https://www.xoxosam.com/reviews daily 0.75 2025-12-19 https://www.xoxosam.com/reviews/favorite-horror-movies monthly 0.5 2025-07-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752703289208-DERPZP95WE92RX1PB64E/film_exhuma.jpg Reviews - Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752703289159-AWUPDLXO3LYFYYH9TSDV/film_hereditary.jpg Reviews - Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752703457011-2BFZU669WWI73JSDX8RK/film_menu.jpg Reviews - Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752703290479-ASQCD9FT7S9M2F12XT2I/film_midsommar.jpg Reviews - Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752703399556-JBXGC71DWETVYFBTPMB0/film_split.jpg Reviews - Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752703818500-HJNABJAT85GNDDWH4BVG/film_covenant.jpg Reviews - 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Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752703978580-0FC21Z9YIVV3K31IY7T1/film_prey.jpg Reviews - Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752705200505-US4AU84GVRHLHBAV76CH/film_sukob.jpg Reviews - Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752704159386-D58M6U3A3LGBV516CM6Z/film_substance.jpg Reviews - Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752704191222-PKGE2ADC4PW0UXA5BC7Y/film_end.jpg Reviews - Sam’s Favorites: Horror Movies https://www.xoxosam.com/reviews/kanoodle-puzzle-games monthly 0.5 2025-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/92f11e81-61ed-4064-b250-37cb4d9aff08/005A1727.jpg Reviews - Kanoodle puzzles - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752695400871-B9K6CSHDY4Y458ENS3XJ/005A1730.jpg Reviews - 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“Our Infinite Fates”, Laura Steven - Published March 4, 2025 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. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/bury-our-bones-in-the-midnight-soil monthly 0.5 2025-12-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/2b4ef945-9496-44a1-b0d7-5bd0fee86503/read_bury.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil”, VE Schwab - Published June 10, 2025 This is a story about hunger. 1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada. A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets. This is a story about love. 1827. London. A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined. This is a story about rage. 2019. Boston. College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers…and revenge. This is a story about life— how it ends, and how it starts. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/daddy-issues-kate-goldbeck monthly 0.5 2025-11-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1759110610779-35CFGSODK4SDH4ROM1Y6/read_daddy.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Daddy Issues”, Kate Goldbeck - Published November 18, 2025 At 26, Sam Pulaski expected to be thriving in her academic career, living on her own in some exciting city. Expectations, meet reality. She has massive student loans from studying art history, a dead-end service industry job, a situationship that’s equal parts intoxicating and toxic. And she’s been crashing in her mom’s condo—at least it’s not a basement?—for the last five years. If she can finally get accepted into a PhD program and get out of Ohio, the adult life that’s been on hold for half her twenties will finally begin. Her mom’s new neighbor, Nick, is the ultimate grownup. His adult life began the moment his nine-year-old daughter, Kira, was born. Her happiness is Nick’s only priority, especially in the wake of divorce. There’s nothing he won’t do for Kira–including giving up his globetrotting career for something more stable…like managing a chain restaurant. Sam has zero interest in an ultra-dependable guy pushing forty; frankly, she’s a little afraid of kids. But with just one thin wall separating the two condos, Nick proves difficult to avoid. His quiet confidence forces Sam to grapple with the other men in her her emotionally derelict friend-with-benefits and her actually-derelict father. As her unexpected connection with Nick heats up (and steams up his minivan windows), Sam finds herself falling fast for a man whose life is steady and settled–while hers is anything but. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/9973417a-c8a0-44ca-8e44-cddbfa3ef37b/BA201211-7133-456F-926A-4EA11236552C.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Daddy Issues”, Kate Goldbeck - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-everlasting-alix-e-harrow monthly 0.5 2025-10-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1dfb1c48-856c-4a11-8191-887b71085d25/read_everlasting.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Everlasting”, Alix E Harrow - Published October 28, 2025 Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story—they’ll have to rewrite history itself. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-second-death-of-locke-vl-bovalino monthly 0.5 2025-10-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1759109851675-VTLLQXQM3MV3NFONDTAQ/read_locke.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Second Death of Locke”, VL Bovalino - Published September 23, 2025 • Book 1 of The Hand and the Heart 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 use. Grey would do anything for Kier—be anything for him—if he would only ask. When a quest to protect the child of an enemy kingdom pulls them into the dangerous heart of their nation's war, Grey and Kier will need to decide what they are willing to sacrifice to protect their secret. For Grey is no ordinary magical well, but heir to the lost island of Locke—the root of all power. If she dies, all magic dies with her. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows monthly 0.5 2025-09-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1759030069183-QOMTE2W4F6VJ5KDSIX4Q/read_obscure.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows”, John Koenig - Published November 16, 2021 Have you ever wondered about the lives of each person you pass on the street, realizing that everyone is the main character in their own story, each living a life as vivid and complex as your own? That feeling has a name: “sonder.” Or maybe you’ve watched a thunderstorm roll in and felt a primal hunger for disaster, hoping it would shake up your life. That’s called “lachesism.” Or you were looking through old photos and felt a pang of nostalgia for a time you’ve never actually experienced. That’s “anemoia.” If you’ve never heard of these terms before, that’s because they didn’t exist until John Koenig set out to fill the gaps in our language of emotion. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows “creates beautiful new words that we need but do not yet have,” says John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars. By turns poignant, relatable, and mind-bending, the definitions include whimsical etymologies drawn from languages around the world, interspersed with otherworldly collages and lyrical essays that explore forgotten corners of the human condition—from “astrophe,” the longing to explore beyond the planet Earth, to “zenosyne,” the sense that time keeps getting faster. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/alchemised-senlinyu monthly 0.5 2025-09-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/3d2a970e-75df-4521-9ca6-208f1d348d91/read_alchemised.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Alchemised”, SenLinYu - Published September 23, 2025 “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. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/problematic-summer-romance-ali-hazelwood monthly 0.5 2025-09-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/0337515a-6224-47fc-a9dd-9af608f3950b/read_problematic.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Problematic Summer Romance”, Ali Hazelwood - Published May 27, 2025 • Book 2 of Not in Love Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life. Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him. It’s such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother’s best friend and the girl he never even knew existed. As Conor loves to remind her, the power dynamic is too imbalanced. Any relationship between them would be problematic in too many ways to count, and Maya should just get over him. After all, he has made it clear that he wants her gone from his life. But not everything is as it seems—and clichés sometimes become plot twists. When Maya’s brother decides to get married in Taormina, she and Conor end up stuck together in a romantic Sicilian villa for over a week. There, on the beautiful Ionian coast, between ancient ruins, delicious foods, and natural caves, Maya realizes that Conor might be hiding something from her. And as the destination wedding begins to erupt out of control, she decides that a summer fling might be just what she needs—even if it’s a problematic one. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/lights-out-navessa-allen monthly 0.5 2025-09-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/bae6331d-630f-4b2f-8a32-29080c8bc5cc/read_lightsout.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Lights Out”, Navessa Allen - Published February 14, 2024 • Book 1 of Into Darkness I want someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it. Trauma nurse Aly escapes her hard-working days by thirsting after masked men online. To her, nothing could top the fantasy of her favorite tattooed and masked man hunting her down. But she never could have guessed that one drunken text would turn those dreams into reality . . . I want things most people don't, craving darkness and depravity instead of light and love. Josh has spent his life avoiding the limelight, but his online persona is another story. At night, he posts masked thirst traps for his millions of fans, until one follower catches his eye—Aly. Together, Aly and Josh live out their darkest fantasies, unaware that Aly has captured the attention of someone with far more sinister intentions. As Josh turns from predator to protector, he must ask himself how far he'll go for the woman he can't live without. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/butcher-and-blackbird-brynne-weaver monthly 0.5 2025-10-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/508dcd97-ce16-4892-801f-6161db9816d5/read_butcher.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Butcher & Blackbird”, Brynne Weaver - Published August 15, 2023 • Book 1 of The Ruinous Love Trilogy Every serial killer needs a friend. Every game must have a winner. When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match? https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/shepherd-king-rachel-gillig monthly 0.5 2025-10-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1757911941746-C4VMQHEVI3TY3Z3Y5CBQ/read_shepherd1.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Shepherd King series by Rachel Gillig https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1757911881688-OSS9ORDD0Y24EHXNURME/read_shepherd2.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Shepherd King series by Rachel Gillig https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/royals-of-forsyth-university-lords monthly 0.5 2025-09-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1757909800954-95FBVE6TYZ7DGE3RKGVL/read_lords1.jpg Reading Recommendations - Royals of Forsyth University 1-3 (Lords) by Angel Lawson & Samantha Rue https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1757909804203-OUB1ZI1OUHPTFU0Q5RUC/read_lords2.jpg Reading Recommendations - Royals of Forsyth University 1-3 (Lords) by Angel Lawson & Samantha Rue https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1757909808645-JV9M4DK9EXGYO6OT2D87/read_lords3.jpg Reading Recommendations - Royals of Forsyth University 1-3 (Lords) by Angel Lawson & Samantha Rue https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/every-day-david-levithan monthly 0.5 2025-10-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1757735275172-Q13OI8P86BIPL1MU42P8/read_everyday.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Every Day”, David Levithan - Published August 28, 2012 • Book 1 of Every Day Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone A wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/youre-that-bitch-bretman-rock monthly 0.5 2025-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/d9d8f6e9-25cc-4e2d-91c0-5548ea17219e/read_bretman.jpg Reading Recommendations - “You're That Bitch: And Other Lessons About Being Unapologetically Yourself”, Bretman Rock - Published February 14, 2023 Hilarious and earnest, this collection of essays, drawings, recipes, how-tos and never-before-seen photos goes far beyond what we know of Bretman Rock from social media. Who is Bretman Rock Sacayanan behind the screen and how did he become the original superstar influencer and today's beloved best friend of the internet? You're That Bitch welcomes you into Bretman Rock's world—from how his childhood in the Philippines, his family, Filipino culture, and being a first-generation immigrant helped shape him into who he is today. Peek into how Bretman became a social media sensation at the precocious age of 14, balancing living a glamorous jet-setting lifestyle on weekends while still serving lunch at his school's cafeteria, running as a varsity track-star, and making honor roll during the week. With his signature honesty, this is an unfiltered and unprecedented look at what it means to be an influencer and that bitch—from dealing with cancel culture, drama and heartbreak, to what it means to love yourself and your community. From the funniest and undeniably cutest person on the internet, this is a book for the weirdos and for the bad bitches . . . this book is for you! https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/forbidden-tabitha-suzuma monthly 0.5 2025-09-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/937c1d54-0d90-4804-b535-08b26ef8d7bf/read_forbidden.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Forbidden”, Tabitha Suzuma - Published May 27, 2010 She is pretty and talented—sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But… they are brother and sister. Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As de facto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-knight-and-the-butcherbird-alix-e-harrow monthly 0.5 2025-09-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/35414d9c-d132-4522-aeb9-93f6816dcaa1/read_butcherbird.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Knight and the Butcherbird”, Alix E Harrow - Published March 11, 2025 In this gritty, haunting tale about doing whatever it takes for love, a small-town storyteller resolves to keep the local monster—and her own secrets—safe from a legendary knight. Nestled deep in the steep hills, valleys, and surrounding woodlands lies Iron Hollow, a rural community beset by demons. Such horrors are common in the outlands, where most folks die young, if they don’t turn into monsters first. But what’s causing these transformations? No one has the answer, not even the town’s oral historian, seventeen-year-old Shrike. And when a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest beast to haunt their woods, Shrike has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still human, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it. Determined to keep May safe, Shrike stalks the knight and his demon-hunting hawk through the recesses of the forest. But as they creep through toxic creeks and overgrown kudzu, Shrike realizes the knight has a secret of his own. And he’ll do anything to protect it. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/memoirs-of-a-geisha-arthur-golden monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1757212882740-1528480J88P01U3XFMUN/read_geisha.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Memoirs of a Geisha”, Arthur Golden - September 27, 1997 Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1c38fbb4-0251-4d82-99d1-8f523523d524/screencap_geisha.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Memoirs of a Geisha”, Arthur Golden - Make it stand out These two ate in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (my favorite movie when I was in elementary school) and ate again in Memoirs of a Geisha. We need a third Michelle Yeoh x Zhang Ziyi film post haste. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/katabasis-rf-kuang monthly 0.5 2025-09-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/d39602c5-008a-4b61-a3b1-1c57863b3f3d/read_katabasis.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Katabasis”, RF Kuang - Published August 26, 2025 Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own. Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/cc87b9c8-08a2-489a-ad01-1036b9337063/IMG_1757.JPG Reading Recommendations - “Katabasis”, RF Kuang - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/penance-kanae-minato monthly 0.5 2025-09-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/76ef9277-f987-4d79-97bb-d4fe441ad1d8/read_penance.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Penance”, Kanae Minato - Originally published in Japanese on June 11, 2009 • 贖罪 When they were children, Sae, Maki, Akiko, and Yuko were tricked into separating from their friend Emily by a mysterious stranger. Then the unthinkable occurred: Emily was found murdered hours later. Sae, Maki, Akiko, and Yuko weren't able to accurately describe the stranger's appearance to the police after Emily's body was discovered. Asako, Emily's mother, cursed the surviving girls, vowing that they would pay for her daughter's murder. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/love-theoretically-ali-hazelwood monthly 0.5 2025-09-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/ea978570-9236-4a0e-aecd-2a65c9cb64a2/read_theoretically.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Love, Theoretically”, Ali Hazelwood - Published June 13, 2023 The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs. Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job. Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice? https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/animal-farm-george-orwell monthly 0.5 2025-09-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/2fc65823-c66a-4f17-bd2e-e888d7cd9db0/read_animal.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Animal Farm”, George Orwell - Published August 17, 1945 A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible. When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/is-everyone-hanging-out-without-me monthly 0.5 2025-09-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/534dc648-dfac-428e-80dc-16396f8b5e50/read_mindy1.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?”, Mindy Kaling - Published November 1, 2011 Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck - impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I'll shut up about it?” Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you've come to the right book, mostly! In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door - not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/100-match-patrick-c-harrison-iii monthly 0.5 2025-09-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/bc473bef-c4a5-4b13-9d95-ab116972f167/read_100.jpg Reading Recommendations - “100% Match”, Patrick C Harrison III - Published December 30, 2022 Bart is thirty. He is bald. He is overweight. He wears glasses. He is a fry cook. He hates cats. And kids. Bart occasionally does very bad things. He is looking for his perfect match. He has done his research. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/binging-with-babish-andrew-rea monthly 0.5 2025-09-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/e08439bd-fe26-43f1-8f35-08c620f24b62/read_babish.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Binging with Babish: 100 Recipes Recreated from Your Favorite Movies and TV Shows”, Andrew Rea - Published October 22, 2019 The internet cooking show Binging with Babish has taken YouTube by storm with an astounding 5 million fans and views as high as 12 million per episode. For each video, Andrew Rea, a self-proclaimed movie and TV buff, teaches a recipe based on a favorite TV show or film, such as the babka from the classic Seinfeld episode, the beef bourguignon from Julie & Julia, or the timpano from Big Night. This cookbook includes these and other fan-favorite recipes. Some are so delicious that you’ll want to make them for dinner right away, like Bubba's shrimp from Forrest Gump, while others can be saved for impressing a loved one—like the chocolate lava cake from Jon Favreau’s Chef, which the actor/director asked to make during a guest appearance on Rea’s show. Complete with behind-the-scenes stories and answers to frequently asked fan questions, Binging with Babish is a must-have companion to the wildly popular YouTube show. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/transcendence-shay-savage monthly 0.5 2025-09-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/a21a0dec-ee52-40d1-9b7f-93241d2032a5/read_transcendence.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Transcendence”, Shay Savage - Published February 13, 2014 It's said that women and men are from two different planets when it comes to communication, but how can they overcome the obstacles of prehistoric times when one of them simply doesn't have the ability to comprehend language? Ehd's a caveman living on his own in a harsh wilderness. He's strong and intelligent, but completely alone. When he finds a beautiful young woman in his pit trap, it's obvious to him that she is meant to be his mate. He doesn't know where she came from, she's wearing some pretty odd clothing, and she makes a lot of noises with her mouth that give him a headache. Still, he's determined to fulfill his purpose in life - provide for her, protect her, and put a baby in her. Elizabeth doesn't know where she is or exactly how she got there. She's confused and distressed by her predicament, and there's a caveman hauling her back to his cavehome. She's not at all interested in Ehd's primitive advances, and she just can't seem to get him to listen. No matter what she tries, getting her point across to this primitive but beautiful man is a constant—and often hilarious—struggle. With only each other for company, they must rely on one another to fight the dangers of the wild and prepare for the winter months. As they struggle to coexist, theirs becomes a love story that transcends language and time. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-secret-lives-of-color-kassia-st-clair monthly 0.5 2025-09-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/55f43f14-706a-46b6-8ffc-595256145ba2/read_secretlives.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Secret Lives of Color”, Kassia St Clair - Published October 20, 2016 The Secret Lives of Colour tells the unusual stories of the 75 most fascinating shades, dyes and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso's blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book Kassia St Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colours and where they come from (whether Van Gogh's chrome yellow sunflowers or punk's fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilisation. Across fashion and politics, art and war, The Secret Lives of Colour tell the vivid story of our culture. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/bride-ali-hazelwood monthly 0.5 2025-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/4bc753f1-e1a4-4752-a7af-08c44524f5f0/read_bride.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Bride”, Ali Hazelwood - Published February 6, 2024 Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again… Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was… Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-centre-ayesha-manazir-siddiqi monthly 0.5 2025-08-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/d2d36c74-ce98-4678-a9cd-752ec79c9c0e/read_centre.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Centre”, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi - Published July 11, 2023 Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of “great works of literature,” but instead mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies, living off her parents’ generous allowance, and discussing the “underside of life” with her best friend, Naima. Anisa’s mediocre white boyfriend, Adam, only adds to her growing sense of inadequacy with his savant-level aptitude for languages, successfully leveraging his expansive knowledge into an enviable career. But when Adam learns to speak Urdu with native fluency practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret. Adam begrudgingly tells Anisa about The Centre, an elite, invite-only program that guarantees near-instant fluency in any language. Skeptical but intrigued, Anisa enrolls—stripped of her belongings, contact with the outside world, and bodily autonomy—and emerges ten days later fluent in German. As Anisa enmeshes herself further within The Centre, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the true cost of its services. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/seed-ania-ahlborn monthly 0.5 2025-09-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/7916052b-7239-437d-8b94-ebf2a6ac9c75/read_seed.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Seed”, Ania Ahlborn - Published May 28, 2011 In the vine-twisted swamps of Louisiana, the shadows have teeth. Jack Winter has spent his entire life running from something no one else can see. His childhood is his darkest secret, but after a near fatal accident along a deserted road, the darkness he was sure he’d escaped rears its ugly head… and smiles. But this time, he isn’t the only one who sees the soulless eyes of his past. This time, his six-year-old daughter Charlie leans into his ear and whispers: Daddy, I saw it too. And then she begins to change. Faced with reliving the nightmares of his childhood, Jack watches his daughter spiral into the shadows that had nearly consumed him twenty years before. But Charlie isn’t the only one who’s changing. Jack never outran the darkness. It’s been with him all along. And it’s hungrier than ever. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/intercepts-tj-payne monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/f59a1816-ea97-4e71-96dc-b926962ffa8e/read_intercepts.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Intercepts”, TJ Payne - Published April 23, 2019 Joe works at a facility that performs human experimentation. His work just followed him home. The government wanted to unlock hidden abilities in the human mind. They put subjects in extreme sensory deprivation. All the test subjects went violently insane. But the research continued. Today it has been perfected. Almost perfected. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/touch-claire-north monthly 0.5 2025-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/ca1da753-dbd4-48c6-b516-cb81b7339c6b/read_touch.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Touch”, Claire North - Published February 24, 2015 Kepler had never meant to die this way — viciously beaten to death by a stinking vagrant in a dark back alley. But when reaching out to the murderer for salvation in those last dying moments, a sudden switch takes place. Now Kepler is looking out through the eyes of the killer himself, staring down at a broken and ruined body lying in the dirt of the alley. Instead of dying, Kepler has gained the ability to roam from one body to another, to jump into another person’s skin and see through their eyes, live their life — be it for a few minutes, a few months or a lifetime. Kepler means these host bodies no harm — and even comes to cherish them intimately like lovers. But when one host, Josephine Cebula, is brutally assassinated, Kepler embarks on a mission to seek the truth — and avenge Josephine’s death. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/girl-in-translation-jean-kwok monthly 0.5 2025-08-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1755622517973-EMWNOIV3YLXNW25JZZJD/read_git.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Girl in Translation”, Jean Kwok - Published April 29, 2010 When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family’s future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition. Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles. Through Kimberly’s story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about. Written in an indelible voice that dramatizes the tensions of an immigrant girl growing up between two cultures, surrounded by a language and world only half understood, Girl in Translation is an unforgettable and classic novel of an American immigrant--a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/a-certain-slant-of-light-laura-whitcomb monthly 0.5 2025-08-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/b2243993-112a-4418-a447-4675ec2f2dce/read_slant.jpg Reading Recommendations - “A Certain Slant of Light”, Laura Whitcomb - Published September 21, 2005 • Book 1 of Light In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen—terrified, but intrigued—is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/not-in-love-ali-hazelwood monthly 0.5 2025-08-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1755621505575-AOTFMXBYJL77AACC2GWZ/read_nil.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Not in Love”, Ali Hazelwood - Published June 11, 2024 A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science. Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down. Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through - and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him. Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-first-fifteen-lives-of-harry-august monthly 0.5 2025-08-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/6cc6bfd5-a67e-46e3-a49c-b5b52ffd1e17/read_fifteen.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August”, Claire North - Published August 8, 2014 Some stories cannot be told in just one lifetime. Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August," she says. "I need to send a message." This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/alif-the-unseen-g-willow-wilson monthly 0.5 2025-08-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754344047467-0MRG06CCB4960T08JRRR/read_alif.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Alif the Unseen”, G Willow Wilson - Published June 19, 2012 In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients—dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups—from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif—the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and a convenient handle to hide behind. The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince chosen by her parents, and his computer has just been breached by the state’s electronic security force, putting his clients and his own neck on the line. Then it turns out his lover’s new fiancé is the "Hand of God," as they call the head of state security, and his henchmen come after Alif, driving him underground. When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/bluets-maggie-nelson monthly 0.5 2025-08-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/cb768d10-7919-44cb-afd5-5dbf2f631d12/read_bluets.png Reading Recommendations - “Bluets”, Maggie Nelson - Published October 1, 2009 Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color . . . Since 2009, when it first published, to today, Bluets has drawn scores of readers with its surprising insights into the emotional depths that make us most human—via 240 short pieces, at once lyrical and philosophical, on the color blue. A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue, while folding in, and responding to, the divergent voices and preoccupations of such generative figures as Wittgenstein, Sei Shonagon, William Gass and Joan Mitchell. Bluets further confirms Maggie Nelson’s place within the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/my-name-is-memory-ann-brashares monthly 0.5 2025-09-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/6c4574c3-389d-48bd-9fc3-e3a8e86782b0/read_memory.jpg Reading Recommendations - “My Name is Memory”, Ann Brashares - Published June 2010 A magical story of reincarnation and a love that lasts more than a lifetime Daniel has spent centuries falling in love with the same girl. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Sophia (despite her changing name and form) have been drawn together-and he remembers it all. For all the times that he and Sophia have been connected throughout history, they have also been torn painfully, fatally, apart. But just when Sophia (now “Lucy” in the present) finally awakens to the secret of their shared past, the mysterious force that has always separated them reappears. Ultimately, they must come to understand what stands in the way of their love if they are ever to spend a lifetime together. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-lost-girl-sangu-mandanna monthly 0.5 2025-08-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/957985fd-9854-4e1e-80a6-3096e27c92da/read_lost.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Lost Girl”, Sangu Mandanna - Published August 28, 2012 Eva’s life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination—an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her “other”, if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it’s like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready. But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this. Now she must abandon everything she’s ever known—the guardians who raised her, the boy she’s forbidden to love—to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive. What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-myth-of-sisyphus-albert-camus monthly 0.5 2025-08-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/59b463bb-f978-45ec-8e1e-fc72ef80ce1d/read_sisyphus.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Albert Camus - Published October 1, 1942 Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves—and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives—and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are. Inspired by the myth of a man condemned to ceaselessly push a rock up a mountain and watch it roll back to the valley below, The Myth of Sisyphus transformed twentieth-century philosophy with its impassioned argument for the value of life in a world without religious meaning. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-thrashers-julie-soto monthly 0.5 2025-08-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/ff3b4ad5-f707-4be1-be9f-928d2f02318a/read_thrashers.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Thrashers”, Julie Soto - Published May 6, 2025 Either you're in or you're out. Welcome to the Thrashers, the elite friend group at New Helvetia High. They’re everything everyone wants to be. Jodi Dillon was never meant to be one of them. Julian, Lucy, Paige, and the infamous Zack Thrasher are rich, sophisticated, and love attention. Jodi feels out of place, but Zack’s her childhood best friend, so she’s in. Then Emily Mills, who desperately wanted to be a Thrasher, dies—and the whispers about the Thrashers begin. As Emily’s journal surfaces, detectives close in, and Jodi faces an impossible choice: betray her friends or protect herself. But as eerie messages and strange occurrences escalate, it becomes clear—Emily isn’t done with them yet. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-bone-season-samantha-shannon monthly 0.5 2025-08-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/9c8c102d-35b4-445c-a103-a7b788531d12/read_bone.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Bone Season”, Samantha Shannon - Author’s Preferred Text • Republished August 22, 2023 • Book 1 of The Bone Season The year is 2059. For two centuries, the Republic of Scion has led an oppressive campaign against unnaturalness in Europe. In London, Paige Mahoney holds a high rank in the criminal underworld. The right hand of the ruthless White Binder, Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare and formidable kind of clairvoyant. Under Scion law, she commits treason simply by breathing. When Paige is arrested for murder, she meets the mysterious founders of Scion, who have designs on her uncommon abilities. If she is to survive and escape, Paige must use every skill at her disposal – and put her trust in someone who ought to be her enemy. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-hurricane-wars-thea-guanzon monthly 0.5 2025-08-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/6c64186f-836a-4f26-a35e-7f70ed37293c/read_hurricane.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Hurricane Wars”, Thea Guanzon - Published October 3, 2023 • Book 1 of The Hurricane Wars The heart is a battlefield. All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire's shadows. Prince Alaric, the emperor's only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire's rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. That is until he sees Talasyn burning brightly on the battlefield with the magic that killed his grandfather, turned his father into a monster, and ignited the Hurricane Wars. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen. Talasyn and Alaric both know this war can only end with them. But a greater threat is coming, and the strange new magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it. Thrust into an uneasy alliance, they will confront the secrets at the heart of the war and find, in each other, a searing passion--one that could save their world…or destroy it. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/yellowface-rf-kuang monthly 0.5 2025-08-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/eefc3ea4-395f-417a-8ec5-0dfa3745f819/read_yellowface.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Yellowface”, RF Kuang - Published May 16, 2023 Authors Juniper Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena is a literary darling while June is a nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls?, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse, stealing Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees. But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/circe-madeline-miller monthly 0.5 2025-08-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/14fb9ed4-94c0-4b11-bc43-4570d1f52647/read_circe.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Circe”, Madeline Miller - Published April 10, 2018 In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-knight-and-the-moth-rachel-gillig monthly 0.5 2025-09-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/4399737a-c123-48fd-88b4-5bdd11dfdee1/read_knight.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Knight and the Moth”, Rachel Gillig - Book 1 of The Stonewater Kingdom • Published May 20, 2025 Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams. Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/convenience-store-woman-sayaka-murata monthly 0.5 2025-08-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754839053572-APBVHRP3DZF7SFKLULL4/read_konbini.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Convenience Store Woman”, Sayaka Murata - コンビニ人間 • Originally Published in Japanese on July 27, 2016 Keiko Furukura has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction―many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual―and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action… https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/you-again-kate-goldbeck monthly 0.5 2025-08-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/11acb771-2411-4b02-93c1-85a44b89922c/read_you.jpg Reading Recommendations - “You, Again”, Kate Goldbeck - Published September 12, 2023 Can they stop hating each other long enough to fall in love? A commitment-phobe and a hopeless romantic clash over and over again—until heartbreak and unexpected chemistry bring them together in this clever enemies-to-friends-to-lovers debut romance. When Ari and Josh first meet, the wrong kind of sparks fly. They hate each other. Instantly. A free-spirited, struggling comedian who likes to keep things casual, Ari sublets, takes gigs, and she never sleeps over after hooking up. Born-and-bred Manhattanite Josh has ambitious plans: Take the culinary world by storm, find The One, and make her breakfast in his spotless kitchen. They have absolutely nothing in common…except that they happen to be sleeping with the same woman. Ari and Josh never expect their paths to cross again. But years later, as they're both reeling from ego-bruising breakups, a chance encounter leads to a surprising connection: friendship. Turns out, spending time with your former nemesis is fun when you're too sad to hate each other—-and too sad for hate sex. As friends-without-benefits, they find comfort in late-night Netflix binges, swiping through each other's online dating profiles, and bickering across boroughs. It's better than romance. Until one night, the unspoken boundaries of their platonic relationship begin to blur… https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/forget-me-not-julie-soto monthly 0.5 2025-08-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/db6ec541-92a2-4202-b0d3-32801de5d0a2/read_forget.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Forget Me Not”, Julie Soto - Published July 11, 2023 He loves me; he loves me not... Ama Torres loves being a wedding planner. But with a mother who has been married more times than you can count on your fingers, Ama has decided that marriage is not the route for her. But weddings? Weddings are amazing. As a small business owner, she knows how to match her clients with the perfect vendor to give them the wedding of their dreams. Well, almost perfect… Elliot hates being a florist, most of the time. When his father left him the flower shop, he considered it a burden, but he’s stuck with it. Just like how he’s stuck with the way he proposed to Ama, his main collaborator and girlfriend (or was she?) two years ago. But flowers have grown on him, just like Ama did. And flowers can’t run off and never speak to him again, like Ama did. When Ama is hired to plan a celebrity wedding that will bring her business national exposure, there's a catch: Elliot is already contracted to design the flowers. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. Add in a meddling ex-boss, and a reality TV film crew documenting every step of the wedding prep, and Ama and Elliot's hearts are not only in jeopardy again, but this time, their livelihoods are too. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/a53778ee-38fb-4d08-b3cc-61456a051284/meme_leo.gif Reading Recommendations - “Forget Me Not”, Julie Soto - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/leave-me-behind-km-moronova monthly 0.5 2025-08-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/019cd372-53f3-46cc-9593-ae3fcc98981c/read_leave2.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Leave Me Behind”, KM Moronova - Published November 6, 2024 Nell Gallows is the sole survivor of an elite dark forces squad, Riøt, after a detrimental attack two years ago. Unsurprisingly, she’s being put up as the top candidate for the special ops team: Malum. The squad that goes where no one else will or can. There’s only one problem: Malum blames their one casualty from the Patagonia mission on the Riøt squad. So what is she to do when she finds herself on a plane to California and on her way to a sure death sentence? A one-night stand. At least, that’s all it was supposed to be—one last night to be free. Only, she finds out too late that the dark and mysterious man she solely wanted as a fling is not only her new comrade but also the one she dreaded meeting most—her immediate superior and untouchable devil in the field. Bones. He’s hell on earth—cruel and unforgiving, but most of all, he hates her, and he makes sure she knows it. And yet, she finds herself unwilling to leave his side when he’s unable to get to the evac point when their mission goes awry. She stays behind with the devil and the secrets he keeps. They only have one another to trust when no faith is left. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/i-who-have-never-known-men monthly 0.5 2025-08-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/fb64417f-d09a-4312-8301-4a3697c7b36a/read_men.jpg Reading Recommendations - “I Who Have Never Known Men”, Jacqueline Harpman - Moi qui n’ai pas connu les hommes • Originally published in French in 1995 Deep underground, 39 women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before. As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the 40th prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/10-horror-books-that-will-make-you-fear-the-woods monthly 0.5 2025-08-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/e73f15a8-515d-49a9-8f97-64e29fb578ba/read_slewfoot.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754017921231-MAWS0QB08WNBKXTN6UXK/list_seek.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754017916051-1ON8RWUXERG50R1AUZCC/list_intercepts.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/e150eb68-b9dc-4360-95de-5deb13372948/read_laws.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754017917251-JVZ25OL7M4BA1ODRMZXR/list_stolen.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754018425849-WWYNRH1XBUMZD4CCX429/list_troop.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754018430231-WGRTE578LHF89DMOXK7Y/list_indians.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754018430115-LTYB7XOR2NEK9XAX2H4R/list_silence.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754018429227-C0VEFN4PTWF6GCHL99SL/list_echo.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754018426144-9U4EK367EJMS95009DQQ/list_hunger.jpg Reading Recommendations - 10 Horror Books That Will Make You Fear the Woods https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/nettle-and-bone-t-kingfisher monthly 0.5 2025-08-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/6d502e1e-e3f5-4bf2-907f-f4ee1e9bc71f/read_nettle.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Nettle & Bone”, T Kingfisher - Published April 26, 2022 This isn't the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince. It's the one where she kills him. Marra never wanted to be a hero. As the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter, she escaped the traditional fate of princesses, to be married away for the sake of an uncaring throne. But her sister wasn’t so fortunate—and after years of silence, Marra is done watching her suffer at the hands of a powerful and abusive prince. Seeking help for her rescue mission, Marra is offered the tools she needs, but only if she can complete three seemingly impossible tasks: —build a dog of bones —sew a cloak of nettles —capture moonlight in a jar But, as is the way in tales of princes and witches, doing the impossible is only the beginning. Hero or not—now joined by a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar—Marra might finally have the courage to save her sister, and topple a throne. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/firebird-series-claudia-gray monthly 0.5 2025-08-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753501082346-06QLSEXRKS9V3SRAVD67/read_firebird1.jpg Reading Recommendations - Firebird series by Claudia Gray https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753501083333-7KF3KPMDF5FN5GYHL2IK/read_firebird2.jpg Reading Recommendations - Firebird series by Claudia Gray https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753501082466-YO2JKXZZNHCD4Y87M26J/read_firebird3.jpg Reading Recommendations - Firebird series by Claudia Gray https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/one-for-my-enemy-olivie-blake monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753327409996-SNAIB602517DM5Q5FNOV/read_enemy.jpg Reading Recommendations - “One For My Enemy”, Olivie Blake - Published January 30, 2019 In modern-day Manhattan where we lay our scene, two rival witch families fight to maintain control of their respective criminal ventures. On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters — each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless — and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants, known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan. After twelve years of tenuous co-existence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing stalemate. When bad blood brings both families to the precipice of disaster, fate intervenes with a chance encounter, and in the aftershocks of a resurrected conflict, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to stake their claim, fraying loyalties threaten to rot each side from the inside out. If, that is, the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy them first. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/kindred-octavia-butler monthly 0.5 2025-08-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/de0e9b1a-a2fc-45ed-b751-c826b25393ef/read_kindred.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Kindred”, Octavia E Butler - First published on June 1, 1979 Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/wed-know-by-then-kirsten-bohling monthly 0.5 2025-08-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/65b4488f-e24e-4271-942f-84ca7191f967/read_wedknow.jpg Reading Recommendations - “We’d Know By Then (Extended Special Edition)”, Kirsten Bohling - Published July 11, 2023 Before Brighton and Cain fell in love and out of time in We'd Know By Then , they lived the same story a hundred times before… Don't miss the original novella, A Hundred Times Before, featured exclusively in the special extended edition of We'd Know By Then. Told from Cain's point of view, this "in between-quel" takes place before, during, and after the modern-day love story of Brighton and Cain, exploring two of their past lives and reasons why Death ripped them apart. Discover how their love blossoms in different yet familiar ways and just how far Cain is willing to go to end their curse. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/409b1e7f-6a99-4827-8536-13e9dbfc0d27/meme_cryingmike.jpg Reading Recommendations - “We’d Know By Then (Extended Special Edition)”, Kirsten Bohling - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-laws-of-the-skies monthly 0.5 2025-08-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/e150eb68-b9dc-4360-95de-5deb13372948/read_laws.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Laws of the Skies”, Grégoire Courtois - Les lois du ciel • Originally published in French on October 11, 2016 Twelve six-year-olds and their three adult chaperones head into the woods on a camping trip. None of them make it out alive. The Laws of the Skies follows the terrified children as they scatter into the night to escape danger, dressed only in their pajamas. They face their darkest childhood fears and new imaginary threats, like trolls masquerading as boulders and child-eating tree trunks. A harrowing story of those days in the woods, of illness, poisoning, and accidents; of a love triangle among tots; a pint-sized hero; and a child on a murderous rampage that comes to a grisly end. Part fairy tale, part horror story, this macabre fable takes us through the minds of all the members of this doomed part, murderers and murdered alike. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/5899a9ed-11db-4f46-b9e3-43f1f2ac224a/meme_jldwtf.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Laws of the Skies”, Grégoire Courtois - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/hyperbole-and-a-half-allie-brosh monthly 0.5 2025-07-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753219482159-5P75CHYXXE6M5T38GY3Q/read_hyperbole.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened”, Allie Brosh - Published October 29, 2013 This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book: Pictures Words Stories about things that happened to me Stories about things that happened to other people because of me Eight billion dollars* Stories about dogs The secret to eternal happiness* *These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/fccba822-cd95-49f1-a81f-3a7d73a853eb/prop_clean.png Reading Recommendations - “Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened”, Allie Brosh - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/life-of-pie-yann-martel monthly 0.5 2025-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/2b3c6047-6b2f-43b1-964a-5bd0373f4a21/read_pi.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Life of Pi”, Yann Martel - First published on September 11, 2001 The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, a Tamil boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/476aa852-5ace-48a2-b05b-a674f5fbf553/still_pi.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Life of Pi”, Yann Martel - Make it stand out [FILMGRAB] https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/confessions-kanae-minato monthly 0.5 2025-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753592751321-PZTSUHYXYCL359TDKCHN/read_confessions.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Confessions”, Kanae Minato - 告白 • First published in Japanese in August 5, 2008 Her pupils murdered her daughter. Now she will have her revenge. After calling off her engagement in the wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old child, Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation. But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a diabolical plot for revenge. Narrated in alternating voices, with twists you'll never see coming, Confessions probes the limits of punishment, despair, and tragic love, culminating in a harrowing confrontation between teacher and student that will place the occupants of an entire school in danger. You'll never look at a classroom the same way again. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/one-last-rainy-day-kate-stewart monthly 0.5 2025-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/7591ce1c-6b3f-4f5a-a2f5-ab0088398bbc/read_rainy.jpg Reading Recommendations - “One Last Rainy Day: The Legacy of a Prince”, Kate Stewart - Published July 27, 2023 • Book 1 of Ravenhood Legacy “My rainy days are yours, Dominic. If you want them.” Once upon a time… There lived a man with a vengeance-filled heart that held too many secrets. And a woman, pure of soul, intent on uncovering them. What they failed to realize is that through the storm their love would create… a legacy would be born. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-ravenhood-series-kate-stewart monthly 0.5 2025-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752804805670-SQRFBCZG58KC4OQSPOJD/read_flock.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Ravenhood Series by Kate Stewart https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753586745913-6PDON9QSQRD7CV7LJYHH/read_exodus.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Ravenhood Series by Kate Stewart https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753586745961-9WMRF9HWDYQAEULPIP58/read_finish.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Ravenhood Series by Kate Stewart https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-priory-of-the-orange-tree monthly 0.5 2025-07-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/466a9a3b-ccb0-4f7a-93cc-93e0c1cff73d/read_priory.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Priory of the Orange Tree”, Samantha Shannon - Published February 26, 2019 • Book 1 of the Roots of Chaos A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens. The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tusk-love-thea-guanzon monthly 0.5 2025-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/9368f10c-2b59-4685-ac7d-f871f021949f/read_tusk.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Tusk Love”, Thea Guanzon - Published July 1, 2025 As the daughter of an ambitious merchant, Guinevere’s path has been predetermined: marry into a noble house of the Dwendalian Empire, raise her family’s station, and live quietly as a lordling’s obedient wife. But Guinevere longs for a life unbounded by expectations, for freedom and passion and adventure. Those distant dreams become a sudden reality when her caravan is beset by bandits, leaving her guards slain and Guinevere stranded alone on the dangerous Amber Road. Her only chance of survival is to travel alongside Oskar, the aloof half-orc who saved her during the attack. Unlike Guinevere, Oskar’s path is not so set in stone. With his mother dead and his apprenticeship abandoned, all that’s left is a long, lonely walk to a land he’s never seen to find family he’s never met. The last thing he needs is a spoiled waif like Guinevere slowing him down—even if the spark between them sizzles with promise. Despite his cold exterior, Oskar is brave and thoughtful and unlike anyone Guinevere has ever met. And while Guinevere may be sheltered, she brings out a softness in him that he has never dared to feel before. As the flames of their passion grow, they realize that soon they’ll need to choose between their expected destinations or their blossoming romance. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-love-hypothesis-ali-hazelwood monthly 0.5 2025-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/b990cead-6992-41e3-9ee5-914909e2337c/read_hypothesis.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Love Hypothesis”, Ali Hazelwood - Published September 14, 2021 When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos. As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships—but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees. That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor—and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. And when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding. . . six-pack abs. Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/book-club-era monthly 0.5 2025-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136117108-EDFBX1UYGCBH6GTIKD5G/club_0724.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - July 2024 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136117001-6DULPNOATUVE0M535VXL/club_0824.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - August 2024 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136118650-IM3XFKQPWXHMNQFTXXX6/club_0924.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - September 2024 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136119795-4WMEA0SFYKBAJANMW2H1/club_1024.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - October 2024 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136120919-5TCNV7GO8GHKTU8ALKAF/club_1124.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - December 2024 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136148992-P9WYF1UCBYNJ6TGJMSWF/club_0125.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - January 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136149105-RF2TI0AB5ZLWNAODBLQJ/club_0225.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - February 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136150703-8LI3GRQDFUXUQTQQHR2Q/club_0325.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - March 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136150981-RL4124C2PBKXRXJ8241W/club_0525.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - May 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136151675-9AQF8UCONSDHT9NXMQ3N/club_0625.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - June 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753136152663-7BMZDAAHZWU3FZNBAY54/club_0725.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - July 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1753578404192-W89N4NQPTOBDTYDM6C04/read_couple.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - August 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1763968388055-KT31NMDA9NK9VSQF7ON2/read_woods.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - September 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1759286552962-CR7VS65M35ZUQHE9P5CC/read_onlyone.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - October 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1763968241111-AX0I5696YHE3EZRQFOQJ/read_lie.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - November 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1763968247230-XY2CI5551ES7224V0QSD/read_december.jpg Reading Recommendations - The Girlies Book Club Picks - January 2026 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-song-of-achilles-madeline-miller monthly 0.5 2025-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/49e68621-5377-43d7-b9ae-1934b64e9945/read_achilles.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Song of Achilles”, Madeline Miller - Published September 20, 2011 Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath. They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/2025-monthly-reading-roundup monthly 0.5 2026-02-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1771815759318-99YYV1Q385YK5J5JJNLY/month_0126.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1771815588136-7AY249VG93ZX1GGA95HC/2025+Reading+RoundUp.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1771815488190-JGJGBQBM2CB19FF19HL6/month_1225.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1764696399252-Z187YZVMV2X5RK8GCWN2/month_1125.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1762099400025-NTK7GFMYVD9MO3GP3LYA/month_1025.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1759355269192-A3THTPVSLLO69YIU3WR3/month_0925.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1756701488890-0V6QB9NYGOLPH49C6BWJ/2025+Reading+RoundUp.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1754066603482-XP9MVZCIDF2HCS8FYPCU/2025_07.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752990637267-SHX75LKO9KKIX7X8H6R8/2025_06.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752990161175-E9JVDZRGUIJD7B45EHQD/2025_05.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752990163155-WD6V063Q4RG48CIHHMOS/2025_04.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752990164088-LT75WH03AGIDNXEIL7TD/2025_03.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752990164843-WIIH0VPSJ4EWKM66IDMS/2025_02.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752990165921-J9CW8RG4KR1N3CJ040WI/2025_01.png Reading Recommendations - Monthly Reading Round-Up https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/exhalation-ted-chiang monthly 0.5 2025-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752612814339-AHK2DDU3ORMQWM28C630/read_exhalation.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang - Published May 7, 2019 THE UNIVERSE BEGAN AS AN ENORMOUS BREATH BEING HELD. In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity's oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/not-another-love-song-julie-soto monthly 0.5 2025-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/0ed035e5-a713-4b47-9682-22cf53b6c273/read_lovesong.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Not Another Love Song”, Julie Soto - Published July 4, 2024 Two string players fight their attraction for each other as they compete for center stage in this spicy and emotional romance. Gwen Jackson and Xander Thorne are both musical prodigies, but each has had very different paths to success. Xander was born into classical music royalty, while Gwen had a natural ear for music that was nurtured by a kind shop owner. After Gwen performs at his friend’s wedding, she’s mortified when she realizes Xander has no clue who she is—despite having worked together for a year at the Pops Orchestra. But she’s more furious that he arrogantly critiques her performance. When Gwen is offered the role of First Chair of the orchestra, something Xander had secretly coveted for years, their existing hostility goes up a notch. But their respect for each other's music is undeniable, and their onstage chemistry off the scale. As they begin to explore their feelings for one another, suddenly they're box office dynamite and the fragile romance that's growing between them is in danger of being crushed beneath a publicity stunt… https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/stories-of-your-life-and-others-ted-chiang monthly 0.5 2025-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/7e58b55a-c2c3-4fdf-beaa-a685790b0715/read_stories.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Stories of Your Life and Others”, Ted Chiang - Published July 5, 2002 What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven-and broke through to Heaven's other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into fiery pits were a routine event on city streets? https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-irresistible-urge-to-fall-for-your-enemy monthly 0.5 2025-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/28d7d8a0-c5f5-4393-b0d0-ed0763aa9f6a/read_irresistible.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy”, Brigitte Knightley - Published July 8, 2025 • Book 1 of the Dearly Beloathed duology Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, is in dire need of healing. Naturally—such is the grim comedy of fate—the only healer who can help is Aurienne Fairhrim, preeminent scientist, bastion of moral good, and member of an enemy Order. Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick - so desperate that, when Osric bribes her to help him, she accepts, even if she detests him and everything he stands for. A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders, much to Aurienne's disgust. As Osric and Aurienne work together to heal his illness and investigate the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction, which only fuels the heat between them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/65488d32-7b15-45ff-87fc-68ad300abf9f/IMG_1338.JPG Reading Recommendations - “The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy”, Brigitte Knightley - Make it stand out Anyway, this is how much I enjoyed the book. I had never in my life tabbed so many pages. Each one was a hilarious quip or some such quotable by a specific person in a specific context. This was a delight to read, and I can’t wait to reread this. Or perhaps try the audiobook…? https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/split-or-swallow-lindsay-straube monthly 0.5 2025-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/a48ca71a-f782-44b3-96c8-4702bacfb1d1/read_split.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Split or Swallow (nka Kiss of the Basilisk)”, Lindsay Straube - Published August 16, 2024 Twenty year old Temperance Verus has never been kissed. But that's what the basilisk is for. Along with thirteen other contestants, Tem must train with a basilisk to learn the power of seduction and win the prince's hand in marriage. When Tem is matched with Caspen, the Serpent King, she realizes she might actually stand a chance. But with tensions rising between the basilisks and the humans, Tem is suddenly torn in two directions. As her bond with Caspen deepens, so does her connection with the prince. And when she uncovers a terrible secret about the royal family, Tem finds herself caught between two neither of which she can survive without. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/five-brothers-penelope-douglas monthly 0.5 2025-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/a57b702b-bcaf-4330-82a4-3728219e9fe7/read_five.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Five Brothers”, Penelope Douglas - Published July 30, 2024 One woman learns the secrets of the five Jaeger brothers. On the other side of town, in the dark glades, under the rain… Macon is the oldest. Thirty-one. Ex-Marine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile. Army is twenty-eight. A single dad with the most beautiful green eyes. He has no idea who he is, if not a Jaeger brother. Iron will be in prison soon. You’d never think it to meet him. He’s a nice guy, actually. But he can’t stop reacting to everything. Dallas is the one I hate. Twenty-one, cruel, and selfish. He takes and then throws away whatever’s left. And Trace is mine. Or he was for about two seconds. No one can tame him for long. Not that I ever wanted to. It was fun, but now I need to go home. Back to my side of the tracks. Away from the swamps and these men. To my parents’ big house. On my clean street. Where I’m never dirty or messy or hot. And I will. I’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning. I just want to crash on the couch tonight. Their house is dark and quiet, everyone else is asleep. Except for one. He sees me crying and comes at me from behind. I let him wrap his arms around my body and hold me tightly. His breath is on my neck, his fingers are in my hair, and he doesn’t stop there. I don’t think it was Trace. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/rose-in-chains-julie-soto monthly 0.5 2025-08-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752459798341-3D59HDCCAVYXVSVG7YUA/read_rose.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Rose in Chains”, Julie Soto - Published July 8, 2025 • Book 1 of the Evermore trilogy The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead. Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, Briony Rosewood knows that the world as she knows it is changed forever. The dark forces of Bomard have won and her people, the Eversuns, face imminent servitude, imprisonment or death. Her brother, fated to be heir twice over and unite the warring kingdoms, is dead. Stripped of her Mind Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly auctioned off to the highest bidders in an auction—and as the heir-apparent’s sister, she fetches the highest price. After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven a high ranking Bomardsun—and her long-time and ill-fated infatuation. Scion of a family known for their cruel control of Heart Magic, the Hearsts are ruthlessly ambitious, and Briony knows they will use her however they can to further their own interests. Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help – and hope – may yet arise in the most unlikely of places… https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-golem-and-the-jinni-helene-wecker monthly 0.5 2025-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/9107f93c-6708-46c8-92d8-37d3f5680750/read_golem.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Golem and the Jinni”, Helene Wecker - Published April 23, 2013 • Book 1 of The Golem and the Jinni Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic, created to be the wife of a man who dies at sea on the voyage from Poland. Chava is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York harbor in 1899. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert, trapped in an old copper flask, and released in New York City, though still not entirely free. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/slewfoot-a-tale-of-bewitchery-brom monthly 0.5 2025-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/20b2dfcb-0454-4e89-aa1d-9d25f0e9ee7f/read_slewfoot.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery”, Brom - Published September 14, 2021 Set in Colonial New England, Slewfoot is a tale of magic and mystery, of triumph and terror as only dark fantasist Brom can tell it. A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past. Enter Slewfoot, a powerful spirit of antiquity newly woken ... and trying to find his own role in the world. Healer or destroyer? Protector or predator? But as the shadows walk and villagers start dying, a new rumor is whispered: Witch. Both Abitha and Slewfoot must swiftly decide who they are, and what they must do to survive in a world intent on hanging any who meddle in the dark arts. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-gabrielle-zevin monthly 0.5 2025-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/459e60e9-f6a1-4671-815d-23300f27a703/read_tomorrow.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow”, Gabrielle Zevin - Published July 5, 2022 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-mad-scientists-daughter-cassandra-rose-clarke monthly 0.5 2025-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/8275fd7d-881e-4552-ae91-5767d965c2ac/read_madscientist.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Mad Scientist’s Daughter”, Cassandra Rose Clarke - Published January 8, 2013 "Cat, this is Finn. He's going to be your tutor." Finn looks and acts human, though he has no desire to be. He was programmed to assist his owners, and performs his duties to perfection. A billion-dollar construct, his primary task is now to tutor Cat. As she grows into a beautiful young woman, Finn is her guardian, her constant companion...and more. But when the government grants rights to the ever-increasing robot population, however, Finn struggles to find his place in the world, and in Cat's heart. https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/deep-ali-hazelwood monthly 0.5 2025-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752275000719-99V9LLVS3E5TQ96A6FPB/read_deepend.jpg Reading Recommendations - “Deep End (fka Whet)”, Ali Hazelwood - Formerly known as “Whet” • Published February 4, 2025 A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance. Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself. Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes. So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water... https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/my-year-of-rest-and-relaxation-ottessa-moshfegh monthly 0.5 2025-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/9ea3a730-cbaa-4277-bf75-2aee2e9f67c9/read_year.jpg Reading Recommendations - “My Year of Rest and Relaxation”, Ottessa Moshfegh - Published July 10, 2018 A novel about a young woman’s efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes. Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong? https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war monthly 0.5 2025-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/7ba6b9d1-689d-44af-be52-bb6f3923fbd8/read_timewar.jpg Reading Recommendations - “This Is How You Lose the Time War”, Amar El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone - Published July 16, 2019 In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked "Burn before reading." So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space. Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they're the best, and they're alone. Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning's that you do in war. Isn't it? https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/the-six-deaths-of-the-saint-alix-e-harrow monthly 0.5 2025-08-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1752281167281-1SEOJKUSQ8KD363FPTZL/read_sixdeaths.jpg Reading Recommendations - “The Six Deaths of the Saint”, Alix E Harrow - Published November 15, 2022 The Saint of War spares the life of a servant girl so she can fulfill her destiny as the kingdom’s greatest warrior in this short story of love and loyalty. Always mindful of the debt she owes, the girl finds her worth as a weapon in the hand of the Prince. Her victories make him a king, then an emperor. The bards sing her name and her enemies fear it. But the war never ends and the cost keeps rising—how many times will she repeat her own story? https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/category/BOOKS monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/category/STICKY monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/GRAPHIC+NOVEL monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/COLLECTION monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/ART monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/CRIME monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/ADAPTED+TO+FILM monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/PARANORMAL monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/XOXO monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/MYSTERY monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/ADVENTURE monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/CLASSICS monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/DRAMIONE monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/TIME+TRAVEL monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/DYSTOPIAN monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/NONFICTION monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/SCIENCE+FICTION monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/TRANSLATED monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/SPLATTERPUNK monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/CONTEMPORARY monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/ROMANCE monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/FANTASY monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/YOUNG+ADULT monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/REFERENCE monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/DARK+ACADEMIA monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/HUMOR monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/GOTHIC monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/ESSAYS monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/THRILLER monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/SERIES monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/HISTORICAL monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/RETELLING monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/MYTHOLOGY monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/5+STARS monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/REYLO monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/CAROUSEL monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/DATA monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/HORROR monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/LGBTQIA%2B monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/DARK+ROMANCE monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/PHILOSOPHY monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/MEMOIR monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/COOKBOOK monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/WHY+CHOOSE monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/LIST monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/reading/tag/MULTIVERSE monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/recreation daily 0.75 2025-11-26 https://www.xoxosam.com/recreation/cross-stitch monthly 0.5 2025-10-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/b8c53c8f-d697-43b1-864c-ced6dcc4e833/xoxo_xstitch.png Recreation - Cross Stitch - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1761793412165-ICLN69LSM9378GSV99TD/xoxo_dmc2.JPG Recreation - Cross Stitch Obsessed with this double-sided floss organizer that fits ALL available solid DMC floss https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1761793412255-V02R9S2DWK1UXHWY1D7N/xoxo_dmc1.JPG Recreation - Cross Stitch Search for “Options Double-Sided Multi-Craft Carrier” for this exact item https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1761793973970-YK5X29KN2OAKSWRYNS9G/xoxo_14ct.JPG Recreation - Cross Stitch Example of 14-ct aida on canvas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1761793997345-AHK22VJ3DMSXB7JEQUCB/xoxo_16ct.jpg Recreation - Cross Stitch Example of 18-ct black aida in a hoop, where I “stitch in the ditch” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/1761794451551-GVM3GZRG9HL3J6H4BWBK/xoxo_amgoth.jpg Recreation - 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Knitting - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/78b57945-7c38-4618-a396-13fafb34045b/rec_knit_material.jpg Recreation - Knitting - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/bae0c62a-bbe2-463a-b6fd-7455eafebdf7/rec_knit_yarn.png Recreation - Knitting - Make it stand out hand dyed yarns made of natural fibers are usually at least $20+ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/ca04c9e1-89b4-4b40-aebd-45317adf66aa/rec_knit_michaels.JPG Recreation - Knitting - Make it stand out big box craft stores offer budget yarns https://www.xoxosam.com/recreation/tag/FIBER+ARTS monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/recreation/tag/CROSS+STITCH monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/recreation/tag/KNITTING monthly 0.5 https://www.xoxosam.com/about daily 0.75 2025-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6728455317506b5608354410/d6a6ee06-a067-4f61-9f31-f54f910f592a/xoxo_about.jpg https://www.xoxosam.com/disclaimer daily 0.75 2025-07-28 https://www.xoxosam.com/contact daily 0.75 2025-07-28 https://www.xoxosam.com/home daily 1.0 2026-01-06