If you’ve been following my blog or instagram for any length of time, it may come as no surprise to you, that Sarah J. Maas is one of my all time favorite authors. To say I was highly anticipating her newest novel, would be a vast understatement. I was raving about it. I was telling all my friends. I preordered the book in December (when it’s release date was for March). I was on the hype train of my own creation, because A Court of Thorns and Roses is one of my all time favorite series to ever exist.

Proceed with caution, as there will be some spoilers ahead. TLDR: I didn’t like this book…

I flew through the first 400 pages of this monster in one day. Within the first 50 pages, our major characters have all been brutally murdered. These were characters I had grown to like, adore, and was thrilled to spend the next 750 pages with them. Sadly, that was not to be. At times I grew nostalgic, wondering what the story would have been like if those characters hadn’t died.

Initially, their deaths didn’t bother me. That was, of course, until the rest of the essential cast was introduced. To put it mildly, they were major duds and I was majorly bored. I’ve heard SJM was criticized for poor world building in previous novels, but this was overkill. To. The. Extreme. And to be honest, it didn’t help me picture the world at all. If anything it was so information dumpy, that my brain shut down a few times and I just couldn’t take in the information anymore.

So. We’re overloaded with this new world, new creatures, and messed up hierarchy. Okay. Moving on.

Sometimes I can look past a shaky foundation and focus on the plot. That only works if I care about the plot, and what do you know? Not only did I not care about the plot, but I felt no connection to our characters motivations for even half a second. It was dull, boring, and my heart rate was flat-lining the longer I kept reading. Sure, there were a few exiting moments, but they weren’t enough of a catalyst to propel the story into interesting territory.

I got so tired of the bad dialogue, the repetitiveness, and the stagnation of the story, that at around page 450 I had to stop reading this book and pick up something else. I devoured an entirely new 400 page novel in one day. My brain was so happy to find relief from this book. I would sit down at night and have to talk myself into reading at least a chapter, or at least ten pages. Just to keep going.

I didn’t like the characters. I didn’t understand this world, or think it was cool enough/significant enough to invest time or brain power into. It was a bland, all over the place, okay novel. And that’s really upsetting. This story had the potential to be great, but it really missed the mark for me. So many readers/reviewers are giving this such great ratings (currently posted as a 4.51 on Goodreads!!!!), and I don’t see how they’re coming to that conclusion??? Is their love for the author and her previous works overshadowing this chaotic mess?

I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews. The author spent unknown hours upon hours creating something, and a whole slew of people helped to polish it, promote it, and get it in the hands of awaiting fans. I don’t discredit the hard work that was put into this book. I mean, have you seen the cover art, or the art on the end leaves? It’s stunning, flawless, and unlike any art I’ve seen before. I truly wish I could say the same for the story itself.

Clearly this book appeals to the masses. Unfortunately, it does not appeal to me.

The older I get, the more I fall in love with the Beauty and the Beast story. The romance, the magic, the enchanting friendships, and of course, that library! So it was a no brainer when I saw this book on BookOutlet that I had to pick it up ASAP!

This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling unlike any I’ve ever read or seen before. The bones of the original story are there, but so much was different in an amazingly-well-done way. Harper, our main character (Belle) hails from the here and now. Somehow she is thrust into another parallel universe, where she meets Rhen (this isn’t much of a spoiler…but he’s the beast, guys).

Not only is Harper from our time in this retelling, but she was also born with cerebral palsy. I knew that detail coming into this story, and was interested to see how it would be handled. Would it be gimmicky? Would it come off as a crutch for us to feel for this character? I was pleasantly surprised that none of my assumptions or fears proved true. I thought the author did a wonderful job navigating CP, and I loved Harper’s overall attitude. She was not broken, she had not been injured, this was who she was and how she was born. She took the world in stride, and learned how to make the world work for her strengths.

I really enjoyed these characters. Our three main characters, Harper, Rhen, and Grey felt so fleshed out and real. They truly had their own distinct personalities, which is something that can make or break a fantasy novel. I was laughing at them, and with them, from very early on in this book. I was worried, yet again (trust issues, I swear), that I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Rhen’s universe and Harper’s, but the dialogue was executed wonderfully and intentionally. I swooned more and more whenever Rhen or Grey called Harper, “my Lady.” It was very clear that Rhen was a Prince from this fairy tale land, and Harper was learning to play her part in this new world.

I loved the stakes that were added to this story. The original save-my-family aspect remained, but it went a step further when Harper became involved in kingdom politics. She began to step up for Prince Rhen, his people, and his territory, when she could have easily lived a life of luxury with him in his castle. It was inspiring and heartwarming to watch how her actions were immediately mirrored by Rhen. They complimented each other so well, and they made each other better people through every laissez-fare experience, hardship, and trial they endured.

This is a pretty big spoiler, but also a trigger warning: this book deals with the death of a parent from cancer. The parent’s illness is mentioned quite often throughout the novel, but the death scene itself was rather quick, and handled tastefully.

There was so much I enjoyed about this book: the character growth, the plot twist ending (those last three pages had me G O I N G), the slow burn romance, how much I hated the evil enchantress, how great Grey is as a character, the side characters that made me smile…this was the *chefs kiss* perfect fantasy read.

This book was my Book of the Month choice for March. I wanted to choose something really different from what I normally read, which was the whole intent behind getting a BOTM subscription. I read the synopsis and the first page of this book, and decided to give it a chance.

It was sold to me as a political thriller where an ex secret service agent is being set up by some of the most powerful people in Washington. Growing up I watched a lot of the show Burn Notice, the movies Bourne Identity, and more recently devoured House of Cards. I knew political thrillers interested me in visual media, but had no idea how they would translate on paper.

I read a few reviews before starting this as a way to hype myself up, and one review in particular said they read this book in one sitting because they simply could not put it down. I have to say, I completely agree.

From the moment we are dropped into the story my heart was racing. Our main character, Nick, now works as a would-be assassin. His job is to find the holes in the elite and powerful’s security systems, and to fake kill them as proof that he got in and go out without anyone noticing. I’m not sure what experience the author has with combat or military experience, but it was clear that Nick knew what he was doing.

This novel had really great pacing. We would jump from heartracing scene, to another point of view with the supposed bad guy. This was something I had not anticipated, but thoroughly enjoyed. I didn’t expect to know who had set Nick up until the very end, but we learn quite early on the source of Nick’s downfall. Somehow, despite this knowledge, I was still thrown for loop after loop. I wasn’t able to anticipate any moves from any of our players. That may be because I’m relatively new to this genre, but I honestly had to put the book down at one point to process a betrayal I did not see coming!

This novel had just the right amount of suspense, stakes, and gore to make it enjoyable for me. There’s definitely a fine line when it comes to being too much or distasteful, but I thought this novel toed that line perfectly. I actually really think my dad would enjoy this book, and I might try convincing him to read it as well.

The only thing I think was lacking was a firmer grasp on the characters. Sure, the motives were evident, but the characters didn’t feel fleshed out enough. I only cared about Nick succeeding because he was the main character, and his untimely death would have brought the story to a halt. I think when there is so much action, manipulation, and so many puzzle pieces, it’s hard to make your audience care for each character, and maybe in this genre that’s besides the point entirely. I don’t think it deterred the reading experience, it was just something I noticed coming from a high fantasy genre, where I fall in love with almost all the characters by the end of each book.

I am more curious now about political thrillers, and want to try a few more in the future to see how they compare. Have you read political thrillers? Do you think this one deserves five stars? Is there a better political thriller out there that I should try next? Let me know!

Okay you guys. I have feelings, they are incoherent, but I’m going to do my best to put words together in a way that makes sense.

I initially picked up this book because of the cover, I mean….hello?! Then when I read that this is a fae story, I swooped this book up as quickly as humanly possible. I was on the coattails of Sarah J. Maas and her Throne of Glass series, so I was ready to have more fae in my life.

A few reviewers, who I love and trust, had given this book pretty harsh ratings so I kept putting off reading it. I finally decided to give it a try, despite knowing that I might not like it as much as I wanted to.

The story starts off with our main character, Isobel, working her craft and painting portraits of the fae. One aspect of this story that I loved was that everything humans did was considered ‘craft’. Cooking – craft. Sewing – craft. Painting – craft. Writing – craft. While the fae could live forever and wield incredible forest magic, the craft was idolized by these aging and ageless creatures.

The more I read and the older I get, I discover more troupes or character traits that I absolutely love. A few of them were present in this novel, and they worked really well on me. One of them is a character who, for whatever reason, can turn themselves into an animal. I think I love seeing the personality of the character shine through even in animal form. And let’s be honest, I love animals more than people so it helps me fall even more for that character.

I also really love the troupe of seeing all of someone and loving them because of all that they are (all encompassing love, maybe?). Our second main character is a fae prince named Rook. The fae use magic to hide their true forms, which are ghastly, beastly, decaying things. There’s a sense of vulnerability that gets me right in the heart time and time again.

This story also does a wonderful job of reminding the reader why it’s beautiful to be human. Sometimes, fantasy worlds like this do such a great job at convincing the reader that it is better to be the magical creature, instead of the human they were born as. This story does the opposite. Not only that, but it takes time pointing out the flaws in the fae, in their bodies, their food, and the world they live in. It was such a clever way of asking the reader, “Is the grass really greener on the other side, or are we just told it’s greener?”

I can see where the criticism for this story stems from. This story required a lot of suspension of disbelief. At times it was a little too fast paced, some of the escapes towards the end of the novel seemed too easy, and bits of the plot felt unfinished. I can’t explain it (even though I try to in the next paragraph), but despite these flaws, I loved this story regardless.

The writing in this book was transportive and marvelous. The writing is what I fell in love with before I fell in love with the characters. I think for me, that is what helped me overlook some of the issues this book may have had. I put off finishing this book for 5 days, because I just did not want this experience to end. I didn’t care if everyone died or lived at the end, I was so enraptured with this story and this world I was simply happy to be reading.

This truly is a quintessential fairy tale. As I was reading, I was wondering what it would be like to read a retelling of this story. If this would forever hold up as the original work that authors would tear apart and piece back together in their own way. I really adored this, and I’m glad I gave it a try despite some of the reviews I had seen. This is a new favorite.

Ahhh romance. These are the books that break up the string of unending fantasy novels. Trust me, they’re more than just place holders; to me they’re good for the soul. Especially right now. There was a blurb from the author (I can’t remember if I saw it online or in the actual book) where she says that she likes to write happy endings. Girl. Thank you. We all need a happy ending.

The premise of this book involved a city girl moving out into the country, and meeting the quintessential country boy. And boy-oh-boy did she meet a country boy. You could almost smell the sweat and dirt coming off our main character, Garrett. Not in a boy-you-better-go-shower way, but in a this-is-a-man kind of way.

Multiple POV is my kryptonite. Whenever people ask if you could have a superpower, what would it be? I always answer to fly, but the more I get multiple POV, the more I think I might change my answer. I love getting inside a man’s head. Granted, we’re inside a man’s head through the perspective of a woman, but there’s something so sweet and so thrilling about hearing, watching, and discovering how a man falls in love. It. Is. My. Kryptonite. I know there are plenty of movies depicting why having the ability to hear people’s thoughts is a bad thing, but let me have this one fantasy where things work out, okay?

The plot overall wasn’t anything special. It didn’t detract or distract from the budding romance, but it wasn’t incredibly engaging either. Cara is a new-found freelance journalist, who is writing a piece on the agriculture industry. Garrett lost his family farm after his dad passed away, and has never recovered from either loss. While I did like the discussion on agriculture, and how crucial it is for these families who have held on to their farms for generations, it wasn’t the plot that kept me invested in this story. There were even a few times when I thought, “Man, I wonder how Cara’s article is coming along?”

What kept this story moving forward is the steaming, hot, romance.


Is it hot in here, or is it just this book? Garrett and Cara had some of the best chemistry I’ve read about in a while. Not only was the romance steamy and believable, but there was genuine intimacy between these two. There’s a scene where they go out to dinner and meet people who are important to Cara, and she understandably starts to panic. Garrett knew exactly how to calm her down mentally and physically. It was so nice to see how they evolved as a couple, and moved beyond just a physical relationship with one another.

I know Liora Blake said she likes to have happy endings, but there were some tear jerking moments thrown into the mix. I personally thought the happy ending was too short! I wanted a chapter or two of happily ever after, but instead we get about half a page and our imagination.

Overall, I’m so thrilled I picked this book up. It’s listed as the second book in a series, but I had no confusion or trouble jumping right in. I’m very curious to find out who our first focus couple was (in book one), and if they were mentioned in this book. I’m definitely going to be trying more romance novels from this author. She really delivered everything I love and expect from this genre, and did it in a really commendable way. Did I mention, hot? Wowza.

I had never heard of the Witcher until the Netflix trailer dropped last year. I started watching some promotional interviews with the cast, and getting excited over the general buzz for the show. And then…a video appeared on youtube one day. A video of Henry Cavill reading from the book the show is based off of. It, to this day, is the best read aloud I’ve ever heard…and I’m a librarian WHO DOES READ ALOUDS!

When I finally picked up my own copy of this book, I immediately fell into the story. It was incredibly immersive, and not too complicated if you go in with the mindset of I-don’t-know-anything-and-that’s-okay. I quickly realized that this novel shifts between two moving timelines. While the story remained cohesive, I could see how a lot of people would have trouble keeping up with these shifts.

I really enjoyed how this novel was set up. The Witcher is talking to another main character (a Priestess) throughout the novel, and as he returns from his travels. She is like his home base, in my mind. When the story moves away from home base, it does so abruptly, but it is always action packed and ready with a good tale to tell.

The action in this story was very descriptive, and what I would expect from a high fantasy world. My biggest complaint from this novel was how it treated female characters. I tried to brush it off at first, until I realized this was a pattern and a choice the author had, unfortunately, made.

For the most part, women were solely sexual beings, the evil creatures the Witcher needed to destroy, or (rarely) the damsel in distress. I understand that, for whatever reason that didn’t get explained at all in this book, the Witcher is a hyper sexual character. Did that happen because he was made into a Witcher, or is that just who he is as a person? I’m not sure. The sex scenes were never graphic, thank goodness, but they seemingly came out of nowhere. One minute the Witcher hates this person and realizes he has to kill them, and the next minute they’re in bed together. The more women we encountered, the more grossed out I got by how women were portrayed. It was just…not my cup of tea.

While I really liked the pace, action, and storytelling, I don’t see myself returning to finish this massive series. Granted this was published in the 90’s, and translated from Polish, I’m really hoping the portrayal of female characters somehow got lost in translation…but I doubt it.

I’ll still be watching the Netflix series to compare the two, and I’ll be praying that they revised this particular aspect of the story. It’s one thing to find a woman sexy and attractive. It’s something entirely different to describe every woman strictly on the shape of her breasts.

***I want to add that while I thought the female characters were not to my liking, that does not mean everyone will feel the same way. For whatever personal reasons, this is a very sensitive topic for me. Just because I found this to be problematic, doesn’t mean that you will too.***

Finished!!!! This is the end of my #stayhomereadingrush. 3/4 books is not too bad. Review coming soon...

---REVIEW---

This was the third book that I read for the #stayhomereadingrush, and I’ve got to say, by the end of this book my brain was feeling kinda mushy. So forgive me if this review gets a little off track.

I thought this book was about a girl attending a con, and by happenstance meeting her favorite celebrity crush. BOY was that not correct…but not too far off from the actual plot either. I was so pleasantly surprised to see that our main characters ended up interacting together via text messages about 15% of the way into the novel.

If you’ve followed my reviews, you may know that I die over multiple POV’s in any novel. This novel followed the POV of Elle and the POV of Darien. It was so cool to see both sides of the coin: the fangirl who was in it for the characters, and the actor who is struggling with his acceleration into fame.

This book truly was a love letter to fandom, and all the aspects of a fandom. I felt reminiscent Fangirl (by Rainbow Rowell) vibes while reading, but this novel took the extra leap by giving us insight into the actor’s side of things. This book spoke on what it meant to discover life lessons through a T.V. show, and how being yourself doesn’t mean that you’re going to be alone. There was a really beautiful moment where Elle was being bullied, and everyone in the room had her back, simply because she was one of them.

I also didn’t realize going in that this was a Cinderella retelling? And I feel like a complete idiot for not putting that together sooner? I was scathing mad at the stepmother and stepsisters for most of the book, but kept telling myself I knew this would have a happy ending if it was keeping true to the Disney original. However, I don’t know if I loved the retelling aspect as much as I should. I thought Elle and Darien were strong enough characters to compel this plot past the fairy tale, and kept waiting for them to completely take over. I understand how the fairy tale created some of the magic of the story, but my mind kept asking, what would Elle and Darien do without it?

The romance that builds up through this novel is incredibly sweet and believable. What I liked about it was that it wasn’t simple or straightforward. They both had a lot to work through before they were able to come together, and I loved seeing them grow in their own ways. Obviously, because this is a Cinderella retelling, this story deals with the death of both of Elle’s parents, and I really was rooting for her as I watched her character grow into her own person beyond the grief.

I think I was, once again, more infatuated with the male character POV. It was nice to be reminded of what actors are going through on the other side of the fandom. They are creating the content for us, some of them are like us (aka the biggest fans ever), and some of them are just in it for themselves. It was wonderful to watch Darien struggle to find and hold onto his “why” during filming, and to see how his growth as a character so naturally mirrored Elle’s own growth.

I would read a whole series just about Elle and Darien, so I could watch them explore their happier ever after.

Book 2 for the #stayhomereadingrush complete. v happy with this one. Review coming soon...

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC. Apologies for the long overdue review…

You guys. I was told A Curse So Dark and Lonely was a slow burn romance. No, no, no, no. On The Corner of Love and Hate is the slowest burn of all the burns. If it had burned any slower, it would have sizzled itself out. Holy. Cow.

This was a romance set in a politically charged world. Our main character, Emma’s, father is the sitting (and soon retiring) Mayor, and her long time best frenemy, Connor, is running for Mayor in the upcoming election. If you don’t like a romance that is centered around workaholics, an office setting, or a political campaign, this may not be your cup of tea. I think the political atmosphere electrified this novel, and pushed these characters to act, or not act, in specific scenarios. It reminds me of Red, White, & Royal Blue only in the sense that that novel also centers around a romance of political figures.

The absolute best thing this novel had going for it, aside from the chemistry, was the support systems Emma had. Her parents were wonderful with her, her neighbor/coworker had her back on the job, and her two other guy friends from birth were the perfect guiding force whenever she needed reassurance.

I felt a lot of different emotions while reading this book. I felt jealous when an ex-girlfriend is introduced, I felt hot and bothered when Emma and Connor were briefly together, and I felt sad at their rather dumb, emotionally stunted reactions to each other. Thankfully, I also felt ecstatic by a happier than happy ending.

Did I mention this was a slow burn? If you’re looking for a novel with smut, this probably isn’t the best choice (with the exception of one scene towards the end). Despite that, I could see myself reading this again one day. I really liked how fleshed out all the characters were, and I loved the setting of this novel.

Set in a small town in Pennsylvania, I could practically see the leaves changing colors and littering the ground around the lake and mountains in the background. Emma loves to ride her bike around town, and those scenes were so picturesque that when I finished this novel I cleaned off my bicycle and took a ride around my own neighborhood (while maintaining proper social distancing measures, of course).

One book down in the #stayhomereadingrush!! Review coming soon...

Birth of the Bacchae is another one of my much overdue Netgalley ARC’s. I selected this ARC because of my love, or perhaps obsession, with vampires. What started out as an infatuation with Twilight, quickly led me down the path of Bram Stoker and Anne Rice. I couldn’t wait to jump into a new vampire tale, set in a more modern world.

The premise of this story is awesome. An archaeologist, following in her mother’s footsteps, discovers an ancient amulet, and is inexplicably drawn to it. She begins having dreams about these two women from ancient roman times, and is soon thrust into a magical world.

The premise of this story really was the best part of this book, but unfortunately it was not executed very well. It was confusing while reading, because the author would do such a great job at describing the setting, and such a poor job with the dialogue. The writing continued to tell the audience what was happening, instead of showing us through plot, characters, or other devices. The dream flashbacks were, in my opinion, the strongest parts of this book.

All things considered, I think this book was trying to do too much for what it was ready for. Our main character quickly discovers that magic and witches exist, and then that vampires are hunting her because she has been chosen by a god. While all of this is unfolding we see the character trying to maintain a work-life balance, while keeping the creepy older professor and his sexual advances at bay, while maintaining her picturesque (and totally non-toxic) relationship with her boyfriend, while maintaining a relationship with her dad and best friend. It felt like this book was off balance, and could have used a little more editing before being published [[I should note that because I read an ARC of this book, it may have been edited before being published, but I have not read a finished copy and this review is based off my experience with the ARC]].

There were also parts of the book itself that seemed either problematic, or like they were overlooked. There was what seemed to be a good discussion about race and equality (specifically how far the country has come since slavery), that then got flipped on its head when the mother of the boyfriend disapproved of the main character because she’s not Asian.

The sexual encounters in this novel were all consensual and presented as fade to black, with one exception. This exception included a vampire (perhaps in his early twenties, but hundreds of years old) and a High Priestess who was described as having the voice and body of a fourteen year old girl…Are we just going to ignore the fact that while she may have lived thousands of years, this vampire is still forced to, and enjoys, the sexual exploits of a fourteen year old’s body? Yikes… This wasn’t the only dubious scenario in the book either; the main character’s body is inhabited by a god and there is questionable consent regarding how and when he uses her body.

Overall, this book just didn’t feel finished. It felt like there were too many ideas competing for your attention. Not to mention how weird the ending was for our main character. She witnessed someone important to her get murdered, and then her personality switched so vastly that I didn’t recognize this new person we were following. Now, I haven’t witnessed anyone I love be murdered by vampires, so I can’t say for sure how I’d react either, but it seemed too over the top and out of the blue.

I think the author has some good ideas in this novel: the magic system could be expanded on, and the lore of the vampires was really interesting considering the flashbacks. I just don’t think it was executed in a way that makes me want to keep reading this series.