Bailey's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 08 Jul 2026 12:47:12 -0700 60 Bailey's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)]]> 176824538 Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.]]> 496 S.A. Chakraborty 0062963511 Bailey 4 4.27 2023 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)
author: S.A. Chakraborty
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/09/15
date added: 2026/07/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Pick a Color 223296091 From Giller Prize and O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa comes a revelatory novel about loneliness, love, labour, and class. An intimate and sharply written book following a nail salon owner as she toils away for the privileged clients who don't even know her true name.

Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complex power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange.

As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.

Told over a single day, with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.]]> 192 Souvankham Thammavongsa 0316422142 Bailey 1 3.23 2025 Pick a Color
author: Souvankham Thammavongsa
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2026/06/15
date added: 2026/06/15
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches, #1)]]> 11901 1216 Anne Rice 0099471426 Bailey 0 to-read 4.11 1990 The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches, #1)
author: Anne Rice
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash, #1)]]> 52831247 Captivating and action-packed, From Blood and Ash is a sexy, addictive, and unexpected fantasy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Laura Thalassa.

A Maiden…

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty…

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom…

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.]]> 622 Jennifer L. Armentrout Bailey 0 currently-reading 4.35 2020 From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash, #1)
author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Persona 223327998
In Aoife Josie Clements’ electric, nightmarish, intricately layered novel, the impossibility of goodness crowds in upon two young trans women barely surviving on sex work and zero-hours contracts. Below the familiar evils of capitalism and the bottomless depths of internet culture, a darker horror awaits. What curse follows these women? What are they escaping? What are they running towards?]]> 257 Aoife Josie Clements 1964322065 Bailey 4 3.76 2026 Persona
author: Aoife Josie Clements
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/31
date added: 2026/05/31
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]]> Cracked Foundation 62841438
CRACKED FOUNDATION

I had dreams.

Plans.

Things I had hoped to do, accomplish. No. More than hoped. I had expected.

Now, look at me. I’m nowhere near where I thought I would be. I am nothing like the person I dreamt I would become and the life, the vision, I had for myself, is dead.

As dead as my marriage.

As dead as a lot of things.

My name is Shiloh and the only thing I’ve ever wanted more than true love is a family. But now I’m a 33-year-old divorcee with no job, no prospects, and no babies.

Until him.....Logan.

A drunken night at a bar after being stood up, again, turns things around for me in more ways than one.

My grumpy new boss is an asshole with a short fuse, commitment issues, and a killer ass in faded blue jeans.

He hates everyone and everything, except me.

Logan doesn’t just want to date me, he wants to keep me, love me, breed me.

The question is….

Can the perpetual single guy really fall for the girl who dreams of happily ever afters?


Cracked Foundation is a smutty, sweet novella that combines PNR elements in real life. (Think breeding, knots, and all the dirty talk.)]]> 277 Bex Dawn Bailey 2 3.83 Cracked Foundation
author: Bex Dawn
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2026/05/26
date added: 2026/05/26
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]]> A Visit from the Goon Squad 7331435
We first meet Sasha in her mid-thirties, on her therapist’s couch in New York City, confronting her long-standing compulsion to steal. Later, we learn the genesis of her turmoil when we see her as the child of a violent marriage, then as a runaway living in Naples, then as a college student trying to avert the suicidal impulses of her best friend. We plunge into the hidden yearnings and disappointments of her uncle, an art historian stuck in a dead marriage, who travels to Naples to extract Sasha from the city’s demimonde and experiences an epiphany of his own while staring at a sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Museo Nazionale. We meet Bennie Salazar at the melancholy nadir of his adult life—divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed-up band in the basement of a suburban house—and then revisit him in 1979, at the height of his youth, shy and tender, reveling in San Francisco’s punk scene as he discovers his ardor for rock and roll and his gift for spotting talent. We learn what became of his high school gang—who thrived and who faltered—and we encounter Lou Kline, Bennie’s catastrophically careless mentor, along with the lovers and children left behind in the wake of Lou’s far-flung sexual conquests and meteoric rise and fall.

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, about the stirrings and transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates. In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to PowerPoint, Egan captures the undertow of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption; and the universal tendency to reach for both—and escape the merciless progress of time—in the transporting realms of art and music. Sly, startling, exhilarating work from one of our boldest writers.]]> 274 Jennifer Egan 0307592839 Bailey 2 3.70 2010 A Visit from the Goon Squad
author: Jennifer Egan
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2026/05/24
date added: 2026/05/24
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]]> Weavingshaw (Weavingshaw, #1) 249560112 In this debut gothic fantasy, the first book of an enthralling fantasy romance trilogy, a young woman who can see the dead strikes a deal with a magnetic and dangerous purveyor of dark secrets to save her brother’s life.

Three years ago, Leena Al-Sayer awoke with a terrible power.
She can see the dead.

Since then, she has hidden herself from the world, knowing that if she ever reveals her curse she will be locked away in an asylum.

When her beloved brother, Rami, falls fatally ill, Leena is faced with a terrible CHOICE: Let him die or buy the expensive medicine that will save his life by bartering the only valuable thing she has—her secret.

The Saint of Silence, a ruthless merchant who trades in confessions and is shrouded in unearthly rumors of cruelty and power, accepts her bargain, for a deadly price. Leena must find the ghost of Percival Avon, the last lord of Weavingshaw—or lose her freedom to the Saint forever.

As Leena’s search takes her and the Saint to Weavingshaw, she finds the estate and the surrounding moors to be living things—hungry for blood and sacrifice. Fighting against Weavingshaw’s might, Leena must also fight her growing pull toward the enigmatic Saint himself, whose connection to Percival Avon remains a mystery.

As the house begins to entomb them, time is running out on their desperate hunt for answers. For Leena has come to see that here in Weavingshaw, the dead are not hushed—and some secrets are better left buried with them.]]> 458 Heba Al-Wasity 0857508423 Bailey 0 to-read 4.06 2026 Weavingshaw (Weavingshaw, #1)
author: Heba Al-Wasity
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Lies I Tell 59412817
Two women. Many aliases.

Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She's a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be―a college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she's done, you've likely lost everything.

Kat Roberts has been waiting ten years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat's long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg's true target is.

The Lies I Tell is a twisted domestic thriller that dives deep into the psyches and motivations of two women and their unwavering quest to seek justice for the past and rewrite the future.]]> 302 Julie Clark 1728247594 Bailey 2 4.03 2022 The Lies I Tell
author: Julie Clark
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2026/05/20
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]]> Disgrace 6192 220 J.M. Coetzee 0143036378 Bailey 4 3.86 1999 Disgrace
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/17
date added: 2026/05/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Letters to a Young Poet 46199
A hugely influential collection for writers and artists of all kinds, Rilke's profound and lyrical letters to a young friend advise on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself.]]> 80 Rainer Maria Rilke 0486422453 Bailey 4 4.30 1929 Letters to a Young Poet
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1929
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/14
date added: 2026/05/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You]]> 223120442
But missing from the mansion is Becca, an enigmatic tarot card reader who built a rabid fandom with her cryptic, soul-touching videos . . .  and then vanished. With nineteen-year-old Olivia, the newest member of the hype house (and one of Becca’s biggest fans), Dayna begins to build a social media campaign around Becca’s disappearance that will catapult the creators to new heights of success. Too bad Craig forbids Dayna from pursuing the mystery at its heart.

As Olivia searches for traces of Becca in a labyrinthine house that seems intent on hiding its secrets, and Dayna becomes entangled with both Craig and Jake, the resident heartthrob and the last person to see Becca, the two women make a shocking discovery that will upend everything.]]> 320 Leigh Stein 0593983645 Bailey 3 3.20 2025 If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You
author: Leigh Stein
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2026/05/13
date added: 2026/05/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Good Girl Effect (Salacious Legacy, #1)]]> 223394307
Camille Aubert wasn’t looking for a new job. She just wanted to return a lost love letter she’d found within the pages of a book. But when she’s mistaken for a job candidate and hired as Jack’s live-in nanny, something tells her this is exactly where she needs to be.

Shortly after arriving, Camille discovers a strange room in the apartment that sparks her curiosity—and hints at a dark, mysterious side to Jack that she’s desperate to uncover. The lines between professional and personal blur dangerously as the heat between them becomes impossible to ignore. She’s drawn to the broken man who hides his grief in ropes and bondage, and she challenges him in ways he never thought possible.

Caught between her growing feelings for Jack and the ghosts of his past, Camille must can love heal a heart still grieving, or will their passion destroy them both?]]> 371 Sara Cate 1464234469 Bailey 0 to-read 3.89 2025 The Good Girl Effect (Salacious Legacy, #1)
author: Sara Cate
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Less (Arthur Less, #1) 39927096 You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years now engaged to someone else. You can’t say yes--it would all be too awkward--and you can’t say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of half-baked literary invitations you’ve received from around the world.

QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?

ANSWER: You accept them all.

If you are Arthur Less.

Thus begins an around-the-world-in-eighty-days fantasia that will take Arthur Less to Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India and Japan and put thousands of miles between him and the problems he refuses to face. What could possibly go wrong?

Well: Arthur will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Sahara sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and arrive in Japan too late for the cherry blossoms. In between: science fiction fans, crazed academics, emergency rooms, starlets, doctors, exes and, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to see. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. The second phase of life, as he thinks of it, falling behind him like the second phase of a rocket. There will be his first love. And there will be his last.

A love story, a satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, by an author The New York Times has hailed as “inspired, lyrical,” “elegiac,” “ingenious,” as well as “too sappy by half,” Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.]]> 273 Andrew Sean Greer Bailey 2 3.60 2017 Less (Arthur Less, #1)
author: Andrew Sean Greer
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2026/05/11
date added: 2026/05/11
shelves:
review:

]]> On Sundays She Picked Flowers 235992397 In this sinister and surreal Southern Gothic debut, a woman escapes into the uncanny woods of southern Georgia and must contend with ghosts, haints, and most dangerous of all, the truth about herself.

When Judith Rice fled her childhood home, she thought she’d severed her abusive mother’s hold on her. She didn’t have a plan or destination, just a desperate need to escape. Drawn to the forests of southern Georgia, Jude finds shelter in a house as haunted by its violent history as she is by her own.

Jude embraces the eccentricities of the dilapidated house, soothing its ghosts and haints, honoring its blood-soaked land. And over the next thirteen years, Jude blossoms from her bitter beginnings into a wisewoman, a healer.

But her hard-won peace is threatened when an enigmatic woman shows up on her doorstep. The woman is beautiful but unsettling, captivating but uncanny. Ensnared by her desire for this stranger, Jude is caught off guard by brutal urges suddenly simmering beneath her skin. As the woman stirs up memories of her escape years ago, Jude must confront the calls of violence rooted in her bloodline.

Haunting and thought-provoking, On Sunday She Picked Flowers explores retribution, family trauma, and the power of building oneself back up after breaking down.]]> 231 Yah-Yah Scholfield 1668091216 Bailey 4 3.86 2020 On Sundays She Picked Flowers
author: Yah-Yah Scholfield
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/09
date added: 2026/05/09
shelves:
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]]> Adrift 235992687 Peggy and Drew, both aspiring writers, move to an isolated canal boat with their fourteen-year-old son. Peggy is the glue that holds their family together, even as their son is bullied relentlessly for his physique and his family’s lack of money. But when Drew becomes frustrated by his wife’s sudden writing success, he moves their boat further and further from civilization.

With their increasing isolation, personal challenges become harder to ignore, even as they desperately try to break toxic generational patterns. But when Drew’s gaslighting becomes too much for Peggy to take, it sets off a catastrophic series of events.

Adrift is gripping exploration of the ties that bind when everything spirals out of control.]]> 352 Will Dean 1668080052 Bailey 0 3.73 2026 Adrift
author: Will Dean
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at: 2026/02/11
date added: 2026/02/11
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]]> The Wedding People 198902277
Phoebe is there because she’s dreamed of coming for years. She hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is a nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.]]> 367 Alison Espach Bailey 1 4.03 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2026/02/06
date added: 2026/02/06
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]]> Hello Beautiful 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 594 Ann Napolitano Bailey 1 4.12 2023 Hello Beautiful
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2026/02/04
date added: 2026/02/04
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]]> The Correspondent 223001257 “Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.]]> 285 Virginia Evans 0593798430 Bailey 1 4.41 2025 The Correspondent
author: Virginia Evans
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2026/01/18
date added: 2026/01/18
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]]> Is This a Cry for Help? 235993013 Emily Austin, the bestselling “queen of darkly quirky, endearingly flawed heroines” (Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus), returns with a luminous new novel following a librarian who comes back to work after a mental breakdown only to confront book-banning crusaders in an empowering story of grief, love, and the power of libraries.

Darcy’s life turned out better than she could have ever imagined. She is a librarian at the local branch, while her wife Joy runs a book binding service. Between the two of them, there is no more room on their shelves with their ample book collections, various knickknacks and bobbles, and dried bouquets. Rounding out their ideal life is two cats and a sun-soaked house by the lake.

But when Darcy receives the news that her ex-boyfriend, Ben, has passed away, she spirals into a pit of guilt and regret, resulting in a mental breakdown and medical leave from the library. When she returns to work, she is met by unrest in her community, and protests surrounding intellectual freedom, resulting in a call for book bans and a second look at the branch’s upcoming DEI programs.

Through the support of her community, colleagues, and the personal growth that results from examining her previous relationships, Darcy comes into her own agency and the truest version of herself. Is This a Cry for Help? not only offers a moving portrait of queer life after coming of age but also powerfully explores questions about sexuality, community, and the importance of libraries.]]> 304 Emily R. Austin 1668200236 Bailey 4 3.89 2026 Is This a Cry for Help?
author: Emily R. Austin
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/01/14
date added: 2026/01/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Among the Burning Flowers (The Roots of Chaos, #0.2)]]> 222376983 With the awakening of fire-breathing wyrms, Among the Burning Flowers sees the first sparks of danger that threaten to consume the world in The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Take your first steps into the epic.

Yscalin, land of sunshine and lavender, will soon be ablaze.

It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.

Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.

A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.

And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall . . .

A story of human resilience in the face of dire circumstances, Among the Burning Flowers leads readers through the gripping and tragic events that pave the way for the opening of the million-copy bestseller The Priory of The Orange Tree.]]> 288 Samantha Shannon 1639736018 Bailey 4 4.06 2025 Among the Burning Flowers (The Roots of Chaos, #0.2)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/01/12
date added: 2026/01/12
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]]> The Doloriad 57845084 240 Missouri Williams 0374605084 Bailey 3 3.11 2022 The Doloriad
author: Missouri Williams
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2026/01/08
date added: 2026/01/08
shelves:
review:
perverse and smart. aggressively long paragraphs make it a bit of a slog.
]]> The Thick and the Lean 61273325 In Lambda Award finalist Chana Porter’s highly anticipated new novel, an aspiring chef, a cyberthief, and a kitchen maid each break free of a society that wants to constrain them.

In the quaint religious town of Seagate, abstaining from food brings one closer to God.

But Beatrice Bolano is hungry. She craves the forbidden: butter, flambé, marzipan. As Seagate takes increasingly extreme measures to regulate every calorie its citizens consume, Beatrice must make a choice: give up her secret passion for cooking or leave the only community she has known.

Elsewhere, Reiko Rimando has left her modest roots for a college tech scholarship in the big city. A flawless student, she is set up for success...until her school pulls her funding, leaving her to face either a mountain of debt or a humiliating return home. But Reiko is done being at the mercy of the system. She forges a third path—outside of the law.

With the guidance of a mysterious cookbook written by a kitchen maid centuries ago, Beatrice and Reiko each grasp for a life of freedom—something more easily imagined than achieved in a world dominated by catastrophic corporate greed.

A startling fable of the entwined perils of capitalism, body politics, and the stigmas women face for appetites of every kind, Chana Porter’s profound new novel explores the reclamation of pleasure as a revolutionary act.]]> 384 Chana Porter 1668000199 Bailey 5 3.66 2023 The Thick and the Lean
author: Chana Porter
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2026/01/05
date added: 2026/01/05
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]]> Martyr! 139400713 A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.]]> 332 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Bailey 3 4.15 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2026/01/02
date added: 2026/01/02
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]]> Spread Me 222376601 Spread Me is a darkly seductive tale of survival from Sarah Gailey, after a routine probe at a research station turns deadly when the team discovers a strange specimen in search of a warm place to stay.

Kinsey has the perfect job as the team lead in a remote research outpost. She loves the solitude, and the way the desert keeps her far away from the temptations teeming out in the civilian world.

When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it into the hab. But the longer it's inside, the more her carefully controlled life begins to unravel. Temptation has found her after all, and it can't be ignored any longer.

One by one, Kinsey's team realizes the thing they're studying is in search of a new host—and one of them is the perfect candidate....]]> 197 Sarah Gailey 1250387337 Bailey 4 3.34 2025 Spread Me
author: Sarah Gailey
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/12/29
date added: 2025/12/29
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]]> Long Bright River 43834909 Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then, one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late.

Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.]]> 482 Liz Moore 0525540679 Bailey 0 to-read 4.00 2020 Long Bright River
author: Liz Moore
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/12/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 562 Liz Moore Bailey 5 4.10 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/12/28
date added: 2025/12/28
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume Ten (Lore Olympus, #10)]]> 241125549 Hades and Persephone get a modern, romantic reimagining in Lore Olympus, a gorgeously illustrated, Eisner Award-winning comic—now including a never-before-seen bonus short story!

“The Mortal Realm—it’s dying.”

After years of yearning, the big day has finally arrived: Hades and Persephone are getting married! It’s the ceremony of the century, and practically all the gods are invited to celebrate the happy couple. The wedding, full of love and joy, provides a much-needed respite for the pantheon . . . but the newlyweds have no time for a honeymoon.

The king and queen of the Underworld begin unprecedented dives into the dream world to find the god that Kronos took hostage—and, hopefully, to get answers on defeating the furious titan once and for all. During their explorations, they begin to suspect that Persephone’s powers over spring may have been altered. Their theory is proven correct with deadly consequences: When Persephone returns to the Mortal Realm, she ushers in not the regular change of seasons, but a never-ending winter.

And while the gods worry about the total annihilation of the Mortal Realm, Apollo uses the chaos as cover for an attempt to kill Zeus. He claims his dying father’s throne and decrees that the only way to save the Mortal Realm is if Persephone—and her power—belong to him. The others reject his outrageous demand, proposing instead that whoever can fix the failing seasons will be named interim ruler of Olympus. Hope now rests with the struggling goddess to find a way to stop the treacherous Apollo and save humankind—or else be separated from Hades forever.

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner Award–winning webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel Smythe and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 234–260 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.]]> 448 Rachel Smythe 0593872029 Bailey 0 to-read 4.43 2026 Lore Olympus: Volume Ten (Lore Olympus, #10)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/12/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume Nine (Lore Olympus, #9)]]> 223362272 “The Underworld has a queen!”

Persephone and Hades are finally reunited when the banished goddess of spring returns to the Underworld to claim her rightful place as queen. Now that Hades and Persephone have defeated and imprisoned the power-hungry Kronos once more, nothing can keep them apart, and years of being separated have only made their desire for each other grow. But the other Olympians can’t help but meddle, pushing the pair to make things official with a coronation—and a wedding.

Ignoring the others who try to define their relationship, Hades and Persephone choose to take things at their own pace and focus on rebuilding the Underworld. They begin by investigating how Kronos was first able to escape, and they learn the horrifying truth that he has captured a powerful young god whose abilities help Kronos project his thoughts outside of Tartarus—thoughts he uses to plague Hera’s every waking moment. Though Kronos’s physical form is locked away, Olympus will never be free until they can rescue the child from the furious Titan’s grasp.

To save the realms, Persephone must figure out her fertility goddess powers and embrace her role as Queen of the Underworld—even as it takes her further from her mother’s expectations and her former place in the Mortal Realm.

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner Award–winning webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel Smythe and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 207–233 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.]]> 432 Rachel Smythe 0593872002 Bailey 4 4.43 2025 Lore Olympus: Volume Nine (Lore Olympus, #9)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/12/25
date added: 2025/12/25
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]]> I'm a Fan 60151826 I'm A Fan, a single speaker uses the story of their experience in a seemingly unequal, unfaithful relationship as a prism through which to examine the complicated hold we each have on one another. With a clear and unforgiving eye, the narrator unpicks the behaviour of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world, in turn offering a devastating critique of access, social media, patriarchal hetero-normative relationships, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed.

In this incredible debut, Sheena Patel announces herself as a vital new voice in literature, capable of rendering a range of emotions and visceral experiences on the page. Sex, violence, politics, tenderness, humour—Patel handles them all with both originality and dexterity of voice.]]> 207 Sheena Patel Bailey 0 to-read 3.22 2022 I'm a Fan
author: Sheena Patel
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/12/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> Where I End 204294822 At night, my mother creaks. The house creaks along with her. Sometimes in the morning we find her in places. We never see her move. We just come upon her.

Aoileann is cursed. She has no friends, never gone to school. She has never left this windswept craggy isle off the coast of Ireland.

Her mother is cursed: a silent wreck Aoileann calls the “bed-thing.” Alongside her grandmother, Aoileann’s days are an endless monotony of feeding, changing, and caring for the bed-thing.

Their island seems cursed, whispering secrets only Aoileann hears. Then Rachel, a vivacious artist from the mainland, arrives with her colicky newborn. Rachel arouses yearnings Aoileann cannot fully comprehend. Soon, the unfolding of her mother’s secret tragedy and Aoileann’s pursuit of her own dark desires are both destined to unleash a maelstrom upon all three of their lives.

Described by New York Times bestselling author John Connolly as “perhaps the finest Irish horror novel of the 21st century,” Where I End is a modern Irish gothic that will pull readers into its undertow of family resentments and relentless obsession.]]> 241 Sophie White 1645661857 Bailey 0 to-read 3.69 2022 Where I End
author: Sophie White
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/12/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Christmas Tree Farm (Dream Harbor, #3)]]> 206318178
Kira North hates Christmas. Which is unfortunate since she just bought a Christmas tree farm in a town that’s too cute for its own good.

Bennett Ellis is on vacation in Dream Harbor trying to take a break from both his life and his constant desire to fix things.

But somehow fate finds Ben trapped by a blanket of snow at Kira’s farm, and, despite her Grinchiest first impressions, with the glow of the fairy lights twinkling in the trees, and the promise of a warming hot chocolate, maybe, just maybe, these two lost souls will have a Christmas they’ll remember forever…

The Christmas Tree Farm is a spicy romantic mystery with a HEA guaranteed, perfect to curl up with this winter!

Tropes:

Grumpy x Sunshine
Small Town
Forced Proximity
One Bed]]> 369 Laurie Gilmore 0008610738 Bailey 4 3.65 2024 The Christmas Tree Farm (Dream Harbor, #3)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/12/24
date added: 2025/12/24
shelves:
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]]> Annie Bot 156023123
She’s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?]]> 240 Sierra Greer 0063312697 Bailey 0 to-read 3.79 2024 Annie Bot
author: Sierra Greer
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/12/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> Futility 223642331 For readers of Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister the Serial Killer and Bella Mackie's How to Kill Your Family, this is a monstrous, gleeful, bitingly funny tale of murder, body-swapping and bloody vengeance from the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award® for Lifetime Achievement and 'Queen of African Horror'.

Chia runs one of the best restaurants in Abuja, Nigeria, and is renowned among the male clientele for her captivating beauty—she is every man's dream woman—and delicious hot pepper soup. But her hot pepper soup has a secret ingredient, and her beauty is not what it seems…

Claire is a 50 year-old British woman living in Abuja with her young Nigerian boyfriend and his beautiful cousin, Shadé. Consumed by jealousy and resentment and blinded to the poisonous tendencies of her beloved son, after a night out at Chia's infamous restaurant, Claire's carefully organised life spirals into chaos…

Both women seethe with rage and bitterness, and when a trickster spirit offers them revenge on those who have wronged them, they cannot resist...

Crackling with wit, this is a blood-soaked, expletive-laden, vengeance-filled horror story. Satirical, twisty and murderous, this is bloody, deadly fun from a writer at the top of her game.]]> 288 Nuzo Onoh 1835414281 Bailey 0 to-read 3.21 2025 Futility
author: Nuzo Onoh
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Soul of Man Under Socialism]]> 80339 The Soul of Man under Socialism Oscar Wilde expounds on an anarchist world view. Wilde argues that under capitalism the majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism-are forced, indeed, so to spoil them: instead of realizing their true talents, they waste their time solving the social problems caused by capitalism, without taking their common cause away. Thus, caring people seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see in poverty, but their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it because, the proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible.]]> 48 Oscar Wilde 1419183044 Bailey 0 to-read 3.94 1891 The Soul of Man Under Socialism
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1891
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume Eight (Lore Olympus, #8)]]> 217245532 “You have no authority here.”

Revelations rock Olympus as Persephone’s trial ends, threatening to throw the gods into a new war.

Though Persephone and Hades become closer than ever after she opens up to him about all she has endured, their peace is shattered when another truth is revealed: Apollo is Zeus’s son. The announcement shocks the pantheon, and the king of the gods realizes that the would-be usurper wants Persephone’s power to take the throne.

Zeus banishes Persephone to the Mortal Realm and, out of fear, cuts it off entirely from the rest of the gods. This decree succeeds in undercutting Apollo’s plan, but also inadvertently begins a decade-long divine cold war when Hades strikes back by shuttering the Underworld. With the gods scattered and weakened, Kronos uses the ensuing bedlam to finally escape his imprisonment and begin staging his own coup.

Persephone has only one choice when she discovers all the realms on the verge of collapse: Descend into the Underworld to try to defeat the power-hungry Titan, claim her rightful place as queen, and reunite with her one true love.

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner Award–winning webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel Smythe and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 180–206 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.]]> 416 Rachel Smythe 0593871995 Bailey 5 4.55 2025 Lore Olympus: Volume Eight (Lore Olympus, #8)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/12/22
date added: 2025/12/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume Seven (Lore Olympus, #7)]]> 204640573
An ingenious take on the Greek Pantheon, Lore Olympus is a modern update on the story of Hades and Persephone. Follow the propulsive love story of two Greek gods, told with lavish artwork and contemporary sensibilities.

This full-color edition of Smythe’s original Eisner Award-winning webcomic Lore Olympus features exclusive behind-the-scenes content and brings Greek mythology into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 153-179 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.]]> 416 Rachel Smythe 0593871960 Bailey 4 4.46 2024 Lore Olympus: Volume Seven (Lore Olympus, #7)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/12/21
date added: 2025/12/21
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume Six (Lore Olympus, #6)]]> 195888453
“We have to make an example of her.”

Chaos reigns in Olympus as Zeus publicly declares Persephone a traitor and issues a warrant for her arrest. But Hades defies his brother’s decree, sheltering Persephone in the Underworld—and as the pair spend more time together, they are able to speak openly about their pasts. The goddess of spring admits the truth behind the bloody secret that led to Zeus’s ire, and the king of the Underworld shares the trauma he suffered at the hands of his power-hungry father, Kronos.

But as Hades and Persephone’s relationship grows stronger, others begin to fall apart. The bond between Hades and Zeus is stretched to its limit, threatening to fracture the peace between their realms. Persephone and Artemis’s friendship hangs by a thread as the goddess of the hunt slowly uncovers the vile truth about her twin, Apollo. A line is being drawn in the heavens, putting everyone’s loyalties into question as all the gods are forced to choose sides.

And as the cracks in the foundation of the pantheon spread, something darker and more earth-shattering might soon be released. . . .

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner Award–winning webcomic Lore Olympus features exclusive behind-the-scenes content and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 127–152 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus .]]> 432 Rachel Smythe 059359908X Bailey 5 4.48 2024 Lore Olympus: Volume Six (Lore Olympus, #6)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/12/21
date added: 2025/12/21
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume Five (Lore Olympus, #5)]]> 75607709 “You want to know about The Bringer of Death.”

It is Persephone’s birthday, and she receives the ultimate gift: Hades confesses his desire for her, leading to their first kiss. But that doesn’t necessarily make things easier for the goddess of spring, who is still in over her head in gossip-driven Olympus. Persephone feels intense guilt over the official breakup between Hades and Minthe, she is struggling to find her footing in her fast-paced job, and—worst of all—the shades of her past are slowly coming to light.

After an unexpected encounter with Apollo, Persephone flees into the depths of the Underworld. Concerned for her safety and determined to find her, Hades must team up with Artemis, Eros, and Hera, but they’re working against a ticking clock. Zeus knows about the bloody secret in Persephone’s past, and now the furious king of the gods will stop at nothing to bring her to justice.

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner Award–winning webcomic Lore Olympus features exclusive behind-the-scenes content and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 103-126 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.]]> 400 Rachel Smythe 0593599063 Bailey 5 4.45 2023 Lore Olympus: Volume Five (Lore Olympus, #5)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/12/19
date added: 2025/12/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume Four (Lore Olympus, #4)]]> 62698816 Witness what the gods do after dark in the fourth volume of a stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of the best-known stories in Greek mythology, featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes content from creator Rachel Smythe.

"I don't always get to do as I please."

The rumor mill of Olympus is constantly churning, but Persephone and Hades are all anyone can talk about. With the constant gossip creating intense pressure on the pair, they decide to slow down their budding romance and focus on sorting out their own issues first.

But that's easier said than done.

Hades struggles to find support in his personal life, with Zeus trivializing his feelings and Minthe resorting to abusive patterns in their relationship. And while Hades tries to create healthier boundaries where he can--like finally putting a stop to his sporadic, revenge-fueled hookups with Hera--he still feels lonely and adrift.

Persephone feels equally ostracized as her classmates shun her for her connection to Hades, and she can find no refuge at home, with Apollo constantly dropping by unannounced and pushing his unwelcome advances. And on top of it all, the wrathful god of war, Ares, has returned to Olympus to dredge up his sordid history with the goddess of spring, threatening to surface Persephone's dark and mysterious past and ruin her tenuous position in the land of the gods.

Despite agreeing to take it slow, Persephone and Hades find themselves inextricably drawn toward each other once more amid the chaos. The pull of fate cannot be denied.

This edition of Rachel Smythe's original Eisner-nominated webcomic Lore Olympus features exclusive behind-the-scenes content and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 76-102 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus. ]]> 416 Rachel Smythe 059360007X Bailey 5 4.48 2023 Lore Olympus: Volume Four (Lore Olympus, #4)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/12/18
date added: 2025/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume Three (Lore Olympus, #3)]]> 60149524 Witness what the gods do after dark in the third volume of a stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of the best-known stories in Greek mythology, featuring a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel Smythe.

"It is natural for a King to be curious about his future Queen. . . ."

All of Olympus--and the Underworld--are talking about the God of the Dead and the sprightly daughter of Demeter. But despite the rumors of their romance, Hades and Persephone have plenty to navigate on their own.

Since coming to Olympus, Persephone has struggled to be the perfect maiden goddess. Her attraction to Hades has only complicated the intense burden of the gods' expectations. And after Apollo's assault, Persephone fears she can no longer bury the intense feelings of hurt and love that she's worked so hard to hide.

As Persephone contemplates her future, Hades struggles with his past, falling back into toxic habits in Minthe's easy embrace. With all the mounting pressure and expectations--of their family, friends, and enemies--both Hades and Persephone tell themselves to deny their deepest desires, but the pull between them is too tempting, too magnetic. It's fate.

This full-color edition of Smythe's original Eisner-nominated webcomic Lore Olympus brings Greek mythology into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 50-75 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.]]> 384 Rachel Smythe 0593160312 Bailey 5 4.46 2022 Lore Olympus: Volume Three (Lore Olympus, #3)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/12/18
date added: 2025/12/18
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume Two (Lore Olympus, #2)]]> 57717417 Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love—witness what the gods do after dark in this stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of mythology’s best-known stories from creator Rachel Smythe.

Persephone was ready to start a new life when she left the mortal realm for Olympus. However, she quickly discovered the dark side of her glamorous new home — from the relatively minor gossip threatening her reputation to a realm-shattering violation of her safety by the conceited Apollo — and she's struggling to find her footing in the fast-moving realm of the gods. Hades is also off balance, fighting against his burgeoning feelings for the young goddess of spring while maintaining his lonely rule of the Underworld. As the pair are drawn ever closer, they must untangle the twisted webs of their past and present to build toward a new future.

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner–nominated webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel Smythe and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 26–49 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.]]> 368 Rachel Smythe 059335608X Bailey 5 4.40 2022 Lore Olympus: Volume Two (Lore Olympus, #2)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/12/18
date added: 2025/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lore Olympus: Volume One (Lore Olympus, #1)]]> 57282218
Persephone, young goddess of spring, is new to Olympus. Her mother, Demeter, has raised her in the mortal realm, but after Persephone promises to train as a sacred virgin, she’s allowed to live in the fast-moving, glamorous world of the gods. When her roommate, Artemis, takes her to a party, her entire life changes: she ends up meeting Hades and feels an immediate spark with the charming yet misunderstood ruler of the Underworld. Now Persephone must navigate the confusing politics and relationships that rule Olympus, while also figuring out her own place—and her own power.

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner-winning webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story, and brings the Greek Pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 1-25 of the #1 WEBTOON comic, Lore Olympus.]]> 384 Rachel Smythe 0593160290 Bailey 5 4.18 2021 Lore Olympus: Volume One (Lore Olympus, #1)
author: Rachel Smythe
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/12/18
date added: 2025/12/18
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]]> The Deviant Vol. 1 219874071 148 James Tynion IV 1534385630 Bailey 0 to-read 4.14 2024 The Deviant Vol. 1
author: James Tynion IV
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/12/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Demon Song 222569910
Places like this have a history. Desires. And this one is famished.

Megan and her mom have escaped the clutches of an abusive man, who dragged them halfway across the world from Portland to Beijing. On the run and with few options, her mom turns to Wei, an old friend of hers and takes a job cleaning the Huihuang Opera house, a lavish theater in which she used to perform.

Rusty with her Mandarin, and feeling like an outsider in the country, Megan soon finds a group of friends in a young troupe of performers, and especially in Kristy, who takes an immediate shine to her. Torn between a battered copy of Journey to the West and an awkward friendship, Megan begins spending more and more time with Kristy. Her love of singing brings out a whole new side of Megan, who finds a new purpose unlocking within the walls of the ancient building

But the Huihuang Opera house has secrets. There are passages within the walls that shouldn't be there, and the more Megan delves into that old book, the more the myths begin to bleed into real life. As reality and folklore start to merge, and Megan finds it increasingly difficult to tell the two apart, she must uncover a decades-old mystery, and discover the true, horrifying secret of the Huihuang Opera house before it casts its hungry eyes on her.]]> 160 Kelsea Yu 1835410391 Bailey 2 3.68 2025 Demon Song
author: Kelsea Yu
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/12/14
date added: 2025/12/14
shelves:
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]]> Itch! 237025663 Something moves on the forest floor...

Josie is at rock bottom. Burned out, heartbroken and recovering from an abusive relationship, she lives a haunted existence after returning to her isolated hometown on the edge of the Forest of Dean.

But the tall, dense pine trees are not the only things casting shadows across her skin.

Josie's hopes of a fresh start are horribly derailed when she stumbles across a dead woman's decaying, ant-infested body in the woods. The grim discovery sends her into a downward spiral, forcing her to face uncomfortable truths about the victim and her own past - all whilst battling the swarming black ants that seem to have burrowed into her mind... and her flesh.

As Josie struggles with infestations of all kinds, she scratches the surface of an age-old mystery - a masked predator stalks the forest around Ellwood, a place deeply gripped by ancient folklore and strange customs. So when the village dresses up for its annual festival, Josie gets closer and closer to unveiling a monster, and begins to ask

Are these dark crawling insects leading her to uncover the truth?
Or is she their next victim?]]> 352 Gemma Amor 1399745360 Bailey 2 3.69 2025 Itch!
author: Gemma Amor
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/12/11
date added: 2025/12/11
shelves:
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]]> Kill the Beast 222377124 The Witcher meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this debut original faerie tale of revenge, redemption, and friendship―for fans of T. Kingfisher, Naomi Novik, and cozy fantasy with a dash of gritty adventure.

The night Lyssa Cadogan's brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced.

Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and―even more surprising―retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.

When the witch Ragnhild decrees that Alderic and Lyssa must gather the other ingredients to forge the weapon together, or else the spell will fail, Lyssa gets more than she bargained for. Alderic is ill-equipped for the task at hand, and almost guaranteed to get himself killed.

But as the two of them search for the materials that will be the Beast's undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa's better judgment, they begin to forge a blooming friendship―one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa's quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.]]> 309 Serra Swift 1250373786 Bailey 4 3.98 2025 Kill the Beast
author: Serra Swift
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/12/07
date added: 2025/12/07
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]]> The Fifth Child 546644
Harriet and David Lovatt, parents of four children, have created an idyll of domestic bliss in defiance of the social trends of late 1960s England. While around them crime and unrest surge, the Lovatts are certain that their old-fashioned contentment can protect them from the world outside—until the birth of their fifth baby.

Gruesomely goblin-like in appearance, insatiably hungry, abnormally strong and violent, Ben has nothing innocent or infant-like about him. As he grows older and more terrifying, Harriet finds she cannot love him, David cannot bring himself to touch him, and their four older children are afraid of him.

Understanding that he will never be accepted anywhere, Harriet and David are torn between their instincts as parents and their shocked reaction to this fierce and unlovable child whose existence shatters their belief in a benign world.]]> 133 Doris Lessing 0679721827 Bailey 3 3.62 1988 The Fifth Child
author: Doris Lessing
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at: 2025/11/28
date added: 2025/11/28
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]]> You Weren't Meant to Be Human 224004327 Alien meets Midsommar in this chilling debut adult novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White about identity, survival, and transformation amidst an alien invasion in rural West Virginia.

Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It’s an offer that none refuse.

Crane is grateful. Among his hive’s followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won’t destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant—and the hive demands the child’s birth, no matter the cost—Crane’s desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is a deeply personal horror; a visceral statement about the lives of marginalized people in a hostile world, echoing the works of Stephen Graham Jones and Eric LaRocca.]]> 336 Andrew Joseph White 1668038072 Bailey 4 3.73 2025 You Weren't Meant to Be Human
author: Andrew Joseph White
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/11/24
date added: 2025/11/24
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]]> Famous 11107366 210 Blake Crouch 1460928261 Bailey 2 3.29 2010 Famous
author: Blake Crouch
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2025/11/22
date added: 2025/11/22
shelves:
review:
Fairly immature writing from Crouch here. Nothing compared to his future (fantastic) works. Female characters were either shrews or Stephen King-esque airheads.
]]> Bunny (Bunny, #1) 53285047 We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled Smut Salon, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus Workshop where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library]]> 305 Mona Awad 0525559752 Bailey 5 3.38 2019 Bunny (Bunny, #1)
author: Mona Awad
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/11/19
date added: 2025/11/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Will There Ever Be Another You]]> 222925703 Amid a global pandemic one young woman is trying to keep the pieces together—of her family, stunned by a devastating loss, and of her mind, left mangled and misfiring from a mystifying disease

She’s afraid of her own floorboards, and she hears “What is love? Baby, don't hurt me" playing repeatedly in her head. She hates her friends, or more accurately, she doesn’t know who they are.

Has the illness stolen her mind and given her a new one? Does it mean she’ll get to start over, a chance afforded to few people? The very weave of herself seems to have loosened as time and memories pass straight through her body. “I’m sorry not to respond to your email,” she writes, “but I live completely in the present now."

Will There Ever be Another You is the brain-shredding, phosphorescent story of one woman’s dissolution and her attempt to create a new way of thinking, as well as a profound investigation into what keeps us alive in times of unprecedented disorientation and loss.]]> 248 Patricia Lockwood 0593718550 Bailey 1 2.92 2025 Will There Ever Be Another You
author: Patricia Lockwood
name: Bailey
average rating: 2.92
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2025/11/15
shelves:
review:
truly what in the world was this?? perhaps I'm confused because I haven't read the author's previous works.
]]> We Need to Talk About Kevin 80660 The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry.

Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

]]> 400 Lionel Shriver 006112429X Bailey 0 4.06 2003 We Need to Talk About Kevin
author: Lionel Shriver
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2025/11/12
date added: 2025/11/12
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]]> A Game in Yellow 220161567 Euphoria meets Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke in this latest novel by the Bram Stoker Award–winning author Hailey Piper, following a couple whose search to spice up their sex life leads them down a path of madness.

A kink-fixated couple, Carmen and Blanca, have been in a rut. That is until Blanca discovers the enigmatic Smoke in an under-street drug den, who holds pages to a strange play, The King in Yellow. Read too much, and you’ll fall into madness. But read just a little and pull back, and it gives you the adrenaline rush of survivor’s euphoria, leading Carmen to fall into a game of lust at a nightmare’s edge.

As the line blurs between the world Carmen knows and the one that she visits after reading from the play, she begins to desire more time in this other world no matter what horrors she brings back with her.

Bram Stoker Award–winning author Hailey Piper masterfully blends horror, erotica, and psychological thriller in this captivating and chilling story.]]> 288 Hailey Piper 1668077086 Bailey 3 3.27 2025 A Game in Yellow
author: Hailey Piper
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/11/12
date added: 2025/11/12
shelves:
review:
mostly good, weird horror. I found the experts of the play boring and confusing. otherwise very engaging - read in one day.
]]> Queen of Teeth 58556306
Within forty-eight hours, Yaya Betancourt will go from discovering teeth between her thighs to being hunted by one of the most powerful corporations in America.

She assumes the vagina dentata is a side effect of a rare genetic condition caused by AlphaBeta Pharmaceutical, decades ago, when she and several thousand others were still in the womb.

But, when ABP corporate goons upend her life, she realizes her secondary teeth might be evidence of a new experiment for which she’s the most advanced test tube... a situation worsened when Yaya’s condition sprouts horns, tentacles, and a mind of its own.

On the run and transforming, Yaya may be either ABP’s greatest success, or the deadliest failure science has ever created.]]> 198 Hailey Piper 194633541X Bailey 0 to-read 3.68 2021 Queen of Teeth
author: Hailey Piper
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love]]> 60127763
Features hypercompetent, fiery Hermione and lazy, yet dangerous, Draco. Slow burn.

Rating: Explicit
Fandom: Harry Potter
Relationship: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy

Tags: Healer Hermione Granger, Researcher Hermione Granger, Auror Draco Malfoy, Slow burn, unresolved sexual tension, eventual smut, POV Draco Malfoy, Forced Collaboration, Romance, romcom, Action/Adventure, EWE, HEA, reckless overuse of author's favorite tropes, oblivious idiots, All aboard the SS Denial, late-stage pining, what is pining if not denial persevering, no first names we die like men, do not look too closely at the plot you will only hurt yourself, scandalous ankle touching, misuse of whirlpool baths, graphic depictions of competent women, eroticized arithmancy, Crookshanks will fight god or become him, human on mushroom violence, Schrodinger's ethics, nuns]]> 593 isthisselfcare Bailey 5 4.55 2021 Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love
author: isthisselfcare
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/11/11
date added: 2025/11/11
shelves:
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]]> Female Fantasy 221490973
Joonie is living in a fantasy—at least that’s what people tell her. Men in the real world have done nothing but disappoint her time and time again, so she keeps her heart reserved for Ryke, the fictional male lead of her favorite romance series, who just happens to be a merman. And so far, her book boyfriend is meeting her needs more than any other “real” man ever has.

But when she learns that Ryke's character is based on a friend of the author, Joonie is determined to track him down and take her shot at a happily ever after.

She’ll need to borrow her brother’s car for the road trip, with the one condition that his annoying (but also hot) best friend can catch a ride to New York with her. But as she makes her way to her male lead, she’ll learn that once you wish fantasy into reality, you have to take all the tropes that come with it—not just the fun ones.

As unhinged as it is brilliant, Female Fantasy is both a self-aware dive into the concept of genre and a wild, steamy romp. Most of all, though, it’s a heartfelt love letter to romance readers everywhere.]]> 416 Iman Hariri-Kia 1728270642 Bailey 0 to-read 3.49 2025 Female Fantasy
author: Iman Hariri-Kia
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> Black Flame 212900404 A cursed film. A haunted past. A deadly secret.

The Baroness, an infamous exploitation film long thought destroyed by Nazi fire, is discovered fifty years later. When lonely archivist Ellen Kramer—deeply closeted and pathologically repressed—begins restoring the hedonistic movie, it unspools dark desires from deep within her.

As Ellen is consumed by visions and voices, she becomes convinced the movie is real, and is happening to her—and that frame by frame, she is unleashing its occult horrors on the world. Her life quickly begins to spiral out of control.

Until it all fades to black, and all that remains is a voice asking a question Ellen can’t answer but can’t get out of her mind.

Do you want it? More than anything?]]> 196 Gretchen Felker-Martin 1250348013 Bailey 3 3.52 2025 Black Flame
author: Gretchen Felker-Martin
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/11/09
date added: 2025/11/09
shelves:
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]]> If It Makes You Happy 229004405
I, on the other hand, don’t–at all–have anything figured out.

Trust me, I didn’t think taking over my mom’s dream bed and breakfast in Copper Run Vermont was going to be easy. It should be a good place to heal after my divorce. But apparently my scones belong in the garbage with my small talk skills. As pointed out by none other than Cliff.

Cliff is inescapable. He knows exactly what people need–always. His charm, the way he wears flannel, and even his pastries, make not wanting to be friends with Cliff and his daughters pretty hard.

Friends? I can make friends. That’s safe.

Except I’m leaving in three months to pass the inn off to my little sister and get the promotion in Seattle I’ve been working towards.

So ask me why I’m thinking about kissing my hot neighbor.]]> 500 Julie Olivia Bailey 2 4.04 2025 If It Makes You Happy
author: Julie Olivia
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/11/08
shelves:
review:
DNFed 50%. everyone seems to love this one but the writing didn't work for me and I didn't feel any romance between the characters. 500 page long romance book is wild.
]]> 100% Match (Pocket Nasties) 75603936
Bart is thirty. He is bald. He is overweight. He wears glasses. He is a fry cook. He hates cats. And kids. Bart occasionally does very bad things. He is looking for his perfect match. He has done his research.

"Depraved, deranged, and blackly hilarious. PC3 does what he does best here, and doesn't hold back. I suspect 89.3% of you will love this story. The other 10.7% are humorless prudes." -Chris Miller, author of Dust and Dub-Town Blues

"Vile, repulsive, and smart, with a kick-in-the-ass ending. You know, all the stuff we've come to love about PC3" -Rayne Havok, author of Necrosis

"Get ready to squirm, cringe, and maybe even laugh! Patrick C. Harrison III's prose is as slick as it is sick, and 100% Match is one you won't want to miss. Especially if you're deranged and looking for love." -Judith Sonnet, author of No One Rides for Free

"If you like your fiction sick and twisted, this one will be a 100% match for you. PC3 gives us a glimpse into the mind of the truly depraved, and despite the nature of spending time in such a nasty headspace, the story is entertaining as hell. Just don’t read it on a full stomach." -Robert Essig, author of The Circus Oasis and Tweaker Creatures]]> 94 Patrick C. Harrison III Bailey 1 3.29 2022 100% Match (Pocket Nasties)
author: Patrick C. Harrison III
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2025/11/06
date added: 2025/11/06
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]]> Don't Let Him In 220160814 Three women are connected by one man in this kaleidoscopic thriller.

He’s the perfect man. It’s a perfect lie.

Nina Swann is intrigued when she received a condolence card from Nick Radcliffe, an old friend of her late husband, who is looking to connect after her husband’s unexpected death. Nick is a man of substance and good taste. He has a smile that could melt the coldest heart and a knack for putting others at ease. But to Nina’s adult daughter, Ash, Nick seems too slick, too polished, too good to be true. Without telling her mother, Ash begins digging into Nick’s past. What she finds is more than unsettling…

Martha is a florist living in a neighboring town with her infant daughter and her devoted husband, Alistair. But lately, Alistair has been traveling more and more frequently for work, disappearing for days at a time. When Martha questions him about his frequent absences, he always has a legitimate explanation, but Martha can’t share the feeling that something isn’t right.

Nina, Martha, and Ash are on a collision course with a shocking truth that is far darker than anyone could have imagined. And all three are about to wish they had heeded the same warning: Don’t let him in. But the past won’t stay buried forever.]]> 361 Lisa Jewell 1668033879 Bailey 4 3.69 2025 Don't Let Him In
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/11/05
date added: 2025/11/05
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]]> The Starving Saints 217896248 From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself. ]]> 352 Caitlin Starling 0063418819 Bailey 0 to-read 3.55 2025 The Starving Saints
author: Caitlin Starling
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Scammer 223338983 A ripped-from-the-headlines thriller, following a freshman girl whose college life is turned upside down when her roommate’s ex-convict brother moves into their dorm and starts controlling their every move.

Out from under her overprotective parents, Jordyn is ready to kill it in prelaw at a prestigious, historically Black university in Washington DC. When her new roommate’s brother is released from prison, the last thing Jordyn expects is to come home and find the ex-convict on their dorm room sofa. But Devonte needs a place to stay while he gets back on his feet—and how could she say no to one of her new best friends?

Devonte is older, as charming as he is intelligent, pushing every student he meets to make better choices about their young lives. But Jordyn senses something sinister beneath his friendly advice and growing group of followers. When one of Jordyn’s roommates goes missing, she must enlist the help of the university’s lone white student to uncover the mystery—or become trapped at the center of a web of lies more tangled than she can imagine.

 ]]> 358 Tiffany D. Jackson 0063271273 Bailey 0 to-read 3.87 2025 The Scammer
author: Tiffany D. Jackson
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Mother of Methadone: A Doctor's Quest, a Forgotten History, and a Modern-Day Crisis]]> 220689513 Brings together the stories of two doctors battling the opioid epidemic half a century apart to reveal the origins of today's public health crisis

A call to remove the stigma against addiction, people who use drugs, and treatment providers

Dr. Melody Glenn was a burned-out emergency physician who had grown to resent the large population of opioid dependent patients passing through her ER. While working at a methadone clinic, she realized how effective harm reduction treatments could be and set out to discover why they weren’t used more broadly. That’s when she found Dr. Marie Nyswander.

In the 1960’s, Nyswander defied the DEA and medical establishment to co-develop methadone maintenance as a treatment for heroin addiction. According to some addiction specialists, this life-saving practice could be considered as monumental as the discovery of penicillin. Yet, it still carries a stigma today.

Deftly weaving together interviews, media coverage, and historical documents, Glenn recovers Nyswander’s important legacy and reveals how the forces of racism, fearmongering politicians, and misinformation colluded to set us back decades in our understandings of opioids.

With Nyswander as her guide, Glenn also shares her journey through addiction medicine as she confronts her own personal and philosophical quandaries around bias, ambition, and saviorism in the medical field.

As the US continues to struggle with opioid and fentanyl use in communities, Mother of Methadone is a powerful reminder of the ways biases have prevented doctors from saving countless lives.]]> 232 Melody Glenn 0807017760 Bailey 2 4.10 Mother of Methadone: A Doctor's Quest, a Forgotten History, and a Modern-Day Crisis
author: Melody Glenn
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/11/03
date added: 2025/11/03
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]]> Sunbirth 219268749 From the celebrated author of Ghost Music and Braised Pork, a bewitching and atmospheric novel following two sisters in an isolated village as the sun begins to diminish above them

In Five Poems Lake, a small village surrounded by impenetrable deserts, the sun is slowly disappearing overhead. A young woman keeps one apprehensive eye on the sky above as she tends the pharmacy of traditional medicine that belonged to her great grandfather. She has few customers, and even fewer her older sister Dong Ji, her last living relative, works at a wellness parlor across town for those who can afford it—which, during these strange and difficult days, is not many.

Five Poems Lake had fallen on hard times long before the sun began shrinking, but now, every few days, a new sliver disappears. As the temperature drops and the lake freezes over, the population of the town realizes that they will soon die—if not of the cold and starvation, then of despair. When the Beacons begin to appear—ordinary people with heads replaced by searing, blinding light, like miniature suns—the town’s residents wonder if they may hold the answer to their salvation, or if they are just another sign of impending ruin. Soon, a photograph found in the possessions of their father, who disappeared mysteriously twelve years ago, will offer another clue in the mystery of the Beacons, and Dong Ji and her sister wonder if they may finally learn what happened to their father.

With a richly surreal sensibility that has earned comparisons to the work of Haruki Murakami, and anchored by searching curiosity and wisdom, in Sunbirth An Yu honors the unique relationship held between sisters and asks how much we can ever know about the deepest mysteries of the world.]]> 312 An Yu 0802164277 Bailey 0 to-read 3.52 2025 Sunbirth
author: An Yu
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Bug Collector 218530309 A grotesque, unforgettable descent into obsession and decay from Wrath James White - master of extreme and splatterpunk horror.

Joey's secret fetish has already destroyed his health, twisted his body, and left him a pariah. Now it's about to cost him his life. When his perverse desires put him in the path of a woman consumed by rage and revenge, his nightmare becomes a living infection - a body horror nightmare that crawls under your skin and never leaves.

From the author of The Resurrectionist and Succulent Prey comes one of Wrath James White's most disturbing works yet - a brutal, unflinching exploration of paraphilia, guilt, revenge, and transformation.

The Bug Collector is extreme horror at its most intimate and revolting - perfect for fans of Nick Kutter, Aron Beauregard, Judith Sonnett. and Elias Witherow.]]> 73 Wrath James White Bailey 3 3.57 The Bug Collector
author: Wrath James White
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.57
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/11/01
date added: 2025/11/01
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]]> Vasectomy 221435982 79 Ryan J. Powell Bailey 0 to-read 3.54 Vasectomy
author: Ryan J. Powell
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.54
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> Hazelthorn 220909040 CG Drews, acclaimed author of Don't Let the Forest In, returns with another deeply unsettling and yet hauntingly beautiful tale of murder and botanical body horror, perfect for fans of Andrew Joseph White and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Evander has lived like a ghost in the forgotten corners of the Hazelthorn estate ever since he was taken in by his reclusive billionaire guardian, Byron Lennox-Hall, when he was a child. For his safety, Evander has been given three ironclad rules to follow:

He can never leave the estate. He can never go into the gardens. And most importantly, he can never again be left alone with Byron's charming, underachieving grandson, Laurie.

That last rule has been in place ever since Laurie tried to kill Evander seven years ago, and yet somehow Evander is still obsessed with him.

When Byron suddenly dies, Evander inherits Hazelthorn’s immense gothic mansion and acres of sprawling grounds, along with the entirety of the Lennox-Hall family's vast wealth. But Evander's sure his guardian was murdered, and Laurie may be the only one who can help him find the killer before they come for Evander next.

Perhaps even more concerning is how the overgrown garden is refusing to stay behind its walls, slipping its vines and spores deeper into the house with each passing day. As the family’s dark secrets unravel alongside the growing horror of their terribly alive, bloodthirsty garden, Evander needs to find out what he’s really inheriting before the garden demands to be fed once more.]]> 358 C.G. Drews 1250376297 Bailey 0 to-read 4.20 2025 Hazelthorn
author: C.G. Drews
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/11/01
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]]> We Need to Do Something 53014484 An alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM IFC MIDNIGHT, STARRING SIERRA MCCORMICK, VINESSA SHAW, AND PAT HEALY.

A family on the verge of self-destruction finds themselves isolated in their bathroom during a tornado warning.

Includes an introduction from Sean King O'Grady (director of the film adaptation) and a brand-new afterword from Max Booth III.]]> 188 Max Booth III 1943720452 Bailey 1 3.35 2020 We Need to Do Something
author: Max Booth III
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2025/10/29
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]]> We Have To Do Something 59686888 Max Booth Bailey 1 3.17 We Have To Do Something
author: Max Booth
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.17
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2025/10/29
date added: 2025/10/29
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]]> Half His Age 240424526 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of I’m Glad My Mom Died comes a sad, funny, thrilling novel about sex, consumerism, class, desire, loneliness, the internet, rage, intimacy, power, and the (oftentimes misguided) lengths we’ll go to in order to get what we want.

Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all: Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films and things that she doesn’t? Or is it purer than that, rooted in their unlikely connection, their kindred spirits, the similar filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.

Startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant, Half His Age is a rich character study of a yearning seventeen-year-old who disregards all obstacles—or attempts to overcome them—in her effort to be seen, to be desired, to be loved.]]> 288 Jennette McCurdy 0593723732 Bailey 0 to-read 3.20 2026 Half His Age
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> Cherry Baby 236142491 AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

"Sexy, messy, funny and raw." —The New York Times

#1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell returns with a breathtakingly honest novel about a woman who lost everything — and isn't sure she wants it back.

Everybody knows that Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Hollywood making a movie . . .

Almost nobody knows that he isn't coming home.

Tom is the creator of Thursday—a semi-autobiographical webcomic that's become an international phenomenon.

Semi-autobiographical. That means there's a character in this movie based on Cherry . . . "Baby."

Wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned Baby.

Cherry never wanted this. No fat girl wants to see herself caricatured on the page—let alone on the big screen. But there's no getting away from it. Baby looks so much like Cherry that strangers recognize her at the grocery store.

While her soon-to-be ex-husband is in Los Angeles getting rich and famous and being the internet's latest boyfriend, Cherry is stuck in Omaha taking care of the dog he always wanted and the house they were going to raise a family in . . . and wondering who she's supposed to be without him.

Cherry had promised to love Tom through thick and thin.

She'd meant it.

One night, Cherry decides to leave all her problems, including Tom's overgrown puppy, at home. She ventures out to see her favorite band play her favorite album . . . and someone recognizes her from across the room.

Russ Sutton knew Cherry when she was a young art student with a fondness for pin-up dresses and patent leather heels. Before Tom.

Russ knows Cherry. He likes Cherry.

And best of all . . . he's never heard of Thursday.

Tender, funny, and utterly human, Cherry Baby is Rainbow Rowell's richest, most surprising—sexiest—novel yet.]]> 416 Rainbow Rowell 0063380269 Bailey 0 to-read 3.65 2026 Cherry Baby
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed, #1)]]> 209753199 The first in a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy duology featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world, perfect for fans of The Love Hypothesis and Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, is in dire need of healing. Naturally – such is the grim comedy of fate – the only healer who can help is Aurienne Fairhrim, preeminent scientist, bastion of moral good, and member of an enemy Order.

Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick - so desperate that, when Osric bribes her to help him, she accepts, even if she detests him and everything he stands for.

A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders, much to Aurienne's disgust. As Osric and Aurienne work together to heal his illness and investigate the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction, which only fuels the heat between them.

Romance tropes
Enemies to lovers
High interaction slow burn
Hypercompetent idiots
He falls first and harder
Evisceration as a love language]]> 416 Brigitte Knightley 0356524736 Bailey 4 3.79 2025 The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed, #1)
author: Brigitte Knightley
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/10/28
date added: 2025/10/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed, #2)]]> 239205900 The stakes are high, the love is forbidden, and the slow burn turns steamy in this swoony, witty, and heart-stoppingly romantic sequel to instant New York Times bestseller The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy.

Osric is a member of the Fyren Order, a guild of assassins who gleefully murder for money. Aurienne is a Haelan, a scholar-healer whose Order’s motto is Harm to none. Clear-cut absolutes separate them: good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark . . .

Until they don’t.

When Osric first bribed Aurienne to heal him, he never imagined those lines would begin to blur. But every healing session draws them closer together. He finds himself developing unwanted feelings for Aurienne as her capable hands heal his body—and his heart.

Aurienne’s perfect life has been flung into chaos in the form of a devastatingly handsome assassin. She should be in her research lab, not illicitly healing a Fyren every full moon—nor wrestling an attraction to him that threatens to slip into something else.

Things go superbly sideways when Osric and Aurienne discover more about the deadly Pox deliberately unleashed through the Tīendoms. The plague may be the work of another Order—an Order far nastier than either of them can handle.

As the lines between Osric and Aurienne continue to blur, the balance between peace and war, and love and hate, trembles, shifts, and hinges on a heartbeat.]]> 336 Brigitte Knightley 0356524779 Bailey 0 to-read 4.45 2026 The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed, #2)
author: Brigitte Knightley
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Savage Blooms (Unearthly Delights, #1)]]> 210396795 464 S.T. Gibson 035652325X Bailey 2 3.53 2025 Savage Blooms (Unearthly Delights, #1)
author: S.T. Gibson
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/10/26
date added: 2025/10/26
shelves:
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]]> Tusk Love 219848368 A merchant’s daughter who yearns for adventure gets more than she bargained for when she falls for a broodingly handsome stranger in this saucy romantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hurricane Wars.

“A true delight of a book! Spicy and heartfelt—this one is a winner all around.”—Katee Robert, author of Neon Gods

As the daughter of an ambitious merchant, Guinevere’s path has been marry into a noble house of the Dwendalian Empire, raise her family’s station, and live quietly as a lordling’s obedient wife. But Guinevere longs for a life unbounded by expectations, for freedom and passion and adventure.

Those distant dreams become a sudden reality when her caravan is beset by bandits, leaving her guards slain and Guinevere stranded alone on the dangerous Amber Road. Her only chance of survival is to travel alongside Oskar, the aloof half-orc who saved her during the attack.

Unlike Guinevere, Oskar’s path is not so set in stone. With his mother dead and his apprenticeship abandoned, all that’s left is a long, lonely walk to a land he’s never seen to find family he’s never met. The last thing he needs is a spoiled waif like Guinevere slowing him down—even if the spark between them sizzles with promise.

Despite his cold exterior, Oskar is brave and thoughtful and unlike anyone Guinevere has ever met. And while Guinevere may be sheltered, she brings out a softness in him that he has never dared to feel before. As the flames of their passion grow, they realize that soon they’ll need to choose between their expected destinations or their blossoming romance.

Written by New York Times bestselling author Thea Guanzon at the behest of Critical Role’s Jester Lavorre, Tusk Love brings the most romantic story on Exandrian bookshelves to life.]]> 288 Thea Guanzon 0593874269 Bailey 0 4.01 2025 Tusk Love
author: Thea Guanzon
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/24
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review:

]]> Crafting for Sinners 223363578 A queer woman must fight her way out of a big-box craft store run by a diabolical religious cult in this gripping survival horror novel by Jenny Kiefer, author of This Wretched Valley

The ratcheting tension and gut-churning terror will appeal to fans of The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay and The Ritual by Adam Nevill

Ruth is trapped. She’s stuck in her small, religious hometown of Kill Devil, Kentucky, stuck in the closet, and stuck living paycheck to paycheck. After her manager finds out that she lives with her girlfriend, Ruth is fired from her job as a cashier at New Creations—a craft store owned by the church that dominates life in the town. 

In an act of revenge, Ruth attempts to shoplift some yarn but is caught red-handed by a New Creations cashier. Instead of calling the police, the employees lock her in the store—and attack her. When Ruth is forced to stab out one of their eyes with a knitting needle, she realizes she's facing far bigger trouble than a simple shoplifting charge. As Ruth fights for her life, she plunges deeper into the tangled web of the New Creationists, who are hiding a terrible secret that threatens not only her, but the entire town.

This relentless horror novel will have you on the edge of your seat as it hurtles towards a breathtaking conclusion. Will Ruth escape? Or will the shocking secret at the heart of the cult die with her?]]> 304 Jenny Kiefer 1683694708 Bailey 0 to-read 3.36 2025 Crafting for Sinners
author: Jenny Kiefer
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[We Are Always Tender With Our Dead (Burnt Sparrow, #1)]]> 228029088 Michael McDowell's Blackwater meets Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show in the disturbing first installment of a new trilogy of intense, visceral, beautifully written queer horror set in a small New England town.

A chilling supernatural tale of transgressive literary horror from the Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

The lives of those residing in the isolated town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, are forever altered after three faceless entities arrive on Christmas morning to perform a brutal act of violence—a senseless tragedy that can never be undone. While the townspeople grieve their losses and grapple with the aftermath of the attack, a young teenage boy named Rupert Cromwell is forced to confront the painful realities of his family situation. Once relationships become intertwined and more carnage ensues as a result of the massacre, the town residents quickly learn that true retribution is futile, cruelty is earned, and certain thresholds must never be crossed no matter what.

Engrossing, atmospheric, and unsettling, this is a devastating story of a small New England community rocked by an unforgivable act of violence. Writing with visceral intensity and profound eloquence, LaRocca journeys deep into the dark heart of Burnt Sparrow, leaving you chilled to the bone and wanting more.]]> 304 Eric LaRocca 1803368675 Bailey 4 3.26 2025 We Are Always Tender With Our Dead (Burnt Sparrow, #1)
author: Eric LaRocca
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/10/23
date added: 2025/10/23
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review:

]]> Bound (Bound and Unbound, #1) 242109300
Veronica “Vero” Mercer grew up with grifters for parents, and she knows her way around a con. When grad school bills pile up and her friends are in trouble, she turns her art history skills into a forgery side hustle.

It’s supposed to be a short term deal, but her work draws the attention of Dr. Viktor Ashworth, a reserved, very British professor. Instead of turning her in, Ashworth kidnaps her – politely – and makes an unusual offer: forge a mysterious ancient manuscript for him.

Soon Vero finds herself spending long nights with Viktor, bent over rare vellum samples and obscure inks. But as the con grows riskier, Vero has to wonder: what does Viktor really want, and why can’t she stay away?]]> 8 Ali Hazelwood Bailey 0 to-read 3.62 2025 Bound (Bound and Unbound, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> Meat Bees 239234731
By the time Scarlett Sutton arrives at her dad’s cabin in the Smoky Mountains, two locals have already been eaten alive by wasps. Of course, she doesn’t know this yet. All Scarlett knows is her mom finally checked herself into a hospital to take care of her mental health, leaving Scarlett alone with her dad all summer.

After he insists that she get a job, Scarlett accepts a position at nearby Stovetop Outfitters, hoping to spend as much time away from him as possible. She doesn’t expect to trip over a skeletonized corpse beneath the zip-line during one of her shifts—and definitely doesn’t expect to be thrown into a Netflix-style true crime investigation.

The local sheriff’s department is so overwhelmed by these unsolved deaths that when one of the Stovetop Outfitters employees disappears next, Scarlett and her co-workers set out to find him on their own. They discover something much more horrifying: a swarm of yellow jackets stripping the meat off his body. Scarlett never signed up to solve a disgusting mystery, but in order to protect her friends and family, she must defeat the mountain’s darkness and all these godforsaken wasps.]]> 290 Dane Erbach 1968043055 Bailey 0 to-read 3.25 2026 Meat Bees
author: Dane Erbach
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> An Evil Premise 221731828 From T. Marie Vandelly, author of the acclaimed horror novel Theme Music , An Evil Premise is a mind-bending, thrilling meta-novel about possession, insanity, and the lengths a writer will go to find inspiration.

When a bizarre accident leaves her sister, bestselling author Deidre Baldwin, in a coma and suffering from a grotesque skin malady, Jewel rushes to her bedside. Though the sisters are not close, she is determined to do what she can for Deidre. Staying at her sister’s apartment, Jewel stumbles upon an unfinished manuscript, the one that Deidre was rushing to complete for her publisher. When Deidre’s literary agent calls in a panic, Jewel—a self-published writer herself, desperate for a break—suggests she can finish it by the deadline.

But the story is unsettling. It begins with a writer looking for inspiration, who finds an unclaimed manuscript. But said manuscript is just a series of protagonists who feel compelled to act out their heinous contributions to the grisly plot.

Jewel is determined not to be scared off, but the novel hits a little close to home. She tries to tell herself she’s being paranoid, but swears she can hear someone typing when she’s not at the desk, and somehow the word count of the novel keeps going up. Her skin begins to itch.

Terrified of losing her sanity, but equally terrified of losing her one shot at success, Jewel tries to find a story somewhere in the carnage, even as her rash becomes worse and she starts to have not so neighborly thoughts about her neighbors. Is this what happened to Deidre? Did the manuscript drive her mad? Infect her somehow? Jewel finds herself hoping her sister never wakes up. And fearing what will happen if Deidre does …]]> 362 T. Marie Vandelly Bailey 0 to-read 3.59 2025 An Evil Premise
author: T. Marie Vandelly
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/10/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> Lady Macbeth 202102084
Fair is foul and foul is fair.

A reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

The Lady knows the stories: that her eyes induce madness in men.

The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.

The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of survival, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.

But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armour. She does not know that her magic is greater, and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.

She does not know this yet. But she will.]]> 295 Ava Reid 0593722566 Bailey 4 3.44 2024 Lady Macbeth
author: Ava Reid
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/10/21
date added: 2025/10/21
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]]> Mate (Bride, #2) 228256271
Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey for the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left if he'll have her.

As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn't matter if Serena doesn't reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe.

But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…]]> 450 Ali Hazelwood 0593955013 Bailey 5 3.98 2025 Mate (Bride, #2)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/10/19
date added: 2025/10/19
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]]> The Restraint of Beasts 323208 224 Magnus Mills 0684865114 Bailey 4 3.91 1998 The Restraint of Beasts
author: Magnus Mills
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2025/10/15
date added: 2025/10/15
shelves:
review:

]]> What Hunger 219445683 A haunting coming-of-age tale following the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Ronny Nyugen, as she grapples with the weight of generational trauma while navigating the violent power of teenage girlhood, for fans of Jennifer’s Body and Little Fires Everywhere.

It's the summer before high school, and Ronny Nguyen finds herself too young for work, too old for cartoons. Her days are spent in a small backyard, dozing off to trashy magazines on a plastic lawn chair. In stark contrast stands her brother Tommy, the pride and joy of their immigrant parents: a popular honor student destined to be the first in the family to attend college. The thought of Tommy leaving for college fills Ronny with dread, as she contemplates the quiet house she will be left alone in with her parents, Me and Ba.

Their parents rarely speak of their past in Vietnam, except through the lens of food. The family's meals are a tapestry of cultural memory: thick spring rolls with slim and salty nem chua, and steaming bowls of pho tái with thin, delicate slices of blood-red beef. In the aftermath of the war, Me and Ba taught Ronny and Tommy that meat was a dangerous luxury, a symbol of survival that should never be taken for granted.

But when tragedy strikes, Ronny's world is upended. Her sense of self and her understanding of her family are shattered. A few nights later, at her first high school party, a boy crosses the line, and Ronny is overtaken by a force larger than herself. This newfound power comes with an insatiable hunger for raw meat, a craving that is both a saving grace and a potential destroyer.

What Hunger is a visceral, emotional journey through the bursts and pitfalls of female rage. Ronny’s Vietnamese lineage and her mother’s emotional memory play a crucial role in this tender ode to generational trauma and mother-daughter bonding.]]> 288 Catherine Dang 0349125775 Bailey 3 3.67 2025 What Hunger
author: Catherine Dang
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/10/13
date added: 2025/10/13
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]]> Alchemised 207670238
“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”

Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.

In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile, undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.

According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?

To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.]]> 976 SenLinYu Bailey 0 to-read 4.76 2025 Alchemised
author: SenLinYu
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.76
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild, #2)]]> 222175386 In a world of magical artifacts and fantastical beings, a woman with a deadly magic secret needs the help of the minotaur she’s trying to forget in the sizzling sequel to Ruby Dixon's New York Times bestseller Bull Moon Rising .

Gwenna has always considered herself a normal person. A former servant, she wants nothing more than to land a steady job with the Royal Artifactual Guild so she can make some steady coin to send home to her mother. She's not special. She's certainly not a necromancer. That would be impossible, given how necromancing (or any 'mancing) is forbidden upon penalty of death. So if the dead keep talking to her? Well, she's going to keep on ignoring them. They're not going to stand in the way of her dreams.

Also standing in her way? One big, arrogant, far-too-flirty Taurian named Raptor. They slept together once, and now he wants more . . . but she doesn’t have time for that. Her focus is on being a fledgling, a trainee for the Royal Artifactual Guild. But Raptor won't go away. He's on a secret mission for the guild to find an artifact thief.

Problem is, he thinks the thief is Gwenna.

How can she convince Raptor that he's got the wrong girl when all the signs point to her? And how do you tell a Taurian you can't date him because you hear dead people and it might cost you your life?]]> 368 Ruby Dixon 0593817052 Bailey 4 4.05 2025 By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild, #2)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/10/07
date added: 2025/10/07
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]]> The Burial Tide 216684512 Drawing on the creatures and horrors of Irish folklore, The Burial Tide unearths our darkest truths: how far we’d go to win our freedom, and how quickly our desires can become monstrous.

A woman who can’t remember her death.
On an eerily quiet island off the coast of Ireland, a woman with no memory claws her way out of her grave and back to life. But not everyone welcomes the return of Mara Fitch.

An island with a terrible secret.
Inishbannock. Where strange misshapen figures watch from the trees and the roads are covered in teeth. Where two brothers gamble for nothing, the doctor only treats the dead, and the pub owner speaks in riddles. Where a poet loses and finds his soul. And a husband without a wife claims to know everything about Mara.

A past that refuses to stay buried.
As Mara returns to her life on this upside-down island, her memories begin to leech their way back to the surface. The more she remembers, the more the village will do anything to stop her . . .

But the sea remembers it all.]]> 384 Neil Sharpson 1638932026 Bailey 0 to-read 4.21 2025 The Burial Tide
author: Neil Sharpson
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Listeners 56988057 #1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.]]> 382 Maggie Stiefvater 0593655508 Bailey 0 3.66 2025 The Listeners
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at: 2025/10/01
date added: 2025/10/01
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]]> <![CDATA[We Love You, Bunny (Bunny, #2)]]> 220595449 Bunny, Samantha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “Bunny.” An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with deadly and wondrous consequences.

When We Love You, Bunny opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story. One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers—and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself. Not to mention the transformative powers of love and friendship, Bunny.

Frankenstein by way of Heathers, We Love You, Bunny is both a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete stand-alone novel. Open your hearts, Bunny, to another dazzlingly original and darkly hilarious romp in the Bunny-verse from the queen of the fever-dream, Mona Awad.]]> 496 Mona Awad 166805986X Bailey 0 to-read 3.40 2025 We Love You, Bunny (Bunny, #2)
author: Mona Awad
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> October, October 55012382
October and her dad live in the woods. They sleep in the house Dad built for them and eat the food they grow in the vegetable patches. They know the trees and the rocks and the lake and stars like best friends. They read the books they buy in town again and again until the pages are soft and yellow - until next year's town visit. They live in the woods and they are wild.

And that's the way it is.

Until the year October turns eleven. That's the year October rescues a baby owl. It's the year Dad falls out of the biggest tree in their woods. The year the woman who calls herself October's mother comes back. The year everything changes.

Written in Katya Balen's heart-stoppingly beautiful style, this book is a feast for the senses, filled with the woodsmoke smell of crisp autumn mornings and the sound of wellies squelching in river mud. And, as October fights to find the space to be wild in the whirling chaos of the world beyond the woods, it is also a feast for the soul]]> 304 Katya Balen 1526601907 Bailey 2 4.34 2020 October, October
author: Katya Balen
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/09/22
date added: 2025/09/22
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]]> Wool (Wool, #1) 12287209
Or you'll get what you wish for.]]> 56 Hugh Howey Bailey 1 4.14 2011 Wool (Wool, #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2011
rating: 1
read at: 2020/05/27
date added: 2025/09/16
shelves:
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]]> Nuclear War: A Scenario 182733784
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.]]> 373 Annie Jacobsen 0593476093 Bailey 4 4.32 2024 Nuclear War: A Scenario
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/09/14
date added: 2025/09/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany]]> 29429893 360 Norman Ohler 0241256992 Bailey 4 4.04 2015 Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany
author: Norman Ohler
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/09/09
date added: 2025/09/09
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Impossible Trials of Benjamiah Creek (The Whisperwicks #2)]]> 215548374
Ever since Benjamiah returned from his spectacular adventure in Wreathenwold, he’s been desperate to go back. When he discovers a strange fragment of witchstone, he is transported back to the labyrinthine streets of Wreathenwold and soon finds himself on another dangerous quest involving a strange collection of fairytales – The Book of Barely Believable Stories.

Reunited with Elizabella Cotton and helped by two new friends – Mea and Silas the mapmaker – the gang undertake a series of magical trials to save the missing children of Wreathenwold before Midsommer ends and they are lost forever . . .]]> 436 Jordan Lees 0241625092 Bailey 0 to-read 4.45 The Impossible Trials of Benjamiah Creek (The Whisperwicks #2)
author: Jordan Lees
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.45
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/09/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Labyrinth of Lost and Found (The Whisperwicks, #1)]]> 181848975 A boy who doesn't believe in magic. An impossible world that will change his mind.

Eleven-year-old Benjamiah Creek believes in science, logic and the power of reason. He definitely does not believe in magic. But when he receives a mysterious gift in the post - a doll that can transform into a bird - he is led into the impossible (and most definitely magical) world of Wreathenwold, where dark secrets are lost amongst a vast labyrinth of streets.

Benjamiah soon finds himself swept along in a dangerous quest - led by the fierce and brilliant Elizabella, who is determined to solve the disappearance of her missing brother.

Will Benjamiah ever find his way home and discover his puzzling connection with this strange, enchanted world?]]> 394 Jordan Lees 0241607531 Bailey 4 4.25 2024 The Labyrinth of Lost and Found (The Whisperwicks, #1)
author: Jordan Lees
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/09/08
date added: 2025/09/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Pumpkinheads 40864790 In Pumpkinheads author Rainbow Rowell and artist Faith Erin Hicks have teamed up to create this tender and hilarious story about two irresistible teens discovering what it means to leave behind a place―and a person―with no regrets.

Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends.

Every autumn, all through high school, they’ve worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world. (Not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is.) They say good-bye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September 1.

But this Halloween is different—Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch. Their last shift together. Their last good-bye.

Josiah’s ready to spend the whole night feeling melancholy about it. Deja isn’t ready to let him. She’s got a plan: What if—instead of moping and the usual slinging lima beans down at the Succotash Hut—they went out with a bang? They could see all the sights! Taste all the snacks! And Josiah could finally talk to that cute girl he’s been mooning over for three years . . .

What if their last shift was an adventure?]]> 209 Rainbow Rowell 125031285X Bailey 5 4.00 2019 Pumpkinheads
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Bailey
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/09/05
date added: 2025/09/05
shelves:
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]]> Zebedee and the Valentines 49534575 100 Abs Bailey 1910395544 Bailey 3 3.63 2020 Zebedee and the Valentines
author: Abs Bailey
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/09/05
date added: 2025/09/05
shelves:
review:

]]> The Cipher 341930
It began with Nakota and her crooked grin. She had to see the dark hole in the storage room down the hall. She had to make love to Nicholas beside it, and stare into its secretive, promising depths. Then Nakota began her experiments: First, she put an insect into the hole. Then a mouse...

Now from down the hall, the black hole calls out to Nicholas every day and every night. And he will go to it. Because it has already seared his flesh, infected his soul, and started him on a journey of obsession - through its soothing, blank darkness into the blinding core of terror...]]> 356 Kathe Koja 0440207827 Bailey 0 3.52 1991 The Cipher
author: Kathe Koja
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/09/04
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]]> Walking Practice 61812438 176 Dolki Min 0063258625 Bailey 4 3.61 2022 Walking Practice
author: Dolki Min
name: Bailey
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/09/03
date added: 2025/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]>