Jyvur Entropy's Blog, page 9

This is The Sexiest Zoe Chant Book

5 stars literally just because of that femdom scene at the end. Like damn Zoe Chant, I take back everything I said about your sex scenes being milktoast. Could have taken it a littler further imo. Like really, that good boy deserves a pegging. But eh, the teasing and controlling was pretty hot on its own. I’ll take more of that if you’ve got any.

I also really liked that the female lead was an archeologist. It’s a very interesting career choice and it fit well with the whole dragon hoard mythos.

Speaking of which, the conflict of an enemy dragon trying to steal a treasure for his hoard was just really clever and added a good dose of tension to the plot.

This was a solid, cute and fluffy romance, as I’ve come to expect from Zoe Chant. The characters in this firefighter series are some of my favorites characters of Chants. Chase is hilarious and I just really like all the banter the guys have amongst themselves.

I think the only part I didn’t like was when Virginia was like “Let me not be too clingy, like a dumb damsel in distress.” Ugh…Zoe Chant books always have to insult me at some point. I am the clingiest bitch and I’m always in distress. I probably am kind of dumb, but I don’t think I’m clingy because I’m dumb. I’m clingy because I have attachment issues because my whole childhhod my mom told me she hated me constantly. So like….Idk, maybe could we not insult clingy women, because they’re literally just insecurely attaching to people as adults because their parents sucked and it’s rude to shame them for it (Same for all the cunts that go around hurling the “pick me” insult at fellow women-the women falling all over themselves for male approval are working through some shit and being mean doesn’t really help them-it just makes them think women are rude as fuck and then they want male approval even more).

Other than that little barb, I liked the book. It was fun and fluffy and I played the audiobook while I made zuccini bread and scrubbed the inside of my fridge.

WWW Weds: Shifter Romance and Brandon Sanderson

A weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

It’s been a busy week for me. I’ve mainly been working on my Florida alligator shifter golf romance and getting more chapters of my gentle femdom time travel romance uploaded to Kindle Vella.

So there’s that, if anybody is into that sort of thing.

Other than working on those two stories, I haven’t been up to too much. Been working extra hours at my retail job. Also doing revisions for the anthology I’m part of. And I baked some bread and pies this week…yeah, that’s my life lately.

What Did I Recently Finish Reading?

No books finished this week. But I did beta read the beginning of a wattpad story for a newbie writer. It’s a very classic secluded cabin horror story.

And I beta read a little bit of a furry smut for another writer friend.

What Am I Currently Reading?

Still making my way through this behemoth of a book.

And more Zoe Chant books. Because why not?

What will I read Next?

Arcs. Because I’m actually so behind on arcs that…don’t even ask me. Just don’t. It’s ridiculous. I have a stack of overdue arc reviews to get to.

That’s it for me? What has everyone else been up to reading wise?

My Gentle Femdom Time Travel Smut…

is on Kindle Vella now. I know people have been looking for it, because I’ve gotten DMs.

Only two things in this world get me DMs:

When I have a concerning crying-in-my-car meltdown and post it to youtubeWhen my pin-him-down-and-call-him-a-good-boy smut mysteriously vanishes from wattpad.

So if there’s anything I’ve learned here it’s that people don’t want me to lose my shit and people like to fap to the smut I write.

Which is all fine, I suppose.

Anyway, it lives on Vella now.

There it is.

(and also thank you thank you everybody for loving my erotic romance, because I really love it too and I’m super happy people like it enough to land in my DMs and ask me for it)

And yeah, the sequel is coming like…eventually.

There may or may not be like a whole cuckqueen thing in it.

Yes, that’s the direction we’re going in. I dunno why. But also I think it’s gonna be really cute and kinky and I’m hella excited about it.

WWW Weds: Cover Reveal and Lots of Shifter Romance!

This is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words!

It’s been a pretty good week for me. I’ve started a new project: my own shifter series! Since it doesn’t really fit the Jyvur Entropy brand and because amazon SEO stuff, I’m going to publish it under a different pen name, Jyvur Bloom. Now personally, I absolutely love books that are subgenre soup and I love when a book series is SUPER random and specific. That’s why shifter novella series will be all alligator shifters in Florida and they will all be golf sports romance. Golf romance is already a sub sub-genre of sports romance, but I haven’t seen a ton of it. Plus golf romance just goes so well with gator romance! Gah! I’m excited about this

I got my cover back from the graphic designer and it looks soooo much better than the ones I made.

Cover reveal! Here it is!

Other than that, I’ve been continuing to work on my contributions to two anthologies, one romance and one erotica. I am the token role reverse writer

I can’t wait to start promo for the anthologies. It’s an awesome group of people working on both. There are a lot of spicy BDSM entries in the erotica anthology and a lot of creative and sweet entries in the romance anthology (which has some steam but is clean-no sex on the page).

And I’m planning a youtube video about Sartre and Communism. If that sounds like it doesn’t make sense, Sartre supported Communism, but his form of existentialism is incredibly focused on the abstract concept of freedom. I think it will be interesting to take a look at the concept of freedom and how, as Sartre theorized, the freedom of the individual often conflicts with freedom of the other, and his own political views are a good example of that concept in action.

And with all of that going on, I’ve also still been getting a little bit of reading done. Let’s get into this!

What Did I Recently Finish Reading?

This is an audiobook that I listened to yesterday while cleaning my bathroom. It’s a quick intro to Sartre, fairly comprehensive for how short it is. I would have liked it a little more if the book delved into criticisms of Sartre’s existentialism or pointed some of the many contradictions and examples of self-defeating logic in his work.

I read two Zoe Chant books. I really liked Unicorn Vet. I think it might be the best Zoe Chant book I’ve read so far.

I wasn’t as big of a fan of Fire and Rescue Shifters: First Mission. The entire narrative made a big joke out of the old women sexually harassing the fire fighters. They wolf whistle, shout sexually charged statements at them, and even pull out lawn chairs and popcorn to openly leer at them. Zoe Chant….that’s not funny. I’m not into any book that makes a joke out of sexual harassment.

What am I Currently Reading?This is becoming the Zoe Chant blog…I have a problem. They’re just cute and goofy and it’s really nice to fall into this magical world that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I’m so used to paranormal/fantasy writers taking themselves incredibly seriously. The Zoe Chant writing team is so clearly just having fun and that makes the books fun to read.

I’m also still working my way through this brick of a book. I tried reading it last year and ending up putting it down. Now I’m giving it a try again. I’ve made it further than last time. Last time I quit I’d only made it to Kaladin and Shallon’s POVs. Now I’m into the high prince POVS. This book is long and epic and gruesome and soooo different than the fantasy I usually read, but I am starting to get invested in the characters, especially Kaladin. I want to see him escape the horrible life of a bridgeman.

What will I read next?

As always I’m super behind on arcs. I have arcs from friends, from fellow bloggers, one direct from a publisher (so there’s a time limit on that one) ack! I suck, I know. I’m such a mood reader. If you’re waiting on a review from me, please don’t think it’s your book. If I didn’t want to read it, I’d tell you. I’m just disorganized.

I don’t know why the Unicorn Thing is doing it for me…but okay

This was without a doubt the best Zoe Chant book I’ve read.

First of all, the guy changes into a sparkly gorgeous unicorn.

So nobody ask me to explain why that did it for me. Because I don’t think I ever could. It just turned me to mush. He’s a dude, but also like half the time he’s a breathtaking, magnificent magical creature and it’s a unicorn.

Y’all, I started out thinking Unicorn shifter romance was stupid, but like I really get it now. I mean, it is stupid, yeah. But also I love it and want to read about a thousand more Unicorn shifter stories.

All of the magical animals in this book made it so entertaining. This needs to be a Hallmark movie, because those magical animals give the story an actually exciting plot outside of the romance. This means that the writer didn’t have to rely on manufactured misunderstandings to create conflict. I always like when the conflict is external to the relationship. None of that Anna Todd fight-fuck-fight-fuck cycle. Blech. We actually have a healthy relationship in this story. The characters enjoy each other’s company and respect each other and communicate. Heck, they even team up to capture a basilisk before it can turn everyone to stone. A basilisk! There’s a basilisk in this book!

There are also winged kittens, a teleporting chicken that they can’t keep in its coop, a hawk that can break the sound barrier, a merhorse, gem toads, and the best magical animal, the dragonette Rock. Rock was so incredibly adorable. Not only was she a great plot device, because her appearing created the meet-cute between Everly and Angel, but she was also just so cute and sweet. Like a scaly winged little cat. I loved her as a character.

Another fun character was Raelynn. Her Toad Mahal joke had me laughing. This girl calls the terrarium for the gem toads the Toad Mahal XD She was silly and quirky and brought a really fun energy to the book.

I definitely related to Everly’s struggle to disconnect from work. Back when I worked as a manager for a big box store I would get texts and phone calls all the time and it stressed me out so much that I couldn’t ever just NOT think about work. I was glad she grew a pair in the end and told them to stop texting her on vacation. The ending where she takes over the restaurant space that kept changing owners was definitely obvious from the first time the place was mentioned, but it was still emotionally satisfying.

The one aspect of the book that sort of annoyed me was all the “horny” jokes about Angel’s unicorn horn. Criminey, Chant, we get it. You really think you did some shit with that joke. This is sort of par for the course with Zoe Chant books though. Jokes are not good. But the writers so clearly think they’re good, because they repeat their own cringey joke approximately a zillion times in every book. Damn lady, make your cringe jokes. God knows I do, so I can’t judge. But could you just make your bad joke once, so I can cringe and forget it ever happened?

Aside from the awful repeated “horny” joke, I did really like this book.

The main characters had a sweet chemistry. They both loved animals and it was so nice to see them get their HEA. Angel and Everly both have solid character arcs. Angel learns to accept himself and feel good about who he is, despite being a unicorn who does not have healing powers. Everly teaches him to see the value in who he is and what he CAN do with his unicorn powers. As for Everly, she learns how to make time for herself and how to set boundaries between work and her personal life.

This book had everything I loved in a Zoe Chant book: it doesn’t take itself too seriously, fun and magic, and a healthy relationship with a sweet and considerate male lead.

Highly recommend for those who like short Shifter romance.

Some Thoughts on Sartre

Today I finished this fairly solid intro to Sartre.

I was already semi-familiar with Sartre, having studied existentialism a bit in my postmodernist classes in college. I’m not saying I’m an expert, but I have read a few snippets of “Being and Nothingness” (about as much of that dry jargon-heavy etymology-obsessed brick of symbolic-interactionism as I could stomach) and in reading the fiction of Camus professors would usually dip into Sartre. His existentialism was also just incredibly influential on the Modernist and then postmodernist worldview, so it’s sort of impossible not to get cliffsnotes Sartre in college.

I liked that this book broke it down into how his philosophy changed over the course of his life. Particularly how he emphasized the individual in his earlier theories to the point that society and all of its pervasive influences is ignored. The individual or society is a false dichotomy because both exist inside of each other and constantly influence and interact with one another to the point that there can be no distinction. In his later theories, Sartre addresses this, saying that the individual has the responsibility to internalize the external and then re-externalize it in a better way.

The book didn’t really delve into the criticisms of Sartre or the obvious self-defeating logic holes in Sartre’s earliest theories and around the time he wrote “Being and Nothingness.”

I have to point the logic hole out:
Sartre’s existentialism is pure moral relativism. Everything is subjective, there is no inherent meaning, values are created by man and do not pre-exist man…okay. Fine. But then Sartre argues that with this incredible freedom (freedom from meaning and freedom to invent one’s own “being” as essence does not create being in the case of man) comes with responsiblity-the responsibility to live with intention and project to the world with one’s actions one’s own subjective idea of what a “good” person is.

Okay so like…let’s break this down: Everything is meaningless therefore altruism.
Huh?
My dude, how you gonna go all postmodern moral relativism and then make such a strong value judgement in favor of altruism?
This begs the question so hard it’s practically panhandling.

But eh…a lot of Sartre’s work is full of contradictions. The dude was also a pedo Communist who supported violence for the means of political change.
His own life might be a good example of why we might want to veer away from moral relativism.

I also want to say I found the snippets from Sartre’s play “No Exit” really interesting. Lots of neat ideas here about how we construct our sense of self by being observed by others. It’s like…who would we even be without the gaze of the other?
At the same time, like Sartre says, Hell is other people.

Goodreads | Amazon

What I’m Working on Now

I dunno which cover I like better.

I reached out to a cover designer to see if they could add a little pizzaz to this concept.

Anyway, yeah, I read a bunch of Zoe Chant books and now all I want to do is write a 5 book novella series of alligator shifter/ golf sports romance set in Florida.

The books will be as follows:

1) Florida Keys to My Heart

2) Florida Man of My Dreams

3) Gator Golfing

4) Hole in One

5) Love is for Everglades

Look everybody….*sigh* I spent a lot of years trying to be all literary and deep and edgy. I just want to write gator shifter romance and be a dumbasss now. Okay?

Everything is meaningless so I shall entertain myself with books that don’t take themselves seriously (and also maybe have some fucking in them).

Obviously I wanted to make these books role reversal/femdom, but I’ve been talked out of it. To quote my silent partner who definitely never wants any credit for this demented mess “You’re gonna go and ruin your first actually marketable idea. If women wanted to read about terrified virgin men, I would have had a lot more luck when I was younger.”

Meh…fine.

Only normal marketed-to-women sex.

But I won’t like it….

Anyhow, I’m off to continue working on the mess that Zoe Chant inspired me to create.

July 2021 WrapUp: Lots of Romance, Per My Usual

So in July I read 13 books. That is:

8 Romance: 4 Zoe Chant books, 5 Shifter Romance total, 1 Amish Romance, 1 Western Romance, and 1 Yaoi 1 Horror2 Classics1 Graphic Novel1 Non-Fiction1 Cookbook

The best book I read was The Emperor’s New Drugs. Lots of great info there about how drug trials are conducted and the conflicts of interest between the pharmaceutical companies and doctors/researchers, and how this compromises patient care.

The worst book I read was Survivor Song, which was honestly shocking to me, because prior to reading that book Paul Tremblay was my favorite writer of all time. There was just nothing unique or interesting about Survivor Song and it has a ham-fisted political message with caricatures of conservatives that exist so Tremblay can take pot shots at strawmen.

That’s it for me! What was your favorite read of July?

The Birthday Book Tag

I found this tag over at Kristen Kraves Books.

It’s not actually my birthday yet, but duh, never put your real birthday out on the internet. My birthday is this month at some point so close enough. And I was born while Reagan was in office, so ta-da I’m old.

I’m getting a new phone for my birthday. And my husband will probably surprise me with cupcakes because he usually does.

Age 32 was literally the dumbest fucking year of my life. I wish I could tell you all about it, because it’s so dumb it’s actually sort of entertaining.

Here is hoping age 33 will be a little better.

I think at this point in life I should be really mature and smart. Then I remember I started out a lot more idiotic than most people. So I have matured a lot and gotten a lot more wise. If you compared the me now to the me I was at 19, you’d be like “Nice job, Jen. It’s really good you stopped ending up in mental hospitals every few months, and it’s good you stopped falling all over yourself trying to convince your mom to love you, because you realized that would never happen, and it’s good you figured out when to cut people off, because you used to never cut anybody off and it ended with a lot of awful situations.” But you know…you can’t see the before only the after and the after is still a fucking mess.

I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be or do in this life that I’m at about the 40% mark in. I just know that I wish I could stop having emotional moments, and I wish that when I did have a moment it wasn’t so entertaining to people. You know I’m never entertained when other people are really upset. I’m literally not even a good person and whenever another person is really upset, I just feel bad for them.

And I literally always knew my disregulated emotions were entertaining to others. The whole situation with my boyfriend in high school; he laughed at me and I couldn’t believe that he was laughing at me when I was so angry and sad. The situation with the guy at Wal-Mart. He laughed at me while I was mad, while I was telling him how upset I was. Then I made such a wild scene that a crowd formed. And while it was happening I thought “Good. Have a fucking show. Performance Art. Allow me to perform my inner turmoil for you all. Have a seat; this will be some of my best work.”

But I’m trying to perform a tragedy and everybody thinks it’s comedy.

Probably not even a very good comedy. It never really works when a shitty B-movie takes itself too seriously.

Okay, well that’s enough of that, here’s a wordpress tag post.

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BIRTHDAY CAKE – a book with a plot that seems cliché but you adore it anyway

The first Wheel of Time book is literally the most cliche premise you could find in fantasy. The Chosen One has his world threatened and goes on a quest with an ensemble of unlikely friends to save the world from the Dark One.

There is barely a shred of originality in Eye of the World. It’s still a really great book. I absolutely love it. It’s so cozy and charming and Jordan’s writing pulls me in right away.

The series gets more unique as it goes on and the gender-based magic system is interesting right from the start.

PARTY GUESTS – your most anticipated book release this year

I don’t really keep up with book releases. I don’t anticipate books coming out. However….Leigh Bardugo, when do I get my Ninth House sequel?? Anytime soon? Please!

BIRTHDAY PRESENTS – a book that surprised you with how much you loved it

I’m not sure why I decided to read ‘It Ends With Us’ because the only other Colleen Hoover book I’d read was ‘November 9’ and I fucking hated it. Just lady…..how you gonna end up with the guy who burned your fucking house down and left you with burn scars over your body for the rest of your life and then he DIDN’T EVEN TELL YOU HE WAS THE ONE WHO BURNED YOUR FUCKING HOUSE DOWN WHILE YOU WERE DATING JUST WHAAAAAT???

‘November 9’ might actually be the worst romance I’ve ever read, which is why it was so shocking that ‘It Ends With Us’ is absolutely THE BEST romance I have ever read. Seriously, if you love sad, tragic romance and bittersweet endings, i highly recommend it. So sweet and sad

THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG – a book that certainly deserved all the hype it got

When I went to snag a picture of the cover, I was surprised to see how low the rating for this book is on goodreads. Ah well, low rating or not, this book got hella hype. It was all over the book blogs. Maybe didn’t get as much buzz on booktube, but it was still fairly hyped.

I fucking loved this book. This novel is domestic suspense perfection.

I almost read her book ‘Invisible Girl’ recently. But if you know anything about me and my weirdness and my mental health issues, you’ll be proud of me for recognizing why that book would be triggering. Fuck, I hate the word ‘triggering.’ It’s so succinct though. Otherwise I’d have to say something like ‘you can probably see why that book might rekindle an obsession I finally kicked and throw me straight back into crazy brain, so cool I won’t read it.’

HAPPY MUSIC – a book with some very beautiful and truly memorable quotes

Now when I do my youtube video deep dive on Joseph Conrad, I will be delving into how problematic and racist a lot of it is.

But also, he wrote in the late 1800s. It’s important to recognize and call out racism. Yet, this dude was a product of the world he was raised in and it’s not entirely fair to judge a man from the 19th century by today’s standards.

All of that is to say, this man is an incredible writer, although he was a flawed human being. Many of the descriptions are so beautiful. The atmosphere is so vivid and every sentence sounds so lyrical and poetic.

When he’s not talking about the people from the lands he explored, the stories are absolutely breathtaking. It’s all the more impressive when you consider that English was not Conrad’s first language.

GETTING OLDER – a book that you read a long time ago, but you think that you would appreciate it more if you read it as a more mature reader

This was one of my favorites as a kid. I haven’t read it since 6th grade, yet I remember the book in so much detail. I remember the incredible tension when he was trying to land the plane, the isolation and fear as he tried to figure out what to do, the horror when he realized that the fish he was eating had been eating the body of the dead pilot, and wowwww the scene where he dives down to the submerged plane to try and find the black box. Such an amazing story of man versus nature. I adored it.

I bought a copy several months back, but haven’t started my reread yet.

It will be interesting to see how differently I experience the book as an adult.

When I reread Anne of Green Gables last year (another book I hadn’t read since 6th grade), it was so different from how I remembered. Mostly the book seemed much shorter and more episodic. There wasn’t so much a plot as there was a series of unconnected events. Also I remembered Anne and Diane’s friendship ending as much sadder and more tragic. But maybe that’s only because as I read it, I was watching the mini-series with my grandma and they really dramatized the heck out of that subplot.

SWEET BIRTHDAY MEMORIES – a book that kept you incredibly happy during a sad or demanding period of your life

I repeated the 8th grade because of issues I won’t get into. I was 14 and definitely too old to reread my old Babysitter’s Club books, but I did. Claudia had to repeat the 8th grade just like I did.

Really all of the Babysitter’s Club books (the ones I had anyway-there are like 3000 of them, so I didn’t read every single one) were a huge comfort to me as a kid. I would reread my favorite ones. I loved the characters.

Claudia was my favorite because she was the most interesting, but for some reason the one I always tried to be like was Dawn. In 6th grade I announced I wanted to be vegetarian because Dawn was and I told everybody to recycle and care about the planet, since Dawn was so passionate about the environment.

Anyway, here are the ones I reread the most:

There was a lot of really awful stuff happening in my life the first time I read Kristy’s Worst Idea. It took me so much longer to read than it usually took me to read a Babysitter’s Club book. But I remember I sort of liked that everyone in the book was so upset. It felt like it fit the tone of my life.

Well, that’s it for the tag. Thanks to Kristen Kraves Books for posting it.

The Political Bias in Modern YA Literature — Frappes and Fiction

The following quotes have been taken from popular YA books published in the last fifteen years:

The Political Bias in Modern YA Literature — Frappes and Fiction