Reviews and Comments

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

My F1 team is coming to my home, and my entire country will be watching.

Second in the Offtrack series, Overdrive stars an F1 driver named Darien who was originally from Brazil but moved to California with his mother after his father died in a car accident and Shantal, an Indo-Guyanese woman living in London who works on a racing simulator project for a company but is still fighting through the grief of losing her sister. You could jump into the series, like I did, as I never felt lost but readers of the first book will enjoy an emotional connection to those previous main character leads as they feature frequently. Told in alternating povs from Shantal and Darien, you'll get two characters who still hold grief over the loved ones they lost, which in Shantal's case, causes her to not want to open her heart fully to Darien.

Shantal, a head and half shorter than me with a voice like a Disney princess's, has me off my game.

Darien was pretty much all in for Shantal from the beginning but the author spends a good portion of the first half giving a base for the Formula 1 racing world. I personally am not a follower of the sport, so at times my eyes wanted to glaze over a bit as the story gave more to those aspects than the romance. I thought it felt a little off that Shantal was sent to Brazil by the company to lead the simulator project when she didn't seem to know anything about the sport. How would she have made a fantastic simulator without knowing at least technical aspects of the sport, giving at least a decent look-in to it? It felt a little shaky but works to have her have to ask questions which leads to the reader getting the answers; so you'll learn some about the sport. The middle starts the race season and I did really enjoy the description of the first race, it provided those special aspects and scenes with tense emotion and excitement that you want when you pick up a sports romance like this.

I tell her how much I cannot stand him. And then that turns into something else.

The romance ended up not having enough to it for me, Darien likes/loves Shantal from the start with Shantal being physically attracted to Darien right away but having to work through her grief over her sister before, at the end, she gets help from a family member to help her come to the decision to accept her love for him. I missed Shantal and Darien working through emotional issues/conflicts together, instead of Shantal just having her own thing. Darien does have some father issues, pressure of feeling like he's representing not only is family but also country, and has singular dark moment alone to overcome (which felt gotten over kind of quickly and easily that any emotional upheaval and fight triumph from it just wasn't felt by me), but it wasn't as heavy as Shantal's. They talk and share but the working together to come together didn't feel as strong as I would have liked.

What do I do if Shantal is my centre? What do I do if I can't hold without her?

I felt like the story had a tendency to jump from highlighted emotional scene to highlighted emotional scene without threading them with the foundational glue needed between characters. I need those seemingly innocuous building depth blocks to make those quotable scenes hit me with the feels, otherwise they end up feeling empty flash to me. The ending and epilogue more than delivered on giving the characters HEAs. If you're a reader of the series or are a fan of Formula 1, you'd have a good chance of enjoying this more than I did, in which case, enjoy vrooming around in those race scenes.

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

My mom is gone. My dad is dead. And my life will never be the same.

All We Lost Was Everything was a young and new adult feeling fiction story about how lies and covering up painful pasts can lead to hurting the people you were only trying to protect. Newly graduated from highschool, River has just survived a house fire that took her father's life and all her belongings. She's staying with her aunt as her mother took one of her mental health hikes before the accident and hasn't been heard or seen from since. When her bestfriend Tawny starts a GoFundMe for her, she gets a mysterious donation of two million dollars. Not willing to spend the money before she learns who donated it, she continues working at the local cafe, where she can't keep her eyes off the new employee Logan, but he seems so angry towards her and she can't figure out why.

Because if she knew who I really am, what I’ve done? It would be the end of everything.

The first half of this leaned into those young and new adult feelings and issues of not quite knowing what to do with yourself after highschool and having the hots for a boy. River was previously dating someone that she thought she was going to marry but he broke up with her out of the blue, so she's dealing with trust issues between the ex and her disappeared mom. The story is mostly told from River's point-of-view but the middle brings in Logan's pov and readers learn that he has feelings for River but there's a mystery reason that makes him feel like he should stay away from her. The middle loses itself to focusing in on the physical relationship, kisses and having the hots for each other, between River and Logan for awhile, but the latter second half races on as numerous reveals start happening and the reader gets a bit of whiplash from it all.

Someone who loved me enough to walk through fire.

Some of the reveals you'll probably see coming and others will most likely be a surprise. They all were worked in believably but there were some that also felt like a soap opera sweeps week, especially when they are revealed and then moved on from fairly quickly, not letting the reader absorb and try to feel some emotion about. River had that late teen angst attitude at times that colored her with some narcissism, she wanted everyone to act the way she wanted them to act but when the reveals happen, they were so dramatic, it turned me back to her side. This bounced from keeping me engaged in the beginning with the introduction to these characters, to wanting more depth developed in their relationships between them, to barely hanging on for the soap opera drama reveal ride. I could see a younger audience (mostly making out with one open-door scene) enjoying this more as a starter that could lead them into reading Gillian Flynn or Oyinkan Braithwaite. Most of the story was hiding and only sort of working to unfold the mystery, and then raced through the reveals too quickly for them to really emotionally hit, but younger and newer readers might enjoy this step into a romance and mystery mashup.

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

‘What if we… took it upon ourselves to exact some… revenge?’

The Payback Plan starts off the Karma Club series, a group of books written by different authors but set in the same world and with the same characters. The books star one of four heroines, Paige, Bella, Sienna, and Astrid, four women who met at a desserts shop in the airport O'Hare and realized they all had horrible exes. Drunk off sugar and alcohol they come up with the plan for each one to take the other's ex and exact a revenge plan, nothing too serious, just enough to severely aggravate the ex. Paige picks Bella's ex Oliver, he texted her the day of their wedding and called it off. Paige's plan is to stay with Oliver for two months in Cornwall and be a deranged Mary Poppins like character to drive him nuts. However, as she gets to know the slightly uptight, and walled up emotionally guarded son of a famous actor, she finally starts to feel like herself again, after her own emotionally fraught four years of trying to heal after her ex posted revenge porn photos and videos of her.

She was going to Cornwall to live in the house of a famous dead British actor to mess up his son’s charmed life. She certainly hadn’t had that on her bingo card for next year.

This was along the lines of a quick beach read, there's some emotional base to the characters, Paige withdrawing into herself after her ex exposed her so horribly and finally coming out of her shell and Oliver letting go of the expectations, pressure, and pain of growing up in the public eye and with a narcissist father. Your mileage will vary with the humor of Paige's antics, making a mess of Oliver's neat as a pin kitchen, bringing a hamster and stray dog into his living space, and generally creating goofy havoc. It wasn't really my sense of humor but some of it lead to cute byplay between the two. These antics were mostly their relationship development, there wasn't much depth to hang your reading expectations on but if you're looking for something quick and cutesy, this would do.

And the last couple of months, she’d allowed herself to be that woman again. To be herself again.

The latter second half has them kissing and then the guilt of betraying Bella, you'll still get an opendoor scene as they can't fully fight their feelings. There's a third act breakup where Paige flies off the handle a bit about how Oliver's public profile affects her for some dramatics and Oliver has to simmer down after learning the real reason Paige was staying with him before you get the eventual HEA. There wasn't much depth but there was some cute, drama, and a set-up that leads you to wonder how the other members of the Karma Club are faring.

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“That's the power of art,” the maestra adds. “It can tell a story. An official story. But each one of you might also see your own story in it. At a minimum, you might find hope, even when there is darkness.”

The Keeper of Lost Art was a historical fiction story told from a twelve year old girl's eyes in Italy during World War II. It's a coming of age character story inside a dark historical time period. It's 1942 Italy and Stella has been sent to the countryside by her mother to her uncle and aunt's, in hopes it will be safer for her. Stella has never met them but with two girl cousins around her age, even with an aunt that seems to dislike her, she's trying to fit it. Her uncle was the driver for the owners of the villa but with the English owners escaping to Switzerland, Stella's family is left in charge. It makes her uncle's decision to agree to hide paintings from the Uffizi Galleries even more brave and dangerous. As the war rages on, even the countryside begins to feel it's effects as German soldiers and then all nationalities descend on their villa, all while Stella gets a front row seat to the vagaries of human nature and the importance and meaning of cultural art.

All they want is an end to the interminable suffering, a solution that will bring their husbands and sons and fathers back to them. And they just want to go home.

Having the story told from a twelve year old girl's eyes, who ends up fifteen by the end of the story, added a naiveté that worked to allow the author to add historical explanations and emotional building while keeping the gritty and darkest tones at bay. The aunt knows the threat of violence specific to Stella and her cousins but Stella doesn't quite comprehend it, as she ages she emotionally grows and it starts to creep into her conscious but the tone and direction of the story was more about how works of art, cultural touchstones, can inspire and give people reasons to hope during dark times. The works hidden at the villa focus on Botticellis', specifically his Primavera. When Stella befriends, Sandro, a refugee boy her age, his interest in art builds her own and we get looks at how much art can mean to people.

“You mean we risk our lives to save the paintings,” Sandro says. Signor Fasola stands silent for a long time. “Yes. That is the reality of it. But we can't let them take or destroy whatever they want.” “But...why us?” Sandro asks. “Why not us?” Signor Fasola says, the twin frames of his glasses reflecting the glowing light. “If we don't take some action---any one of us---then who will?”

I thought the middle and latter half dragged a bit as the story began to, not quite wax poetic, but indulge in the emotional hope and uplifting of cultural art. As it's told from Stella, there's allowance for a less outwardly scope but these people were starving and living in threat from all avenues, so the continued art talk started to drag-on. Even though Stella and her specific family were fictional, the historical events and villas in the Italian countryside hiding art to protect it from war, were all true. Each chapter started with a fictional entry from Botticelli's diary and an American Captain from the famed Monuments Men and Women division that worked to save and recover cultural artifacts. This was a good additive as Botticelli's musings from the 1400s echoed the Captain's from the 1940s, showing shared importance and circular problems humans create for themselves.

A long chain of people who cared enough to risk their lives, to devote their whole careers, to preserving the things that matter. Artist or no artist.

You'll begin to care for Stella and the characters that start to make-up her family, part of the dragging issues in the latter half I discussed involve abandoning these human characters in favor of the art, and realize that, yes, saving the Humanities, is extremely important. The ending delivered sadness and hope, with Stella taking what she learned during those three years and having the courage to chase those wants and dreams.

3.3 stars

This month's TBRChallenge (I know, I know, late again!) theme was Location, Location, Location. I can't imagine I'm the only one who's first thought was, “Get me the hell off this planet.” So, with that desire, I dove into my boxes of books and found myself on the way to the Stanza Nine system!

"What is it you want delivered?" Cidra cleared her throat. "Myself."

We're in space, folks! With povs from both our mains, Cidra and Teague, readers join them as Cidra is looking to book passage to travel the system in search of an artifact that she thinks will alter her mind to biologically become a Harmonic. While Cidra was born on Clementia to Harmonic parents, she didn't get the gene. In this time and space, humans are divided into Harmonics, intellectually and emotionally advanced, and Wolves, basic normies. Cidra's studied the Harmonic ways but can never really be them, she feels emotions in a way that doesn't cause her to be catatonic for hours. As a trained archivist, who focused on the First Families of their civilization, she thinks there's a “Ghost” artifact that can help her alter her brain. Teague's a postman and she wants to book passage on his ship to take her around to the different planets to search for it.

Teague Severance hadn't been quite what she had expected, and Cidra had been trying to adjust to that fact.

It's a set-up for a road romance between opposites attract, except Cidra and Teague are more alike than they want to admit, Cidra can't stop feeling those debased normie lust feelings and Teague is more kind and protective of Cidra than a Wolf should be.

His mouth came down on hers with the urgency of a man who was running toward the promise of safety in a wild and uncontrolled land.

On the cramped ship, these two have plenty of time to get to know one another and I enjoyed their calm, sweet, and frustrated with each other at times chemistry. There was humor and heart to Cidra being a little naïve and Teague doing some underlining talk but Cidra also pleasantly surprises with staying out of Mary Sue and waif territory. Her background of feeling lonely with not fitting in on her planet and Teague having lost a brother who was a Harmonic deliver some depth to their emotional characterization and provide for a villain in the wings. The villain thread delivered some danger and action but this was more of a sedately paced romance that took time to lean into the scifi world-building (that, ok, slowed it down a bit too much at times for me), but I accepted it because this is the start of the series and I imagine it's all building for a purpose.

He had forced the Wolf in her to the surface after she had spent years struggling to suppress that part of her nature.

Around 60% Cidra and Teague can't fight their chemistry anymore (not so bad lowering yourself to be with us normies now is it, Cidra!?) and we start getting sex scenes. There's more lore added to their Ghost ancestors (they were cats??? need more on this STAT, lol) and we get the calmest third act breakup when Teague is scared Cidra would regret leaving Harmonics for him. Cidra Rainforest would never waver and we get our space HEA. This was fun and had some wildly interesting additives, the aforementioned Furries, Fred the rockrug dog?cat?, a Chekhov's mantis, and the mutie evil alien dinosaurs. Cidra and Teague had just enough depth to them to pull me in and were sweet with a dash of spice to have me enjoy the ride in Stanza Nine.

“You’ll have to trust me to come back, just as I’ll have to trust you to be waiting."

2.3 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

Why couldn’t she remember her name?

The Gods Time Forgot had an intriguingly mystery start with leads that had catch your attention flickering chemistry but stagnated too much in the middle and delivered a rushed ending. Told from the leads, Emma/Rua and Finn's point-of-view, readers come into the story as a girl awakes lost in the woods, without her memory. A search party is crowding her and calling her Emma, but she doesn't recognize or feel that name. When the searchers express horror at her standing in a river, without harm, and she flicks water at a man, which in turn burns him, she's frightened into going where they want to lead her. She's brought back to her home and is impressed by the grandeur but still doesn't recognize anything. A portrait on the wall looks exactly like her and we learn she is supposed to be Emma Harrington, the only daughter of a rich tycoon in Gilded Age New York.

After what they’d just done— after what Badb had made Rua do? How dare she speak of love. Rua let out a sob. “I have done this for us,” Badb said, desperate to make Rua believe it. She cupped Rua’s cheek, blood lust swirling in the gold of her eyes. “I will protect you, always.” Lies. Rua jerked her head away.

While Emma goes along with the identity everyone has given her, she starts to have memories of a different place, time, and called Rua. In that place and time, she loved a man called Cú Chulainn (Irish mythology is woven into the story). It's hard for Emma to act proper and she has the looming threat of her mother telling her if she doesn't act right, she'll be sent to an asylum. Her maid, Mara, seems to know what happened in the woods but is cagey about giving Emma any true answers. When the Harrington family arrives in New York City, Emma meets a Lord Donore, Finn, and they are instantly drawn to each other. We don't get much about Finn, except that he's trying to get in with society's elite so that he can gain enough money to support his charitable works. He's in business with one of the top families and is about to propose to their daughter. After the beginning of the story's allure, who is Emma really?, what happened between the time she entered the “hellmouth” and left it?, and what do these memories/dreams mean?, the middle stagnated with Emma/Rua contemplating the same questions over and over without many trickling answers given, and Finn constantly saying he couldn't have anything to do with Rua because it would ruin his reputation and thus money flow.

She continued walking, flexing her palm, wondering why she could still feel the touch of his hand on her skin.

As we get a little more from Finn in the latter second half, we learn that he is also having dreams of a different time and place and when Rua and Finn finally confide into each other about their dreams, the story and pace finally leaves the embedded in place of Rua trying to behave to appease her mother and Finn trying not to be drawn to Rua so he can marry rich and high society, and we get movement on the Irish mythology woven in plot. If Morrígan; Macha, Badb, Nemain are names that mean anything to you, then you'll have some knowledge to where the story is heading and if it's all new to you, you'll probably enjoy some of the reveals. I liked the Irish mythology inclusion and general plot idea but it stagnated far too long. I know the middle is supposed to be where Rua and Finn are falling in love but after that initial spark of chemistry, it felt more like words telling me they were made to be together instead of providing the emotion.

The man was quarrelsome and arrogant, born to be her adversary. But there was something else there, something warm and familiar, and it felt like hers.

The ending will give you the hows and whys of Emma/Rua and Finn but, for me, left out some dynamic scenes of confrontation and overcoming with key characters (Badb). I don't know, it just felt like the ending was left dangling, even though it was sort of wrapped up. The Irish mythology was a delightful additive but the story's pace stagnated too much for me in the middle.

2.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

He's coming back.

It's been ten years since Mylie's childhood friend Ben left and never looked back after highschool graduation. When the small town grapevine let's her know he's going to be back in town, she has mixed feelings. It could be a chance to go for what she always wanted with him, but their problem has always been Mylie loving their small town and Ben wanting to escape it.

After all this time, all these years, here he was, finally, right in front of her.

Spring Fling was a low angst and stakes romance that, at times, lulled me into the storytelling world. Mylie had an absent mother and father who left her with her grandmother and then age gap younger sister that made her feel like she had almost put her life on hold to take care of. She always liked the small town in Arkansas she grew-up in, though. Now, as an adult still living with her grandmother and sister, she owns her own tackle and bait shop, one that just about employs the whole town. Ben, moved with his mother to the small town to live with his grandfather when his father died. He never felt like he fit in and the only saving grace was becoming friends with Mylie. The book gives us occasional flashbacks, starting in the sixth grade and progressing each year to see how Mylie and Ben's friendship progresses and the scared to make, missed opportunities as they get older.

He'd always wanted her, and now he wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to stop wanting her.

It's all pretty sedate with Mylie dealing with her business and a potential danger from a miscreant townie who wants revenge for Mylie firing him, her younger sister's friend and relationship drama, and then reconnecting with Ben. We do get Ben's point-of-view with Mylie's but his is pretty calm with, mostly, thinking he's only in town to sell his grandfather's house and then he's leaving. It's around the midway point that they decide to act on their feelings and we get some opendoor scenes (one later shower scene that read a little out of place hot for how the tone of the story had been going, but who's complaining). They're nice together but if you're looking for Thee Drama, that is not to be found here, it's all pretty calm waters.

He knew what he wanted.

Eventually, we get The Moment where it comes to head that Mylie doesn't want to leave her town, family, and business and Ben hasn't brushed the chip off his shoulder that he didn't feel like he belonged in the town and a danger moment from the miscreant, to give us a fork in the road. The characters work out their third act breakup and we, fairly quickly, get the expected happily ever after. This wasn't bad, just wasn't terribly exciting. I thought the flashbacks weren't really needed in this case and getting late povs from Mylie's younger sister and grandmother felt like it dragged the story on and in quick directions I wasn't interested in. However, if you're looking for a calm, female main character going about her daily life and getting a second chance at her childhood friend crush, this would fit the bill.

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

The boys won’t leave. We can’t leave. We have to share the space.

Too Hot to Handle was a first person point-of-view story that loved to misdirect and had a zany tone. Molly has just left a celebration where she helped her bestfriend's boyfriend surprise her with an engagement. High on love, she goes to dinner with her boyfriend of two years and has a moment where she thinks they're going to get engaged, instead he goes on about how he said he never wanted to get married. With a moment of clarity, Molly breaks up with him and then gets depressed with trying to date from apps. After eight months, she's ready to swear off guys and when a mix-up leads to her getting a two week vacation in Spain with her bride bestie and the other bridesmaids, relaxation and time with the girls is the only thing on her mind. Instead, she finds herself stuck in a villa with an all male groomsmen group. A standoff where no one wants to leave creates hijinks, battles, and Molly wanting to fraternize with the enemy.

Honestly, he’s going to have to stop being so perfect, or I might be in serious trouble.

This had a chik-lit and women's fiction feel with a humorous bent that didn't quite jive with my funny bone, so your mileage may vary. Everyone was in their early/mid thirties and the way these adults acted finding themselves in a situation where the villa they were supposed to stay at was double booked, just didn't entertain me, rather, their attitudes and actions grated. If you're not bothered by the vibe, you'll get a story with four men and four women trying to convince the other group to leave the villa when there really isn't another option for them. They have one week until each wedding and then one week after the wedding for the wedding party members to enjoy the villa. With no side leaving, they agree to share it, the women get the bedrooms with attached bathrooms, the men get the downstairs with the kitchen, and the backyard with pool and fire pit is communal space. That's right, the men can't shower and the women can't cook food for a week. They come to a conclusion to play a series of competitions where each side picks an activity and whoever wins it, gets a point. After a few competitions whoever has the most points, gets the villa for the second week. The competitions are shown but ran through quickly and then the characters themselves kind of forget about them towards the end.

It’s time to go for what I want, instead of being sad and scared all the time.

As this is only told from Molly's pov, we only get a look at her budding connection with one of the men, Travis, from the other side, but there are hints that the other two bridesmaids might be having connections with the other two groomsmen. The romance doesn't really get focused on until halfway through and you won't be too certain where Travis stands. There's a misdirection moment meant to third act breakup bamboozle you but it doesn't last too long and I felt more annoyed than emotional that such a wrench was flashed in. After spending time with the group and some of their immature antics we do get a HEA for Molly but I can't say I believed wholeheartedly in it as I never really felt I knew Travis. This was a quick and snappy story and if you don't mind some immature madcap, this might be the beach read for you.

3.7 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

She had to take control of her own destiny. She had to act now.

Where Shadows Meet is the first part of a duology where readers are introduced to a fantasy world of humans, vampires, and gods. This would be great as a primer for upper young adult readers you'd want to bridge to adult high fantasy, this had all those elements on a more toned down scale. The beginning, especially before the story actually starts with the family tree and glossary of characters could feel a little overwhelming, my advice, glance over it and then come back after you've read half and look it over again as the names and their positions will be more recognizable and stick with you more. The story follows three point-of-views, Favre, Najja, and Leyla. They each come from different backgrounds but their stories weave together and through their povs, the world building is created.

I see death. And it sees me. The dead whisper in my ears, tormenting me.

The fantasy setting land is one year into a peace treaty that has vampires mining gold in exchange for humans giving their blood. Previously, vampires and humans had been fighting for a thousand years after a god, Thana and her partner Favre, left the Heavenly Realm for the human one. Thana had killed her father, from a sword forged from Favre's ripped off wings blood, after he refused to let Thana marry Favre. This action caused Thana to become the first vampire and she was banished from the Heavenly Realm, Favre and a few other gods going with her. The humans didn't like Thana just setting herself up as queen and the war started. Favre's character brings a lot of themes about selfishness, sacrifice, and emotional abuse in romantic and familial relationships. Her povs jump from the past to show her building romance with Thana and what happened as they came to earth and then the present as Favre breaks from an imprisonment imposed on her and her bid to free Thana. You'll get most of the outer whole lay of the story from her.

“Sometimes the only way to find out the truth is to go along for the journey. Have faith. Believe. Trust in yourself.”

Najja is the second pov character we meet and her povs are all from the present. She's a yamaja, a messenger of fate, she has visions of death and can see and hear the dead. She fears her powers and doesn't like how her people have been regulated to an island after her great-great-grandmother delivered a vision to the vampire queen that she didn't like. Najja has issues of never feeling good enough and living up to the pedestal she puts her sister on, along with grief from losing her mother. When Reapers attack her home, her sister tells Najja that she had a vision that Najja must help the vampire princess, this sends Najja reluctantly running from her home to the capitol to find the princess.

“It’s not so simple as us being the bad guys and them being good. Maybe once it was like that, centuries ago, but war means atrocities have been committed on both sides. It’s now up to us, the present generation, to acknowledge our past while also healing the scars that remain.”

This leads to us meeting our final main character, the vampire princess Leyla. Leyla is the heir and as her mother has a very advanced sickness, she knows she'll be getting the crown soon, even if she feels wholly unprepared for it. Leyla's that sheltered naive but earnest character that has felt beaten down by her mother and suffers from chronic pain that also works to make her feel not good enough. When she's exploring the town with her bestfriend Danai, Reapers attack and end up taking Danai, while Najja shows up to protect Leyla. This leads to Najja and Leyla starting a small road journey at the halfway point to go and rescue Danai from the land of the dead.

“I’m glad you’re here with me. We’re here and we’re surviving and maybe, for tonight, that’s enough.”

A lot of this first duology book was getting to know our three main characters, as we spent time in their heads, some of the soliloquies did go on long enough to slow the pace down, but I didn't really feel that way until the beginning second half as I thought some of Favre's feelings were retread one too many times. This is a story, though, that I think is worth investing in the time, it's moving parts might not seem to fit together at first but I thought as it went on it was pretty smooth how the author worked to slowly bring them together. Najja's there to try and protect Leyla and not allow one of the outcomes of fate, the one Favre wants to bring on, freeing Thana. There's the destructive romance between Favre and Thana and then the building one between Najja and Leyla. I did think Najja and Leyla's emotions and romance was rushed and I wasn't a total believer in it but the second book in the series could build on those emotions.

I’m forced to watch as she rows away, toward the island where souls go at their end, to the place where shadows meet.

This obviously ends on a cliffhanger, the ending of this dances into horror, which I enjoyed, but the rush of the events happening felt a little jarring after the majority of the book's pace was more slow moving. The worldbuilding was less about the physical setting and more about the social and cultural structuring of society and how that emotionally impacts individuals. There was also a lot of working in mythology, fairytales, and folklore that I enjoyed and will have you saying, I recognize that every so often. The characters fit an upper young adult classification and if you go in expecting a high fantasy primer feel, you'll enjoy this one. The combined elements of vampires, humans, and gods, how this was structured to weave the three main characters together, young adult emotional themes working through, and at times richness to the writing, made this intriguingly enjoyable.

3.8 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

She looked at the suffering passed in silence from generation to generation and said enough.

The Usual Family Mayhem was a rolling offbeat story with tons of heart. Told all from Kasey's point-of-view, a late twenties woman who hasn't quite found her niche in life, when she gets put on the spot at her latest job, she suddenly finds herself pitching her grandmother's bakery as a possible business for her company to acquire for investors. Kasey's boss gives her two weeks to travel from D.C. to back home in North Carolina to get her grandmother Mags and Celia, her grandmother's partner, in life and business, to sign a deal with them. Taking the paid trip home, Kasey finds herself dipping and dodging questions from Mags and Celia about why she's really back home and trying not to show those deep feelings she has about Celia's nephew, Jackson, her childhood nemesis. There's also the little issue of Kasey thinking Mags and Celia have set up a side hustle of poisoning abusive husbands and she sets out to investigate.

The two women who'd raised me and who I loved unconditionally were hiding something.

Your enjoyment of this is going to hinge on how much you can tolerate of the left-of-center, slightly unhinged personality Kasey has. As this is all told from her, there's no escape, I found her more charming than exasperating, which worked in my favor. I did think it took way too long for Kasey to come clean (65%) to Mags and Celia about why she was in town and I thought that hurt the pace of the second half; you're going to yell at her to just tell the truth more than once. I was pleasantly surprised at how much the romance (fade-to-black) played a part in this, Jackson shows up early and sticks around to be that grounding, trying to be voice of reason, that Kasey needs. Even without his pov, his actions and words make it clear to readers that he has feelings for Kasey, even if Kasey is oblivious because she can't shake off the shame of when she made a move and Jackson went running (a totally warranted reaction from him at the time!). I greatly enjoyed their dynamic because even though their personalities are opposites, you see how they compliment each other and how they'd work together, he calms her and she lightens him up.

They'd built a community based on the most desperate kind of need.

Kasey's investigating of her grandmother's business and what she thinks they're involved in started off haphazard fun for me, but, like Kasey dodging the truth and not just coming out and explaining why she was there, she dragged it on a bit too long. In the latter second half when all four sit down to finally talk and explain, I think the emotions are going to hit some unexpectedly, I found myself tearing up when Mags and Celia finally had their say on how their lives went and what they chose to do about it from points on. For most of the book, the tone is kept light and goofy because of Kasey's personality beat, but the hints of deeper are there worked in. A lot of the women in this are survivors of domestic violence, a heavy topic, but while we get no flinching away stories of it, it's how it's told from the women's perspectives, their stories coming from their voices is what kept the mood from dragging down darkness to instead comforting strength uplifting.

“No one tried to rescue us. We want better for other women.” Celia reached out and took Gram's hand. “Even women we don't know.”

While Kasey could be her own worst enemy at times, Jackson's father makes a good bid for being the villain of the piece by trying to impose his will, wants, and needs on everyone in his orbit. This drags Kasey and her work and her relationship with Jackson into contention with what the dad wants and leads up to a confrontation that ultimately helps to wrap up Kasey's work and romantic issues, so a needed villain. The lead up to the HEA gives normally in control Jackson vulnerability and Kasey found strength to deliver two sweet declarations. This was off-beat fun with heart, go find this one and pick it up. (Not me wishing Mags and Celia had a blog for me to comfort read)

3.7 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“Never attack in anger,” he whispered, his lips so close to her ear that she could feel his breath on her skin. “And never start a fight you can't win.”

Prophecy is an updated and revised fantasy story (The Gypsy King) that follows a girl trying to fight destiny and the way it pulls and pushes her into dire consequence situations. We first meet Persephone as a shackled enslaved late teens girl who is trying to protect chickens from a boy a little older than her that is trying to steal them. When Azriel gets a look at her face in the moonlight, he seems to know her and wants her to come with him, which Persephone refuses. Only to have Azriel show up the next night impersonating a lord and buys her. This sets her off on a journey where she constantly tries to find ways to break away for her freedom but is shackled not in chains this time, but to the seemingly workings of an old prophecy.

Once, she'd believed the prophecy of the Methusian king to be nothing more than the wishful thinking of a hunted people. Now she knew it was a death sentence for all those it touched.

In almost the opposite of an info dump, this first book in The Fractured Kingdoms series, takes it's time, and doesn't get there for some aspects, in introducing readers to this fantasy land. After a prologue that introduces readers to a Methusian seer who gives us a prophecy of a Methusian king that will reunite the clans of Glyndoria right before she's attacked and killed, the next chapter jumps us fifteen years later. As we follow Persephone and Azriel on their road trip, the worldbuilding gets placed in here and there with the gist of it being that there are four clans who make up this world, a boy king of the Erok clan is currently crowned but as he's not quite eighteen yet, his regent Mordesius runs things. Mordesius has a deformed body from a fire and is mad for the legend of a Methusian magical pool that could heal his body, he also hunts Methusians not only to torture them for their knowledge but to kill the children for their blood, thinking that has healing powers too. The advertisement of this saying it's like the Princess Bride and Game of Thrones kind of fits, you'll get light and goofy with Persephone and her animals that follow her but some gruesome killing and torture with a wanna be Little Finger in Mordesius.

“I do not believe that the Fates will allow you to refuse. I believe that a path stretches out before us, Persephone, and though I cannot say exactly where it will lead, I would stake my life on the certainty that we are meant to walk it together, come what may.”

Most of this first book in the series is more of a meet and greet to learn the players and set them in their roles. Persephone will annoy at times with her bratty determination that doesn't always make sense, she wants to escape Azriel and the Methusian prophecy they think she has a part in, but escape to what? Persephone never really has a plan just a “I want to be free” that feels forced to keep her apart from Azriel. Their budding romance had moments, they have some sweet and heated teasing between each other, but it definitely felt in the lighter young adult realm that this is categorized in. In the second half where the prophecy has them headed to the capitol to rescue a Methusian boy, along with an added girl Rachel who looks a lot like Persephone and no one is sure who the prophecy is about, the story started to feel a little dragged out. We get point-of-views from the other side, Mordesius, to further the overarching plot, but there was still not enough moved along for me.

I enjoyed this because of the cute chemistry between Azriel and Persephone but Persephone's insistence in wanting to “escape” when it didn't quite make sense, had me frustrated with her a lot of the time. This first installment delivered on some answers but a lot still isn't clear and with a sudden cliffhanger, I find myself wanting to start the second in the series right away. This was at turns cute, goofy, gruesome, and had fun back and forth chemistry, I just wanted Persephone to accept she could be a heroine in a fantasy story more readily.

2.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“You’re from the future.”

Love and Other Paradoxes was a story about how your future could change if you knew your future. Joe is a twenty year old student at Cambridge who aspires to be a poet like the greats he's studying, but as he's studying, he's also getting a heavy case of impostor syndrome. A middle class Scot in the rich environment of Cambridge and raised in a household that was encouraging but also worked to keep his feet on the ground, Joe feels lost as he tries to measure up and graduate. When he bumps into the barista he was having some chemistry with and he picks up the book that fell out of her purse, he sees his name on the cover and picture of himself as a sixty year old man. As a panicked Esi tries to grab it out of his hands, Joe runs and finds himself in his dorm room with a piece of his future.

“I want to be remembered.”

Told all from Joe's point-of-view, the first half of this had me locked in as Joe learns that Esi is from the year 2044. She's accessed Joe's current time, 2005, by paying a time tourist company that allows people to take trips to observe famous people, which he'll be in her time for writing poetry. The time travel gets as deep as “I traveled through a wormhole” for most of the book and instead focuses on how knowing your future could change a person. Joe knows that he writes an impactful and famous book of poetry for a girl he's only glimpsed on campus and they fall in love later in life. So when he has the chance to meet this girl, he enters a poetry contest with one of the poems from his future book and ends up paired with her as she'll do a dramatic reading of the poem, he's all in, ready to start to his future now. This leads to Joe living life different, taking more chances and slacking off from school, as he thinks nothing he does matters as his future is already determined.

Determinism was nice in theory, but it didn’t actually save you any effort.

After the rush of knowing his future wears off, Joe starts to wonder if he's actually changing his future with his current actions as he learns that Esi's whole point of taking the time trip wasn't to observe him but to try and change her mother's future, as she ends up dying in a car accident when Esi is eight. This leads to some themed questioning of determinism and we get a second half that meanders and jumps weeks at a time as Joe begins to realize that not only what he does now still matter, the future he thought he wanted may not be what he truly wants. The beginning also had Joe and Esi developing a friendship that had some sparks but the middle abandons them a bit as Joe tries to start his romance with his future wife early. I missed their companionship and when Esi comes back into the picture in the later second half, they had lost some momentum for me.

He wanted to be with her, even if it was temporary, even if it was doomed. He wanted to taste every moment they could possibly have before it was over.

If you've been or are familiar with Cambridge, you'd probably enjoy the setting descriptions and Joe's roommate and other secondary characters added to the flushed out feeling of the world. It just felt like the beginning was more tightly held together and then the second half got lost in where it wanted to go and how to work everything out regarding the time travel aspects. You won't get solid spelled out answers to how everything wraps up for the characters but more of “infinite universes” and a kind of weak easy solution for how Joe and Esi's romance endures. This started strong with an interesting concept, the underlining discussion on determinism was thought provoking, Joe and Esi had beginning spark, but then the second half lost its way and Esi disappeared for too long, only to anemically drift back in. If feeling nostalgic for 2005 Cambridge, with some romance, wormholes, infinite universes, and inventive weapons for the campus game Assassins, this had those eclectic elements.

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“I spelled my heart.”

Second in the Estrada Family series, The Anatomy of Magic is about Lily, the youngest sister. If you read the first (The Enchanted Hacienda) you'll know that generations ago, an Estrada woman made a desperate deal with the Aztec goddess Mayahuel. The deal was for every female descendant to be blessed with their own brand of magic that is enhanced by plants and flowers. Lily's magic is memory and when a patient's son utters a line from her past, she is shocked into a distant memory and then tragically loses for the first time a patient on the operating table. This causes her to go home to her family flower farm in Mexico and face the consequences of the intensified memory spell she put on herself to try and forget her first love Sam.

“It’s because something else is taking up space in your heart, and you have to heal that.”

Told all from Lily's point-of-view this was a more sedate moving story about how not dealing with past pains can bubble up and impact you when you least expect it. It's a magical realism setting with the flower magic and a family generational story, even though each book takes turns focusing on a different Estrada woman. There's the love interest Sam, who doesn't appear until around the 25% mark, but his character isn't so much there for his story to be told but in service of showing how Lily is the way she is today and how she has to work through that. The love thread is a second chance romance as the two were childhood sweethearts and then eleven years ago when they were nineteen, Sam out of nowhere says he doesn't love her anymore, giving no other explanation. This causes Lily to spell her heart to try and forget their years long love but also works to deaden her emotionally somewhat. The story was more about Lily discovering she should feel again and how she could go about it than showing Lily and Sam working together to resolve their past pain. A little later into the second half, Sam tells Lily why he broke up with her and Lily pretty much forgives him right away. The romance arc was more working through Lily's pain, hearing the reason she always wondered about, and then immediately moving on to we're in love.

“Azalea came to me in a dream,” I say. “And?” “She told me to go back to the beginning.”

The ending has some family and magical drama from a decision Lily makes but we get a resolving of that for no cliff-hangers, also an epilogue to deliver what looks like a Lily and Sam worked out happily ever after. I enjoyed the continued magical realism aspects and Estrada family relationships that were laid out in the first, you could pick this up as a standalone as there's enough relaying to clue new readers in, but the pace got a little slow for me as Lily glummed around. I also missed the romance thread being stronger and having more working through to give the second chance more impact. This wasn't the strongest installment for me but I'm still entranced by the Estrada women and their flower farm and will be looking out for the next one to fall in love.

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

a woman once lived here emerald eyes and bright smile born on the last frontier raised along the arctic mile

A Place No Flowers Grow was a book in verse told in pantoum and quintain poem format. Divided into five parts, with an epilogue, readers are taken on a haunting journey.

it's for science, though, right? the cold makes his hands throb his mettle tested by the never-ending white Roen wonders why he took the job

The first part introduces the main characters, Octavia, Roen, and Fox. Octavia grows up in the Arctic with loving parents who teach her the importance of nature. Her mother gets sick and this leads to Octavia studying plants to try and find a cure for her. Roen grows up with his mother and grandfather and dreams of doing something extraordinary. With his grandfather being deaf, this leads to Roen studying, experimenting on animals in hopes of finding medical ways to help humans.

she was defenseless in her love for him he made hand puppets in the shadows she made him feel weak in every limb we could make lovely little weirdos

Part two has Octavia and Roen moving to Alyeska, meeting and falling in love, while part three shows that the Fox we previously meet in the wild is now caged in Roen's lab. We get povs from all three characters, showing us Octavia and Roen falling love, with Roen thinking about how the experiments are cruel to the animals but thinking the end justifies the means and how Fox is getting changed by the experiments and about to have a Rise of the Planet of the Apes “NO!” moment. It's a good contrast of how oblivious beings inhabiting the same world can be of each other, the happy in love Octavia and Roen and the angry Fox.

she thought of the caged beasts she'd avenge it felt good to be out in the wide open readying to exact her revenge Fox dreamt in her ice cave den

Parts four and five deliver the climax of the happy and angry worlds colliding and lead to an epilogue that delivers on a Gothic tale ending feel. This story was told in an interesting way and I hope readers give the format a chance because it's an atmospheric and engaging story. It's a does the ends justify the means, with morality and ethical questions, and look at all the ways humans respect, use, and abuse their place in nature, all wrapped up in a vengeful, Gothic feeling love tale.

if you wed in the spot known as Crimson Vows Vale bring yarrow and buttercups for good luck

2.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

He’d been the one person she’d trusted with her dreams and he’d single-handedly unraveled them.

Scot and Bothered was a second chance story told in alternating Then and Now chapters, that pretty much last throughout the whole book. Brooke is an American who is studying at the University of Edinburgh in their English program, she has the dream of being a writer. Jack is a Scotsman who is in the MBA program, he supposed to help with his family's tour guide business when he graduates. When they meet at a party, they're both instantly drawn to each other, until Brooke shows up to class one day and Jack is one of the T.A.s in the class. They know they shouldn't start anything but they can't help themselves and when Jack feels like his hand is forced and makes a decision without telling Brooke, they both feel the consequences. It's not until seven years later that these two are forced together to collaborate on Jack's aunt's memoir, Brooke's mentor, that old wounds are finally healed.

It was easier to slip into someone else’s story, someone else’s voice, than to admit she’d lost her own.

I'm not a strict linear reader, so I don't mind alternating timelines that are simultaneously showing our characters in present time and pushing the story forward while also going back in time to show how they got where they are and why they are the way they are. However, I usually like the past timeline to be wrapped up around midway point, having gotten the foundational information needed to understand but then fully in the present so the characters have time to work out what they need to and fall in love again. The alternating timelines kept up until, almost the very end of the book and I was left feeling like Brooke and Jack didn't spend that great gritty time working out what they needed. When Brooke and Jack are forced together, Brooke's writing her mentor's memoir, while Jack's taking the photos for his aunt's book, Brooke is still extremely angry over how everything went down seven years ago. She does not take her foot off his neck for awhile but it seemingly takes one, I'm finally getting angry line, from Jack and she kind of lets it go. It's an apology of sorts but I still felt she let that strong anger go kind of quickly.

“I feel bound to a life I didn’t pick. I have never felt free.” The anguish in his voice broke her heart in two. And spoke to something she never felt allowed to voice.

Considering the set-up of Jack being not her specific T.A. but a T.A. in her class, I'm not sure I felt the desperate “we must be together” even though we could wait and there would be no consequences. I could see Jack caving but Brooke's character is described as very by-the-book and she's there on scholarship and talks a lot about how important this all is to her. I know she's in love for the first time and likes how Jack brings out her adventurous side but it still felt a betrayal to some of her characterization, because they wouldn't have to stay away forever, just for the semester or even two. I spent more of the Then chapters shaking my head and thinking the big blow up coming could be easily avoided. How unromantic of me, but there it is.

“I fucked up. So badly . I wish more than anything I could take it back. I know I broke your trust and it’s unforgivable.”

Around 30% is when Brooke loses her red mist of anger and they start to talk. They're hiking the Skye Trail in Scotland, the mentor/aunt founded the trail and the memoir is focused on that. If you read the first in this series, you'll remember the amazing way the author incorporated aspects of Scotland, geography, historical facts, and legends. We mostly get geography here and while I didn't find it as encompassing as the first, I still enjoyed how the setting, the land and trail, added atmosphere to the story. We get some secondary characters that are hiking and a little bit of Jack's family, what connects the series, but mostly this was focused on Brooke and Jack.

It wasn’t the look of someone who’d never cared. It was the look of someone who still cared.

Around 70% Brooke is ready to try with Jack again and like I said, I never felt like there was much working out the emotional problem in the Now chapters, Brooke felt like she just kind of mellowed and their instant connection from the Then chapters was what I felt left with to explain and feel why they were giving in to this second chance. It felt odd that Brooke's over what happened in the past before readers even find out how everything blew-up, which is revealed around 80%. How could I the reader move on with her if I didn't even know what happened yet?

“Sometimes we have to fuck it all up to know how to do it right.”

The alternating timeline chapters went on too long for me and I didn't get the knuckle down and work it out for this second chance romance, it felt like it came too easily (lower angst readers would enjoy more). The Skye Trail descriptions gave good setting but the pace dragged in the later second half as I felt the characters were stagnating because the Then chapters were still behind where the Now Brooke and Jack seemed to emotionally be. There was a brief upset moment to add late second drama but gotten over quickly and a two years in the future epilogue to cement the HEA. This didn't quite hit like the first for me but I'll definitely be returning to the series for the third brother's romance.