Saturday, May 24, 2025
Stacking the Shelves: The Bonds Edition
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Review: The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
The Knight and the Moth
My Review
Oh, Bartholomew.
The Knight and the Moth is such a big deal. I'd be surprised if you haven't already heard of it and haven't already preordered at least one version of that gorgeous cover. But I still have thoughts, and those thoughts definitely need shared because I had a very good time with this book.
The Knight and the Moth's two main characters have similar dynamics to other popular romantasy books I love, like From Blood and Ash and Margaret Rogerson's Sorcery of Thorns. The main female character, Sybil, doesn't know her life is a lie and that the real world is very different from what she's been taught. She's extremely quick-witted and apparently can wield a hammer and chisel like a boss. Together, her and Rory Myndacious, our male main character, delivered some rather entertaining banter. The couples' antagonism felt very realistic for that flirtatious loathe-at-first-sight trope. And let me just say, Rory's last name—Myndacious—is superb. The way our main character can say it with such yearning contempt is absolute perfection. And Rory is that dangerous rake type. He's charming and witty and unexpecting with a side of sweet and mysterious.
The book itself does have an overall similar feel to the first From Blood and Ash book, for those that want more stories in that vein. There's a religion that focuses on veiling the main female character. There are secretive and untrustworthy religious leaders, major spooky vibes, and, of course, a love interest who knows how to use a...sword. Hee hee. The Knight and the Moth has sprites and gargoyles instead of vampires and werewolves, though.
As for the plot, I think that was probably the weakest of the story elements for me personally, simply because, in the beginning, I was very disappointed that the main conflict was going to revolve around hunting for magical objects. I wasn't expecting that storyline. But, the last third of the book is where I truly got sucked in. It's when romantic relations intensify and the plot picks up since the hunt for objects slows down. Basically, there were enough kissing scenes and plot twists to move the story along for me. Towards the end, things did get a little twisty. I honestly wasn't sure why this book needed a sequel until those last few pages. Now, I'm excited to see what happens next.
Oh, and I have to talk about a certain gargoyle. The bat gargoyle is the best part of the entire book! I laughed multiples times. And most of those laughs were out loud. I will never think of the name Bartholomew the same again. I also liked the creatures in this world, though it was sometimes sad when they did make an appearance. Ugh! Humans don't deserve to live in a world with fantasy creatures!
Besides From Blood and Ash and Margaret Rogerson, if you're a fan of Holly Black, the historical Shadowhunters prequels like The Infernal Devices, or Kerri Maniscalco's Kingdom of the Wicked series, I definitely think you should pick up The Knight and the Moth. It's dark, atmospheric, and hilarious in one quick and unexpected read.
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Stacking the Shelves: The Multi-Sets Edition
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
ApollyCon 2025 Recap: Day One
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Stacking the Shelves: The April FairyLoot Edition
Monday, May 5, 2025
April Wrap-Up & May TBR
I feel like I'm still recovering, both financially and mentally from ApollyCon. Huge emphasis on financially. But, other than that, life has been fairly quiet. I'm trying this new TBR rule that is proving to be good and difficult at the same time. Basically, if I bring a book into my house, that means I have to read something off my physical TBR to even things out. Certain things don't count, though, like my JLA books and if I've already read the book. There are a few other rules, but that's the gist of it. I was doing pretty well, but all my FairyLoot orders decided to come in around the same time, so that'll be a disaster, But anyway...
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 April
I read seven books in April, which, I believe, is the most I've read in a single month this entire year. It probably would have been more too, if I didn't have ApollyCon taking up a week. Overall, though I did pretty good reading-wise. I read two physical Orbit ARCs this month, The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson and The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig. I enjoyed both of them. I also read four other books from my physical TBR, sort of. I read the first two books in Stacia Stark's Kingdom of Lies series, but I technically read them on my Kindle, though I do own physical copies, so it counts! It counts! The other two physical books were Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas and Racing Hearts by K.A. Knight, which I got at ApollyCon. The only book that won't count for my physical TBR is Changed: Matied to the Alien Alpha by Robin Moray, which was a quick, light Kindle Unlimited book I read before my trip. But yeah, it's super exciting that six of the seven books knock back some of those physical copies that are piling up on my shelves.
Books Bought/Received in April
Okay, I don't think I'll every have a month that's as bad as this one. There are books upon books upon books in this month's haul. It's nuts. But, that's ApollyCon's fault, not mine. Also, there were a ton of book sets that went on sale in April. I'm going to need book boxes to stop dropping sets that I want all at the same time, especially when I'm going on vacation. It gets very expensive. Overall, though, I bought 49 books in April (technically, I'm selling one, so I have it listed in the count, but it will be leaving soon), and I received 49 books, most of which were ApollyCon-related.
The 49 books I received in April that I didn't pay for in April consist of a mix of preorders that arrived, ApollyCon pickups, and ApollyCon freebies. I did have one Orbit ARC arrive, though. It was The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O'Keefe. Now, for things that arrived that weren't ApollyCon-related, I have 15 books: God of Pain (WM order from last month); The Raven Scholar (Illumicrate); Firebird, Blood of Hercules, Cursebound (FairyLoot); The Awakening (author edition); Obsidian and Onyx (Bookish Box); the Blood and Ash Arcane set 1-5; the German Chest of Fandoms A Fire in the Flesh; and Iridescent Fairytale FBAA.
And here we go. For the 33 books I received at ApollyCon, I have 10 I got for free and 23 I had preordered in previous months. The 10 freebies included an ARC of Stacia Stark's This Vicious Dream, The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch, A Hunger Like No Other and No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole, A Curse of Scales and Flame by Max Walker, The Return, A Shadow in the Ember ApollyCon edition, Born of Blood and Ash ApollyCon edition, Torn Arcane edition, and Heart of Defiance by Eva Chase.
The 23 preordered books include The Wraith King by Juliette Cross, Till Death by Miranda Lyn, Fae Isles series 1-4 by Lisette Marshall, Lady of Darkness and Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa Roehrich, Curse of Ophelia by Nicole Platania, The Umber King by Jamie Applegate-Hunter, Court of Nightmares and Racing Hearts by K.A. Knight, Curse of Shadow and Thorns by L.J. Andrews, Kingdom of Lies 1-4 by Stacia Stark, the Books for Days Crate ASITE edition, the ApollyCon Titan series 1-4, and Kingdom of Crowns and Daggers by K.A. Knight Books for Days Crate edition.
Now, for what I bought. Bear with me, because it's another long list. Of the 49 books I bought in April, I received 23 of them, the rest were preorders that haven't arrived yet. Those 23 include some Barnes & Noble preorders, Shadow Princess by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, Blood of Hercules gold and white covers, The Never List by Jade Presley, Firebird, and the Lightlark boxset of books 1-3. There was also an order of the Dutch edition of BOBAA (and of AFITF, but it's the book I'm selling because I already had a copy. Oops.), God of Malice by Rina Kent from a FB resale group, the AKOFAF Walmart edition, and the FBAA paperback, the AFITF hardback, and two ALITF hardbacks from Amazon for various dust jackets I own. I also traded some Prettygal Pins cards for five Hungary Blood and Ash/Flesh and Fire books. I counted it as a purchase since I technically paid like $6 to ship the cards. And while I was at ApollyCon, I only really bought three books: Invoking the Blood by Kalista Neith and the Wicked and Brave Arcane editions.
The preorders are what caused some major wallet damage. There were 25 of them, and all of them were sets of three or more books besides one. Yikes. From FairyLoot, I ordered the first three books in the Gods & Monsters series, the Unearthly trilogy, and I had my monthly Adult and Romantasy subs that arrived in May, so they technically count in this category as well. I also preordered the Books for Days Crate Flesh and Fire series 1-4, the Acrylipics F&F series 1-4, the Book Addiction Captive Prince trilogy set, the Fall of Ruin and Wrath Bad Women edition, and the Bookish Box Lady of Darkness 1-5 set.
Currently Obsessed With
As for TV/films, it seems like all of the good shows ended in April, which was kind of a bummer. I'll have to find some other things to watch now.
Both The Wheel of Time season three and Daredevil: Born Again finished up. I think both seasons were pretty solid up until the very last episode. But, I kind of knew Wheel of Time is consistently bad when it comes to season finales. It's just a thing for them. I am looking forward to season four, however, if it is ever announced. I've also been rewatching Home Improvement as my meal/background show. But that's pretty much it. It's been a quiet TV month, otherwise.
May TBR
I've finally made it through a lot of the same stuff that's been on my TBR for the past couple of months. Now, all I need to read and review in the next few weeks is Silvercloak by L.K. Steven and Arcana Academy by Elise Kova. I could include Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu on this list, but I think I'm going to hold off on reading that for a little bit longer. Shocking, I know. I also need to read Faebound by Saara El-Arifi for my book club. I'm keeping things pretty simple this month, so I can mood read whatever I want.
***
Okay, well, that's the month of April, plus some May sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!




























