I really enjoyed this book, it's a rom-com in the fascinating setting of public radio. 

I think the setting is really what was so intriguing to me, I've never heard of the ins and outs of public radio which helped me stay in the book. The romance was sweet, and I'm glad it took tension and it was a slow burn rather than more insta-love. 

This book was a typical rom-com for me, I really liked the love interest of this story! I didn't realize this was the second in an interconnected standalones set, so I think I would have had more context to the family relationships had I read that first. 

It's a fun, fluffy rom-com that throws two people into a fake dating scenario. Daisy is a self-described Marvel nerd that loves coding, whereas Liam is a troubled, motorcycle riding venture capitalist. Daisy holds a grudge against him for abandoning her at prom 10 years ago when he promised to be her date. Due to unforeseen circumstances, they have to keep up a fake dating/marriage scheme. 

The reason this is 3 stars for me was because I couldn't stand that the grudge and why Daisy hates Liam so much was because he abandoned her on prom. I understand I would be a bit upset about it, but she HATES him 10 years later, and holds it against him for such a long time. Also, I understand she is super nerdy and into Marvel, but it gets a bit too cringey for me. Marvel bras where they discuss what superhero is on her underwear?? Just not my thing unfortunately. 

Nineteen Claws and A Black Bird is a translated book of 20 short stories that cover the macabre and disturbing. 

With each different story spanning different ideas and plots, there were obviously some that disturbed me and left a bigger impact. My favorites included: A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound; Roberto; Teicher vs. Nietzsche; and The Solitary Ones. Some of these stories are more reminiscent of a short horror story, whereas others explore themes that are gut-wrenching. 

In general, this book is extremely disturbing and is not a book of body or gore horror, but more psychological and these stories make you think and come to the realizations, nothing is straight forward. It invokes feelings of terror and disturbance, and overall I think that's the overarching goal when reading these. Just make sure to check trigger warnings ahead of time! 

Midnight Girls is a sapphic, YA fantasy about witches that tear and eat the hearts out of princes. If you want true morally grey characters, this is it!

Marynka is the servant to one of the three different powerful witches and is at her beck and call when she asks her to bring her a prince's heart. She represents Mid-day, where the other two witches and their servants represent Morning and Midnight. Maynka has a bitter rivalry with the Midnight servant, who always beats her to the hearts, much to her grandmother/witch's chagrin. The Mid-day and Morning witch decide to partner when a Prince is discovered in the city with a pure heart, the most powerful and tastiest. Marynka and Beata (Morning servant) travel to the city, not knowing that Zosia is also going after this heart.

This was such a fun rivals to lovers story, although I wouldn't even say the whole book is romance forward. The world-building, magic, names are all Polish inspired and I listened to the audiobook and it is very evident in the writing. The magic was so fun and so intriguing with it based off the time of day! It's dual-POV, so you see both Zosia and Marynka's perspectives and the individual things they face. Zosia longs for freedom from the witches, while Marynka only wants to earn her grandmother's love.

It definitely has dark themes and content, which I love in a YA. If anything I think I would have enjoyed seeing this in a more adult setting as well. The dialogue, specifically from Marynka definitely tends to be more YA/immature. I very much enjoyed the romance, and I loved the ambiguous ending. 

Rosalina has been kicked out of Castletree and back to the mortal world by Kel after discovering he was her mate. She is now working with her father to try and get back, much to the locals chagrin, especially Lucas. He has been increasingly pressuring her to marry him, when all she wants to do is get back to her princes in the fae realm.

It was definitely nice to leave the Castletree setting and explore more of the other parts of the realm. I did discover a lot more plot holes and the magic system is not clearly defined. But I am still reading because I am excited to see the (very obvious) twists to unfold and for the romance. I didn't appreciate the time jumps too much, but I am so happy we got more depth to most of the characters like Caspian and Farron. 

After this book, I went to go to the next and found out it was going to be a seven book series?? Ahhh I wish this was all out just so I could binge through them. 

I've been really looking for a good fantasy romance and I finally found a good one! Lately I've been running into issues of overly immature main characters, but I really enjoyed Rosalina as the main perspective.

Rosalina lives in Orca's Cove with her absent father. Her father is traveling around the globe looking for a way past the "veil" that separates their world from the fae as he believes his wife was taken by the fae. Rosalina supports herself working at the local bookstore as she loves reading but is subject to the gossip of the local town. She has a toxic relationship with her ex boyfriend, Lucas, who left her when he went to college. After her father goes missing, she follows his tracks into the forest and finds herself in the fae land with her father prisoner of an intimidating fae. She offers to trade her place and finds herself stuck in Castletree.

I do think at first, there is a lot of "I'm not like other girls" and the archetype of the "badass" female MC, but I think the author really finds their footing throughout the book and I found I enjoyed the characters more. The world and plot is obviously very reminiscent of similar books like ACOTAR and similar books, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless and the tropes were well done.

It's easy to tell there are going to multiple reveals to the story and I'm excited to see them unfold.