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Showing posts with the label Romance

The Wren in the Holly Library by K. A. Linde (Review #254)

“Can you love the dark when you know what it hides? Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination. Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight. In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce...of sorts. But tonight, Kierse―a gifted and fearless thief―will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library...not knowing it’s the home of a monster. He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price. Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk. But he’s been playing a game across centuries―and once she joins in, there will be no escape..." Review: Now this is what I'm talking about!! Brin...

City of Thorns by C. N. Crawford (Review #252)

  "I never thought I'd be singing happy birthday to myself in a dungeon. And yet when a sinfully sexy demon crashes happy hour, that's exactly what happens. He’s known as the Lord of Chaos, and he’s mistaken me for my succubus doppelgänger. Happy birthday to me. When he tastes my blood, he finally understands I’m mortal. And I realize we have something in common: we both crave revenge. So, we make a deal: I can stay in the forbidden city to hunt for my mom's killer. In return, I’ll help him get the vengeance he craves. I just have to pose as a sexy succubus. One problem - he's my number one suspect. And that’s increasingly hard to remember as he teaches me my role: seduction. With each heated touch I drift further into peril. And if I fall under his seductive spell, death awaits me." Review: You don't know you need a good classic smutty paranormal read until you get one, and then everything falls right into place. It has all my go to favorite tropes. Force...

Dark Fae by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti (Review #250)

“What do a heartless Dragon Shifter, a cold-blooded Basilisk, an arrogant Lion Shifter, and a brooding, tattooed Harpy have in common..? Me. Elise Callisto. Vampire. Angel of vengeance. And a girl on a mission to destroy one of them for murdering my brother.I just don’t know which one did it yet.  When I kicked the ass of a Werewolf who was high on a new and dangerous drug called Killblaze, his final words painted a dark reality for me. The King of Aurora Academy killed my brother. The trouble is, there’s four kings at that school, and each of them have motive and cutthroat natures. Aurora Academy isn’t a place for the faint of heart. To put it lightly, my town is the asshole of Solaria where the dodgiest Far in the kingdom reside. The school itself is divided by the two gangs who run this town, the Lunar Brotherhood and the Oscura Clan. And guess what? Two of the kings run the gangs at the school, their hatred for each other so fierce I hear a day doesn’t go by without blood being...

All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman (Review #247)

  WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE ALL OF US VILLAINS DUOLOGY, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. CHECK OUT ALL OF US VILLAINS   FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1! "'I feel like I should warn this is going to be absolutely brutal.' For the first time in this ancient, bloodstained story, the tournament is breaking. The boundaries between the city of Ilvernath and the arena have fallen. Reporters swarm the historic battlegrounds. A dead boy now lives again. And a new champion has entered the fray, one who seeks to break the curse for good... no matter how many lives are sacrificed in the process. As the curse teeters closer and closer to collapse, the surviving champions each face a dismantle the tournament piece by piece, or fight to the death as this story was always intended. Long-held alliances will be severed. Hearts will break. Lives will end. Because a tale as wicked as this one was never destined for happily ever after." Review: Dude... ...

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman (Review #246)

  The Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls. The Tournament begins. Every generation, the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a secret tournament to the death. The prize? Exclusive control over a hidden wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world - one thought long depleted. But this year, a scandalous tell-all book has exposed the tournament and thrust the seven new champions into the worldwide spotlight. The book also granted them valuable information previous champions never had - insight into the other families’ strategies and weaknesses. And most important, it gave them a choice: except their fate or rewrite their legacy. Either way, this is a story that must be penned in blood.”  Review: We back and betta than eva!!! Okay listen, I’m a busy gal! So this took me 2 months to read. But listen, I don’t think that should be a reflection of the book itself.  It was a slow, slow...

Bone Crier's Moon by Kathryn Purdie (Review #244)

 "Bone Criers have a sacred duty: to ferry the spirits of the dead to the afterlife. But the gods demand a sacrifice from them to prove their dedication. Ailesse has prepared since birth to become the matriarch of the Bone Criers, but first, she must complete her rite of passage by finding - and killing - the boy she is destined to love. Bastien has been seeking revenge for his father’s death at the hands of a Bone Crier. When he finds Ailesse on the night of her ritual, their fates become entwined in life and in death. Sabine has never had the stomach for the Bone Criers’ work, but when her best friend, Ailesse, is taken captive, Sabine will do whatever it takes to break the bond between Ailesse and Bastien. Before they all die.” Review: This was such a fun little read! Honestly, I was hooked from the moment Ailesse attacked that tiger shark. The pacing for this was like NASCAR. We were flying through so much action and plot and I was here for it. There were times I will say that...

Onyx & Ivory by Mindee Arnett (Review #242)

“They call her Traitor Kate. It’s a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king of Rime. Cast out of the nobility, Kate now works for the royal courier service. Only the most skilled ride for the Relay, and only the fastest survive, for when night falls, the nightdrakes - deadly flightless dragons - come out to hunt. Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge: she is a wilder, born with forbidden magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals. And it’s this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by drakes in broad daylight - The only survivor Corwin Tormane, the son of the king. Her first love, the boy she swore to forget after he condemned her father to death. With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin must put the past behind them to face this new threat and ann even darker menace stirring in the kingdom.” Review: This was an overall decent book. It had all the necessary pieces for a good fantasy: a cool FMC, the privile...

Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi (Review #239)

  WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE SHATTER ME SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 6.  FOR THE REVIEW ON BOOK 1, CHECK OUT  SHATTER ME . FOR BOOK 2, CHECK OUT  UNRAVEL ME . FOR BOOK 3, CHECK OUT  IGNITE ME .  FOR BOOK 4, CHECK OUT   RESTORE ME . AND FOR BOOK 5, CHECK OUT DEFY ME ! "Juliette Ferrars. Ella Sommers. Which is the truth and which is the lie? Now that Ella knows who Juliette is and what she was created for, things have only become more complicated. As she struggles to understand the past that haunts her and looks to a future more uncertain than ever, the lines between right and wrong—between Ella and Juliette—blur. And with old enemies looming, her destiny may not be her own to control. The day of reckoning for the Reestablishment is coming. But she may not get to choose what side she fights on." Review: This has been such a long time coming! If I'm being completely honest, I needed to be done with t...

Finale by Stephanie Garber (Review #236)

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE CARAVAL TRILOGY, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 3. CHECK OUT  CARAVAL  FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1, AND LEGENDARY FOR BOOK 2! "It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist. With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him. Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time—only those who will win, and those who will lose everything. Welcome, welcome to Finale. All games must come to an end…" Review: This final installment I was scared to start, I won’t lie. From bei...

Songs from the Deep by Kelly Powell (Review #235)

" The sea holds many secrets. Moira Alexander has always been fascinated by the deadly sirens who lurk along the shores of her island town. Even though their haunting songs can lure anyone to a swift and watery grave, she gets as close to them as she can, playing her violin on the edge of the enchanted sea. When a young boy is found dead on the beach, the islanders assume that he’s one of the sirens’ victims. Moira isn’t so sure. Certain that someone has framed the boy’s death as a siren attack, Moira convinces her childhood friend, the lighthouse keeper Jude Osric, to help her find the real killer, rekindling their friendship in the process. With townspeople itching to hunt the sirens down, and their own secrets threatening to unravel their fragile new alliance, Moira and Jude must race against time to stop the killer before it’s too late—for humans and sirens alike." Review: I’ll give this book one thing, and that’s atmosphere. What a very middle of the road book. The prose...

The Excalibur Curse by Kiersten White (Review #234)

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE CAMELOT RISING TRILOGY, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 3. CHECK OUT  THE GUINEVERE DECEPTION  FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1, AND THE CAMELOT BETRAYAL FOR BOOK 2! "While journeying north toward the Dark Queen, Guinevere falls into the hands of her enemies. Behind her are Lancelot, trapped on the other side of the magical barrier they created to protect Camelot, and Arthur, who has been led away from his kingdom, chasing after false promises. But the greatest danger isn’t what lies ahead of Guinevere—it’s what’s been buried inside her.  Vowing to unravel the truth of her past with or without Merlin’s help, Guinevere joins forces with the sorceress Morgana and her son, Mordred—and faces the confusing, forbidden feelings she still harbors for him. When Guinevere makes an agonizing discovery about who she is and how she came to be, she finds herself with an impossible choice: fix a terrible crime, or help prevent ...

The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White (Review #232)

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE CAMELOT RISING TRILOGY, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. CHECK OUT THE GUINEVERE DECEPTION FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1! "Everything is as it should be in Camelot: King Arthur is expanding his kingdom's influence with Queen Guinevere at his side. Yet every night, dreams of darkness and unknowable power plague her.  Guinevere might have accepted her role, but she still cannot find a place for herself in all of it. The closer she gets to the people around her - Brangien, pining for her lost love Isolde; Lancelot, fighting to prove her worth as Queen's knight; and Arthur, everything to everyone and thus never quite enough for Guinevere - the more she realizes how empty she is. She has no sense of who she truly was before she was Guinevere. The more she tries to claim herself as queen, the more she wonders if Mordred was right: she doesn't belong. She never will.  When a rescue goes awry and results in the d...

Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab (Review #230)

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE MONSTERS OF VERITY SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. CHECK OUT THIS SAVAGE SONG FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1! "Kate Harker is a girl who isn’t afraid of the dark. She’s a girl who hunts monsters. And she’s good at it. August Flynn is a monster who can never be human. No matter how much he once yearned for it. He has a part to play. And he will play it, no matter the cost. Nearly six months after Kate and August were first thrown together, the war between the monsters and the humans is a terrifying reality. In Verity, August has become the leader he never wished to be, and in Prosperity, Kate has become the ruthless hunter she knew she could be. When a new monster emerges from the shadows—one who feeds on chaos and brings out its victim’s inner demons—it lures Kate home, where she finds more than she bargained for. She’ll face a monster she thought she killed, a boy she thought she knew, and a demon all her ow...

The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton (Review #229)

"Working as a Wench―i.e. waitress―at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, Kit Sweetly dreams of being a Knight like her brother. She has the moves, is capable on a horse, and desperately needs the raise that comes with knighthood, so she can help her mom pay the mortgage and hold a spot at her dream college. Company policy allows only guys to be Knights. So when Kit takes her brother’s place, clobbers the Green Knight, and reveals her identity at the end of the show, she rockets into internet fame and a whole lot of trouble with the management. But this Girl Knight won’t go down without a fight. As other Wenches and cast members join her quest, a protest forms. In a joust before Castle executives, they’ll prove that gender restrictions should stay medieval―if they don’t get fired first." Review: This book is a standard 3 star. Good, not great. And really not all that memorable if I’m honest. I appreciated the cause and the movement and I appreciated tha...