What the Weres Read: April and May 2021

Hello! The Weres took an unexpected hiatus for most of April and May because of busy schedules and life. We have still been reading and can't wait to share what we've read the last couple of months! 

 

Here is what the Weres read in April and May:

 

April and May Reading Wrap Up

Gretl

So this happened.

 

 Purchased:

 Hard Ware by Misha Bell

 Library:

Sam Quinn #1-2 by Seanna Kelly

Hexworld series by Jordan L Hawk

Kindle Unlimited:

Scales & Spells series by AJ Sherwood & Jocelyn Drake

Weavers Circle series by Jocelyn Drake

I Pucking Love You by Pippa Grant

The Unholy Trifecta series by AJ Sherwood

Jon’s Mysteries series by AJ Sherwood

VRC series by Alice Winters

The Hitman’s Guide series by Alice Winters

The Beacon Hill Sorcerer series by SJ Himes 

The Metahuman Files series by Hailey Turner

The Bodyguard by Anna Hackett

Wormwood Summer by Kai Butler

Soulbound series by Hailey Turner

The Blind Date by Lauren Landish

Wicked Outlaw by Jocelyn Drake

Stealing From Mr Rich by Anna Hackett

Rose Red

ARCs:

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) by Martha Wells

One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Purchased:

Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York by Elon Green

Remington (The Theriot Family #1) by Silvia Violet

 

Kindle Unlimited:

Born this Way by Macy Blake

The Detective's Familiar (Familiar Mates #5) by T.J. Nichols

The Siren's Familiar (Familiar Mates #6) by T.J. Nichols

Dragon Collector (Dragon Hoard #2) by Minerva Howe

Dragon Treasure (Dragon Hoard #3) by Minerva Howe

The Last One to Let You Down by K.L. Hiers

 

Rereads:

 The Necromancer's Dance (The Beacon Hill Sorcerer #1) by S.J. Himes

The Necromancer's Dilemma (The Beacon Hill Sorcerer #2) by S.J. Himes

The Necromancer's Reckoning (The Beacon Hill Sorcerer #3) by S.J. Himes

Mastering the Flames (The Beacon Hill Sorcerer #4) by S.J. Himes

A History of Trouble (The Beacon Hill Sorcerer #3.5) by S.J. Himes

Wolfsbane (Werewolves of Boston #1) by SJ Himes

 June TBR

Gretl 

To Be Determined

Rose Red

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian

Yes, Daddy by Johnathan Parks-Ramage 

Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur

Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick

Hell Breaks Loose by Macy Blake

 

What are you planning to read in June?
 

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Review: One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky

One Day All This Will Be Yours
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Release: March 2, 2021
Goodreads Amazon

The bold new work from award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky  - a smart, funny tale of time-travel and paradox

Welcome to the end of time. It’s a perfect day.

Nobody remembers how the Causality War started. Really, there’s no-one to remember, and nothing for them to remember if there were; that’s sort of the point. We were time warriors, and we broke time.

I was the one who ended it. Ended the fighting, tidied up the damage as much as I could.

Then I came here, to the end of it all, and gave myself a mission: to never let it happen again.

Review:
I've heard a lot of praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky over the years but had never read him before this year. The first thing that caught my attention about this novella was the dinosaur on the cover but then I read the synopsis and I was sold! And this story was so much fun!

What would you do if your time war broke time? That's what this story explores. And it was a cynical portrayal of time travel and a time war and what someone would do to end said war. It gave me some serious This is How You Lose the Time War vibes and I loved it! I laughed so much while reading this and the farm setting at the end of time was a perfect main setting for the novella! It made me want a Miffly so badly!

I want to fangirl a little bit about how this story took the time travel trope and turned it on its head! At the first of the story, I thought I knew where the story was going but I was totally wrong. I was trying to mow my lawn while listening to this and I found myself standing in the middle of my yard just listening to the story. I was enthralled from the start.

I’ve had an ARC of this book for a while but I ended up checking the audiobook out from my library which was an A+ decision on my part. The author narrates the audio and his performance increased my enjoyment of the story. It's on the shorter side and can easily be listened to in less than a day.

I can't recommend this novella enough! I can't wait to dive into Tchaikovsky's backlist later this summer!

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

    

   5 / 5 Stars

 

Recommended for fans of:
This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

Rose Red's Pride 2021 TBR

Hello! I'm back from our unplanned hiatus! School's out for the summer and do you know what time it is? It's time for Pride month! I can't believe it's already June but here we are! It's become a tradition to post what I plan to be reading for Pride and it was hard to narrow down my list of queer books I wanted to read specifically in June. Because let's be real, I read queer books all year long.

I have a lot of books I want to this month but the ones I am prioritizing reading are:

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Y'all know that I absolutely adored Casey McQuiston's debut novel, Red, White and Royal Blue. Once I heard the premise for her next book I was immediately sold! Time traveling lesbians on the subway! One Last Stop has been compared to a modern queer retelling of Kate and Leopold and I am here for it! I've already started this one and I love it so much!

Soulstar by C.L. Polk

I have had the last book in The Kingston Cycle in my hands for months now but I'm finally in a head space where I'm ready to finish this series. I am dying to find out how this series wraps up and I can't wait to learn more about Robin and Clan Thorpe.

 

Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Rampage

I've been trying to expand my queer reading beyond romance and urban fantasy so I joined an online book club, #QueerForLit hosted by @IansReads. This month's pick is Yes, Daddy which is a queer thriller that I don't know much about besides that. I ended up requesting it on Netgalley so I'll be posting a review for it as soon as I get it read.

Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur

I read Written in the Stars last fall and I absolutely adored it! While I was reading it, I was dying to know more about Darcy's brother. I'm so excited to read his story and hope to get to it soon.

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian

I don't even know what this book is really about but I know it's by Cat Sebastian and has a reformed highway man as a main character. And honestly, that's all I need to know to pick this book up. 

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

Our school does a summer book club with our students and the book they picked for June is The Black Flamingo. I'm excited to read this book! I've heard nothing but awesome things about this story about figuring out who you are and where you belong.

 

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho 

This is an urban fantasy novel about a closeted lesbian who moves back to Malaysia and starts to hear the voice of her dead grandmother. This book was billed as a fantasy with "Grannies and Gangsters" and I was sold. This is one of my review books I need to catch up on.

An Echo in the Sorrow by Hailey Turner

This is one of my most anticipated books of the year that I am scared to read because it is going to be a punch in the feels. This is the second to last book in the series and I'm nervous because things are about to get real.

Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick

I am a sucker for a queer royal romances after reading RWRB so I'm excited to read this one between the Prince of Wales and a New York event planner. It sounds super cute! I haven't seen much about this one but what I have seen has been positive.

What books are you planning to read in June?

2021 First Quarter Reading Challenge Recap

It's a new year which means we all have a clean slate when it comes to our reading challenges. We want to take last year's reading challenge success into 2021 and so far we've been doing pretty well. We're going do something a bit different when it comes to our reading challenge recap this year and will be posting our recap quarterly instead monthly. Instead we've started a monthly What the Weres Read feature where we recap all the books we read each month.

We're a bit late with our first quarter reading challenge update but here’s how the Weres did with our challenges from January-March 2021:

Beat the Backlist

Gretl

I read 81 backlist books in the first quarter of this year. This is about 80% of my total books read, which is well above my goal of 50% backlist. I've been doing a lot of binge reading! However, I have not been doing a great job keeping up with the bingo card. I’m going to have to go back and try to fill in more squares. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Beat the Backlist Bingo

multiple authors - Shiver by Jocelyn Drake and Rinda Elliot

non-human character - Tane by Anna Hackett 

person on the cover - Hosed by Pippa Grant

anthology - Survivors by Anna Hackett

novella - Night Owl by Rachel Grant

all about music - Rockaway Bride by Pippa Grant

Dragons or lizards - Origin by Jocelyn Drake & AJ Sherwood

Let out a breath - Brandon’s Very Merry Haunted Christmas by AJ Sherwood

Rose Red

I'm going to attempt to fill up the small BTB Bingo Card again this year which will make my goal to read at least 24 books. I'll probably read more backlist books than that but I'm shooting for a blackout. I'm not going to let myself count rereads on my Bingo card this year. Below is what I read for BTB this last quarter. Titles with an asterisk were rereads.

 

Beat the Backlist Bingo

Person on the Cover- Leo by Silvia Violet

More Than One Author-  Origin by A.J. Sherwood and Jocelynn Drake

A Book With Illustrations- Heartstopper, Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman

WTF Plot Twist- The Vet's Christmas Familiar by TJ Nichols

 

Non-Bingo Books

A Very Armitage Christmas by Eliot Grayson

Breath by A.J. Sherwood and Jocelynn Drake

A Ferry of Bones and Gold by Hailey Turner*

All Souls Near and Nigh by Hailey Turner*

A Crown of Iron and Silver by Hailey Turner*

A Vigil in the Mourning by Hailey Turner*

On the Wings of War by Hailey Turner *

Outlaw by Kiki Burrelli

Claimings, Tails and Other Alien Artifacts by Lyn Gala*

Assimilation, Love, and Other Human Oddities by Lyn Gala*

Affiliations, Aliens, and Other Profitable Pursuits by Lyn Gala*

Expeditions, Estimates, and Other Dangerous Pastimes by Lyn Gala*  

Stranger Planet by Nathan W. Pyle

Little Moments of Love by Catana Chetwynd

Heartstopper, Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman

A Cold Hard Collection by K.L. Hiers

The Necromancer's Dance by S.J. Himes*

The Necromancer's Dilemma by S.J. Himes*

The Necromancer's Reckoning by S.J. Himes*

Mastering the Flames by S.J. Himes*

A History of Trouble by S.J. Himes*

Wolfsbane by S.J. Himes*

Taking the Knot by Sean Michael

Stephen by Sean Michael

Library Love Challenge 

The Library Love challenge is hosted by Angel’s Guilty Pleasures and Books of My Heart and encourages participants to read more library books. My goal for 2021 is Library Card on Fire or 60 books. I read 29 in the first quarter:

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

Work For It by Talia Hibbert

First Comes Like by Alisha Rai

Faithless in Death by JD Robb

Flashpoint series by Rachel Grant

Cold Justice and Cold Justice Crossfire series by Toni Anderson

Hell Squad series #4-16 by Anna Hackett

Driven by Rebecca Zanetti

 

Tackle My TBR Challenge

This year I set my goal for this challenge at 25 books which falls into the First Down category. That's at least two books a month (6-7 books per quarter) which I can totally do. The challenge themes from January to March were Published in 2020, Diverse Read, and New-to-You Author.

I am happy to report that I have read six books for this challenge during the first quarter of 2021 and I am pretty pleased with my progress! This semester at school has been nuts so I'm counting anything I get read as a win even if it's not as much as I normally would read.

  The books I read are:

Kensho by Lyn Gala

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell (New-To-You Author)

Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs

Best Laid Plans by Roan Parrish (Diverse Read)

Blind Tiger by Jordan L. Hawk

Heartstopper, Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman (Published in 2020)

 

#21Booksin2021

I decided about midway through January that I needed another reading challenge to take the place of Romanceopoly. One of my Instagram friends posted a low-key challenge that I kind of fell in love with instantly. The challenge is the #21Booksin2021 challenge and you make a list of 21 books that were published before 2021 to read throughout the year so it's kind of a mix between Tackle My TBR and the Beat the Backlist challenge. It took me a few weeks to make my list (you can see it in full here) but I'm excited to read all of them. To stay on top of this challenge, I need to read 1-2 books each month. I should have at least 4 books by the end of March and I'm... at 0 read for this quarter. I'm just going to have to make up for failing this quarter next quarter.

How did you do on your reading challenges this month?

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