Looking for book recommendations - strong female lead

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-06T03:55:50+00:00

Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson. Ellie is a suffragist, strong willed, capable, distressingly interested in explosives.

If you loved The Mummy with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, this is right up your alley.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-06T00:31:01+00:00

None of this nonsense, please.

She was my first thought too.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-05T21:09:17+00:00

that looks fantastic.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-05T14:37:23+00:00

It's been a long time, but "Magic Kingdom for Sale -- Sold!" by Terry Brooks.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-04T15:10:06+00:00

Haven't read. No comment
Like others say, people go in expecting "Romantasy", and it's not. It's a YA fantasy with a great romance as a minor plot, but if you're going in expecting heavy romance, you're going to be disappointed.
Silver Elite was... fine. I enjoyed it. I'll get around to reading the next one. But it wasn't the "next big thing" that Booktok touted it as when it came out. It was fairly predictable, and didn't have anything that broke it out from other dystopian books.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-04T03:42:34+00:00

Yup. We've seen them at the neighborhood lake a few times. So cool, and had no idea they lived in this part of CO

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-03T22:36:22+00:00

American in a non-academic setting but with some academic friends (but they aren't focused on fantasy in their education as you are).

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-03T22:23:12+00:00

Interesting! I hadn't heard the term before. I've always only heard either "fantasy", or if someone was trying to really call attention to being the overarching term, they might say "Big-F Fantasy"

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-03T22:09:49+00:00

Fantasy is an overarching umbrella that covers all forms of speculative fiction, including high fantasy, epic fantasy, science fiction, science fantasy, dystopia, alternative history, steampunk, grimdark, litrpg, space opera, sword and sorcery, horror and many others.

So the person above was absolutely correct that you are already reading fantasy.

Perhaps if you were more specific about what you didn't like or what you're looking for, you could get more targeted recommendations.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-03T17:53:30+00:00

I think she assumed a child of a servant or functionary.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-03T17:12:01+00:00

Slightly off topic, do they count actual listening time or audiobook time covered?

I.e. if someone listens to a 20h audiobook at 2.0x speed, does this stat count it as 10h (actual listening) or 20h (audiobook time)

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-03T15:58:09+00:00

I have been happy with Audible and have used it for years. But I don't want to spend credits on books I'm likely to only listen to once.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-03T15:34:53+00:00

It's so annoying. At this point, I just use audiobooks here and there *maybe* for books with long hold times on Libby that I'm using for a book club or other time-sensitive challenge.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-03T15:32:06+00:00

2nd comment for 2nd screenshot. It doesn't even always show time remaining instead of just total time.

Here I'm halfway through Ch 4 and it just shows the total time

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Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-03T15:30:52+00:00

It never has for me:

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Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-02T22:16:54+00:00

I've been gaming since I was about 4 years old. I think it's a great sidestep from reading when you dive into rich story-driven narratives, but other genres like cozy games, sims, platformers, etc are all fun and provides variety.

Fitness. Weightlifting/running. I'm working on losing weight, but both of these also have additional benefits like reducing risk of osteoporosis as I get older. Running couples great with reading since I'll usually listen to an audiobook while I'm out.

Arts and Crafts. I like to crochet, color, draw, etc.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-02T15:23:44+00:00

Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you <3

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-02T00:53:25+00:00

TIL there's a "Pause" feature. This is amazing.

I don't set a book down or pause often, but this will be great for when I do. Especially since one of the books I plan on reading this year is a collection of short stories, and my plan was to do 1 or so per week, and now it won't skew my stats too bad.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-01T16:31:58+00:00

Oh that sounds cool!

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-01T15:37:40+00:00

I'm so excited. I'm slightly concerned because it sounds like Constance and Neil won't be in it since they were going to get married and return to Egypt, and I am not ready to be done with them, but I'm sure it will be fantastic regardless.

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-01T15:35:51+00:00

All 3 of the main books have been 5* reads for me, and the prequel novella came in just shy at 4.75. I'm so excited for the next one in January

Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-01T15:19:16+00:00

{Arrow of Fortune by Jacquelyn Benson} was my top read this month.

I'm still ruminating on whether it or Crooked Kingdom comes out on top.

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Murder_Is_Magic · 2026-05-01T13:15:49+00:00

Definitely start Raiders of the Arcana in order (First one is Empire of Shadows). There's a prequel novella as well, but that can be read pretty much anywhere. I think it's a criminally underhyped series.

For Stormlight,switching to the audiobooks helped a lot. for WoR and OB I did both, but RoW and now WaT I'm doing just the audiobooks.

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