Category: book review
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Book Review: Dominion (Triad #3) by Cari Z
Read my reviews of previous books in the Triad series: Alliance (#1) | Endurance (#2) In this conclusion to an excellent epic fantasy trilogy, Z once again pulls no punches when it comes to making things complicated for her characters on all fronts. After working so closely together in the…
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Book Review: A Dream of Flame and Shadow (Flame & Shadow #1) by L. Eveland
I was immediately intrigued by this dark fantasy, especially with the added realization as I got further into the story that the brief glimpse I had of the human realm felt so much darker than the land of nightmares. Once I encountered the twist that the lord of nightmares needs…
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Book Review: Blue Skies by Marie Sinclair
On the surface, the two heroes of this book have little in common. Though neither of them has ever had a true long-term relationship, that is more a result of facets of their characterization: Greg’s asexuality and Holden hiding his sexual orientation for so much of his life. The theme…
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Book Review: Endurance (Triad #2) by Cari Z
Read my review of the first book in the Triad series, Alliance. Though I may have felt like the romance arc didn’t get the attention it deserved in the first book of this trilogy, I was more than happy to suspend disbelief and go along with Symon, Deyvid, and Petur…
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Book Review: My Saintly Demon (Possessive Love) by R.M. Neill
I’ll acknowledge up front that I’m not usually interested in a Christianity-based religious crisis of faith by a white dude, but I offered to read this ARC after getting to know the author in a group chat. To my surprise and pleasure, Neill immediately gives the reader an explicit and…
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Book Review: Icarus and the Devil (Soul to Find #1) by Layla Reyne
The opening scene of this book is certainly memorable for being a unique way to open a story. It’s also extremely well done for how it introduces certain paranormal facets of this world without hitting the reader with too much information, then escalates quickly while continuing to drop deliciously subtle…
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Book Review: Like I Wanted (Heather Bay #5) by Charlie Novak
Read my reviews of previous books in the Heather Bay series: Like I Pictured (#0.5) | Like I Promised (#1) | Like I Wished (#2) | Like I Needed (#3) | Like I Pretended (#4) Though this book nominally stands alone, I’m glad I’ve been following along from the start so that I, too, could…
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Book Review: Edged (Trophy Doms Social Club #2) by Kate Hawthorne
Read my review of the first book in the Trophy Doms Social Club series, Humbled. I cry at a lot of things in books, but not usually until after the first third of the story or so, once I’ve established a connection with the characters. I may have met Archie…
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Book Review: Alliance (Triad #1) by Cari Z
The openings of epic fantasy stories can often be either overwhelming or too spare in the details, but Z hits the perfect balance of worldbuilding and backstory in the first chapter without any sort of info dump. I got a good sense of Symon and his immediate circumstances enough to…
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Book Review: Cover-Up (Irons and Works: Key Largo #12) by E.M. Lindsey
Read my reviews of previous books in the Irons and Works series: Free Hand (#1) | Blank Canvas (#2) | American Traditional (#3) | Bio-Mechanical (#4) | Stick and Poke (#5) | Scarification (#6) | Scratcher (#7) | Ornamental (#8) | Snakebites (#9) | Fine Line (#10) | Heavy Hand (#11) | To Touch the Light (follow-up novella) | Last-Minute Walk-In (follow-up novella)…
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Book Review: Forward Entry (Sydney Swallows #1) by Aurora Crane
Last spring, I joined a “tipping pool” with other readers of this author in picking the winning teams each week for the Australian Football League. It took me at least 3 months to figure out that the sport was not, in fact, rugby. By that point, I was committed to…
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Book Review: How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned Him to Villainy by A.J. Sherwood
This post includes reviews of all individual installments of the How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned Him to Villainy series. Miracle 1 The author admits to this project being “crack” in the back cover description, so I went in anticipating humor and ridiculousness. I was not disappointed,…
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Book Review: All I Fear (All’s Fair #2) by Abrianna Denae
Read my review of the first book in the All’s Fair series, All I Want. Though this is not always true, the found-family nature of some series means that the books are so interconnected that they cannot stand alone. While I think this novel could be read and enjoyed without…
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Book Review: Tango Down (The Renegades #4) by Cara Dee
Read my reviews of previous books in The Renegades series: Rogue Launch (#1) | Enemy Combatant (#2) | On the Double (#3) The beginning of this book directly intersects with the action-packed finale of the previous novel. It means that all the various characters I’ve come to care about, main heroes and secondary,…
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Book Review: The Courtship of Nora Fagan (A Marriage Made in Hell #1) by Michelle Renee Lane
This book is marketed as both romantic erotica and paranormal erotica. I started reading it with those genre expectations in mind, and the bad news is that is book is only one of those three things. It’s not erotica when the first kiss doesn’t occur until the 50% mark, and…
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Book Review: Salt Kiss (Lyonesse #1) by Sierra Simone
Read my review of the series prequel, Salt in the Wound. I have zero regrets about enjoying the series prequel before this official beginning to the trilogy, but I’m curious how readers who did not read it engaged with the progression of this compelling story. For me, Isolde was a…
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Book Review: Claiming Marcus (Lords of Discord #1) by Jocelynn Drake
Sometimes I get the urge to go back to my original love of my vampires, and this series by an author I already enjoy seemed like the perfect opportunity. Drake pulls no punches by introducing us immediately to (half) the main heroes, dropping tantalizing clues and setting up future conflict…
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Book Review: All I Want (All’s Fair #1) by Abrianna Denae
Denae doesn’t waste any time letting readers know what they’re in for with the start of this book. It’s a fairly brutal way to set up a romance, even a dark one. However, launching us straight into the black moment of this story sets up both main characters well, especially…
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Book Review: Patience (Damned Connections #1) by Lark Taylor
This book picks up moments after the close of the previous series set in the same world, and includes many of those previous heroes as significant secondary characters, so I’m not sure how well this book works as a stand-alone. However, as someone who did read and enjoy that previous…
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Book Review: Sentinel’s Soul (Sentinel’s Saga #1) by Kristopher L. Campa
I had the pleasure of reading an early draft of this book, but it was long enough ago that I came into the final version with mostly fresh eyes and more than enjoyed a second visit to this world. This series debut presents a fascinating urban fantasy world that separates…
