The Belladonna series by Adalyn Grace is quickly becoming one of my favorite YA stories. In the second book, Foxglove, Grace crafts a compelling romance and keeps the stakes rising with a new mystery that makes this story even stronger than the first. Foxglove picks back up on a scene in progress: a duke has…
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao is going to hurt you, and it’s going to be worth it. This is a complicated story that showcases the difficulty of duty, personal sacrifice, and the hard decisions that are required to do the most good, even if people are hurt along the way. Wei Yin helped her…
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi had me sobbing, and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a delightful short novel that zooms in on four characters’ transformative and heartbreaking moments as they travel back in time to find answers and, hopefully, closure. The small cafe may seem unassuming, but it houses a doorway…
Continue reading ➞ Before The Coffee Gets Cold – Bittersweet
Thrum by Meg Smitherman was an interesting reading experience for me because I loved the big reveal at the end of the story, but I don’t like how we got there. I was very intrigued by a horror romance set in space, and despite Smitherman delivering one hell of an ending, the novella was a…
Lend an ear to listen to Amal El-Mohtar’s bittersweet tale of two sisters whose love can transcend all. The River Has Roots is a short, sweet lullaby that will pluck at your heartstrings and give you a love to believe in. As is tradition among the Hawthorn family, Esther and Ysabel sing to honor the…
Stephanie Garber has written two young adult fantasy series that have enchanted me in the past, so there was no doubt I would pick up her first adult fantasy, Alchemy of Secrets. Garber’s fantastical fairytale dust is coating this story, but this time, the golden sparkles are shifting a familiar urban setting into a new…
If you’ve been unable to recover from that gut-punch of an ending to Holly Black’s Book of Night, then I anticipate you picked up the sequel, Thief of Night, as soon as humanly possible in September. Apparently, I like suffering and prolonged my misery to just now, and let me tell you, Black wanted you…
Most would walk 500 miles, but would you run 1,000 to see if the lies catch up with a nameless woman on the run? The Road of Bones by Demi Winters follows a naive young woman who inadvertently joins a group of Vikings as they go on a dangerous journey. She hopes to find safety,…
Continue reading ➞ The Road Of Bones – Taking The Scenic Route
Let’s close the spooky season with an out-of-this-world but extremely relatable horror novella, Walking Practice, by author Dolki Min. It’s funny, it’s gory, and it’s going to stir up your emotions and encourage examination of love, identity, and how we connect as humans. After crash-landing on Earth, a solitary alien has spent years perfecting its…
Continue reading ➞ Walking Practice – Survival Of The Fittest
I always get suckered into thinking ‘killing a god’ books are going to be epic, but man, I have really had a rough go with these particular stories lately. So much so that I’m developing an aversion to them. The Lost Reliquary by Lyndsay Ely initially started off strong with its vulgar and unrefined main…
