Wow. I was not prepared for how dark this novella was! Not having read any of the Wicked series, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. With the fae, you never know what you are going to get. The way the novella starts, I was lulled into this false sense of security that we were going to get a light, happy story with a touch of forbidden love. And it was, for about five minutes, then wham!

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To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to like The Devil's Apprentice. Mainly because of the fact that it's...well, a story about Hell. The whole Christian guilt thing. I know. I know. "But, Valerie, you read horror and about vampires and magic!" Yes, yes indeed and that's why I pulled up my big girl pants and cracked this baby open! Sacrilegious though it may be, it was a riot.

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As I've said before, my mom influenced my reading growing up. Being a fast reader, I read what was lying around. You could always guarantee that somewhere in our house was Robin Cook thriller — Outbreak being one of my favorites. As I've gotten older, I haven't lost my love for virology stories. For me, the horror of them lies in the ability for it to become truth. As advanced as our medical field is, there is still the ability for a lowly little microbe to not only triumph over us but to do with devastatingly quick certainty. For example, all it takes is a quick search to discover that ebola is still alive and well. Sure, we don't hear much about in the first world countries, but it's still out there, wreaking havoc and killing indeterminately. Global efforts to manage epidemics are documented all the way back to the black plague in 14th century Europe, closing borders and causing panic. Sure, we've managed to create vaccines for many of the pestilent diseases that tormented centuries ago and bubonic plague, which killed 60% of Europe in the 14th century, can be cured with a simple course of antibiotics, but what happens when something new emerges? That's what the Red Death ponders.

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Ruined is the third book in the Willow Creek series, but like all the books in this series, it can be read as a standalone. I would highly recommend reading the series from the start simply to better appreciate the cast of characters.

I love the world that A.K. Macbride has created in this little small town, where everyone knows everyone and nothing happens by accident! Zoe, fleeing the city after arson burns her gallery to the ground, comes to Willow Creek for safety and refuge. Unfortunately, that puts her running smack dab into Eli again. After she kissed him at Kenzie and Brett’s wedding, he’s been unable to get her off of his mind, and now here she is, showing up unannounced with fear in her eyes.

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A Magnet to a Flame is a unique collection of stories whisking the reader away to alternate realities. With names like Sonnet in Elegy of the Cheap Wattle Bottle I Bought at Kroger and Your Blind Date Mansplains "Token Back to Brooklyn" While He Sinks in Quicksand, you can only expect something a bit quirky and fantastical. Even from the Foreword in which the author explains what stories he DIDN'T include from Jose Kwan and the Mystic Turkey of Terror and poetry about calculus, you know you are in for a treat. A Magnet to a Flame doesn't disappoint.

VIDEO takes us to a video store that transports you through time. I loved the narration of this one, telling us how to experience the jaunt to 1984 like he has many, many times. There's a melancholy feel to it as well. The escapism of the normal, everyday life, in which time is slowly running out, to a place where popcorn scents the air and the stars are coming out and you might, just might find happiness.

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If you are still looking for one last great book for reading in the “Month of Love”, look no further! The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever is it! When secret high school sweethearts, Grace and Reed, end up back in their home town unexpectedly, they simply can’t resist falling back in love — as if they ever fell out of it!

I loved Grace and Reed’s romance. They left town and went their separate ways but something was always missing from their lives. Each filled their lives with work and even other romances, but it was never right. They love effortlessly and fall immediately back into old patterns from their relationship in high school, filled with nicknames and sweet gestures. I kept waiting for something to mess it all up, but that never happened. Instead, they communicated with each other, cleared up miscommunications from their earlier years, and build a newer, stronger love.

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Fantastic Beasts meets Assasin's Creed? Yes, please!

Kingdom of Exiles is the first of The Beast Charmer's trilogy and if Kingdom of Exiles is any indication of how the series will play out, then I am here for it! There's so much that this book brings to the table. There's a fiery female MC, a magical world, a bevy of beasts, and a slow burn romance

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Hailey Edwards consistently writes great characters and this book is no different. There were quite a few new characters to meet, both on the ally side and the adversary side. What I think I like best about her characters is that there aren’t many that are truly black or white. It may be at first we perceive them to be one way and learn later – sometimes much later –that they are really in the gray. We only discover these things as Grier experiences them, which lends itself to the reader experience.

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