eggcatsreads's Reviews (480)

This is a book to suck you in until the last page, and keep you along for the ride. If you love gothic horrors like A Dowry of Blood, Juniper & Thorn, or The Spirit Bares Its Teeth - then I really believe you’ll get sucked into this story just as I have.

We slowly become entangled in Ramilla’s world as she is institutionalized and horribly treated, to suddenly becoming wealthy and thrust into an entirely new world of immortals. I thought the types of immortals present were very fascinating, as well as the powers some have - and how they use that to control others. I thought the storytelling as if it’s a journal/recollection from Ramilla’s modern-day life to her past very reminiscent of A Dowry of Blood and very enjoyed it.

I also found the twist of the reasoning for her blackouts to be very fascinating, and (SPOILER) one of the very few books I’ve seen that includes a form of DID to not be done in an ableist/”shocking plot twist” kind of way. I can’t speak for anyone who does have DID, so if someone who does have it says differently I’d take their feelings over mine (obviously), but I never felt like it was included as a cheap or offensive twist - but rather as a very real response to the consistent abuse and trauma inflicted on our main character.

I agree that most of the time skips (especially for part 3) were a bit confusing at first, but I found it not too difficult to quickly catch up to what was going on. At first, I didn’t like how the first chapter or so would spoil the ending of what would happen near the end of each section, but I thought the way those endings actually happened was unique enough for it to not actually be a spoiler. Especially in part 2, I knew what was going to happen but I was still shocked with how exactly it happened, as I was expecting something completely different.

My biggest complaint is that each new section of the book includes a brief overview of what happened in the last section, and with this being all in one book I felt it was unnecessary. I think possibly what had occurred is that this might have been intended for 3 much smaller books that were combined into one, and the review sections were never removed. However, it’s never too distracting to take away from reading it, simply a little unnecessary at times.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys dark gothic tales and can handle very triggering content. I know a few people complained about questioning the “why” for this book, but I felt it answered its own question. This is a novel telling Ramilla’s life - especially the beginning and how she became the person in the current day who is writing this memoir.

Also, absolutely check the trigger warnings, but personally I did not find the descriptions of the mentioned triggering content to be any more explicit or mishandled than it was in Juniper & Thorn.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and BHC Press for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A riveting and blood-soaked vampire tale set in 1920s Jazz Age Harlem, starring two queer black women who need to overcome their fraught past to try to save those they love most.

As soon as I had read the synopsis for this book, this was INSTANTLY on my radar and I knew I had to snag a copy as soon as I could. The second I started reading this, I was hooked into the story and finished this during only two reading sessions, since I had to know where the plot was going.

We star Elise Saint, the heir to an empire dedicated to eradicating vampires (called reapers) within Harlem, and the world as a whole. And on the opposing side, we have Layla, one of those very same reapers who has sworn vengeance against Elise and her family for being the very cause of her change to a bloodthirsty creature. They have to fight through their past betrayals, current loyalties, and ongoing hatred and feuds to try to uncover a deadly plot that will have far-reaching consequences - not just for reapers, but the United States as a whole.

I loved the descriptions in this book, and really felt like you could get a real sense of the world around the characters. The placement felt real and grounded, and the worldbuilding created was in-depth and had layers. Getting a glimpse into the life of Elise Saint, who has lived her life essentially with a silver spoon in her mouth thanks to the steel her father makes that can kill reapers, and the empire he built around them. This privilege almost protects her from the racism of the world around them, as she has enough money to generally go and do whatever she wishes. On the other hand, we have Layla, who after her violent turning no longer has these same privileges - and yet, her strength as a reaper also, in a way shields her from much of the racist violence in their world. And yet, it’s Layla who is more in-tune with noticing this double-standard, since she can’t simply kill anyone she desires whenever she feels like it.

This novel had a wide array of characters within it, but as a whole I don’t think it was too difficult to keep track of them all. Each one had their own unique characterization and plot, so (as someone who gets easily confused when there’s a lot of characters to keep track of) following along to the plot and each character wasn’t difficult. Also, I was surprised by how much I loved Jamie as a character, and I really hope he continues to be a big supporting character in the next book.

The only pitfall I noticed while reading is that there were a few spots where I thought the conversations between the characters to be a bit rough, as well as a few plot points/character actions that didn’t fully make sense. There were a few times where character conversations felt too much like plot narrations, and not an actual conversation, that when I got to them I found a bit distracting. As well, there were a few times where a character would do something that I didn’t think quite made sense, or where their decision to do such a thing seemed to come out of nowhere as a plot device to move the story along. However, none of these things were overly distracting, and to be completely honest were not any worse than in any debut novel.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Sourcebooks Fire for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Love and Hatred. Alliances and Betrayals. Forgiveness and Revenge. A race against time, and a war on the horizon. The heart-pounding sequel to House of Marionne begins just as intensely as House of Marionne ended, and doesn’t let up until the last page. And just like the first book in this trilogy, it ends on such a jaw-dropping reveal that you’ll be waiting with bated breath to find out what happens next.

“The darkness can’t hurt me. Because I am the darkness.”

With the decision to bind with the dark magic that had been hounding her during her time at House Marionne, Quell is on the run and trying to learn how to harness this darkness - before it consumes her. Hiding in safe houses, avoiding anywhere she might be found by her ex-love Jordan - Quell is determined to master her magic and reunite with her mother. However, betrayal chases her at every turn, and she can never know who she can trust - or for how long.

Tracing her mother’s steps to find where she vanished, Quell is led to House Perl - where her embrace of the darkness is celebrated, rather than hated. Mastering her magic in pursuit of her mother is not all she discovers when at House of Perl, however, and soon Quell is ensnared in a war looming on the horizon surrounding the Sphere. One faction wants to destroy it, and magic forever - the other wants to destroy it to own magic forever. With heartbreak and betrayal on both sides of the coin, Quell must follow her heart and embrace her inner darkness to be able to come through this book alive.

With how House of Marionne ended, I was so excited to find out how Quell’s story goes from there - and this book absolutely delivers on that front. We follow four main POV characters throughout this book, with one character reveal being a huge unexpected twist that I didn’t see coming in the literal first chapter of this book. I tend to find it difficult to pull off multi-POV books, as at many times it seems at least one character seems unneeded - or information is repeated for each POV. However, there was never a time when I was irritated to get to a character’s POV, or where I felt that their chapter was wasted or didn’t provide new information or context to the story. I bonded to all four characters, and desperately wanted them to meet and see eye-to-eye for their journeys to be resolved together.

Also, I will be the first to admit that certain parts of House of Marionne dragged a bit for me. This isn’t an issue with the writing or the book itself, just that I wasn’t the biggest fan of the romance or the high-society training that took up a large portion of the first book. (Once again, that is a large part of the plot so me not enjoying it isn’t the fault of the author because I knew what I was getting into - just to be clear here). However, Shadows of Perl doesn’t have either of these developments within it, so for me the book felt a lot faster paced. With Quell on the run, even when she is in another house - this one House of Perl - she isn’t attending classes or attempting to blend in with high society. Instead, she is training her magic and trying to remain hidden from everyone around her hunting her down.

I loved how the romance between Jordan and Quell was handled within this book. With the reveal of Quell’s toushana and her binding it to herself, and Jordan choosing his duty over their relationship - both enter into this book feeling betrayed by one another. Hatred and betrayal taints both of their thoughts towards one another, and even when they finally meet face-to-face and are forced to work together, neither is willing to forgive the other for the hurt. All of their interactions felt grounded and real, and I loved the pace the book took and the decisions that had to happen before we ever learned if they could learn to work together without intending to betray the other at the end.

A good portion of this book focuses on Quell’s emotions and her desire for revenge for all those who have hurt and betrayed her. Quell’s emotions in this book are much darker and more focused on finding - and killing - those who have used her trust against her. Neither her, nor the reader, can ever be certain of who she can trust and when those bonds are broken we are on her side with wanting her to be able to enact her perfect revenge on them.

This was a phenomenal sequel and lays plenty of groundwork for the third book in this trilogy, and I cannot wait to find out what happens next. This book left me breathless, and the last page has such a huge cliff-hanger that when I got to it and turned the page, I audibly went “Huh?!” when I realized that was truly the end. If the politics and house loyalties and factions of the first book interested you, then the sequel will capture you as well. (However, if your favorite parts were the schooling, the dancing, and the romance then I fear this book might feel a bit lacking in that regard. I still believe you should check out this book to find out what happens with Quell after the events of House of Marionne and see for yourself, though).

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Penguin Young Readers Group for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In a long line of Greek myth retellings, I was super excited to get the chance to read this sapphic retelling of Eros and Psyche that stars a nonbinary Eros. Unfortunately, as you can probably tell from my 3 star rating, it just didn’t fully work for me.

A lot of the writing is very flowery with a lot of similarities to poetry, which can be beautiful but I feel like at times it distracts from the story itself. Conversations would happen between characters, and the thoughts of either Psyche or Eros would sometimes be overshadowed by how it was written. There were a few points I got distracted reading that I missed what was actually going on, and had to re-read closer to clarify.

Also - and this might just be because I’m aroace - but I never fully believed in the relationship between Psyche and Eros. I understand that Eros is the goddess of desire within this novel, but when almost every conversation between the two is them having sex and not much more, I have doubts that their feelings are anything deeper than sexual attraction. Which isn’t wrong, but we would have scenes where Psyche would try to talk to Eros about something she wanted to know, or have clarification on, and then Eros would immediately attempt to distract her with sex (which usually worked) and then we’d rinse and repeat. But then suddenly both are acting like they’re the loves of each other's lives, and I’m just thinking that it’s been 100 years since Eros has had a lover, and this is the first relationship Psyche has ever had - so I just…don’t believe them.

I had a brief idea of the story of Psyche and Eros, but even still I don’t think I was prepared for how….boring?...the middle part of this book actually was. When Psyche is at the palace spending her days alone, only able to spend time with Eros at night in the dark - in all honesty not much at all goes on during this section. And yet, this is the longest section in the book! We spend days (and days, and days…) with Psyche as she learns how to live with this freedom at the palace, and yet also chafes at the rules inflicted on her by her lover. In contrast, the section where Psyche has to complete the three trials is so extremely glossed over that we barely see them happen on the page. And even the ones we do are resolved in only a few rushed pages, without hardly any conflict in them.

I thought the relationship between Psyche and her sisters to be a bit odd, as well. I understand their jealousy at her being so desired by so many suitors - but I’d think once it became clear that she was never going to be married, but only desired, they’d have understood her position better. During the beginning of the book, while Psyche’s older sisters are closer to each other than to her, they still seem to want to protect her from understanding too soon what being a woman is like in their world. But then suddenly once Psyche is forced to understand this very thing, they resent her for it?

I simply don’t understand why after the first time Psyche had her sisters visit, and the hostilities shown to her, that she even agreed for Eros to bring them around once again. Why not attempt to see her mother, instead? It also didn’t make sense for Psyche to suddenly listen to what her sisters were telling her to turn her against Eros, when their attempt to make her marriage as miserable as theirs was so blatant even Psyche herself notices it.

Also, much of this story, both from Psyche and Eros’ point of view, reads like we are listening to them retell this story to us, the audience. Not that this fourth-wall breaking is bad, per se, but the ending made it blatantly obvious with the over-the-top hopeful monologue by Psyche that I just internally rolled my eyes the entire time I read it. It was unnecessary and preachy, to be completely honest.

Finally, the ending didn’t seem to make much sense to me and felt rushed. Eros devises this entire plan to hide her and Psyche’s relationship from Eros’ mother, but then the minute Aphrodite finds out and (eventually) calms down, all is well? Why is Psyche allowed to become immortal in this story simply because Eros wants to be with her? Why would Zeus even share his cup of immortality with either of them, considering he’s been an antagonist the entire time up until this point?

It also kind of bothered me that every single woman in this book, other than Psyche, is a victim trapped by circumstance. Everyone - including the goddesses themselves. It just felt a little disingenuous that every other woman in this novel, starting with Psyche’s mother and including the goddess Persephone, is a victim of the men around them and without any kind of power to do anything to help their station. I’m not denying that women didn’t have autonomy - but to do this in the book and then make almost every woman Psyche interact with an antagonist and be bitter about her circumstances put a bad taste in my mouth. I think at least one platonic female relationship within this novel would have been nice, but as it is the only woman Psyche had any connection to was her own mother, who she never even attempts to see at all during the events of this book.

I do think if you like Greek myth retellings that this is a good book to pick up and explore for yourself to see what you think. I think perhaps, for me, the plot was stretched weirdly and too much focus was on our two main characters having sex but never really communicating any further than that.

(This doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, but tell me why Psyche masturbates with a tree in this novel. More than once. Hello???)

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review, as well as Atria Books with a physical ARC.

The groundbreaking ending to this trilogy. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and loved every second of it.

It’s so hard to end a trilogy in a way that feels like closing the story in a thematically complete way, and yet The Ending Fire pulls it off perfectly. Mostly told through the multi-POVs of our main characters - Hassa, Jond, Anoor, and Sylah - we follow their separate journeys as they have to prepare for a war where they will all meet on the battlefield. Perhaps as allies, perhaps not.

The romances done in this book felt real and genuine, and honestly I was surprised by how much I liked Jond in this book as compared to the other two. I liked him! I didn’t want him to die during the battle! His chapters didn’t annoy me! It takes a skilled writer to take a character who I didn’t like during the first two books and allow him to grow as a person until I enjoyed watching his journey throughout this novel.

Also, I really enjoyed how the last section of this book was written for the battle. I won’t spoil it, but it really brought the big picture into a much smaller window to get a glimpse of everything going on during all the chaos. So often I see authors struggle with battles and wars and they get lost in too big of a picture, losing the impact of anything that happens. That does not happen here, and while it was written in a decidedly different way than the rest of the book, I felt it really added the personal perspective to everything going on and made the battle feel like it was going just as quickly to us (the reader) as it was to the characters, without losing any of the impact.

Overall, if you fell in love with this story and these characters during The Final Strife and The Battle Drum, you will love how this trilogy ends and feel complete by the last page. It’s so hard to wrap up a story as completely as Saara El-Arifi does here, but so often throughout this book I was connecting story threads from both the first and second book to see them finalized here in the third. I don’t believe that there was one thing left unfulfilled with either character or plot threads that were woven throughout this trilogy by the end, and I will be holding this trilogy in a special place in my heart for years to come.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Del Rey for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The beginning of this story starts out very strong, with our main character Sarita grappling with a creature that she considered to be her guardian angel murdering her husband on her wedding night. I was intrigued and was interested in how this creature came to be a staple in her life, as the story unfolded to allow us to learn more. Sarita becomes suspicious of this creature and begins to believe that it was never an angel to begin with, but perhaps something stalking her throughout her life. We learn quite a few ways this creature, “Angelo,” had saved her life a few times before, and each way could potentially be seen with a much more significantly sinister light.

However, I had to DNF this at about 44% in, as we are given another POV character that suddenly changes the plot significantly. Whereas before, we were only in our main character’s head, we now are within her estranged mother-in-law’s as well as another one of the same creatures as Sarita’s “guardian angel.” At first, I thought this POV shift to be interesting, but as the story developed I started becoming less and less invested until I realized I was skimming this novel at multiple parts. I wound up stopping reading when I was reading a longer chapter that had a significant amount of violence and blood/gore, but realized I was hardly paying attention to anything going on - including the action.

I don’t believe my issues with this novel are with anything to the structure or storytelling, but rather that I was much more invested in the story when this “Angelo” creature was working alone, and the mystery surrounding him. However, this story quickly develops into “secret society/cult” territory, which I tend to neither find fascinating nor something to be invested in, and that is when the story began to lose my interest. I do suggest checking out this novel for yourself to see what you think, as it begins strong and I could see this as a great novel for someone (unlike me) who enjoys secret cult stories.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for a copy of this e-ARC for an honest review.

Folklore. Myths. Monsters lurking in the night. This book caught me off guard in the best way, as up until near the very end I had no idea what was going on or where the story was heading. Filled with unreliable narrators, conspiracy and danger around every corner, and women going missing - this book is not to be missed.

I believe this book is best gone into completely blind, as I have when I read this. We follow Mina, a psychiatrist, dealing with her own unrelenting OCD as she works to care for her patients. When she suddenly gets an email from a friend she hasn’t seen for 12 years asking for help, she is thrust into a world of danger and folklore as she has to fight to save her friend from whatever sickness is afflicting her.

Told from Mina’s perspective, with occasional flashes of another timeline going on in the background, we slowly piece together everything going on in this book in a fight against time for saving her friend. I really enjoyed the multiple moving parts used to tell this story, using small moments of scenes that had already happened to help tell a more complete story. However, it’s not until near the very end that we can finally see how everything actually fits together into one single cohesive puzzle.

This book is perfect for anyone who loves horror and mystery, and enjoys it when a story gives you all the pieces you need to solve the puzzle - but waits until the very end until you (the reader) can put all these pieces together. I finished this novel in one sitting, and I’ll absolutely be looking into anything else written by this author.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Compelling, bloody, and intricate - Lucy Undying mixes up the standard Dracula story and will keep you guessing until the end about who will come out of this story alive.

“My name is Lucy Westenra, and this is my story.”

Told through three distinct timelines - Lucy’s diary, her own retelling of her story after her death, and current day - we slowly begin to piece together the story of Lucy Westenra, and what actually happened after her death in the story of Dracula. As we begin to unfold Lucy’s bloody history, we are introduced to another character - Iris Goldaming - who is the unfortunate CEO of a sinister MLM, and seemingly cannot escape her calling. When these two collide it’s an instant romance, but with both of them hiding deadly secrets from the other it seems doomed to fail. As we learn more about Lucy’s life after death, Iris and Lucy are ever drawn to each other and might be the one thing able to keep this story from becoming a tragedy.

I loved how this story was written, with it being interspersed by journal entries, therapist discussions, and even some internal monologue from Dracula himself. I found this writing style to brilliantly bring all the moving pieces in this story together like a well-oiled machine, and there were multiple times I had to pause to register what was going on when one of these pieces were cleverly inserted into the current-day storyline.

I was enthralled from the beginning, and this book was excellent at bread-crumbing more and more information at the end of a chapter right before a timeline or POV switch - making it extremely difficult to put this book down and constantly needing to find out what happens next. I also loved the inclusion of a sinister MLM lurking in the background, and the bits and pieces we (as the reader) are fed about it, until we can finally understand why Iris is so desperate to escape their clutches - and why they are so desperate to hold onto her by any means necessary.

While I, personally, love introspective stories with heavy inner dialogue, I can see this story not working for you if you don’t find a writing style compelling. A great deal of this novel is told through either Lucy or Iris’ internal monologue, as well as journal entries and a conversation/confessional with a therapist, and only the parts with more action feature direct dialogue and action between characters. While the plot in this story is compelling in itself, a great deal of this novel I would classify as more of a character study of a character who was cheated out of life in the original Dracula story, and is then forced to adjust to her afterlife as an undead vampire.

In my opinion, the only weak point in this novel was some parts of the romance between Iris and Lucy. It was never unbelievable, but the timeline of this novel is relatively very short and they very quickly fall into each other and become one another’s confidants, which I found to be a bit unbelievable. In the same way, Iris very quickly becomes friends with a cab driver she had met for only 30 minutes, and while I greatly enjoyed his character I felt he might have jumped just a bit too quickly into helping this woman he doesn’t know. However, neither of these things took enjoyment away from the story and were distracting enough to make this book any less than a 5 star read to me.

I loved this novel, but I could see how someone who loves all the characters within Dracula - and not just Lucy - might have some issues with this book. However, with this being a re-imagining and a retelling, I think you should absolutely give this book a chance to wow you with its story, like it did to me. Lucy Westenra truly grows from the hunted young woman who died in Dracula into a hunter herself, finding herself along the way and forging her own path.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Del Rey for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.