Stress Reader > Recent Status Updates

“Society’s never gonna get better if people aren’t informed,”

I'm not sure where this is going but I'm loving it so far.

Imagine a medical provider saying this when you ask what a medical procedure or medicine is gonna cost:

"Asking people to pay for their lives is cruel.”

📣 “Warlords, not politicians. But, really, a suit and tie are the only difference between the two..."

Really enjoying it so far.

"... If the richest one percent, or point one percent, are hoarding their wealth and doing the bare minimum or keeping things as is, then it’s time to shake it up. To show what real wealth can and should do.”

I truly detest the phrase "wax poetic." I loved it the first time I heard it, years ago, but I've disliked it for a long time. I'm enjoying the last half of the book more, but that phrase has been in the book 3x already. It irrationally irritates me. 😅

This book! Romance fans - read this.

I almost kind of want to stop reading it at 46% because I want to preserve the point it's at. I'm not going to, but I know it's going to utterly crush my soul. And I'll love every single second of it.

‘Tell her to smile. They will like her better if she smiles.’

What woman hasn't heard this a thousand times?

"This was no way for a king to behave. Vindictive, volatile ."

"Do not cut off the swan’s head and call it vengeance while its poison seeps out. Pluck out its feathers, silence its beak, destroy its nest and set a snake on its young."

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"The last thing they want is us talking to each other."

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"Tired folk don't fight."

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"Better, I told myself, a knife in a hand than a sword still heating in the forge."

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"I wished he was a bear. Then I would know what to do."

Why did I tempt myself with 'I'm just gonna read a couple pages, get a feel for the vibes' knowing I need to get to bed cause I'm exhausted?? Cause this book starts off strong and so good and now I'm definitely staying up way too late. 🤣 No regrets, those are a problem for future me.

Obviously it's early but I'm loving this - at least as much as Miss Peregrine's, but maybe more.

His dad writes a book called 'Only Losers Don't Win' and that cracked me up.

Why is it always at the worst times that you have to stop reading to do adult stuff 🤣

"There can never be victory without sacrifices."

Standing in a restaurant waiting to pick up our order and now I'm crying, thanks to this book.

This found family is shaping up beautifully 🥰 I'm gonna go ahead and say it - epic fantasy fans, you're gonna wanna read this.

Tropes (as of 50%):
Post-Apocalyptic High Fantasy
Found Family
MC with Congenital Physical Disability (Disability Rep)
MC with PTSD (Mental Health Rep)
Diverse Cast
Sharp, Witty Banter
Sibling Bonds
Unique World
Unique Magic - Cooperation Based

Loving it so far. Best I can explain is one of these literary equations.

Mistborn + The Way of Kings + Attack on Titan + The Last Contract of Isako × (atmosphere of) The Last of Us ÷ a tiny dash of Red Rising + a hopeful heart inside a grimdark world

Possibly with the addition of found family, but I'm not currently 100% sure that's where these relationships are going. The magic so far is super interesting.

Sitting here surrounded by thousands, tens of thousands, of people and I'm already tearing up. 😭💙

Releasing on the first day of my kid's tournament means I'm reading whenever I can between games. 😆

Interested immediately, invested within a few chapters, and by ~15% I was in love. Cielo has my entire heart.

It reminds me vaguely of Mistborn combined with Tress of the Emerald Sea. If you enjoyed those, I'd highly recommend giving this a read.

Only 6% in and I'm getting smacked in the feels.

“You say everyone leaves. You say I’m going to leave. But you keep leaving me first."

💜😭 I feel so personally called out.

"Revenge is a multistep process. It requires careful planning, attention to detail, and enough fury to set the world alight. I have all of the above."

Really enjoying this book

"... the people had grown tired of endless warfare and economic turmoil."

Yes, yes we have. Loving the book and taking my time with it.

"Humans are such fragile creatures. I will never understand how you can be so cold and uncaring to your own kind."


"He hated things he didn't understand—especially when they could kill him."


"Chovathi show their affection for one another by ripping each other limb from limb. Hell of a way to start a relationship."


"The one thing that made us different, for as long as any of us can remember, unites us now."

"Walls give people a sense of stability because they keep the outside out and the inside in."

"Your pride or your life. Keep one or lose them both."

"The Breaker of the Dawn is coming to Break this world and restore us to greatness."

"... children of two worlds that would never be fully accepted in either. Rejected by humans and resented by Athrani, they carried the weight of their heritage on their backs..."

"Why are we [women] only allowed to have teeth when we use them to take care of others?”

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“Wisdom is chasing you, but you will not let it catch you."

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"Their complacency was motivated by fear and control, but it was still a bitter pill to swallow that they had sat back and allowed..."

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"I would rather have twenty years in a world with you than eight hundred years in a world without you.”

"The Elders simultaneously had strong opinions but no actual ability to carry out any of the fighting, so now it was going to fall to me."

Well if that isn't apt.

Not all is as it seems in this twisty, spicy Viking tale. Already had at least one surprising twist. Dark romantasy fans, keep this one on your radars.

'We never truly know a heart until we see the darkness inside.'

Please let my brain and MH cooperate because this book is starting off so freaking good. Im

“Mine is a story of a woman who lost her heart.”

“Mine is a tale of the treachery of love. But when love left me bleeding, I stitched myself back together, turned wounds into seams and sinew into threads.”

The sin of artistry theme fascinates me. Or, perhaps, the artistry of sin is more fitting.

My mental health has been bad lately and usually my first choice for self care is reading. But that hasn't been working well for me. I got the ARC of this and had no idea what to expect. But I've made it to 48%, which is more than I've made it on any of the countless other books I've attempted to read in the last month (it isn't the books that's the issue, it's me, my current brain, and my mental health).