nerdinthelibrary's Reviews (926)

1) Darkling
2) Undertow
2.5) Unbroken


content warnings: violence, child abuse, magical drug use, explicit sex, consensual pain during sex
representation: mlm protagonist, asian mlm main character, interracial m/m main relationship, trans mlm main character, gay main character of colour, m/m side interracial relationship, black sapphic side character, m/m minor relationship

“This was an endangered version of Tyler, a part of him Donovan only caught while they were alone together. He’d seen it when they were dancing, pressed close and breaking boundaries, heard it when Tyler called him baby, felt it in a smile hidden in Donovan’s neck after an edging session. [...] That smile—the one Tyler gave him, coy and loose—came from a place Donovan wished he could access whenever he wanted.”

I can't even express how hard you are all sleeping on this series! This is the third installment in the Port Lewis Witches series and follows Donovan, a wereleopard trying to deal with his magic, his fucked up relationship with Tyler, and the messy situation his circle mates have gotten them all into.

This book delivers on everything all the other ones did; great writing, fantastic atmosphere, hot, kinky sex, endearing characters, it's all still here! This is easily one of the most consistent series I've ever read and I could genuinely read ten more of these and never get bored.

I fucking loved Donovan and Tyler's relationship. You may not know this about me but I am a sucker for a good angsty romance, and these boys deliver. They're both full of so much angst individually and put together they're an angsty mess. But even with all that sweet, sweet angst, there are still several incredibly well-written, incredibly erotic sex scenes that are probably the least kinky of the series thus far, but are still super kinky.

I can't even express how much I love the constant explicit consent throughout the sex scenes that Brooklyn Ray writes. There's also frequent discussion of things like BDSM etiquette and just generally how to make sex not suck for the person you're with, and it makes my lil heart sing to see all of that in a witchy erotica new adult series.

I'm also loving the direction the plot in this series is going. The plot generally will take a backseat for the sexy times, but that doesn't mean that Brooklyn Ray is slacking off in that department. The trajectory of the plot is so interesting and I love how it manages to weave all the characters together in seemingly effortless ways. I will never get tired of the fun cameos that are littered throughout this series.

Honestly, this book was a perfect third entry in this series. I'm so glad I saw someone I'm following review the first book because otherwise there's no way I would've ever heard of this series, and my life would be much worse for it. If you want a quick, witchy, sexy read, then you should definitely pick up this series, you won't regret it.


I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

1) Solitaire ★★★½
*) Heartstopper: Volume One ★★★★★
*) Heartstopper: Volume Two ★★★★★
*) Heartstopper: Volume Three ★★★★★

content warnings: underage drinking, mentions of homophobia and disordered eating
representation: gay main character with anorexia, bisexual main character, main m/m relationship, side demisexual character, side Asian character

“I have been going out with Nick Nelson since I was fourteen. He likes rugby and Formula 1, animals (especially dogs), the Marvel universe, the sound felt-tips make on paper, rain, drawing on shoes, Disneyland and minimalism. He also likes me.”

I love my children so much :') This is a novella that takes place after Heartstopper and Solitaire that follows Nick and Charlie as they deal with Nick going to uni while Charlie has another year of high school.

Alice Oseman excels at writing dumb teens, and this is no exception. There are so many moments when I want to shake these boys and demand that they use their brains for five seconds (I say as a nineteen year old). But that's what makes Oseman's writing of young people feel so authentic because guess what: teenagers are stupid. We are. We couldn't make a logical choice to save our life, especially when it comes to personal stuff. So even if Nick and Charlie frustrated me, I can't fault the book for that; if anything, it's something worthy of high praise!

I was a little disappointed at the lack of Elle, Darcy and Tara, but it's understandable because they didn't really exist when the novella was originally published and retroactively including them probably would have felt clunky. But we still got Tao, Aled and Nellie, so you win some you lose some.

If you love Solitaire and/or Heartstopper (or even if you just love their characters) then you're sure to like this. It's cute and heartwarming and has great art!

content warnings: war, violence, death, body horror


“For who needs devils when you have men?”


This was a really fucking weird book and I loved it.

And the Ocean Was Our Sky is a Moby Dick retelling where the whales have harpoons strapped to their backs and hunt men, and it's just as wild as it sounds. This is an extremely short book, clocking in at 160 pages, and it's almost entirely theme driven. Specifically, the theme of morality in war.

The book explores the idea of the other side (the 'bad' side) in a war seeming like one being, seeming as if there is no difference between them all because they all must just be awful. And the book explores this from both perspectives, making sure that you know both sides are ultimately wrong in their motivations to fight the other.

I also need to give a quick shout out to Rovina Cai whose illustrations are wonderful. They never overtake the story, only serving to enhance it, and honestly I want some of it framed and put up on my wall.

As someone who loves all of Patrick Ness' weirdness and complete disregard for the rules of storytelling, this completely worked for me, but if you're someone who is very hit-and-miss with Patrick Ness then I've got a feeling that this will be a miss for you.


“For there are devils in the deep,
but worst are the ones
we make.”

content warnings: implied fatphobia
representation: fat main character

“‘Do you know what this means?’ I murmured those words against her mouth. She shook her head. I pulled back, knowing I probably had a possessive look on my face. That’s sure as hell how I felt. ‘It means you’re mine, Zara.’”

My first book in over a month and it was... just okay. Whipped is a smutty book about Zara who several times a week goes to a bakery that the hunky Max owns but has never plucked up the courage to talk to him. That is, until her company needs catering for an event and she decides to ask him. Sexytimes ensue.

There isn't anything bad about this book. It's competently written, the characters are generic but likable, and the sex scenes are pretty good. I think my only real issue with this that stopped me from wholeheartedly enjoying it is that Max is an alpha male love interest, something I'm not totally wild about. It can be written well but generally whenever there's a human male love interest who's entire motivation is owning the female character I nope out immediately.

The ending also does a thing I hate in smutty romances where it gets sickly sweet and has several chapters plus an epilogue (or two in the case of this book) with giant time skips so we can see the main characters get married and have kids.

If that's your thing then you'll probably really enjoy this. I did appreciate that we have a fat main character, and seeing fat characters get to have swoony romances and great sex will always make me happy.

content warnings: violence, murder, loss of a parent, blood drinking during sex, graphic sexual content
representation: f/m/m relationship

“Take my blood. Take my body. Use me any way you desire. I’m yours.”

God I love the feeling of really enjoying the first book in a ridiculously long erotica series. This series has eight books in the main series, plus a whole bunch of novellas and spin-offs, and after finishing this book I immediately wanted to go and read them all.

Queen Takes Knights is the first book in a paranormal erotica series about Shara Isador, a woman who has been on the run from monsters ever since her mother was killed by them. One night, as she is about to be attacked, two mysterious men save her, saying that she is their queen and they'll do whatever necessary to protect her.

I'm aware that this is erotica and I shouldn't spend too much time on the world building, but indulge me for a moment. I love vampires and am always interested in different authors' interpretations of them. This is going to be a weird comparison, but a lot of the lore in this book reminded me of the House of Night series. While vampires in this book aren't Marked, the queens have strong connection to the goddess and are given powers from them. The vampires also draw power from the blood they drink and have telepathic connections to those they've drunk from. I really liked the world building in this and am excited to see more of it in future books, especially because I suspect those will have lots of court politics.

Okay, world building talk over, lets get to what you really want to know: the sex is fantastic. I do love vampire erotica, and this delivers on every level. You get every combination possible with our three main characters just in one book, all including incredible blood-drinking scenes. Luckily, I also really liked the three leads so I'm actually invested in them outside of their sex lives and want to continue in the series.

The entire series is on Kindle Unlimited, do yourself a favour and check this out, especially if you've been looking for some good paranormal erotica.

content warnings: violence, poisoning, loss of a loved one, period-typical transphobia/homophobia, dead naming, discussion of medical treatment for being trans
representation: trans mlm main character, gay amputee side character, m/m main relationship, side mlm characters


“The very world here bends for the sake of your stories, Pan. I see no reason why I, a mere man, should not.”


I read Coffee Boy by Austin Chant last month and loved it, and I had even higher expectations for this one knowing it was a Peter Pan retelling. Those expectations were definitely met.

This is basically Hook if Pan were a trans boy, less depressed by adulthood, and wanted to bone Captain Hook. I think we can all agree that the premise is amazing, and the book lives up to it.

The entirety of this book is almost entirely character-driven. It has dual POVs with Pan and Hook and I did genuinely enjoy both of them, though Hook's was definitely my favourite. Other prominent side characters were Tinkerbell

Spoiler

(who was completely wasted in this! Wtf Austin Chant, why'd you do that to me?!)

, and Ernest, the new leader of the Lost Boys.

The romance between Pan and Hook was so good. Hook's known for ages that he's gay (a few of his previous boyfriends/flings are brought up over the course of the book) and is very clearly into Pan from the start, whereas Pan has been too busy dealing with his gender not being accepted and wanting to fight pirates with the Lost Boys to think about romance - that is, until he gets pinned under Captain Hook.

There is one smutty scene in this which was fucking great, as should be expected from Austin Chant, but other than that this book just had a really solid enemies-to-lovers dynamic that I fell in love with.

One of the downsides for this book for me was the action. Fights between Pan and Hook were great because of the Tension, but anytime they were fighting the kraken or something I became kind of bored. It's not necessarily badly written, it just felt extremely underwhelming to me.

If you're looking for a retelling that doesn't actually suck, look no further because this is definitely one of the better ones.

I picked up this book because I like the movie and I'm glad to say that I liked this book even more than the movie. There are three main reasons why I can definitely see myself re-reading this book sometime soon:

1. Bob is one of my new favourite male protagonists mostly because he's different from the normal toxic-masculinity-drenched male protagonists I see. He's shy, he's awkward, lonely, he's kind, but he's also dangerous and that combination was really interesting to see.

2. His and Nadia's romance was so sweet and I really liked the fact that after knowing each other for a couple months there's more of a subtle attraction that honestly could end up just being platonic. Further, I really appreciated the way the book treated Nadia as a real person and not just a love interest.

3. (This is the biggest reason to be honest) Bob's fondness for Rocco is the most adorable thing on the entire fucking planet. Case in point:

" Bob counted the money with the speed only bartenders and casino dealers had. All there. Ten grand. He waved the sheaf of money in front of Rocco, fanning his face with it.
Bob said, “You worth it?”
The puppy looked back at him, head cocked.
“I don’t know,” Bob said. “It’s a lot of money.”
Rocco put his front paws on the edge of the sink and nibbled Bob’s wrist with those sharp, spiky puppy teeth.
Bob scooped him up with his free hand and pressed their faces together. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. You’re worth it.” "

10/10 would recommend googling "the drop dog gifs", trust me, it'll make your day