Book Review: Dellia (Ever-Branching Tree #1)

Dellia
David Scidmore
3/5

I have to start my review by saying that I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway (my first win ever so that was super exciting!) but I'm going to give an honest review because I'm bad at lying about my opinions on things. It was a lot more high fantasy than I had an originally anticipated, which doesn't make it bad, it just made it a lot harder for me to get though - also why it took me four months to get my review up which I'm very sorry about but I wanted to do it right. Jon is a physicist who accidentally gets transported to Dellia's realm, one with magic and dragons and things that Jon is truly unable to comprehend.

The stream of events was what really got me in this book. I know that this is a debut so I think that it was a great start, but I think that it had a weird flow to it. That's mostly why I couldn't get into the romance or the magic as much, it all felt weirdly convenient and not as deep as it was supposed to be. An otherworlder? Good thing we have a prophecy against one of them, but good thing Dellia has the morals for it, and good thing they're like falling in love with each other and that they never get injured during such major fight scenes. It was just not complex enough for that sequence of events.

Overall though, I liked it, I think that the rest of the series has potential and I'll definitely be on the lookout for it. Thank you for the opportunity to read and for sharing your characters and their journeys. 

Book Review: The Will and the Wilds

The Will and the Wilds
Charlie N. Holmberg
4/5

I would like to start by saying that Kindle Unlimited books that have aesthetically pleasing covers are my favorite thing. I understand the restraints that can accompany authors who publish on Kindle Unlimited, but thank you Charlie Holmberg for providing me with a cover that I like on my blog. That being said, I enjoyed the actual content of the book as well. Enna has spent her entire life fearing the Mystings, using a charm secured for her by a father who lost his sanity retrieving it. When a Mysting threatens them and the promise of more accompanies it, Enna decides that she has to make a deal with one to guarantee their safety. Enter Maekallus, a Mysting who steals people's souls, the obvious solution to all problems.

I think it was well-written, with a very well-defined plot. As a standalone, it had a beautiful arc from start to finish because it actually made sense the whole way through. I will say that the ending was a little lackluster for me, I don't know if I like it when something tragic happens then there's a time jump then it's all resolved. The time jump just feels like a cheap way to give the characters closure. It reminds me of the problems that I had last year with House of Salt and Sorrows, both are respectively good reads, I just wish that there had been better closure at the end.

You won't regret reading this one, especially if you're doing so through Kindle Unlimited. I haven't read Holmberg's other work but I'm considering it after this one.

Book Review: Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove #1)

Serpent & Dove
Shelby Mahurin
4/5

It's that cliche we hate to love from regency type pieces- someone's caught in a compromising position and they're forced to get married. There's a twist in this one though, they get married to save the man's reputation. It's a kind of twisted France, there's the typical structure with a head of church but the head of church is also a trained soldier who has pledged to kill all of witch-kind.

Our female protagonist, Lou, is a witch. She's loud, she's crass, and she's hiding something that she is deathly afraid of. Reid is a Chasseur, he is one of those that serves his country eradicating the witches. When they're forced to marry each other, without him knowing that she's a witch of course, you can see how that could become an issue. I loved their interactions, though there wasn't enough of a progression from pure hatred to true love for me. In a lot of ways, it felt like a romance of convenience rather than an actual connection, which is somewhat problematic for me in a book which focuses so heavily on romance.

I liked it though, I liked the universe and I liked the way it ended. It set it up perfectly for the next book without making me go crazy. I would totally recommend this one and I can't wait to see where the series goes.

Book Review: The Winter Witch

Winter Witch
Karpov Kinrade and Heather Hildenbrand
3/5

This little novella looked a lot cooler than it was. Like, it wasn't bad or anything, it's just I was promised a vampire and a witch, and I was hoping for like at least one epic battle. No, they got along immediately, there was like no character growth, it was just the statement of facts and we we were just supposed to go along with it.

Again, this sounds like a bad roast, but it was a fairly enjoyable little read. It's just that I was expecting more so I'm being a little harsh on it. It's extremely short, like less than an hour and you'll be through it. It's just supposed to be a cute little retelling, it just introduced too many cool and original elements for me to be satisfied with such a short run-time.

If you like things that are straightforward, this one would be good for you. I understand that it's a retelling, but I was hoping for more.

Book Review: A Treacherous Performance (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries #5)

A Treacherous Performance
Lynn Messina
4/5

For the fifth book in the Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, Beatrice and the Duke of Kesgrave are finally going to get married. Until they are delayed by the scandal of her most recent mystery. They agree to postpone a week, which I felt was reasonable but they were losing their minds the whole time. In the grand scheme of the series, this one was not really my favorite. The mystery wasn't as interesting, but I liked the continued progression of Bea and Damien's romance.

As Kindle Unlimited series go, this is a pretty good one. Though the mystery wasn't as interesting to me, this one won bonus points for the character development all around. Bea was such a wallflower and Damien was so obnoxious, Bea has gained so much confidence in herself and Damien knows when to step back. Not to mention Flora, who left her comfort zone to pursue the mystery and now has so much potential as an investigator in her own right.

It wasn't a shocking book, but it did give a lot more insight and is thus invaluable in the series as a whole. I'm excited for the next one and can't wait to see what they do next.

Book Review: Blood Binds (Wyrd Blood #3)

Blood Binds
Donna Augustine
3/5

This series overall was pretty good, but so similar to her other series through and through. In this one, Bugs is trying to deal with the fact that her and Ryker's magics have been merged together and she can't get over her unrequited feelings for him. She goes away for a few months, there's a nice time jump, and when she returns, her life is once again threatened. It's kind of overkill on how many times Bugs gets to almost being dead and then having to be magically healed, or it definitely is when considering Ryker is never injured. Like, it could be because of his age but we're never actually given an age- a whole other idea to be kind of uncomfy about since his friend is 80 and I think we're supposed to assume that he's older.

I get the whole will-they-won't-they appeal, and it's great for a book or two, but once you get to the third and I've spent so long wondering when they're going to get together, the events of this book just let me down. I thought it was going to be the whole cliche I wanted to be with you but I didn't think you do type thing, instead Ryker was just being a jerk and then finally decided he was interested in Bugs when she was about to die again. It just didn't feel deep enough for the amount of build-up that there has been.

There were so many events in the book that bored me, or were difficult to follow. It's a good series, I think I would still recommend it because it has its benefits, this one just didn't hit as well as the other two did for me.

Book Review: Full Blood (Wyrd Blood #2)

Full Blood
Donna Augustine
4/5

This cover is horrible I know, and I shouldn't judge books by their cover but like this one could use some serious help. That being said, the second book in this series was pretty much just as good as the first, I liked the concepts and the magic, and, for the most part, the characters. I don't really know what Full Blood means, but like I said in my previous review, Bugs is the chosen one.

The biggest issue I have with it is probably the pacing. It feels like they all get hung up on random things forever, and then bam, everything is instantly solved. There isn't a great progression of things. The same goes with the romance, the progression is off. They have a lot of feelings and such but they haven't talked about anything and it feels like it just keeps going in circles. There isn't even any real hints that something is going to happen, it just feels like Ryker doesn't have feelings like that for her and is just sleeping around. Like, there was more romantic tension in the first book than this one and that feels weird.

Overall, pretty good but I'm still waiting for something extraordinary. I'm reading the next book right now and looking for everything to come together.

Book Review: Wyrd Blood (Wyrd Blood #1)

Wyrd Blood
Donna Augustine
4/5

I think that this is an entertaining book. It has all the best elements of a story for me, though there were some times when it didn't a hundred percent hit the mark. Bugs is starving and in a last attempt to save her crew from total starvation, she decides to rob a whole country and very quickly gets caught. Ryker has been looking for her though because she is a wyrd blood, she has magic and her natural ability for it marks her at the top of the magic food chain. She's untrained though, so to really reach her potential she needs to work with Ryker and wow shocker they have a lot of romantic tension.

The cover is bad, I acknowledge this and I really wish that there weren't all these great books on Kindle Unlimited literally limited by their covers. This cover is better than the one on Kindle, and that's really saying something. But the content is good, like I said there are certain cliches but it's what I wanted from the book and I liked the character. Though there were some issues with Bugs, I think it's understandable given the trauma of her past. I also want everyone around her to commit more to calling her Bugs, like, that's her name and yet hardly anyone ever uses it.

Another minor issue was how similar it was to Donna Augustine's other series. That goes along with it being cliche, but I started reading it and it reminded me of her other series and then I realized that it was the same author and it all made sense. I don't think it's really a major issue, it's just something that strikes me as potentially problematic.

I think I'd recommend it if you're into like slowburn romances and the whole chosen-one plot. I like that and so I was satisfied with everything that was happening but there haven't been any surprises that make it unique yet. I'm looking forward to more individuality in the next.

Book Review: Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark (Lady Anne Addison Mysteries #1)

Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark
Victoria Hamilton
3/5

I could almost give this book four stars, because despite how annoying the Marquess was as a main character, there were moments when I was really shocked by how much I liked it. These moments, like I said, were lessened by moments when I was just really angry about everything that was happening and so upon reflection, I think three stars is where this one should be. Lady Anne is the daughter of an earl, she has decided on spinsterhood not due to lack of options, though she does make it a point of calling herself plain, but because she has the money and familial support to do so. She rushes to her friend, Lydia, after receiving a letter that made it sound like her life was falling apart only four months after being married. She was supposed to marry Lydia's older brother at one point, and feels responsible for her.

Lydia is beyond stupid, like I understand that could just be her character, but it felt like she was being used to make Anne seem smarter and more perceptive. I could have done without the constant reminder that there's literally nothing going on in her head but whatever. Considering her letter and her marriage problems motivated the start of the novel, she was hardly mentioned really at all. She was kind of too stupid to even deserve that much notice.

I did think that Anne was very clever, there were elements when the mystery could have been fleshed out more but I do think it was a pretty decent investigation all around. I also appreciated that she stuck to her perspective from the beginning of the book, she didn't majorly change her opinion on relationships or morals, it could be set up for the next couple of books being a gradual shift, but she is who she is and that's very admirable. The Marquess was not as good of a character for me, mainly because he felt like a pretty rational guy and then used that way overused tactic on getting girls to shut up- pulling them into for unsolicited kisses. He didn't stop after he was punched the first time either, he did it like three times and it was annoying and not called for. That really was the main reason why this book lost a star for me.

Overall though I liked it. I don't think the second book is in the library so I don't know if I'll be able to read on, but I see a lot of potential for where it could all go.

Book Review: Heart of the Fae

Heart of the Fae
Emma Hamm
2/5

This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, kind of, but with fae involved. Sorcha is trying to save her family from the killer blood beetle plague- she's willing to do anything, sacrifice anything, even make deals with fae. She ends up on an island with a group of banished fae, including Eamonn, a man banished by his twin brother after showing the imperfections which now mar his skin.

On paper this sounds like a great concept. Sorcha is a healer, she's passionate, she's driven, she loves her family. I mean, it keeps saying directly that she does, but I don't really feel much of it on the page. I'm still unclear on her family dynamic, she's adopted I think, or maybe she isn't? I wasn't sure because it said that her father took her in but then it would say that she was unlike her sister in her fae appearance and lifestyle and everyone thought she was a changeling, implying that she is related to them by blood. But also, at one point her father said he had never met her mother, which feels like a pretty essential part of creating a child related to him by blood. The fact that I was so confused on something that was supposedly a crucial part of her character and the motivation of her arc speaks to how convoluted the entirety of the plot was.

It had it's good parts, like I said, it had an interesting storyline, an interesting twist on a beast, an interesting plague. There was just too much confusion and just general lack in consistency or endearment of characters for it to ever be a favorite.

Book Review: A Nefarious Engagement (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries #4)

A Nefarious Engagement
Lynn Messina
4/5

I don't know if this series has been deserving my consistent ratings, but I am really enjoying watching both the Duke and Beatrice grow as people. The last book ended with their engagement and as I said, it felt abrupt to me, like they hadn't fully considered the consequences of that decision. There's a lot more of the societal impact in this one, but we also see the next step in their relationship, how it strengthened beyond the whole ideals of their mystery-solving shenanigans, and honestly it's great.

I don't know if I liked the angle of her parent's mystery, in terms of the mystery element of this one it fell flat compared to the others. It just felt a lot more forced than what had happened previously, and the conclusions didn't have the drama that it deserved.

It's hard to write a review about a book series you're so far in and that you're reading so close to one another, but I think it emphasizes the point that this series is worth reading. There are a lot of great points, and it's not as well-known as it should be.

Book Review: Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women #1)

Bringing Down the Duke
Evie Dunmore
2/5

This is a pretty low rating versus how much I was initially enjoying the book. Annabelle is a suffragist, she earned a scholarship to be one of the first women at Oxford based on her merits as a scholar and her drive. To maintain this scholarship, she has to petition wealthy gentlemen and ladies to support abolishing the act that made women as property. She meets the Duke of Montgomery and is assigned to take him down, or to bring him to their side, but it quickly shifts to a more romantic relationship.

That's all fine and cliche and nice, but I feel as though there could have been much more focus on the suffragist elements of this narrative. It felt too much like a contemporary romance attempting to adopt elements of a cliche regency romance. As someone who has read a lot of regency romance and contemporary romance, it felt almost juvenile, like I was being spoon-fed the speech and behavioral patterns of regency. That would work for middle-grade, but this was very obviously an adult novel.

Annabelle was on and on about how she had worked so hard to get where she was, but we didn't see much of Annabelle working. I respected her resolve to not end up his mistress, but then I felt as though she was selling herself out anyways. The novel praised the Duke so much for doing such minimal things, and I know that it was the period, but it didn't really sit right for me at all.

It wasn't the worst book I've ever read, I just felt like it was trying too hard to be something that it wasn't. If it had firmly rooted itself somewhere, maybe I would have liked it more. I know it has a lot of hype and it looks super cutesy, and it was an easy read, it just doesn't have everything I'd want from a book like this.

Book Review: An Infamous Betrayal (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries #3)

An Infamous Betrayal
Lynn Messina
4/5

In this, the third book in the Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, Beatrice struggles to find a murder to investigate after the Duke has made certain rules against it. Bea won't let him confine her though, and she soon finds another mystery, one that connects to her original investigation, to pass the time. The Duke figures it out again, and they finally embark on a formal partnership together.

I went back and forth on what to rate this one because like, most of the book was witty and amazing and I loved the characters as I have these past two days reading them, but then the ending was just kind of eh. After struggling for so long to deal with societal expectations and how they could ever be together, there was a level of acceptance at the end that wasn't on par with the rest of the series. It felt abrupt and poorly defined, but I think it could be easily addressed and fixed through Bea's struggle in the next book, which I'm already started on.

This series is obviously very quick to read, there's a certain binge-watching element to it as you dive into each of the individual mysteries. But also, there's a nice fluent storyline where you're dying to know what's going on. I'm hoping for big things from the next two books in the series.

Book Review: A Scandalous Deception (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries #2)

A Scandalous Deception
Lynn Messina
4/5

Beatrice can't go back to the life that she lived, she's a detective now and since another murder has fallen right at her feet, she can't just walk away. The Duke of Kesgrave, quickly realizes that she's pursuing another murderer, and can't help but to get involved. I had my doubts about the Duke of Kesgrave, but this one really fixed that. He was a lot wittier, there was a lot more chemistry, just in general was a lot more of a believable romance than the last book in the series.

I liked the plot, it was very easy to follow and yet it had a couple of interesting twists to it. The whole pummeling thing was kind of fun, just because I feel as though it should have made everyone's feelings more obvious but it obviously didn't. I love the drama and I think this book really brought it all.

I don't know if I can decide between thinking Bea's family is abusive and thinking that they are hilarious. They have their moments but also, do they genuinely care about her? I have yet to fully understand where they stand. But I'm also almost done with the third book at this point so we'll see where that goes. So far, this series is very good, especially for something that I haven't seen on any library apps or even in print, it deserves more hype.

Book Review: A Brazen Curiosity (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries #1)

A Brazen Curiosity
Lynn Messina
4/5

I live for a good historical murder mystery with a strong female detective, that's actually basically a genre for me at this point. This one is going to be especially great for me because I just got Kindle Unlimited again and I'm ready to binge the whole series. Beatrice is a twenty-six-year-old orphan, in the early 1800s in England, being a 26 year old woman and an unmarried orphan is about equivalent to being an orphan child. She doesn't have a lot of rights or the ability to make significant money on her own, and with her social awkwardness, she is sure that she is destined to live off the kindness of her relations for the rest of her life. She has been taught, since she was orphaned at six years old, that she must remain as unseen and unheard as possible, as docile and obedient as a charity case should, and she has done that for the past two decades. But when she comes across a duke standing over the body of a murdered dinner guest, she decides it's time to investigate.

I liked Beatrice because she was aware of her shortcomings as well as the world's shortcomings. It gives me anxiety when characters in historical fictions push boundaries that they would be unable to push in that actual period of time. Beatrice has limitations, but she is still a fierce character with a wit that wouldn't have gotten her burned for being a witch. I really appreciated her journey as a character, I was rooting for her the whole time.

The romance was barely there, I'm not even going to label this a romance though I know it's a slowburn that will probably end up with a romance. Like I said, strong female detectives are basically a genre for me at this point and I've seen it all before I just keep coming back for more. The duke seems like he could be a good character, but I haven't seen enough of him or his detective skills to be on his side or not so we'll see.

I'm excited for where this is going to go and it's definitely a great book that deserves more attention. I'll probably be on here with my review for the second tomorrow because these are relatively short, but still packed with great plot and action.

Book Review: The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising #1)

The Guinevere Deception
Kiersten White
4/5

I love retellings, they're so fun and I love to see how authors can twist things around. I loved Kiersten White's other books and I was so excited when I heard another, especially being a fan of Merlin and all. I wasn't disappointed, this story twists Arthurian legend without destroying it, it's a beautiful manipulation. Guinevere is sent to marry Arthur at the request of Merlin, she is the best way of protecting him from the magic which Merlin feels is threatening him. Guinevere has magic of her own, she's fiercely loyal and dedicated to her new husband and to saving their kingdom from darkness.

The women in Arthurian legend did not get enough attention for me to have been satisfied by it. I love how it's twisted here, Guinevere being an impostor posing as a foreign royal. But what I love more is that Arthur is in on the scheme, she has allies, she isn't hiding from everyone. It was the start of a strong relationship that I could fully support and encourage, they helped each other.

I didn't like the ending all that much. I thought it could have been done better, it felt so abrupt and anti-climatic compared to the rest of the novel. There were a few scenes that had awkward timing for me, there wasn't enough build-up to justify what was happening. Even saying that, it couldn't stop me from loving the characters and their adventures.

White takes liberties, she changes genders and ages and powers, and it makes everything so much more interesting. I would totally recommend this, it's not as heavy as And I Darken and the characters don't make me as angry, it's the perfect balance.