Reviews and Comments

3.5 stars

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

“I hope and pray none of you see it, but if you do, don’t look at its face. Turn away and you may, perhaps, be spared."

All of Us Murderers was a fun romp of a Gothic mystery and romance. As any Gothic worth it's salt, this starts with our lead Zeb arriving to Dartmoor at the looming, dark, and cold stone, Gothic mansion Lackaday House. His cousin has written and begged Zeb to visit for them to get to know each other. When Zeb arrives he's greeted by a night-gowned young woman dramatically running out of the house and his former lover Gideon. Zeb clearly has ADHD (he uses the original fidget spinner, a rosary) and with that not being understood or respected in Edwardian times, he struggles with keeping jobs. When he worked with Gideon, it had Gideon covering for him at times and trying to keep their romance a secret, it was the first time for Gideon being in a relationship with a man. They ended up getting seen and they both got fired, with Gideon blaming it on Zeb.

Wynn looked around the table. “It is very simple. One of you shall marry Jessamine, and have my fortune with her.”

Along with Gideon, Zeb's brother, his wife, and two other cousins are houseguests. Wynn tells them all that he's changed his inheritor from Zeb's brother to whomever will marry Jessamine, a distant cousin and the previously night-gowned fleeing woman. It's a plot set-up that has family members turning on each other for money and a setting that brings in the spooky, hauntings, legends, myths, and similarities to moments from their grandfather's published Gothic books. The first half focused more on the Gothic mystery, it's a little foggy mystery with introducing all the characters and working out, remembering who's who and the relationship dynamics between them all.

He was a serious man, but Zeb knew, none better, how much his eyes could warm and crinkle at the edges, how his face could light up with amusement or desire or love—

The second half brought in the romance more and we got Zeb and Gideon working out their past relationship issues with a clearer understanding of who they are individually and how that means they will work together. I enjoyed how neither character was perfect, in how they previously reacted but visibly grew into their selves more and worked and learned how their chemistry puzzle pieces fit together; they developed their relationship. There were bedroom scenes to bring in the heat before the latter second half brought the mystery back in and delivered reveals and answers.

“It was razed to the ground because of the corruption of the monks.” “Well, that was the point of the Reformation.” “I mean, it was a place of great cruelty,” Jessamine said. “Cruelty and secrets, presided over by evil men, until the people of Dartmoor tore it down because no such acts of darkness should be concealed in a house of God.” “Gosh,” Zeb said, nonplussed by the sharp left turn into melodrama. “Odd site to pick for a house, then.”

There were numerous nods to other Gothic works (The Yellow Wallpaper, etc.) and the foggy atmosphere you want from the genre was there. I did think some of the twists and turns got a little convoluted towards the end but even if the vengeance, justice, and retribution ride got a bit bumpy, it was still fun. Gothics are always great at getting Satan to take a back seat to the true horror, family dynamics, and this story definitely delivered on that vibe.

Definitely reads like a found footage movie, epistolary story with video scenes, diary entries, interviews, and text messages.

A husband who claims to have had a ghostly encounter when he was a kid grows up forever searching for proof of ghosts and ends up dragging along the college scientific PhD woman he fell in love with when they get an opportunity to do a reality tv show hunting for ghosts. The wife plays the skeptic and works to debunk what the husband and his crew find, an actress added to the show to liven things up, a tech guy who was a former police officer who claims to have meet a demon, and the camera guy just taking a job.

They're coming to the end of the season and looking for a way to end on a high note and ensure they get a second season, with the wife wanting to bounce because she's sick of dealing with pseudoscience. Their last job is the Foundation House, a place where in the sixties two professors conducted experiments on a group of people trying to further the Human Potential Movement but as the wife reads through the papers left by the profs, realizes they were doing unethical experimentation.

The first half starts off a little slow with getting to know the characters and their intra/interpersonal drama and then the house starts to wake up and eventually reveals a well with a door at the bottom that has the group doing an Alice in Wonderland and traveling, what the wife comes to realize is a Mandala loop.

It all starts to get a bit out there, a little bit of a The Cabin in the Woods down the rabbit hole, and I ended up feeling like this was more SciFi (think movie The Abyss like) and less horror. I also struggled a bit with the flow of the story that was probably a personal issue with the epistolary style and not novel form.

You'll get a fantastical major ending that also stutters epilogue final endings, the last epilogue I felt delivered the best chill, and a story that will work to expand your mind while delivering some creeps.

3.7 stars

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

“I don't care if you tag along, but I'm warning you. You might not be able to tag back out.” Tori buckled her seat belt.

From the moment Tori sees her boss killed in a hit and run and she tries to chase after the driver, she finds herself thrown into a world of monsters and the hunters that chase them. With some tv show Supernatural, a lot of mythology (mostly Greek), and real historical events and figures, The First Liar takes you on a ride full of mystery, emotions, and battles. Told mostly from our twenty-something software engineer bored with her day job in Atlanta, Tori mourns the loss of her brother while feeling she's meant for something greater. When she meets up with a younger guy, Vincent, who gets his own povs more in the second half, she gets brought into a world that only a few knew about.

There was so much more to Greek mythology than its heroes and villains.

The story works to keep the players true identities hidden as long as possible, Vincent's “parents” Roy and Brooks, who rescued Vincent when he was a boy and taught him how to fight, are two men who always seem to know more than they're telling. Tori learns from them that around fifty years ago, someone or something seems to have awoken mythological beings and they're now running amok. Roy, Brooks, and Vincent have been fighting them and trying to piece together a puzzle of what their main plan seems to be. Orion, Narcissus, Asterius, are seen the most but there are numerous other mythological characters you'll recognize throughout.

“After all this is over.”

The first half's pace is slower as, along with Tori, the reader gets some introduction to a world that exists in the shadows. This is also set in the future (I think I worked out the year to be 2046) and climate change with political upheaval has taken it's toll on the United States. Tori's feeling like she's stuck in life, grief over brother, societal issues, along with Vincent's unresolved trauma from his childhood, will have you feeling for the characters. There's a little romance with Tori getting drawn to Roy and a character that comes in later, Grace, slowly penetrates Vincent's wall around himself. You'll get to feel like you'll know Tori, Vincent, and Grace but Roy and Brooks remained a little too distance for me; it serves the plot but I just personally wanted to know them more.

So she couldn't let this be a happy ending. Or a sad one. It had to be a new beginning.

The second half really brings in answers and action, almost too fast and furious the last fifteen percent as battle after battle is raged. I really enjoyed the melding of real historical events (Atlanta building fires), mythology themes and characters, and supernatural elements; made for an interesting and fun story. There's an ending but it felt more like a closing chapter with room for our group to definitely go and fight more battles, it is alluded to there are more on the horizon. Interesting, chaotic at times, characters that will intrigue you, and a story that was emotional and fun. If looking for something different, definitely give this one a go, especially during the spooky fall season.

3.3 stars

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

She was in love with her best friend. And everyone knew but him.

The Baby Dragon Bakery was an extremely soft and cozy smalltown read with some fantasy elements. I jumped into the series here and had no problems, there is a big supporting cast, with the couple from the first and obvious future couples but they add to the smalltown setting and make you feel at home more than lost. This second in the series stared Lavinia and Theo, two midtwenties who have been friends since childhood. Getting point-of-views from each, readers can see that both have started to develop romantic feelings for the other but are scared to tell in case that ruins their friendship.

And that was how Lavinia found herself enlisting the help of her best friend (who she had feelings for) to help her get with someone else (to get over aforementioned feelings). Which wouldn’t be complicated. Or messy. And that wasn’t a bad idea. Not at all.

Readers get to see them going through those quarter life growing pains, Lavinia is in her second year of veterinary school while working part-time and living at home while Theo is starting to think he wants to use his business degree and make baking his hobby again, instead of his job. They're figuring themselves out while still dealing with some childhood issues. Theo's parents were extremely cold, leading him to never feel good enough and his angst keeping him apart from Lavinia, he thinks she's too good for him and while Lavinia had loving parents that has lead to her putting pressure on herself to copy the formula of their love. Lavinia is the same age her parents were when they fell in love, so she's determined it must happen now. Not knowing Theo's feelings or wanting to ruin their friendship, this causes her to date someone else, which works because it forces Theo to expose his feelings.

He stroked her cheekbone with the curve of his thumb, his pulse quickening.

As I mentioned, this had cozy, soft vibes, Theo's issues with his parents and how it makes him feel is the lowest it gets in the smalltown of Starshine Valley. It started to feel a bit dragged out with Theo not feeling good enough and Lavinia purposefully, what it felt like anyway, not seeing that Theo did in fact have romantic feelings for her. We do get a little flashback to an emotional moment in their childhood friendship for some depth building blocks in their relationship but this was mostly kept in the sweet friendship romance vibe, with a quick dash of spice opendoor scene (bonus Ghost movie like moment!).

If he had her, he didn’t need anything else.

The fantasy elements are almost purely the baby dragons that appear here and there in scenes, not the stars but add a dash if looking for that element. After feeling like they were dragging their feet, their declarations of love felt kind of rushed to lead to a clunky feeling ending where we rehash Theo's not feeling good enough issues once more and then suddenly plop down the happily ever after. This was a cozy and sweet new adult (the characters had big thirties is old vibes) that had a fantasy smalltown setting that was a delight to spend some time in and the little tease between two characters who seem lined up to become enemies-to-lovers will have me checking out the next in the series.

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

Because she needed extra complications like a hole in the head, and nothing good ever came of a Capelthrone having anything to do with a Montbeau.

It's been thirteen years since Jules embarrassed herself in front of her forbidden crush, Roman, but of course he's the first person she sees and has to share a cab with when she dashes home from London when her mother calls her saying her great-aunt Flo had an emergency. And of course, he's opening a rival bookstore right across the street from her decades owned family one. When Jules finds herself staying longer than she thought, she's all-in with battling Roman, and her inopportune crush on him.

Roman liked a challenge, and Jules, he suspected with some pleasure, was a worthy adversary.

If you're a frequent reader of this author, you'll immediately feel at home in this little English countryside town, where many of her previous couples make their home and make appearances (The Littlest Library). You could start here as there's not a important backstory or plot threads to know but you'll probably be curious about some of the romances featured and want to search out their books. This followed the previous books' vibes and formula, cozy atmosphere, a little awkward not quite sure of herself but determined female main character, a handsome male main character that gently pokes at her but also tries to take care of her in little ways, some family drama/issues, and small town issues.

As if she could ever have truly loved a Montbeau.

There's obviously some play with their last names, Capelthorne and Montbeau, and the Romeo and Juliet themes are brought up a good amount. It's centuries old family drama, with Jules and Roman not quite sure exactly what divided and caused the bad blood in their families but it does play into some of their current drama. Roman's rival bookstore (there is credible reason he opened a bookstore) and though it takes a while to be revealed, an obvious looming issue that will deliver the third act breakup between the two regarding the lease of Jule's family bookstore that is held by the Montbeaus. With a smattering of Roman's point-of-view readers get a look into his family issues, an overbearing father, and mostly told from Jule's pov, we see the distance between her and her mother and the closeness between her and her great-aunt Flo. There was also a fascinating plot thread with a diary/grimoire found in their bookstore that belonged to one of Jule's female ancestors that brought in historical elements about wise women/witches and the witch trials in England in the 1600s. I wish the story had kept the focus more on the romance, bookstore rivalry, and witch elements, when it veered into some women's fiction meandering, Jules just living her days and flitting around the town, the pace dragged for me, especially in the second half, I feel some just needed to be edited down/out.

And it just felt so right.

The romance had the tension from the bookstore battle but all kept pretty light, I wouldn't call it an incredibly strong focus in this but it was an enjoyable additive. There was some, feeling, forced righteousness to Jules being angry at Roman for things he couldn't change but they get a sweet HEA. The bookstore battle, with the help of the ancestral grimoire plot tie-in, ends in a way not easily predicted but, mostly, happily. All-in-all a cozy and sweet look-in at the newest romance in this little English town setting.

2.5 stars

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

I was public enemy number one.

Love is a War Song was about a Disney childstar actress trying to grow into becoming a pop star but getting wrapped up in a media frenzy when she showcases her Muscogee heritage in an ignorant way on the cover of Rolling Stone. If you're a fan of Hannah Montana vibes, then you'd probably enjoy this more than I did, it read and came across in a young way to me that I had trouble getting into.

We were in on the joke. Taking back this Native maiden stereotype. Reclaiming it. But it backfired, because of my ignorance. It wasn’t powerful. It was problematic.

Avery's only ever known her mother, who's also her manager, for family. She's constantly being pushed by her mom and has no real idea about her Native American heritage. When she dresses in a war bonnet for Rolling Stone, social media goes into a frenzy condemning and arguing if she has a right to wear it. When it looks like her new record deal could be in danger, her mom decides that she should go escape to Avery's grandmother's ranch in Oklahoma. There, the story has Avery trying to learn about her family, being a fish out of water, and arguing and getting turned on by a cowboy on the ranch, Lucas.

Under these stars, I wasn’t disgraced singer Avery Fox. Right now, I was just a girl (with terrible insomnia) free to do whatever I wanted.

This was told from Avery's point-of-view and for the first half, I honestly felt like I knew more about her Golden Goose shoes than Lucas. The second half we get Avery inserting herself into Lucas' family drama by pretending to be his girlfriend and going to a family dinner with him. Readers finally learn some about him, he comes from money but has disappointed his father by “only” becoming a ranch hand, and had addiction problems in the past but he's now clean and sober. Their relationship was a lot of Lucas eye-rolling at Avery because he doesn't like how she utilizes her Native American heritage in her celebrity persona and how helpless and naive she is on the ranch, Avery likes to poke at him because he comes off stuffy to her, but there's always the looking at each other's lips factor. There were some rom-com moments ran through for lighter moments and Avery wanting desperately for her grandmother to talk to her about not only her immediate family history but also cultural for some emotional pings.

Love is a war song, a battle cry. Something to fight for. And I would fight for us.

Between fish out of water scenes, Avery does slowly start to learn not only about her culture but about herself, and a big event comes up where Avery had to decide if she wanted to continue on the same path or make an effort to live a more true life. I was looking for more emotional depth while this had a lighter, younger, vibe to it, so a different audience, the aforementioned Hannah Montana fans, would more than likely end up enjoying this more.

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

“What do you think I regret, Luke?” He’d turned it over in his mind so many times, rewound every choice that led to this: lost moments, misspoken words, every chance he had to love her the way she deserved, but saved himself instead. He gathered it all in his mind, held it there, and said, “You never should have met me.” She smiled the worst smile he’d ever seen. Like a gaping wound. “You’re wrong. I never should have lost you.” Luke was too stunned to respond. She used his paralysis as an opportunity to gather her things. There was so much to say. But none of it mattered. “You didn’t” was all he could manage as she slipped out the door.

After I finished reading this, all I could think/feel was Oooof. Get your book clubs to read August Lane because you're going to want to talk about the million and one things in this and not have to condense it down into a short enough review people will read and be tortured like me. Constructed like a song, the story of August Lane starts off with a podcast interview being given by her famous first crowned Black Miss Arkansas Delta Teen mom who had to relinquish the crown after it was found out she had a one year old daughter and then turned country music star. I, obviously, want Jojo Lane's own book but you'll get a good amount of her story in this one, because it gives context to August's character. While we have Jojo's perspective and storytelling in current 2024, the story also goes back and forth into 2023 with August and Luke reunited and 2009, when they first met in high school.

Even now, thirteen years after “Another Love Song” hit the top of the country charts, Luke couldn’t play the first chords without fumbling.

In 2023 Luke is a down and out former country star who got his big break from a reality tv competition show. He's broke, from signing bad contracts, and been on a long separation from his pop sensation wife, who is bisexual and in a relationship with a woman, so careers and media frenzies keep them from going through with divorce. He's doing the bar circuit and singing his one hit song, that destroys him every time because while he wrote the music, he didn't write the lyrics to it and he knows it's stolen. It's when Jojo Lane's manager comes up to him and asks him to sing a duet to that song with her at her country music hall of fame induction, taking place in his hometown, that he may finally get to apologize and try to make things right with August.

He played the music again and sang the revised chorus, changing the tempo to make it more vulnerable, the way she wanted. August sang along and Luke let his voice fade. He watched her while he played, too caught up in the melody to notice he was tumbling into something vast and endless.

The first twenty-five percent or so of this felt like set-up but it's also context, you're going to get an amazing understanding/look into these characters and secondary characters in their lives. August still lives in the hometown her grandmother raised her in, later she was her grandma's caretaker and just lost her three months ago. She has that vulnerability of not feeling like her mother wanted her and the confinement of not being able to break out of how a small town can keep you tied down to any reputation you gained as a kid, undeserved or deserved. The 2009 flashbacks not only show us how August and Luke met but the instances in their lives that made them the adults they are today, August's self-worth from family issues and betrayal from Luke and Luke's inherited self-medicating with alcohol from his mother, who suffered from undiagnosed fibromyalgia. Luke's been sober five years but, obviously, still battles with it as his emotional trauma from his childhood is unresolved.

One strap of her sundress had collapsed, and he leaned over, kissed her bare shoulder, her collarbone, the swell of her breast.

I went into this with my romance reader cap on, and while this was one of the fullest stories I've ever read, the romance didn't feel quite the star of the show that I like in romance genre. It takes a while to really get there but it's because of all the context to understand these two characters, so wear your romance caps but maybe pair them with your contemporary fiction/book club fiction hats too. So while we have August justifiably angry at Luke, Luke feeling incredibly guilty for feeling like he stole August's song, there's also that delicious tension drawing them together, the 2023 parts draw on all this and end up providing a heat inducing open door scene. You'll feel it between these two because the emotional groundwork and development between these two was solidly constructed up to this scene; they have intimacy!

“For people to love me, I mean. I can be a lot.” “You’re the easiest person to love I’ve ever met.” The words slid so quickly from his mouth that it was like he’d been possessed. No halting half sentences. No long stretches of gathering his thoughts. He nodded at her journal. “It’s right there on paper. You see the world in colors I never knew existed. The rain plays you symphonies. You are so special, August Lane, and I can’t imagine anyone not seeing it.”

I did think the way Luke provided the way to their happily ever after felt a little, he just went and did it, rushed but him doing it probably out weighed the rushed feeling. If you've been looking for an Ooof story, this is it. These characters felt real as they battled, endured, thrived, lost, and loved through physical and sexual assault, racism, colorism, sexism, substance abuse, betrayal, small-town b.s., abortion, cost of fame, and all the little moments that build to make a person and a life. Along with some country music history and shout-outs (DeFord Bailey), the secondary characters were incredibly rich, Luke's brother Ethan and mom Ava, Jojo's manager, the town sheriff, Jojo who I mentioned wanting her own book with this insight about herself: It was the press about me being a good mother. I’m not. I never was. That was forced on me, by Theo and Birdie. August knew that, which made it hard to get close to her. I could never relax with that girl because she was always working so hard to prove she wasn’t a mistake. But all she did was drag me back to that time where I had no control over my life. and also Mavis, August's cousin, I NEED her to get her own HEA. Mavis had this insight about Jojo: “I think she survived terrible things and did the best she could.” She paused. “I also think people can only give what they have. Some of us don’t have much.” and this insight about herself: It’d be easier for him to love me if I loved myself.”. So yeah, read this if you want those ooof feelings and get your friends/book clubs to read it with you because this was rich with elements you're going to want to talk about.

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

The Pendeltons ruined my father's life and my family's future. I'd never forgive it. And someday, I'd find a way to even the score.

The Gilded Heiress had the beats of the Anastasia cartoon movie, with great historical additives but the romance lacked intimacy and depth for me. Told in dual first person pov's, Leo lives in Boston, hustling as a confidence man to try and take care of his mom and five sisters. His father used to be a gardener for a rich family in New York but when their toddler daughter was kidnapped, an investigation started to point fingers at him and he was sacked without references. This made it hard to find a job and he ended up drinking himself to death. Leo knows his father was innocent and holds a huge grudge against the Pendletons, so when he sees a young woman singing on a corner in Boston that closely resembles Mrs. Pendleton, a scheme is hatched.

I would need to be more careful with Josie. She had a strange power to make me confess things, apparently.

Even though this told in both Leo and Josie's povs, I got more of a sense of Leo's character, his scheme to pose as Josie's singing manager to get her to New York and then somehow introduce her to Mrs. Pendelton, convincing both Josie's the kidnapped baby and collecting the reward money, is the plot of the book. We get the bare bones of Josie's character, she grew up in a Boston orphanage, she has a bestfriend Pippa, who we barely see, and she's very judgmental about Leo's past and how he's made money to help his family survive. Josie can hardly lie, could barely understand what would possess someone too, and is that all round sweet, good-hearted character that comes off a little too goody-two shoes, to me anyway. The reader knows the third-act break-up is going to be Josie finding out about Leo's original plan, even though Leo falls in love with her and plans on telling her his original scheme but, obviously, not in time.

“Careful,” I warned, my voice husky. “Or I might attempt to corrupt you.” Her mouth twisted slyly, like she had a secret. “Perhaps I'll let you, tomcat.”

The romance was pretty much insta-lust, a lot of gazing at lips and body parts that make them have the hots and want to jump into bed together. I struggled with feeling the depth in their romantic relationship, I believed them as friends, but if you're more into the physical, these had some good open-door scenes. If you've been a historical romance reader for years, this will feel like a clearly written stylistic choice to try and catch a newer reader, if the dual first person povs didn't already tip you off. I'm not sure how years long fans of the subgenre will take to it and I'll be vastly interested if the change to pick up new readers works.

Looking down, I used my pinkie finger to lightly touch the back of her hand---and her breath hitched.

Shupe is always great with her historical additives (Lotta Crabtree plays a decent part!) and I had a fun time catching things I knew and going on to learn about things I didn't. I wish we could have gotten more scenes with Leo and his family, who he's doing this all for, and gotten Joise's character a little more flushed out, more out of the “I'm here to be lusted after by Leo and shame him for having been a confidence man”. Romantic relationship depth wasn't really here to be found for me, but if third person historical romance hasn't worked for you, this would be something different for you to pick up and if you were looking for some Anastasia movie beats.

3.5 stars

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

For nearly three decades now, he had refused to worship the Great Goddess Ligea— the Queen of Sirens. He claimed Sirens were vicious and pitiless as the sea, that they took joy in destruction, and over time he’d stopped honoring the Great Gods all together. He made blood offerings to his water deity, Eusia, instead.

In the Veins of Drowning was an impressive debut that I hope doesn't get lost in the sea of endless romantasy being published right now. I really enjoyed the world building where kings rule but serve gods and magic plays a role in good and evil. This is adult and for the most part I felt it read that way, you'll get gory and open door scenes for some horror and romance. This was mostly told from our main character Imogen, who in her later twenties is engaged to be married to a captain of King Nemea's guard, who she has been a ward of since she was a baby. The atmosphere clues readers into the fact that not everything is right in this fantasy medieval feeling world, along with the tension bleeding through Imogen's thoughts and feelings. It's when she accidentally exposes herself to her fiance that she's a Siren, beings hunted in this kingdom, that the story kicks off with romance and thriller aspects.

“No.” I looked him squarely in the eye— I had nothing left to lose. “I came to bind myself to you.”

Even though Imogen is King Nemea's ward, she has reason to fear him, so with a first meeting that struck something between them, Imogen decides that the King of Varya, Theo, is her way out. They end up doing a blood binding, Theo becomes immune to Imogen's siren calls and they feel a sense of protection towards each other and make a deal that Theo will get Imogen safely to his kingdom, also asking three things of her. They plan on breaking the binding once in his kingdom because Theo is engaged to a powerful empress' daughter. So you can kind of see where this is going, some road adventure with Imogen and Theo starting off a little at odds with one another but trying to fight that physical and binding attraction. I liked the byplay between them but overall I still wanted a feeling of more depth between their emotional connection.

“Your purpose— the reason I agreed to bind myself to you— is to ensure that you will help me track down and kill King Nemea’s water deity, Eusia. And it’s your power that makes me believe you can. That silent lure you possess is Gods’ power. It’s beyond what a normal Siren can wield.”

While the romance builds between the two with obstacles stacked between them, the worldbuilding takes shape and I was pretty fascinated by it all. Imogen doesn't have all the facts or the truth about her origins and as she learns more, it builds the plot. I don't want to give too much away but her siren abilities point to a greater role she's destined for and the years she spent forced to worship the god King Nemea made her, Eusia, has empowered Eusia in such ways, she may be impossible to defeat. The imagery of sirens and how the wings tear out of Imogen's back, getting a prophecy from the mage seerer, and the nekgya, dead bodies powered by Eusia that hunt sirens in the water, was really cool and had me sinking into this world.

“There’s too much against us,” I whispered.

Even though this was mostly from Imogen's pov, I did think we got enough of Theo's backstory to get a good feel for him as a character. There was also a slight secondary romance between Agatha and a commander of Theo's that helped add to the world and made me wish we had a novella of their first time around romance. The romance could have had deeper depth but the fantasy lore building was more than worth the price of admission. This is the first in a duology, though, so prepare for that cliffhanger until next summer.

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

A group of fierce grandmothers formed the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, dedicated to finding the stolen infants and seeking justice from a nation that betrayed them.

A Flower Traveled in my Blood is an historical and emotional account of how the dictatorships, juntas, and upheavals in 1970s Argentina lead to forty years of searching for disappeared family members and fighting for justice. Written by journalist Haley Cohen Gilliland, it takes into account historical documents and first hand accounting from people who lived it. When I started this, I thought the focus was going on to be solely on the group Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, but so that the reader gets a full understanding, Gilliland gives a full accounting and goes through the timeline of political events that lead to the forming of the Abuelas and the political atmosphere affecting their lives. It gives a fuller picture but also felt too scattered at times, it seemed like the story didn't know what it wanted to focus on. If you know nothing of the history of Argentina at this time, you might appreciate the context but others not looking for a full complete history lesson and more of a singular focus on the Abuelas, may get lost in all the historical players.

The armed men who now roved the city as agents of the dictatorship were at once secretive— driving cars without license plates and obscuring their faces with women’s stockings— and brazen, abducting people off the street in broad daylight.

While the story lays out the historical events and details about the Abuelas, it also has a solid backbone taking the reader through the timeline by following the Roisinblit family. Rosa was one of the founders of the Abuelas and came into it by searching for her daughter, Patricia. Patricia was earlier on politically active with her partner, Jose, but then had a daughter and was pregnant again, trying to stay off the radar. She was taken, her young daughter left, Rosa ends up taking care of her, and thus begins Rosa's search for her. With the government unstable, and others searching for the desaparecidos, we see how out of necessity Rosa and the other older women, join together to try and find their children. So, while we travel through the timeline of historical events starting in the 1970s, El Proceso (National Reorganization Process), Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, Noche de los Lápices (Night of the Pencils), Operation Condor, etc, we also follow the forming of the Abuelas and some of Patricia's, her children, and Rosa's journey.

While the armed forces claimed to be targeting “terrorists,” they employed a conveniently loose definition of what that meant. In their crosshairs were not only militants but those on the further peripheries of the left. Students. Artists. Journalists. Union leaders. Lawyers who defended unions. Musicians. Poets. Priests who ministered to the poor. Nuns who helped desperate families looking for their missing relatives. In the eyes of the dictatorship, they were all “subversives.”

The small beginning of the Abuelas to the organization it grew to was emotional and inspiring. There were the bonds of grief, the infighting from growing pains, the danger from the government and their infiltrators, and their sheer determination to never forget their children. When they start to get help from outside organizations, like the Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas, CLAMOR (Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in the Countries of the Southern Cone), and eventually an American scientist Mary-Claire King, you'll start to feel the power and achievement of collective power.

The junta had tried to make thousands of people disappear, and to erase the identities of their children. But mtDNA was like an indelible ID tag that every mother seals in her children’s cells. What the Abuelas needed to find their grandchildren was already within them. In their blood, just as in Gelman’s poem, traveled a hardy flower, the mitochondrial DNA that contained the story of every mother that had come before them, and every child they had borne—no matter where in the world they had been taken.

The later second half focused on the search for the grandchildren of the missing Abuela's children and how DNA research was the hope they were looking for. An important aspect I liked being touched on was how this didn't just devastate the Abuela's lives but the easy answer of finding DNA matches wasn't easy at all. The grandchildren ranks were full of children who had no idea about their origins, sometimes not wanting to know and others feeling torn up about feeling like they were betraying their adoptive parents by getting to know their biological families. Rosa's family thread continues as they find Patricia's child she was pregnant with when she was taken and he talks about how learning his true origins shredded his life. Injustices like this never happen in a vacuum and I'm glad the generational reverberations were shown.

“It was an honor to scream when everybody else held silence,”

There were at times I thought the organization of the storytelling felt too scattered but if you don't mind a pretty thorough relaying of the political historical events of the time, the eye-opening and emotional journey is worth it. The Roisinblit family doesn't get a full happy ending, no such thing exists in circumstances like this, but you'll learn some of what happened to Patricia. As the story takes us all the way up to present day, you'll learn about some of the court cases trying to get justice for these families forty years later, how the ESMA (Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada) prison is now a museum to try and tell some of the desaparecidos stories and serve as a warning when eyes turn away, and how many grandchildren have been found and how many are still missing. It's a time in history we shouldn't look away from and hopefully, learn from, and this covered the emotional toll of living through such time and standing up to it pretty well.

2.5 stars

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

Archer Baer had just become a father in the most unimaginable way possible.

Archer is living his dream as a chef in Paris that he has worked so hard for when he gets a call that completely changes his life. It seems five years ago, the restaurant front house woman he had a fling with, got pregnant and never told him. Tragically, she has died in a car accident and with his name on the birth certificate, Archer suddenly finds himself back in the states and in the small town of Dream Harbor trying to raise his young daughter Olive. Iris has always been flighty and doesn't like to settle into things, which makes life exciting but isn't great for her ability to pay rent. Even though she's not the greatest fan of kids, taking on the job of live-in nanny for Archer and Olive, seems like a great summer job. Until the chemistry between boss and nanny gets to be too much.

He didn't know how to make pancakes, or raise a child, and he certainly didn't know how to say no to Iris Fraser.

Fourth in the Dream Harbor series, this could still be read as a standalone, as the setting remains the smalltown but you wouldn't have to know the ins and outs of returning characters relationships, readers of the series will enjoy seeing some old friends. Like with all the Harbor books, this had some sweet moments and spicy. If you're a fan of The Bear for the “Yes, chef” tension, this is steeped in it (a bit repetitive at times). Even though there's a baked in power dynamic favoring Archer as the boss and Iris living in his home, he constantly asks for consent and lets Iris call all the shots on how much and how fast. Iris tries to stay away, thinking she could be messing up Archer's chances at getting full custody of Olive after the six month probationary period but while she spends some of the first half thinking about it, she doesn't put up too much of a fight and teases and pushes until they finally crumble and get physical.

She had every intention of leaving, she really did, but right as she went to turn around, Archer lifted his head.

Olive had her cute moments and brought some emotion with her and Archer's getting to know you vulnerable relationship and Iris realizing she could not only tolerate kids but like them, Olive anyway. The story was over 350pgs and I have to say the beginning later second half did drag as we “Yes, chef” and “we can't, but touch me!” got dragged out too much, there just didn't seem to be enough tension and angst to keep these two apart for more than 200pgs.

He didn't know what Iris wanted in the long run, but if there was an inkling of a chance that she wanted him, then he had to take it.

The ending went a direction that I can't tell felt off and betrayed Iris as a character (there's a little lead in with her evolving relationship with Olive) or if the current real world climate made me personally dissatisfied with it. The majority of the book had Iris not feeling kids were right for her and while she grew to love Olive, it felt somewhat off that in the last 15% she, without much discussion, would decide keeping a baby from a brand new, not even certain relationship, was totally the way to go. I don't know, it just raised some questions for me, but your mileage may vary. Similar to the tone, characterization, and pace of the others in the series, with Archer falling first and trying to play it cool to not scare Iris away and Iris deciding that a life she couldn't fathom before was actually perfect for her, fans of the series will no doubt enjoy this one as much as the others.

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

And at least one death happened here that wasn’t caught on camera.

Twenty years ago, Ella starred in the horror movie Grad Night. A small budget film that became an instant hit and has developed a cult following with the progressive sequels. While the film jump started her career, it emotionally destroyed Ella and after a few years on a popular sitcom, she left Hollywood to take care of her sick mother. Now that her mother has died, Ella's ready to try and revive her career. A middle aged woman has a harder time landing roles, so Ella's agent pressures her to do a Grad Night reunion documentary that fans have been clamoring for, in hopes it will open doors for her. Ella lost touch with her cast mates and has tried to steer clear of anything Grad Night, as one murder happened on set that wasn't filmed. Back at the cabin in the woods that started it all, it seems that the secret Ella and her cast mates worked so hard to keep quiet is known by someone and they're willing to murder over it.

A tall figure stands at the railing, also dressed in a graduation gown and with a blood-spattered lion mask covering the person’s face, an axe with a bloody blade in their hands.

As a big movie slasher fan, I was excited when I read the synopsis of this. It's told in alternating timelines, Then – 20yrs ago with the movie being filmed and Now – present time with Ella back to the film's location and everyone filming the reunion doc. The alternating timelines are to keep moving the story along in the present time but with the mystery kept quiet until the end of what really happened twenty years ago. There's also add-ins of the movie script, which I really enjoyed as a movie fan. I liked how the story was structured and set-up but I'm not a big fan of unreliable narrator and that tactic was deployed to keep the killer a secret; it feels too cop-out manipulating for me. I enjoyed the first half but then the middle and beginning ending started to sag as Ella and her cast mates kind of just moped around. There were some interesting aspects to the secondary characters but as this was told from Ella's point-of-view, everything is from her perspective, so readers never really get to know the cast until the very end. The story started to ramp up around 60% when the present time murders began to happen and we finally got some slashing.

You don’t think about what you’re doing, you just do it.

The vibe of the story felt like a vehicle to go over the #METOO movement and sexism and predators in Hollywood, which, ok, but a lot of the time this was focused on, it felt like the story stopped and we got some awkward fitting pulpit preaching. There were some surprise reveals and just a little head scratching at the who and motives, but still entertaining. Structured interestingly, dragged out in middle because I'm not sure Ella was a strong enough character to carry the story, unreliable narrator, kind of awkwardly fit in preaching, surprising reveals, and some chills and thrills. There were a few call-outs for lovers of the horror movie genre to appreciate but I thought the nine month's into the future epilogue could have used someone popping out of a lake to liven things up.

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

Miss P had seen something in her to handpick her. Her! Lottie Travers! Tomboy extraordinaire.

Look Before You Leap is second in the Miss Prentice's Protegees series but you could start here easily, like I did. Lottie was the tomboy who was raised on a farm with four brothers and lost her mother at a young age, young woman trying to smother her wild streak in order to make it as a governess. She has a leg up by having been trained at the lofty Miss Prentice's but after two failed governess jobs, she was busted sneaking out and riding horses in the morning, along with kneeing a bent on assault heir, her marketability is lessening. She winds up getting placed as a companion to an older “dragon” lady, who also winds up being the aunt to a man she accidentally unhorsed when she ran into him during one of her wild gallops.

Except the sea was now poisoned and he had learned his lesson well that love was for fools.

Lord Guy Harrowby is a Viscount who much prefers to remain isolated on his farm in Kent, where Lottie is originally from. He made a fool of himself when he was twenty-one over a woman who was only using him to attract a duke and has let the shame fester in him over the years. He lost his father when he was younger and now his mother is guilt tripping him hard to let her throw him a thirtieth birthday party because she wants grandkids. It's all shenanigans as Guy's mother and aunt conspire to throw a house party, instead of the one dinner party he agreed to, and rope Lottie into it all. Guy's still angry at Lottie for the unhorsing incident and how she reprimanding him for it but by 40% they've both made their apologies to each other and you can see their friendship start to develop.

He had been engaged in a full-scale war between what his sensible, battle-scarred head and his clearly still reckless but equally battle-scarred heart wanted.

There's physical attraction to go along with that building friendship, a lot of bonding over horses, and some steamy, but interrupted, foreplay (there's an open door scene later on). I was not a fan of how much it was iterated how shallow, dumb, and annoying all the other woman were that were invited to the house party. It becomes very tiring that a chunk of the way you lift your main female character up is to constantly put down the majority of the other woman characters. The series seems to be tied together by a group of friends Lottie had at Miss Prentice's but we don't see a ton of them together, which I missed.

The menace hadn’t just seduced him, she’d thoroughly bewitched him because nothing would shift her from his mind.

The third act breakup had Guy going completely off the rails with how mean he is verbally to Lottie and ended up feeling forced to me. I know he's still dealing with his issues of betrayal from his first love but Lottie so clearly didn't deserve the harsh blame. It had been built and layered that Guy was this man of the little people, had visited her father's farm and had her talking to him about how she sent money back home for them, so readers have been reading about a character that by all accounts understood Lottie couldn't lose her job and would feel compelled to do what her employer told her to do. Instead we get a forced to disregard those building blocks in favor of a snapping Guy. It caused drama but the scene and his actions just didn't feel true to me.

She grabbed a fistful of his cravat. “Just shut up and kiss me.” Lottie dragged his mouth to hers as she simultaneously yanked him inside.

The ending has Guy making that public move he never would have been able to in the beginning but since we've seen him fall in love, doesn't think twice of it for Lottie. Lottie had charm in her stubbornness and I liked Guy until I really didn't when he blew up on Lottie, and with a very abrupt ending, they got their HEA.

Tl;dr: Imperfect characters who made awful and heroic choices and a second half that was mostly about war PTSD

*This is a #TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub discussion.

June's TBRChallenge theme was Road Trip, so I headed to my tbr feeling historical and glancing at reviews to see which ones had people talking about traveling. When I saw this Laura Kinsale's fit the bill, I happily jumped in. I read the first 50% of this in one sitting and then my reading mojo hit a major (for me) snag and I couldn't concentrate enough to read for five days straight. I'm mentioning this because I'm going to, mostly, blame my mojo, but I do also think the second half had some major pacing problems, just tough to parse from own issues. My brain can be a sieve, so that first half I raced through, EONS ago!, I guess I'm saying this review/talking about is going to probably read disjointed and foggy, enjoy!

If you've read Kinsale before, you know you're in for an emotional ride. Sometimes it rips my guts out (The Prince of Midnight) and sometimes I get left on the dock watching the emotions drift away from me (Shadowheart). This one had my eyes filling up and at other times dry eyed wanting to skim, my scatterbrained undecided review, enjoy!

"I loved you." Her voice trembled into a squeak. "I loved you…and you…betrayed me."

I'm going to start this with the author dedication, This book is dedicated to the combat veterans of Vietnam With respect, and love, and hope for healing. While you'll see the beginning of this from our lead Captain Sheridan Drake in the first half, your enjoyment of the whole second half is going to be if you remember this dedication and read it with the understanding that the story is now all about it. Your enjoyment is also going to hinge on if you want/can handle your leads being deliciously, frustratingly not perfect, because boy howdy do both Sheridan and Olympia fuck it all the way up numerous times.

The hero she'd loved with all her being had not died. He'd simply never existed.

The first half has Olympia, our sheltered princess of a small country but has lived all her life in England, setting out to meet her new neighbor, Sheridan. She's heard all about his bravery on his ship and wants to enlist him to use his contacts(???) to help her get to Rome. Why Rome you ask? She's going to appeal to the Pope to stop her betrothal to her uncle (I'd hurry my ass there too!). Her grandfather currently leads the country but he's old and the people have been grumbling for an overthrow to set up a democracy, which Olympia is fully for and plans to help happen. She is the completely young and naive do-gooder that knows the right destination but has no idea what it takes to get there. Readers know Sheridan isn't quite what the papers make him out to be and that he is completely destitute after his father who loved to pull pranks (incredibly dangerous and mean “jokes”) had him invest all his money in a train venture that went bankrupt. There's also the added connection that Sheridan's father's ex-mistress is/was Olympia's governess and tells Sheridan that his father's will gives him nothing, unless he does what she says to do(???). This leads to Sheridan offering marriage to Olympia to save her from her uncle, at ex-mistress' behest and somehow an English ambassador is also involved in telling Sheridan what to do, but she refuses having been poisoned by ex-mistress that she's too fat and unattractive. Sheridan decides to set-up his own plan and agrees to take Olympia to Rome, he sees how jewel rich she is, and then pretend to be kidnapped/killed by a secret assassin group that is after him(???) and steal her jewels riding richly off into the sunset, leaving her behind.

He laughed bitterly. "God, they were idiots. They'd ask how many ships I'd sunk and how many men I'd killed hand to hand…as if I kept a damned running account. They always wanted to know how it felt…" His voice had begun to shake. "But I never told them. They didn't want to know the truth. Not really."

It's a bit of a convoluted set-up, especially since Olympia's country drama winds up being like 10% of the story and doesn't come in at all until again at the end. By 20% we have them going on their road (ship) trip and then it's all on with them getting captured by pirates, shipwrecked, living on a island for months, saved, captured by pirates again, sold into slavery, and surviving a blood drunk mob. Late '80s historical romances aren't to be trifled with! There are dated terms in this and Sheridan's manservant/frenemy Mustafa is a bad characterization, so content warnings abounding again. While I enjoyed the meat of how the author allowed Sheridan and Olympia to make bad and wrong choices, they betray one other more than once, I could see how they would ultimately work together but I'm not sure I'd recommend this for the romance. I liked how Kinsale had Sheridan trying to warn Olympia off of him and how even though he thinks he's not worthy, Kinsale even has him do unworthy things (I'm not talking heinous things here), he always remained redeemable to me, which I think can be a good message. The juxtaposition of broken down tattered Sheridan and the bright shiny heroic younger captain that comes in later to be a romantic wedge between him and Olympia was perfect, especially since the shiny guy turned out to be under it all not so great, which YES, give us readers these emotions to wrestle with! The second half is more of a deep dive into how soldiers can be so lost after coming home from war.

That she would not hate him. That she was glad he was on her side. That he could keep them safe without violence, without hurting anyone. He tried to believe those things. He repeated them to himself. But he was afraid.

Sheridan is a broken man after all he had to survive. As the reader, it broke me how he was a boy who wanted to make music but after a “joke” by his father gone wrong, ends up on a ship in his preteens and is thrust into trying to survive war. I couldn't help thinking of all the current kids who just want to make music and instead have these awful circumstances thrust upon them; Kinsale did a really great job showing and articulating through Sheridan the scars such a life can leave. There was also an eye watering scene where Sheridan had finally let himself love Olympia only for her to betray him and oof, the emotions he went through here:

He should have known. He should have realized. It had been so hard for him to believe it was happening. That she could come to know him for what he was, fully, and understand what he'd done by opening the circle of himself and including her. They'd fought together, survived together, shared the miseries and the laughter and the disasters, and each small morning victory of waking up alive. He'd thought that meant something. That was love, that was the only name he had to give it. Last night, when in the midst of his whining concern for his own skin she'd said she loved and trusted him, he'd been so certain of it. He would have died for her then, he would have killed every man on board to protect her—except this was civilization, not a battle, and all he'd been able to do was make some brainless joke to cover the raw surge of emotion and then retreat before he embarrassed himself beyond recovery. She loved him. It had been hard to believe that; it had gone against every instinct built up in years of solitude, but he'd convinced himself. Aye. And he was wrong.

The love, the betrayal, the pain, just, the THE of it all! Meaty characters.

"Princess." His voice had a plea in it. "Do you understand? I don't know why the world is like this; I don't know why we go out to fight something that's wrong—something so much bigger than we are, something that ought to be fought—and end up creating a thousand little horrors to stop a huge one. Slavery's wrong. Tyranny's wrong. You weren't stupid or naive or trivial to believe that. You're right. Maybe your revolution was right. You just…didn't understand how real it would be."

The end has Olympia experiencing some trauma of her own and realizing her own naivety and a reveal for Sheridan that changes some things. This does end in an HEA but I felt a bit too rung out to have that high lovey dovey feeling for them, it's more of a gritty solemn one. The first half read fast for me but some convoluted set-up while the second half seemed to get lost and repetitive stagnate paced (could have been my no mojo brain!). However, if you remember that dedication and realize this whole story was a cover to talk about war induced PTSD you'll feel Sheridan's pain and probably think of the women and men in your own life who never fully make it back from war. These leads lied to each other, fought and survived together, were mean to each other, saved each other, and loved each other, they weren't perfect characters which honestly felt deliciously meaty to me at times.

"I'm here," she said into his shoulder. "I'm here, and I love you. I love you no matter what."

A critic said, “Gothic tales rely on distant pasts and faraway lands full of people unlike us,” except he was wrong, because the land of this story is everywhere. The people are us, the time is always.

I buddy read this over on a horror Discord.

Quick thoughts and comments:

I'm a big fan of folklore, Gothic, horror, and Bluebeard reimaginings/retellings, so I was pretty much the ideal audience for this. I don't know how, but this felt like a fast read and one that dragged all at the same time. The synopsis/marketing copy talked about it being a feminist take but it takes until the second half for the focus to really be on the wives of the tale. That and the different pov and tense changes feeling needlessly challenging and confusing to try and create a mysterious creepy vibe, was mostly why I had a problem with this. Also, some aspects of the story were focused on (Tristan) that felt  counterintuitive and interruptive  to the story's messaging of how abusive men get societal protection and how women get placed in and manipulated into caretaker and shield roles in abusive relationships.

The first half felt super wonky with how it was structured but the second half read better to me, even though I was annoyed at how it sped through the wives, except for Eunice where I thought the story really settled into what it wanted to be. The focus on the last “special” wife Cherry was back to annoying to me because I think the story lost it's focus again and seemed to want to end the story with stating that Cherry was just as bad as the abusive man, which ok, but then what is this story really about, not what I showed up for based on the synopsis.

I liked this and was annoyed with it, the atmospheric wonky structured folklore parts mostly didn't work for me but since I'm a fan of that type of storytelling, I still found parts I liked, I think a good chunk of readers will struggle with it, though. The first half felt like it focused on everything and nothing and when I finally found the story working for me in the second half, it sped through it to get to the final wife, a character that did nothing for me. I liked how it showed the systems that protect abusers but not sure this retelling did anything new or attention catching.