Yikes! 18 to 26??? Seriously?

Dec. 6th, 2025 11:49 am
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[personal profile] dreamshark
Do you have an iPhone?  I do, and have just been compliantly updating my IOS as recommended for the past year or so. Another recommended update rolled out today - and it updated me from IOS 18.something to 26.1!!  What have I missed?

Apparently this is the big one everybody has been waiting for with bated breath - the Liquid Glass Update. Also the "Apple Intelligence" nonsense, but I don't care about that because it doesn't run on iPhone 13. It looks like they have mashed up the User Interface majorly (boo!) but also introduced an infinitude of opportunities for fiddling with your lock screen and wallpaper options, which I admit that I am powerless to resist. 

My iPhone just emerged from a very long update with a cheery Hello! and is sitting there simmering, waiting for me to try to use it. *ulp*   

If you just upgraded your iPhone, let me know what you found - the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

YULETIDE YELLING HERE

Dec. 6th, 2025 09:30 am
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[personal profile] snickfic
How are your Yuletide assignment/treats/etc going? Feel free to share in the comments. Capslock welcome.

I have very promising starts on two treats and zero words on my assignment. I might have an idea for my assignment? I'm going to start it and find out this weekend.

Sunday Online Chat

Dec. 6th, 2025 09:25 am
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[personal profile] sartorias
I need to remember to mention these (rare) things in case one or two of you have free time at 9:00a.m. Pacific time Sunday the 7th. B Cubed Press Sunday Brunch, on Youtube, hosts a live chat. Tomorrow I'm to be included, for what will begin as a chat about preparing for readings, but might go in any direction.

Speak Up Saturday

Dec. 6th, 2025 05:22 pm
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[personal profile] feurioo posting in [community profile] tv_talk
Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

Deth of Siv, etc

Dec. 6th, 2025 03:57 pm
oursin: Cartoon hedgehog going aaargh (Hedgehog goes aaargh)
[personal profile] oursin

What is this that this thing is, when, okay, one is aware of all the woozing and grumbling about the various delivery services, but here is the ROYAL MAIL being pretty bad.

Yesterday I had an email saying they had delivered a parcel.

There was no parcel.

I looked at the proof of delivery and behold, that was Not Our Front Door they were sticking it through, it was the wrong colour and one could see the corner of a glass panel (ours is solid wood).

So I went on to their site to try and delve a bit further and, my dears, it is HORRENDOUS, one suspects it is designed to make people Just Give Up.

For example, the 'contact us' link, that actually goes to a 'Help and Support' page that lists a whole range of possible contingencies that one has to sort through to discover one that matches the occasion.

And once I had come across the Advice relating to item (presumably) misdelivered to wrong address, advice was, to contact the sender.

I have no bloody idea who the sender was being as how I was not even expecting a Royal Mail delivery, have been back over my emails and texts and no, I did not receive any previous message involving that particular tracking code.

There is a passing allusion to possible scanning errors.

The only means of contacting them is by phone, and when I tried, and had made my way through the menu options, the wait to speak to a person was 50 minutes.

I am leaving all this pro tem in case a) it was misdelivered and gets put back into the system b) it never actually existed in the first place.

But, really.

And in other, perhaps more minor (?) annoyances of Modern Life, what is this thing that this thing is of 'Cooking Instructions on Back of Label'? that you then have to detach, in the hope that it will actually come off in one piece that one can actually decipher....

ETA Parcel has now turned up, either in today's post or popped through letter box by neighbour to whom it was delivered in error.... Is friend's book I was in anticipation of.

can't sleep, prestige TV will eat me

Dec. 6th, 2025 09:41 am
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[personal profile] the_shoshanna
I have watched the first two episodes of Heated Rivalry, and omg it is so much fun (and I find it better than the book tbh; the book sometimes felt awkwardly written and the show just smooths out and amplifies so many great moments). I haven't watched the third episode yet and am desperate to, but I also kind of want to reread Game Changer first, just slam through it this morning, so I can better recognize the ways it's been adapted. (And of course I want to reread the book of Heated Rivalry as well, just to see if my memory is betraying me!) And I just learned twenty minutes ago that a sequel series to Spartacus just dropped and I'm dying to check it out. And how did I miss that there was a third series of Leverage: Redemption? (And on top of all those things that are sitting on my hard drive absolutely alluring me, I'm watching The Pitt with a friend -- her first time through it; my second -- and watching the current series of Shetland both with Geoff and with another friend, and already counting the days until the Call the Midwife Christmas special drops -- and omg it's specials, plural, we get one on the 25th and a second one on the 26th and then the new series presumably sometime in the spring.)

I have to prep to help lead service at church tomorrow morning, and all I want to do today is read Rachel Reid and watch TV. Can't I just stay home and worship at the Church of Bubble Butts?
dewline: Text: "Empathy in Silence" (empathy-2)
[personal profile] dewline
Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.

resisting entropy

Dec. 6th, 2025 11:47 am
wychwood: You could call science fiction my escape / but if so mainstream fiction was my prison (Fan - escape from mainstream)
[personal profile] wychwood
My boss gave me a Christmas present, which is very nice of her! It's... a coffee mug (I only drink cold water) with snowy London landmarks on it (why).

In other puzzling news, I haven't had to wade through two inches of water to get to the station since last spring! I was assuming it was just because we'd had such a dry summer, but there have been several downpours which 100% would have flooded the station entrance last year now. We had a whole thing where the back of our site kept flooding and our management company spent months arguing with the water company about whose fault it was, and eventually the water company admitted it was them and did a bunch of work on the main road to fix it; I'm thinking the flooding by the station must have been part of the same problem, since it's the parallel road downslope. Who knew it was actually fixable without completely reconstructing the whole rear station entrance area! My wet boots thank them from the bottom of their soles.

I've been experimenting again with the automation software at work; at this stage it's a process of continuous failure - you create a process, you run it, it falls over, you spend ten minutes working out why, you fix that, it falls over at the next step, you spend fifteen minutes and call a colleague to fix that, rinse and repeat. On the other hand, the buzz from getting anything to work (I would say "a process" but I haven't actually got a complete flow for anything yet!!) is pretty good. And if I can get the flow I was working on yesterday up and running, it'll save me a couple of hours of extremely tedious manual checks every fortnight, and I'm all in favour of that.

(no subject)

Dec. 6th, 2025 12:36 pm
oursin: hedgehog in santa hat saying bah humbug (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] gillo and [personal profile] laughingrat!
creepy_shetan: cropped video game screenshot from Guilty Gear Strive of Testament smiling, chin raised, eyes looking down and away (Testament // when peace comes naturally)
[personal profile] creepy_shetan posting in [community profile] comment_fic
[ If you're interested in being a Tuesday-Thursday guest host, you can sign up here. Thanks! ❤ ]
↑↑↑ Available dates:
December 23 & 25
December 30 and January 1


Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first Free for All of December! ✨ ^.^ (Ah, the beginning of the end of another year.) There are no themes to follow for prompts or fills. If, perhaps, you missed a prompt theme that you liked, or you've had any ideas that didn't really work with Tuesday's or Thursday's posts, then today's your chance to prompt 'em. Be free, and have fun! ✎

Just a few rules:
1. No more than five prompts in a row.
2. No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
3. Use the character's full name and the fandom's full name for ease in adding to the Lonely Prompts spreadsheet.
4. No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here. Unfortunately, DW doesn’t have a cut tag, so use your best judgment when it comes to spoilers.
5. If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the spoiler cut.
6. If your story has possible triggers, please warn for them in the subject line!

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Are today's prompts not catching your eye? No worries, because we have plenty of older prompts that just might do the trick! You can browse through the comm's calendar archive (here on LJ or here on DW) for themed and Free For All posts, or perhaps check out Sunday posts for Lonely Prompt requests. (Or, you can be like me, and try to save interesting prompts as you see 'em... and then end up with multiple text doc files full of [themes + links + prompts] that you can easily look through and search for keywords.) Multiple fills for one prompt are welcome, by the way! Oh, and you are very likely to find some awesome fills to read as well, and wouldn't it be nice to leave a comment on those lovely little writing distractions? ~_^

We are on AO3! If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3, please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2025 collection.

If you are viewing this post on our Dreamwidth site: please know that fills posted here will not show up as comments on our LiveJournal site, but you are still more than welcome to participate. =)

If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so… and spread the word! [community profile] comment_fic


A friendly reminder about our posting schedule: Themed posts for new prompts go up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays are a Free for All day for new prompts of any flavor. Sundays are for showing Lonely Prompts some love, whether by requesting for someone to adopt them or by sharing any fills that you've recently completed.

Site update! (Sort of.)

Dec. 6th, 2025 08:00 pm
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[personal profile] flamebyrd
I ate'nt dead and all that...

We upgraded Ubuntu on our webserver, which upgraded PHP, which broke the CMS I was using for random.fangirling.net. The CMS (PicoCMS) is no longer supported or under active development, as is the way of such things, and it makes sense to me because the niche it filled - flat file CMSes - was quickly squeezed out by static site generators.

So I figured I should rebuild it using a static site generator (SSG), and spent some time playing around with Astro and Eleventy before I got too frustrated by how hard it was to build a site with the file structure I wanted. And then I thought, why did I spend all that time writing a static site generator if I wasn't going to use it?

And thus, here we are. random.fangirling.net is now mostly functional again. Please let me know if anything seems amiss!

The biggest thing that's missing is the breadcrumb navigation, which was the only kind of navigation I had on the site but which is difficult to generate with my script. So that's on the TODO list.

I thought I might make the code I use to generate the site public too, as a demo for how to use my makesite.py fork. Something to ponder!

Just One Thing (06 December 2025)

Dec. 6th, 2025 11:42 am
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[personal profile] nanila posting in [community profile] awesomeers
It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Carrie S

Raziyyat-Ud-Dunya Wa Ud-Din lived from around 1205 to around 1240 and was the fifth Sultan of Delhi. She was the first female Muslim ruler of the Indian subcontinent, and to date the only female Muslim ruler of Delhi.

Razia was the daughter of Shams ud-Din Iltutmish, the 3rd Sultan of Delhi. Her father had quite an astonishing life story including rising from being enslaved to being the foremost power in the region. He was not impressed with his sons, and when he left for war, he left Razia in charge. He named her as his successor, stating that she was more capable than his sons.

Razie is shown reclining beneath a tree and fanned by two servants in an antique piece of art

Upon his death, his nobles, who did not want a woman in charge, named Iitutmish’s son Ruknuddin Firuz. He was allegedly not an attentive ruler, and left management to his mother, Shah Turkaan. After an escalating series of revolts by his nobles, Razia took the throne. This was revolutionary not only because of her gender but also because of her family’s background as enslaved peoples and because her rule was achieved largely through the support of the public.

According to Google Arts and Culture,

Razia ascended the throne as Jalâlat ud-Dîn Raziyâ, and immediately dropped her veil, replacing it with men’s attire instead. She authoritatively issued coins in her name, proclaiming herself to be the ‘pillar of women’ and ‘Queen of the times.’

Razia was progressive in other ways as well. The Indian American Muslim Council states:

As a ruler in a diverse empire, Razia took calculated steps to include all groups in daily life, regardless of how common discrimination against different groups was. One of her most progressive choices was her attempt to abolish the Jizya, which was a tax on non-Muslims under Islamic rule, as she believed people only converted to Islam out of fear. Razia also broke racial boundaries by appointing Jamal-ud-din Yaqut, an Ethiopian slave, to a high-ranking position alongside her. This decision caused backlash from nobles all around, but showed that Razia judged people based on their ability and not their background.

She also pushed for more, and better, access to education. We love a woman who supports public libraries, and she did! She also redeveloped some of the university curriculum of the day, making sure it included science and literature. She rode into battle herself and was considered a good administrator.

Two coins issued in Razia's name
By issuing coins such as these in her own name, Razia showed that she ruled as herself, not as a figurehead or as a wife.

Now things get very confusing, as Razia may or may not have had a love affair with Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut, also known as Yakut, an Abyssinian slave who became her closest advisor. Rumors of their relationship provided an excuse for nobles to rebel.  But wait, that’s not all! One of the leaders who rebelled against her, Altunia, was said to have been her childhood sweetheart. According to World History Encyclopedia:

The rebels posed a significant challenge to Queen Razia’s authority, ultimately contributing to her downfall. It was widely believed that Razia and Altunia, the capable but very ambitious governor of Bhatinda, were childhood sweethearts. However, Altunia grew intensely jealous of Razia’s close association with Yakut. Determined to confront Altunia and other rebels, Razia marched against him in April 1240, accompanied by Yakut. Yakut was killed on the battlefield, dealing a devastating blow to Razia, who was now deprived of her most trusted confidant and supporter.

Razia was imprisoned, but Altunia  ended up feeling betrayed by the regime that replaced her. The two of them became engaged, he busted her out of prison, and they went to battle against Muiz ud-Din Bahram, Razia’s stepbrother who took power when she was deposed. Razia was defeated. Here’s World History Encyclopedia again:

Defeated, Razia and Altunia became fugitives. Details of their demise remain uncertain. Some accounts suggest they were captured and executed, while others indicate they fell victim to robbers near Kaithal in Haryana and were killed soon after.

Guys, there is a lot to unpack here and I’m no expert on Indian history, so I welcome corrections and clarification in the comments. My hope is that the Kickass Women column serves as a jumping off point for readers, and that they challenge some of the assumptions often made about women in history.

Incidentally, there was a historical drama series called Razia Sultan that aired on &TV in 2015. You can find it on YouTube, although what I found was in Hindi and didn’t have English captions or subtitles. It looks amazing!

Other sources:

India Today

Enroute Indian History

 

Elyse’s Self Care TBR

Dec. 6th, 2025 11:00 am
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Elyse

My husband’s therapist refers to the holiday as “The Gauntlet.” Even if you have perfect Hallmark family dynamics, it’s a lot.

I do not have perfect Hallmark family dynamics.

Specifically I’m navigating two parents with dementia, one of whom presents with outbursts and rages. Routine is key when dealing with dementia and so the holidays tend to be hard on everyone because that routine is disrupted, but in my case, the people with dementia are not yet at the point where we can skip the festivities all together without them realizing. It’s a real bag of shit.

When you combine managing aging parent dynamics and also, you know, The Horrors, it’s SO MUCH. I’m tired. Everyone in my family is tired. My cats are probably tired.

So. The Gauntlet.

I slept for almost fourteen hours one Saturday and realized, okay, we need to employ some really hardcore self care strategies here or I’m going to crash out. That means I’m setting aside my Christmas knitting because my only deadlines will be work related. I’m going to stick to my anti-inflammatory diet as much as possible, and keep one weekend day open for sleep. I’ve taken social media off my phone. I am also going to focus on reading.

Reading has always been my escape, the thing I can do no matter how physically sick or tired I am. It rejuvenates me mentally, putting some gas in my emotional tank. I’ve struggled with reading this year in part because I haven’t been making time for myself as much as I need to.

So for the next month I’m spending a lot of time in my happy place, which is buried under the blankets in my bed or curled up on the couch by the Christmas tree, preferably under a cat.

What is on my self care TBR?

I’m hoping that these books help me get through the next four weeks with as little emotional damage as possible.

Are you facing The Gauntlet this year? What are your self-care rituals or reads?

Slayers of Old

Slayers of Old by Jim Hines

Author: Jim Hines
Released: October 21, 2025 by DAW
Genre: ,

Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Golden Girls in this humorous contemporary standalone fantasy about a group of former Chosen Ones coming out of retirement to save the world one last time

Three former Chosen Ones have joined together to spend their retirement in peace and quiet, running Second Life Books and Gifts in Salem, MA. A calm, peaceful, tourist-filled oasis, where they never have to worry about saving the world. Until some of the locals start summoning ancient creatures best left where they were . . . and they discover that their bookstore basement just may be the portal to the underworld. These ex-heroes may have thought they were done . . . but if they want to finish their retirement in peace, they’ll have to join together to save the world one last time.

Why leave saving the world to the young? Cozy mystery readers looking for an extra dash of magic will eat this story fun, funny, and heartwarming, it’s a novel about community, second chances, and the healing power of scones.

I was a huge, HUGE Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan back in the day. This recent release is about a group of former Chosen Ones who are in retirement, but now have to save the world one last time. I love the premise, and I also got this one on audio because I think my husband would enjoy listening to it with me.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Slow Gods

Slow Gods by Claire North

Author: Claire North
Released: November 18, 2025 by Orbit
Genre: ,

My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.

Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning tale ​of one man’s impossible life charted against the fate of humanity amongst the stars—a powerfully imaginative space opera from multi-award-winning author Claire North. 

In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.

Here is one out there in deep space, in the pilot’s chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.

This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I’ve lived since I died for the first time.

Are you listening?

Thanks to AppleTV’s version of Foundation I’ve been craving a big juicy sci-fi novel (that isn’t actually the Foundation series because it sucks). This book has been getting some really fantastic reviews and it looks like the sweeping kind of tale I’ve been looking for.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

The Silver Hills Boarding House

The Silver Hills Boarding House by Linda Lael Miller

Author: Linda Lael Miller
Released: October 7, 2025 by Canary Street Press
Genre: , ,

Fans of the hit TV show Yellowstone and its two prequel series will fall in love with this epic love story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Linda Lael Miller.

Lizbet Fontaine will do anything to keep her family together, even leave behind the only life she’s ever known to journey to the West. But as the jitney rumbles away, holding tightly to her little brother’s and sister’s hands, she knows something is wrong. Her stepfather has summoned an associate with a predatory glint in his eyes, and Lizbet knows she needs to save them all. She just doesn’t know how…until a kind man points out the Silver Hills Boarding House.

Gabe Whitfield is no saint. But he won’t let a woman be threatened. Getting involved with Lizbet and little Frankie and Jubal is the last thing on his mind, though. When his wife and their child died a few years ago, a piece of him died, too. So he’ll help this family find their way at Miss Ornetta’s boarding house. Anything more is out of the question.

But that one chance meeting changes Gabe forever. Lizbet’s fierce strength makes him feel the faintest whisper of hope. And Lizbet can’t deny being drawn to the honest, gentle man whose kindness moves her. Can she trust her heart to a man who can’t let go of the past?

When I was kid, we used to drive to Chicago for the holidays, and one of the benefits was that my aunt would send me home with a giant shopping bag of mass market paperback romances to read. I would listen to my Discman and crack open a new to me book on the long drive home, while my sister periodically embarrassed me and irritated my mother by stealing it and reading the sex scenes out loud. I got her back though. Years later I gave her kids a cotton candy machine for Christmas. There was cotton candy floating though the house, sticking to every surface.

Anyway, there was usually a Linda Lael Miller book in that stack because she was huge in the mid to late 90’s (remember her vampire series? OMG).

I haven’t read one of her books in a long time and this looks like the perfect way to indulge in that holiday nostalgia.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

By Way of Sorrow

By Way of Sorrow by Robyn Gigl

Author: Robyn Gigl
Released: March 30, 2021 by Kensington Books
Genre: ,
Series: Erin McCabe Mysteries #1

In a fresh and riveting thriller debut, Robyn Gigl introduces Erin McCabe, a New Jersey criminal defense attorney doing her best to live a quiet life in the wake of profound personal change—until a newsworthy case puts both her career and safety in jeopardy . . .

Erin McCabe has been referred the biggest case of her career. Four months ago, William E. Townsend, Jr., son of a New Jersey State Senator, was found fatally stabbed in a rundown motel near Atlantic City. Sharise Barnes, a nineteen-year-old transgender prostitute, is in custody, and given the evidence, there seems little doubt of a guilty verdict.

As a trans woman herself, Erin knows that defending Sharise will blow her own private life wide open, and doubtless deepen her estrangement from her family. Yet she feels uniquely qualified to help Sharise, and duty-bound to protect her from the possibility of a death sentence. Because Sharise admits she killed the senator’s son—in self-defense.

As Erin works with her partner, former FBI agent Duane Swisher, circumstances hint at ties to other brutal murders. Senator Townsend is using the full force of his prestige and connections to publicly discredit everyone involved in defending Sharise. And behind the scenes, his tactics are even more dangerous. For his son had secrets that could destroy the senator’s political aspirations—secrets worth killing for . . .

I’ve gotten into the tradition/habit of binging a mystery series during that fuzzy period of time between Christmas and New Years. The first book in a series, By Way of Sorrow has a criminal defense attorney who is also a trans woman as its main character. I haven’t seen much trans representation in the mystery world and I’m hopeful that this book will be great since there’s three more currently available in the series after that.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner

Author: Jennifer Weiner
Released: April 8, 2025 by William Morrow
Genre: ,

Sisters Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were born just a year apart but could not have been more different. Zoe, blessed with charm and beauty, yearned for fame from the moment she could sing into a hairbrush. Cassie was a musical prodigy who never felt at home in her own skin and preferred the safety of the shadows.

On the brink of adulthood in the early 2000s, destiny intervened, catapulting the sisters into the spotlight as the pop sensation the Griffin Sisters, hitting all the touchstones of early aughts fame—SNL, MTV, Rolling Stone magazine—along the way.

But after a whirlwind year in the public eye, the band abruptly broke up.

Two decades later, Zoe’s a housewife; Cassie’s off the grid. The sisters aren’t speaking, and the real reason for the Griffin Sisters’ breakup is still a mystery. Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, who’s determined to be a star in spite of Zoe’s warnings, is on a quest to learn the truth about what happened to the band all those years ago.

As secrets emerge, all three women must face the consequences of their choices: the ones they made and the ones the music industry made for them. Can they forgive each other—and themselves? And will the Griffin Sisters ever make music again?

This book is about a pop duo featuring sisters Zoe and Cassie Grossberg who became famous in the early 2000s and then mysteriously broke up. Now Zoe’s teenage daughter is trying to learn why her mom isn’t talking to her aunt and what led to them disappearing from the spotlight.

I was in high school from 1997-2001 so I think this one is going to hit me right in my girlhood pop-loving feels.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Alchemised

Alchemised by SenLinYu

Author: SenLinYu
Released: September 23, 2025 by Del Rey
Genre: ,

In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy — and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.

“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”

Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.

In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile, undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.

According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?

To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.

I never read the fanfic that Alchemised was born out of, but I know that it was inspired in part by Dramione and also The Handmaid’s Tale. I re-read The Handmaid’s Tale and followed up with The Testaments this year and I’m curious to see how that world would inspire a Romantasy since I personally didn’t find it very romantic reading.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

The Second Death of Locke

The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino

Author: V.L. Bovalino
Released: September 23, 2025 by Forever
Genre: , ,

Love. Loyalty. Sacrifice.

Grey Flynn has dedicated her life to her mage, Kier. She will be his blade on the battlefield, his healer and protector. The deep well of raw power inside her is Kier’s to wield. They are bound together by blood and magic, but there is one truth Grey dare not reveal . . . not even to Kier.

When a quest to protect the child of an enemy kingdom pulls them into a dangerous mission, Grey will need to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to protect her secret.

For Grey is no ordinary magical well, and if she dies, all magic dies with her.

The Second Death of Locke is a devastatingly romantic epic fantasy about the undying bond between a knight and their mage, perfect for fans of Rachel Gillig and Alix E. Harrow.

I’ve actually started this book already and there is SO MUCH PINING you guys. It’s set in a vaguely medieval fantasy world where warrior mages draw power from a companion acting as a magical well. Grey Flynn has been acting as a well to a mage, Kier, during a long and bitter war. They’re always together and their bond is amplified through touch, which is a perfect set up for a forced proximity romance.

The yearning, you guys. Grey wants Kier, but he’s never made a move so she’s all like I’m sure he tenderly heals my wounds and massages my naked back for platonic reasons. So far it’s really got me hooked.

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