Tag: fiction

Review: The War Beyond by Andrea Stewart

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Please note this review contains spoilers for the former book in this series, The Gods Below, and contains references to some of the events in this sequel. Read with caution. 

Rating: 5 out of 5.

To reunite with the sister she unwittingly abandoned, Hakara risked everything. Now face to face with her sister Rasha after ten long years, Hakara knows she is beyond saving. For Rasha is an altered, one of the humans transformed by the god Kluehnn as he restored their home country, and she will not leave her place as a godkiller nor give up Kluehnn’s will as the one true god. Hakara and the Unanointed rebels instead decide to track down one of the elder gods, Lithuas, who betrayed her elder comrades in an act that ushered in Kluehnn’s reign and spelled their demise. Capturing her could provide valuable intel, and swaying her to their side even more. Back in Langzu, Sheuan plays a dangerous game in allying herself with the Sovereign in marriage, but she knows he hides secrets. Meanwhile, her cousin Mullayne searches for Tolemne’s tomb, the human who bargained with Kluehnn centuries ago. If he can discover the truth beneath the legend, perhaps they can learn Kluehnn’s master plan and why Tolemne returned to the surface. Across the fractured continent war is kindling. Hakara harnesses a great power in the corestone suffused with untold power, but she won’t stop even if using said power costs her life. Rasha begins to question the teachings of Kluehnn and if war is exactly what he wanted all along. On opposing sides of a war between gods, Hakara and Rasha’s loyalty is no longer to each other. Restoration is coming and only the answers in the past could turn the tide and help bring about the end to a violent god.

Andrea Stewart’s Hollow Covenant trilogy bridges the gap between climate fiction and high fantasy in a climate ravaged world where humanity is at the whim of a vengeful god who promises restoration with a price. In her sequel to The Gods Below, Stewart demonstrates her breadth of both plotting and storytelling as she amplifies her godly war and the history of centuries past to plunge ever deeper into revenge and the cost of excess on generations. As her four characters face down a restoration event, Hakara and Rasha, sisters separated by circumstance, find themselves on opposite sides of a war over the future of their world. Sheuan plots and Mullayne continues to pick at the threads of the past. Loyalties are tenuous at best and Stewart proves just how much in a sequel that questions the cost of vengeance and whether transformation is the true catalyst of change. Four perspectives, all concerning some aspect of the truth, are split apart on a shattered landscape, and as time runs out they will piece together the past behind the stories they’ve been taught to believe. Vengeance, grief, loyalty, and love coalesce in The War Beyond and it’s nothing short of world altering. With countless perspectives and a wealth of history to get lost in, the Hollow Covenant speaks to the best of the fantasy genre, and something tremendously human captured within a fantasy setting: consumption with no thought for consequence. 

The War Beyond is the novel that took me from interested to eternally invested in the Hollow Covenant trilogy. Like coveted gods gems I gobbled up all of the character perspectives, lore, and rich history of this shattered world, left temporarily transformed in their wake. For a world utterly expansive in measure there are so many things to admire and take away from Stewart’s trilogy. Mainly Hakara and Thassir who I would like to put in my pocket and protect from harm (I say while still craving the incredible angst that appears whenever they are in the same room together). From the moment I first heard the pitch for the Hollow Covenant series I knew it had the capacity for greatness: a decimated climate the result of human consumption, future generations left to toil for a better world, and gods hunted to extinction by an opportunistic being who promises a return to the world humanity destroyed. However, it wasn’t until this sequel that these all sunk in for me as Stewart uncovers more to this history and the motivations of core characters. The World Beyond is a fascinating sequel excelling on the basis of story, to world, characters both major and minor, and the romance subplots (oh the subplots). Four unique perspectives: the altered, the rebel, the spy, and the explorer take a larger stand against the change being wrought in their world—to succeed or be irrevocably altered in its wake.

Andrea Stewart reveals the depth of the deception across the centuries through her focus on the power of information systems in dispersing the truth. To control how information is recorded comes with the ability to control the narrative no matter how inaccurate—an essential component to how things develop within this sequel. Through the epigraphs, the known history of The Shattering, the burning of the Numinar trees, and Tolemne’s path, Stewart lays clues to Kluehnn’s motivations and his rise to power centuries prior. Many of these primary and secondary sources become suspect with just one sentence as Stewart unveils her revolutionary plot twist. And what a twist! I can count on one hand the plot reveals that have left me floored as I try to pick up the pieces, and I can now count The War Beyond amongst them. Very much here for the plot twists that recontextualize the playing field and history while deepening the knowledge we have on our antagonists. The War Beyond does this perfectly while instigating the next stage of this narrative. As this book nears its end, Stewart hammers in the power of oral storytelling and the impact of information systems that have broken down in the aftermath of a world altering event. The result is misinformation and our characters grapple with this while endeavoring to right the wrongs taking place within their world.

In reaching the end of The War Beyond comes the question: how to move on. And if that’s not the mark of an excellent book I don’t know what is. Stewart’s follow up certainly feels timely, homed in on a world decimated by a changing climate and the current generation left to atone for the sins of the past. Tethered to the past and their alliances, each of our core perspectives understands the unerring call: they may not be the direct cause but they are responsible for righting the problems in their world. The heart of these perspectives continues to be sisters Hakara and Rasha whose lives were sundered following the destruction and rebirth of Kashan. This theme of sisterhood is such a strong tether within this series and it is tested in the pursuit of revenge and worship for each sister respectively. Hakara’s desire for revenge is mirrored in the most unexpected way as Stewart reveals how all of these world altering events have been driven by revenge and retribution in some manner. Really cannot emphasize how brilliant the central plot twist is for this sequel (I am still thinking of it weeks after). There are still many mysteries afoot when it comes to the history of this world and the actions of the elder gods. Thassir in particular continues to be an iconic grieving cat protector and I loved seeing him level up and take back the godly mantle he had abandoned. The War Beyond is just all around a superb sequel, digging deeper into the dark to unearth the past and transform an unsteady world. Stewart places her characters on the path to intervene with a god and I know I will come out just as altered before its end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy.

Trigger warnings: death, blood, murder, mutilation, body horror

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Let’s Talk: Romances For Autumn

Robin3 Comments

Oh a brief chill in the air? A hot drink in one hand? A crunchy leaf on the ground to give you a boost of serotonin? It must be autumn! We need not argue over which season is the best (the fall). Instead, I’m here to discuss the romances of autumn. The autumnances if you will. I am LOVING how many books this season feel like the essence of autumn. Either by way of a books atmosphere, the tropes, or the characters. The fall romances are screaming autumn this year and I couldn’t be more happy about it. In preparation for sharing this list I read through a new romance every night for a week and a half. Lot’s of ghosts, magic, small towns, and of course, yearning to keep me happy. Typical for me, 90% of these are upcoming romances for the season so please consider preordering my recommendations or purchasing them when they hit shelves. Let the fall reading commence!

Disclosure: going forward I will be linking my Bookshop affiliate link below my reviews. I earn a small commission if you purchase books through this link and it is one way to support my reviewing! My affiliate link will simply be labeled “Bookshop.”

If It Makes You Happy by Julie Olivia

Fall goodness meets small town Vermont in If It Makes You Happy, a romance novel of 90’s nostalgia, timeless tropes, and Gilmore Girls fame. Down after her divorce, Michelle Cadell throws herself into the runnings of Bird & Breakfast, the B&B her mother ran in the (not so) quiet town of Copper Run, Vermont. Her reception from guests is less than savory, if the lack of signings in her guest book and the inedible scones she’s been serving for breakfast is any indication. A mutually beneficial deal: baked goods in exchange for babysitting puts Michelle in close quarters with her neighbor Cliff: single father and owner of the local bakery. The two become not just best friends, but true partners—that is if Michelle can see Copper Run as her forever home. Billed as perfect for Gilmore Girls fans and lovers of the autumnal slow burn, If It Makes You Happy is everything I’ve come to love about the small town romance, set in one of my favorite places on earth: Vermont. A fictitious town with a not so fictitious larger than life quality to it, I quickly fell into the happenings of Copper Run and its inhabitants. Julie Olivia paints the small town with that Hallmark-esque quality: city girl goes to a small town and falls in love with the next door neighbor while trying to succeed in running her mothers bed and breakfast. If It Makes You Happy grounds itself in familiar tropes to build a multi-faceted story of, yes, love, but also building a life where you’d least expect it. I really appreciate how much Michelle and Cliff feel like 30-somethings still figuring out life, struggling, failing, and eventually triumphing overall. This is a true friends to lovers as well, and Olivia provides this friendship unadulterated with romance because the romance is baked into their tremendous bond. Looking for love amid the falling leaves, small town coziness, and nosy neighbors? Look no further.

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Uncharmed by Lucy Jane Wood

More witchy goodness from the witchy author herself, Lucy Jane Wood, means fall is officially here. Taking readers back to an alternate London where magic thrives in spades and witches abound, Lucy Jane Wood’s, Uncharmed sees Andromeda “Annie” Wildwood, witch, bakery proprietor, best friend, and confidant’s perfectly curated life completely fall apart when her coven tasks her with training an unruly teen witch at a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Away from her routine Annie casts off the trappings of her old life—one spell in particular, to determine what is serving her, and what is ultimately serving others. Uncharmed certainly re-enlivens the magic Lucy Jane Wood first captured with her stellar debut, Rewitched, but with an entirely new, potent flavor. Its magic diluted in its strongest form upon the page and it is easy to get swept up in the spells, secret societies, and the utterly delicious confections and baked goods. While complete with a romance subplot to die for, Uncharmed focuses most of its attention on the character of Annie and her relentless people pleasing tendencies and overall perfectionism. Annie’s strive for perfection comes at the expense of her autonomy—literally, as she douses herself daily with a spell to help her meet the impossible expectations she, and others, have set for her. The spell keeps her placid, able to be what others need without her emotions and beliefs interfering. Yet, stuck in the woods with an orphaned witch is all it takes for that to come crashing down, for good this time. Lucy Jane Wood’s witchy novels find harmony with intimate character studies, cozy atmosphere, and romance perfectly mixed and baked to perfection. Uncharmed is proof that Wood is only getting better and better and this found family story with magical creatures and a cottage in the woods is heartwarming as it is magical!

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Give Me A Reason by Jayci Lee

Jayci Lee reimagines Jane Austen’s Persuasion for the modern day in when Anne, a famous K-drama star, reunites with Frederick Nam, a dedicated firefighter captain and the man she was persuaded to give up ten years ago. Frederick has every reason to hate Anne for breaking his heart a decade ago, and he has spent just as long forgetting her, but her return to his life brings forth all the feelings he buried. Ten years may have not changed their affection, but wounds are still fresh and a second chance will mean excising everything that led to their breakup and deciding if they have what it takes for a happily ever after. Jayci Lee’s reimagining of Persuasion hits all the notes for a perfect second chance romance and Austen retelling. We have family members being genuinely terrible (and some who are delightful), the meddlesome friends, longing, and characteristic melancholy of one Anne Lee. Give Me a Reason makes the Persuasion story entirely its own however, with wedding planning antics and firefighters instead of navy officers (because of course). Also in the connection between our two leads Anne and Frederick, which we learn wasn’t exactly perfect. Frederick based all of his hopes around Anne instead of his own life, and Anne still placed so much trust in her family—similar to the original novel. I love that we get Frederick’s perspective this time because I really do love seeing the torturous longing right from the source. Frederick is exactly what I want from a modernized Wentworth. He’s tortured with love for Anne, who he’s convinced has moved on, but who very much has not. Give Me a Reason is a perfect look at Austen’s greatest novel (sorry P&P), and yet another call for reimagined classics for the modern day—that keep the yearning.

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Love At First Sighting by Mallory Marlowe

The love child of the Ex Files and Men in Black, Love at First Sighting concerns a UFO sighting, a social media influencer, a government agent, and a conspiracy gone wrong and all of it is out of this world romantic. El Martin, aforementioned social media influencer, witnesses a UFO sighting that changes everything (if anyone would actually believe her). The only person who does is Carter Brody, agent for the Private Intelligence Sector tasked with keeping tabs on her. But Carter is drawn to El for more personal reasons: mainly the death of his father many years ago—who bore witness to the same object El saw careening through the sky only nights prior. With a UFO mystery afoot, Carter and El will become unlikely allies and unexpected partners and lovers, as they race to uncover the truth before it’s too late. If you like your romances served with an entire plate of chaos and absurdity (affectionate), then look no further than Mallory Marlowe’s latest, Love at First Sighting. I’m big on the unconventional duo’s and social media influencer x government agent has to be the icing on the unconventional cake. Love with a dash of the paranormal is always the right call especially for autumn and this one leans heavily into alien sightings and all the conspiracies you’ve read about. With a slower build, Love at First Sighting gives a lot to its two perspectives, El and Carter—how they are different, and what exactly makes them the best of partners even when they aren’t chasing down UFO’s and breaking and entering. Love within the quirks is something I have come to adore. Here it’s chewing gum, suspenders, and Carly Rae Jepsen songs, all of which are essential to the romance. This is a romance for those who don’t just think of extraterrestrial contact as a far off possibility, but know it’s here, and anyone craving more romance formed in the fire of the paranormal.

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Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun

Another year, another exemplary queer romance from author Alison Cochrun. Reupholsterer extraordinaire Sadie Wells is stuck—literally, running her grandmother’s antique furniture store after her passing while avoiding any adventure of her own. When her travel influencer sister is injured ahead of an important partnership, Sadie takes a leap and volunteers to take her place traveling the Camino de Santiago in Portugal. Except her dear sister neglected to mention it’s a tour for anyone who identifies as sapphic and Sadie is coming to the table fresh off a full blown sexual identity crisis. Additionally, the gorgeous woman she came out to on the plane is on the tour, and she’s made it clear she’s not one for anything more than a one time fling. If days and days of walking can change anything, that is. When I think of an author who not only provides unique queer love stories but leaves me constantly in my feels the person who immediately comes to mind: Alison Cochrun. Balancing a queer love story with self discovery, fraught familial relationships, and gorgeous scenery, Cochrun’s Every Step She Takes is a coming of age story with European adventure and lesbian romance all deliciously rolled together. There’s not enough words to describe how much I love this unabashedly queer book. From Sadie and her sister, Vi, to the people joining her on the Camino walk, and the tour host, an out and proud Trans woman. It’s what I needed to read right now and exactly the kind of affirmation that comes with reading this genre. Every Step She Takes is all about that: steps, the ones we take to get away, and the ones we take to reach for a new path. That change doesn’t always require a leap, but a step towards something better. Cochrun’s focus on queer adolescence as ever evolving and not contingent on time is a beautiful concept raised here. Witnessing it blossom in Sadie and even Mal, even more so.

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Once Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan

Playwright Eve Ambroise is running—far enough away to escape her mistakes and the failures that have broken her inside and out. To clean the slate, she breaks up with her fiance, Leo, and leaves behind her judgmental parents to travel to the Tennessee mountains under the guise of a writing retreat. In reality, she’s at the cabin formerly belonging to her grandmother, hoping to finish her next play and perhaps recover from the wounds of the past. Yet she finds unexpected company in her neighbor, Jamie, fresh off of a custody trial for his son and desperate for a break of his own. Jamie and Eve pursue a relationship on the weekends, between writing plays and raising children, but love may not outweigh their pasts or their present responsibilities. Once Upon a Time in Dollywood interrogates if two people can find healing through a romantic relationship, or if healing requires a more deliberate personal introspection and internal work on its own. As much a story of healing as it is a romance, Ashley Jordan’s debut novel is a multifaceted love story that encompasses the wonder, pain, and joy of our innate existence. Eve Ambroise is a troubled protagonist still grappling with grief of her teenage years—when her parents forced her to carry a baby to term and then put the child up for adoption. This keen sense of loss and a lack of closure follows her years on as she and her fiance try for kids and she experiences several miscarriages. Ashley Jordan focuses all of her attention on the personal growth of her two characters, Eve and Jamie, as they move out from feeling stagnant and stuck in trauma to breaking free of that cycle. Jordan’s message is clear: we don’t have to be wholly without trauma to enter into  romantic connection, but there is a tremendous bravery in taking pause to pursue recovery and better serve ourselves and those we care about.

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A Waltz on the Wild Side by Erica Ridley

In Erica Ridley’s The Wild Wynchester’s the absurdity is alive and kicking and A Waltz on the Wild Side might just take the crown in that respect. A chaotic family of orphans adopted by a wealthy baron spend their lives investigating crimes, fighting injustice, and aiding the working class in regency London—finding love amidst conspiracies, heists, and castle sieges. At long last we have the book for my favorite, arguably the most chaotic Wynchester: Jacob. If you’ve ever found yourself asking: what if there was an animal with you all the time that you could train to aid in your crimes, Jacob has not only asked this, he has succeeded. With his menagerie of animals and secret famous poet lifestyle, Jacob meets his match in a playwright who carries a tarantula spider on her person for protection, can redirect flying daggers, and also has a tamed badger. Erica Ridley continues to brilliantly contrast the struggles of the working class, immigrants, and Black, queer, and disabled people in this historical romance series, and A Waltz on the Wild Side is her best by far. Vivian Henry, our heroine, is a former enslaved woman running her cousin’s household in Cheapside, writing plays in her off time. When her cousin disappears under mysterious circumstances she turns to the family everyone reveres (except for her) to bring him home. The tension between Viv, Jacob, and the rest of the Wynchester family is sublime. Ridley focuses on how our experiences shape our morality and our views on justice, enclosed within Vivian and Jacob’s romance and her views of his family’s calling. Vivian seeing herself as a product, only worth as much as she is useful is a harsh, but very real extension of her experiences in enslavement. Ridley elevates Viv’s liberation and Jacob’s personal aspirations in this gobsmackingly wild, fierce and swoonworthy historical. Wynchester’s forever!

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Soul Searching by Lyla Sage

Collins Cartwright is running from ghosts of the strictly metaphorical kind. The real ones have gone quiet. When she left Sweetwater Peak, Wyoming, to pursue photography she never expected to return on a permanent basis, but after being fired from her photography job she’s back in town, crashing in the resident upholsterer’s spare room until she figures things out. Yet with her constant companions gone quiet—the various ghosts that inhabit the town and its backwaters, her only company is the suspiciously uninteresting individual she’s currently renting from: Brady Cooper. Her solution: show him some adventure and maybe send her ghost block into the afterlife where it belongs. Only Lyla Sage could put ghost sightings, small towns, and romancing the new to town upholsterer after accidentally macing him together in one whirlwind romance novel. But Soul Searching is so perfectly Lyla Sage, centering another forgotten gem of a town and its struggling inhabitants finding their footing and reaching for love without reservation. All with a side of occasional ghost sightings. Soul Searching’s main characters Collins and Brady are the definition of slow romance. At the beginning they don’t even like each other, but intrigue wins out in the end. Soon they’re confiding in their pasts and previously mentioned ghostly abilities all while taking in the hidden spots of Sweetwater Peak side by side. Get you a man that makes nonstop Lord of the Rings references, can reupholster furniture, and is constantly in awe of you. Oh and pays no mind that you are constantly talking to the ghosts that have been ignoring you. It’s a romance with a side of paranormal the Lyla Sage way. Hot, spooky, and thrilling!

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It’s Different This Time by Joss Richard

Sometimes love is inheriting a six million dollar west village brownstone with your former friend and love of your life who looks a little bit like David Corenswet (niche people understand). That’s exactly where Joss Richard’s debut, It’s Different This Time begins. Two former best friends, Adam and June, are reunited after six years apart when they learn they’ve inherited their former apartment building after the death of the owner, their former landlord. Sell or keep, they’ll have to spend a month together before they can sign away ownership but that means facing what drove them to separate sides of the country six years ago. Ensuing your classic dual timelines where the past is flung wide, Joss Richard builds a friends to lovers saga where an aspiring chef and theatre actress/part time bookseller agreed to be roommates, but ended up becoming the best of friends. Adam and June really are that classic romance novel couple. Unlikely friends they may be, the friendship between them is unmistakable as is the support they lend each other across the years. Richard knows how to plot out an electrifying slow burn and with an entire decade since their first meeting, June and Adam are ripe for that angst and tension I need from my romances. It’s Different This Time feels like a When Harry Met Sally style story, both narratively, and in the relationship between June and Adam. Where the fall feels like a separate character—as does the city of New York. I love a dash of miscommunication in my fiction (for good health) and boy do we get that here. Really I expected nothing less from these two, but Richard grounds it in their individual pasts so it never feels overwrought, only typical of two people scared of change and scared to reach for what they want. It’s Different This Time is an impressive, nuanced love story between two people at first scared to try and then brave to start all over again. That it’s enough that it is different this time to hold onto a second chance with both hands. 

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August Lane by Regina Black

Have you ever read a book that redefined romance for you? Because Regina Black’s, August Lane has done so for me. Luke Randall, a not so successful country music singer, has clung to relevancy on the back of a hit song he didn’t even write. Many years prior Luke met August Lane, daughter to a country music star, Jojo Lane. Luke and August burned fast and bright, while complicated family matters and issues in their Arkansas community pushed Luke to the outskirts where he had no choice but to leave it and August behind. Now Luke has been granted the opportunity to sing alongside Jojo Lane, but doing so will require his return to Arcadia and the person whose work he stole to make his name—August herself. When I say this book has enough angst to power a small town, I mean it. And that town is Arcadia, Arkansas. Second chance meets small town romance in Regina Black’s sophomore novel, a romance all about reconciliation and the messy, complicated side of resurrecting the past. August Lane has so much tied up in its central romance, drawing attention on Black musicians’ contributions to the country music genre, racism, grief, and the cycle of trauma—mainly women in motherhood and the impact on their children through neglect, abuse, and alcoholism. Regina Black continues to push boundaries within the romance genre with her flawed, imperfect characters who live loud and love not in spite of past wounds, but because of them. August Lane presents a melodic heart wrenching ballad between two people who find the strength to reunite and explore the chance of more—of writing their own love song together.

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To Heist and to Hold by Christina Britton

Sometimes you unexpectedly stumble upon a historical romance gem, and like the very gems our heroine seeks to recover at a scandalous gambling hell, I want to plan a heist around this entire book. New in an emerging series from Christina Britton, To Heist and to Hold has all the delightful accoutrement of the best historical romances. We have a widowed blacksmith attempting to seduce the owner of a gambling club, and we have that same stoic club owner choosing to succumb to her advances because of course you can better keep your eye on a widow you don’t trust by sleeping with her. Of course you can. But don’t let the utter hilarity fool you, To Heist and to Hold is a deeply emotional plunge into the physical and mental traumas of growing up on London’s streets, as well as the lives of widowed women socialized only to be useful and effectively cast out upon the deaths of their husbands. This book starts off with a smash as Heloise, our heroine, discharges a blade of her own invention (we love), and it really only gets better from there. Featuring a group of women—The Wimpole Street Widows, who use their position in society to solve cases, To Heist and to Hold brings an essential one: retrieve a missing ruby necklace from within a gambling hall. The plan: use the guise of a boxing event to do it—placing Heloise under the ire of Ethan Sinclaire, owner of Dionysus and the man she has been sent to seduce. What feels so refreshing about this novel isn’t just the quiet stoicism of our hero but the capable nature of our heroine, be that in a blacksmith forge, fencing, or methods of seduction. Ethan and Heloise soldier a lot of pain from their pasts, but love and an ill-timed heist force them out of the roles they’ve cloaked themselves in and into a brave, uncertain, certainly chaotic, future together.

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Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola

Second chance romance lovers are going to feast on Bolu Babalola’s latest romance, Sweet Heat. After quitting her podcasting job, The HeartBeat, late twenty-something Kiki Banjo finds herself adrift at a time when she desperately craves control. Her relationship has stalled, her parents are selling their beloved restaurant, and her ex boyfriend is soon to be in town for the first time since their devastating breakup. Kiki decides to pour herself into planning her best friend’s wedding festivities, but the Best Man is none other than Malakai Korede, the man who broke her heart all those years ago. The chemistry is sizzling and the heat is still high, but for the sake of the wedding Kiki and Malakai will try to keep it all under wraps—or risk falling back into love and heartbreak. Bolu Babalola’s foray into the second chance romance arena is not to be outdone. From the moment Kiki and Malakai meet on page the angst is fierce and the wounds of the past are arrayed starkly upon the narrative. Babalola certainly takes her time to establish the perspective of Kikiola (our love interest Malakai does not even appear until after the first quarter) and the singular attention to this perspective is what makes the character work and the romance so strong in the later sections. The first part of this romance is all about the angst baby, and laying the foundation for the reconciliation between Kiki and Malakai which was in one word: sublime. Many have called Bolu Babalola the next great romance writer and Sweet Heat is proof she is worthy of the crown. This book bases the crux of the romance upon knowledge, the act of understanding someone at their marrow and the ache that is left in their absence. Phenomenal doesn’t even begin to cover Sweet Heat. It is a romance triumph!

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Review: The Sacred Space Between by Kalie Reid

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

A devout acolyte trained in iconography, Maeve has dedicated her life to upholding the saints through her artistic talents. Sequestered away at the Abbey, Maeve lives in a constant state of isolation, prayer, and devotion. After a decade in the Abbey and many years honing her craft, the opportunity to replace the lead iconographer, Brigid, is finally within her grasp, until her mentor, Ezra, gives her a daunting task. Far away from the Abbey’s walls a saint lives in exile, defiling the Abbey’s teachings and tainting the miracles of the saints. His name is Jude and he has long lived under the Abbey’s thumb, never far enough to escape its influence. Maeve is tasked twofold: paint an updated likeness of Jude while using her place within his household to acquire information on his wrongdoings. Desperate for a chance to prove herself, Maeve leaves behind the Abbey and travels to Ánhaga, a house on the outskirts of the Goddenwood. There, Maeve meets Jude, and he is nothing a saint should be. For one, he is just a boy dabbling in heretical notions. Second, Jude is intent on driving Maeve away, by any means necessary. When Jude discovers that Maeve possesses the very saintly abilities coveted by the Abbey, he realizes they have more in common than he initially thought. Together they could bring the Abbey to its knees, provided they don’t betray each other and can avoid becoming martyrs themselves.

The Sacred Space Between is a miraculous novel, far exceeding the tainted magic of saints to place an expert brush upon the experiences of loneliness, religious trauma, and the ever constant quest for belonging. With reverent hands Kalie Reid constructs her Abbey, its spires reaching ever upward and its arched cloisters replete with devout acolytes sequestered away to pray and to serve. It is here that Maeve, an iconographer, will be sent out on a mission to spy on a saint in exile and come to uncover the truth of the magic bequeathed to their saintly figures and the rotten center of her faith. Interrogating faith and its power to uplift and to subjugate, Reid’s debut dares to tear away the facade from religion, exposing the lies and the many lives impacted in service to those in power. The Sacred Space Between is about systems of power, yes, but it’s also about the power found in human connection and the moments where we find belonging and kinship with others. It’s a story full of immeasurable yearning—yearning for things to be different, yearning to find your place, for your autonomy, and yearning for the unfriendly exiled saint you are forced to spy upon in an isolated gothic manor house. Kalie Reid’s The Sacred Space Between is exquisitely rendered, drawing readers into the contentious space between a heretical saint and a devout iconographer that is not just reverent but holy.

While The Sacred Space Between is a romantic fantasy, at its heart it is a gothic with all the brooding atmosphere and descriptive imagery to move me unlike any other. The wildswept fog ridden moors on the outskirts of the Ánhaga, its wallpapered walls, and the hidden library of memories all paint a desolate picture of loneliness and melancholy central to Kalie Reid’s larger commentary. The house, Ánhaga, is a physical manifestation of the corruption at the heart of their faith, yet comforting all the same in these small spaces where tainted faith cannot reach. This is felt by Maeve and Jude’s perspectives both, but it is Maeve’s character in particular who presents an aching loneliness and an alienation tied so intrinsically to her beliefs. Her desire to be seen and trusted and remembered is a stark contrast to Jude, whose very faith has been perverted through his sainthood and physical abuse. The greatest desecration of someone’s faith is the abuse through faith itself, from the physical impact of Jude’s torture at the hands of the Abbey figures to the spiritual abuse of Maeve from her mentor, Ezra. Reid’s journey instills the necessity of faith as to question, to be allowed curiosity and have that accepted. But faith, sainthood, and iconography exist in a twisted cycle that exists to satiate the powerful and control those who dare to question the system they are a part of.

In The Sacred Space Between the way to break free lies in the hands of an exiled saint and an iconographer who hate each other (just a little). Trapped together in an isolated house with nothing but their conflicting agendas and personal ghosts for company, Maeve and Jude clash and retreat immediately and boy is the tension magnificent. Reid instills all of my favorite things into this romance, divisive views as a source of greater tension, overwhelming pining, and everyone’s favorite component: romantic yearning. As a lover of conflict in my romances, Maeve and Jude were constructed to drive me insane. Everything is held captive by their differing views as they interact and desire to know more about each other and that in turn only furthers the tension driving them apart. Yet Reid unites Jude and Maeve in a profound loneliness centered around their beliefs, initiating a quest to destroy the Abbey and return the magic siphoned from their saints. With Jude and Maeve’s bond cementing, so does our understanding of this faith and how saintly magic is controlled. Reid ties this all to religious iconography and it’s nothing short of marvelous. Religious iconography already harnesses its own kind of power, but adding in the layer of memory magic, and Reid’s stance is forever ingrained in the very paint used to bind the saints—and their magic, to the church.

The Sacred Space Between is its own artistic masterpiece. One that grabs you with two hands and forces you to look upon all that it has to reveal. For Kalie Reid that is the lasting impacts of religious trauma and abuse and the personal power found in taking something back for yourself. This novel presents many essential ideas around organized religion—how martyrs further religious fanaticism, the danger of blind faith, and the control gained in building someone up from nothing. This connects perfectly into the concept of memory magic harnessed through the iconography of their various saints. Art has power too, and here it acts as a gateway between saint and elder, magic and the believers. Memory in turn, allows these elders to abuse and control with impunity, as there is no one alive with the memory of what was truly done. If memory can be controlled so can these elders shape their acolytes and in effect own them and their faith. I love reading books that cause me to question, the ones that linger for days after I finish reading. This is essential to Kalie Reid’s debut. Even with all the romantic yearning, the kneeling, and the groveling, there is so much to sift through not just on the surface of the narrative, but far beneath. Limned a dark gothic atmosphere, this thought provoking romantic fantasy novel delves far into religious subjugation, iconography, and the weight of sainthood. Fleeting as mist, but made permanent through memory and saintly magic, The Sacred Space Between is one story to remember and find your way back to time and time again (just like Maeve and Jude).

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the advance review copy.

Trigger warnings (provided by author): blood, death, religious trauma, gaslighting, emotional abuse, child abuse, scars, discussions of past self-harm, fire injury, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts

Preorder a copy – Out 4th November

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Review: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

Her tale has been retold countless times, her sword a symbol for a nation unfettered, but where it all began is where it starts to get complicated. Scholar Owen Mallory has long been fascinated by the tale of Una Everlasting, a legendary knight who brought glory to Dominion through her quests and eventual death. One thousand years since and her tale remains entrenched in the minds of every citizen. Since then, wars have been waged, lost and won, to uphold Dominion and further its might. Returned from war scarred and irrevocably changed, Owen pours all of himself into researching the figure of Una Everlasting. In dreams, he finds himself lost in her story where he bears witness to her death countless times as if he was there. One day an unexpected item finds its way to Owen: a book—the book, which details the true events of Una’s life from the perspective of an unnamed but invested observer. Before he can get far into his research, the book is stolen, and Owen comes face to face with the person running Dominion behind the scenes, and her plan hinges on Owen playing a part he has evidently played before. Stabbed with a letter opener, thrust into the story, Owen finds himself beneath a tree with a sword against his neck, and the wielder of the blade is the woman that started it all. Una and Owen are an unlikely pair, but to break the cycle and wrest control of history they’ll have to hold fast to each other and a love that is worth so much more than the tragedy already written for them.

No, don’t be forever doomed to the cycle of violence where you die over and over again in my arms. You’re so sexy aha. Beneath the yew tree a knight and a historian meet, but they have no idea they’ve done this all before, the story is already written, and they’re doomed to follow it to its bitter end. Spanning the course of a thousand years in a never ending time loop, Alix E. Harrow’s, The Everlasting brings a lens on the inner workings of a nation and the bedraggled battle-worn knight as its Atlas, upholding its gilded promises. Like a beating machine with a rotten core, Harrow constructs the kingdom of Dominion and its stronghold obtained through a simple story, The Legend of Una Everlasting. In this tale an orphan becomes a knight, becomes a legend, raised to the side of a queen and struck down to further her reign. Told through various iterations of the deaths of Una Everlasting, Alix E. Harrow unfurls the power of stories, the cost of bearing witness by way of the pen, and the agendas of tyrants written into the very fabric of a nation’s history. The fantastical has its roots buried deep in Dominion and through this labyrinthine tale is the truth of a decaying land made known. The Everlasting is an Ouroboros, a tale with no true end or beginning, but for Harrow the cycle is a reflection of a violent nationalism and the story a sword to be wielded to further its complete and utter domination.

Tis the year of the lady knight and nothing pays testament to that quite like Alix E. Harrow’s, The Everlasting. Trapped in a time loop with a hot knight weary of her duty? A bespectacled scholar doomed to tell her tale and follow her to its bitter end? This is all I needed to hear to know that The Everlasting was going to be another unimaginable feat from Alix E. Harrow and one of the best new fantasy novels of this calendar year. Harrow had previously struck a deadly blow with her mere thirty-one page short story, The Six Deaths of the Saint, so I was already in the afterlife before I even began reading this extraordinary tale. There’s something so devastating about the inevitable, and in The Everlasting inevitability is the blade held to the throats of a knight and a scholar brought out of time to birth a kingdom and its sinister agenda. Contrasting the perspectives of Una, our knight everlasting, and Owen Mallory, a former soldier turned enthusiastic historian, Harrow constructs a story of heroic feats and the power in weaponizing the words upon the page. Fearlessly layered with innumerable stories within a story, The Everlasting holds a mirror to the narratives we cling to and the identities and ideation birthed through their telling. A story is a powerful thing and for the Everlasting the importance lies in its construction and every event continuing on in an endless cycle.

Told almost entirely through second person, The Everlasting allows the reader a chance to feel the catalyst of a story becoming myth. Myth-making is an active task within this novel, and part of that is the writing of the story, where every word is poured over and deliberate in its casting. Battles are embellished and the very essence of Una Everlasting pared down to prop up Dominion and one woman’s hunger. But it is Una Everlasting who truly upholds this nation. Her body bears the physical brunt of the wounds of the land and its assimilated peoples, her scars a reflection of the true violence being inflicted. Reading The Everlasting is to confront the abject pain of the writer addressing this figure, accompanied by a keen sense of loss in knowing that Una will forever be doomed as a martyr. Behind every myth is a person bearing witness and Harrow highlights the narrative as a reflection of the teller—a sum of their fears, wishes, and innate biases. For Owen: the desire to deny Una’s death in some manner, to make it mean something. Minor details within this tale aren’t so minor, and one of the more clever moments is in the character motivations and backstories that shift with every iteration of the cycle—leading to protests in the present day, rampant xenophobia, and calls to reinstate the monarchy. The justification in the othering of entire communities through hateful rhetoric isn’t just an intangible idea in the Everlasting, it’s baked into the story underpinning this nation and its citizens.

The Everlasting is not just an inventive fantasy novel, it is a crucial warning for our time. Lady knights, time loops, and an anxious chain smoking historian whose job it is to bear witness and love her across time is just the pinnacle of this narrative exposing the roots of story and laying bare the flawed parts of a nation. With so many intricate layers entangled in one novel, The Everlasting is as interconnected as the rings within an aging tree, but altogether much more convoluted with the recurring time loop of it all. There’s dragons, a mysterious yew tree, romantic yearning, and of course many occurrences of a tall buff lady knight wielding a sword and ending up on top. I would also be remiss to not mention my king Owen punching a fascist in the face. Thank you, Owen! The Everlasting takes a winding approach in exposing the power of a single story in burgeoning a nation’s fascism. Victims extend far beyond our star crossed duo with professors, battle-scarred citizens, and children bearing the brunt of Dominion’s harm. Owen’s perspective in being part of a country that will always hate some part of him is an agonizing truth to this story where rhetoric is not so easily changed even as history transforms. Concerning stories and their ability to affirm, justify, and embolden our views, The Everlasting returns the sword to the hands of a weary knight shaking off the mantle of a martyr to become something entirely of her choosing. Like most Alix E. Harrow novels, The Everlasting left me sobbing and I can find no desire to pick up the pieces and leave it all behind. I’ll be beneath the yew tree if you need me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for providing me with an advance review copy.

Trigger warnings (majority provided by the author): blood, death, violence and injury, war, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, pregnancy and childbirth, animal death (off-page), dysphoric emotions about gender, imperiled/abandoned children

Preorder a copy – Out 28th October

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Let’s Talk: Sizzling Summer Romance

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Summer, summer, summer, summer (please read in the theme of Disney’s High School Musical 2 hit song “What Time Is It”). Hello and welcome to another installment of my quarterly romance recommendations. It’s insane how many romance novels have published since last quarter so to honor that this is a bit longer than usual. I’m still catching up to many April/May romances since I spent the month getting ready to move back home. Picture the last few weeks being me just reading romance there are that many. Summer is already heating up and the romances are just as hot (hallelujah). We’ve got small town messy sapphics, rival bands, Persuasion inspired historical romance, and plenty of unconventional love stories. Also please ignore that I put an October romance in here. Just preorder it (trust me). Happy reading!

Dream On, Ramona Riley by Ashley Herring Blake

Ever since her mom left their small New Hampshire town, Clover Lake, never to return, Ramona Riley’s dreams of doing costume design became an impossibility. Shortly after, she dropped out of college to assist her recently injured father in raising her younger sister Olive, and for decades that was all she could see. Now Olive is set to graduate and leave for college, and Ramona is still stuck in Clover Lake working at the local cafe. But when she hears that the next big romantic comedy is set to film in Clover Lake, Ramona begrudgingly sees this as an opportunity to forge a way to her dream career. Unfortunately the film’s lead star is her first kiss and once crush, Dylan Monroe, and she does not remember a single thing about Ramona. Luckily Ramona can spend the entire time avoiding her. Right? No one is doing small town romance like the sapphics and Ashley Herring Blake. Dream On, Ramona Riley recaptures the small town atmosphere of her first series, Bright Falls, and proves it’s not just a lucky strike, but an innate talent Blake can bring to any romance. As a lover of all things New England, rom-coms, and messy bisexuals, this had all the shapings of an unforgettable romance, and it delivered from beginning to end. Featuring another delightful extended romance cast—like April Evans the tattoo artist (up next for book two), and some of Ashley Herring Blake’s hottest sex scenes (trust me), Dream On, Ramona Riley really is queer romance perfection. The core of this story sees caretaking as a sacrificing act, but also a hopeful one—a poignant theme which threads through Ramona’s second chance career and eventual love story. Dream On, Ramona Riley is for anyone who’s ever thought the words “it’s too late,” because it never is. I am elated for more messy sapphic love stories from Ashley Herring Blake!

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Passion Project by London Sperry

Bennet Taylor has no passion. She’s experiencing a passion deficit as it were. But who else is in their twenties working as a temp while desperately trying to forget the grief of the love of their life who they are pretty sure was the one. Pushed into a first date she didn’t want Bennet flees, only to run into her intended date, Henry, hours later where she confesses the grievous sin that she is not ready. She even admits to her passionless state, and Henry agrees he’ll help her find it. Now they’re having adventures all over the city, and Bennet and Henry realize they’re not just good friends and passion aficionados, they’re each other’s next chance at the love they’ve been waiting for. Disaster over pasta carbonara begins this hopeful romance debut from London Sperry that leans heavily into works in progress finding love not in spite of their circumstances but because of all that they are. New York City is very much a main character as Bennet and Henry traverse the boroughs and the nooks and crannies in search of ever elusive “passion” while avoiding unexpected feelings. Now with a founding father name like Henry Adams you wouldn’t expect a man to be so effortlessly romantic and capable of such yearning, but Sperry has written the romantic love interest of the year with Henry. I mean the spectacles?? Come on! Bennet Taylor had such strength while in the presence of this man I commend her for all of it. The journey of Bennet and Henry out of grief, to friendship, and then love is overwhelmingly gentle. Passion Project has a truly beautiful message baked in—that we don’t really have to have it all together to be worthy of love and happiness. The focus on depression and grief is one we journey on alongside Bennet, and it is as important as the love story. Passion Project doesn’t take the stance that love begets an end to these things, but we love in spite and live to heal day by day. Find your passion with London Sperry. It’s as easy as reading this novel.

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Isabel and the Rogue by Liana De la Rosa

Isabel Luna Valdés has made being overlooked a strength. As the unremembered third  Luna sister she uses her talents to gather intel to aid Mexico in their fight against French occupation. Wallflower bookish Isabel has had no issue sneaking away from the various balls and society gatherings while her sisters entertain, that is until Captain Sirius Dawson starts to take notice of her disappearances. Sirius is a spy himself, for the British Home Office, and in taking concern over Isabel is in danger of losing it all for the chance to aid her. When Isabel unearths something that could transform the entire occupation she has the ability to finally provide something concrete, but what will she risk to help her country if the cost is her heart. Bookish women being loved for who they are is actually something that is so personal to me and that is essential to Liana De la Rosa’s, Isabel and The Rogue. Isabel Luna Valdés, the woman that you are! This follow up to the first Luna sisters novel sees a wallflower use her place in London society to uncover correspondence to aid her country, bringing a flawless addition to the rake and wallflower pairing. Liana De la Rosa has captured the spirit of each of the Luna sisters in their respective novels and Isabel’s feels like a comforting love letter to the spirited, bookish heroines finding inner strength and a place of their own. Sirius and Isabel are a well matched couple and their chemistry is fierce. I’m still thinking about the desk scene and probably will be for all time. The glimpses into London society from the perspective of three Mexican heiresses, the kernels of sisterhood, and the insights into Mexican history is what makes this one of the most unique historical romances out there right now.

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Some Kind of Famous by Ava Wilder

Ten years since her singing career crashed rather spectacularly and two years since leaving behind a failed romantic relationship, Merritt Valentine is still in Crested Peak, the small Colorado town where her twin sister has elected to set down roots. Now with a baby on the way, her sister gives her ample notice that she will need to find another place to live so they can make room. Luckily, Merritt has a property she purchased not long after her arrival in town, however it needs quite a bit of renovating before she will be able to move in on a permanent basis. But getting things up to code will require her to engage the services of one Nikolaos Petrakis, local contractor, jack of all trades, and the man whom Merritt is hopelessly infatuated. I don’t think I’ve fully been captivated by a romance novel as quickly as I did with Some Kind of Famous. Maybe it’s just the setting, and the company of such wonderful characters but I quickly fell in with this on the most extreme level and it’s safe to say the rest of the novel carried it through. What’s so endearing about Some Kind of Famous is the extent it is emphasized that our two main characters are works in progress—two people still figuring life out but scared to reach for love with two hands when things aren’t perfect. Fear of the past is a big theme for Ava Wilder, and it imbues an immense pressure on both Niko and Merritt as they pursue a romance. Some Kind of Famous is about finding ourselves after setbacks and not closing ourselves off to connection just because we’re scared of trying again. The ups and downs are vast, but this is an exquisite addition to the celebrity romance space. Prepare to fall as hopelessly in love with this one as I did.

Preorder a Copy – Out 28th October

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Eliza and the Duke by Harper St. George

Facing down a loveless marriage to a man flaunting his dalliances across Europe, American heiress Eliza Dove wishes for one night to experience the real side of London. Her ticket in is Simon Cavell, Montague Club’s manager and the celebrated boxer of Whitechapel known only as “The Duke,” after a chance meeting leaves her an opportunity to convince him of her plan. All Simon yearns for is securing a life for his niece currently held by the man whom he owes a great debt, but soon all he yearns for is her, Eliza, the impossible heiress. Between the dark streets of London, townhomes, and tension filled carriage rides, soon it is impossible to deny that the only thing Simon and Eliza want is a life side by side, but that is as impossible as the feelings running between them. There is no power on earth strong enough to tear me away from a good historical romance, and Harper St. George is one of the strongest talents in the genre right now. Her Doves of New York series first ensnared me with The Stranger I Wed, but this follow up has outsold everything that came before. Eliza and the Duke concerns two people who never thought they could be loved—Eliza the hopeless romantic, and Simon the strong and silent boxer who made a life through his fists, finding unconditional, lasting love. Eliza and Simon are two individuals you can’t not root for. With Persuasion levels of longing, their connection is not only palpable, but grounded against their pasts leaving space for a beautiful romance to develop and plenty of angst to savor. And what a layered romance this is. Like that carriage scene? *fans self to no avail*. Eliza and the Duke is certainly for the Jane Austen lovers amongst us and it’s a historical romance that left me more than a little unhinged (a glowing commendation if there ever was one).

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Never Over by Clare Gilmore

When songwriter Paige Lancaster meets with one of Nashville’s premier music publishers for a potential contract, she never expects them to leave her with a tremendous task of writing new songs. Paige takes this songwriting challenge to the extreme and enlists Liam Bishop, her ex, to aid her in the task—they’ll start dating again while she joins him on tour, and then when the romance is at its height, he’ll break her heart. Yet all this re-breakup plan does is force Liam and Paige to address the past, why they broke up, and if they have the courage to try it all over again—for real this time. Never Over is second chance romance goodness, written with aching emotion and lending voice to the weight of grief and how far we will go in pursuit of our dreams. Messy twenty-somethings still figuring out life is Clare Gilmore’s bread and butter, and her third novel is arguably the best of the best and the messiest of the twenty somethings. Dual timelines give rise to a second chance love story between determined songwriter Paige Lancaster, and Liam Bishop, once lauded baseball pitcher now concert manager on the tour circuit. Never Over is a love story centered around life on tour, bookstore meet cutes, baseball training, and a heartwarming love letter to Bristol, Tennessee. Clare Gilmore has completely shifted what constitutes an excellent execution of the second chance romance trope with Never Over and I am in complete awe of her talent. This feels like a book written for the overlooked younger children finding their voice and their place in adulthood after being lost in the background for so long. At the same time, the danger in letting yourself be defined by one thing and what happens when that dream abruptly ends. Like the most addictive sort of love song: Never Over is a romance to pour over, read, and repeat. Healing and cathartic all in one note.

Preorder a Copy – Out 28th October

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These Summer Storms by Sarah Maclean

Born into a family of obscene wealth and privilege, Alice Storm was never afforded her own path, and was subsequently exiled for choosing one of her own. Upon the death of her father, Franklin Storm, Alice is called back into the fold to mourn his passing and celebrate the legacy of a tech industry titan. Stuck on the family’s private island off the coast of Rhode Island, Alice and her siblings soon face the strings attached to their inheritance and the final game their father constructed from beyond the grave. The catch? They have to play or forfeit the millions they hoped to inherit. With one week to play the game the past is never closer to the present, and family grievances could be the deciding force in who wins the game and who is out before it can even begin. Sarah Maclean never saw a structurally sound building or complicated family dynamics she couldn’t mess with and I, as always, am here for her meddling. These Summer Storms is a far departure from Maclean’s typical historical romance ventures, but nevertheless a clever twist on the corporate family power struggle. Maclean brings together her flawed family—the straight and narrow eldest with a secret life, the arrogant successor convinced he will inherit the crown, the exiled artist, and the crystal & astrology obsessed youngest daughter, all vying for their inheritances. These Summer Storms is Succession on steroids, complete with all the spiteful feuds and particular personalities that clash and make these stories so entertaining while exposing unique experiences of grief and family. It all comes crashing down rather spectacularly (quite standard to Maclean) with reconciliation not so far off and even the fiercest of storms finding harmony.  

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Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan

Hendrix Barry has it all, a successful business, incredible friends, and a supportive family. Yet as her mom’s dementia worsens, Hendrix knows she’ll need to step up more than she already is, and balancing it all could cause the precarious house of cards that is her life to finally crumble. When she meets Maverick Bell, a charming self made billionaire, Hendrix knows she’s in trouble. Unfortunately as the ex of a current client, dating Maverick breaks every kind of girl code so Hendrix backs off. If only Maverick understood the memo, pursuing Hendrix with the determination of someone who knows what he wants, and is used to getting it. With their undeniable connection and chemistry to consider, giving in may mean finally reaching for the love she’s been denying herself, but of course that’s easier said than done. I’ve been eagerly anticipating the conclusion to Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland trilogy from the moment I finished, This Could Be Us. Hendrix Barry has this larger than life quality that leaps off the page and I knew her book would be divine from the previous books alone. Kennedy Ryan’s familial connections to caregiving deepens a story centered strongly around caring for aging parents. Ryan’s nuances around caring for a parent with dementia are carefully done, how one can feel like a failure for making mistakes and at the same time feel selfish for enjoying things outside of it. Hendrix handles it all with such grace and she deserves to be taken care of—which is where our love interest Maverick comes in. His attentiveness and understanding to Hendrix as she struggles and triumphs is one of the most romantic things. These two really were partners to each other in everything which is peak romance to me. Kennedy Ryan really is an incomparable talent and Can’t Get Enough is irrefutable proof.

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Anywhere With You by Ellie Palmer

Charley Beekman thought she could figure it all out, but after her divorce and her stalled legal career, things have undoubtedly changed. Surprisingly, that’s not her biggest problem. When her impulsive younger sister announces her imminent elopement to her ex boyfriend and friend from childhood, Charley only has one course of action: break off the wedding before they hurt each other again. Who should join her in the road to breaking up the wedding, but Ethan, her childhood best friend. Ethan (unsurprisingly) doesn’t really believe in breaking off the wedding, but a road trip to rekindle their friendship after a falling out is worth anything, even if it requires recognizing the feelings they have avoided years on. Anywhere With You is for the childhood friends to lovers fans wrapped up in a road trip gone wrong and a well intentioned but disastrous breakup plan. Former best friends Ethan and Charley have this intense, raw chemistry that sent me spiraling as they are forced into close proximity in the most bizarre ways (like a truck stop shower scene that is unusually heated). Alongside a road trip of reconciliation and feelings revealed, Palmer flits back to the past, uncovering the complicated ties between these two and where they are headed. Coupled with their pasts, Palmer shows why Ethan and Charley work together and the freedom afforded in them finally giving into their feelings. Ethan begging, tortured for Charley and Charley unlearning some of the cynicism stemming from her parents’ relationship, in that regard. Anywhere With You is the epitome of the friends to lovers trope. For every person still figuring out their plan, on a road with all the dips, turns, and returns that life affords. 

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Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay

Librarian Emily Allen has been stuck for too long on Martha’s Vineyard living under her mother’s thumb that she’s prepared to do something drastic—like moving all the way to Ireland to work for her favorite author from childhood. Siobhan Riordan’s acclaimed children’s fantasy series charmed the masses, but the tenth book has yet to be written due to her debilitating writer’s block. Emily’s job is to help her finish the manuscript while pitching in at the bookstore alongside Kieran the overly protective, grumpy bookstore manager—and Siobhan’s son. As Emily helps Siobhan complete the manuscript she learns Siobhan’s greatest secret, and it could ruin her resolve at her own next chapter. Shelve this under, made me sob uncontrollably (and in the would recommend category). There are few books out there that have the power to make me bawl and Love at First Book is one of them. Now on the surface this appears to be your standard romance novel, with a bit of hate to love around an American transplant living in Ireland and the grouchy bookstore manager who wants her gone (classic), but wow is this anything but. Love At First Book explores the transformative power of literature and how writing offers us the chance to reconcile the past while looking to the future. This book is about old and new beginnings as we follow a young librarian fleeing her narcissistic mother to a new life, a terminally ill writer trying to complete the final book in a series that was a love letter to her son, and a bookstore manager desperate to keep his life intact. Love at First Book showcases the power in the written word in bringing unlikely people together, to better themselves and find community. It’s romantic, tragic, and an aching portrayal of loss. If you’re in need of a good cry look no further. 

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Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria

Now that her divorce has been finalized, Ava Rodriguez is a free woman. Alone at a teaching conference she seizes the chance for a one night stand with the incredibly handsome Roman Vázquez, the self made businessman who owns the hotel, after he flirts with her at the hotel bar. Their scorching chemistry doesn’t just lie in the bedroom, and soon neither of them want to leave it at just one night. The catch: Roman will have to wait until Ava reaches out to make contact, and they won’t tell their friends. Months on and the fling is working perfectly, albeit with a few rule breaks, but when Ava discovers Roman is the best man to her friend’s fiance she’ll have to determine just how much she’s willing to break her rules for the chance at being his. Permanently. Along Came Amor is the long awaited third novel in Alexia Daria’s Primas of Power trilogy. This book is for the people pleasers in every regard and a cautionary tale for anyone precariously balancing every aspect of their life to appear perfect. Our heroine Ava is the victim of these people pleasing tendencies, always striving to be the perfect everything for anyone—lest they see the truth and cast her aside. Her liaison with Roman changes everything as she finds someone who loves and cares for her exactly as she is. Now Roman is the perfect love interest for a people pleaser because he was down bad for Ava from their very first meeting. Literally screaming, crying, throwing up for the chance that she reaches out to him after their one night stand. Roman and Ava are hilariously compatible and it’s very entertaining to watch them dance around each other for almost 500 pages. Along Came Amor is without a doubt the best read for the summer, featuring thirty and forty somethings attempting to have it all, next level sex scenes, and people pleasers leaving perfection behind in favor of authentic connection.

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No Ordinary Love by Myah Ariel

Acclaimed popstar Ella Simone built a career around music in small part due to the influence of her husband, Elliot Majors, a bigtime music producer. Now Ella is considering a shift in management after Elliot’s constant cheating leaves her with no choice but to end their marriage. Ella’s voice stands on its own, but to win out against the prenup she signed eight years ago and maintain control of her music, she’ll have to be on her best behavior. Enter stage right Miles Westbrook, a pro baseball player and Ella’s unfortunate downfall. After a wardrobe mishap and their palpable chemistry live on stage at an awards show, the rumor mill is indeed churning. Luckily, Ella and Miles’ PR teams have a plan to capitalize on the attention and it involves spending even more time with a man who has the potential to become a real problem for Ella’s already fragile heart. No Ordinary Love is an unforgettable romance novel drawn forward by an inner music that moved me from the very start. Myah Ariel knows the appeal of the celebrity romance and the slow burn and said you can have this entire book….as a treat. From multiple fronts, No Ordinary Love interrogates the entertainment industry, legacy, and personal beliefs and at the center of this is Ella Simone who embodies it all—control, ambition, and a deep love for her craft. Not just a character to admire deeply, Ella is one to root for as she casts off a toxic partner and works to build the life she wants for herself all while pushing the boulder uphill. Miles is the perfect harmony to Ella and his unconditional love and support was the grounding this story needed to become a true romance classic. Myah Ariel showcases the power in two driven and somewhat single minded individuals letting go just a little to find the music side by side. Where the bonus is falling in love.

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The Chemistry of Familiar Objects by Alexandra Vasti

On 57 Gresham Street the true showdown is occurring. For Emmeline Starling, the building is the perfect space to test her skills in chemistry, but on the ground floor Robert Vane, a children’s book printer is one explosion away from a complete meltdown. Years of towing the line and stewing in their personal hatred for each other all ends when a dangerous concoction of Emmeline’s is stolen. Together, Emmeline and Robert are entangled in a dark conspiracy to weaponize her compound and the only way to uncover it is to work side by side—if they can do so without first burying the hatchet directly in the other’s chest. What would you say if I told you a real love language was blowing stuff up in front of a man who disdains you? What then? The Chemistry of Familiar Objects features all of my favorite things: man who is so sick of a specific woman he could vomit (but really), woman who can’t stop blowing things up/lighting things on fire, and love stemming from schemes and conspiracy. Alexandra Vasti is an undeniable power within the historical romance space, whether that’s writing full length novels or bite size novella adventures, and this novella is her pièce de résistance. How else does one craft something so profoundly moving and romantic all in under two hundred pages without losing any real depth from the page count. Em and Robert were (regretfully) in cahoots until it transformed into in cahoots (affectionate) and the entire journey is so delicious I could scream. Vasti doesn’t lose up on any of that wonderful romantic tension she is known for, nor the jaw dropping sex scenes that will be seared into my brain for all eternity. The Chemistry of Familiar Objects is a masterclass in intimacy, vulnerability, and that kernel of hate to love that moves all of us one way or another. Also chemistry. Lots of chemistry!

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For the Record by Emma Lord

Once music rivals now complete strangers, Sam Blaze and Mackenzie Waters captivated their listeners with their chemistry on stage and their rumored romance. Several years since leaving their respective bands, Sam and Mack are independently striking out on their own, if only they can convince their labels that it’s a good idea. To secure the next stage of their singing careers, Sam and Mack agree to team up on a joint album in a comeback that will drag their past back to the present. Reviving the music and their undeniable chemistry could secure them a future in music if wounded hearts don’t first prevail and they can remain on the good side of the spotlight—no matter the cost. Effortlessly funny, charming, romantic, you name it, Emma Lord excels at it all and her second adult romance is no different. For the Record is a nostalgic rivals to lovers’ romance that made me yearn for the music while reminiscing on the days of bands long past. Emma Lord immediately swept me up in the drama of the bands Candy Shards and Thunder Hearts (think edgy punk rock group versus pop girl trio) and their notorious rivalry. One thing that always gets me with Emma Lord’s writing is the effortless way she brings readers into the lives of her characters and those orbiting our main duo. Even though we see little of them, the bond between Mackenzie and her former band members Hannah and Serena is quite the standout, as was Sam’s bond with his son and family. The romance still takes center stage here and god did Sam and Mackenzie bring on that unbearable romantic tension that made me want to bonk my head against the wall. Emma Lord knows how to write a romance and this one is a soft and hopeful love song you can’t resist being enamored by.

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Review: Love At First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

Cult horror writer Rosemary Shaw has always been able to see the dead—ever since she was ten years old and her recently deceased grandmother came back for a final lesson in making her signature strawberry jam. Rosemary’s talents led her into a career writing horror novels and now her Victorian gothic horror novel, When The Devil Takes Hold, is slated to be adapted into film. This should be a tremendous accomplishment if not for the glaringly obvious fact that the actor hired for the titular role is just wrong. Ellis Finch is Hollywood’s favorite charmer. Known for his action movies, all Ellis really wants to do is to step away to more meaningful projects, and Rosemary Shaw’s adaptation offers him a chance to pivot. When Ellis learns the author of the source novel wants him out as the leading man he is infuriated, but nothing will stop him from this career making project, not even opinionated Rosemary Shaw. Filming at a picturesque Hallowvale manor in England’s countryside, there are zero opportunities for Rosemary and Ellis to avoid one another. Especially as the manor is so much more than a set draping for a gothic horror movie, it’s literally haunted. Ghosts of all kinds have made the manor their home, bringing mischief down on the film crew, but as Rosemary and Ellis bury the hatchet they discover far greater are the ghosts of feelings lingering between them.

When you’re a horror author who’s novel is being adapted and the primary actor for the part is just wrong but also the set is being haunted by a pair of ghosts from the regency wreaking havoc with their unhinged lesbian-yearning-for-what-can-never-be vibes. Guys Nadia El-Fassi simply never misses and her sophomore novel is written for the chaos demons and bisexuals in mind. As a representation and a purveyor of both, Love At First Fright was inherently a Robin classic and a romance sensation from its very first moments. Love At First Fright is the epitome of what a modern romance should be with a healthy dose of the paranormal and hate to love on a gothic horror movie set where the ghosts are real and so are the feelings. Horror writer Rosemary Shaw hates her adaptation’s film lead, suave action star Ellis Finch, who is just a little burnt out and hoping playing a sickly Victorian man in a gothic horror film is the cure. Spoiler alert it’s that and romancing a talented horror writer. Love At First Fright finds romance in the unlikeliest of places, like telling someone you watched Crimson Peak when they mentioned it one time, debating Jane Austen’s best work, and helping the two regency lesbian ghosts move past their internalized homophobia and find peace. Nadia El-Fassi’s sophomore novel reasserts her immense talent for grounded, meaningful modern love stories. Call me a ghost lover because I want to be haunted by this novel for all eternity.

In Love At First Fright the ghosts are front and center, but Nadia El-Fassi proves it’s not really the ghosts haunting the narrative, but various regrettable circumstances and the vulnerability in laying ourselves bare. This book screams romance to me even as two regency lesbians wreck havoc on the film crew, a ghost dog lingers by his former owner, and its characters grapple with truly delicious levels of tension. It’s also a deep cut for the bisexuals. Like Rosemary came out DAYS after watching The Mummy (1999) in youth. I’m afraid this is not just a stunning romance novel, but also the unadulterated bisexual representation we deserve! Rosemary and Ellis get off to a rough start but from there it’s—well it’s still a bit rough but albeit sexier and a whole lot hornier. These two had me crazy to the point that if I was a member of the When The Devil Takes Hold crew I would have stopped dead in my tracks just to inquire if there was something else going on between them. Because in no way were these two discreet yearning out in the rain (which FYI is the hottest scene in the book and they are fully clothed). Rosemary and Ellis had no reason being so intense about each other but in fairness I’m obsessed with them both so I do get it. The way these two communicate, the honesty they find in between the tense moments, only make this romance that much more profound. 

Love At First Fright is certainly the romance novel to read this fall. Proving spooky can be sexy, and that the best love stories are told alongside the paranormal. Nadia El-Fassi pours so much into just one romance it’s a triumph to witness it all coalesce into this visionary love story. From the regency ghosts, the splendidly gothic manor Harrowvale, Jane Austen hot takes™, and the healthy exploration of kink, Love At First Fright is a romance novel like no other and it has something in it for every kind of reader. Leads Rosemary and Ellis brought on the simmering tension and achingly hot scenes, it’s a wonder I didn’t perish on sight after reading them. This book oscillates between the frightening, yearning, grief, and humor infused moments with such skill—and oftentimes all within one scene. It’s masterful. Also there’s something so hilarious about the regency lesbian ghosts being exposed to Bridgerton (I need a oneshot of this on my desk immediately). I am left with one question and one question only after my reading experience which is: what sapphic books would I give to a Victorian Era lesbian ghost to help her unlearn her internalized homophobia. If you thought Best Hex Ever was extraordinary, you’ll lose it for El-Fassi’s follow up, Love At First Fright. Utterly spooktastic!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the advance review copy.

Trigger warnings: animal death (in the past, but recounted), homophobia, blackmail, grief

Preorder a Copy – Out 16th September

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Review: Never Over by Clare Gilmore

Robin2 Comments

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Songwriter Paige Lancaster has found her calling but she still has yet to find a way to make it her living. When she gets an opportunity to meet with Stillwater Music—one of Nashville’s prime music publishing companies, she’s closer than ever to a long-term contract. Despite all her hopes, Paige leaves the meeting with a task: write new songs that tap into the physical emotions she’s experienced, instead of holding back with surface level songs that lack any real depth. It’s either that or she takes less of a cut with the royalties and someone else workshops her music. Paige takes this songwriting challenge to the extreme with the chance to tap into her past and enlists Liam Bishop, former partner and love to aid her in the task. It’s been four years since Liam and Paige had any contact but Paige thinks Liam may be the only real chance of her accessing these “emotions” Stillwater Music and her songs need. Thus Paige ensnares Liam in a breakup redo, they’ll start dating again while she joins him on tour, and then when the romance is at its height, he’ll break her heart. Yet all this re-breakup plan does is force Liam and Paige to address the past, why they broke up, and if they have the courage to try it all over again—for real this time.

Never Over is second chance romance goodness, written with aching emotion and lending voice to the weight of grief and how far we will go in pursuit of our dreams. Messy twenty-somethings still figuring out life is Clare Gilmore’s bread and butter, and her third novel is arguably the best of the best and the messiest of the twenty somethings. Dual timelines give rise to a second chance love story between determined songwriter Paige Lancaster, and Liam Bishop, her ex—once lauded baseball pitcher now concert manager on the tour circuit. Never Over is a love story centered around life on tour, bookstore meet cutes, baseball training, and a heartwarming love letter to Bristol, Tennessee. Clare Gilmore has completely shifted what constitutes an excellent execution of the second chance romance trope with Never Over and I am in complete awe of her talent. This feels like a book written for the overlooked younger children finding their voice and their place in adulthood after being lost in the background for so long. At the same time, the danger in letting yourself be defined by one thing and what happens when that dream abruptly ends. Like the most addictive sort of love song: Never Over is a romance to pour over, read, and repeat. Healing and cathartic all in one note.

Balancing falling back in love and falling in love for the first time is exactly why second chance romance is the superior romance trope (argue with the wall). Especially when it’s so easy to get it wrong. Somehow Clare Gilmore provides a fresh take into her second chance romance with two exes, Paige and Liam agreeing to try again without really realizing it’s for real. This trope is the best because of the mutual effort needed on both sides of the partnership to really pull it off. We have Liam finding a new path after a devastating injury and pivoting to a new dream, and Paige, chasing after one for so long she’s willing to go to extraordinary lengths in order to achieve it. Second chances aren’t just for love, but for the lives these two have led both together and apart. Right away I knew Paige was going to be my kind of romance heroine. She’s someone comfortable leaning into being a work in progress, still finding her voice after being lost behind her five sister’s personalities in childhood. Despite her romance prospects, Paige does know herself and that struck me from the start. In spite of being overshadowed in childhood, Paige doesn’t want the spotlight, content to make a living writing songs rather than performing. That certainty never wavers even as she meets conflicting wishes of her friends, sisters, and partner at different intervals of the novel.

Never Over is the kind of romance I didn’t want to end. Even as I neared the final chapters I caught myself flipping back several times, intent on capturing the emotions before it was all over. Gilmore ties so much together in the last section: Liam’s hopes through Paige, Paige’s conviction, and finally, a true reconciliation between this pairing. I love how much these two are mirrors to each other’s hopes, dreams, and the extent to which Gilmore explores how this could be detrimental within a relationship. Additionally, just how much we want to hide from others when we are struggling. Coming back together means reconciling just why things ended and for Paige and Liam and Gilmore is sure to show just how well off they are by the end having had those difficult discussions. Never Over is just so hopeful about reinvention, grieving, and second chances that it’s hard not to get emotional. The moments of sisterhood lighten the narrative from being solely a romance, it’s a family story too. Focusing on songs bringing people through life’s great moments was a perfect note to end on for a romance all about music. Music, second chance romance, angst, and sisterhood, Never Over is a combining of seemingly conflicting melodies into one beating harmony. A perfect book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy.

Trigger warnings: death of a parent, grief, injury, abandonment

Preorder a Copy – Out 28th October

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Review: Isn’t It Obvious? by Rachel Runya Katz

Robin3 Comments

Rating: 5 out of 5.

High school librarian and part time podcaster Yael Koenig never expected The Sophomore English Agenda, her podcast exploring the high school reading list, to gain any traction online. But seeing as it’s her side gig and its popularity has skyrocketed, she now needs to hire someone to help in its production. Enter Ravi “Kevin” Kissoon, a freelance editor and producer who recently moved to Portland to help his brother Suresh raise his four year old daughter. Working together on the podcast remotely, Ravi and Yael communicate entirely via email, which soon spirals into non-work related chats as the two strike up a friendship. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Ravi and Yael have met before, when he made a desperate escape out of her second story window after a disastrous one night stand with her roommate, Charlie. When Ravi turns up at her afterschool queer book club as the new library volunteer, Yael is certain nothing could be worse, but her hatred is short-lived as Ravi is surprisingly charming and his presence is good for the students. Just as Yael and Ravi fall hard in person, their online identities are revealed, and reconciling two identities into one may be impossible, even where true love is concerned.

I needed a book that was proudly pro library in these trying times and Isn’t It Obvious answered the call, while asking the question, what if we romanced each other over email while hating each other at queer book club? Yael, a librarian with a secret podcast critiquing the high school reading list, with witty titles such as “A Lack of Reading Comprehension Is a Prerequisite for Serving in Congress,” grates against her new library volunteer. Ravi, a freelance editor precariously balancing a new life, is more than a tad desperate to convince the roommate of his latest hookup that he isn’t an asshole, even continuing to volunteer at her queer book club. With hidden identities and exquisite tension in the library, Isn’t it Obvious puts romance on the books and every single page sings with hate to love goodness. Rachel Runya Katz was a relatively new to me author as of this year, but she has quickly become an unrivaled talent and one of my favorite romance authors in the contemporary romance scene. Isn’t It Obvious, her third novel, is undoubtedly the best romance of this year. Not just the library representation we deserve, but a reminder of the power in these spaces especially for the queer youth of today, and how much we stand to gain from reaching for love in spite of our supposed shortcomings.

Isn’t It Obvious details the love story between a librarian and her new book club volunteer and overall nuisance (who she hates if you didn’t know) while they unexpectedly fall for each other online. Rachel Runya Katz takes the concept of a secret identity and gives it a queer You’ve Got Mail twist, but set primarily within a library that screams out a profound love letter to these spaces. Over the course of just one romance novel, Runya Katz follows two individuals juggling their mental health, familial, and career responsibilities, all while falling hard for the last person they should ever want. Characters Yael and Ravi pretty much immediately charmed me—with their incessant arguing as one of them dangles precariously out of a second floor window while attempting to flee a misguided hookup. Hating each other in person, flirting over email, Yael and Ravi build trust and vulnerability with humor and tremendous feeling. In fact, as we get to know these characters, the correspondence via email gets even funnier. Like Ravi, my sweet summer child, signing off an emotional email with “best wishes,” which is so on point for him I cried laughing. Isn’t It Obvious deftly balances all the best aspects of the romance novel, the humor, the depth, the longing, and it brings new meaning to the word “romance” entirely.

In Isn’t It Obvious even mundane actions somehow manage to be so exquisitely agonizingly hot, and that is for one reason and one reason only, two people that hate each other so very much. Ravi and Yael wanted absolutely nothing to do with each other and god if that wasn’t a palpable feeling from the start. Rachel Runya Katz takes every opportunity to make these two confront each other, with exquisite interactions that straddle the line between love and hate. With a background like theirs it’s no wonder every interaction hinges on something more. Even helping each other shelve library books was terribly sexy and had my jaw on the floor. And wrist touches may be the new hand flex because Ravi made that into a whole art. So much of what I love about the hate to love trope is someone seeing you at your worst and still deciding you are worth the effort and that is the crux of the story Rachel Runya Katz designs. Yael, a young woman living with Bipolar disorder has always been treated as “too much” and newly minted Portlander Ravi is convinced he has taken on too much to ever have a serious relationship. I love the idea that we don’t have to be perfect to reach for the love we deserve at any time, which is essential to Yael and Ravi’s romance arc. These two really bring the chaos together and I’d expect nothing less from two bisexuals who got off to a rough start.

I could easily wax poetic about Isn’t It Obvious until the end of time. It is that good of a romance. It gladdens me to know that these kinds of books exist—unapologetically queer, neurodiverse, BIPOC, and jewish all at once. So many scenes from this novel will stick with me for all time, like the drag performance scene, Ravi and Yael talking in the car after taking Leo home, and Ravi’s love confession. In hand with her romance, Rachel Runya Katz devotes significant attention to the importance of libraries in creating community for queer youth. Ravi and Yael both get to be elders for the next queer generation which honestly made me tear up a little, particularly during the epilogue. The book club scenes in this made me want to pull up a chair and offer my thoughts on the current queer book and argue on the next one (clearly I just need to join a book club). Rachel Runya Katz has written one of my all time favorite romances and books to ever exist. Period. Isn’t It Obvious rightfully romanticizes the wrist touch, the book club rivalry, lit crit podcasts, and of course, libraries and falling for your nemesis. It is a beacon for anyone out there longing for love but determined to be perfect to have it. Know that your time is now. 

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me the advance review copy.

Trigger warnings: homophobia, parental abandonment, mental health disorder

Preorder a copy – Out 21st October

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Review: Gabriela and His Grace by Liana De la Rosa

Robin1 Comment

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Gabriela Luna Valdés has long felt the odd one out. Since fleeing France’s occupation of Mexico and making her way to London with her two eldest sisters, Gabi has sought to carve out meaning in her new life. Yet, as her eldest sisters have all married and gone on to contribute politically to Mexico back home and abroad, Gabi cannot help but feel adrift. The only constant in all of this is Gabriela’s years-long enemy, Sebastian Brooks, the Duke of Whitfield. A rake of the highest order, Sebastian charmed Gabi and just as quickly lost all her regard on the night of their meeting. After a scandal leaves her with no choice but to flee London, Gabriela intends to return to Mexico. Who should be called to provide a watchful eye on the ship bearing her home but her nemesis. Avoidance is impossible with the ship forcing them into close quarters, but outside of the expectations of London society Gabriela and Sebastian soon discover how little they actually know each other, and the sizzling chemistry underlying their years of hatred. But with Gabi’s family expecting a politically advantageous marriage, Sebastian is the last person she could ever have, and choosing him means standing in a life of her own design if she can first follow her heart.

Two enemies get the close proximity treatment in Gabriela and His Grace, a historical romance novel concerning misperception, rebellion, and forging your path against all odds. A historical series staking claim on an untapped portion of Mexican history, set within the regency, and centered around resistance and sisterhood, The Luna Sisters is a historical romance trilogy unlike any other. This being my first experience reading Liana De la Rosa, Gabriela and His Grace completely transformed my views on what makes a good historical romance, and how historical periods can best be examined and interrogated. In Gabriela and His Grace, Liana De la Rosa focuses on the end years of the illegal occupation of Mexico by the French as her heroine travels home to a world transformed. Gabriela Luna Valdés meets her match in the dually irritating and intriguing Duke of Whitfield, a man predisposed to push her buttons and enliven her to a plethora of new possibilities. These two battle their beliefs and lay waste to their plans, all while engaging in various arguments, heated dances, and there-was-only-one-room-on-a-ship trope. Gabriela and His Grace is a liberating novel in all regards and Gabriela and Sebastian’s love story is everything you could possibly want from a historical romance.

Gabriela and His Grace was my first escapade into the works of Liana De la Rosa and it was enough to have me clawing at my chest and racing to read her entire backlist. Hate to love, when done well, just reminds me of the power in great love stories and that was absolutely the case with the third Luna Sisters novel. Sebastian and Gabi had swoon worthy levels of chemistry from the start, even as they are sniping at each other, desperate to escape one another’s orbit on a ship where that is impossible. A very niche thing I enjoy in romance novels is scenes where one character sees another unguarded. I love witnessing characters removed from their comforts so much that the facades come down and that is central to Gabi and Sebastian’s romance. The beginning scenes on the ship, with Sebastian boisterously playing dice as Gabi looks on and their hopscotch moments, give way to deeper intimacy and the understanding that they were wrong about each other. Liana De la Rosa really works to make Sebastian and Gabriela see one another, and that in contrast to their upbringings made for some delicious conflict. 

Gabriela and Sebastian are a prime example of hate to love done right. These two have particular personalities that lead them to clash and then retreat way back at the beginning of this series. In this novel, De la Rosa unwinds her established dynamic, upstaging these two from their comforts as they confront how little they actually know each other. Liana De la Rosa does not rush a single bit of Gabriela and Sebastian’s romantic arc, leaving the first half of the novel for them to build trust and begin to deconstruct their flawed perceptions. What comes after is really the slowest of slow burns, which is just as I like it—heavy on the longing and comprised of an aching sort of affection. Romance is written into every single interaction no matter how small—with Sebastian vehemently standing up for Gabi when she’s not in the room, his nicknames, and their various shenanigans. These all build to a blazing moment on the ship back to London where De la Rosa excels at a tried and true trope within this genre and gifting us with hot, hot, hot scenes between her two characters. I say I’m above persuasion but it was the quote “grab the headboard, love” that had me first running to request this book. If that isn’t romance marketing at its finest, and representation of just how these two connect on all levels I don’t know what is.

Part of this novel’s excellence lies in its skillful balance between the history rendered and the development of its romance. Since this novel takes place between London and Mexico, there is an added layer to consider in addition to the general intertwining of romance with history that the genre entails. Gabriela and His Grace windows into a part of history long uncovered within this genre, of France’s illegal occupation of Mexico during the late nineteenth century and the lives of those working to call attention and oust the occupying forces. The glimpses into the Luna family, innately embroiled in the resistance against the French were fascinating to read from. Liana De la Rosa entwines this tumultuous time in Mexican history with an exploration into home and how we can stand for our communities and ourselves. At the center of this is Gabriela who endeavors to find a place within a family of considerable personalities. Gabi’s journey to finding her voice and a path separate to that laid down by her domineering father is a powerful one, but held parallel to her relationship with Sebastian, is only that much more so.

Gabriela and His Grace is the kind of historical romance that doesn’t come around often, and one you cannot help but hold close for as long as you can. Liana De la Rosa’s talent has completely floored me and I’m afraid I will be making this the standard for all historical romances to follow—particularly hate to love—so take notes. The final Luna Sisters novel is an informative journey through a turbulent period of Mexico’s history and Liana De la Rosa handles this with such grace and skill. Knowing her intentions with this series just makes these novels all the more sweeping from its grounded history to the overarching romances. Gabi and Sebastian captivated me from the very beginning, embarking on a journey across oceans where avoidance slowly turns into affection and then lasting love. This really was the perfect romance. As an aside I don’t think I will be moving on from the sharing-one-bed-on-a-boat scenes, they were just so so hot (thank you Liana De la Rosa). This was a scrumdiddlyumptious romance, one I won’t be able to stop yelling about in the months to come.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy.

Trigger warnings: colonization, war, abuse (not on page, but mentioned), racism

Preorder a Copy – Out 26th August

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Let’s Talk: Fantasy Favorites Old and New

Robin1 Comment

It’s my first fantasy roundup of the new year *gasp* and I am so excited to share all of the speculative fiction I have enjoyed in this first quarter of 2025. Fantasy has come second to romance these past few months but the ones I have read have really stuck with me. I have continued the trend of moving through my backlist of advance copies while interspersing some rereads to keep me out of the dreaded reading slump. On the reread front, I reread Shardless and the Jasad Heir ahead of their sequels publishing this summer. There are so many new books out this year and it’s so hard to keep up with all of them so I am committed to checking in every few months on here just to move through my favorites. So let’s get to it here with a chaotic fantasy debut, THE best friends to lovers fae fantasy of all time (I’m serious), a romantic fantasy novel brimming with unhinged yearning, an epic fantasy debut involving the powers of the ancestors, and a gay murder mystery fantasy mashup.

The Prince Without Sorrow by Maithree Wijesekara

If you like your fantasy heavy on the chaos and the vengeance, then Maithree Wijesekara’s, The Prince Without Sorrow is the perfect book. A young prince destined to inherit a legacy of tyranny and violence, and a mayakari witch outcasted for her magic become entangled after a curse gone wrong kills the reigning emperor. Now The Prince Without Sorrow is pure chaos. Love me a book where the characters have no coherent plan and are just rolling with the punches and coming up with ideas on a complete whim and that was the essence of this debut in the best possible way. Wijesekara plays with the paths, chosen and inherited and the notion of legacy across her debut with such skill. I loved seeing these characters grapple with their morality as they endeavour to right the past and be different from their predecessors. Shakti in particular struggles with the pacifism of the Mayakari and the consequences of breaking their rules to curse Emperor Adil and enact her revenge, while Ashoka is determined to honor his commitment to nonviolence. Having a dead emperor offering you his unsolicited advice because you are now bound to his spirit is a specific kind of problem only Shakti could handle. She truly lept into this with flying colors and I was so here for her tendency to act on impulse. The Prince Without Sorrow fascinated me with its intricate politics, queer romance, and characters just trying to do the right thing but ultimately going down a path they always feared. There are so many threads present in this debut and I am hanging on to every single one as I await the next installment.

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The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick

In the city of Nadežra one can be reborn. After fleeing the city and a life in its criminal underbelly with her sister Tess, Ren returns for the con of a lifetime. Masquerading as the lost cousin of House Traementis, Ren hopes to instill herself in the family, securing wealth and prospects. What she doesn’t expect is how deep the con will take her, the bonds she will make with her pseudo-family, and the dark magic transforming the city into a waking nightmare. When I started The Mask of Mirrors I was confronted with a plethora of rich detail that at first is difficult to surmount. The elaborate backdrop of a city split between two banks, upper and lower, and the island in between, plus the ruling families with complex alliances, and the magic system make for a riveting read if you can absorb its wealth of information. Interwound with the house politics, a variety of perspectives, and a vigilante stalking the shadows known as the Rook, The Mask of Mirrors is certainly one of the most intensely layered fantasy trilogies I have ever read. There is a deep heart of mystery M.A. Carrick taps into to construct the beginnings of this trilogy. With so many masks worn not just by our main character, Ren, Carrick questions who one can trust when confronting larger constructs tied up in wealth and power—and the ties we hold to our cultures and families. The emergence of children lost to dreams proves the deception runs deep, and uncovering the mystery will rely on Ren taking on a third and final identity. The Mask of Mirrors is a puzzling dream that one cannot begin to untangle with just one read. This is the kind of book that requires time invested, but earned back through its memorable characters and intricate political landscape.

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The Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli

Rune Winters has been a witch in hiding even before her identity was unveiled by the man she loved and she was delivered to her enemies. Now Cressida Roseblood, a witch long thought dead has returned and she has a plan to restore a world where witches reigned. To aid her Rune will have to excise the part of herself that still cares for Gideon Sharpe, the witch hunter, lest she see the rest of her kind destroyed for good. The Rebel Witch initiates the long awaited conclusion to Kristen Ciccarelli’s Crimson Moth duology. This sequel elevates the tension between our witch and witch hunter through an entertaining game of cat and mouse that sees entirely new stakes emerge now that Rune’s witch identity has been revealed. The chemistry between Rune and Gideon is even more palpable as they reluctantly become allies while retreating back into the roles they used to occupy. Ciccarelli interrogates the crux of enemies to lovers—the conflicting worldviews, how these characters have been socialized to see one another as the enemy, and if love and hate can truly coexist. Gideon is at the forefront of this conflict as he has centered his life around hunting witches outside his experiences at the hands of the series villain, Cressida Roseblood. Gideon’s feelings towards Cressida are deeply personal, but enacting his revenge could destroy his relationship with Rune and his ability to let go of the rhetoric that has fueled so much of his life. The Rebel Witch makes clear the cost of othering one group in defense of another and the difficulties in disentangling oneself from the propaganda and rhetoric fueling such hatred. This conclusion is romantic and action packed, earning its place in one of my favorite duologies of the past few years.

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Shardless by Stephanie Fisher

On the island of Tempris the immortal magic wielding fae hold status above all others. Humans, or shardless, possess no magic and are treated as lesser citizens. When she was discovered in the ashes of her family home as a child, with no memory of her past, Taly Caro was adopted by a fey noble and his family, who became her family themselves. But after experiencing magic—premonitions of the future seconds before they happen, Taly knows she is in danger, for this kind of magic hasn’t been seen in an age, and she will be hunted like those who came before. When I say this book is my favorite romantic fantasy I am deadly serious. I first read Shardless back in 2020 and since then I’ve reread it four other times, each one only serving to deepen my love and appreciation for this brilliant fantasy novel. Every part of this story is well thought out, from the prologue detailing a glimpse at Taly’s beginnings, the epigraphs of letters and portions of Tempris’ history, and the engaging plot at its center involving Taly confronting her magic and the mystery of her past. Fisher deepens this with a stunning friends to lovers arc between Taly and Skylen Emrys, which was serving that delicious delicious angst only intensified by the secrets Taly refuses to give up. Every part of this world is epic in scope, but it is the gateways sundered in the schism that locked away entire worlds and trapped much of Tempris’ population in one place, that renders this novel its post-cataclysm feel. Adding the intersection of fae magic with modern weaponry places Shardless decidedly in the category of steampunk-esque. I could really wax poetic about this incredible book for a life age. But just trust in me for your next obsession because it is this novel.

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Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan

Liyen, heir to Tianxia, ascends to the throne after the passing of her grandfather who risked everything for her survival—securing a magical lotus flower belonging to the immortals that helped her recover from a deadly poison at the cost of his life. The relationship between the kingdom of Tianxia and the immortal realm has long been strained, but the loss of the lotus flower spells even more trouble for their alliance. Liyen travels to the Immortal Realm where she comes face to face with Zhangwei, the legendary God of War. As their respective worlds deem they work together, Zhangwei and Liyen push past their ire, confronting an unexpected connection and worse, an impossible love. Immortal is a novel I consider to be the height of romantic fantasy. Sue Lynn Tan poured her entire heart and soul into this mesmerizing tale of redemption and transcendent love. Ruthless betrayals, immortal bargains, and secrets are just the surface of this epic love story. There’s the tenuous relationship between the immortals and mortal realms, and an evil preying on the mortal lands connected to the Netherworld and our main duo. The breadth of the Celestial Kingdoms from Sue Lynn Tan’s former duology expands, providing a fabled sort of setting around which the entire love story is conducted. I’m afraid I have never seen yearning portrayed in the way the character Zhangwei yearns for Liyen and all of that is due to the layered relationship building Sue Lynn Tan imparts from start to finish. Immortal is surely the romantic fantasy of the year. Prepare to see a God of War down bad for his love interest as he suffers bouts of unshakable yearning and longs for a love he cannot get back.

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The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams

In a moment of desperation, Tormalin the Oathless and Noon, a fell-witch of extraordinary power brought forth the Ninth Rain after many years of silence. Now these war beasts of legend, brought to life through the tree of Ygseril, have no memory of their pasts. Tormalin and Noon must figure out how to mobilize them, or see Sarn fall to the Jure’lia, their enemy of old. The Bitter Twins is the expansive follow up to Jen Williams the Ninth Rain where Williams returns to the Eboran empire after an intense battle with the Jure’lia who are once again intent on conquering all of Sarn. The characters Williams brings together remain the highlight of her Winnowing Flames trilogy. Vincent, a peculiar lesbian explorer obsessed with exploring ancient ruins and the dangerous wild, Tormalin, her hired immortal who thirsts for answers as he clings to the past, and Noon, an imprisoned witch who will do anything to retain her freedom. Brought together by less than typical circumstances, this sequel deepens the relationships inside and outside our trio while introducing the temperamental war beasts now bonded to them. The Bitter Twins envisions a cycle interrupted and what happens when the cycle that has stalled for many years all of a sudden begins anew. At the forefront of this are those who have resigned themselves to a particular fate given the chance to step out from the shadows and fight back. Williams’ layered characterizations, involved histories and peoples, and intriguing legend make for an all-encompassing fantasy world and a wild journey from start to finish.

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A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde

Across the Kingdom of Nine Lands the ability to invoke the spirits of ancestors in battle is a coveted power granted only to those of noble birth. After a strange interaction leaves her bound to a mysterious spirit who grants her impossible power, Temi, a commoner, becomes embroiled in a plot connected to the ancestral realm and the truth to her kingdom’s history. A Song of Legends Lost debuts a gripping tale of ancestral power, histories lost, and revenge interwound with a quintet of characters confronting the legacy of their kingdom and the lies hidden at its heart. M.H. Ayinde constructs a unique fantasy world where advanced technology collides with legend. Both have power over the noble families fighting against the threat of Greybloods—mysterious beings of matter and techwork that are pushing into the lands, and these populations at large. A civilization long ago destroyed is remembered through forbidden techwork technology, a source of class tension that sees information suppressed from the top down. There’s power in storytelling and the histories that are passed down through generations, and Ayinde interrogates this at the center of her debut. Long ago civilizations and wars no one can remember are given context by the kingdom itself, an entity with its own agenda and a violent past. A Song of Legends Lost spans unique cultures, perspectives, and history, all given their time on the page through her organization of perspective. Ayinde skillfully submerges readers in her story and builds to an epic confrontation at its final act. A Song of Legend is the height of epic fantasy, confronting the legacy of colonization and the weaponization of history. I’m calling this as the best fantasy debut of the year and am imploring everyone to experience it for themselves.

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The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide

Lord Nicholas Monterris has never been free to make his own choices. As the Monterris heir, Nicholas holds his family’s hopes in restoring their fortune through his arranged marriage to the daughter of his fathers greatest rival, Lady Leaf Serral. Combining the magic of two families is a delicate process, requiring a vowsmith to craft the marriage contract while the families are confined to the manor. When someone dies on the first night, Nicholas realizes someone wants to impede this marriage, and they are willing to kill for it. Locked in the manor with a killer, Nicholas relies on his intuition and unlikely companions—his fiance, Leaf, and former love, Dashiell sa Vare, to uncover the truth before the killer strikes again and his family is truly left beyond saving. The Gentleman and His Vowsmith sees historical fantasy meet arcane magic, a locked manor murder mystery, and a second chance romance. In this incomparable historical fantasy novel, two former flames reunite in a decaying manor where murder abounds and an impending marriage constrains any chance of their happily ever after. It should come at no shock to anyone that historical romance is one of my favorite genres. I’m a fan of anything blending genre and subverting conventions and tropes within this space, which this novel does wonderfully. Rebecca Ide delivers a queer romance with such intense longing and characters you can’t help but root for amidst the murder plot. Ide writes for anyone wanting the labyrinthine locked room mystery plot to come with a side of gay yearning and a dash of magic and The Gentleman and His Vowsmith delivers on all three fronts.

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This Monster of Mine by Shalini Abeysekara

Four years ago, Sarai was discovered broken and brutalized beneath Sidran tower. Against all odds she was put back together, though the physical and emotional scars have forever lingered. Pursuing the justice she never received, Sarai finds a way back to the capitol as a petitor, a prosecutor with the ability to detect lies. Taking on the mantle of petitor, Sarai is assigned to work alongside Tetrarch Kadra, the only figure she can remember from her fall off the tower, whom she thinks committed the crime. This Monster of Mine initiates an extensive quest for vengeance that questions the ability of achieving justice through a judicial system and the costs of striking out alone. Set in a fantasy world inspired by ancient Rome, Abeysekara builds out a series of tetrarchs with competing notions and dynamics of power, and a flawed justice system. Sarai, a victim of brutal violence saw no justice from the tetrarchs, necessitating her quest for revenge that reveals an intentional plot within this hierarchy. This Monster of Mine uncovers a larger exploitation at the heart of the city and the individuals more than comfortable upholding these injustices for personal gain. Alongside this, Abeysekara examines a society’s tendency to mythologize a person and their situation rather than fight for truth and justice. Sarai is hiding in plain sight, but her story as the “Sidran Tower Girl” has been local legend as long as she has sought the truth. This Monster of Mine attempts several threads of mystery, romance, and magic, and all of them have a strong connection within this story. I love a good revenge narrative and this one handles the nuances of such an arc with a mix of grace, heartbreak and “good for her.”

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Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill

For hundreds of years Jenny Greenteeth has made her home beneath the lake, where she devours her unwilling prey and witnesses the years pass on. In all her time beneath its waters, Jenny has never met a human, but that is quick to change when a young woman is bound hand and foot and thrown into the lake. Accused of witchcraft in the surrounding village, Temperance would have drowned if not for her rescue at the hands of the resident lake monster. Jenny and Temperance are nothing alike but this newfound fear of magic does not just threaten Temperance’s community, but Jenny’s home as well. Leaving behind the safety of her lake, Jenny and Temperance embark on a dangerous quest for fae magic to unravel the darkness before it consumes their respective homes and all they hold dear. Greenteeth wickedly ensnares folklore, magic, and Arthurian legend together in one adventurous fantasy standalone. Following the Jenny Greenteeth of tale and legend, O’Neill basks in uncovering her peculiar nature, the conflicting states of being between teeth barred and someone seeking connection. Monsters aren’t all as they appear in Greenteeth and O’Neill reveals the depths hidden beneath the murky surface of her charming cast of characters—a witch, a lake monster, and a spirited goblin. Found family never fails to get to me and Greenteeth achieves that along the road to adventure. Despite their oftentimes clashing perspectives, Jenny and Temperance find solid ground. I liked seeing how they connected over roles in motherhood, and their innate desire to protect others (even if you eat things sometimes). Greenteeth brings us to a Britain on the outset of legend, where the greatest power held is in memory and the legends themselves.

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Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods

Lucinde Léon has always felt an affinity to the sea. Raised at the side of her adoptive father, a wealthy French shipowner, Lucinde has been granted every comfort, but the surrounding walls of Saint-Malo only serve to block her from the waves that call to her beyond. In secret, Luce spends her days on the water, learning to sail alongside her friend and closest confidant, Samuel. But in the aftermath of a storm, a shipwreck washes up on shore, and Luce rescues its only survivor—setting off a chain of events that will reveal the truth to her heritage, her father’s legacy, and why she finds power in the treacherous deep. Upon a Starlit Tide strikes a delicate balance between historical fiction and fantasy, and retelling the Cinderella and The Little Mermaid fairy tales, finding a unique footing in the spaces between these genres and the folktales themselves. Subverting various touchstones for these stories and centering eighteenth century Brittany as her backdrop, Woods crafts a glimmering tale of betrayal, tragedy, and forbidden love. This has exactly my kind of romance, connecting to those siren and selkie tales of old, and the longing of awaiting your love to return. Upon a Starlit Tide has a bit more of a slow build, with the political and romance elements percolating to an intense confrontation in the final act. As Luce finds her power, Upon a Starlit Tide uncovers the deliberate violence orchestrated over her lifetime. Woods connecting this back to a certain figure in Luce’s life and their choices is timely, as was Luce coming into her abilities and choosing herself. Upon a Starlit Tide is a heady mix of history and folktales made real and I was mercilessly swept up in its tumultuous undertow like a ship wrecked upon its shore.

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The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

All Sylvia remembers about her past is the fire and destruction that ripped her away from her family and the kingdom she loved. In the aftermath, the kingdom of Jasad was pillaged and its remaining citizens scattered, later rounded up and executed simply for the magic they wield. As the lost Jasad heir, Sylvia has hidden herself away in a small village, suppressing her limited magic so as not to alert anyone to her survival. After a slipup involving an inquisitive guard and her beloved sesame candies Sylvia comes face to face with Arin, the Nizahl heir. Caught between the heir and survival, Sylvia makes a bargain with Arin, she’ll help him track a group of Jasadi rebels in exchange for her walking free. But the closer she gets to Nizahl and its pesky heir, the more Sylvia confronts the legacy of the Jasad crown and if she can truly leave the past behind to be left as nothing more than a legend. Egyptian inspired high fantasy involving ill-placed bargains, trials, and an enemies to lovers arc was enough for me to first pick up The Jasad Heir two years ago and it still holds up today. Sara Hashem’s debut is a piercing blade that expertly dissects the legacy of a kingdom lost to violence and the conflicting path to survival in a world seeking to eradicate all that you are. Sylvia is the beating heart of this story, caught in an impossible situation as she leverages her abilities to survive, but makes a choice that could see more of her kind captured and killed. She’s conflicted, yet uncompromising in protecting those she loves and safeguarding her future. Lost heirs returning is a niche kind of story I just adore and god is this one of the best I’ve read in years. That final chapter is nothing short of masterful, the masks come off in the best way as Sylvia chooses her fate over Jasad and her rightful crown.

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