As we leave all the wonder books of 2025 behind us, the Quill to Live team has one more thing we actually want to talk about: novellas. Due to the extremely high number of novels that we tried to review in 2025, we didn’t have a lot of space to review some of the amazing…
Here’s a multiple choice question for ya: What does “Woof!” mean? A. It’s what my toddler calls all doggies. B. It’s the only exclamation that can capture my feelings of returning from a stressful holiday season to write a review! C. It’s how I feel about Stephen King’s Cujo. D. All of the above. Ding…
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao is going to hurt you, and it’s going to be worth it. This is a complicated story that showcases the difficulty of duty, personal sacrifice, and the hard decisions that are required to do the most good, even if people are hurt along the way. Wei Yin helped her…
Ever since their debut novel, Leech, I’ve been eagerly awaiting Hiron Ennes next novel. As you may already know, The Works of Vermin fell into our top ten best of 2025 and for many very good reasons. The city of Tilliard is on the precipice. Its elite, though powerful, is facing stagnancy and rebellion. Its…
Continue reading ➞ The Works of Vermin – Producing Greatness
Birth of a Dynasty, by Chinaza Bado, is something a little bit old and a little bit new. It has the bones of many modern-era epic fantasy hits, and it's dialed in to a lot of the strongest tropes that make this genre popular. While it isn’t reinventing the wheel, it is also an African-inspired…
Continue reading ➞ Birth Of A Dynasty – Noble On Noble Action
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi had me sobbing, and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a delightful short novel that zooms in on four characters’ transformative and heartbreaking moments as they travel back in time to find answers and, hopefully, closure. The small cafe may seem unassuming, but it houses a doorway…
Continue reading ➞ Before The Coffee Gets Cold – Bittersweet
The Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman is hotly contested among QTL reviewers. Cole pretty vocally did not like book one, as can be seen by his review here. I was a little more middle of the road in my thoughts on book one and decided to stick with it to see if it…
Continue reading ➞ This Inevitable Ruin – Chekhov’s Artillery Strike
Thrum by Meg Smitherman was an interesting reading experience for me because I loved the big reveal at the end of the story, but I don’t like how we got there. I was very intrigued by a horror romance set in space, and despite Smitherman delivering one hell of an ending, the novella was a…
Lend an ear to listen to Amal El-Mohtar’s bittersweet tale of two sisters whose love can transcend all. The River Has Roots is a short, sweet lullaby that will pluck at your heartstrings and give you a love to believe in. As is tradition among the Hawthorn family, Esther and Ysabel sing to honor the…
The Black Company is an all-time favorite series of the QTL team, and I would argue it’s probably the single most foundational story in how we came to be a group reviewing books. So, it’s not an understatement to say that there was a disproportionate amount of scrutiny being lobbed toward a brand new Black…
