Prince Material is the second book in the Prince Pact series by Nora Phoenix. I enjoyed reading the first book in the series, so I was excited to get to read the second one as an eARC. I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much though. In this book, we follow Floris, a Dutch prince and Orson, an engineering student from New Orleans. They are roommates at a college in Massachusetts. We get both of their POVS throughout the book, which I liked. The book starts off a bit slow and there isn’t that much happening for the first 50% of the book. It was a bit of a struggle to get through the beginning of the book, but the second half definitely picks up the pace. I don’t think I connected with these two characters as much as I did with the ones in the first book. I thought they were a bit lackluster and I found their dialogue a little bit unbelievable at points. It felt cheesy sometimes, like not something people in real life would say. I still plan to read the other books in this series when they ...
A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo is a continuation of the Singing Hills Cycle. This short novella follows Cleric Chih of the Singing Hills abbey and their birdlike companion Almost Brilliant as they travel to a new place to record stories to bring back to the abbey. In this particular story the pair travel to Baolin, a place famous for it's pork and it's legendary famine. While in the town, Chih is forced to stay at the town magistrate’s home where they discover something strange taking place. I’m a huge fan of this series and I loved this new chapter of the Singing Hills Cycle. It’s definitely the creepiest of the novellas so far, I could feel myself getting tense while reading certain parts! Chih is such a likable character that I love reading about all their adventures and the stories they gather. I also love when Almost Brilliant is included, the back and forth between the two is always fun! Available in the US starting October 7, 2025. I received this book from NetGalley as a...