This was an interesting read. I picked it up on the recommendation of a Pride & Prejudice fanfic (specifically, the author's footnote). I found the structure interesting. The 'truthful fiction' of starting each chapter with an imagined perspective of Jane Austen herself, the chapters themselves being tied to each of Austen's books, the footnotes (I love a good footnote). I liked the historical context that Kelly provided for Austen's works, the unravelling of potential symbolism and metaphor. I especially enjoyed the Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park chapters. (Impressive because I did not enjoy Mansfield Park [the novel] at all.)

I struggled with the Sense & Sensibility, Emma, and Northanger Abbey chapters. The former two because I feel I need to reread the books and also study more of the history and of Austen herself to discover if Kelly's conclusions are as probable as they're presented (and I freely admit, because it challenges the notions I have about the characters and their happiness therein); the latter because I think that some conclusions regarding Northanger Abbey are a little far-fetched (the entire key and lock metaphor...).

I also began to mistrust the accuracy or...foundational accuracy, I suppose is a better way to put it...of Kelly's analyses and conclusions when she mentioned Darcy disliking Wickham's mother. I do not know of any edition of P&P that makes any reference to her, and I think Kelly may have confused the quote with one of Darcy's mother. I will dive into P&P again and find out.

Also, the confident tone of it all sort of grated on me. For someone baldly stating that everyone has approached Austen wrongly, she is very confident in her assertions; as confident as all the Austen readers have been over the years. That seems hypocritical, but I also understand that she's writing a thesis: she has to write her argument with certainty and convince the reader. Kelly also gave the impression of having decided opinions on Austen's family that didn't seem all that well founded (to me, and again: more research is required) which made me leery of some of her conclusions, especially at the end.

All of which is to say, Kelly did not convince me wholescale of her view. Still, overall, it got me thinking and made me feel as though I understand some of Austen's works better, or at least their historical context better, and gave me new perspectives with which to enjoy the books. 

I picked this up on a whim, wanting something light, fluffy, and Regency to read. I'm not sure it is Regency (I don't know my historical eras all that well) but it was definitely light and fluffy! Izzy is a delight, funny, quirky, and only prone to swooning from hunger rather than aggressive handsome lords. She's also kind-hearted and frank about her passions, which is a unique and enjoyable change of pace from the typically more sheltered heroines of harlequin romances.

This read to me like a loose Beauty and the Beast (Disney version) retelling​ without the magic elements, and I loved the subplot of the book series based on Izzy's life and that Ransom is a big grump who she roundly (and sweetly) puts in his place through sheer discombobulation. Also, I appreciated that he remained blind; there was no 'saving' or 'healing' of his disability. Rather, he learned to accept it and reshape his identity as a blind man.

​Overall, very sweet and fun and silly. 

 ↳ in which wren is a woman with a ruinous ability, kai is an enslaved wolf shifter, and circumstances conspire to have them relying on each other for survival. ​

​ ↳ in which there is a cyborg named sacha, a shapeshifter named cipher, a missing heir to a global conglomerate, a virtual reality called FAE.REALM that just might be carnivorous, and a quest

​It was impulse that moved her. 

He just looked so pathetic, with his body and his form both wracked by shivers—his hair curling and then straightening, plastered against his face; one iris going purple and the other orange, pupils rounding and slitting with each staccato breath; nose broadening and then narrowing, the bridge sometimes high, sometimes low; and his cupid’s bow flexing as his lips changed shape. ​

Sacha stifled a snort. His lips looked like wriggling worms on his pale face. He would’ve been highly affronted by the comparison; whatever form he took, he preferred to be beautiful.

Sacha thought worms were better than beautiful: they were vital, they minded their own business, and they were industrious. And anyway, there was something not unlovely about the sleek pink forms, something so perfect in what they were. Function, design—it was its own beauty.

But she was getting distracted with nonsense poetical thoughts and this fire wasn’t going to light itself. Cipher, the miserable lump, could not help. He didn't have these sorts of skills or abilities. She might have been annoyed about it, but she was too tired and wet and cold. The flash flood had swept them along regardless of any stones or broken trees in the way, and she ached, no matter her skeletal reinforcements. 

At least it wasn’t raining.

“Cipher,” she called, buoyed by this thought and by a spark from the wood finally catching on her exposed circuitry.
He made a sound that could charitably be called inquisitive, and more accurately described as a wheezing whine, a sound like a balloon made when its lip was stretched and its air let out in a thin stream.

“Cipher,” she called again, tenderly feeding the tiny tongue of flame. And though there was no gentling her voice, modified by the implant as it was, she could dial the volume down so it almost sounded soft.

He finally looked up at her. “Warmth!” he breathed reverently, scuttling toward her and threatening to drip on her still small fire. “You’re a marvel, Sacha.”

It was the first time he’d used her name and not an offensive nickname, though she’d long since stopped being offended by them, and long since known that he didn’t mean them anymore. 
And so, on impulse, she gave him a kiss of a punch—a two knuckle tap to his cheek, with only 3.5% force applied so that really, it was more of a caress. 

His pupils went near-white in surprise, all his features momentarily flashing into amorphous colour in a vaguely humanoid shape that hurt her organic eye to look at and made her bionic one glitch in a smattering of pixels and fractures. And then, a moment later, she was looking at herself—how she might have looked without any enhancements: smaller and unscarred and altogether unrecognizable except through a sidelong glance.

“Was that…was that a gesture of affection?” Cipher demanded, voice high and strained in faux shock.

“Yes,” Sacha said, because the truth seemed to always rock him, and she enjoyed upending his expectations.

And in reward, he graced her with a blush that might even have been real. 

I. My heart leaping with anticipation, I pushed at the wall. It required some effort, but I shoved as hard as I could and it opened inward on silent hinges, the bottom grating against the floors, and revealed a dark tunnel and, luckily, no sign of the Wazīr. I was too excited to think about it at the time, but he would hardly have been pleased to find out I’d been following him. 
I could hardly contain my excitement. I was about to have my first real adventure!

II. Hajja was buried on the twin hill to which Qahtan was built upon. It was called Madinat Al-Raha, or the City of Rest, and was enrobed in pale green grass, dotted with yellow and fuschia flowers in the midst of spring. Holm oaks stood here and there to provide shade under their sprawling branches. White, pale blue, and pale yellow tombs covered the hill like a field of fallen stars, interspersed by grander mausoleums.

F - For the first time in longer than he can remember, he’s warm and comfortable.
R - Running and running and running, because if he stopped he was dead, if he stopped they would catch him, if he stopped he was a slave again, a weapon again, an animal again.
E - Everybody is a threat, and runaway shifters most especially.
A - As her breathing steadies and deepens, her pulse evens out, her terror recedes…and the quake of the world comes to an end.
K - Killing him would be the ruthless but smart choice, the safe choice.

...then it got very YA tropey. Elspeth became feisty beyond what I thought was reasonable or rational for a woman afraid of being caught and gruesomely killed, who'd spent more than a decade masking her expressions and keeping such momentous secrets. She kept bloody talking out loud to the Nightmare! She's a terrible liar! Surely she should be better at it, considering her life depends on her ability to lie and blend in!

The rhyming got a little awkward and juvenile at times. The language - the actual dialogue between the characters - veered towards idiosyncratically modern, which annoyed me. The mythos/culture of the trees and the Spirit of the Wood, while full of potential, felt shallowly developed.  And the dissolution of Elspeth and Ione's friendship unfolded so swiftly that it gave me whiplash. Their relationship was more told than shown, and I wish it was more shown.

I liked the fairytale vibe, but it was occasionally clumsily executed: in the chapter headings, in the names - it's really hard to take a kingdom named Blunder seriously. And 'Ravyn' - yes, with a y - read like an attempt to make him cool. Honestly, just name him Raven and be done with it. He's cool enough!

I enjoyed Elspeth and Ravyn's romance, though the progression of it felt a little quick. But then, I'm reminded that I married my husband pretty quickly and now I'm not sure I have room to judge. Also, I liked the implication that part of Elspeth's attraction to Ravyn was sheer hunger for intimacy and connection as well as like-recognizing-like. Also, to both their credit, they're a fittingly dark fairytale couple. They suit the genre and the story without being painful or cringey and while still having that appealing passion. They communicate pretty well. All miscommunication is perfectly understandable rather than shoehorned in, and fairly swiftly resolved. 

I also really liked all the side-characters, except Hauth, who felt a little one-dimensional. What made him a brute? Power? The Scythe card? A horrible father? Yes...and yet, I felt like his suspicions of Ravyn et al. could have been better founded... Also, honestly, for people committing treason, they were pretty clumsy about it, walking around with bruises from their altercation in front of the people who caused them. The very next day, no less! But yes, Elspeth's father, aunt, and uncle were interesting characters with some depth, and so were Jespyr and Renelm and my darling Emory.

My main issue with this story, though, and the reason it's not 3 stars for me, is that the reveal about the Nightmare and the Rowans was obvious almost immediately, and even in-universe, I felt like Elspeth should have been able to put two and two together. That she didn't, for eleven years, felt like a real stretch. It felt like she got dumbed down for the sake of the 'shock twist' which was neither shocking nor a twist at all. And I also feel like this should have been a standalone, not a duology.

I'm going to read the sequel to find out what happens, but I'm skeptical that there can possibly be a whole book's worth of plot to be found. The ending was fantastic...I just wished it wasn't the ending.

We shall see how the sequel holds up, but my expectations are low.

• Nix's mom!
• Dahut!
• Gwenolé! 
• Nix and her dad's relationship development
• the continued dissolution of the (never meant to be long-lasting) love triangle from book one
• the villain!
• the entirety of chapter 30, with the waters of Lethe and Mnemosyne
• the mermaids
• the heartbreak of Blake's betrayal trying to save what he loved, come hell or high water (literally)

​My gripes, because I loved this book, but I wish: 

• we got more of the side characters - again! so interesting! I just wish we got to see more of them! not necessarily in this book, but maybe as some sort of epilogue or even spin off novellas!
• I'm particularly saddened by Dahut's fate, but I'm choosing to believe her death's ambiguous enough that maybe she survived, since it's implied Slate did (but did Lin?! God, I hope so)
• that the ending was longer: it was bittersweet, which I do not mind at all, but...hm. I feel like it needed just a tiny bit more. I think this just may be because I fell in love with this book?
• Blake's implied fate. it's a suicidal choice and i hate that for him, despite his selfish and devastating choices in the final hour...still, there's enough ambiguity that Nix may have convinced him not to throw away his life
•  that Crowhurst had not been so insane that he wouldn't take the other opportunities to see if the myth could be changed. It felt a bit weak, a way of forcing the plot to go the way it went...but then again...he was a megalomaniac so...it unfortunately makes some sense that he would choose to ruin everything rather than not have his Grand Plan™ pan out

​Why it's not a 5-star rating:

 1) As is the case with practically any time-travel media...it contradicts itself. I have no quarrel with the idea that fate is fixed, but everyone is still responsible for their actions, and that not knowing what will happen is where free will comes in. My issue is more with the looping of time.

If Event A can only happen because Event B causes it to happen, but Event B only causes it to happen because of the influence of Event A happening, then we're stuck in a nonsensical cycle and time actually grinds to a halt. There's no forward movement. It's a loop of infinite regress. There has to be a starting point. 

I know, I know 'it's fantasy! there are mermaids and myths come to life and magical cure-all mercury!' Sure, but all those don't break my mind. They're not inherently impossible. (Feel free to argue with me lol, I know how I sound). 

2) The waters of Mnemosyne...Nix gives it to Joss, which explains Joss' accurate foreknowledge, but it seems a terrible thing to give to a person. It literally drove Crowhurst insane and Nix herself is deeply tempted to drink it. And it brings us back to point #1 - Joss knows everything because Nix gave her the water, which triggered everything that happened into happening. Timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly indeed...

3) If Crowhurst drank the waters of Mnemosyne, why would he need all his horrible experiments to prove if history/stories can be changed or not. He should already just know, shouldn't he?

4) ...is it not already proved that history/stories can be changed after the fact, since the number of people who died in the Wilcox rebellion changed to be one less?

5) the semi-woobification of James Cook. Gross.

In an effort to get through the books I own before reading new books, I picked up The Girl From Everywhere, which I actually started reading back in October of 2025 and then DNF'd. But one of my personal intentions of the year (as opposed to my writerly intentions) was to actually allow the process to be a process. And since I didn't hate the book, I was just struggling with the pace of it, I picked it back up.

I'm sort of glad I did? It was good for my attention span, I think, and there were some rewards.

✦

What I enjoyed: 

• the premise - a time (& dimension) travelling sailing ship via maps! 
• the prose - there were some really gorgeous descriptions that set the scene
• Nix's name
• The thorough-seeming historical research

• Joss - the most compelling character of them all, whose story I would devour and probably prefer to read!
• The folk tales and mythology
• The Hawaiian Night Marchers
• Kashmir - an interesting and romantic character who is far more patient with Nix than I am
• The entire section on Emperor Qin Shin Huang's mausoleum (chilling, horrifying, engagingly depicted)
• The near-tender way the terracotta warriors were treated

​
What I didn't enjoy:

• the vague explanation as to how Navigators actually Navigate
• the slow pace
  
• the confusion as to Joss's timeline (this may be a me issue - a lot of the depiction of time travel requires a suspension of logic I find difficult to achieve)
• Nix is rarely ever honest or direct in her communication, which can make her interactions really frustrating to read (I had to remember she's only sixteen and had not the greatest parent)
• The pace of the ending, which felt rushed, though it was a satisfying ending in and of itself
• Kashmir felt exotified, but given he's from a fictional world...it's sort of ok? Maybe? I'm not sure about this yet...
  

What I didn't mind (that other reviewers did)

• The love triangle: Nix herself explicitly says that she only considered a relationship with Blake (2nd love interest) because it would hurt less to lose him, and it felt safe to feel for him when she already knew/believed it wouldn't go anywhere (poor Blake, though)
• The romance (with Kashmir): for those who don't care for romance, this is an easily ignorable aspect of the overall story. For those who do like romance, it's all pining and self-denial and unconventional romantic gestures. Kashmir is a wonderfully romantic figure. Nix is semi-frustrating, but it's pretty fun that she's the more pragmatic and emotionally closed off character. Also, she has extremely understandable attachment issues thanks to her father, so one shouldn't judge her too harshly

​
Will I read the sequel? Yes! In fact, I am reading it right now, specifically because there was enough about the world and magic of it that I'm intrigued to see further developments, and I'm hoping the pacing issue will be addressed. So far, it seems quicker paced and I like the development of the romance and the exploration of Navigation happening. I hope it holds up.

Until next time, happy reading and writing!

It's that time of year again, where I look back at this year and forward into the next. And what a year 2025 has been! I met my husband and got married, moved out, travelled, figured out many things, revived a writing society with my mom, and started a bi-weekly writing meetup, mostly to get my own butt in gear. 

Of my 2025 writing intentions, I have:

• written for LofM, but not 100 words, and not monthly
• written more book responses
• read 12+ books, but not solely ones I already own and haven't read before
• set up a substack
• joined (started) a writing group
• attended 1+ writing group meetings

Before I get too hard on myself, let's acknowledge and celebrate some unplanned wins!

1. I wrote a zero draft 2.0 for LofM Vol. 1 (aka SPD), filling in major and minor plot holes and streamlining the story further
2. Decided to write it in first person, which suddenly unlocked a lot of momentum with this wip.
3. Renamed Halah and Sirin to better reflect the plot and its inspirations. Halah is now Shahira, nicknamed Hira, and Sirin is now Intisar.
4. Came up with a contemporary romance story idea mere days before meeting the man I ended up marrying six months later
5. Wrote a poetical snippet
6. Wrote another one
7. Wrote a bit of Rivener 2.0
8. Played around with the idea of making Rivener 2.0 about faeries (the scary kind, not the sparkling pixie kind) but still make it an apocalyptic fantasy in the vein of Annihilation (2018)
9. Read and reviewed Robin McKinley's Deerskin
10. Wrote a drabble inspired by art
11. Got back onto tumblr
12. Wrote a short story about a fox, inspired by a tiktok
13. Shared LofM's current preface and some updates
14. Decided I didn't need an original character in Oracle, my Alice in Wonderland isekai retelling, when I could just make her the Cheshire Cat instead! I feel very excited about this development
15. Met with and asked to interview an author
16. Planned several literary events for Sakina Literary Society of the Arts
17. Planned several more for 2026
18. Started and added to my writing instagram
19. Joined a discord writing sprint group
20. wrote 10k of SPD!
21. submitted my children's fable to a publishing company!

Well, would you look at all those not at all pathetic accomplishments! I'm proud and thankful I managed to do all this in the same year that everything else happened, and feel much better about myself as a writer and creative.

I'm going to try and keep this really, really simple...(famous last words).

1. Try to get an entire first draft of SPD complete! Even if it's crappy! But at least get past the first 3 chapters
2. Write 12 short stories/drabbles/prompt fills
3. Write a book review for every book I read that isn't for storytime at work. (Subgoal: read 20 books that aren't for storytime at work)
4. Consistently host writing meetups (barring in Ramadan, when we'll take a short break) even though hardly anyone attends
5. Continue to spread the word about my writing group despite the pervasive sense of failure and embarrassment at the lack of immediate success with it
6. Edit and then reshare October Odds
7. Query PCR and send it out to 5 places/people
8. Grow newsletter subscribers by 5
9. Submit to a contest or magazine

Here's to hoping I can accomplish this and more! I hope you've all had a fantastically creative year and have an even better new year. ♥︎
​
Happy holidays and, as always, happy reading and writing 𓂃🖊

Welcome to the re-re-re-etc.-vamped version of Legends of Mourra, Vol. 1 - The Storyteller, The Prince, and The Djinn. Note the change: my main character's name went from Halah to Shahira, and Sirin's name is now Intisar. 

I'd originally chosen 'Halah' because back then SPD was a pretty different story with a much 'grander' plot including a whole civil war, among other things, and Halah was inspired by the blessed lady Halimah, nursemaid and foster mother to the Prophet ﷺ . The story has changed--and Halah-the-character has changed--that the association is no longer obvious or precisely applicable, so her name's been changed to reflect that. Shahira is a call back to Schehrezade, which SPD is a loose retelling/adaptation of, as you can see from the preface above!

Another change: SPD is now in first person! It's made the story feel much easier to write, and you can see my rambly thoughts on how and why here. (Oh yeah, I'm back on tumblr lol).

Anywho, that's all for now!

​Happy reading and writing  𓂃🖊