New year, new book review page! I started off with a fun dark romance about an ER nurse who follows "masktok" and ends up getting stalked by her favorite content creator. It's fine, though, she's into it, and he doesn't want to hurt her. Also there's fun mafia ties, lots of sass, and quite a bit of kinky sex. It was a fun read overall, and I think the humor made the darker parts easier to bear.
Man, I was HOOKED on this one. Stayed up late to finish it and subsequently slept through my alarms, but it was so worth it. Absolutely fantastic mystery/thriller (I'm not even sure if this counts as a thriller), and I was NOT expecting the actual killer. This is a great example of "everyone sucks here and you deserve each other", which was very cool.
This book was really unique. It had a cool take on angels and demons, and I think the author did a REALLY good job of writing how time passes for immortal beings. While this is technically a "love" story between the angel and demon, I like how neither compromise who they are at their core for the other. The ending was really satisfying and SUCH a cool idea. It's very prose-heavy, so it took me a little bit to get into the swing of reading it, but I'm glad I had the patience to give it a shot.
Well, this was only my second Christie novel EVER, and I gotta say, I really enjoyed it! I'm not great with solving the mysteries on my own, so it was really nice to have it told from the point of view of the man who THOUGHT he had it right, only to be wrong the whole time. It was really cool! I see now why Christie is The Blueprint for mystery, and I'll definitely be reading more from her. I'll probably end up re-reading "And Then There Were None" at some point, too.
Okay, so the "February" tag is a lie, since apparently I started this book in May of 2024. Whoops. But I finally finished it over the past few days. It was... hard to finish, honestly. Darrow gets the ever loving shit beat out of him. This is not a hopeful book series. It's a brutal depiction of war, and a LOT of people die. When Sevro got shot, I almost put the book down. Darrow doesn't deserve to lose everything. He just doesn't. But it ends well, and I got back in it maybe a chapter later. I do think this would be a satisfying enough end to the series, but apparently there's 2 more books... I'm a little nervous to read them, kinda like how I haven't read "Rhythm of War" yet even though I've loved the first three of the Stormlight Archive.
I picked up this book because some streamers I follow talk about it a lot (specifically Julia Lepetit of Drawfee and Secret Sleepover Society loves it), so I figured I'd give it a try. And it was great! I'm definitely going to listen to the next two books. I think what really excites me about this book is that it's JUST THE THREE. It's not a massive undertaking like some of the other book series I've been reading. Like, "Fourth Wing" has three books out with another on the way. The Red Rising series is like 7 books. Brandon Sanderson is... well, Brandon Sanderson. So it's refreshing to have a smaller series to work on. I really like how you're just dumped into this world with no real explanation - humans have demons, and no one ever explains what that means. I thought it was funny how one of my work friends asked "oh, isn't that the one that's like a Christian allegory?" and I just said I didn't know at the time... and then immediately after that conversation, one of the characters straight up read from the Bible. Anyway, this was a neat read, and the audiobook is actually a dramatized version with a full cast, so that's been cool!
I've had this book on my holds list for a while, and it finally came up. I finished it in a little over a day. It was... very hard to read. This is a memoir from Daniella, detailing how she grew up in the Children of God cult, escaped at 15, only to join the cult that is the US Army. She grew up sexually abused, physically abused, constantly starving, and yet didn't know there was anything wrong with it until she was nearly 16. It was difficult to get through, but I'm glad that she had the strength to write about it. Definitely not for those who are easily triggered by situations like these.
I was so excited for this one, and it sorta... fell flat. I enjoyed reading it, but it didn't leave me feeling the way book 2 did, and sure, I'll read the last book, but honestly? I think Book 1 is the best one. I'm also not really the biggest fan of secret marriages or messing with memories, but here we are. Whatever. It was just kinda meh, I think. Felt really rushed.
Alright, in much the same way as other book series that I read in quick succession, I'm putting this in one review, mainly because I read them all so quickly that I don't remember exactly what happened in each one. I'm a sucker for urban fantasy settings, and this one is cool in that it's got that fantasy flavor and it's not spicy like some of the others. (Don't get me wrong, I love me fantasy spice, but sometimes I just wanna read something fun.) This series is about a woman named Mercy Thompson, a VW mechanic who also happens to turn into a coyote. She's not a were-coyote, that's not a thing; she's something different. At first, she thinks that's all she can do. But as she gets pulled into various shenanigans WAY above her paygrade (getting bound to vampires, marrying the Alpha of the local werewolf pack, meeting her half-brother and finding out she's technically the daughter of a god-like being), she starts to realize that she's got a bit more power than she initially thought. It's a very fun read, I think the author does a good job of keeping the stakes relatively similar throughout the books, and the side characters are cool. Oh, and this was 14 books. I think there's more on the way. I think I've read this series before, but it's been so long that I straight up don't remember it. I also confused it for another book series! So I'm gonna go read that one next.
I'll probably put the whole series in this one just to keep it neat and tidy. This book was fucking ridiculous. I cannot take it seriously at all. The descriptions are hilarious, there's some really bad puns, and it feels like the author just put as many YA vampire tropes into one book as they could - and I still read it, mainly because I thought it was funny. I had to pause my audiobook multiple times because I was too busy laughing at the descriptions. I will never not think of fucking Nosferatu in the tower window now, so thanks for that, Danny. I was intrigued about what kind of supernatural being Grace was, but I definitely wasn't expecting a goddamn gargoyle. So I'm looking forward to learning more about that as the series goes on.
Putting all these in one because I might as well. So we'll start with book 1, "Working for the Devil." The book series follows a woman named Dante Valentine, who is a necromancer and a bounty hunter. It's in a cyberpunk-ish setting. She gets a knock on her door from a demon, goes down to hell, and accepts a job from Lucifer himself. In the process, she gets assigned a demon familiar (the one who came to fetch her), and she's off. Now, I enjoy reading this series... but I REALLY dislike Dante as a character. She's prickly, she's childish, she's impulsive, she's aggressive. Japh is definitely the better character in this book, and I completely forgot he FUCKING DIES. Anyway, I really like the setting and world of this series, which is why I enjoy reading it. I could do without Dante.
Book 2: "Dead Man Rising." I think this one was done really well. Even though Japh is dead, he still influences a lot of what Dante does and feels. It sucks that Jace dies in this one, especially after how much he supported Dante over the year. The insight into her past was cool.
Book 3: "The Devil's Right Hand." Well, Japh's back, and he's also very much a demon. This is where Dante really shows her true asshole colors - and why I dislike her so much. She's SO fucking childish in here. I can give Japh some grace because he's literally an ancient demon; of COURSE his communication style is going to be different than Dante's, he's not HUMAN even though she keeps trying to think of him like that. It's just so frustrating; she's a goddamn adult, she should learn how to just TALK to someone. Ugh. It's just so frustrating, because how do you go from the romantic phrase of "You will not leave me to wander this world alone" when pulling someone back from the brink of death to just ASSUMING you know what's best for her? Come on, Japh.
Book 4: "Saint City Sinners." Man, this one was SO fucking frustrating. Dante is the epitome of the song "Hot N Cold" by Katy Perry - one chapter she's cursing Japh, telling him she's breaking up with him (which literally is impossible), declaring war on him; the VERY NEXT CHAPTER she's thinking of him and about how much she needs him. Get a fucking grip, girl. But then again, her only remaining friend just died, her strangely genetic daughter who is a demon is starting a rebellion, and now there's MULTIPLE demons out to kill her. So she's kinda going through it. But it was still so goddamn frustrating. Like, just fucking TALK TO EACH OTHER, GODDDDDD. They have the potential to be so romantic, and instead they're SO toxic. I'm honestly only looking forward to finishing the last book because it means I'll be fucking done with this series.
Book 5: "To Hell and Back." Holy shit, I'm so glad to be done with this series. Jesus fucking christ. I have only disliked Dante more and more as the books went on; Japhrimel isn't perfect, but he's CONSISTENT, and that's what matters. I like him way more. Eve can go fuck herself. I like Lucas. I'm so glad I'm not reading any more of this. Saintcrow said she wasn't going to come back to this, that the story is done, and even if she DID come back, I don't think I'd read it. Dante was that unlikeable to me. Ugh.
This was truly a delight to read. This was written and narrated by Cary Elwes, along with some guest appearances from other actors from the movie "The Princess Bride." It was such a fun insight into the making of the movie, some funny stories about behind-the-scenes things that happened, and just heartwarming sections from the actors about how much fun they had making it. Did you know that ALL of the sword fighting scenes were done by the actors? No stunt doubles. (Except for the acrobatics during the Westley/Inigo fight.) Yes, Buttercup's dress really DID catch on fire. Westley's dive into the quicksand to save Buttercup was Cary's idea - the original script had him just sorta hopping into it. And the Rodents of Unusual Size were actually people with dwarfism in rat costumes! It was really cool to read about, and I'm glad I did.
I took a little bit of a break after finishing Dante Valentine, and tried to read something else but couldn't get into it. This was the perfect easy read to get back into the groove. I enjoyed "Assistant the Villain" quite a bit, so this was a fun romp! I almost wished I had re-read it before this one, though, since it's been a while and it was a little hard to remember everything that went on. Lots of betrayal, but I'm a BIG fan of the slow corruption of Evie.
I brought this book with me on a flight, and finished it with 2 hours to spare... leaving me with nothing to read on the flight back! I read thrillers super quickly, and this was no exception. I really liked the flow of this one, and I'm a big fan of stories about all the fucked up things that rich people will do to protect their family and their reputation. I got this through Book of the Month, and it just sorta sat on my bookshelf forever, so I'm glad I finally read it!