#BookReview: The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

Synopsis: A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and The Atlas Six who are hungry for something a little more diabolical.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled. 

But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.

Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?

#BookReview: Between These Broken Hearts (These Hollow Vows, #4) by Lexi Ryan

Synopsis: Forbidden romance, mysterious prophecies, and the battle to save the fae realm come to a captivating conclusion in the #1 New York Times bestselling saga begun with Abriella in the These Hollow Vows duology and continued with Jas and Felicity in Beneath These Cursed Stars.

Princess Jasalyn has eleven days to live.


Jasalyn is facing the repercussions of a deadly bargain. Her life, and the future of the shadow court, are forfeit on her birthday unless she can stop the evil fae king Mordeus. She needs to face her greatest fears and find him before she runs out of time, but even after everything, Kendrick won’t let her face this alone.


Shape-shifter Felicity has vanished.


Felicity disappeared from King Misha’s dungeons, and her friends have been searching for her to no avail. But even if she’s found, Felicity will never be able to escape the oracle’s tragic prophecy for her and her family. In her lonely battle with fate, Misha is the last person she can ask to stand by her side, but the first one she’ll need.

#BookReview: Roll for Romance by Lenora Woods

Synopsis: Two fledgling tabletop gamers find themselves falling for each other—both in and out of their weekly D&D sessions—in this charming, fantasy-tinged romance.

For years, Sadie Brooks has declined her best friend’s standing invitation to join his Dungeons & Dragons campaign. But when she unexpectedly loses her marketing job and flees New York City to spend the summer with him in small-town Texas, she also runs out of excuses to say no.

In the game, she becomes Jaylie, a powerful and self-assured human cleric blessed by the Goddess of Luck with spells to heal her companions. But in real life, Sadie believes her luck has run out, and she hopes the distraction will give her time to clear her head and plan next steps.

She never expected Noah Walker—the handsome, outgoing bartender roped into joining them—to factor into that plan. Like Sadie, he’s new in town. But with a taste for adventure, Noah never stays in one place for long. He’s something of a traveling bard—just like his character Loren, the charismatic, lute-strumming elf. While Jaylie finds herself succumbing to the bard’s charms over the course of their party’s travels, Sadie also begins to fall under Noah’s spell.

As their relationship progresses in both worlds, Sadie can’t help but wonder if they might last beyond the game. But when a surprising new opportunity opens in New York, she must face the truth about why she lost her job in the first place—and whether she and Noah have found something in Texas worth staying for. Torn between her career dreams in the city and the exciting uncertainty of a new adventure, she will have no choice but to roll the dice.

#BookReview: As You Wish by Leesa Cross-Smith

Synopsis: They say be careful what you wish for…

For Lydia, Jenny, and Selene, au pairing in Seoul is the opportunity of a lifetime. Lydia wants nothing more than to transform into a leading lady; Jenny is determined to swear off love for good 5,955 miles away from her ex; and Selene is convinced working in Korea will finally lead her to her biological mother.

During a combined family vacation with their host families, the women visit an enchanted waterfall on Jeju Island and make a wish under a full moon. Overnight, everything changes. Suddenly, Lydia is the girl everyone wants—except, strangely, her mysterious art class partner from Spain. Jenny is having secret, no-strings-attached fun with her host mom’s irresistible younger brother. And Selene is finally getting somewhere in her search for her mother thanks to a research-savvy photographer.

But when Jenny’s romantic feelings begin to deepen, she realizes her wish is standing in the way of true, lasting love. Her decision to return to the waterfall will have unexpected consequences and force the au pairs to confront a new question altogether: Could it be that their friendship was the real magic all along?

#BookReview: We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon

Synopsis: Sweet Tooth meets The Raven Boys in this queer young adult contemporary fantasy about what it means to belong from H.E. Edgmon.

You can never go home…

Every day, all across the world, inhuman creatures are waking up with no memory of who they are or where they came from–and the Caravan exists to help them. The traveling community is made up of these very creatures and their families who’ve acclimated to this new existence by finding refuge in each other. That is, until the morning five teenage travelers wake to find their community has disappeared around them overnight.

Those left: a half-human who only just ran back to the Caravan with their tail between their legs, two brothers–one who can’t seem to stay out of trouble and the other who’s never been brave enough to get in it, a venomous girl with blood on her hands and a heart of gold, and the Caravan’s newest addition, a disquieting shadow in the shape of a boy. They’ll have to work together to figure out what happened the night of the disappearance, but each one of the forsaken five is white-knuckling their own secrets. And with each truth forced to light, it becomes clear this isn’t really about what happened to their people–it’s about what happened to them.

#BookReview: The Bounty of Blood and Nails by N.K. Brown

Synopsis: Tam is a heartless, ruthless bounty hunter—or so her handler would have you believe.

With her ability to use forbidden blood magic, Tam tracks and captures her prey. The same blood magic that curses her to a life of servitude under a cruel handler—one wrong move and not only her life, but her family’s will be at stake. But when she’s sent to a remote, superstitious northern town where even a glimmer of magic will send you to the gallows, she’s forced to confront the darker consequences of her work.

After the murder of her bounty, innocent townspeople are blamed—and Tam’s conscience begins to stir. But there’s no turning back. Her handler raises the stakes, and her next mission is even more infiltrate the royal castle and capture the enigmatic Prince Bellinor. Disguised as a maid, Tam is drawn into a world of deadly secrets, where her words are whispered into the prince’s ears through an ancient magic she’s never faced before.

To get close to the prince, she befriends his loyal bodyguard, Clement, but the deeper she digs, the more she realizes that Clement’s destiny is tied to the prince. With time running out and the castle tightening, Tam is forced to watch the trial of the people blamed for her own prior actions. But will she complete the mission—or risk it all as she falls in love with the person whose life she must destroy?

In this fast-paced, thrilling tale of magic, betrayal, and forbidden love, Tam will have to decide if being the bad guy is worth losing everything.

#BookReview: The Night King’s Court by Elisa A. Bonnin

Synopsis: Caraval meets Flowerheart in this rich and immersive cozy fantasy, where dazzling magic, lush descriptions, and a sweet sapphic romance cast an irresistible spell. 

Ida’s father went missing without a trace seven years ago, last seen at the court of the enigmatic Night King, which comes to life only after dark with magic and revelry.

So when a position opens up for a new court Luminaire, Ida doesn’t hesitate. She inherited her gift for enchantments from her father—and with this position, she’ll use it to find him again.

Ida is swept into the king’s collection of magical beings, those who bring light and entertainment to the Court’s midnight gatherings—and swept away by the Court, where faerie gardens edge into underwater masquerades, dreaming revels offer blissful escapes, and life is a mesmerizing euphoria.

Yet a sinister thread interrupts Ida’s nights of decadence. Memories go missing, the castle’s magic takes on a malevolence, and Ida can’t seem to leave the boundaries of the court itself.

Enlisting the help of the king’s breathtakingly beautiful daughter Lenore, Ida must unravel the castle’s secrets… before this enchanted world destroys her.

#BookReview: A Botanist's Guide to Rituals and Revenge (A Saffron Everleigh Mystery, #4) by Kate Khavari

Synopsis: Brilliant botanist Saffron Everleigh faces her hardest challenge yet when she returns to her childhood home in the fourth book in the charming Saffron Everleigh mystery series. 

“A cleverly plotted puzzle” (Ashley Weaver) in the vein of Opium and Absinthe, this is perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Sujata Massey.

Saffron Everleigh returns to Ellington Manor after her grandfather suffers a heart attack. Back in her childhood home for the first time in years, Saffron faces tense family relationships made worse by the presence of the enigmatic Bill Wyatt, hired on as a doctor to the ailing Lord Easting. But the man is no doctor—in reality, he is a mysterious figure involved in the trafficking of dangerous government secrets, and his presence at Ellington can only mean trouble.

When their neighbors, the Hales, invite a spiritual medium into the village who starts angling for Saffron’s mother’s attention, Saffron realizes that there is more afoot in her hometown than she originally thought. Not to mention inviting Alexander to Ellington has put their budding relationship under her family’s microscope.

As tensions rise at Ellington, Bill demands that Saffron hand over old research documents belonging to her late father. With her relatives under his power as their ‘doctor,’ Saffron fears she may be forced to surrender the files along with her hopes of ever understanding her father’s obscure legacy. Nothing and no one is as they seem at Ellington. It’s through the perfumed haze of the séance’s smoke that Saffron must search for the truth before it’s too late.

#BookReview: The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten

Synopsis: Scream meets The Guest List in this wickedly compelling and compulsively page-turning thriller of friendship and murder from the author of The Lost Village, Camilla Sten.

On a remote, craggy island nestled off the coast of Sweden, four friends—Tilly, Anna, Linnea and Evelina—meet every year. Best friends since childhood, the idea is to drink beer, dance by the water, and shake off the weight of life's expectations. The location of the island is a secret to everyone but them. One night of reckless fun and secret-sharing, and then they return to their normal lives.

Ten years later. Ever since she was a teenager, Tessa Nilsson has been consumed by the story of four friends who disappeared on their annual trip to a remote island together. As her true crime fervor turned into a wildly popular podcast, Tessa urgently covered Sweden’s most gruesome cases, but could never find the answers behind what happened to these women who disappeared, leaving a few maddening clues but no concrete answers. Now Tessa’s podcast has crashed and burned, any chance she had at uncovering the truth vanishing with it.

Anneliese is Tessa’s best friend, and before she walks down the aisle, she wants to have a bachelorette party. The Baltic Vinyasa, a sleek, sophisticated yoga retreat on a small island off the coast—one with such similar characteristics to the tragedy years ago that it raises the hair on Tessa’s neck. The idea is to drink gallons of cava, do sunrise yoga, and get in their last chance to bond with the bride. Tessa will not pass this up. It’s her last chance to find out what happened to the four women, once and for all.

And it’s someone else’s last chance to get revenge.

#BookReview: Whisked Away (Jewels of the Nine Kingdoms, #1) by Enola M. Douglas

Synopsis: Escape doesn’t always mean freedom…

When Princess Reiyana unexpectedly presents as an Omega at age twenty, her future is no longer her own. Once a Beta with dreams of love and adventure, she is now a political prize—coveted by Alphas across the Nine Kingdoms.

But two half-brothers change everything.

Prince Kaelendrin and Prince Alarik of Asadia enter the royal tournament to claim her hand. Their strength and charm awaken something forbidden within Reiyana, unraveling not only her carefully guarded heart but also the beliefs she’s clung to her entire life.

Determined to reclaim control of her fate, Reiyana plots her escape. But betrayal leaves her stranded in a world where power is reserved for the chosen few—and no position is more perilous than that of an Omega. Now, she must navigate dangerous alliances, confront hidden truths, and embrace the desires she’s long denied—before her destiny is decided for her.

Whisked Away is a why-choose omegaverse romantasy filled with secrets, power struggles, and slow-building passion. It is Book One in the Jewels of the Nine Kingdoms series.

While this series explores shared love, there is no M/M romance between the brothers.

#BookReview: The Promised Queen by Kate Johnson

Synopsis: In a world without magic, only the cunning survive…In a realm where magic has vanished and a kingdom teeters on the brink, Ember Hart, a master thief with a hidden past, is thrust into a strange new world and a destiny she never sought. Anointed as ‘the Promised One’, she is bound by a twister prophecy into an unholy union with the kingdom’s beastly prince. Rumours of his brutality haunt the palace halls.

But Ember is no sacrificial lamb.

Forming a precarious alliance with the dangerous Rhaell, Captain of the Guard, Ember seizes the chance to return home by helping to restore the kingdom’s lost magic. In this land of danger and desire, can she reclaim her freedom or, with every barb and bated breath, will her growing awareness of Rhaell risk everything she yearns for?

#BookReview: Not So Fast (Fast Track, #1) by Karen Booth

Synopsis: It’s Formula One—getting revved up is all part of the fun in this sizzling high-octane rom-com for fans of Rush and The Hating Game.

When the curves are  this  dangerous, only a race car driver will do…

Mia Neal is a champion overthinker. Find something, fixate on it and spiral down. Fortunately, she puts that energy to good use: in a podcast about Formula One, her favorite sport in the world. There’s nothing about racing Mia doesn’t adore. The speed. The drivers. The fierce competition. The single-minded ambition. Ironic for a woman who’s changed careers more times than she can count.

Only now her salty takes on gorgeous Brit driver Xander Bishop have gone viral, and the podcast feels more and more like what she’s meant to do… Then Xander’s teammate invites her to the Miami Grand Prix to see F1 up close—and get in Xander’s head. He’s not exactly delighted at all the shade she’s been throwing his way.

It should be all-out war. Instead, Mia and Xander are stunned by the sudden crackle of…something sexual arcing between them. It’s irresistible, unbelievably hot—all Mia’s warning flags are waving. Because this reckless attraction is coming at Mia all too fast…

#BookReview: What Sleeps Within the Cove (Of Flesh & Bone #4) by Harper L. Woods

Synopsis: From the New York Times bestseller, Harper L. Woods comes a brand new, highly anticipated novel in her Of Flesh and Bone series, What Sleeps Within the Cove.

Once, I bartered my soul for my mate.

Offering Mab my bound allegiance was the only way to save Caldris’s life—the only bargain I could make to keep us both from the Void. After cruelly murdering the King of Summer, her own brother, Mab became unhinged and there was no telling what she would do. Caldris is safe for now because of my sacrifice, but at a cost. Queen Mab only wants one thing from me.

Then, I was banished to Tartarus, from where few ever return.

Mab has demanded a tribute—a snake from the crown of Medusa. Navigating through the horrors of Tartarus, I must pass the Trials of the Five Rivers to prove my worth to the primordials and steal the unthinkable. All without my magic.

Now, I must embrace my darkness, my past.

To survive, I must discover who I am—who I’m fated to be. Human, and Fae, and something… other. Embracing all the sides of magic, light and dark, is the only way to escape Tartarus and get back to Caldris. I will save him, the Fae, and the humans from Mab.

Even if it kills me.

#BookReview: A Favor Owed by Marisa Calcara

Synopsis: To everyone else, I look like just another struggling law student. Out here in the dry, sleepy California town of Dos Torres, I’ve got a job serving tables, a cheap (some would describe it as “decrepit”) rental, and every day is a lesson in survival.

No one would ever know that last year, I lived in a mansion in New York, everything I wore was high-end designer, and I had everything I could ever want. And the cost of it all? Knowing that my family—my own dad—committed unspeakable crimes for everything we had.

I’m a former “mafia princess” with a debt to pay to society. No one in “the family” knows where I am or what I'm doing. And they can’t ever find out.

Only now a complication has entered my already too-complicated life—and he’s tall, fit, and has a boy-next-door grin that invites trouble. He has no idea who he’s falling for…or that just being seen with me could get him killed.

But apparently I’m not the only one who’s good at lying—because he’s hiding one hell of a secret, too.

#BookReview: The Vengeance (The Vampires of Dumas #1) by Emma Newman

Synopsis: Morgane grew up at sea, daughter of the fierce pirate captain of the Vengeance, raised to follow in her footsteps as scourge of the Four Chains Trading Company. But when Anna-Marie is mortally wounded in battle, she confesses to Morgane that she is not her mother.

The captain of the enemy ship reveals he was paid to kill Anna-Marie and bring Morgane home to France and her real family. Desperate to learn the truth about her lineage, Morgane spares him, leaving the Vengeance and everything she knows behind.

Her quest reveals a world of decadence and darkness, in which monsters vie for control of royal courts and destinies of nations. She discovers the bloody secrets of the Four Chains Trading Company, and the truth about her real mother’s death, nearly twenty years before...

#BookReview: All We Lost Was Everything by Sloan Harlow

Synopsis: A sexy, dark romantic thriller—with a shocking twist—by the author of Everything We Never Said.

River Santos is stuck—in her job at the diner, in her dead-end town, in her grief. Her father died in a house fire just a few months ago, her mother has been MIA for nearly a year, and the only people she can count on are the aunt she lives with and her best friend Tawny. 

Things feel like they’re turning around when Logan—the hot guy at the diner who’s always ignored her—seems interested. It’s complicated by her ex-boyfriend Noah, who she really needs closure with, and the fact that Tawny doesn’t think either of them is good enough for River… but the tension between River and Logan can’t be denied.

But love takes a backseat when new information surfaces about the fire. After all these months trying to move forward, River is forced to rethink everything… including the idea that maybe it wasn’t an accident after all. But who would commit this deadly act? And why?

River isn’t sure who to trust or who to turn to, but she needs to figure it out, fast. Because someone has more than love on their mind. They want revenge.

#BookReview: Yours to Take (Twisted Origins #1) by Vera Kane

Synopsis: It’s all fun and games until someone falls.

Quentin:

They took my little sister from me and now my every thought revolves around getting revenge. It’s my sole purpose for living.

The sweet caress of the blade in my hand drowns out the remnants of my soul screaming that Portland's scumbags are not my fucking problem. But they are and I have made it my mission to eradicate these assholes from the streets. Vengeance has no time for distractions.

That is, until I meet Anora, the woman who is so focused on being my salvation, that she hasn't realized being with me can only lead to her demise. Could she be the one to get me to walk away from this life?

Anora:

Men in this city suck. I design clothes for the crème de la crème of Portland. Between their connections, the dating apps, and city life, surely I would have met my match by now. But, no, I’ve been on the worst dates with what feels like every man in this damn city. Not one of them has come close to giving me butterflies…until now.

Quentin Thorne, with just a little work, could be the perfect guy for me. A Prince Charming in the making. Whether he wants to be or not.

Little do I know, he's far from a Prince Charming, more like the evil, masked villain lurking in the corner waiting to whisk away the heroine. Can our relationship survive his secrets when he takes off his mask?

#BookReview: Cross My Heart by Esha Patel

Synopsis: The perfect fake-dating college sports romance for fans of Bal Khabra and Hannah Grace

May Velasco has always wanted to be a lacrosse player, and she’s finally achieved her joining her college team on a scholarship. Now she's got to give her all to keep her hard-fought place on the team.

But then CJ "Colt" Bradley shows up at her college to help with training. He's a professional player, but he was also her grade school nemesis, and the last thing May wants to do is take pointers from him.

So when they're photographed having what looks like – but definitely isn't – an intimate moment at a bar, May's outraged. But the college is thrilled that women's lacrosse is getting press.

May and Colt will have to pretend they're dating until the lacrosse team is happy. But it doesn't take long before this fake relationship starts to feel all too real, and May begins to question if she really wants this relationship to be fake after all…

#BookReview: Destructively Mine (Webs We Weave, #2) by Krista Ritchie & Becca Ritchie

Synopsis: Ex-grifter Phoebe Graves’ new life threatens to come crashing down around her in the next novel of the Addicted series.

As the daughter of a con artist, Phoebe Graves only knew a life of swindling the rich until her best friend and fellow grifter, Hailey Tinrock, proposed an idea to start a new, honest life in a wealthy college town of Connecticut. Once there, they decided to leave behind their deceitful tricks and be truthful for once. But you know what they say about best intentions. . . .

While Phoebe is fake-dating Jake Waterford, the third-born son to an uber-wealthy and influential family, she’s actually dating and falling deeper in love with Brayden “Rocky” Tinrock—Hailey’s older brother. To make matters more complicated, Phoebe’s mother shows up out of the blue with conniving match-making designs of her own.

Her mother’s arrival threatens to unravel Phoebe’s plans. To keep her love, her friends, and her newfound happiness, Phoebe will have to return to her old games . . . and win.

#BookReview: The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide

Synopsis: Set in Regency England, The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide is a queer historical fantasy of magic, murder, high heat and humour.

Lord Nicholas Monterris, the last remaining heir of a crumbling ducal house, must marry to save his family from complete decline. His father chooses Lady Leaf Serral, eldest daughter of his greatest rival, at which point Nic is sure it can’t get any worse. Until he learns the head negotiator is to be Dashiell sa Vare, an old flame he has neither forgiven nor forgotten, a man their rigid class structure forbids him to love.

Locked in the mouldering grandeur of Monterris Court (a house more haunting manifestation of dynastic ambition and ancestral guilt than home), the first dead body is troubling. The second, a warning that someone doesn’t want the contract to go ahead. But while Nic and his wife-to-be team up to banter their way through a secret murder investigation, it’s Dashiell he can’t stop thinking about. What would be worse? To love and have to let go, or to wholly deny the yearning of one’s heart forever?

Perfect for fans of Freya Marske and Alexis Hall, The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide is the perfect blend of gothic and romantic – including a locked room murder mystery, forbidden love and otherworldly automatons.