Unfiltered Book Reviews - 2026 Reads

New year, new books! I took a break from reading for basically the entire winter holiday stretch, and this book is what kicks off this year. This was SUPER cool, and let me just say, I was FUCKING RIGHT about there being a body in the clay sculpture. Just, you know. Wrong about whose body. This book is told through instant message chats between some external examiners for a Master's art course, who then go through class discussions, essays, and even private WhatsApp chats that were provided. I wasn't entirely sure that I would like this method of storytelling, but it was really compelling, and I liked the little breaks of chats between the external examiners while they were all reading along. This book was SO cool and I definitely kept pausing to tell my husband about what was going on in it.

Wow, this was fun! I love me a good monsterfucker romance (even though werewolves aren't the most "monster" but whatever.) An arranged marriage between a vampire and a werewolf? And it turns out she's his mate??? But she can't ever understand because she's not a were? That's the good shit. There was, unfortunately, a 3rd act breakup, which I fucking hate in romance, but it was resolved really quickly and without much wallowing in sadness. Also, big fan of making vampire feeding hot. I remember thinking when I read "Crave" that the author somehow managed to make feeding NOT hot... Hazelwood does not suffer from the same thing. I've got the second book on hold at the library, so I'm looking forward to reading that when my loan comes up. I think it'll be another "same universe, different characters" thing, which is fine with me!