Miles by Tilly Ridge & C.S. Silverne 

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶🌶

Blurb: 

Horses. Barn Maintenance. Training cowboys. Being a widowed father.

That’s my life, and the likelihood of that changing is slim.

At least, that’s what I thought.

Until them—Kayla and Collin.

My newest employees, who happen to be dating.

And living with me.

It never should have been an issue… but one night and too much whiskey changed everything. Now I’m walking away with a tattoo for my one true love and foggy memories of a night so forbidden, I’m questioning my entire existence.

But what’s even worse than my identity crisis?

It’s not recording our night or posting it online. And it’s not the guilt from finally moving on either.

No.

It’s the fact that my employees are the ones who rocked my world.

And now I want them more than anything.

My Review:

Miles took me on such a fun ride, and I loved how much story Tilly Ridge and C.S. Silverne packed into such a short book. The world and characters pulled me in quickly, and even though I finished wishing I could stay with them a little longer, the story never felt rushed or incomplete. If this universe ever gets expanded, I would happily come back for more.

This novella fully embraces its bold, wild energy, and that is exactly what made it so addictive. The chemistry, the tension, and the heat all hit hard, making it the kind of quick read that leaves a lasting impression. If you enjoy steamy romance with big emotions and a little chaos, this one is so easy to fall into.

Kayla grabbed my attention right away. Losing her job gives the story an instant spark, but it is her confidence, strength, and commanding presence that made me want to keep reading. The connection between Kayla, her boyfriend, and their boss brings in all the tension and cowboy romance appeal, and the MMF dynamic gives the story so much heat and emotion in such a short space.

 

The audiobook made the whole experience even more enjoyable. The narration brought out the sensuality and emotion of the story in a way that made it easy to get swept up in every moment. And the bloopers at the end were such a fun surprise they made me laugh and added an extra bit of charm to an already memorable listen.

Immortal Rose by Alexandra Bracken

 

Immortal Rose

 by Alexandra Bracken

My Rating:🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Blurb:

This deluxe limited hardcover edition features beautiful stenciled edges and illustrated endpapers —available on the first printing only!

From Alexandra Bracken, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lore, comes a stunningly original adult fantasy. Set in a sumptuous world ruled by magical perfume, this achingly romantic, slow-burn love story will shatter your heart and leave you breathless.

Members of the ancient House Rosebourne have a strange gift born of a fairy ancestor: the ability to infuse fragrance with magic capable of manipulating mind, body, and emotion.

When a shocking murder leaves the kingdom of Albion vulnerable to a coup, royal spymaster Hugh Thornton seeks the one person who can help: Viola Lockwood, the last living Rosebourne and secret heir to a fraught legacy.

Livid at the silver-eyed aristocrat who had her thrown in jail to force her compliance, Viola nevertheless comes to an agreement with him. In exchange for crafting Immortal Rose, the singular perfume capable of saving Albion, illegitimate Viola can seize the life—and fortune—that should have been hers.

As Hugh and Viola race to find the perfume’s lost fairy ingredient, hidden deep in Albion’s dark underbelly, neither can deny the scorching attraction building between them—especially as the attempts on Viola’s life grow increasingly brazen.

But a terrible truth lurks in the heart notes of their kingdom—and while every bargain has a cost, Immortal Rose may demand more than Hugh and Viola can ever pay.

My Review:

Viola is fiercely stubborn, independent, and absolutely lovable. I admired her resilience in a world that constantly underestimates women, and I loved watching her slowly learn to trust others. Her fairyborn magic, which lets her connect emotions to scents and tastes, was such a unique touch. The descriptions were so vivid I could practically smell and taste everything!

And Hugh? A man who YEARNS. Beneath his cold exterior is a deeply caring, protective, morally gray man, and watching him fall harder for Viola had me kicking my feet! Their relationship was incredibly swoon worthy and easily became one of my favorite book couples. 

I also loved the magical perfumes, the mystery, the twists, and the truly fun found family. The first half was a little slow for me, but the second half completely made up for it. The twists and ending have been living in my head ever since!

The narration made the experience even better. Nicola Barber and Christian Coulson did such an incredible job bringing Viola and Hugh to life. Their performances captured the characters' personalities, emotions, and chemistry so well that I felt completely pulled into the story. Their voices made the romantic tension, emotional moments, and twists even more immersive, and I genuinely loved listening to them tell this story.

If you love character driven fantasy, immersive worldbuilding, unique magic, and a romance that will make you SWOON, you absolutely need to read this!

The Seventh Banisher by A.K. Larkwood

The Seventh Banisher 

by A.K. Larkwood 

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🫑

Blurb:

From the author of The Unspoken Name comes a riveting Gothic fantasy mystery full of uncanny magic, long-guarded secrets, and a deadly trial to inherit a legendary power, perfect for fans of The Tainted Cup and The Raven Scholar.

The Mallory cousins have been summoned to their ancestral home by their great-aunt Sophia―or as the world knows her, the great Banisher, warden of the Isles and the singular defense against unspeakable otherworldly horrors.

Whoever can survive on the remote island for ten days and ten nights will inherit her house, her title, and her magic.

But the island is a labyrinth of deadly puzzles, terrifying ghosts, and scheming cousins with their own scores to settle. By the time the ten days are up, almost everyone on the island will be dead.

Almost everyone. Because someone else was there, witness to it all. And the story they tell is far darker than the blood coating the grounds of that cursed place.

My Review:

There is an island out there battered by wind and hollowed out by centuries of dark purpose, and at its heart stands the Keep, a structure that has weathered hundreds of years of something far worse than storms. Welcome to the Great Mewstone, where the dead do not rest and the ocean itself cannot be trusted.

The premise alone is enough to pull you in. Nine Mallory and Blythe cousins are summoned to compete in a ten day trial to determine who among them will succeed Sophia Mallory as the sixth Banisher, the one soul standing between the living world and the most powerful, most dangerous ghost in existence. It is part family reunion, part supernatural gauntlet, and part murder mystery, think Knives Out with ghosts and inherited magic, and you are somewhere in the right neighborhood.

The world A.K. Larkwood has built here is genuinely fascinating. A reality where hauntings are not isolated events but a constant, creeping presence across land and sea, held in check only by the Banisher and the power of the Keep. The scope of that mythology left me hungry for more, how far does the protection reach, how much worse does it get at the edges of the world? Those questions linger in the best possible way.

The journey to the middle requires some patience. The mystery is layered and intentionally disorienting, and there are moments early on where the intrigue threatens to outpace your ability to follow it. Push through. Because once the pieces begin clicking into place the story opens up into something genuinely gripping and hard to put down.

Our narrator is learning alongside you, which makes her occasionally unreliable and always compelling. She is perhaps a little too easily swept up by the people around her, developing infatuations at a pace that sometimes feels rushed. But underneath that she is deeply likeable, and you will find yourself firmly in her corner by the time the stakes truly arrive.

The ending leaves threads deliberately loose in the way standalones sometimes do, with questions that linger beyond the final page. But the ride getting there is absolutely worth taking.

Give this one a chance. It earns it.

Château Valmont and An Inheritance of Thirst by Briar Somerset

 

Château Valmont and An Inheritance of Thirst 

by Briar Somerset

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶🌶

Blurb:

A sweeping Gothic romance and novel-length sequel to the series-opening novella, Beecham’s Infirmary for the Affluent Afflicted, with a duet multi-cast narration audiobook soon to follow. Perfect for fans of A Dowry of Blood, Penny Dreadful, Crimson Peak, Knives Out, and Taratoa Stappard's Mārama.<

After a storm-ravaged voyage aboard the Hesper and a sleepless train ride into Paris, Jacques brings Annie and her grandmother to safety. He’s determined to prove his intentions remain honorable, even as his first days as a new vampire threaten to make a liar of him. But the hôtel particulier of his youth hides nothing: not the stain of opulence upon its walls, nor the hunger coiling beneath his skin.

As Annie makes the acquaintance of the ghosts of Jacques’s past, the Theatre across the street stirs quietly to life. When Amah’s curiosity draws them into its velvet-draped corridors, they discover Jacques isn’t the only one keeping secrets—and that the evil they’d left in London has no intention of staying behind. With the Comtesse’s autumn assembly fast approaching and esteemed expectations tightening around them, they embark for the secluded forest estate, where Jacques realizes he can no longer outrun the curse woven into his blood, or the burgeoning feelings for his quick-witted captive.

Navigating halls lined with watching portraits and the quivering quill of a notary who seems to record more than inheritance, Annie must decide where her trust belongs—and whether she dares claim a future that threatens to unmake everything she’s ever known.

My Review:

Gothic, macabre, atmospheric and absolutely unputdownable. Briar Somerset has done it again and I am not okay.

This is book two in the My Darling Malady series and it picks up immediately after the events of Beecham's Infirmary, whisking Jacques, Annie, and the incomparable Amah out of Victorian London and straight into France. If you have not read the novella yet, stop everything and go read it first. You have no excuse.

Jacques is now a reluctant vampire, and his internal struggle with what he is becoming feels genuinely compelling rather than just a convenient excuse to make the MMC brooding and attractive. Though it absolutely succeeds there too. Watching him wrestle with his heritage, his grief, and his completely spectacular obsession with Annie is a privilege. This man is so hopelessly down bad it should be studied.

Annie is sharp, independent, and takes absolutely no nonsense from anyone, including a lovesick vampire aristocrat. Their relationship starts from a complicated place because yes, he maybe sort of definitely kidnapped her in book one, and the story does not brush past that. Trust is rebuilt slowly and earned completely, making their romance feel wonderfully real.

And Amah. Stealing teacups, frequenting questionable establishments, casually handling firearms. An absolute icon who I would adopt as my grandmother without a single hesitation.

The spice was a fantastic addition. Annie still has her dressmaking shears. That is all I will say.

Read the novella. Then read this. Then suffer alongside the rest of us waiting for book three.

Beecham's Infirmary for the Affluent Afflicted by Briar Somerset

 

Beecham's Infirmary for the Affluent Afflicted 
by Briar Somerset

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Blurb:

Gothic hearsay, the drama, and the most deliciously avoidable flirting I have ever had the pleasure of reading. This book is a triumph and I am physically hurt by that ending.

Set in 1849 London, this is the kind of story that wraps you in atmosphere from the very first page. Jacques and Annie are an absolute joy to follow, and the supporting cast, particularly Amah and her perfectly knowing looks, adds layers that make this world feel alive and richly textured. The beginning takes a little time to establish the history and backstory, but do not let that fool you because once it gets moving it flies. Every moment of setup pays off.

Kinda gave pride and prejudice, a restrained protagonist with a very specific reaction to a very specific situation, and a full cast of unreliable narrators then consider this your prescription. Your perfectly sized, gorgeously atmospheric novella.

And the audiobook. Christopher Tester and Krys Janae bring this story to life in a way that makes an already immersive read feel like an experience. Different accents, distinct characters, performances that pull you completely into 1849 London without ever letting you go. If you have the option, listen to this one.

It is a stunning opening to a series full of mystery and yearning, and I will be counting down every single day until Chateau Valmont and an Inheritance of Thirst arrives in spring 2026. The wait is already painful.

My Review:

Gothic hearsay, medico melodrama, and the most deliciously avoidable flirting I have ever had the pleasure of reading. This book is a triumph and I am physically hurt by that ending.

Set in 1849 London, this is the kind of story that wraps you in atmosphere from the very first page. Jacques and Annie are an absolute joy to follow, and the supporting cast, particularly Amah and her perfectly knowing looks, adds layers that make this world feel alive and richly textured. The beginning takes a little time to establish the history and backstory, but do not let that fool you because once it gets moving it flies. Every moment of setup pays off.

If you have ever wished Pride and Prejudice came with French endearments, a Southeast Asian second generation diasporic FMC, a restrained protagonist with a very specific reaction to a very specific situation, and a full cast of unreliable narrators then consider this your prescription. Your perfectly sized, gorgeously atmospheric novella.

And the audiobook. Christopher Tester and Krys Janae bring this story to life in a way that makes an already immersive read feel like an experience. Different accents, distinct characters, performances that pull you completely into 1849 London without ever letting you go. If you have the option, listen to this one.

It is a stunning opening to a series full of mystery and yearning, and I will be counting down every single day until Chateau Valmont and an Inheritance of Thirst arrives in spring 2026. The wait is already painful.

Paradise of Lies by Brittany Amara

 Paradise of Lies 

by Brittany Amara

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🫑

Blurb:

For a young woman whose time is running out, a healing trip to a dreamlike town becomes a nightmare of dark secrets, twisted obsessions, and inescapable truths in this propulsive speculative thriller.

Evangeline Windemere knows love. Despite her wealthy mother’s objections, it’s her rebellious boyfriend, Slater, who’s always been there for her. But Evangeline is struggling with a mysterious illness. Hovering between life and death, her only hope is in the compellingly handsome, silver-eyed Dr. Sebastian Blithe. He knows what’s best for Evangeline.

A restorative stay in Dr. Blithe’s estate in the remote town of Paradise will work wonders. With hills of grass uncommonly green for the desert, quaint shops, and fresh air, it’s like a dream come true. But something is wrong. Sebastian’s staff is evasive, and the town’s residents seem to revere the altruistic doctor. Then come the whispered warnings that Evangeline is not safe. When a strange marking appears on her flesh, Evangeline fears she’s awakening the dark side of Paradise.

Now Evangeline must search for the truth. As Slater journeys to Paradise to rescue her, the fate that awaits him and Evangeline is written in the stars…and in blood.

My Review:

Hooked from the very first page and I never looked back.

Brittany Amara's writing style is the kind that makes a book disappear in your hands. Fast paced, completely gripping, and dripping with mystery from the opening chapter. I was flying through pages without even realizing it because I simply had to know what happened next.

At the center of it all is Evangeline and her mysterious illness, which had me curious and unsettled from the moment it was introduced. Then a silver eyed stranger shows up and suddenly everything gets more complicated. Is he there to help or does he have something else entirely in mind? That question alone kept me turning pages. And Slater. Sweet, wonderful Slater who deserved absolutely everything good in this world and I was rooting for him with my whole chest.

The mystery builds beautifully and the blend of love, death, and revenge is exactly the kind of chaos I live for. God yes please. I had my suspicions about the good doctor early on, and watching those suspicions slowly confirmed while the creepiness escalated around every corner was genuinely so satisfying. There were moments I wanted to reach into the pages and drop kick certain people, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment.

The ending was well deserved for every single character involved, and I walked away completely satisfied.

 Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 1

by Kamome Shirahama, Stephen Kohler (Translator)

My Rating:🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🫑

Blurb:

A TOUCH OF MAGIC

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem…

My Review:

I finished this and immediately started looking up the anime. That is the kind of hold this story has on you.

Coco is a young girl completely enamored with magic in a world that has long since written it off as a novelty, something to admire from a distance, never to practice. But when she discovers that the craft might not be as out of reach as everyone believes, curiosity takes over and she decides to try it herself. As these things tend to go, it does not go smoothly. One accidental spell later and her mother is frozen solid in a block of ice, Mr. Freeze's wife Nora style, and suddenly Coco has no choice but to leave everything she knows behind, find a witch school, and figure out how to undo the damage before it is too late.

It is magical. It is spontaneous. It is enormously charming. And then it does something that genuinely surprised me.

The magic system in this story is not vague and conveniently flexible the way so many fantasy magic systems tend to be, the kind that bend their own rules the moment a chosen one needs to save the day out of nowhere. In Witch Hat Atelier, magic is done by drawing. Pen to paper, deliberate and precise, like Deidara from Naruto channeling his art into something alive. And because of that, becoming a skilled witch works exactly like becoming skilled at anything else, practice, patience, repetition, and showing up even when it is hard.

That grounded approach to magic hit differently than I expected. It is not just a clever mechanic. It is a metaphor for what it means to be an artist, a craftsperson, anyone who has ever wanted to learn something and wondered if they were capable. There is something quietly inspiring about a story that says the magic is not in being chosen, it is in doing the work.

Witch Hat Atelier is a manga absolutely brimming with wonder, and the best part? The magic inside it is obtainable for everyone. All you have to do is pick up a volume and start reading.