I try not to share too much personal information on this blog, for obvious reasons, but what I will tell you is that this week (and honestly the one before it too) has been very disconcerting. All at once everything I’m used to kind of imploded. Work was metaphorically on fire, my entire schedule was thrown to shit, and I was thrown into some pretty nasty depression. I’ve gotten so good at muddling through though that I just kept chugging along the best that I could.

Let me tell you friends, you should always have a coping plan. A way to back off the amount of energy you have to expend to get through each day. I had a lot of no cook meals, I took a fair amount of naps, and man did I get lost in a lot of audio books. Just muddled on through until I could see the light far in the distance on the other side. Lo and behold, things are back on the upswing and I’m headed towards normalcy.

I was having a conversation with a few friends about how, when I was growing up, I never talked about my mental health. The expectation was that you would figure it out, and keep moving forward. It genuinely doesn’t surprise me that I love books so much as an adult, because it’s such a nice way to both get lost and to see yourself in other characters. Now I’m not afraid to talk about how I’m feeling at all. I’ve built a support group, and learned some good ways of dealing with my brain when it turns into static. I’m proud of myself and let me tell you that if you’re in the same boat, you should be too.

Anyway thanks for letting me rant :). Here’s hoping your weekend is lovely!

The post It’s been quite the odd week first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.

The Details

Media Type: Physical Book
Title: Nine Goblins
Author(s): T. Kingfisher
Publisher: TOR
Pages/Length: Hardcover; 150 pages
Release Date: January 20, 2026
Source: Library

Add it on: Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | Storygraph

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Nine Goblins, a novella of low fantasy and high mischief.

No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude, and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all this, and might throw in “cowardly” and “lazy” too for good measure. 

But goblins don’t go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind enemy lines, goblin sergeant Nessilka must figure out how to keep her hapless band together and get them home in one piece, despite a path filled with elves, trolls, monsters, and that most terrifying of creatures…a human being.

The Review

Ah, what a delight this story was. Imagine a world where goblins are in the middle of a war over their home territory. Continuously pushed further and further off their own land, and unable to find a place to settle, they’ve had to turn to fighting for space to exist. Sound familiar at all? But unlike the goblins we’ve met in stories before, these goblins are impossibly lovable. Sure they complain a lot (mainly about things they actually like) and sure they can be a little gruff (mostly only on the outside). But what we find as readers is a group full of camaraderie and larger than life personalities.

I’ve been looking for a book to help me get out of my reading slump, and this novella worked wonders. I can see so much of Kingfisher’s later work here. A female main character who is fed up with how much work she always has to do, but pushes forward anyway. A band of characters who are sweet and misunderstood. A great evil that ends up being borderline absurd once you finally know what it is. Everything about this book just made my heart so happy, even when there there was darkness in the story.

I also really loved the dynamic between Sings With Trees and the goblin army. There’s a big message here about being your own person, even if others consider it to be weird. Even more than that is the idea that one should never allow biases to color their views of a whole group of people. Elves and goblins are supposed to be enemies. Sings and the goblin army smash that notion to smithereens, and celebrate on the wreckage. I adore them.

It should be noted that T. Kingfisher is one of my all time favorite writers, for many reasons. One of the biggest of those reasons though is Kingfisher’s ability to walk the line between the whimsical and the dark. In today’s world that is something I need more than ever, and if you’re okay with walking that line too you should absolutely pick up Nine Goblins.

The post Book Review: Nine Goblins – A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief by T. Kingfisher first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.

Hello friends, and happy Tuesday! It is Spring, and finally the weather has decided to be lovely. This is the part of the year where I absolutely love to read outside, cozy in the sunshine and warm breeze. So it’s no surprise that my reading list is on the lighter side. It just feels right!

(Clicking the covers will take you to the Storygraph pages!)

Books on My Spring 2026 To-Read List

I hereby declare that I absolutely adore Katherine Center, and will read absolutely anything that she puts out. So imagine my excitement when I saw that The Shippers will be out very soon! Come May, this will be front and center on my reading list and I cannot WAIT. It looks absolutely adorable.

Also on the list of “author who writes books I will immediately snap up” is Cara Bastone, and No Matter What is already out in the world! I’m waiting patiently for my turn at the library. Her books are always so lovely. They walk the line between sweet romance, and real life problems. This one looks like it will be another gem and I’m so very ready to dive in.

I started Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop once before, but I was in a reading slump and never got a chance to finish it before it was due back. One of my very sweet reader friends has since bought me a copy of my very own, and I’ve been saving it for when the weather was nice enough to read this outside. Looking forward to all the cozy vibes!

Another book that I borrowed and didn’t get a chance to finish was Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, and I so very much regretted it. What I did read I enjoyed immensely. So when I saw that it was part of the sale at Barnes & Noble the last time I visited, I snapped up a copy of my very own. It’s actually next on my train commute reading list!

My turn for The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields is finally coming up and I am thrilled to get this in my hands! So many of my favorite reader friends have loved this book, and I can’t deny that the cover is everything I love about cozy fiction. Hoping for the best, but being honest I’m not really worried. This book screams Spring.

That’s my top 5 for the season, but to round it out here are 5 other very anticipated books on my Spring reading list!

Sky’s End by Marc J Gregson
Where the Water Meets the Sky by Diane Les Becquets
The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
The Reimagining of Thornwood House by Jaleigh Johnson
Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

The post Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Spring 2026 To-Read List first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.

It is finally Spring my friends, and my heart couldn’t be happier! Unfortunately my favorite season was ushered in by a heatwave week, where we couldn’t open the house because it was over 90F outside every day. But yesterday and today are beautiful, and I’m enjoying it all while I can. Bees and butterflies abound!

• The Tin Can Society by Peter Warren and Francesco Mobili (Book Review)

A quiet week, as work has crazy and it was just so hot outside not much motivation was had.

• Top Ten Tuesday:  Books on My Spring 2026 To-Read List (Meme)
• The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White (Book Review)
• Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher (Book Review)

And, if we’re being honest, probably a rambling post as well. I try to keep this blog a mix of posts that are book related and just a place for me to share some randomness with you!

A quick roundup of bookish related articles I found cool, and think you might like!

• Penguin Random House has the details up for the next installment of My Life as an Internet Novel and I am SO EXCITED.
• In case you missed it, HR 7661 (a very bad book banning bill) is headed to the House. Here’s a great article about it and what you can do to help.
• Check out NPR’s “Books We Love” for lots of great backlist books while you wait for your favorites coming out this year!
• Scholastic is starting a new book fair concept that focuses on STEM and I think this is freaking amazing.

The post Sunday Post #2: Spring is Here! first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.

The Details

Media Type: Graphic Novel
Title: The Tin Can Society
Author(s): Peter Warren
Illustrator: Francesco Mobili
Publisher: Image Comics
Pages/Length: 250 pages; Trade Paperback
Release Date: February 18, 2026
Source: NetGalley

Add it on: Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | Publisher

THE TIN CAN SOCIETY is a heartfelt and human look at the evolution of friendships across a lifetime, at disability and ableism, and the destructive power of fame.

The first graphic novel of a brand-new miniseries from Giant Generator showcasing the first comics work by screenwriter and incredible talent PETER WARREN (The Incal feature film, Kill Me) with jaw-dropping art by FRANCESCO MOBILI (X-Men, Scumbag) and beautifully colored by CHRIS CHUCKRY (New X-Men, Gen 13).

Johnny Moore is a world-famous tech mogul known as much for his work pioneering mobility aids for people with disabilities (like himself) as he is for moonlighting as the metal-suited vigilante, CALIBURN. But when Johnny is found murdered and his suit stolen, his estranged childhood best friends reunite to solve the mystery of his murder.

Collects issues #1-9.

The Review

Friends, oh friends. Let me start this review with the simple fact that this is a really gorgeous graphic novel. It blends together two of the things that I love the most in my comics: a gritty, raw superhero story and the concept of childhood friends who once drifted apart but are forced to reunite. I’m not entirely sure what I anticipated going into this, but whatever those expectations might have been they were immediately shattered. This was fabulous.

Johnny Moore is the kind of character who makes you care deeply about him, while also acknowledging that every human being is multi-faceted and flawed. Here is a man who stepped into the world of tech intending to do good, and slowly let fame and money warp him into someone much different than he once was. A man who made one too many mistakes, and lost the friends who helped him get that fame. I love a good morally ambiguous character, especially when it’s a superhero story, and Peter Warren did an excellent job.

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about all the other characters though, because really this is a story about Johnny through the eyes of the people who knew him the best. Each one of his friends shows up for one another while trying to reconcile Johnny’s violent death with their memories of the past. I liked this aspect of the story the best. All the flashbacks to their time as childhood friends, and the snippets in time where they were still a strong friend group with a common goal in mind. Maybe it’s because I’m an older reader, but this part really hit me hard. I well know how loss invites a war in your mind behind the person that you remember, and the person who pushed you away.

For our characters though, it isn’t just about dealing with the loss. There’s a whole murder mystery to uncover as well. This is where the story line in this graphic novel really shines. Warren unfolds just enough clues in every issue to really make you want to keep reading. Tension is built and built, all the way to the very end. I was so glad I had the trade paperback, because as much as I love reading single issues I would have been so stressed out. The cliffhangers were real!

Oh, and the artwork here was absolutely stellar. This story is not for the faint of heart my friends, there is a lot of violence and a fair bit of gore present. However it never feels at all out of place. The storyline moves quickly, and the illustrations keep up perfectly. Every single panel is full of movement, full of emotion, and full of the kind of action that glues your eyes to the page. There are some really beautiful full page moments in this graphic novel that I just had to stop at and admire, because wow. Suffice it to say that the artwork here is so, so impressive.

Anyway I’m rambling. My real rating on this actually 4.5 stars, but when I started this blog I never rated anything half stars, and I need to amend that. The Tin Can Society was almost perfect for me. The only reason I knocked it down slightly is because I just really wanted more time with these wonderful characters before the climax.

The post Graphic Novel Review: The Tin Can Society (Vol 1) by Peter Warren and Francesco Mobili first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.

So for the last year or so I’ve been trying valiantly not to purchase any books, unless they’re something that I really really want. I did this because I used to go to the bookstore and just spend because it felt good to bring new tomes into my library. Then I’d forget about them or, worst still, I’d end up really disliking them. It was then that I decided I’d always to try to do the library first. Then, if I really loved a book, I’d buy a copy of it! In 2024 I spent almost $2,000 on books my friends. Last year, in 2025, I only spent a total of $240. I was really, really proud of myself.

I’m rambling, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to do really focus on as a goal this year. It’s taken a while, but I think I’ve finally settled on really purging my existing library. I’m thinking I’ll set a rule for myself that for every 3 books I purge that I won’t read again, I can buy 1 new book for the library. It’ll give me the motivation that I need, and it will help me clean up my shelves! I’ve been blessed for so long by getting free books from publishers. And a lot of them are still living on my shelves when I think they’d be so much happier at a new home. So yup, I think this is my goal!

And of course I’ll still be patronizing the heck out of my library. Nothing makes me happier than picking up a pile of physical books. Libraries are the best!

The post Library and Goal Musings first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.

Happy Monday bookish people!

I hope this Monday is treating you well, especially those of you who still have to deal with daylight savings time. I woke up to a very dark morning and I’m not afraid to admit that I’m fairly exhausted today. On the bright side, it was smooth sailing on the transit commute to work. So it’s not all bad. Let’s see how my reading has been going so far.

Read Last Week:

I only finished one book last week. My hold for Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews came in, and I’ve been in a horror mood so I immediately sat down to read it. Alas, this book and I had a really rough go. I think I’ve finally grown out of the capability to deal with the deep angst that a lot of YA novels hold, and I just found myself getting really frustrated with these characters. The ending was a letdown for me too, so I rated it 2 stars.

Currently Reading:

Another library hold that came in this week was Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher. I fully admit that I’ll snap up absolutely anything Kingfisher puts out, and this book has been delighting me since I first opened it up. I love that it walks a line between being a bit creepy, and a whole lot of wholesome, because that’s the joy of this author’s books. I cannot wait to finish!

I also started listening to the Skeleton Crew audio book because I needed a Stephen King fix in my life. I haven’t read this book since I was probably about 11, and so I was excited to dive back into it as an adult. Friends, I had forgotten how brutal some of these stories are. This doesn’t mean I don’t love them. But man… “The Raft” will now live in my brain rent free for years. I’m surprised I forgot about it until now.

Reading Next:

I am actually technically still reading this one as an ongoing book, but I need to hurry up and finish it to review it. It’s not inherently a bad book by any means, but it’s very slow. So it’s been hard not to wander off and start reading other things. Review soon though!

That’s it for me! What are you reading this week?

The post It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (3/9/26) first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.

We’ve reached the part of the year where the sun is slowly starting to stay out longer every day. Where our Southern California weather starts to feel like what the movies always depict it as, and very confused flowers start to bloom in earnest because the days are warm. I love this time of year. It always feels like a promise of something new and exciting. My mood lifts a lot at this time, and it has definitely been reflected in my reading. It’s kind of funny to me that I manage to read more books in the shortest month of the year than any other, but it always happens.

This is also the time of the year when I finally start to decide what I want to focus on in terms of self growth. I know other people seize the beginning of the year with both hands and make it happen. I just never have been able to do that. When it’s still cold, dark and wet I don’t have the energy to think of anything but rest and reset. I guess I’m like the flowers that I mentioned above haha. Give me the barest hint of the warmth to come, and I open up to greet it.

As we near the beginning of March, I hope that all of you out there are doing well and being kind to yourselves! I hope that you’ve found lots of reads that made you smile, that made you think, and that softer things are in store for you as the year unfolds.

The post To bloom after the gloom first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.

The Details

Media Type: Physical Book (ARC)
Title: Roll for Danger – The Cursed Catacombs
Author(s): Nick Eliopulos
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Pages/Length: Hardcover; 272 pages
Release Date: July 22, 2025
Source: Publisher/TLC Book Tours

Add it on: Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

Adventure awaits in this middle-grade fantasy series that invites young readers to step into the shoes of of the story’s hero! Combining elements of table-top roleplaying and pick-your-poison storytelling, a roll of the dice determines whether they’ll score a legendary win…or an epic fail.

Set in a classic high-fantasy setting, Seth is last-surviving apprentice of the great wizard Bristleboor. One day, Bristleboor sends Seth on a mission to find an elusive flower that grows in the tunnels under the castle they live in. Aided by an imprisoned imp named Calivore, Seth traverses the tunnels and comes upon monsters to fight and puzzles to solve while learning secrets about himself…and his master. By the end, he and the reader will need to make choices about where and with whom their loyalties lie and what kind of hero they want to become.

In this new adventure series from Nick Eliopulos, the reader becomes the character, getting to make their own choices about how the story will unfold. Or do they? Some chapters will give options while others will ask the reader to roll a six-sided die and let fate decide. It’s an interactive reading experience like no other that will allow young readers to tap into a Dungeon & Dragons style of storytelling and give them an early introduction to pick-your-poison storytelling and table-top roleplaying.

The Review

Friends, FRIENDS, please gather around and let me gush at you for moment. To all my fellow Millennial readers, you’re going to want to take a look at Roll for Danger: The Cursed Catacombs because it is going to fill you with the kind of nostalgia that even made me a bit teary eyed. Do you remember the “choose your own adventure” books? Where you would flip through, with your breath held, to see if you made the right choices and survived or made the wrong ones and were trapped forever in a dark abyss. Or, maybe (shhhh I won’t tell), you sometimes sneakily kept your finger on the last page just in case. This book is that, but even better.

Roll for Danger: The Cursed Catacombs is a mixture of a puzzle book, a “choose your own adventure” book and a light version of Dungeons & Dragons. We meet our protagonist, Seth, the last surviving apprentice of a great (and probably terrible it seems) wizard. The book gives you the option to either write inside of it on the provided stat sheet, or to print one online if you think you’ll want to play again. Then it walks you step by step through assigning your stats and getting you ready to set off on your adventure.

As you can see from my sheet above, it’s a pretty simplified version of character sheet with just enough stats to really make this book a fun read through. I also really loved that the author reassures the reader that it’s okay to assign a zero to one of the stats, because you can’t be good at everything. True in role playing games, true in life. Once you assign your stats, you’re ready to set off and start making decisions! As the book progresses it swaps between simple “a, b or c” decisions and then rolls on a D6 to determine whether you pass a check or two. Since I assigned a “0” to my cleverness slot, let me tell you that more than a few times I went in blind to an encounter, but it made things so much fun!

Throughout are also really clever puzzles that make this story that much more challenging. One of the main ones is a chess board that you must navigate across to escape the room. There’s an image of it on one of the entries, and then you slowly make your way across by choosing what square to move to next after passing a check on the last one. I found myself drawing it out on the back of my character sheet so I could more easily reference it, and make marks of the squares I’d successfully made it across the time before. I was immersed my friends.

For a lot of middle grade readers, which are the demographic that this book is really aimed at, this will likely be their first foray into an actual story that mirrors that video games that they are more used to playing. I can see reluctant readers specifically really excited to give this a shot, because it really does pull you in. The decisions you make matter. Your choices now will really impact what choices you have later on, and yet there’s not a looming level of stress at all. It’s just exciting to get lost and see what happens. Oh, and the illustrations are absolutely stellar. They add so much to this story.

I know, I know, I’m rambling now. The short version of this is that I highly recommend this book and upcoming books in this series! I played through this twice, and had an absolute blast both times. Seth and I made some good decisions, and some tragic ones, and yet on we progressed. This is is such a great series to introduce young readers to table top roleplaying games, and also just to give them something analog to do that will still fall within their interests. Trust me, and pick this up.

The post Book Review: Roll for Danger – The Cursed Catacombs by Nick Eliopulos first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.

The Details

Media Type: Audiobook
Title: The Harp of Kings
*Series: Warrior Bards #1
Author(s): Juliet Marillier
Publisher: Ace
Pages/Length: Kindle; 463 pages
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Source: Netgalley

Add it on: Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

A young woman is both a bard–and a warrior–in this thrilling historical fantasy from the author of the Sevenwaters novels.

Eighteen-year-old Liobhan is a powerful singer and an expert whistle player. Her brother has a voice to melt the hardest heart, and a rare talent on the harp. But Liobhan’s burning ambition is to join the elite warrior band on Swan Island. She and her brother train there to compete for places, and find themselves joining a mission while still candidates. Their unusual blend of skills makes them ideal for this particular job, which requires going undercover as traveling minstrels. For Swan Island trains both warriors and spies.

Their mission: to find and retrieve a precious harp, an ancient symbol of kingship, which has gone mysteriously missing. If the instrument is not played at the upcoming coronation, the candidate will not be accepted and the people could revolt. Faced with plotting courtiers and tight-lipped druids, an insightful storyteller, and a boorish Crown Prince, Liobhan soon realizes an Otherworld power may be meddling in the affairs of the kingdom. When ambition clashes with conscience, Liobhan must make a bold decision and is faced with a heartbreaking choice. . . .

The Review

I’m a big lover of Fantasy, but this was the first time I’ve experienced one of Marillier’s books. The Harp of Kings has been on my reading list for quite a while, and I was excited to finally get to it. I have to say, this book starts extremely slowly. I’m used to Fantasy books taking a bit to get the reader situated, but this one felt a bit painstaking if I’m being honest. The pacing is very uneven, and the story jumps a lot in order to try to establish the character backstories. It made me feel wary as a reader.

That being said, it got much better as the book went on. When our heroes finally reached the city where their big goal would be achieved, Fey were introduced. That made my heart so happy. I was still feeling like I was on uneven footing as the characters bartered for the very item that would cause them to succeed in their mission. Although it wasn’t as lush as I wanted it to be, I very much enjoyed the backstory of the Fey and the reason they needed our the assistance of our heroes.

I’m not saying that the end of this book was perfect, thus the three star rating. There are many more quiet moments here though, that allow opportunities to see deeper into the characters that we’ve been following. There’s more life to this part of the story, and I think that was what struck me most and kept me reading. Still, I was frustrated by the lack of resolution on a lot of plot points. It felt like so many events happened simply to push forward the plot at that moment, and then were left open ended. Our characters should have had so many more consequences that they just magically avoided. In a way, I wanted more tension.

So, The Harp of Kings let me down a bit. I’m still on the fence whether or not I want to finish out this series. I know Marillier’s works are well spoken of, so perhaps I’ll go attempt another series instead.

The post Book Review: The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier first appeared on Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile.