I heard mixed reviews on this book, but I found it very enjoyable! I really liked the ages of the characters not ending in teen for once. We need more of this in books. 

I liked the premise and found the lore of the house to be slightly, Winchester inspired with it being labyrinth-esque and there being no descerabrle floor plan. I really liked the children’s book inspired world of Otherland and a bit disappointed that we saw so little of it. The creepiness of the monsters that come with the mist was great but kind of background, i would have loved more descriptions of the different kinds of monsters that E. Starling dreamt up. 

I don’t think i still fully understand why Gravely Power wanted the Starling House/land so much other than pure greed?

Happy that the Liz woman is dead, I hated her so much.

I think towards the end there was a few plot points competing with each other and some parts were repetitive or disjointed, like the finding out about their Gravely last name and the lore of the Starlings. 

Jasper already knew about the last name when Opal told him so I don’t know why he acted like he didn’t. And we got told about the Starlings twice, once from Jasper and then again later with pretty much the same info, which felt unnecessary just to be told the wards are dying quicker which we also already knew from Arthur. But i liked the found family and talks of grief because it was very realistic. The romance was nice and not insta-love which I appreciated.   

This was a really cozy read! I read this in the background to my other reads. I loved the vibe and atmosphere of this book, it was very cozy and whimsical. 

The characters were all so lovable and amazing, even with those we didn’t spend much time with some of them, none felt flat or one dimensional. The found family in this was so heartwarming, i loved how the town warmed up to Emily and Wendell over the book. 

I loved Emily being autistic coded so outwardly in the book. It was very refreshing to see. 

Wendell as described, was charming and adorable.. Even with his flaws, or when he was being an ass, you can’t stay mad at him somehow. 

I loved the Fae and learning about them, it was very nostalgic feeling. Poe was the cutest thing ever! I loved that he found someone in the end and I hope we see him again. The changeling was very interesting and i totally relate to Emily’s scholarly interest in him. The king I have mixed feelings about because i think he had well meaning intentions but he was extremely entitled to getting what he wants being a king and all, and clearly doesn’t understand the word ’no.’ 

And Shadow, oh my goodness, I love him so much. 

I am looking forward to the next book and more of Emily and Wendell’s story and adventures. I am interested in seeing Wendell’s homeland soon.

I loved this book! I will be reading this author’s other books now. 

This was an amazing audiobook! The narrator did a phenomenal job and their voice was super calming/relaxing. 10/10 recommend. 

I was expecting this to be completely contemporary but was pleasantly surprised by the voodoo curse. I loved the historical tie in of Ezra’s life in the 1920’s and how it intertwined with Ricki exploring Harlem and its roots. I do with there was a bit more of this overall in the book as it was very fun to see the music scene at the time. 

I loved all the characters and their backstories, Della wormed her way into my heart from the start! She is so cute i love her. Ricki was very relatable and i liked her story of pushing past family expectations in her own way. Tuesday was really fun but you could see that she did have hidden trauma that she used her personality to shield. I was but expecting the Polish in there btw. The only thing i am hung up on is Ezra buying the nude painting of Ricki because as i understand why he did it, its still a little creepy as he had only seen her once in person. 

The ending of the curse felt a little easy in my opinion but Della’s words and epilogue in the end made up for it because it was really sweet. The way they had planned would have had more impact and been much sadder. 

I enjoyed this sequel! I really liked seeing the characters and how Ambrose and Kodiak grew into fatherhood. I liked seeing the planet again and it evolved as well. 

Owl was a very relatable character and i appreciated the mentions of her cycle, which is usually absent in fantasy/sci-fi books. The sibling bond with her and Yarrow was really cute and i really hope it can be repaired once they fix Yarrow. 

I did not expect Devin to be the hidden villain in this with poisoning the embryos of the children and animals before the mission. 

Seeing the characters before the mission was fun because you saw a different side of them from how their clones acted on the ship, i think Ambrose acted more differently than Kodiak did. Its felt like Kodiak just grew into himself rather than act different. 

I liked that Ambrose and Kodiak got together on Earth as well as their clones wondered if they would even spare a second glance at each other.

I also did not expect for the war to break out that fast on Earth as on the ship it felt like it had happened over a couple of years rather than right away.. 

I am not too fond of ambiguous endings. I felt as though the ending felt unfinished and the mentioning that Owl is related to/a descendent of Minerva felt a little random and just to tie it to the first book.  

I enjoyed this book as part of the series but not on its own, probably my least favorite out of the three. This was disappointing as it had one of my favorite tropes of when one character helps the other sick/injured character.. 

i liked the concept of Rose but i feel like her execution was not done well. It was a fun idea that she was a serial killer but like bad at it, but it should have been incorporated more because after the guy in the truck it was not done/shown again too much and the plot became about their ‘friends with benefits’ arrangement heavily. I liked that she went after abusive men like a kind of Dexter. Also Rose was portrayed as strong and independent but Fion was always saving her, and i didn’t like that. Its one thing for a character to learn to accept help but this was solely saving her from her situations.

Fion was alright, i liked him but i also did not connect to him too much. He did have some depth to him which i liked.

I felt bad when he got caught up with the contract killer Lochan was under.

This was a small let down with the high of the last book, i expected it to be even better than Leather & Lark but unfortunately it was not. This book would have fit better as the second book than the third in my opinion. 

I really liked this book unexpectedly, i picked it up on a whim for February as a cute romance. I was not disappointed!

I really liked both characters and their personalities, i kind of with we saw more of Sam being a fire fighter over him running for mayor. The two together kind of made no sense to me. 

I felt bad for Piper as she is the “eldest daughter TM” with her NINE siblings and one on the way like OMG. Her mom is insane for not using any birth control at all, especially after starting her career and idk maybe  by kid 5? Piper was right to yell at her for parentifying her and having her take care of her younger siblings all her life. And i did notice that there was no mention of her brothers helping much  but in fact actively avoiding helping.. 

i really liked the childhood friends/first relationship aspect, one of my fav tropes. The banter between them was fun and teasing, i loved the forced proximity. The tension you could cut with a knife, the narrators did an amazing job exuding this in each of their chapters and it never felt disjointed. The spicy scenes were the same, HOT! The tension was amazing and the peak with being stuck in the storm was perfect! You could tell the characters had that history between them and never got over each other and everything came to a boiling point. The proposal was very cute!

 I really hope they do not have kids tho, Piper needs a break!

I originally DNFed this one after losing interest last year and picked it up again after enjoying the first and wanting to finish the duo. 

I didn’t hate this sequel but it wasn’t better than the first. It felt like there was two plot lines fighting for attention in this book. 

The caring for princess Charlotte plot line was ok, the most interesting part was Hazel’s relationship with the royal doctor/physician.

I wish she had more time to explore that relationship even as friends after she rejected his proposal. Other than him and Eliza she is pretty isolated outside Jack and her patients. I liked Hazel and the doctor figuring out George was being poisoned with mold as a team. The tie together with the leader ofCompanions to the Death being the one poisoning felt very weak and left a plot hole of who she was working with inside the court/castle.

 

I liked the og plot brought over from the first book much more but it wasnt better but much less satisfying than i wanted it to be, i need Beacham incarcerated at least. 

I liked that Hazel got back together with Jack but i do not like how he treated her when he came back. Their wedding was very cute and

Hazel drinking the tincture showed how much she loved Jack as she never wanted to become immortal. Kinda spoiled it by Beacham telling her it was impossible to reverse.

I thought i liked the first in the series but THIS one was amazing! The first was more plot forward and felt more typical contemporary with the characters but this one was the opposite. This one almost felt like it was written by a different person, the characters had so much depth to them! The first relied more on stereotypes and their personalities were kinda surface level. I loved Lochlan and Lark even when i wasn’t expecting to. I loved seeing their past struggles and how it was still affecting them. Lochlan immediately trying to help Lark with her things and insomnia while shes trying to shut him out was sweet, you could see that Lochlan cared for her even when trying to not like her, and even when trying to seem tough on the outside. 

Even if the plot went a bit background it was still good, left some suspense leading up to it and Abe left me each time with an ominous feeling. The hitman jobs and killing were the perfect amount and didn’t get in the way of the characters. Loved the idea of Lark making her trophies/victims into arts & crafts. 

The only thing that bugged me was that we didn’t see much of Lark’s career, we got told about her with the band and mysic therapy but not really shown it outside of her writing her own songs and the one performance. I did really like that the barrator for Lark actually sang tho! And the bonus scene at the end was unexpected but enjoyed.

I really liked this book! It was so fun from the start, and my favorite, the audiobooks are dual narration! 

I always like to read unconventional love stories during valentines as contemporaries are year round. I really liked their banter and teasing and wish there was more, like more rivalry as they were in competition with each other. This did end up leaning a bit more contemporary towards the end so i am glad they brought back some plot at the very end so that the characters didn’t feel as they abandoned their ‘craft’. I liked the slow burn of their relationship but i wish we had more detail as i didn’t notice 4 years had passed until it was said. 

The spice was great and did feel like it was them finally breaking and allowing themselves get together.  

I would have liked a little more murder couple when they did get together but the opening of Butcher & Blackbird was really cute, as was the tattoo of the blackbird.

I do believe the trigger warnings were a bit excessive but better to safe than sorry ig. 

I was excited to read this as i heard so many good things about it. It did live up to the hype. 

I liked the characters and they’re individual struggles, they felt very real. The workplace was also realistic which i appreciated. 

The relationship itself was fun and flirty, i would have liked a little more rivals and teasing as their banter was fun. No third act break-up was really nice and they ACTUALLY communicate? Give me more pls.

Spice was nice but the narrators kinda took me out of it. 

But as it happens, the narrators were the problem for me once again. Noah’s narrator was really breathy, although this was somewhat fixed by the 1.75x speed, but she was also softer spoken which was difficult to follow along without devoting all attention to what was being said. Sage’s narrator was fine for the characters voice but made Noah’s voice growly and ugly for no reason as other fem voices by this narrator were all fine. It was irritating as it felt the narrators didn’t communicate/ listen to what the other was doing.

This knocked the rating down for me .25 stars and i really with it wasn’t the case, dual narration would have been perfect for this book!