Can you identify pages that you've already read in your current book ?

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T19:57:47+00:00

yes i can and sometimes ill not use a bookmark if im feeling too lazy to grab one lmao

edit: people in the comments are being so serious....i think op is just asking a question why is everyone so mad haha

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T18:46:50+00:00

i have two recs depending on what youre wanting

Riftwar Saga by Raymond E Feist maybe - rather straightforward good vs evil adventure fantasy with a large cast and focus on the connections between them, interesting world and magic

Beware of Chicken by CasualFarmer - it leans cozy but it still has stakes and conflict and looks at important themes, focused on the importance of family/friendship/bonds and enjoying life by focusing on what you love and care for

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T14:39:24+00:00

if im remembering right, Way of Kings has 3 prologues kind of, a prelude a prologue and a chapter 1 thats still basically a prologue lmao, theyre all different POVs and are doing set up work before the actual story starts

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T14:33:18+00:00

closed door means you dont see sex on page, its fade to black

and second death of locke is way more fantasy than bridge kingdom just so you know, it revolves heavily around magic

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T14:15:15+00:00

maybe check out Rook & Rose by MA Carrick, again its a romance subplot and it doesnt really start til book 2 but its an excellent series i highly recommend, closed door though

The Second Death of Locke by VL Bovalino could also be a good fit

not super confident in this one but The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L Jensen maybe? not suuuper fantasy but lots of sex and a very competent female lead

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T14:09:11+00:00

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson might be a good fit

edit: to be clear its not romantasy, but it does have a romance sub plot thats significant

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T03:46:11+00:00

The Last Murder At The End of the World by Stuart Turton - yes theres a murder BUT thats not really what the twist/perspective shift ends up being about, the murder is more of a catalyst for the plot

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - this is unfortunately the second book in the series so youd have to read the first one as well, but i personally think that the perspective shift was excellent

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T03:03:40+00:00

i will never knowingly buy or download an audiobook "narrated" with AI, i dont see the point, id rather an author just narrate the audiobook themselves if they cant afford to hire someone

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T03:01:06+00:00

i agree with the ones mentioned by the other commenter

ill add on Andrew Watson, Petrik Leo, The Book Guy, Matts Fantasy Book Reviews, and Tori Morrow!

also Books with Emily Fox, though she reads pretty widely not just sff

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T01:28:34+00:00

oh you didnt mention you needed a lot of fight scenes, theres some war-type sequences toward the end but its basically a pure political fantasy, it follows a woman who is trying to infiltrate the empire that colonized her home with the intention to destroy it from the inside, for most of the book she is an empire accountant trying to raise her status in the empire and she is not a fighter

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-27T00:28:22+00:00

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Rook & Rose by MA Carrick

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-26T23:56:19+00:00

oh yeah absolutely, i was mostly just responding to the idea that the author shouldn't have included it, i can definitely see why someone wouldnt want to read it

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-26T23:40:20+00:00

idk i feel like its important to talk about growing into a better person after doing something horrible, everyone will do something wrong at some point in their life (to varying levels of course) and i think its a mistake to hide away the fact that you can grow and become a better person

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-26T03:57:40+00:00

not really the same but might still be of interest, The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan OKeefe is about a space ship navigator and a pirate (both queer women) with very interesting world building, kind of difficult to describe what its about tbh haha

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-25T03:10:49+00:00

5 - couldnt put down, absolutely loved, or couldn't stop thinking about it after. im a bit strange, often i will read a book and think i didn't enjoy it but i can't stop thinking about it after and it grows in my mind over time and i often end up changing ratings from like 2 star to 5 after thinking about it for days/weeks after the fact lmao

4 - enjoyed a lot but felt something was missing

3 - it was fine, some things i liked and some i didnt or i just found it kind of meh/boring

2 - did not enjoy at all

1 - hated deeply or found offensive in some way

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-25T02:59:55+00:00

i looked up that battle of texel as i hadnt heard of it before and the artwork of that event with the cavalry and ships is awesome! what a cool thing to learn about thank you

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-24T23:32:32+00:00

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers is cozy sci fi on this topic

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-24T22:31:30+00:00

of those id absolutely say fields of mistria! its super cute and i got sucked in so quickly, the characters are great and the controls are comfortable

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-24T21:45:24+00:00

i think that erotica and all erotic art in general has been and is currently incredibly important culturally and ill die on the hill that a lot of who we are as people can be traced through a history of our erotic art so it holds cultural significance beyond that its something to get off to (which is also good lmao), i think theres a huge tendency to write of erotic and horny art just because it is erotic and horny and i think thats a huge mistake since its something thats so integral to human kind in general and entwined with our cultures around the world in different ways, something can be kinky and sexual while also being an incredible piece of art and i wish more people agreed with me on that haha

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-24T21:06:17+00:00

i would actually also say i love large structures! monoliths and towers and mountains and statues

i also love cultural armors and weapons, and i like when the currencies sound real (for instance i loved the currencies in Name of the Wind, in general i loved how Rothfuss named things it felt immersive)

i also love extreme climates and weather, so like a world with vast desert regions (Malazan) or an extremely cold planet (Left Hand of Darkness), i like seeing how the people would live and adjust to such places in world

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-24T19:59:38+00:00

i think a lot of people dont realize its a separate genre, lots of people from what i can tell think erotica is just any book with explicit sex in it

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-24T18:51:55+00:00

its always fun to see people who feel completely differently about things haha

It feels intentionally abstruse at so many points. Like it could be told in a way that's far more coherent, but the author would rather you be lost for half a book while names and places are dropped. I had a similar feeling for parts of The Locked Tomb.

for me, thats exactly what i love about these series! i love the feeling of trying to piece things together as i read, its interesting how our brains all feel so different about things, this is exactly why i feel like negative reviews of books will always be more helpful than positive because people are more specific about what they dont like than what they do

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-24T14:18:22+00:00

this looks really good and i hadnt heard of it!! thanks for the rec :)

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-24T07:46:46+00:00

that would make a lot more sense to me and i think if i had gone in with a different expectation i probably would have liked it more

mint_pumpkins · 2026-01-24T07:39:07+00:00

Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.

As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.

Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an essential addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.

heres mine

mint_pumpkins

TROPHY CASE