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What Lilly’s Library Represents To Me
Growing up as a non-white reader in a non-Western country was interesting to say the least. You don’t realise how many Western cultural things you pick up on until you actually pause and look around you and go, wait, this is nothing like my lived experience. It took a good many years for me to unlearn the way media centralises white stories that I didn’t have to consume only those stories. (I still read and watch them, because a) they are everywhere still even if now we’re getting our voices out as well and b) look, some of them are really good.) I’ve talked about the first time I felt…
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AUTHOR AVENGERS; August Round Up
If you follow me on my various social media pages, you might have seen me talk about the Author Avengers over the past few months. We’ve been promoting each other’s Ko-fi pages and hyping each other up on Discord, and I like to think the group of us are now bound by the laws of writing as friends. This month, we went from individual author promotions to writing prompts, and boy, has it been interesting to see how each of us looked at the same prompt and came up with something that fit into our style. It’s been a treat and a half for me on a personal level, and…
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REVIEW; Crown Of Ivy
Let me start by saying I am in absolute love with the way Victoria writes. There is something so captivating about the turns of phrases she uses, the pictures they paint, the emotions they evoke. Absolutely stunning. I knew very little about the characters of this particular part of the Greek pantheon going in so I will admit I did a Wikipedia search about Ariadne after starting the novella. But nothing could prepare me for the way Victoria wrote her. She was strong and stubborn and real. She cried and feared and bled and fought – her characterisation was full-fleshed and human, and it made her ascension seem so earned.…
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REVIEW; Sketches & Secrets Of Summer
Title: Sketches & Secrets Of SummerAuthor: Leenie BrownGenre: Adult, regency romance, retellingType: E-bookPublisher: Leenie B Books Once betrayed, always a bachelor. At least, that was the plan. Stuart Alford never expected to return to Derbyshire. Indeed, he never wanted to return. However, when his brother dies, leaving him both his daughters and the family estate, Stuart must do what he does not want to do. When he arrives to claim his inheritance and take up guardianship of his two wards, he discovers they have befriended a young woman who is visiting her sister and brother-in-law at Pemberley. Mary Bennet is not like any other lady he has ever met. She’s refreshingly candid, and he begins…
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REVIEW; When Mary Met The Colonel
Title: When Mary Met The ColonelAuthor: Victoria KincaidGenre: Adult, regency romance, retellingType: E-bookPublisher: Victoria Kincaid Without the beauty and wit of the older Bennet sisters or the liveliness of the younger, Mary is the Bennet sister most often overlooked. She has resigned herself to a life of loneliness, alleviated only by music and the occasional book of military history. Colonel Fitzwilliam finds himself envying his friends who are marrying wonderful women while he only attracts empty-headed flirts. He longs for a caring, well-informed woman who will see the man beneath the uniform. A chance meeting in Longbourn’s garden during Darcy and Elizabeth’s wedding breakfast kindles an attraction between Mary and the Colonel. However, the Colonel…
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REVIEWS; Sweet Extras
I have finally gotten my hands on some of Leenie Brown’s Mary Bennet-centric works and am making my way through them slowly. Still unable to get my hands on two, and a few other regionally locked stories. (Amazon, why?) But I am excited, and have already started making my way through these stories. Title: Midnight with MaryAuthor: Leenie BrownGenre: Adult, regency romance, retellingType: E-bookPublisher: Leenie B Books This is classified as a ‘Sweet Extra’ from Leenie Brown’s collection of novellas that add on to the world of her longer novels. And sweet it is! The novella is a quick read, easy to breeze through but giving us a good sense of the characters and their…
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REVIEW; Off The Deep End
Title: Off The Deep EndAuthor: R. Jayne Revere Genre: Adult, action, romanceType: E-bookPublisher: Untamed Originals, LLC Was it a chance meeting? Or something more… AN UNUSUAL TRIP Photographer Alex Thomas longs for adventure in her life, so she accepts her brother’s invitation to go to sea on his research ship. A clandestine recovery operation for the military-complete with a scary-serious security team-is way past Alex’s comfort zone, but that’s nothing compared to the strong, enigmatic attraction she feels for team lead Aaron Donovan. A REMARKABLE ADVENTURE While on a critically important assignment, security expert Aaron Donovan is powerfully drawn to Alex, a woman who never should have been there. Then a dark element returns from Aaron’s…
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The Little Things In Life
Since I’ve started this blog, I’ve gone from being a student, to a graduate, to a wife, to a student again, and then a mother. Time has been taken up by new responsibilities and new duties and new lessons. Finding time for the things I enjoy has been difficult. But if one doesn’t try and find that time, one’s mental health can and will suffer, as I found out the hard way. What do you do then? How do you carve out time without feeling guilty for shying away from responsibilities? For me, it’s about finding the little things that bring joy. Yes, sometimes big things are also encouraged. Once…
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On Representation & Writing
Many years ago – about the time I started university, before I started this blog – I began to write a story based on Roman mythology. At the time, it seemed there were so many Greek mythology inspired novels out there that in order to stand out, Roman mythology was my only alternative. It never even occurred to me that perhaps Indian mythology, something I had grown up with, something so intrinsically tied to my culture and identity, was something I could write. Seems a little sad to think about, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s why despite having entire character arcs and plots planned, I could never write more than disconnected…
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The Author Avengers Initiative
You might have me mention this new initiative on social media. But if you have not – I’ve joined a brand new initiative on Ko‑fi between a number of us writers using the platform to showcase and advertise our works. Author Avengers is a network of authors who will be hyping each other up every month. It is a way to encourage each other and our followers to find new creators to engage with on the platform. Because what better way to show love for the medium we all use than by writing about other writers, right? This initiative is the brainchild of Lou Yardley, who wanted to find a…