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Dark Shelf of Wonders

Books, Music, and Games That Revel in the Fantastical

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  • Blog Memes
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  • About Dark Shelf of Wonders & Rating Scheme
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The Fantasy Tropes│Book Tag

The Fantasy Tropes│Book Tag

Posted by By Veronica March 21, 2025
Hey bookworm friends! It's been a while since I last did a book tag so I thought I'd have fun by doing The Fantasy Tropes Book Tag! I had found…
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10 Things I Love About Witch Hat Atelier

10 Things I Love About Witch Hat Atelier

Posted by By Veronica March 19, 2025
Hey bookworm friends! I hope the day is treating you all well. As I mentioned in my Monday post, I recently finished the 13th volume of Witch Hat and I…
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It’s Monday, Let’s Catch Up │#1

It’s Monday, Let’s Catch Up │#1

Posted by By Veronica March 17, 2025
Hey bookworm friends! If you've been around my blog for some time you'll notice I love to combine multiple memes in one post. Efficiency! Since I'm changing the way I…
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UPON A STARLIT TIDE by Kell Woods │ Review

UPON A STARLIT TIDE by Kell Woods │ Review

Posted by By Veronica March 14, 2025
Hey Bookworm friends! It's been a while since I posted a review but now that I finally have a new laptop, I'm eager to post more! Today's review is of…
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Top 10 Books That Feature A Glittering Ball

Top 10 Books That Feature A Glittering Ball

Posted by By Veronica March 11, 2025
Hey bookworm friends! My favourite type of TTTopics are the ones that are open ended, so when I saw this week's I knew I had to participate. Alice @ The…
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Women in STEM in Books│Meme Medley Friday #6

Women in STEM in Books│Meme Medley Friday #6

Posted by By Veronica March 7, 2025
Hey bookworm friends! Today has been a busy and very stressful day. Now that I have some down-time, I just want to relax. So it's the perfect time for the…
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Spring 2025 New Releases on My Radar

Spring 2025 New Releases on My Radar

Posted by By Veronica March 4, 2025
Hey bookworm friends! Today's a very rainy day and the icy sidewalks are melting (Yess!) Mentally and emotionally, I'm over Winter, so let's distract ourselves with thoughts of shiny new…
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A Trip to Colombia│Monthly Reset #7

A Trip to Colombia│Monthly Reset #7

Posted by By Veronica March 3, 2025
Hey Bookworm friends! Reading-wise and blog-wise February was a very slow month. My laptop has become so untrustworthy that I dread opening it up. It's kind of old, the battery…
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What to Read for the 2025 SFF Title Challenge: Possible Choices

What to Read for the 2025 SFF Title Challenge: Possible Choices

Posted by By Veronica February 24, 2025
Hey bookworm friends! As mentioned in my Bookish Goals for 2025, one of the challenges I'm participating in is the SFF Title Challenge. Charlotte from Bewitching Books, Ravenous Reads posted…
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It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? + Music Monday │#12

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? + Music Monday │#12

Posted by By Veronica February 17, 2025
Hey bookworm friends! It's once again time for another #IMWAYR + Music Monday. I hope everyone had a restful weekend and is hopefully staying safe and warm. My area is…
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Posted inBook Tags
The Fantasy Tropes│Book Tag
Posted by By Veronica March 21, 2025
Posted in10 Things I Love About
10 Things I Love About Witch Hat Atelier
Posted by By Veronica March 19, 2025
Posted inBlog Memes
It’s Monday, Let’s Catch Up │#1
Posted by By Veronica March 17, 2025
Posted inBook Reviews
UPON A STARLIT TIDE by Kell Woods │ Review
Posted by By Veronica March 14, 2025
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Veros

dark.shelf.of.wonders

🖤Fantasy is my go-to genre
-Doing my best to read diversely🌻
☕Coffee and Currently Reading📚 Thanks to the ☕Coffee and Currently Reading📚 Thanks to the lovely @susyscozyworld for tagging me! Alas, I'm not a coffee person, I don't love the taste (gasp, I'm a terrible Colombian 😱🤣). I did enjoy a pomegranate green tea this morning which was super tasty 🖤 I'm just getting over a cold so I made a nest on my couch with all the things I need to keep me company. My crochet project, a good book, and most important of all my Cheeto snuggles. 📚CR: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld, my buddy read with @jonesandthebooks and @buchstabenhorde continues! I'm having a wonderful time chatting with these two and as usual I'm the one lagging behind 😝 Thanks, friends ♥️! ❓Please tell me what you're currently reading! Or, even better introduce me to any reading buddies (tell all of your pets that I love them)! Tagging a few people, but no pressure 😘
Upon A Starlit Tide is equal parts fairy-tale and Upon A Starlit Tide is equal parts fairy-tale and historical fantasy, and all palpable Atmosphere. Set in Saint-Malo, Brittany, in 1758, we are thrust into a world separated into wealthy ship-owners and high society versus smuggles and pirates. The French and English are at war, and the local fae are leaving Brittany, taking their magic with them and leaving the area vulnerable. Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of one of the wealthiest ship-owners feels stifled by Saint-Malo’s walls and dreams of adventure on the open ocean. The only bright spot in her days is her best friend Simon, an English smuggler who secretly teaches her how to sail. But one morning, her decision to save a drowning man changes everything. I adored everything about this book from the characters, to the pacing, to the plot. One of the elements that impressed me the most was the way fae creatures and folklore were seamlessly embedded into every aspect of life in this world. Despite being common knowledge to the locals that Saint-Malo’s strength comes from the fair folk, seeing them and interacting with them is still rare enough that it holds a sense of mystique. Another aspect of this book that I particularly enjoyed is the mix of fairy-tale inspirations and the unique ways they manifested in the story. Various tropes or story hooks from both Cinderella and The Little Mermaid were recognizable but molded believably into this world. This book absolutely excels at playing in the sweet spot between familiar and strange! This book will easily find devoted readers in fans of Katherine Arden’s The Winternight Trilogy. Both are deeply atmospheric historical fantasies inspired by fairy tales and folklore. They both also contend with the consequences of the same specific tipping point in time. That of organized religion and modernization pushing away pagan ways of life, much to the detriment of the common folk. The reading experience was an absolute joy and it convinced me Kell Woods is an author to watch! Thanks to @netgalley & @torbooks for the ARC, all opinions are mine.
What I read in January & February 2025 📚 I hav What I read in January & February 2025 📚 I haven't made wrap-ups in a while but I've been reading a good amount this year so far! ❓ What book (s) have you fallen in love with recently? ❤️‍🔥 The Books: •Miss Amelia's List, Mercedes Lackey - 3⭐📱 •Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear, Seanan McGuire - 4.5⭐ 🎧 •Dreams Lie Beneath, Rebecca Ross - 4⭐🎧 •Clockwork Prince, Cassandra Clare - Reread 5⭐📖 •Leaf, Daishu Ma - 2.75⭐📖 •The Fright Before Christmas: Surviving Krampus and other Yuletide Monsters, Witches, and Ghosts, Jeff Belanger, 4.5⭐📱 •The Arrival, Shaun Tan - 5⭐📖 •Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld - Reread 4⭐📖 •Phoenix Heart: Season 2, Sarah K. L. Wilson - 4⭐🎧 •Morning Glory Milking Farm, C. M. Nascosta - 4.5⭐📱 •Death's Obsession, Avina St. Graves - 2⭐📱 •An Outbreak of Witchcraft: A Graphic Novel of the Salem Witch Trials, Deborah Noyes & M. Duffy - 3⭐📖 •Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde - 3.5⭐🎧 •Upon A Starlit Tide, Kell Woods - 5⭐📱 •Robot Dreams, Sara Varon - 3.5⭐📖
I'm so excited to share that this year I'll be a p I'm so excited to share that this year I'll be a panelist for The Book Blogger's Novel of the Year Award!! BBNYA is a competition for Indie Authors of all genres and it's judged by a large panel of book bloggers from around the world. If you're an Indie Author and would like to enter into the competition, submissions close on the 27th of April! If you're a book blogger and you want to join the panel, there's still time and please do! Panelist sign-ups close on May 4th. Go check out the official @bbnyaofficial website to learn more. I could not be more excited and I'm looking forward to potentially finding new favourite Indie books this year 🖤🖤 #BBNYA2025
🖤 What Started My Lore 🍿 Thanks to @to.kind 🖤 What Started My Lore 🍿 Thanks to @to.kindle.a.fire for the tag! I have such a soft spot for nostalgia posts so I couldn't resist jumping into this tag headfirst. I could have spent a week and a half thinking of more things but I decided to stick to mostly TV & movies. Here's a small list of my childhood and teenage obsessions. Also, my reading Lore started with French and Spanish books for children. Did anyone else grow up with these too? The Ernie & Bert was my very first English book that I got as a baby and it was my favourite although it wasn't until years later that I could read it myself (who needs words am I right? She says, to all of bookstagram 😂) Madeline Lizzie McGuire Boy Meets World The Nightmare Before Christmas She's the Man The Emperor's New Groove & Kronk's New Groove Bring it On The Mummy The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Moulin Rouge Phantom of the Opera Buffy The Vampire Slayer ❓Do we have any in common?
I'm obsessed with my new #FreedomToRead tote from I'm obsessed with my new #FreedomToRead tote from Toronto Public Library 🔥🔥 If you're in Toronto, go visit a branch and get a tote while they last (they have three different powerful statements but I resonated the most with 'ignite minds not books'). Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to reaffirm their commitment to Intellectual Freedom. Protect your freedom to read by learning about challenged books. As a lifelong supporter of public libraries I'm proud of the work they do to keep access to ideas open for everyone!🖤 Go show your library some love and this goes for anyone and everyone who has access to them. In celebration of #FreedomToReadWeek let's take a look at my current library haul: -Robot Dreams by Sara Varon -Goliath by Scott Westerfeld -Park Bench by Chabouté -An a Impossible Imposter by Deanna Raybourn (🎧 on Libby) ❓What do you currently have borrowed from the library? Or, tell me about a banned book you loved! 🖤 #FTRW25
I recently borrowed The Arrival by Shaun Tan from I recently borrowed The Arrival by Shaun Tan from my library but before I return it, I had to take a few pictures of it because adored it! The Arrival is a wordless graphic novel and an absolute masterpiece. If you love art or graphic novels do yourself a favour and spend some time soaking up this story! It's the story of a man who needs to travel to another city to start a better life for his family. He arrives at this technologically advanced, shining city where he can't speak the language. We follow him as he searches for a job, explores the city, and makes new connections. He's not entirely alone, as the people coexist with a variety of adorable creatures in the city, and one of them seems to adopt him. For a story told only with pictures, the narrative is seamless and the art is gorgeous! The illustrations are all the somber brownish colour of old family photographs which grounds the story, but also contrasts beautifully with the whimsical and fantastical nature of this new city. The themes of immigration, family, language barriers, and community shine so bright that by the end I was so invested in this family's happiness and teary eyed! I will be exploring more of @shauncytan 's books and I can see him easily joining the ranks of my favourite illustrators. ❓Do you have any other wordless graphic novel or picture book recommendations? Or, what are you reading today?
Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGui Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire -Review. The 10th Installment of the Wayward Children, starring all the turtles you could possibly want!🐢 Last year I devoured the entirety of this series, short stories included, so when I saw it on Netgalley, I knew I had to request it. It was a bit strange to not be reading this on audio like I did for the rest of the novellas but McGuire’s prose is so delightful that it was a treat to read it physically! I read it slowly to soak up every line. Adrift In Currents Clean and Clear focuses on the life of Nadya who we first meet in Beneath the Sugar Skies. This is the story of how she is born with one arm, grows up in an orphanage in Russia, and eventually gets adopted by an American family, who fits her with a prosthetic arm despite her wishes. But mostly it’s the story about all the ways she belongs in Belyyreka (the Land Beyond the Lake) who one day calls her home. The first part is hardest to read because it takes place in the world of the main character’s birth. Which means that it’s the place of the source of their trauma, neglect, and mistreatment. The author excells at making the reader feel incandescent rage at the parents and systems that fail these children and this case was no different. We follow Nadya as she’s forcibly removed from her culture and expected to conform to her adoptive parents’ ableist ideas of a picture perfect daughter. I don’t think many readers of this series will disagree that one of its strengths is diversity of all kinds. The commentary about ableism was easily my favourite aspect of this short novella. Belyyreka is a world of rivers under a lake, of different types of water (some water is heavier than other water and they each have their own physics). It was so much fun to watch Nadya learn the rules of this new world and make friends both with people and turtles! After reading this book I’d be shocked if you don’t want a turtle companion for yourself, I mean how adorable!! Since we had already met Nadya before, the ending isn't exactly a surprise. Yet, McGuire still finds a way to create tension and deliver an emotional blow all at once!
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