sarahsbookstack's Reviews (2.55k)

Mazzy and her friend Nora like to dabble in the occult... just little spells with small successes. But when they go to a beach to perform a ritual, they find a corpse with missing hands and teeth and they become a part of a creepy cult of sisters trying to wake the dead.

I thought the girls were kind of not that smart to get more involved after finding the first body. This was just a story full of not nice feelings and the dark side of what the occult is. They have Elliot by their side who is not a believer but I think this boy was smarter than the girls and kept them safer than they would have been on their own. 

This was certainly a unique steampunk, multiverse/alien story. I didn't read the first book so I felt a little lost but wow, Constance and her crew sure are fun.

The adventures and hijinx that they got into had me laughing. This reads like it could be set in a future world but it's set before the 1900s. I think my favorite things were some of the inventions that Constance comes up with. Every woman needs a Kinetic Storm Battle Mitten to protect herself 🤣. I liked the pull that Trusdale has with Constance and their interactions are great. 

I did have a big complaint and that was hearing "Plan with a capital P" over and over again!

With Grave Birds, Dana has been solidified in my mind as one of the great Southern Gothic writers. This eerie tale of a town with its rich citizens, the Hawthorns, and secrets long buried coming to light and a mysterious stranger (Cain) that seems to have brought apocalyptic plague elements with him.. It's sure to spook and thrill readers. 

The concept of grave birds is fascinating here. They are meant to be "unfinished business" signs from those that have passed and to give our FMC, Hollis, this ability because she died for a few minutes at a young age was brilliant. We get to see the past through these birds and they help Hollis discover what she needs to take the Hawthorns down. Cain is this just unknown, puzzling MMC who you don't trust until you do. All the paranormal aspects were just top notch and I had to just stay with this book until I had devoured it all! 

Wow! I read 73% straight through in 2 hours and the rest in an hour...I need to go back and read her previous 2 books. 

Marcus and Sydney bump into each other one morning at Dunkin and decide to spend the day together and not go about their planned days. But then they get stuck in this day over and over again. 

They eventually come to realize that they might need to lean on each other as both are grieving. I think this day helps them feel worthy of being able to grieve. It helps them help each other. It's sort of amazing what breaks the cycle but also understandable. The ending is a little interesting but felt perfect the way it happened even when I might have expected another outcome. 

I was so excited to get to Nori's story because of the times I've seen her pop up in other books in this series. 

Nori has a life that she's happy with, working at the Serendipi-TEA... except for the falling in love she so badly wants. Then she starts to notice Cash Briggs, a neighbor, in mirrors with her when HE'S NOT THERE! Then she starts to really get to know him. 

Cash had a horrific thing happen to him but uses part of that experience in his job as a medical equipment rep. He did not expect Nori and what she comes to mean in his life. 

I loved Nori being a focused "single" for the dating app Swipe Right and the interesting dates she goes on but more importantly how it makes her really see herself. My heart kept falling into heartache at the situations she really wanted that kind of fell apart for awhile.

But the ending is beautiful for both of these characters. I loved the sibling relationships for both our MCs too and the laughs and love they brought

I don't think I ever want to go to Sedona if it's like in this book! 😳

Ronnie seemed so meek and just does whatever her new friend Marley says, but as you get the "before" story, you kind of understand why. But you will also be wrong if all you think is that she is meek!

I thought it was kind of cool to have The Town as a POV but it was sometimes about the bad guy (who is taking people out ) and sometimes about the ravens so it was kind of confusing calling it The Town.  I had a bit of a feeling with the outcome to the story but I was still a bit wrong and I felt a little sad about it too. 

This was a cute brother's best friend, old crush with some forced proximity mixed in and lots of laughs but also tenderness. Also their names - Lorelai and Luke? Come on, cuteness!! 

When Chicago chef Luke's dad suffers a fall, he comes back to Elk Lake to help at the family diner he wanted no part of. How best friend Noah gets him to stay in his prayers house... With his sister Lorelai who had the biggest crush on him.

I love that the forced proximity gets Luke to see Lorelai closer. She's a sweet human being who devotes her time to service and he gets to see again why Elk Lake is an amazing place to live through Lorelai's eyes. The epilogue, I could wax on about the epilogue but I can't to keep it a surprise!! But it's 👌👍💯

What a beautiful adventure, with some magical realism, that takes the MC Veronica and us to Ireland, France, Italy, and Denmark after she takes a DNA test of her heritage. 

Her younger sister arranges for the trip of a lifetime for Vero to find out what she wants of her family while also low-key working her food business. Vero ends up finding a friend (and more) in Niall in Ireland. She also gets some visions that will help her understand her lineage and even herself. 

I loved this book wholeheartedly! I just felt that I was in each place with Vero. I loved her ability and vision with food and felt the same as her family that she needed to do more with it to be truly happy. Niall was the perfect companion for her as she discovers her true self. The ending was just so perfect too! 

AJ does it again with an outstanding psychological thriller that keeps you glued to the pages/e-reader until the very end! 

While I have issues with gaslighting, I also feel that I can't just look away ..I need to find the clues to the real situation. While I had suspicions, I was always second guessing myself... Which I love. Annie is a mother with good instincts but I felt that the people in her life should have really stepped up more and not just assumed she was going crazy. 

The ending had a lot of twists that I just didn't see coming and they were all very good. 

Ok. I'm behind in the series so I don't know what has happened in the meantime between what I have read and now but I felt that there wasn't much that happened in this book 

There's Circe preparing for war on Olympus. Icarus is a captive of Poisiden because of something that happened with his dad and sister. Icarus decides to seduce Poisiden and Poisiden decides to give in for information on Circe, but also ends up liking being seduced. 

From the ending, where the trick they pulled on Circe doesn't pay off like they thought, I think there is a bigger battle of power to come in the next book.... But the ending was very anticlimactic. So I'm kind of disappointed in this but gave it 3 because I finished it.