Debbie

Audiobook Review...

What did I just listen to? Why have I been sleeping on Pepper Winters? Are my eyes still bugged out at that very last sentence before I realized the narrator stopped talking and there was no more? WHO WAS THAT AT THE END??

This book is a SLOW BURN, ENEMIES TO LOVERS, DARK ROMANCE all the way. Yes the caps were necessary. And by slow burn I mean SSLLLOOWW BURRRNNN in the most delicious way. It's been a minute since I've read a dark romance and this was a fantastic way to bang back into the genre. Yes I did make myself chuckle as I wrote that. Insert all the shrugs here.

Eleanor is kidnapped and sold. Taken to Goddess Isles where she'll be under contract for four years. Ruled over by Sullivan “Sully” Sinclair. Eleanor isn't one to stay shut and cower. She is not afraid of Sully. Doesn't care there's seemingly no way off this island. Doesn't care that he seems to be adored by the other goddesses who offer her no help since they are seemingly happy in their situation. Never mind that she feels a pull toward Sully. Her kidnapper and keeper. A monster. Sully made a mistake in requesting a goddess based on his own desires. He buys women and makes them goddesses on his island. Caters to very wealthy mean and indulges in their desires. But he's never touched any of them himself and more so has never wanted to. Until Eleanor. She's breaking and awakening something in him. He's a man in constant control and she's making him slip.

Since I listened to the audio book I must say that I loved both narrators (Sarah Puckett, Scott Rider). I hope they stay on to continue the series. Because I am absolutely going to listen to book 2 ASAP.

When a non-magical Snow White western retelling was up for grabs I had to give it a shot. I was even more intrigued because Snow White is black. The author did wasn't isn't normally done...showing that POC's were pioneers as well.
Don't let my 3 stars scare you. This book had great character development and the research was absolutely done. I simply found out that I'm not that big on westerns. It's not the books fault I didn't fully realize that I'm just not that into that particular genre.
The ONE thing I do wish were different is that it instead of Levi narrating that it was Hopeful instead(Snow White).

This is everything a circus themed book should be! I feel like this book is being slept on and I'm here to tell you that you are missing out.

The MC is Lace, a princess excited for her visit to Pandemonium. The excitement is cut short when she witnesses a murder and the circus disappears never to be seen again. Until now. Fast forward five years...her parents are dead, her brother just sold her off to be married to their enemy.....and Pandemonium is back.

There's mystery, magic, secrets, plot twists and a love triangle. I need say no more.

Imagine this...you don't believe in ghosts. Now imagine you go along with your best friend while they ghost hunt because that's what best friends do. Now imagine that you find out the hard way that ghosts are indeed real. Now imagine that you can touch them. Bananas, amirite?! Of course if you can touch them that means that THEY CAN TOUCH YOU.

My favorite thing about this book, hands down, are the relationships. Shay and Max are very relatable. I have a best friend who I would do anything for and this really struck a cord with me. The characters are pretty diverse too so that was a definite plus.

I wasn't left shaking in my boots scared...but I also don't read or watch spooky stuff only in October. So that's not a deal breaker for me. I'm definitely interested in the next book because I'd love to see how the characters grow from here.

3.5 stars

Two courts ( Night and Day), an heir and her guardian, the lies that come with courts, rebels, magic, plot twists and a light romance.

Seville is the Light of The Day. She has a rare form of light magic which sounds fantastic and all.....except that she has no idea how to use it or to access it. Which does wonders for one's self esteem. Jae is her guardian. Always watching over her, listening to the whispers via the winds. Both of them struggle internally with and about their duties and not without reason.

One attack on the Day Court has them separated for the first time ever on paths they never imagined, finding out truths they would have never believed before.

This is my second Keri Lake book and my only regret is not having the next book at the ready. It ended in a cliffhanger and when I tell you I was completely invested by the end that I didn't even realize how many pages were left as a gripped the book in my hand.

A dark romance thriller?? Sign me up twice and don't hold my hand. Much like with most dark romances there are trigger warnings. So there are a few graphic and heavy scenes. There is romance but for this book I'm going to say the romance part is on the back burner. It isn't major thing going on for most of the book. Definitely more of a slow burn too. I'm going to say it's pretty steady paced through out with it getting hyper towards the end (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GET BOTH BOOKS AT ONCE. I DIDN'T AND LOOK AT ME NOW.)

It's told in the POV of 3 people..... Nola Tensley, Rhett Voss, and The Sandman. Nola is a widowed, single mom trying to deal with the murder of her husband ( who wasn't all the great to begin with but still..didn't deserve that) and trying her best with her traumatized son. Voss....VOSS. By no means is he a good guy.....But if he wanted me to see a monster, oopsie doodle because I don't. What's a girl got to do to get a hit man to fall in love with her?? I'm ready with the note pad. Last but not least...The Sandman. A serial killer. I have no idea who he is but I have my theories. As you can imagine his chapters were heavy and graphic.

At this point I'm going to say I'll read whatever Keri Lake writes. And she has quite a number of books out so I have happy, dark catching up to do!

This is book two and the conclusion of The Sandman Duet. And what a conclusion it was!

Voss is still in search of The Sandman. We definitely learn more about Voss and his childhood in this book. I still love him in this book. Nola on the other hand annoyed me a tiny bit, HOWEVER, I want to give her a pass because as a mother myself I'd go to any fucking lengths to save any of my babies. Which can lead you to doing very stupid things.

Even though I figured out who the killer was, Keri really said BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! That epilogue left me sitting there for a few minutes, contemplating whether I should just message Keri Lake and just asking her “ COMO SE DICE, WHAT??”

For this being her first thriller, I thought it was great. And I can't wait to have a shelf full of her books. LIFE GOALS.

I knew this book would wreck me. Luckily for me I live for books that rip me up from the inside out. Harper is so many of us. Trauma, bad coping mechanisms, that dreaded voice in your head, keeping the wrong people around you, self destructive behavior, depression. I can absolutely relate to her in so many ways it was kind of scary to be honest. I found myself wanted to shake some sense into her but yelling “BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, SIS!” at my e-book. I love that Harper sought help but the author didn't make it seem like 2-3 sessions were a magical cure. They absolutely were not. Harper relapses over and over.

I feel like this book would hit home for a lot of people. However, If you don't like reading about broken characters or can't deal with them making bad choices over and over then this book is not for you. Trigger warnings- miscarriage, alcohol abuse, depression, suicidal thoughts.

I am absolutely loving these Guardians/Seasons/story arc. It has been so much seeing the individual romances but the whole storyline in general is great too. I know it will all come to an end sooner rather than later and I'm legit sad thinking about it. But enough about that...let's bring on the simping.

Shade is a vampire Guardian. Done and done. I'M KIDDING (maybe LOL). He can move through the shadows sight unseen. He knows who his mate is. He knows where she is. And he is not waiting for her to come to him. He wants her and he wants her NOW. Oh and there may be a certain Unseelie Queen that he used be a consort for who may or may not be obsessed with him (Oopsie doodle).

Silver is another human shot forward from the past. But unlike the other women she didn't find a place among the fae. She is in Crystal City. And she's known for being a fae killer (GASP!). For the first time we get to see inside the human city and see what other havocs this war has reaped. Now she's leaving the human city on an important mission...and she has a secret.

We have reached the end of the Season of the Vampire BUT the ride isn't over yet. Bring on the elves!

We have ourselves here book 5 in the Fae Guardians series but also book 2 in the Season of the Vampire series...and just like the 4 books before it I loved it. I'm loving where Lana P is taking this storyline. While each story can be read as a stand alone and there's a HEA in each one, there IS an overarching story going on. So while I'm absolutely loving all the romancy, smutty, magicky sexiness going on, I'm also ready for war. Because that is who I am as a person. LOL.

Haze. D'arn Haze. The one with the shadow extension. One of the very few who offered himself up to the Well voluntarily. He keeps no one close to him, and is a strict enforcer of the rules put forth the protect the Well and their way of life. And then BADA BING BADA BOOM HERE COMES PEACHES.

Peaches is not like the other women who have woken up out their time. She's not as headstrong or as sure of herself like the others. At all. She thinks herself weak and has convinced herself that being a blood slave to the Unseelie Queen is better than her situation before. (Spoiler alert..it's not). I relate a lot to Peaches because I know what it's like to look down on yourself and sometimes you do need a boost from your life partner and/or friends to show the world exactly what the fuck you're made of.

We are back with a new Victoria M. Patton read. And my excitement is real. Let's get to it.

Derek is officially back to work, leading his very own FBI cold case team, The Legacy Unit. Is he fully recovered from the happenings of book one, The Box? (IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THAT YOU MUST NEEDS GO TO DO THAT AFTER YOU ARE DONE READING MY BANANA PANTS RAMBLING). He's not but Derek isn't one to just sit around (PROBABLY WHY BOOK ONE WENT DOWN LIKE IT DID). Almost immediately he gets a case that is not cold at all and he was called in by someone high up the food chain. Let the murders begin. OH yea did I mention that Derek may or may not be hallucinating? MMHMM.

You all have no idea how long I've waited for this book. And I am not disappointed. If you like paranormal thrillers, you need to get on this. One of my favorite things about VMP is her ability to create immaculate character development. In this and her other series, Damien Kaine series, it's there in spades. And even with this just being book 2 you can still see that The Legacy Unit bond is beginning and growing. Also the ending absolutely sets up the next book beautifully. And by beautifully I mean I yelled WAIT WHAT?? and then the book ended. So yea...I'm ready for the next one.

3.5 stars

Noel Niihashi and Ninny Spangcole are witches. They work for the Wing Bind in Reverse London their job is to deal with dragons. Either the domesticated ones that get used for resources or the eradicating the violent ones. There are two Londons...Front London, where the humans have no idea that dragons exist and believe Reverse London. Reverse London is not a myth at all, residents here can see dragons and they are fully aware of Front London. But although they are two separate places they are still somehow linked.

It's been a long time... A LONG TIME..since I've read any manga. So while I didn't LOVE this tome I certainly didn't hate it. I'm definitely into the witches and dragons story line and I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

Look...you all can keep Mike Myers...IT'S JASON FOR ME. ( Ghostface too but this isn't about him. FOCUS!). There's not much to tell here other than it's short erotica. It's about 20 pages I think. That's it.

A dark romance between a serial killer's daughter and an assassin for the Italian mafia??? I can say YES PLEASE! in 3 languages LoL.

Raven is the killers daughter. She grew seeing things she should not have, only to then be thrust into a home where things for her were not better. AT ALL. Caelian is an assassin at just 18. Dark enough inside that , even as the oldest, his father has told him he'll never head the family. Can he help Raven harness her own darkness? These two are a force to be reckoned with and that cliffhanger left me wanting more.

Heavy trigger warnings for this one. Child abuse, sexual assault, murder, religious abuse to name a few...

This story is really that spicy which is fine by me. Especially since the 2 mains are in HS...which is why I knocked off a star. I do love the book....i think if they had been a smidgen older and in college and not HS I would've given 5.

A dark romance? Shocker, I know. LOL. This is my first Z. S. Storm book and while it is a standalone ( and read just fine as is) it is a spin off of the Dreamhaven series. I didn't read that series and I wasn't lost reading this one at all.

Let us hit you with the trigger warnings first and this is the note on the Goodreads page
Note: This is a dark, agegap MM psychological fiction and contains heavy themes and triggers. Content warning for graphic descriptions of self-harm, assault, murder, recurring theme of mental illness, ow/om scenes, homophobic slurs, misogynistic language, mentions of rape, age play, dub con, younger MC is still in high school (17) when story begins.

If any of that up there isn't your jam, then this would be where you stop reading my review. If you can't tell the book was pretty heavy (in feelings, not in size). There were certain moments where I absolutely did have to put the book down and step away for a second. And that hasn't happened for some time now whilst reading a dark romance so that was great (I don't mean that sarcastically at all).

I've never read the father's best friend trope...and I feel like I'm missing out LOL.

I went into this thinking it would be a quick ghost fucky read. In and out, no emotkons needed. And I was way wrong.

YA, dark academia, spirits, magic, the arts, tackling mental health issues and an unknown family history? I'M IN.

I was initially going to give this book 3 stars because it is good. AND GOOD IS GOOD NOT BAD. (That sounds dumb but I feel like I have to put that because I feel like people run from 3 star reviews) Initially the book didn't grab me right away. HOWEVER, you can see that it has four stars....WHY YOU ASK? Don't rush me...Okay now once it started going for me it kept going and so I definitely had to bump it up. It bumped it up for me once the magic was tied into the arts.

Another thing that bumped it up for me was November's mental health struggles. Not because I like seeing teenagers struggle (what kind of monster do you think I am? Jeezus). But it's extremely relatable. And while I am not a teenager now I was one many, MANY (sob) moons ago and it would've been amazing to have a character such as this way back when. Maybe some may find her character annoying but she's a teenager with dead parents, life uprooted, family secrets abound then yes, I'd expect her to make questionable choices and to , you know, act like a freaking teenager.

Sign me up for living at Huntington mansion....and book two.

I finished this book 2 days ago and I'm having trouble fleshing out a review. I didn't hate the book. I didn't love the book. Because I received an ARC I couldn't tell if no quotation marks around the spoken parts was intentional or not. Either way I was able to tell who was speaking but at the beginning it took me a second. The beginning chapters was interesting because it jumped in years to show pieces of Bella and Kate's life in those important ages.

Bella and Kate. The story is told from Bella's POV which was a bit unfortunate as I found her quite dull. Kate was self centered and selfish. Even with the gaps in time in their friendship, it seemed that one once was near the other, they couldn't be apart. And while that may seem beautiful, in their case, it was toxic. Almost symbiotic.

I can't say that I disliked the book because I kept reading wanting to know more of their relationship. But I didn't love it and I can say it was missing something. I don't know what though.

This book doesn't have enough reviews and I think that is absolutely criminal.

It's a beautiful but heartbreaking story. A story about a beautiful and strong, young girl coming into her own and finding out her family has several horrible secrets and a grandmother who refused to learn from those secrets.

Trigger warnings- sexual assault

As a lover of true crime books/documentaries, I do enjoy them most when not set in my time. So, seeing as this was set in the 60s, I knew I had to read it. Unfortunately, when I did start reading it my excitement quickly died down. When I read nonfiction, I want the facts as they are known. This read way too much like fiction with its endless speculative conversations. I understand that sometimes civil liberties must be taken to make a story flow better, but this was too much. I also found entire chapters on Kurt Vonnegut and Normal Mailer unnecessary and just made the book that much more frustrating. Half of this book is fictional and it shouldn't be especially since it is labeled as NON FICTION. It was taking away even more victims which I found to be extremely disrespectful.

One of my favorite things about this series is that it gives me what it needs to give me. Not only do I love reading about each couple and what they are overcoming but the over all story arc is great too. I'm not just reading the series for each couple...I really want to know how this war will end.

I never paid much mind to Forrest until this book. Kind of hard to ignore one half of the MCs. LOL. His backstory breaks your heart. How all he does is sacrifice and he's so used to it he does it with minimal complaint, if any. Melody wakes up in a new world and immediately shuffled off the Crystal City where her head is filled with stories about how evil the fae are. She has no clue of the power she holds within but President Nero absolutely does and he keeps her locked up like a pretty songbird.

Just like in the six previous books, events happened here that set up for the next book and couple. There's always a little twist here and there which is what makes the overall story line really freaking good.

I didn't realize I needed a Russian mafia romance at the moment. But need it I did. If you want a slow burn romance, this ain't it. I swear this book was on GO the second Maxim and Sophia locked eyes.

Who are Maxim and Sophia you ask? I SHALL TELL YOU. Ladies first...Sophia is a doctor and the head of her own clinic. Much too busy for blind dates but her meddling ass sister who can't mind her own fooking love life keeps setting her up for some anyways. She is a Hispanic, plus size, intelligent beauty who shouldn't settle for anything less than what she wants. Even if her own brain sometimes spews negative bs at her sometimes. Maxim is the head of the Russian mafia. That's all that is required of him. I'M KIDDING (maybe). For a man who didn't want to show love or affection because it was a weakness and he already had enemies (Of course he does. He's the head of the mafia. That comes with the territory), he sure af claimed Sophia crazy fast and had no problem showing her how much he loved that body ody ody. (Yes I'm a fool. That also comes with the territory). Side note...where does one sign up for Russian terms of endearment because that is hot and I'd like it twice please and thank you.

The book does end on a cliffhanger. A deal breaker for some but not for me (I mean sometimes it is..but not this time). For the most part I read this book in one sitting so I'm up for the next one.

3.5 stars

I needed something light and easy to read after several heavy reads and in came Psyche and Eros. This was the palate cleanser I needed. It didn't require anything of me and it gave what it needed to give. Did it have better world building than the first book? Nope. But, let's be honest, nobody is reading this for the world building and that book had next to none anyways. Would I have liked it? Yes because I'm a heaux for a whole new world a la Jasmine but again, all I needed was a palate cleanser.

While I do like the story of the OG Psyche and Eros, I didn't expect to find them as cute as I did. I mean as a couple...Eros could've been Any Man really. I had eyes for Psyche though. We love a plus sized beauty. I didn't dislike Eros. I just wasn't fawning over him...with that being said we also love a man who knows how to eat cough cough. Oh yea the sex was delectable af.

Also..in case anyone cares (AND I DID), Hades and Persephone make a cameo so YAY FOR MY BABIES SHOWING UP.

This was an interesting and fresh spin on a supernatural thriller!

Told in 3 points of view of three women who have already been murdered. Meghan, Brecia and Skye all fell for James. He's as charismatic as he is handsome...but something very dangerous lurks beneath all of that...something they didn't see until it was too late..... but just because stay dead doesn't mean that you have to stay quiet.

I thought the authors take on the ghostly women and their afterlife was fantastic. The pacing was mostly slow throughout the book. I do not mean that it was boring. Not at all. I actually didn't want to put the book because I wanted to know what each woman would do or figure out next. Also there were few parts that got me a bit teary eyed, not from fear as I didn't find the book scary at all, but from the emotions pouring forth from all three. I'll definitely keep an eye on this author.