Love, Life, & Beyond

My reading list for April couldn’t have been more diverse! A romantasy series, historical fiction, classic British literature, contemporary Japanese feminist fiction, and a time-travelling mystery. 

I love that I have the luxury of time to spend on reading. Now with the summer starting to become more unreasonable than ever, I am looking forward to becoming further ensconced in my room with a book for another month.

Have you been keeping track of my 2026 reading shelf so far? Here’s January, February, and March.

The Eye of the Goddess Trilogy by Sariah Wilson

The three books in the trilogy are (in order) A Tribute of Fire, A Vow of Embers, and A Curse of Ashes.

When I started Book 1, I kinda enjoyed it but I didn’t think it would be interesting enough to go to Book 2. Then a strategic cliffhanger made me want to continue, and I did end up enjoying Book 3. I am usually wary of romantasy novels as they focus more on the romance and not so much on the plot. However, this series has a good mix of both.

Princess Lia of Locris has been secretly training to be selected as a tribute to the Goddess’ temple. She needs to find the Eye of the Goddess and restore her country back to its glory days before it was cursed into barrenness. 

She meets a fascinating man from the enemy camp who just refuses to leave her thoughts and dreams. As their lives intertwine, and she meets other priestesses of the temple, she finds that she must broaden her expectations and responsibilities.

The story arc and characters held my interest. The romance was steamy, although at times the neediness of the heroine got a bit too much. 

This was another aspect that had always bothered me. This belief that women were special enough to be pleasing to the goddess, but that we were ultimately easy to discard and unimportant. Strong enough to be slaughtered but not important enough to fight for.

• Verdict: Read
• Genre: Fantasy, Romance
• Format: E-book
• Pages: Each book is about 500 pages
• Country: USA
• About: Sariah Wilson says she has been madly, passionately in love with her soulmate and is a fervent believer in happily ever afters—which is why she writes romance. She grew up in southern California with a semi-useless degree in history, and is the oldest of nine children. Her books The Friend Zone and Room-maid were selected by Amazon as one of the Best Romances of 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Hooked by Asako Yuzuki (Translated by Polly Barton)

I was very excited to start reading this. I had read Butter last year (read my review here), and I was Hooked (pun intended). I was surprised to know that this book was originally published before Butter (in Japanese). The underlying themes are similar to Butter: Women’s place in a patriarchal society, men expecting women to take care of them, expectations from women, and obsession of one woman for another. However, the characters are vastly different, making it an interesting read.

Eriko seems to have a perfect life. She is gorgeous, has a senior-level job that pays well, lives with her parents who dote on her, and has men falling over her. But, she lacks a female friend.

Shoko, on the other hand, couldn’t be bothered with how she looks and gets by with minimal effort. Even her relationship with her husband is based on the agreement that neither of them should expect much from each other. Her blog is the antithesis of every lifestyle blog out there; instead of carefully curated meals, she writes about eating out at fast-food chains, and instead of aesthetically-shot pictures, her posts have unappealing pictures.

Eriko loves Shoko’s blog posts. She envies her carefree and seemingly content life. She wants to make Shoko her best friend. And that’s where the story starts. Both women think that the other has a perfect life, but each of them needs to learn how to find their own bliss.

Please, I’m begging you all, will someone just remember me? Why are you all so cold, when I’m this lonely?

• Verdict: Read
• Genre: Fiction, Feminism
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 395
• Country: Japan
• About: Asako Yuzuki is known for her thought-provoking novels. Born in 1981 in Tokyo, she has gained acclaim for her unique storytelling, with social commentary and rich imagery. Yuzuki explores themes of food, identity, and gender, challenging societal norms. Her novel Butter (originally published as Shokumin) became a cultural phenomenon in Japan, praised for its feminist undertones and vivid depictions of culinary artistry.

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

The story spans a period of 10 to 15 years and details the lives of Tom and Maggie Tulliver. They are siblings who grew up at Dorlcote Mill on the River Floss. Through the Tulliver family, we get to know how the rural society was set up in the late 1800s. 

Mr Tulliver had the right intentions, but took advice without validation. He sends Tom for an education that serves no practical use. Maggie on the other hand, is always told off for being a wild child, playing outdoors and being enthusiastic. When he faces bankruptcy, the family must all come together and see how they can survive the situation and the shame. Mrs Tulliver’s sisters show their true colours and find justifications to do the bare minimum.

As the kids grow, they take on the responsibility of setting things right. Tom finally manages to get a job and Maggie draws inwards to find contentment.

She forms a friendship with Phillip, but is chastised by Tom as he is the son of the lawyer who brought their downfall. When love finally comes to her, she is torn as Stephen is promised to her favourite cousin, Lucy.

She pleads inwardly about how all troubles come only to her and why can’t she just get a break. The author also gives a scathing review of the society that will not forgive women. It is a strong subject that goes beyond the story of the two siblings.

The end of the book took me by complete surprise. 

Public opinion, in these cases, is always of the feminine gender,–not the world, but the world’s wife;

• Verdict: Must Read
• Genre: Fiction, Classic British Literature
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: 341
• Country: England, UK
• About: George Eliot was the pen name for Mary Ann Evans. Her books focus on rural life and the issues they faced. Scandalously and unconventionally for the era, she lived with the married George Henry Lewes as his conjugal partner. In May 1880, 18 months after Lewes’s death, Eliot married her longtime friend John Cross, a man much younger than she, and changed her name to Mary Ann Cross.

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar (Translated by Ruth Martin)

The book starts off on a hopeful note with kids being kids and the end of the Iranian Revolution still brand new. Part 1 of the book is from the POV of a revolutionary, Behzad, who is part of the underground group that has just overthrown the Shah. But they soon realise that their socialist version of what comes after will not see the light of day as the clerics take over the void. He flees to Germany with his wife Nahid and then Part 2 is from her POV 10 years later. She talks about missing the feeling of home in this new land even after so many years.

Part 3 takes another leap of 10 years to 1999 and is narrated by the eldest daughter of Behzad and Nahid, Laleh. She was born in Tehran but moved to Germany with her parents when she was four. Now she’s returned as a teenager for a holiday and things are so different than what she’s used to. 

Part 4 is told by Mo, Bahzad’s son, born and raised in Germany. He carries the invisible trauma passed down by his parents. While he tries to fit in with teens his age in Germany, he is very conscious of his heritage. The final epilogue is by Tara, the youngest child. Is it the present, or a hopeful future?

The book is written as a person thinks, so it is fast-paced and flits from one thought or timeline to the next. It can be hard to keep track at times. 

The theme that stands out is the separations of families where they are torn apart just to survive. The longing for home, and families longing to hold their loved ones, is voiced by each character. Also, the alienation the kids feel growing up in Germany is told with much conflict in their minds between their lived experience and what is happening in their home country.

We have read and read and read, kept quiet at home and made a noise on the streets, cursed our parents and died for our children.

• Verdict: Read
• Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: 182
• Country: Germany, Iran
• About: Shida Bazyar studied writing in Hildesheim, northern Germany, and worked in youth education for many years. Her debut novel, The Nights are Quiet in Tehran won the Blogger Literary Award, Ulla Hahn Prize, and Uwe Johnson Prize. This book was originally published in German and translated into English by Ruth Martin. It has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026. Her second novel Sisters in arms was nominated for the German Book Prize 2021.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

I don’t know how to do a book review of Yesteryear. It started off being a certain kind of story, and went into something deeper, and honestly, more unsettling. If you look at this story on a superficial level, it is a story about a tradwife getting a taste of her own medicine when she is forced to live the life she pretends to live – that of a happy do it all mother of six living on a farm.

Natalie seems to have it all. Her Instagram page is the envy of women and a thirst trap for men who want a traditional (read subservient) wife. She does everything from cooking, homeschooling all her kids, raising farm animals, making everything from scratch, and all this while being a loving wife and mother. However, when her back story is revealed slowly, the mask starts to slip. The line between ‘Online Natalie’ and ‘Offline Natalie’ starts to disappear.

Then, she finds herself in a house similar to hers, with similar people, but around 200 years before her time. She thinks it’s surely a prank, but there is no respite. Maybe God is testing her? She needs to adjust to her new family and do the chores without any modern conveniences.

This book was such a ride! I started off feeling, serves her right, to no wonder she’s like that, to Good God What is That Ending! It is one of the books I keep seeing in my Bookstagram feed every day, and it is worth the hype. If the subject-matter gets to you after a while, I would suggest staying till the end, because it is not all about the tradwife life.

The Audible was great to listen to. The inner monologue vs outer speech comes across in really strong, and often funny ways.

The way some women so willingly compromised every ounce of themselves in the name of building a life for themselves that they didn’t enjoy.

• Verdict: Read
• Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery/Suspense
• Format: Audible
• Listening Time: 13h 47m (you can listen at 1.2 speed easily making it 11hr 30m)
• Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
• Performance Rating: 5/5
• Country: USA
• About: Caro Claire Burke received her Master’s in Fine Arts from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is the co-host of Diabolical Lies, a politics and culture podcast. Yesteryear is her first novel.

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