• Book Database

    Magic in Manhattan (series) by Allie Therin

    Content Notes Warnings: Violence/Death, Child Abuse (off screen), Racism (minor) Medium-paced plot and slow-ish romance with fade-to-black sexytimes. HTBB Review Really enjoyed this book! Arthur is adorable, despite being a very rich, well-connected fellow who likes to boss people around because he’s a worrywart. Rory is also adorable, though in a scrappy kind of way. They’re both insecure (in different directions) and together they’re kind of a mess– but it’s cute. Sort of a slow burn because they don’t even kiss until more than halfway through; weirdly surprised about the fade-to-black sexytimes in a Harlequin book, but it didn’t ruin anything about the story for me. Also very much enjoyed…

  • Book Reviews

    Spectered Isle by K.J. Charles

    Let’s speed past the fact that I’ve been on a 1.5 year hiatus from blogging and have fallen out of writing for fun or even reading and let’s get right to the review: This is the first in KJ Charles’ newest series Green Men; it’s a historical horror-fantasy romance set in interwar England, roughly connected to her book Simon Feximal. This first book is about a disgraced archaeologist (+1) and an upper-crust sarcastic fucker (+1), with a mysterious evil entity and malignant government forces providing much of the antagonism. I really like the fantasy setting, particularly as it incorporates the older, scarier British paranormal elements of a similar kind to…

  • Book Reviews

    The Only Option by Megan Derr

    What a sweet little book! I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book, partly because the cover and the series name makes it look like a much darker book than it actually is. It looks like it’s full of drama and depressing things and angst, but it’s almost completely the opposite. I mean, there’s still a little angst, but it’s the good kind, the delicious kind that makes the sweet goopy parts that much more fun. It also has many of my favorite story elements: grumpy dudes being pursued by rays of sunshine; dragons!; wizards!; accidental/forced marriage; road trips; and pining. So much pining! I’m a huge sucker for…

  • Book Reviews

    Tournament of Losers by Megan Derr

    Previous attempts at Megan Derr’s older books have been somewhat hit-or-miss, but the summary for Tournament of Losers sounded like something right up my alley, so I decided to give it a go. And that was an EXCELLENT DECISION, y’all! Tournament of Losers is the BEST Megan Derr book I’ve read yet! I think it’s a combo of increased writing skills + many tropes I adore + completely adorable characters + wonderful worldbuilding. One of my complaints about MD’s earlier books was the treatment/lack of women characters, how everybody’s white, and sometimes-weird chemistry between the leads. With her newer books, many of those things have been addressed. For instance, in…

  • Book Reviews

    Spectr vol. 1 by Jordan L. Hawk

    A novella series is tough to review; each book is just a little too short to write about on its own and trying to do the whole series at once is super tiring. But I really liked these books so I’m gonna give it a shot. Hunter of demons So basically all these books are short, but good. I do prefer full-length novels to almost anything else, but novellas are fun because you can finish reading them super quickly. They’re like bon-bons! Bon-bons filled with demons. SPECTR has a somewhat typical paranormal worldbuilding with demons, psychics, and special agents who solve paranormal crimes. Luckily I love all that stuff! This…

  • Book Reviews

    Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett

    I didn’t think there could be a more romantically-frustrating book than Luck in the Shadows, but surprise! There is, and it’s called Point of Hopes. Okay, sure, it’s not REALLY a romance. It’s a fantasy-mystery set in an alternative medieval Italy, a sort of police procedural with fascinating world-building and wonderful characters! I just really wanted there to be more kissing. My misunderstanding might have come from some Goodreads tags, which put it in m/m romance. I mean…it technically IS, but it took 200 pages for somebody to even THINK that somebody else was cute. That’s nearly half a book gone before there’s even any sly flirtation, and that definitely…

  • Book Reviews

    There Will Be Phlogston, vN, The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal

    Desperately trying to play catch-up, as always! Here’s three tiny reviews of books I’ve read several months ago. There Will Be Phlogston – Alexis Hall I hated Byron Kae’s sister in previous books because she made her sibling’s life very unhappy, but it turns out she’s more complex than just “horrible bully.” She wants to escape her terrible parents! She feels stifled by society and its expectations! She wants to find love! And she finds it, alongside a super repressed gay guy and their boyfriend. Surprise! It’s a threesome! And way more complicated than that, of course, because Alexis Hall does nothing simple in his books. Anyway, I loved it.…

  • Book Reviews

    Bound by Megan Derr

    Scribd popped this up in my recommended reads (pre-romance purge) and I added it to my TBR mostly because a) the cover is pretty and b) stories about princes and intrigue and soldiers and whatnot are fun! And yeah, Bound turned out to be a pretty fun book. Its best feature is its characters, who are full of emotional depth and heartbreak, aka my siren song. They’re also fun because they have such great personalities, though there’s also plenty of plot to keep things interesting. There are disguises! Spies and courtly knightly people! Wartime camp stuff! Castles and myths and yearning! Slowly falling in love despite starting off on a…