2025 reading challenge (7/10)

so, i'm one of those "used to read all of the time when i was a teenager, but i haven't finished a book in years" types. earlier this year i was desperately craving something that i couldn't seem to find, and it led me back to reading books; at the very least, it's always very easy to find a book rec for pretty niche things.

i started with the challenge of reading five books, and i nailed it! i slowed down after that, but i'm planning on starting again soon, so i've updated my challenge to 10 books.

some of these books have content that's pretty dark, toxic, characters are deeply flawed, and/or erotic in nature; i'm not going to do in depth reviews, but if you want to ask me what's in them, i'm happy to offer that. mostly, i'm just going to list the books and give a small thing about how it made me feel!

1. the final masquerade by ariana nash - not bad! i didn't love the pacing at the end, but the beginning was strong and i had fun for most of the book.

2. not all himbos wear capes by c. rochelle - i wanted to like it, as it was described as the boys meets deapool, but i was really unsatisfied with it overall. there was a point where i thought it was going to finally go there, but then it did not.

3. prince of blades by kay thatcher - i like the lore and worldbuilding a lot, and i liked how the characters were all terrible, but at the same time, i was consistently annoyed by one thing or another. i finished it, but i won't be picking up the sequel even though it's about the character i liked the most.

4. long live evil by sarah rees brennan - changed my life. i'll never recover. this book is so fantastic in every way. i own multiple copies of it now. just... it's so good, and i am vibrating in my chair thinking about book 2!

5. soul eater by lily mayne - at some point i understood this book was simply not for me; it was a fine book, but not one that appealed to me... but i do have a burning question about the ending. i don't want to spoil it for the zero people reading this but like... why was an important part of the novel done offscreen?

6. amid clouds and bones by ella fields - this is the closest to what i was looking for! (i was aching for some bad guy gets the protagonist romantasy, where the bad guy actually did horrible things, you know?) though i do wish a "mate" mechanic wasn't sprung out of nowhere halfway through the novel. i find that soul/mate mechanics in books are fun, but are also used to get the characters together easier, and i like seeing the effort being put in, y'know? but at the very least, it was a pretty fun book.

7. the wicked and the willing by lianyu tan - the writing in this book was incredible, and for the greater part of it i was enthralled by it. there's three endings though i never read the third, just the main two. the differences in the POVs was really, really good.

ANYWAY... three more to go.