Halfway through 2025, it's time to check in. I'm NotesonDawn, and this is my reading wrap-up. From the 5-star perfection of Rouge to the book that defied my expectations, here are my honest thoughts...

Hello, book lovers! NotesOnDawn here, and I’m thrilled to be back on MsBrowns, our family’s little corner of the internet dedicated to all things literary.

Today, I want to talk about a genre that has absolutely captured my heart and, let's be honest, completely taken over my reading shelf: Sapphic Fantasy.

There's something uniquely powerful about reading fantasy, a genre of limitless possibility, that finally and fully embraces female-centric stories and queer relationships. For so long, these stories were relegated to subtext, but now? We are living in a golden age. We have epics, we have cosy-as-a-cuppa reads, we have historical deep-dives, and we have gritty, god-slaying adventures.

The first quarter of 2025 is a wrap! I’m diving into the nine books I read from January to March, from 4.25-star magical realism gems like The Cemetery of Untold Stories to 4-star surreal horror like Rouge. But I also have some... controversial opinions. Find out why two of the most popular books in fantasy and sci-fi fell completely flat for me. See the full list!

2024 was a year of 1-2 star reads... until these books. This is NotesonDawn, and I'm going beyond my YouTube short to give you the full, in-depth review of my 5-star favourites.