soulfullyalex's Reviews (383)

 Thank you to @mybiggaybooktour and Kristin Jacques for an e-copy of this book for participation in a book tour.  

This is a book about a young Prospective of a Society that hunts and kills vampires to protect humanity, however when he arrives in Cress Haven to hunt down a fiend Johnathan Newman discovers that things are not exactly what they seem. Johnathan finds an ally in Vic, the vampire that he thought he was in Cress Haven to kill. 

Now, I am going to be perfectly honest in saying that I have loved vampires for most of my life so I am always biased when it comes to a vampire book. However, this book has me feral and in a chokehold. I absolutely adore Johnathan. He is young and has had so much trauma in his life, he is trying to prove himself to everyone around him, and honestly he could use a friend. Vic is also amazing. While he is a vampire, he is a gentleman and cares deeply for the town he lives in and the people he calls friends. 

I loved Vic and Johnathan together. Their immediate banter and Johnathan's hate for Vic is palpable and incredible. I loved seeming them work together and make a very tense truce between them. Aside from their relationship and the slow burn the absolute VIBES of this book are everything to me. I absolutely adore dark, ancient, creeping vibes that books with ancient evils have and this one gives me the vibes that the forest is always watching and the danger is bigger than originally perceived. 

I don't want to give any spoilers, but the direction that this book took was absolutely everything for me. I loved watching Johnathan solve this mystery and discover all the secrets that were being kept from him. I loved watching him learn more about himself and the horrors about the world around him. I loved the darkness and the creeping ancient forest. I loved the myths and magic that were weaved into this book. I am absolutely feral for Johnathan and Vic and I can't wait to see what happens next in this series. 

D.N. Bryn has become one of those authors that I love everything from. How To Sell Your Blood and Fall in Love is no different. 

The characters are messy and flawed. They make mistakes, do and say things they shouldn't, act before thinking. But that's what makes them feel real and honest. I'm discovering more and more that messy characters speak to me on a deeper level than characters that make no mistakes and can do no wrong. 

This book is filled with so much diversity and nuance. It's got queer rep, chronic pain rep, and nuerodivergent rep. The characters are learning and growing. The world is expanding and becoming more complicated and more interesting. I love how Vampirism is portrayed in these books. It's a scary, messy thing that leads people to treat vampires as less than human, to experiment on and exploit them. Bryn adds to the story by introducing Justin and some interesting things about him and his family. 

I will say that though this is written as a standalone in the series, you would definitely benefit from reading the first book. There were so many nods to it and little glimpses of things from the first book that really made it all feel like a world where everything is happening at the same time and influencing each other. 

I can say enough about this book. It was soft and sweet in parts, awful and anger inducing in others, infuriating and exciting. It was everything I love in a book. If you like vampires, found family, messy characters, and a whole lot of heart this it the book for you. 

Our Satyr Prince is fun and spicy first book in a new fantasy series filled with political intrigue, character motivations, and magic. 

It took me a little bit to get into this book, but honestly that could have just been because of my on and off again slump. Once I was into it though I wanted to eat it up. There was so much intrigue and I loved that both Aurelius and Teigra had motivations, plans, and desires they wanted to achieve. There was honestly so much tension between them as the story went on that it made me just want to keep reading to find out what happened. 

I really loved all the mysteries and hidden secrets throughout the story as well as all the interactions between the characters. 

There was just so much left unexplained and unfinished that I am desperate to get my hands on the second book and find out what happens next for Aurelius, Teigra, and Calix! If you like political intrigue, mystery, magic, and romance this is definitely the book for you! 

Thank you so much to the authoe for an eARC of this book!

 

I really adored this book! I loved that Gina and Marek started off with a one night stand and somehow got into something more. For starters, the spice was great. I also loved how they were both very open about their sexualities. I loved that they both just expected for this to be a short vacation fling and when Marek continued to stay because he just enjoyed the town.

I really enjoyed watching Marek be completely adorable and helpful around town. He is just a big softy and he just wanted to help the people around him. It was also really sweet watching him be concerned about how Gina would feel about him being around town and not wanting to seem creepy. I honestly loved the dynamic between Marek and Gina. Their back and forth feelings and banter was great.

I also loved Gina’s relationship with her aunt and her aunt was a great character. She was witty and funny. It was also so funny that everything Marek and Gina did together got around town so quickly. I loved that small town vibe and how awkward they were, but how much they wanted to keep seeing each other.

Overall, this was a lot of fun and really sweet. I adored it. 

 

This is the third book in the Clover Hill Romance Series I’ve read and so far they have all been really sweet stories! I still have more to go and I’m excited to read the rest of them! A Milky Way Home is a really sweet story about Tourist Yen-Chen who makes a stop in Clover Hill to visit his friend and then ends up falling in love. With the town and with Florence.

I honestly felt like this was a really sweet story. It’s soft and full of really sweet and honest moments between Yen-Chen and the people that will become his found family. I loved seeing him get to know the people his best friend spends time with and cares about. It was nice seeing him get to know people and the town while he visited. I also liked how he and Florence took their time to get to know each other and didn’t rush into anything.

It was really nice seeing the entire queer cast, and having two main characters that were demiromantic and demisexual. It was a really nice story about two people having common interests and opening up to each other, which I really enjoyed. If you like food in your books, this one was full of really incredible sounding food and drinks. I am not a boba fan, but the whole boba scene was honestly super sweet. I loved that Florence and Yen-Chen bonded over food and their love for Milk Puff.

Overall, this is a really sweet romance about found family, following your heart, and opening up to the people around you. 

 

Tell Me How It Ends is a cozy, exciting, and heartfelt fantasy story about friendship, going out on your own, and discovering your own power. One of the things that really stuck with me about this book was Iris and Marin’s friendship. I loved that they immediately clicked, but that it took some time for Iris to really understand and trust Marin’s interest in being friends with her. I also really enjoyed that Iris just accepted Marin’s antics and behaviour even if sometimes it confused her or she wasn’t sure of the intention behind it.

I really liked that this was a story about found family and learning to trust the people around you and develop a level of care and desire to work together and help one another. Iris didn’t have to go along with Marin’s plot and the plan to try to save the prisoner in question, but she did, despite it being vastly different from what she expected of her life. It was nice to watch her grow and discover new things about herself over the course of the story.

I think that this was a great first book in a fantasy series and I can’t wait to see how the story and characters progress. I think for me the characters were a lot more gripping than the plot was. I really wanted to just watch how the friendships developed and how they got to know each other and got closer to each other. I can’t wait to see how this story continues as the series goes on. It was really nice to see a story that focused on building and strengthening friendships between the characters. 

 

Oh where do I even start with this book? This is gothic sensual decadence in all it’s glory. This is delicious and delicate and bloody and raw in all the best ways possible. It is filled with devotion and strength. Leon and Claire are incredible characters. The way they play off each other and how they interact is amazing. I loved how the author played with gender here. Claire is strong and blunt, she is a take no prisoners person, but also knows the safety of having her husband at her back. Leon is quiet and shy at times, he’s a chaotic bisexual flirt and he loves wearing gorgeous silky robes and dresses. It was so refreshing seeing characters be completely accepting of each other and their needs and desires.

This book is all about desire and revenge and freedom. It’s about accepting your darkest fantasies and being empowered to act on them. It’s about being given the opportunity to take revenge on the people who hurt you and making the choice to become the person you need to, to make them pay. It’s also about the people that support you and are nonjudgmental about your desire for revenge and blood.

I loved this take on vampires. It was so gothic and dark, but also sensual and delicate. I loved that vampirism wasn’t something scary and detestable, but was something that would provide safety and security and freedom. I loved the look at exploring yourself and your desires, and that what you want in life and love may look different than you expected, but that it’s valid and lovely and happy in it’s own way.

If you like vampires, romance, spice, emotions, and revenge this is the book for you.