Sunday Sundries 021: Spoiler-Free Onyx Storm Review & Reading Resolutions

Plus, self-watering plants for folks with black thumbs

Welcome to Sunday Sundries, the antidote to—or at least a distraction from—your Sunday Scaries.

Hello,

Despite a polar vortex and the realities of our current political hellscape, I’ve gotta say I’m feeling pretty upbeat. (Turning off all breaking news alerts has definitely helped.) I was supposed to get feedback on my latest novel draft last week, but it was delayed, gifting me a blissful bonus week of half-working. Naturally, I spent it absolutely gorging myself on the new installment in the Fourth Wing series (more on that in a sec).

Otherwise, not a lot going on at the moment. Let’s sundry, shall we?

🐉 A Spoiler-Free Onyx Storm Review

I’ll be honest: I came into the third book of the Empyrean series wary. I devoured Fourth Wing in a hypnotic haze, staying up past 3 a.m., bargaining with myself for just one more chapter. But then, Iron Flame was a bit of a slog. I was confused for a lot of it, couldn’t care less about the introduction of so many new characters, and found the love story frustrating with a lot of circular arguments.

So, this third book was pretty make or break—would I continue this series or walk away? And I’m happy to say it made it… big time! Here are my spoiler-free thoughts:

• I didn’t do a re-read in advance, and watched this 8-minute video to catch up. It took me about 100 pages to feel back up to speed, but Yarros did a great job with little reminders. The only thing I feel like I lost by not re-reading was the romantic sub-plots for secondary characters. I couldn’t remember who had history with who, who had a crush on who, but that wasn’t a big deal to me.

• Thankfully, there were minimal new characters. We already have enough people to keep track of!

• There was potentially less steam, but I found the romantic tension way more satisfying (and less frustrating).

• I love that this book expanded the world geographically, got into more of the dragon politics, and the gods system of the world, all of which I found really engaging.

• Iron Flame ended on an enormous cliffhanger that didn’t feel quite earned (IMO) because of how much of a slog the rest of the book was. In this installment, I enjoyed the journey much more, and appreciate the wild cliffhanger ending even more because of it! (I immediately ran to Reddit to read fan-theories).

• I think Yarros had a tough mandate given the amount of fan theories out there. I love that despite having deep-dived on theories, there were still plenty of surprises!

Do you want a spoiler-filled chat thread to discuss? Let me know in the comments.

📚 Reading (Less) Resolutions

There seems to be a reading trend on the rise, and it’s… reading less. The book girls are TIRED. Over the past few years, it feels like the bookish internet was on a mission to outdo their previous personal bests (and possibly each other) with ever increasing numeric goals. But this year, I’m seeing lots of book influencers aspiring to read less or prioritize quality over quantity. Want proof:

• Ochuko Akpovbovbo
  wrote a guest essay for
  Pandora Sykes
  about her goal to read less in 2024 after her voracious book consumption started to come at the expense of actually living.

• Petya K. Grady
  talks about reaching “complete & total book consumer overload.”

• Likewise,

  Sara Hildreth
  ’s #1 reading goal for 2025 is to “Read fewer books, better.”

• In a similar vein,

  Alisha Ramos
  set a non-numeric reading goal for 2025, explaining, “Rather than reading a set number of books, I want to make sure I’m fully engaged when I’m reading. For me, that often translates to annotating or close reading passages.”

I’m curious, how’s your current book burnout level?

If you have thoughts or theories about this, I’d love to discuss in the comments.

🪴 Plants for Those of Us Without Green Thumbs

My name is Becca and I’m a serial plant killer. In case you think I’m exaggerating, I’ll reluctantly admit that I once killed a snake plant, which the internet agrees is nearly impossible to do. (What can I say, I’m gifted!) When I moved into my apartment 5.5 years ago, I trepidatiously adopted 4 new plant babies. I named the largest, Brienne, after Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones. “May she be a fighter,” I joked to friends. Thankfully, Brienne is still kicking—she has some new leaves growing (but also some browning ones?). But her 3 siblings were not as fortunate.

My two new friends from Easy Plant. (L) Marbled Pothos; (R) Aglaonema

When I decided “New Year, New Plants,” I bought two from a new-ish direct-to-consumer e-comm startup called Easy Plant. A friend raved that her boyfriend owned a few, and they were growing so well with—and this is crucial—absolutely minimal intervention that they’d outgrown their pots! The plants came by mail, and despite sub-freezing temps arrived no worse for the wear. Then, you fill a side compartment of the specially-designed pot with water, which allows the plants to “drink” from below as needed. All you have to do is check the water supply monthly (I set a calendar invite). So far, I’m impressed!

If you too have a shameful plant past, this might be our year for plant parenthood.

• I learned about the Royal Ballet’s “pointe shoe room” from

  Ali LaBelle
  ’s newsletter and I’m riveted. Taking a tour is definitely #1 on my list for my next London trip.

• I felt like my water bottle wasn’t getting clean enough with a bottle brush, but these cleaning tablets did the trick.

• Did you see that Tinx announced a forthcoming romance novel? (It’s smutty! She gave it 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️)

• Layering a pair of Skims cotton leggings under jeans or sweats absolutely saved me during the latest cold snap. Highly recommend.

• If you’re also devouring all things Fourth Wing, may I suggest this Elle interview with author Rebecca Yarros? I found the parts about the darker side of her meteoric rise particularly interesting.

• We have a very Substack-y episode of Bad on Paper this week with 2025 book recs from

  Tell the Bees
  ,
  Alyssa Morris
  ,
  Michelle Martin
  ,
  Jordan Bogigian
  , and author Thao Thai.

• I wrote about my 2025 goal to up-level my skincare routine the other week, starting with testing out products from U Beauty’s “Index Set.” The brand kindly made us a 20% off code. New customers can use code BECCAFREEMAN.

  • I’m still loving their super thick moisturizer, but I also tried their Resurfacing Flash Peel last night and was impressed by the immediate results. My skin was so soft afterward and had less texture. I was wary because I have sensitive skin, but it wasn’t too intense for me.

See you next Sunday!

Becca