While Night For Day has a great premise and interesting characters, the follow-through just isn’t there. The characters range from two-dimensional to While Night For Day has a great premise and interesting characters, the follow-through just isn’t there. The characters range from two-dimensional to outright annoying, the prose switches abruptly from third-person prescient to third-person omniscient from one paragraph to the next, and the book simply moves at a glacial pace that doesn’t suit the narrative style or the story.
It’s all flash, no substance, and simply isn’t a good read.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Since this review has a rating of three stars or lower it will not be appearing on my social media sites. Thank you.
File Under: AAPI Fiction/Fantasy/Romantasy/Paranormal Fantasy/Urban Fantasy ...more
Man, oh man this one was hot. Fire. Spicy filthy hot.
This is the third book in the Park Avenue Princes book series and hooboy Ella and Brooke knockedMan, oh man this one was hot. Fire. Spicy filthy hot.
This is the third book in the Park Avenue Princes book series and hooboy Ella and Brooke knocked this one out of the park!
Preston Abernathy is the diplomatic good boy of the Park Avenue Princes: Straight, has a long-term girlfriend, doesn’t go around boozing and carousing as much as the other guys, does a lot of volunteer work, and does all his homework. Right?
Preston’s been keeping secrets: He’s very gay, his girlfriend is his happy bestie beard, he doesn’t really want the life his parents have had planned out for him, he’s starting to chafe at the sight of all of his friends falling in love and being happy around him, and he’s been in love with his girlfriend’s father for years.
This book just hits so many of my buttons: age difference (around 20 years), sexy men in sharp clothing (AKA expensive clothing and suits), filthy talk, voyeurism/exhibitionism, let’s-have-sex-in-as-many-positions-as-possible, and these two are just so lovely together in general. They take care of one another and pay attention to one another. I don’t know if there’s a kink for getting off on the fact that someone is so turned on by your age, but that’s in there too. I don’t know what it is, but I love it and I want more of it.
Preston’s friendship with Serena, Archer’s daughter, is one of the most important cornerstones of this book and I’m so happy with how Ella and Brooke handled it. It could’ve been mishandled so easily in other authors hands. She’s written as strong, knowing, and competent but not so blase that she comes off as cold and uncaring. She’s warm and emotional and cares about both Preston and her father. I cared a great deal about what would happen with her and I’m happy with the result.
I highly suggest you read this if you haven’t gotten into the series yet and then go back and start at the beginning. If you’re looking for an endorsement for the next book if you’ve read the first two books, then know you won’t be disappointed in the least. It’s hot and I’m here for it.
I was provided a copy of this title by the authors. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was offered or accepted in exchange for this review. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Age Gap Romance/Book Series/College Romance/Contemporary Romance/Forbidden Romance/Gay Romance/Kindle Unlimited/LGBTQ Romance/MM Romance/Romance Series/Spice Level 3 ...more
The Heart of Smoke is the third book in K. Webster’s Shameful Secrets book series, which are interconnected standalones follReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
The Heart of Smoke is the third book in K. Webster’s Shameful Secrets book series, which are interconnected standalones following members of the rich and somewhat eccentric Park family: this family doesn’t do conventional love and they sure do protect the hell out of one another.
The Heart of Smoke has us turning our attention to Jude Park, a reclusive member of the Park family who spends the majority of his time hiding away in a shared house with his grandfather behind a mask due to extensive burns from attempting to rescue his mother from a house fire when he was a teenager. Now it’s twenty years later and the Park family patriarch, Nathan, is bringing in a therapist named Tate Prince to help everyone in the family–especially Jude.
I was drawn to this book because I’m almost always drawn to forbidden romances where the forbidden aspect is a violated therapist/patient dynamic and because I enjoyed the first book in this series (The Teacher of Nothing). This book looks and sounds a lot hotter and more forbidden than it actually read as, in my opinion.
It’s a slow burn. I didn’t expect that and I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy slow burn romances at all, especially when it comes to forbidden romance. There has to be a very interesting story at hand to convince me to enjoy a book when slow burn is at work, and the story here wasn’t interesting enough to distract me from that. The writing wasn’t so terrific, the characters weren’t so interesting, the setting wasn’t distracting enough. All I could keep thinking about was, “I’ve read so many books in a similar vein and this isn’t offering me anything much different”.
What this book did end up offering me that felt like this book was above average was the interfamilial relationships. I greatly enjoyed the different Park family members and how they interacted with one another and with Tate behind closed doors in their therapy sessions.
Otherwise, the book was just a little above average. I’m sure if you love K. Webster it’ll totally slake your thirst for her work.
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was offered or accepted in exchange for this review. Thank you.
I’ll admit to not being the hugest fan of the first book in this duology (at least I think it’s going to end up staying a duology). I loved the storylI’ll admit to not being the hugest fan of the first book in this duology (at least I think it’s going to end up staying a duology). I loved the storyline but I wasn’t completely on board with all the monsters present in Fractured Shadows (I’m terrified and grossed out by snakes, if you need a clue) and that affected some of my enjoyment of the book. It’s a little hard to completely enjoy a book where one of the MMCs makes you kind of wanna throw the book out of sheer squick.
I found myself absolutely enchanted by Shadowed Heart. This book was all the storyline and plot I loved from Fractured Shadow, but with more fluff and less squick.
I will go ahead and say, as I do with most of K.A. Knight and Kendra Moreno’s darker co-writes: Please check your TW/CWs. Take care of you.
This book begins almost right where Fractured Shadow left off. You can read these books as standalones, but they are deeply interconnected. I personally don’t recommend reading them as standalones. YMMV. This, of course, means we’re in a very dark and sad place for the FMC of Shadowed Heart, Kai. Kai spent the entirety of Fractured Shadow inside the palace of the evil Gilded King as her sister fought to gain strength and confront the king to rescue her sister. Well, they might have won that battle, but Kai has been through a tremendous amount of trauma and a kingdom in time of transition is always a volatile thing.
Kai finds herself in the Dead Lands, where the monsters dwell. It’s here that she is healed by the first of her eventual mates, and as she spends more time in the now-healing Dead Lands she meets the rest of her mates, learns not all monsters are bad, and grows to love the dark beauty of the place. Then Kai and her mates discover that the Dead Lands are being threatened, and they need to seek her sister’s help to heal the land.
It was really nice to see something sweeter and more subtle from Knight and Moreno. These monsters may be hungry, but they’re conscientious of Kai and her trauma. They nurture her, court her, spend time with her and with each other, and just travel the Dead Lands so we readers can learn to care for the lands as much as the characters do. The spice starts out slow and sweet, but it does grow in heat and intensity so that by the end it’s hitting hard and heavy.
I really loved having the time that can be taken up sometimes by too much spice to get to know more about the MMCs in this book, since they all had interesting backstories. It also allowed for available page space to devote to a few passages from Cora’s (Kai’s sister) POV as the book goes along so we get a peek inside her mind as the plot progresses.
It’s a great read and a great continuation from Fractured Shadow. I highly recommend it.
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. This review was written without compensation.
Cascade Failure is just plain fun to read. It’s got that found-family-full-of-misfits feeling from Firefly mixed with a whole lot of adrenaline-spikedCascade Failure is just plain fun to read. It’s got that found-family-full-of-misfits feeling from Firefly mixed with a whole lot of adrenaline-spiked space adventure and a truly great sense of emotion and humor. It was science fiction sunshine in a book…except with way more dead bodies. So maybe a partly-cloudy day in science fiction land?
I’m an atheist, but there’s a saying that goes something along the lines of: You make plans and god laughs. Well, something like that is certainly what happened when a guy named Jal is wandering around the docks on a space station looking to board a ship for his own (very personal) reasons and accidentally lands himself exactly where he doesn’t think he wants to be but maybe exactly where he needs to be. The captain is an AI who is more human than most humans, the engineer is also the doctor and wouldn’t know tact if it smacked her in the face, and the XO and he have…issues. Let’s call them issues. It’s just easier that way.
But then they intercept a distress signal from a planet where everyone’s died all at once from something horrible, and the lone survivor has a story to tell, a theory about it, and a possible solution. They’re all absolutely nuts, but if they survive they might have just saved the universe.
I know Sagas is a debut author, but this really doesn’t feel like a debut effort; and when I say that, I mean that it feels almost effortless. I feel like the crew of The Ambit has been living in Sagas head for a long time, like they’re friends rather than characters. The world building in this book is amazing, like maybe Sagas has been writing backstories for these characters, these planets, these space stations, and everything involved for quite some time now–almost like simulations she would eventually use to finally build the language that would bring this book to life. It’s an amazing story that ends up being a compulsive, page-turning read. I’m dying for book two!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Found Family/Science Fiction ...more
What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the middle of a horror film?
I Was a Teenage Slasher is a campy, satirical take on the slasher genrWhat would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the middle of a horror film?
I Was a Teenage Slasher is a campy, satirical take on the slasher genre of horror novels, set in the dry and flat landscape of West Texas in 1989. This was the year that Jason took Manhattan, Michael Myers got revenge, and Freddy had a dream child. It was also the year Motley Crue visited Dr. Feelgood.
Instead of approaching the slasher story from the POV of the Final Girl, as is genre convention, IWaTS tells the story from the slasher’s POV in an autobiographical manner. This narrative structure is a great twist on the genre, but it also directly insinuates our narrator is unreliable. That’s doubly true for Tolly Driver, who shows signs early in the story of having a habit of shifting blame. There’s some great subtext in this book about whether or not Tolly becoming a slasher was because of trauma, infection, or both, which I thought was very deftly woven in, given how trauma usually does have something to do with violence in teenagers and how violence can be contagious.
The premise, campiness, satire, and interpersonal scenes in this book were all great. I also really enjoyed whenever Tully became the slasher. It was the rest of the book where I ran into a problem. The rambling and tangents definitely made sense for the structure and purpose of the story and informed some of the plot, but I was bored. I honestly kept wanting to skim those parts. Sometimes stream of consciousness works for me and sometimes it doesn’t.
The last 10% of this book was fantastic and the ending blew me away. In the end it was a very uneven read for me. I know this book has gottens fantastic review from a great deal of my mutuals, so I have a feeling this might only be me.
I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review is rated three stars or below, so it will not be appearing on my social media. Thank you.
Often I find I love these punch bowl novels more than most straight-up genre fiction novels. By punch bowl, I rather mean something like what I and myOften I find I love these punch bowl novels more than most straight-up genre fiction novels. By punch bowl, I rather mean something like what I and my friends call “jungle juice”: a bottle of this wine, a bottle of this liquor, a bottle of that liquor, a bottle of champagne, a bottle of some clear soda like 7-Up, a whole lot of frozen, chopped up fruit thrown in to keep it cold and to mask the taste of the alcohol… You know? A little bit of everything thrown into one big bowl until it becomes something dizzying, delightful, and unpredictable.
That’s what The Ministry of Time is: part-spy thriller, part-time travel romance, part-science fiction novel, part-psychological fiction, a whole lot speculative fiction (which is really what this novel should just be classified as, but try telling that to marketers), and it’s all wrapped up in such lovely storytelling prose I can only describe it as literary fiction.
This book led me through hill and dale, up mountains and down into valleys. It was funny, only to take a steep drop into darkness. Romantic one second, only to turn around and be bereft the next. Often I didn’t know if I should be crying or not. Sometimes I’d find myself crying and didn’t know I had started. This story and these characters wound themselves around my heart, latching on with hooks, for good or for ill, and I knew this could only end in heartbreak but it was worth holding on anyway.
Insofar as the dynamic between our two main characters and their sociocultural norms and mores, that’s an intrinsic issue built into the framework of the book and is too much to explore in a review. It’s completely interesting, though. I highly recommend the whole thing.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Blood Debts was a five star read for me in 2023. I was absolutely enthralled with the world building, the political intrigue, the diversity of the chaBlood Debts was a five star read for me in 2023. I was absolutely enthralled with the world building, the political intrigue, the diversity of the characters, and the commentary on social justice and cultural heritage.So I couldn’t wait to read Blood Justice; however, this sequel fell really short of every standard its predecessor set and it made me so sad.
The world building was mostly done in Blood Debts, but it’s nicely expanded on just the right amount in this book. We get a bit of a deeper dive into some of the supporting characters in the overall storyline too, which is always nice (and Benton-Walker manages to do this without taking away necessary page time from our trio of main characters, which is no mean feat).
Where I ran into some issues was with the political intrigue, which went from genuinely compelling in Blood Debts to feeling a bit closer to something out of a teen drama in this book, and with the pacing of this book. Act one of this book moves so slowly it’s hard to engage with this book at all at first. In act two, a lot of the scenes start to feel repetitive and the book starts to feel like it’s walking in circles. By the time you’re in the middle in the third act, you realize the book is out of surprises and the book has definitely gone on too long.
It’s not that I don’t love this series. I do. It’s a wonderful story that doesn’t pull punches and has a great deal of diversity. It has a lot to say and Benton-Walker has a great way of saying it. This sequel didn’t do the story, as a whole, any favors.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Because of the three star or lower rating this review will not be appearing on my social media.Thank you.
If you decided to try and pick Under the Palms up without reading Beneath the Surface first then you need to rethink that deReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
If you decided to try and pick Under the Palms up without reading Beneath the Surface first then you need to rethink that decision right away, because you’ll be totally lost trying to read this book without reading BtS first. That’s the first thing I need to say.
The second most important thing I need to say is: While I was happy to hear and see that The Kingsleys were getting another book (because why not have another book full of rich, unscrupulous people doing more unscrupulous things?) I was kind of disappointed with the story Kaira Rouda chose to tell.
Under the Palms takes place roughly a year, maybe two, after the events of Beneath the Surface, and company President Paige Kingsley has organized a company retreat at a luxury retreat in the hills. This corporate retreat is more than it seems, of course, because everyone at Kingsley is gunning to oust Paige as President and she’s pulling everyone together (including some surprise players) in order to stop this coup in its tracks.
I don’t mind that in a lot of ways it echoes the bones of the first book’s plot. In a way, that’s in line with how the characters in these books work, using each other’s tactics and weapons against them. What did bother me was how the female characters in this book ended up relying on males to get them out of their bad situations. I’m not a fan of female characters who are supposed to be strong willingly letting men lead them around and make decisions for them when they had previously spent pages declaring they’d never do that again.
So while it was a fun read, it didn’t do the Kingsleys justice. They deserved more depravity.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Book Series/Domestic Thriller/Murder Thriller/Psychological Fiction/Suspense Thriller ...more
The Pro vs. the Fan is the third book in Nicole Dykes’ On the Track motor sports romance series. I was really looking forwarReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
The Pro vs. the Fan is the third book in Nicole Dykes’ On the Track motor sports romance series. I was really looking forward to this entry in the series because I adore Cooper (the zealous animal shelter volunteer no one seems to able to say no to) we met in the previous book and because I’m a huge fan of “motorycycle” racing (I’m using quotes because there are a whole lot of different types of racing that involve motorcycles of different types).
This book didn’t end up being anything like I’d thought it would be and I was disappointed. It wasn’t a total wash, but it wasn’t a match to the two previous books either.
Cooper is a fantastic character, if a bit of a LGBTQ romance cliche. I’m an absolute sucker for any characters who are animal lovers, though. The larger issue for this book was Maverick. Not only did Maverick feel two-dimensional–he felt absolutely bland.
This entire book felt rushed. The chapters were incredibly short. The spice scenes were abrupt and without feeling. There were no cool racing scenes like in previous books to liven things up, and the plot just felt rather aimless.
Is it a worthwhile read? Yes. I love Nicole Dykes and I love Cooper.
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was offered or accepted in exchange for this review. Thank you.
Denise Williams and Brian Winchester were willing to go to the end for it, in a pact that had the potentiHow far would you be willing to go for love?
Denise Williams and Brian Winchester were willing to go to the end for it, in a pact that had the potential to destroy them both if they were ever found out, by planning and then carrying out the murder of Denise’s husband (and Brian’s best friend), Mike Williams. They would’ve gotten away with all of it if Brian and Denise’s personal demons hadn’t gotten between them eventually.
Turns out keeping a guilty secret this big for over a decade turns you paranoid and depressed. Maybe you can even delude yourself into believing you had nothing to do with it. Either way, the truth has to come out sometime.
True-crime author Mikita Brottman did an impeccable job with the research, writing, and pacing of Guilty Creatures (which is a fabulous title). Everything about this book, from the cover to the last page, is bathed in soapy, lurid, southern venality. Bottman takes advantage of the schadenfreude humor the public loves to read in regards to anything Florida and combines it with the everlasting love of seeing the pious revealed as depraved. There’s almost nothing that sells better than sex combined with religion. You would think all of this would make Guilty Creatures read as shallow, but it reads as compassionate to the victim, his friends, and especially his family.
Where this book tends to fall short is in examination of how the Southern Baptist Church, the Protestant work ethic, the myth of the American Dream, and the notion of Keeping Up with the Jones’ all likely informed not only the life and marriage of Mike Williams, but also the psyche and crimes of Denise Williams and Brian Winchester. Bottman is a psychoanalyst and missed a golden opportunity to really dig into how being very white and very American had a great deal to do with the why of these crimes. I would’ve loved to hear more about that. Otherwise it’s a great true crime read.
I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Under certain circumstances Ruby is, but her friend Val is definitely the type to break the rules. FlaunAre you the type of person to break the rules?
Under certain circumstances Ruby is, but her friend Val is definitely the type to break the rules. Flaunt them, even. Val’s an attention-seeker and a risk-taker. When on a school trip to Paris, Val nabs them an invite to a party down in the catacombs, but that’s a bridge too far for Ruby. When Val decides to risk it and go by herself, Ruby chases her down to try and stop a possible disaster before it happens; however, her ex-bestie and the class valedictorian insist on coming with to make sure both girls return. Val is excited, Ruby is reluctantly intrigued, and their escort is promising they’ll only be gone for a few hours and when else will they get this kind of adventure? Doesn’t a lack of fully-formed impulse-control centers suck?
I was never a person that felt a need to conform when I was a teenager, but I’m familiar with the feeling of chafing at the bit, of wanting to be let loose from the restraints that are holding you back and explore the world without constant supervision over your shoulder. That’s what this book reminded me of: The rush of adrenaline that comes from being out in the world for the first time but also the feeling that follows soon after once the adrenaline wears off resounding throughout your psyche telling you it’s too much too soon and you still need your support systems. At your age you shouldn’t have to be alone. You weren’t meant to be.
Diana Urban never lets me down in writing perfectly-paced and well-plotted YA thrillers. My favorite of hers still remains These Deadly Games for the sheer mind-screwiness, but the pacing and suspense in this book absolutely thrums with intensity. Part of the genius behind this book I guarantee is due to Urban’s love of the subject in conjunction with her dedicated research to the topic. The other part of the credit I feel can only be due to her insane dedication to atmospheric detail: the darkness, the claustrophobic nature of the catacombs, humanity’s inherent fear of being trapped underground, our collective beliefs surrounding the dead and death, and engagement of the senses in such foreign spaces.
This book is definitely more plot-forward than character, but that doesn’t mean the characters are flat. They’re not fully-realized, adult humans, but no teenager is. I liked that they’re not completely cynical, world-weary, or sexualized. They’re not without their trauma at the start of this book, but it’s the manageable kind. Which is good, because they’re not leaving this book in that shape.
It’s another really solid read from Diana Urban, and now I’m going to have to sit here and wait until she delivers another great thriller.
I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. I was also provided a finished copy by the publisher and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: YA Fiction/YA Suspense/YA Thriller ...more
I should begin by saying I might be a bit biased because Ava Reid is one of my auto-buy authors. I love everything she has written so far, and I lovedI should begin by saying I might be a bit biased because Ava Reid is one of my auto-buy authors. I love everything she has written so far, and I loved A Study in Drowning, too, even if my love for it is more complicated than the love I feel for, say, Juniper & Thorn.
I’ve seen numerous reviews from people who’ve said this book gives them all the “fall feelings”. Well, then I feel sorry for what you think fall is, because this book made me feel incredibly sad, heavy, and emotional. I felt as weighed down as all of Hireath (the Myrrdin family home mentioned in the book’s blurb) feels in all its waterlogged sorrow. (Interestingly enough, I know the word Hireath from its Welsh origins, and while there is no direct English translation, to the Welsh, it’s a feelings that mixes longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for what–or how–something used to be).
Wales plays more than one part in this story, as Emrys Myrddin was the name of Merlin, King Arthur’s court magician, in the oldest known Welsh texts. Sadly, in those old texts, Merlin was just as atrocious a figure as Emrys is in this book, in the worst of ways. Also, notably, A woman named Angharad James was quite a notable poet in Wales from the mid 17th to mid 18th century. Both her son and husband died before her, and she wrote a beautiful elegy for her son. The manuscript survived and you can find it online.
I think my complicated feelings with this book begin with how much I identify with Effy, our female protagonist. It’s in her struggles to be taken seriously in academia, her mental illness issues, and her trauma. (BTW, here is a good place to suggest that you look up a list of TW/CWs before you read this book, if you’re the type of person who wants to know what they’re getting into before they start a darker book). For Effy, books have been her only friends and her only escape for her whole life, and I feel that sentiment in my bones. Books never leave like people do. Books never die. Books never physically harm you. Books are reliable, a portal out of here. And Effy, well, Effy has needed something to rely on her whole life because she’s had no one else to rely on. The only problem is she ended up relying on a single book to hold onto everything for her.
This book has a lot to say about misogyny, r@pe culture, victim blaming, grooming, the theft of women’s intellectual property for the sake of putting a man’s name on the work, prejudice against women in academia, philosophies behind what you believe and what you know, unwanted children, folklore, mythology, the younger generation changing the power structures, and more.
But what I find I enjoy more than anything when I read an Ava Reid book is the writing itself. The prose. The atmosphere. The imagery. The sentence structure. The way you can almost smell the sea, feel the ocean spray, shiver in the cold, smell the damp, feel the wood flooring bow beneath your feet, see the termite holes in the baseboards. Her books are immersive and evocative. You can feel the heavy doors and freezing water. You can see the trees flying through the air and the curving roads. And this is why I can’t help but love Ava Reid: her writing, just pure and undiluted, is magical all on its own.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/College Romance/Dark Academia/Dark Fantasy/Disability Rep/Romantasy/Gothic/Standalone Novel/Spice Level 1/Women’s Fiction/YA Fantasy/YA Fantasy Romance
Merged review:
I should begin by saying I might be a bit biased because Ava Reid is one of my auto-buy authors. I love everything she has written so far, and I loved A Study in Drowning, too, even if my love for it is more complicated than the love I feel for, say, Juniper & Thorn.
I’ve seen numerous reviews from people who’ve said this book gives them all the “fall feelings”. Well, then I feel sorry for what you think fall is, because this book made me feel incredibly sad, heavy, and emotional. I felt as weighed down as all of Hireath (the Myrrdin family home mentioned in the book’s blurb) feels in all its waterlogged sorrow. (Interestingly enough, I know the word Hireath from its Welsh origins, and while there is no direct English translation, to the Welsh, it’s a feelings that mixes longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for what–or how–something used to be).
Wales plays more than one part in this story, as Emrys Myrddin was the name of Merlin, King Arthur’s court magician, in the oldest known Welsh texts. Sadly, in those old texts, Merlin was just as atrocious a figure as Emrys is in this book, in the worst of ways. Also, notably, A woman named Angharad James was quite a notable poet in Wales from the mid 17th to mid 18th century. Both her son and husband died before her, and she wrote a beautiful elegy for her son. The manuscript survived and you can find it online.
I think my complicated feelings with this book begin with how much I identify with Effy, our female protagonist. It’s in her struggles to be taken seriously in academia, her mental illness issues, and her trauma. (BTW, here is a good place to suggest that you look up a list of TW/CWs before you read this book, if you’re the type of person who wants to know what they’re getting into before they start a darker book). For Effy, books have been her only friends and her only escape for her whole life, and I feel that sentiment in my bones. Books never leave like people do. Books never die. Books never physically harm you. Books are reliable, a portal out of here. And Effy, well, Effy has needed something to rely on her whole life because she’s had no one else to rely on. The only problem is she ended up relying on a single book to hold onto everything for her.
This book has a lot to say about misogyny, r@pe culture, victim blaming, grooming, the theft of women’s intellectual property for the sake of putting a man’s name on the work, prejudice against women in academia, philosophies behind what you believe and what you know, unwanted children, folklore, mythology, the younger generation changing the power structures, and more.
But what I find I enjoy more than anything when I read an Ava Reid book is the writing itself. The prose. The atmosphere. The imagery. The sentence structure. The way you can almost smell the sea, feel the ocean spray, shiver in the cold, smell the damp, feel the wood flooring bow beneath your feet, see the termite holes in the baseboards. Her books are immersive and evocative. You can feel the heavy doors and freezing water. You can see the trees flying through the air and the curving roads. And this is why I can’t help but love Ava Reid: her writing, just pure and undiluted, is magical all on its own.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/College Romance/Dark Academia/Dark Fantasy/Disability Rep/Romantasy/Gothic/Standalone Novel/Spice Level 1/Women’s Fiction/YA Fantasy/YA Fantasy Romance...more
I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since it was announced because I just knew it was going to be good. It was so much more than good: it was I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since it was announced because I just knew it was going to be good. It was so much more than good: it was excellent! I enjoyed Icon and Inferno even more than I did Stars and Smoke. Marie Lu took the magic of Stars and Smoke and turned everything that made that novel work up to 11. What came out is an amazing sequel to a fantastically fun book.
We’re exchanging organized crime for an international special agent extraction and a murky conspiracy against a head of state. We’re exchanging a nascent romance for pining like a forest, opportunist exes, and vulnerable hearts. We’re going from narrow focus to wide. The cast is bigger, the stakes are larger, the action is more intense, and the fall is long and hard.
It’s like a romantic Bourne Identity, but without the mind erasure.
I love these books because it’s just like watching a movie like The Bourne Identity: I don’t care if every little bit makes sense or if it’s a little predictable. I just care about how much fun I have reading these books, and these books are an absolute treat to read. They make me happy in the part of my heart that loves fun, fast, action-packed, romantic, improbable-situation books. I loved every page. If Lu wanted to write another one I’d read that one too.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This book may clock in at 577 pages, but it feels like it’s so much longer. I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean that as a compliment. This book is This book may clock in at 577 pages, but it feels like it’s so much longer. I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean that as a compliment. This book is not a trifling thing–it’s a deep, dense, carefully-constructed, intricately-woven, and ineffably magical text that takes little to no time at all to sink a hook in you before reeling you into a story of an alternative history where Korea has had a shadow government at work behind the scenes since the 19th century. All of its members work to keep Korea unified, but not all of them agree as to how to do so. Some members don’t even know they’re members. Some become members posthumously. Some are tapped to be members, unwittingly, since birth. Cogs become sprockets that move the chain along the track.
To tell you the truth, it’s difficult to describe this book, because it’s not a singular book. There’s essentially four “books” inside Same Bed Different Dreams.
1.The present-day story of our main protagonist, Soon Sheen, a sometimes-author who works for a tech conglomerate called GLOAT;
2. The five “Dreams” that make up the “book” within the book, called “Same Bed Different Dreams”;
3. The story of Parker Jotter, a Korean War veteran/POW and author of a series of sci-fi novels;
4. A handful of miscellaneous stories about historical events that are tied to fiction and fact by tenuous yet absolutely fascinating strings, like absurd Reddit conspiracy theories or internet train wrecks you just can’t look away from;
There are two phrases repeated throughout the text, like magic, ritual, or religion. One’s a riddle and one’s evocative of an axiom or a proverb.
“Did the straight line murder the circle?” (Or variations on this riddle.)
“Same bed, different dreams.”
The first? Well, that you’ll have to figure out yourself, just like I did.
The second? Korea is the same bed. Everyone: the Koreans (North, South, or otherwise), Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Americans? They all have different dreams for that same bed. None of them involve unifying Korea as Korea. They all involve molding Korea into some kind of vision of what they think Korea should be.
This entire book is about the shadow government known as the KPG and their intergenerational efforts to bring about the unification of Korea no matter what. Kick everyone out of the bed. Same bed, same dream. No matter how delusional the vision, no matter how tenuous the ties. No matter how far-fetched the plans or how desperate the hope.
The research that must have gone into this book has to have been insane and had to have taken ages. From obscure film references to real and imagined Korean authors to real-life cults like the Moonies to American games shows to slapstick silent films to the assassination of President McKinley to the fate of KAL flight 007. The list could go on and on. What matters is that not only is the Korean War extensively researched for the purposes of this book (since a great deal of this book centers around the division of Korea), but that every real-life event and/or person has been extensively researched for the matter of this book so that when Park inevitably twists the narrative to fit his alternative history spin on matters, everything that needs to connect does so seamlessly, as if it was always meant to be that way.
Ed Park is an extremely talented author, deftly writing four books in one, all with different tones, tenors, and modes. Soon Sheen’s story of working at GLOAT and reading “Same Bed Different Dreams” in pieces is written like a contemporary fiction novel, with Soon playing the part of a beleaguered father and corporate drone that has become enraptured with a secret book that fell into his hands seemingly by accident. “Same Bed Different Dreams” has a harsh tone and clipped economy of words that reminds one of both a confession and a manifesto. The story of Parker Jotter, Korean War vet, POW, and sci-fi author is written almost like a psychological fiction novel where the protagonist is a psychologically-compromised war vet whose thoughts and ideas might not all be his own. All the miscellaneous stories about historical events and people sprinkled throughout the book here and there vary in tone and complexity but never vary in interest.
This book is a wonder, and one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s barely got a plot. It’s barely got a vibe. It’s barely got atmosphere. So what does it have? Beauty. The beauty of words. That’s all. It’s just a book that’s made up of beautiful words made into beautiful sentences made into beautiful pages made into a beautiful book.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without any offer or acceptance of compensation.
Part Six of Crows, part Oliver Twist, part gaslamp fantasy, part vampire fiction, a tiny touch of Camelot, and a hefty dollop of “British colonialism Part Six of Crows, part Oliver Twist, part gaslamp fantasy, part vampire fiction, a tiny touch of Camelot, and a hefty dollop of “British colonialism sucked for everyone not British” (except with fictional country names), this novel was absolutely amazing. As complex, deep, and beautiful as any lovely tea blend described in the book, I was swept away from the first page and loathed coming for air at all until I was finished.
Arthie plays the role of the Artful Dodger of a teahouse named Spindrift: they serve lovely tea blends by day and let beds by night. What Arthie and Spindrift collect best is secrets. Secrets let Arthie and her best friend, Jin, buy a whole lot that actual money can’t. Secrets aren’t going to keep Spindrift safe when the crown comes for the building, though, and a member of the guard with a secret agenda comes to Arthie with an offer she can’t refuse because with one heist she can save Spindrift and blackmail the crown.
I loved everything about this book, and I do mean everything. Hafsal Faizal is a wonderful storyteller who weaves real history with alternative history, spinning fantasy with the paranormal, and does it all with a breathtaking writing style most authors could only hope to imitate. Her prose is elegant without being precocious and philosophical without being pedantic. The world building is thorough and the imagery is glittering.
The characters are delightful, diverse, and multi-faceted. There’s cunning and pensive Arthie, elegant and gregarious Jin, naive and lonely Flick, rakish and manipulative Matteo, even the enigmatic and beguiling Laithe. A crew of misfits, led by Arthie, to a thunderclap end. It’s a cliffhanger, of sorts, and I can’t wait to read the next one.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Fantasy/Fantasy Series/Vampire Fiction/YA Fantasy ...more
I’ve been so excited for this novella. You wouldn’t be my greedy, grabby hands! Pansexual camgirl? Genderfluid stalker? High spice, low plot? Dark romI’ve been so excited for this novella. You wouldn’t be my greedy, grabby hands! Pansexual camgirl? Genderfluid stalker? High spice, low plot? Dark romance? Oh yes, please and thank you to all of it!
This novella was a bit of a fun project for Dana Isaly, sprung forth from her brain when she saw the cover (Can you blame her? It’s a great cover!). Clara is a camgirl, just trying to get by on her own in Boston. She works in a coffee shop during the day and cams by night.
Io is a private investigator, of sorts. They’ve been hired by Clara’s father to find her. The guy’s sketchy though, so Io’s been taking their time to study Clara thoroughly to really make sure they’ve got the right girl. Yeah. That’s totally why they’ve been taking their sweet time and fobbing off the client with excuses as to why there are no answers yet. It’s not because Io’s obsessed.
As Io works to gain Clara’s trust online, her obsession grows into a sense of possession and a hard protective streak. Clara needs to learn some lessons.
This book isn’t meant to be anything but what’s advertised: an erotic thriller novella with low plot, high spice, gender fluid and pansexual representation, a camgirl, and a masked stalker. The spice is very nice, though it’s mostly solo until the back end of the story. When those couples scenes hit, though, BOY HOWDY was I here for it. Io and Clara were smokin’ hot together. Steam up the windows and burn up the sheets.
Terrific novella just in time for Halloween. Loved it.
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Before you ask: Yes, this is a kissing book. It also has a brave maiden, true friends, lecherous royals, malicious intentions, a king of legend, a draBefore you ask: Yes, this is a kissing book. It also has a brave maiden, true friends, lecherous royals, malicious intentions, a king of legend, a dragon with a treasure, a curse, magic, battle scenes, betrayal, and true love.
I’m surprised this wasn’t marketed as a YA book, because it definitely could’ve found a great niche in that market. Our FMC, Fryda, is the daughter of her clan’s chieftain and kin to King Beowulf. Even though she is about twenty and should have been married by the time the book starts in earnest, she remains unmarried because seven years prior to the present-day events of the book she fell into a chasm in the earth and mangled one of her hands, which caused her intended to break off their engagement. She’s been deemed unmarriageable ever since. Not that she really wants to be married off, considering she holds a deep affection for one of the clan’s slaves, Theow, a Celt who was stolen from his homeland as a child.
This is Sharon Emmerichs’ debut novel, and as debuts go it was a terrific effort. The characters may be tried-and-true formulaic, but they are vibrant and have flaws and vulnerabilities. There are surprises hidden in some of the characters, both good and bad. Emmerichs’ definitely did her due diligence in the research department, even if some liberties have been taken with linguistics for the time period (I’m not an expert on 6th century Sweden demographics, though). To this day there is academic debate as to whether or not Beowulf originated as an oral tradition with pagan roots, a tale written by Christians, or if the truth is a happy medium. Emmerichs’ seems content to go with the happy medium route and not to try to deviate and for the purposes of Shield Maiden that seems to fit just fine.
The book really is enjoyable, with multiple POVs (but not so many that you go dizzy with them). The pacing is nice and brisk without any filler material. The only true downfall to this book, in my opinion, is that it’s rather shallow. It’s so fast-paced and determined not to be slow that none of the emotions invoked by the book have time to settle in and be processed by either the reader or the characters before all of a sudden we’re off to do something else. As a result, the highs don’t get to shimmer as much and the lows don’t get to sink so much. You don’t get a chance to feel any of it.
It is an enjoyable read though, especially for the YA set. I liked it a lot.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All opinions, thoughts, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Coming of Age/Epic Fantasy/Fairy Tale/Folklore/Historical Fantasy/Mythological Retelling ...more
Please Note: This review is for a sample excerpt of Empire of the Damned, NOT the full novel.
Obviously, this review won’t be long, because I want to Please Note: This review is for a sample excerpt of Empire of the Damned, NOT the full novel.
Obviously, this review won’t be long, because I want to avoid as many spoilers as possible.
I loved Empire of the Vampire. It was one of the first ARCs I was approved for when I first started reading and reviewing back in the summer of 2021, and I’ve been dying waiting for this sequel to come out. I can assure right, straight out of the gate, that I was just as enamored with Empire of the Damned as I was its predecessor, if not more so.
The book starts with a very much-needed Dramatis Personae, which I was very grateful for. It’s very thorough, not simply reminding us readers of who people are but also their context in the story. It was helpful enough to me that I didn’t need to go back to EotV and do a re-read to completely get my bearings. Considering the depth and breadth of the story contained in EotV’s pages, I think that’s fantastic.
The Marquis Jean-Francois sits down with Gabriel once more to continue recording history, which has now moved beyond simply Gabriel’s history and has intertwined with the history of the grail. We see great tragedy, hear of great horrors, meet terrible evils, and there is a betrayal. I was absolutely absorbed by what I read. Some passages in the book made me laugh out loud and some were absolutely insane, which is refreshing when the terror bites down. The illustrations were as gorgeous as in the first book.
I can’t wait until the full book is released. I know I’ll be preordering it. I have space on my bookshelf reserved for it.
I was provided with a copy of the excerpt from this novel by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without compensation. Thank you.
Immortal Pleasures is a fantastical take on what might have happened to one of history’s most divisive and mysterious figures: La Malinche, the Nahua Immortal Pleasures is a fantastical take on what might have happened to one of history’s most divisive and mysterious figures: La Malinche, the Nahua woman who rode and stood at Hernan Cortez’ side as he conquered Mexico. She grew up a trafficked girl in the Tabasco region but had an aptitude for languages, so she ended up with Cortez to serve as an interpreter. To this day opinions are mixed as to whether or not she was a traitor to her own people, but her ability to speak multiple languages and a penchant for diplomacy helped save lives on both sides of the conquest. Mysteriously, no one knows what happened to La Malinche when all was said and done. Immortal Pleasures offers a visceral, titillating, dark, romantic, and angry scenario in which La Malinche (now known as Malinalli) is turned into a vampire a few years later after Cortez has sent her away to live in Spain.
I have to say I’m feeling absolutely spoiled with the horromance lately! Isabel Canas (Vampires of El Norte) has been going on and on about how Horror Romance absolutely needs to be its own genre, just like Fantasy Romance, and I couldn’t agree more. Immortal Pleasures is a prime example of horror romance: Heck, it even has a HEA. The blurb for this book seems to be trying to sell us a love triangle, but that’s really wishy-washy. There’s no triangle to speak of.
What this book does so well–what Castro does so well–is world building. Her research is extensive and her knowledge is vast and she puts it to work so exquisitely to craft these impeccable horror novels based in Mesoamerican mythology. I loved the repatriation of ancient artifacts aspect of the story and I loved how the villains just found new and more miserable ways to exploit people (proving that slavers and colonizers truly have no conscience whatsoever).
It was absolutely wonderful. This lush, decadent, and immersive novel is going to stick with me.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Dark Fantasy/Historical Fantasy/Horror Romance/Horromance/Urban Fantasy/Vampire Fiction ...more
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