Misty (mistysbookspace)
4.5 stars
I read this for the #Tropeathon prompt secret affair. When I landed on this, I was not happy at first because I don't particularly like reading books that involve cheating but luckily, I came across this one where there is no cheating at all. We get 2 POVs in this book. Ezra who is an out gay man and Anton who is out to some people but not the whole world. At the start of the book, they are on opposing hockey teams and after a game they hook up even though they hate each other. Ezra ends up getting traded to the team that Ezra is on, and things go from there. I loved the banter between these characters, and I loved even more that they didn't lose that banter even when they were a couple. It took me a while to get on board with Ezra but the more I read the more he grew on me. I really enjoyed this one and I definitely will continue this series at some point.
4.5 stars
Here we are again with me forgetting everything I thought about this book. I really need to get into the habit of writing my reviews as soon as I finish reading something or at least jotting down some notes. This book deals with some tough topics. death of a loved one, family drama and rape just to name a few so if you are easily triggered, I definitely recommend looking into triggers before picking this one up. I loved the romance in this one. You hate the characters you're supposed to hate and love the ones you are meant to love. The 5-year-old stole the show for me. She was just so adorable. There was a reveal toward the end that I totally didn't see coming. We were so close to not having a 3rd act break up but unfortunately there was one, but I think it could have been done better. I can definitely see myself reading more by this author.
4.5 stars
This was a total mood read and I am so glad I decided to read it because it was exactly what I needed at the time. We have a male witch and a succubus. Shane is a nerdy witch and he's a 20 something year old virgin. Then we have Elle who is a plus sized succubus who is confident in her body and sexuality. Put these 2 together and it's perfection. I loved how nerdy and nervous Shane was. Their interactions whether of the sexual nature or not were great. I thought this was cute with a bit of spice thrown in and it was just an easy book to read. I'm looking forward to continuing this series.
4.5 stars
I don't know why I keep doing this to myself, but I've put off writing my review for this book and I can't remember what I wanted to say about it. I know it's an enemies to lovers second chance romance. Amelia and Justin were childhood friends, but this book starts when they are adults and haven't seen each other in like a decade. I really enjoyed the romance and how there was no cheating involved (Justin has a girlfriend at the beginning of the book). I know I had a couple of issues with the book, but I can't remember for sure what they were. I think one was how Justin was mean to Amelia at the start just for the sake of being mean which I don't really like, and I wish they would have communicated with each other better. Honestly take this review with a grain of salt because I could totally be making this up. The only thing I know for sure is that overall, I really ended up enjoying this book.
4.5 stars
I read another book by this author back in January of 2023 called Marlowe Banks, Redesigned and loved it so when I got an email with a NetGalley widget allowing me to have access to this book I had to jump at the chance to read it. This is a friends to lovers second chance romance. Imogen and Eliot have been friends since they were kids, and Imogen has always had a crush on him but never said anything. After Eliot graduates he leaves town, and they lose touch, but he returns after a decade away and things go from there. I thought this was such a cute romance and I loved the communication in this book. It did get a bit repetitive when it came to Imogen's “curse” and the ending was a bit of a letdown but overall I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by this author.
3.5 stars
I read this with the #KeeperofKing readalong group on Instagram. We had been taking a break from King this year but when the host asked if we wanted to read this one, we were all on board. This is Kings newest release and it's a collection of 12 short stories, 2 of which were released on their own before this, so they were rereads for me. I didn't hate any of the stories in this collection. There was only one story that left me confused after finishing it. The majority of the stories were ok reads. I didn't hate them but I also didn't love them. After finishing them I was left needing more from them. There were 3 standouts in this collection for me and they were Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream, Rattlesnakes and The Answer man. Of course, 2 of the longest ones would be the ones I liked the most. These 3 stories didn't leave me feeling like I needed more. I felt like we got the whole story, and I was left satisfied upon finishing all of them. Short stories are always hit or miss for me especially when it comes to King but overall, I thought this was an ok collection.
I buddy read this one with Erin. This book has been on my radar for a while, but I kept putting off reading it I think because I thought it was going to be too high fantasy for me. I'm glad Erin suggested we buddy read it because overall I did end up enjoying it. It is high fantasy, so I did have trouble keeping up with everything that we were being told. I mean there's a lot of characters not to mention all the different types of Djinns it was all just slightly too much for me. That being said though it wasn't so much that I couldn't keep up with the overall story. The characters themselves is what had me hooked. Also, I should mention that apparently this was the authors debut, and I had no idea that was the case until literally right now. I was left confused about some things in the end but I'm hoping book 2 will remedy that.
4.5 stars
I buddy read this book with Ali. We started this series back in June and we've read 1 book each month. If you want to see my thoughts on those books you can read them here and here. I gave those first two books a 3.5 and a 3 star rating. They were both ok, but the politics took over in those books and that really affected my enjoyment of them. This book was the opposite. The romance was the main focus with a little bit of politics thrown in and I loved that. This is a second chance childhood friends to lovers romance. Ezra and Kimba were friends since the day they were born but something happened that separated them for 20 years. They reconnect after 20 years and the feelings are still strong and the story goes from there. I loved Kimba and Ezra together and I loved the communication in this book but there was some unexpected drama which caused the third act break up that I wasn't the biggest fan of. The ending also felt a bit rushed to me. Overall, this one was definitely the best out of the 3 books.
4.5 stars
I buddy read this book with Destiny. We read the first book, Bewitched back in January. I did like that first book but by the end of that book I was hating a certain character so much and it made me hesitant to pick this one up but I'm glad I gave it a shot because I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to and more than the first book. I can't really say too much about this one because of spoilers but there are a couple of things I want to mention. First off, Selene kept making stupid decisions and getting herself into some not so fun situations and that really got old because she never learned. Also, I find it hard to believe that a bunch of teachers would be like oh there's a murder on the loose, but we will wait to enact curfew until tomorrow that way y'all can still celebrate this specific holiday or whatever it was. Because of how much I hated a certain character in the first book I was constantly waiting for them to do something that would make me hate them again in this book, but that moment never came. After the cliffhanger in book one I was expecting something else that shocking to happen but the cliffhanger in this one just left me feeling like “oh that's it? That's not really that big a deal.” I am looking forward to reading the next book whenever it is released.
This was the Lost in Romance Book Club pick for May. Yes I am behind on the books for my own book club, but I am working on getting caught up. Anyways As I mentioned in the into to this post I was in a slump in July, and I was struggling to really get hooked into anything until I picked this one up. I got through half of this book in like 1-2 sittings and was loving it so much. I had to put it down to read an ARC which is why I wasn't able to finish it until August but as soon as I picked it back up I flew through it. It was exactly what I needed to help pull me out of that pesky slump. This is a MM rockstar/military romance with a little bit of a mystery? Honestly, I could care less about the mystery I was living for the romance. Plus, the mystery aspect was very obvious.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. When the publisher reached out to me asking if I would be interested in reading it I saw the word memoir and almost immediately declined but then I saw it was by an author I had read from before and the synopsis intrigued me so I decided to give it a go. I don't typically read non fiction books but this is the 2nd one this year that I have really enjoyed. This book is told in 3 parts. The first part details her life until she was about 8. This part is about her birth mother who ends up being a prostitute and everything Marina goes through in those years. The second part is about her adoptive mother and everything she goes through from the day she's adopted an onward. I'm assuming her adoptive mother is asexual. It's implied but never confirmed. Each mother is on completely opposite spectrums when it comes to sex. The last part it about her life after marriage on up to the present. The author doesn't hold back with her thoughts and feelings about things. She's brutally honest about pretty much everything. The things she goes through her whole life is hard to read about. There's a lot of triggering content so look into that before picking this book up. It seems wrong to say you enjoy a book about this but I don't know any other way to say it. It's hard hitting and I think there's a lot to take from this book like loving yourself is the most important love. If you can handle the content in this book then I definitely recommend giving it a read.
I started this series earlier this year and enjoyed the first book and was interested in continuing on. I picked up the 2nd book this month to fill a prompt for a bingo challenge I was participating in. I do still want to continue on with the series but so far I'm not loving it as much as everyone else seems to. This one was ok but not a whole lot happens. As of right now I feel like this story would have been better if it was a full novel and not novellas.
3.5 stars
I won an ARC of this book from a giveaway I entered back in June or maybe it was May I can't remember now. I Was so excited when I found out I won because if you've been following me for a while then you know I love vampire books. This book is a about a Dhampir which if like me you had no idea what this was then it's a half vampire half human. This is the authors debut novel and for a debut I think it was a pretty good. I think at times it was a bit too descriptive and a bit repetitive and it had some minor plot holes. I loved that we get to briefly meet what I am assuming is going to be the characters of books to come and I loved the main characters of this book Sadie and Everett and thought they were so cute and their chemistry jumps off the pages at you. It did take way to long for anything to actually happen between though in my opinion. I was almost 60% into the book before things really started to happen. I liked their banter back and for and the communication!! Oh my gosh this was the best representation of communication I have ever read. I wish more authors would do communication like this. While I did really enjoy my time with this and I really looking forward to reading more books by this author I do have to say that the plot was very simple and things wrap up pretty easily. I would have liked a little more conflict maybe but at the same time I wouldn't want the author to sacrifice the amazing communication in this book
3.5 stars
This is the 5th book in the Haven Ever After series by Hazel Mack and I've been buddy reading this series with Destiny and Malli. For the most part this series as a whole is a hit but this will make the 2nd book so far that I just haven't fully gotten along with. Don't get me wrong I have enjoyed each of the books just a varying levels of enjoyment. This one is currently tied with my least favorite book Tangling With Trolls. I enjoyed getting to see some previous characters make appearances. I love an age gap romance but I don't like being constantly reminded about the age difference letting us know once or twice here or there is plenty. My biggest complaint about this book has to do with the sex scenes. Y'all know I am a lover of romance and the steamier the better in my opinion but there was something about the sex scenes in this book that were weird. I don't really know what exactly wasn't working for me but I think it had to do with their actual wolves. I don't know it's hard to explain but if you've read this book and felt the same please let me know. My other complaint is about the main characters Richard and Lola. I liked both of them but at different times. I really liked Richard in the first half of the book but in the last half he kind of lost his personality a bit. As for Lola I liked her more in the last half of the book because she was actually standing up for herself and taking charge of her life. There other little things I could comment on but overall this was ok. I liked it enough to finish it but I don't think I would ever reread it but I am really really really looking forward to Lou's story.
This was another buddy read with Ashley and it's the 3rd book in the same series as the book above. This one had the humor from the first book that I was missing in the second book and it's an enemies to lovers romance which I loved as well. The only thing I find annoying about enemies to lovers is that it always takes so long for things to start happening romantically between the characters. I hope the last book in the series is just as good.
This was a buddy read I did with Ali. It's the 2nd book in this series and we read both of them together and we are planning to read the 3rd one as well even though we haven't really loved the first two books. I loved the first 10 or so chapters of this but everything after that was underwhelming. I found certain side plots pointless and like the first book it focused more on everything except for the romance which I didn't like.
I buddy read this one with Destiny. This was a reread for her but my first time reading it. I've read other books by this author so I was expecting to enjoy this one. I did in fact enjoy this one. I loved the romance and the characters but it was a bit on the slow side and I wanted more from the ending. Also this is a personal preference but the chapters were way to freaking long for my liking.
I was sent this bool by the author in exchange for my honest review. If you've been following me for any amount of time you've seen me talk about this authors books before. I've read several at this point and haven't found one I didn't like. I think this was a great first book in a series. We are immediately thrown into the story which I love and learn about things along the way. We have a strong female main character, humans with supernatural abilities, paranormal creatures, a murder mystery and an agency a lot like the FBI that is tracking a cult. They know the cult is responsible for the murders but they don't know who is in the cult or why they are killing these people. The reveal at the end came as a surprise to me. I definitely didn't see that one coming. The only thing I have to complain about is that I wish there was more information on the cult and why the leader did what they did. Like we know what they wanted but why did they want it so bad. I loved the action and there's potential for a future romance in the books to come which I totally wouldn't be mad about. This was another hit for me by this author and I am looking forward to reading more.
This book was recommended to me by my friend Michelle to fulfill a prompt for Tropeathon which is a readathon with cohost. I hadn't heard of it before that. She had actually recommended me 2 books and while they both sounded good I was more drawn to this one. I am so glad I decided to pick this one up because I loved it so much. This book follow Harper and Riley. At the start of the book Harper is in a relationship with an abusive man but he has finally realized enough is enough and is pretty much hiding from him. He is presented with a job to work for Riley who is blind. He has a few seconds here and there where he can see but they don't happen all that often and the doctor says eventually they will stop. I don't have any experience with being blind so I don't know if what I just described is even possible. I do feel like the author did a great job of portraying how someone who is blind feels with losing their site and how others treat them differently. I felt so bad for what Harper went through and I hated that he continued to blame himself for it but I loved seeing growth throughout the book. Harper is gay and until Harper Riley had always been straight. I love love loved how Riley was all in with Harper despite never being with a man before. He never questioned his feeling for Harper and didn't care what anyone else thought about it. The relationship was so cute and honestly it was just perfect. This book does tackle some hard topics like domestic abuse and rape. These things happen off page but they are talked about after the fact. I just loved this book and would definitely pick something else up by this author.
Destiny and I buddy read Butcher & Blackbird earlier this year and both loved it. We couldn't wait for the next book to come out in the series. It was a highly anticipated release for me. I had very high expectations going into this one and I did really enjoy it just not as much as Butcher & Blackbird and I can't really explain why that is. Something was just missing in this book for me. We get everything that Butcher & Blackbird gave us in this book from the humor to the crazy messed up murdery bits but everything kind of seemed to be dialed down a notch. I still really enjoyed this book and I can't wait for the next book to be released because I need more if the Kane brothers as well as the FMC.
The bad thing about reading books that are part of a series back to back is that it's hard to come up with things to say about the books that you haven't already said in the other reviews. I'm still really enjoy these books but this one is probably my least favorite of what I've read so far. This review is going to be slightly spoliery so if you haven't started this series yet please skip this review. From the very beginning of this series I have been vocal about how much I hate Nox. He's my least favorite MMC and for good reason. I honestly don't think he could have ever fully redeemed himself but I was looking forward to learning about his past and why he is the way he is and seeing him grow and possibly come to love Oli. I didn't realize how much I was looking forward to this until the ending of this book. The cliffhangers of these books are going to be the death of me and each one has gradually gotten worse so I'm afraid of what the next books have in store for us. When I read the last sentence of this book my heart was racing and I was on the verge of tears which says a lot of an author can make me feel this way about a character I've hated up until that point. I think the reason this is my least favorite of the books I've read so far is because the focus wasn't on the romance as much in this one which I get but you know I like my romance. Even though it's my least favorite overall I'm still hooked on these characters and their story and I can't wait to read the next book but I'm also a tad bit scared.
This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while but I kept putting off reading it despite knowing I would enjoy it. I'm glad Destiny finally got me to pick this one up. I admit this one took me a little bit to get into but once I did I was once again hooked on one of his stories. I listened to the audiobook while following along in the book which I think was the right way to go with this one because of the footnotes. Those alone took a while to get used to and honestly I still don't think I was used to them by the time I finished reading the book. I don't necessarily think we needed all of the footnotes because they didn't really add to the story overall but it was a nice addition all the same. This book gave me a little bit of everything. There's a lot of action, gore, some romance, some humor and great worldbuilding. It was just a well rounded book and I look forward to jumping into the next book hopefully soon.
I've been reading this whole series with Destiny and Malli. This is the 3rd book in the series and I'm still really enjoying my time with these books although at this point things are really starting to stand out to me a little bit in not a good way. This is a why choose romance. We have Oli and her 5 bonds Atlas, Gabe, Gryphon, North and Nox. I put them in the order in which I like them as well. At this point 3 books in things are starting to get a little bit repetitive. It's just little things here and there like how Oli keeps saying she doesn't want to complete the bond for reasons that are now known but spoiler alert she has completed the bond now with 3/5 of her bonds. It's just things like that that are really standing out to me now. I still think there hasn't been enough groveling by most of the guys which at least 2 of them definitely need to be groveling a hell of a lot more. Despite these little niggles that I am starting to have I'm still really hooked on this series and each book has ended on a heart attack inducing cliffhanger that makes you need to pick up the next book asap.
3.5 stars
This was yet another buddy read this time with Destiny, Erin and Regina. Destiny ended up DNFing pretty early on and I can't really blame her. If I didn't actually own a physical copy of the book I probably would have DNFed it as well but I'm glad I stuck this one out. Needless to say after reading and loving Belladonna I went into this one with pretty high expectations and it ended up being somewhat of a disappointment. There's going to be spoilers from this point on so if you're interested in reading this one skip the rest of this review. I don't mind love triangles but if you're going to include a love triangle don't introduce it in the second book after 2 of the characters already have an established relationship from book one. I was absolutely hating the direction this book was going in the start and I was having to force myself to pick up the book each time. A little past the halfway point is where things started to pick up for me. I was on the fence about whether or not to keep my preorder of Wisteria because of how much I was hating this at first but after finishing this one I knew immediately that I was going to be reading the final book. That's how much things turned around for me.