Misty (mistysbookspace)

I recently read my first T. Kingfisher book and fell in love with it. I wanted to read more of this authors book and me and a couple of friends decided to buddy read this one together. While I did enjoy this one I didn't love it as much as the first book I read by this author which was Swordheart. 

This is a fantasy with a quest and we meet a lot of great characters along the way. I will say this book throws you straight in from the beginning and it can be a bit confusing at times but I say stick it out. It's a fairly simple plot line but for me I love a good easy plot when it comes to fantasy because there's not a whole lot you need to keep up with. I would have liked the magic to have been explained a little bit and I personally would have liked a little bit more of the romance but that's a personal preference. I know that a lot of people prefer not to have a whole lot of romance in their fantasy and if that's the case then I would say this is definitely for you. 

There were moments that had me laughing out loud but there were also some harder topics talked about but it's done in a vague way but I will still say to look for triggers if you are easily trigger by certain topics. Overall I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more if this authors backlist. 

3.5 stars

I recently joined the So Many Books So Little Time Book Club on Instagram. I'm always down to read more romance and I always end up reading books I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own which was the case with this book. 

This book took me longer than normal to finish it. The pacing was so slow and I felt like at least 100 pages should have been cut from the book. If it was shorter I feel like I could have loved it. I did enjoy it though. The characters and the romance is what hooked me and kept me reading. There were just things that were drug out way to much and because of this there was some repetitiveness which became annoying. 

Like I said the romance was on point which is why I kept reading. I loved how they went from strangers to friends to lovers. Orek is half human half Orc. I loved how he was with Sorcha. They were so cute together. I do wish they would have communicated with each other a little more but overall a great story. 

I was impatiently waiting for this to be released and as soon as we had copies in hand Destiny and I started our buddy read. I've loved buddy reading this series with her.

My copy of this book didn't come in until the day after it released so I was trying really hard to avoid spoilers. I didn't get spoiled for anything thankfully but people were having thoughts about the ending. I didn't get spoiled for exactly what happened but I saw a lot of posts on Instagram where they were saying they weren't ready for that or they weren't ok after that ending. Because of all those posts my anxiety was through the roof. I'm not an anxious person except for when it comes to books. 

I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit though. First off After finishing Fourth Wing I was fully invested. I was loving the world and the characters and relationships and I needed more. This book picks up pretty much right after the ending of book one. I loved how the author didn't do a time jump here because I was really wanting to pick up where they left off because I was hoping to get some answers and that is exactly what we got. 

The pacing of this one was all over the place. It went from being action packed fast paced to slower paced. I know this is frustrating to some people but I was so invested in everything that was happening I didn't really care but I did notice it so I thought I would mention it. There's so much I could talk about but I'm trying to keep my spoilers as vague as possible. I'm still 1000% invested in the romance. And I'm loving the found family of shorts that Violet has and I'm loving seeing those relationships grow.

Something happens to one of the side characters toward the end that I'm really interested to see how Rebecca handles it in the next book. Now for the ending. Some people will consider this to be spoilery which is why I labeled my review as spoilery but its a very vague spoiler. So as I mentioned early on people had my anxiety through the roof with all their reactions to the ending. Once I read the ending I was like oh that's it? It wasn't what I was expecting at all. I'm not happy about what happened but I also think this is something they can come back from and that's all I will say on that. 

Overall another amazing book and I can't wait for the next book to be released. I really hope we don't have to wait to long and hopefully we will get another 2 books just like we did this  year.

I don't typically read holiday books until December but when Angela asked me if I wanted to buddy read this with her I jumped at the chance because it has been on my TBR for a while now. I wouldn't necessarily consider this a holiday book though. There is mention of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas but they all play a very small part in the story. 

This is a friends to lovers fake dating romance. We have Stella Bloom and Luke Peters They have been friends for over a decade and it's obvious to the reader that they are in love with each other but apparently not as obvious to them. I thought this was a really cute book with a small little mystery. It has the lack of communication trope which I don't really care for but luckily the author doesn't drag it out for to long. 

Overall I really enjoyed my time reading this and I look forward to continuing on with the series.

I've only read one other book by this author and I really enjoyed it so when Destiny listed this as one of the books she wanted to get through this year I jumped at the chance to read it with her because I was interested in reading more by this author. I didn't realize this was a collection of stories at first and unfortunately this one didn't work for me at all. 

I don't even know how to review this book. Honestly reading this made me feel like I was stupid because I just wasn't getting all the metaphors. Literally all but 4 of the stories went over my head completely and I can't even begin to tell you what I read because I have no freaking clue. Like I said I've read one other book by this author and that was Nothing But Blackened Teeth and I loved that one. Reading this book felt like I was reading a completely different author. I seem to be in the minority on this one so if you've been interested in this I do suggest you still give it a try. 

I recently came across this book when I was doom scrolling on Instagram. The person was raving about it and it made me want to read it plus I'll admit I was drawn in by the cover. This was a really quick read and that really messed with my enjoyment of it. Everything happened way to fast and it was hard to connect with the characters and the relationship. I would have liked for this one to be a full length novel. I feel like if we could have gotten more build up and more groveling this could have been great. It was pretty steamy but also kind of cringy. 

3.5 stars

I've put this book on so many TBRs over the past 2-3 years and I'm happy to say I have finally read it. This was my first book by this author and while it didn't end up being a favorite I did end up liking it overall and I definitely want to pick up more books by this author. 

My review is going to have some spoilers so if you haven't read this book yet I suggest skipping my review. It took me a while to get into this book mostly because I was in a slump when I was trying to read it and me and unreliable characters weren't getting along at the time but I pushed through and ended up enjoying it. I love the setting of this book. It takes place on a luxury cruise ship. To me being secluded in the middle of the ocean on a ship is way more nerve racking then if this would have taken place back on land. Don't get me wrong both are equally horrific but literally having no place to go just adds a little something to the fear aspect. 

Lets talk about Lo our main character. She takes antidepressants for her anxiety and I loved how this was portrayed. Normally when you read a book that deals with a mental illness usually the use of medications to treat said illnesses aren't portrayed in a positive light but with this book the author portrayed it perfectly. My issues with this book have to do with Los drinking. She's made an unreliable character because she literally gets so drunk that she blacks out so you don't know what is real and what isn't. I don't particularly like when books do this. I don't really even like reading books where people get shit face drunk. If you want to drink that's all good but I would prefer to read books where the characters drink responsibly and don't make stupid decision after stupid decision like our main character did. 

The last like 20% of the book things finally started to happen and I started to enjoy it a little more. There were reveals that I didn't see coming so that was good but I'm still torn on how I feel about the way it ended. I'm the type of reader who wants all of the bad guys to have some sort of punishment and that's all I will say about that. Overall I did like this book and it made me want to pick up other books by this author but it wasn't a favorite for me. 

This isn't a book that I would typically pick up on my own. It was brought to my attention last year during author/blogger Teri Polen's Bad Moon Rising event. I like to step out of my comfort zone every now and then and the synopsis sounded intriguing so I thought I would give it a go. This was a quick read and the magic hat is what made me want to read this book. I don't think I have ever read a book that has a talking hat aside from the one that shall not be named. I loved the premise of this one but everything was way to easily resolved and not always believable. I do have the 3rd book in this series so I will be reading that one but depending on how that one goes I might not continue on just because it's not for me but I think there will be a lot of people who will love this. 

I can't remember who I saw talking about this one but it made me want to read it and I thought it would be a perfect read for the month of October. I feel like this would have been better as a full length novel. I wasn't really able to connect with any of the characters. I'm guessing this was supposed to be a way of setting us up for the full length novel in this series which is next. I might continue on but I might not. It's definitely steamy and violent but lacks in overall plot and story. 

Now this novella gave me everything I wanted and then some. I absolutely loved Sorcery of Thorns when I originally read it years ago and I did a reread of it right before picking this up to give myself a little bit of a refresher. I loved being back in this world following these characters. I even loved how the Manor felt like it's own character. Nathaniel brings the humor once again in this novella. He had me laughing so much throughout with all of his little comments. If I had to complain about anything it would just be that I wanted it to be longer. 

I've been buddy reading this series with Destiny and Malli and I've been loving it so much. The second book kind of fell flat a little bit but this one is by far my favorite one so far. This is a single dad romance. Alo has been raising his son Iggy pretty much since he was born. He has given up pretty much everything so his focus was only on his son. He thinks that's the way it should be. I love Iggy so much. Normally when kids are part of a book they either don't play that big of a part or they are trying to break the couple up. That was not the case in this book with Iggy and I loved that so much. 

I loved all of the pining between Alo and Miriam but I am happy that the author didn't drag it out through the entire book. Alo and Miriam are perfect for each other and I just loved reading their story so much. I didn't want it to end but at the same time it means we get the Keeper's story next which I have impatiently been waiting on since the first book. This book is a bit steamy so if that's not your cup of tea I would skip this entire series but if you're ok with so steamy scenes and some pining then I would highly recommend this book. 

I've had this on my TBR for a while now so I was really excited when Destiny agreed to buddy read it with me. While it's not a new all time favorite I did end up liking this one. 

First off I have to talk about the cover. It's stunning!! The cover is what initially drew me to this book and then I read the synopsis and I was sold. It took me a minute to get into it because something about the writing just felt weird although I couldn't really tell you what that something was. After a little while though it fully sucked me in and had me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out where the author was going. I had so many theories some of which were true and some not so much. 

This book is very descriptive but it's done in a way that doesn't go overboard and completely gross you out. I did have some issues with this book but can't really go into details about it because it's kind of spoilery so I will just say I needed more of somethings. I'm pretty sure this is a standalone novel so I wasn't happy with that cliffhanger ending. It wraps up the events of this book but it ends in a way that suggests a follow up being possible which if that's the case I would be happy about it but like I said I don't think there is another book but if I am wrong please let me know. 

Overall I really liked this book but I needed more for me to fully love it and I definitely want to read more by this author.

3.5 stars

This was my first book by this author and while it wasn't a new favorite I enjoyed it enough to want ot read more by this author. 

So based off the synopsis of this I went into this book expecting it to focus on the whodunit aspect but that is not the case. This book portrays the life of 12 year old Cory. We get his day to day life in which one day him and his father witness a car go into Saxon's Lake and sink with a man inside. While they want to figure out what happened to the man and who is responsible that takes a back seat to Cory's day to day life which is why I was a bit disappointed. It isn't until the very end when things start happening regarding the whodunit. There are mentions here and there about the accident but nothing is ever really done until the end. 

That alone is my main complaint about this book. Everything else I did really enjoy. I don't typically like books that just follow peoples everyday lives but this one worked for me. It did go by a bit slow considering I was expecting it to focus on the whodunit. This author is a great story teller. I never felt like I was getting bombarded with to much info or description which can definitely be the case with these longer books. Speaking of long book I feel like this one could have been a bit shorter. 

All of my thoughts of this are based on the fact that I was expecting more of the whodunit aspect. If I went into it expecting something else I could see myself loving this one so much more. Overall I did enjoy this authors writing and I really want to pick up something else by him.

When I wrote my review for King of Scars I kept it spoiler free but I can't write this review without spoilers so if you haven't read this duology yet I highly recommend you skip this review. From here on is going to contain major spoilers for both books.

Just like in the first book we get multiple POVs with the main ones being Nikolai, Zoya and Nina again but we also get some other POVs throughout. Also once again this book is a bit slow going for the majority of the book. It wasn't until things started happening that it became action packed and fast paced. I'm happy to say that I continued to love Zoya in this book. I didn't like her in the Shadow & Bone trilogy at all. Her character started growing on me in King of Scars and by the end of this book she became a favorite and someone I could root for. Nikolai and Nina are their same old amazing selves. It wasn't until I was reading this book that I realized how very similar Nikolai and Kaz are. I didn't really notice this until one of my buddy read partners pointed it out and after that it became so obvious. 

This is where things are going to get very spoilery. At the end of King of Scars we learn that the Darkling has come back. I said in my review that I wasn't expecting it and it was definitely shocking but I felt like it was a huge set back in the overall Grishaverse stories. I was so worried about how he was going to play a part in this book. Here's the thing I had had enough of the Darkling by the time the Grisha trilogy ended so I absolutely hated that he was back. What I hated even more was getting his POV in this book. Luckily it was only a handful of chapters but every time his chapters came around I just got mad. I was so worried that he was going to be the one to save the day in the end like she was trying to write a redemption story for the Darkling and I just wasn't having it. And what happens in the end? He ends up playing a part in saving them. I loved everything about this story aside from the Darklings part which is really affecting the way I feel about this book. 

The book wraps up the story nicely but it does end on a cliffhanger. I loved seeing how things ended for everyone and that all pretty much went the way I was hoping but I wish Hanne didn't have to pretend to be someone else they deserved better than that. Overall this duology is probably going to be my least favorite of the Grishaverse books but I am happy that I read them and I would totally read more books with these characters just please no more Darkling. !!

I had seen this book around but it wasn't until I watched someone's YouTube video where they said that if you loved How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix you would probably love this on that made me immediately put it on hold at my library. I ended up buddy reading this one with Destiny as which was so fun because we kept speculating on what was going on and we were right about some of it. 

This is the authors debut book which I wasn't aware of going into it. Margaret and Hal were finally able to afford their dream home right around the time their daughter Katherine went off to college. They've never been able to call a place their own there whole life so this was like a dream come true for both of them. But it ends up being haunted all year round but it gets really bad in September. Despite this Margaret refuses to leave. She adapts like she has been doing her whole life which we learn about throughout the book. Her and Hal live in this house for a few years until Hal has had enough and disappears. 

This is where the story really picks up. Katherine comes home to look into the disappearance of her dad after having not heard from him in a month. I was really not a fan of Katherine at all. Her behavior and the way she treated her mom at times was just horrible. The further into the book we get things are revealed. We learn what has been going on. Some of the reveals I saw coming and some of them I wasn't expecting at all. Sometimes it felt a bit repetitive and slow but when things were happening they were really happening.

Toward the end I was thinking the author was going to go one way with the book but luckily she didn't because I was a bit disappointed when I thought it was going that way. Overall this was a really great read that had me guessing throughout the whole book. 

3.5 stars

I was in the mood for some dark romance when we picked this book for our Lost in Romance Book Club pick for September. I follow someone on YouTube who was raving about this book and I was intrigued and wanted to read it. 

I've been sitting on this review for probably over a week now at this point and I still don't know what to say about it. This is the second book in a series but it can be read as a standalone. I'm pretty sure each book follows different characters and I don't think they really have any connection character wise but I could be wrong about that so look into that before starting this if you prefer to read books in order. I didn't feel like I was missing anything by starting with this book. Also look into trigger warning for this book because there are a whole lot of them. Luckily they are mentioned in the synopsis for the book so that makes it easier. 

Where do I start with this book. This book is very dark. I know I've already said this but it needs to be mentioned again that it deals with some very triggering topics. While reading this book and everything that happens I kept thinking wow this is really messed up but at the same time I was hooked and wanted to know how these particular characters found their way to a HEA. 

I found it to be a little bit to repetitive at times. Neither of the characters could make up their minds and the back and forth really got annoying after a while. I can understand wavering once maybe twice but they literally couldn't settle on anything until the very end and reading that back and forth got frustrating. 

One thing this story has taught me is to never pick up hitchhikers. Something this book has going for it is the steam factor. Man was this book very steamy. I don't really know what else to say about it. I was hooked despite not being completely onboard with what was happening.

I've been wanting to read something by this author for a while now but there was just so much to choose from I had no idea where to start. I guess you could say I was a bit intimidated. Luckily my friend Destiny recommended this one to me and I absolutely loved it. Halla is amazing. I love her personality but I know not everyone will. Sarkis is also amazing and doesn't really know how to deal with Halla which makes for some very funny times. This book was full of humor and I laughed through pretty much all of it. I only had 2 small complaints about this book and that was that it felt a bit too long and Halla's reaction to Sarkis' revelation in the end was a little bit overdone in my opinion. But despite that I absolutely loved this book and it's still perfect in my eyes. 

I went into this one a little bit skeptically because I hated the original Dracula when I read it but luckily this one was so much better. This book is written in the form of letters. Constanta is writing to Dracula about their life together and she explains why she did things the way she did. I've always loved reading books about vampires and I am so glad this ended up being one of the good ones. I just loved getting this take on Dracula and his wife and lovers. Buddy read with Destiny. 

This book has been so hyped over the past year and I was really excited to read it but unfortunately this one didn't live up to that hype in my opinion. I wanted to love this one as much as everyone else did but I just didn't. Yes it's cute and cozy and it's the perfect book for this time of year but it didn't wow me in any way whatsoever. I won't say no to reading any other books in this series but I'm also not going to go out of my way to read them either. I buddy read this with Destiny. 

This is the 6th book in this series and I have been very fortunate to have gotten all of them sent to me by the author in exchange for my honest review.

I'm so happy to be back with Ronaldo for the 6th time. These are part of a series but each of them can be read as standalone book because each one deals with a different scenario. Also each one always has a great message that I think all young kids can learn from. 

I love following Ronaldo and his friends. We are introduced to some new characters in this book as well which I really enjoyed. I love how Ronaldo stuck by Donny even though some others laughed at him and made fun of him. I would have liked to see the bullies getting called out for their bad behavior by the adults and there were a couple instances where something in the plot felt a little too convenient but I don't think the younger audience would pick up on that. And as always there are illustrations which I really love and are so great at bringing life to the story I just wish they were in color. 

So once again another Ronaldo adventure that I absolutely loved and I am looking forward to his next adventure. I can't wait to see what these characters get up to next and what lessons they learn along the way. 

4.5 stars

I'm kind of starting to get into horror recently and so far I've really been enjoying what I have been reading. This one was recommended to me by Destiny. It did take me a little bit to get into. It had a bit of a slow start and I had to get used to the dialect but once I did I was hooked. I was getting Dracula vibes when I first started reading it but it went in a very different direction than I was expecting. Honestly I wasn't expecting any of the reveals throughout this book so they all caught be by surprise. Also even though this was horror there was a little romantic subplot happening and I loved that. Yes you could say it happened pretty quickly and I would agree but I don't even care I just really enjoyed my time with this and can't wait to read more by this author. 

3.5 stars

This is the second book in the Haven Ever After series by Hazel Mack. I had a great time reading the first book and I was really looking forward to reading this one. I did like this one but I also had some issues with it that did affect my rating for it overall. I loved the plus size representation and I how Wren loves her body but not only that everyone else does as well especially Ohken. The romance between these 2 was amazing. Their chemistry was on point and I loved how they communicated with each other from the start. If they had any issues they talked through them. Here's where my issues come in. First off there were a lot of inconsistencies throughout the whole book. The main one being how Ohken is constantly telling us that Trolls take things slow in relationships. They like to tease and boy does he have teasing down. They don't move slow though. I guess to them everything is on the table except actually having sex but to me that's not taking it slow. All of it counts. There were other times where the author would have put something in and then just a little while later say something completely different so it was contradicting itself. All of these things just really stood out and made the experience of this one not as great as the first one. All of that being said I am still really looking forward to reading the next book coming out this month. 

Buddy read with Destiny and Malli

This trilogy was a collaboration between Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. King cowrote the first book and the 3rd book with Chizmar but the 2nd books was written by just Chizmar. I'm not really sure why King opted out of writing the 2nd one. 

I decided to write up a series review since I read all of these in one month back to back pretty much and they are all short quick reads and I pretty much had the same thing to say about each of them individually. I gave each of the books a 4 star rating and therefor the series is a 4 star overall rating as well. This was my first book by Chizmar and if you've been here for a while you know I've been on a King journey for like the past 2+ years. 

Anyways lets get to my actual thoughts on the books. After finishing the first book I felt like we only got the first part of a story. Everything in the book was pretty much wrapped up but I felt like we were missing some things mostly involving the button box. I felt like Gwendy's overall story was wrapped up nicely but the button box was still a mystery to me. It does skip forward a lot in time so it was hard to keep up with everything at times. 

For a book to be called Gwendy's Magic Feather the actual feather barely made an appearance in the book. I pretty much have the same feelings about this book that I did the first one. Gwendy's overall story was wrapped up but I still didn't get the answers I was wanting about the button box 

In the last book there is talk about Trump and Covid and while I wouldn't say it's a bad thing to include real life things in books I don't particularly care to read about real time things in my books. I want to escape the real world when I read a book. The authors reference several of Kings past book. I can't remember all of the ones off the top of my head but I know there's references to IT and The Dark Tower as well as many others. While I don't think you necessarily need to have read all of those books you will definitely understand them more if you do especially with The Dark Tower. Speaking of the Dark Tower I wish these books didn't have so much to do with The Dark Tower. If you didn't know I am not a fan of that series overall. We are still left with unanswered questions some of which didn't pop up until this book and some that I've had from the very beginning. I did also get a little teary eyed at this end of this one. 

Overall an enjoyable trilogy to read but don't expect to finish it with everything being wrapped up nice and neat with a bow. 

I've been wanting to know Zsadists story from book one and I am so glad we didn't have to wait long to get it. This book deals with some tough topics and it will break your heart. I loved seeing Zsadists character growth throughout the book. I loved the romance as well as the found family relationships. My complaint in every book from this series that I've read so far is that I don't particularly like getting the POV of the lessers who are essentially vampire hunters. I honestly could do without them. But the rest of it I am enjoying. I can't wait to continue on with this series. 

I came across the novella_cellar_bookclub on Instagram and I thought it was the perfect way for me to read more horror books in the form of novellas. This is the first book by this author that I have read and after reading this one I would definitely be interested in reading more. 

This review is going to be spoilery. I can't write this review without spoiling the end so if you haven't read this book yet I suggest you skip this. I don't tend to read a whole lot of horror not because I'm not interested in it because I am I just tend to stay within my comfort zone. This book does get a bit dark and I highly recommend you reading the content warning at the bottom of the synopsis before picking it up. 

This book had me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning. Aiden is a prankster which is fine and I even got a few laughs out of this book. I'm all for pranking people but there's a line that just shouldn't be crossed and lets just say you know early on that something is just not right about Aiden. Harley wasn't my favorite to start with. She came off as one of those people who would let people walk all over her and then forgive them despite knowing that what they did was wrong. 

Here's where things get spoiled. I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending. It wasn't a bad ending and I still really enjoyed the book but when I am reading a book that seems normal to all of a sudden have this supernatural ending thrown in I just don't care for that. I would much rather have a book where the main character kicked ass herself. That being said I totally should have seen that ending coming from the very beginning but I just didn't for some reason. Thinking back on it now it should have been very obvious. Like I said it wasn't a bad ending and it made complete sense it's just a personal preference thing.

Overall I am enjoying my foray into horror and I can't wait to pick up more in this genre and by this author.