I decided to go for a sexy-passion interpretation of this rather than a desire for power type interpretation like Imyril had, simply because reading this prompt made me first laugh and then think of Under the Oak Tree (especially volume 1), because that MMC is so full of desire and passion I’m genuinely concerned he might need to see a doctor. I ate it up, though, and I can’t wait for volume 3.

There is a reason that Erin Morgenstern recently made it to my list of favourite authors purely based on vibes even though I can’t for the life of me remember the plots of her books… they’re just written so beautifully!

I was despairing at this one, but then I realised that the webnovel I’m reading at the moment actually has twins! Our MMC and the King are twins!

The webnovel is called 악인 남편 [My Wicked Husband] and I believe there is a complete fan translation of the webnovel version and potentially an official translation of the webtoon version. I can’t speak to the quality, though, since I’m reading it in Korean. The Korean webnovel has a 19+ version and a revised 15+ version – I assume the English translation is of the 19+ one but, again, I haven’t checked. I’m reading the 19+ version since that’s the original.

If you know, you know…

If you don’t, too many spoilers are involved here for me to elaborate, so you’ll just have to trust me.

I feel like giving too much detail here is also wandering too far into spoiler realm, but I will say that the characters here are not courageous in the sense of not being afraid of anything, but in the sense of being afraid and doing it anyway.

I really enjoyed The Second Death of Locke last year, so I had to find a place to put it on this list. Check out my review.

I wouldn’t quite say This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is *perfection* as there’s nearly always something to nitpick, BUT! It is my favourite fantasy book of the year so far, so I thought I’d give it this spot anyway. I ended up giving it 4.5 stars (I’m yet to give a 5 star rating this year).

Check out my review here.

I picked The Everlasting because a lot of the characters in this book (including and perhaps especially the main protagonist) are very morally grey – hence neither good nor bad.

It also sums up my overall feelings about the book – I do think it’s a good book, I just didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as most people seem to (check out my review).

Slightly horror-adjacent plants that burst out of bodies ✅

Mysteries to solve ✅

Seems dark and mysterious to me!

Check out my review of The Tainted Cup here.

I considered using Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries for the courageous characters prompt as well (although I’m not sure if Emily is courageous or just reckless) but I think it fits even better here – every instalment of the Emily Wilde series seems to be taking us to different places, around which our main characters then take very long walks (often getting lost in other realms in the process). I just finished book 2, so I’m very excited to read book 3 soon.

I’m using The Everlasting again for this one. Even though I wasn’t hugely enjoying the process of reading it, it made me think a lot – and this was partially why I enjoyed it less on an entertainment level, but ended up giving it more marks for the intellectual discussion/rants it made me write into the margins. In particular, I had a lot of thoughts and feelings and propaganda, academic ethics and the duty of the historian.

I think Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries could certainly be described as “quirky”…

She tests poisons on herself.

She enjoys eating poisoned food.

And she is utterly disinterested in everything (and yet always manages to end up involved).

Water Moon is full of richly imagined scenery – plus there’s water, so extra pisces points!

I will say that the author’s recent work, The Elsewhere Express, didn’t work for me at all, but Water Moon had a better balance for me between beautifully imagined worlds and compelling plot with likeable characters.