This was a very intriguing Gothic novel. It packs a lot in- murder, mystery, horror, supernatural, LBQTQIA+ and more. But it all works so well together.
The book will throw you through so many loops and make your head spin with all that's packed inside.

Eliza and her sister Lydia inherit an estate that brings them from New Orleans to England. A will stipulates that Eliza, as the oldest, needs to marry within 3 months or they lose the estate. Eliza falls hard and fast for their neighbor, the mysterious and handsome Malcolm.

After a whirlwind marriage, Eliza moved into the crumbling estate next door and she will get a whole lot more than she bargained for! Secrets she mysteries abound as neighbor after neighbor warn Eliza of what she got into.

This book was so good! There are some creepy parts (note to self...don't read late at night when the wind and rain is going outside and making branches scratch against your window) and some parts that can make your stomach turn. I started to suspect a bit of the ending and I needed up being right!

Fake dating but make it royal? Check!

This was a fun book. Serafina has been in love with Callum for as long as she can remember. She is set to marry him and when she surprises him after coming home from University, she becomes the surprised one. Callum is dating an American!
So she decides to use Callum's enemy, Duke Rafe, to make Callum jealous and see what he's missing out on.

I love Rafe so much! He is a often misunderstood man being controlled under someone else's thumb. I love getting to see Serafina get to know the real guy. I like that the author made up a country and their own set of royal rules. Make sure to read the author's note because this book was originally intended to go a different way!

3.75

This book was perfect for the Halloween season.

The Hollow sisters. When they were young, they disappeared and were found a month later- unharmed but not knowing what happened to them. Then one day, they woke up with white hair and black eyes and an uncanny ability.

This was a supernatural story. It's creepy at times. But at the base... It's a story of sisters. Their bond that is impossible to break. It's full of tragedy but they stick through it together. The end probably 15% is what made the book for me!

Romy pulled a prank in her youth that took turned into disaster. She's been carrying what she did for 12 years. She meets Heath (who she was in love with at 14 and who witnessed part of what her prank did) once again and they move to Romy's grandmother house to escape the city and the rising pandemic that's trapsing across the globe.

There she starts to be haunted by a girl with bright blue eyes who wanders outside her place at night. Is this her past come to haunt her?

I love how this book just builds and builds on the mystery of who this girl is and what she knows. It's fast paced and as the pieces come together, you realize that what Romy did is not the worst thing that happened back then.

While I appreciate the author taking The Great Gatsby (which I've never read) and making it a feminine twist in a futuristic world, I also feel that I will never want to read The Great Gatsby. I don't even know what to compare this book to .

Fern was such a boring character to me . All the "what I should have said"s and doing ANYTHING she was asked of by Ivy, I didn't like her.

Now as the ending of the story I wouldn't want to give away...I guess I understand a bit of why she was the way she was but I still didn't love this story.

I loved this latest addition to this series!

Anna is now having her first child. She should be feeling joyful all around but has creeping doubts. She had things happen early in her pregnancy that her doctor BLAMES her for (which is an utterly ridiculous thing). She is ridiculed by some for still wanting to climb while she's pregnant.

We also get Elizabeth's perspective. She has what we know now as a mental health issue but she's also ridiculed for it. I always thought it was sad back then that when someone had a mental health issue, they were just thrown into some asylum. No help for them at all, doctors just think that if they rest "it will go away".

I was so happy and proud when each of these women eventually knew ( with some love and help from others) and ultimately decided to do what they needed to do on their own to get through the trials they have.

This magical, fantastical story will stir up love in your heart.
We follow Lilah, who lived with and now has lost her Grandmother (after having lost her dad, mom, and brother Aiden in an accident). Though she's almost 18, she goes to live with a foster family (who let Lilah do her thing and don't bother her) until she ages out.

Next door, is her brother's childhood friend Joey. They immediately feel very connected to each other and start to see each other.

Then she follows Joey into a magical carnival that only is around for 9 nights every year. There she finds the sense of family that she hasn't felt for awhile.

I love Lilah. She's smart and kind. I love the connection between her and Joey, they just seem to be so right together! I was a little surprised at how it ended but it's the perfect set up for another book and that makes me so happy!

Thanks to the author for sending me a copy.

This was a great story of a little bit YA romance and mystery.

Jessica and her family move...a lot. She hardly ever sees her siblings and her parents are great but very mysterious and a little jumpy at times. She meets Aaron, who is a social outcast because of something his parents did.

They start dating and Jessica makes a friend Ally so she feels she's getting back into a normal.... Until she discovers something on her neck that doesn't have a good explanation and makes her mother seem even more jumpy.

I had quite a few theories about some things and I enjoyed getting to see things play out. Pretty good debut for a self published author.

This was a short novella, perfect Middle School read!

Imagine a town just like Stars Hollow with the same kind of people. This book made me laugh and smile.

Brady is a good kid who does something terrible accidently to a town she is just briefly visiting. As punishment, she has to stay until almost Christmas to help out at the Christmas tree farm that she almost ruined.

I love the extra ways she goes about to help this town, even when most people seem to hate her. She just thinks of them and not herself through this whole thing.

This was such a spicy story (very, very open door) but so fun. I do like retellings of Persephone and Hades.

Persephone's mother promised her to Zeus at a very public party. Persephone was months away from getting out of Olympus and so she decides to run away. She didn't except to cross over the river Styx into the myth, Hades, territory but sure did .... And finds that he's not so much a myth as real but mysterious.

They strike a bargain. Persephone is brought into Hades dark, dark world and awakens a different part of her sexuality.

The are some explicit scenes of sex, so don't read this if you don't read those.