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@catonwords

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romantasy reader ✨ lore lover ✨ words weaver
🤍 writing my Romanian-lore inspired debut novel 🤍
RO & EN posts • collabs welcome (DM)

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✨ Te conving să citești povestea mea romantasy, inspirată din folclorul românesc, cu un citat? ✨

Amza e un bărbat hotărât, un locotenent în rezervă, care își dorește un singur lucru: să aparțină.
Când logodnica lui dispare chiar în seara dinaintea nunții, știe că va merge mai departe de capătul lumii pentru a o aduce înapoi.

Va trece hora Sânzienelor pentru ea.
Va merge Dincolo pentru ea.

✨ Folclor și farmece românești
🧚🏻‍♀️ Atmosferă de basm
🌙 Sânziene, zgripsori și zmei
👑 Un metis încăpățânat și o moștenitoare exasperată de simpla lui existență
🧶 Magia se urzește
🐉 Secrete și intrigă politică

Dacă îți place romantasy-ul ușor dark, ești curios de mitologia românească și îți e dor de basmele bunicii, s-ar putea să am ceva special pentru tine 🤍

✨ “Unde vara se duce să moară” este primul volum din seria “Zburătorii” ✨

Tu îndrăznești să le calci hora? taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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19 days ago

UVSDSM ✨ Tropes Reveal

Voi ați votat, eu mă conformez 🤭 Așa că astăzi v-am adus câteva dintre trope-urile din Unde vara se duce să moară (nu, nu le puteam prezenta normal 😂)

Dacă îți place romantasy-ul ușor dark, ești curios de mitologia românească și îți e dor de basmele bunicii, s-ar putea să am ceva special pentru tine 🤍

✨ Folclor și farmece românești
🧚🏻‍♀️ Atmosferă de basm
🌙 Sânziene, zgripsori și zmei
👑 Un metis încăpățânat și o moștenitoare exasperată de simpla lui existență
🧶 Magia se urzește
🐉 Secrete și intrigă politică

Pornit în căutarea logodnicei furate de Sânziene, Amza nimerește în inima unei rezistențe politice născute odată cu el, într-o lume pe care o credea doar o poveste.

Îndrăznești să calci hora Sânzienelor? ✨ taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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a month ago

POV: ești supărat pe ea, dar cumva ajungi să-i explici de ce nu poți să nu o iubești.

I give you Amza, lovelies 🤍 Locotenentul meu nu se încurcă cu jumătăți de măsură.

Încă puțin și îl veți cunoaște 🤭

„Unde vara se duce să moară” s-a născut din folclor, magie și poveștile spuse de bunica.

✨ Folclor și farmece românești
🧚🏻‍♀️ Atmosferă de basm
🌙 Sânziene, zgripsori și zmei
👑 Un metis încăpățânat și o moștenitoare exasperată de simpla lui existență
🧶 Magia se urzește
🐉 Secrete și intrigă politică

Real talk now: ați rezista unui bărbat care, în mijlocul certei, ajunge să vă declare dragostea? 🤭 taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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12 days ago

Bad Bishop ♟️ Book Review

I can’t believe I almost never read this book. I mean, it starts right in the middle of the action with a very well-written torture scene. Half of the time I was confused, the other half revolted. (How dare you suggest I’ll even like this one-eyed MMC with no regard for pain?)

After that well scene and that special gift to Lila (iykyk), I was done. Straight to DNeS (do not even start).

But then the stars aligned, I gave the audiobook a try and… (have you heard Corvin King narrate? 😱)

⭐️ 5.00 / 5 | 🌶️ 3.5 / 5 | 🖤 2.5 / 5

🩷 Lila, my sweet summer child with her pink dresses and her sharp tongue 🥹 She grew up so sheltered, and her entire existence is a lie. She’s this perfect little doll, still crushing on the man kind enough to offer her a dance, and then her entire life gets turned upside down. Don’t get me wrong, I HATED this age gap. In my mind, Lila is well over 20 and I won’t hear otherwise 😂 But the way her healing journey matched Tiernan’s? 😭

❤️‍🔥 Tiernan. I adore this man with all my heart. I don’t know how LJ Shen does it, but she manages to write these unhinged men who genuinely seem terrifying at first (don’t tell me you expected to end up adoring the one-eyed Irish mobster or the brutally scarred Italian one who claimed said eye)… and then she throws in some trauma, some wit, a loooot of yearning and acts of service, and I guess I wanna join the mafia now.

Either side, I don’t care. Sign me up. Arrange me a marriage (don’t tell my husband 😂)

Anyway, back to the point. I love the growth in this story. There might be an age gap, but Tiernan starts out so flawed and tainted by his past that his emotional age is really not much older than 20.

The spice was definitely spicing, the banter is soooo good (I can’t wait for Enzo’s book), and there’s even a good side of plot.

Verdict?
This book was perfection. No notes.
Read it. Please 😂 taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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7 days ago

Truly Madly Deeply 💗 Book Review

După experiența mafia cu LJ Shen, care mi-a depășit toate așteptările, am zis că e cazul să încerc și un MMC normal de-al ei, să văd dacă e la fel de convingător ca cei unhinged.

⭐️ 3.5 / 5 | 🌶️ 2.00 / 5

Don’t get me wrong, Row a fost convingător, dar…

🎧 Cal mi-a plăcut la început atât de mult, încât dezamăgirea a fost prea mare când personajul ei nu a evoluat deloc. I-am înțeles anxietatea și reacțiile, poate i-am înțeles până la un punct și vina resimțită. But, at some point, please just grow up 😒

👨‍🍳 Row e încă un exemplu că LJ Shen scrie bine personajele masculine. E grumpy, urâcios cu toată lumea și atât de devotat ei 🥺 Atâta răbdare pentru o femeie găsești doar într-un bărbat imaginat 😂

🍭 Controversata scenă spicy nu m-a deranjat, dar nici nu m-a impresionat. A avut sens în contextul lor, dar pentru mine a fost doar funny.

Ce m-a deranjat a fost lipsa de evoluție a personajelor, lipsa comunicării, desincronizarea și felul în care adulți în toată regula încă se agață de niște stângăcii adolescentine.

Verdict

Nu e un must read, dar nici pierdere de vreme. Aș fi citit-o doar pentru a începe seria și pentru minima tangență cu Society of Villains (hiii Tate 👀).

S-a citit în companie faină @ladyofbloodshed @chicbooklady @books.and_relax și abia aștept următorul volum (tho i still hate Dylan 😂) taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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18 hours ago

A Vow of Hate 💍 Book Review

“𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐭. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐞𝐥.”

I don’t think I would’ve read this book if it weren’t for @chicbooklady and I must thank her for it 🤍
It’s a mafia-adjacent story with a side of arranged marriage, so not my usual. But it was such a nice change of pace.

⭐️ 4.25 / 5 | 🌶️ 2.5 / 5 | 🖤 1.5 / 5

This book felt like pieces of poetry woven together into a story, and I think this is its best feature. The writing style has a compelling gloom to it. I even thought at some point there would be ghosts (sadly, I was wrong).

🖤 Julianna is the black-veiled heiress who has to marry her late sister’s fiancé. Oh, and he blames her for the accident that took Gracelynn from them, but also left Julianna brutally scarred. So that’s fun 👀

🖤 Killian. God, how I hated him! He has every reason to hate her, even after THAT twist. But the way he treats her is inhumane. It made me soooo angry.

I felt like the story got a bit too repetitive at times, with Julianna’s pity parties and Killian’s inclination to mistreat her. But I loved the twists and the over-the-top drama. It made me feel like I was watching a 2000s telenovela 🤌

Verdict

I’d definitely say give it a try if you like arranged marriage and a bit of tragedy in your reads. Even more so if you’re a fan of telenovelas 🤭

Have you read it, or is it on your TBR? taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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5 days ago

Restitution ❤️‍🩹 Book Review

Insatiable gave me a taste of the sorrow Kade and Stacey were carrying. Voracious took that sorrow and turned it into pitch-black emotional damage on page, and I loved every single moment.

So it’s fair to say I was left with such high hopes for the conclusion of the series.

But did it deliver? 🫠

⭐️ 3.5 / 5 | 🌶️ 3.5 / 5 | 🖤 4.5 / 5

The short answer would be “no”. But let me explain.

Restitution was everything I needed it to be in terms of resolutions. The villains get what they deserve in such a descriptive way that I was wondering at times if we should classify this book as a slasher 🔪

Kade and Stacey get their HEA, and that’s not a spoiler, because we knew that all along.

Daddy Tobias was the peak of the story. He’s not one for sitting around and chatting about how things should be done. He gets things done. (Yes, I did scream at his first appearance in Restitution.)

But that about wraps up all the pluses of this book.

Now, onto why I was so… disappointed 🫠

It is looooong. Dreading. Reading it felt like watching a fish struggling out of the water. It was painful, and not in a good way.

When you remind me every other paragraph what emotions I should be feeling, I’m gonna stop feeling them. Yes, we all already know the trauma, the backstory, the reasons we hate the Sawyers. Now let’s get on with it.

Then came the revenge. I’m sorry, but I’m really squeamish, and a lot of it felt overly explicit for no reason. (That might just be a me problem 😂)

And without crossing into spoiler territory, what the actual twisted fantasy was that moment with Base showing off to Bernie? What were you trying to prove? It felt icky.

Anyway, I’m ranting again. You’ll see I do that a lot during autumn 😂🍂 taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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13 days ago

Voracious ❤️‍🩹 Book Review

“Hey, Freckles. I’m so sorry.”

It took me some time to finally collect my thoughts, sit down, and write this review. And even now, it’s mostly rambling, but I think we’ve already established I’m not one for short, coherent reviews.

That being said…

⭐️ 5.00 / 5 | 🌶️ 3.5 / 5 | 🖤 4.5 / 5

This book was sorrow and softness, perfectly intertwined. The kind of story that leaves you staring at the wall, only to randomly pop back into your mind later, urging you to ask your reading buddies for the millionth time: When do we read the next one?

Voracious picks up right where Insatiable left us, so I already knew it promised pain. But I was not ready. I had to take breaks because every “present day” chapter left my soul completely empty, only for a “past day” chapter to gently put the pieces back together. The way @authorleighrivers managed to serve emotional damage with a side of sweet relief is pure mastery.

I loved that we got to know a little more about Daddy Tobias, and all I have to say is:

“Save him. Save her. Save them.”

I’m not going to tell you anything about the plot. We don’t do that here. But the verdict (if it’s even necessary at this point) is:

READ. IT.

The Edge of Darkness has officially claimed a spot among my all-time favorite dark romance series.

And if you’re into audiobooks, this one absolutely deserves to be listened to. The full cast is phenomenal, and the voice actors will only make you cry harder.

“So I crawl. I’ll crawl the entire fcking way to Stacey if I need to.”
💔 taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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2 months ago

Insatiable 🖤 Audiobook Review

I’ve been postponing this series only because I read Little Stranger and it wasn’t really my cup of tea.

Never been so wrong in my entire reading life 😭

My soul. What a book.

⭐️ ∞ | 🌶️ 3.5 / 5 | 🖤 4.00 / 5

🧑🏻‍🩰 Stacey, my sweet broken angel. Her choices might seem so infuriating at first. Then you get to know her story. And cry. Just cry for her and for the life she’s been dealt 😭

She’s such a beautifully written character, but what truly broke me was @akalucyrivers performance. I have no words. She sounds so soft, so vulnerable, yet so determined all at once. I genuinely think the book alone wouldn’t have made me cry nearly as much as Lucy did… so thank you very much for the emotional damage 🫠

🖤 Kade. Oh God.

I have a list of fictional characters I constantly want to hug and protect at all costs. He’s right there at the top.

What do you mean he knows his mind works differently, so he voluntarily goes to therapy just to understand emotions the rest of us process naturally? Only for her 😭

He’s so layered. So broken. And his story absolutely destroyed me.

Now add @narratedbyteddyhamilton to this character and I’m a complete crying mess. Give that man an Oscar. (Or whatever the audiobook equivalent is)

I could rant about how good this book is for days. The audiobook is genuinely an experience. The full cast is incredible, with @michellesparksvoice and @shaneeastreads completing it (also, imagine Shane East did such a good job as Chris that I couldn’t even listen to Wolf King afterwards because all I could hear was Chris 😱)

Verdict
Do you really need me to say it?

READ. IT.

A true dark romance. Lots of trauma. An SA storyline handled right. I cried. A lot.

And I still want to cry.

“At least I got to kiss her.”

😭😭😭

The gorgeous Romanian edition in my photo is from @epicapublishinghouse 🖤

Emotional damage is better together, so of course I read this one in great company @ladyofbloodshed @chicbooklady @bookish.oana @pagini_la_cafea @anai_author taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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2 months ago

Long time, no challenge, so let’s roll the dice 🎲

Am dat peste postarea asta făcând curat prin Canva și cine sunt eu să las un edit nepostat? 😂

Am primit provocarea acum o sută cinșpe ani de la @pagini_la_cafea și cred că am bătut ceva record la onorat un tag 🫠

Anyway, multe nu am de spus. Câteva titluri dragi mie, hope you like them 🤍

Ai citit ceva de aici? 👀 taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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14 days ago

☀️ August Wrap-Up ☀️

I’m not even gonna try to explain how late I am this time. I’m a lost cause.

Without further ado, let’s get on with the yes/no/maybe 👀

💜 Nocticadia
Yes

I had way too high expectations for this book and I was kinda disappointed. It was entertaining, the professor x student trope always has me giggling, and the gothic vibes were definitely there. Maybe a tiny bit too icky at times. It’s still a yes, but it could’ve been an YES.

🩷 Pink Ink
Abso-fckin-lutely

Oh, look, another professor x student. Do I have a type? Yes, yes, I do. But ohmygod, the man you are, Maddox. Even your name screams hot & posh professor. This was the runner-up for the month’s favourite because good spice, secret society, art AND cinema 😱

💗 Flawless
Maybe

In the way a cowboy romance is always a good idea. But not really, because there are plenty of other (better) options 🥺 Review is already up 💕

💙 Truly Madly Deeply
Maybe

I have mixed feelings about this one. It started soooo good and the heroine was relatable, but there was no growth. The last 20% was just a big no.

🔑 My Husband’s Wife
Yes

One of the best thrillers I’ve read in a while. Review is already up 🤍

🩵 Ask for Andrea
Maybe

Another book I had high hopes for (I really have to stop doing that). The idea was interesting and I’ll probably read the next one too. But the characters weren’t that compelling and it was missing a lot of (needed) emotion. Good subject, not so good execution.

👀 Love Me, Stalk Me
God No

No chemistry, the comedy was poor, and the writing style seemed robotic at best.

🖤 Death’s Obsession
No

This is a case of “I read it so you don’t have to.” The idea of Death finding his soulmate was nice. The chemistry between those two was nonexistent. Even the spice could’ve been better.

👑 Twisted Pawn
READ IT.

The best mafia romance I’ve ever read (okay, it’s not my top genre, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but still!!)

Achilles has officially entered my top three book boyfriends. The yearning, the dedication, the perseverance 🤌

And no, I’m not mad at THAT scene. I love him even more for it 😭

And that’s a wrap 🤍 taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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9 days ago

Graceless Heart 💎 Book Review

O Florența magică, o sculptoriță atrasă de interzis și necunoscut, un cavaler nemuritor — așa m-a cucerit Graceless Heart pe mine 🤍

Trebuie să recunosc că am intrat în poveste destul de greu. Ritmul primelor pagini a fost ușor fragmentat, iar unele replici mi s-au părut nenaturale. Dar când a început să îmi amintească de Florența pe care o iubesc, prin mici descrieri și cuvinte în italiană, m-a cucerit ✨

4.25 / 5 ⭐️ | 1.5 / 5 🌶️

💎 Ravenna e o forță. E hotărâtă și descurcăreață și probabil că iar sunt biased, pentru că e o soră care ar sacrifica orice pentru fratele ei. Dar cel mai interesant atribut al Ravennei este de fapt magia pe care o poartă și care, în Florența secolului XV înseamnă condamnare la moarte.

⚔️ Saturnino e cavalerul nemuritor care ar trebui să o ucidă. The yearning of this man 😭 Și felul în care o alintă 🥹 Îi spune “tesoro mio” și eu sunt (ați ghicit) pe jos 🫠

Dacă prima parte e mai lentă, a doua jumătate a cărții a avut atâtea răsturnări de situație, atâtea glimpses into history, atâta intrigă politică, încât am respirat-o.

Mi-a plăcut stilul de scriere al autoarei și am adorat felul în care a reușit să mă trimită chiar acolo, în inima Florenței.
Am iubit faptul că magia nu a fost doar de decor, ci un personaj în adevăratul sens al cuvântului.

Verdict
Pick this up pentru oricând îți e dor de Florența. Te vei simți acolo, printre cei care au făcut-o leagănul civilizației. Un historical romantasy cu atmosferă superbă, magie, intrigi, o FMC competentă și un MMC misterios + o poveste de dragoste slow-burn cu multă tensiune, loved it 🤍 taken in BOOKSTA by @catonwords

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21 days ago