Author: Stargrace

Just another gamer with too much time on her hands.

Reading Journal – BINGO

I decided that 2025 would be the year I started my very first reading journal – and I’m so glad I did! I don’t have all of it planned out yet, but I do have quite a bit of it done, and I am looking forward to sharing it with everyone. I already wrote about the TBR page along with my star rating system, and this is the BINGO card I’ve added to the center of the book. I’ve already read two books this month so I’ve marked off two of the squares (Book w/a country you’ve never been & Listen to an audiobook) and I can’t wait to see how long it takes me to complete a line in this bingo game. I’ve got more pages I’ve set up and I’ll be posting those later in the week, so stay tuned!

2.5/5 Star Review: The Awakening

It was an OK book that I probably won’t remember by the end of this year. I was looking for something relaxing and available as an audio book from my library. I’ve read a lot of Nora Roberts before but this book felt forced and played on so many stereotypes that it felt awkward. We know the best friend is gay, we know he works at a bar with cross dressers, but it felt like every single time he spoke it was to remind us, the reader, of these facts. It did not feel organic at all. I would have loved to have seen queer representation done better. 15 hours was also one incredibly long time for a book where almost nothing even happens for the majority of it.

2.5/5 stars

2.5/5 Star Review: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

I borrowed this book from the library to listen to while I was working on other things like cross stitch. This system has been super popular but honestly I’m not as enthralled with it. I don’t like how little room there is for flexibility, and how relapse is guaranteed if you don’t follow the rules exactly. I did like learning how to fold clothes, but everything else was a lot of hit / miss. Sometimes it’s just not practical, plus what ‘sparks joy’ could change day to day, or year to year. What if Anne Frank threw out her diary one day while cleaning. I think it’s important to look at a bigger picture. So for these reasons it was an ‘OK’ read, but not the greatest.

2.5/5 stars

FaRoDay – Day 23

JEFFE KENNEDY

Familiar Winter Magic

Best friends and classmates, Han and Iliana are facing a bleak midwinter holiday. Despite their longtime craving for each other, their suppressed love will never be realized, and soon they will be separated forever. Unless they can find the courage—or desperation—to break the rules and acknowledge their deeper feelings. But true love cannot save them from the laws of the Convocation…It might just take some magic.

Heat Level: Hot ***

FaRoDay – Day 21

AK MULFORD

The Witch of Crimson Arrows

In a world where red witches are hunted, eighteen-year-old Remy must keep her powers hidden to survive. Working at a tavern with her two brown witch companions, she dreams of freedom. But when she starts a secret tryst with the cobbler’s son, the risks grow. With a bounty on red witches, if anyone discovers her secret, Remy could lose everything—including her life.

Heat Level: Hot ***

FaRoDay – Day 20

SHAYLIN GANDHI

Song of the Hundred-Year Summer

When Naia’s village is cursed with endless summer, she must confront the formidable beast who holds the key to restoring the seasons. But she soon finds herself torn between duty and an unexpected bond with the monster she set out to destroy. A 90-minute romantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast.

Heat Level: Smoldering **

FaRoDays – Day 19

ALLISON CARR WAECHTER

At the White Wolf

At the White Wolf is a standalone novella that takes place five years after the events in The Immortal Orders Trilogy. There are minor (and predictable) spoilers to the way that relationships play out in TIO, but this book is a fluffy summer romance, full of magic, wolf shifters and two lost souls finding their way… and each other.

Heat Level: Hot ***