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chessawrites.bsky.social
Chessa 🐉🧡📚
@chessawrites.bsky.social
210 followers 140 following 900 posts
Reading and writing (but not publishing). ND. Spoonie. Married. Torn between wanting to talk about fiction and needing to talk about the real world. She/her.

#PwME #neurodivergent #romancelandia #writing #reading #MECFS #books #LongCovid
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chessawrites.bsky.social
Random find on Libby. 14% in so far.

I find the FMC's #ADHD very relatable. I can't speak as personally for the MMC's OCD, but so far it seems to be addressed sensitively.

Narrators Gary Furlong and Karissa Vacker are quite good.

💙📚 🌶️📚 🎧📚 #romancelandia
Cover of "Last Call at the Local" by Sarah Grunder Ruiz. A redheaded woman with a guitar faces a white man with tattoos at a bar. A floofy black cat sits nearby.
November 19, 2025 at 4:29 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
These are some that were available now on Libby, but I'm not super enthused about any of them. I'm open to suggestions for something to go looking for. Nothing too dark, nothing too trite is my goal.
Cover of "Last Call at the Local" by Sarah Grunder Ruiz. American musician with ADHD meets Irish pub owner. Cover of "To Have and To Heist" by Sara Desai. Woman has to pull off a heist to save her best friend and falls for a mysterious man in the process. Cover of "Deja Glitch" by Holly James. Time loop where they have to fall in love in one day. Cover of "Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake" by Mazey Eddings. Something about a baker with ADHD and an unplanned pregnancy.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Just started this. Never read the author before.

There's a lot of what on screen would be called "breaking the fourth wall" -- winking asides aimed directly to the reader. It feels a little too cute for me, but I'm going to give it a little longer to see if it wins me over.

💙📚 🌶️📚 #romancelandia
Cover of "Censor(Shipped)" by Savannah Scott, tagged as "a sweet romcom." Shows a white man and white woman standing in front of a service station which is flying an American flag.
November 16, 2025 at 11:10 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
📚 Ashley Poston -- swoony romance + magic that doesn't feel in the least bit cliche

📚 Chloe Liese -- chronically ill & neurodivergent MCs find love

📚 Jamie Harrow --has only written two books so far, but they show that she's both funny and insightful

💙📚 🌶️📚 #romancelandia 📖🦋
Cover of "The Seven Year Slip" by Ashley Poston, Male and female figures are separated by the letters of the title, with some branches at the edges. Cover of "If Only You" by Chloe Liese. Shows a female soccer player and a male hockey player. Cover of "Fun at Parties" by Jamie Harrow. Shows male and female figures sitting on top of a car. She is looking at a nighttime city skyline and he is looking at her.
November 16, 2025 at 8:21 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Post your favorite Star Trek character. Wrong answers only.
Jeffrey Combs in "From Beyond" (1986), wearing significantly less makeup than I'm used to seeing on him.
November 15, 2025 at 10:50 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
CR my first Mazey Eddings book. She's managed to take some intense and delicate issues and build a story that feels authentic. I'm really impressed so far.
Cover art of "The Plus One" by Mazey Eddings. Well-dressed male and female figures sit facing each other in chairs decorated for a wedding. Additional text reads "Warning: Falling for your childhood nemesis can cause complications of the heart."
November 15, 2025 at 5:21 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
This Libby hold came up, and I liked the author's other book ("One on One") so much that I'm bumping this to the front of the line.

It's described as an "estranged friends-to-lovers" story, and I do like the friends-to-lovers trope.

💙📚 🌶️📚 🎧📚 #romancelandia
Cover of "Fun at Parties" by Jamie Harrow. Shows a man and a woman in casual/athletic wear sitting on top of a car looking out at city lights at night.
November 8, 2025 at 9:36 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Going to try my first Carley Fortune book. Then as many of the others as I can get through before the due dates.

💙📚 🌶️📚 🎧📚 #romancelandia
Cover of "One Golden Summer" by Carley Fortune. Shows a man and a woman on a small motorboat.
November 7, 2025 at 5:45 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Here's what's cropped for me on Libby. Anyone have a favorite you think should be on deck for my next read/listen?

💙📚 🌶️📚 🎧📚 #romancelandia
Cover of "My Favorite Holidate" by Lauren Blakely. Shows a holiday scene of a well-dressed couple embracing in the snow. Cover of "The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year" by Ally Carter. Shows a man and a woman peering around opposite sides of a Christmas tree. Cover of "One Golden Summer" by Carley Fortune. Shows two people in bathing suits on a motorboat. Cover of "Between Us" by Mhairi McFarlane. Shows a man and a woman looking at each other with a camera in between.
November 6, 2025 at 2:57 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Went looking for something new on Libby and this was available. I'm in the mood for light and low-stress. Never read this author before. Basically judged it by its cover and the fact that it was available for checkout. Bets on how good it'll be?

💙📚 🌶️📚 🎧📚 #romancelandia
Cover of "Ten Rules for Faking It" by Sophie Sullivan. The title appears to be written by a female figure standing to one side, with a male figure looking across at her from the other side. Small print has a quote from USA Today bestselling author Helen Hoang which reads "A wholesome, slow-burn romance that will warm your heart... This is a Hallmark movie in book form." end quote. That actually makes me think -- I've never seen a Hallmark movie, so I can't speak to that except by reputation. But what does "wholesome" mean? Does it have lots of vitamins and fiber? Is it part of this complete breakfast? If I read this, will I grow up big and strong?
November 3, 2025 at 12:49 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
"By teaching us how to read, they taught us how to get away."

💙📚 #Bookvember
Cover of "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien. Shows a mouse riding a bird and has a Newberry medal sticker in the corner. Book was adapted for the far inferior movie and is also known as "The Secret of NIMH." My book cover had the movie version on the cover and was held together with tape from my continual rereading.
November 2, 2025 at 2:04 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
next up

Recently finished "The Love Haters" by the same author, and I remember liking "The Bodyguard" by her also, so hoping for the best here.

Any other Katherine Center fans out there? Who else do you like?

#romancelandia 💙📚 🌶️📚
Cover of "The Rom-Commers" by Katherine Center. Male and female white figures smile at each other. She is dressed up, he's dressed down. Colors are bright and sunny.
October 31, 2025 at 6:27 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Current read. A rom-com featuring octogenarian grandfathers who get up to multiple shenanigans, including blackmailing their grandkids into an engagement.

💙📚 🌶️📚 #romancelandia
Cover of "A Proposal They Can't Refuse" by Natalie Cana. Shows two characters facing off across a table which contains a very shiny engagement ring. She is Puerto Rican and he is Irish-American.
October 30, 2025 at 6:19 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Anyone who thinks being #ActuallyAutistic means lacking empathy should learn about Double Empathy Problem. A simple internet search will do.

For a little deeper exploration, this is a good and short read (a collection of papers and essays).

#BookSky #disability #neurodiversity #autism #empathy
Cover of "A Mismatch of Salience: Explorations of the Nature of Autism from Theory to Practice" by Dr. Damian E M Milton. Image shows a black tree with the hint of human profiles facing opposite directions over a calm yellow-blue gradient.
October 29, 2025 at 10:42 AM
chessawrites.bsky.social
next up, something with adventure

Read by Andrew Eiden, aka Teddy Hamilton, and Emily Ellet, whose voice sounds familiar but I can't remember where I've heard her before.

Not expecting accurate spycraft, but this should be a nice change of pace and distraction from stress.

💙📚 🌶️📚 🎧📚
Cover of "The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold" by Ally Carter. Retro spy-looking art of a blonde woman with a male figure reflected in her sunglasses.
October 28, 2025 at 11:43 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Think there'll be an interview?
Images showing that Fox News commenter Robert O'Neill has appeared in costume as a "former antifa member" and former "Mexican Mafia" member.
October 28, 2025 at 2:43 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Current book

Didn't get into it right away, but I think that's more my stressed brain than anything wrong with the book. I thought it might be a little too cute, but it hit its stride quickly and now I'm enjoying it.

💙📚 🌶️📚 🎧📚
Cover of "The Love Haters" by Katherine Center. Shows white male and female figures lounging on inner tubes surrounded by palm fronds.
October 28, 2025 at 1:40 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
your halloween costume is "sexy" + the last thing you google searched

Sexy Jack Smith
Public domain image of Jack Smith found on Wikimedia. Degree of sex appeal may depend on the the degree of antifascist sentiment in the beholder.
October 25, 2025 at 12:24 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Current read. Like so many FMCs, this one happens to be a romance novelist.

Apparently, this character couldn't sell her book with a likeable hero, so she wrote all the worst qualities of her HS crush-gone-bad/current hockey star into the book that actually sold. HS mean girl exposes this.

💙📚 🌶️📚
Cover of "Writing Mr. Wrong" by Kelley Armstrong. Shows a woman writing with a thought bubble containing a picture of a man playing hockey while wearing a kilt. "What happens when the inspiration for your Highland hero is outed as your pro hockey crush?"
October 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
It's actually possible to defeat fascism without adopting its iconography.

I refuse to be scolded for having standards.
Jeffrey Phillips says: After hearing this guy shitposts on Reddit and has sick tats, I'm even more FOR him to defeat Susan Collins. We need to stop holding rising Progressives to impossible standards; more real and imperfect they are, the more we need them in office. Can't fight Nazis w/ the Hakeem Jeffries of the world!
October 22, 2025 at 10:57 AM
chessawrites.bsky.social
With alt text.

#NoKings
Protest sign with a frog sitting on an upside down crown, holding a saucer and cup with hot liquid, looking slightly grumpy. Text: "I caught the Woke Mind Virus and all I got was empathy and critical thinking skills."
October 18, 2025 at 10:06 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Just checked this out on Libby. Haven't read anything by this author yet. Proceeding with cautious optimism.

🌶️📚💙 🎧📚
Cover image for "Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour" by Nora Nguyen. Shows, from behind, male and female figures holding hands on the beach looking out at the water.
October 16, 2025 at 6:31 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Need something light to listen to and this library hold came up. I like this author, but last time I read an enemies-to-lovers story from her (not my favorite trope), I DNFed it. Wish me luck -- I'm going in.

#romancelandia 💙📚 🌶️📚 🎧📚
Cover art for "The Enemy" by Sarah Adams. Shows white male and female figures looking at each other over their shoulders, a donut in between them. A circle reads "A Romantic Comedy."
October 15, 2025 at 6:22 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
Current read. So far, it seems to be what I was looking for: Not a prescriptive formula, but something to spur my thinking about ways to model narrative. Why do stories take the shape they do? Why do certain shapes feel right? Why do some subversions of convention work, and others not? #writing 💙📚
Cover of book by John Yorke: "Into the Woods: A Five Act Journey into Story." Simple black background with white writing and the orange Penguin logo at the bottom.
October 14, 2025 at 3:10 PM
chessawrites.bsky.social
My current read/listen. Gonna have major daydreams about traveling the continent in a converted school bus now.

💙📚 🌶️📚 🎧📚 #reading #books #spoonie #romance
Book cover for "Next to You" by Hannah Bonam-Young. Shows a brown-skinned man with a bun carrying a pink-haired white woman on his shoulders. She is holding a can of paint the same light blue as the school bus in the background.
October 12, 2025 at 5:30 PM