tillie's bookshelf: read en-US Mon, 12 May 2025 09:41:45 -0700 60 tillie's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[All's Fair in Love and Field Hockey]]> 219334752 A high school field hockey star must choose between her love of the game and her new, distractingly beautiful rival in this queer YA romance perfect for fans of She Drives Me Crazy and Cleat Cute!

Evelyn was raised to see field hockey as war.

Before she could write her own name, her family’s legacy on the field was already spelled out. Every step Evelyn takes toward glory is within a footprint her mother left behind. And no step matters more than this next one, with Evelyn about to lead her varsity team into their final battle season. Evelyn is beyond ready to score the Nationals title and win the critical scholarship to her mom’s alma mater that comes with it.

This year, she’s out for blood, and nothing can stand in her way...

...except for Rosa Alvarez, the highly talented new recruit on her biggest rival’s team.

After a humiliating homecoming game and follow-up prank leave the two enemies in a stalemate, they grudgingly strike a deal to help each other overcome their weaknesses on the field. But the more time Evelyn spends with Rosa, the more she finds herself casting her hardened armor aside, until she begins to wonder what life might be like if she left the battlefield behind and fought for love instead.]]> 320 Kit Rosewater 0593898451 tillie 4 3.62 All's Fair in Love and Field Hockey
author: Kit Rosewater
name: tillie
average rating: 3.62
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/12
date added: 2025/05/12
shelves:
review:
i enjoyed this! it didn’t feel like a lot of field hockey on page, but it definitely was important to the mc. (i guess it’s kinda boring to write sports from the POV of a goalie). i rlly liked the stuff about complex grief and the love interest was great. good stuff about choosing alternative life paths, good conflicts and resolution (except maybe tbh the breakup but whatever) and overall good writing. sometimes a little YA yikes! and the stuff about the mcs� interest/disinterest in school felt a little odd at times. overall tho, an enjoyable and original book
]]> <![CDATA[Saint Death's Herald (Saint Death #2)]]> 212627760 Lanie Stones is the necromancer that Death has been praying for.

Heartbroken, exiled from her homeland as a traitor, Lanie Stones would rather take refuge in good books and delicate pastries than hunt a deathless abomination, but that is the duty she has chosen.

The abomination in question happens to be her own great-grandfather, the powerful necromancer Irradiant Stones. Grandpa Rad has escaped from his prison and stolen a body, and is heading to the icy country of Skakhmat where he died, to finish the genocide he started. Fortunately for her, Lanie has her powerful death magic, including the power to sing the restless dead to their eternal slumber; and she has her new family by her side.

Grandpa Rad may have finally met his match.]]> 480 C.S.E. Cooney tillie 0 to-read 4.28 2025 Saint Death's Herald (Saint Death #2)
author: C.S.E. Cooney
name: tillie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Keeper of Lonely Spirits 212228449 In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.

Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.

After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o� them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t. Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.

Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.

But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t

As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter’s well-being against that of his new friends and the man he’s falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives.]]> 400 E.M. Anderson 0778368521 tillie 5 4.20 2025 The Keeper of Lonely Spirits
author: E.M. Anderson
name: tillie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/09
date added: 2025/05/09
shelves:
review:
really enjoyed this one!!! a little slow to start off but quite sweet once you got to know all of the characters (there’s a great cast, tho IDK why we are introduced to two of said’s friends in the beginning and then rlly never see them again???) also i was silly and sort of only half listened to the end� but the found family, healing from trauma/grief, all of that was great! lovely writing too and i think the white author did a good job with the diverse characters
]]> <![CDATA[Nav's Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love]]> 181254401 Giving the new girl lessons in romance so she can woo your best friend couldn’t possibly go wrong…right? Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Casey McQuiston, this romantic comedy from Jessica Lewis is packed with heart.

Nav knows how to flirt, but she also knows love is a messy, losing proposition. She doesn’t need her best friend, Hallie, the serial monogamist, to demonstrate it to her over and over. So when shy new girl Gia asks Nav for help getting Hallie’s attention, Nav makes sure she seems genuine—she doesn't want to add another heartbreak to Hallie's never-ending list. They strike a bargain, and Nav agrees to give Gia lessons in romance. If it works, maybe Hallie can date someone decent for a change.

Except…Gia’s not just bad at flirting, she’s terrible. She’s too anxious to even speak to Hallie, never mind date her. But somehow, every awkward joke and catastrophic practice date makes Nav like Gia a little bit more. And not in a friend way. As the three girls� feelings get spun around, Nav will have to question if she’s as much of an expert as she thought…or if love might be worth every bit of trouble after all.]]> 384 Jessica Lewis tillie 4 4.59 2025 Nav's Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love
author: Jessica Lewis
name: tillie
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/08
date added: 2025/05/08
shelves:
review:
3.5. too YA for me tbh or just like,,, sometimes the characters/world were nonsensical (like there’s a whole plot point about the 17 year old main character being one of two employees at a bakery and the other employee doesn’t do anything…�. how is that even possible hello???) and some of the described “cute� outfits were so ugly, krish knows. but the romance was quite cute and i liked the friendship plot line. low stakes and mostly vibes
]]> When the Tides Held the Moon 213075628 In Coney Island, true love rises to the surface. With lush illustrations and buoyant prose, Venessa Vida Kelley forges an unforgettable New York fairytale.

Benigno “Benny� Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. He invites Benny to join the show’s eclectic cast and share in their shocking secret: the tank will cage their newest exhibit, a live merman stolen from the salty banks of the East River.

More than a mythic marvel, Benny soon comes to know the merman Río as a kindred spirit, wise and more compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.

Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both.]]> 464 Venessa Vida Kelley 1645661539 tillie 5 4.40 2025 When the Tides Held the Moon
author: Venessa Vida Kelley
name: tillie
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/07
date added: 2025/05/07
shelves:
review:
rlly enjoyed this one! great audiobook, great writing, lovely character work (main and side), and sweet relationship. guessed the twist like SUPER early on but tbh i was okay with that bc 1) it solves problems and 2) that just meant it was written into the story (vs just put in there poorly). the author copped out on mermaid sex unfort with a star trek/spock mind meld sex situation, smh, but that isn’t the end of the world. great stakes, lots of good commentary on a number of things, and a very unique book! also really liked that the author didn’t hold back on using Spanish/didn’t translate stuff. i think that’s the move TBH when writing bilingual characters: it makes some of the book just for spanish speakers and i think that’s good. anyways, a good time!
]]> Feast While You Can 207567782 For readers of Nightbitch and We Ride Upon Sticks, this strange and sexy novel of queer love in a small town is an unsettling reminder that the horrors of modern life are monsters ready to possess us all.

In the valley at the intersection of three towering mountains sits Cadenze, an ugly, remote town with little to its name. It's filled with tourists in the summer and dead the rest of the year, when most of its residents surrender to a sleepier existence. Except, that is, for whatever is lurking in the caves...

Angelina Sicco was born and raised in Cadenze, and for many generations, so was every member of her family. Determined to be content with her lot in life, she walks her mongrel dog, attends her brother's heavy metal concerts, holds court in the local dive bar, and does everything she can to bait hot, queer women to her sleepy, conservative hometown. But on the night of a family party much like every other, Angelina runs into Patrick's ex, the sternly handsome Jagvi, who's back in town for a spell. Perhaps enticed by Jagvi’s arrival, an ancient evil lying dormant in those caves is awakened, and soon Angelina’s small, contained world begins to shatter.

As the monstrous force grows bolder, it infiltrates Angelina’s life. It talks with her dog’s mouth; it guzzles on her memories; it controls Angelina from the inside. Only Jagvi’s touch repels it � the final trigger for a secret, passionate romance. But this monster feasts on all the passion, heartbreak, and mess that makes up a life, and Angelina Sicco’s life has never looked tastier. What will Angelina do to protect her future? And what will it cost her?]]> 304 Mikaella Clements 153874225X tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 3.89 2024 Feast While You Can
author: Mikaella Clements
name: tillie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/07
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet (Austentatious #1)]]> 209352163
Thus begins THE UNLIKELY PURSUIT OF MARY BENNET, a sapphic romance between recently widowed Charlotte Lucas and grown-up scientist Mary Bennet. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder at the sheer sturdiness of a well-built pianoforte.

The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Lindz McLeod will be available Apr 29, 2025.]]> 298 Lindz McLeod tillie 4 4.01 2025 The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet (Austentatious #1)
author: Lindz McLeod
name: tillie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/05
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves:
review:
cute and fun sapphic historical romance with very low stakes. third breakup whatever, a little generic but it worked fine for me. sex scenes also just kinda fine. i liked them a lot and the flower stuff was quite cool. i rlly like the idea of post canon pride and prejudice and i think this rlly pulled through on that. def cuter in the beginning than the end and kind of familiar in its beats but a very enjoyable and fun read all together!
]]> If We Were a Movie 198971130 Lights. Camera. Love?

Rochelle “The Shell� Coleman is laser focused on only three things: becoming valedictorian, getting into Wharton, and, of course, taking down her annoyingly charismatic nemesis and only academic competition, Amira Rodriguez. However, despite her stellar grades, Rochelle’s college application is missing that extra special something: a job.

When Rochelle gets an opportunity to work at Horizon Cinemas, the beloved Black-owned movie theater, she begrudgingly jumps at the chance to boost her chances of getting into her dream school. There’s only one problem: Amira works there . . . and is also her boss.

Rochelle feels that being around Amira is its own kind of horror movie, but as the two begin working closely together, Rochelle starts to see Amira in a new light, one that may have her beginning to actually . . . like her?

But Horizon’s in trouble, and when mysterious things begin happening that make Horizon’s chances of staying open slim, it’s up to the employees to solve the mystery before it’s too late. But will love also find its way into the spotlight?]]> 320 Zakiya N. Jamal tillie 5 4.18 2025 If We Were a Movie
author: Zakiya N. Jamal
name: tillie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/04
shelves:
review:
this was so so good!!! 1) the mc was a total stick in the mud and i LOVED IT. i feel like normally the love interest is the stick in the mud but it was so fun seeing her pov. and she def grows throughout the book but she keeps some of that vibe, just great 2) loved the love interest. great character, great friendship, cute romance! 3) just an amazing cast of characters in general, loved the friend group and silliness of it all 4) good plot, two overarching big plots but just a lot of personal growth/relationship/family/achievement stuff which is great 5) perfect YA! like, stuff about growing up but totally readable as an older reader 6) just a good time!!!!
]]> <![CDATA[Sorcery and Small Magics (The Wildersongs Trilogy, #1)]]> 199826249 Desperate to undo the curse binding them to each other, an impulsive sorcerer and his curmudgeonly rival venture deep into a magical forest in search of a counterspell—only to discover that magic might not be the only thing pulling them together.

Leovander Loveage is a master of small magics.

He can summon butterflies with a song, or turn someone’s hair pink by snapping his fingers. Such minor charms don’t earn him much admiration from other sorcerers (or his father), but anything more elaborate always blows up in his face. Which is why Leo vowed years ago to never again write powerful magic.

That is, until a mix-up involving a forbidden spell binds Leo to obey the commands of his longtime nemesis, Sebastian Grimm. Grimm is Leo’s complete opposite—respected, exceptionally talented, and an absolutely insufferable curmudgeon. The only thing they agree on is that getting caught using forbidden magic would mean the end of their careers. They need a counterspell, and fast. But Grimm casts spells, he doesn’t undo them, and Leo doesn’t mess with powerful magic.

Chasing rumors of a powerful sorcerer with a knack for undoing curses, Leo and Grimm enter the Unquiet Wood, a forest infested with murderous monsters and dangerous outlaws alike. To dissolve the curse, they’ll have to uncover the true depths of Leo’s magic, set aside their long-standing rivalry, and—much to their horror—work together.

Even as an odd spark of attraction flares between them.]]> 416 Maiga Doocy 0356523993 tillie 5 favorites anyways here’s hoping that i don’t forget the circumstances of the book before the next one comes out (or future bindi you should just reread it) because it literally hit so hard and i cannot wait for the next one

reread may 2025
such a good reread!!! and a great audiobook. still rlly rlly rlly cannot wait for the next one]]> 4.31 2024 Sorcery and Small Magics (The Wildersongs Trilogy, #1)
author: Maiga Doocy
name: tillie
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves: favorites
review:
oh my GOD was this a good book. i feel like i can’t say too much without spoiling some really great twists but 1) GOOD DOG. VERY GOOD DOG 2) the forced proximity trope was used SO WELL 3) THE ENDING. I AM FEELING THINGS. SO MANY THINGS 4) the worldbuilding was just amazing??? i loved the magic system and all of the monsters were so fucking cool??? actually obsessed 5) i rlly loved the mcs but i also really loved sybilla. the best milf around 6) it was just so unique like the plot stuff i haven’t seen anything like it actually so cool
anyways here’s hoping that i don’t forget the circumstances of the book before the next one comes out (or future bindi you should just reread it) because it literally hit so hard and i cannot wait for the next one

reread may 2025
such a good reread!!! and a great audiobook. still rlly rlly rlly cannot wait for the next one
]]> <![CDATA[To Ride a Rising Storm (Nampeshiweisit, #2)]]> 223641089
But what should have been a relaxing break takes a darker turn. Thanks to Anequs’s notoriety, there is an Anglish presence on Masquapaug for the first time ever: a presence which Anequs hates. Anequs will always fight for what she believes in, however, and what she believes in is her people’s right to self-govern and live as they have for generations, without the restrictive yoke of Anglish rules and social customs. And fight she will—even if it means lighting a spark which may flare into civil war.]]> 432 Moniquill Blackgoose 0593498305 tillie 0 to-read 5.00 2026 To Ride a Rising Storm (Nampeshiweisit, #2)
author: Moniquill Blackgoose
name: tillie
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Enchanted April 3077
The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.

The Enchanted April was a best-seller in both England and the United States, where it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and set off a craze for tourism to Portofino. More recently, the novel has been the inspiration for a major film and a Broadway play.]]> 232 Elizabeth von Arnim tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 3.90 1922 The Enchanted April
author: Elizabeth von Arnim
name: tillie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> The Haar 60840449
Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there.

But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost� until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland.

The Haar.

To some it brings redemption� to others, it brings only madness and death. What macabre secrets lie within� The Haar.

Romantic and deranged, The Haar is a gore-soaked folk horror fairy tale from David Sodergren, author of The Forgotten Island and Maggie’s Grave.]]> 206 David Sodergren tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 4.08 2022 The Haar
author: David Sodergren
name: tillie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> Station Eleven 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 4.05 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: tillie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> <![CDATA[System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)]]> 65211701 Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast.

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.]]> 245 Martha Wells 1250826977 tillie 5 favorites 4.19 2023 System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)
author: Martha Wells
name: tillie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: favorites
review:
so good!!!! maybe my favorite one yet. i vaguely think murderbot and ART are in a qpr??? vaguely? also it’s basically canon that murderbot is aroace agender autistic but this book makes me think it has adhd too (obviously it’s not exactly human but it’s fun giving it human characteristics) anyways. everyone in this series is my baby girl <3
]]> Roll for Love 198494033 Ashley Poston meets Becky Albertalli in this Sapphic, second-chance romance about a teen returning to her grandfather's farm and how joining her childhood best friend's Dungeons & Dragons game gives her the confidence to follow her dreams and get a second-chance at love with her first crush.

Dungeons & Dragons loving Harper Reid's summer is off to a rough start. First, she and her mom moved across the country to Clintville, Virginia (population: tiny) to live on her Poppy's farm, which means saying goodbye to her friends and finding a new D&D group to play with. The only thing keeping her going is getting to polish her carpentry skills in the farm's woodshop so she can get an apprenticeship after graduation. That is if she can tell her mom that she doesn't want to go to college, which is kind of hard when mom keeps asking about applications and if she has picked out the perfect school yet. What Harper really needs is to channel the confidence and bravery of her awesome D&D character, and then maybe she could find a new D&D group and tell her mom that her passion is woodworking, not a four-year university. And, hey, maybe she could find a cool girlfriend, too.

The one encounter Harper wasn't expecting was running into Ollie Shifflet: neighbor, childhood best friend, and, oh yeah, first crush. Unlike Harper, Ollie seems to have everything figured out. She plans on spending the summer digging around in her garden and hanging out with her best friends and trying D&D with them for the first time. Then after graduation it is community college, then opening a small nature-based daycare center and living her best bisexual life . . . well, as long as that last bit stays private. But when beautiful, bold, Harper Reid comes waltzing back into her life and joins her D&D group, suddenly Ollie's plan seems to have a Harper-shaped hole in it.

So when feelings start to develop in their Dungeons & Dragons game between Harper's brash Barbarian character and Ollie's proud Paladin, Harper and Ollie begin wondering if they are falling for each in real life or if it is all just apart of the game. As the school year draws to a close and the final boss looms on the horizon, Harper and Ollie must decide if the relationship that they have been roleplaying in the game could be as real for them.]]> 272 M.K. England 0762488174 tillie 5 4.04 2025 Roll for Love
author: M.K. England
name: tillie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves:
review:
rlly enjoyed this one!!! 1) i love southern queerness 2) the dnd stuff was everything. like we saw a decent amount of it, i loved the little rolling convos, the “our dnd characters are dating but we aren’t� is everything 3) great characters relationships and character struggles! cool messaging around alternative paths besides college! overall just a very well written fun and sweet book! yippee!
]]> Thieves 60665429 208 Lucie Bryon 1838741194 tillie 5 4.16 2022 Thieves
author: Lucie Bryon
name: tillie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves:
review:
my secret book exchange book from marianna!!!! and yes, she did it again, she’s a master book picker for me. really fun art, loved the characters, super silly, and great plot!!! let’s fricken go, another book exchange dub!
]]> <![CDATA[Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, #1)]]> 210669103 A Memory Called Empire meets Miss Marple in this cozy, spaceborne mystery, helmed by a no-nonsense formidable auntie of a detective.

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…]]> 2 Olivia Waite tillie 3 3.81 2025 Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, #1)
author: Olivia Waite
name: tillie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves:
review:
this book had some overall really interesting concepts but also some glaring worldbuilding problems. like why is there still capitalism??? i did not believe they would keep it. mystery pretty easily solved but also the financial aspects of it confused me, romance barely there, and characters okay. i know waite is a great author and i just don’t get why people write mystery novellas, there’s way too much that needs to be done that cannot in such a short amount of time!
]]> <![CDATA[Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)]]> 52381770
It worries about the fragile human crew who've grown to trust it, but only where no one can see.

It tells itself that they're only a professional obligation, but when they're captured and an old friend from the past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

]]> 350 Martha Wells 1250229863 tillie 5 favorites 4.44 2020 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
author: Martha Wells
name: tillie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/25
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: favorites
review:
slapped as a reread and i’m excited for the next one!
]]> <![CDATA[A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)]]> 40864002 ASIN B08H831J18 moved to the more recent edition

Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.

Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers' series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?]]> 151 Becky Chambers tillie 5 read-for-class 4.25 2021 A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)
author: Becky Chambers
name: tillie
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: read-for-class
review:
read for class! absolutely wonderful, wish i could live in this world! makes me want to write an essay about it�
]]> The Handmaid's Tale 34454589 320 Margaret Atwood 1328879941 tillie 4 read-for-class 4.30 1985 The Handmaid's Tale
author: Margaret Atwood
name: tillie
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: read-for-class
review:
read for class. very well written and engaging but very white feminist, esp in atwood’s repackaging of historical Black and brown women’s suffering into a white woman’s narrative. also i rlly didn’t like the future epilogue
]]> <![CDATA[Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)]]> 35519101
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

]]> 158 Martha Wells 1250191785 tillie 5 4.21 2018 Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
author: Martha Wells
name: tillie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 alternate cover for ISBN 9781250186928

It has a dark past � one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A� stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.]]> 158 Martha Wells tillie 5 4.23 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
author: Martha Wells
name: tillie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Alif the Unseen 13239822
When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen.]]> 433 G. Willow Wilson 0802120202 tillie 0 to-read 3.83 2012 Alif the Unseen
author: G. Willow Wilson
name: tillie
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells tillie 5 favorites 4.10 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: tillie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Francine's Spectacular Crash and Burn]]> 216522693 A heartwarming novel centered on Francine Stevenson’s accidental encounter with a peculiar ten-year-old boy who shows up at her doorstep after her mother's sudden death

Francine's Spectacular Crash and Burn is a bighearted novel that will wiggle its way into the heart of every reader. It follows Francine Stevenson. whose life revolved around her anxious agoraphobic mother—her abrupt passing rocks Francine to her core and sends her into a tailspin of depression. She copes by rummaging through her mother’s assortment of pills, dancing manically at night to the disco she and her mother enjoyed while keeping up appearances at work during daylight hours.

On one such day Francine’s blissful high is interrupted by shouts outside her door. She pulls back her curtain only to catch sight of a few older kids picking on a much younger boy. She ushers ten-year-old Davie into her home for temporary refuge. After that moment, Francine’s life takes a surprising turn.  

What appeared to be a one-off encounter evolves when Davie repeatedly shows up at Francine’s house. Despite herself, Francine begins to enjoy his unannounced visits. She finds herself wondering why a ten-year-old has so much autonomy. Francine realizes the proper thing to do is introduce herself to Davie’s foster parents and loop them in on the bullies she worries may still be giving Davie trouble, only to discover Jeanette, her high school crush, is Davie’s foster mother.

Francine's Spectacular Crash and Burn introduces a voice readers won’t soon forget. The weighty topics of grief, loneliness, and depression are offset by Francine’s offbeat, bewitching humor. This novel is a multilayered tour-de-force nested into a heart-stirring coming-of-age.]]> 320 Renee Swindle 0593475585 tillie 4 3.97 Francine's Spectacular Crash and Burn
author: Renee Swindle
name: tillie
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves:
review:
i normally don’t read contemporary books that aren’t romance books so this was out of my wheelhouse but in the end i really enjoyed it. super engrossing, well written, very original voice. so many terrible decisions but the title warned me. really good ending tho and i loved all of the joy and love and care that was found in this book
]]> <![CDATA[Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees]]> 195853505 From the New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders, a lyrical book of short essays about food offering a banquet of tastes, smells, memories, associations, and little-known facts about nature

In Bite by Bite, poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores the way food and drink evokes our associations and remembrances � a subtext or layering, a flavor tinged with joy, shame, exuberance, grief, desire, or nostalgia.

Here, Nezhukumatathil restores some of our astonishment and wonder about food through her encounter with a range of foods and food traditions. From shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans, rambutan to vanilla, she investigates how food marks our experiences and identities; the boundaries between heritage and memory; and the ethics and environmental pressures around gathering and consuming food.

Bite by Bite offers a rich and textured kaleidoscope of vignettes and visions into the world of food and nature, drawn together by intimate and funny personal reflections and Fumi Nakamura’s gorgeous imagery and illustration.]]> 224 Aimee Nezhukumatathil 0063282267 tillie 4 available-at-library 4.03 2024 Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees
author: Aimee Nezhukumatathil
name: tillie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: available-at-library
review:
for some reason i thought this book was about a completely different thing lmao (or i guess a different type of book in general). once i got over that i started to enjoy it more. also rlly enjoyed the discussion of mixed race stuff, very me coded. she’s half philippina and half indian, and her kids are a quarter those and half white, so almost me coded. anyways, cool to hear about an author being successful too!
]]> <![CDATA[This Ends in Embers (Divine Traitors, #2)]]> 214175090 Perfect for fans of Raybearer and Fourth Wing, this astonishing sequel to the bestselling novel So Let Them Burn doesn't hold back. After all, there are no easy endings in war—especially when sisters are forced to fight on opposite sides.

Faron Vincent was once the saint of San Irie. Now, she’s done the unthinkable: betrayed her country. Alone, disgraced, and kidnapped, Faron is forced to help Iya grow his bloody empire. With her soul bonded to a ruthless killer, Faron has become an enemy to her people� and she fears they might be right.

Elara Vincent—the new Empyrean—must undo the damage her sister has caused. San Irie has been brought back to the brink of war as Iya proclaims no nation will be safe from his brutal invasion. But how can Elara save her sister, her best friend, her country, and her world when she’s already cracking under the pressure?

This heart-pounding conclusion to the Divine Traitors duology pushes these unforgettable heroines to their breaking point and beyond. Because when the lines between hero and villain are blurred, deadly sacrifices must be made.]]> 416 Kamilah Cole 0316534951 tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 3.82 2025 This Ends in Embers (Divine Traitors, #2)
author: Kamilah Cole
name: tillie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> The Hymn to Dionysus 211004841 A timely and timeless reimagining of the story of Dionysus, Greek God of ecstasy and madness, revelry and ruin, for readers of The Song of Achilles and Elektra.

Raised in a Greek legion, Phaidros has been taught to fight for the homeland he’s never seen and to follow his commander’s orders at all costs. But when he rescues a baby from a fire at Thebes’s palace, his commander’s orders cease to make sense: Phaidros is forced to abandon the blue-eyed boy at a temple, and to keep the baby’s existence a secret.

Years later, after a strange encounter that led to the death of his battalion, Phaidros has become a training master for young soldiers. He struggles with panic attacks and flashbacks, and he is not the only one: all around him, his fellow veterans are losing their minds.

Phaidros’s risk of madness is not his only problem: his life has become entangled with Thebes’s young crown prince, who wishes to escape the marriage his mother, the Queen, has chosen for him. When the prince vanishes, Phaidros is drawn into the search for him—a search that leads him to a blue-eyed witch named Dionysus, whose guidance is as wise as the events that surround him are strange. In Dionysus’s company, Phaidros witnesses sudden outbursts of riots and unrest, and everywhere Dionysus goes, rumors follow about a new god, one sired by Zeus but lost in a fire.

In The Hymn to Dionysus, bestselling author Natasha Pulley transports us to an ancient empire on the edge of ruin to tell an utterly captivating story about a man needing a god to remind him how to be a human.]]> 416 Natasha Pulley 1639732365 tillie 4 4.14 2025 The Hymn to Dionysus
author: Natasha Pulley
name: tillie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:
spent the last six hours finishing this one plus some solid reading time on wednesday, so a decent amount of time! pretty classic natasha pulley here, in the good and bad ways. somehow there’s always a woman that the gay mc is forced to marry (and it’s the woman’s fault?? which feels ahistorical) and she’s never as fleshed out as you want her to be. but the classic humongous miscommunication was great and the plot was delightfully convoluted and different. not sure i quite dug the twist, there was actually twist part one which i LOVED and then retcon twist part two which disappointed me. yes it solved the double incest problem (don’t ask) but i think it made things just a little less clever and fun (tho the fact that twist part one could have been possible was at least clever and fun). this one had more on page gayness than past books as far as i’m remembering, which is to say, we get the word “kiss� a couple times and not much more. i liked them and their relationship tho. and i really liked the message of this one: that we have to let ourselves be messy and human or else we become soulless and cruel. especially love how the arts (singing and dancing esp highlighted) play a role in that. cool historical setting, lots of really interesting vibes going on that i’ve never really read before? i’m normally not a big fan of this time period but i liked this one. overall, very engrossing and a good way to wind down after what’s been a packed semester!
]]> Wearing the Lion 219303534 This second novel from Nebula Award-winning John Wiswell brings a humanizing, redemptive touch to the Hercules story in this mythological fantasy for fans of Jennifer Saint and Elodie Harper

Heracles, hero of Greece, dedicates all his feats to Hera, goddess of family. Heracles� mother raised himto revere Hera, as her attempt to avoid the goddess� wrath. Unbeknownst to Heracles, he is yet another child Hera’s husband, Zeus, had out of wedlock.

Hera loathes every minute of Heracles� devotion. She finally snaps and sends the Furies to make Heracles kill himself. But the moment Heracles goes mad, his children playfully ambush him, and he slays them instead. When the madness fades, Heracles’s wife, Megara, convinces him to seek revenge. Together they’ll hunt the Furies and learn which god did this.

Believing Hera is the only god he can still trust, Heracles prays to Hera, who is wracked with guilt over killing his children. To mislead Heracles, Hera sends him on monster-slaying quests, but he is too traumatized to enact more violence. Instead, Heracles cares for the Nemean lion, cures the illness of the Lernaean hydra, and bonds with Crete’s giant bull.

Hera struggles with her role in Heracles life as Heracles begins to heal psychologically by connecting with the monsters—while also amassing an army that could lay siege to Olympos.

Nebula Award-winning author John Wiswell brings his signature humanizing touch to the Hercules story, forever changing the way we understand the man behind the myth—and the goddess reluctantly bound to him.]]> 384 John Wiswell 0756419549 tillie 0 to-read 4.21 2025 Wearing the Lion
author: John Wiswell
name: tillie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Girls Girls Girls 219301745
A vibrant queer Jewish debut “teeming with heart, angst, love, and self discovery� (Emily Austin) about a young woman who, caught between the expectations of others and her own evolving desires, is forced to make a series of fraught life-altering decisions.

It’s the summer of �96 and best friends (and secret girlfriends) Hannah and Sam are driving across the country from Long Beach, New York, to the fabled queer paradise of San Francisco, free from the harsh gazes of their neighbors and the stifling demands of Hannah’s devout Orthodox Jewish mother. In San Francisco, they will finally be together as a real couple, out in the open, around other queer people. Even if the move means leaving behind Hannah’s beloved Bubbe.

When the financial strains of West Coast living push the girls to start stripping at The Chez Paree—yet another secret Hannah must keep from her family—Hannah feels trapped. Sam wants her at the club, but Hannah hates stripping nearly as much as she hates disappointing Sam. Then Hannah meets Chris, an older butch lesbian, who is immediately taken with her. Desperate to stay in San Francisco, but away from the leering men at the club, Hannah proposes an escort arrangement.

But as Hannah falls deeper into Chris� world and Sam starts to meet new queer friends, a rift forms between them. Without Sam, who is Hannah? And what becomes of San Francisco to Hannah alone—a space rich with queer possibility, or an intimidating, unfamiliar place, just as lonely as the one she’d left behind? An achingly tender and resonant story of survival, first love, and growing up queer in the �90s, Girls Girls Girls is a piercing exploration of the choices we make in the thrilling and often confounding search for ourselves and home.]]> 384 Shoshana von Blanckensee 0593718445 tillie 0 to-read 4.60 2025 Girls Girls Girls
author: Shoshana von Blanckensee
name: tillie
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Poet X 33294200 Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.

With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.]]> 368 Elizabeth Acevedo tillie 5 read-for-class 4.37 2018 The Poet X
author: Elizabeth Acevedo
name: tillie
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: read-for-class
review:
started tearing up at the end of this one, goddamn it was so good. read for class and okay marianna if ur reading this, FINE i’ve been convinced, i’m going to make a second art piece because this one touched me. it was just so so so good
]]> Lover Birds 154909297
When Isabel Williams moves to Liverpool, she criticises seemingly everything in Eloise Byrne’s life � her city, her accent, her trademark boldness � so if, when she catches Isabel staring, Eloise feels her pulse race, it must be because they hate each other. It surely couldn’t be for any other reason, could it? Eloise needs to get her ADHD under control in time for A-Levels, but when she meets Isabel, school becomes the least of her concerns. What begins as outright contempt turns into an oddly satisfactory rivalry, but for their rivalry to shift further into romance, their relationship must withstand Isabel's classism, Eloise’s distrust, and whatever secrets their friends are hiding from them.

With a wonderful cast of characters, an irresistible romance, and an incredibly moving and powerful portrayal of ADHD, Lover Birds is an unmissable debut from an extraordinary new voice in YA fiction.]]> 400 Leanne Egan 000862657X tillie 4 4.05 2024 Lover Birds
author: Leanne Egan
name: tillie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves:
review:
sat down three and a half hours ago and binge read this. highly readable and very enjoyable, though the plot lines were a little stereotypical i enjoyed the ADHD and liverpool aspects of it. lots of deep subjects explored, great characters, very sweet and fun protags. i even think it can be legally called enemies to lovers!!! tho more one sided than anything. also vibes were very snowbaz from carry on which is a vibe. a good time and not too excessively YA!
]]> An Archive of Brightness 60727328 144 Kelsey Socha 1941360653 tillie 4 on the one hand, this book was so imaginative and had so many lovely (queer) love stories going on. on the other hand, it felt like it was sacrificing clarity for mystique and i didn’t fully get a grasp on anything to really understand what was happening or why i should care.
but i really do love the houses made of scorpions and the women who fall in love there. the lobstermen were pretty good but TBH i think they needed to be expanded upon more. the second person was confusing, who was the you? and the i?
i liked the birds fine, but again, didn’t quite pull together in the end
i also just kept 1) almost falling asleep and 2) checking how close i was to being done which is not the Most encouraging sign of enjoying a book djdjdjdj
tldr: cool concepts, needed to be a bit more grounded for me to rlly enjoy ]]> 4.00 An Archive of Brightness
author: Kelsey Socha
name: tillie
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves:
review:
3.5 rounded up.
on the one hand, this book was so imaginative and had so many lovely (queer) love stories going on. on the other hand, it felt like it was sacrificing clarity for mystique and i didn’t fully get a grasp on anything to really understand what was happening or why i should care.
but i really do love the houses made of scorpions and the women who fall in love there. the lobstermen were pretty good but TBH i think they needed to be expanded upon more. the second person was confusing, who was the you? and the i?
i liked the birds fine, but again, didn’t quite pull together in the end
i also just kept 1) almost falling asleep and 2) checking how close i was to being done which is not the Most encouraging sign of enjoying a book djdjdjdj
tldr: cool concepts, needed to be a bit more grounded for me to rlly enjoy
]]> <![CDATA[Holy Terrors (Little Thieves, #3)]]> 197364659 Pfennigeist, she bucks the law in order to help the desperate and haunt the corrupt all across the empire—and no matter what, she works alone.


But an impossible killer is tearing through royalty, and leaving Vanja’s signature red penny on every victim. Suddenly the Pfennigeist is no longer a folk hero but a nightmare. When even the Blessed Empress falls, the empire’s seven royal families must gather to elect her successor within a matter of weeks, or risk the collapse of reality itself� even though it puts every house in the killer’s sights.


Vanja tells herself she’s wading into the royalty’s vicious games only to save the name she made, and the loved ones also in jeopardy. But the Order of Prefects has also put their sharpest official on the case, the one who swore he’d always find Vanja—until she broke his heart. Journeyman Prefect Emeric Conrad may no longer be the boy Vanja knew, but they’ll have to work together one last time to have any chance of surviving the deadly catastrophe coming for them all.


With bloody conspiracy, sinister magic, and old adverseries closing in, it will take everything Vanja has to save not just the people she loves, but the future she’s fought for. In this thrilling final chapter of the Indie Next series Little Thieves, New York Times-bestselling author Margaret Owen shows us the pain and beauty of choosing which demons to face, and which to forgive.]]> 560 Margaret Owen 1250831172 tillie 5 favorites it’s just so well done in so many ways, i can’t list them all or i’d be here all night. the characters are so so so so so well written and just an amazing dynamic� marianna said it was jean valjean and javert, which it is in the sense of “thief and the person obsessed with chasing them� but it’s also “pathetic nerd man and badass girl boss� and also “two people who love pushing each other’s buttons and solving mysteries together� and the classic “making each other better (and sometimes, deliciously, worse). vanya’s struggles are so well done and i really appreciate how her journey isn’t linear. and she’s just treated with so much love and care by the author. the mysteries are fabulously done, the worldbuilding is a beautiful eastern european inspired with some occasional nice fantasy jews. i love the magic, the low gods, the prefects, the way the government works (which we see a Lot of in this book, absolutely so fun). all of the side characters are amazing and there’s some amazing sapphic stuff happening on the side. the demi aspect of these books is so important to me, especially demi4demi, it’s literally everything. vanya and emeric’s relationship in this book was just so FUN even when they were being mean to each other (especially when they are being mean to each other). i love how every character is treated with dignity, even the people who “get in the way� of emeric and vanya being together (lilje, benno). i love the sense of justice and consent and morality presented in these books. i love the found family of it. i love the ridiculous jokes and memes.
each book also has beautiful art that the author does herself (!!!!!!) that slaps SO good. legit wanna buy some of it because it’s just beautiful. and the little internal stories that go with it are sooooo impactful and such a cool way to write in a different way. this book also had some really fun alternate reality stuff going on that i’m a whore for.
so yeah, this ended up being really long but i’ve been into this series since senior year of high school and it’s very meaningful for me and i cannot wait to reread this book and also to read more by this author in the future!!! (hopefully even some adult stuff :0) ]]> 4.46 2025 Holy Terrors (Little Thieves, #3)
author: Margaret Owen
name: tillie
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: favorites
review:
this weekend i was asked what my top three books were and i was like well i have two strong top two series (AFTG and TLT) but not really a third� this series is my third.
it’s just so well done in so many ways, i can’t list them all or i’d be here all night. the characters are so so so so so well written and just an amazing dynamic� marianna said it was jean valjean and javert, which it is in the sense of “thief and the person obsessed with chasing them� but it’s also “pathetic nerd man and badass girl boss� and also “two people who love pushing each other’s buttons and solving mysteries together� and the classic “making each other better (and sometimes, deliciously, worse). vanya’s struggles are so well done and i really appreciate how her journey isn’t linear. and she’s just treated with so much love and care by the author. the mysteries are fabulously done, the worldbuilding is a beautiful eastern european inspired with some occasional nice fantasy jews. i love the magic, the low gods, the prefects, the way the government works (which we see a Lot of in this book, absolutely so fun). all of the side characters are amazing and there’s some amazing sapphic stuff happening on the side. the demi aspect of these books is so important to me, especially demi4demi, it’s literally everything. vanya and emeric’s relationship in this book was just so FUN even when they were being mean to each other (especially when they are being mean to each other). i love how every character is treated with dignity, even the people who “get in the way� of emeric and vanya being together (lilje, benno). i love the sense of justice and consent and morality presented in these books. i love the found family of it. i love the ridiculous jokes and memes.
each book also has beautiful art that the author does herself (!!!!!!) that slaps SO good. legit wanna buy some of it because it’s just beautiful. and the little internal stories that go with it are sooooo impactful and such a cool way to write in a different way. this book also had some really fun alternate reality stuff going on that i’m a whore for.
so yeah, this ended up being really long but i’ve been into this series since senior year of high school and it’s very meaningful for me and i cannot wait to reread this book and also to read more by this author in the future!!! (hopefully even some adult stuff :0)
]]> <![CDATA[The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)]]> 62226126
An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?]]> 421 Richard Osman 0241512441 tillie 5 4.44 2023 The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)
author: Richard Osman
name: tillie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves:
review:
i really adore this series and this one hit the hardest. just like,,, really great development of the characters, esp joyce and ibrahim, good wrapping up of plot lines (esp steven‘s
]]> Witchlore 222376752 Holly Black meets Lex Croucher in this contemporary fantasy about a love story to raise the dead.

At Demdike College of Witchcraft, Orlando is an outcast. Not just for being the only shapeshifter in a college of witches. Not just for being a really bad shapeshifter, with no control over their magic or when their body switches between male and female forms. But because their girlfriend Elizabeth died - and it was Lando's fault.

Then charming new boy Bastian arrives with a proposition: he knows a spell that can raise Elizabeth from the dead. It's dangerous but Lando will try anything. But as Lando's attraction to Bastian grows, questions start to arise. Who is Bastian? What does he really want? And who will survive the resurrection spell?

For fans of V.E. Schwab and Rainbow Rowell, Emma Hinds' Witchlore is a spellbinding contemporary fantasy where the passion is as real as the magic.]]> 352 Emma Hinds 1250369495 tillie 0 to-read 4.38 2025 Witchlore
author: Emma Hinds
name: tillie
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sunset Year 222679105 The sun will rise, and we will try again.

Will Grześkiewicz believes his life is over. Magnolia Castillo knows her sister’s is. Feeling that the world is crashing down around them, individually unsure of what else to do, Will and Maggie both retreat to watch the sunset in a place they’ve previously found solace, a park settled on the river a few minutes� drive from campus.

What starts as an attempt to get away from it all becomes an evening routine to watch the sunset with a new friend, and Will and Maggie realize that simply showing up—for themselves and for each other—might have the power to change everything.]]> C.J. Ellison tillie 0 to-read 5.00 Sunset Year
author: C.J. Ellison
name: tillie
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Mouthful of Dust (The Singing Hills Cycle, #6)]]> 199653099 Hunger makes monsters in this dark new tale in Nghi Vo's Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle.

Wandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes.

Trapped in the mansion of a sinister magistrate, Chih and Almost Brilliant must learn what happened in Baolin when the famine came to call, and they must do so quickly... because the things in the shadows are only growing hungrier.

The Singing Hills Cycle has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award, and the Ignyte Award, and has won the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award.

The novellas are standalone stories linked by the Cleric Chih, and may be read in any order.]]> Nghi Vo tillie 0 to-read 4.40 2025 A Mouthful of Dust (The Singing Hills Cycle, #6)
author: Nghi Vo
name: tillie
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Shifting Gears 222382529 A spicy, small-town, opposites attract lesbian romance about learning to let go, no matter the cost.

Workaholic Eleanor Cromwell blows into rural Canada, laser focused on her real estate development project. Given the locals already hate her father’s company, she plans to hide away in a cabin and conceal her identity to get the job done. And then her car breaks down�

Sweet, smart, goofy mechanic Dani Cooper is about as laid-back as they come, all rumpled flannels and cheeky grins. Meeting an uptight, out-of-town stranger sparks more than just a tire change.

What starts as a whirlwind summer fling might turn into something more…except Eleanor’s secret threatens to tear everything apart.]]> Jazz Forrester 3963249854 tillie 0 to-read 4.18 Shifting Gears
author: Jazz Forrester
name: tillie
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Angelica and the Bear Prince 223854914 At her lowest point, a teen girl finds solace and a potential crush in her local theater's mascot's DMs, sparking a quest to uncover the true identity of this mysterious figure. From the bestselling author of The Magic Fish comes a new fairy tale romance with a twist.

What do you do when you're the girl who can do it all, and suddenly you can't?

After burning out last year, Angelica is ready to get her life back together. Thankfully she has amazing friends to support her...including Peri the Bear, the mascot of her town's local theater. At her lowest moments, Angelica found comfort in private messaging Peri's social media account, and well, she might have a bit of a crush. Now, Angelica is interning at the local theater in the hopes of finding the person beind the account and thanking them. Who was this mysterious stranger and why did they help her out? Was it just caring for a stranger...or did they feel the same connection that Angelica felt?]]> 224 Trung Le Nguyen 0593125479 tillie 0 to-read 4.62 2025 Angelica and the Bear Prince
author: Trung Le Nguyen
name: tillie
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Series of Rooms 220099288
Jonah Prince is just trying to survive another night, same as he has done since his life derailed at seventeen. When his services are requested as a surprise for someone’s birthday, the last person he expects to see is the man from the bar who showed him kindness.

It doesn’t take long in a room together to see the cracks in Jonah’s facade. He’s afraid of someone, even if he can’t say it out loud. Hungry, guarded, and jumping at shadows, it’s clear he is in desperate need of a break, and Liam is in a unique position to grant him one—even if it’s just for a night.

Drawn together by their mutual need for escape, the two of them fall into an arrangement of weekly meetings inside the cheapest hotel rooms Chicago has to offer. The encounters are not sexual in nature, but an unexpected intimacy blossoms between them over time. For Jonah, it’s one night a week of guaranteed safety. For Liam, it’s the first real friendship he has ever known.

But soon, the circumstances that exist outside their private series of rooms begin closing in around them, reminding them that they can’t live in a bubble forever.]]> 338 A.J. Barlowe tillie 4 kinda an odd book, not exactly sure how i feel about it. i guess maybe i had false perceptions about what it would be like? who knows.
anyways it was a very well done audiobook in the sense that they SOLVED THE TWO NARRATOR PROBLEM!!!!! normally when audiobooks have multiple narrators and these narrators play different characters and these characters interact with each other, the narrators just do an impression of the others voice. this one had the correct character narrator sliced into the other’s narration and it literally worked so well, why can’t it always be like this????
anyways.
this is heavily compared to AFTG which i definitely understand why but it’s also one of those moments where it’s like well the things that are similar in these stories is not actually the thing i wanted to find in another book]]> 4.20 2024 A Series of Rooms
author: A.J. Barlowe
name: tillie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:
3.5 rounded up
kinda an odd book, not exactly sure how i feel about it. i guess maybe i had false perceptions about what it would be like? who knows.
anyways it was a very well done audiobook in the sense that they SOLVED THE TWO NARRATOR PROBLEM!!!!! normally when audiobooks have multiple narrators and these narrators play different characters and these characters interact with each other, the narrators just do an impression of the others voice. this one had the correct character narrator sliced into the other’s narration and it literally worked so well, why can’t it always be like this????
anyways.
this is heavily compared to AFTG which i definitely understand why but it’s also one of those moments where it’s like well the things that are similar in these stories is not actually the thing i wanted to find in another book
]]> The Midnight Library 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 tillie 0 to-read 3.96 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: tillie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Copper Script 229093104
Joel’s not an admirer of the police, but DS Fowler has the most irresistible handwriting he’s ever seen. If the policeman’s tests let him spend time unnerving the handsome copper, why not play along?

But when Joel looks at a powerful man's handwriting and sees a murderer, the policeman and the graphologist are plunged into deadly danger. Their enemy will protect himself at any cost--unless the sparring pair can come together to prove his guilt and save each other.]]> 255 K.J. Charles 1912688247 tillie 0 to-read 4.27 2025 Copper Script
author: K.J. Charles
name: tillie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue (The Cabots #3.5)]]> 199280681
Billy Reardon’s spent the past five years trying and failing to keep his teammate Luke Novak at arm’s length—or at least a normal, friendly distance. Or, failing that, he’d like to not make a fool of himself. But a month after getting seriously injured by a wild pitch and disappearing off the face of the earth, Luke shows up at Billy’s isolated house in the mountains just as a storm’s about to roll in. Now that they’re stuck together in the middle of nowhere, Billy can’t even pretend not to have feelings that go beyond what he ought to feel for a teammate.

Meanwhile, Luke’s acting strange and Billy doesn’t know why. And Billy can’t seem to fight the urge to make Luke sandwiches and hot cocoa, lend him cozy sweaters, and watch him play with the dogs. It’s all pretty terrible, and the one thing Billy’s sure of is that things between them are going to be different after all this is over.

This novella is about 25,000 words]]> 102 Cat Sebastian tillie 5 favorites
reread 4/8/25
twas in kinda an awful mood so i reread this and now i’m in a much better mood!!! i do need cat sebastian to announce a new book soon thank you very much ]]> 4.18 2023 Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue (The Cabots #3.5)
author: Cat Sebastian
name: tillie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: favorites
review:
uhfhejzidnekkz amazing. cat sebastian is just so so so good at writing!!! this was very two shitheads fall in love slash were in love and it was sooooo good. cozy and sweet and self contained and lovely and sexy and funny!!!! i am living today

reread 4/8/25
twas in kinda an awful mood so i reread this and now i’m in a much better mood!!! i do need cat sebastian to announce a new book soon thank you very much
]]> Turtles All the Way Down 35504431
Aza Holmes never intended to pursue the disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett’s son Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.]]> 290 John Green 0525555366 tillie 5 read-for-class my first john green book and i really really enjoyed it. he created such a nuanced story with really likeable but difficult characters. the plot unfolds really well and there’s this beautiful moments of friendship amongst a lot of hardship. had a good time and i’m sad i’m done with it! ]]> 3.87 2017 Turtles All the Way Down
author: John Green
name: tillie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: read-for-class
review:
read for class.
my first john green book and i really really enjoyed it. he created such a nuanced story with really likeable but difficult characters. the plot unfolds really well and there’s this beautiful moments of friendship amongst a lot of hardship. had a good time and i’m sad i’m done with it!
]]> Cover Story 215815693 From the author of Under the Rainbow, a hilarious, emotional love story about an anxious publicist who's tasked with keeping an extremely gay starlet in the closet—but ends up falling for her instead.�

It's 2005, and Ali is a publicist for Hollywood's biggest stars. Part of her job entails keeping gay celebrities in the closet—which is pretty ironic, since she's a lesbian. When Ali is assigned a new gay client, Cara Bisset, who's breaking onto the scene with a (hetero) romantic blockbuster, keeping Cara's sexuality under wraps becomes Ali's biggest challenge yet.

Cara is unruly and unpredictable, and hates that she has to hide her identity. After a series of increasingly close calls, Ali is sent on the worldwide promotional tour for the movie to help keep Cara in line. Instead, she finds herself drawn to Cara's confidence and bravery. For the past year, Ali has been mired in grief after losing her partner in a freak accident. But with Cara, Ali's fears about the world subside, and she begins to question the Hollywood closeting system she’s helped perpetuate. 

As Cara's fame continues to rise, both Ali and Cara have to decide which is more maintaining the status quo, or risking it all for another chance at love.]]> 370 Celia Laskey 1538765616 tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 3.42 2025 Cover Story
author: Celia Laskey
name: tillie
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)]]> 212078448 The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.

Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.]]> 432 Robert Jackson Bennett 1399725424 tillie 5 4.59 2025 A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: tillie
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:
very good! i guessed two of the big twists ngl but i loved all of the twists and turns. murder mysteries to showcase a larger world/plot are very sick. worldbuilding continues to slap and i like the characters a lot. GIVE DIN A BOYFRIEND THO !!!!!!! he wants one SO bad ugh
]]> Don't Let the Forest In 200982373 Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him.

Kill for him.

High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality―Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more.

But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won't say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork―whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew's wicked stories.

Desperate to figure out what's wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster―Thomas's drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator...]]> 336 C.G. Drews 1250895669 tillie 4 4.11 2024 Don't Let the Forest In
author: C.G. Drews
name: tillie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
review:
cool gay ace horror book! at times it was a *little* YA and i totally thought i predicted the twist and i was annoyed that they didn’t catch on, but then it turned out it was more complicated than i thought and so that was resolved. i actually feel silly for not catching the real twist but at least it surprised me. i really loved the way the mc talked about his love interest, because yeah. so true bestie. not sure if it’s a specifically ace perspective but literally so relatable. good horror, quite awful and great, and good audiobook!
]]> <![CDATA[The Fallow Year (Little Thieves, #2.5)]]> 205031105
Available to read for free in AO3.


Chapter 1: Plausible Deniability
Chapter 2: Landfall
Chapter 3: Beauty without Mercy
Chapter 4: The Agenda
Chapter 5: Many Happy Returns
Chapter 6: Providence
Chapter 7: Due Diligence
Chapter 8: The Cycle
Chapter 9: Phantom Roses, Part I
Chapter 10: Phantom Roses, Part II]]> 240 Margaret Owen tillie 5 4.50 The Fallow Year (Little Thieves, #2.5)
author: Margaret Owen
name: tillie
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves:
review:
i love them so much� need holy terrors NOW pls
]]> <![CDATA[Painted Devils (Little Thieves, #2)]]> 59406591
After taking down a corrupt margrave, breaking a deadly curse, and finding romance with the vexingly scrupulous Junior Prefect Emeric Conrad, Vanja had one great mystery left: her long-lost birth family� and if they would welcome a thief. But in her search for an honest trade, she hit trouble and invented a god, the Scarlet Maiden, to scam her way out. Now, that lie is growing out of control—especially when Emeric arrives to investigate, and the Scarlet Maiden manifests to claim him as a virgin sacrifice.

For his final test to become a prefect, Emeric must determine if Vanja is guilty of serious fraud, or if the Scarlet Maiden—and her claim to him—are genuine. Meanwhile, Vanja is chasing an alternative sacrifice that may be their way out. The hunt leads her not only into the lairs of monsters and the paths of gods, but the ties of her past. And with what should be the simplest way to save Emeric hanging over their heads, he and Vanja must face a more dangerous question: Is there a future for a thief and a prefect, and at what price?]]> 512 Margaret Owen 1250831164 tillie 5 favorites AGHDHDJJDKDKDKDL
anyways so i’m distraught � but it was such a good book wow! i love my little guys sm!! a really worthy sequel, just as good as the first! wow! i wish we at least had the illusion of a happy ending in this one but at least things were good for a bit!!

reread 3/30 to 4/1 in prep for the third one coming out (actually came out today but alas, libby lines)
anyways such a great reread. i just love this series and i can’t wait to read the next one!!! also gotta read the in between novella (which the author published on ao3 sillily enough)
they are my one MF couple AND they fulfill my jean valjean javert dreams WOW]]> 4.23 2023 Painted Devils (Little Thieves, #2)
author: Margaret Owen
name: tillie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: favorites
review:
AGHHHHHH
AGHDHDJJDKDKDKDL
anyways so i’m distraught � but it was such a good book wow! i love my little guys sm!! a really worthy sequel, just as good as the first! wow! i wish we at least had the illusion of a happy ending in this one but at least things were good for a bit!!

reread 3/30 to 4/1 in prep for the third one coming out (actually came out today but alas, libby lines)
anyways such a great reread. i just love this series and i can’t wait to read the next one!!! also gotta read the in between novella (which the author published on ao3 sillily enough)
they are my one MF couple AND they fulfill my jean valjean javert dreams WOW
]]> Where Shadows Meet 55513047 The dark and thrillingly romantic debut vampire fantasy that questions what it truly means to sacrifice for love.

You have no idea what I’ve done for love. Just as you have no idea what you may one day do.

Once long ago, a girl named Favre sacrificed her wings for love. Thana, the young goddess she so willingly gave them up for, sacrificed that same love for power. But everything has a cost.

Favre never got over the loss of her wings. And Thana’s choices led to a life of eternal night, and later, their destruction. Favre has bided her time ever since, waiting for the chance to resurrect the girl she loves who turned her into the creature she hates.

Now, a thousand years later, Leyla, the crown princess of the malichora—an ancient race that survives on human blood—must travel to the Island of the Dead when her best friend is captured during an attack on her nation’s capital. Along with Najja, a fierce, beautiful seer, and the last person she expected to help her, Leyla forges down a dangerous path, intent on saving her friend. But nothing is as it seems. The closer she gets to her goal, the more she risks awakening an ancient evil and destroying everything she holds dear.

Set in the aftermath of a war between vampires, humans, and the gods that created them, Patrice Caldwell’s devastatingly romantic fantasy debut, Where Shadows Meet, centers the heart-wrenching pain of loss and the struggle of self-discovery to ask: do we choose our fates, or do our fates choose us?]]> Patrice Caldwell tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 4.36 2025 Where Shadows Meet
author: Patrice Caldwell
name: tillie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones (Check, Please!, #3-4)]]> 41541435 Remember me ) Believe me: Dating a professional hockey player wasn't anything I expected to do in college. My parents don't know; my teammates have no clue...

And Jack and I aren't sure that we want to keep it a secret.]]> 336 Ngozi Ukazu 1250179505 tillie 5 4.38 2020 Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones (Check, Please!, #3-4)
author: Ngozi Ukazu
name: tillie
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water]]> 59808037
Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz’s most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.]]> 195 Angie Cruz 1250208459 tillie 5 read-for-bookclub 3.87 2022 How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
author: Angie Cruz
name: tillie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: read-for-bookclub
review:
i really enjoyed this one!!! good job krish on the recc. really complex characters, esp the mc who does objectively awful things but you still root for her. also for very specific reasons it was my type of book! if you know, you know. really cool audiobook as well, lots of fun sound effects and a great narrator. especially loved the ending. can’t wait to discuss soon!
]]> Flip 220908950 SENIOR YEAR BUCKET LIST? SWITCH BODIES WITH YOUR CRUSH.

Chi-Chi Ekeh has one huge problem: She keeps having crushes on rich white boys who have no idea she exists. Enter Flip Henderson, the most popular boy at school, who receives Chi-Chi’s private video proposal to go to senior prom.

But when Flip rejects Chi-Chi in front of their entire class, what happens next is completely unexpected: Chi-Chi―shy nerd and scholarship student―switches bodies with Flip. Suddenly Chi-Chi is 6�1� and cool, while Flip gets a crash course on Chi-Chi’s life―that is, k-pop, hair-braiding, and being a poor kid of color at a rich white private school.

With graduation looming and their body swaps lasting longer and longer, Chi-Chi and Flip must form the most unlikely friendship their school has ever seen. But will they survive senior year? And, most importantly, can they find a way back to themselves?

From bestselling author of Check, Please! comes Flip, a thrilling and fantastical tale about self-acceptance, black girlhood, and how walking a mile in someone else’s shoes can teach you how to finally see yourself.]]> 320 Ngozi Ukazu 1250179513 tillie 0 to-read 4.29 2025 Flip
author: Ngozi Ukazu
name: tillie
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When the Moon Hits Your Eye 211004190
It's a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters -- schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians -- as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.]]> 326 John Scalzi 0765389096 tillie 5 3.84 2025 When the Moon Hits Your Eye
author: John Scalzi
name: tillie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:
this was a blast and half! vaguely a collection of short stories (but with lots of overlap and the need to be read in chronological order) about how different people would react to the moon turning to cheese. absolutely hilarious, with some really great and different voices, and a lovely understanding of humanity. just a good ol� time!
]]> <![CDATA[The Sunshine Court (All For the Game, #4)]]> 201914164 My name is Jean Moreau. My place is at Evermore. I belong to the Moriyamas.

It is a truth Jean has built his life around, a reminder this is the best he can hope for and all he deserves. But when he is stolen from Edgar Allan University and sold to a more dangerous master, Jean is forced to contend with a life outside of the Nest for the first time in five years. The Foxes call his transfer to California a fresh start; Jean knows it is little more than a golden cage.

Captain Jeremy Knox is facing his final year with the USC Trojans and fifth straight year falling short of the championships trophy he desperately craves. Taking in the nation’s best defenseman is a no-brainer, even if that man is a Raven. But Jean is no monster, just a man with no hope or desire for a future, and when Evermore's collapse starts dragging Jean's hideous secrets to light, Jeremy is forced to contend with the cost of victory.]]> Nora Sakavic tillie 5 favorites 4.53 2024 The Sunshine Court (All For the Game, #4)
author: Nora Sakavic
name: tillie
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (Winner Bakes All, #1)]]> 55277878 Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there’s a whisk there’s a way . . . and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation’s most beloved baking show.

Winning the prize money would give her daughter the life she deserves—and Rosaline is determined to stick to the instructions. However, more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory.  Suave, well-educated, and parent-approved Alain Pope knows all the right moves to sweep her off her feet, but it’s shy electrician Harry Dobson who makes Rosaline question her long-held beliefs—about herself, her family, and her desires.

Rosaline fears falling for Harry is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Yet as the competition—and the ovens—heat up, Rosaline starts to realize the most delicious bakes come from the heart.]]> 435 Alexis Hall 1538703327 tillie 5
reread 3/26
a great reread despite having to relive REDACTED. tehe’d so much ]]> 3.96 2021 Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (Winner Bakes All, #1)
author: Alexis Hall
name: tillie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves:
review:
this was so cute and so funny!!! i love the gbbo and i love alexis hall so wow it was the perfect combination of everything. i just fell in love with the characters (which rarely happens for me) and i just had sooo much fun reading it

reread 3/26
a great reread despite having to relive REDACTED. tehe’d so much
]]> Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) 60929
The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly.]]> 248 Octavia E. Butler 0446603775 tillie 4 read-for-class 4.15 1987 Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: tillie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: read-for-class
review:
this is a rlly interesting sci-fi book with a lot of difficult topics and in-depth worldbuilding. read for my gender spec fic class and i think i might do my final project on it. def not for everyone but i enjoyed it!
]]> <![CDATA[The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)]]> 32075671 An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062498533 can be found here.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.]]> 454 Angie Thomas 0062498533 tillie 5 read-for-class 4.46 2017 The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)
author: Angie Thomas
name: tillie
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: read-for-class
review:
reread for class, i read this forever ago in like eighth grade? and barely remembered it. i think i enjoyed it way more this time: just understanding and thinking about how well crafted it is. smth i really appreciated is how funny and sweet and full of love it is. even when dealing with rlly rlly difficult topics. excited to do a final project about this one FOR SURE
]]> You Should Be So Lucky 196774809 We Could Be So Good.

The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.

Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.

Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.]]> 360 Cat Sebastian tillie 5 favorites
reread 3/22
SO GOOD. READ MOSTLY ON BEACH. AMAZING. almost cried a couple times. wish they got their eye colors right on the cover, they explicitly discussed it !!!! ]]> 4.45 2024 You Should Be So Lucky
author: Cat Sebastian
name: tillie
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: favorites
review:
cat sebastian is just so!!! good!!!! at writing!!!! wow. i especially love her books taking place around the 60s: a little historical but not too much. anyways!!!! this was so full of heart and love and laughter and an adorable dog and dealing with grief! the through line was really great and the characters were so strong. plus i love the way she’s been formatting books recently: large sections in one characters pov and then large sections in the next. unfortunately i read this book before libby linked it to kindle so i have no highlights to share but mark my words i shall reread it one day!

reread 3/22
SO GOOD. READ MOSTLY ON BEACH. AMAZING. almost cried a couple times. wish they got their eye colors right on the cover, they explicitly discussed it !!!!
]]> <![CDATA[The Anonymous Letters of C Forestier (French Letters Book 3)]]> 218063506 Paris, 1825. Isabelle de Tourzin cannot afford to fall in love with a mortal. Not again. Ageless and nearly invulnerable, she spends her days in private grief and plots to end Malbosc, the powerful, secretive man who seduced her only to leech her magic for more than a century.

She was rescued before she had the chance to kill him, and he’s eluded her ever since. At last, Isabelle has in her hands a magic compass that will point her toward her quarry. Infuriatingly, a cunning stranger keeps disrupting her search. The interloper claims to be hunting Malbosc as well. Trust is impossible, but the stranger proves to have useful information. Isabelle reluctantly agrees to an alliance.

The stranger—a shameless liar who appears to be a man named Forestier—accompanies Isabelle across France. He’s charming and unexpectedly kind. It’s been a lifetime since she enjoyed anyone’s company so much, which makes Forestier an even greater danger than Malbosc. Forever is too long to live with a broken heart.]]> 412 Felicia Davin tillie 4 4.70 The Anonymous Letters of C Forestier (French Letters Book 3)
author: Felicia Davin
name: tillie
average rating: 4.70
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:
rlly fun book, took a break so i could read physical books on the beach. maybe made me a little less into the romance but i love the characters and the plot is great. love this world and can’t wait to read more from this author in the future!
]]> <![CDATA[Queer as Folklore: The Hidden Queer History of Myths and Monsters]]> 204190332 Queer as Folklore takes readers across centuries and continents which reveals the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new.

Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the ‘queerly departed� along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows, found kinship in the in-between and created safe spaces in underworlds; but these forgotten narratives tell stories of remarkable resilience that deserve to be heard.

Join any Pride march and you are likely to see a glorious display of papier-mâché unicorn heads trailing sequins, drag queens wearing mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. But these are not just accessories: they are queer symbols with historic roots.

To truly understand who queer people are today, we must confront the twisted tales of the past and Queer as Folklore is a celebration of queer history like you've never seen it before.]]> 352 Sacha Coward 1800183364 tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 4.08 2024 Queer as Folklore: The Hidden Queer History of Myths and Monsters
author: Sacha Coward
name: tillie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> Alice Rue Evades the Truth 224116288 “Vibrant, voice-y, tender, genuinely funny, and bursting with all the imperfect charm of a real, hopeful love. I can’t wait to make everyone I know read this.”—Casey McQuiston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Pairing

In this sapphic homage to While You Were Sleeping, a down-on-her-luck receptionist is mistaken as the girlfriend of a comatose man and doesn’t have the heart to come clean to his devastated family—even when she starts falling for his sister.

Alice Rue has never spoken to her longtime crush Nolan Altman, but after she saves his life, the EMTs tell his family that Alice is Nolan’s girlfriend. She wants to set the record straight, but Nolan’s in a coma, and if the family feels comforted by the idea of Nolan having his “girlfriend� by his side for what might be his last moments, isn’t it kinder to go along with it? At least for now?

The Altmans are impossibly nice and supportive, and there’s something about Nolan’s sister Van that makes Alice feel more seen and understood than she has in years. She knows it’s wrong to lie, but it’s easy to convince herself that she’s doing the right thing by evading the truth.

But what she can’t avoid is her growing chemistry with Van. Alice must decide if she can unravel this tangle of lies to salvage her chances with the woman who just may be the love of her life—especially if Nolan wakes up. Warm, witty, and full of heart, this debut rom-com is a love story for pessimists who secretly hope for their own happily ever after.]]> Emily Zipps 0593733045 tillie 0 to-read 3.91 2025 Alice Rue Evades the Truth
author: Emily Zipps
name: tillie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Masters in This Hall (Lilywhite Boys, #3)]]> 63907612
Barnaby has secured a job running the extravagant traditional Christmas at a rich man's country house. John intends to thwart whatever he's up to.

But amid the festivity, the halls are decked with unexpected dangers. And John will need to decide if he can trust Barnaby one more time...]]> 119 K.J. Charles 1912688263 tillie 5
reread 3/17/25
this was extra fun after rlly immersing myself in this series (i basically read three out of the four books today but if you count aod i’ve been at it for three days). honestly the star of the show was jerry. he’s just so good??? obsessed with him. and by good i mean awful in the best way. anyways a rollicking good time but now i need to free myself and be a real person again! ]]> 4.00 2022 Masters in This Hall (Lilywhite Boys, #3)
author: K.J. Charles
name: tillie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:
cute and short, charles does a fab job of doing some plot and also making you care ab the romance!

reread 3/17/25
this was extra fun after rlly immersing myself in this series (i basically read three out of the four books today but if you count aod i’ve been at it for three days). honestly the star of the show was jerry. he’s just so good??? obsessed with him. and by good i mean awful in the best way. anyways a rollicking good time but now i need to free myself and be a real person again!
]]> <![CDATA[The Rat-Catcher's Daughter (Lilywhite Boys, #0.5)]]> 50054274
But Christiana has an admirer. Stan Kamarzyn has watched her sing for a year and he doesn't want to see her get hurt. Stan's nobody special--just a dodgy bloke from Bethnal Green--but he's got useful friends. Friends who can get a girl out of trouble, for a price. Christiana's not sure what it will cost her...

The two slowly reach an understanding. But Christiana is no criminal, and she can't risk getting mixed up with the law. What will happen when Stan's life as the fence for the notorious Lilywhite Boys brings trouble to his doorstep?

A trans f/m asexual romance novelette (17,000 words), set two years before Any Old Diamonds.

Content warnings: Story opens with misgendering/transphobia and threat of violence.]]> 61 K.J. Charles 191268814X tillie 5 short and sweet! 4.14 2019 The Rat-Catcher's Daughter (Lilywhite Boys, #0.5)
author: K.J. Charles
name: tillie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:
short and sweet!
]]> <![CDATA[Gilded Cage (Lilywhite Boys, #2)]]> 52314497
Seventeen years later, Susan Lazarus is a renowned detective, and Templeton Lane is a jewel thief. She’s tried to arrest him, and she’s tried to shoot him. They’ve never tried to talk.

Then Templeton is accused of a vicious double murder. Now there’s a manhunt out for him, the ports are watched, and even his best friends have turned their backs. If he can’t clear his name, he’ll hang.

There’s only one person in England who might help Templeton now...assuming she doesn’t want to kill him herself.]]> 248 K.J. Charles 1912688123 tillie 5 4.17 2019 Gilded Cage (Lilywhite Boys, #2)
author: K.J. Charles
name: tillie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:
another great kjc! m/f but she’s bi and a badass and he’s absolutely whipped, basically the only way i can read m/f. great mystery, nice cameos from beloved characters, just quite fun overall!
]]> Pagans 195034827 292 James Alistair Henry 1916678017 tillie 0 to-read 3.86 2025 Pagans
author: James Alistair Henry
name: tillie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Any Old Diamonds (Lilywhite Boys, #1)]]> 42925241
The Duke's remote castle is a difficult target, and Alec needs a way to get the thieves in. Soldier-turned-criminal Jerry Crozier has the answer: he'll pose as a Society gentleman and become Alec's new best friend.

But Jerry is a dangerous man: controlling, remote, and devastating. He effortlessly teases out the lonely young nobleman’s most secret desires, and soon he’s got Alec in his bed—and the palm of his hand.

Or maybe not. Because as the plot thickens, betrayals, secrets, new loves, and old evils come to light. Now the jewel thief and the aristocrat must keep up the pretence, find their way through a maze of privilege and deceit, and confront the truth of what's between them...all without getting caught.]]> 320 K.J. Charles 1912688077 tillie 5
edit march 15 2025
such a good book!! i had almost completely forgotten the plot which was a joy. realized it would have been more enjoyable if i had finished another kjc series (there’s some crossover here) so maybe i’ll eventually do that. also will def reread masters in the hall and also maybe the other two books i haven’t read in this series yet. a lovely and delightful book, probably uhhhhh one of my fav kjcs (but most of them are) ]]> 4.23 2019 Any Old Diamonds (Lilywhite Boys, #1)
author: K.J. Charles
name: tillie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves:
review:
very fun and cute! had a very nice time, stayed up past my bedtime

edit march 15 2025
such a good book!! i had almost completely forgotten the plot which was a joy. realized it would have been more enjoyable if i had finished another kjc series (there’s some crossover here) so maybe i’ll eventually do that. also will def reread masters in the hall and also maybe the other two books i haven’t read in this series yet. a lovely and delightful book, probably uhhhhh one of my fav kjcs (but most of them are)
]]> Play You For It: A Novel 226752299 In this sizzling sapphic romance, sparks fly between a sports journalist and her latest source—the first woman to be named head coach of a Division 1 men’s basketball team—but are they willing to risk their careers for a shot at love?

When Jordan D’Amato becomes the first woman named head coach of a top-level men’s college basketball team, journalist Caroline Beck is determined to get the story. After years of scraping her way into the world of sports reporting, Beck knows that snagging the first one-on-one interview with the elusive head coach could be her big break. But Jordan is wary of the media and the attention her historic new appointment attracts, especially as her boss makes it clear that it’s a temporary assignment—and if she doesn’t lead the team to victory, it won’t become permanent.

Beck’s persistence, however, charms Jordan, and she agrees to sit down for an interview. The two women have undeniable chemistry—but journalists definitely can’t fall for sources, and Jordan certainly can’t fully trust the ambitious reporter who has every reason to use her team secrets for the next big scoop. Though they both know it will ruin their reputations and likely also cost them their jobs if anyone finds out they are romantically involved, they can’t seem to stay away from each other.

With the national tournament in sight and both of their careers on the line, they must decide whether to take the shot on their budding love story—or walk away from the risky game they’ve been playing for good.]]> Samantha Saldivar tillie 0 to-read 0.0 Play You For It: A Novel
author: Samantha Saldivar
name: tillie
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Best Woman 222912329
Since coming out as a trans woman a few years ago, her family have been supportive � seamlessly (well, almost) getting the hang of her new pronouns. But wedding-induced pressures � including an uptight bride-to-be and her vicious cronies, a hometown hookup buddy who Julia can’t seem to resist, and tricky dynamics with her divorced parents � force Julia to confront the complications that have been bubbling underneath the surface of her closest relationships, all while she tries to fulfill her sisterly duties as Best Woman.

To top it all off: Kim Cameron is the maid of honor. Kim � the gorgeous, self-assured girl that Julia had crushed on hard back in high school. When the two women reconnect ahead of the wedding festivities, Julia is so overwhelmed she tells a teeny tiny little lie in order to gain Kim’s sympathy � a lie that quickly snowballs out of control and threatens to undermine the blossoming attraction between them. As Julia and Kim grow closer, finding solace in each other amidst a sea of Floridian wedding guests, Julia struggles to distinguish between truth and lies, questions the intentions of those she thought she knew, and must ask herself: what does she deserve, and what is she willing to do to get it? And more importantly� what does she deserve from herself?]]> 304 Rose Dommu 0857507133 tillie 0 to-read 4.33 Best Woman
author: Rose Dommu
name: tillie
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Try Your Worst 222376680
Sadie Katz and Cleo Chapman have been rivals since birth. Literally. They entered the world competing to be the first baby born in the new year, a title Cleo ultimately won. And she’s been nonchalantly winning at just about everything since—much to Sadie’s chagrin. Now in the fall of their senior year, Sadie and Cleo are neck-and-neck for valedictorian. But when a string of increasingly serious pranks take over their school, the perpetrator deliberately sets up Sadie and Cleo to take the fall.

Suddenly expulsion is on the line, and the only way to clear their names is to join forces and search for the culprit. As their investigation progresses, the girls begin to question more than suspects. Sadie, struggling with depression and academic burn out, finds that her ivy league dream doesn’t seem as appealing as it once did. Meanwhile, Cleo wonders if it's time she start fighting for what she wants, rather than passively accepting whatever comes easiest.

With their futures on the line, the two grow closer, and both start to ask themselves: Are they really meant to be rivals? Or were they always destined to become something more?]]> 320 Chatham Greenfield 1547613939 tillie 0 to-read 3.83 Try Your Worst
author: Chatham Greenfield
name: tillie
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lady’s Knight 217432802 An undeniably fierce, unforgettably funny, unapologetically queer feminist romp through the England of medieval legend. Bestselling and acclaimed authors Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner bring readers along on an epic quest for valor, freedom, and, above all, love. A Knight’s Tale meets the Lady Jane series, with a dash of The Great!

Gwen is sick of hiding—hiding the fact that she’s taken over her father’s blacksmithing duties, hiding her attraction to girls, hiding her yearning for glory as a knight.

Meanwhile, Lady Isobelle of Avington, queen bee of the castle, has never once considered hiding who she is—until now. She’s been chosen as the grand prize in the Tournament of Dragonslayers, to be given to whichever knight can claim her hand. And for the first time in her life, she can’t talk her way out of trouble.

When Isobelle discovers Gwen’s knightly ambitions, they hatch a scheme together—Gwen will joust in the tournament, disguised as Sir Gawain. Winning means freedom for Isobelle, and glory for Gwen. Losing means� well, let’s not go there.

One thing’s for sure: falling in love was never the plan.

But the best laid plans…are often trampled all over by dragons.

"A sapphic delight, full of jousts, jaunts, and courtly love. Lady's Knight sparkles with wit and charm and has lady knights to swoon over. Kaufman and Spooner will leave you breathless." —C. S. Pacat, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Rise]]> 432 Amie Kaufman 0062893394 tillie 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Lady’s Knight
author: Amie Kaufman
name: tillie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Out of Step, Into You 215149202 Out of Step, into You is a sapphic contemporary romance following childhood friends turned cross-country team rivals who are forced to work together to win the state championship � for fans of She Gets the Girl.

You can’t outrun love.

>Taylor and Marianna were each other’s whole world � best friends, running partners, practically sisters � until Marianna moved away and Taylor promptly ghosted her. When the former best friends turned rivals end up on the same cross-country team three years later, everything is a competition� and a reminder of past feelings, as well as blossoming new ones.

Marianna runs because she’s angry. The oldest child of a single mother, she knows all about responsibility � for her siblings, at her part-time job. She just has to stay focused and be faster than the past nipping at her heels if she wants to secure a new, brighter future. With or without Taylor.

Taylor runs to prove herself. The only child of an almost-Olympian, she’s no stranger to high expectations. With enough effort, she knows she can immortalize herself with a state record and make her parents proud. Then, she can figure out her own passion. She definitely doesn’t have time to untangle her feelings towards Mari.

Can this pair figure out a way to work together before their past catches up with them?]]> 304 Ciera Burch 0374389152 tillie 0 to-read 4.00 2025 Out of Step, Into You
author: Ciera Burch
name: tillie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Boxcar Librarian 214325867
A brand-new 2025 release from an author whose writing “historical fiction fans will adore� (New York Times bestselling author Madeline Martin): The stories of three women converge in 1936 Montana when editor Millie Lang arrives from DC to work on a series of travel books � only to find a town riddled with mystery, corruption, and secrets.


Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.

Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes.

Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

The three women’s stories dramatically converge in the search to uncover what someone is so desperately trying to what happened to Colette Durand.

Inspired by the fascinating, true history of Missoula’s Boxcar Library, the novel blends the story of the strong, courageous women who survived and thrived in the rough and rowdy West with that of the power of standing together to fight for workers� lives. And through it all shines the capacity of books to provide connection and light to those who need it most.]]> 464 Brianna Labuskes 006337630X tillie 0 to-read 4.03 2025 The Boxcar Librarian
author: Brianna Labuskes
name: tillie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The River Has Roots 211004176 Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.�

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters� bond but also their lives will be at risk…]]> 133 Amal El-Mohtar 1250341086 tillie 0 to-read 4.18 2025 The River Has Roots
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: tillie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Futbolista 215748674 A classmates-to-friends-to-lovers romance that's equal parts raunchy, heartfelt, queer, and Mexican-American, centered on college football (the REAL football)!

Gabriel Piña knows who he is: a college goalkeeper, a future Liga MX or MLS star, and definitely straight. He’s starting his freshman year with a lot of eyes on him and even more potential, but he’s got this. Nothing will have him straying off the path to greatness.

That is, until his philosophy classmate Vale volunteers to tutor him. Vale, the same guy who Gabi, in a moment of history repeating itself, might’ve kissed very briefly—and only once—just to help him out at a party. Vale, the smart, supportive, compassionate new friend with beautiful brown eyes and a smile that keeps Gabi, for completely inexplicable reasons, constantly in a daydream.

As a friendship blooms and the two spend more and more time together, Gabi finally begins to recognize something about himself: maybe he’s not as straight as he thought he was. But a larger and darker realization lingers. Someone like Gabi—a brown, Mexican futbolista with dreams of playing for El Tri—can’t also be bisexual. He’s seen the way his teammates and community react to queerness in their sport. It would be the exact type of straying off path that destroys his future.

Or, maybe Gabi could be brave enough to embrace all those parts of himself and forge his own path, one that includes a boyfriend and the beautiful game.

A sports romance for those who keep rewatching Bend It Like Beckham and rereading Red, White & Royal Blue and the incredible collection of queer soc—football romances out there, Futbolista follows the first semester of one guy's freshman year of college, navigating who he is, who he’s allowed to be, and who he wants to be.]]> 400 Jonny Garza Villa 1646145097 tillie 0 to-read 4.46 Futbolista
author: Jonny Garza Villa
name: tillie
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Geraldine 223428553 428 Andrea Thompson 1760993816 tillie 0 to-read 4.19 Geraldine
author: Andrea Thompson
name: tillie
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Disappoint Me 217482843
Enter Vincent, corporate lawyer and hobby baker. His trad friendship group may as well speak a different language to Max, and his Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman. It’s uncertain terrain, but Vincent cares for Max in a way she’d long given up on as a foolish fantasy. Yet he is carrying his own baggage. On his gap year in Thailand a decade prior, Vincent vies for the attention of a gorgeous traveller, Alex, with secrets of her own. Is he really the new face of the Enlightened Man, or will the ghosts of his past sabotage his and Max’s happiness?]]> 277 Nicola Dinan 1529930642 tillie 0 to-read 4.32 2025 Disappoint Me
author: Nicola Dinan
name: tillie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> One of the Boys 213189587 Victoria Zeller tillie 0 to-read 4.44 2025 One of the Boys
author: Victoria Zeller
name: tillie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Detransition, Baby 48890225 A whipsmart debut about three women—transgender and cisgender—whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires around gender, motherhood, and sex.

Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.

Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?

This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel.]]> 337 Torrey Peters 0593133374 tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 3.94 2021 Detransition, Baby
author: Torrey Peters
name: tillie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> Stag Dance 215362032 The kaleidoscopic follow-up to the bestselling Detransition, Baby

In this collection of one novel and three stories, Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing.

In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of restless lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will volunteer to attend as women. When the broadest, strongest, plainest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition.

Three startling stories surround Stag Dance: “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones� imagines a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex. In “The Chaser,� a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school brings out intrigue and cruelty. In the last story, “The Masker,� a party weekend on the Las Vegas strip turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between two guides: a handsome mystery man who objectifies her in thrilling ways, or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood.

Acidly funny and breathtaking in its scope, with the inventive audacity of George Saunders or Jennifer Egan, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles, and delights.]]> 288 Torrey Peters 0593595645 tillie 0 to-read 4.03 2025 Stag Dance
author: Torrey Peters
name: tillie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I Who Have Never Known Men 60811826 Deep underground, forty 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 important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.]]> 184 Jacqueline Harpman 1945492600 tillie 4 also *really* interesting that the author was jewish and had to flee from nazis. really puts things into a different context ]]> 4.11 1995 I Who Have Never Known Men
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: tillie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:
this was a really beautifully and well written book and very interesting! a little too depressing at times for me but also a lot of hope. i’m so glad there were lesbians, i was quite worried that there wouldn’t be. i’ll def be thinking about this one for awhile and it’ll be an interesting book discussion! i also think this would work so well for my gender speculative fiction class, which i thought even before the afterword mentioned herland!
also *really* interesting that the author was jewish and had to flee from nazis. really puts things into a different context
]]> A Gentleman's Gentleman 214537773 From the acclaimed author of Chef's Kiss, a groundbreaking trans Regency romance that's both delightfully witty and refreshingly iconoclastic.

The notoriously eccentric Lord Christopher Eden is a “man of unusual make� and even more unusual habits: he prefers to live as far from the prying eyes and ears of the ton as possible, and would rather have the comfortable company of his childhood cook and his aged butler, Plinkton, than the swarm of servants and hangers-on befitting a man of his station.

But Christopher's pleasant, if occasionally lonely life is upended when he receives word from his lawyers that, according to his late father’s will, he must find a wife by the end of the Season if he intends to keep his family's fortune and the Eden's End estate. Christopher cannot imagine a worse fate: as he isn't attracted to women, his chances of making a wife happy are slim. Furthermore, if his quest to marry has any hope of succeeding, he must move to London posthaste and acquire some more suitable staff.

Enter James Harding, Christopher's new, distractingly handsome—if rigidly traditional—valet. After a rocky start, the two strike up a fragile friendship amid the throes of the London Season . . . a friendship that threatens to shatter under the looming shadow of Christopher’s impending nuptials—and the secrets both men are keeping.

With its heady combination of dry wit, slow-burn romance, and a nuanced, complex portrait of trans identity and relationships that’s as relevant now as it was during the Regency era, A Gentleman's Gentleman stands to transform the historical romance genre as we know it.]]> 336 T.J. Alexander 0593686209 tillie 5 (also as always, i just adore alexander’s love interests. harding was just so great. i just wanted to get inside his head and see what he was thinking about everything. and ofc i do wish we had more time with them together. but alas) ]]> 4.08 2025 A Gentleman's Gentleman
author: T.J. Alexander
name: tillie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:
this was probably one of my most anticipated books of the year but TBH i don’t think i knew what the plot was supposed to be going in. it’s a very different book then tj alexander’s other works. shorter maybe? or just filled with historical fiction stuff that contemporary books wouldn’t have. TBH less funny than their other works but that may have been on purpose. it’s maybe not my favorite of their books but it is really just a lovely book. they write just wonderful romances, i was so invested in the characters and there was so much development. it was quite predictable plot wise (for the most part) but i didn’t mind that, it was more ab the journey than anything else. just a sweet, lovely book about two trans men finding each other. absolutely swept me away and now i can’t believe i’m done with it. excited to see if alexander writes more historical fiction from here: they can only get better!
(also as always, i just adore alexander’s love interests. harding was just so great. i just wanted to get inside his head and see what he was thinking about everything. and ofc i do wish we had more time with them together. but alas)
]]> Harrow 56376963 In her first novel since The Quick and the Dead (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), the legendary writer takes us into an uncertain landscape after an environmental apocalypse, a world in which only the man-made has value, but some still wish to salvage the authentic.

Khristen is a teenager who, her mother believes, was marked by greatness as a baby when she died for a moment and then came back to life.

After Khristen's failing boarding school for gifted teens closes its doors, and she finds that her mother has disappeared, she ranges across the dead landscape and washes up at a resort on the shores of a mysterious, putrid lake the elderly residents there call Big Girl.

In a rotting honeycomb of rooms, these old ones plot actions to punish corporations and people they consider culpable in the destruction of the final scraps of nature's beauty. What will Khristen and Jeffrey, the precocious ten-year-old boy she meets there, learn from this baggy seditious lot, in the worst of health but with kamikaze hearts, determined to refresh, through crackpot violence, a plundered earth?

Rivetingly strange and beautiful, and delivered with Williams's searing, deadpan wit, Harrow is their intertwined tale of paradise lost and of their reasons—against all reasonableness—to try and recover something of it.]]> 224 Joy Williams 0525657568 tillie 0 to-read 3.19 2021 Harrow
author: Joy Williams
name: tillie
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Always More (Sports, #1) 53167984
Wyatt Wicked is the number one volleyball player in the world. She could play in any professional league and had played in many during her career. When the US starts the first professional women’s league, she’s eager to play on her home soil and finally do the thing she loves most in her home country.

Wyatt’s not one to trust psychology in sports. But when she meets Everly Holman, Wyatt not only starts trusting the woman to help improve her game, she also sees Everly as much more than the team doctor. Unfortunately for her, Everly might not be willing to risk her career over their growing feelings. As they both work to establish the fledgling league, they discover that, sometimes, falling in love is worth the possibility of losing everything.]]> 225 Nicole Pyland 1949308375 tillie 0 to-read 4.28 2020 Always More (Sports, #1)
author: Nicole Pyland
name: tillie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Orion & the Cloudkillers 221212885
Starting university in a new city after coming out as trans is Orion’s best chance to press reset. It’s an opportunity to join clubs, make new friends, and forget who he used to be. But before he can find his feet at his very first Pride festival, he bumps into Sebastian Holmsted, the drummer for an all-queer local rock band called Cloudkillers � and a childhood crush he’s not-so-over.

At first, it seems as though Orion’s been given a chance to start over with Seb; his best friend and wingwoman Andy certainly thinks so. But when a crisis with another member results in Orion joining the band and the two of them grow closer than Orion could have dreamed of, past and present begin to intertwine. And when things start to become real between Seb and Orion, he finds himself wondering whether a relationship with Seb is truly what he wants after all.

Jealous exes, asexual crises, and bubble tea abound in this heartfelt story of identity, self-acceptance, and love.]]> 260 Harri D. Gordon 1763735214 tillie 0 to-read 4.50 Orion & the Cloudkillers
author: Harri D. Gordon
name: tillie
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Wild Radiance 198717655 Maria Ingrande Mora tillie 0 to-read 5.00 2026 A Wild Radiance
author: Maria Ingrande Mora
name: tillie
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Even If We're Broken: a novel 220948198 Love, like archaeology, is a lot of trowel and error.

Still reeling from being dumped by her girlfriend, bioarchaeologist Kate Roth agrees to join an estranged colleague to teach at his field school at a Viking-age archaeology site in the wilds of Newfoundland. While welcoming the escape from Colorado where she’s been medicating resurfaced anxieties with wine and angry rock music, she’s wary of three important facts: 1) she’s had a crush on Viking Cowboy Ben for half her life, 2) Ben is a family man who lives in Norway, and 3) all her romantic relationships, and most friendships, seem to have an expiration date.

For archaeologist Esben “Ben� Veholt, inviting the woman he’s been in love with since digging alongside her 23 years ago was, of course, the worst possible thing he could have done for himself. This summer was supposed to be his escape from reality: a love life in ruins, worsening body image issues, and a teenage daughter who suddenly wants nothing to do with him. When Kate accepts his offer, he intends to retain a professional relationship with her. A woman like Kate could never love him anyway—not with how much he’s changed inside and out.

All seems fine on the surface as Kate and Esben’s friendship rebuilds, but as they dig deeper, they realize just how broken they both are. To heal from their painful pasts and reclaim their crumbling presents, they each need a friend who accepts them, mess and all. But summer won’t last forever, and a third chance at romance threatens to drift across the ocean yet again.

Even If We’re Broken is an own-voice debut novel—an emotional, slow-burn friends-to-lovers open-door romance about self-acceptance, mental health, and the scars we carry.

See why Book Riot named it one of the best romances of 2024!]]> 373 A.M. Weald 2959488121 tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 4.09 2024 Even If We're Broken: a novel
author: A.M. Weald
name: tillie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Her Pretty Knight (Sapphic Lady Knights Book 1)]]> 220505767 An addictive forbidden romance between a fake princess and her bodyguard�

After losing everything ten years ago, Sir Galeon has dedicated her life to serving her kingdom as a knight. When the prince entrusts her with guarding his soon-to-be bride in his arranged marriage, Galeon does not expect to have her heart captured by the confounding princess.

Della has more than one deadly secret. Not only is she pretending to be Princess Cordelia, but she is also a witch in a world where magic is as dangerous as it is illegal. Her ability to manipulate death is the reason she is here, and her only way out. The last thing she wants is an overly loyal knight following her everywhere.
Della knows that Galeon can never learn her secrets. And Galeon knows the prince’s bride is entirely off-limits.

As reluctant proximity turns to tentative trust, initial attraction becomes burning desire. What should have been simple becomes terribly complicated.

Yet nothing will stop Della from fulfilling the bargain she made to save her sister. Not even an inconveniently timed baby phoenix or rumors of false identity. Not even murdered corpses in the library or a jealous prince.

Not even a pretty knight.

The first in a series of stand-alone stories set in the same world, this slow burn steamy queer romantasy is inspired by classic fairy tales and Arthurian legend, where the shining knight is a scarred woman, the princess is also the witch, and the prince is anything but charming.

This story contains grief, violence, explicit language, and a guaranteed HEA.]]> 247 Mariah Rae Birch tillie 0 to-read 4.30 Her Pretty Knight (Sapphic Lady Knights Book 1)
author: Mariah Rae Birch
name: tillie
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Beck and Call (The Old Bridge Inn, #1)]]> 61947891
By returning to England, Edwin Harrow hoped to escape the treacherous lover and false accusations he left behind on the Continent. But when his secrets leave him open to blackmail, the worst thing he can do is fall in love with his blackmailer's brother, kind and gravely charming fellow servant William Bell.

After five lonely years as valet to a reclusive country squire, William is fascinated by prickly, standoffish Edwin. He suspects he wants more than Edwin is ready to give, but he cannot resist trying to break through that defensive shell.

And William has secrets of his own, namely his involvement in one of the literary societies recently driven underground by the political climate. When Edwin's messy past catches up with them, will it spell disaster for them both?]]> 236 Annick Trent tillie 0 to-read, available-at-library 3.86 2022 Beck and Call (The Old Bridge Inn, #1)
author: Annick Trent
name: tillie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read, available-at-library
review:

]]> Landlocked in Foreign Skin 218398084
When Isobel reveals that she will never let the Fisherman go, even if they find the mad god, the Fisherman knows:

It's time to get violent.]]> 176 Drew Huff tillie 0 to-read 4.12 Landlocked in Foreign Skin
author: Drew Huff
name: tillie
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Woodworking 217311813 An unforgettable and heartwarming debut following a trans high school teacher from a small town in South Dakota who befriends the only other trans woman she knows: one of her students.

Erica Skyberg is thirty-five years old, recently divorced—and trans. Not that she's told anyone yet. Mitchell, South Dakota, isn't exactly bursting with other trans women. Instead, she keeps to herself, teaching by day and directing community theater by night. That is, until Abigail Hawkes enters her orbit.

Abigail is seventeen, Mitchell High’s resident political dissident and Only Trans Girl. It’s a role she plays faultlessly, albeit a little reluctantly. She's also annoyed by the idea of spending her senior year secretly guiding her English teacher through her transition. But Abigail remembers the uncertainty—and loneliness—that comes with it. Besides, Erica isn’t the only one struggling to shed the weight of others� expectations.

As their unlikely friendship evolves under the increasing scrutiny of their community, both women—and those closest to them—will come to realize that sometimes there is nothing more radical than letting the world see who you really are.

Detransition Baby meets Fleishman is in Trouble in this remarkable debut novel from an incisive contemporary voice. A story about the awkwardness of growing up and the greatest love story of all, that between us and our friends, Woodworking is a tonic for the moment and a celebration of womanhood in all its multifaceted joy.]]> 351 Emily St. James 163893147X tillie 5 favorites
also probably the first straight up contemporary book i’ve truly enjoyed since greta and valdin! ]]> 4.42 2025 Woodworking
author: Emily St. James
name: tillie
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: favorites
review:
this was a stupendous book and probably one of my favorites of the year (i need to look but possibly number two?? behind the golden raven of course). it’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s sad, terrible things happen but there’s so much hope and community and love. characters make terrible mistakes and everyone is so multifaceted. it’s so lovely!!! and there’s are so many different trans femme characters and they are all so different and they clash and hurt each other and care for each other. also, amazing stuff with perspectives is done in this book. like, first person second person third person a mix of them all, it’s great. tldr: beautifully written, amazing book that will make you feel all the things and will stick with me for a very long time

also probably the first straight up contemporary book i’ve truly enjoyed since greta and valdin!
]]> Scarlet Morning 222904055 From the powerhouse creator of Nimona comes a breathtaking illustrated novel following two orphans who leave the only home they’ve ever known to sail with an eccentric crew of pirates.

Viola and Wilmur have been waiting for their parents for fifteen boring years in the colorless town of Caveat. Their lives are a drudge of salt, trash, pirate stories, and what-ifs . . . until one very stormy night, when Captain Cadence Chase breaks down their door. They cut a deal with the Chase can take their most prized possession, a mysterious book, but only if she takes them, too. After all, if their parents aren’t coming, Viola and Wilmur might as well have a grand adventure to find them.

Setting sail into the treacherous and beautiful world beyond Caveat, the two inseparable friends must uncover the facts behind legend—and the key to saving all of Dickerson’s Sea from obliteration—before the truth tears them apart.

Wickedly funny, deeply emotional, and sharply incisive, Scarlet Morning is a tale of love, betrayal, and the extraordinary lengths we’d go to save a world broken beyond repair.]]> 432 ND Stevenson 0063210347 tillie 0 to-read 4.14 Scarlet Morning
author: ND Stevenson
name: tillie
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> But Not Too Bold 204254235 The Shape of Water meets Mexican Gothic in this sapphic monster romance novella wrapped in gothic fantasy trappings

The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House⁠―Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides.

Dália, the old keeper’s protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's death, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role.

But there’s a gaping hole in Dália’s plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path.]]> 112 Hache Pueyo 1250910536 tillie 4 also kinda blake’s short story (and me) coded: TINY ROOMS AND HOUSES WOOOOOOO. amazing!! ]]> 3.96 2022 But Not Too Bold
author: Hache Pueyo
name: tillie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:
really enjoyed this one!! it barely fell into the trap novellas often do: with under developed mysteries and romances. i think a few things felt a little rushed and out of nowhere but for the most part it really worked!!! it felt very much like that one scene in spirited away when no face gives everyone gold and they treat him like a king except with a happier ending and sapphic�
also kinda blake’s short story (and me) coded: TINY ROOMS AND HOUSES WOOOOOOO. amazing!!
]]> <![CDATA[Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People]]> 199534697 A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue—and its fascinating role in Black history and culture—from National Book Award winner Imani Perry

Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions. But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and blue?� In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey—an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology.

Perry traces both blue and Blackness from their earliest roots to their many embodiments of contemporary culture, drawing deeply from her own life as well as art and history: The dyed indigo cloths of West Africa that were traded for human life in the 16th century. The mixture of awe and aversion in the old-fashioned characterization of dark-skinned people as “Blue Black.� The fundamentally American art form of blues music, sitting at the crossroads of pain and pleasure. The blue flowers Perry plants to honor a loved one gone too soon.

Poignant, spellbinding, and utterly original, Black in Blues is a brilliant new work that could only have come from the mind of one of our greatest writers and thinkers. Attuned to the harrowing and the sublime aspects of the human experience, it is every bit as vivid, rich, and striking as blue itself.]]> 256 Imani Perry 0062977393 tillie 5 4.34 2025 Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People
author: Imani Perry
name: tillie
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
review:
very interesting and specific nonfiction book! listened to the audiobook and the author read it, always a fun time!
]]> <![CDATA[Strange Bedfellows: A Graphic Novel]]> 214283597 In this stunning graphic novel by two-time Ignatz award–winning graphic novelist Ariel Slamet Ries, Oberon must choose between fantasy and reality when he develops the ability to conjure his dreams in real life—including the facsimile of the boy who got away.

In the not-too-distant future, most of humanity resides on its last-ditch effort at Meridian, a remote alien planet where you’re more likely to be born superhuman than left-handed. 

None of that is important to Oberon Afolayan. Since his mildly public breakdown, his whole life seems to be spiraling out of control—from dropping out of university to breaking up with his boyfriend, it seems like only a karmic inevitability when he wakes up one day with the ability to conjure his dreams in the real world. 

Oberon’s newfound powers come with a facsimile of his high school crush, Kon, who mysteriously dropped off the face of the planet almost three years ago and who is a little more infuriating (if not also infuriatingly hot) than Oberon remembers. 

Kon makes it his mission to turn Oberon’s life around, and while they struggle to get a handle on his powers and his disastrous personal life (not to mention the appearance of strange nightmare creatures), it turns out this dream version of Kon has secrets of his own—dangerous ones. 

Oberon might have more on his plate than he originally thought, but is giving up his dreams—even the one he might have accidentally fallen in love with—the only way to find happiness in reality? ]]> 288 Ariel Slamet Ries 0063158086 tillie 5 favorites
reread:
amazing even on the second read! i wanted to experience it again knowing everything and also just being able to appreciate it all. the person who reviewed it with “i wish i could keep this in my mouth like a gourmet jawbreaker� is so real!!! ]]> 4.09 2025 Strange Bedfellows: A Graphic Novel
author: Ariel Slamet Ries
name: tillie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: favorites
review:
this was literally so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! holy shit!!!!! i literally had no clue what this was going in which was actually kinda great. this had basically everything a girl could desire in a graphic novel: 1) fucking AMAZING art like SO DREAMY AND BEAUTIFUL!!! the colors!!! godDAMN 2) kinda on the same note but the whole story was about dream magic (one of my favorite types of magic) and so we got all of these mini worlds/ plot points through the dreams that were so imaginative and cool asf??? also beautiful 3) listen. their dynamic was so good. and they were so fun together. and REDACTED!!!!!!! 4) also just annoying pathetic charismatic male characters, chefs kiss 5) just great worldbuilding, love a good post cli fi other planet magic powers plant punk vibe 6) lots of good themes about growing up 7) again just specular story shown through art. ajakaksmskks it just worked so well!!!! like the use of space and color and different types of drawing styles� yes. i wanna reread already cuz it was so lovely and also rereading with the twist� yes 8) also lemme say i love a good magical powers as an allegory for normal (sorta) problems. magical powers as a hindrance yes let’s fricken go. 9) and also just like,,, the burden of growing up. of parents being kinda shitty but still loving. of taking the whole world on your shoulders and hating yourself and then someone helping you through that� so lovely to see� 10) just amazing!!!!

reread:
amazing even on the second read! i wanted to experience it again knowing everything and also just being able to appreciate it all. the person who reviewed it with “i wish i could keep this in my mouth like a gourmet jawbreaker� is so real!!!
]]> <![CDATA[The Viscount Says Yes (Meddle & Mend #6)]]> 221364447 Sometimes, the answer is the easiest part.

Pip Standish enjoys his life in Tutting-on-Cress, surrounded by found family and working in his friend Gerry’s spellshop. But there’s one niggling problem at the corner of his how to propose to the charming Viscount Bertie Finlington?

When Gerry gets married and moves out, Pip is faced with how quickly things are changing in his circle of friends. With the spellshop temporarily closed for the honeymoon, now is the perfect time to take his prospects into his own hands.

But as he and Bertie spend time together on a magical project, Pip finds himself puzzling through his past to decide what he wants for his future. And braving change may turn out to be even harder than asking for Bertie’s hand.

The Viscount Says Yes is the HEA epilogue to Pip and Bertie’s love story, which began in The Education of Pip. ]]> 162 Sarah Wallace 1737432765 tillie 3 4.44 The Viscount Says Yes (Meddle & Mend #6)
author: Sarah Wallace
name: tillie
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves:
review:
sweet book and i’m glad these two finally got together but also just mid writing tbh. like no conflict happens at all, very little character growth, almost nothing happens. wallace said she got burnt out on this series and i def see that. also i stand by her rlly shining when she writes epistolary or diary entries
]]> Kosher Mafia #1 216735853 David Hazan 154581709X tillie 0 to-read 3.95 Kosher Mafia #1
author: David Hazan
name: tillie
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kirby's Lessons for Falling [in Love]]]> 214369383 “I’m once again blown away by Laura Gao’s ability to make me relate to someone completely different from myself. Get ready to experience the epic highs and lows of high school rock climbing.��Sonora Reyes, National Book Award finalist and bestselling author of The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School

Once dubbed the Queen of Balance as her school’s top rock climber, Kirby Tan suffers an injury that sidelines her for the rest of the season. Now she’s forced to join the newspaper club for some desperately needed extra credit. Worse, she’s recruited by crystal-wearing, tarot-reading Bex Santos for her astrology-based love advice column. As Kirby reluctantly agrees to orchestrate “matches made in heaven� with Bex, she begins to wonder if their own stars could be aligned. But loving who she wants isn’t so easy when her family and church community are on the line. Can Kirby pull off her greatest balancing act yet?

From Laura Gao, the acclaimed creator of Messy Roots, comes an authentic slow-burn romance and coming-of-age story perfect for fans of Heartstopper, lovers of astrology and tarot, and anyone looking for answers on the right way to fall (in love). ]]> 304 Laura Gao 006306779X tillie 5 3.64 2025 Kirby's Lessons for Falling [in Love]
author: Laura Gao
name: tillie
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves:
review:
sweet, gorgeous, and touching on so many issues!! a lovely graphic novel
]]> <![CDATA[Flight of the Fallen (Magebike Courier #2)]]> 214152256 Hana Lee’s gritty, queer Mad Max–inspired fantasy duology concludes with more high-stakes political intrigue, monsters of all kinds, and a high-speed motorcycle adventure to find a refuge for humanity beyond the wasteland.

Jin-Lu should be happy. Princess Yi-Nereen of Kerina Rut and Prince Kadrin of Kerina Sol have reunited after twelve long years, having survived a near-apocalypse. They are safe and in love—thanks to Jin—and they want her to join them for their upcoming nuptials in Kerina Sol.

But their happy ending came at the cost of Jin’s.

Jin lost everything in the fallout of saving the world. Now she’s Talentless, scrabbling to eke out a living in the lowest echelons of society. All she wants is to be left alone with her shameful secret, but the storms that sweep the wastes have other plans.

When refugees from a fallen city flood into Kerina Sol, the delicate balance between Talented and Talentless shatters. With tensions rising and civil war looming, Yi-Nereen, Kadrin, and Jin must join forces again to save their own people and the refugees.

Now their salvation lies beyond the wastes, in the mythical home of the the First City.]]> 464 Hana Lee 1668035707 tillie 0 to-read 4.75 Flight of the Fallen (Magebike Courier #2)
author: Hana Lee
name: tillie
average rating: 4.75
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
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