Hello my darlings,
Happy September to us all! I’m so relived that it’s finally a bit cooler and less mosquito-ey outside. We’ve had some absolutely prefect weather in Maryland lately, and Mr. DitL and I have been taking advantage of it by going for lots of walks, visiting the Farmer’s Market (the apples are so fantastic right now) and listening to the incredibly fantastic Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks together in our hammock.
Yes, I did just finish reading those books before starting the audiobooks. And yes, the audio version of Dungeon Crawler Carl is as good as you’ve heard it is. Click here for my full thoughts on this series.
Isn’t it funny how September can still feel like a new beginning even when you’re many years too old to be heading back to school? Something about the hint of fresh crispness in the air makes me feel like I should go buy a new notebook and some fresh pens.
Perhaps I will.
xoxo,
Becky
What I’m reading
The Weaver Bride by Lydia Gregovic: (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
The story follows Lovett Tamerlane, who was born a Silkwitch: a women whose hair holds magical power. Silkwitches are guarded like jewels until they can be married off to Weaver husbands, men who have the gift necessary to wield their hair’s power.
Lovett decides to hide the fact that she’s a Silkwitch so that she can live free, using the little gift of magic that all Silkwitches possess until they are married to make a living as a specialized thief.
When she’s caught stealing from a Weaver man, Lovett makes a deal that hinges on her agreeing to the most dangerous con of her life so far: she’ll reveal her coveted hair and take on a fake identity to try to win the hand of a nobleman in a high stakes competition…but her goal isn’t marriage. Her aim is to gain access to the castle where a fellow Silkwitch recently died under mysterious circumstances to try to solve the woman’s murder.
This clever first book in a new YA Fantasy/mostly closed-door Romantasy series surprised me several times, but there was one specific plot twist where this book mentally jumped from 3 or 4 stars to a full 5 in an instant. I don’t want to give anything away, but I really enjoyed this one.
Rules for Ruin (The Crinoline Academy Book 1) by Mimi Matthews: (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
This series follows the graduates of The Crinoline Academy, a very unusual charity finishing school in London that teaches its orphaned pupils things like lockpicking and the concealment of weapons in beneath one’s fashionable, voluminous skirts. Each capable lady must venture forth into greater London to try to solve a mystery or pursue a goal on behalf of the Crinoline Academy’s mysterious proprietress…but things never go as planned.
Major themes of found family, feminism, empowering women, and finding your true self while falling in love and solving a mystery. I’d call this series Historical Fiction with a love story in the center, rather than Romance. Spicy scenes are closed door.
Zodiac Academy by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti: (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
I enjoyed parts of this lengthy Fantasy series, but I don’t recommend it as a whole.
The plot: two beautiful teenage orphan twins are living together in poverty when a devastatingly handsome stranger appears to tell them they’re actually long lost Fae princesses from another realm. The twins arrive at their new magical boarding school to discover they already have enemies: four sexy teenage boys called “The Heirs” who were intended to lead the kingdom in the princesses’ absence. Will the twins defeat The Heirs & their supporters and reclaim their thrones? Who will fall in love along the way?
SPOILERS AHEAD (and TW for discussion of sexual assault & harassment)
The entire world is excessively sexualized – which is often the case in this genre – but it’s so blatant and icky here. Sexy teachers in revealing clothing force students to wear revealing uniforms and openly ogle and comment on students’ bodies. The female characters all have tiny waists, beautiful faces, and huge, heaving breasts…except for one teenager who takes “Faeroids” and is described as horrendously disgusting due to her large body and visible facial hair. The male characters all have defined muscles, handsome faces, and large genitals.
These Fae have the ability to force obedience from weaker individuals through a magical power called “Coercion” and the main characters are too inexperienced to defend against this for the first 2-3 books. The teenage Princesses are repeatedly Coerced to to do dangerous, humiliating, borderline sexual things by their fellow students. They’re forced to publicly strip, are nearly drowned, forced to injure themselves, forced to embarrass themselves…it goes on and on and on, and the incidents are recorded on video and shared.
It is very clear that this Coercion power can be used for sexual assault. Neither of the main characters is forced into sex – although threats are made, and it’s revealed later in the series that one character frequently uses their power that way – but the constant implied threat of sexual assault against teenage characters is deeply discomfiting.
There were clever and endearing parts of the story that I enjoyed, especially in the later books of the series, but overall the gender essentialism, relentless focus on attractiveness, oversexualization of all characters, and casual treatment of sexual assault ruined it for me.
Zodiac Academy reminds me of overly long fanfictions that I used to read online as a teenager, but spread over 7,100 published pages. No shade if you’re someone who loves these books – we all have our problematic faves – but they weren’t for me.
Want to see more fiction I’m loving? Click here.
Internets
How Antique Diamonds Became a Modern Bridal Obsession, in JCK.
High Levels of Cadmium Found in Jewelry Sold on Amazon and TikTok – big yikes to this one. I have nothing against demi-fine jewelry and I think it’s vitally important for the market to have cool jewelry at all price points, but that’s no excuse for making things so cheap that they’re actually dangerous.
Cindy Chao’s latest Black Label Masterpiece Captures Nature’s Resilient Rhythms.
Could a DNA Test Become the Future of Jewellery Provenance? A new PCR ‘swab test’ can identify the journey of gemstones and diamonds, even after they have been set into finished Jewellery.
The colour purple in the Georgian era at All Things Georgian.
The return of jewelled hairpieces. Dior, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels – along with independent jewellers like Jessica McCormack – are turning diamonds into dazzling hair ornaments.
5 Trends to Watch From Paris High Jewelry Week – from JCK.
Book images via UnSplash. This post contains affiliate links.
