"Then let’s break that roomie rule so I can fuck you dirty.”

What a cute roommates, hockey-captain’s-little-sister romance!

She blinks. “Your sister’s dog? You have a framed photo of your sister’s dog?”
“He’s cute,” I say easily, but maybe defensively.
Shaking her head, Josie advances toward me. “Shut up. Nothing makes me want to lose my clothes faster than that.”

Lauren Blakely’s been on my radar for a while so I’m happy that this was my first since it was super fun.

“Can you bend me over the bed and fuck me hard?” He breathes out in a rush of air, full of arousal as his eyes flash, like he’s won the jackpot at the slot machines. Then, in a rasp of a voice, he says, “Josie, I can and I fucking will.”

This book was about trying new things, overcoming preconceived notions, and living life to the fullest.

"I’ll give you a ride.”
She grins ever so hopefully. “In your boxer briefs?”
“You wish.”
“Well, yeah.”

This book was about a journey after death and grief and how to move on while not forgetting—how to live your life and remember those who aren’t in it anymore.

"I don’t feel like a dirty secret,” she says, curling a fist around my shirt. “But you should keep fucking me dirty in secret.”

I looooved the chemistry between Josie and Wes. Even though they got together super fast in the beginning (which they needed to for the plot to work, lmao), it felt organic enough. Later, as they lived together as roomies, it just made their relationship even better.

But he’s no longer in the mood to indulge me, it seems, since he spins me around and bends me over the mattress. “Hands on the bed. Ass in the air,” he instructs.

I *absolutely* loved that Wes didn’t want to hide their relationship for too long, I always find that with the little sister trope they always hide it until it’s found out and then, you know, dRaMa.

“Meet me there at ten and we’ll grab food.”
Ten? What, are we still in college? I like to be in jammies at nine-thirty on the dot while enjoying a cheap merlot and debating the best book-to-film adaptations of all time in a Reddit group.

Anyway, I really liked Josie, mainly because she was a book lover and librarian! She was super focused on accessible reading which I love! There were tons of funny moments (I am a big fan of comedy in books) and sweet moments too.

“Because you have done so much for me. And I don’t want to feel like all I do is take.”
“Who told you you’re not good enough?”
That wasn’t what I expected. “What do you mean?”
“Who said that what you do for someone else isn’t worthwhile?”

Wes’s struggles with his, well, life, and what he would be without hockey, his dad basically forcing him to eat a super strict diet that gave *eating disorder* vibes, and his general insecurities made him a great MMC.

If you like:
🔥Hockey romance
🔥 Teammate's little sister
🔥One Night Stand
🔥Roommates to lovers
🔥Forbidden Romance
🔥Forced Proximity
🔥FMC who loves books
🔥Dyslexia rep
🔥Spicy spice
🔥“No regrets” bucket list

For a split second I gaze down at her gorgeous mouth, then give all the way in, “Fuck it.” I let go of her thigh, cover her throat with my palm, and yank her toward me.

Thank you Lauren for this eARC!

He’d wanted so badly to be worthy of her. He’d dared to hope he could be, stupid fool that he was.

*mumbles*OhmyGAWD*mumbles*

Could you miss the place where everyone wanted you dead?

I was not prepared for this.

Grabbing the fitting room curtain, he threw it back. Rune was inside, wearing a white lace dress. Gideon didn’t have time to pull his gun on her, because she already had one of her own. It was aimed straight at his forehead.

This book just didn’t stop. From page one I was on the edge of my metaphorical seat, pretty much always on the verge of crying, and hoping desperately for all the characters to get a happy ending. BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN THROUGH HELL. My poor muffins.

There was also a little fake marriage and one cabin going on, and it was *great*

Spoilers for book 1, which is obvious, this is book two in a duology.

“I may not know Rune Winters,” he whispered, his mouth an inch from hers. “But I know the Crimson Moth. And she is no caged thing.”
Rune flinched. “Stop it.”
“I pity the man who clips her wings…”

The witch and witch hunter are back in this conclusion where they need to defeat the bad guys while also hating each other. I mean, Gideon’s first appearance is him trying to kill Rune lmao Goals. But honestly, both sides of this war were horrible and it was stressful.

“We both know what you want to do to me, Gideon. Well, here’s your chance.” His gaze slid to her mouth.
“You have no idea, the things I want to do to you.”

The emotion *heart attack followed by heartbreak* Gideon and Rune both lost everything and then each other.

When Gideon asked her to shoot him when Cressida came in I ALMOST DIED

There was betrayal and REVEALS and so much happened and my brain is just mush. I loved both Gideon and Rune so much in this book.

“Just remember: I don’t need you willing, Gideon. I only need you obedient. And I will have your obedience…”

I literally hate Cressida with my whole being. And her ending was, well, what she deserved.

“This is the truth: I would have married you in a heartbeat, had you asked me. I would have married you knowing you would hand me over to my killers—or kill me yourself—the moment you found out what I was. That’s how pathetic I am, Gideon! That’s how desperately I wanted to be yours!”

What is life after this?

Thank you to Wednesday Books, Netgalley, and the author for this eARC!


___________


OH MY GOD

YOU ALL ARE NOT READY FOR THIS BOOK

Rtc

_________

ARC ARC I got an ARC

I’m desperate for you. Desperate the way a starving man craves fruit. I’ve dreamt of this for years, and I want to taste every inch of your skin.

I could not put this down lmao
4.25 stars

Was it a masterpiece? Absolutely not. But it was addictive. We follow Nia as she’s swept into a Fey and Demi-Fey war in a sorta occupied France and her enemies-to-lovers romance, which you all know I’m here for. There was lots of emotion and angst, terror and nightmares. All things I like in books 💀

I’m always the one who picks up the pieces. I take care of things when everyone falls apart around me. I live in the shadows, trying to make things go smoothly. And who comes to help me in the night when I’m sick and can’t breathe? When I’m calling for help, and there’s no answer?

I liked Nia as a character. I always love when characters have chronic illnesses (Nia has asthma) because I can relate to them more - Nia was always thinking about how she wouldn’t be able to keep up fighting for a long time, i.e. wear out her opponent because she simply couldn’t with her asthma. But she made adjustments and I liked that.

“You don’t know the city, and you get sick if you exert yourself,” Aleina mutters. “Why did you think you’re the right person to help us?”
“Well… I didn’t see… anyone else… stepping up.” My head is spinning. I’ll have to take a break soon.”

Raphael was a strange character for me. I liked him as a MMC and as a partner to Nia, and I liked their rivalry. I liked his attitude, his protectiveness, and such, but I am toxic as fuck and want to hear more about the Dream Stalker LMAO just shoot me now. My love of morally black characters has ruined me. In dreams, death cannot save you.

At least, for the upcoming month, I will be out of danger. The only thing I have to do is master every spy skill that exists and memorize the entire Fey history.

Anyway, I really liked how Nia didn’t turn into this super warrior like some do after they get a few months of training, instead of training for years. Yeah, she was super powerful, but still kinda useless and clumsy, which was refreshing lol.

“Hang on, you were celebrating your birthday by yourself?” I glare at him. That’s right, I’m a giant loser on top of everything else.

There were a lot of super funny parts in this book that I appreciated but also so many cringe parts too. There was a ton of info-dumping, the world-building and plot were definitely shoved in your face in large chunks and I was kinda reeling after. I would also say it wasn't described that well, I am still a little confused, but that could have just been from the fact that it was all dumped on us in the first few pages inorganically.

Apparently, all it takes for me to forget about how much I hate him is for him to take his shirt off.

This also had a lot of interactions that made me, as I said above, cringe. The school setting was kinda secondary since we didn’t actually have much school going on, which I think should have been expanded on. Nia mostly started school and then finished with like 2 classes that we were told of. There were time gaps that we were supposed to just accept that things happened in them lmao. The mean family Pendragons were so over-the-top comic villains that I predicted everything before it happened, which wasn’t fun. It wasn’t clear about how they could keep trying to get rid of Nia when she had such coveted magic?? And why the humans hold so much sway over the demi-fey when the demi-fey are clearly more powerful??

Speaking of the Dream Stalker - 

what happened to him?? Is he going to be in the next book

or did I just get attached to the actual bad guy?

I clamp my hands on my hips. I am fucking terrible at relaxing, especially when someone tells me to relax.

Okay, anyway, that seemed really negative, but like I said, it was addictive and I couldn’t put it down and I’m really looking forward to reading book 2!

Thank you to the author for this finished copy accompanying an ARC of book 2!

“You look like you hate everyone around you,” he adds.
“Oh, that’s because I do.”

Same Nia, same. 

“Haunted by thoughts of what I should have done, of the way I should have worshipped you.”

You will all be very happy with Dacre in this book because that man knows how to *apologize*

“Like salt in the sea, you have become ingrained in every part of me, and I have been drowning in my regrets.”

I am unwell

“I am devoted to you.” His intense gaze locked with mine. “Please let me fall to my knees before you and prove my devotion with my tongue against your skin.”

4.75 stars

They may not have thought she was mine to protect anymore, but they were fucking wrong. She was mine. Even if she was running, she was still mine.

Dacre earned his redemption lmao *cries* That poor man. I was crying for him the entire time. He was killing and exhausting himself to save Verena and it was so sad reading it from his perspective and from hers. The shaky hands. His hands were always shaking 😭 I dunno why that’s my kryptonite in men, I have issues, okay!?

“What’s the plan?” I asked, trying to sound as if I wasn’t ready to burn this entire damn kingdom to the ground before I’d let him touch her.

Hearing his struggle, guilt, and remorse was so heartbreaking. He owned up to his mistake but also didn’t let Verena off the hook, because they both betrayed each other.

“Your entire existence has been dedicated to preparing for your place as ruler of our kingdom, yet you have never been revered. It is a privilege I am unworthy of, but I would surrender every breath to worship you if only you would grant me the honor.”

Verena. That poor woman can’t catch a break. Escapes her psychotic father. Gets kidnapped/dragged into the rebellion against said father, makes some friends, gets betrayed by said friends (and by a more than friend, and

fucking Eiran

)! Goes on the run from everyone in the kingdom, betrayed more, injured more, chased, more. No luck and no break.

I was a powerless girl in a game crafted by powerful men. They moved their pieces with calculated precision, and I couldn’t outmaneuver them. All I could do was run.

Despite her awful life, she’s still a great person and I like her a lot as a MC. Again, just like Dacre, she takes responsibility for her role in their issues.

“I don’t want you to find her.” [Wren] moved closer to me, and I felt Kai shift at my side. “I don’t want you or our father anywhere near her.”

I hope Wren and Kai are in the next one *please*

Some spoilies

MATES KNEW IT

Also knew that waterfalll tunnel info would be useful for book 3 because she’s now being tortured by her father once again.

Dacre, at the end, struggling to get up, to crawl to her, YYDVJIYEDCVM.

NO WORDS for how upsetting that was. Captain, you better either save his life or just kill yourself now because Dacre is coming for you, you bitch.

This was much longer than I wanted to write but once I start I never know when to shut up oops

I couldn’t fathom sparing those in the rebellion who would dare lay a finger on her either. The rebellion was my home, they were my people, but my rage knew no bounds when it came to her.

Thank you Holly for this eARC! And obviously, the PR box once it arrives lmao

“Verena.” He said my name so softly and I looked up at him desperate for anything he would tell me. “I’ll never forgive you if you get caught.”
_________



shut the front door the author is sending me a PR box

I AM DEAD

I need there to be lots of grovelling and begging in this book.

On your knees, Darce 

Han gripped his bo staff even tighter, slowly moving his feet into a defensive stance. “Something’s not right here,” he said in a low voice. “It all feels very . . . ghoulish.”
And that was when the undead attacked.

Oh yes, this book had zombies.

This was the fast-paced sequel to Zhara, book 1. We follow Zhara across the land on her journey to find the missing scrolls. That journey eventually leads to Ami, her father, and the Beast.

I still liked Zhara, she’s not the best character, but the best out of all the others. The new characters, Ami and Gaden (aka Beast) fell flat to me.

This series has good diversity, Ami is, what I assume Autistic, Gaden is non-binary trans, Han is demisexual (which is nice, that’s not represented nearly enough), and people are assumed non-binary until confirmation (pronouns are they/them until it’s known, which is actually the way it should be irl). All these good representations don’t make up for the fact that Ami and Gaden were one-dimensional to me. I couldn’t picture them in my head. Ami was supposed to be the most beautiful person but there were not many descriptions that allowed me to picture anything, and Gatans nickname had me picturing them as this obscure literal beast instead of a person. I couldn't get a reading on their physical description at all, so they were mostly a blob in my mind. I also did not like Gaden as a character, they were awful but I won’t get into that because it'd spoil the reveal/ending, but no, there were decisions they made that I did not like.

Han was still an idiot. Pretty sure an attempt was made to blame his stupidity and naivety on being demi, which was the worst, and I didn’t like that.

The plot was resolved easily like in book one, too easily. It screamed YOUNGADULT, which I know it's young adult, but no need to be so obvious lmao

Book three will follow princess Yulana and from the epilogue, will be an FF pairing, which hasn’t been done in the book yet, so more nice representation. However, I’m liking this series less and less so I’m not sure if I’ll bother with the next.

Thank you to the publisher, who needs to do so much better with their marketing department (like, come on), for the PR package and finished signed copy. 

“When I catch you, pretty boy, I’m going to make you regret running.”

2.5 stars

“You can have me, baby, any way you want. You want me on my front⁠—”
“Uh-uh, on your back, rich boy. I want to see your pretty face when I take what’s mine.”

There’s nothing actually wrong with this book, so take this how you will, you may love it, I just didn’t.

Insta hate followed by insta love, that’s a first.

Usually, there’s some past about why they hate each other, history to explain it, but nope. I don’t understand why Alek hated Evan. They’d never spoken or met or literally anything, didn’t even know his name, just saw him walking by one day and had this huge hatred for him?? That was a huge issue for me and since that was a main plot point, it kinda ruined it from the start. The second thing was the immediate “I love him, would do anything for him” even tho they didn’t like each other. Like, calm down, you've known each other for like a week and now you're all like, I’d kill for you. What?? I feel like it was rushed to get to where they started seeing each other, even tho that lasted for a day. If there’s no story-building, character-building, or whatever, it just means nothing.

I feel like the description of the book didn’t hint at this mystery thriller aspect (I know it says dead students in the synopsis, but for some reason that didn't click with me, so this could just be a me issue) and I didn’t like it. I’m not a fan of those types of books, especially if I’m not liking the other aspects of the book.

I didn’t feel any chemistry between Alek and Evan, no emotion or building of tension or anything which was my final issue between them. They were awful to each other - I mean, Evan tried to out Alex at a party, he was a huge dick about Alex not wanting to come out one second after he realized he may not be straight.

I won’t talk about the mystery side since I just didn’t like it or the way it wrapped up.

Thank you to Wordsmith Publicity and the author for an ARC!

Hmm.

Sit down because I’m about to get mad. The only reason I didn’t DNF after 60% is because I wanted to star rate this and I don’t star rate my DNFs.

I’ll say something nice to start: the writing was fine, so that’s wasn’t an issue.

I have loads of problems with this book and the main one was the addiction. Like, fuck the way it was described. It’s like the author did no research at all and as someone who had an addict father, this pissed me off to no end. Ollie takes pills one random day and literally on that page is now an addict. No build up, no struggle, no nothing. Hunter sees him high the first time on his bed and goes: chose drugs or me. Dude got high once and everyone was acting like he’s been an addict for years and has ruined his life. It made no sense at all.

Later, Hunter literally tells him to relapse, tells him to take drugs after he just gets released from rehab. What the fuck. Also, the fact that Hunter was a piece of shit the second Ollie got relssed from rehab. Hell no. I have so many other issues with the addiction plot line, it actually offended me. I’m fuming. Addiction can be a trigger for me ONLY WHEN ITS PROTRAYED BADLY. If it’s well placed in the plot with a good recovery, I can handle it perfectly fine.

There were other issues too, the characters were one dimensional, I was flip flopping like a fish with the way they were treating each other (I wish you were dead followed immediately by you deserve to live with this, blah blah). Hunter was a dick. Ollie was “I’m leaving you” every second page.

All the women in the story were shown as whores and whiny 😒

I am the biggest hater of codependency 🫠 the characters have to be there own person first

Everything was unrealistic, including the sports side (was this supposed to be a sports MM stepbrother romance or not? No sports to be found, just mentions of being on the ice and honestly, didn’t read well).

Ugh.

I feel bad because this was an ARC but I think I’m done being “influenced” to read spicy books on bookstagram, which is 100% my fault, because those that share them the way this was shared only care about the spice, not the rest of the story. Give me spice with an actual plot that makes sense please and thank you.

Also, this was an awkward imitation of For the Fans - there I said it. Sorry.

Phew. This was so negative 😅 

Loved it a little less than the other two for *reasons* that are very obvious when you read it 😅 but overall, this was such an amazing trilogy!

Super dark and disturbing but El was such a great character too me! 

Well, I literally couldn't put this down, work be damned 😂 

Okay, I would immediately die if I had to live in this world. That school sounds like literal hell (but I guess the outside world isn't better for teens) and how does everyone not have crippling anxiety from having to be on guard 24/7?? Except enclave kids, they can rot.