User Profile

Enum & Valerie

enumeration@kirja.casa

Joined 2 years, 8 months ago

@vivavaleria@eldritch.cafe on the mammooth site. Reading mostly wlw rom-coms, with the occasional exceptions. I try to rotate languages, but it isn't really easy to find queer romance books in other languages than English. Reviews and comments usually in the same language as the book.

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Enum & Valerie's books

Currently Reading (View all 7)

2024 Reading Goal

86% complete! Enum & Valerie has read 43 of 50 books.

Casey McQuiston: Red, White & Royal Blue (Paperback, 2019, St. Martin's Griffin) 4 stars

What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?

When …

The bar is too high

4 stars

This is a good book, for what it is. However, not much of it is really unique and mindfuckingly excellent. In fact, Casey McQuiston's other books, specifically One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler, are full of such amazing ideas and moments, that Red, White & Royal Blue just cannot keep up. They've set the bar too high.

Then again, AFAIK, Red, White & Royal Blue is McQuiston's first book, so one could see this as evidence that they only get better and better.

Adiba Jaigirdar: Rani Choudhury Must Die (Paperback, 2024, Hachette Children's Group) 3 stars

Cute light read

3 stars

... as always with Adiba Jaigirdar's books. I like her writing style and can consume book after book of hers.

However, I just really dislike mono people's obsession with "cheating" and the entire drama and demonization about it. I don't get it, really, not at all. Yup, some guys are absolute jerks, and I love stories where the girls just team up and date each other instead. But is Zak's bigest flaw really that he had some dates with someone else?

Also, since when is app coding the top notch discipline of science? And usually spyware is an instrument of shitty dudes, not against them.

Jennifer Dugan: Playing for Keeps (Hardcover, 2024) 3 stars

June is the star pitcher of her elite club baseball team—with an ego to match—and …

Nice read

3 stars

Though I didn't really like the plot structure. In romance novels, I like extensive, well-engineered falling-in-love-montages, and this one didn't really have any. Instead, it's all about the first conflict, which isn't really that deep, and could've been solved within 10 minutes of just talking to each other. Honestly, why?

quoted Hidden rituals and public performances by Anna-Leena Siikala (Studia fennica. Folkloristica -- 19)

Anna-Leena Siikala: Hidden rituals and public performances (2011, Finnish Literature Society) No rating

Why are Khanty shamans still active? What are the folklore collectives of Komi? Why are …

Women could not step into the area of question, because women may not walk over a man or his clothes. A young man explained the reason: “Since it can happen that a woman can be over a man, things will turn out badly for him.” Town houses might be a problem. Our friend, a Khanty, told us in Muzhi that he has a good apartment: “There is only one imperfection in it. A woman lives in the second floor, above me. It is a real nuisance. Everyday she treads on me. Śohma! But of course there are iron and wires and lines here [in the floor between the apartments], and — I have also something else [a magic protection]. Maybe nothing comes of that. The iron does not let through anything impure. Iron is pure.”

Hidden rituals and public performances by  (Studia fennica. Folkloristica -- 19) (Page 65)

I'm sure the sex must be fun. /s

Kika Hatzopoulou: Hearts That Cut (2024, Penguin Young Readers Group) 5 stars

She cuts the thread and the world ends.

5 stars

I absolutely loved Threads That Bind, so I was very excited for this sequel. And it was so good! She really managed to find a continuation and an ending that is actually satisfying! Oh also, I didn't really like the "love is fate" stuff in the first book, but this sequel finally gets over it!

Lee Miye: The Dallergut Dream Department Store (Paperback, 2020) 4 stars

Their job is to make sure the sleeping customers don't go around taking off their pyjamas. They chase after any naked customers, carrying a hundred dressing gowns on their shoulders. Their oversized paws, their claws, which are long enough to hang on to several dressing gowns at once, and their warm, furry bodies all make the job a good fit for them. The irony is that they don't wear anything either, but on second thought, Penny thinks the naked customers would feel more comfortable being chased by equally naked furry creatures than by well-dressed humans.

The Dallergut Dream Department Store by  (Page 4)

Undress to get chased by naked furries UwU

reviewed Laylayland by Christian Vogt (Wasteland, #2)

Christian Vogt, Judith Vogt: Laylayland (Paperback, deutsch language, Plan9-Verlag) 4 stars

Laylay und Zeeto reisen durch das Ödland auf der Suche nach einer Möglichkeit, Zeetos Leben …

So schön trashig

4 stars

Und so schön viel linke Kultur darin. Was ich weniger appreciate ist dass allen ernstes irgendsoeine Universal-KI die Rettung sein soll die mal eben alles löst. Come on...

quoted Laylayland by Christian Vogt (Wasteland, #2)

Christian Vogt, Judith Vogt: Laylayland (Paperback, deutsch language, Plan9-Verlag) 4 stars

Laylay und Zeeto reisen durch das Ödland auf der Suche nach einer Möglichkeit, Zeetos Leben …

»Ich täusche einfach vor zu überleben«, sagte er und streichelte meinen Hinterkopf. »Vielleicht kannst du mir Tipps geben, wie ich das in Realität verwandle.« »Das ist ganz einfach: Sobald du tot bist, streich das e.« »Das eh?« »Streich das e aus dead.«

Laylayland by , (Wasteland, #2) (Page 320)