I was overjoyed when Kylie Scott offered me an ARC of her new vampire romance, BECAUSE THE NIGHT, because vampires are one of my favorite things of all time and I've been craving a good paranormal romcom to fill the void that Ali Hazelwood's BRIDE left in my soul. After powering through this book, I can safely say that BECAUSE more than filled that craving. In fact, reading it was a nostalgic hearkening back to the paranormal boom of the aughts, when I was blissing out on the Sookie Stackhouse series.
This was an absolute delight.
Skye is an ordinary human who does ordinary human things, until she ends up in the basement of a house in the Hollywood Hills where a vampire is waiting to turn her world completely upset down. One minute, she's working an underpaid job and thinking about the mounting bills, the next she's playing tour guide to her vampire "daddy" as his latest creature of the night DIY project.
This is largely an ensemble cast story with a character-driven storyline, and that makes it super easy to get into if you love books like that. I enjoyed reading it before bed because it wasn't too complex and I could just enjoy the characters bantering with each other until it was time for sleep. Henry was my favorite, with Benedict coming in as a close second. But number one in my heart was obviously Lucas: we stan a grumpy, arrogant, and slightly homicidal vampire king who's very "touch her and die." In a world full of Draculas, be a Lucas.
This book is relatively short for a novel, and when I put it down, I still wanted more. I hope there's going to be a sequel because I would happily spend more time in this world.
Thanks to the publisher/author for sending me a copy!
When I first heard the synopsis for EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE, it sounded a lot like Little Shop of Horrors (and I can see others have already made the obvious jokes), but apart from a cannibalistic plant that lives in a flowershop with its enabler, the two are vastly different stories.
EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE is set in Ireland and features an ill-fated throuple between Shell, Neve, and Baby. Baby looks like an orchid but he's actually so much more and he's obsessed with Neve. He loves her so much that he wants to be with her forever-- by consuming her whole. Shell, meanwhile, is a thirty-something slacker and what the layman would probably refer to as an "unlikable character." She is also in love with Neve-- or thinks she is-- and this soon-to-be-toxic obsession pushes her to make choices that will doom them both.
The writing and social commentary in this book are excellent and it was just the right amount of weird to be interesting rather than silly. It features a heavy amount of body horror and, of course, plants committing murders, but I would say that the violence tends to feel more camp than it does brutal (trust me, I'm a wuss). I've read some banger sapphic horror novels this year and I'm happy to report that I can count EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE among them.
Thanks to the author/publisher for sending me a copy!
This book has elements of The Six Swans, Hades x Persephone, and The Secret History, which a dash of co-dependent queer relationships and culty chthonic hijinks. The writing itself feels very 2000s fantasy, reminiscent of authors like Sherwood Smith, Maria V. Snyder, Patricia McKillip, and Juliet Marillier, so even though it's a recent work, something about it feels very wistful and nostalgic, kind of like a Hayao Miyazaki movie or an old-fashioned British boarding school.
I don't want to say too much since this book is not out yet, but the heroine, Lark, comes from a poor salt-mining family and after witnessing a ritual that she shouldn't, she ends up bargaining herself as a bride to the local swan god of the underworld. We also learn that she's been booted from her boarding school for reasons that aren't quite clear, and for also unclear reasons, she's at odds with the two beautiful rich children that her family is semi-indentured to even though they used to be childhood friends.
TENDERLY, I AM DEVOURED is a short gothic masterpiece that manages to accomplish a lot of story and depth of feeling in a limited page time. It never fully went where I expected it to go, and usually that was a good thing. There were a few characters I personally felt needed to be stabbed who were not stabbed, but hey, you win some, you lose some. At the very least, this book lived up to his coming-of-age promises and obsessive throuple.
Cut to me chasing down everything this author has written because I love the vibe.
Thanks to the author/publisher for sending me a copy!
EXQUISITE RUIN took a while to get moving but once it got started, I couldn't put it down. I love the Greek mythology vibes of this book: a Labyrinth that is clearly inspired by the story of the Minotaur, especially with the horned demon love interest, and a witchy heroine who gets her powers (and her sexual enjoyment) from pain. When she awakes in a stone labyrinth with no memories, and only her ex-lover to serve as her guide, she immediately suspects treachery.
The maze is a dangerous place, and the only way out is down. From sentient statues to sinister water, this story reminded me a lot of the surreal dreamcore aesthetics I see from artists on TikTok, with a dash of the dark whimsy in Hayao Miyazaki movies, and the morally grey and dangerous love interest a la L.J. Smith's The Forbidden Game trilogy or Labyrinth. Even though this is a contemporary fantasy work, there's something so retro-feeling about it, like I could have sneaked it as a teenage girl and become precociously enchanted with the story and the hot-but-dangerous hero.
It even kind of has the aesthetics of a teen girl fantasy, but all grown up and kinky, which is maybe why I loved it so much. There's even a pig-dog-lion chimera that looks like a winged pug. Like, even if the charm of Daesra and Sadare weren't enough, with all of their retro high fantasy chic, how could you not fall in love with Pogli the pug? Plus, this book has one of the BEST M. Night Shyamalan-esque twists I've encountered in a while. I literally gasped. HOLY FORESHADOWING, BATMAN. You know a twist is good when it makes you want to immediately reread a book and look for all the clues that were quietly waiting to shatter your whole fucking world.
I loved this author's other book, BEYOND THE BLACK DOOR, which was an asexual fantasy love story. I was delighted when she reached out to offer me an ARC of her spicy romantasy novel, EXQUISITE RUIN, which is a completely different story from BtBD, but still retains so many of the elements that made me fall in love with her writing for the first time. Can't wait to see what she does next.
Thanks to the author/publisher for sending me a copy!
A WALTZ WITH THE BONE KING is a beautiful novella featuring the death and the maiden trope. Lorelai, a sickly and beautiful woman with morbid interests, meets the King of the Dead while walking in the woods. He has fallen in love with her and wants to court her, but every meeting with him carries a risk of death. Little does she know, she's been living on borrowed time already, and like Jareth, he has reordered time and turned the world upside-down for her already...
The Victorian goth-punk vibes of this reminded me a lot of Corpse Bride and Adalyn Grace's BELLADONNA, especially with the message that all of us are living on borrowed time at every moment and that while death is the true end to every story, it is nothing to be feared. The ending of this book made me cry because it made me think of my dad, who was ill with a terminal illness for almost six months. He was so at peace at the end, after going through so much discomfort and pain, and so much of what Lorelai had to say about her thoughts on death and living reminded me of him.
If you like cozy whimsigoth stories, you'll love this book. Especially if you love respectful skeleton daddies and the death and the maiden trope. I can't wait to read more from this author. I really like her writing style.
Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a review copy!
SUCH A GOOD GUY was a surprisingly humorous read: it's about a sociopath who's obsessed with the younger sister of his so-called best friend. He's also a pop star with a bubbly golden retriever personality that the heroine describes as a "psychotic surfer" and who self-describes as having a "reptilian" personality with a "brain full of a forest of knives." So yeah, he's a fun, rabid little golden retriever man.
Luna, the object of his affections, is an introvert who owns a crystal shop. She bemoans the lack of good men out there, and sees Luke, Mr. Psychopop, as one of the last morally decent guys out there. We know better of course, but part of the fun is waiting for her to realize that he's been busy hoarding her hair and teeth and impregnating her in her sleep, when he's not murdering people in Plant Daddy t-shirts.
I don't know how Kate comes up with these stories but I hope she never stops. Luke is up there now with Viscount St. Erth and Je Sweet as one of my favorite psychos.
Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a copy!
It's been a while since I read a work of erotic horror that pushed my limits like this, but still made me feel so compelled to continue. So this is what a mouse hypnotized by a serpent feels like. First, a word of warning: the trigger warnings are all the way in the very back and I missed them going in. This is very violent, and graphically so, including disfiguration and what I would consider body horror. One of the triggers, for example, is "destructive fisting."
Ehvy is a medical examiner who is on a tour of an old creepy mansion with friends, when she happens to meet one of the descendants of the house, Will Sandridge. His presence there intrigues her because not only is he incredibly attractive, and they have an instant connection, his family history is highly sordid. Sex parties and murdering of the townsfolk? Naughty, naughty. But Ehvy is very into naughty. She is also very into Will.
I don't want to say too much else but the story becomes a cat and mouse game of sorts between Will and Ehvy. Ehvy is determined to know more about the man who literally haunts her dreams, and Will is... well, eager to continue their relationship in a way that is frightening, once you see what else he gets up to in his free time. Until the very end, I was never 100% completely sure what endgame was.
People who like gothic horror, erotic horror, and vampires who actually act like vampires will enjoy this book. The writing was great, and stylistically, this feels very much in the vein (ha, vein) of authors like Clive Barker and Lucy Taylor. If you read this, expect bloodsplatter.
Thanks to the author for providing me with a copy!
I thought this sequel to THE ECLIPSE RITUAL was going to take place in the same compound so color me surprised when BLOODMOON actually took place with a different sect of the cult, with a different leader. Temperance, our heroine, is the twin sister of one of this rival sect's enforcer's, Rhyder, and he's been obsessed with her since they were both children. But during a raid, she was rescued from the cult and rehomed with a foster family. Now she lives in the city, where she has a boyfriend and a job. So when the cult comes through looking for hos to bring back for fun and she sees her brother, all hell breaks loose... because boy, does he remember her.
I loved Ronan and Bee so much that I knew any following act would have a difficult time matching my expectations, but I did really enjoy this book. Temperance is a quieter, bookish heroine, but she still has these unexpected moments of bravery that made me appreciate her a lot as a character. Rhyder had to win me-- and the FMC-- over, after he BURNED HER LIBRARY (excuse me), but his devotion to her and willingness to put himself on the block for her every time, made it hard to stay *too* mad at him for long.
Also, we love a virgin hero. It was great to see a dark romance where the hero was a virgin and the heroine had actually had multiple partners, and besties, HE DOES NOT SLUT SHAME HER FOR IT.*
*he just gouges out her ex-boyfriend's eyes :')
I was a little confused about the world-building because this sequel made the series seem almost dystopian(?) whereas when I was reading THE ECLIPSE RITUAL I just figured it took place in our present day, but on an isolated compound, like the ones the FLDS had in Utah. The Bloodmoon Ritual itself also kind of confused me, because I wasn't sure what the point of it was, and considering that it was the title of this book, I felt like it could have been foreshadowed more and maybe played more of a significant element between the development of the couple and the furthering of their relationship.
But overall, this was such a treat to read. I think I might have scandalized the old lady who was reading over my shoulder on the cruise ship when I was just chilling with my incest smut in the cafe. WHOOPS.
Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a copy!
The author was kind enough to gift me books two and three in her Phantom Saga series after my father was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. It was such a wonderful present and a great pick-me-up, but I've been so slow in reading anything that isn't easy because I've been so depressed. Anyway, I finally finished ANGEL'S KISS and I'm happy to report that it is a wonderful sequel to the phantom.
ANGEL'S MASK was more of a straightforward retelling of the Phantom story we know and love, but ANGEL'S KISS takes more liberties with the story. What happens when the Persian Daroga continues to dog Erik's every step in an attempt to avenge the Shah he worked for? What happens when Christine begins to make it big and endures the jealousy of La Carlotta and the suspicions of those who believe in the curse of the Ghost? And how does Erik reconcile his jealousy and obsession with learning to treat Christine as a person?
There was a little bit of second book syndrome with this book, as most of it is character and relationship building. It has a little less action and suspense than the first book, which was a lot of will they/won't they with Christine discovering the identity of the man seducing her through the mirror. However, what this book lacks in tension, it makes up for in atmosphere and smut and exquisitely researched depictions of Paris and its opera house. It is also delightfully gay, with Erik and Raoul being canonically pan/bi, and several queer side characters. Also Christine gets her femdom on! Girl, you RIDE that phantom D.
I'm excited to read ANGEL'S FALL. Hopefully it doesn't take me as long to get through as this one did but they say genius can't be rushed, so if I have to take my time fangirling over my obsessive masked strangle king, then so be it.
Thanks to the author/publisher for sending me a copy!
I have been going through some shit lately, and haven't wanted to read anything too dark or disturbing. Which hurts me in my soul because I am a dark romance girlie at heart, and dark romance novels and thrillers are basically my favorite things to read. ERIK'S TALE was the perfect antidote to my quandary because even though it's dark (very dark), it's the prequel to a book I already read, so I know everything turns out OK. (And trust me, with a book like this, you're going to want that guarantee.)
This book chronicles Erik's very dark past as a child who was the product of rape, and who grew up in a highly abusive home with a mentally ill mother who literally tried to cut his face off, and an alcoholic father (not the rapist in question, FYI) who resented his "cold" wife and bastard/disfigured son. This whole portion was very hard to read and I basically wanted to give Erik the biggest hug. The circus/freak show portion is also very hard to read, but these two sections are the worst (in terms of content) parts of the book. Once you get past them, you'll be good to go for the rest of the story.
That's because from here, the book basically catapults into the globe-trotting WTFest of one of those old skool 70s bodice-rippers, where the protagonist is hurdled towards misfortune after misfortune, somehow managing to survive despite all odds. I thought specifically of Natasha Peters's DANGEROUS OBSESSION and SAVAGE SURRENDER. Especially with the role Erik played in various royal courts, and his wandering journeys with the Roma people. The retro vibes of this book played quite well with the many references to the original Leroux story (which I've read). One of my favorite OTT elements of the original book was Erik's nightmare torture forest made of metal. So many retellings omit this detail (and I've always wondered if the Nome king's metal forest in the Oz series was inspired by Phantom!). It's such a cool detail and I'm glad Ms. Mason made use of it.
I really enjoyed ERIK'S TALE and that says a lot about me because I'm notoriously not a fan of novellas. I feel like it takes a talented author to make a story come full circle in a limited amount of pages, and usually characterization and story suffer. Neither of those things is the case in this book. I also loved how beautifully queer it was, with asexual, trans, gay, and sapphic characters all given representation. Also, I stan our Strangle King-- some of the people he murdered were in defense of said trans character. We love a spicy cinnamon roll vigilante, don't we? Also it's written in first person, so you really get a feel for all of his arrogance, vulnerabilities, and intelligence, all firsthand. (Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel...)
My only real qualm is that everything was moving so fast that sometimes it felt very boom-boom-boom and I almost wished it was bodice-ripper saga length just so we could have time to soak into some of these settings. There were also more typos in here than in ANGEL'S MASK, but apparently I have a first edition (collectible! SUCK IT BITCHES) so I'm guessing some of these have been fixed (this didn't factor into my rating, btw, but some people get weird about typos-- w/e it's indie). It's also my understanding that this author has started putting TWs into her books. This edition didn't have one inside, but I believe she has them on her website if you're nervous about anything specific.
Overall, though, this was a win, and exactly the thing to get me out of a pretty bad funk. And I'm very grateful for that. Can't wait to read the next in the series. :)
Thanks to the author for sending me a review copy!
Emily Carpenter is an auto-buy author for me. At this point, I've read almost all of her books, but my favorites are EVERY SINGLE SECRET and THE WEIGHT OF LIES. Probably because they both have a distinctly gothic flavor and gothic is literally my favorite subgenre of mystery/thriller fiction. When I found out she was writing a new book called GOTHICTOWN, I was so excited. And I didn't find out through an announcement like a normal person, mind. I was going through her Goodreads bio like a total stalker, asking myself, "What's Emily up to, these days?"
I have been tracking this book before it even had a cover.
When my begging and pleading for an ARC was rewarded, I started reading this book IMMEDIATELY. And I loved it so much because it was a laundry list of all my favorite tropes: folk horror, is the house haunted or are we actually going mad?, sinister founding families, dark legacies, hot bad guys, cursed towns, and murrrrdurrrr. I also really liked the heroine, Billie. The author struck a nice balance between showing her as a mom but also as a messy whole-ass person who sometimes messes up because she's only human.
Also the ending? *chef's kiss* satisfying (pun intended)
I would recommend this to readers who really enjoyed the two other Emily Carpenter books I've read, as well as Starlings by Amanda Linsmeier, Roanoke Girls and The Familiar Dark by Amy Engle, and Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe. The creepy small town vibes were IMMACULATE and so was the flawed FMC. If this book is indicative of the direction of Carpenter's future projects, I want on this ride.
One reading note: the prologue does kind of give you a heavy hint about what's really going on, so if you're one of those readers who prefers NO SPOILERS of ANY KIND because you prefer to guess yourself, skip the prologue and read it as an epilogue instead. You'll be more surprised.
Thanks to the publisher/author for sending me a copy!
I was so excited to get a copy of this book. One of my favorite historical fiction (and fantasy, let's be honest) tropes is court intrigue, and the prospect of a gay romance filled with spymasters, assassins, and Shakespearean plays really tickled my fancy. Mostly because I'd read a book before with that exact blend of tropes, called AN ASSASSIN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND TREASON, and loved it. I fully expected to become just as obsessed as this one. Which is maybe not fair to the book, but it's a fact of the world that if you read something in a genre that blows you away, that's going to frame how you approach similar books going forward.
BY ANY OTHER NAME is an okay book. Honestly, it felt like more of a 2, 2.5 book but I'm rounding up a little because the writing was great and it was fun having a shallow, self-absorbed hero as the protagonist. He's an actor and he, well, acts like it. Which made him more fun than the stoic, super macho heroes that seem to be en vogue nowadays. I like a hero who's lax with his masculinity. He has a sad backstory too: he was nearly sold into slavery and only barely escaped, and now lives on the fringes of society with revenge in his heart, as he plays females on stage to survive.
When his voice starts cracking, though, that throws a wrench in his plans and through a series of unfortunate circumstances, he ends up working for one of the lords of society that he hates so much, trying to stop Queen Elizabeth from being assassinated. DON'T read the summary/blurb for this book by the way. It has major spoilers, including something that I assumed would happen right from the beginning but is actually gradually foreshadowed and built up to in the narrative. I think it's supposed to be a shock in the book, but because it's mentioned IN THE SUMMARY, it was not a surprise at all. Publishing houses, I'M BEGGING YOU. Don't do this.
I'm giving this a mid rating because it felt much, much longer than it needed to be. The pacing is not great and the book takes ages to build up to where it's going. It's also less about court intrigue than it is about one of those SIX OF CROWS-ish heist gang sort of plots, and had I known that, I wouldn't have applied for this book, because I don't like SoC or heists. I also didn't really feel the chemistry between Will and James. They felt very platonic, more like friends than love interests. I wish their relationship had been developed more, maybe with pining or, you know, some sort of emotional understanding. Just because you have your characters physically get together, that doesn't mean you're selling it.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
THE HILLS OF ESTRELLA ROJA is a queer college-age YA graphic novel set in Texas, with supernatural elements. Marisol is forced to return to the mysterious town she hasn't been in since she was a child after the death of her grandmother. Kat, on the other hand, is a paranormal podcaster who receives a mysterious email urging her to go to the same town to investigate something called "devil lights" and various mysterious disappearances.
Estrella Roja, which means red star in Spanish, is creepy right off the bat. They don't get a lot of outsiders, so there's a lot of ominous staring and whispered conversations that the girls clearly aren't meant to hear. Kat ends up approaching Mari because they lock eyes at a diner and she seems the friendliest out of everyone. They end up hitting it off, as two queer girls in a weird situation. When they go to the library, they find old articles hinting at murder and occult phenomena. Mari finds creepy photographs and journals in her aunt's house. Basically, SHIT GETS REALLY WEIRD.
I don't want to spoil anything, but this was a pretty cute read. Even if you don't like horror, nothing too scary happens. (I'm not a fan of horror or gore-- I will be very quick to nope out if heads start rolling.) My ARC was not full-color, but I liked the art in the few sample pages I had. It's done in that minimal, indie style, which is common in imprints like First Second. I also liked that one of the girls was Latina and a lesbian, and the other girl was bisexual and had a non-binary best friend. The diversity felt super casual, and added to the story-- especially with regard to Latinx folklore. Tonally, it reminded me a lot of the '90s Scooby Doo movies, like Zombie Island and Witch's Curse.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
There's this writer for the New Yorker who does satire and I keep thinking his stupid satire posts are real because this is the kind of world we live in now. HOW TO STAY PRODUCTIVE WHEN THE WORLD IS ENDING is a lot like that. It's high-level satire but so dry that you could almost take it seriously. This is basically a parody of a self-help book but with just enough good advice thrown in that you might find yourself Googling, "Can satire give you stress dreams?"
The answer, in case you were wondering, is yes.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
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