Ruining Hattie by P. Rayne

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Spice Rating:  🌶🌶

(Ability to make me made 100,000)

Blurb:

A man with no limits is the most dangerous kind of threat.

When Trent Clarke caught me picking pockets at eleven, he didn’t turn me in. Instead, he took me under his wing and taught me that in this world, you take what you want and never look back.

He might have shaped me, but I built my empire of the most successful string of strip clubs on the West Coast.

Now that I have everything, it’s time to track down my deadbeat mother and remind her who she left behind. That is if the drugs didn’t kill her already.

But I don’t find the worn-down shell of the woman I remember. Instead, she has all the things she never managed to give me—the white picket fence, a family dog, even church on Sunday mornings.

The real kicker? She replaced me and raised the perfect daughter with all the care and love she never gave me.

A twisted need for revenge roars to life inside me, and I aim it at my mother’s precious stepdaughter—sweet, sheltered Hattie Sinclair.

At first, it’s purely about vengeance, pulling Hattie into the darkness to watch her innocence unravel piece by piece. But she becomes something more. Something dangerous. Something I can’t resist.

Until she becomes my obsession.

My Review:

This is a hard review to write because I am genuinely trying not to absolutely lose my mind.

Let me be very clear right out of the gate: I loved this book. The cover? Perfect. The plot? Hooked me immediately. I was so excited to listen to the audiobook, and the narrators understood the assignment. They didn’t just read the story, they brought it to life. The pacing was solid, the plot worked, and the character development? Chef’s kiss. I knew going in that trauma would be part of the story, and I felt every ounce of it—but I stayed locked in because I knew the relationship between Hattie and Bastian was going to be worth it.

And it was.
Bastian was never cruel to Hattie. Even with the entire story rooted in revenge against his mother, he never turned that ugliness on her. He fell for Hattie, protected her, and honestly? He nurtured her. He gave her space to figure out who she was and what she wanted, and watching her grow because of his love was beautiful. I never once doubted that he loved her, and I never expected anything less than devotion from him.

Now here’s where things get ugly.

I loved about 95% of this book, and that remaining 5%? It made me absolutely feral. Rage. Pure, stomach-churning, teeth-gritting rage. And that is saying something, because me raging for a man. inconceivable. Yet here I was, simmering, pacing, and unfairly directing most of that fury at my poor husband.

The ending.
That’s all I’ll say, because elaborating would ruin it, but the ending had me seeing red.

Let me make one thing crystal clear: there is no forgiveness for anyone who would treat a child the way this book depicts. None. Zero. And the sheer audacity to even ask for forgiveness after that? Absolutely sickening.

So now I’m stuck. How do you rate a book you adored… that also pissed you off beyond reason in the final moments? Was it good because I loved almost all of it, or was it good because it made me feel something so violently? I genuinely don’t know.

You’ll have to decide that for yourself when you read it, but just know, this book will make you feel things. And it will not let you go quietly.

September Doves by Emmerson Hoyt

 September Doves 

by Emmerson Doves

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶🌶

Blurb:

Rylee Adder is a struggling college student desperate to reconnect with the only family she has left. She finally has her chance when a late-night phone call sends her rushing to Eden, West Virginia—a small mining town with a veiled past.

She arrives ready to console her grieving sister, but instead discovers a distant, secretive woman she hardly recognizes, and Colton Archer, a tattoo-covered troublemaker with a knack for pushing her buttons.

As Rylee battles her growing attraction to Colton, who is as infuriating as he is handsome, she comes face-to-face with a shocking discovery that has her questioning everything.

When danger closes in, she must decide what rules she is willing to break for the ones she loves or risk losing them all.

My Review:

I feel like my heart was ripped straight out of my chest. No warning. No mercy. Wait… what do you mean that was the ending?! Needless to say, I’m starting book two immediately.

I immersive-read this book and listened to the audiobook, and the narrators did a phenomenal job bringing these characters to life. This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and it definitely won’t be the last. Lately, I’ve felt disconnected from the books I’ve been picking up, like something was missing. This book? This was it. This was exactly what I didn’t even realize I was craving.

The deeper I got, the more this nervous, crawling feeling settled into the pit of my stomach, and turns out, my instincts were right. Something was off. Very off. And when things started unraveling? Yeah… it hurt.

Were there things I didn’t see coming or didn’t quite get right? Obviously. But I can spot a shitty human even between the pages,  and let me tell you, there’s a lot going on here. So many moving pieces, unanswered questions, and lingering unease. I know book two is going to deliver answers, because I need them.

As for the plot, oh, it was plotting. That’s all I’m saying. The mystery, the tension, the anxiety woven into every chapter had me on edge. I couldn’t relax. I didn’t want to relax.

Now, the FMC did test my patience a few times. There were moments where she was like, “No, I don’t think he would do that.” Girl. Yes. He did. You know it. I know it. Honestly? F—him.

I loved this book. I am obsessed, emotionally wrecked, and fully committed to diving into book two to figure out what the hell just happened. And yes, this book absolutely ends on a cliffhanger.

If you love a suspenseful romance packed with secret clubs, mysterious deaths, simmering tension, and a ridiculously hot MMC… do yourself a favor and pick this up. Just be prepared, it will hurt. 💔🔥

Five Brothers by Penelope Douglas

 Five Brothers 

by Penelope Douglas

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶 (This sh*t was hot!)

Blurb:

One woman learns the secrets of the five Jaeger brothers.

On the other side of town, in the dark glades, under the rain…

Macon is the oldest. Thirty-one. Ex-Marine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile.

Army is twenty-eight. A single dad with the most beautiful green eyes. He has no idea who he is, if not a Jaeger brother.

Iron will be in prison soon. You’d never think it to meet him. He’s a nice guy, actually. But he can’t stop reacting to everything.

Dallas is the one I hate. Twenty-one, cruel, and selfish. He takes and then throws away whatever’s left.

And Trace is mine. Or he was for about two seconds. No one can tame him for long.

Not that I ever wanted to. It was fun, but now I need to go home. Back to my side of the tracks. Away from the swamps and these men. To my parents’ big house. On my clean street. Where I’m never dirty or messy or hot. And I will. I’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning. I just want to crash on the couch tonight.

Their house is dark and quiet, everyone else is asleep. Except for one. He sees me crying and comes at me from behind. I let him wrap his arms around my body and hold me tightly. His breath is on my neck, his fingers are in my hair, and he doesn’t stop there.

I don’t think it was Trace.

My Review:

There are a few things I need when I pick up a book, and at the very top of that list is this: hook me immediately. If I feel like I have to push myself through the first few chapters, I’m out. I want to fall into a story the second I open it, no effort required, especially with my ADHD. So going into this book, having only read three Penelope Douglas novels before, I genuinely felt like it was a coin toss. I could either love it… or DNF it hard.

Five Brothers wasted absolutely no time.

The opening was so intense it genuinely made my stomach drop, I thought I might feel sick. But then the story shifted, took shape, and forced me to take a steadying breath before plunging straight back in. Once it had its grip on me, there was no escape.

If there is one thing Penelope Douglas is going to do every single time, it’s write immaculate intimacy. The kind that leaves you breathless. The kind that makes you ache for fictional touch and crave these characters like they’re real. Her scenes aren’t just sexy, they’re yearning, and that alone is enough reason to pick up her books.

She’s often labeled the “taboo queen,” and honestly? This book proves exactly why. But what people tend to miss is that her stories aren’t just shock value. There are layers here. When you peel them back, everything connects in a way that feels disturbingly real. You’ll question the characters’ choices. You’ll wonder, Is this even possible? And then the trauma cracks open, and you realize something uncomfortable: when people are shaped by pain like this, they don’t always make good or logical decisions. And yes, things like this do happen in real life. More often than we’d like to believe.

This book is absolutely not for everyone. But if you understand that life doesn’t follow neat paths, that rock bottom exists, and that survival sometimes looks messy and morally gray, this one might hit you hard.

The cast of characters is stacked, and you will fall in love with more than one of them. But Macon? Macon destroyed me. His story was raw, passionate, and devastating. You could feel his pain bleeding off the page, and it hurt to read in the best way.

Honestly, if all of this doesn’t convince you to pick up this book… I don’t know what will.

Call ME Anytime by Max Monroe

 Call Me Anytime

by Max Monroe

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice Rating: 🌶🌶 (Its funny!)

Blurb:

A virgin phone sex operator. A detective. And a murder. Love shows up at the oddest times in this funny, emotional, and suspenseful romantic comedy by New York Times bestselling author Max Monroe.

Down and almost out in Nashville, Hannah May takes a job at what she thinks is a telemarketing company. To her shock, it’s a phone sex hotline. Unfortunately, the only role-playing Hannah can do with conviction is as a cash-strapped twenty-five-year-old virgin caring for a mother with Alzheimer’s. If only her callers were into that fantasy. Instead, one of them is looking for a killer.

Detective Dominic Dunn is investigating the murder of another hotline operator when Hannah’s endearing awkwardness, quirky charm, and fierce devotion to her mother crack his professional facade. Despite the circumstances, their connection is instant and electric. For the first time in years, Hannah finds herself living instead of just surviving—even if that means playing amateur sleuth between awkward attempts at phone seduction.

But as their relationship deepens and the investigation intensifies, Dominic’s protective instincts go into overdrive. With every call Hannah takes, she gets closer to both love and danger.

Because somewhere in Nashville, on the other end of her line, a killer is waiting.

My Review:

Call Me Anytime by Max Monroe completely surprised me, in the best way possible. This was my first book by this author, and I went in expecting a fun rom-com… but what I got was something so much deeper, funnier, and more emotionally impactful than I ever anticipated.

Yes, this book is laugh-out-loud hilarious. The premise alone, a virgin woman working as a phone sex operator with absolutely zero real-world experience, is comedy gold. I mean, truly, I was laughing my ass off more times than I can count. The humor is sharp, clever, and perfectly timed. But what really got me was how seamlessly this story could flip from hilarious chaos to emotional devastation. One minute I was wiping tears from laughing too hard, and the next I was wiping tears because something hit way too close to home.

This book was so much more than a rom-com for me.

There is a raw honesty threaded through these pages that genuinely hurt, in the way truth often does. Hannah’s story, particularly her relationship with her mother, resonated with me on a deeply personal level. Like Hannah, I was a caregiver. I took care of my mom for years while she battled cancer. No, it wasn’t Alzheimer’s, but the weight, the responsibility, the constant strength required, it all felt achingly familiar. I loved my mom with everything I had, and I wouldn’t change a single moment of caring for her. But that kind of responsibility changes you. It hardens parts of you while forcing others to grow up far too fast.

I understood Hannah in a way that made reading her story both comforting and painful.

Her refusal to ask for help? I get it. Her hyper-independence? I get that too. Hyper-independence is trauma. When you’ve had to be strong on your own for so long, relying on yourself becomes instinct. You don’t even realize you’re doing it, you just know you can’t afford to fall apart. Seeing that reflected so honestly on the page hurt… but it also made me feel seen.

And then there’s the romance.

Rory was everything. He didn’t try to fix Hannah or tame her independence, he loved her for it. He loved her quirks, her strength, her awkwardness, and the walls she didn’t even realize she had built. Their relationship felt genuine, supportive, and deeply emotional. The romance wasn’t just swoony, it was validating. It showed love as something that meets you where you are, not where you’re “supposed” to be.

This book made me laugh, cry, reflect, and feel understood, all in one story. That doesn’t happen often.

Call Me Anytime was a ten-out-of-ten read for me. Funny, emotional, romantic, and unexpectedly healing. I came for the humor, but I stayed for the heart, and it left a lasting mark on me. 💜

City of Shadow and Bone by M.B. Atkins

 City of Shadow and Bone 

by M.B. Atkins

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice Rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶 ( T'was Spicy!)

Blurb:

Bound by a bargain. Haunted by secrets. Destined for death.

Sybil Hart’s unknown bloodline may hold the key to everything she desires, and she’ll do anything—even if it means dying—to claim it.

Drawn into the rebels' rising war, Sybil is caught between Samian, her brooding protector, and Kieran, the fierce warrior bound to her in ways neither can deny. By night she trains with the rebels, by day she moves unseen, shrouded in shadows beyond her enemy’s reach—every defiance a dangerous gamble. But hope is fragile, and each stolen victory demands a sacrifice that cuts deeper than the last.

As war with the Seelie Court looms, Sybil faces a choice that will shatter kingdoms: obey and destroy the ones she loves... or embrace her power within and rise.

But death is only the beginning…

(Beautiful cover!)

My Review:

If a book gives me a villain worth obsessing over, I’m already halfway in love, and City of Shadow and Bone absolutely understood the assignment.

This story doesn’t ease you into its darkness; it drags you under and dares you to breathe. Gods meddle, fae scheme, mortals bleed, and every alliance feels temporary at best. The magic is dangerous, the politics are sharp, and nothing, not love, not loyalty, not fate, comes without a price.

Sybil Hart is the kind of heroine I live for. Sharp-tongued, stubborn, and unflinchingly brave, she refuses to bend even when the world demands it. She moves through shadows with purpose, challenging gods and kings alike, and her unknown bloodline hums beneath the surface like a loaded weapon. Watching her navigate rebellion, power, and impossible choices was intoxicating.

The romance? Deliciously painful. Slow-burn, soul-bound, and heavy with tension that makes every look feel like a threat. Samian broods like it’s an art form, Kieran burns with something fierce and undeniable, and Sybil is caught between them in ways that feel cruelly inevitable. Love here isn’t safe, it’s a liability.

What really sets this book apart is the atmosphere. The world feels alive without drowning you in detail: shadowed cities, clashing courts, layered gods with their own agendas. Every setting, every myth, every whispered secret adds weight without slowing the pace. And the villains? Morally gray, compelling, and impossible to ignore, exactly how I like them.

By the final pages, I was left unhinged in the best way. I need more answers. More chaos. More Dubnos. More Soren. More Aster. Honestly, I need book three immediately and I’m not above begging.

Dark, seductive, and dangerous, City of Shadow and Bone is the kind of sequel that doesn’t just raise the stakes, it sharpens the blade.

The Knight and the Mothe by Rachel Gillig

The Knight and the Moth

by Rachel Gillig

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶 (It was mild and never over

shadowed the plot.)

(Look this is a stunning cover! But have you seen

the German cover!!)

Blurb:

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

My Review:

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig was nothing short of enchanting. From the very first pages, the writing wraps around you, lush, elegant, and steeped in a gothic beauty that feels both haunting and delicate. This is the kind of prose that begs to be read slowly, not because it drags, but because you want to savor every sentence.

The pacing is one of this book’s greatest strengths. The plot unfolds with a quiet confidence, never rushed yet never stagnant, allowing tension and mystery to build naturally. Gillig’s world-building is phenomenal, rich without being overwhelming, vivid without excessive exposition. You don’t just read about this world; you step into it, moving through shadowed halls and unspoken magic as if it’s always existed somewhere just beyond reach.

Every character, no matter how small their role, feels intentional and memorable. No one fades into the background. Each presence adds texture and weight to the story, making the world feel lived-in and alive. I love stories that feel like portals, ones that pull you between the pages and into a world that once existed only inside an author’s mind, and this book does exactly that.

Six, in particular, stood out to me in the best way. She gave strong Eleven-from-Stranger Things vibes if she were grown, quietly powerful, emotionally complex, and impossible to look away from. The magic system is unique and unpredictable, keeping you guessing about where the story is headed and what truths are still waiting to be uncovered.

There is romance, but it never overshadows the story. Instead, it weaves seamlessly into the narrative, enhancing the emotional stakes without hijacking the plot. Everything feels balanced, the magic, the mystery, the character development, and the relationships, all moving together in perfect rhythm.

All in all, this is easily one of the best books I’ve read. Atmospheric, captivating, and beautifully crafted, The Knight and the Moth is the kind of story that lingers long after you’ve turned the final page. A true standout.

(Look at this cover!) 

The Slayer's Song by T.M. Chavez

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Blurb:

The vampire he's sworn to kill was once the woman he couldn't save.

For a hundred years, Vane Valkinar has slain monsters without mercy. There was none when they murdered his mother—and his pupil, Tory.

He swore vengeance on the vampire lord who commands the thralls that took Tory’s life. So when he captures one of those vampires, ready to pry for answers, he doesn't expect to hesitate.

But he knows her.

She’s the missing woman he and Tory were searching for the night Tory died—a living reminder of his greatest failure.

And the closer he gets to her, the more he wonders:

Can he uphold his oath to kill all monsters… when one has the face of someone he couldn't save?

 My Review:

The Slayer’s Song by T.M. Chavez was an adventure inked between pages, one of those stories that pulls you in before you even realize you’ve stopped breathing. The book opens by following our MMC, Vane, a slayer, and the title is exactly what it promises. He is paid to hunt and protect people from dangerous creatures, but there is so much more to him than his blade. Vane is broody, rough around the edges, and often downright mean, yet beneath that hardened exterior is a man drowning in grief. His mourning adds an emotional depth to the story that made him feel real and layered, and I found myself completely invested in his journey. He wasn’t just a warrior fighting monsters, he was fighting himself.

One of my favorite things about this book was the world-building. I love when authors create worlds that truly feel new, not just recycled versions of places we’ve already seen a hundred times. And yes, I know people say all fantasy does this, but that simply isn’t true. This world felt fresh. The creatures were unfamiliar, intriguing, and sometimes unsettling, and the setting felt like somewhere I had never visited before. Chavez’s imagination shines here, making the world feel vast, dangerous, and alive.

The romance is present, but it never overshadows the story, which I appreciated immensely. It weaves naturally into the plot instead of overpowering it, allowing the adventure, mystery, and emotional growth to remain at the forefront. The pacing keeps you turning pages, and just when you think you know where the story is headed, it surprises you.

If you’re looking for a book that will take you on a true adventure, pull you into a new world, and keep you guessing with its twists and turns, The Slayer’s Song is absolutely worth picking up. This is a story for readers who want danger, heart, and discovery all wrapped into one unforgettable journey.