Vivi

A Killer Welcome written by Dionne Lister is the first novel in Haunting Avery Winters, a Cozy Mystery. I think emphasis on “cozy” is important because it is a super low stakes story, which is totally okay! I enjoyed the story for what it was,and it was a super fun read! Personally I do like something that has higher stakes in it, but this was a very good and relaxing book. I also wish the characters were more fleshed out. I don't feel like I know our protagonist deeper than a surface level understanding. It feels like we know even less about the supporting characters, but it is a series so I will just have to see what character development happens down the line. I would 1000% recommend it if you are looking for a cozy, easy, and fast read!

Solid 4 ⭐️

100% picked this up because it's been all over booksta (and on my tbr for ages) so I was wary it wasn't going to be as good as my expectations, but oh man I have a new obsession and his name is Nero :)

Solid, good introduction/first book in the series. Super fast read, never boring and not super clique either.

Very spicy/18+

Wish Lily would have told him sooner about the FBI but I get it. Also something smells fishy with Chase for sure, keeping my eye on that guy.

Also, if Nero suspects Lily so much for betraying him 10 years ago with her dad then he should've confronted her, or it should've been brought up in some way- because she even admitted to wanting to have stayed with Nero when she was forced to go away. She 10000% loved him and didn't betray him (at least on purpose or consciously) from what it seems so like- could've cleared that up quickly but it's fine.

could've been 4/5

The spice was great, and none of the cliche tropes I thought were going to happen did happen.

But I don't like the cliffhanger ending...I hate cliffhangers that end like that. There are ways to do cliffhangers well, but imo that kind of lowered the book for me. Would've been 4/5 with a different cliffhanger (luckily I can read the next one now but I kind of don't care or want to now?)

2.5 (rly wishing for half star ratings bc I'm extra)

What I liked:
The spooky vibes (not scary, but very spooky season vibes and I loved it)

It felt cozy! The stakes were never high enough for my anxiety to spike, but the spooky vibes were still there! A very fine balance.

It was a super quick read! I read it in (almost) one sitting (unfortunately I had other priorities that dragged me away :/ )


What I disliked:
The characters felt rushed, and 2 dimensional. I don't feel like I know them very well, and I'm a sucker for deep character arcs.
Unfortunately I felt like the characters were just there to have things happen. They never truly reacted- they found out new information and then moved on. I never felt emotion from them, I was just told how they felt (I know writing emotions is difficult, but I need to be able to feel what the characters are feeling in the moment, and I never felt like the characters were actually feeling emotions in general.)

I didn't like the dialogue. I didn't feel like people would actually speak like that, even for the time it was set in. I could totally be wrong, I'm not very well versed in the speech of the time haha. But reading the dialogue felt clunky to me, and I had a hard time imagining the characters actually saying what was written.

Overall, the characters were the downfall of this book for me. I love deep character based stories, and I definitely see what the author was going for! The vision is there. I just didn't think the characters were very developed, nor did their emotions ever resonate with me as a reader.


Other notes:
Im curious how old Cristian is? I think somewhere in the book it said he was 3 years old, but Luca had been out of VI's life for 5 years? I'd like a paternity test

WOW

Oh my god, the descriptions of anxiety were SO REAL, I've rarely been able to put how my anxiety feels into words but Harley did it so well and so beautifully. I feel so much of this book on an emotional level. I actually lost my breath several times reading this masterpiece. I'm obsessed.

SO CUTE

Oh my god what a CUTE and quick read! Perfect for a more chill spooky season read (and OH MY GOD Frankie and Ivy are too cute I love them so much

ARC REVIEW- Releases November 2, 2023

I usually don't read small town romances because I've never really enjoyed one, but this book might have changed my opinion on them. This book was so unbelievably amazing and beautiful that I knew I was going to love it from very early on.

From the beginning, I though Olivia was a pretty annoying and entitled character to read about and honestly it was pretty hard to read from her POV the first few chapters- but I think it reflects how well DC Kile writes characters! Olivia is unlikable and annoying in the beginning, but she slowly starts changing for the better and by the end she feels like an entirely different person (well she is obviously still the same person, but she grows so much- and it was beautiful seeing her growth through the story).

I love Landon, he was so sweet and honestly exactly what Olivia needed to help her grow. He always wanted the best for her and would do basically anything for her. Also... the MOUTH on that man oh my GOD I am obsessed. Since I felt this story was more about Olivia and her growth, Landon felt more like a support character for her, and honestly he was written perfectly. The amount of pure love he feels and shows Olivia is so heartwarming.

This book absolutely made me ugly cry- so of course it gets 5/5. I was silently sobbing, trying not to wake up my entire household while reading the last 50 pages because I was feeling so emotional about it.

It's also a super quick read! I was captivated from the beginning. I started oht reading this hoping for a schitts creek vibe and while it's feet different from that show, the big city girl in a small town vibes were definitely still there.

My only minor complaint is pretty early on, some of the word choices felt weird. Like there was one time when something was described as “mid”, and I generally feel weird when “slang” is used like that. It definitely wasn't bad and it didn't take me out of the story at all, but there were a couple times when I chuckled to myself and said “if I was a few years older, this would've sounded too weird”. It didn't happen very often through the story and it really only happened near the beginning of the story so it wasn't a huge deal in the grand scheme of things.



I was fortunate enough to receive an arc of this book, so an absolutely huge thanks to the author, DC Kile, and Chloe from Sunny Babe PR for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book early. I absolutely recommend reading this when it's released on November 2!!

It's porn

If I'm rating this for what it is, (porn with a side plot) it was perfect. 5/5 for a smutty spooky book, with very little plot. If you want plot, and character depth, this is not for you.

I loved every second of it- I would have rated it 5/5 if there had been more character depth, I love characters in stories and I find myself driven by characters and their emotions. But for a quick and smutty read, this was pretty fun.

Although it says a dark romance Halloween novella, idr any real Halloween vibes other than creepy imagery. Nothing really Halloween related in it, but that's fine.

Super Cute!!

This book was so unbelievably cute! And a super slow burn, but I guess there were more important things going on...like...having to feed people to your best friend after you bring him back to life .

I read Babylove before this book, and decided to read this book before Sugarsnap, but I am a little confused about the timeline of things? But I'm also intrigued to see what happens to Frankie and Ivy because of what happened in this book.

Super cute and fast YA spooky read! Perfect for a spooky season read.

3.5/5

It started off a little slow and the characters didn't feel complete yet. The early Deidre chapters were the worst because she herself was a little whiny and it was very predictable Mafia romance in the beginning.

Deirdre got significantly better as a character about a third of the way in. I love her and elio's banter and interactions. I love their vibes so much lololol

The plot didn't stay cliche for very long, in fact other than “taking the daughter of the man who owes me money” plot point. I think everything else was pretty original

Kind of mad that it ends on a cliffhanger and I have to wait haha but I think the next book comes out next March so at least i don't have to wait too long! I will definitely be continuing.

3.5/5

Nothing was bad about this book, but nothing particularly stuck out or was very memorable either. The best thing about this book is probably the balance of smut to plot ratio. It felt like a pretty good pace for smut. A very quick read- but also the last 60 pages I was just wanting it to be over. Could've maybe been shorter?

I definitely would have preferred if the guy had ended up being a serial killer to be quite honest. It would have made the book more interesting at least. I just over all feel like...nothing happened the entire time...other than Phoebe being paranoid that everyone around her is a serial killer?

I also think she acts extremely immature for a 30 year old woman? While reading this, I was 24 years old and quite frankly I make better life decisions than she does... she was also extremely rude? Like extremely rude, and she plays it off as misunderstood sarcasm but...maybe that's the problem.

Another thing- I see a lot of reviews claiming that this book is too spicy? That's a bold lie LOL. I think there are two open door scenes? And the rest are fade to black. But let's talk about how the book is 334 pages long...and they BREAK UP ON PAGE 300??? I was SO MAD! Like if you know me you know I HATE 3rd act breakups, especially stupid ones. But give me a breakup when I have LESS THAN 50 PAGES LEFT?!?! I almost quit reading it right there, but I had less than 50 pages left so I suffered.

I have to assume my low rating of this book is because rom coms aren't my style of romance book? But this is (unfortunately) the first rom com I've read. I don't know wether to be hopeful that there are better rom come or to assume this is as good as it gets lol.

if you like rom coms, you'll absolutely love this book.


For a rom com- it's a 5/5. For me, it's a 3/5.

It is a super cute and funny book! And it is a quick read! I split between reading and listening to it, and I finished it in a couple days.

But other than that- it's pretty predictable in the plot, and it has a third act breakup (which most rom coms have, and I hate third act breakups), so personally, for me, it's a 3/5. If you love rom coms, you'll absolutely love this book.

3.5

3.5/5. I tried reading it a few months ago and ended up dnf-ing it because it took a while to get in to. But when I came back to it, it ended up being pretty good. I just really didn't think it needed to be that long. It could've been shorter.

3.5 Stars


It starts off very slow for me. I put it down for quite some time before picking it back up again. But it was honestly so good, after about 100 pages or so. The beginning was slow and a little boring for me but by the end, I was losing sleep to finish it lol.

I'll say it's less gothic romance though. Gothic vibes for sure, but not too much romance honestly. I also wanted more from death than what we got but everything in the story makes sense as to why we got so little of him.

new obsession

I really truly did not think I could love a demon more than Leon, but Zane here proved me wrong because OH MY GOD I LOVE HIM. Like okay sure he might be a demon but he cares so much for Juniper and would do anything for her and oh my god it's so much more than a bargain. What an amazing story, I cannot wait to read the next one.

7/5 because this was better than perfect

I cannot believe how good this book is. I'm not joking when I say 7/5 because it was so unbelievable. The only other book it compares to is Empire of Storms and honestly they're both probably equal for me. This might be my new favorite book, and def is a new fav series for me

4.5/5

Really good, better than the first and I'm very intrigued to continue the series - def a binge read. Also didt feel like 500 pages either so

very surprised how much I enjoyed it

I really wasn't expecting to enjoy this book. I thought it was going to be cringy and cliche and very same-y. But it was none of those things. I genuinely enjoyed this book. It was a super quick read and it was interesting the entire time. It's a very solid 4/5.

4.5/5

I LOVE Harley Laroux and this book def just solidified it (if the losers duo didn't already). This book was so spooky and smutty that I am IN LOVE and cannot wait to read the rest. I definitely stayed up way too late too many nights in a row to read this book but it was totally worth it.

Wow

I should've known the meeting with the blood crown wasn't going to go well, but DAMN I was shocked by what happened.

As soon as it was said that Nyktos had 2 sons, I knew Malec wasn't Poppy's dad, but I'm glad it was confirmed.

I love how characterized all of the different characters are. You can tell each of them are their own person with their own traits. I love how defining it is of their personalities. Very good characters.

But WHAT THE FUCK

Mmmh I wish I actually remembered what happened in this book but unfortunately it is extremely forgettable. I probably should have just put it in the dnf pile but it was a short and quick read ~ I just can't remember the plot or the characters or what happened or anything that matters lolol

When a girl is found missing in Baton Rouge, Chloe is confronted with the ghosts of her past. She is constantly reminded of the 6 girls who went missing 20 years ago, and of her father who was convicted for their murders. After a second girl goes missing, Chloe starts to see similarities between these two girls, and the 6 who went missing 20 years ago. Chloe can't help but get involved.

I have not read a book as fast as I read this one in literal years. I thought it was a super fast read and I was so hooked that I couldn't put it down. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, even though some parts got emotionally heavy and a few things felt out of place- it was never enough to take me out of it. There were several twists that caught me completely off guard, and while I was able to predict others- I should say i had a very strong suspicion (that turned out to be correct), but I could never commit to ONE person because I was so suspicious of so many different people (I am a very wary to trust) that i suspected EVERYONE was guilty. Honestly the notes I took while reading were pretty funny to look back on. Looking back on my notes though (I guessed part of the ending about 22% of the way through haha, I felt proud).

While I do recommend this book, there are heavy and possibly triggering subjects covered. I struggled reading some parts of the story due to my own mental health and I enjoyed it but everyone is different and it's so important taking care of your mental health! ❤️ I highly suggest looking up what the trigger warnings for this are book before picking it up!

I'm screaming

First of all, how DARE it end like that?????? DOES POPPY REMEMBER WHO THEY ARE OR NOT???? AND WHEN WILL I FIND OUT????

Anyways, did i basically reread the entire first book, just from Casteels POV? Yes. Am I mad about it? No. It's probably my second favorite in the series. I loved every moment of this book

this is a book I finished...

I don't think I've ever felt this way about a book before. There were so many points I should have just stopped reading it, but I kept telling myself “it can't possibly get WORSE”...

So let me start out by saying that Romina is the embodiment of “born sexy yesterday”. If you don't know what that is, it's exactly what it sounds like lol. There is more to it than just “innocent girl who doesn't know basic functions of life”, but that's a pretty good summary of the term for this review.

Romina has been locked away in a bell tower her entire life (19 years? Idk honestly) and this has had no human contact other than her abusive father figure. This has the expected results- she doesn't know the basics of being a functioning human, she's very clueless, several times she looks something up on her phone before answering (it was funny in a sad way the first time it happened and no other time). One of the MMC's even described her, “Eyes big with the kind of magic you only saw in children,” and this is after he has been sexually involved with her. I'm sorry, but why and how can you describe someone you've slept with, been INTIMATE with, like THAT. I should have stopped reading then honestly. But I figured, I'm almost done with it anyways, I've only invested 4 hours into this book why not finish it. I WISH I HAD A TIME MACHINE so I could go back and tell myself to not read this book.

So, spoilers. One of the MMC's makes her hang herself in order to prove she trusts him with her life. And like listen. I am a dark romance girlie. I thrive off a good morally grey love interest (or several). But...that's a bit much.

Anyways. I didn't think a book could traumatize me like this, and yet here we are. I will be discussing this book with my therapist.