That Inevitable Victorian Thing, a review

Another book that the lovely Caitlyn from Mad Cheshire Rabbit got me, this time purely for the cover alone, is That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston. I’m not going to lie to you, the cover is why I put it on my wishlist in the first place!

Id’ debated so many times about taking it off of my wishlist because I knew nothing about it and it was a pure cover “buy”. But the Universe made sure that I didn’t because oh BOY did I love this book!!

This book is set in a world where the British Empire didn’t fall, but instead actually became more inclusive of races and genders. We’re following the princess in line to the throne as she spends time in Canada before she’s forced into her full royal duties as an adult. This world is a combination of Victorian values and sci-fi genetic technology which I adored.

We also have LGBTQ+ rep in this book from our main character! With the princess falling in love with another girl. But it’s all done remotely and she was pretending to be a boy on this app, how can she ever find this mysterious person and reveal to them that not only is she a she, but that she’s the princess?!

This book was so damn good. The ending was left a little open for us, but I chose to interpret as ending in a polyamorous relationship and therefore it’s the first book with poly rep I’ve ever read! I was so invested in each and every character, the plot development was progressing in line with the individual character development and I adored learning about these people as well as about this world they were living in.

For my CAWPILE ratings I gave this book: Characters: 9, Atmosphere: 10, Writing: 9, Plot: 8, Intrigue: 10, Logic: 9, and Enjoyment: 10 to give an average rating of 9.29 which of course is a 5 star read!

I really recommend picking up this odd little book. It’s a great coming of age fantasy/sci-fi and I’m so so glad that I kept it on my wishlist! It turned out to be a great read for me!!

August Reading Wrap Up

I’ve not been having much luck with my mid-month reading lately. Yet again I hit a big slump, and this month the culprit was This Savage Song, so once I identified the culprit it was put back onto the tbr shelves to be read in another month.

If you want to see what I intended to read this month then click here to see my tbr, but, spoiler, I barely read any of it.

The first book I finished was No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwood which is all about Edward Snowdon and his NSA leak. It was a surprisingly slow read for me but I really enjoyed it and I’m very glad I picked this up from a little free shelf at work.

Second up I finished Prodigy by Marie Lu, which I read 80 pages of in July and I wanted to finish it up. This is another book that I’m pleased I’ve read. I really like where this book went and it definitely didn’t suffer from second book syndrome for me! I wonder how long it’ll take me to get to Champion!

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte was the first book to be finished after the slump of the savage song. This I read through a few chapters each day and whilst I enjoyed it, it was a very odd book! I’m still not quite sure how to describe it but I think I enjoyed it?

For the Dead Famous Readalong we were reading Kingdom of the Wicked by Derek Landy this month. This time I was actually able to buddy read this with Bekka from The Comic Book Sanctum! And of course we loved it! This is a reread for me so they always go by super quick!

On a related note, is this months pages of Armageddon Outta Here by Derek Landy which is comprised of short stories. And of course as always I enjoyed them.

That Inevitable Victorian Thing by EK Johnston was an unexpected 5* read for me!! I had one little gripe with it but when I put it through CAWPILE it still came out at 5*s and honestly it’s just so sweet and wholesome! (mixed with a little sci-fi, honestly I’m in love)

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid was next and I didn’t quite love this as much as I’d hoped. But I still did enjoy it and I enjoyed chatting about it with Shay from Shay with the Hobbies!

And the final book I read this month was Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare and this… was exactly as expected. Trashy. Bad writing. Felt guilty while reading it, but still kinda fun? If I do continue with this series it’ll be via my library or ebooks. But at least it fulfilled my Buzzwordathon prompt!

Then I of course read about 100+ pages of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and me and Olivia are getting so close to the end now! I’m predicting we’ll finish in October!

And lastly I read around 150 pages of Labyrinth by Kate Mosse which I’m also reading a chapter of each day to make my way through this chonker of a book.

And that’s my August reading! I managed 7 full books which is still pretty decent! Even if I didn’t get to half of my actual tbr. We can’t do everything!

What’s your favourite read of August? Mine has to be That Inevitable Victorian Thing! It just has to be!

First Lines Friday #18

It’s time for another First Lines Friday! Hosted by Wandering Words!!

What if, instead of judging a book by its cover or its author, we judged the book by its opening lines?

Here is how it works:

– Pick a book and open to the first page.

– Copy the first few lines without revealing which book it is.

– Reveal the book!

So… do these first lines entice you?

Helena Marcus had not given much thought to her marriage. She was no princess, whose wedding could change the course of nations, and neither was she a creature of high society, confident that suitors might come knocking on her door, eager to make first impressions with the hope of being remembered as a mutually beneficial option after the Computer did its work at genetic matchmaking. Her parents were neither destitute nor disreputable, but rather quiet citizens of the Empire, and despite their professional accomplishments, they were, by and large, given privacy to continue their work.

Scroll down to reveal the book!

That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston

What a start! Introducing straight away the concept of genetic matchmaking by a government as well as secretive researchers for parents? Right up my alley! Have you read this one? I’ve heard almost nothing about it but the synopsis along with these first lines have me hooked!

Christmas Book Haul!!

I was treated by my friends to so many books this Christmas! I’m so so grateful for them! For those who have a bookish social media I’ll leave a link so you can find them online and give them some love! Now, onto the books!

First up is the amazing Kari, who went overboard as always and bought me three books!! Check out her channel here!!! Thank you so much Kari, I can’t wait to delve into more steampunk books and you know how excited I am for the Nevernight series!! (she gifted me the first book in the series too, see! Overboard!!)

Caitlyn knows my weakness for pretty covers, and she knew that was exactly why I added this book to my wishlist, so she bought me That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston! (also it came as a floppy US paperback which was unexpected, we don’t get those here in the UK!) Here’s her channel for you to check out!

The marvellous Abi (who spells her name so beautifully lol, same as me!) gifted me Warcross by Marie Lu! I’m so excited about this beautiful book and I’m so grateful too! Here’s Abi’s instagram for you to check out!

The lovely Dom, her channel is here for your perusal, gifted me An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. I read The Deep by them earlier this year and fell in love (which reminds me, I need to grab a copy of that) which is why this was on my wishlist and I’m so excited to read more from them and I’m so grateful Dom!

The amazing Sam from Griff Reads, who’s BookTube is honestly what I wish mine was! She gifted me Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid which is one I am so grateful to have it on my shelves, thank you so much Sam!

And last but by no means least is my non-bookish friend Anny, who doesn’t have a social media presence but who saw English editions of Swedish classics (she’s Swedish) and knew not only that I would love them but that she’d be able to post them from Sweden! I’m so excited to delve into these mini books!!! Thanks Anny!!!

Thank you so much to everybody on this list! I’m so excited to get around to all these books and I hope that I love them all, and I hope for those who I sent gifts to that you guys enjoy them as well!! How was your Christmas? Did you get any bookish gifts? My family doesn’t buy me bookish gifts on strict orders of my mum, she’s not happy with how many books I own hahaha, so getting these was really lovely!!!