Update: Life and Books (Mar 2024) – Peacocks, Punching Books, and My Reading Mojo is Back!

 
 

Guess what, everyone! I have something cool to share this time that isn’t about games! It’s peacocks! Well peacock. I heard a weird noise outside, so I opened my curtains and found this! Wild peafowl have lived around here for a long time. I saw some in front of the house once, like five years ago. But having one just outside my window with tail feathers all spread and everything was genuinely exciting!

I also played more Baldur’s Gate 3! I have done almost nothing in my free time but play this game for months now. Genuinely the only reason I haven’t written a review for it yet is because I don’t want to stop playing long enough to write one. Even on my fifth playthrough, there’s still more stuff to find, more dialogue I haven’t seen, more classes and races to try, more characters to romance, etc. I’m currently doing my first Dark Urge playthrough (you can still design your character, but they have this mysterious background you uncover as you go), and it’s making the game feel almost new again. Ahh I’m just enjoying this game so much! Now for your enjoyment, here’s a screenshot of my current character punching a book open when magic didn’t work. (The hair, piercings, rings, gradient skin, horns, and armor are all mods.)

BG3 screenshot. My character with glowing red eyes, red and black ram horns with jewelry dangling from them, red hair, lip and nose piercings, a black flamelike tattoo that covers his neck and ends on his lower face, and black hands that fade out to light skin on the arms, making an angry face and punching a book that has a lock around it.

Also my last character romanced this guy.

BG3 screenshot of the Emperor, a mindflayer, a creature with purple skin and a head that looks like a squid with four tentacles where the mouth would be and an exposed brain show on the sides, saying, 'Your mind is - truly - something special.'

🙂


Blog/Bookish Updates:

Nothing this month.

 

Books I Received for Review:

Photo of my hand holding an ARC of The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin, next to some dried roses in a vase. The cover has big swirly font, and all around the title are flowers, skulls, keys, guns, and bullets.

I received an ARC of The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin, from Random House Canada & Wunderkind PR. I’m so excited for this angsty queer Jewish fantasy book!

Photo of my hand holding Together in a Broken World by Paul Michael Winters, next to some dried roses. The cover is art of two teen boys carrying packs, electricity posts and wires behind them, all against a pink and orange sunset.

And I received Together in a Broken World by Paul Michael Winters, from NineStar Press and Pacific & Court. I’ve already finished and enjoyed it! Plus, this cover was done by an artist who’s done some of my favorite covers (Micah Epstein).

(Yes, I used the flowers for both pictures, don’t judge me. They both looked good with the flowers!)

Cascade Failure by L.M. SagasCovenant Vol. 1 by LySandra VuongStarfire by Naomi HughesBad Romance by E.M. Jeanmougin & Jay WrightThe Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

I got an audiobook copy of Cascade Failure by L.M. Sagas, plus ebook copies of Covenant Vol. 1 by LySandra Vuong and Starfire by Naomi Hughes, via NetGalley. I’ve already finished and really enjoyed them all.

I got Bad Romance by E.M. Jeanmougin & Jay Wright, from the authors, and I’m looking forward to learning more about a side character in one of my favorite series!

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang is from the Libro.fm ALC program. I usually check at the start of the month, but this one got added later, so I almost missed it and haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but this was on my TBR, so I’m glad I checked again!

 

Books I Finished:

Together in a Broken World by Paul Michael WintersKick at the Darkness by Keira AndrewsCascade Failure by L.M. SagasCovenant Vol. 1 by LySandra VuongEarthflown by Frances Wren

I got my reading mojo back! I read eight whole books. Look at me go! And they’re all 4 or 4.5 stars.

If you’re considering buying any of these books from Amazon, I’d really appreciate if you’d use my affiliate link!

Together in a Broken World by Paul Michael Winters – This was a nice queer YA post-apoc! Very few zombies, more about the action/thriller vibes and sweet teen romance.

✨ Kick at the Darkness // Fight the Tide // Defy the Future by Keira Andrews – The last book in this trilogy came out, so I reread the first two and finished. It’s a wonderful, sometimes quite emotional, m/m post-apoc with zombies, but also one of the MCs is a werewolf.

✨ Cascade Failure by L.M. Sagas – I loved this! I felt invested in these characters so quickly, and I loved the angsty, fraught, “these two have history” relationship between two of them. Also the writing, the found family, the story, all of it, really. And the audiobook narrator.

Starfire by Naomi Hughes – I was expecting sorta typical YA fantasy with dragons, but this took me by surprise with how unique and creative it was!

Covenant Vol. 1 by LySandra Vuong – A solid start to a graphic novel series about badass exorcists, with beautiful art, and I’m looking forward to more.

Earthflown by Frances Wren – Fantastic writing and characters and a detailed story, but an unsatisfyingly open ending for a book that was described as a standalone. (The author is planning a sequel with different MCs though, which might close those open threads.)

 
 
 

Talk to me!

How was your month?
Have you found any good books, games, shows, etc. lately?

 
 
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  1. Lola

    That’s awesome you saw a peacock right in front of your window like that, those are some great pictures! That’s great you got your reading mojo back and all the books you read this month were 4 and 5 stars. And that’s awesome Baldur’s Gate is still so enjoyable even in your fifth playthrough, definitely sounds like it has a ton of content. I heard so many good things about the game, but haven’t played it myself yet, maybe one day I’ll check it out. I hope April will be a good month for you!

  2. Roberta R.

    “Genuinely the only reason I haven’t written a review for it yet is because I don’t want to stop playing long enough to write one.”
    LOL! And the guy your character romanced is…interesting 😂.

    I already commented on the peacock via Twitter, but again…great pics, and I can feel your excitement! I only saw live peacocks in my first year at uni, at a local garden. But, I mean, they were expected!

    Eight books? All 4 and 4.5 stars? Yayayay!

  3. Angela @ Literary Wanderer

    Wow, that peacock is so cool! I love when they open their feathers like that. We see them a lot at zoos and it’s always a little weird to me how they are just walking around free, but also really neat!