The author acknowledges that this one is the most "new adult" of all the books in the series, and I totally agree with that.
The characters are youngeThe author acknowledges that this one is the most "new adult" of all the books in the series, and I totally agree with that.
The characters are younger, their reactions are younger, and the lines between what's acceptable to a young 20-something get further and further into the gray zone the older you get.
So Devil's Game remains my least favorite of this series for a lot of spoiler-filled reasons. (Let's just say I don't like screwing over your love interest, lack of knowledge, etc.)
But this one is definitely an important story for the series arc and the side characters, so don't skip this one!
The Amy that writes these reviews is not the Literary Critic Amy that writes my other content. The motorcycle romance subgenre is where my brain comesThe Amy that writes these reviews is not the Literary Critic Amy that writes my other content. The motorcycle romance subgenre is where my brain comes to rest, relax, and enjoy the Alphahole and his dramas.
(I said what I said, and this disclaimer is valid for all of the Joanna Wylde MC books.)
I've read this one many times and will likely read it again for many more. Sophie and Ruger's very raw, gritty romance has a lot of heart in it and I just love them.
The Amy that writes these reviews is not the Literary Critic Amy that writes my other content. The motorcycle romance subgenre is where my brain comesThe Amy that writes these reviews is not the Literary Critic Amy that writes my other content. The motorcycle romance subgenre is where my brain comes to rest, relax, and enjoy the Alphahole and his dramas.
(I said what I said.)
That being said, if you're going to read motorcycle club romances then you've got to read Joanna Wylde. No one does it quite like she does, with the level of detail and realistic writing that she brings to the table.
Supposedly—pulling from the books' prefaces/afterwords here—Wylde interviewed many real life motorcycle club people to make this series and had it fact checked by those people for lifestyle feel and overall accuracy in the representation. I don't know much about that and have no real experiences to compare it to, but I will say this series has a realistic grit to it that the other ones lack.
I've read this entire series several times over. It's that good.
This one, Reaper's Property, is the hardest to get into and the harshest of the romance pairings—cough, I know the others have their issues, but the female main characters in later books are more aware of what they're getting into than baby Marie, ok—and so I put off writing this review for a few years.
I'm no longer semi-embarrassed that I like this series. My multiple rereads + owning all of the copies on ebook and physical edition deserve official Goodsreads recognition! (And we like what we like, okay???)
Well, it's happened again: I have fallen in love with yet another bizarre and lingering horror story with a special focus on mushrooms. ("Again," yes, because this niche apparently has multiple books in it.)
Join me and the spores...
Alex Easton has heard word that their childhood friends, the Ushers, are struggling. Madeline is gravely ill, Roderick is not faring much better, and something is amiss.
Alex arrives, and they quickly realize that Roderick's understated things. There is something very, very wrong with this scene.
Madeline looks like she's already dead, Roderick doesn't look much better. The Usher estate is damp, moldy, and near-death itself. There's a visiting American doctor who has no idea what is going on, and a wandering older British woman on the grounds with a passion for mushroom study and a daughter named Beatrix Potter.
As Alex stays in the home, a creeping sense of foreboding and inevitability starts to sink in. The longer they stay at Usher, the worse it seems to get...
And that's IT. I won't say any more.
What Moves the Dead looks like—and sounds like—a repeat of concepts to those of us who have already read and loved Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic. In fact, T Kingfisher themselves writes in the Author's Note that they'd been chewing on this idea already, and then Mexican Gothic came out and What Moves the Dead disappeared into a drawer, almost for forever, as Kingfisher went "gah, I can't do it better than THAT!"
Well I, personally, am thrilled that someone got T Kingfisher to revisit and finish this tale. This is something akin to a cousin, a neighbor, someone with the same facial features as Mexican Gothic but with an entirely different set of personality traits. These two novels are NOT the same, and—as a Moreno-Garcia superfan I can't believe I'm saying this�What Moves the Dead did it... better.
This was grotesque, truly horrifying, and went somewhere that even I didn't full expect. I thought I knew the steps, and I was having a good time, but then... yeah. This seasoned reader was still surprised in an interesting way. A very, very good horror novella that I recommend to anyone with the stomach to handle it.
Thank you to TOR/Nightfire for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
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Merged review:
5 stars
Oh YES. I had such a horrifically good time. This is the mirror-twin counter melody to Mexican Gothic, the Fall of the House of Usher done grotesque.
Well, it's happened again: I have fallen in love with yet another bizarre and lingering horror story with a special focus on mushrooms. ("Again," yes, because this niche apparently has multiple books in it.)
Join me and the spores...
Alex Easton has heard word that their childhood friends, the Ushers, are struggling. Madeline is gravely ill, Roderick is not faring much better, and something is amiss.
Alex arrives, and they quickly realize that Roderick's understated things. There is something very, very wrong with this scene.
Madeline looks like she's already dead, Roderick doesn't look much better. The Usher estate is damp, moldy, and near-death itself. There's a visiting American doctor who has no idea what is going on, and a wandering older British woman on the grounds with a passion for mushroom study and a daughter named Beatrix Potter.
As Alex stays in the home, a creeping sense of foreboding and inevitability starts to sink in. The longer they stay at Usher, the worse it seems to get...
And that's IT. I won't say any more.
What Moves the Dead looks like—and sounds like—a repeat of concepts to those of us who have already read and loved Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic. In fact, T Kingfisher themselves writes in the Author's Note that they'd been chewing on this idea already, and then Mexican Gothic came out and What Moves the Dead disappeared into a drawer, almost for forever, as Kingfisher went "gah, I can't do it better than THAT!"
Well I, personally, am thrilled that someone got T Kingfisher to revisit and finish this tale. This is something akin to a cousin, a neighbor, someone with the same facial features as Mexican Gothic but with an entirely different set of personality traits. These two novels are NOT the same, and—as a Moreno-Garcia superfan I can't believe I'm saying this�What Moves the Dead did it... better.
This was grotesque, truly horrifying, and went somewhere that even I didn't full expect. I thought I knew the steps, and I was having a good time, but then... yeah. This seasoned reader was still surprised in an interesting way. A very, very good horror novella that I recommend to anyone with the stomach to handle it.
Thank you to TOR/Nightfire for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
This one was less good than the first book in terms of character believability and realistic sense of cause and effect—which was super disappointing. This one was less good than the first book in terms of character believability and realistic sense of cause and effect—which was super disappointing. I wS hoping for a step up in this one to keep the momentum going.
The book can be summed up like this: the main character gets moved from one trapped situation to another and everyone in each scenario isn’t trustworthy…but she trusts them anyway…and then she is somehow surprised when this faulty logic backfires. Huh. Who could have guessed??
Also, the lack of significant meaty scenes led to an overwhelming sense of wasted time in this installment so that is not helping the book’s case here for my reaction review.
I will not be continuing with the series this time, despite the unanswered questions about the world building. ...more
It started strong and I was interested enough to finish it. That’s pretty much what this novel’s got going for it, sadly. The main character was unbelIt started strong and I was interested enough to finish it. That’s pretty much what this novel’s got going for it, sadly. The main character was unbelievable—as in, I did not see the believability in her thought processes—and the blatant foreshadowing mixed with a barely there logic to the romance pairing just got on my nerves. Agh. But I finished it…and immediately downloaded the second one on KU so what does that say about me I suppose....more
Original and really different. A romance, sure, but also a killer post-apocalyptic death god and spirit vengeance quest... Y’all should try this!
ConceOriginal and really different. A romance, sure, but also a killer post-apocalyptic death god and spirit vengeance quest... Y’all should try this!
I think one of the most repeated things I've said this year in relation to my book reading is this: "Yeah, it's a romance, BUT..."
And that holds true for Havoc of Souls too. What is in the water that these romance authors are drinking? Their creativity is fascinating.
Havoc of Souls is a post-apocalyptic Earth filled with ravagers, which are deadly spirits from an alternative underworld. Instead of zombies coming for us in the end, it was the ravagers. And they were just as nasty.
Meredith is a human woman eeking out a terrified and depressing life in the town of Ashton, where the ravagers have decimated society and humanity is slowly decaying in the aftermath. She's running out of food and liquids, and she knows her days are numbered.
Things get even scarier for her when the last remaining humans in Ashton decide to link up with the ravagers in a desperate attempt for dystopian control. Instead of being eaten, the humans have decided to let the ravagers own them. (Because that's SO much better, right?)
Meredith's got to leave town.
But before she can escape, things go wrong. And then he appears.
Charu is the gatekeeper. He guards the realm of the Underworld and passes spirits between the realms. When the ravagers slip the gate and pour into Earth, Charu is sent to Earth with one all-burning purpose: forcibly send the ravagers back to their proper side of the gate.
He's blue, his eyes are glowing red, and his huge horns are somehow not his most dominant feature: it's the projected soul serpents twining in and out of his body that draw the most attention.
For an inexplicable reason, Charu decides to save Meredith and begrudgingly allows her to tag along on his endless road trip rampage to rid the Earth of ravagers.
An "odd traveling duo" is putting it lightly. But as their road trip continues, things start to shift between the two of them and they realize that their partnership just might have more to it than they first expected...
Alright, so as I said at the beginning... Yes, this is a romance book. It's one of my Kindle Unlimited reads in my binge of fun romance content. But it is also so much more interesting than the romantic pairing.
Havoc of Souls was perfectly paced, very intricately imagined, and involved a realistic slow burn partnership between two extremely different species. Charu and Meredith do not look at each other and go "wow, let me HIT that!" They look at each other and see weaknesses and otherness. Charu has no humanity, Meredith has no magic. But somehow, they fit together as traveling companions and that pacing flows into the next stage of their romance in such a realistic way. Especially considering the bonkers set up.
I also think this novel is well worth the read for the post-apocalyptic atmosphere and unique magic setup alone. I have never read a world building structure like this one—and I'm including all of my adult SFF and horror reads in that statement. If you removed the romance label, tacked on a different cover, and reduced the romance in the book by just 10%, this could easily be an adult SFF read. For the romance genre, this book was barely on the steamy/sexy scale anyway, it's that close to SFF.
Highly recommend for dystopian and/or apocalyptic readers, reads of adult SFF with dark overtones, monster romance fans, and anyone looking for a truly unique slow-burn story.
This has become one of my favorite romance series. I love the complexities and the individual romance pairings. Definitely recommend this to other romThis has become one of my favorite romance series. I love the complexities and the individual romance pairings. Definitely recommend this to other romance fans, and for science fiction fans who don't mind a heavy dose of romance and *spice*....more
A girl who can't die and falls slowly in love with Death? I love it. Add in some gothic manor nonsense and an interesting murder ghost story 3.5 stars
A girl who can't die and falls slowly in love with Death? I love it. Add in some gothic manor nonsense and an interesting murder ghost story and it’s a good time.
Signa's early life has been a rotating door of tragedies and dead guardians. Like the Baudelaire children in A Series of Unfortunate Events, it seems like every single person charged with caring for Signa ends up...dead. Unlike the Baudelaire children, however, Signa's deaths aren't the result of a bad guy. They're a result of... Signa herself. By accident, and by Fate.
And by Death, too. Death seems to have taken a very keen interest in Signa due to the fact that she can't seem to die.
Broken neck, poisonous berry feasts, unfortunate accidents—nothing phases Signa for long, and nothing keeps her down. Death finds himself interested in her development, and Signa finds herself prickly toward Death, this being who keeps ruining her life.
Signa's life takes another turn as we come to meet her. She's 17, her terrible caretaker has died (again) and now it seems she's going to be taken to her late mother's brother-in-law, who owns a crumbling estate. The Hawthorn Estate is the perfect gothic mansion setup, complete with uneasy atmosphere, a dying cousin, and a ghost that seems to be causing trouble.
What better person to have on the scene of an in-progress murder than the girl who can't be killed?
It's up to Signa to solve the case of her cousin's murder before it kills her, and to unwrap the secrets behind her late Aunt's untimely demise. It's a dark puzzle with a lot of twists, and Signa's determined to get to the bottom of it. She refuses to let another guardian die on her watch—Death be damned.
Death just might BE damned, actually, because as he finds himself enraptured by Signa and drawn closer into her allure, things start to heat up for his cold, cold heart...
Belladonna is the kind of young adult fantasy read with the perfect dose of lush romanticism and gothic atmosphere. It's a decadent treat for the readers who like manor houses, somewhat creepy ghosts, and drama with a capital D. It's also for those of us who love when Death is a character. Especially when Death is a character and emotional invested in the main character. (Too niche? It's me to a T, so I'm guessing there are others out there who agree with me.)
I don’t know why I didn’t love this as much as I expected to, but I just� could not get invested. It might have been a case of young adult vs. adult reader and me (the adult) expecting more, unfairly, as young adult books are for young adults. It could also have been the case of "I've read too many stories with X,Y, and Z" and therefore it couldn't hold too much of my attention. Whatever the case was for this particular blend of reader vs. read, I think it's safe to say it was a "me" problem as others seem to adore this story.
I will agree with the popular opinions when it came to the deliciously angsty and interesting arc between Signa and Death. That was the strongest part of the novel for me and clearly the emotional heart of the story. I wish we'd spent more time with that storyline and less with the murder mystery/manor characters. It was clear that they were the situational arc that was supposed to be the backdrop for Signa and Death's actual storyline. However, again, small potatoes for those who like those kinds of setups and enjoying long-form descriptions and immersed gothic atmospheres.
Gripes aside, I found that the very last chapter peaked my interest. More complex magic seems to be afoot in future installments. I would be curious to see what the author does with the second book.
This was not as good as the first one, but this did have a lot more world building so I’m rounding up instead of down due to the context. The2.5 stars
This was not as good as the first one, but this did have a lot more world building so I’m rounding up instead of down due to the context. The romance itself did nothing for me, sorry folks. I am still loving this series concept though. ...more
Here me out—this was fun. The inventiveness and attention to emotional and situational detail was fantastic, and I continue to be su4 surprising stars
Here me out—this was fun. The inventiveness and attention to emotional and situational detail was fantastic, and I continue to be surprised at the alien romance genre these days. Don't discount these books by their covers or setups, folks.
I rarely review romance, and it's even more rare for me to review anything I read on Kindle Unlimited when it comes to my fluff/filler romance reads. I like to read KU content as easy-to-read fluff between my massive fantasy, thriller, and horror reads. It's fun, you know?
Recently, I've started to dive into the bizarre yet frankly fun world of alien and monster romance. (No shade, people, no shade. Don't knock it 'till you try it!)
Choosing Theo is one of those reads that deserves its own review—it was a ton of fun.
It takes a familiar trope in alien romances—young and pretty human woman is abducted by aliens and deposited by accident/by intention onto another planet�and runs with it in a familiar yet exceedingly well done way.
Jade wakes up. She's been abducted. So far, so normal. But then Jade is deposited onto a planet in the dead of night and quickly realizes that she's in for a bad time. Knocking her would-be abductor unconscious, she legs it into the alien woods and escapes. She's then discovered by different aliens in a huge metropolis city.
Turns out, Jade wasn't supposed to be abducted. And it turns that this strange new world she's found herself in is absolutely backwards from Earth (and yet also weirdly similar, for reasons that become clear as the story progresses).
Men outnumber women 20 to 1 in this world. Jade is, of course, a human woman with apparently compatible parts. Time to let the marriage games begin! (Lol.)
Theo is a Clecanian alien man with a dark past, like all of our romance male leads, and a chip on his shoulder. Yeah, he's pretty standard male lead fare in this, I won't sugarcoat it. But he's one of these aliens. And he's not hellbent on being with Jade, which Jade sees as an authentic plus in this new situation where everything coded male is after her.
Jade and Theo end up cohabitating for a "trial run" of marriage per the alien laws of this new world. The results are... fun, to say the least.
Now. Was this groundbreaking? No, it followed the threads of many other alien romances I've read before. It's like Ice Planet Barbarians in that it has "mates" and men who would do anything for a chance to be with the human women they come across—the logic is weird, and that's okay. But Choosing Theo also had a lot of interesting world building to it that kept me very invested, and it was extremely well written compared to others in the genre. I fell in love with the world, I liked the characters, and I'm definitely on board with reading the entire series as it is clear to me that there is a lot of growth to be seen in this world and with these setups.
Check this out if you're into this kind of romance! And, if you're new, I think this is a great place to start.
"When the witch built the forty-flight tower, she made very sure to do the whole thing properly."
And thus begins the tale of Princess Floralinda and her imprisonment in the "properly done" forty-flight tower of traps, magical dragons, and more that the everyday princes must conquer in order to save Floralinda from her prison.
Floralinda finds out that the witch maybe...overdid it on the "done properly" front. In fact, Floralinda's pretty sure the proper word is "overkill," not overdid. Because none of the princes seem to make it past the very first level with the dragon. Let alone the other 39 floors of terror.
And Floralinda's getting pretty bored, hungry, and cold. The tower wasn't made for an all-seasons imprisonment, after all, and winter is coming.
So Floralinda decides its maybe time for her to try and get down the tower herself.
Some mixed results occur...
Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower is a Tamsyn Muir creation, so I loved it by itself for that fact alone. It was quaint, it had wry turns of phrase, and it had an interesting character dynamic that bordered romantic and bordered snark and brought a lot of fun times.
The journey was quaint. The monsters were interesting takes on tropes and established ideas. The princess-to-badass pipeline was an unique journey in this tale.
But.... This one wasn't my favorite. There, I said it. (Tamsyn, I'm so sorry.) I had a hard time with the repetition and an even harder time with the pacing that lagged/raced/lagged in all of the weirdest moments. I wanted more, or less, or something adapted differently with the same toolbox. It was odd.
Definitely a must-read for Tamsyn fans and a likely favorite for those who like alternate retellings and fables of traditional Western fairy tales. (And Disney fans. This is likely a good hit for grown-up Disney fans who want something "different" that is not, in fact, that different.)
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