OOF! This is definitely not my typical kind of read, and I have mixed feelings. LOVE the whole sapphic Hades/Persephone vibe which is why I picked this one up. And the writing itself was beautiful and captivating. There was a lot of spice, too. But the consent is questionable at best, and leans a bit more toward non-con than anything - so that left me with some warring emotions. Definitely read the TW/CW at the start. I love Lianyu Tan’s writing style though!

Mookcakes has been on my TBR for a while now and it did NOT disappoint! This was an absolutely adorable story filled with witchy wonders, sapphic love, quirky characters, and diversity for days! Both MCs are Chinese-American. Nova is a queer teen witch with hearing aids and gay grandmas (who are AMAZING)!! Tam is a non-binary werewolf and uses they/them pronouns. There is also Jewish representation. None of the diversity felt forced or tokenized. It was just beautifully woven in as part of the story. The graphics were phenomenal and just as adorable as the story. And basically - I simply love this book!! I need more of Nova and Tam!

Rachel Lacey is without a doubt one of my favorite sapphic authors, so I was incredibly excited to receive an ARC of her upcoming release, Stars Collide! This is a celebrity, age gap (9 years), toaster oven romance - and it was everything I hoped for and more!

Anna is a rising pop star. She is openly pansexual and her fans love her and music, but she is ready to be taken more seriously. She’s the bubbly girl next door and it is hard not to love her right from the start. Eden, on the other hand, is a little jaded. She has been in the business for 20 years and her latest album was a bit of a miss and didn’t have the same spark and passion as her previous albums. Her popularity has gone down, but the last thing she wants is to have to rely on the young upcoming star to bring it back up. So, of course that’s exactly what happens!

As reluctant as she was to collaborate with Anna and go on tour, Eden begins to embrace their connection and all that Anna has to offer. Before long their friendship begins to blossom and the sparks start to fly. They have so much chemistry between them, on every level. They bring out the best in each other. They push each other and support each other. They speak openly and honestly. They simply just enjoy being together - on stage and off. Their sexual chemistry was also off the charts! It was HOT!

Green Fuse Burning was a hauntingly beautiful metaphor about grief and loss, life and death, and our connection to the natural world. Tiffany Morris’s writing is lyrical and it feels more like poetry than prose. You can tell that each word was chosen carefully, meant to literally paint a picture and conjure emotional reactions in the reader.

This is not your typical kind of novel. It follows the story of Rita, an artist struggling with the death of her estranged father. Rita is grappling with her disconnect to her Mi'kmaq identity - the language and culture, her family history, and all the questions she never asked of her father and now never can. Then her girlfriend, Molly, goes behind her back to get her an artist’s residency and she ends up on the land her father grew up on, in an isolated cabin to paint. And bizarre things start happening. But it never becomes clear to the reader how many of these strange things actually happened, and how much might have simply been in her mind.

There is not a typical story arc in this novella. Each chapter starts with the description of a painting, and then we get the story from the woods behind each painting, knowing that the artist who painted them vanished shortly after their creation. It was an intriguing way to write the story, but also a bit jarring. I felt like I kept getting pulled out of the narrative and then thrown back in.

There is no real “resolution” in this story, at least in terms of what happened in those woods. The conflict in this story (bizarre happenings aside) is much more internal. It’s about Rita’s struggles with being alive, her questions about life and death and what it all means - especially as it relates to her indigenous heritage. I was expecting to see more about her reconnection to her Mi'kmaq roots and identity, though.

This book is definitely more niche and I know some people will absolutely love it. It was just okay for me, though. I loved the writing and the premise of the book. And while the words themselves grabbed me, the story didn’t.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and Stelliform Press and leave this review voluntarily.

TW/CW: parental death, suicidal ideation, animal death/gore, PTSD, depression

A road trip vacation turns into a strange kidnapping situation when Emma, the sister-in-law Lucy hardly knows, decides to take back her life (and her van) and run away. This story has humor, spice, romance, and adventure. Jenna did a wonderful job weaving together the heavy and light-hearted parts of this story to create a beautiful journey about friendship, love, finding yourself, and starting over.

Lucy has expertly kept her distance from her wealthy and pretentious family - living and working in other countries, traveling the world, and using her background in law to help make the world better instead of pad her pockets. Finally ready to plant some roots, she decides to take a classic American road trip when she finds out her brother, Jordan, is selling an old VW van.

The problem is - the van doesn’t belong to Jordan. It’s his wife, Emma’s, most treasured possession. Tired of living a life she never really wanted and furious with Jordan for selling her van, she hides out in the van prepared for a good ol’ fashioned hijacking. Except other than getting some cash and clothes - she didn’t really think this plan through. So she strikes a deal with her practically stranger sister-in-law.

Emma has a lot of things to work through both from her childhood and marriage - and she isn’t ready to talk about any of it. Especially not to Lucy whom she hardly knows let alone trusts. But as the two women take off on this strange cross-country road trip, they begin to connect on a deeper level. And it doesn’t take long for the sparks to start flying. But talk about a predicament! Your husband’s sister? Your brother’s wife? Surely it could never work or be anything more than a road tip fling… Right? As time goes on, and decisions have to be made, it gets harder and harder to think about their time coming to an end.

This was a fun and wild ride that kept me hooked from page one! I loved the pining, the banter, the shenanigans, the intimacy, and literally everything about Emma’s and Lucy’s connection.

I received an ARC through NetGalley and Bold Strokes books and this is my honest review.


TW/CW: The story tackles some serious subjects like emotional abuse/gaslighting, minor physical abuse from a spouse, parental abandonment, misogyny, and challenging family dynamics (most of which happens off page and isn’t very detailed).

OH MY GOD!! This book!! I literally cannot even put into words how incredible this story was and I am very impatiently waiting for when book two comes out because I am DYING to find out what happens next. I was worried this wouldn’t live up to the hype, but boy did it ever! I haven’t read anything like In the Roses of Pieria before. It was an intriguing combination of paranormal, romance, mystery, fantasy, horror, dark academia, historical fiction, and more - all tied together with threads of Sappho and Ancient Greece. Anna’s writing was beautiful and haunting and this story will take you on an adventure like no other!

Clara Eden is struggling financially and missing that spark in life. So when she is offered the chance to be an archivist for the largest personal collection on Nektopolis, she accepts even though she has some serious reservations - like not being able to share anything she finds. Soon she is living and working at the estate of the mysterious and elusive Agatha Montague and begins to bond with her beautiful and icy assistant, Fiadh.

As Clara digs deep into translating love letters between Gata and Natek, mysteries begin to unravel and in her search for questions she stumbles upon something she was never meant to find. She soon discovers that there are secrets at the Montague estate beyond her wildest imagination. But by then…it’s too late to turn back.

I read the blurb for this book awhile back but didn’t reread it before starting and I’m glad because it turned certain elements of the story into surprises I wasn’t quite expecting. This was a heavy read at times, so it took me a bit longer to get through it. There is just so much information to absorb and I didn’t want to miss one single detail! I was completely enraptured by this terrifying tale of forbidden romance and all the dark and twisty turns it took.

In the Roses of Pieria is a literary masterpiece that will capture you in its thrall and leave you begging for more! Don’t wait…go sink your teeth into this story now!

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and BywaterBooks. This is my honest review.