iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

📚🪐 I'm having the best time with these. Just the deep understanding of the structure of fairy tales and how to use them to one's advantage *perfection* This starts unsettlingly, has some great danger, and ends happily (as all the best tales do) with some great comradarie and clever use of Tradition

The cover of Mercedes lackey's one good night in all its kitschy glory. There's a girl in a white gown adorned with gold on the front right and a silhouette of a knight facing a green dragon with frills on its head at the top left with light sparkles and a sort of busy blue green ambiance around the edges. Older covers are such *fun*

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

📚🪐 I didn't love this as much as I wanted to, the style is very much what I call "man fantasy" (see authors like Anthony Ryan). There's nothing wrong with it, but I find the style difficult to read and enjoy. Which was annoying because it's got a really fun premise

The cover of the maleficent seven by Cameron Johnston. Seven would figures are silhouetted against a burning sky.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

🪐📚 There's a soft fairytale-like quality to McKinley's work that's very soothing regardless of the topic. This is an interesting one as the FMC takes on a role binding the earth to peace. It's quite slow, but wraps up nicely.

The cover of Chalice by robin McKinley. It's yellow with a window wreathed by a flower pattern and bees that shows a woman in a vaguely medieval dress with a small cottage in the background.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I've not read this one (yet), but the later spin off as to what the hubby's doing during all of this and it's such an interesting system and set up. I'll be picking this one up for sure. Erin's on here as well, so check out her recommendations if you enjoyed her book as she's hyping other LitRPG 📚

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Totally haven't reviewed this, but it's fantastic and spooky season is coming up and what's more spooky than a dead man walking around with an octopus in his skull. Second one is in the works around the author's other IP projects.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

🪐📚 Last volume is bittersweet as it was a nice wrapup, but I'm also going to miss it. This is pure shonen. The whole we will try and strive and eventually win, but with kaiju, is immensely satisfying. The city is totally destroyed multiple times and rebuilt. Which is impressive in and of itself

The cover of volume 16 of kaiju no 8 by naoya Matsumoto. Kafka (a sort of average looking Japanese man with spiky short hair) is alone against a city backdrop and wearing a defense uniform with a breathing mask around his neck.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

📚🪐 Finally finished this one, gorgeous cover and dreamy almost fairy tale vibes. It will certainly go places you don't expect in the beginning. Bonus: talking animals and an ordinary man who might just be a wizard himself.

The cover of the forgotten beasts of eld by Patricia a mckillip. It's a soft painterly style cover with a fey white woman in a fairytale dress with a dragon, a falcon, a lion, and a cat.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

📚🪐 What's a mind bending or strange scifi that's stuck with you? Doesn't have to be good, just something you enjoyed. Tanya Huff's Torin Kerr books (2!! series) had such a twist in them that I'm still thinking about it. Got some really interesting alien races, too.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Not much I can say about this particular Eric Carter book without hella spoilers other than it's really hit its pace and was very good. On brand for the rest of the series, plenty of magic, mayhem, and death. It wraps up the plot arc with Darius and his bottle in an unexpected manner.

A mug of tea with leaves floating in it with a paperback version of Bottle Demon by Stephen Blackmore in the background. The book has a white man in a suit with a fancy glowing bottle on a table in front of him and ghostly hands reaching towards him.

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High Priestess, Low Patience @cheriepriest.com · 16/09/2026

ooh, I like this take - all the elements are present, so call it what it is: not liminal (which was never quite right, tbh), but gothic for a new generation of people who don’t remember why we built that shit in the first place, or what it was supposed to be *for*

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

🪐📚 I've not read these in a hot minute (check content warnings please, these can get dark), but I've got fond memories of reading them previously. Armstrong's stuff is a *ride.* She often toes the line with horror imho

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Content warnings need to be at the front of the book aka the part of the book that ebook samples allows for to be worth jack shit. Looking at you publishers who wrote a nice little note about the content warnings for when the moon hatched and stuck them where you can't read them before buying.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

So a bunch of authors I like have said this, but I've tried the reading new books with tropes I usually like trend and they weren't doing it for me. I am one person, but the trope marketing thing is a hard no. Shout out to the contemp witch romance that kept me reading for the bisexual revenge

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Won my yarn chicken (after deciding not to finish the last row in the repeat and instead finishing it with a single crochet edge). It needs to be blocked, but I've got to decide if it should be a wall hanging or lapghan first.

A vaguely square lapghan in a variegated cream, pale pink, and light gray yarn. The pattern has a mandala-like effect of textured, expanded v-shaped motifs.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

❤️📚🪐 I'm not caught up on a lot of Aguirre's more recent books as that style of romance isn't really my thing, but this is whimsical and magical enough to satisfy me. It's just so sweet and good and people becoming more themselves and finding love ❤️❤️❤️ just pure happiness even if there is a spot of

The cover of the hocus pocus handbook by ann Aguirre. It's soft dreamy colors with a castle and phooka in the background, a couple of glowing pixies on a stone path, and a ship in a bottle and a small mushroom house in the foreground.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I will be trying this as I tend to get feverish and feel generally terrible after the covid shot. Not as bad as the first one anymore, but like I try not to plan anything 12-24 hours after the shot.

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I find this an increasing issue in YA as well. A lot of authors are trying to hold the hands of their teen audiences (or of the adults who are reading it). Everything is over explained and wrapped up in a tidy bow. Teens complain to me about it frequently.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

#teasky Not a huge white tea fan, so this sample surprised me. It's honey-sweet and very placid. Cacao and hay on the nose, but I don't think it comes through very much. (And like good hay, very pleasant). I can almost smell the company's tasting notes, but it'd probably be better in a teapot.

A white gaiwan on a saucer with dark leaves next to a blue and white chawan (a small, round handleless cup) with bamboo painted on it.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Not sure I'm going to continue the dragon has some complaints, but it's a me problem rather than a book problem. Letter from a secret admirer with no means to actually identify who it's from or if it's from the mean girl who knows way too much about the FMC.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

📚🪐 Another book where Bob is off doing other stuff and it sort of highlights what I love about the series. This isn't a James Bond spy thriller, although it certainly draws from them, but an everyman civil servant who gets thrust into saving the world. Bob's gotten pretty good at it, but Alex is 1/

The cover of the nightmare stacks by Charles stross. It's an abstract blue image with hints of highrises, sun flare, and other images that are barely discernable.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This is very cool, especially if you're in a smaller county or city, you can potentially expand the power of your library card. Use your libraries, they're such a wonderful resource for so many different things. And things you might not even think of like metal detectors or Alzheimer's kits.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Binged the last 4 Merry Gentry books to finish my preparation for the new book that's coming out this year. I'm not sure why I don't remember reading a shiver of light? It's possible I missed it previously. I'm full of feels and excited for the next book.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

🪐📚 Finally got to this after a rec from a tea discord person and yeah it's real good. Vaguely steampunk lesbian outlaws steal from the rich to care for the land they helped liberate in a grand deception. Industry does what industry does 1/

The cover of metal from heaven by August clarke. A handful of people stand on a rise amongst trees overlooking a glittering city. The city is all soft pastels and the foreground is dark purple silhouettes.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Can't remember if I was doing reviews when I finished the series, but it's very good. Cursed older gent and a whole pile of trouble. Shenanigans ensue and it's just really fun.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

📚🪐 Spinoff/time jump from the Jane Yellowrock books and it's good. There's a lot of history, but you could probably read this as a standalone. It's got all the thorny choices, politics, and layered plans that made the first series so good. 1/

The cover of unpredictable magic by faith hunter. A red-headed woman with a glowing staff and a cloak stand in front of a cityscape.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

#teasky 🫖 This one's interesting since I got basically none of their tasting notes. Very small amount of leaf in the gaiwan, but it's slow to open. I get an intense tropical fruit note on the nose, something like papaya, with a more complex and subdued sweet herby and a little fruity flavor

A very small amount of dried tea leaves in a white cup. The leaves are silver and brown and grey green and fuzzy

Wet leaves in the same cup after the first steep next to the first steep which is pale gold in color in a tall cup.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

#teasky 🫖🍵 I made the mistake of mugging this first and it was ludicrously perfume-y and sweet, not helped by me forgetting it. It did much better in the gaiwan with lush fruit and floral notes settling down into more earthy ones as the steeps progressed. It's one I probably won't run in a mug again

A white porcelain gaiwan with some brown leaves and a small round teacup/chawan with a blue ground and a hint of bamboo and filled with an orangey-red tea.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

📚🪐 🎯Right in the found family This was adorable and wholesome and the sort of thing that just nourishes the soul while still letting characters be messy and uncertain. Weirdly didn't hit me in the anxiety bone even though a character's anxiety will often do that. 1/

The cover of Recipe for an Unexpected Afterlife by Deston J Munden. There's a coiled shadow of a dragon with its tail touching the foot of an orc holding up a cauldron of weapons and a great folly of a building with a castle sitting on top.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Bree is over here dropping banger after banger. The whole thread is how social media companies have influenced cover design for books with adult content. Also like this arguably makes content warnings more important because covers used to tell you how sexy something was going to be.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

*banging the chalk board to highlight the point* I've not read 4th wing, so I can't speak to it, but this is absolutely true of ACOTAR, especially the earlier books. And this is part of the reason why romantasy as a "genre" is extremely confusing.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

🪐📚 Favorite Reynolds' book? Just possibly. It's all about identity and redemption and displacement in time.

The cover of slow bullets by Alastair Reynolds. A spaceship that looks kind of like a cross between a ship and a station hangs above an alien planet at moonrise.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Took out the old drawstring and added more pockets and it's better. You can push the dice in or let them shut at the edges and have a nice dice tray, so they don't escape when you roll them. They'll be more trapped when I put a drawstring back in, but you could probably do it so it'll lie flat.

Updated picture of the dice bag below. It's laying completely flat showcasing dice in the pockets and the standing up bits for a dice tray.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I made a dice bag and I'm mildly obsessed. I am going to go back and add more pockets and probably fix the drawstring, which in hindsight doing past midnight on a work night maybe wasn't the best idea. #sewing

A hand made dice bag on a table with dice and sewing paraphernalia in the background. The bag has 4 pockets with a light purple floral fabric on the inside and a darker blue feather-y contrast on the outside and in the center.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

📚🪐 Well that took me a hot minute to finish, mostly because it's very emotionally charged and needed to be consumed in small bites. But it was worth it. Very, very worth it. This somehow manages to increase the number of reveals and miracles from the first book and pile on emotions 1/

The cover of the ballad of falling dragons by Sarah a Parker. A great reddish dragon with tusks is on the cover, body partially obscured with the wings and face visible

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

#teasky I've replaced my gaiwan and got new teas to try, so buckle up. This is Lan Xang Black from Laos and it's molasses or something similar that leaves a lingering stone fruit flavor in the mouth.

A white gaiwan on a small saucer with its lid beside it is full of twisty light brown tea leaves.

The gaiwan with wet leaves that are still somewhat gnarly, but now more condensed next to a small chawan cup with amber tea in it.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

#Tea complete with samples because I almost always travel with some good looseleaf. Buckle up Americans, you need to learn what good tea tastes like. Seriously tho, most Americans are introduced to sad poor quality tea and don't like it because of that.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

🪐📚 This was quite a good book. There are dragons with dragon-sized problems which namely revolve around a lack of cooperation making them easy pickings for the races that do cooperate. And dragons are an intelligent long-lived race, albeit a primarily solitary one. So what's a young dragon to do 1/

The cover of dragon champion by ee knight. A gray dragon with a long whip like tail and big leathery wings stands with some foliage arrayed about and a golden background.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

📚🪐 Oh man that was a good series finale. Definitely left some things to the imagination, but not in a bad way A good end to a fantastic series. This one's for the horse girls as we've got the best horse ever. Honestly, more than one, there's some really good horses. 1/

The cover of steles of the sky by Elizabeth bear. There's a woman with dark hair tangles in smoke sort of reaching upwards

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

🪐📚 This is the kind of story where you can't imagine packing more events in and yet there's more and remembering it you think it's like 3 books, not one. El's many secrets come to bear, as do the prince's and several other schemers. So much scheming occurs (complementary) 1/

The cover of the nameless land by Kate Elliot. Two figures are silhouetted standing on a road and looking out over a fantasy land with a low fog and great castle rising in the distance.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

❤️📚🪐 Very silly romance with a side plot of folks attempting to reincarnate something they really shouldn't only for it to be defeated by the power of the omegaverse (again very silly). The title is somewhat misleading with everyone involved very concerned about consent and well being. 1/

The cover of that time I got drunk and yeeted a love potion at a werewolf by Kimberly Lemming. A couple lays in wildflowers gazing adoringly at one another.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

🪐📚 There's only so many ways to have a dungeon engine and exploitative aliens before they start to look similar. This takes a different route in how that exploitation occurs and spins its own story with a much more military theme and capitalism via dungeon Bitcoin. 1/

The cover of Not My First (Space) Rodeo by M. Talon. There's a guy in a duster and a cowboy hat with some very alien plants around the edges.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

🪐📚 Teen/YA with a surprising amount of anti-magic fascism. Light romance, great fun, surprise shape shifters and way more magic than anyone in town will cop to. I interpreted the world as being separate shards in the void, but I suppose they could be normal geographic regions too. 1/

The cover of shadows by robin McKinley. A dark forest against a green backdrop with light shining through and casting shadows on the water

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

📚🪐 This was fantastic. It builds off the concept of fairytale magic by putting it into a system (worldbuilding nerds, this is for you) and exploring tropes and mythos. It's very much a redemption story for several characters and just so good. The concept of the world trying to *force* certain 1/

The cover of the fairy godmother by Mercedes Lackey. Very kitch 2000s with light sparkles and a blonde women with a flower crown, a man on a horse in the background, and a mountain all covered in blue atmosphere to bring it together.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

People always remember the last fire, but not how many times it burned. And now they're reopening stretches of the river in Cuyahoga Valley National Park to recreation and you can kayak the bits in Cleveland, as opposed to being able to almost walk on it due to the amount of trash and pollution.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

🪐📚 Listen I enjoy a fucking bastard being forced to save the world as a revenge side quest and that's exactly what this is with some side notes on the fall of empire, historical revisionism, and the conservative nature of established institutions. And secrets of fallen empires. 1/

The cover of The Traitor God by Cameron Johnston. There's a scruffy guy walking towards the viewer on a bridge lined with fancy statues and a hazy really giant statue in the background.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

📚🪐 It's a Mo book! Which means we have Bob's lady in the hot seat. She's shifting positions and shit is hitting the fan. We've got super heroes, transitioning monsters of the deep, and a trial separation. What's a working woman to do? Her best and have a breakdown later.

The cover of the annihilation score by Charles stross. A blue and lilac abstract cover.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

📚🪐 Stories in the Yellowstone universe from across the entire span of Reynolds' cannon. From fishmen to mad hospital ships it's exactly the kind of grimly unexpected wild ride you'd expect of short stories from Reynolds. Maybe don't read these before bed some have a borderline horror quality.

The cover of galactic North by Alastair Reynolds. A spaceship with a beetle pincher bow and fat stern kind of goes into an icy looking planetoid or something? I'm not real clear on what it's doing.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Got the second one finished, although the neck seems to have turned out longer than the first because they're ~handmade~ and I learned from my tension issues on the first. Anyway, if you're the runner up and match the winning bid, you too can have a Wyrm to support voting access.

Two little petro colored wyrm crochet figures curled up next to each other.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I'm sure like all spaniels, this stuffie is the best dog ever. And a steal at $32.

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fairygrrl97.bsky.social @fairygrrl97.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Got three "chapters" in before I realized the Alastair Reynolds book I picked up was an anthology after double checking the description. Truly a chaotic choice driven by the fact that Reynolds books are nice background for analysis work.

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