Thank you Netgalley for this ARC

HO LY SHIT.
I could not put this book down. I could not. For over 350 pages I was just GLUED to my kindle and couldn't read it fast enough. It. is. epic.

First of all, it has dragons. And who doesn't love dragons? Because I sure do! Second of all, it has characters who are fleshed out, who are absolutely incredible, who are - to put it in the easiest way possible - MWAH *chefs kiss*

Honestly, Burn is such a wild ride. There are intrigues, plot twists, and just you wait what happens in "Part Two" because I was not prepared. I think my heart is still a little racing as I am typing this the morning after I've finished this book.

But let me get professional for a moment.

Burn is told by multiple POV's and each of them has a unique and distinguishable voice so that they were so easy to keep apart even though the changing of the POV wasn't confined as it's often the case to separate chapters, but could change within a chapter multiple times. The perspectives all varied in opinion and belief about one specific point in time and it was incredibly interesting to see this one event lived through multiple characters with different goals, all of them absolutely sure that their path is the right one.

With that said, clearly there must've been some wrong opinions and someone's - Malcom's - character arc? Beautifully executed. The pacing of the whole book was just right but the moment he realised that he was on the wrong side? BRILLIANT.

I did get a little worried, when I saw romance enter the already messy situation but it fits. It is not over the top forceful, it makes sense and again, for a lack of better words, it's beautifully executed both in terms of the story itself and the pacing.

I absolutely loved the ending and the only thing that I ask is... Mr Ness... how are Hugh and Nelson doing? What happened? I NEED TO KNOW.

Five stars for this one. 10/10. Such a beautiful wild ride that I couldn't be more happier that I got to go on. Read this book, everyone!

Thank you, Netgalley for the ARC of Sorcery of the Blood in exchange for an honest review

Sorcery of the Blood was a fun and intense read. It's essentially about Vampire Hunters Kingston and Martin who are trying to make Phoenix a safer place for humans once again. But then, Kingston gets bitten by an old vampire and turns. With the help of Martin and some vampires who rely on donor blood instead of killing humans willy-nilly, he is brought to a safe-place to come to terms with his new undead-ness. In the meantime, the vampire who turned Kingston takes over the city dictator-style and Martin discovers something about himself: he has magic.

Together, they try to undo the evil vampire regime by joining forces, learning and teaching how to fight and, Kingston and Martin try to navigate the romantic feelings they have for each other which seem to become stronger than ever.

I liked the dynamics between the characters and I really loved the diversity. While there are not only characters of every ethnicity and sexual orientation, there are lovely human/vampire relationships that explore the issues that arise when one partner is immortal and one isn't. The pining between Martin and Kingston was absolutely lovely and I was rooting for them from the first second on.

The villain was of a very good-old-fashioned kind of villain sort: hella racist, hella homophobic, and unapologetically evil. You are immediately hell set against him because he does not have a single shred of decency.

So, the villain is a white cishet male who is fighting queer vampires of all genders and sexualities (except straight) and there are some nods to Nazi Germany and I thought that I would've loved to see a little more variety. I would have loved to see some white cishet human/vampire allys on the good side and maybe some influences from some other terrible dictorial regimes in there. The latter would have appealed to the history nerd in me, and since the villain is a couple of hundred years old, I would've loved a backstory of how he became evil and how he travelled the world to be part of all the regimes. Just to hate him a little bit more (even though he is already up there with Umbridge from Harry Potter tbh.) But these are very minor complaints because as I said, I enjoyed the characters a LOT, they were quite lovely and fleshed out :)

The pacing was great, up until the 'big fight' between good and evil. I thought that the fight, as well as the aftermath was pretty quickly resolved - too quickly almost for the foreboding and panic and anxiety that was around the whole time. I felt as if I was waiting for the Supermario Superboss to show up and the ending was a little more fireball spewing plant.

All in all, I did enjoy this though and I can't wait to see what Alice G. Holmes does next! Their writing was lovely all throughout and the world building was also fantastic. I'd recommend this to everyone who is into vampire novels first of all and pining second of all because... the amount of love and pining in this book is just great!

Thank you Netgalley for an Arc of When You Get the Chance in exchange for an honest review

3.75 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.

So listen. I have mixed feelings about this book.

Even though it is advertised as a roadtrip novel, for me it was definitely a family novel first, a queer novel second and a coming of age novel third. And then maybe there is a little bit about roadtrip in there, but since the trip itself wasn't very long, I'd put the other themes on the forefront.

A big theme of the book is figuring out why Mark's (MC1) mum and Talia's (MC2) dad are not on speaking terms. They haven't seen each other for years and are only forced to come together when Mark and Talia's granddad dies and they're all flying to Toronto for the funeral and to figure out how to deal with their grandma. One big issue is the cottage that the grandparents kept three hours away from Toronto for summer vacations and the families respectively go up there to decide what to do with the cottage, now that the grandma isn't physically able to keep it up anymore.

Only a day later, the parents have to go back to their mother's side as she's been admitted to a hospital after a fall, leaving the kids in charge of the cottage for now. Mark is devastated that they take both cars which means that he won't have a way to go to Toronto pride and Talia is devastated because she can't visit her partner? Ex partner? Erin who also works in Toronto. Eventually, they find a way though and the three kids make their way to Toronto without their parents knowledge.

What was a little irritating to me was the total lack of grief from the two teenagers about their grandfather. While they do say it is sad about him dying and that they feel bad, it doesn't seem to last very long because they are quickly preoccupied with other things, namely Mark flirting with a local guy and Talia hoping that her partner of two years, with whom she doesn't know where they stand at that point, would text.

Additionally, I didn't immediately connect with either of the main characters and was rooting most for Mark's little sister Paige who was not only supportive of her queer family members but was putting on her best detective face to try and figure out why their parent's aren't on speaking terms anymore.

I was also a huge fan of the lesbian couple the kids hitch a ride with to Toronto and about the exchange of terms and experiences between these queer generations.

I did warm up to both Mark and Talia in the course of the novel, mainly because both seem more and more selfconscious and willing to learn and to better themselves whenever they get called out on being insensitive. I really did feel that there was a character development for both of them, which I really loved seeing. Mark grew way less obnoxious and Talia seemed a little freer in her thinking about both what others thought of her and more importantly, what she wanted from her life. I got the feeling that only at the end of the novel, Talia let herself really explore what she wants from the next couple of years not out of obligation to a partner or her dad but for her and I loved seeing it.

There is a lot of queer representation in this book. While not being queer myself, I kept having the opinions of various friend's in my head while reading about especially the trans and poly rep and I know that they wouldn't have been too fond of it so I felt myself being not too fond of it. But that is all I am going to say on that matter since I felt like there was a lot of diversity in here which I loved and I am going to let people who identify with the various sexualities and gender identities judge how well the rep was done apart from that. However I do have one friend who resembles Talia a lot in their thinking about queerness and sexuality and I couldn't help but smile whenever Talia lectured someone (mostly Mark) on the importance of accepting and embracing other people for who they are :)

All in all, I really liked this book and read it within a day. It was a feel-good novel and I realise that I have been really nitpicky with my critisism here, which you will have realised by now because I gave this a rounded up to 4 rating which means that I must've liked it a lot. My point is: It is a lovely novel and a feel good read and I recommend it to... literally anyone who is into contemporary YA fiction. It's got heart, soul, a lot of Canadian charm and it takes you to a Pride Event as if you were really there. Really Fab.