Oh, Xingyin how I had such high hopes for you. Don’t get me wrong, I think that a lot of her personal growth, in regard to her family, was amazing. The love interests though were really hard to follow and get behind.

This book starts shortly after book 1. Xingyin is with her mother and trying to heal from all the events in book one. Her life force is quickly becoming stronger and we learn that there’s a reason for that. In fact the main antagonist of this book is after the reasoning but I don’t want to give it away. I loved her relationship with her mother in the first book. We get some surprises in this book and I’m glad that she got what she always wanted- her family. I just didn’t feel the bond was as strong as I would have liked. I think part of the problem is that there’s so much chaos and they are strung all over the place.

The biggest downfall of this book is the love triangle. It’s quite easy to figure out where Tan is going with this and who she ultimately wants Xingyin to wind up with. WHY all the heartbreak though?! The constant back and forth?! I’m so sorry but I just can’t get behind the treatment of book one and the flip-flop in book two. I get how it’s important to the overall plot but that’s what this felt like. It was just there to get the plot to connect and make sense. I still didn’t feel the emotions of either one of the guys which made the ending a bit surprising.

I did enjoy my time with the story in this book though. We get to see so much more of the different worlds and that was awesome to see. I think that might have been one of my favorite parts. This world is large and there are so many different moving parts, Queens, Kings, and they all have their own powers/magic. I loved learning about them all and getting more of the bigger picture. The plot itself was also much more developed and interesting than in book one. There are a lot of twists in turns and some really high and low points. I did manage to cry a bit, haha.

Overall, I did enjoy this one a tad more than the first book. I do love the world-building and all the magical aspects of them. The mythology and cultural elements are amazing. She is a very descriptive writer and I felt like I could picture everything so clearly. For me, the biggest drawback of this duology is the love triangle. I never connected to either one through Xingyin and it felt like friendship more than anything. Love triangles are personal preferences so I can see how many people love these books! 

 

I wanted to read this book because of the beautiful cover. I was reading about the author and she stated that this came from her love of gardening and her plants. I also love those things and went into this with high hopes!

I’ve talked about the beautiful cover but the writing itself has beautiful prose. I was very fascinated by the world Parker created surrounding this magical garden. To piggyback off the garden, we have a tea shop that’s also a huge part of this story. All the talk of tea and different kinds of herbs was very cozy. I thought the power these women have to heal and then send that pain into this garden was unique. They take sorrow and the garden creates beauty from it. On the flip side, we have the other side of the coin, with the bourbon distillery and how they can swipe memories rather quickly.

In this town, there’s a huge mystery over one summer. No one can remember what happened except that there was a murder. When a strange arrival starts stirring things up things start to come to light. There’s a wonderful cast of women in this book, on both sides. I was originally a bit confused about who this book focused on. I thought the MC would be Addison but was surprised that it was mostly Irene. I appreciated that storyline more because I love how it wove in the past and present. I was hesitant about the romance between Irene and Kaden at first. It seemed like it was too much of an “instant love.” As we move into the story, things become a bit more clear and make a lot more sense.

Parker did a fabulous job with the magical realism, romance, and mystery in this book. I sped through this book because I just had to know what happened. The magical elements were great and added so much to this story. I do wish we would have gotten some explanation about how it started or where it came from. The flashbacks from past to present had a great flow that I never became lost.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. The ending was a bit sweet but I enjoyed the ride along the way. There are a lot of twists but foreshadowing kind of gives you glimpses of those. It never took away from the story though. I got lost in the cool and cozy vibes. The romances are all very sweet and I loved many of the women in this book.

Many thanks to Orbit and Forever for an ARC to review! 

 

I had no idea what to expect with this one but I was completely intrigued by the synopsis! I’m so glad I gave this a shot because it was a great read.

This is a whole confession in the form of the last love letter from Constanta to Dracula. She never names him specifically but there’s no mistaking who she’s talking about. Her letter starts at the beginning when she was saved by him. She was on the brink of her death and asked him to help not realizing what it would mean. She never reveals her name from her human life, which was interesting. She becomes his first bride and she is in love with him and just living their un-dead life.

Of course, things take a bad turn when she starts realizing that he had a lot of secrets and lies. Things start to unravel. This book was such a fast-paced read that I finished it in a day. It grabs a hold of you and sucks you into this intense and darkly rich world. With that being said, I do wish the last bit of the story had a little more to it. I feel like we get to the third wife and then the end rather quickly. I adored reading about how much the wives all loved each other. It was a great aspect of this book to talk about all the relationships.

By the end of this book, I was rooting for his wives with everything I had. There are a lot of dark and creepy moments that make you sit on the edge of your seat. The writing was fantastic and I will be reading more by this author!

Overall, I enjoyed this read and can’t wait to read more by this author. I do wish it would have been a bit longer because I needed more! I think this is the perfect read for this time of year too. It’s a bit dark and spooky but there’s a lot of romance too.

Many thanks to Orbit and Redhook for an ARC to review! 

 I had no idea this was a retelling of The Scarlet Letter!! It might be more of a prequel-type story but it was very interesting. I think the title of the book threw me off but I should not go into books blind. haha. Regardless, it was a beautiful cover that pulled me in.

Now onto the story…

This was such an imaginative story that is wrapped in some magic. I think that Albanese did such a fantastic job writing this story. Sometimes it’s hard to read about the past and how women showing any type of interest in medicine/midwifery is a witch. It’s sometimes hard to believe but it’s not, especially now. I think the way that she wove the past and present was very interesting and a little sad. It did sometimes pull me out of the current story and the past was a little bit harder to follow. Regardless, I did enjoy learning about her ancestors. I’m not quite sure if this was magical realism or straight-up magic when it comes to Isobel. Oh my gosh, was her story so touching and heart-breaking! The crazy thing is that her story isn’t the worst from that time.

Not only did Albanese tackle sexism but also racism. I loved how she had both stories woven into Isobel’s. I didn’t know how this story would end up and it kept me intrigued and turning the pages. Even though this is a feminist story, I didn’t quite agree with how quickly she turned on all the men. Not all men are the problem and I don’t want to get into that. There’s one man that was just amazing in this book and she makes us doubt that. I struggled with that a bit.

Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this. I’m not sure that I’m getting my thoughts out coherently. If you liked the Scarlet Letter or are intrigued at all, give this one a go. I really enjoyed this story and the history that’s woven in.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for an e-arc to review. 

 I wasn’t sure what to expect with this because I wasn’t the biggest fan of book 3 in the original series. I honestly didn’t know it was an anthology until I started the book. It’s okay because I really enjoyed that aspect! There are a few authors that co-wrote with Shusterman on this one.

In this Anthology, there’s a lot of new and old characters. Several of these stories cover some of the Scythes from the original series we enjoyed. It was really cool to see origin stories or more about certain Scythes. There are also many stories about different parts of this world and how they work. It was interesting to see how huge this world was and we didn’t even know it. Some of these stories will tie-in and you will recognize the side character, but we also get pre-trilogy and post-trilogy stories. Like all anthologies, there are stories that you love more than others. In this case, the more post-trilogy stories were not my favorite. I was hoping to see a bit more from our original characters!

Overall, if you are a fan of this series, you will like this set of stories. I enjoyed many of these short stories even though I wasn’t a big fan of The Toll. For me, the best part was the origin stories and seeing what inspired their Scythe hood. It’s really hard to get into a lengthy review about an anthology without giving away spoilers.

I want to thank Simon & Schuster and Turn the Page Tours for being a part of this Blog tour and for a PDF of the book! 

 This was my first book by Meryl Wilsner. This sapphic romance was steamy and binge-worthy! It’s so easy to get through this one very quickly. I loved the chemistry between Cassie and Erin. There are a few great friendships here too.

I love college relationships and how carefree they all are. One of the things that I didn’t love was the relationship between Cassie and Parker. I’m sorry but Cassie was a terrible friend to Parker. I get that things are going on in the background but she could have done better. Honestly, Parker was a much better friend to Cassie, considering the circumstances.

Cassie and Erin was such a fun romance to read about. They brought out the better in each other. Cassie could be a tiny bit destructive but I get it from her age. It was sometimes hard to completely fall in love with Cassie as the main character. I think she had a lot of trauma from her past and I wish we would have delved into that a lot more.

Erin was such an amazing character and mom. I love how Parker was her sole reason for living and it made me sad about the miscommunication. I think that can happen a lot with parents and their children.

This book is insanely steamy and many moments throughout the book. I think there are times that it overshadows the actual relationship a bit. I wanted a little more depth there.

Overall, I did enjoy this one and I would love to read more by Wilsner. I just had some pacing issues and some character development issues that I didn’t love. Wilsner is not afraid to go there in the steam aspect if that means anything to you.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Griffin and Netgalley for an e-arc to review!!