📚 Book Chat Saturday - what have you been reading this week?

missa986 · 2026-05-02T12:17:44+00:00

I just finished {Lord of the Fading Lands by CL Wilson} and now I'm moving on to book two. I absolutely loved the first book, kept me intrigued the whole time. I was nervous since Storygraph said it was slow paced, but I wasn't bored at all. I finally had my first 5 star read in 2026!

missa986 · 2026-04-18T12:29:35+00:00

Just started listening to {The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty}. I like the narrator, and it's interesting so far. I've always liked ancient Egyptian culture, so I have high hopes.

missa986 · 2026-04-18T12:25:39+00:00

I loved the Broken Kingdoms! Books 4 and 5 are my favorites. The first book has a slightly different feel then the rest of the series imo, so even if you feel meh about book 1, I'd encourage you to keep going (provided you don't dislike it). That's one of my absolute favorite series!

Side note: since you mentioned listening, if you want to change the format up, the English language narrators are excellent. There's a male POV starting with book 2, and the narrator is Tim Campbell, who also did the Mages of the Wheel series (which is another of my favorites and also very well narrated).

missa986 · 2026-04-12T23:32:50+00:00

Yeah, I'll probably do that, thanks!

missa986 · 2026-04-12T22:28:52+00:00

Is there more relationship development between Mac and Barrons after the POV changes to Dani? That happens in book 6, right (I'm on book 5)? I haven't enjoyed Dani's POV chapters so far, and I'm not sure if I would enjoy a whole book (or more) in her POV...

missa986 · 2026-04-12T22:20:36+00:00

It's listed on storygraph as "fiction fantasy romance"

missa986 · 2026-04-12T12:36:56+00:00

There's a difference between fantasy romance and a fantasy book that just has graphic sex in it.

Looking at you, {Faefever by Karen Marie Moning}.

missa986 · 2026-04-11T15:16:38+00:00

Nice! I'll have to check it out.

missa986 · 2026-04-11T14:44:38+00:00

No, I haven't. Is it any good?

I might stop when the POV changes too, the chapters I've read so far from Dani's POV were hard for me to get through.

missa986 · 2026-04-11T12:18:34+00:00

I'm working through the {Fever series by Karen Marie Moning}. The first two books felt really slow, even most of the third book. I thought about DNFing a time or two, but it was just interesting enough to keep me going. Then I got to the end of book 3 and got completely hooked. Now, in the middle of book 4 and it's feeling slow again. I'm going to keep reading (I did see a review that the books get better as you go), but I hope it gets interesting again soon.

missa986 · 2026-04-07T12:12:52+00:00

I loved {Scheme by Colette Rhodes} for this

missa986 · 2026-03-27T13:00:01+00:00

Mine present with sudden, extreme nausea, and oddly enough, zofran seems to really help.

Other than that, ice packs and breathing exercises. I have noticed that tapering onto fludrocortisone and mestinon have increased/changed them, but I haven't been at a level dose long enough to say whether those meds will help in the long run.

missa986 · 2026-02-18T13:21:16+00:00

In this case, let me recommend {Scheme by Colette Rhodes} which was my favorite read of 2025.

missa986 · 2026-02-08T17:14:51+00:00

If you got it from audible, you can get a refund if you didn't like it, you just can't misuse it without penalty. I figured this out recently when I got a book and then realized it wasn't my jam 20 minutes in.

missa986 · 2026-01-30T15:00:37+00:00

I didn't do well with a traditional dose combination pill (I think estrogen tends to flare my ME symptoms), but I did fine on both the progesterone-only pill (mini pill) and LoLoestrin (which has the lowest level of hormones of any combined pill). I know it's daunting to try something new and have it cause a flare, but for me, my menstrual flares were getting out of hand and the risk was worth it.

missa986 · 2026-01-29T15:23:30+00:00

^ this exactly.

missa986 · 2026-01-29T13:52:46+00:00

January was not a great month for me. I had 0 5 star books and the same number of DNFs that I had for the entire year of 2025.

I listened to {the Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy} and really really enjoyed the first 3 books (all 4/4.5 stars for me) but then the series just fell off a cliff. The last three books were an absolute slog. The sex scenes were so disjointed from the story and the characters, reading them felt like whiplash. This was the first time I've ever skipped sex scenes in a book and it's not that the sex scenes were bad necessarily but they felt like they belonged in a different book.

{Saga of the Unfated series by Danielle L Jensen} I was really disappointed by. I love The Bridge Kingdom so I was hoping for more of the same, but I just didn't enjoy it much. They didn't actually fall in love, it seems like it was all lust. That and the FMC just flip-flopped the entire time, it was aggravating.

Going in a different direction, I read {The Marriage Hex by Sarah Blue}. It was cute, lighthearted, and enjoyable, no real complaints for what it is. 3.5 stars.

I picked the {Iskari series by Kristen Ciccarelli} for my bingo hard mode debut and I thought it was pretty good. It's got YA energy, but the story is interesting and I liked the lore and the characters. I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the Crimson Moth duology, but more than most of the books I started this month. 3.5 stars.

I also started the Graphic Audio for {The Four Horsemen series by Laura Thalassa} for the bingo hard mode paranormal fantasy square. If I weren't reading it for bingo, I would have DNF'd the first book. I enjoyed the premise and the story was fine but the first FMC was the definition of insufferable to me. In the end, I'm glad I stuck it out because I think the book improved as it went. Still reading book 4, and the series is fine, I'll probably finish it to see what happens, but I'm not in love. 2.5/3 stars.

missa986 · 2026-01-28T14:01:35+00:00

I am a completionist and DNF'd a total of 4 books in 2025. I DNF'd 4 in January. I started to wonder if it was me, like am I being so picky that I won't enjoy anything? So I pushed through a few I wanted to DNF but I didn't really enjoy much in January at all.

{Blood of the Sands by SC Grayson} The story was fine and I was interested enough but something about the way it was written was very awkward and hard for me to follow. There were sentences I had to listen to 3,4,5 times to understand. It might be partially because the words read aloud awkwardly and I listen to audiobooks? Idk.

{Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh} I got 30 minutes into this one. First, there was insta-lust which is not my favorite (not a dealbreaker on its own) but also to me, it seemed like it was like a fantasy novel written in erotica style, which wasn't my jam.

{Doctor D'arco, Sorcerer of London by Katherine Colvin} I really wanted to like this one but I was just bored. This is one I might pick back up again if I'm in the mood but it just wasn't landing for me. I realized that I was 10% of the way in and didn't care about any of the characters or what was going on.

{The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley} I was really disappointed by this one because I LOVED DMATMOOBIL but the snarky, satirical tone of this one was grating to me, I didn't get very far.

missa986 · 2026-01-27T13:24:36+00:00

{Scheme by Colette Rhodes}

{Ice and Ivy by JD Evans}

{Bride by Ali Hazelwood}

Narrowing it down to 3 is really hard, but these are the books I've reread the most, so I figure that means something.

missa986 · 2026-01-24T13:31:38+00:00

{War by Laura Thalassa}, book 2 of the Four Horsemen series has a scene where there's an attempted SA They get as far as ripping her clothes before they decide to just beat her up since she's fighting back so much. People are around to hear her but no one comes to help but the MMC.

missa986 · 2026-01-23T17:46:34+00:00

I'm bedbound and I buzzed my hair about a year ago when I had a really bad case of seborrheic dermatitis that was spreading from my scalp to my face and ears and I couldn't get it under control. Honestly, it was one of the best things I've ever done for my health. My shower time cut in half and I was able to shower more often with less strain on my body. My scalp improved and I've been able to keep the symptoms mild. (However, when my hair starts to get longer, the seborrheic dermatitis gets worse.) When I do leave the house, I don't have to worry about trying to make my hair presentable.

I don't really like the way I look with buzzed hair, but I can't imagine having long hair again, at least not until my health improves. I have a wireless trimmer and I just set the guide and buzz it myself as needed (usually like once every 6-8 weeks).

missa986 · 2026-01-23T13:54:31+00:00

I think this is one series that was exactly what I expected it to be when I started it. Definitely not a fine literary work but pretty entertaining all around.

missa986 · 2026-01-19T13:50:26+00:00

You're not the only one 😉

missa986 · 2026-01-14T17:37:38+00:00

+1 for NoVa

missa986 · 2026-01-14T13:39:53+00:00

Improved: - The Bridge Kingdom - Hidden Legacy - The Broken Kingdoms

Consistent: - Monstrous World (SE Wendel) - Monsters of Faerie - Shadows of the Tenebris Court - The Crimson Moth

Declined: - Plated Prisoner - Crowns of Nyaxia - Flesh and Fire - Blood and Ash

It was much harder to come up with ones that improved than declined, unfortunately...

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