Happy Monday, Boozie Book Nerds!

Ginny’s Update

What Ginny Finished:

• A Power Unbound by Freya Marske: This is the third book in the series and the intrigue is wild. This book focuses on Jack, an Earl whose magic has been disappeared, and Alan, a quasi-crooked journalist. They, with their friends are trying to get the three items of the Contract to save magic-users from having their magic stolen. This book was fantastic: there are fantastic portrayals of consent, a wild adventure, and a really satisfying ending!
• The Rose Code by Kate Quinn: This book follows three women as Codebreakers during WWII and in the aftermath of the war, when one of them seems to be aware of a conspiracy. The mystery in this book was a ton of fun. I will say I think parts of the book dragged a bit. But I very much enjoyed this.
• The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann: Joy is on a weekend trip with her long term bestie, Malcolm. She thinks he’s finally going to try to date her, but instead he’s introducing her to his new girlfriend, and said girlfriend’s bestie. She and Fox, the bestie, pretend to date, of course. This book was super cute, I’m a big fan of contrived fake-dating.
• Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton: Rhun is the golden boy of his village, a village where no one gets sick and everyone heals wildly quickly because of an agreement with the devil. His best friends, Arthur (a bit of an outcast), and Grace (the next village witch), are trying their best to make sure Rhun doesn’t die in the every-7-year sacrifice. This book was more lyrical than I was expecting, but I loved the queer aspects and the general eeriness.

What Ginny is Currently Reading:

• Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke: This is an audiobook and a really good one to listen to. This goes into the history of how humanity has thought about butts from fashion to racism… I know, it’s a lot. But it’s really a fun book for non-fiction.
• Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede: So this is a middle grade, but it’s darn cute. Cimorene is a princess who doesn’t want to be stuck doing traditional princess-stuff and volunteers to be a Dragon’s princess. It really is a super cute book, and I think I would have loved this if I read it when I was litt.e

Sam’s Update

What Sam Finished:

• House of Roots and Ruin by Erin A. Craig: this is the second book in this series. Our main character Verity has been cooped up in highmoor for too long, when she threatens to leave, her sister tells her about her big secret. Verity can see ghosts, not a spoiler, it happens in the first few chapters. She leaves anyway and things are gonna happen… this was just as spooky as book 1 if not more
• The Foxglove King by Hannah Witten: this is about a necromancer who was a drug runner (drugs here are poisons) that gets caught up in some mystery about villages that keep getting raided and the king wants to know if his son is a spy. This was great. For real for real.
• A Hero Born by Jin Yong – this is apparently one of the great Chinese fantasy books that’s been translated. There were a lot of things I simply couldn’t follow… some parts were great, others were very boring. Will not be continuing.

What Sam is Currently Reading:

• Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros – we all know what this is about… for some reason it was just… available… from the library.

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,

— Sam and Ginny