NB: This week, we�re taking a look back at 2023. We�ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish...

NB: This week, we�re taking a look back at 2023. We�ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year � with all the very best of reading.

�

We�re onto part two of of our Best of Reviews for 2023! I�m eager to see if some of you guessed correctly. As I was looking up the site stats for these, I was honestly surprised by some of the top reviews. Others definitely made sense, though certainly some wild cards.

�

A | BN | K

Review by Lara

Grade: Squee

This book made me swoon IRL. Reading it was a fever dream and not just because of the sex scenes. I was so immersed in it that the real world and its troubles didn�t even occur to me for the duration of the book. (I am anxious by nature, so this is a feat.)

There is a delightful cast of supporting characters, but I would speedread those parts, desperate for more of Lorcan and Daphne�s far-ranging, emotion-laden conversations. Such is the power of this book, that I�m still in a fog of misty-eyed love a couple days later. If you need your heart to be held, loved and adored, then this is the book for you. Truly, I am in love.

�

�

4. Movie Review: Spin Me Round�(April 13)

Review by Carrie

Grade: C-

Tonally, the movie is all over the place. This is partly because its dark comedy premise revels in sudden escalation, but the escalations don�t always work. The abrupt inclusion of a lot of blood and a LOT of nudity in the, um, climactic scene is jarring, which might work for some viewers as a comedic element but really threw me off.

Ultimately, Spin Me Round is fun in the sense that a bunch of real-life friends hung out and made a movie together, and one gets the sense that they all had a good time. Good for them. For me, even though I could see what the movie was going for, it felt bland and disappointing and cringey and deeply unfunny. If I HAVE to consume a bland product, at least let it be a breadstick.

�

�

A | BN | K

Review by Lara

Grade: B-

Let�s start with what this book does well. It�s a really interesting premise and the world-building is good (if slow). A long time ago, the balance of magic was upset and now the Spirit of the Woods is taking over with a magical mist that kills people. Cue: a need to save the kingdom and those infected by magic.

This really was two very different paced books stuck together, which makes reviewing it rather difficult. Overall, I�m glad I read this book and I�m glad I stuck with it through the dull parts. There are enough loose strings to the plot that book 2 in the series promises to be a belter and I�ve already preordered it.

�

�

A | BN | K

Review by Brigid F. (Guest Reviewer)

Grade: Squee

Everything about this frost-tipped whimsical fantasy had me waiting for the snow to fall so I could bundle up in a blanket, dreaming about prickly faeries and fresh hot buns. Did I mention the delicacies in this book? It is full of chilly delights, including iceberries and star-brewed wine. I mean it when I say this is the perfect book to summon snow for your increasingly warm winter weather.

Chilling, packed with lore, and a slow burn, Emily Wilde�s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett is the type of book I�ve been looking for. Their adventure from faerie field research to two professors running like hell from a faerie nightmare kept me on the edge of my seat. Yes, sometimes the annotations (made to feel just like an academic journal) felt a bit too lengthy at times. But I found myself so in love with the voice, the characters, and the story that I really couldn�t find myself caring all that much about its faults.

This book and I? We are an absolute match.

�

�

A | BN | K

Review by Elyse

Grade: DNF

I am not here to yuck anyone�s yum. If you read Fourth Wing and you loved it, I am totally happy for you. I want people to love what they read.

This was not a book that worked for me, though, and I suspect I�m probably not the only one who didn�t love it. I made it about 45% of the way though before I finally decided this was just going to be a slog for me and I gave up.

Anyway, if Fourth Wing is your jam I am genuinely happy for you. For me it was too much about someone in a crappy situation insisting on staying in that crappy situation for reasons that didn�t make a lot of sense, alongside slow plot development, mixed with some tropes I don�t love. There were far too many times where I questioned why something was happening, and the text never revealed nor hinted at a satisfactory reason beyond �because reasons,� so I moved on.

�

What are your predictions for the top five? Let us know in the comments!

View Entire Post