Lisa

(3.5 Stars) The epic conclusion of two intertwined series.

There are parts of this I really loved. Persephone is at the height of her power, her confidence, and her fury which is really satisfying to see after where she started in the first book. We get to see the friendship and fierce loyalty her compassion for others has granted her. The war between the gods is also at its peak in this book. I think overall, though, there was just too much going on.

Combining both series means there's a lot of characters and separate plot lines to tie up, and less book in which to do so. Only a few characters have measurable character growth and the rest fall kind of flat. Hermes in particular is reduced to nothing but comedic effect. Before he had the ability to be serious when the occasion called for it, but in this he was almost entirely cheesy jokes.

Pacing was challenging. There's just a lot going on and, while there are highlights of action that drive things forward, sometimes it dragged.

The romance didn't hit the same for me. Hades and Persephone are apart for a large chunk of the book and even once they're together they're fighting a lot.

Stakes are high, but a lot of the punch is missing when characters die and are immediately greeted at the gates of the underworld. I think this also ties in to having too much going on. These moments would have been more emotional if we spent more time in them.

But honestly, a lot of my negative feelings probably spring from the Theseus POV. There are some very blurry, nonconsensual lines crossed and outright sexual assault in sections (that thankfully isn't as explicit as other scenes). I get that he's evil, that he gets off on having power over others and their fear, but I really think I would have understood this in less graphic detail. It really soured the rest of the book for me.

I still think I would recommend the series as a whole because I do love the setting of ancient gods in modern environments, but it ended on kind of a weak note for me.

Throne of Glass offers a cast of complex characters in a unique, magical world. No one is ever truly good or evil and watching their stories interconnect as they move between the two will capture your interest. With 8 books, this series give you a chance to really dig in to these characters and their world.

Plenty of romance. Enemies-to-lovers. Fate. Destiny. Putting what's good for others above yourself. Forgiveness. War. Grief.

Indigo Ridge is great small town, romantic suspense. The cast of characters is large enough to flesh out the town but small enough that you get to know them all organically without being overwhelmed with information. The romance didn't feel forced and the plot remained present and moved along with everything nicely.

I wasn't left wanting anything to be different and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Limelight is a compelling mystery to read under a cozy blanket with some tea.

Penny Green is tenacious, kind, and smart. She's easy to root for and stands out from other characters. I enjoyed following along with her as she figured things out.

This was an easy read. Simple to understand but with some action and twists to keep you engaged. It reminded me of all the Nancy Drew books I loved when I was younger, and I'd recommend it to readers who are looking for a similar feeling in a different setting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for access to this book in exchange for honest feedback

The book is romantic suspense with a heavy emphasis on faith and religion. I wasn't aware of that going in, and honestly it's not for me but the book was still enjoyable. It reminded me of all the things I liked about watching NCIS and Bones.

It has a solid plot and a wide cast of characters that still feel distinct from each other. This would be a great option for people who like romantic suspense but prefer their romance without explicit scenes.

As a whole this book gave the series a sense of closure but the story seemed rushed and flat. There are plenty of moments that rise to the peak of the series and I would absolutely still recommend reading it. However in many ways I was left wanting more. The cast of characters in this book is painfully small, with some familiar faces absent entirely. The plot feels a little light and a lot of what is set up early in the book is just dropped.

After I finished it I was content with the feeling that all was right in their world but hours later couldn't get past the many unanswered questions it left. Characters that were kidnapped are suddenly fine with no mention of what happened to them. Other characters receive new abilities that either never get used or are mentioned and dropped in the span of two sentences.

By far the weakest in the series.

Only When It's Us is an enemies to lovers romance full of emotional depth and witty banter. Willa and Ryder keep things to themselves for different reasons. The closer they get, the more they realize that sometimes the risk of facing their fears is worth the reward.

This book has strong themes of family, trust, and forgiveness with a healthy dose of flirty bickering. The romance feels like it progressed naturally and the story feels complete.

This is predominantly historical fiction focused on Marcus. You get a decent amount of new content with Diana and Matthew, some of Phoebe, but Marcus is at the core.

It was good, but I just wasn't that interested in Marcus's history. The pacing is also kind of odd. It's very slow and very choppy. It felt a lot like info dumping. It covers a huge amount of time and bounces between three different story lines, so I'm overall left with the feeling that we're just skimming the surface of everything.

Without the chapters from Diana's perspective I would have seriously considered skipping this one. The process of teaching someone to be a vampire is interesting but tedious, and watching grown characters I admire act like children wasn't for me.

Overall, still worth it to continue with some of the plots from the series but a VERY different vibe. You could probably get away with just reading the Phoebe and Diana chapters.

More complex world building than ACOTAR, but on par with most fantasy novels. I didn't have trouble following it, but it might be a challenge for people who are just getting into reading fantasy.

The middle always drags for me. Normally that would be enough for me to give four stars but the last third of the book is so dramatic, fast, and fun to read that it makes up for it.

I read ToG first but don't think it's necessary at all to understand this series.

Dark Academia, ghosts, magic, murder investigations, and the price of power

Ninth House has a nonlinear timeline circling around a couple fixed points. The pacing starts a bit slow with some dense world building up front, but once you get past that the momentum really finds its stride. There are multiple POVs, but you mostly follow Alex. On the surface Alex is an outsider to the clean cut, high level academic world of Yale, but her traumatic past experiences help her to see through the masks people wear down to their greed, corruption, and arrogance.

I enjoyed this book immensely but it is very bleak. Even the high points are still pretty depressing. Everything sucks, there are no consequences for the rich and powerful, and so Alex must do whatever it takes to survive. Some events are described in detail that were just past my personal line of “too dark” so read the trigger warnings. They felt like they were there just for shock value.

Overall, I loved the mystery and things slowly being revealed. There were twists I didn't see coming, but they had solid, subtle foundations that back them up. I'm definitely continuing the series and would recommend it.

Time jumps always leave me feeling like I missed out on something, and this is no exception, but I still really enjoyed it.

It's nothing groundbreaking or new compared to the other books, but it's still a good time.

This book is a great expansion on the character of Christian and Gianna. It does jump around in time which I wasn't sure I'd enjoy, but it's done in a way that's easy to follow. Nico and Elena appear throughout, and with the timeline you get to see more of what was going on around them. Christian is dark, fierce, protective, and mysterious. Gianna is optimistic, unique, strong and yet still soft.

I initially made the mistake of skipping this book after I finished The Sweetest Oblivion and regret it. This book was thoroughly enjoyable and I wish I had read it before The Darkest Temptation to fully appreciate the Christian/Gianna scenes in it.

Devney Perry does small town romance with light suspense really well. Her writing has only gotten better which might be why I didn't enjoy this debut novel as much as I love her later releases.

I did enjoy reading it. It skipped over some events that I thought would have been interesting to see in favor of focusing on the relationship building between the two main characters. It has a dual point of view but the majority comes from Gigi's perspective.

Overall I think my issue was that I didn't really like Jess. I usually love a protective, alpha male love interest but in this case it really felt like there wasn't much give and take. He talks over her, makes decisions without her, and when she brings up things that bother her he sort of just tells her to deal with it. I expected at least a little compromise from his end.

I'd still recommend reading this as I'm interested to see where the series goes but if you've started with more recent releases keep in mind that this was an early work.

No spoilers.

There is A LOT going on in this book. Maybe a little too much.

The pacing drags at points (my first read through I put the book down at the halfway point and didn't pick it back up for months), but there's good development of familiar characters without adding too many new ones.

The last 100 pages are absolutely packed with important information and action, setting a lot of things into motion that don't get resolved by the end.

3.5 rounded down.

With long-running series like this, you get a lot of info dumping about things that happened previously and it's particularly heavy at the start of this one.

There's plenty of new information here too. The plot was engaging, but it just felt a little rushed to me. I enjoyed reading it and I'll keep reading if they continue it. There are a lot of threads that haven't been tied up yet that I'm curious about.

This novella does exactly what it needs to. It bridges Nevada's POV with Catalina's before the next book. The switch felt natural and the wedding setting meant all the family were still around and involved.

It was hard to keep all the names straight but that wasnt too important in the end. I enjoyed it and I'm excited to see what's next.

A cozy story focused on family and forgiveness with a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romance. With a very small town Alaska setting it really focuses on the people and the relationships between them.

It will absolutely tug on your heartstrings in more ways than one and feels complete with a bittersweet happily ever after.

A love story between two delightful weirdos who play really childish mind games. If I worked with both of them I'd hate it but reading it was fun.

A lot of my favorite tropes, some top tier banter, and the tender moments were so sweetly written.

Quick read, funny, satisfying conclusion. Would recommend if you can get past the first chapter. Will reread.

This is a five star book for me but it won't be for everyone. This is an EXTEME slow burn, grumpy/sunshine, sports romance.

Sal is strong, confident, kind, and relatable in a way that many of Zapata's characters can be. Her inner monologue can read a little immature (lots of "everybody poops" thoughts) but she's still very likeable. Kulti passes grump and veers into asshole territory off and on but he doesn't always get away with it, and at the end of the day his heart is in the right place.

As someone who played soccer for a lot of years, I'm happy with the sports aspect of the story. It's present throughout and vital to the story while still leaving room for the romance to shine, and where the romance shines is in the collection of moments Zapata has given us. She really zeros in on the small, subtle ways people fall in love. You get everything, good or bad. Small and big. The building blocks of their relationship are all there waiting for you.

As someone who is a big fan of the "Mr. Darcy hand flex" this gave me the butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling I've chased since reading my first book romance.

This last reread was done with the new audiobook, and while initially skeptical both actors NAILED IT. I was particularly worried about Kulti's accent but I had zero complaints.

I'd recommend this to everybody. The banter is funny, the relationships between characters heartfelt, and watching things go from enemies to friends to lovers is satisfying. This is my favorite Mariana Zapata book.

(3.75) Not what I expected it to be, but I still enjoyed it.
Helen was so negative that it got on my nerves, but that's a “me” problem. The title should have prepared me for that. Jake was charming enough to make up for it. There's good character development and some really heartfelt moments.

Forbidden love filled with all the tension, longing, and heart you could ask for.

This is basically a slow burn in the Tessa Bailey world, despite a timeline that feels jarringly fast at first. You get a very charming meet cute, leap through the getting to know you phase, and dive deep into the desperation of two people forced to ignore their feelings. It kind of feels like the whole book takes place in a third-act-breakup, but not in a bad way. The timeline makes sense since so much of Sig and Chloe's story takes place before we meet them in the previous book. It's written in a way that feels natural, there's just a small part of me that is bummed I missed out on some of those early moments.

Sig and Chloe are likeable (yet flawed) and you really root for them to figure things out. Really great romantic tension with their efforts to not cross the line drawn between them. Watching Chloe grow more confident and independent with Sig's help is a delight.

The actual sports aspect is pretty light but it IS there. There are plenty of fun scenes with notable members of the team outside of practice or games, so to me it did still feel like a sports romance.

Tessa Bailey should also be called The Queen of Breadcrumbs because she always sets up her next book in a way that has you invested based off of just a few pages. I have no hesitation about continuing with the series.

I'd recommend to anyone who loves Tessa Bailey (obviously), fans of Clueless, and people who think self sacrifice is a noble way to show your love.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper and Avon Voyager for access to this ARC in return for honest feedback.

Romantic, easy to read Sci-fi with a quippy Veronica Mars-esque heroine and a plot you'll be dying to unravel.

I'm always blown away by the world building in these. Revis is able to take complex backstory and write it in a way that is concise and informative in a way that feels natural. It never feels like info-dumping. The documents included in the end really give it a found-footage/mystery kind of feel.

This one was a little slower for me in comparison to the first, mostly due to a smaller cast of characters. It feels (understandably) like a set up for what's coming. I was able to guess fairly early on what was happening and then had enough time to somehow talk myself out of it again before the reveal. The plot isn't groundbreaking, but I had so much fun following along and trying to identify all the things that were building up to it.

There's enough information at the start that I think someone who skipped part one would be able to follow along but they would be missing out on the full picture. I'd absolutely recommend this to readers who want fun, casual Sci-fi with some star-crossed lovers style romance.

This ARC was provided by DAW through NetGalley in exchange for honest feedback

(4.5 Stars) Enemies-to-lovers in a bone-chillingly haunted castle. The perfect addition to your spooky season TBR.

It's a bit of a slow burn, with really great romantic tension. The passion that made them hate each other is explosive when they realize they don't. There's a fine line between hate and love, and forced proximity in a haunted castle is a great setting for them to cross it.

I expected this to be spooky, but not that I'd almost need to sleep with the lights on. The haunted house atmosphere is so well done. I was simultaneously cursing them for willingly going towards the danger while also hoping they would figure things out. The supernatural mystery is strong enough to stand on its own outside of the romance.

As Pen and Neil are both Native horror writers, there's a big focus on Native identity and how it's affected by society's perceptions and expectations. It gets very specific, but the debate of compromising to make yourself more palatable to other people is universal enough that it will also appeal to non-Native readers. There's a lot of casual queer representation as well.

I would absolutely recommend people pick this up when it comes out later this year. It's a fantastic and unique blend of horror and contemporary romance.

This ARC was provided by St. Martin's Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions provided are my own.

More magic and more secrets.

It's a delight being back in this universe. New discoveries (big and small), familiar faces, and significantly more magic. The vibes of this one made me wish it was already fall. Spooky and mysterious plots set in a community Diana hasn't fully experienced but where she clearly belongs.

This one feels different than the first three. I flew through it but I wasn't obsessed. The stakes seemed a little lower to me and there's a heavier focus on discovery and learning. The driving force of the plot comes from uncovering secrets instead of outright danger. The vampires are more of background/set dressing than key components of the plot, but in return you get a lot more knowledge about different branches of magic and covens. It felt like it ended a bit abruptly and definitely did some heavy lifting for future plot points.

Despite that I loved it. It does a good job giving you a refresher on relevant plot points from the first few books, although there were a few references I didn't remember and I just did a complete reread. I'm surprised at the direction some of the character development took. The romance is not the focus in this one, you get a bit, but this is truly about Diana's journey learning more about herself as a witch and as a member of the Proctor family.

There's clearly more to come and I'm looking forward to it.

Format note: I had access to both the ebook and a hard copy and would definitely recommend a hard copy. There are small drawings throughout that are whimsically nestled into the text in the hard copy, but appear in an awkward amount of blank space in the ebook. Not a deal breaker but the hard copy formatting is a delight.

A dramatic and emotional conclusion to the mysteries set up in the first book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one, but it has a different vibe than the first. There's more action but less excavating. The plot is quick paced and the stakes are high. Multiple twists took me by surprise.

Inez and Whit's flaws are front and center in this one in a way that was a little frustrating to watch play out, but they never go so far as to be unlikeable (at least not for long). The romance takes a very different tone in this one, which isn't unexpected but did make me miss the yearning and the early stages of falling in love from the first book.

I particularly liked the epilogue.

Having finished the duology, I'd absolutely still recommend it for anyone who wants a historical fantasy romance with mystery and strong "touch her and die" themes.