A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow

Available now

hardcover 130 pages

From the Publisher:
Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues.

Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Snow White's Evil Queen has found out how her story ends and she's desperate for a better ending. She wants Zinnia to help her before it’s too late for everyone.

Will Zinnia accept the Queen's poisonous request, and save them both from the hot iron shoes that wait for them, or will she try another path?

This is so good! It’s a super-fast, action packed novella that is full of heart. It’s delightfully snarky, a little sad, and very sapphic. I loved A Spindle Splintered and this is a perfect follow-up to our intrepid fairy-tale explorer’s story. Zinnia is a very chaotic character and her journey is not an easy one, but there are still plenty of light and humorous moments to keep the story from being depressing. There may or may not be a scene with an orchard that had me giggling like crazy…

If you’re looking for something quick and entertaining, this book is perfect. Because it’s summer and hot and who wants to hold a massive book? This is light, super portable, and can be finished in just a couple of hours.

If you’d like to add this fractured fairy-tale to your shelf, you can click on the cover above or here for more ordering information. I was lucky enough to find this at my local Library and if you haven’t done so yet, join your Library’s Summer Reading Program! I have a book and a tote bag waiting for me to pick up because this little novella bumped me up the next prize tier!

This post may contain links, including Amazon Associate Links, and I may earn from qualifying purchases.All opinions and mistakes are my own.

Our Infinite Fates: A Novel by Laura Steven

Available now

Hardcover 346 pages

so many books are getting looooong! just for giggles, i’m going to start including page counts.

From the Publisher: 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.

Evelyn can remember all her past lives. She can also remember that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a supernatural being linked to her soul. The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life before they find her first, figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse, and try not to fall in love . . . again.

I’m not typically a YA reader. I have nothing against the genre, just don’t gravitate towards it and I’m not even sure it registered to me that this was a YA novel when I selected it for my March BOTM pick. All this rambling to say, don’t let the YA label keep you from picking this one up, because at what other age can you love someone so fiercely, completely, overwhelmingly than eighteen.

The premise of Our Infinite Fates grabbed my attention immediately. How can two people who claim to love each other through a thousand lifetimes continue to kill each other over and over again. Why in the world would you love someone so much that you have to kill them time and time again? The reasoning for the never ending murder is told through glimpses of Evelyn’s pervious lives. No matter what name they are born with, or what gender they are born as, Evelyn always remembers her previous lives.  Whether she is a soldier in WWI, a sailor in the 1700s, or a young woman in love with her best friend off the coast of Australia in the 1960s, Evelyn is always Evelyn and Arden is always Arden. And it’s revealed slowly, through past lives and the current crisis Evelyn finds herself in with her sister in 2022 Wales, that we discover how the fates of Evelyn and Arden are intertwined. 

Laura Steven’s writing in Our Infinite Fates is quiet, emotional, and incredibly descriptive. It’s intricately plotted and the story moves pretty quickly. I really enjoyed how the characters changed genders and locations with each life, giving the readers a glimpse of the world in different time periods. I loved the mystery surrounding where the characters came from and how they became entwined together at a metaphysical level. The ending wasn’t entirely the best, but I understand what the author was going for and while not perfect, it still worked. 

Overall, I definitely recommend giving this one a chance, but don’t forget that it’s very much a YA novel with teenage characters written for a teen audience. I’ve seen a lot of reviews that seem to forget that fact. 

If you’d like to add this book to your shelf, you can click on the cover above or here for ordering information. I chose this book as my March 2025 selection from Book of the Month.  You can use my referral code to get your first book for a discount and I get a free book in return. 

This post may contain links, including Amazon Associate Links, and I may earn from qualifying purchases.All opinions and mistakes are my own.

Three Audiobooks to Listen to While Chasing a New Puppy

Meet Tater Tot!

The Fat Farm thrives on chaos so it’s only fitting that in the middle of calving season we brought home a 9 week old pug puppy. He is a sibling to our little guy Theo who joined the farm 18 months ago. He is precious, precocious, and an absolute delight. He has also made it impossible for me to sit still long enough to read a book with my eyeballs so I have leaned into the chaos and switched to audiobooks this past week. Here are three quick reviews of what I listened to this week and for all of them, I listened through Hoopla and Libby.

Lights Out by Navessa Allen

This book is insanely funny, incredibly dark, and is definitely not for the faint of heart. Fast paced, completely bonkers, and full of hilarious banter. It’s a dual narration, which is now my favorite type of audiobook narration. Each narrator performs their character’s parts as they happen-not changing each chapter. Both Elena Wolfe and Jacob Morgan gave top tier performances and I highly recommend listening to it if it’s available to you. But definitely use your headphones! This book is ridiculously hot. Full disclosure-I think it’s perfect until the ending. That last section really dragged on far longer than necessary, but I think it was to set up book 2 which comes out next month. Definitely check the content warnings! This is a dark, dark book.

Axes and O’s by Kayla Grosse

This is another wild one! It’s essentially eight and half hours of adventurous kink and self-exploration fueled by witty banter. It’s a really fun eight and half hours. It’s very fast paced, taking place over just a few days during a blizzard that keeps everyone confined inside a remote cabin. This is one where the insta-lust is written perfectly and the tension between the characters is palpable. Absolutely loved the characters of Fox and Morgan and how incredibly comfortable and competent they were in their relationship and life. Nathan was the perfect addition to their life and it was really refreshing for characters to be so open and honest with each other. Really enjoyed the narrators Grayson Owens, Stella Hunter and Stephen Dexter.

Candle and Crow by Kevin Hearne

It wasn’t all erotic romance this week. Candle and Crow is the third and final installment of the Ink & Sigil series and if you haven’t read the series yet, definitely check it out. It’s funny, witty, and very quirky. If you’re familiar with the Iron Druid series from Hearne, some of the characters overlap but it’s not necessary, although I recommend reading it because it’s awesome, to have read Iron Druid. This is book wraps up the story of Al MacBharrais and is the perfect conclusion to the series. Again, the narrator Luke Daniels is so talented and really made the book come to life. Highly, highly recommend listening to this one and if you do, don’t miss the bloopers at the end!

This post may contain links, including Amazon Associate Links, and I may earn from qualifying purchases.All opinions and mistakes are my own.

The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune

Available now

CW: check out The StoryGraph for a complete list of content warnings. Also, there’s a kid in this romance who is not obnoxious!

This a book where reading the Author’s Note is an absolute must! This book has had an interesting publishing journey and I love to see self-published authors make their way to great publishers. I also love when an author’s book covers have a similar vibe and look so they all look great on the shelf together.

From the Publisher:

In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his older brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington DC. With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not. Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she appears. Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her.

I do not contain the words to tell you how much I loved this book. It’s delightfully weird and a little kooky, but also incredibly compelling with characters that are easy to fall in love with. This is one of those books that you need to go in with knowing as little as possible. I promise, knowing less is really more with this one. I love how it’s set in 1995. It makes everything our characters are up against so much more exciting and thrilling, and admittedly, allows the story to actually take place. Hello, no cell phones! Darth Vader Artemis is my new favorite book heroine and her banter with both Nate and Alex is some of the most delightful writing I’ve read in awhile. It’s funny, fast paced, full of action, and and has a lot of heart. It hits on some really heavy topics, especially homophobia and family estrangement, but it’s not a sad book. It’s hopeful and loving and you just feel better having read it.

If you want to add this book to your shelf, you can click on the cover above for ordering information. This was my February 2025 pick from Book of the Month and while all the selections looked great, there was no way I was passing this book up! If you’d like to try BOTM for yourself, you can use my code and join for just $5. I have paid for this subscription with my own money since 2018 and I have really enjoyed it.

This post may contain links, including Amazon Associate Links, and I may earn from qualifying purchases.All opinions and mistakes are my own.