Genre: Fantasy

Review Round Up | Chasing Lucky, The Hunting Party, and How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

Posted January 1, 2021 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! I’ve pretty much loved all of Jenn Bennett’s books and this one was good! I have to say it might be my least favorite, but still a very cute, atmospheric read. Annoyingly, I can’t really put my finger on the things that bother me or prevent it from being a fave. Josie returns home to Beauty, RI (kind of like Newport, in my eyes) and encounters her long lost best friend, Lucky, after they were essentially ripped apart five years before. Josie and the women in her family are “cursed” and have bad luck with men. This didn’t really play into the story as much as I expected but was somewhat of an underlying theme. She and her mom are back in Beauty to run her grandma’s bookstore while she’s away with her aunt. It was fun to read about this coastal Rhode Island town but I didn’t get as many fun New England seaport vibes as I was hoping for? The bookstore was THERE but not as present as I would have liked either for some reason. There are a lot of plot points I didn’t expect or remember from the synopsis, if they were in there, like the breaking of a store window and a […]

Review Round Up | The Deck of Omens, You Should See Me in a Crown, and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

Posted July 22, 2020 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 2 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! I’ll be honest – I don’t have a lot to say with this one because I am the WORST and missed a lot of the book. I was rushing to finish in time for book club and listened to the audio during a work day while multitasking. I definitely understood the story and what was happening overall, but it was less impactful for me. I didn’t feel any kind of connection to the characters during this go-around. I think this was a satisfying and logical conclusion though! I enjoyed seeing where everyone ended up and how they ~fixed things~ in Four Paths. I think the main villain was a bit too obvious (not the actual motivation or anything but it was clear about a sketchy situation going on). I really loved the first book and honestly wish I took more dedicated time to sit down and physically read this conclusion. I think I would have fallen back into the world a bit better and focused on it more. I had super high hopes and expectations for this one because everyone around me online looooved it. It was super duper cute and I’m so glad we read it for book club in June! Liz decides to pursue the […]

Review Round Up | Ghosted, With Malice, and All the Stars and Teeth

Posted April 8, 2020 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! I realized I forgot to review this one after finishing so here’s a quick review from what I remember – you know my bookish memory is garbage… Thanks Goodreads for holding my initial thoughts 😉 This book was a wild ride. It spent so much of the book thinking I had everything figured out and was really pissed that it was going to be that cliche and boring. I definitely ended up being wrong! It was almost the opposite of my prediction, without getting into spoilers. There were lots of twists and turns and suspense. The beginning of the book was just okay for me. I wasn’t overly interested in the chapters that had them getting to know each other and connecting when they first met. They were only together for about a week but fell in instalove pretty quickly. I got REALLY addicted to this one, though, while trying to figure out why he ghosted her. I was racing to finish this and see how everything wrapped up. Overall, this one took a little while for me to get into because I wasn’t overly invested in the couple in the early stages, but I absolutely couldn’t put it down once the story picked up, trying to […]

Review Round Up | A Heart So Fierce and Broken, The Hand on the Wall, and Royce Rolls

Posted March 5, 2020 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! I saw some lower ratings for this one ahead of reading it and most stemmed from people thinking this would be about Harper/Rhen again. I knew what to expect going into it (Grey and another new character as the POVs) so that definitely helped with my enjoyment. Like the first one (and most fantasy books), it was a bit slow-going at first. I broke my reading up into sections to pace myself out for a week until book club’s meeting date. I do think I was a bit disappointed by this one though, and I think – like everyone else – it had to do with the characters being slightly less interesting to follow. Grey fascinated me in book one and he did keep me interested here, but Lia Mara was much less interesting than Harper was. The plot involved them, plus a few other characters, making their way to another country. I tend to enjoy books where a couple of characters go on a journey and there’s some fun magic and banter involved, but this one didn’t have as much going on for me. One thing, romance-wise, that I’ve enjoyed about these books is that they don’t jump right into loving each other (even if the […]

Review Round Up | Finale, Imaginary Friend, and Call Down the Hawk

Posted November 29, 2019 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! I had been putting off FINALE for way too long. I looked at the Monthly Motif challenge for October (“tricks and trades”) and thought it would be great for FINALE… but surely I’d read this highly anticipated release ASAP in May, right?! Nope. I don’t know – I got nervous it wouldn’t be as good as I wanted. In some ways, it wasn’t. In many ways, it was a perfect finale (pun intended for sure) to this story. I don’t necessarily think this book NEEDED to exist in a lot of ways, but I can’t fault Garber for writing it. I loved being back inside this world. I feel like Tella was again the lead character, even though this book alternated between her and Scarlett’s perspectives. Scarlett seemed to have way less chapters? Either way, it was nice to see some love triangles get resolved (a bit annoying both sisters had some semblance of them) and wrap everything up. There were some twists I didn’t see coming but didn’t fully love either. I think Garber has a really accessible writing style, especially considering she writes fantasy books. I always struggle with fantasy and can’t just sit down and read one from start to finish usually. With hers, I totally […]

#Faerieathon | Holly Black’s Queen of Nothing Release Day Event Recap and Book Review

Posted November 27, 2019 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Faerieathon Recap I’ve spent the last six months reading and rereading all of Holly Blacks novels set in or around the fae world, along with Kristin, Melanie, Jane, and Alexa. I’ve LOVED following along with everyone’s posts and watching their liveshows whenever possible. I was planning on doing reread reviews on the blog throughout the readalong but got a bit lazy. I did do reviews for the Modern Faerie Tales trilogy because YIKES and because some of them were first-time reads for me. To give a general recap on other things, I really enjoyed THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST again. It’s just so lush and atmospheric. I reread THE CRUEL PRINCE, skipped THE LOST SISTERS novella because I felt like I didn’t need it, and dove back into THE WICKED KING earlier this month. It was awesome to go back and reread the Folk of the Air books because they were even better the second time, understanding what was going to happen and anticipating all of the twists! Holly Black Event I was SO excited to see that Holly Black, true to her Massachusetts roots, was doing an event ON her release day at one of my favorite indie bookstores. An Unlikely Story is about an hour and a half away from me and is where my sister and I went to see Sarah Dessen over the summer. I decided I would leave work on Tuesday, head to the event, and take the following day off from work. I was […]

Blog Tour | Review: Glow of the Fireflies

Posted September 24, 2019 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

More purchase links: BookDepository | Kobo | Google Books | iTunes Review I’ve been really trying to move out of the contemporary romance bubble I tend to live in when reading. Magical realism is always fascinating to me and this book feels like it’s more along those lines than fantasy, because the main character discovers some magic in her hometown when she returns for the summer. I’ll backtrack a little bit: this story is about Briony, who was moved to Knoxville by her father after a fire and the disappearance of her mother. Her grandmother, years later, needs help for the summer, and she returns to Firefly Valley with her best friend Izzy in tow. She meets her childhood friend, Alder, that she doesn’t remember, and a lot of ~*magical things*~ happen from there! The main point of the story is that Briony discovers her mother didn’t abandon their family – she’s trapped in-between our world and the spirit world. The story escalates fairly quickly… the moment she arrives to Firefly Valley, she’s learning ALL the things about how magical this place is. The action started quickly and somehow she came to terms with it fairly easily? There were some interesting additions to the story in the second half, so things picked up exactly where I needed them to. The magical system and general premise of the story was pretty darn interesting, albeit a bit confusing. I’m not sure if it’s just because I’m fairly inexperienced with fantasy, though. There […]

Blog Tour | Cover Colors: The Babysitter’s Coven

Posted September 12, 2019 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 3 Comments

About the Author Goodreads | Website | Instagram I’m a YA write or die, originally from Kansas but now living in California. I’ve written for Cosmopolitan, NYLON and Seventeen, amongst other magazines, and worked with brands including Urban Outfitters, Vans and Calvin Klein. The Babysitters Coven is my first novel, but fingers crossed it won’t be my last. Blog Tour Stops September 11th The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club – Welcome Post September 12th Moonlight Rendezvous – Review + Favourite Quotes Bookmark Lit – Review + Cover Colours TBR and Beyond – Review + Playlist + Dream Cast The Reading Chemist – Review Musings From An Addicted Reader – Review September 13th Here’s to happy Endings – Review Hauntedbybooks – Review + Favourite Quotes Flipping Through the Pages – Review Phannie the ginger bookworm – Review + Favourite Quotes The Bibliophagist – Review September 14th Confessions of a YA Reader – Review + Favourite Quotes Ambivert words – Review + Favourite Quotes The Art of Living – Review Pages Below the Vaulted Sky – Review The Book Dutchesses – Review + Favourite Quotes September 15th The Book Nut – Review + Playlist Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile – Review The Layaway Dragon – Review + Favourite Quotes Kait Plus Books – Review + Favourite Quotes A Dream Within A Dream – Review September 16th Bookish Geek – Review Artsy Draft – Review + Favourite Quotes We Live and Breathe Books – Review Bookish In Bed – Review + Favourite Quotes The Desert Bibliophile – Review September 17th Wishful Endings – Review Novel Nerd Faction – Review Lili Lost in a Book – Review The Mind of a Book Dragon – Review […]

Review Round Up | Disenchanted, The Diviners, and Lair of Dreams

Posted September 11, 2019 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 1 Comment

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! I’d been meaning to work on the Tyme series for a while, after really enjoying GROUNDED. I like fairytale retellings so much and knew one or two of these books should end up on my Retellings Challenge TBR! This story followed Ella (Cinderella) as she grew close to Prince Dash Charming. They were put together on a school project and Ella shows him how important it is that local businesses use fair labor practices. This sounds a bit weird or boring for a middle grade book, I’m sure, but it was quite powerful! Meanwhile, our third POV is Serge – a fairy godfather tasked with helping children like Ella – who is trying to find his way forward. He doesn’t like the “company” he works for and wants to make his own impact somehow, helping kids who NEED help instead of those whose families are rich enough to pay for their magic. I love how this series features a lot of elements from the original tales/stories but offers a completely fresh take in general. I also love how Megan Morrison manages to take something like fair labor practices and turn it into an engaging book for young readers. It was wonderful to see Dash’s world turned upside […]

Review Round Up | A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Well Met, and We Came Here to Forget

Posted August 26, 2019 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! ARC August Edition As always with fantasy books, I kind of waited forever to read my review copy of this book. I was hoping to mix in the audiobook but I couldn’t track it down in my usual places, so I just broke up my reading and charged through. I also made sure it was both my August book club selection AND a pick for my Disney-a-thon TBR, so I would be guaranteed to have read it. I’m not 100% sure if this book is classified as a true portal fantasy, but I loved that it featured both “our world” and another fantasy world – Emberfall. It was fun to learn about that world and those who inhabit it (Rhen, Grey, etc.). The curse and Beauty and the Beast elements were really well done and more unique than the traditional Stockholm Syndrome-esque story or other retellings. I appreciated that a lot. Harper was kind of a badass main character and it was cool to read about a fantasy heroine with cerebral palsy. Like the author’s note said, she wasn’t defined by it throughout the story but there were clear mentions about how it affected her daily life. I do wish I read this all in […]