Bookquarium

I'm not a super hardcore Star Wars fan. I was, once. I saw Phantom Menace 11 times in theaters, and had a huge crush on the kid who played young Anakin. (I was small, okay? I made poor life choices.) Now, though, I am getting a little burned out by the constant onslaught of Star Wars and it's practical monopoly on media. (Or should I say Disney?) But! I still am trying to hang in there and enjoy the media as much as I can, and for me, lately, that means books. Did you know there were Star Wars books? Like, a shit ton of them? When Disney took control of the Star Wars franchise, they book all the old Star Wars novels (of which there were just buttloads, not all good) and categorized them as "Star Wars: Legends". Then they began releasing new ones to tie in to the new movie trilogy we're coming to the end of. It is those new books I am currently trying to read. No shade to the old ones! They're fun! I've read some! But the new ones have something the...

Work For It GoodReads  | Amazon Hoooo-leee shit. This book, you guys. Summary:   In this village, I’m an outcast: Griffin Everett, the scowling giant who prefers plants to people. Then I meet Keynes, a stranger from the city who’s everything I’m not: sharp-tongued, sophisticated, beautiful. Free. For a few precious moments in a dark alleyway, he’s also mine, hot and sweet under the stars… until he crushes me like dirt beneath his designer boot. When the prettiest man I’ve ever hated shows up at my job the next day, I’m not sure if I want to strangle him or drag him into bed. Actually—I think I want both. But Keynes isn’t here for the likes of me: he makes that painfully clear. With everyone else at work, he’s all gorgeous, glittering charm—but when I get too close, he turns vicious. And yet, I can’t stay away. Because there’s something about this ice king that sets me on fire, a secret vulnerability that makes my chest ache. I’ll do whatever it takes to sneak past hi...

Mira Grant  is well known for her science-y horror novels. The Parasites trilogy, the Newsflesh trilogy (hellooooo, zombies + journalists), and probably my favorite, Into the Drowning Deep, which is about killer mermaids. Anything by Grant is basically an insta-click for me, and when I was learned she was writing a ghost story, I nearly peed myself in the excitement. And friends, it's worth the hype. Let's break it down, shall we? The Cover: Can we take a moment to admire that cover? One, it's an incredibly detailed and intricate drawing, which is being used less and less by publishers these days, but I'm glad they went with that direction in this cover. A woman, half floating in the sea, gazing at a creepy old house while tentacles begin to twine around her ankles. Had I known nothing about Mira Grant, I would have read this book based on the cover alone. The Plot: A group of four paranormal investigators, who happened to get famous solving crimes, accepts a co...

Heeeeere's Amy!  Picture this. It's 1980. I'm not even alive yet. The hair is continuing to defy gravity. Computers and technology are out there, but they're remarkably slow. You're still almost a half decade away from AOL and the fabulous dial up internet. Michael Crichton decided to write a technology-heavy book about killer gorillas and the search for diamonds in the Congo. Dudes, I just finished this book, and I still don't understand Crichton's need for diamonds. It's got something to do with technology, and powering things? I'll admit I skimmed a lot of the rambling bits when he really got going about the tech stuff. Congo, as an adventure read, was fun. I am all for really smart gorillas tearing humans to bits. Amy, the good gorilla who joins our plucky (and obnoxious) adventurers on their quest to discover what happened to the first team, is a fun character, who drinks cocktails and smokes cigars (even though she's a gorilla?), an...

The Luminous Dead The Blurble:  When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane. Instead, she got Em. Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . . As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in ...

Do you remember those movies on the Disney channel (back in the day when it was good) and ABC's TGIF, when they'd show things that weren't necessarily great, but really  fun to watch? Like My Date with the President's Daughter  and Still Life  starring a pre-Top Model Tyra Banks? This book felt a lot like those. Not If I Save You First  is the fast paced and funny story of Maddie, daughter of the top secret service officer, and (former) best friend of the president's son, Logan. Six years ago something happened that made her dad quit his job and move them to the wilds of Alaska, leaving behind her best friend who then cut all contact. First, Maddie is the kind of sassy I wish I was. The kind of sassy I am in my head when I think of snappy comebacks four hours after I was insulted. At times, it veered into unrealistic, but it fit well into the story. She has spent much of the last six years fending for herself, bedazzling axe handles and making sure her hair rout...

I don't think I've ever read a Cat Sebastian before! (But I met her at KissCon and guys, she's lovely.) She's also well known for writing queer historical romances, and A Duke in Disguise  was her first (to my knowledge) straight romance. It was really good, you guys. Five stars good. It was a friends to lovers, but with this delicious tension running throughout where both people sort of knew the other liked them, but they couldn't do anything to fuck up their friendship. On top of all that, she runs a newspaper, including one that is publishing a) seditious stuff, and b) an erotic novel, that - guys - he does the illustrations for. Sexy ones. But like... really sexy, to appeal to the female gaze. It's all against a backdrop of a London that is plagued by an asshole government who are throwing people in jail/having them hanging for speaking out against them, and our heroine, Verity, definitely does that in her paper. Did I mention she's also hella bi...