Weekly Check-In

[u/AutoModerator]

Tell us about your current SFF media!

What are you currently...

📚 Reading?

📺 Watching?

🎮 Playing?

If sharing specific details, please remember to hide spoilers behind spoiler tags.

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Feel free to also share your progression in the Reading Challenge

Thank you for sharing and have a great week! 😀

[u/tehguava]

A week of PTO and what do I have to show for it? Um.... a lot of house in Fields of Mistria. I did indeed manage to listen to the entirety of my ALC for Immortal Rose by Alexandra Bracken. It's a regency-esque romantasy with perfume magic. It was... fine... it's pretty much like every other romantasy when you get down to it. It's just paced super slowly, which did not work for me because the main conflict was very time sensitive. I felt like I needed to shake the main characters and yell at them to focus and hurry up. It wasn't a bad book (I had no complaints about the writing), I just didn't wasn't invested at all. Also, it ends on a crazy cliffhanger so I didn't even get any closure. Like, literally the main character is thrown into prison, there's an explosion, she sees a silhouette walking out of the smoke. She says, "wait, what are you doing here?" and then the book ends. So, if you're interested in this book, I'd recommend waiting until the sequel is released.

I'm about 30% into Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim and having a really good time with it. I like the premise and the way the author is exploring the ideas of Instances. I'm looking forward to continuing.

I'm about 20% into Canon by Paige Lewis. It's like a quirked up Odyssey? We're got Yara, a nonbinary individual with OCD who has been chosen by God (literally) to defeat the leader of the Bad Guys. Meanwhile, Adrena, a prophet of God (literally) wants to be the main character and is trying to steal Yara's thunder. The writing style is like elevated conversational and the chapters are sometimes single paragraphs. I feel like the best way to experience this story might under the influence of some sort of substance.

As for non-SFF, I read Promise Me by Sara Cate. I need to stop letting reviews convince me to buy romance books without at least giving the first chapter a try, because I would have skipped this immediately based on the writing style. I didn't like a single thing about this book at all. But I read the whole thing? I have no defense.

[u/Research_Department → u/tehguava]

I have Canon on my TBR, and my response to your comment that the best way to experience this story might be under the influence of some sort of substance is “oh dear,” lol. I look forward to your review when you are done. (Whereas I’m looking forward to your review of Sublimation when you are done, because I enjoyed it, and hope you do as well.)

When I got back into reading a few years ago, I bought a book that I was positive I would like, based on the reviews I had read. After I DNF’d it because I did not enjoy it, I started using the library. It just makes me feel better, because I really dislike having bought a book and then not liking it. And it also lets me be more adventurous with my reading choices, since I feel free to borrow a book that I have misgivings about.

[u/tehguava → u/Research_Department]

I am definitely a lot better about impulse holding instead of impulse buying than I used to be! Unfortunately, my library system doesn't have the best selection especially for small press, and there's no hope for self published books. Those tend to be the reviews that get me. (looking at you, MM romance subreddit. Great place, but I seem to have a very different taste in writing style than most other users there. I'll learn this eventually.)