Marquise > Recent Status Updates

So, I'm finally taking the leap and leaving GR reviews for a new phase. I've written about my reasons and what I will be doing from now on here:
https://pawntoplayer.com/2026/10/02/g...

Essentially, I will no longer write reviews outside of my project, so the Marquise you knew here is over. Feel free to ask me anything if you wish. <3

In today's episode of "Die Hard 5: Marquise McClane":

- The priest to marry us died.
- My laptop crashed, 5 years of Cub & Marquise pics lost. Two diff techs said it's irrecoverable unless NASA-grade lab & inshallah.
- Landed in the ER for playing Supermarquise. Fuck healthcare and fuck the king.

The good? I'm McClane besides Ricardo & Gilmore, plus the specialist needed to finish patching me up is my cousin. :D

Sweet baby Jesus and his milk bottle! The MMC here is so profoundly naïve he makes Candide and Sansa Stark look like jaded cynics by comparison. o.O

And he isn't a sheltered teenager raised on unrealistically optimistic pseudo-philosophies like the former or a sheltered 11-year-old noblewoman obsessed with fairy tales like the latter.

What's his excuse? We shall see, but we fear we already know...

Wish this was more of a standalone story. I'm not a fan of Beau's family's story as "container" for his own like a matrioska.

I want only Beau/Caoimhe, drat it! Who cares about Hawthorn and his stupid mirror?

I'm getting a few nasty comments at my site over the Unicorn Hunters review, which I'm ignoring.

But do these people realise I see their email address & IP location when they comment? They're gifting me information about them that I can use to ask my friend Craig to put me in contact w/his chums in the Uncle Vladimir Hitman Services Inc. to send one to their home.

So, I've been trying several sites & cataloguing apps to move my books to a private place out of sight of nosies and trolls. Here's what I learnt:

(See comment below if image doesn't show.)

That's all folks! PSA brought to you by Prof. Dr. Marquise, Ph.D. in Literary Misadventures. :P

Question: How do you keep track of certain books (ridiculous, guilty pleasure, kinky) that you read or record to not accidentally pick them up?

Debating adding them all to a shelf ("Sent to the Nay Corner") to track those ludicrous Beauty & Beast retellings to keep at arm's length, but w/o Barbra Streisand-ing them due to my visibility here.

I already got reviews shadow-banned for making fun of books' wacky blurbs.

Why do people assume I'm uneducated in History PRECISELY on those reviews where I detail what a book got wrong about the real history?

Shouldn't that alone prove what I know?

Deleted many "if you want accurate, grab a biography" & "it's just fantasy" & "if you don't like inaccuracy, don't read Shakespeare" snooty comments on my blog over the "Unicorn Hunters."

And you ask me why I don't want to review anymore.

So the rumours about Amazon were true, the greedy bastards DO delete your books.

*drags a pile of hardbacks bought on holiday & climbs onto it*

I'm back!

Well, kinda. Needa recover before I'm back. Some news:
1. Amazon deleted a buncha ebooks I bought years ago. "Not Available."
2. I'm fully transitioning into a retellings-only reviewer.
3. Be married in a few months.
4. Sunburn. Got booted from the World Cup.

Hey, remember that interview with the famous and award-winning author I teased a few months back?

Here it is:
https://pawntoplayer.com/2026/06/16/a...

See if you can guess who it is before clicking! :)

She's a great person, I'm so proud of having been able to talk with this smart lady. <3

OIf to my summer holiday now with a big silly smile now See you soon!

Friends! Life's making me take a break from GR for a while, probably a couple of months or so.

I'll still be reading and will be posting reviews & interviews to my blog, in case you want to check in on me on occasion.

See you again soon! <3

So that's all there was to the unicorn hunt?

What a dumb unicorn hunt. Contrived, convenient, contradictory. The 3 Cs of doom. And of course I noticed the one (well, two) contradictions that would blow the whole unicorn stuff.

And now they'll leave it behind like it never happened?

Do we even trust Arden to pull it off at this point? No. Do we guess why she aged Anne up? Yes. Shall we continue? Grudging yes.

*deep sigh*

Hello, Disappointment, my old friend...

It's early, but I already caught the scent of "I don't like how my favourite woman was treated by her patriarchal time & mores, so I'll age her up to make her Assertive & Empowered to suit my modern sensibilities, but the outcome will be the same anyway."

AKA, altering historical realities you dislike.

I'll power through, but I'm on my guard & not in a good way.

Just when I was sighing in relief at finishing all my retellings for Jan/Feb/March, I find out I missed 10 more.

*groan*

And when I'd thought I was done w/my mini-reviews for all the 62 retellings of 2025, I find out I missed 55 more.

*louder groan*

No way I can review all this alone. Who wants to review 120 retellings per year?!

Got a plan. Thoughts?

My 4th author interview is up!
https://pawntoplayer.com/2026/03/27/a...

Next one by the end of the month will be to a Famous & Award-Winning Author. *wink*

I've had some setbacks and rejections, but my interviews section is finally sailing smoothly! I love doing this, I learn a lot from listening to their thoughts on tales & folklore. <3

I had to delete some comments telling me I waste my time writing long reviews, it's always:
a. people who haven't written any reviews themselves, or very few,
b. people who liked the book (no complaints when it's positive),

Why does it bother them how long a review is? It's my time to "waste," nor theirs. What else are we supposed to do on a books site?

This seems to be a new line of attack, at least in my case.

There are many users here, usually young, who call each other "queen," "beautiful," "precious," "treasure," "darling," etc.

It's normal for me, I come from a culture where terms of endearment are common, expected politeness, niceties. But I'm aware that there's people who dislike this or find it cringey/whatever.

Years ago, someone I was friends with suddenly started berating me for calling her 'dear' because...

#132: If you could pick a fairy tale/folktale to describe your life, which would it be?

Weird question, I know! But tales are archetypal blueprints for personal development, & we all have one to fit us whether we know it or not.

This is for my Cub. He was so young when we met, I basically ambushed him out in the woods, so I've always said our 'meet-cute' story is Little Red Riding Hood, I'm the Big Bad She-Wolf. :P

Wooohooo! We finally have a DNF shelf!

What happened to our reliably oblivious Glitchreads that they're giving us something useful we all needed for once?

Does this mean they'll give us half stars later too? Or does this mean they'll take something away from us that they know will have us at their throat?

Ah, well, we shall see about that when the time comes. For now, celebrate our brand new & shiny DNF shelf!

You've no idea how GOOD it is to find a humorous & adorable fantasy w/ historical vibes after a terrible book.

And w/a sense of humour compatible w/your own? Heavenly!

Reminds me of why Kate Stradling was an auto-buy author for me (she did have 1 .big flop in my eyes, but she's now forgiven)

And yes, I can see who/what that "serpentine excellency" is right here a mile away, but I don't care. Vive la prévisibilité!

"Devastating love story," uh? I've seen tamer horny gay/hornier bi pairs than this & with more believable excuses.

And this has a built-in voyeur.
And a M/M/F threesome. Or M/M/F/D counting the built-in voyeur.
And then a M/D dub-con (or rather a non-con) after.

Looks like the earlier controversial plot twist is the least of the issues.

I'll read this to the end. Sunk Cost Fallacy + So Bad It's Good victim = me.

My 3rd author interview is up!
https://pawntoplayer.com/2026/03/10/a...

I really love doing this. <3 You learn a lot about the backstage comings and goings of books, and some surprises, too.

Slight improvement by this point, emphasis on the slight.

There may or mayn't be hope for this book yet, there may or mayn't be some sort of inner consistency.

Still, that controversial twist is going to have a cost. Hefty.

Also wondering what the author's beliefs are, if any, because of certain weird religious stuff here.

I'll persevere till the 50% mark to decide if this is worth to keep going or bail out.

That sinking feeling when you run into a controversial plot twist & realise the book's interpretation of the Beast is worse than you guessed, and can't stop le train sur une trajectoire de collision avec la Histoire et la logique interne et la cohérence narrative de l'intrigue...

Merde!

Please surprise me in the opposite direction.

Interesting choice of narrator, and interesting storytelling style too. I was expecting a serious "tone," but got a scholarly MMC with a dry humour & a "snarky demon living inside me" plot instead.

I can see merely 5 chapters in what the author's take on the Beast of Gévaudan will be like (downsides of being familiar with the legend), yet the book's works for me so far. A case when predictability doesn't spell Doom?

Just what I needed to complete my GR experience: a pile-up of people who 5-starred a book I DNFed w/nothing negative about it besides that it wasn't for me.

Look, when someone drops a book & says it isn't for them, THEY MEAN EXACTLY THAT AND NOTHING MORE. It's not a slight or insult, it's taste, mood, maybe I was tired that day & didn't want that kind of book. Don't read more into it & ascribe things I haven't said!

#131: Have you ever won a book giveaway?

Me: here on Goodreads? Never, and I've entered 9 giveaways only for Jan-Feb (& will apply to more in the months to come). Elsewhere? No, neither, but that's my own fault as I don't apply to those elsewhere (and I don't want to be creating an account on every single social platform just to apply to only-once giveaways).

I'm not a lucky reader, I guess.

olks, folks, folks! I got accepted for an interview with a famous author. Someone I admire.

OMG! WHAT AM i DOING? OMG! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO ASK! OMG! I'M GOING TO SCREW IT ALL UP AND DIE OF SHAME! OMG! HEEELP!

I debated this w/my besties & co-blogger before and have a fair idea of what I'll do, but I'd like to include y'all too, so:

#130: Thhose of you who have more than 1 place to review, do you pick & choose what reviews to post where?

I hesitate to post my neg reviews to my site, not for fear but for reputation-building reasons (bad optics, authors/pubs don't like neg), so for now I'm only posting my positive ones.

Twitter unsuspended me & now won't let me delete my account.

WORST social for readers. Sure, you get access to Big Name authors & Publishers & whatnot, but their accounts are ALL PUBLICITY. Most don't use theirs only for books, there's politics everywhere in "book accounts."

If I wanted politics, I'd follow you from my personal account.

Thus endeth Marquise's adventures in trying to be an internet celebrity. :P