eggcatsreads's Reviews (480)

A political fantasy where one's heart and one’s loyalties aren’t always matched - and you have to decide which to follow until the end. 

With fantastic worldbuilding, a fascinating magical and religious system, and a conflict bigger than every character in the book can solve - Where the Dark Remains is a deeply moving and fascinating world to engross yourself in. While the plot seems to be slow moving, at no point is nothing actually happening or plot threads left hanging in the balance. I really liked the conflict of the romances within this novel, as we can feel the tension between what Brynja knows she must do - and what her heart wants. The interwoven history of the magic and religion within this novel was also fantastic, and I loved how each country had their own understanding of it. 

And just when you think you know what is going on, this novel takes you for a complete spin and changes the way you’ve read everything so far - and everything you thought you knew. 

 

A dark fantasy romance perfect for fans of One Dark Window that changes how we understand the legends of the sirens themselves. 

Captivating from the first page, this book kept me enthralled as we follow our main character Imogen - a siren living secretly within the heart of a country who hunts them. With a reluctant romance and phenomenal tension building, the ending leaves us desperate to find out more of this story. I absolutely cannot wait to find out what happens next!

 

A woman returns to the school where she lost her sister, determined this time to keep the same tragedy from occurring again.

I think, in all honesty, the biggest reason that this book didn’t work for me is the level of paranoia surrounding our main character - especially since her dead sister is, quite literally, haunting her. While I was reading this, I was under the impression that our main character was an unreliable narrator, seeing villains where there was none - especially since, by being able to see and interact with her dead sister, she cannot move on from the tragedy that haunts her school years. 

It wasn’t that I don’t believe such things happen (obviously), but her every interaction felt so determined to prove everyone to being the worst person they could possibly be that I felt like it wasn’t actually what was happening in reality. That, because she cannot move on from the tragedy that killed her sister (who she cannot move on from so much that she sees her everywhere) she is projecting her own traumas onto everyone around her. And the biggest issue is that the book does a fantastic job of making this the case. Our main character has occasional flashbacks that literally overshadow whatever is currently going on, and cannot help but impose previous people’s faces onto those she is talking with now. The narrative makes a fantastic job of making our main character seem unhinged and unstable, but never actually commits to it - and instead, simply just validates every terrible thing she’s done throughout the novel without any consequences. 

The book is so terrified of making our main character face any consequences for her actions that it - quite literally - allows her to get away with murder.

Also, in my opinion, the ending was so unrealistic and over exaggerated that it took me out of the story entirely. And there isn’t a single possible way that the ending could have happened and nothing being investigated or discovered. In short, this book is about a paranoid delusional woman who, somehow, never actually recovers from her delusions and simply gets away with whatever she decides to do - no matter the body count. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me this e-ARC.

Fun, flirty, and with just a bit of fire, Lady’s Knight was everything I wanted when I picked up this book. We follow Gwen - a blacksmith’s daughter who has taken up her father’s job to keep their family fed, and Isobelle - a noble lady seen as nothing more than a prize to be won in a jousting tournament. When these two meet a plan comes together that has unexpected consequences for not only them - but everyone around them. 

I loved the way this book was written, with fun little medieval versions of modernizations of things. This is especially seen in the occasional breaks of the fourth wall chapters where we - as the reader - are being spoken to directly about what we are reading. This made reading a fun and enjoyable experience, as every time I turned the page I found something new to love about reading this book.

Told from the dual perspectives of Gwen and Isobelle, it was really fun to watch their romance - as well as the rising tensions surrounding Gwen’s deception as Sir Gawain - develop. I found both of them interesting and multi-layered, and I really enjoyed how at no point was Isobelle cosigned to be a supporting character in the novel - or seen as the less important of the two women. 

Perfect for anyone who was looking for a sapphic knight tale - complete with secret identities, overly-competent and secretive maids, and an action-filled ending that will leave you at the edge of your seat. 

 

‘𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐’𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘸𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦. 𝘐 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.’

I’ve posted before about how much I loved this trilogy, and the third book knocks it out of the park! Perfect for anyone searching for a fresh take on the vampire genre as we follow Vladimir Radu - and the consequences he faces for his decision to come out about his sexuality…and being a vampire. 

With new conflicts, characters and dangers around every corner, there’s never a dull moment as Vlad attempts to simply live his life as the world’s only public vampire. With the final book in the trilogy extending the playing field with his attempt to introduce vampires to the modern world - aptly called the Fang Society for American Vampires - new enemies and allies are added to the mix. When both new and old vampiric danger is on the rise, Vlad must rely on his friends and allies to come to a solution that won’t send everything he’s worked for crashing down around him.

I was given the opportunity to ARC read the third book in this trilogy, and I can’t wait to complete my physical collection! I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, campy - and at times a bit gory - vampire series that tackles both the real (and fang-tastic) trials of being in the public scrutiny - both for who you are, as well as who you love. 

With such a strong ending to this trilogy, I can't wait to see where this author goes next! (And if the series is ever expanded past these three books, I'll absolutely be reading it!)

With a story that doesn’t shy away from the horrors of slavery, this book is a visceral read from the start. We follow an enslaved man named Willie as he wants to do anything to save his people - and especially his beloved Gertie - from the horrors of their daily life. When conventional means of escape fail, he discovers a much bloodier solution to his problem - and yet, as we read we can clearly see who is a monster and who is not. A novel about freedom, revenge, and using whatever means necessary to save yourself. 

This book captured my attention from the start, and I spent a great deal of the book waiting for the well-deserved revenge to occur. Every character has a distinct voice, and we see the many faceted sides of the abuse those who are enslaved are forced to endure - and how each of them decides to survive living it. 

The biggest issue I believe I had with this book is that once the knowledge of the “vampires” was discovered, the story still lingered on for a long while before anything significant was done using their abilities. As well as the fact that much of this book, especially near the end, felt like it was written more as a movie description as opposed to a novel. (The very last scene comes to mind as being a bit extremely cliche.) Where - if how the ending is intended to leave room for a sequel, where our main characters then rescue the rest of their people from the plantations they are enslaved, I would be less critical. However, if this was intended to be a one-off novel, then the open-endedness of the ending, and especially of the very last scene, feels a bit too “movie-made” for me, as opposed to how reading a book is supposed to feel. 

A huge trigger warning for: explicit descriptions of SA, SA of a child, extreme violence (for instance, someone being torn apart by dogs), racial slurs/racism, sexual abuse