Category: Bookish Things

Review: Assistant to the Villain
Book List 2025 · Bookish Things · Reviews

Review: Assistant to the Villain

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Title: Assistant to the Villain
Author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Series: Assistant to the Villain
About this book:

ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem and terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage’s employment status isn’t just important, it’s vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer―naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain―and his entire nefarious empire―out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.

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Bookish Things

Things I Learned to Love in 2020: Audiobooks

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Screenshot of Libby containing book cover for Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

I was never a huge fan of audiobooks, or audio CDs I guess they would’ve been when I was younger, cluttering shelves in the Chapters nearest to myself. I didn’t have a need for them, or a want to listen to them. I was willfully, and youthfully ignorant and insensitive.

Yet one of my fondest memories is from high school, hanging out in the dark room, developing photos while a friend and I listened to Harry Potter, as read by Stephen Fry. He did it well.

So when it was suggested I give audiobooks another go later on in life (much later), I was not really ready for it. Until I was also informed that they could be found on Libby, an app I love, and it was pointed out that I could “read” while cross stitching.

It was like everything stopped, and the world became full of possibilities. I knew I could watch TV and cross stitch, but I seemed to have forgotten that audiobooks exist. This is what started my love for them, from Lin-Manuel Miranda reading Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, to Joe Jameson regalling me with Boyfriend Material, one of my favourite books of 2020.

The more I listened, the more I wanted to listen, and then the thing happened.

In the beginning of December I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, and with that diagnosis, and my new medications my vision began to fail.

I couldn’t cross stitch because I couldn’t see well enough to do so, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and WordPress all became an exercise in frustration. Trying to work, to read emails and write emails and keep up the pace, which I normally have no problem with became tasks ruined by tears and the anxiety at trying to use accessible programs.

But Libby and audiobooks were there. I could close my eyes, take a deep breath and sink into a story as easy as I used to be able to read it on a page.

And that is why I love audiobooks. So buy them, listen to them, support your favourite authors, support the people who read those words aloud, and those who listen to them.

Book List 2020 · Bookish Things · Reviews

Review: Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli

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33Title: Love, Creekwood

Author: Becky Albertalli

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, YA

Buy this book: Indigo/Chapters (Affiliate Link)

Summary: Fall in love all over again with the characters from the bestselling Simonverse novels in this highly anticipated epilogue novella. Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli, the movie Love, Simon, and the new Hulu series spin-off, Love, Victor!

It’s been more than a year since Simon and Blue turned their anonymous online flirtation into an IRL relationship and just a few months since Abby and Leah’s unforgettable night at senior prom.

Now the Creekwood High crew are first years at different colleges, navigating friendship and romance the way their story began—on email.

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Announcemet · Bookish Things

General Updates

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Hello all my followers, both new and old!

I hope you’re enjoying some wonderful weather if you’re getting it, and if you’re not I hope you get it soon.

Here in (certain parts of) Ontario, Canada we are experiencing some summer! But apparently that will be changing soon. Boohoo.

Anyway I just thought I would direct your gaze to some updates on the blog.

So please take a look and if you have any questions just give me a shout.

Bookish Things

A peek inside my bullet journal

Ashley LP3 Comments

It seems as though bullet journaling has taken the world but storm and I’m no different.

That being said I tend to keep it simple because trying to make it pretty has pretty much caused me to stop using it a billion different times.

So new journal in hand last month I planned out my monthly calendar, a simply daily log, a reading list, and a quotes list.

This month same thing but a variation on a theme.

I have a to be read list, a check it out list for books, TV, events, etc separates onto different pages and the ever present quotes list along with pages where I jot down character names and plot points.

Those are my weakness. I read a lot, I read relatively quick but due to God knows what my memory is terrible. It does however make each re-read of a book almost make it seem fresh and new, because I only remember the main bits and forget the small details. Bullet journaling has saved me some time in that regard.

So, do you bullet journal as reader? If so how does it go for you?

Bookish Things · Confessions of a Book Addict

Finally!

Ashley LP2 Comments

I am turning 30 years old this year,  and it has taken me about 24 years to realize that what I read should not matter to anyone else. And, even more unfortunately, that what other people read should not matter to me.

Because in the end reading is about immersing yourself in a world that makes you happy. And who are we to judge each other for what in those worlds makes us happy.

I read romance novels. I love romance novels. Some of them.

I read fantasy. I read YA. I have a hard time reading literary fiction, not that I don’t love some works of literary fiction but my brain feels better when I’m in an urban fantasy world, surrounded by the supernatural.

You can judge me for it if you want, but I’m going to let my freaky little book flag fly.

However just because I read these things, and enjoy them does not mean there cannot be discourse surrounding certain books.

We can enjoy books and still be critical of their content. But when it comes to talking to someone who loves something that deserves criticism, is it not better to approach them gently instead of confront them? Perhaps they don’t know, or understand what might be problematic in the book they’ve just read.

Criticize the content, not the reader.

After all, aren’t readers supposed to be more compassionate?

Bookish Things

Reading when you’re struggling…

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Sometimes in life I struggle. We all do. Sometimes those struggles swallow you up and drag you to what I call “the pits”, modeled after a sandy wasteland that used to exist near my childhood home.

You try and struggle through the sand, make your way to the top, and on the way your reading is one other thing that makes it seem worse. Not the act of reading itself, but the act of feeling pressured to do so.

Giant, human sized…NFL player sized to be read piles, towering next to beds, toppling over when nudged. eReader filling, overwhelming books, just waiting for you to devour them.

But trust me. Its okay. The beautiful thing about books is that they last forever. And sometimes, they can help you get out of the pits.

Grab a book. Any book. A book you’ve read a million times, or a book that you’d never thought you would enjoy.

Read about people in pain. Read about happy people. Read about people slaying dragons and allow them to help you slay yours.

Pile up blankets and pillows and sink into them and remember that when you feel alone, if you look in a book you can always find your friends.

And please if you need help, ask for it. Don’t be in the dark alone. Don’t be in the pits alone. Your story is unfinished, still developing. Don’t end it before it’s end should come.

Bookish Things

What is reading all about?

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What is reading all about? What motivates me to do it? What motivates YOU to do it? What do we get from it?

For me reading has been many things. It has been a struggle, as I took forever to learn and resented the fact.

It has been a solace, when I realized a written word could comfort me in a way that those around me couldn’t do.

It has been my way of traveling when I’ve been sick, and recently my way of making friend when I’ve been traveling.

This blog was meant to be dedicated to my love of reading and somewhere along the line I got mixed up and confused, obsessed with who was reading this, who was listening.

Forgetting that this blog is just meant to be a tribute to the books I love, and even those I don’t. My little corner of the web where I can talk to whoever is willing to listen.

And maybe I’ll pick up a few new friends along the way.

Bookish Things · Confessions of a Book Addict

Book Buying Problems and TBR

Ashley LP12 Comments

I am Ashley and I have a huge book buying problem.

I recently downloaded the Delicious Library, and using points bought a little bluetooth scanner because I am a total nerd who wants to catalogue all the things.

I decided to give it a go, and using this program catalogued the books on my shelves into Read and To Be Read piles.

I own 675 books. I have only read 260 of them. That gives me 415 books to read, not counting those which are on my TBR list that I want to take out from the library.

This is my pact, to not buy anymore books UNLESS they are the continuation of a series. This is my pact to only read books that I currently own from now on.

We’ll see how this goes, then, shall we?

Bookish Things · Reading Challenges

Reading Project January-February Kelley Armstrong

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I love Kelley Armstrong. I met her before I loved her writing, before I’d read a single word and she was a warm, friendly person. I wish I could meet her now to tell her that I’ve tried to read every word she’s written and it’s still an ongoing project for me, and that the world’s she’s created are amazing.

And thus, my reading project for January, February and possibly March even begins.

I am going to read the Otherworld series in chronological order. It doesn’t seem hard right? Except I’m including the novella’s and short stories as well.

That is, at current count, 61 different pieces of writing, novels, short stories and novellas included.

It has resulted in Otherworld Nights, Men of the Otherworld and Tales of the Otherworld appearing as follows: IMG_3932

This is going to be a very interesting project, and will hopefully lend more depth to the stories I’ve loved for a while. In a way it will be nice to be reintroduced to the characters who have always felt a little bit like friends, or dysfunctional family members.