Yes indeed, Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775… 250 years ago!
To celebrate, I’m giving away a bundle of Austen-themed goodies that I’ve been slowly collecting for this occasion ever since I heard this auspicious day was coming, a couple years ago. XD
To enter, head THIS LINK and enter your email. That’s it!
US addresses only (sorry!).
Giveaway ends Sunday, December 21, 2025, at 11:59 CST.
Winner will be contacted by email after that date.
One (US) winner will receive a package with the following items:
1 Hardcover of Pride and Prejudice (Whimsical Publishing edition, exclusive to their web shop)
1 unopened DVD of BBC’s Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Which is simply to say I’ll be offline for awhile, and to shout out some books releasing soon that I had the honor of editing, and a random list of films I’m looking forward to, and stuff like that! 🙂
My top favorite reads of 2024! And random thoughts about them! (Read last year’s HERE.) Let’s go!
(Yes, there were shenanigans to get these to all fit in one photo. And yes, I jumped the gun and edited The Prisoner and the Pirate into it and then happened to get my Kickstarter copy a few days after taking the pic, go figure. 😂 It’s releasing April 30!)
Robbing Centaurs and Other Bad Ideas (Bethany Meyer)
Hilarious, imaginative fantasy // buddy story // WICK AND ARCHER ARE SUCH A FUN PAIR
Drax Guard: Crew Six (books 1-3 [Flashpoint, Faultline, Conduit], but you know book 4 and book 5 will be on 2025’s top-faves. ;)) by C.M. Banschbach
Urban fantasy x spec ops // all the characters are my faaave! // I…seriously cannot express how much I love this series.
Hearts of Stone and Steel and The Prisoner and the Pirate (Turrim Archive book 3 and 4) by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt
Delightful gaslamp fantasy that just gets better and better with each installment and characters who steal my heart every time! Noblebright Fantasy at its best!
Binding of Silver (Sarah Chislon)
Intense fae // fantasy mystery // gaslamp // one of the most gorgeously written books I’ve ever read
The Shattered Ones (Brigitte Cromey)
Futuristic spec ops with superpowers after the alien apocalypse // SQUAD 36 // wonderful characters I adore // found family ❤ // GABE. CALEB.
William Bradshaw and For a Song (Arthur Daigle)
Hilarious fantasy with all the tropes turned on their heads // goblin shenanigans // King Will is the best
To Take a Throne (Jessica Greyson)
Delightful kingdom adventure novella // intense // he-always-wins epic character I love so much (Eliot forever!) // reluctant queen // castles // ties to Captive of Raven Castle and Annabeth’s War
Charting Stars (Micheline Ryckman)
The characters are life // QB the squirrel! // delightful fantasy realm quest with a heroine from Canada // Jarrett forever
We Will Be Heroes (Megan McCullough)
Redemption story // superheroes! // Sam is hilarious // supervillain antihero and agent heroine // enemies to something adorable // perfect ending to a delightful superhero duology
Urram – Rekindled Hope (Cheyenne van Langevelde)
SCOTTISH! // all the vibes // Angus and Fiona foreverrrr // feels like exactly the kind of book I wanted to reread over and over as a teen
Power in Time (Erudessa Gentian)
Superpowers // time travel // white tiger! // fantasy on another planet and a heroine pulled from our time // the COLORS (I…can’t really elaborate on that but it felt like such a VIBE and I want to go live at the palace please)
Stalk the Sky (Tara Grayce)
Elves and fighter pilots and a cold island // You know I’m here for the Merrik fanclub, right? 😉
Dear Writer, Are You Intuitive? (Becca Syme and Susan Bischoff)
I don’t always put nonfiction books on my top reads but did this time. It just…had some inspiring things to say. 🙂
Missing from spine view: The Prisoner and the Pirate by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt
Have you read any of these? Are any on your TBR? (They should be!) What was your favorite book you read last year?
Look, I’ve done a best-books-of-the-year blog post every year since I started blogging and I’m not going to stop doing it for some trivial reason like it being 2025 instead of 2024. 😂
My top reads posts are always interesting to look back on (and I sometimes change my opinions on books later in life when I’m older orrr when I’ve reread them and sometimes love them more and sometimes not) but it’s a nice time-capsule and I’ve done one ever since 2013! (Which was also the year I joined Goodreads which makes sense.)
So it’s fun for me to do one, no matter how late, and I’m going to link the previous ones here (at least for my own reference) since there are a whole dozen of them and they’re spread across two blogs. 🙂
Sometime I struggle to express why I love a book, without simply saying “IT’S SO GOOD. READ IT!” or devolving into a massive one-thousand-word ramble about it. This is the main reason this blog post has gone so long unposted, despite having made the list itself as soon as 2023 ended.
So some of these have mini reviews I wrote a year or more ago, and others simply have a sentence or brief snatches of thoughts about the book. But they are all universally loved by me and I’d rather share them without my usual perfectionism than not at all. 🙂
Without further ado, the best of the best books I read in 2023!
(Missing from this photo: Diana Wynne Jones short story.)
The Windward King (K.T. Ivanrest)
My #1 top-favorite book I read in 2023! 😍🥰 Buddy story, characters I adored (Shara! Korith! Tishel!), shapeshifting, castles, pirates, royalty…this has it all! Plus delicious twists, snark and humor, and a heartfelt theme of self-worth. I reference Shara and Korith pretty much every week, honestly. I just love this book so much! I never feel adequate to review books I love this much–how will I find the words to express my adoration? SO. Bottom line…READ THIS BOOK. JUST DO IT. Everybody must meet Shara and Korith and experience this stupendous adventure. ❤
Wrought of Rings and Wrath (E.J. Kitchens)
I love the rich fantasy worldbuilding and especially the characters, and was extra excited to read a book about my favorite side character (Breccan) in this series. The touch of a redemption arc is so good and leaves room for more to come. And the sarcastic MC and the humor about that was a delight. (Having the social skills of a moose may have been mentioned.) I LOVE BRECCAN SO MUCH, OKAY. And Athdar and Galen and aaall the characters… But it was a joy to have a whole book about Breccan and a certain new character.
Saber’s Pride (C.M. Banschbach)
THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING (AND SO ARE DAVOR AND CO.)! 😍 Best read after Greywolf’s Heart. There’s a reason I wrote a three-thousand-word pterodactyl shriek email to the author about certain spoilery things, I’ll just say that much. This book is SO good and epic and the characters have my whole heart!
William Bradshaw and Fool’s Gold (Arthur Daigle)
Really the whole William Bradshaw, King of the Goblins series could go here but I’ll put this one here because it was my favorite of the series! I read books 2-5 in 2023 and caught up on the series to prepare to read book 6. This humorous fantasy series by the author of the Jayden and Dana Illwind books is a BLAST and you need it in your life! Will Bradshaw, an ordinary guy from our world, ends up in a fantasy realm stuck with the least-wanted job: being king of the slightly crazy (but increasingly endearing) goblins. The way humor mixes with fantasy tropes, delightful characters, and the unexpected triumph of goodness against impossible odds absolutely delights me. Will Bradshaw and his friends (ranging from small mischievous goblins to brawl-happy troll bodyguards to a young-fairy-godmother-turned-girlfriend) are a delight.
Mantles of Oak and Iron (Jenelle Leanne Schmidt)
So…this is book 2 of a 5 book series of which I have read 4 so far… And book 3 and 4 made it to my 2024 favorites post (spoiler alert, haha! That post is coming tomorrow!) and…I don’t want to give away anything about the series but seriously, I totally recommend this steampunk-y meets fantasy series full of incredible characters and such a delightful world I want to go live in! There’s airships, an academy, pirates, and a dash of mystery, and an ever-widening world with intertwining threads. The whole series is SO good!
Ruins of Bone (Sarah Chislon)
Breathtaking fantasy mystery that’s almost Regency-esque in an alternate world that feels very British. Extremely well-written fae and very intense and slightly spooky. Intricate and intense!
Twelve Days of (Faerie) Christmas — by C.J. Brightley
I didn’t know I needed a cozy Christmas urban fantasy with a dash of fae in my life, but oh, did I ever, and I LOVE IT SO MUCH! hugs book Also, I had zero intention of reading this right away when I was making a stack of Christmas books to read come December, but despite it being in August, I started looking at it and the next think I knew I had read half the book and my clock inexplicably read “1:20 a.m.” Also, also, I aspire to write fae this well. MOST excellent, indeed. And all the vividness of the modern setting and the snow and just. I LOVE IT.
Prodigies and Legends (Daley Downing)
This is a MARVELOUS fourth book in the Order of the Twelve Tribes series! It had timey-wimey stuff and all my favorite characters and fae/elves and it’s cozy suburban fantasy and is just ABSOLUTE SHEER DELIGHT and takes the first three books plus the DELIGHTFUL spinoff (Fire and Wind) and follows up on all of them in the most delicious way possible. I absolutely adore it.
GIVEAWAY: I’m currently holding a GIVEAWAY for a paperback set of this whole series by Daley Downing! If you’re reading this by 4/25/25 and have a US address, go enter the giveaway HERE!
Sweet Vendetta Blues (Hazel B. West)
A buddy story, a road trip, mafia, detectives, bounty hunters, snark, action, tough topics (like taking down traffickers), and brothers, plus characters I totally fell in love with, and all set a couple hundred years in the future in New Mexico, New York, and all across the US (I mentioned a roadtrip, right?). A bit dark/gritty, but soooo good! Jack! Sebastian! Luca! Paccioretti! (cries) I loved every second and this brother story full of banter and action and mystery was a wild ride that I had sooo much fun with. So, so good! It should 100% be a movie.
Grimbriar (DJ Edwardson)
Sentient talking weapons // epic, Noblebright fantasy // misfit band // delightful series! // Seriously so good and underrated and more people must read it!! Don’t want to spoil this one (it’s book 3) so check out book one, Truesilver!
Wind Daughter (Joanna Ruth Meyer)
“We are all stories. Every one of us. That doesn’t mean we’re not real.” Companion novel in the same world as Echo North so of COURSE I loved it! // gorgeous // bees and ice and an unraveling world
The Star Clock Chronicles (E.J. Kitchens)
I’m cheating because this is a novella collection, not a novel, but it absolutely must go here! A five-novella collection of connected tales in a world combining steampunk with faerie twists, these light reads are a delight! The characters are a blast, the premise of a world where navigating/clocks/sun/stars/moon are outlawed and considered a myth is fascinating, and the intertwining plots are so brilliant! I love the stories of Bertram and Marianna, Davy and Prism, Colin and Vesper, Kingsley and Caroline, and all the other characters, SO MUCH!!! My sister and teen brother and I all had a blast reading this collection aloud together.
BONUS: BEST SHORT STORIES
What the Throne Fears (Bryn Shutt)
My favorite short story of the year! Oh my word, it’s an absolute delight! A unique POV, delicious writing that I could EAT, and one of my fave characters from Illuminare. Absolute 100% gold in short story form. (Short story was a newsletter short and is still available from the author on request! Hint. Go request it. It’s SO GOOD.)
The Inkling (K.T. Ivanrest)
As soon as I read and adored The Windward King, I set out to read everything by this author I could get my hands on. This was SO unique! The ink dragon and steampunk vibes and world and characters — aahh! I would go back to this world in a heartbeat. I didn’t want it to end. And so perfectly captured in a short amount of space!
Samantha’s Diary (Diana Wynne Jones)
Do I have two Christmas stories in this blog post? Yes, yes, I do. Are both of them retellings of the Twelve Days of Christmas song? Oddly, also yes! XD This is very different than Twelve Days of (Faerie) Christmas, but it’s absolutely hilarious and set in futuristic London. I haven’t read the other short stories in the collection I found it in since they are not by DWJ but it’s well worth the read!
Heart Bond & Elf King (Tara Grayce)
And I’m going to put these two on here because they’re both anthologies that have some delightful extra tales in the Elven Alliance series that I LOVED. So many side-tales and sneak-peeks at different POVs, PLUS the absolute best epilogue to the series at the end of Elf King! *softly shrieking*
(Missing from the spine view: Diana Wynne Jones short story and Bryn Shutt short story.)
And there are my top favorites from the other year!
Have you read any of these? And are you ever late making your favorites lists?
(I mean, not over a YEAR late but…details. *cough*)
Stay tuned for the top-favorite reads of 2024 post TOMORROW!
(Yes, even more books to share my love for! I’m excited!)
It’s here, it’s here! Prodigies and Legends, book four in a delightful modern fantasy series by Daley Downing, has released!
And I’m celebrating by giving away a paperback set of the series!
I’ve quite enjoyed the Order of the Twelve Tribes series by Daley Downing, which in my head I like to call cozy suburban fantasy. (Is that a thing? I have no idea. It’s what I’d kind of like to call one of my own WIP series, Kedran’s Wood, but I digress. 😂)
Anyway, book four of Daley’s series is here and it’s MARVELOUS! It has timey-wimey stuff and all my favorite characters are back and there are fae/elves and shapeshifting cats and incredible worldbuilding and is just an ABSOLUTE SHEER DELIGHT and takes the first three books plus the DELIGHTFUL spinoff (Fire and Wind) and follows up on all of them in the most utterly delicious way possible. I absolutely adore it.
DID I MENTION TIMEY-WIMEY STUFF? Check out this series if you want quality modern fantasy. It’s superb. I wish more people would read these because they’re simply a lot of fun! 😍 (They have mild language/action/violence but fine for teens and up.)
Prodigies and Legends was one of my top-12 favorite reads of 2023 (I should post that list! I got to read this one early as an editor) and it’s finally out in paperback and I’m SO excited that I can have it on my shelf at last and yell at people to read it! 😂
There’s also a spinoff (Fire and Wind) which is awesome and about a neat side-character and spans several continents and centuries and features tons of cool fantasy creatures. Best read between book 3 and book 4, but can also stand alone.
So, with four books in the series, plus a spinoff, that’s 5 books in the Order of the Twelve Tribes series, all of which I’m giving away to one lucky (US) winner!
I’m also throwing in a copy of “I is for Invisible, M is for Moth” which is a collection of short stories by Daley Downing. They’re not connected to the series but there are still some delightful spec fic tales to be discovered within the pages.
So 6 books, one winner.
All of the pictured books I either got to beta-read, copyedit, or be an ARC reviewer for, haha!
Enter the Giveaway Here!
Check out my (US only) giveaway for a paperback set of six books by Daley Downing (ends Friday night, 4/25/25) at THIS LINK!
[4/26 EDIT: The giveaway is closed! Thanks so much to everyone who entered. Congrats to Abigayle!]
March has come and gone, and though I only joined in on the festivities about halfway into the month (see that post HERE), I still had a delightful time!
Join me on a bit of a reading log that I kept through the weeks, which then turns into some other thoughts.
March 16
Spent a day rereading Charmed Life and had the best time. It’s been awhile since I revisited the Chrestomanci world and I must say it was a joy.
Week of March 16-22
Reread the 4 short stories comprising Mixed Magics, stories in the Chrestomanci series, and am interested that I caught new details even after reading them so often. And forgot how tied into Charmed Life, The Magicans of Caprona, and The Pinhoe Egg they are.
March 23
Talking of The Pinhoe Egg, I reread that one as well! It was not exactly planned, I just picked it up because of a reference in the short stories that I wanted to check, and next I knew I was well into the book. It definitely has some of my favorite character-interactions of the series. I love Charmed Life but Cat is not really comfortable at Chrestomanci Castle until the end, and I love in this one that Cat and Janet are firmly a part of Castle life and a part of Chrestomanci’s family, sort of? It’s just comfortable. And I love seeing Cat come into his own and sooo many wonderful Chrestomanci moments. Plus, the entire plot about bicycles and the girls wanting horses is HILARIOUS. XD And several iconic moments involving a baby griffin or a flying machine. I’ve never been quite as interested in the main plot of the book, but the characters make the book for me. Especially Chrestomanci himself who is majestic and sarcastic and goodhearted even when he’s alarming. XD
More Thoughts
So that’s three Chrestomanci books squished in over the course of two weekends and much too much reading-late-into-the-night in order to fit anything in during an extremely busy month.
But it had been a good while since I’d done so much reading just for the fun of it, plus the spring weather was perfect for reading outside some of the time. Altogether delightful.
Also, Vimes
As for Terry Pratchett, I got just far enough into Jingo, the next-for-me book in the City Watch subseries of Discworld (I keep trying to type Discord! XD), to be reminded how thoroughly I enjoy reading about Commander Vimes, so that’s fun. Especially when he is a bit at odds with Lord Vetinari, which is often. They are highly entertaining to read about. XD Alas, I did not finish this one and barely made a dent in it, but at least I enjoyed some Vimes reading on the side after my Chrestomanci revisiting.
Final Thoughts
Not a bad result for March Magics reading, however…especially considering I only joined in halfway into the month! Thanks Chris for hosting this year!
The Page Dreamer (Deborah O'Carroll) 