I picked this book up while I am currently spending my days and nights in bed recovering from surgery. I knew my attention span probably couldn’t handle a full length novel, but I did want to try reading instead of binge watching a reality show for the sixth day in a row. This 123 page ebook was the perfect escape from my reality, and welcomed me into an urban fantasy I devoured.

Our story has two points of views and follows two POC MCs. Our female MC is currently a college student who has always been able to see, and unfortunately interact with, ghosts. Our male MC is half angel, half human who decided to leave Euphoria for a chance to find his soulmate and bind their souls together for all eternity. In addition to dual POV’s this story also consists of flashbacks for both characters, diving into their childhoods or, in the halfling’s case, lifetimes ago.

While the present held my interest the most I have to admit the flashbacks added a lot of substance to these characters. It added to the sense of urgency, despair, and at times outright terror. This novel was quick but it packed a punch in the gruesome details of death, decay, the harsh realities of war, and the very real paranoia of never knowing who was alive.

The chemistry between our characters was a slower burn, or as slow as it can be for 123 pages, but I enjoyed the pacing a lot. The college, urban setting worked so well for the haunting aspect as well as the angelic forces at work. I truly have no complaints as a reader. Did this novel stun and amaze at every turn? No, but it was a really enjoyable quick read about two tortured characters trying to navigate a world that is seemingly always out to get them.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an eARC of this novel in 2020 in exchange for an honest review. My deepest apologies for my review being so egregiously late.

For some reason 2024 is the year of King Arthur’s resurgence in my reading selections. Earlier this year I read Legendborn, which is a young adult fantasy King Arthur reimagining, and now I’ve just finished this novel which narrates the story of those adjacent to Pendragon. There is something so whimsical and heartbreaking about historical fiction. It draws me in so deeply I have a hard time finding my way back to the present. 

We follow one character through her journey from girlhood to teenager, to a mother in her early thirties. Languoreth’s world is full of interesting characters; some who fleetingly pop in and out of her tale, and others who remain steadfast in their ties to her. As the daughter of a king she is at the center of it all, and watches how the world changes around her with a birds eye view.

I loved watching Languoreth and her twin brother (as well as their cousins) grow up throughout this novel. Getting to see these characters go from wryly children in the woods, to adults struggling under the weight of the world, made me so much more empathetic to their causes.

I am no expert in this time period or setting in history, and did struggle to keep a lot of the players organized in my mind as the novel progressed. It was incredibly easy to be on Languoreth’s side of things, and to distinguish who was friend, foe, or ally. However some of the political discussions between characters oftentimes felt a bit overwhelming, and I allowed the information to go in one ear and out the other. This story has piqued my interest, and I’d love to have a better grasp of the time period. I think it would heighten my love for this book even more, and make it a more well rounded reading experience overall.

I go back and forth between labeling this novel as historical fiction or historical fantasy. The fantasy elements included are simply the ideologies of the time and people. Spirits of the woods, signs and signals from the animals and the wind that can alert the witness of great change. Making tinctures and potions for healing from the plants surrounding the keep. Having visions of future events or glimpses of otherworldly beings. I’ll leave the fantasy or fiction distinction up to other readers, as I am too torn to definitively label it myself.

Throughout the novel Languoreth encounters her one great love. These moments were incredibly sweet, and had my own heart racing at each interaction. Their first intimate moment together is a fade to black scene, while their second does get just a smidge more graphic. Despite this novel showcasing Languoreth’s love for another, their romance is not the driving force of the story. Although I loved the romantic undertones, I think many romance readers could come out of this novel a bit disappointed.

Remember when I said historical fiction can be as whimsical as it is heartbreaking? This novel not only showed the true reality of a princess being married off to a man who is not her lover, but it also showed her making some incredibly challenging decisions for her children. The last few chapters of this novel left me sobbing right alongside Languoreth as she once again did what she thought would be best not for herself, but for her people, and in order for the Old Ways she sought to protect through her influence and power, to survive. 

Languoreth’s story is one I will not soon forget, and I’m genuinely terrified to start book two (I say already 52 pages into it). I need to know what will happen next. I need there to be a happily ever after. And even though I need these things, I do not expect to see them in the coming pages. Languoreth’s story so far was one of hard truths, love and loss, family and enemies. I am frightened to know what disastrous outcomes will arise as her story continues to unfold. But I am even more frightened to be left in the dark wondering.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an eARC of this novel in 2020 in exchange for an honest review. My deepest apologies for my review being so egregiously late.

Writing reviews for anything after the first book in a series is always challenging for me. I’m not sure how much I should say or keep hidden. The announcement of new characters can be as much of a spoiler as the silence of an old character. I teeter on the edge with these reviews and hope that I can still do the book, and future readers, justice.

The first book ended in heartbreak, and I was so hoping the second would set its sights on mending it. While that may have happened through the course of the novel, the first quarter was even more devastating than I could have imagined or planned for.

A major difference in book two is that we now have multiple points of view as the story progresses. I loved this choice because our main characters are varied and no longer within a day’s ride of one another. In book one it was easy to follow Languoreth and those who orbited her, making multiple points of view unnecessary.

Another major difference was the duration of time for book two. Instead of following a character from childhood to her early thirties, we followed the span of about seven years. While a lot can happen in that time period, I did feel slightly less emotionally connected to some of our new points of view. Languoreth’s story in book one intertwined within my own soul as I was reading. I watched her grow and learn and overcome. Though I enjoyed the multiple POV’s, and it was necessary to help the story to progress, it did mean that my connection with the characters was split. Instead of one character having my full attention we jumped not only from person to person, but also location and place in time.

This story is masterfully written. Switching forward and backward years or months from character to character cannot be easy as an author, and yet the story flowed effortlessly from page to page. I never felt out of place or confused as the reader, and often found myself mentally calculating if this character is here on this date what were the other’s doing at the same time? This is definitely not a light novel that can be read with little brain power on the reader’s part. This novel requires time and attention to detail, and empathy to love, loss, madness, and war.

I felt like I was on the edge of my seat for the entire novel. I had so many questions about the character’s mindsets, locations, well being, and outcomes. Where book one ended in heartache, book two ended in hope for the future. I’m so looking forward to seeing what will befall our main characters next time, and selfishly hope that for some they might find a happy ending even if their people might never find peace.

Thank you to The Nerd Fam for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited when I got the email promoting this ARC. A story that revolves around a fae and a human, both writers vying for the same publishing contract at the conclusion of a book tour: a story that is whimsical, romantic, funny, and relatively low stakes, was just what I needed.

Like with any new book you pick up you never truly know what you’re going to get. Will it be well written, will you enjoy the characters or the setting or the plot devices? Will the pacing feel rushed, cut off, or too all over the place for a cohesive story line? These questions are especially at the forefront of my mind when I’m starting a new ARC. Thankfully I had nothing to fear with A Rivalry of Hearts, and I was able to turn off my critical eye, sit back, and relax while the story unfolds.

Our female MC Edwina is a human who travels to the fae world to attend her own book tour. While her romance novels haven’t gained much traction amongst the humans, over in the fae lands even one of the fae queens has taken a special interest in her series. Our male MC William is a fae male who is promoting his poetry book, along with his dashing good looks and pompous, pretentious attitude.

Despite there being an immediate fire between these two characters, they don’t start off on great terms. This polarizing introduction made watching them unravel bit by bit through the course of their book tour that much sweeter and swoon worthy.

I think what surprised me the most about this novel is the time period. Fans of Bridgerton and Pride and Prejudice will fit right in with the atmosphere, clothing options, and vernacular, while fans of modern fae fantasy novels will settle into the opulent descriptions of magic, fae omissions and bets.

This was my first novel set in this specific fae world, and I thought it was genius that the setting revolved around a book tour. Not only is Edwina getting to experience new cities and types of fae at every stop, but so are we as the reader! I loved getting to explore the different landscapes and see what made each fae city unique along each tour stop.

This story was a bit of a revolving door of characters, with a core group at the center. Edwina and William are accompanied on the tour by two employees of their publisher, but fans, and old friends, tend to tag along on different tour stops. We get to watch as the characters interact with one another through varying levels of friendship, performance, and familiarity.

It would be extremely remiss of me to not mention that this novel left me smiling, snorting out loud (I wish I was joking), and giggling under my covers page after page. This definitely lives up to the fantasy rom-com label, and delivered on all aspects. The banter was witty, the circumstances downright hilarious at times, while the setting was magical, whimsical, and breathtaking.

Edwina and William take their time exploring one another more intimately as the novel progresses in extremely spicy, and explicit, detail. All in the name of research for Edwina’s next romance novel, until it evolves into something…else.

I’ll admit, I didn’t love William’s character initially, but he won me over in the same ways he won Edwina’s heart. I absolutely loved reading their story. I enjoyed the writing, and the fantasy world, and am really excited to have discovered this author. If you’re looking for a cozy, funny, sizzling novel to relax with, A Rivalry of Hearts was made for you to try.

DNF around 20%

I really wanted to like this book. In theory it has everything I enjoy reading, but I couldn't get past the writing style. It just wasn't for me, and I found myself skimming a lot.

I loved this book up until the very end. It felt extremely rushed and did not match the organic flow of the story. If this had ended differently this could have easily been a 4 or 5 star read. The mythology, the history, and the writing up until the ending were all superb.

I decided to pick up this novel after hearing nothing but great things about it on TikTok. I’m also researching comp titles for my own work in progress, and this novel was said to include fae, fantasy, dual POV, prophecies, and romance. I couldn’t wait to explore the author’s unique take on their world and meet their characters.

The novel opens with scenes of children preparing for war. Whether they are practicing in battle formations, or described going onto the battlefield to collect treasures from the dead, these first scenes really set the tone for the harsh realities our characters are forced to live in. While some of the descriptions can be graphic, there were also mentions of killing magical creatures and using their furs and organs for their magical properties. If you are squeamish, or just love all creatures (even fantasy ones) this might be something you’d need to skip.

Our two main characters whose POV’s we follow are sisters: one is a soldier leading troops into battle, and the other has studied the art of prophecies. I appreciated having their narrative spaces to travel back and forth between, but they aren’t written in first person, and I did occasionally get confused about whose POV we were supposed to be in.

The descriptive language this author used was the strongest part of the book. It was so stunning that there were times I found myself rereading sentences just so I could fully take in the poetic prose, and see how it was interwoven into the mundane. Descriptions of eyes, skin, plant life, and magic were lush and full of metaphors and similes.

Unfortunately the writing was my favorite part of this novel. While I appreciated the diverse cast of characters, and respectfully crafted representation, despite the high stakes created throughout the novel I just didn’t care what happened to our characters. At one point they discover a secret and become trapped in a new location, and the entire rest of the novel is them trying to find a way out. Whether they managed to escape or stayed trapped forever didn’t matter to me.

I wasn’t drawn into the story or the fantasy/magical elements enough to hold my interest. While I appreciated that the romantic elements included sapphic representation, the romance in the novel didn’t leave me rooting for any of the characters to end up together. As I was reading I kept trying to ask myself why I felt this way? What was I missing, or what could have been added to hold my attention? What could have made me more emotionally invested?

After briefly skimming a few reviews it seems I’m not the only reader who felt this story was lacking…something. Though this appears to be the less popular take on this novel, and many people did seem to enjoy the writing and the world building overall. There were a few twists that might excite readers, but were things I had already seen coming well before they were revealed. Ultimately I’m happy I read this novel so that I could sit with the descriptive language for a few days, but the story overall fell a little flat for me.

I'm giving this such a high rating because I had peeped the reviews before going into this and knew what was coming. I waited until the week before Christmas to read this, to be in the gift giving, family loving, holiday spirit, before picking this up and continuing on with our Illyrian babies and Night Court family drama.

I was so pleased by this book. It is definitely a new staple of my to-be-read-at-Christmas-time books. I was soooo pleasantly surprised to see all our different character POVs (but what about Az?!?!?)! But a little let down that I guessed what Feyre's surprise for Rhys would be within the first couple chapters. I just had a feeling, ya know? Like I guessed before Breaking Dawn came out that Bella would get pregnant. Sometimes I just feel these things coming. LOL.

Anywayyyys...I'm so excited to dive back into this world when the series continues. I know we'll have new main characters, and I'm trying my best to let go of Rhys and Feyre, but honestly Cassian is my favorite so I can get on board with the next novels if they're centered around him.

I'm going to get a little melodramatic, but this series has a huge place in my life, and did so much for me this year. I read the books twice in six months because they pulled me out of a hole I hadn't even realized I'd fallen into. I'm forever grateful for this series, and for the tireless efforts of the author for putting this out into the world.
To the stars who listened-and the dreams that were answered. Thank you. <3

(I hate trying to rate books I'm not 100% sure about. I can see why other people would like this, and if I was the right audience why I might have liked this more, so that's why I gave it a 2.5/3 stars)

I found this book when I was searching through newly released fantasy novels trying to find comp titles for my future book. I loved how unique the premise was, and how this story would use magic in a totally new-to-me way. I couldn’t wait to explore these elements with our characters, even predicting in a reading vlog that this would end up being a five star read. Sadly, it didn’t quite hit that mark for me, and I even contemplated DNFing this novel towards the last 50 pages. Let’s find out why.

This story is set in a college campus, which is normally a positive point towards the story for me as a reader. I love fantastical academic books revolving around students, studies, and campus life in general. In this story there is a mix of mundane students who cannot do magic, and students who can. There are three types of magical students, and their distinction is important in the novel. The mages of the story can perform magic, but their magic produces a waste product called dross. If dross is left unchecked it can break on someone and cause them instant bad luck.

That alone was enough to hook me into the story. I’d never been invited into a world where magic created luck, good or bad, via waste or residue from spell work. I thought it was a fascinating premise, and I couldn’t wait to dive deeper and figure out how luck would play out in our character’s lives.

What I didn’t expect was that the approach to this waste would come in the form of scientific understanding, rather than a fantasy twist. I’m all about science fiction. I can get on board with characters in space or on other planets. I can look past them growing food and developing technology in ways I’ll never fully comprehend, as long as I can keep up with an entertaining plot and exciting characters, I can skim over the scientific parts of the story and still have a great time.

This story became all about the science of dross: what happened when it became inert, what happened when they changed its temperature, what happened if it interacted with other magical elements? Our characters at one point were literally in a lab running experiments on rats, talking about dross, matter, mass, weight, and temperature so much that the fantasy element of the novel barely existed anymore. 

The extent that science, and the scientific approach to magic, was woven into the novel made it a chore at times to read. I notoriously didn’t love science classes because I wasn’t good at them. Having to read about theory and experimentation in the middle of what I thought would be a story based around magic was not at all what I had signed up for.

Like I had mentioned earlier, I can normally get on board with science fiction if the characters and the plot are entertaining enough. This was not the case here. I checked out of the story, drowning under the science of it all and the bland character interactions. I kept reading just to get to the end, but no longer connected with the characters emotionally (if I ever truly had). I didn’t care when a main character turned out to be an obvious villain, or whether our main characters ended up together or both ended up dead. 

The only part of the story that made me emotional (major spoiler) was when the FMC’s dog was murdered to advance the plot. I really dislike when animals are injured or killed in stories just to advance a character arc or plot device, and this really frustrated me as the reader. At this point I was ready to call it quits.

I think overall this book would be received better if the reader has a passion for science and an appreciation for magic. I can see why this author is so beloved, and why people flock to their work. Unfortunately, this type of story just did not work for me and that’s okay. The more books I read to try and find comp titles, the more I’m learning about myself as a reader and writer. 

I can understand and appreciate the work this book did to develop the magic system in such a detail oriented and scientific way. I can appreciate that the author made it digestible even for someone like me who barely scraped by science classes in high school and college. And I can also appreciate that there is an audience for this type of story that just isn’t me.