As the daughter of an ambitious merchant, Guinevere’s path has been marry into a noble house of the Dwendalian Empire, raise her family’s station, and live quietly as a lordling’s obedient wife. But Guinevere longs for a life unbounded by expectations, for freedom and passion and adventure.
Those distant dreams become a sudden reality when her caravan is beset by bandits, leaving her guards slain and Guinevere stranded alone on the dangerous Amber Road. Her only chance of survival is to travel alongside Oskar, the aloof half-orc who saved her during the attack.
Unlike Guinevere, Oskar’s path is not so set in stone. With his mother dead and his apprenticeship abandoned, all that’s left is a long, lonely walk to a land he’s never seen to find family he’s never met. The last thing he needs is a spoiled waif like Guinevere slowing him down—even if the spark between them sizzles with promise.
Despite his cold exterior, Oskar is brave and thoughtful and unlike anyone Guinevere has ever met. And while Guinevere may be sheltered, she brings out a softness in him that he has never dared to feel before. As the flames of their passion grow, they realize that soon they’ll need to choose between their expected destinations or their blossoming romance.
Written by New York Times bestselling author Thea Guanzon at the behest of Critical Role’s Jester Lavorre, Tusk Love brings the most romantic story on Exandrian bookshelves to life.
Content Warning: violence
+ The narrators for this story are perfect and they really brought these characters to life! I loved their voices so much. It’s exactly how I imagined Guinevere and Oskar would sound.
+ Oskar is the grumpiest half-orc ever; his attitude made me laugh so much. Guinevere is his total opposite, she’s a young lady raised in a merchant family and on her way to her fiancé – a lord. The two of them together were so funny and cute! I loved how Guinevere was always trying to behave as a young lady on this rough journey. There is banter, and then some spicy moments too. I adore the both of them!
+ This story is filled with travel and lots of adventure and I loved seeing Guinevere who is prim and proper grow so much. She went from someone who was always people pleasing (really wanted to please her parents), to someone who fought for what she wanted – Oskar. As for Oskar, he was a half-orc with a soft heart even if he was sarcastic and grumpy!
Final Thoughts:
I loved everything about this audiobook – the narrators are fantastic, and the story is filled with adventure, swoony romance, spice and so much humor. I love Oskar and Guinevere. I’m so glad I listened to this one!
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.
As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.
Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.
+ The narrators for this audiobook were fantastic! The story starts off with a tense moment, then flashes back to the past and ends with the present again. There are many tense moments in the beginning and end, this story is an emotional ride. The relationships in this story is really what made it such a great book.
+ I really enjoyed the storytelling. I love all the historical elements about NASA! I even didn’t mind the science stuff, I was interested in it. Joan’s story of being a professor, then training to be an astronaut and falling in love with another woman, to being an aunt and then the main caregiver – what a story!
+ Joan and Vanessa’s love story is so good, realistic and heartbreaking. It’s so full of love, but so filled with challenges – not being able to love one another in public. UGH – it made me shed a tear. I love how they fight for one another.
+ The found family with the fellow astronauts was so heart-warming. I loved all the training scenes and everyone getting to know one another and you can feel the camaraderie. I also loved the real family challenges that Joan go through with her sister Barbara and her niece Frances. I was so mad at Barbara but Joan is a great aunt who loves her niece.
~ Barbara – I wish hoping she would change, hoping she would make the right choices, but she just ended up making me upset.
Final Thoughts:
This story had everything – drama, romance, history, it is heart-warming, emotional and devastating. It has characters I loved and rooted for. I loved it and it made me cry.
Categories: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Paranormal, Social Commentary
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to MIRA for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner—but the bloody messes don’t bother her, not when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train. The killer was never caught, and Cora is still haunted by his last words: “bat eater.”
These days nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt, who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival; not her weird colleagues; and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her door frame. After all, it can’t be real—can it? After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.
+ I love this author and she’s a must-read author for me now. The story is set in New York City during the COVID pandemic – early 2020, remember that? This brought me back to a time of so much fear and uncertainty, it was nostalgic but not in a good way. Cora Zeng is Chinese-American and she has some issues that has been exacerbated by the pandemic, like her being a germaphobe. She’s also dealt with a traumatic childhood with parental neglect and divorce so Cora is complicated, anxious, closed-off, and now she is haunted. Literally. Cora’s voice is so honest about what she thinks about her family, society, and herself.
+ This story is filled with gore, but I was surprised with how much there was because I was grimacing for half the book I think. It is that gory but I should have expected it since Cora is a crime-scene cleaner. Outside of the gore, there is something else going on in a paranormal aspect in the story. Cora is being haunted and it is the month where the Chinese honor the dead or hungry ghosts with some rituals like putting out food for the ghosts and burning joss papers. I learned something cultural that I didn’t know much about which was cool but the way the author wove it into this story about COVID and crime against Chinese and Asian people during that time period is really amazing.
+ I really liked how the tension built in this story. Cora’s mental state is not the best, so I thought she was just going through psychosis due to PTSD but add the anxiousness about COVID during that time really upped the tension in the situation around the city. Add to that the crime scenes she is cleaning up has a pattern and then the hauntings start happening – there were times when I was laying in bed in the dark reading this that I got a chill. Because who wants a hungry ghost haunting them? Not me!
+ I loved the side characters, Cora’s co-workers, Harvey and Yifei. They brought humor but also gave Cora support even though they weren’t close friends. They were there for her even if things got super crazy. And bless her aunts too, even though they were extreme opposites – I’m glad she had people, even though it wasn’t a lot or people.
+ The social commentary of this book is what really hits home with me. The racism Cora experiences in this story made me so angry and heartbroken that racism is so prevalent in our country. The violence of the deaths in this story just makes me question how can people be so filled with hate as to want someone to suffer in these ways.
~ There was a small lull in the middle of the book, as Cora is dealing with some ghosts but nothing that stopped me from reading. Going into this book I was thinking too hard and saying what is this? Is it a horror story? Murder mystery? Paranormal haunting? What is going on? And once I just went with the flow and went along for the wild ride, I was blown away by the end.
Final Thoughts:
I loved how this author combined the time period of COVID, the social commentary of racism, the paranormal hauntings of hungry ghosts, and the possibility of a serial killer on the loose plus all the gore, violence and creep factor into one wild ride of a book. It touched on the challenges of family, friendship, mental health, grief and so much more. It’s brutal and violent and I can’t stop thinking about it. I know this story will probably stay with me forever.
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Darkan Press Inc for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
“A breathless rivals-to-lovers Romantasy that will captivate you from the very first page.”— USA Today Bestselling Author Stacy Reid. In a glittering Sahara Desert palace, many have come to die…
Zair, a reviled half-blood with magical powers, is determined to stop the traitors attacking her academy and kidnapping its students—especially as her beloved sister is targeted. Sent to the palace during the king’s coronation, her mission is unmask the culprits behind the disappearances. But when she crosses paths with Dathan, a rival spy from another academy, his hidden motives complicate everything.
As danger escalates and more students vanish, Zair and Dathan realize they must join forces to stop the looming threat. As they close in on the traitors, a shimmering attraction pulses between them, threatening to unravel their focus. In a palace where everyone covets power and night magic guards its halls, Zair must save her fellow students—and protect her heart from the one person she cannot afford to trust.
+ I was a beta reader for A Desert of Bleeding Sand and I was so excited to read this one!
+ I love a rivals to lovers romance and this one has a great start with Zair and Dathan being from rival academies. These two are from military academies so they are competitive and when they have to work together on a mission, the competitiveness comes out. I love their banter and watching their attraction grow. It’s a slow burn so we’ll see what happens in the next book.
+ I like a fantasy book that has themes of friendship and family because it’s so relatable to me. Zair is close to her family and is protective of them which is nice – I love their bond! Zair is half Esan, and she experiences prejudices against her but what I love about her is her strength! She’s a great, strong yet at times vulnerable young woman. Dathan is an interesting character also but he doesn’t have the coziest relationship with his family.
+ The story moves quickly which I love – it’s filled with lots of action and even some mystery. The world-building is great – we get to learn about the different kingdoms and the political intrigue kept me invested. I love the diversity of this world.
Final Thoughts:
I was so honored to be a beta reader for this book and honestly I was impressed with the arc copy. I enjoyed how balanced this story is plus I love a story with students in an academy and add to that it’s a rivals to lovers romance? I was hooked. The diverse world-building is so interesting, the action keeps the story moving and I was invested with the political intrigue. I can’t wait to see what happens in book two!
Categories: Young Adult, Romance, Horror, Gothic, Fairy Tale Retelling, Fantasy
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Delacorte Press for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
This is the story of Hazel, a young healer navigating a ruthless court to save the life of the king, grappling with a pantheon of gods with questionable agendas as she fights for agency and true love in her own life as the goddaughter of none other than Death himself.
All gifts come with a price.
Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.
When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.
But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?
From the astonishing mind of Erin A. Craig comes the breathtaking fairy tale retelling readers have been waiting for— what does a life well-lived mean, and how do we justify the impossible choices we make for the ones we love?
I didn’t know what to expect from this book but I love this author’s work and this did not disappoint at all. It surprised me and made me fall in love with Hazel and Merrick. This might be my favorite book of 2024.
I had to look up what this book was a retelling of and found that it’s a retelling of The Brother’s Grimm story called Godfather Death. I had never heard of it so I was invested in Hazel’s story right away. She’s the thirteenth child in a family who was too poor to take care of her. Three different gods come to offer to take care of her, but it’s Merrick, God of Death who has the honor of being her godfather. Their story is so complicated, yet morbidly sweet. He takes care of her the only way how an immortal god knows how and it’s endearing and strange because everyone is afraid of death. But not Hazel.
He gives her the life he promised her bio parents but it’s not an easy life. She is needed in the community for her healing talents and power, but because death is inevitable in a mortal’s life, she also has to make hard decisions like helping her patients seek peace by ending their lives. Hazel experiences love, friendship and even a found family but betrayal and making mistakes of her own to the detriment of her already fragile and strange relationship with Merrick. She also learns about the consequences of her actions.
The romance is sweet, the secondary characters all provided something to the story and I just enjoyed how the story made me think about and question things about life like love, death, parenting, power, religion, grief, making decisions and facing consequences. This book really has everything – it has paranormal elements, fantasy, romance, and even body horror (it’s gross but I think tolerable). And it made me cry at the end because there is just something about Merrick and Hazel that touched my heart. Him yearning to fill a void in him (as her godfather) and her needed a void to be filled because her birth parents neglected her.
My Thoughts:
I love this book so much and I’ll have to buy a hardcopy to have on my shelf so I can reread it again. It’s beautifully written and moved me to tears by the end. It’s my favorite book of 2024 so far!
A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common.
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
Content Warning: dysfunctional parents, cheating
I went into this one with lower expectations and not reading any reviews because I didn’t totally love the last book she put out. And I’m glad I went in without knowing anything because I really loved this one.
Daphne is a librarian who has just been dumped by her fiancé, Peter. But the break-up forced her to move out of their place so she ends up moving in with Peter’s new girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend, Miles. Sounds messy right?
I felt for Daphne because she’s left unmoored in a town she moved to because of her ex boyfriend. She’s trying to come to grips with the break-up, and trying to figure out why the men she loves keep leaving her disappointed. Yes, she has daddy issues because her dad was such a deadbeat, and that plays into her insecurities and fears about relationships, but she really thought Peter was the one who could fix all of that. I also liked how she was someone who had a hard time making friends but in the book she opens up a lot with Miles’ help but also from her own initiative to want to change that part of her life.
Miles, the roommate, is such a fun and chill character. He’s such a nice, sweet guy but he has issues too growing up with a narcissistic mother. Daphne and Miles together had such great banter and I loved their growing friendship and attraction to one another. I loved their chemistry even if that had moments they had to really back off from it because they weren’t in the right head space. I love that they both get to the right place together.
There are a lot of family issues brought up in the book. Daphne has issues with her dad who is barely in her life but her bond with her mom touched my heart so much and made me tear up. I love their bond. Miles’ childhood was horrible because he had a narcissistic mother and his father was gone a lot but it really messed with his mental health and how he viewed himself.
My Final Thoughts:
This one hit me in the feels! I loved the cozy town, Daphne being a librarian, the crew at the library, Miles, the friendships made along the way and the love that grew between Daphne and Miles. I felt the story had great tension to hold my attention, enough steam to make me gasp, so much love to be found in different relationships throughout the book – I even ended up tearing when Daphne and Miles had their first real fight. I was rooting for them so hard and I love that they had their happily after because these two characters deserved it.
Quotes From the Book:
“Life, I’d learned, is a revolving door. Most things that come into it only stay awhile.”
Funny Story by. Emily Henry
“If a person lets you down, it’s time to reconsider what you’re asking of them.”
Funny Story by. Emily Henry
“You can’t force a person to show up, but you can learn a lesson when they don’t.”
Funny Story by. Emily Henry
“I want to push as hard as possible against all the bruises in my heart, until it changes me. Until I learn to stop fucking everything up.”
Funny Story by. Emily Henry
“I don’t want to hurt him. I just don’t want him to hurt me either. “
Funny Story by. Emily Henry
“I’m a cynic. And a cynic is a romantic who’s too scared to hope.”
Categories: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic, Science, Medicine, Romance, LGBT+
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
The tantalizing romance of These Violent Delights meets the mechanical wonders of Cinder in The Last Bloodcarver, the first in a two-book debut — with a riveting medical magic system and lush Vietnam-inspired fantasy world.
Nhika is a bloodcarver. A cold-hearted, ruthless being who can alter human biology with just a touch. In the industrial city of Theumas, she is seen not as a healer, but a monster that kills for pleasure.
When Nhika is caught using her bloodcarving abilities during a sham medical appointment, she’s captured by underground thugs and sold to an aristocratic family to heal the last witness of their father’s murder.
But as Nhika delves deeper into their investigation amidst the glitz of Theumas’ wealthiest district, she begins to notice parallels between this job and her own dark past. And when she meets an alluring yet entitled physician’s aide, Ven Kochin, she’s forced to question the true intent behind this murder. In a society that outcasts her, Kochin seems drawn to her…though he takes every chance he gets to push her out of his opulent world.
When Nhika discovers that Kochin is not who he claims to be, and that there is an evil dwelling in Theumas that runs much deeper than the murder of one man, she must decide where her heart, and her allegiance, truly lie. And — if she’s willing to become the dreaded bloodcarver Theumas fears — to save herself and the ones she’s vowed to protect.
Content Warning: death of animals, violence, death of parents, medical horror
I went into this book with no expectations and once I started reading, I could not stop. Nhika posses a gift to heal people, but with that same gift she could hurt and kill them as well. She is what is knowm as a bloodcarver and it’s generally a bad thing to be. But in her upbringing she was called a heartsooth, and someone who took pride in her abilities. Nhika finds herself alone now, and bought to help a family who is grieving the lost of their father who they think was murdered. They need Nhika’s help to confirm this though and she agrees, only to find herself in a dire situation.
I like Nhika even though she doesn’t seem like someone anyone can easily connect to. She’s not warm or kind, she’s had to survive on her own for years – she’s been alone. Nhika lost her whole family and she’s trying to stay alive in a heartless world who looks down upon bloodcarvers. I like that she isn’t polished and I especially love that her heart always wants to do the right thing, even when people don’t seem to deserve her help. I connected with her through her love of the family she has lost. I love her memories about her mother and her grandmother teaching her the craft of heartsoothing. It reminded me of my own grandmother and so my heart ached for Nhika even if she didn’t have time to dwell on her feelings about grief.
There is also a found family trope in this story although at times I felt not so happy about it because Nhika was on the outside looking in and at one point they didn’t trust her.
The world building is interesting because it mentions Theumas being a technocracy and yet they used rotary phones. I did read that this was Vienamese-inspired and the politics going on in the story shows that. The magic system is great because it blended science and magic! I love all the medical stuff and anatomy and everything about the healing craft that Nhika learned through her grandmother. Also this story is part murder mystery but I felt like it never really slowed down, which I appreciate it, since mysteries always move too slow for me. The story moves quickly and I liked the actions scenes we do get, even if the last one is a bit gory!
There is even an enemies to lovers romance happening with Nhika and Ven, a doctor’s assistant. For the most part of the book Nhika is trying to figure him out and what his motives are. But when more information in reveal it’s a big twist in the story and makes them see one another with different eyes. I didn’t mind the romance, for me I think it works – may seem to fast for some people but I totally get how Nhika was so lonely and finally she finds someone who she doesn’t have to hide from. I love them together and it made me tear up at the end because everything happening was unexpected and I just wanted the best for Nhika who really deserved some happiness in her life after everything has been taken away from her.
I didn’t even realize it’s a duology but I can’t wait to see what happens in book two!
My Thoughts:
There was so much to love about this book – the world-building, magic system with magic/science/healing, the romance, the murder mystery and a good plot twist. The ending was unexpected, especially with how intense it was and it left me heartbroken. I can’t wait for book two!
The seductive and stunning #1 New York Times bestselling sequel to Sarah J. Maas’s spellbinding A Court of Thorns and Roses .
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she’s now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.
As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre’s hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.
Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas’s masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.
Content Warning: violence
This is another book I’ve re-read countless times but it’s been awhile since I did my last re-read. My Goodreads review of this one was 4 stars at first read but I’m bumping it up to 5 after this re-read.
+ What I appreciate about this book after time has passed and I’m a tiny bit older is I love Feyre’s growth as a character. She gave her all, risked her life because of Tamlin. She was so in love with that man- but did she really know him? Or like she says in the book, did she just attach herself to the first person who showed her any kind of affection? Feyre wasn’t whole to begin with, she never had a family that showed love, except for Elain who is just a sweet sister, and then Tamlin came along. But in this second book she’s even more broken after what happens Under the Mountain and this is her story about rebuilding herself into something broken, but strong. Someone who can live with what she’s done, someone who can accept herself as who she is.
+ If ACOTAR is beauty and the beast then ACOMAF is Hades/Persephone which is another favorite of mine!
+ I love Rhysand’s family and friends. For the supposed villain that he is, he’s been hiding a whole city that he loves and protects and family and friends that he’s sacrificed everything for. And they welcome Feyre, who is broken, they don’t pity her, they don’t coddle her – Cassian trains her. Feyre is around people that accept her as is.
+ Yes, she goes from Tamlin to Rhysand, but hey she’s a woman with her own mind. Tamlin wasn’t the right fit for her but I do love how her relationship with Rhysand transpires, it builds slowly with time, patience and friendship. He knows she’s suffering and he’s there for her as a lifeline but not as someone she’s madly in love with – just a person on the other side of the hell she’s in telling her, she’s not alone. I love that about them. It really is a beautiful love story between them. Also this is where the series gets spicy!
~ Tamlin’s character is just shredded in this story. He is way overprotective, too possessive – because he is afraid of losing Feyre and he loses her anyway! I honestly didn’t love how Feyre loved this man SOOOOOOOOO much, she did all of those things Under the Mountain, for HIM…and he ends up being a jerk in this book. Like come on, there has to be a reason why she felt all those things with him. He can’t be that awful?! I know…they are both broken after what Amarantha did to all of them but I had hope for Tamlin in this book and nope…he is tarnished in my eyes.
~ This is a longer book than the last one, as is SJM’s style so once more there is a lot of talking and explaining. Rhysand alone in the end giving Feyre his explanation for keeping the secret of them being mates is a few pages long! 😅 I don’t mind but seriously…oh and this is the part of the series where we start hearing the word “mate” repetitively and I am very used to it by now but still, it was this series that made me start rolling my eyes at the word “mate”. I also still laughed out loud when she starts glowing during their spicy scene…like what in the Twilight?! lol…
My Final Thoughts:
I love this book because of Feyre’s growth and we learn so much about Rhysand and Velaris. I love all the secondary characters like Cassian, Azriel, Mor and Amren. Are there issues that I found, sure I mean…there a lot of things that get repetitive like the whole mate thing but I’m in love with Feyre and Rhysand’s love. By the way, this is where Nesta captures my attention, she’s a very unlikable character in book one but her strength and not giving a crap is compelling regardless how bitchy she comes off – which is why her story is one of my favorites. Story wise we learn more about the King of Hybern and that intense ending again was awesome. But the romance between Feyre and Rhysand is where it’s at.
Categories: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Peaky Blinders, Vampires, Heist
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by dark, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—and she can’t do the job alone.
Calling on some of the city’s most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the dark and glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it.
From the New York Times–bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame comes the first book in a hotly-anticipated fantasy duology teeming with romance, revenge, and an orphan girl willing to do whatever it takes to save her self-made kingdom. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.
Content Warning: violence, blood drinking, fire, death
+ I love when a book totally catches me off guard and surprises me. This book was full of surprises! How do you combine King Arthur, Vampires and Peaky Blinders (never watched it though I’ve always wanted to) together and make it work? I don’t know but this author just did it! I also loved how she adds historical fiction to the mix as she covers the colonization of countries liked Ceylan (in our reality that would be Ceylon-now Sri Lanka). This story is set in Ettenia which I’m assuming is England. And the vampires are just a race of people that live among them. This book just had everything I wanted, things I didn’t even know I wanted in one place and I loved it all. There are a lot of twists and turns in the second half of the book and that cliffhanger ending left me wanting book two now.
+ I am in love with Arthie and Jin. I love their story, their friendship, their love for one another – even though this story had hints of a romance for Arthie (a love triangle even that never came to fruition-an no it didn’t involve Jin), the love between Arthie and Jin appeased my soul. I also loved that this was told in multiple POVs because Jin’s voice was important to this story. He is Arthie’s right-hand man and I loved that he was the lightness in their relationship. They are found family, they are to one another the siblings they never had, they are soulmates and I knew they would have each other’s back no matter what. Also, I need Jin to have a happy ending, that guy deserves the world!
+ Because this story is about a heist, there are other characters involved and part of the crew. Flick, Matteo and Laith. All of them intriguing and we do get Flick’s POV but not Matteo and Laith who are very intriguing and added to the story in various ways. I like how they all have complex backgrounds.
+ Arthie is a complicated character which I love. She’s had trauma and holds a lot of secrets, not only her own but she’s a phoenix who basically rose out of ashes. I love that she was smart, and still allowed herself to love (Jin and Spindrift) even though she doesn’t open herself to anyone else. She is flawed. I love that she is a business woman and she’s the leader of their crew.
~ I can’t call what was in this book a true love triangle. There is flirtation, there is desire that Arthie doesn’t want to explore because she is a person who is in control at all times. But I think it makes her mistrust even more heightened. She has a crew of people she doesn’t totally trust (except Jin) and her weakness was a good-looking mysterious man. She isn’t perfect, she can only hold so many of the right cards in her hand and I honestly loved every part of whatever romance was building for her because the tension between them was delicious!
~ I think Flick’s POV was the weakest and she seemed like the weakest link because she’s not like the rest. She grew up in luxury as a lady’s daughter but she has her own agenda. Out of all of them I felt like I didn’t trust her the most because all she wanted was to please her mother and she had such a shiny upbringing.
My Thoughts:
Why was I surprised that I loved this book? I loved the We Hunt the Flame series. The writing is so good, the slow burn in the romance is enticing and the relationships are heartfelt. Honestly, Arthie and Jin, they have my heart. It might be a slow build in the beginning as the pieces are set on the chessboard but I was riveted from the moment I started the book. Once the pieces started moving, it was a fun, twisty, emotional ride to the end. And then of course we get a crazy cliffhanger that made my jaw drop! I need the second book asap and this book solidifies that this author is a must-read for me.
Categories: Historical Fiction, Vietnam, War, Feminism, Adult
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah’s The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over- whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.
But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.
Content Warning: violence, war, gruesome injuries, death, misogyny, drug use, cheating, PTSD
+ This is Kristin Hannah and she always blows me away. I love her research, I love how she writes historical fiction and the stories are not pretty. It’s real, it’s raw, and her characters go through trauma but I go on the journey with them – I stay with them and root for them to make it. In this book, she takes us to Vietnam. I was riveted from the moment I started the book and I finished it in one sitting even if it took me past midnight and made me sleep at 1am (which is rare for a book to do to me these days). It’s just really good storytelling and you know she took her time with this book.
+ Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a powerful character and I don’t mean that she is perfect. It’s 1966 and a women’s role in life is still to stay at home and take care of her husband and have kids. Frankie comes from a sheltered, affluent home, is getting a degree in Nursing but her brother gets sent to Vietnam and never comes home. She leaves behind her comfort zone, takes all her sheltered naivety to a foreign country to become a hero and her eyes gets blown wide open to to the horrors of war. And just when she’s found herself and what’s she’s good at – she comes home to a country that despises her for her service. She has a lot to overcome and it’s a journey that made me cry at the end.
+ This book is called The Women and Frankie is not the only woman in this book. She meets two others in Vietnam who become her best friends for life, Barb and Ethel. These three women kept one another alive – kept each other going in Vietnam and after they come home. This is a friendship that saves Frankie and a friendship that didn’t sugarcoat anything because they saw the worst of humanity together and survived. I love that all of them have a different path after Vietnam but they are there for one another no matter what. Another woman who has what doesn’t seem like a powerful role, is Frankie’s mother – but she grew up in a generation where women were told to shut up and not get involved. We see her try her best and that’s all some women could do back then.
+ Vietnam. This author takes us to Vietnam and I felt like I was there with Frankie. There is one crazy scene where Frankie gets moved to another mobile hospital but near enemy territory and heavy fighting just made me panic with her. It made me appreciate the mental strength that these men and women who served had to endure in what was literal hell. In a war that was a lost. When Frankie leaves Vietnam and comes back home she isn’t celebrated as a hero like WWII vets were – she was spat on. No one was proud of her, no one wanted to hear that she was there. We see her PTSD heighten when she comes back home but there is no help available to her because people claim there were no women in Vietnam – because the government was saying so in the media. No women! To almost give her life serving and then coming back home to be told she wasn’t there?! Oh my rage…the story touches on other issues going on in the USA at the time like the war protests, the Black Panther movement, race issues, gender issues and lack of trust in the government.
~ I said Frankie wasn’t perfect and her weakness was that she was alone and longed for comfort and sadly her pick of guys wasn’t the best. But that only makes her human. So as much as I was rooting for the romance in this book – this is not that kind of story, it’s about more than that even though the men she did encounter in her story did shape her in one way or another.
My Thoughts:
It’s another 5 star Kristin Hannah book for me – she never disappoints me because she can grab my attention and heart. This story teaches you something, and it reminds you that women were there in Vietnam, and that the men and women came back broken. There was hardly any help for them and our Vets deserve more than that. It’s heartbreaking, it’s brutal, it’s gripping, and I wish I could post quotes from the book but I won’t because it’s an arc. I can’t wait to read her next book.
I’ve actually read a lot of Kristin Hannah books but never wrote a full review for them since I read them before creating this blog. I did leave star reviews on Goodreads for them though so this is what I rated them:
Past Midnight Book Reviews & More 