Caitlyn | Bookstagram ⚔️📚💧

Here’s a glimpse of about 1/10 of the books I’ll be snatching up on release day in 2025 📚🛍️ My most anticipated of the year is definitely Katabasis by @kuangrf but these are all high on my list! Some of my other favourite authors (I’m looking at you @emilyraustinauthor @backmansk ) also have new releases that I know I’ll love as well. I’m super lucky to already have a few of these waiting for me on my shelf or kindle as well. 🥰 2025 is going to be huge for popular books! What’s one release you’re counting down the days to? 🗓️

Here she is for the 2-3 (generous estimate) that have been waiting for it ✨ I had the best year on Bookstagram in 2024! I met so many amazing people and even more amazing books. It may be rough on the bank account but I love it here. 🛍️ Here’s some of my favourite people I’ve connected with through a love of books this year 💝 @tianareads__ 💝 @mollywillowreads 💝 @taminatreebooks 💝 @aimeereadsss 💝 @jaydes.bookshelf 💝 @alive_poets.society 💝 @smallhandsreads 💝 @clockwork.fairy Above all else 2024 was the first full year I had the privilege of watching my baby girl learn and grow, but I won’t get sappy. 🤱 What was a highlight of the year for you? Bookish or non! I’d love to hear them. 😙

Here’s my reading goals for 2025! What are yours? 📚🎯 May we all find piles of 5 star reads in the new year. 🙏😂

I’m back in my The Sword of Kaigen era (just kidding, I never left) and I’m hosting a buddy read to share the (pain) love. 😙⚔️ I literally read this book less than 2 months ago and I’m already back for round 2 - THAT’S how good it is. This is easily the best standalone fantasy I’ve ever read, and in my top 5 books of all time. Anyway, let me know if you want join - we start reading tomorrow. The more the merrier! 👯‍♀️ What’s a book you couldn’t stop thinking about after reading? 📖 P.S. my outsides match my insides in my new tee from @bookswithjessbookshop 🤣 P.P.S. I am ready to get hurt again.

It’s not often that I treat myself (that’s a lie) but when I do I make sure it’s worth it ✨ I’m so happy with my order from @wisteria_road and my Kobo Clara is finally getting the treatment she deserves. 😙 @kobobooks I grabbed the Archer and Fox grip and the cutest little dust cover charm. 🏹 This isn’t sponsored of gifted - I just think you should go give love to an Australian small business who is delivering the ereader goods! Do you decorate your ereader or bookshelves? 📚

Here’s my delulu Wishlist that either I can never find for sale secondhand or I would have to take out a second mortgage to buy ✨🫠 Minus the OC shades of magic but every time I go to buy them a bill comes up and it’s killing me to watching them sit there!! If you won the lottery, what’s the first thing you’re buying FOR YOURSELF? 🙅‍♀️ Fun answers only! No bills🙅‍♀️

Thank you @penguinrandomhouse @penguinbooksaus for sending me an eARC of Water Moon by @samanthasottoyambao - the best news is it’s out NOW because I’ll definitely be grabbing a physical copy too. 💜 Also thank you @tianareads__ for reviewing this first and convincing me to request it, to be known is to be loved. 🫂 (Go check out her review too!) Water Moon is a whimsical fantasy adventure following Hana, whose family has owned a mystical pawnshop trading in choices for generations. On her first day as the new owner, Hana wakes to find the shop trashed and her father missing. An unexpected client entering the shop at just the wrong time is the start of an out-of-this-world quest to find her father and uncover family secrets. This book is incredibly immersive and different! I was constantly surprised by the inventive settings and unique features of the world. There were several times I was taken aback by the rich descriptions. It absolutely delivers what it promises, and I would compare it to Before the Coffee Gets Cold but more plot-heavy and the magic has a much larger scope. Another really cool thing about this book is the non-linear story progression. The author jumps back several times throughout the story to give the reader new information as the characters are getting closer to uncovering truths themselves. The main characters’ both feel new and original and I loved how they played off each other and completed one another’s personalities. This whole story just played out in my head like a Studio Ghibli movie (as promised) and it’ll be definitely something I read again and again. No spoilers but what I will say is the ending was BEAUTIFUL. Fantasy standalones can be tricky to wrap up in a satisfying way but this end on such a high, I wouldn’t change anything about it. I highly recommend for those who need to escape for a few hours, or if you’re feeling like you need to read something to get your imagination flowing. Do you prefer books set in the real world (if so, where?) or the more imaginative the better? 🌏

Thank you so much @rrbooktours and Steve Schafer for sending me a copy of eMortal. 💕 eMortal was a 5⭐️ read that totally took me by surprise. I quickly went from ‘this is a cool concept’ to being unable to put it down. Liv is a teenage girl who spends too much time on her computer. Right now, you can’t blame her because she’s competing in an online coding contest for a chance at her dream tech internship. She had coded an advanced AI, Breck, who needs to complete increasingly sophisticated challenges before the contest ends and his program ceases to exist. Liv, frustrated by his lack of progress, decides to try something totally new and the results are astonishing. Breck is becoming more humanlike everyday and Liv is desperate save his consciousness before time runs out. I find AI-centred science fiction fascinating any day of the week, and the YA accessibility and fast pacing made it even better. I surprisingly loved that the main characters sometimes made illogical decisions because, duh, they’re teenagers. I also really enjoyed the chapters from Breck’s POV because I think the author navigated the experience of gaining sentience and the desire to question things perfectly. Breck is an incredibly likeable character and by the end I was rooting for him so hard! Most importantly this has a brilliant ending and it’s one of those books that will have you questioning your whole reality. 🫠 Do you (as an adult) read and enjoy YA books? I’d say I read equal parts Adult and YA and I actually love them for being more fast paced and easier to read. Plus as a member of the no-spice club I enjoy YA romantic subplots infinitely more. 📚

Today we’re talking about book 📖 to screen 📺 adaptations - the good & the bad (in my opinion that no one asked for) Here’s a few adaptations I think missed the mark, and a few I think outshone the source material. Also I loved all these books regardless so I mean no ill will by saying the movie was better! Plus a few on my tbr (& tbw I guess??) that I can’t compare but I enjoy the story as I’ve consumed it. What’s your favourite book to screen adaptation? Are any of your favourites here? 📚

Here’s the 1 out of 4 bookshelves in my home and the only one that looks presentable for shelfie sunday 🎨📚 I can never go past another photo op for the @thebrokennbinding midnight edition of The Dandelion Dynasty either. 😮‍💨💜 I’m hopeful my home library will be coming together over the next couple months with a nice big corner bookshelf to hold all my books in one room (currently shelves are spread throughout 2 living rooms 🫠). What’s your bookshelf set up? Or do you ascribe to toppling piles? I’d love to know what shelves you have if you know!

Thank you so much @littlebrownbookgroup_uk for sending me an eARC of Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett! This is the third instalment in the Emily Wilde series and it’s out January 14th. 🗓️ I loved book 1 (4⭐️), book 2 fell a little flat (3⭐️) but I was optimistic she just had a little bit of middle book syndrome. Sadly this was a total flop me and just cemented that this should’ve been a standalone, or at a stretch a duology. Emily Wilde is at the top of her field in the study of faeries and folklore. This book follows Emily and her former rival Wendell on their latest journey across magical lands in the pursuit of knowledge. The stakes have never been higher and the foes have never been deadlier. This is a cosy fantasy meets light academia series, which I’m all for, but I think this book tries to push the limitations of the genre too far. There’s more action in this book than the others but of course, as it’s narrated through journal entries, it’s all telling and no showing which doesn’t work for most fans of high-fantasy action sequences. There’s huge positive of this writing style is you feel very attached to and in tune with Emily, which this book also loses somehow. The journal entries are so dry and I feel like the personality that we’ve come to love is nowhere to be found for 80% of the book. There is also minimal Wendell in this instalment and he’s my favourite character so that hurt. 🥲 The ending provides a satisfying conclusion to the journey we’ve taken with the characters, it’s just so disappointing that this book lost so many of the things I loved about the series previously. There were a few good moments but I don’t think this is a must-read unless you’re a diehard fan. I know a lot of people are eagerly anticipating this release so I hope those people enjoy it more than I did! What’s a near-future release you’re waiting for? 📚

2025 Bookish Ins/Outs 📚✨ What do you want to see more of less of in the community this year?