Greetings from ToonTown! Let me just say, THANK GOSH JANUARY IS OVER. January felt like it lasted years. February feels like a fresh start!

As promised, some Tunie pics!

My kitten looks like a full-grown woman!! 

Mr. Murphy is still here with us and we’ve been having so much fun together. I’m going to be so sad when he goes back home to his dad!

📚 Currently Reading, Recently Finished📚

• Deep End by Ali Hazelwood. Out today! It’s hard to believe my first 6 star read of 2025 is a sports romance?? My flabbers have been gasted. Deep End has perfect tension, yearning, and pining!! I couldn’t get enough. Lukas Blomqvist, you’re in the running for book boyfriend of the year. I gush more about Deep End in my Tik Tok video I posted today. 

• The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon. I finished this in preparation to see Samantha Shannon on The Dark Mirror tour this month! I really enjoyed The Bone Season. It’s probably sitting around a 4 star read for me? I’m super excited to see how the world and characters develop in the next books in the series. 

Next up on my TBR: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden! The Fantasy & Frens pick for February!

📺Currently Watching 📺

• The Pitt (Max), Season 1 — I eagerly await each new episode every week. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is my favorite show I watch this year. 

• The Rookie (ABC/Hulu), Season 7 — you already knowwwwww

• Sex and the City (Max), Season 1 — I started this because I feel like I have nothing to watcha and my IRL friends LOVE this show! I like it so much! My fav character as of right now is Samantha.

🎵 Listening To 🎵

• The Book Reviews Kill podcast is back!!! One of my good friends, Evan Leikam, aka Book Reviews Kill hosts an amazing bookish podcast. It’s no longer on hiatus and came back with their first new episode of the Monday Morning Minute with its new cohost, Nick Parry from @booksaresick!

Publishing Updates:

We are getting ready to send out Crueler Mercies ARC boxes to early reviewers! The goodies in this box are adorable and tie in with the book, and I can’t wait to see creators unbox them online!

Don't forget to Add Crueler Mercies to your Want to Read Shelf on Goodreads and Storygraph! You can request an eARC on Netgalley here.

Other news!

Here is my most recent YouTube video!

In my last Bindery post, I made adjustments to the free and paid tiers to offer more value to all members of the Bindery community. I explain all of these changes in detail in this post here.

That’s pretty much everything I’ve got for you this week! How was your week? Whatcha reading, watching, consuming? Tell me everything!

⁃ Jarl Zoranne ⚔️