sarahsbookstack's Reviews (2.55k)

I wasn't quite sure in the first 100 pages how I was going to feel about this one, but as soon as that (maybe a few more) page came around....I BLEW through this book.

I may not have understood all of this futuristic fantasy, but I absolutely loved the characters of Amaya, Spike, Gigi and Yunosho. The action was almost non stop and the quest that Amaya takes to find her parents and why she was abandoned in a field is otherwordly! 

All in all, I thought this was a great debut by this father/daughter writing team.

I really loved being able to get back to the Love family. 
I really enjoyed (well except for certain parts with Hugh) Laney's perspective. I felt like a proud big sister when she was finally standing up to her verbally abusive husband and doing what she wanted to do with her life.
Daniel is still just a big bully and he's pretty despicable. He does something really horrible to his family (like so horrible, I can't believe it) and it's just a really tough situation all around.

It's really nice to see the more upstanding people of the family band together against the ones that are just kind of being terrible!

The series is really a fast read and the family dynamics are just so twisty and keeps you captivated.

Ok, this book was un-putdownable! I felt like the mystery and the tension just kept ramping up until the very unpredictable end! 

I was on the edge of my seat - the mysterious emails that Natalie gets (Natalie who still has survivors guilt from the accident that caused her mother's death many years ago), the creepy/weird vibes I got from Simon, the accident in the Caribbean that gives Natalie PTSD, her interesting relationship with her stepsister Isabel... All lent to a very compelling story.

After a disaster with a former neighbor, Marjette (a Kindergarten teacher) hasn't let herself get close enough to meet her new one, Noa. Until she sees Noa day drinking on her porch and decides to go over. Turns out, these two women have a lot in common...complicated family life and having to deal with racism towards them (Noa as a Jewish woman and Marjette as a Black woman).

I love this "found family" that these two women and their children have. They help each other navigate this new friendship. 
There's a very "in your face/do whatever you have to to get what you want) school mom, Rachel. There's Max, Noa's brother, who is delicious to all women 😂. Some great side characters and some I wanted to kick lol

I had a blast reading this.

This was not a book for me. I did read 40% of it but it was too "otherwordly" for my tastes.

I will read another Barth again because I adored Hottie On Her Shelf but this half human/half angel and the Gates of Hell becoming unlocked to send all types of weird demons onto Earth just didn't float my boat.

I found Rhys to be so annoying for a half angel. He felt more 90% human and 10 % angel. I didn't like the romance blossoming out of this weirdness.

To be honest, I'm not really into books with shifters (human/animal hybrids) but I do love a good fake dating trope so that's what I was here for.

Vi is a magicless witch in a family with witchy powers. But when magic starts to manifest (finally starts more than 30 years later) she gets in trouble. She is forced to take 3 months to find a mate.... Enter her fake dating Lincoln.

Lincoln is the North American wolf Alpha who wants to change pack laws to give the pack more power of vote. He's been a pain in Violet's side since he broke her heart 14 years ago.

I liked the "hate" banter that Vi and Lincoln spar in. I liked to see Vi learn how to control her new found magic. Vi's Grandma Edie had to be my favorite character!

It was a fun witchy like read for the season!

I wasn't ready for the emotional waves this book would bring out of me!

I loved the setting of Iceland and the way the author would describe it was just absolutely breathtaking! I just felt like I could see all that was described and it makes me want to travel there now. The things I got to learn about glassblowing, through Mack in this story, were so great. It really is an impressive art form.

Now I loved the journey that our MC Cathryn goes through. Though at times it was hard to fully appreciate how she interacted with her kids, I love the growth that she experienced while away in Iceland with Mack. This story has so many emotional depths to it and the burdens that our two MCs carry with them are life altering. It was a magnificent novel that I'm so glad to have read.

This was quite unique in the way that magic is used through song. The current queen invites two from every household to a yearly event where a mage sings a song and the torture that it brings gets now ruthless every year. Many people die. They are constantly watched for any small infraction which can result in a song being sung at them. The magic songs are rarely used to help heal.

Cadence is a mage singer forced to do the queen's bidding. Remi is from a wealthy family and was once Cadence's friend as a child. When Remi and her family are threatened, she is forced by the queen to be a companion to Cadence. Little does the queen know..... People are about to come for her...

It was a nice story that was easy to get through and I feel like there should be a sequel because I want to know what happens after that ending.

I really love books about music and country music is my most loved.

I love both Clay and Annie. They both have some tragedy in their history, Annie with her parents'  famous deaths and Clay losing his brother to war. Clap is also a hot thing in the music scene but he got in trouble and needs Annie and get name on tour to help his image.

I really liked that Annie stuck to her morals and didn't want to become her parents and the mess they were. I thought she was really good for Clay though they both couldn't see it for a long time.
Clay really needed a kick in the butt most of the time but as they both fall for each other, it was so good to see the good they brought out of the other.

This was a well written, second chance romance novel!

Andi hasn't been back to her hometown for 9 years. Until her estranged father dies and she goes to attend his funeral. She hopes not to run into her old high school boyfriend (Corey) but she does. She has to learn how to get past the man that she knew as a drunk and learn about the man who sobered up and became a good person in the people's lives that she left behind.

I love how realistic this story was. I love the power of redemption and I'm sad that Andi didn't get to see it from her father. But as she learns more about him and gets close to Corey again, it's just beautiful. I didn't always agree with the choices that Andi and Corey made together that set them apart these 9 years but it's also a bit understandable.

This is the second book I've read of Casey's and I'm a fan!