Isara Virelle has spent her entire life avoiding people. Unfortunately, becoming Eshani means binding your soul to five of them.
When the Binding Ceremony assigns her to Ring Six—the most elite fighting unit in Veryuun—Isa is forced into the last place she wants to surrounded by strangers who can hear her thoughts, feel her emotions, and know her secrets. Worst of all, their commander is Niko Veyshar.
Feared across the continent as Rathvenorn’s deadliest weapon, Niko is everything Isa has been taught to hate. Cold. Dangerous. Untouchable. And now they’re bound together.
As political tensions rise between nations and whispers of forgotten gods begin to spread, cracks appear within Ring Six. Ancient powers stir beneath the surface, forbidden magic awakens in Isa’s blood, and the bond tying her to her team may be unraveling before it has a chance to hold.
To survive, Isa must learn who she can trust. Because in Veryuun, loyalty is sacred. And betrayal can cost far more than your life.
Content Warning: violence
+ I thought this narrator did a really good job with the big cast of characters in this book. She brought the story to life, and I got a really good sense of the FMC, Isara, because of how she was narrated.
+ This story follows Isara who is curse-born. Her dad was killed by his wife (her mom) and everyone knows her story. It makes Isara a very distrustful, sarcastic and snarky character. She builds walls to not let people in but she’s forced to bind to 5 other people to make Ring Six – a fighting unit who need to rely on one another to survive. Most of the story is about training to be Eshani and in this Ring Six, and controlling her powers. Even though the story was mostly training and missions, I think it moved quickly enough because of the found family element which was my favorite thing about this book. Isa’s ring/her found family grew on me as they grew on her. She went from not having a family to getting a new one and it changes her.
+ The romance between Isa and her unit leader and enemy, Niko, is not the typical enemies to lovers where they hate one another openly. Isa is taught to hate him because her mother was Rathvenorn like he is. But the more time he spends training her, she can’t help the attraction. Plus he’s always in a mask that covers the bottom of his face which adds to the appeal. They get close through training and missions, there are some spicy scenes but then something happens at the end which makes me curious how their relationship will continue. So it’s a forbidden romance that they try to keep hidden,
+~ In the beginning I did think nothing much was happening in the story except for the training but I think there was something happening – the building of the found family, which is very important to Isa in the end. The second half picks up more as they go on missions. I liked seeing Isara grow throughout the story. There is political intrigue, Eshani lore, magic, betrayal and a twist at the end.
Final Thoughts:
I thought the narrator did a great job with bringing this audiobook to life. I love Isara because of her sarcastic personality and it was nice seeing the walls come down as she let friends into her life. I enjoyed the romance too but the twist in the end makes me wonder what will happen in book two. I’ll be looking forward to the next book!
If Salem would rather kill witches than let them exist, how much will one witch sacrifice to save it?
After her family flees allegations of treason in Europe, Amity Merriweather hopes Salem will be a fresh start. Instead, she finds a land poisoned: Toxic relationships. Crop failures. Sick children. Deep-seated superstition and irrational fear. With every death, the curse buried beneath Salem’s cobblestone streets grows stronger.
Gifted with rare earth magic, Amity has spent her entire life hiding, suppressing her magic. She has a chance to heal the town before hysteria turns neighbor against neighbor. But Salem doesn’t want saving. Every acre of poison she clears will risk discovery, and she’ll get no thanks from its citizens.
Meanwhile, Amity must choose between two very different men:
A male witch hardened by abuse, who would gladly burn Salem to its poisoned roots… Or a scarred shoemaker with a heart too generous for its own good. Knowing which path to take requires knowing both men, but more importantly, it requires knowing herself.
Amity has worn as mask for so long, she no longer can be sure of who she truly is.
As accusations mount and innocents are dragged to the gallows, Amity faces an impossible choice. Keep sacrificing herself for people who would rather see her burn—or abandon Salem to the curse consuming it.
Tropes and Triggers:
Love Triangle with a masked MMC Surprise (unwanted) pregnancy Elemental magic Generational curse Witch Trials Religious Trauma Morally gray characters
TALLOW AND BONE is a dark paranormal romance. It is a retelling of the Salem Witch Trials with a healer witch, a cursed village, and the choice between mercy or retribution.
The first in the Sons of Salem series— a seductive, dark why-choose romance filled with cursed bloodlines, secret societies, and a powerful heroine destined to save the coven.
Four cursed heirs. One forbidden witch. A desire that burns bright.
I was warned to stay away from the Sons of Salem. Not because they’re monsters—but because they’re broken enough to recognize one.
She is the life of the party. He is the villain you never wish to meet alone.
Tait Heartwalker may be the cousin of the Ever King, but royally good company he is not. He’s ill-tempered and unapproachable, sharpened by the hard responsibilities of life and loyalty. But to the dismay of Mira Sekundär, princess of the glamour fae, he’s also intoxicating to look at.
Despite doing their best to avoid each other, fate has other plans when an otherworldly storm shipwrecks Tait and Mira far beyond the boundaries of the Ever Kingdom. They are forced to break through the thorny barriers between them and work together to find their way home. One wrong step and they’ll never return alive…
Yet as their feelings deepen, a new threat rises from the waters. And this enemy is so dangerous, even the history books tried to forget their existence.
A young woman bargains with a demon to save her brothers, only to lose her heart in this slow-burn romantasy about dark magic, unlikely love, and the imperfect beauty of mortality.
The penniless in Blackbridge have only two choices: Sell the body or sell the soul. And thanks to Eda Shaw, business is booming.
Indentured to a capricious demon known as Mr. Night, Eda and her brothers arrange illicit Pacts on his behalf, luring the city’s most desperate into trading years of their lives for their deepest desires. When a Pact goes awry and her brothers are arrested, Eda realizes she’ll need an infernal ally of her own: Kit’rath, an infuriating demon with a curious penchant for humanity and the only being in Blackbridge that Mr. Night seems to fear. As they race to rescue her family and save the city from ruin, an undeniable connection sparks between mortal and demon.
But Kit’s help doesn’t come cheap. Now, Eda risks losing her heart to the one who claims her years—and saving herself may prove the steepest cost of all.
Rich with gothic atmosphere, sharp wit, and simmering romantic tension, Reap & Sow is a fantasy debut perfect for fans of Rachel Gillig, Hannah Whitten, and Heather Fawcett.
In the harrowing conclusion of The Eating Woods trilogy, an age-old prophecy will come to pass, plunging the immortal world into a blighted web of destruction and despair.
Fate has never been entirely kind to Maevyth Bronwick. Though, after having survived a sinister plague, grotesque monsters, and gut-wrenching tragedy, she never imagined things could possibly get worse. But cursed gods, she was wrong.
It seems fate was only sharpening its claws.
Ensnared in the golden gauntlet of the most sadistic general in Aethyria, Maevyth faces the wrath of a jealous tyrant who longs to watch her suffer a slow and painful ruin.
A torment said to be worse than death.
Without the protection of her blood magic, Maevyth is no more than a powerless mortal and must fight the urge to succumb to the cruelty. Not an easy task, given the devastating loss she refuses to accept—and rightly so.
Because Zevander “The Scorpion” Rydainn isn’t dead, after all.
He’s very much alive and seething with vengeance. Brimming with rage. Merciless in his pursuit to reclaim his beloved mate and bring the ancient godsflame to anyone who stands in his way.
A necessary brutality when a slumbering god awakens and Aethyria’s foretold destruction reignites the hunt of those who seek Maevyth’s precious blood.
Prophecies will unravel. Walls will crumble. Kingdoms will fall. And through it all, a monolith of truth stands unbroken: Their love may conquer all, but death will tear them apart.
The highly anticipated conclusion to theNew York Timesbestselling Hurricane Wars trilogy makes landfall— and as the winds of war sweep through Lir, Talasyn and Alaric must confront the truth of their hearts and decide whether duty or desire will lead them forward.
When the storm swallows the world, who will be left standing?
Throughout their political marriage, Alaric and Talasyn struggled to resist the undeniable pull between them, even as rising tensions forced them on opposite sides of a looming war. Hand in hand, they vanquished the cataclysmic threat of the Moonless Dark—and started to hope for a future together.
That hope is shattered when a devastating attack sets off a chain of events that tears them apart once more. Now, as two rival nations prepare for a final, decisive clash, the Master of the Shadowforged Legion and the last Lightweaver fight to find their way back to each other. But the odds are stacked against them, and time is running out…
Is love enough to rewrite destiny? Can a new beginning rise from the ruins of the past? Or are Alaric and Talasyn doomed to meet as enemies on one last battlefield? This explosive third and final book brings the beloved Hurricane Wars series to a stunning conclusion—where passion and power collide, and the fate of a divided world hangs in the balance.
Isara Virelle has spent her entire life avoiding people. Unfortunately, becoming Eshani means binding your soul to five of them.
When the Binding Ceremony assigns her to Ring Six—the most elite fighting unit in Veryuun—Isa is forced into the last place she wants to surrounded by strangers who can hear her thoughts, feel her emotions, and know her secrets. Worst of all, their commander is Niko Veyshar.
Feared across the continent as Rathvenorn’s deadliest weapon, Niko is everything Isa has been taught to hate. Cold. Dangerous. Untouchable. And now they’re bound together.
As political tensions rise between nations and whispers of forgotten gods begin to spread, cracks appear within Ring Six. Ancient powers stir beneath the surface, forbidden magic awakens in Isa’s blood, and the bond tying her to her team may be unraveling before it has a chance to hold.
To survive, Isa must learn who she can trust. Because in Veryuun, loyalty is sacred. And betrayal can cost far more than your life.
The breathtaking finale to the instant New York Times bestseller, Bitten!
Welcome back to the Wolf Queen’s Court.
Vanessa Hart is done being a victim. After the brutal winter massacre stole everything from her, she vows vengeance against her enemies once and for all—even if that means killing the boy she once loved…
Vanessa bides her time playing the role of a docile subject. But beneath her mask, she sharpens her powers, embracing the werewolf within while weaving a complicated web of lies, betrayals, and alliances to topple the throne.
Unfortunately, vengeance isn’t easy, and nothing in the Wolf Queen’s Court is ever as it seems. As the darkness of the castle bleeds into human society, it’s clear no one is safe. Cora’s vicious reign grows stronger by the day, Sinclair continues hiding deadly secrets, and Calix—the boy Vanessa might loathe most of all—is threatening her every plan.
With nowhere to run and no place to hide, Vanessa sheds the last of her humanity to play this lethal game of werewolves. And if she doesn’t win, the consequences will destroy her life—and the entire world as she knows it—forever.
Judith Ban, former convent girl, courtesan, and failed thief, is on the lookout for her next identity. The daughter of a Vietnamese adventuress and a French naval officer, she’s no stranger to risk, but she’s unprepared for the secrets of New York’s legendary Four Hundred, or for the women who build their power at the city’s heart through blood-soaked, gold-etched rituals of demonic marriage.
In exchange for enough wealth to outrun her past, Judith strikes a deal with the matriarch of the powerful Howard family: she will stand in for the missing Howard granddaughter, who was poised to make her debut when she disappeared. With Miss Iphigenia Marshall’s face stitched over her own, Judith is white, rich, and about to risk body and soul in the deadly games that determine which girls will find a match—and which will be devoured. If she can keep her wits and her life, her reward will be a husband with undreamt-of power who will be hers to command… so long as she can keep his infinite hungers fed. But to survive the season, Judith will have to seduce a storm in the shape of a man, before the night to which everything has been leading—the Scarlet Ball where the demons choose their brides.
A razor-sharp subversion of romance tropes and nightmare of manners, Vo’s fusion of history and fantasy does for Edith Wharton what her acclaimed debut The Chosen and the Beautiful did for F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The worldwide sensation as you’ve never seen it before. Step into a bold new Divergent series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth.
Beatrice Prior stands on the brink of a decision every person in her world must make: five factions, five futures, five lives.
She has a plan: she’s going to make the bravest choice, and leave Abnegation behind to join Dauntless, even though it means leaving her family behind.
But when tragedy strikes at her Choosing Ceremony, everything changes—her world, her plans, even Beatrice herself.
Her ensuing decision thrusts her into the crosshairs of an underground rebellion, and into the path of a boy with secrets as dangerous as her own—a boy with only a number for a name.
A young woman travels to the Alps to complete her best friend’s last request—and finds a love that’s closer to home than she realizes in this heartfelt romance from the author of Always, in December and Yours for the Season.
Ali has always loved Christmas, but this year she doesn’t think she’ll get through it. Christmas was always her and her best friend Robyn’s holiday—every year they made each other an advent calendar with challenges to complete before Christmas. Tell the hot guy at the coffee shop you like him. Delete your terrible ex’s phone number. Throw out the bathroom scales.
But this Christmas, there is no Robyn, because she didn’t get the heart transplant she desperately needed.
There is a calendar, though. Robyn gave it to Ali before she died and made her promise to open it come December. And Ali is going to keep her promise, no matter how much it hurts.
The very first challenge sends Ali to the Alps, where she takes up a seasonal job at a ski lodge she and Robyn had planned to visit. But when another challenge leads her co-workers to mistakenly assume that Ali is dating her boss—stoic, seriously hot Leo—things get much more complicated.
To save her from embarrassment, Leo offers to keep up the charade until Ali leaves. As Ali spends more time with him, she realizes Leo is grieving too—though for who or what, she doesn’t know. And as he begins helping her complete her advent challenges, she realizes she might just want to date him for real.
But there’s a lot they still don’t know about each other, and the truth behind Leo’s grief could bring them closer than before… or tear them apart forever.
With a grandfather’s dying words, Santiago learns that his bedtime stories weren’t myths. They were warnings.
Before he knows it, Santiago Rios is leaving Los Angeles for Lima, Peru. Armed with a mysterious map and hunted by ruthless tomb robbers, the quiet archaeologist is thrust into a brutal race across the Andes to unearth the lost tomb of the final Incan emperor.
His only weapon is Ali, a fierce, feline woman who knows far more than she’s letting on. The closer they grow, the more certain Santiago becomes…Ali is trouble. Just the kind of trouble he likes.
To fulfill his grandfather’s final wish, Santiago and Ali will solve ancient riddles, outwit deadly enemies, and honor a legacy straight out of antiquity. Because it’s not just their lives on the line—not by a long shot.
Based on the true history of Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Inca people, indie sensation Natalia Hernandez delivers a powerhouse romantasy adventure set in the modern age.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey comes a gripping, heated romance about a girl trapped in a new reality, forced to make a choice between two brothers—one who is the high school golden boy, the other sworn to hunt down her kind—time travelers. This is Tessa Bailey as you’ve never seen her before.
Magnolia Brown loves Friday night football games, volunteering, and dominating at high school swim meets. Just your average everyday eighteen-year-old. Except for one thing:
She’s from fifty years in the future.
Magnolia’s parents, two brilliant scientists, are the inventors of time travel, but due to widespread destruction and rampant abuse of the technology from a corrupt few, time travel is outlawed and punishable by death. When Magnolia’s parents are seized and executed for illegally traveling to the past, they leave Magnolia stranded in 2026 without a way to get home.
Now Magnolia has nowhere to turn but a complicated Kansas family with two sons—Fallon, her high school sweetheart with secrets of his own, and Ramsey, the brooding militia commander who hunts and kills criminals like her. Magnolia knows Ramsey resents and hates her, but how can he be her true enemy when he looks at her with such hunger, despite his callousness, and guards her with his very life? Which brother can she trust and is the real danger coming from inside the house?
A botanical illustrator in Victorian England uncovers a country garden’s secrets in a fantastical novel of dark enchantments by the author of Tea & Alchemy.
In 1850, Catherine Gray, a botanical illustrator from London, travels to a remote estate in the Lake District to catalog and paint the specimens thriving in a mysterious glasshouse garden. The most bewildering find is a water lily that somehow alters its appearance. Nearly as puzzling is Thomas Bane, the brooding groundskeeper, who closely guards the estate’s secrets—including the disappearance of Catherine’s predecessor.
The mystery deepens when Catherine discovers the diary of Prudence Bane, Thomas’s late mother, which contains revelations about the odd flora and its hold on a family touched by madness. The more she uncovers, the more the line between fantasy and reality—and superstition and fact—begins to blur.
Unable to trust her own thoughts, Catherine draws closer to Thomas, her only anchor in this strange place. But even he can’t fully protect her from the house and his otherworldly family. Only Catherine can break the Bane family’s cycle of heartbreak…but first she’ll have to confront her own.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Please check out her website for more TTT topics!
This week’s topic is: Books that Conjure Up Happy Memories (Feel free to tell us about those memories if you’d like!)
Books to Get You in the Mood For Fall
The topic this week was too much thinking for my brain – my brain is tired haha. So let’s look at some books that could put you in the mood for spooky season, weather it’s fall romances or something darker…
These Vile Hearts by. Melody Robinette – this one is a fantasy but I love that it’s about Dryad Fae, it’s set in the woods so I think that’s got some fall vibes.
Tallow and Bone by. Rhiannon Hargadon – this one comes out today, but I read the arc and it’s got witches, Puritans (Salem witch trials), a love triangle and this was a tragic and dark book – like I did not walk away from this one happy. 😩. But all the dark vibes are there!
Bonetide by. Karina Halle – here is another dark romance, the atmosphere and setting are perfect for spooky season
The House That Eats the Dead by. Max Doty – do you like your horror a little differently? I loved this book and this haunted house charmed me, even though there were some gory scenes.
Hide the Witches by. Miranda Lyn – a fantasy that involves and hunter and a powerful witch in hiding. I loved all the different species and magic.
Stalkers Anonymous by. Dana Leeann – this one is a contemporary romance with no fall theme but stalkers are kinda spooky, this one has a little suspense, so I’m throwing this in there.
A Bargain So Bloody by. Vasilisa Drake – I love reading vampire books during fall/spooky season, so here’s one that I really enjoyed! Books one and two are out and did love book two more but overall am enjoying this series!
September 1: Books With Nationalities In The Title (e.g. The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Mexican Gothic, An American Mariage, etc) (submitted by Cathy @WhatCathyReadNext) September 8: Indie Freebie (This topic encompasses a lot: your favorite indie bookstores, indie books, indie authors, indie publishers/presses, indie books on your to-read list, indie authors I read before they became traditionally published, etc.) (submitted by @dark.shelf.of.wonders and Books Are The New Black) September 15: Authors I’ve Met September 22: Books on My Fall 2026 To-Read List (or Spring if you live in the Southern Hemisphere) September 29: Fall-Themed Freebie (or Spring if you live in the Southern Hemisphere) October 6: Books that Bring Me Happy Memories (Feel free to tell us about those memories if you’d like!) October 13: Book Covers Featuring Autumnal Colors (submitted by Wordy Witterings) October 20: Things That Make Up My Perfect Day (Share the people, places, activities, foods, circumstances, etc. that make a day perfect for you. Go into as much or as little detail as possible!) October 27: Halloween Freebie
Categories: Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Young Adult, Gothic, Horror
Disclaimer: **I received this book freeonNetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Dutton Books for Young Readers for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Sixteen-year-old Minerva has spent her whole life in the slums of the capital city of an unnamed country that resembles colonial Mexico. Though she lives in the shadow of constant government turmoil, her empty belly and her father’s brutality don’t leave time for politics—especially since her older brothers ran away. Minerva can’t take another beating or miss another meal, so she steals flees to a wealthy loyalist neighborhood to win a job as a lady’s maid to an elderly widow.
Minerva and Encarnación del Valle—the proud and acerbic widow—form an unlikely duo. They are both survivors in their own ways, stubborn and used to being underestimated. For a time, Minerva is happy. She has food and safety in a house lit and warmed by magical chispa. Why should she care who runs the country or how her employer afford the magic?
But when the viceroy sweeps back into power on a wave of horrific bloodshed that sweeps away any hope Minerva had of seeing her brothers again, Encarnación retreats to the del Valle’s mountainside estate, the Casa de la Gardenias. Minerva finds herself surrounded by dozens of more experienced servants and the cruel, scheming younger del Valles, but the living are the least of anyone’s worries at the Casa de las Gardenias, and soon Minerva discovers that this ancient estate is home to forces far older and more bloodthirsty than the fascist del Valles or the liberal guerrillas amassing in the surrounding wilderness.
Content Warning: violence, death
+ I feel like fall season is in full swing when I have a Isabel Cañas book to read. She just does historical fiction, paranormal, horror books so well! The setting is lush and has all the gothic, spooky vibes you would want. In this story it even has political unrest and intrigue with the Viceroy (leader of country) fighting the rebels. Minerva is starving and desperate but she finds a job with Encarnación del Valle, who is related to the Viceroy.
+ Minerva’s growth in this story is wonderful. She goes from a starving girl, who’s family has broken up – brothers joining the rebellion and a dad who abuses her to someone who is helping the rebellion take the Viceroy and his family down. She gets help by a spirit or ghost in the house, who is there to eventually take her chispa (which is like a person’s soul or life force). At first he comes off sinister and scary but their relationship changes when Minerva doesn’t show fear!
+ This one is a slow burn of a story but it escalates so nicely that I was racing to the end! I thought Encarnación taking in Minerva as a servant but teaching her things high society ladies know – like games and strategy was very interesting. She was Minerva’s employer but Minerva saw her as almost family, since she had none. There are a few complicated relationships in this story which kept things interesting.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, I enjoy the gothic and paranormal vibes of this one. The relationships are complicated and there is even political intrigue in this one. I loved Minerva’s growth from scared girl to someone who was tired of being stepped on and I even adored her strange relationship with Ygnacio. This was a quick read and perfect for spooky season!
Categories: Fantasy, Romance, Series, Enemies to Lovers
Some bonds are forged in blood. Others burn everything to ash.
In Grimora, secrets burn faster than witches, and Syneca Black is both. Forbidden fire magic courses through her veins, hidden behind a lifetime of lies because Hunters don’t spare phoenix blood.
When her best friend vanishes and resurfaces on execution scrolls, accused of crimes that she couldn’t have possibly committed, Syn risks everything and volunteers for a hunt that could see both of them killed. It’s the only way to protect the woman who is like a sister to her. But taking that oath means binding herself to Wickett, the legendary Hunter whose sharp eyes and lethal grace have ended countless witches’ lives.
Every moment beside him threatens to shatter her carefully built lies. Every stolen glance fans flames she can’t afford to kindle. He’s sworn to his cause. She’s everything he’s trained to destroy. But in a city where Sprites carry desperate messages and ancient Furies keep secrets, the most dangerous discovery isn’t the growing fire between them. It’s realizing that both hunter and hunted are dancing to someone else’s deadly design.
When the blood debts come due, Syneca must save the woman who stood with her in shadows or trust the man whose touch feels like salvation.
Will the world burn or will she?
Content Warning: violence, death, grief, abuse
+ Syneca Black is the Phoenix that the Magistrate and everyone else is hunting down because there is a prophecy that her power would burn down the world. Thing is, she’s been hiding her identity well but then one of her roommates and best friend, Vitoria, gets accused of being the Phoenix. Vitoria goes missing and the Magistrate puts together a group to hunt her down. Syn and her other friend Calder join the group so they can find her and help her, but also the Magistrate’s son who is a notorious hunter, Wickett is part of the group. I enjoyed the world building and the different species like sprites, shifters, witches, dragons, etc…
+ I love the found family in this story, especially the one between Syneca and Calder, but more people are added to the group. Syneca has a familiar that’s a grumpy griffin, and there is an Oracle, and Furies. It’s such an interesting cast of characters.
+ The romance is a slow burn and enemies to lovers between Syneca and Wickett, but I can’t say he was easy to get to know. He’s a hunter, he kills easily, and he marked Syneca as a person he will kill after their mission. So when the attraction grows between them, it does give us a spicy scene but also a twist in the story.
+~ I enjoyed this one and read it kind of slow, but it is almost 600 pages, so it was a bit long. But I was invested in the characters and the search for Vitoria. The twist in the story is very interesting and that cliffhanger ending has me downloading book two asap.
Final Thoughts:
I really enjoy the world building, characters, the slow burn romance and the twist and turns at the end of this book! I’ve already downloaded book two so stay tuned for that review.
+ It was a regular week and now it’s Fall Break for my kids! So we will be mostly chillin’ at home, maybe we will go see the Forgotten Island movie. But it’s expensive out there!
The Love Hypothesis (Amazon Prime) – this was kinda cute, I loved the female actress, the male actor was okay. I don’t remember the details of the book but I still enjoyed it.
Unabomber (Netflix) – I just needed to watch something on Netflix because why pay for it if I’m not using it? This was about Ted Kaczynski the Unabomber and though we get to learn about what triggered him to be the way he was, it was kind of anticlimactic.
Football
How was your week? Did you get a lot done? Watch anything good? Read any amazing books or books you didn’t finish? What are you reading?…Leave me a comment below!
Categories: Gilded Age, Paranormal, Gothic, Dark Romance
From USA Today bestselling author Nghi Vo, this all-consuming tale of ballrooms and bloodshed weds The Gilded Age with the Gothic vision of Guillermo del Toro.
Pick a face, pick a fate.
Judith Ban, former convent girl, courtesan, and failed thief, is on the lookout for her next identity. The daughter of a Vietnamese adventuress and a French naval officer, she’s no stranger to risk, but she’s unprepared for the secrets of New York’s legendary Four Hundred, or for the women who build their power at the city’s heart through blood-soaked, gold-etched rituals of demonic marriage.
In exchange for enough wealth to outrun her past, Judith strikes a deal with the matriarch of the powerful Howard family: she will stand in for the missing Howard granddaughter, who was poised to make her debut when she disappeared. With Miss Iphigenia Marshall’s face stitched over her own, Judith is white, rich, and about to risk body and soul in the deadly games that determine which girls will find a match—and which will be devoured. If she can keep her wits and her life, her reward will be a husband with undreamt-of power who will be hers to command… so long as she can keep his infinite hungers fed. But to survive the season, Judith will have to seduce a storm in the shape of a man, before the night to which everything has been leading—the Scarlet Ball where the demons choose their brides.
A razor-sharp subversion of romance tropes and nightmare of manners, Vo’s fusion of history and fantasy does for Edith Wharton what her acclaimed debut The Chosen and the Beautiful did for F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Content Warning: death, violence, body horror, self harm, drug use
+ I am a fan of this narrator, since I’ve listen to her narrate a few books now. She did a great job with this one as always.
+ This is a dark story about Judith, who is half French and Vietmanese, trying to survive New York City during the Gilded Age. She takes a job to stand in for someone’s granddaughter, she wears her face – it is stitched on and entertain men, but these are not just men, under their skin they are demon lords. And demon lords need to be fed or else they will eat you. The atmosphere of the balls and wealth with the darkness of the men being entertained was really intriguing, especially when one man, Sebastian starts to single Judith out.
+ There are some very interesting characters in this story, like the Howard family who are powerful in society. Mrs. Howard is who takes Judith in, entices her with money, but also throws her out to the wolves, knowing what these men are. Sebastian is a man but a monster underneath, he is an actual “storm” come to life and he needs to eat or no matter how much he wants and loves Judith, she will be consumed – he was fascinating.
+ The romance is unconventional because Judith is not who she is pretending to be, she’s trying to survive this world of the powerful, wealthy and demon lords. Sebastian though, wants her and even with the strange circumstances between them an attractions builds. I thought the ending and what happens between them was very interesting!
+~ I did think the first half of the book was a slow build and maybe I would have connected more if I read it as an ebook so I could visualize everything better, but things definitely pick up in the second half which was my favorite part. That’s when horror comes into play and I found the body horror quite gruesome, but so fitting for the climax of the story. We watch Judith finally able to fight and be herself.
Final Thoughts:
This is the first book I’ve read from this author but I’ve seen her name around. I think the narrator was great, but I do think the first half of the story moved too slowly for me. I did like the setting of the Gilded Age, the balls, gowns, wealth, debutants and then the demon lords. It definitely touches on a woman’s lack of power in a wealthy society. The second half was great and there is action, a monster romance, and some horror too. Overall, I enjoyed and will hopefully read more from this author.
I get many requests from indie authors to check out their book or to read it but I am so booked with arc reads from NetGalley, it’s almost impossible for me to find time to pick up anything else. Especially this year – I am over booked haha.
But I still want to showcase the books that make it into my inbox and maybe make it into a monthly post – depending on how many requests I get.
Please click on the links to find out more about each title if you are interested! It’s linked to Goodreads or the author’s website.
In 2086, corporations are monitoring fertility. Abortion is illegal. And the last woman alive who can perform the procedure is in hiding.
Seven years ago, midwife Mae Bastet was arrested for infanticide in the fractious Arizona Territory for providing health care to women in need. She was torn from her sons and sent to Buzzard—an experimental private prison deep in the Sonoran Desert, run by the paramilitary corporation Obsityan.
Desperate to reunite her family, Mae tries to keep her head down, swallow her prison-issued hormone supplements, and do her job as a glorified school nurse to Obsityan’s army of teenage drone pilots. But when mysterious, improbable pregnancies begin cropping up in her charges, she uncovers a web of secrets that has the power to destroy Obsityan. Mae must stay complicit in Obsityan’s crimes or hold fast to her midwife principles and risk never seeing her sons again.
Buzzard is a ferocious dystopian debut that traces the possible trajectory of our current political and technological reality—and the power of our deepest human bonds.
They work to save Earth. They have never been allowed to see it.
Beneath the surface of Mars, the AI Foreman controls every job, every ration, every breath. Gordon Onyango’s explosives apprenticeship should mean a better life for him and his mother. Then she dies in custody.
Gordon joins an underground resistance led by Dalrene, a grandmother and veteran hacker. The rebels need his explosives skills to break the Foreman’s grip on the mines. But the machine they plan to destroy also keeps six thousand people alive.
His target lies on the surface. He has never seen the sky. He has never killed anyone. Only one of those things is supposed to change.
The Dead Earth Protocol is a dystopian science fiction thriller for readers of Hugh Howey’s Wool and Pierce Brown’s Red Rising.
Sonny Forever, a teen foster child living in the slums of Irontown City, sees no purpose in his life. Constantly battered by bullies, he escapes into comic books where he lives vicariously through the superheroes he admires. So engrossed he is in these fantasies, he actually sees them floating in the sky and yearns to fly with them. However, an ominous shadow phantom warns him against seeking the truth about his real parents and the reason he was born. His foster mother tells him he’s special, that he’s a superhero in his own right, but he sees no way to prevail over the poverty, strife, and violence surrounding him. As he grows into adulthood, the shadow phantom blurs the line between comic books and reality, turns the page where Sonny’s the villain of Irontown City, and a golden glowing superhero emerges. It’s an epic battle between good and evil with a twist Sonny never saw coming.
Some battles aren’t fought with swords — they’re fought between duty and desire.
Sent away as a child to become a priestess-knight — a paladin of a Church whose god is no distant idea but a living power that moves through her hands — Coralin Callens buried a truth she couldn’t confess even to herself: she has loved Athos, the foster-brother she was raised beside, since before she had a word for it. Now, after fifteen years apart, he rides to meet her at the gates of the holy land — a crown prince, a war-hardened Royal Marshal, haunted by dreams of a holy sword that he cannot reach.
Neither of them knows what their god — and the enemy hunting them both — already does: that the war tearing their world and the pull between them are the same thread, and that Heaven itself has a stake in whether two people raised as family can become something their peers swear they must not.
Duty forbids it. A king’s blessing hangs on it. An enemy has already marked her as the easier one to kill. And still, mile by mile down the long road to the holy city, the longing only deepens — fifteen years of restraint pressed into a single ungloved touch, a confession neither means to make, a nearness that costs them nearly everything honor demands.
What God Has Ordained is an epic, faith-forward romantasy of forbidden love, a war for their world, and a slow burn fifteen years in the making — for readers who like their romance clean but never gentle, their fantasy vast and lived-in, and their gods close enough to break a heart.
Book Two of The Legacy of Chandar continues their story: They’ve learned, at last, to stop fighting what they feel. What they’ll have to stand for next — a fractured church, a wounded kingdom, the truth of who they really are, and the prophesied return of an ancient adversary — is a different fight entirely.
For eleven stolen days, in the warm green dark at the edge of the world, a man and a woman who were each meant to be alone forever are simply, quietly, secretly happy.
She has worn a thousand shapes and never wanted to keep a single one. He crossed a sea with nothing but a dream of her, having given everything else away, and arrived wanting only the woman the dream had promised. In the hours they steal together — talking late, laughing like fools, learning the shape of each other in the firelight — they find the one thing neither of them was ever built to being truly known, and not wanting to be anywhere else.
But loving her is quietly spending the powers it took him a lifetime to gather. And loving him will cost her every shape she has ever worn, until she is only one woman — mortal, ageing, with a single life to give.
They were never going to be allowed to keep this. Soon the world will close its hand, and something patient and kind at the bottom of everything will offer them the only mercy that could spare them the stop loving, and it will never hurt at all.
They will have to choose each other anyway — out loud, eyes open, knowing exactly what it costs. And whether, when the time comes to pay, they can do it not in sorrow, but gladly. A lyrical, aching standalone love story for readers of Circe and The Song of Achilles — a mythic romance about what we are willing to lose, and the courage to lose it gladly.
In a city on the brink of revolution, science and passion offer their own strains of violence.
Petrograd, 1916 After her aristocratic family’s fall from fortune, Mariya is desperate to survive – and to support her widowed mother and sisters. Matters alleviate when she finds work as an assistant to Dr. Nikolas Rodin, a reclusive scientist. Though the job makes ends meet, she is soon pulled into his strange and secretive world: a world of flickering gaslights, whispered experiments, and a man whose brilliance is as alluring as it is unstable.
Tuberculosis and revolution both ravage Russia. And as political unrest swells and illness creeps closer, Mariya finds herself torn between a future of safety and a love that threatens to unravel everything. But in the dark corridors of the laboratory, nothing is as it seems – and the line between devotion and danger disappears entirely.
Darkly romantic and steeped in suspense, THE LABORATORY ASSISTANT explores the perilous chemistry of desire, madness, and the choices that haunt us.
Definitely check these authors out if you are interested!
Categories: Dark Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Historical Fantasy
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Rhiannon Hargodon for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
If Salem would rather kill witches than let them exist, how much will one witch sacrifice to save it?
After her family flees allegations of treason in Europe, Amity Merriweather hopes Salem will be a fresh start. Instead, she finds a land poisoned: Toxic relationships. Crop failures. Sick children. Deep-seated superstition and irrational fear. With every death, the curse buried beneath Salem’s cobblestone streets grows stronger.
Gifted with rare earth magic, Amity has spent her entire life hiding, suppressing her magic. She has a chance to heal the town before hysteria turns neighbor against neighbor. But Salem doesn’t want saving. Every acre of poison she clears will risk discovery, and she’ll get no thanks from its citizens.
Meanwhile, Amity must choose between two very different men:
A male witch hardened by abuse, who would gladly burn Salem to its poisoned roots… Or a scarred shoemaker with a heart too generous for its own good. Knowing which path to take requires knowing both men, but more importantly, it requires knowing herself.
Amity has worn as mask for so long, she no longer can be sure of who she truly is.
As accusations mount and innocents are dragged to the gallows, Amity faces an impossible choice. Keep sacrificing herself for people who would rather see her burn—or abandon Salem to the curse consuming it.
Tropes and Triggers:
Love Triangle with a masked MMC Surprise (unwanted) pregnancy Elemental magic Generational curse Witch Trials Religious Trauma Morally gray characters
TALLOW AND BONE is a dark paranormal romance. It is a retelling of the Salem Witch Trials with a healer witch, a cursed village, and the choice between mercy or retribution.
Content Warning: violence, death, abuse, whipping, sexual harassment, hanging
+ Amity and her family are always on the run because she and her mother are witches. They’ve fled England, where they lived comfortably at court and now are barely thriving in the colonies, surviving with her father’s skill at lying, and her and her siblings talent at thieving. And when they reach Salem, they decide they want to stop running, but at what cost. The townspeople of Salem are Puritans and are run by a pastor who holds a lot of power and turns that power into a witch hunt because of the failing crops.
+ Amity is someone who’s been told to hide her power since she was a child, so she’s used to lying and being someone else – but in Salem she actually finds other witches and she learns a little more about her powers and magic. I kind of like that her magic wasn’t all powerful, yes she used it to help herself when she was in danger, but her magic was for growing things, it wasn’t anything malicious at all. I would have loved more magic in the story actually. But Amity has her flaws, she can’t be herself and tell the truth of who she is, so she’s never been real to other people only with her family. She can’t want the things she wants if she wants to survive in this world. Also she goes through some dark mentally challenging times in this book that I think women can relate to.
+ I loved Amity’s siblings, even Elizabeth at first, who was a bit more strict than most, until I hated her later. I love her big family, but their dad is an awful man. Amity’s siblings know she’s a witch and that is why they are on the run, Elizabeth is who resents her the most. This family is very complicated – their dad is abusive, yet he provides as best he can – he loves their mother (a witch) with a passion, but when she is gone there is no one to protect them from him. The sibling closeness was heartwarming. Some other characters I found fascinating in the story were the women of Salem. I love that the characters are complicated and flawed.
+ Amity is 23 and single and that’s a problem during that day and age. She’s beautiful and the men in Salem notice her. But she’s obsessed with a masked man who is also a witch, who isn’t very friendly towards her but there is a wild attraction between them. I suspected who it was fairly early in the book. But this witch isn’t the only man who is in Amity’s life. There is George, the hero of the town, who has burn scars because an event that happened in the past – he’s so good, kind, patient and protective. He gave Amity protection when the other man couldn’t step up to do it himself and I loved him for Amity. He deserved better. I don’t mind love triangles but this one broke my heart – devastated me at the end, and even though there is a resolution at the end…I wasn’t happy with it. Whenever I think about this book I’ll always remember George. I would have been happy as them in a throuple or a Why Choose situation, but this is that type of book where you don’t get what you wish for. 💔
+ There was a strong sense of foreboding from start to finish in this book. The setting and atmosphere of Salem really came through in the writing. The story is dark, the women aren’t safe, the people were hungry because of failed crops, there is violence, death, and family turning on family. There are deaths in this story that broke my heart, it seemed never ending that Amity was going to lose people and I hated that for her and hated how her big family fell apart. I wanted to scream in anger and pain for Amity and the women in Salem. There is a sort of happy ever after in the end, but it is so bittersweet that whenever I think of this story I’m just heartbroken.
Final Thoughts:
If I wanted a book to rip my heart out then this would be five stars, but my heart was so broken at the end of this one, which I wasn’t expecting. I was so shocked at the culmination of events at the end, I had no time to cry but my heart felt hurt and then hollow. I don’t think I’ll ever be happy thinking about what happened to George. This story sucked me in even though I knew something bad was coming, since I know the gist of the Salem witch trials. I couldn’t put it down. I understood Amity’s feelings of wanting to be free and not hiding herself but that wasn’t possible in a town like Salem, and I just wish they had all left and ran. To see everything fall apart around Amity, and her lose people she loved – oh this story is devastating. The ending is bittersweet and I felt emotionally exhausted. Though it didn’t end the way I wanted, I have to say I won’t be forgetting this book for awhile.
Title: This Shattered Tempest (The Hurricane Wars, #3)
Author: Thea Guanzon
Format: eBook (NetGalley)
Pages: 496
Publication Date: 10/6/26
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Categories: Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Romance, Series
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Harper Voyager for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
When the storm swallows the world, who will be left standing?
Throughout their political marriage, Alaric and Talasyn struggled to resist the undeniable pull between them, even as rising tensions forced them on opposite sides of a looming war. Hand in hand, they vanquished the cataclysmic threat of the Moonless Dark—and started to hope for a future together.
That hope is shattered when a devastating attack sets off a chain of events that tears them apart once more. Now, as two rival nations prepare for a final, decisive clash, the Master of the Shadowforged Legion and the last Lightweaver fight to find their way back to each other. But the odds are stacked against them, and time is running out…
Is love enough to rewrite destiny? Can a new beginning rise from the ruins of the past? Or are Alaric and Talasyn doomed to meet as enemies on one last battlefield? This explosive third and final book brings the beloved Hurricane Wars series to a stunning conclusion—where passion and power collide, and the fate of a divided world hangs in the balance.
Content Warning: violence, death
+~ It’s been 2 years since the second book came out so I did go into this without doing a recent re-read of that book and there were times I had to wait for things to click because it’s a big cast of characters. The world-building includes a few different regions, so it took me a little while to remember people and places. Of course Tala and Alaric stand out the most to me, but because there is a lot of political intrigue taking place, it’s important to know who is on who’s side – and yes I did get lost at times.
+ Tala grows so much in this book! She has to make hard choices about her ruler, her people, her husband (who is the enemy) and which side to chose. I don’t blame her for choosing her people because that is how she was raised, familial duty is strong in her. But I felt bad for her because she loved Alaric too. There is a moment in the book where she has to break away from him and find strength within herself to do the right thing. Alaric was frustrating me though because he couldn’t break free from his father soon enough, he eventually learns and does the right thing in the end.
+ The romance is so filled with challenge, strife, and betrayal. I almost had no hope for them! I didn’t know how they would forgive each other. Their relationship comes with costs, but eventually they get things right and I didn’t know it would make me emotional. I love their ending. I will say I think Tala bent more than Alaric did – it took him awhile to see the light, and I know that’s trauma on his part because of his relationship with his father. He really was lucky that Tala fought to have him in her life. But someone had to fight for their love and of course it would be Tala because she overcomes a lot and by the end she’s not afraid to be vulnerable and fearless. There are a few spicy scenes between them though which absolutely matched their enemies to lovers vibe.
+ I enjoyed the political intrigue when I could follow who was betraying who, but I also loved the aether magic and the dragons that protect Tala’s people! The story touches on the cost of war on all sides involved and the tension that grew inside me while reading this was almost off the charts near the end. I wanted it to work out for everyone so badly but there was a moment of hopelessness before everything is resolved. There were some emotional parts to this story especially at the ending. I also love that this is by a Filipino author and there is a word in the story that pulled at my heart strings because it’s a word in the Filipino culture for mother or grandmother. Just having that in there was everything to me and connected me more to Tala.
Final Thoughts:
This conclusion to The Hurricane Wars series is tense, heartbreaking but also healing at the end. Tala grows to become the Empress she is destined to be, by making hard choices, confronting the past and even people considered family who is trying to hurt her. She loses a lot in order to become stronger and bring about the hope for the future she and Alaric had. There were times I was a little lost because of so much going on and all the names I had forgotten but I couldn’t put this down. I was rooting for Tala and Alaric and their dream of a future with no war. The story was filled with political intrigue, betrayal, darkness but also hope. I loved it!
