An epic conclusion to a great duology. Raybearer took my by storm and I was so excited to read this follow up. While Raybearer was a story of found family and fighting against family expectations, Redemptor is a story of what happens AFTER you find your family and survivor's guilt. Tarasai may have survived the events of book one, but she's forced to relive the trauma of all the redemptors that came before her. The children who weren't so lucky and were sacrificed for the "good" of the kingdom. Throughout the story we watch Tarasai struggle with keeping her promise to the Underworld, balancing life in the kingdom with her siblings and forming new bonds of support.

I'll admit that this isn't an easy read. It goes by quickly, but the subject matter is definitely heavy at times. Between hallucinations, guilt, depression, and loneliness, Tarasai struggles, but her journey through is beautifully written and just leave you wanting more. Jordan Ifueko certainly never disappoints. 

Middle grade fantasy never disappoints. This was such a great read. As the Gom adopted daughter, Riley Oh is an outcast in her community. She wants nothing more than to be a "real" member of the gifted clan, but as a saram (non magical person), there will always be something separating her from her family and friends. That's why her sister comes up with a plan. If they can perform a magical spell, Riley will gain powers and the community will have no choice but to accept her. It turns out though that that plan isn't as easy as it seems. Soon Riley has to rely on her best friend, legendary creatures and a banished clan for help in not only saving her sister, but the world as they know it.

Once I jumped into the story, this turned out to be a pretty quick read. I'm so mad I didn't get to it sooner. Riley runs through the emotions of a typical pre-teen/teenager. She just wants acceptance. What I loved about this story is that Riley learns that sometimes all you need to do is accept who you are and take control of your own fate. I'll be honest: I thought I had the twist all figured out, but it turns out I was wrong! Trust me, that doesn't happen often. I really enjoyed watching Riley go through her journey of discovering who she is and what family really means. I can't wait to dive into the next book of the series!

This was a very cute book and a quick read. Even though I read the synopsis, I wasn't sure what I was getting into with this one, but I had a good time reading it. Wyatt and Dani were definitely a cute duo and I'm a sucker for a workplace romance. Dani's idea for the Spite House was a great one and every little thing she did to take it to the next level to get on her ex's nerves was hilarious. I'm always down for a little petty revenge scheme. Wyatt's explanation for why he was so standoffish, made sense, especially given what he experienced. I think, given their histories but also what they learned about one another, they should've given each other the benefit of the doubt. I'll be honest and say the conflict between then seemed a bit forced. I know emotions tend to run high, especially in romances, but Wyatt assuming Dani didn't want to be with him or was lying to him because of his vertigo when their first real emotional interaction had been centered around that had me puzzled. Like wise, Dani's bullheadedness when dealing with both Wyatt, the build, and her cousin also left me scratching my head a bit. Some of it, I guess I see the purpose of, but on the other hand it seemed thrown in just to add in more conflict. All in all, I enjoyed myself, which is always the goal.

I have to admit that I'm a bit torn about one of my most anticipated releases of the year. First off let me say, thank you to the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to review this advanced copy for an honest review. 

Right off the bat I wanted to love this book and in many ways I did. I didn't have the same issue with it that I saw others raise in terms of diet culture and exercise. I DON'T think this is a book where the character hates themselves because they are fat or a book that is saying you have to be skinny to be beautiful. That's actually the opposite of the message that Savvy gets from her friends a support group and the opposite of what Savvy comes to realize about halfway through the book. I think that everyone's journey for self love and weight looks different. You can eat clean and exercise without trying to be skinny. You can change your hair style and take up new (or old) hobbies without it being a complete betrayal of who you are. That doesn't mean you hate who you are, it just means you're looking for a change, which I can totally understand. Even the concept of a "revenge body" in this book didn't feel like a revenge body to me. Even though this is a phrase Savvy uses a few times after being dumped by her boyfriend for "being fat and not paying enough attention to him" (which, let's be honest, is the REAL reason he dumped her), but I think that phase doesn't really fit with the the content of the book. No matter how many times she said "revenge body" Savvy never gave off the impression she was trying to lose a lot of weight or get skinny. There's even a moment when she and her friends agree, this is not about the number on the scale, but it's about helping her feel comfortable and strong in her body. Savvy ate a LOT of delicious food in this book and at no point did it seem like she was depriving herself, so I wanted to get that out of the way.

Now that we've clarified those points, lets dive into what I loved and what I didn't care for in this book. 
<b>First the good points:</b>
-Savvy's friend group was amazing. They were funny, supportive, and ready to go off whenever her trash ex happened to pop up. Like they stayed on go and I LOOOOVED that. Get you some friends that will try and jump your ex in public ok!

-Savvy's relationship with food when far beyond what was on the surface. Cooking is a passion she learned from her grandmother and you can tell she puts a lot of love in her meals no matter what she's cooking. Food was definitely a hobby and love language for her, so much so that she had a dream of creating a cookbook and often took different cooking classes to learn new things. Cooking was part of her self-care routine that she adopted and it was great to see that side of her. Mama was COOKING okay. Every time she mentioned a new dish, I found myself getting hungry lol.

-Being able to go on this journey with Savvy where she realized she'd lost herself to the pressures of others and needed to rediscover all of the things she loved about herself was beautiful. I think often times we can get lost in relationships (platonic, familial, and romantic) and succumb to the pressures of being what we think everyone else should be. Savvy had to come to terms with this and figure out what it is that she wanted to define her and what would make her happy, not everyone else. There's a moment <SPOILER> where Savvy admits aloud that her "revenge body" scheme wasn't really about her ex saying that she was fat (because again, I think his main issue was that he wasn't getting his ego stroked enough and he was childish). It was about that fact that what he said to her made her realize that in all the time they'd been together, her fear of losing him stopped her from having her own opinions and making decisions for herself. She was constantly worried about what he thought of something and she was finally ready to do something for herself.   That was definitely one of my favorite moments in the book.

<b>Now the things I didn't really care for:</b>

-While I didn't mind seeing Savvy begin her new workout routines, like hot yoga, hiking, and tennis, after awhile the tennis scenes began to feel repetitive. It started to feel like filler honestly. We're told that Savvy used to be a BOMB tennis player in high school and college and that she loved the sport before she was injured. Her new mission after the breakup includes jumping back into tennis with a personal trainer, who she quickly became friends with. This was great because we got to watch Savvy rediscover her love of tennis again, but I did <b>not</b> not need a play by play or what the tennis workouts consisted of every time she went. And trust me, she plays tennis a lot in this book. I think that time and writing would've been better served digging into her love of tennis and showing us why she loved it, not being technical about the workout.

-In the beginning, Savvy mistakes the LI, who's a contractor, for a homeless man because of his appearance and the fact that she's never seen him before. Okay fine. My issue is that they kept bringing this up throughout the whole book. "Remember when you thought he was homeless?" "Oh gosh, can't believe I thought he was homeless" "Oh gosh he could never be homeless." LIKE GIRL WE GET IT! It's not cute or funny to keep repeating this over and over again.

-This was NOT a romantic comedy. Did it have funny moments? Yes. But a few funny lines doesn't make something a comedy. And also, just because there's a romance involved, doesn't mean it's a romantic book. This brings me to my next point. The romance was cute and I liked the LI, but the central piece of this book for me was the journey of self-discovery that she went on, NOT, the romance piece of the book. Don't get me wrong, there was definitely romance, but it wasn't the most important thing in the book. That's not an issue in the grand scheme of things, but it sort of felt like this was supposed to be a story about a woman finding and loving herself, but "oh wait, this is too heavy and serious so let's add some cute romance in here to spice things up." Romance can be a lot of things and it's not a monolith (other than the HEA/HFN qualification), but a romantic comedy, this was not.

Also, this may just be me, but Savvy didn't NEED to be in a committed relationship with this man by the end of the book, especially since she'd literally lost herself in her last relationship. Also, some of the issues she had with him (like him leaving first thing in the morning to walk his dog without waking her up) were really weird, especially when he literally explained to her what he was doing. Like girl, please calm down.

-The other element is the synopsis gave me the impression that Savvy didn't really enjoy her job. Even while I was reading, her job seemed like more of a burden than anything else. She did find a little resolution with this at the end, but nothing about her job interactions made me think, "oh yeah, she should definitely keep working here no matter what." They took full advantage of her on a regular basis and while that is true to real life, it still irritated me a lot, especially when it seemed like she was only working there to satisfy her mother and her boss.

This ended up being a lot longer than I intended, but all in all, the point is that while I liked reading it for the most part, it just didn't stand out too much to me. Not bad, not amazing, just sort of average. I fully suggest reading it for yourself and seeing where you land on the spectrum.

Wow wow wow. What a journey. Im so glad I listened to the audio for this because it truly gave life to the story and the characters. When I picked this book up, I didn’t expect to find  a compelling story written in such a poetic way. This story is told in told different time periods. We see the past, in which we learn about Orquidea Divina, who she was and what she endured in order to become the Orquidea that her family knew, loved and resented. We also flip to the present, where Orquidea has bequeathed her children and grandchildren a dark inheritance. 

Where most grandparents leave the family home, money and fond memories, Orquidea leaves hers with a home that’s burned down, turmoil and the past she’s tried to run away from for so long. Someone is searching for her and now that she is dying, that person is coming for her family to take the magic that she left them. It’s up to two of her grandchildren and one of her great grands to figure out who is after them, what their magic means and how to save the family. Along the way they uncover Orquidea’s secrets and learn more about her than they could’ve ever fathomed. Each new story and lesson sheds light on the heartbreak she endured and why the woman they couldn’t help but love seemed so hardened to the world. 

The look into generation trauma is just…WHEW. So many parents put their issues, burdens and hurt onto their children without even realizing it. Even though Orquidea loved her family, she didn’t always know how to show it and that’s what drove them away. The irony is, that very same overbearing attitude and protective nature is what drove her away from her own mother. And so the cycle continued. I loved that by the end, the entire family was working hard to break that cycle. It wasn’t easy and it certainly didn’t mean they forgot everything that happened. No one made excuses what the behavior, but they did finally understand what got them to this place. 

I don’t want to give too much away, but all in all, this was such a beautiful read. 

Once again THEE Nic Falls manages to deliver feelings, dick, and some very funny ass one liners wrapped in a pretty holiday bow. The SKILL ok!

Shae really hit it out of the park with this one. From the moment Taurus and Savannah stepped on page, they had my attention. Sexy, nasty, and a grumpy alpha work dynamic. Mhmm say no more. I’m invested. There were some true gems in this book. Only one element bothered me and that was the emphasis that Savannah put on getting remarried, literally before she even filed for divorce. She mentioned it a few times, but does eventually give some insight into why. It doesn’t matter. Everything else in this story was boom so this is definitely a new fave.