Lilly > Recent Status Updates

The approach to knowledge in medieval times is so fascinating; makes me want to study the logical fallacies of the time. Knowledge is revered & gatekept, manuscripts painstakingly copied. In the story, there's a big building with a scriptorium on one floor, & the library on the top floor. Only the librarian is allowed inside the maze-like library & knows where everything is. Really cool & mysterious!

I'm picking this up again here and there, since it's an easy read.

I thought this hardcover book was huge when I got it, but now after I read The Ink Black Heart it seems medium-sized. XD

So much is happening! :O The plot developments are so creative and clever!

Lovely descriptions, great characters, and the pacing is really good too as intriguing things keep happening. I want to forgive Wenzhi too, haha! And oh my gosh, Xingyin's dad's backstory was so unexpected but really good!! I have a hunch whom Tao and his sister want the elixir of immortality for. 👀

So excited to read the last portion of this book! :D After a fight with someone, Strike just had an epiphany related to the dossier that lied about Edie being Anomie, and "the unwritten letter of accusations [from his ex] he could have burned without reading" (913). Is he thinking about the buried letters, or the ones Kea sent to Josh that went unread?

So exciting!! :O

Whoa! Something explosive just happened. :O ALSO, I'm SO intrigued now by how Z** and T** are involved based on the fight Robin just overheard! Those two have seemed the most innocent to me so far!! :O

Ooh, interesting clues being set up. Did the killer take the phones to get Edie's digital notes? How does the theme of disability and Morehouse's connection to the Pen of Justice blog tie into the case? It's interesting to learn more about who the moderators of the game are. At this point I'm wondering if Anomie is even the killer or if there is someone else with a different motive...

The internet formatting sections are so efficient at conveying information! This was really clever of Rowling to include this stuff for a mystery that has so much online material. Even the way the YouTube videos are written are so realistic, haha. This must've taken Rowling so much extra work to do, wow! She never ceases to impress me.

Oh my god!!! What?!! SO many things have been happening, like WHOA good plot pacing! There are action scenes and plot developments that are so unexpected; the love triangle is genuinely so complicated; and now this twist at the end of chapter 30?? :O MAN WHY?? It was too good to be true!!

I like how the story is setting up key lore information and foreshadowing right now! I'm excited to see how certain things will be important later, like the clear stones Xingyin and Liwei have that warn if the other is in danger, and also the different magic "Talents," including the forbidden intrinsic Mind magic. :O

The writing is so scrumptious 👌👌👌

Cute start! This is the second time a Gilmore book has tricked me into thinking it's a particular season, though! 😆 Strawberries in the title make me think it's June and summer season, but it's actually chilly March. :P

Nice love story so far. Reminds me a bit of Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.

OH MAN stuff is happening and bringing up more backstory and lore questions. Good pacing between the parallel storylines. The flashback chapters and different character POVs interact thematically so well. :)

Haven't heard from Shallan in a while, so I hope we go back to her storyline again soon! I love what's going on with Kaladin, he's so inspiring. Dalinar is also so wise and I'm rooting for him as he tries to be a voice of sanity in the war effort among the greedy, competitive highprinces. I enjoy how each snippet of lore Sanderson gradually drops in explains things a little more, creating an intriguing picture.

I am so invested; I trust the author has a really cool long-game plot. The magic system rocks and the characters have good depth. Kaladin's questions about how sketchy the war are are intriguing (why are lives being wasted and what are they fighting for? What's with those huge boulders in the middle of the field?).

Sweet love story so far. I'm fresh off of a Strike mystery, so I have a pretty good guess what the Hale family secret is. I'm also waiting to see how Victoria Hale's allegation against Archer is proven wrong, since he seems so gentle (the cousin Travis probably blamed Archer for something he himself did wrong, he jerk).

!!! WHOA!!!!!!! WHAT!!??!!!!

The answers are trickling in!! I like how some of the many plot threads are being resolved. It gets me looking forward to solving the book's main mystery.

This is still interesting, though I've slowed down in chapter six, since Mysticism is so abstract, and the author is quoting a lot of old literature back to back that's harder to focus on when I'm reading while kinda sleepy at night.

This book is AWESOME. Just got to chapter four. It's about how the premodern people viewed the world as much more saturated in meaning, and how C. S. Lewis (as a scholar and lover of medieval literature) tried to imbue that "atmosphere" into his own fiction.

Almost couldn't put this down last night! I'm so invested in all the side stories too, and Strike and Robin's private struggles. I hope Strike finds out what's been going on with Morris bothering Robin and gives him a verbal smackdown!

I jumped back into this one in the last week! I'm just starting part four. The amount of detail and planning that must have gone into this mystery is next level, wow! Strike and Robin have their work cut out for them in finding relevant evidence and witnesses to a botched investigation cold case. Paul Satchwell and Roy Phipps seem the most suspicious right now.

Started on 12/27/25. I've never read high fantasy before, but one of my favorite actors Jon Matteson has mentioned for years that it's his favorite book, so I wanted to give it a try, and I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it! The level of world building is very impressive.