The extremely short and quick read of the week was Once More Upon a Time by Roshani Chokshi, which takes a handful of hallmarks of classic fairytales (think Twelve Dancing Princesses meets The Three Princes) and mashes them together in a tale of love, first cursed then renewed. 

I'll go ahead and say that it's not my favorite of hers. I don't think I can do sitcom-level humor in a fantasy. (Am I broken? Is there something wrong with me??) I had a similar issue with Assistant to the Villain. I love to laugh as much as anyone, but there are too many times it feels overdone—the horse cloak in Once More Upon a Time was entirely unnecessary.

Again, a very fast read, but not my cup of twisted tea.

My audiobook of late is R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War, which (I must admit) I think I might already like better than Babel?? I have the entire series on audiobook, but I tend to consume them somewhat slowly (I'm a 1.2x speed kinda gal), so it may be some time before I can offer a meaningful update there. Bear with me.

Probably two or more years ago, my beloved sister-in-law gifted me a copy of Chloe Liese's Only When It's Us, and as delighted as I was that she was getting into romance, I didn't get around to reading it. Two good friends of mine knew about this utter failure on my part, and one texted the following last week...

"This is your quarterly reminder to finally read Only When It's Us."

Point taken. I started it last night, and I can feel the tears already forming. Stay tuned.

I also completely broke my "Dry January" rule. For those of you who didn't happen to see that TikTok, I told myself I wouldn't buy any books during the month of January. I'll fall on my sword in video form soon, but I went ahead and picked up What the River Knows and Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez. (I'm getting the sense that the first is a little better than the second, but I'll be reading them both soon enough to determine that for myself.)

Oh, did you think "Dry January" meant no drinking? Bless your heart. New "Liquor in the Library" coming tomorrow...

And no, I have not read Onyx Storm yet and have been dodging spoilers on TikTok with agility that would make the dragons proud. I did reread Fourth Wing and Iron Flame seeking out textual evidence of a couple of theories, but those rereads highlighted a handful of inconsistencies that make me want to shake my fist at Red Tower. (PLEASE stop rushing to print! Calm down with the blatant cash grabs, I beg you!)

On to what I plan to read this coming week, I'll be finishing up Only When It's Us, and I imagine I'll have some research reading to do for preparing my thesis proposal (it COUNTS, okay??). I do want to get to Onyx Storm, but also on my list is The Guncle by Steven Rowley, which I've heard is charming.

Comment below with what you've been reading lately!