![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
#66. Powerless, We Obey by Jynice Archen. 2. Sooooo this is erotica, written by an acquaintance. The thing with erotica is that it really pretty much depends on being your kind of thing. This is a very gentle fantasy (as in, almost no conflict, in which as soon as anyone talks to each other all difficulties evaporate because everyone is super respectful) with a strong emphasis on voyeurism, and it's just not For Me. If that sounds intriguing, maybe you'd like this better than I did.
#67. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. 4. (Re-read.) It's mostly what I remembered, charming but preachy. (It helps to know Alcott also thought it was preachy and wrote that way because it sold.) On re-read, while Jo is still obviously my favorite, I like her less and Amy more than I had as a child now that I'm an adult and understand the world they were born into a little better.
#68. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Oof, I know it was post-apocalypse, but I didn't realize it was pandemic apocalypse. Very well done, but make sure that's what you're down for at the moment. (Also, ends on a bit of a cliff hanger and I don't intend to read the other two. At least not until this is all a distant memory.)
#69. Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle. 3. Acceptable contemporary romance set on a search-and-rescue team. Annoyingly, though, the non-romance related plotline is apparently meant to be a through-line for the series and so ends on a total cliffhanger. Unnecessarily, since it's the driving motivation for one of the characters and as one of the primary pair in a romance series, we know she'll be a very minor character in the next book.
#70. Winterfair Gifts by Lois McMaster Bujold. 5. (Re-read) Novella about Miles and Ekaterina's wedding, in which they barely feature. Utterly charming story from Roic's viewpoint. Delightful if you're read the series, otherwise incomprehensible.
#71. Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn. 4. Charming little Regency romance, although I'd be willing to bet the title was tacked on at an editor's request, as it's awkwardly shoe-horned into the plot.
#72. The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn. 2. Starts well. But then parts of it involve the characters being too dumb to live. And the hero spends a chunk with his head up his ass, ignoring stuff like consent and common sense. And while I can believe someone being that emotionally damaged and stupid, you can't expect me to root for him.
#73. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. 5. (Re-read). Brilliant fairy tale that starts with a reworking of Rumpelstiltskin and then complicates things deliciously. I'd give serious thought to selling my soul to write like Novik.
#74. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. 4. If you give people superpowers...they do not turn into heroes. Fun YA dystopia, in which I did successfully predict two of the surprises but was satisfied by the revelations anyway.
#75. A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. 3. Beauty and the Beast, with Tam Lin, by way of Hunger Games. Did not start hugely impressed with the heroine, as some of her motivation feels tacked on, or the hero, as he's an imperious dolt. But she improves (while he doesn't).
#76. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. 4. SPOILERS Holy crap, I've never seen a Happily Ever After walked back before. Turns out controlling dickwad from book 1 is controlling and she LEAVES HIM. There's probably a lot too much proving to us why Misunderstood Bad Boy is Not Really Bad, but this series became SO much more interesting.
#77. The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. 5. Personifications of every NYC borough? Yes please. And (no spoilers) the ending left me with a grin on my face, partially for personal reasons. Although I suspect current events may make writing the planned sequels trickier than anticipated...
#78. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. 4. For something overlapping with Regency England, surprisingly original and clever. I liked this from the moment Kell steps through a door from another world and turns his coat inside out three times (each a different coat). Although I found both Kell and Delilah a little annoying, they're at least true to themselves.
#79. Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis. 3.5. Fun aliens-are-here, near-past alternate history (set during the W Bush administration), although I never really quite warmed up to the disaster-human protagonist nor do I share Ellis' interest in interspecies attraction.
#80. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. 4. Moving and highly original fantasy (implied to be set in a post-apocalyptic Africa, but with hella magic). All the trigger warnings, though, from rape to genital mutilation to multiple deaths-by-mob. Extremely well done but not an easy read.
#81. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkein. 3. Did you like Lord of the Rings, but felt it just didn't have enough family trees in it? This book is for you! Honestly, mostly read it as a quarantine maybe-I'll-finally-stubbornly-finish-this-thing project. Conclusion: elves are jerks. Also, Feanor, man. F that dude.
#67. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. 4. (Re-read.) It's mostly what I remembered, charming but preachy. (It helps to know Alcott also thought it was preachy and wrote that way because it sold.) On re-read, while Jo is still obviously my favorite, I like her less and Amy more than I had as a child now that I'm an adult and understand the world they were born into a little better.
#68. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Oof, I know it was post-apocalypse, but I didn't realize it was pandemic apocalypse. Very well done, but make sure that's what you're down for at the moment. (Also, ends on a bit of a cliff hanger and I don't intend to read the other two. At least not until this is all a distant memory.)
#69. Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle. 3. Acceptable contemporary romance set on a search-and-rescue team. Annoyingly, though, the non-romance related plotline is apparently meant to be a through-line for the series and so ends on a total cliffhanger. Unnecessarily, since it's the driving motivation for one of the characters and as one of the primary pair in a romance series, we know she'll be a very minor character in the next book.
#70. Winterfair Gifts by Lois McMaster Bujold. 5. (Re-read) Novella about Miles and Ekaterina's wedding, in which they barely feature. Utterly charming story from Roic's viewpoint. Delightful if you're read the series, otherwise incomprehensible.
#71. Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn. 4. Charming little Regency romance, although I'd be willing to bet the title was tacked on at an editor's request, as it's awkwardly shoe-horned into the plot.
#72. The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn. 2. Starts well. But then parts of it involve the characters being too dumb to live. And the hero spends a chunk with his head up his ass, ignoring stuff like consent and common sense. And while I can believe someone being that emotionally damaged and stupid, you can't expect me to root for him.
#73. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. 5. (Re-read). Brilliant fairy tale that starts with a reworking of Rumpelstiltskin and then complicates things deliciously. I'd give serious thought to selling my soul to write like Novik.
#74. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. 4. If you give people superpowers...they do not turn into heroes. Fun YA dystopia, in which I did successfully predict two of the surprises but was satisfied by the revelations anyway.
#75. A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. 3. Beauty and the Beast, with Tam Lin, by way of Hunger Games. Did not start hugely impressed with the heroine, as some of her motivation feels tacked on, or the hero, as he's an imperious dolt. But she improves (while he doesn't).
#76. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. 4. SPOILERS Holy crap, I've never seen a Happily Ever After walked back before. Turns out controlling dickwad from book 1 is controlling and she LEAVES HIM. There's probably a lot too much proving to us why Misunderstood Bad Boy is Not Really Bad, but this series became SO much more interesting.
#77. The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. 5. Personifications of every NYC borough? Yes please. And (no spoilers) the ending left me with a grin on my face, partially for personal reasons. Although I suspect current events may make writing the planned sequels trickier than anticipated...
#78. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. 4. For something overlapping with Regency England, surprisingly original and clever. I liked this from the moment Kell steps through a door from another world and turns his coat inside out three times (each a different coat). Although I found both Kell and Delilah a little annoying, they're at least true to themselves.
#79. Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis. 3.5. Fun aliens-are-here, near-past alternate history (set during the W Bush administration), although I never really quite warmed up to the disaster-human protagonist nor do I share Ellis' interest in interspecies attraction.
#80. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. 4. Moving and highly original fantasy (implied to be set in a post-apocalyptic Africa, but with hella magic). All the trigger warnings, though, from rape to genital mutilation to multiple deaths-by-mob. Extremely well done but not an easy read.
#81. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkein. 3. Did you like Lord of the Rings, but felt it just didn't have enough family trees in it? This book is for you! Honestly, mostly read it as a quarantine maybe-I'll-finally-stubbornly-finish-this-thing project. Conclusion: elves are jerks. Also, Feanor, man. F that dude.
