Category: musings

musings, recommendations

Cozy Fall Romances

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

The leaves are changing colour where I live and it’s got me thinking about the kinds of books I love reading when the days start getting shorter and there is a bite in the air. Autumn is settling in so it’s time to get comfortable with a warm blanket or two and a book that matches the atmosphere.

I know many people have wonderful seasonal books they recommend, every season. I’m mostly a mood reader and it takes me on whatever whims each day, even to the last minute right before I pick up a book. However, this autumn, I wanted to curate a number of books that just feel like the perfect fit for this season.

I don’t know how others define an “autumnal” book, but the ones I’m drawn to are those with darker undertones looming in the story to match the shorter daylight hours, or a whimsical fantasy that has just the right amount of hope to lift the spirits from the cold, or a contemporary novel set somewhere between the playfulness of summer and joy of snowy winter days. I’m not sure, actually, if that makes sense to anyone else, but I shall try to justify the following choices below.

Why cozy fall romances though?

I wanted to highlight the beauty of a love story that fits with the emotions an autumn book, as I defined it, would elicit. Although I’d say my genres are more vast than only romances, I find romances are found in a lot of places. And perhaps, it too makes for an additional layer of beauty to appreciate in the autumn season.

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authors, musings

Meeting Chloe Gong

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

It’s time for one of these updates! I’m always so honoured and excited when I can meet authors I love in person and get my books hand signed by them.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing Chloe Gong on one of her tour stops for her latest book and last of the Secret Shanghai universe, Foul Heart Huntsman.

About Chloe Gong

She is the #1 New York Times bestseller of These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends. Her next series, the one this tour was for, was also an immediate NYT bestseller. Let’s also not forget her foray into adult fantasy/sci fi this year with Immortal Longings that also topped those lists. What an accomplishment! And all of this by age 24! I’m super proud of her success, especially continuing to elevate Asian representation in fantasies where it’s been less prevalent before.

Highlights from her talk

The book event was awesome in and of itself. Chloe is such a confident speaker who lovingly exclaims over her writing process, describing when certain surprise events in her books were planned out and how she turned her side character, Rosalind, into someone worthy of the main character mantle in this spin off series. Everything is thought out, though that doesn’t mean the final version we received was necessarily similar to the early drafts. Let’s just say, her debut was originally meant to be one book instead of a duology so the original ending was a lot sadder (thanks Chloe for not doing that).

Fun fact: if there’s a line or moment she really liked that doesn’t end up fitting super well in that scene after revisions, she doesn’t chop it out completely. Oh no, she figures out a way to re-home that line elsewhere. Perhaps that’s why her books are all 500+ pages.

I love how she keeps it real about her experiences as an author versus how she herself fangirls over fellow authors she grew up reading and loving when she meets them in person. Chloe’s a massively talented writer with her choice of prose and well-crafted atmospheric setting that really makes you feel like you’re living the experiences along with the characters. Have I ever felt as much in the 1920s as I did in Shanghai with her Romeo & Juliet retelling? Not at all.

But of course, the best part was the signing after the talk where I got a few books signed. Thank you to my lovely husband for also coming along even though he doesn’t read fiction at all.

What’s to come from Chloe?

While the Secret Shanghai books are done, there is more yet to come from this budding author. We can expect 2 more books after Immortal Longings to round out that Cleopatra retelling trilogy, and there just may be a new book on the horizon in the science fiction realm where she truly delights to dwell in. If you’ve read any of her books, you’ll know no one genre can fully contain the breadth of those stories, but sci-fi elements are definitely present everywhere.

Last thoughts

I will end by saying it was a honour to meet her in person. And I even got a little Mao Mao drawn on my Immortal Longings ARC (if you know, you know – go and read the book).

musings

Life Update: Semi hiatus and crazy 2023

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Hello blogging friends and new friends alike.

Can I start by saying 2023 was a WILD year? Or was that just me?

Why does this sound like an end of year post that should be done in December? I mean, yes, 2023 still has 3-ish months to go, but I wanted to take a moment to say: Andge is back!

(Or I guess some people may not have noticed I left, then hello again. I’m back.)

Where did I go? Why’d I take an unannounced and technically unplanned hiatus from most blogging this year? I was SO active the last two years – yes, perhaps in part due to staying home so much for the pandemic – but I had other reasons for being AWOL for the most part this year.

I started this blog when I was a student (and had so much more time, omg). I’m no longer a student, haven’t been in a while actually. (Note to self: should update my bio, whoops). But I have now moved onto another amazing milestone in life that took up way more time than expected.

I got married! *insert confetti falling from the sky*

While I’d like to think I didn’t even come close to bridezilla mode these last months, the planning is exhausting. I saved money by not booking a wedding planner but it’s a lot of work at times on top of the day job. There were plenty of highs and lows, and reading, let alone blogging, were far from my mind unfortunately.

Why’d we see so many posts from this blog this year anyway?

I want to highlight my good friend Fives posting his lovely reads while I was away even though he’s also got a lot going on this year. Thank you, Fives! ♥️

I hope you’re excited for more content we’re gonna plan for the rest of 2023 and into 2024. I’m excited at least and pumped to get back into this community and space.

See you all soon!