Matcha & Motifs

A matcha-caffeinated girl’s diary thoughts on all things books, reading, and writing.

  • Book Review: Reckless by Lauren Roberts 

    Matcha & Motifs Rating 5/5   Ilya’s Enforcer’s first mission is to capture Paedyn, the Ordinary, who is on the run after committing treason, after killing their king. As they uncover Ilya’s and each other’s secrets,… Read more

  • New Hobby Unlocked: Reading 

    A beginner’s guide on how to become a reader.  Picture this: someone asks you what you like to do for fun, and your response is, “I read”.   This could be you. You could be a… Read more

  • Book Review: Powerless by Lauren Roberts 

    Matcha & Motifs’ Rating: 4.5/5  A significant sickness left the Kingdom of Ilya devastated and with a gift: survivors were given abilities from heightened senses to extraordinary powers, and they are known as Elites. Decades… Read more

  • Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

    Matcha & Motifs Rating: 4.5/5  In this story, which spans the 1960s to the early 2000s, two unlikely women find they’re all each other has in a war-torn Afghanistan.  Someone told me this was a… Read more

  • Book Review: We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida 

    Matcha & Motifs’ Rating: 2.5/5 In an effort to read more works by Asian authors, I’ve picked this one up. We’ll Prescribe You a Cat is an award-winning bestseller Japanese book about cats’ unique effects… Read more

  • Book Review: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

    Matcha & Motifs’ Rating: 5/5  Across the ocean in Wendlyn, Celaena finds herself gambling, drinking, and fighting, unable to fulfill her mission of killing the prince. She’s soon discovered by one of Queen Maeve’s members… Read more

  • It Is

    To be loved by a writer is to learn that somehow there are multiple lifetimesand that miraculously they will find you in every one.That they would know you in any body, and see your soul coming from miles away.… Read more

  • Book Review: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas

    Matcha & Motifs’ Rating: 5/5  After becoming the King’s Champion, Celaena’s newest target is an old acquaintance. The king’s sources point to a rebellious uprising right in the city of Adarlan where Archer Finn is… Read more

  • “A stab at love (right in the heart)”: A reporting of my observational data and obsession with love 

    I’ve lived for a while now, and in that time I think I’ve loved a lot. In the same way that one has laughed a lot or cried a lot. In the same way that… Read more

  • Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

    Matcha & Motifs’ Rating: 4/5  Adarlan’s infamous assassin, Celaena Sardothien, is offered two choices: die as a prisoner in the salt mines of Endovier or become the King’s Champion. A glorified title for the King’s… Read more

  • Book Review: Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review 4/5 After a year of peace on the Moon, the growing unrest in the Celestial Empire makes its way to the front steps of Xingyin’s home, forcing her to embark… Read more

  • I’ve been blogging for a year, and here’s what I’ve learned

    About blogging:  Blogging takes a lot of work. I think my grammar is shit. Haha, I really do wish I had an editor, or just a friend who would review my work before I post… Read more

  • Book Review: The Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review 3.8/5  The daughter of the Moon Goddess, Xingyin, is forced to flee her home when her secret existence is detected by the Celestial Magesties. Things go wrong and Xingyin finds… Read more

  • My Top 6 Reads of 2024

     As a little recap on some of the reads this past year, here are my top 6 books. My goal was to read 24 books, and from that is this:  Number 6  The Housemaid by… Read more

  • The Martian by Andy Weir 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review 4/5  Mark Watney finds himself stranded on Mars after a tremendous dust storm forces his crew to evacuate. Now, he must face this barren wasteland alone and find his way… Read more

  • Nine Fine Gift Ideas for Book Lovers

    In the spirit of my favorite holiday season, Christmasssss, here is a list of gifts that I would love and I know your fellow book lover would love also!  1. Books  Specifically, something from their… Read more

  • Book Review: The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

    Matcha & Motifs Review 4/5 The Hardcastles are throwing a ball at their private estate, Blackheath, in honor of Evelyn’s return from living abroad. But here is where their daughter will die.  Aiden Bishop will… Read more

  • Book Review: The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review: 4/5  Nell Young is a bright and passionate intern at the New York Public Library, but that was before her prestigious father casted her out of the academic cartography world.… Read more

  • Book Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review: 3.5/5  This was a lovely read, it felt out of the ordinary for me just a tad because I haven’t read such a funky type of plot in a while.… Read more

  • Book Review: Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review: 4/5  Iris Winnow returns home with her brother to a city that pretends war isn’t happening. Despite authorities trying to silence their voices, Iris and Attie are determined to continue… Read more

  • Book Review: Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review: 5/5  As the gods wake from their slumber angry and ready to wage war, all Iris Winnow wants to do is get the columnist position at the Oath Gazette. She’s… Read more

  • Book Review: The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review: 3.5/5  After many years of saving housewives with Enzo, Millie is trying to put it all behind her. She’s taking college classes in hopes to earn her degree in social… Read more

  • Book Review: The Women by Kristin Hannah 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review: 5/5  The Women by Kristin Hannah is a historical fiction and coming-of-age story of a combat nurse’s time in-country during the Vietnam War and her battles after coming home.    This… Read more

  • Book Review: A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review: 4.5/5 As Nesta Acheron is forced into training with the number one person who gets her riled up the most, Cassian, can she confront her spiteful actions and learn to… Read more

  • Book Review: A Court of Wings and Ruins by Sarah J. Maas 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review 5/5 ***CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!*** Can the recently transformed Acheron sisters accept their new bodies and gifts soon enough to assist the inner circle? Can the Courts of Prythian ally together to… Read more

  • Book Review: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review: 5/5  !!!CONTAINS SPOILERS!!! After being saved and transformed into a High Fae, Feyre might be the key to preventing war, but that’s only if she can overcome her traumas from… Read more

  • Trees 

    And let me just saythat if the trees were to fall from the sky and land standing uprooted into the earth, it would lack the beauty that took time to grow from a seed to a sprout to the gargantuan tree… Read more

  • Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review 3.5/5 19-year-old Feyre Archeron is a huntress. With the cruelty of winter, Feyre doesn’t think twice about killing a wolf in the woods to provide food and money for her… Read more

  • 7 Reasons Why I Journal

    I love journaling! I used to keep small notebooks of all of my favorite quotes from books and Pinterest, and it wasn’t until I saw @bestdressed from YouTube talk about how to get into journaling… Read more

  • How to Start Journaling: 6 Tips from a Somebody Who Has Completed 6 Journals  

    You’ve probably heard of journaling and how die-hard fans rave about the mental clarity and self-improvement of it all. Well, as a die-hard fan myself, here’s my guide on how to start journaling.  Do you… Read more

  • Book Review: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

    The Empyrean Series Book 2 Matcha & Motifs Book Review 4/5 ***INCLUDES SPOILERS!!!*** Against the odds, Violet Sorrengail has made it to her second year as a rider bonded to not one dragon, but two… Read more

  • Book Review: From From by Monica Youn

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review 4/5 This was a thought provoking read. Going into it, I thought I knew what Youn was going to say, and although I resonated and felt a lot of what… Read more

  • Verde

    If I could drink up the hue of you, I would be a plant beaming chlorophyll.  Oh, a color so refreshing that you could turn carbon dioxide into glucose.  You are the speckles of moss on the north side of… Read more

  • Book Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

    The Empyrean Series Book 1 Matcha & Motifs Book Review 5/5 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised to be a Scribe, but when the commanding General, aka her mother, forces her into the Rider’s Quadrant, she… Read more

  • Hands: A Love Language

    I want so much more than delicate elastic fingersprimed and polished. Give me the hands that have dug the ground  harvested the rice, raised the children, and buried the dead. The generous hands that have cut the fruit and spoon fed… Read more

  • If the world was full

    The bend of my knee curves once  unable to run forever  like a river Read more

  • All We Are

    We are all  subways stuck in their tracksrunning parallel lines on a graph or horizontal streaks of rain on the windshield of a moving train  But some bodies car crash lips bruising supple nectarines we try so hard thatwe tend… Read more

  • Book Review: The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review 4.5/5   Not only did Millie Calloway just get fired from her job, but she’s also fresh out of prison on parole. Desperate, she begins working for the Winchesters as… Read more

  • Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

    Matcha & Motifs Book Review 5/5 Aspiring big-shot writer, Monique Grant, gets the story of everyone’s dream. Evelyn Hugo, an acclaimed movie star, wants Monique to do a tell-all. Between the many husbands and failed… Read more

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