#BookReview: Her Soul to Take (Souls Trilogy #1) by Harley Laroux

Leon I earned my reputation among magicians for a reason: one wrong move and you're dead. Killer, they called me, and killing is what I'm best at. Except her. The one I was supposed to take, the one I should have killed - I didn't. The cult that once controlled me wants her, and I'm not about to lose my new toy to them.

Rae I've always believed in the supernatural. Hunting for ghosts is my passion, but summoning a demon was never part of the plan. Monsters are roaming the woods, and something ancient - something evil - is waking up and calling my name. I don't know who I can trust, or how deep this darkness goes. All I know is my one shot at survival is the demon stalking me, and he doesn't just want my body - he wants my soul.

Her Soul to Take is book 1 in the Souls Trilogy. Each book within the Souls Trilogy is interconnected, following a different couple through a similar timeline in the fictional world of Abelaum.

#BookReview: One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day

The newest, riveting summer suspense by the author of The Block Party, Jamie Day.

The Precipice is a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine. With the recent passing of their father, the Bishop sisters—Iris, Vicki, and Faith—have come for the weekend to claim it. But with a hurricane looming and each of the Bishop sisters harboring dangerous secrets, there's murder in the air—and not everyone who checks into the Precipice will be checking out.

Each sister wants what is rightfully hers, and in the mix is the Precipe's nineteen-year-old chambermaid Charley Kelley: smart, resilient, older than her years, and in desperate straits.

The arrival of the Bishop sisters could spell disaster for Charley. Will they close the hotel? Fire her? Discover her habit of pilfering from guests? Or even worse, learn that she's using a guest room to hide a woman on the run.

With razor-sharp wit, heart, thrills, and twists, Jamie Day delivers a unique brand of SUMMERTIME SUSPENSE.

#BookReview: The Au Pair Affair (Big Shots #2) by Tessa Bailey

A sports rom-com about a burly, surly, single dad who falls head-over-hockey-stick for his quirky live-in nanny... 

Tallulah is smart, vivacious, and studying to be a marine biologist. She’s also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while living in a super fancy neighborhood and being around Lissa, his cool but introverted tween. 

Her tween charge isn’t the only one who could use some help fitting in, though. According to…well, everyone except Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene, and adventurous Tallulah is just the girl to show him how. But as boundaries are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed, and Tallulah does the “right” thing—breaks her own heart and walks away. 

Though Burgess knows it’s for the best—he’s too jaded, with too much baggage—a chance meeting, and a new push from his daughter, forces him to put everything on the line and fight to prove he learned his lessons well and is worthy of a happily ever after with Tallulah. 

#BookReview: A Secret Shared with Sirens (Gods from the Oblivion, #2) by Ariella Isabella

“She was the endless darkness between life and death. Bitter, and consuming. A poison I couldn’t stop drinking, and a cold lake I wanted to drown in. Their souls were one, but Isolde had taken everything Evlyn’s life had to give and sharpened it into power.”

Isolde:
Being pulled from the wreckage of an elven ship by bloodthirsty sirens, I was now surrounded by an entirely different set of creatures with claws and teeth. Achelous, the Father of Sirens and son to the blood mage Medea shines a light on Caspian’s hunt for the mythical blade, the God Killer. His finned daughters are nothing like how I had imagined them, they’re worse, and they are weary of my foul magic. Achelous is reluctant to join the war on the continent, but when the siren’s home is attacked by the Elf King, he’s Helbent on revenge. 

Everyday the darkness grows louder and more corporal, and I swear that I can feel its frigid breath on my neck when it whispers its sweet promises of power and revenge. After traveling with Cadmael, the messenger god who followed me overboard and onto the Elven ship, and the siren Thelxi to the City of Souls, we find out that Silas’ depravity knows no bounds.

If we usurp the treacherous Queen Athalia who will sit on the Arramorian throne? Who will be the voice of humans, in a war wielded by villainous gods and wicked creatures?

Death:
Watching Isolde die the first time was painful, and every other time was like ripping my heart in two. She now knew that I had taken her first life in a twisted deal with the darkness, but what she didn’t know was the depth of her attachment’s powers. This ancient, unfathomable being is manipulating her in front of my eyes and all I can do is plead with her to push it away. To not take the deal I did. 

The greatest fear of a creature who’s claimed power is that someone more cunning and vicious will steal it from him, and Isolde just might be that creature, but she still doesn’t know the whole truth. Her world with Caspian is a lie, and the truth might not set her free.

#BookReview: Healer to the Broken King (Brides of Myth #1) by Avie Adams

She serves a god. He wears a crown. Their forbidden love could topple his kingdom.

Calliste is a healer moments away from becoming high priestess when the dark, domineering King Theron storms her sanctuary. Abducted and blackmailed, she watches nine years of grueling effort go up in smoke—along with her hopes of safety. He’s dragging her back to the same capital she fled, a glittering city that left her with nightmares and scars.

Theron is a shell of a man with the weight of a crown slowly crushing him. He’ll do anything to save his sleep-cursed son—even capturing a beautiful priestess cherished by the gods. But as Calliste begins to mend his shattered heart, it takes everything he has not to act on his dangerous desires.

Their forbidden passion soon inflames tensions in Theron’s kingdom—and sparks envy in the god Calliste serves. Bound by duty and with destructive secrets lingering between them, can their love survive, or will it doom them both?

Healer to the Broken King is a slow-burn fantasy romance featuring mature protagonists, forbidden romance, tortured heroes, and worlds inspired by Greek mythology.

#BookReview: Captive (Castillo Cartel #1-2) by Bella Ash

Two ruthless brothers. Two stubborn captives. Trapped together in a brutal world. 

VICIOUS HEIR
Angel Castillo is ruthless, reigning over his brutal world with a bloody fist. Forced into his cold become his wife or die, I try to escape, but his claws are buried deep. Trapped in a golden prison, I hate him yet crave his touch. He sees me like no one else. This devil will ruin me. And I want to be ruined.

BRUTAL ENFORCER
Men have always controlled me. First my ruthless father, then my savage fiancé, and now Omar the brutal enforcer. Known as The Beast, he’s locked me up, threatening my life and craving my blood. Despite my filthy thoughts about him, I must escape. Everyone underestimates me, seeing only a pawn. But I’ll burn this island down before I give in.

#BookReview: The Spellshop by @sarahbethdurst

The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

#BookReview: A Secret Shared with Death (Gods from the Oblivion, #1) by Ariella Isabella

“Sometimes it's the people who hurt us the most that turn out to be our greatest love.”

After watching my village be burned to the ground by elves, I feel the darkness stir below my skin and bones. This deep itch, and voiceless whisper tells me that there’s a way to get my revenge, if I only take the hand that’s offered to me. What I didn’t expect was for that hand to be attached to the Lord of Death, and come at the expense of my sanity and heart.

Accepting help from Death was only the first plunge into the magical world of the Oblivion, and following him to the Fae kingdom of Nádine certainly won’t be the last. King Caspian rules over the Glass Court, a gilded cage where I am trapped with beasts who’s eyes roam over me with disdain. When the king takes an interest in me beyond my strange powers, the target on my back grows.

My abilities have drawn the attention of King Silas, the elf responsible for the inferno that engulfed my home. He’ll stop at nothing to capture me, and use my powers for his crusade across the continent.

Strange dreams haunt me, and I can't help the confusion that plagues me when I think of the two males who would burn the world for me. The dark power inside of me is alluring, and it promises to satiate my lust for retribution, but at what cost? How long can I conceal my magic? A secret I’ve only ever shared with Death.

A Secret Shared with Death is the first book in the Gods from the Oblivion Series that's perfect for those who like a dash of romance with their trauma. Great for readers who enjoyed The Book of Azrael, The Plated Prisoner Series & the Blood and Ash Series.

#BookReview: The Last One (Deluxe Limited Edition) @RachelHowzell @RedTowerBooks

Explosive and enthralling romantasy debut from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Howzell Hall...

Thrown into a desolate land of sickness and unnatural beasts, Kai wakes in the woods with no idea who she is or how she got there. All she knows is that if she cannot reach the Sea of Devour, even this hellscape will get worse. But when she sees the village blacksmith fight invaders with unspeakable skill, she decides to accept his offer of help.

Too bad he’s as skilled at annoying her as he is at fighting.

As she searches for answers, Kai only finds more questions, especially regarding the blacksmith who can ignite her body like a flame, then douse it with ice in the next breath.

And no one is what—or who—they appear to be in the kingdom of Vinevridth, including the man whose secrets might be as deadly as the land itself.

#BookReview: It's Elementary by @elisembryant

A fast-paced, completely delightful new mystery about what happens when parents get a little too involved in their kids' schools, from NAACP Image Award nominee Elise Bryant.

Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, an exhausting job at a nonprofit, and the complexities of a multigenerational household. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee.
As one of the few Black parents at this California elementary school, Mavis tries to convince herself this is an opportunity for real change. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal's plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day.
Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning, and has been MIA since the meeting. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Mavis, along with the school psychologist with the great forearms (look, it’s worth noting), launches an investigation that will challenge her views on parenting, friendship, and elementary school politics.

Brilliantly written, It's Elementary is a quick-witted, escapist romp that perfectly captures just how far parents will go to give their kids the very best, all wrapped in a mystery that will leave you guessing to the very end.

#BookReview: The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos by @MelissadelaCruz

Evan Saatchi can’t keep his eyes off his new co-worker, Dalisay Ramos. Newly arrived from Manila to lead their travel app’s Asia division, nothing matters more to Dalisay than tradition and family. When Evan asks her out, she soundly rejects him for his cheek. Evan learns from his Filipino friends that Dalisay expects more from potential suitors. If he wants a chance with her, he’s going to have to go through the Five Stages, the same courtship ritual that lovers in the Philippines have performed for generations. At first, Evan is skeptical—what, exactly, does “servitude” entail? And he has to sing?! But when Dalisay bets Evan that he doesn’t have the nerve to make it through the stages, the game is on. As Evan attempts to prove to Dalisay that he can win her heart—and the bet—Dalisay is driven to distraction by Evan’s sexy labors, and soon their “courtship” turns into a sizzling secret. But when modern love and family expectations collide, Dalisay and Evan must find a way to carry a rich history into a shared future.

#BookReview: A Bond with the Dark (The Beautifully Broken Saga, #1) by Inara Gage

In “A Bond with the Dark,” a reluctant witch, Sayah Thorne, finds herself thrust into a world of danger and deception. When her family perishes in a mysterious fire, Sayah's quest for truth leads her on a perilous journey alongside her witch aunts. Meanwhile, Dominic Sangravelli and his siblings battle grimspawn, reanimated dead plaguing their existence.

Fate intertwines their destinies when a prophecy designates Sayah as a catalyst for change. Despite opposition from Dominic's vampire family, he is drawn to Sayah, sparking a forbidden romance. But amidst their burgeoning love, dark forces gather, and Sayah becomes the target of those who believe her death will bring about balance.

In “A Bond with the Dark,” love and magic collide as Sayah and Dominic navigate a treacherous landscape, where betrayal lurks around every corner. Can they defy fate and save their world from impending doom, or will the shadows consume them? Delve into a world of mystery, romance, and supernatural intrigue, where alliances are tested, and the line between light and dark blurs.

#BookReview: The Gilded Crown (The Raven's Trade #1) by @theIvyandtheOak

The Witch’s Heart meets The Priory of the Orange Tree in this debut novel about a woman who can bring people back from the dead, and the princess—and only heir to the throne—that she must protect, no matter the cost. The first time Hellevir visited Death, she was ten years old… Since she was a little girl, Hellevir has been able to raise the dead. Every creature can be saved for a price, a price demanded by the shrouded figure who rules the afterlife, who takes a little more from Hellevir with each soul she resurrects. Such a gift can rarely remain a secret. When Princess Sullivain, sole heir to the kingdom’s throne, is assassinated, the Queen summons Hellevir to demand she bring her granddaughter back to life. But once is not enough; the killers might strike again. The Princess’s death would cause a civil war, so the Queen commands that Hellevir remain by her side. But Sullivain is no easy woman to be bound to, even as Hellevir begins to fall in love with her. With the threat of war looming, Hellevir must trade more and more of herself to keep the Princess alive. But Death will always take what he is owed.

#BookReview: Still the Sun by @CNHolmberg

An ancient machine holds the secrets of a distant world’s past for two intimate strangers in the latest romantic fantasy adventure by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.

Pell is an engineer and digger by trade—unearthing and repairing the fascinating artifacts left behind by the mysterious Ancients who once inhabited the sunbaked planet of Tampere. She’ll do anything to help the people of her village survive and to better understand the secrets of what came before.

Heartwood and Moseus are keepers of a forbidding tower near the village of Emgarden. Inside are the remnants of complex machines the likes of which Pell has never seen. Considering her affinity for Ancient tech, the keepers know Pell is their only hope of putting the pieces of these metal puzzles together and getting them running. The tower’s other riddle is Heartwood himself. He is an enigma, distant yet protective, to whom Pell is inexplicably drawn.

Pell’s restoration of this broken behemoth soon brings disturbing visions—and the discovery that her relationship to it could finally reveal the origins of the towers’ strange keepers and the unfathomable reason the truth has been hidden from her.

#BookReview: Mountains Made of Glass (Fairy Tale Retelling, #1) by Scarlett St. Clair

"Could you love me?" he whispered. The question stole my breath and burned my lungs in the silence that followed. 

I wanted to answer, to whisper yes into the space between us, but I was afraid.

All Gesela's life, her home village of Elk has been cursed. And it isn't a single curse—it is one after another, each to be broken by a villager, each with devastating consequences. When Elk's well goes dry, it is Gesela's turn to save her town by killing the toad that lives at the bottom. Except… the toad is not a toad at all. He is an Elven prince under a curse of his own, and upon his death, his brothers come for Gesela, seeking retribution.

As punishment, the princes banish Gesela to live with their seventh brother, the one they call the beast. Gesela expects to be the prisoner of a hideous monster, but the beast turns out to be exquisitely beautiful, and rather than lock her in a cell, he offers Gesela a deal. If she can guess his true name in seven days, she can go free.

Gesela agrees, but there is a hidden catch—she must speak his name with love in order to free him, too.

But can either of them learn to love in time?

#BookReview: Spark of the Everflame (Kindred's Curse #1) by Penn Cole

When old secrets catch fire, everything will burn.

In a mortal world colonized by the gods and ruled over by the Descended, their cruel offspring, Diem Bellator yearns to escape the insular life of her poor village.

Her mother’s sudden disappearance—and the discovery of a dangerous secret about her past—offer Diem an unexpected opportunity to enter the dark world of Descended royalty and unlock the web of mysteries her mother left behind.

With the dying King’s handsome, mysterious heir watching her every move, and a ruthless mortal alliance recruiting her to join the growing civil war, Diem will have to navigate the unwritten rules of love, power, and politics in order to save her family—and all of mortalkind.

Spark of the Everflame is the first book in The Kindred's Curse Saga, a four-book fantasy romance series. This slow burn, enemies-to-lovers epic is perfect for lovers of magic, dragons, angst, and banter and will appeal to fans of books like A Court of Thorns and Roses, From Blood and Ash, Gild, and The Serpent & the Wings of Night.

#BookReview: Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine

A bestselling romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery, but the rugged resort proprietor soon has her fearing she’s living in a rom-com plot instead in this earnestly spectacular debut by a stunning new voice.

Beloved romance author Margot Bradley has a dark secret: she doesn’t believe in Happily Ever Afters. Not for herself, not for her readers, and not even for her characters, for whom she secretly writes alternate endings that swap weddings and babies for divorce papers and the occasional slashed tire. When her Happily Never After document is hacked and released to the public, she finds herself canceled by her readers and dropped by her publisher.

Desperate to find a way to continue supporting her chronically ill sister, Savannah, Margot decides to trade meet-cutes for murder. The fictional kind. Probably. But when Savannah books Margot a six-week stay in a remote Alaskan resort to pen her first murder mystery, Margot finds herself running from a moose and leaping into the arms of the handsome proprietor, making her fear she’s just landed in a romance novel instead.

The last thing Dr. Forrest Wakefield ever expected was to leave his dream job as a cancer researcher to become a glorified bellhop. What he’s really doing at his family’s resort is caring for his stubborn, ailing father, and his puzzle-loving mind is slowly freezing over—until Margot shows up. But Forrest doesn’t have any room in his life for another person he could lose, especially one with a checkout date.

As long snowy nights and one unlikely trope after another draw Margot and Forrest together, they’ll each have to learn to overcome their fears and set their aside assumptions before Margot leaves—or risk becoming a Happily Never After story themselves.

#BookReview: Torn (All Torn Up #1) by Carian Cole

"Well-written tension and forbidden longing. The angst in this was incredible!"
— Penelope Douglas, New York Times bestselling author of Birthday Girl

When I was five years old I told Toren Grace we were going to get married someday. He’d been my best friend, my protector, and my rock since the day I was born. He was my world. In fact, his name was my very first word.
 
He wasn’t just my favorite person, though.
 
He was also my dad’s best friend, and my pseudo uncle.
 
But during my senior year of high school, our relationship slowly changed. Innocent friendship turned to stolen glances. Silly conversations morphed into serious heart-to-hearts. And then one day, an unexpected smoldering kiss changed everything.
 
While that kiss was everything I’d ever dreamed of, it knocked Tor clear off his axis. He’s one of the good guys—loving and devoted with a strong moral compass . . . which makes it impossible for him to accept our feelings for each other. Because not only are we both the one person the other should never, ever want, I’m eighteen, and Tor is fifteen years older than me.
 
Despite that, the heart wants what the heart wants, and ours have decided we’re meant to be together no matter what.
 
But neither one of us can stand to betray or hurt my father, who trusts Tor with everything precious to him. We can’t be in a secret relationship forever, so what will happen when my father finds out his best friend is in love with his daughter?
 
Will there be a way for us to find our happily ever after? Or we will all be torn apart?

#BookReview: Dirty Lying Faeries (The Enchanted Fates, #1) by Sabrina Blackburry

"Dirty Lying Faeries is a wholly entertaining new take on a familiar concept." –Fangirlish

For better or for worse, the newest changeling has arrived . . .

When Thea Kanelos’s best friend drags her to an art gala (that’s definitely not her thing), she doesn’t expect a chance encounter with Devin Grayson to change her life forever. The handsome stranger isn’t just anyone―he’s a powerful fae, charged with bringing Thea into his world.

Believing that she’s always been human, Thea must accept that everything she’s known about herself up until now has been a lie. She’s not human at all. She is a fae―funny, because she doesn’t even believe in faeries.


But with strange creatures now visible on the street and fangs and colors flashing in the shadows, it can’t be denied: faeries are real. And with the Winter Solstice approaching, a magnificent ball will bring her fully into the fae world and draw her closer to Devin with whom she has a deepening and dangerous attraction.

As her new powers awaken, Thea learns she plays a more pivotal role to the fae than she ever imagined. And when the barrier between the human and the fae worlds begins to crack, it will be up to her to save not just herself, but everyone she loves from a terrible fate.

Deeply sensual and darkly magical, Dirty Lying Faeries is the first book in an exciting new series that takes readers inside a universe filled with faeries, dragons and werewolves--and those that love them.