Saturday, April 19, 2025
Stacking the Shelves: The Post-ApollyCon Edition
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Review: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

My Review
As someone whose favorite genre is romantasy, I'm always pleasantly surprised when an epic fantasy is able to suck me in. The Raven Scholar is one of those books. After about the 50-page mark, I would pick this giant tome up and just read and read until I had to go to bed. The murder-mystery and political intrigue were addicting.
I went into this story thinking we were going to follow the main character from the prologue, but, no, we actually follow the second character introduced in the prologue, Neema Kraa, who went from a lonely scholar to being an assistant to the emperor because of a pretty questionable deed. Neema isn't necessarily the most likeable character, nor is she terrible. She's human, and she makes mistakes while also being wicked intelligent. Her interactions with the characters around her are what make her story so interesting. For instance, Cain, the fox contender, has some hilarious moments. Her interactions with Ruko, Bersun, and Yasila also have you on edge, waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
What's also interesting is the narration for this story isn't told just from Neema's point of view. It's actually an omniscient narrator type of style. However, the narrator is a character (or characters, depending on how you look at it) in their own right. Which brings me to Sol. He's a raven "animal" companion that truly reminded me of Mephi from Andrea Stewart's Drowning Empire trilogy, and while originally I was a little hesitant about him, he grows on you very fast. His antics had me laughing out loud multiple times.
As for the plot, it's all one giant whodunnit. Kind of in the vein of Knives Out or Glass Onion, just set in the backdrop of a fantasy world with some dangerous trials thrown in. The world itself is based off of eight animal gods/spirits that kind of inhabit the characteristics of each sect. For instance, there are the raven, fox, tiger, and dragon sects. The foxes are my favorites. They're so random.
All in all, I am truly happy I read this book and branched out from my typical genres. The Raven Scholar has made me eager to get back into reading non-romance-focused fantasy. Though, there is a small romance element in this book that kept my heart-eyes alive, thankfully. But, if you're looking for a fantasy mystery book that has the same vibes as The Bone Shard Daughter or the start of The Poppy War, I'd say you definitely want to pick this one up.
Saturday, April 12, 2025
Stacking the Shelves: The Special Edition Edition
Monday, April 7, 2025
March Wrap-Up & April TBR
Life is chaos right now. I'm trying to get myself ready for ApollyCon but I'm also dealing with a huge work deadline that's due the day before I leave. Ugh! Why can't things just be easy before I go on trips? It's rude. I'm getting things together this weekend, though. It just feels like I'm rushing. My trip last weekend kind of slowed me down a lot, so I'm back on track. I think. Sort of. But yeah, other than that, March was a pretty lame month since I was sick for two weeks and the tornado came through and turned my power off for a few days. Everything is good now, but that whole stretch of time was nuts.
In this wrap-up,
I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received,
and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!
Books Read in March
I read five books in March, which, is pretty decent for how crazy the month was. The first book I read, Heavenly Bodies by Imani Erriu was a FairyLoot edition, so I got that off my physical TBR, same for Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana. Both authors are going to ApollyCon too. I also read three ebooks on Kindle Unlimited: Broken by Daylight by Elizabeth Helen, Kiss the Villain by Rina Kent, and Never Will I Ever by C.E. Ricci. None of which were by ApollyCon authors. Oops.
Books Bought/Received in March
Man, I know I have a problem, but March totally solidified that I need to go on a book-buying budget after ApollyCon. Because holy moly have I spent a lot of money! In total, I bought 41 books in March and received 12 that I didn't pay for in the month, which basically means they were preorders/books ordered in prior months or free ebooks.
The 12 books I received include three free ebooks, two late FairyLoot subs, one eARC, one replacement book, one book I ordered in February that came in March, and one special edition set of four books that arrived in March but I paid for in installments for the past few months. The free ebooks include Feathers from the Sky by Jess Wisecup, The Umbra King by Jamie Applegate Hunter, and Corrupt Shadows by Rebecca L. Garcia and C.M. Hutton. The FairyLoot subscription books were Iron & Embers by Helen Scheuerer and The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amalie Wen Zhao. And then, I got an eARC from NetGalley for Silvercloak by L.K. Steven. My Barnes & Noble replacement of The Reckoning arrived, and my order of the new Every Last Breath paperback came too. And the Cover to Cover set of the Flesh and Fire series is the special edition set that I paid for earlier in the year.
And here we go. I bought sooooo much. There's no excusing it. I'm just an addict at this point. I have got to get myself under control. Or at least sell some more of the ones I don't want/need anymore. Ugh. For the 41 books I bought and received in the month, I actually received 14 of them in the month. The rest will come in April or later. The books I bought and received in the month include The Shadow Bride and Oathbound (B&N); Legacy of Gods 3-6 and The Inadequate Heir (Target); A Cruel Thirst ebook (Kindle); A Dawn of Onyx, Bite of Loyalty, Bright Heart, and A Touch of Poison; Servant of Earth (Blackwells); and Speak of the Demon (Mercari).
For those 27 books were either preorders or ones that won't arrive until April or later, a majority of them were book box orders, including Aurora Crate's editions of Stacia Starks Speak of the Demon books 2-3; Illumicrate's April book; LitHaven's Blood of Hercules edition; LitJoy's Blood of Hercules edition; Owlcrate's Slaying the Vampire Conquerer; FairyLoot's editions of the Beasts and the Briars 2-4, The Ragpicker King, The Ashfire King, The Shadow Bride, the Fate and Flame series 1-4; and the Romantasy sub book Firebird, which technically was delivered but is at my parents' house right now. I also ordered J. Bree's PR edition so the Bonds That Tie 1-3, God of Pain by Rina Kent from Walmart, and the Chest of Fandoms edition of A Fire in the Flesh from Mercari. And I had two last-minute ApollyCon orders: Lisette Marshall's Fae Isles series 1-4 and L.J. Andrews's Curse of Shadow and Thorns.
Currently Obsessed With
As for TV/films, it seems like everything came out in March. I watched so much TV. Probably because I was sick and had nothing else to do.
My parents have Amazon Prime, so I was able to watch the entire season three of Invincible. I really love this show. I wish season four wasn't so far away, though. Boo. I hope the next season comes out this year and not 2026. I also watched Daredevil: Born Again with my parents. Or at least, we watched the first couple of episodes together, since it's released on a weekly basis. And finally, I watched the first few episodes of Wheel of Time season three. I'll still be watching it in April as well since it releases weekly. I don't want this show to end either. Ugh. Oh, and I'm also watching The Pitt on HBO Max. It's another weekly release, but I believe there are only a couple of episodes left.
April TBR
It's a new month, but there's still overflow for books I still need to read, and I'm reusing last month's TBR photo. Sorry, but I was too lazy to add a new one. I'm prepping for ApollyCon and dealing with a big work deadline, so I have no energy to gather books right now for photos. The review books I need to read include Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu, The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (I actually finished this one in April!), The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig, Silvercloak by Laura Steven, and Arcana Academy by Elise Kova. I also would like to read Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas for my book club and A Fate of Wrath and Flame by K.A. Tucker to decide if I want to keep my FairyLoot order.
***
Okay, well, that's the month of March, plus some April sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!