If there’s one thing us Nerds love to do, it’s READ. We love books and are more than happy to let you know how we feel about each one!
Golden Son takes everything Red Rising set up and cranks it up to 11. After a bit of a time jump, this middle-book dives headfirst into interplanetary politics, betrayal, and warfare. The scope is bigger, the stakes higher, and the betrayals hit harder.
The Hunger Games meets Gurren Lagann meets Game of Thrones. That’s probably the best way I can describe Red Rising by Pierce Brown.
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakrabort was an absolute delight from start to finish. The narrative voice hooked me immediately. I loved the witty asides, the sharp humor, and Amina’s constant running commentary that makes you feel like you’re being told the story over drinks. It’s playful and clever, but also layered in a way that makes it feel conversational.
Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch is exactly what the title promises. You get a cozy holiday romance with a little bit of our favorite little spooky holiday vibe mixed in.
There’s a certain draw to a narrative that features the villain as the protagonist. When this perspective is done well, it really shines, and V.E. Schwab doesn’t miss with this one. At it’s core, Vicious is a story about the razor-thin line between ambition and obsession. About pursuing brilliance even when it comes at a monstrous price.
I didn’t know that it was possible to find a book so tailor-made for me. All Systems Red by Martha Wells is the first entry in the Murderbot Diaries series and features an AuDHD coded SecUnit robot that is programmed for…security…Murderbot is just its chosen name.
Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake is every bit a queer coming out story as it is an enemies-to-lovers romance, and it works beautifully on both levels. As the second entry in the Bright Falls series, it builds on the world we already know while giving us a character I honestly wasn’t expecting to enjoy this much.
Vampire of El Norte by Isabel Cañas had me hooked from the start. The creatures here are exactly what I want from a vampire story. They were dark, menacing, and genuinely terrifying.
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee broke me down in ways I wasn’t prepared for. It’s one thing to know racism is destructive, but it’s another to sit with the reality that people will actively harm themselves just to ensure people of color don’t benefit. That’s not just cruel, it’s self-sabotage on a national scale, and it’s exhausting to realize how deep that rot goes
Five Midnights by Ann Dávila Cardinal could have been a fascinating supernatural mystery set against the backdrop of Puerto Rico, but instead, it ends up feeling like a messy pile of privilege, colorism, and bad character work.