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Song of the Lioness: I will always love Alanna

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man by Tamora Pierce

Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce

February 16, 2026 by beereadsbooks 6 Comments

I began reading The Song of the Lioness quartet from Tamora Pierce’s Tortall series as bedtime reads after reading Lord of the Rings before bed in 2025. I’ve read them so many times before, so I know I can put them down and go to sleep whenever I feel drowsy. I have loved these books since I was in 7th grade – about 25 years – and I will always love them, but damn has it become clear how much I and the world have […]

Killers of a Certain Age: Damn, I love a competent woman.

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

February 8, 2026 by beereadsbooks 2 Comments

Killers of a Certain Age has been lurking on my TBR for a while. When I picked it up from the Libby app, I was searching for an audiobook option to help fill my ears while doing something with my hands – chores probably. Killers primarily follows four post-menopausal women – Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie – as they near retirement from a lifetime of service with The Museum. The Museum is an extra-governmental organization dedicated to assassinating the Bad Guys, and our heroines […]

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: Wow. Wowwowwow.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

January 26, 2026 by beereadsbooks 9 Comments

For quite a few years now, I have been avoiding reading things that cover truly difficult material. The world is hard and weird, and I have preferred to read “lighter” stories as a way to escape, to feel the joys with out the lows. This self-preservationist approach to choosing reading material has led me further down the road of comfy, cozy reads which are lovely, but there are never real stakes. I think I have begun to notice that choosing books which do not have […]

Paladin’s Strength: Every tagline I think of is just fraught with spoilers.

Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher

January 25, 2026 by beereadsbooks 2 Comments

I read the second installment of the Saint of Steel series entirely on audiobook. I found listening to this book – in comparison to Paladin’s Grace – to be less grating, but it still suffered from a few of the things that I didn’t love about the first book in the series. There is so much going for this book – the characters are delightful; the inclusion of a big/tall/possibly fat woman as the FMC is amazing; the side characters are a joy; the secondary […]

Update on Paladin’s Grace: An unenthusiastic DNF; UNO reverse; DIF (Did Indeed Finish)

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

January 20, 2026 by beereadsbooks 7 Comments

After writing my original review, I kept wondering if a different format might suit me better for this book. So I borrowed the ebook, and wow did that make a world of difference. I could skip and skim the inner monologues until they lessened. A little after mid-way through the book, the plot really picked up, the two main characters started interacting more – with each other and with others that can knock some sense into them, other things started happening to keep them busy […]

A Mouthful of Dust: The Value of a Low-Stakes Read

A Mouthful of Dust: The Singing Hills Cycle #6 by Nghi Vo

January 4, 2026 by beereadsbooks 1 Comment

I have been reading through the Singing Hills Cycle series since 2022. They have served as bite-sized treats and motivation to return to reading usually during a lull. Given the time between reading each book, I would struggle to tell you what’s happened in previous stories at this point. I think I keep returning to the series because of Chih and Almost Brilliant. They are a lovely pair of characters to accompany from story to story. A Mouthful of Dust is the sixth installment of […]

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