Marquise > Recent Status Updates

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

This book cannot disappoint me, it's strictly verboten!

#plsgodamenthnx

Seriously, my February ARC pile is far more promising than my Jan/March piles. I've a ridiculous accumulation of ARCS & purchases I'm dying to read but couldn't for lack of time & Beginning of the Year Syndrome. Now thinking of locking myself up on a cabin (i.e. my room), ban myself from socials & not allow myself back till I finish all.

My second interview is up!
https://pawntoplayer.com/2026/02/09/a...

And the winner of the giveaway too.

I'm happy doing this, lemme tell you. I'll aim for doing this once per month at least. Indies & small authors are a joy to talk with regardless of whether you agree or not (and I do let them express their ideas freely), much more lovely than famous & big name ones in my experience.

Remember the author I was trying to reach out for interview but they wouldn't reply so I reached out to their agent?

Well, now the agent has answered to me (after many days of no reply, I should add), and . . . they want me to rewrite my interview request because she claims I misgendered the author and I also should change my interview to correctly gender the author, and only then the request will be forwarded.

1/2

No better way to teach you how UNIQUE GR is than trying from scratch at other socials.

There's no place like GR.
Trying to make friends elsewhere is humbling.
Trying to move your followers from GR to elsewhere is impossible.
People don't want to read/comment on blogs/sites anymore.
Elon deemed me 'sus' & suspended my newfangled account.

How am I ever gonna leave this den of depravity if everywhere else is so hard?

Ladies and gentlemen and literary animals, my first-ever book giveaway is here!

I'm so excited, I've never hosted one before, and I hope to make it a regular feature on my website.

Do participate, your chances of winning are higher than here on Goodreads. :P We're not limiting it to US-only readers.

"Just begin. It will take a while to build a following but just be consistent and keep your audience engaged. You'll develop a faithful community over time and that matters most."
- My bestie.

That's her advice to me after complaining that I don't know how to make my website grow w/o creating social accounts to promote reviews (don't want IG, FB's old folks, Tumblr's dead, Twitter's a nightmare, etc.). What say you?

Quick question: If an author that has received an award/some sort of public acclaim for their literary achievement, but doesn't answer when reached out to personally or through their agent . . . can this be considered grounds for forfeiting the award/recognition?

In such a case, if yes, what proceeds? The next in line or runner up author gets it instead, or what?

Asking for a friend. :P

So, I haven't posted a single review here in all of January (I've many drafts) to test how it would feel to take a reviewing break but continue reading & interacting here.

As I suspected, the issue is reviewing. I no longer want to review everything I read. My reviewer phase is over & overstaying its welcome causes stress.

I thrive on talking books that interest me, so the decision I made is defo the right one.

#128: When you were young and penniless, what did you do to get books (other than beg, borrow, or steal)?

I know what you do now in your ol' age, but not when you were a child/teen that couldn't afford books.

Me? I would go without & reread those I had to pieces. :'( But one day I saw my chance at riches (heh) and got my 1st job at a bookshop for a day. Bought an Austen & a Christie w/my newfangled fortune of $20.

#129: Do you trust paid reviewers and ARC reviewers or not?

I know this question kicks a hornets' nest, but... heh, let the world burn, I'm leaving anyway!


Personally, there's 3 types of reviewers I don't trust under no circumstances:
a. paid reviewers (influencer or professional),
b. reviewers whose reads are 80% or more ARC/free books,
c. literary critics.