• ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Catch Lili Too by Sophie Whittemore | ARC Review

    29th April 2021
    Cover of Catch Lili Too (Sophie Whittemore)

    Catch Lili Too (Gamin Immortals #1) by Sophie Whittemore

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: death, blood, gore, cancer, murder, HP reference, attempted arson, drug abuse, vaping, alcohol (recreational)

    This is a whimsical story with a very funny and entertaining narrative. I love all the jokes threaded throughout even though a lot of important things were happening and I couldn’t really keep up with them all. I do think there are scenes that do not line up or are a tad bit confusing, but that might just be an ARC issue.

    Told in the first-person POV, the story follows an immortal, asexual, depressed Siren, Lili, who is haunted by her past and sick and tired of living, seducing people, and killing. Yes, you read that correctly: an asexual Siren. She arrived at Gamin after two murders of humans—a young girl Anna Snow and a poet Byron López (gay). After stumbling upon Byron’s body and his ghost (whom she fails to seduce because, ta-da, he’s gay), Lili is persuaded to help the town solve this murder mystery. But then supernatural beings start getting murdered, too.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson | ARC Review

    26th April 2021
    Cover of A Dowry of Blood (S.T. Gibson)

    A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: blood, death, bones, gore, murder, loss of family, burning, plague, war, manipulation, emotional abuse, depression, sexism, cutting, confinement, isolation

    What is it like to be in a relationship with the same vampire for centuries?

    A Dowry of Blood read almost epistolarily, perhaps a nod to the original Dracula story. The book opens with “you” (think Dracula, but never named) bleeding to death, seemingly killed by the first-person character Constanta. Divided into three parts, each part tells the history of where “you” find each new lover—Constanta, Magdalena, Alexi—over the last few centuries.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Night Tide by Anna Burke | ARC Review

    14th April 2021
    Cover of Night Tide (Anna Burke)

    Night Tide (A Seal Cove Romance #2) by Anna Burke

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    You know when you hate someone so much you ended up knowing every tiny thing about them? Well, I don’t, but Lillian and Ivy do.

    Dr. Lillian Lee (31) and Dr. Ivy Holden have been archenemies throughout vet school, so when Ivy relocates to Seal Cove where Lillian is working, the latter is not pleased. To Lillian, Ivy is a spoiled rich kid who made her life hell. But what if she isn’t horrible anymore now?

    I love books with wonderful imageries and great thematic choices. In Spindrift (my review here), I adored the opening and ending scenes of the dock, from boat to land, and here in Night Tide, the freedom on an isolated island with crashing waves, persistent and ever-growing vines of ivy, the somberness of Edgar Allen Poe references, etc. are as beautifully interwoven as I could have wished for.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Spellbound by Ophelia Silk | ARC Review

    8th April 2021
    Cover of Spellbound (Ophelia Silk)

    Spellbound by Ophelia Silk

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Check trigger warnings on the author’s website.

    I went into the story knowing I’m going to get cottagecore sapphics with a simplistic plot, but I didn’t expect it to be so cute.

    Jane Paris (20) and William make a striking couple. Or so the villagers say. One day, after another dissatisfying evening with William, Jane walks into the dangerous forest for a shortcut back home. Soon, a poisonous beast attacks her and it is only because of the witch Adelaide Thompson’s magic and cure that Jane survives. Raised to be proper and polite and marry a man, Jane learns that not all expectations are meant to be fulfilled, especially when there are other things that bring her happiness.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    The Project by Courtney Summers | ARC Review

    1st February 2021
    Cover of The Project (Courtney Summers)

    The Project by Courtney Summers

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: cult, gaslighting, manipulation, child abuse, abuse (cigarette burn, scalding, etc.), panic attacks, death of family members, suicide (jumper), vandalization, pregnancy, car accident, substance-induced psychosis, threatening, possible PTSD, infidelity

    The Project is a story about a cult, The Unity Project led by Lev Warren, and the unbreakable ties between sisters Lo (b. 1998) and Bea (b. ca. 1992) Denham.

    Lo has always dreamed of being a writer but is currently, in 2017, stuck working as an assistant for Paul Tindale at SVO, a magazine company. When the opportunity arises for her to dig into The Unity Project, a religious organization Lo believes to have taken Bea from her, she risks her own safety for a series of exclusive interviews with Lev. With Lo being facially scarred from a life-threatening car accident that killed both her parents in 2011, she is recognizable everywhere at The Project’s compounds as Bea’s little sister. But Lo is tired of everyone else knowing Bea when she hasn’t heard from her sister in a long time, and she is desperate to find out what is really going on at The Unity Project.

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