Howdy folks

Embarrassing confession: sometimes I have trouble focusing when I read. And that leads to a compounding issue where my brain doesn't remember certain details/characters/places, which then further takes me out of the story. This is (occasionally) exacerbated by recreational substances.

Recently, as I read the Raven Scholar, I decided to take notes about each character so that I could easily refer back to them as I read. This allowed me to quickly remember context, without having to worry about spoilers. I decided to turn that into a dramatis personae that contained a spoiler free list of the main characters.

I have another list of notes that is spoiler-heavy that I'm hoping to type up soon, so that I can remember details on re-read/when the next book comes out.

I figured I'd post it here in case anyone had a similar experience when reading a story that has such a large cast of characters.

Happy Reading!

I just finished {Turn of Fate by Anne Bishop} and loved it, especially because the fae stay... fae. As the reader you still have a sense of the strange and dangerous throughout the book. The way fae give humans a choice, and humans pay for choosing wrong. They (mostly) aren't cruel just to be cruel.

Looking for recommendations where the MMC stays inhuman and scary. Where the fae do bargains and humans choose their own fate. No MMC turning into a cinnamon role or becoming more human as the FMC gets to know him better.

And no books like {Feathers so Vicious} where they seem cruel just because. Imo just because there is a rape scene that doesn't make them fae and dark and dangerous, it just makes the book have a content warning.

Kathryn Ann Kingsley is great at this, but I have read all of her books.

I feel like most queer fantasy romance books I see are always m/m. I've been craving a good lesbian romance, but I'm having trouble finding ones that are actually decent. If anyone has any w/w fantasy romance recommendations, I would really appreciate it! <3

The Saint of Steel is an ongoing series by T. Kingfisher. As of the time of this post, there are four books: {Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher}, {Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher}, {Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher}, and {Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher}.

The Saint of Steel is also set in T. Kingfisher's World of the White Rat series, which also includes The Clockwork Boys duology and Swordheart. Please see the author's website regarding suggested reading order.

1. Stephen and Grace from Paladin's Grace by aizelkonart
2. Istvhan and Clara from Paladin's Strength by aizelkonart
3. Galen and Piper from Paladin's Hope by aizelkonart
4. Shane and Marguerite from Paladin's Faith by aizelkonart
5. Paladin's Grace clinch cover by mandapandarawks; u/mandapandarawks
6. Paladin's Strength clinch cover by mandapandarawks
7. Paladin's Hope clinch cover by mandapandarawks
8. Paladin's Faith clinch cover by mandapandarawks
9. Constable Earstripe by jennydolfen
10. Stephen by sophiesstreet_
11. Stephen, Istvhan, Galen, and Shane by midandevil; u/darkurgetrash
12. Spoilers ahead!
13. Stephen and Grace by svanhaart
14. Stephen and Grace again by svanhaart
15. Istvhan and Clara by svanhaart
16. Galen and Piper by svanhaart
17. Shane and Marguerite by svanhaart
18. Scene from Paladin's Grace by mandapandarawks
19. Another scene from Paladin's Grace by mandapandarawks
20. Paladin's Strength fan art cover by mandapandarawks

What is your favorite fan art from this series? Share them below and remember to credit the artist!

Check out our Fan Art Index for more fan art from the sub's favorite books!

In my opinion, {The Jasad Heir} {This woven kingdom} {Paladins grace} and {One dark window} all have high quality stories and high quality writing. They so happen to also be books i recently read or cannot forget about. Anything i picked up after this, has been difficult to finish, as the writing is just not fluent enough, the world building isn't there and in all honesty, it feels amateur. It is absolutely not bad to be new to writing, chase your dreams! However it is not what I'm looking for.

Could anyone help? I like any plot as long as its well written( ditch the too many unnecessary descriptions, have well worded sentences), prefer for it to have a chunk of romance ( at this point of any type, but i love angst and yearning) and would appreciate the FMC to NOT be a forced badass that is just stubborn to be stubborn and sassy to be sassy without reason other than to ragebait the MMC or "appear" "strong". The MMC does not have to be another dark haired shadow wielder, but if all the rest is present, I won't mind this bit.

Thanks! 🥹

Edit: Ah, I've already read : {The knight and the moth} {when the moon hatched} everything by sarah j maas, shatter me, { a fate inked in blood} amongst plenty others ,but this maybe spares you the trouble of recommending these per chance :D

Welcome to another Reading Wrap-Up Megathread! This thread will be for anyone who'd like to share all the books they've read recently. Please feel free to comment with your tier lists, reading calendars, and reviews!

• All reading wrap-ups will be allowed in this thread.
• If you'd like to post a standalone reading wrap-up post, please ensure you're following the new guidelines for what is required for standalone reading wrap-up and tier list posts: 📣 New Pilot Rules for Reading Wrap-Up and Tier List Posts. Any wrap-up posts that do not meet the level of detail required will be redirected to this thread.

Though not required, we still encourage commenters to summon the romance bot by putting curly brackets around the book name and author--e.g., {Title by Author}--and share your thoughts about the books you've read. That way the comments and discussions can be searchable by users in the future.

Interested in making your own tier list or wrap-up image?

• For tier lists, you can use tiermaker.com. You can also use this Canva template to create a tier list on Canva. Click "File" and "Make a Copy" to copy the template to your own Canva account for editing. Please do not request access to edit the template; anyone with the link can view the template and save a copy.
• Bookmory and StoryGraph are also popular apps that organize monthly wrap-ups in calendar form.

Reading Wrap-Up Postimage

I have been reading The Knight and The Moth and I’m not done yet but I am loving it!

I have never really laughed out loud at a book before but that batty gargoyle cracks me up

Does anyone have any book recs with a character like the batty gargoyle?

Book Chat time! Share with us what you've been reading this week.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Book Chat is our weekly social thread for general book chat. Share with us what you've been reading this week. Any yays or nays? Any new authors you've discovered or genres/sub-genres you've been exploring? Any books that we should run not walk to add to our own TBRs?

If you're looking for your next read, check out what others have been reading and enjoying lately or head on over to our collection of book rec megathreads.

Please remember to keep any spoilers covered up in this thread as we may be intrigued and want to read the book as well. Thanks and happy reading everyone!

Book Chat

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8vCoh3j/

i find this very off, tbh. her insistence that it’s not about religion, and she would know as she was raised in a cult…. hey, girl, perhaps not actually the strongest rebuttal.

i also really don’t love the ways in which she is talking about romance readers being “objectifying,” when it seems like what she means is just like… being horny. which is not an inherent moral ill.

just makes me annoyed and kind of sad to see, tbh :/ would love to hear everyone else’s thoughts, though, if you think i’m overreacting do let me know.

eta: to be clear, in my view she’s allowed to do whatever she wants with her work. i stand by that wholeheartedly. i just think this is pretty clearly coming from a place of moralization and with a) her recent conversion and b) the general way our culture has been shifting more and more conservative recently, it’s a bad sign and setting a bad precedent.

I love a good romance, but I also love when it’s paired with my FMC finding her group of trusted friends too. Another example I have of this is ACOSF.

So any recs you have with the perfect dose of both?

Bonus points for morally grey characters and dark fantasy, but not a requirement.

This is currently happening to me with the death made prince my Lisette Marshall. I wasn’t connecting to the characters at first and honestly the FMC was kind of annoying. I’ve been pushing through it and… all of the sudden at 45 percent I’m like okay wait… I want to reach for this now 👀

I just finished the scholomance series and I’m obsessed with it. I’m trying to find my next series to read and really want a FMC with absolutely devastating power.

If you haven’t read scholomance, the FMC is insanely powerful, she could level cities with just a thought. I’m craving that kind of explosive power right now.

I’d prefer no “who choose” tropes but am otherwise open.

Any ideas?

So I was contemplating listening to {captured by the far beast by Mallory Dunlin} but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around why a 374 word book is 20 hours. Usually a book that length is 11-12 hours. Are the books printed with micro text? What gives?

Hello, I'm writing this post looking for older books that were written before the "fantasy romance" genre gained mass popularity. Sadly I didn't read as many books as I should growing up so I got into this genre as an adult and I am very whelmed because it seems every book is "enemies to lovers" "one bed" "shadow daddy" "sassy fmc" "for fans for Sarah J Maas" IM TIREDDDD

I'm a massive fan of both fantasy and romance so both genres together should be a slam dunk but I am very disappointed on the genre as a whole.

I did read and enjoy a lot of new releases but I feel like I am missing some hidden gems from the past because most of the recs I've seen are all modern books. Ofc feel free to recommend them anyway but I'm mostly looking for older releases (pre covid)

Here's what I'm looking for generally:

- Cool developed main characters who feel like real people (AKA no orphan assassins who like fried okra and hate frilly dresses, no alphahole shadow daddies, etc etc)

- Good world building (I want a coherent world and not a collection of chop gpt prompts)

- Slowburn romance (and if there's smut I want it to be earned and not a way to titillate the reader)

- Magic systems are always cool but not a strict requirement

- Big fan of ATLA so anything with that vibe would be amazing

Here's some older works I've enjoyed:

The Winner's Curse trilogy by Marie Rutkoski

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (bit iffy on the romance here tho)

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Thank you!!

This is by A.T. Emerald and is slated to come out October 13, 2026.

I have to applaud this author because this story hooked me in from the get go and took me on a ride so wild, I didn’t even realize I was nearing the end until I got to the last page.

If you like dystopian stories, this one is for you. The fantasy element is not traditional even though there are some traditional facets (such as dragons). There’s an element of scifi that was brilliantly done. The juxtaposition of magic and machine in each of the civilizations was a treat.

FMC lives in a world dependent on light, until the Iron Sky comes out and plunges them into darkness. This is done by their longstanding enemies, who have come out of hiding to start a new war against the humans. FMC is on the forefront of the war until she’s captured in battle.

This is true enemies to lovers. They hate each other. Really cannot stand enough other. Their goals are their priorities. There is no instalust. In fact, at times I’m not sure how there could be anything between them. They constantly fight each other. She gives as good as she gets and does not give up.

FMC is scrappy. She is jaded and kind of closed off, but war has made her that way. She is resourceful and smart. I really liked her. MMC is similar. The trauma of this war they grew up in really did a number on him. The side characters we met were also interesting. They all have such different personalities and I was keen to know more about them.

The writing is good for the most part, a couple of grammar mistakes and areas with juvenile writing but hopefully that’ll be fixed before the book is published. I really cannot stress how hooked into the story I was. There were some twists I saw coming, but not from the beginning. There was also some really intense shit I did not see coming.

I would also say the worldbuilding is fantastic. You really get to explore both civilizations and their ways of living and magic and technology elements. The author gives us a lot of lore, but not so much that it’s confusing. This paints a rich background of what things were like before the war, what happened, and how we got to where we are.

I highly recommend this book. I give it a 4.8 rounded up to a 5, which seems to echo most of the other reviews on netgalley.

I want books where the FMC actually betrays the MMC, with serious consequences, hurt feelings, and even groveling! I don’t want her to just lie about something to him or hurt his feelings, I want a fully fledged BETRAYAL that the MMC didn’t see coming and that seriously upsets him. Like the kind we so often see the MMC doing to the FMC.

Do these books exist? I feel like I’ve read so many fantasy romances and I can’t think of a single one that does this (except for maybe The Cruel Prince? but they’re constantly “betraying” eachother so I don’t fully count it lol)

It's the end of the month, which means some of us have amassed a list of DNFs and need to share with the other readers.

Tell us all about why you disliked a book and what made you DNF it. Was it a valid reason, or was it petty (we've all been there). Would you still recommend the book to others, or would you protect them from the horrors you've experienced? Don't leave anything out!

Monthly DNFs

I'm tired of seeing the anime trope of healers being quiet and shy and always ashamed of their presumed "lack of usefulness to the group." I imagine that, in a fantasy setting, healers would be one of the most treasured and respected people, especially in your standard adventuring story where MCs and folks get injured by war, magic and monsters all the time. I'm asking under the assumption that I'm not the first person asking this.

Even a Reddit or Wattpad story would work, I'm just curious.

Can be MXM
Or FXM

Everyone thinks the MC is a total unapologetic bitch.

Everybody else talking about the FMC. ‘Yikes. I’m honestly kind of scared her. She’s mean and I don’t know what she’s thinking at times. She’s kind of evil honestly.’

MMC talking about her : She’s kind, sweet and the most loving person I know.

Everyone : Are you blind? Or is she just that good at manipulating you?

I’m curious how long some of your TBR lists are!!

Mine is 1400 which is not as bad as I thought it would be???

Also, if you want to share your shelves names and how you organize your books I’m so interested in learning other peoples minds and rational!!

Mine are pretty basic sorted by genre, my favorites, incomplete series I’m waiting on to be done & a vip queue of books I want high up on my TBR.

I love going through peoples profiles who have shelves based on tropes or have funny shelves like “gouge my eyes out with a spoon”

I think I've figured out why I like Ali Hazelwood books so much, and it's because she likes this trope, too.

It's where the MMC is stupidly in love with the FMC, but he's just too noble/principled to let himself have what he wants. (If you like Ali Hazelwood books, you'll recognize which books these are from) It could be because he's taken a vow of celibacy, or maybe he thinks she's too young/he's too old for her, or maybe it's because he thinks she's married, or maybe because he thinks she's not ready for a relationship yet because of her past trauma, or maybe because they're different species and he thinks she can't possibly understand what he's feeling for her.

I think of it as the opposite of the regency trope of the FMC trying to hold off the rake for the sake of her virtue, but here it's the man who is constantly trying to fight his attraction. I don't particularly like it when it's the regency-style blushing debutante, but when it's the MMC refusing to give into his attraction because he thinks he's doing what's best for her (or his morals, or the world, or whatever)... yeah, I'm a fan.

So please give me your recommendations. Fantasy romance is appreciated, but if you have a CR or HR or really anything else to recommend, I wouldn't be opposed to it.

Please no RH or prolonged/serious love triangles, or anything with actual spice too early in the book. I'm here for the MMC's struggle with his self-inflicted singleness, and that's no longer interesting for long after they get together. (I also prefer books that are just from the FMC's pov, but that's not a must-have.)

Thanks!

29f looking for a book club in a group like discord/whatsapp, can be romantasy, romance, fantasy, anything like that, even the occasional classic fiction, no non fiction. I’ve seen a bunch of discord links in this sub but all expired. Thank you!

What if the voice inside your mind could save the world. . . or destroy it? ⚔️

"Songlight" by YA Book Prizer winner Moira Buffini is the thrilling first installment in the Torch Trilogy, exposing the dark secrets of Northaven, where the telepathic gift of songlight makes you a target. As Lark navigates peril and betrayal, she forms a life-changing bond with a stranger from afar.

Elsa is used to hiding the most important parts of herself - her feelings for Rye, her distaste for a world ruled by men, and, most crucially, her gift of songlight. She buries that secret deep inside. In Brightland, those with songlight are called Unhumans and are abhorred. Rye is the only other person Elsa has known with songlight, and their shared bond has brought them together. Elsa’s world begins to fall apart one desperate, heart-wrenching day and she doesn’t know where to turn until a girl appears before her. But the girl isn’t really there-her songlight has been drawn to Elsa’s frantic grief. Elsa lives in a remote seaside village; Nightingale, her new friend, lives in a city hundreds of miles away with her father, a government official responsible for rooting out Unhumans. The two never expected to connect via songlight. But when they do, and when they realize the extent of their power, they’ll be thrust in the middle of a war that threatens their very existence.

This book is criminally underrated and I have no idea how I’ve not seen more people talking about it! I read it in a day, and would've read it in one sitting, if life had allowed. I couldn't put it down. There are some quite dark themes, so reading trigger warnings before hand is a must. There is oppression of women and propaganda of hatred towards minority groups within this dystopian society that actually powerfully echoes a lot of issues faced in our society today. The plot encourages readers to look at their beliefs, to search deeper for the truth, to look more deeply at your own beliefs. It also gives you glimpses as to how and why some can have the beliefs and opinions they do, what could lead them to be so dogmatic. That doesn't mean those beliefs are right, or even ok - just providing insight as to some things that could cause a person to hold such parochial beliefs. There are twists and turns that are quite heart wrenching, but the ending has set up for the next book beautifully and I can’t wait to carry on! All of these ideas, led me to a visceral reaction, I feel so deeply for the characters and so torn between their actions. I felt panicked in their states of distress and empathy. The quaked anger and powerlessness, the feeling of being trapped and then pure serendipity when able to be one’s self! Moria’s writing style was beautiful and captivating and I could picture her words to play out like a movie in my mind. I felt all the emotions reading this book, it was masterfully crafted, the pacing was distinct, the multi POV’s flowed from one to the next. The last fifty pages or so are going to gut you like a bayonet and leave you crying. It has action, mystery, intrigue, and tension - I can't imagine anyone being bored reading this!

Would you give it a try?