How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson

 How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates

by Shailee Thompson

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊⯨

Spice Rating: 🌶

Blurb:

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A humorous, swoony, and downright terrifying slasher rom-com in which a cinephile gets caught in the middle of a murder spree at a speed-dating event and must use her encyclopedic knowledge of the romance and horror genres to make it as a real-life Final Girl.

When Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards. She doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. After the lights come back on and there are more bodies on the floor, it becomes clear that dating can be a very dangerous pastime.

Armed with makeshift weapons and Jamie’s extensive knowledge of what NOT to do in a slasher, the remaining speed daters try to find an exit while the killer adds to their body count. As the night progresses and Jamie comes face-to-mask with the murderer, she begins to suspect they are committing the slayings to woo one of the daters and turn them into a real-life Final Girl. But Jamie has other plans, and as she fights for her life, she can’t help but find herself ensconced in a love triangle with two of the other survivors. Will she make it through the bloodshed to find her Happily Ever After? Or does this machete-wielding psychopath have another ending in mind?

For fans of Love in the Time of Serial Killers and Butcher & Blackbird, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is one killer love story.

My Review:

There are books that fill a need you did not even know you had until the moment they land in your hands. How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson is exactly that kind of book for me. I did not know I needed this. I did not know that the specific combination of romance and horror living inside the same story was something my soul had been quietly craving. But the moment I started reading I knew I had found something that was made for someone exactly like me.

Let me tell you a little bit about who I am as a reader and as a person, because it matters here. I love romance. I am a sucker for it in all of its forms. And I love horror. I was raised on classic slasher films, the kind with rules and final girls and that perfect blend of tension and chaos that makes your heart race in the best possible way. So when I tell you that this book felt like someone took my two greatest loves and smashed them together into one gloriously unhinged story, I mean that as the highest compliment I am capable of giving.

The humor in this book is something else entirely. I was laughing out loud one moment and then clutching my chest the next because something came out of nowhere and absolutely got me. Jump scares. In a book. I did not think that was possible but Shailee Thompson found a way to make it happen on the page and I am still not entirely over it. The balance between the comedy and the horror is so perfectly calibrated that you never feel whiplash, you just feel alive and delighted and slightly terrified all at once, which is honestly my ideal reading state.

Now I will be completely transparent with you because I think honesty is important in a book review. Would I personally be able to fall in love in the middle of a situation like the one unfolding in this story? Absolutely not. Not even a little bit. My brain would not allow it. But here is the thing, I also would not be the final girl. I have watched enough horror films to know exactly where I fall in the lineup and it is not at the end. I would be one of the first ones to go. Probably within the first twenty minutes. And I have fully made my peace with that reality.

But the characters in this story? They pull it off. And somehow the author makes you believe in every single moment of it, the romance, the danger, the impossible combination of falling for someone while everything around you is descending into chaos. It works. It really, genuinely works.

What makes this book sing beyond just the fun of it is the fact that it is built on a foundation of real love and knowledge of the horror genre. If you grew up watching classic slasher films, if you know the rules, if you have ever sat on a couch yelling at a character on screen for doing exactly what you should never do in a horror movie, then this book was written for you. It plays with those rules in the most delicious way. It rewards the people who paid attention. It is all of that classic horror film energy translated beautifully and brilliantly into book form.

It is also a shorter read, which I think actually works in its favor. It moves fast and sharp and purposeful, just like the best horror films do. There is no wasted space, no dragging, just a tight and entertaining story that delivers exactly what it promises from the very first page to the very last.

If you are looking for something fun and fresh and unlike anything you have picked up in a while, this is it. I loved it completely and I will be recommending it to every single person I know who has ever stayed up late watching horror movies with their heart in their throat and a smile on their face.

Dream on by Jennifer Hartmann

 Dream On

by Jennifer Hartmann

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Blurb:

Jennifer Hartmann presents an all-new standalone crossover romance filled with heartache and dreams.

Lexington Hall and I were never supposed to collide—he, the golden boy of Hollywood, and me, a small-town dreamer with stars in my eyes. But when we shared the stage in our high school musical, something ignited.

Then, just as quickly, it all fell apart, leaving my dreams in pieces.

Now, four years later, Lex is a household name, turning our past into a television sensation. He's spun our story for the world to see, while I'm still haunted by what we lost.

With millions obsessed over the "real" Stevie St. James, Lex reappears with an offer too tempting to turn a fake romance to keep the buzz alive, in exchange for the financial freedom I desperately need.

I convince myself I can play the part. But as old feelings resurface and new risks emerge, the line between fiction and reality begins to blur.

Dreams are easy to chase—but falling for the guy who shattered mine could cost me everything.

My Review:

Let me start this review with a confession and a warning all rolled into one. I am absolutely, completely, and without any shame whatsoever obsessed with everything Jennifer Hartmann writes. I do not know what she puts in these books. I genuinely cannot explain it. Some kind of literary witchcraft, some secret ingredient that she sprinkles into every single page that makes it completely impossible to walk away unscathed. She reaches directly into your chest, wraps her hand around your heart, and rips it clean out. And then, while you are sitting there devastated and wrecked and wondering how you will ever recover, she smiles, hands you another book with just as much trauma packed inside it, and you take it. Every single time you take it. Because you cannot help yourself. Because she is just that good.

So when I tell you that Dream On felt slightly different from her usual gut punch of destruction, please understand that I mean that in the most relative way possible. Compared to the emotional demolition derby that Jennifer Hartmann usually puts me through, this one had a softer edge to it. This was a summer read through and through. It was warm and it was full of feeling and it wrapped around you like a breeze on a long afternoon rather than knocking you completely off your feet. But do not for one single second think that means it did not deliver the feels, because it absolutely did. Jennifer Hartmann is constitutionally incapable of writing something that does not make you feel deeply. It is simply not in her DNA.

What she does better than almost any other author I have ever read is write trauma in a way that feels devastatingly real. Not performative, not dramatic for the sake of drama, but genuinely, achingly human. When you are inside one of her stories you do not feel like a reader sitting at a safe distance. You feel like you have been transported directly into the heart of it. You feel what her characters feel in your own chest, in your own bones. I am completely serious when I say that her characters feel real to me. I do not know where they exist in the universe but I think about them and I genuinely hope they are okay. I hope they are out there somewhere healing and finding their way. That is the kind of writing Jennifer Hartmann does. She makes you care on a level that defies the fact that these are fictional people on a printed page.

Dream On follows two people who could not have come from more different worlds. Different backgrounds, different upbringings, different ways of moving through life and processing pain. And yet fate, or the universe, or whatever name you want to give to that invisible force that pulls people together when they need each other most, throws them into the same orbit. One of them is carrying so much agony that they have shut down almost entirely, built walls so high and so thick that the light can barely get through. And the other one refuses to look away. The other one shows up, stays present, and slowly, tenderly shows what love and healing could actually look like if you are brave enough to let them in.

And just when you think you can see where this is going, just when your heart starts to feel the tiniest bit safe, something tragic happens. They grow apart. The distance between them becomes something neither of them knows how to cross. And you sit there with the book in your hands feeling the loss of it as if it happened to someone you actually know.

But this is Jennifer Hartmann, and she does not leave you in the rubble forever. They find each other again. And when they do, everything is different. They are different. Changed by time and pain and everything that happened in between. And yet somehow, underneath all of it, they are exactly the same. The same two people who found each other once and could not stay away for long.

I was heartbroken reading this. I cried ugly tears, the kind that sneak up on you and refuse to be dignified about it. And I loved every single second of it.

Kissed by the Gods by Caty Rogan

 Kissed by the Gods

by Caty Rogan

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Blurb:

Leina has spent a lifetime submitting. Kneeling. Enduring.

Then soldiers come for her brother, and divine fury surges through her veins. She expects execution for the bodies she left in her wake. Her people have met bloody ends for far, far less.

Instead, Ryot, a godsworn warrior born to privilege and raised in order, drags her into a world that was never meant for her. One of divine armies and death demons, winged war horses and monsters, sacred power and royal secrets.

A kiss from a goddess changes everything.

No longer a criminal, Leina is a prize. The kingdom’s most powerful men want what the goddess touched. Leina wants only one thing, though: freedom for her people. And she’ll trade herself for the strength to destroy the kingdom that broke them.

Conscripted into a war she never asked for, fighting for gods she doesn’t believe in, Leina must decide how far she’s willing to go and what she’s willing to lose. Because her power is more than a threat to the kingdom’s buried secrets.

It’s a death sentence.

My Review: 

There are books you read once and enjoy. And then there are books you come back to, intentionally, hungrily, because the first time was simply not enough. Kissed by the Gods falls firmly and without question into that second category for me. This was my second time reading this story, and I paired it with the audiobook this time around, and I have to tell you, experiencing it that way elevated the entire thing to a completely new level.

Let me talk about that audiobook for a moment because it deserves its own spotlight. The narrator is exceptional. There is a certain kind of magic that happens when the right voice meets the right story, and that is exactly what this is. Every character felt alive, every scene felt vivid, and the world that Caty Rogan built on the page came breathing and roaring to life through the audio in a way that genuinely gave me chills. If you have been on the fence about trying the audiobook version, let me be the one to push you right off that fence. Do it. You will not be sorry.

Now let us talk about the story itself because it is something special. The war college setting is an absolute dream and I am completely and unashamedly here for it. There is something about that kind of structure, that rigid, high stakes, brutal training ground environment, that makes every moment of rebellion and triumph feel ten times more satisfying. Add in Pegasus, add in magic, add in the concept of slipping into liminal spaces that exist between worlds, and you have a story that fires on every single cylinder of my imagination.

I know what some people might say. They might say this feels familiar, that elements of this story echo things we have read before in the fantasy and romantasy space. And yes, there are recognizable threads woven through it. But here is what I believe with my whole heart. A story does not have to be entirely without precedent to be extraordinary. Kissed by the Gods took every familiar ingredient and turned it into something that felt electric and alive and completely worth every single one of its five stars. Because that is exactly what it earned from me. Five stars, no hesitation, no asterisks.

A huge part of why this book hits so hard is our female main character. She is not weak. She is not waiting to be saved. She is not standing quietly on the sidelines hoping someone else will fix things. She fights. She pushes. She scrapes and claws and refuses to give up on finding and protecting her people, which is honestly all any of us would want to do if we found ourselves dropped into a world as harsh and unforgiving as this one.

But what gets me even more than her strength is where she started. Because she was told to be quiet. She was told to be small. She was surrounded by people and circumstances that expected her to shrink and depend and stay in her lane. And every single time she was handed that expectation, she chose violence instead. She chose to stand up. She chose to fight back. She planted her feet and refused to move.

I will never get tired of that. Ever. There is something so deeply empowering about a woman who has been underestimated, talked over, pushed down, and told she is not enough, standing ten toes down anyway and proving every single one of those voices wrong. It gets me every time without fail, and this book delivered that feeling in spades.

if war college settings make your heart race, if you believe as fiercely as I do that women fighting for what they love will never get old, then Kissed by the Gods needs to be on your list immediately. And for the love of everything, get the audiobook.

Dear Vicky by Octavia Grant

 Dear Vicky

by Octavia Grant

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶

Blurb:

Delusional /dəˈlo͞oZH(ə)nəl/ (adjective) - characterized by or holding false beliefs or judgments about external reality that are held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, typically as a symptom of a mental condition

Grocery store bag boy, Andrew, hates his job. No career growth, rude customers, and the forced customer appreciation greeting have taken a toll on his mental stability. Though his job gives him the flexibility to attend community college, he can find no other enjoyment there. That is until he met the woman that would change his life. During Andrew’s mundane day of grabbing and bagging, Victoria, a customer with an infectious smile and playful personality, gives him the attention that he’s been missing. Attention that now has Andrew believing that he and she are now in a committed relationship. Victoria has no idea that her friendly demeanor has landed her in the crosshairs of an unwell man. But she’ll soon learn that the old adage is You can’t be nice to everyone.

Get to know Andrew Patterson and discover how dangerous a delusion can be.

My Review:

Let me set the scene for you. This was a book club pick, which means it was not something I would have ever reached for on my own. If left to my own devices, this one would have lived on a shelf somewhere and never made it into my hands. And I am so incredibly grateful that book club exists, because Dear Vicky by Octavia Grant took me completely and utterly by surprise in the best and most unsettling way possible.

Let me tell you how this book moves, because the pacing alone is an experience worth talking about. It starts slow. Deliberately, almost lazily slow. You are easing into it, getting comfortable, thinking you have a handle on what kind of story this is going to be. It has that quiet, creeping energy of a stalker thriller, the kind where you feel the tension building underneath the surface but nothing has exploded yet. You are watching, waiting, and lulling yourself into a false sense of knowing where this is all headed.

And then it happens. Out of nowhere, without so much as a warning, this book detonates. The chaos that erupts in the second chapter of this story is absolutely breathtaking in the most chaotic and depraved way imaginable. I went from turning pages at a leisurely pace to physically unable to put it down, eyes wide, jaw somewhere on the floor, just completely blindsided by everything unfolding in front of me.

What makes it even more impressive is that as wild and unhinged as things get, the author never loses the thread. Octavia Grant does a terrific job of answering every single question this story raises. Nothing is left dangling carelessly in the wind. Every dark corner gets illuminated, every piece of chaos gets accounted for, and somehow it all makes a horrifying and brilliant kind of sense by the time you reach the end.

But here is the thing that really gets me. Even now, after finishing it, after closing the cover and trying to move on with my life, I find my mind circling back to this book. I am still thinking about the depraved things that happened inside these pages. My brain keeps trying to process it all, to organize it neatly into something I can make peace with. And I am not entirely sure I ever will.

This book is going to haunt me. Not in a bad way, but in that specific way that only truly remarkable and deeply disturbing stories can manage. It has taken up permanent residence in the back of my mind and I have a feeling it is not going anywhere anytime soon.

And perhaps the most terrifying part of all? Knowing that people like the ones in this story actually exist out in the real world. That is the thought that lingers the longest and the loudest. Fiction can scare you, but fiction rooted in the kind of darkness that real human beings are capable of? That is on a completely different level.

If your book club is brave enough, or if you are simply someone who loves a thriller that will genuinely shake you, pick up Dear Vicky. Just make sure you are ready for it, because it will not go easy on you.

Dragon Blind by Iman Christians

 Dragon Blind

by Iman Christians 

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶

Blurb:

Princess Asha has always defied the brutal expectations of her warrior empire. When a life-altering injury shatters her vision and her future in the Ujuima military—she’s cast into the dragon pits.

In a kingdom where dragons are nearly extinct and their eggs are myth, Asha, now a blind dragonkeeper, inherits three. Although a pawn in their political games, her lack of sight sharpens her other senses, allowing her to perceive truths no one else can. But when the eggs’ existence makes her a target, she’s forced into an arranged marriage to secure her family’s power.

Enter Adriel, a morally gray prince from a rival kingdom, who offers her an alliance instead of a wedding ring. He wants the eggs for his own reasons, but neither expects the electric pull between them—or the dragon, Drakkar, who whispers to Asha of a hidden dragon colony in the northern mountains.

As their journey unravels the eggs’ secrets, Asha faces an impossible reclaim her birthright as a royal pawn or ignite a revolution to restore dragonkind’s freedom. But in an empire where trust is lethal and blind girls are meant to be silent, survival will demand she rewrite the rules with fire.

Once cast out into the belly of dragons, she will take her power back and burn the empire to the ground.

My Review:

I have been on a hunt. A very specific, very determined hunt for a dragon book that was going to grab me by the collar, pull me in, and refuse to let me go until the very last page. I have picked up and put down more books than I care to admit looking for that one, the one that scratches that particular itch in just the right way. And then Dragon Blind landed in my hands, and let me tell you, the search is over.

This book did exactly what I needed it to do. It caught my eye and it kept me entertained from beginning to end, but what surprised me the most was how much more it turned out to be than I expected going in. Yes, there is an enemies to lovers storyline woven through it, and listen, I am never mad at that trope when it is done well. But calling this just an enemies to lovers story would be doing it a serious disservice, because at its heart this book is about something far deeper and far more fascinating than that.

At the center of everything is a battle for blind loyalty, and no, that is not a pun, though I will say the irony is not lost on me because our female main character is actually blind. And what an absolutely brilliant and unique way to build a story. A woman who has lost her sight, navigating a world that is harsh and unforgiving and that she simply cannot see. The way the author uses that limitation to shape the entire perspective of the story is nothing short of creative genius. Reading the world through her experience, feeling the darkness she moves through, watching her figure out how to survive and connect and fight in a world that was not built with her in mind, it is unlike anything I have read before.

And can we talk about the world building for a moment? Because it is stunning. The glimpses you get of this world painted entirely through senses that are not sight, through sound and touch and instinct and trust, are genuinely breathtaking. There is something so moving about watching someone be brave enough to take a step they cannot even see coming. That alone made my heart clench more than once.

I also need to address the family situation because why is the family always the number one source of chaos and betrayal? I hate it. I genuinely hate it every single time. And yet I understand it because someone has to be the villain, and there is nothing quite as gut wrenching as when that villain shares your blood. It adds a layer of pain to the story that no outside enemy ever truly could.

My absolute favorite part though? The dragons. Making friends with dragons when you cannot see them, learning to trust creatures that the rest of the world fears or ignores, building those bonds in the dark. That element of the story filled my heart in the best possible way.

If you are looking for a romantasy that brings something genuinely fresh to the table, and if dragons are anywhere on your list of things that make a book instantly better, then please do yourself a favor and pick up Dragon Blind. You will not regret it for a single second.

Where Dreams Fall by R.L. Caulder

 Where Dreams Fall

by R.L. Caulder 

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶 (To be fair there might 

be more that this I just don't remember)

Blurb:

In a world in which dreams are guarded and nightmares are unsanctioned, one woman's unraveling mind may hold the key to everything the empire fears.

Elysia has spent her life thus far beneath the white clouds of the Dromin elves, protected from nightmares and the Nithrin elves that feed on them—until now. Her dreams have begun to twist into haunting scenes of ancient creatures, death . . . and a mysterious figure cloaked in light and shadow. Elysia suspects he's a Dromin elf breaking multiple laws to appear to her, and his whispered words and lingering touch ignite a spark between them that the gods themselves will soon fear.

When the queen dies and a brutal selection process to replace her begins, Elysia quickly realizes the waking world is fracturing alongside her sleeping one. Women across the empire are offered to the elven high priestess, put forward as potential heads for a crown drenched in blood and lies. Elysia finds herself at the center of the trials, and if she's to survive them, she'll have to decide what she's willing to fight for—and if she can live with the choices she's forced to make. Because only one will be chosen as queen, but all will be broken in the process.

Elysia eventually ascends into the elven world to find the one who stirred her heart is waiting there, but his true identity is far more dangerous than she ever imagined. Choosing each other will mean forsaking the world they're trying to save . . .

Sweeping, perilous, and aching with forbidden passion, Where Dreams Fall is the first book of a dark romantasy series in which love is the most dangerous rebellion of all.

Narrated in duet style.

My Review:

I have a habit of letting books sit for a while before I come back to write my review. I do this on purpose because I believe a book needs time to digest, and more importantly, I rate my books by how well I can remember them once the dust has settled. A truly good book will stick with you. You might not be able to recall every single detail, but it lives in you in a way that makes you want to revisit it before the next installment comes out. That feeling of wanting to reread something is, to me, one of the highest compliments a book can earn.

With that said, I did genuinely enjoy Where Dreams Fall. At first, I will be honest, I could not remember much about it at all. But the more I sat with it, the more it came back to me, slowly and then all at once, the way memories from a good story tend to do.

I am giving this a solid four stars. The reason it did not quite reach five for me comes down to one main thing: this book is extremely short, and because of that, everything important feels rushed. The world, the characters, the relationships, all of it gets packed in at a pace that does not leave much room to breathe. The love story in particular feels instant, almost like a whirlwind romance that did not have enough pages to fully earn itself. Now, I know there are absolutely readers out there who will love exactly that. Some people live for a fast and breathless love story, and there is nothing wrong with that. For me personally, I just kept feeling like there was so much more room to explore, so much potential left on the table.

Even so, I liked it, and I will absolutely be picking up the next book. If you enjoy elves, a world that is not particularly kind or forgiving, a trial for queen, and the hand of a king on the line, then this book will be right up your alley.

The Serpent's Throne by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

The Serpent's Throne 

by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Blurb:

I swore I’d kill Raziel Nostrom. Now he owns my heart…

After a shattering betrayal, Nadi and Raziel flee into the Wild—the endless labyrinth of caves that is home to the fae.

Nadi trained for years to infiltrate and kill a ruthless family of vampires. Now she faces an even deadlier challenge—returning to her own family with their most hated enemy by her side.

In a realm of flickering lights and terrifying monsters, the desire that binds her to Raziel only grows stronger. Enemies and allies wish to tear them apart, but she still craves his razor-sharp smile, his touch, his bite…

In the city above, Raziel’s siblings are building a new world, where vampires rule with no restraint and no mercy. Soon their power will be untouchable.

Nadi and Raziel only have each other. Two shattered and broken things, in a world that wants them dead. Two perfect assassins, sharpened to a killing edge and hungry for revenge.

Their love was forged in blood. And it will end in blood…

A thrilling and addictive dark vampire romance, the Bloodlines series is perfect for fans of Carissa Broadbent, Keri Lake, and Kaylie Smith.

My Review:

Some series end and leave you satisfied. This one ended and left me absolutely wrecked in the best way possible.

The Serpent's Throne is the conclusion to the Bloodlines series and let me be clear, it delivered everything and then some. High expectations? Shattered. I went in ready and still was not prepared.

Nadi and Raziel. Together one last time. Fighting for revenge, fighting for power and somewhere in the middle of all that beautiful chaos, fighting for each other. These two are deliciously dark, completely unhinged and perfectly matched. They are morally grey at best and unapologetically monstrous at their core, and that is exactly why you cannot stop reading. They do not pretend to be good. They simply choose each other, again and again, in the most broken and breathtaking way possible.

Watching them grow across this series has been something special. By this final book they are more open, more vulnerable and more electric than ever. Their chemistry is scorching. Their love story is the kind that is impossible and forbidden and yet feels completely inevitable. I cried. I gasped. I fell even harder for Raziel than I thought possible and I did not think that was something I was capable of doing at this point.

The world building continues to expand beautifully here. Seeing more of the Wilds and the fae added such richness to an already fascinating world. The political scheming, the plot twists, the secrets layered throughout kept me completely locked in. I tried to slow down and savor it. The book did not let me.

This series is seriously underrated and if you have been sleeping on it, wake up. If you love dark romantasy with morally complex characters who make questionable choices and zero apologies, this is your series. Start from the beginning and clear your schedule because you will not be putting these books down.

What a marvel. What a ride. I already miss them.