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"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).

"... I can’t ignore someone in need. Not when that girl could have easily been me if you hadn’t intervened.”

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My current brain has bad ADHD so I struggled a bit initially to get into this. The set up is important and necessary but my brain just struggled to stay on task. I hope my old brain returns sooner than later. 🥺 As an American, this quote really hits home today.

"Unlike most people who spent their lives searching for meaning, the girl was given a premade one, no assembly required."

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"Tears choked you. Rage kept you breathing. Anger needed air to fan its flames."

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"Her upcycled bag still strained to carry a downcycled dream."

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Gorgeous prose and a story I'm immediately interested and invested in. 😍

“In what way could you push back without risking your life?”

Well if that isn't apt.

"Crazier things have happened. Well, not to me. Or anyone I’ve ever known. Just fictional characters. Scratch all that. I’ve definitely read too many books. That’s what my problem is."

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"... I refuse to buy into this concept when there is so much suffering of innocent people in this world. I’m supposed to respect an institution that thinks I don’t have a right to exist? That thinks I’m mentally ill? That thinks my cousins don’t deserve rights, respect, and love? Fuck that noise.”

Yes, Brogan!! Said louder for the people in the back.

V: "Is he gay too?”

N: 'Fun fact: we all are. Giuls, too. Oh, and Brogan.'

V: "What about her [Brogan]?"

N: “Him. Or them. Brogan is trans masc and nonbinary.”

V: “See, that makes a lot of sense. I don’t think we had the language for it back then, but Brogan never seemed settled. Like their skin felt wrong."

N: "That's exactly how they explained it, Doc."

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

The way this book starts gave me a good chuckle. I'm a sucker for 🍆 jokes, puns, etc.

Then hit me hard with this strong, resilient FMC:

"And yes. I would love to find a person of my own, but I refuse to let not having a partner preclude me from enjoying my life. It’d just be nice to share it with someone who appreciates and loves me as is."

"crème of the crème" idk what that means.

There's so much about this book that I'm not loving, yet I'm entertained enough that I don't want to quit reading. Can't say a book has ever made me feel torn in this specific manner.

"What was this world? Where a child, like [redacted], would die and have to be saved from being dumped into a mass grave, with children like her? What was this world, where people spat at my feet for asking to find a place for her to rest, because people I had never known, ancestors I had never met had killed their ancestors?"

This book 😭💜

Ok, this is a fun time. Their banter is solid.

"If it makes you feel any better,” he adds, “I think half of adulthood is pretending to have your shit together when you clearly don’t.” 🍻

“Power is the only way that someone can implement their ideals and make a change in the world.”

"What ideals are those?”

“A world which is fairer, safer, that protects those who cannot protect themselves. That would see an end to poverty, to disease, that would allow the poor to learn, to grow and thrive. That would spread wealth with equity..."

Oh how I'd love to live in a world like that.

Romance fans, GO READ THIS. Especially if you loved The Hating Game, you'll love this.

This book is f*cking amazing - I've cackled and snorted multiple times already. How have I not read anything by this author before? I need my kids to not need to be fed anymore today so I can just read the evening away.

"Must this generation suffer because of the backward beliefs of dead kings?”

I started this book early today and haven't been able to put it down.

*"Posing like the Calvin Klein model of unicorns. He even gave me several “looks” without any prompting."

🦄 "I look absolutely as magnificent as I have been told. This is most pleasing. Do another one. I will make light with my horn."

Prism (Imogen's battle unicorn) is cracking me up.

Battle unicorns!!! 🦄 So far this one has a lot more action than A Dagger of Lightning (which makes sense), having a great time reading it so far.

"You are worthy. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

I need to read To Ride A Rising Storm asap. Such a great book. Frtc


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"I took a breath and tried to convince myself that I wasn’t afraid."

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“All I’ve ever tried to do is the right thing,” I said. “If that’s so very different from how things have been done before, then what’s been done before was wrong."

"... the Anglish have robbed us in so many ways, I can’t condone giving up who we are to become more like them.”

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"Why is it all right to ride a train, but not for me to study how trains are crafted?"

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"I don’t want to be more like them; I want them to take us seriously as a modern people with modern ideas.”

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"The world is changing, Father. We’re going to have to change with it.”

“What, by sweet Fyra’s milky tits, did you think you were doing?”

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"There are lots of girls like me—”
“There are no girls like you, Anequs,”

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"I was going to make sure that the Anglish understood that we had never gone anywhere. That despite their best efforts, we were still living here among them on the lands where we’d always lived. I was going to show them just how many of us there were."

"I can’t be sad about a life I never had.”

“You have a right to be, if you want to,”

I'm 100% aware that part of my emotional reaction is due to my own trauma. But damn, this section made me ugly cry and now my head hurts more than it did.

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"Someday not far in the future, I was going to be able to fly on Kasaqua, and I wasn’t planning to ask anyone’s permission to go looking for answers to questions like that."