the_cover_contessa's Reviews (1.75k)

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Redhook for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
A dark academia tale filled with secrets, blood, and mystery as two girls navigate the world of poetry with their professor who is much more than she seems.
I love a good dark academic tale. Especially one filled with mystery and a bit of the paranormal. So I was excited to dive into this one to see what it held for me. I knew nothing of the background story, this being toted as a retelling of a story called Carmilla. Since I've read no other Gibson, I wasn't sure what to make of it. So I definitely went in blind and not knowing what to expect. Then I read a few reviews after I finished the book and realized that perhaps I would have benefitted from reading A Dowry In Blood first as it is the same world.
Let's start with what I enjoyed. I love a good tale told from dual POV, and this book gave us Laura and Carmilla. It was nice to see how things were progressing in the story through their eyes as their points of view were vastly different. This way of telling the story easily characterized both Laura and Carmilla. One being quite innocent while the other was much more worldly. The dynamic between the two vasillated from hatred to pure attraction.
Speaking of the romance, it was quite interesting. The book offered good sapphic representation. I have read very few books in this genre so this gave me more education in this area. The romance was fraught with tension and a push and pull between not only the main characters but the professor who tied them together. And the addition of the professor almost made it a love triangle, but not quite. It was hard to pin down exactly what we were supposed to get from the relationship between the professor and Carmilla. In all honesty, I had no empathy for the characters Gibson created. In the long run they were boring for me and I didn't feel invested to worry about what would or would not happen to them.
The pacing was a bit slow for me. I honestly felt like there wasn't much that pushed the chapters going forward for me except the fact that I was finding the story quite odd and needed to know how it would end up.
The paranormal aspect was good but didn't quite incorporate enough of the vampiric aspect I would have liked to see. One seen, at Magdelena's, a socialite of vampire society was quite interesting and brought in the vampiric world. But besides that one scene, I didn't see much world building when it came to it. But, in all honesty, you could have removed the vampire aspect and the story would have remained the same. I didn't feel like it leant anything new and exciting to the story.
Overall, I wasn't a fan of the writing or the story but it was nice enough. I think fans of gothic romance will enjoy it overall.

I'm truly thankful for the LIbby app. It allows me to listen to books at work, in my car, and at the gym.
This second book in The Kiss Quotient was one I was really looking forward to reading. I really enjoyed The Kiss Quotient with it's quirky FMC. And I truly wanted to see Khai's story. The potential to show his reactions and ways of dealing with situations was endless and a great way to show the world what someone living with Autism may be going through. It made me want everyone around him to understand him. Unfortunately, it missed the mark in many ways but mostly in the characterization of the relationship and the missed mark on the potential slow growth of the characters.
Esmerelda was interesting enough if not a little flat. And she came across as too self-depreciating for me. That is until the end when she seems to claim herself and her worth. While this was a great thing to see, I do wish it was more developed throughout the book rather than just BAM at the end. I can understand this was supposed to be an epiphany type of thing, but it just came across as not organic to me in the character's development.
Khai's character definitely shows what it is like to be locked into routines because of your disability. We saw a bit of this in the first book, so his growth as a character in this book was what I really wanted to see. In some cases I felt like he was accepting changes a little too easily given his condition, then other times you could see the anxiety such changes were producing. He definitely went through a roller coaster of emotions. And, while I wanted to see him and his potential changes happen, I just feel like the author was asking a bit too much of his character with it.
The relationship between Khai and Esmerelda developed in an interesting way. She took him totally out of his comfort zone. I enjoyed their connection at times. And at other times it just annoyed me.
I did like the continued introduction of the Vietnamese culture. I don't know anything about this culture and it's been nice learning some of that in these books.
Overall, I just felt like there could have been so much more development of the relationship between the characters. They were pretty much hot for each other from the very start and it just didn't seem right to me.
I feel like the actual book was much longer than it should have been. There were way too many scenes where we see the characters almost connecting but then not. It just felt drawn out.
I was also not a fan of the narrator. Her tone was so low through the entire book I had to really turn my volume up to understand her.
I am interested to see the direction the author will take with Quan's story.

I want to thank Wednesday Books for providing me with a print ARC of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Rune spends her days pretending to be nothing more than a ditzy socialite who turned in her witch grandmother to be purged. But underneath her vapidness, she hides her truth: she, too, is a witch spending much of her time saving other witches. She's The Cirmson Moth. Gideon Sharpe spends his days as a witch hunter; particularly hunting The Crimson Moth, who makes his job much harder. What happens when their two worlds collide in a fast paced game of cat and mouse?
I love a good enemies to lovers story. And also a good forbidden romance. The slow burn and progression always make my heart truly happy. I was excited to read this one for that one trope alone. But blend in some witchiness and I was ready to be hooked. The summary gave me some Serpent and Dove vibes, and I enjoyed that series very much. But, this one fell short of that for me in a few ways.
Rune sells herself as a foolish and featherbrained socialite looking to find her Mr. Right from the social elite. But her true reason for a match is to find someone that will help her continue to pursue her cause of saving witches, without them having any knowledge of it. Rune is much smarter than she appears to be and I like this about her. When she's with her friends, she truly no nonsense and quite intelligent in her ability to think things through and use her own witchy powers to help her cause. While these were admirable qualities, I still found her characterization and development wishy washy. I just didn't like her. I wanted to have complete empathy for her situation but I just didn't have any endearment towards her at all.
I liked enjoyed the third person dual POV. It was nice to see the story from both Rune and Gideon's POVs. I feel like they were more heavy to Rune's side, though, and would have liked to see more background on Gideon. I wanted to see him change and grow and realize his opinion on witches was not always correct. But because he was never truly introduced to this from another perspective, he just comes off as arrogant.
As for the romance, I just didn't see the true blossoming of the relationship with Rune and Gideon. It felt forced and totally unnatural. It was never going to be strong enough to last through the book because of all the secrets Rune and Gideon were keeping from each other. And, while I understood this to be part of their character development, in the end it just didn't feel organic.
I did expect the twist with one of Rune's closest confidants, though. It was very truly obvious from me since the start of the book. However, I wish there was more foreshadowing of it. I got the sense the author was trying to do this at times but it never really left me truly wondering and interested to find out if I was right.
As for the action, that was fun. We did get to see quite a few tight spots for Rune which she predictably was able to thwart. But in the end, you knew she was somehow going to be found out.
The world building was enough to make me understand the magical aspect of the book. However, I did get confused at times with the timeline. It seemed like it might have been such a short period since the witches were purged, but then it seemed like it was more in the history. I never truly understood where I was in that timeline.
I've seen some call to list this one as an NA book, but I don't think it truly is. Yes, the characters are 18-20 years old. Yes we get some sexy, mostly closed door fade to black romance. But, honestly, the maturity of the characters strikes me as YA. So I think this is a good place for it to be.
Of course the ending leaves us on somewhat of a cliffhanger, so I am interested to see where the author might take this duology and how it may end. I'm always hoping for an HEA, which did not happen in this book, but I also understand artistically sometimes that is not the right call.

This one has been recommended to me so many times I was anxious to finally jump into it and see what all the hype was about!
Stella is autistic but never wants anyone to know. She feels like it will always change how they are with her and in the past she has not been wrong. Michael is an escort who only wants to help his family and keep them out of debt. When the escort service brings these two together, because Stella wants to learn how to make it in her future relationships, the two begin to have a budding romance, which neither of them will admit to having. Will their love prevail?
I listened to this book on audio. I enjoyed it this way as I think the narrator did a good job in capturing Stella and Michael's personalities.
I was happy to see representation not only of the autistic community in this book but also of the Vietnamese culture. I do not know anything about this culture and this book brought much into perspective with that.
I loved Stella's character development. I think the author did a great job showing how her autism effected her daily life. She kept is very close to the cuff because she was fearful she would not be accepted due to her differences. For sure this is something I'm sure this community deals with on a daily basis. Her need for structure and consistency was very well done. Even in the relationship she begins to build with Michael, she needs this, as it helps her feel in control. Also, I love her braininess. She reminded me of the Ali Hazelwood STEM characters and they are some of my favorite FMC in romance.
Michael was an interesting enough character. I didn't love him. And I didn't really love him for Stella. They didn't seem to really have that organic click I was looking for. The author's choice to make him an escort was an interesting one. He notes several times how good he is at sex and how many women he's had sex with. I didn't love this. I know it was part of what made him who he was, that all he was goo for was this one thing. But overall I felt it was over the top for me. On the other hand, I loved his ability with tailoring. I did not find him all that relatable for a MMC. I truly wish that had been more central to the story, though I know the escort part was essential to how he and Stella meet.
My favorite part of this book was how the author approached intimacy. It is not your typical romance in that way. Stella's autism often times makes it hard for her to understand how intimacy works. I loved that Hoang made Michael very understanding in this way. I love how he did not judge Stella and tried to learn and understand her needs, rather than write her off as someone who could not truly feel things during the sexual process.
Despite what I've heard from others, I did not cry during this book. Not one tissue was needed. Did I get a little choked up here and there, sure. But there were no tears.  There were, however, lots of laughs. And quite a bit of family drama. This aspects rounded out the story well.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one, though not as much as I wish I would have.
Looking forward to Khai's story and seeing how the author treats his particular set of skills!

That wrapped up nice but I thought for sure it was going to end on more of a cliffhanger or something. Looking forward to reading more from this world when it comes.