas for more than half their lives. And now it’s how he’s going save Bas from himself and finally get his family of friends free from Alexei’s clutches. Drew has a plan for everything… Until the kiss. When Drew loses control one reckless, drunken evening and his true feelings for Bas are revealed, he tries desperately to contain the damage and keep their friendship on track, even as decades of lies and half-truths seek to tear them apart. With Alexei targeting them and their friends, Drew and Bas are forced to rely on each other more than ever. But as danger closes in on them, can they sacrifice their needs for logic and control, and recognize that the only right way to move forward is the one in which they’re together?
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Of Human Bondage
W. Somerset Maugham
From a tormented orphan with a clubfoot, Philip Carey grows into an impressionable young man with a voracious appetite for adventure and knowledge. His cravings take him to Paris at age eighteen to try his hand at art, then back to London to study medicine. But even so, nothing can sate his nagging hunger for experience. Then he falls obsessively in love, embarking on a disastrous relationship that will change his life forever.…
Marked by countless similarities to Maugham’s own life, his masterpiece is “not an autobiography,” as the author himself once contended, “but an autobiographical novel; fact and fiction are inexorably mingled; the emotions are my own.”
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Assassin's Apprentice
Robin Hobb
In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.
So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.
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Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Khalifa Brothers, #1)
Salman Rushdie
Set in an exotic Eastern landscape peopled by magicians and fantastic talking animals, Salman Rushdie's classic children's novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories inhabits the same imaginative space as Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz. In this captivating novel, Haroun sets out on an adventure to restore the poisoned source of the sea of stories. On the way, he encounters many foes, all intent on draining the sea of all its storytelling powers.
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