maddy's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 03 Apr 2025 20:36:48 -0700 60 maddy's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Paper Palace 58061810
It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at "The Paper Palace"--the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside.

Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity.

Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.]]>
400 Miranda Cowley Heller 0593329848 maddy 0 currently-reading 3.96 2021 The Paper Palace
author: Miranda Cowley Heller
name: maddy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
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<![CDATA[Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?]]> 59231588 Drawing on years of experience as a clinical psychologist, online sensation Dr Julie Smith provides the skills you need to navigate common life challenges and take charge of your emotional and mental health in her debut book.

Filled with secrets from a therapist's toolkit, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? teaches you how to fortify and maintain your mental health, even in the most trying of times. Dr Julie Smith's expert advice and powerful coping techniques will help you stay resilient, whether you want to manage anxiety, deal with criticism, cope with depression, build self-confidence, find motivation, or learn to forgive yourself. The book tackles everyday issues and offers practical solutions in bite-sized, easy-to-digest entries which make it easy to quickly find specific information and guidance.

Your mental well-being is just as important as your physical well-being. Packed with proven strategies, Dr Smith's empathetic guide offers a deeper understanding of how your mind works and gives you the insights and help you need to nurture your mental health every day. Wise and practical, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? might just change your life.]]>
363 Julie Smith 0063227959 maddy 0 currently-reading 4.03 2022 Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
author: Julie Smith
name: maddy
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[The Never King (Vicious Lost Boys, #1)]]> 59918505
For two centuries, all of the Darling women have disappeared on their 18th birthday. Sometimes they’re gone for only a day, some a week or a month. But they always return broken.

Now, on the afternoon of my 18th birthday, my mother is running around the house making sure all the windows are barred and the doors locked.

But it’s pointless.

Because when night falls, he comes for me. And this time, the Never King and the Lost Boys aren’t willing to let me go.

* Release Date is not final and will likely be much sooner. Target release date is March 2022 *

The Never King is a dark retelling of Peter and Wendy. If you like your enemies to lovers romance with hot, ruthless, morally gray love interests, you’ll enjoy The Never King and the Lost Boys. You can expect hate kissing, fighting, bickering, and ‘touch her and I’ll unalive you� vibes.]]>
192 Nikki St. Crowe maddy 3 3.55 2022 The Never King (Vicious Lost Boys, #1)
author: Nikki St. Crowe
name: maddy
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/03
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Five Brothers 201102380 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 DZ’t stop there.

I don’t think it was Trace.]]>
560 Penelope Douglas 0593816579 maddy 4 3.81 2024 Five Brothers
author: Penelope Douglas
name: maddy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/03
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<![CDATA[Lights Out (Into Darkness, #1)]]> 201017011 “I don’t need another kink.�

That thought pops into my head whenever I pull up my favorite social media app, but alas, every time I scroll, I learn something new about myself, and another one is born. And yes, I know I’m responsible for what the algorithm shows me, but I’m trying to ignore that fact.

Lately, my feed has been dominated by masked men. I’ve favorited videos with them dressed in full cosplay, decked out in futuristic military apparel, and wrapped up like ghouls.

But more than anything else, my FYP is filled with shirtless men wearing ghost masks. Bonus points if they’re heavily tattooed, wielding a knife, or covered in fake blood. At night, I dream about being chased by them, of them catching me and doing deliciously dark things to my more than willing body.

I never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become my new reality.

Lights Out is a fast-paced dark romance with a morally grey male lead. Some themes and scenes may be disturbing to readers. Please check the TWs at the beginning of the book. ]]>
338 Navessa Allen maddy 4 4.17 2024 Lights Out (Into Darkness, #1)
author: Navessa Allen
name: maddy
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/04/03
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<![CDATA[Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe, #2)]]> 33555224
Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants to help change it from the inside out, but is thwarted at every turn, and threatened by the “new order� scythes. Realizing she cannot do this alone—or even with the help of Scythe Curie and Faraday, she does the unthinkable, and risks being “deadish� so she can communicate with the Thunderhead—the only being on earth wise enough to solve the dire problems of a perfect world. But will it help solve those problems, or simply watch as perfection goes into decline?]]>
504 Neal Shusterman 1442472456 maddy 4 4.38 2018 Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe, #2)
author: Neal Shusterman
name: maddy
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/04/03
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Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1) 28954189 Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art� of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

An alternate cover edition of ISBN: 9781442472426]]>
435 Neal Shusterman maddy 5 4.32 2016 Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1)
author: Neal Shusterman
name: maddy
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/04/03
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<![CDATA[Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life (Unfu*k Yourself series)]]> 35263109 218 Gary John Bishop 0062803875 maddy 0 4.16 2016 Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life (Unfu*k Yourself series)
author: Gary John Bishop
name: maddy
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
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<![CDATA[Step-Farmer (Wanting What's Wrong, #5)]]> 123890483 I’ve been her guardian for a decade. What I am now should send me to hell.

I never thought my solitary life on my farm was lonely. I swore off women long ago, so children were never on my radar. But when the big city attorney showed up in a limousine with Ruby in the backseat, hugging a Louis Vuitton teddy bear, I knew my simple, small-town life would never be the same.

As the years passed, we worked the farm side by side, her life of luxury long forgotten. Her eighteenth birthday has come and gone, and my feelings have turned sinful. Out in the open, she calls me Eli, but alone in her room at night, she calls me Daddy. Her sweet smile and feminine curves call to me in ways I can no longer ignore.

I fear one day she will want that life back. She will spread her wings and try to fly away from here. From me. But when the forbidden fire between us ignites, there’s no turning back. I will do whatever it takes to bind her to me here forever before she finds out the truth.

Whatever. It. Takes.]]>
117 Dani Wyatt maddy 0 3.58 Step-Farmer (Wanting What's Wrong, #5)
author: Dani Wyatt
name: maddy
average rating: 3.58
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
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The Rachel Incident 73971348 A brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three

Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.]]>
304 Caroline O'Donoghue 0593535715 maddy 0 currently-reading 4.12 2023 The Rachel Incident
author: Caroline O'Donoghue
name: maddy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: currently-reading
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Being Lolita 50285706 AS FEATURED IN THE HULU DOCUMENTARY KEEP THIS BETWEEN USA dark relationship evolves between a high schooler and her English teacher in this breathtakingly powerful memoir about a young woman who must learn to rewrite her own story.“Have you ever read Lolita?”So begins seventeen-year-old Alisson’s metamorphosis from student to lover and then victim. A lonely and vulnerable high school senior, Alisson finds solace only in her writing—and in a young, charismatic English teacher, Mr. North. Mr. North gives Alisson a copy of Lolita to read, telling her it is a beautiful story about love. The book soon becomes the backdrop to a connection that blooms from a simple crush into a devastating and dangerous bond. But as Mr. North’s hold on her tightens, Alisson is forced to evaluate how much of their narrative is actually a disturbing fiction.In the wake of what becomes a deeply abusive relationship, Alisson is faced again and again with the story of her past, from rereading Lolita in college to working with teenage girls to becoming a professor of creative writing. It is only with that distance and perspective that she understands the ultimate power language has had on her—and how to harness that power to tell her own true story.Being Lolita is a stunning coming-of-age memoir that shines a bright light on our shifting perceptions of consent, grooming, vulnerability, and power. This is the story of what happens when a young woman realizes her entire narrative must be rewritten—and then takes back the pen to rewrite it.]]> 304 Alisson Wood 1250217229 maddy 5 4.19 2020 Being Lolita
author: Alisson Wood
name: maddy
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
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The One 59349956 How far would you go to find The One?

A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner the one you are genetically made for.

That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.

Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.� They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after� isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others�

A word-of-mouth hit in the United Kingdom, The One is a fascinating novel that shows how even the simplest discoveries can have complicated consequences.]]>
418 John Marrs maddy 5 4.12 2016 The One
author: John Marrs
name: maddy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
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<![CDATA[Bloodshed (Order of the Unseen #1)]]> 62906788
We like to believe monsters don’t exist, even in the moonlit streets of a place like Salem, Massachusetts. But they’re very real� and very human. There’s danger lurking around every corner. People are vanishing off the street into thin air, never to be seen again. The masked men have their own secrets. But it isn’t until the night that they all come together when true horror is born. College student Quinn did not expect her Halloween night to take a dangerous turn. When her masked men swoop in and make her a proposition, she can only promise one night. “By sunrise, it’s over.� But would it be?

Or will the things that go bump in the night claim her entirely?]]>
297 Molly Doyle maddy 3 4.05 2022 Bloodshed (Order of the Unseen #1)
author: Molly Doyle
name: maddy
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves:
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cant really rate it any higher considering about 50-60% of it came straight from the novella, only with different pov’s. dont get me wrong, definitely appreciated knowing the other pov’s but it was very overkill
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<![CDATA[Wed to the Ice Giant (Arranged Monster Mates, #1)]]> 90995760 As king of the ice giants, I must have heirs. But our customs do not satisfy me. I do not want a giantess who will bear me a child and then leave to be with another. I would much rather pursue a union the human way: find a partner who will share my bed, bear my children, and stay by my side.

Until death do us part.

One drop of blood is all it takes to get a match. And when I see her, my cool blood rushes faster in a daze of heat. Only one thought is clear in my mind: she belongs to me. I must claim her before my subjects to prove once and for all this female will not take lovers. She will be mine forever.

I will show her vigorously how different I am from puny human males. And once she knows what it means to be with the king of the giants, she will never want to leave.

The Temple, a matchmaking service for monsters, shifters, and aliens, is open for service.
Arranged Monster Mates is a series of novellas written by your favorite paranormal and sci-fi romance authors: Eden Ember, Layla Fae, and Cara Wylde.
Each of these steamy stories has it all: a possessive male, a heroine ready to sacrifice herself to the beast, plenty of spice, and a happily ever after to curl your toes!]]>
132 Layla Fae maddy 3 3.65 2023 Wed to the Ice Giant (Arranged Monster Mates, #1)
author: Layla Fae
name: maddy
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
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Saving Noah 36121086 We forgive murderers, not pedophiles.

Not since Lionel Shriver brought us We Need to Talk About Kevin has a writer delved into the complexities of a disturbed mother/son relationship. Until now.

Meet Noah—an A-honor roll student, award-winning swimmer, and small-town star destined for greatness. There weren’t any signs that something was wrong until the day he confesses to molesting little girls during swim team practice. He’s sentenced to eighteen months in a juvenile sexual rehabilitation center.

His mother, Adrianne, refuses to turn her back on him despite his horrific crimes, but her husband won’t allow Noah back into their home. In a series of shocking and shattering revelations, Adrianne is forced to make the hardest decision of her life. Just how far will she go to protect her son?

Saving Noah challenges everything you think you know about teenage sexual offenders. It will keep you up at night long after you've read the last page, questioning beliefs you once thought were true.]]>
259 Lucinda Berry maddy 4 3.89 2017 Saving Noah
author: Lucinda Berry
name: maddy
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
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<![CDATA[Donation Clinic (Heatverse, #3)]]> 221438306 This book was previously published as Breeding Clinic by Alexis B. Osborne.

"It’s the literary equivalent of a bunch of fetish gear covered in cream, tossed into a dumpster, and set on fire." -A beta reader

My biology only wants me to give into this strange alpha because I’m carrying his baby.

Kat wants a baby and has wanted one for years. As an older omega with no pack to call her own anymore, she turns to a fertility clinic for help on the path to motherhood. The constant appointments, the blood tests, and the pills will all be worth it when she can finally hold her little bundle of joy. The one she had to give up trying for all those years ago.

The problem? Her hot scent matched alpha donor wants to be more than anonymous and he’s already got a pack. Kat’s not sure that she can risk rejection again.

Liam and his two mates have always wanted a big family but they lack a breeding partner, and never found their scent match.

The opportunity the fertility clinic offers is one they can’t pass up. But when Liam immediately puts his foot in his mouth, he sends their pregnant omega running.

For the first time in forever, he aches to chase her. He can’t possibly let her go. And his pack DZ’t want to either. All three of them will make her see how perfect their pack is for her.

Can they mend the scars on Kat’s heart and neck and settle into domestic bliss before she runs away for good?

Donation Clinic is a cozy, sweet, and steamy contemporary MMMF omegaverse romance. There are no shifters or werewolves in this novel. A content guide is included on the author's website. This book features multiple love interests and a heroine who won't be choosing. If you enjoy nesting, hurt-comfort, an older rejected omega, a 40 year old alpha who owns the family pub, a Brazilian beta fitness fanatic, a demi beta who loves to cook, public fun, pregnancy, cozy slice-of-life stories, and 4 adults handling their business with minimal angst and no 3rd act break-up then this book is for you. Donation Clinic ends with a happily ever after and every Heatverse novel can be read as a standalone.]]>
430 Alexis B. Osborne 1957341351 maddy 4 3.93 2024 Donation Clinic (Heatverse, #3)
author: Alexis B. Osborne
name: maddy
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
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Caught by a Cowboy 217160595
The ranch and my horse are all I’ve ever needed.

My world was quiet and solitude.

It suited me just fine.

Until I met her�

Maddison Mackenzie ended up in Clearwater Creek by chance.

She’s beautiful, she’s chaotic,

And she’s everything I never knew I wanted.

Now I just have to convince her to stay.



Caught By A Cowboy is a small town, cowboy , breeding romance and is a complete standalone

You can expect the following....

🟤ᷡ

🟤Alpha obsessed with breeding

🟤Pregnancy (not just in the epilogue)

🟤Small Town Vibes

🟤He Falls First And Hard

🟤Grumpy / Sunshine

🟤Over Protective Hero

🟤Plot Twists

🟤Dirty talking Hero

🟤ʰձ>
281 Lilah Raine maddy 4 3.79 Caught by a Cowboy
author: Lilah Raine
name: maddy
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
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<![CDATA[Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)]]> 18966819
A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.]]>
466 Pierce Brown 0345539826 maddy 5 4.47 2015 Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)
author: Pierce Brown
name: maddy
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
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<![CDATA[The Butterfly Garden (The Collector, #1)]]> 29981261
In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding...]]>
288 Dot Hutchison 1503989712 maddy 4 4.09 2016 The Butterfly Garden  (The Collector, #1)
author: Dot Hutchison
name: maddy
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
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Happy Place 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]>
400 Emily Henry 0593441273 maddy 4 3.95 2023 Happy Place
author: Emily Henry
name: maddy
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/02/15
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<![CDATA[Shatter Me: A Union Forged in Blood]]> 224362956
Light torture.
SA.
CSA mentioned.
Pregnancy (forced.)
Dubcon.
Eating disorder.
Suicidal attempt.
PTSD flashbacks.

Zacharias Matsumoto met Seraphina Emily McMillan six months ago when she came to university. He met her in class when she sat next to him. There were no other seats in the room, so she had no other choice, but she showed no fear of him. Zacharias is intimidating, and is used to people being afraid of him, but Sera is kind and gentle from the moment he meets her, though very shy. Zacharias grew up with his abusive, domineering dad who wants him to follow in his Yakuza footsteps, and will stop at nothing to make him do so, but Zacharias wants to have a career in music.

Since he met Sera, he can't get her out of his mind, but she's nothing like the wild, dangerous, sexy women he usually dates, so he keeps his distance, believing that she's better off without him. He does keep an eye on her at school, though, and has stepped in to stop people from bullying her before--usually in ways she doesn't see or know about. He's captivated by her, even though he fully believes she can do so much better and be so much safer away from a Yakuza man.

Until one day, his father ropes him into attacking their arch rival's club, and he's horrified to find Sera inside. Then he knows he'll have to do something to get her out alive, even if it hurts her to do it. He'll have to claim her as his, in front of everyone, or face losing her for good.]]>
306 Kai Grey maddy 1 3.72 Shatter Me: A Union Forged in Blood
author: Kai Grey
name: maddy
average rating: 3.72
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
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i dont even know where/how i found this book, but it was so bad??
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<![CDATA[Stalked to the Altar (Caputo Crime Family, #1)]]> 195592833
Silas Caputo is on the run from his famiglia. Masquerading as an Italian professor at an American college has worked for a while. He has never wanted for anything� Until he met Eden. He’d happily ruin his career if it meant he could possess her.

Eden needs a hero…but that’s not who Silas is.

He’s the monster in her shadows, watching her from every corner.

He's the darkness that stalks her every move, waiting for his turn.

Will Eden fall prey to his charms, or will she find out that he’s the one she should’ve run from all along?

Publisher Note: Stalked to the Altar is book one in the Caputo Crime Family Series. It’s a dark mafia romance written for mature audiences only. It contains graphic scenes that may be triggering to some readers.]]>
200 Selena Michaels maddy 1 2.99 Stalked to the Altar (Caputo Crime Family, #1)
author: Selena Michaels
name: maddy
average rating: 2.99
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
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<![CDATA[A Twist of Luck (Shifter City Fated Mates, #2)]]> 220487284
The day the alphas dragged me to Golden Claw I'd thought my life was over. After years of running from the packs and the shifter cities they ruled over, I finally found myself trapped within their borders.

Trapped and surrounded by my scent matches. My fated mates.

Four, disturbingly perfect alphas, who claimed me as one of their quintet. Despite my determination to keep them at arm's length, and escape the moment the Alpha Council let their guard down� I find myself completely ensnared.

The pack works its way into my life and heart with an ease that should terrify me. They show me the perfection of a bond filled with respect and care, and give me a glimpse of a future I never expected to have.

A future that I’d believed would be my downfall.

When I’m stolen away by the very shifters who destroyed my mom, I find myself fighting to not only protect myself, but also the alphas I’m growing to care about. As more of my past is revealed, and the bond to my pack deepens, I start to question everything I thought I knew about my mom's death.

With enemies surrounding us, I have no choice but to trust in my pack.

Trust and hope that my world is not about to crash and burn around me.

* This is book two in a why choose romance with very dominant and possessive male main characters. The female main character will not choose between the love interests. It's a full length (115k words) romantasy and contains adult themes and descriptions that are suitable for 18+.]]>
424 Jaymin Eve maddy 1 4.12 2025 A Twist of Luck (Shifter City Fated Mates, #2)
author: Jaymin Eve
name: maddy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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every time the author needed to create tension for the main characters, emme either 1. refused pack bonds or 2. got kidnapped. the sheer amount of times that she got kidnapped in these books, despite her pack apparently being the absolute best and the most powerful with the best technology to ever exist. it just became unenjoyable at a certain point, especially after she couldn’t even tell her bonded mates the real reason she didnt want to bond?? after TWO books?? only reason i finished this one was to see if she would bond with slade, and spoiler alert, SHE DOESNT. will not catch me reading the next one
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<![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 34873380 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]>
401 Pierce Brown maddy 5 physical-tbr 4.43 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: maddy
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

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One True Loves 27189194
On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.

That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.

Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?

Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.]]>
352 Taylor Jenkins Reid maddy 4 4.03 2016 One True Loves
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: maddy
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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<![CDATA[A Curse of Fate (Shifter City Fated Mates, #1)]]> 220233664 A new romantasy from Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller Jaymin Eve.

I'm a shifter who can never bond with a pack. Not if I want to live.

The day I watched my mom's pack destroy her, was the day I knew I had to run from the shifter cities.

Mom and I share the same designation, which means we'll share the same fate.

For ten years I hide from the cities and the alphas who control them.

Until my luck runs out.

Dragged to Golden Claw against my will, they charge me as a rogue. I'm facing death until one of the strongest alphas in the city scents me as his match.

Scents me... and claims me.

Even worse? He's part of the most powerful pack of alphas the cities have ever seen.

I have to reject them. It's the only way to avoid my mom's curse of fate. And my own.

Except, these alphas have never been rejected a day in their lives, and they're definitely not about to start now.

* This is a why choose romance with very dominant and possessive male main characters. The female main character will not choose between the love interests. Please note, Shifter City is not omegaverse. It's a shifter romance.

* This story is a full length (95k words) romantasy and contains adult themes and descriptions that are suitable for 18+.]]>
334 Jaymin Eve maddy 3 4.29 2024 A Curse of Fate (Shifter City Fated Mates, #1)
author: Jaymin Eve
name: maddy
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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Brutal Ambition 212348499 Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

I used to fantasize about meeting a masked madman who would love me endlessly and obsessively. He would look after me in a world where no one else did. He would manipulate all the strings that held up my life until I had exactly the one I wanted.
And then one night I met him.
Only he wasn’t the hero I always imagined he would be.
When we left the forest together that night, I thought I’d escaped the villains relatively unscathed, but my true villain was the man whose arms I felt safest in.
He was the one who would tear me apart.

Now I know the only way to save myself is to stay far away from Killian Walsh.
But no matter how fast I run, he won’t stop chasing me.
He knows the best thing he could do for me is set me free.
But he’s too selfish to do it.
He calls me reckless, but I think he’s crazy.
Because Killian Walsh will let the flames consume us both before he will ever let me go.


Brutal Ambition is a full-length secret society romance that contains dark subject matter some may find triggering. Please read the author's note if you need one.
This story is a spinoff of the Coastal Elite series, but can be read as a standalone. The timeline of this book is the same timeline as the fourth Coastal Elite book, Surrender.
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546 Sam Mariano maddy 4 3.97 Brutal Ambition
author: Sam Mariano
name: maddy
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
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Pack Darling Part Two 198558316 452 Lola Rock 1959927027 maddy 4 4.16 2022 Pack Darling Part Two
author: Lola Rock
name: maddy
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
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<![CDATA[Untouchable (Untouchables, #1)]]> 40660802 The bully isn't supposed to win.

Senior year was off to a rough start: lube in my locker, panties on my front porch, unimaginative name-calling. See, I got a player suspended from the football team for harassing me, and in my small Texas town, you don’t mess with the football players—even if they mess with you first.

I didn’t care if it was an unpopular thing to do; I stood up for myself� and in doing so, opened Pandora’s Box.

I never dreamed I would attract the attention of locally worshipped star quarterback, Carter Mahoney. Never imagined his coveted attention would turn out to be such a nightmare. Beneath his carefully constructed façade lurks a monster, a predator looking for the perfect prey to play with. Now, since I’m the girl no one likes or believes, I guess I’m the perfect target for his dark games and twisted desires.

After surviving my first encounter with his casual depravity, all I really want is for Carter to leave me alone.

But all he seems to want is me.


Warning: This book is provocative. It is categorized as DARK ROMANCE for a reason. It will not be for everyone. If you are a reader with certain triggers or sensitivities common to the dark romance genre, please heed the author’s note at the beginning of this book.]]>
494 Sam Mariano maddy 4 3.94 2018 Untouchable (Untouchables, #1)
author: Sam Mariano
name: maddy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
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<![CDATA[Pack Darling Part One (Pack Darling #1)]]> 198558356
My awakening? Never gonna happen. Heat, mates, and a fairytale pack life? Maybe next reincarnation.

All I want is to be left alone.

I'm invisible, headed to a blissful solo future until the Wyvern Pack destroys my dream of independence.

Atlas, Hunter, Finn, Jett, and Orion are poison candy. They don't want an omega, but they need one, even if there'll never be a real spot for me in their pack.

Who needs a pack? I’ll keep myself safe, same as always.

I'll never awaken, and I'll never ever give the Wyverns my heart...

Because all they'll do is rip me apart .



� Slow

� Med/High (spicy MM + MMMMM scenes)

� Growly alpha males, no shifting

� Warning : Contains MM content, frequent cursing, and references to past assault that may be disturbing. Author not responsible for ugly crying. Wait for Part 2 if HEA is a requirement.



Join the fanpack who are waiting for Pack Darling, Part Two and see if you agree with these readers� reviews!

“Like AJ Merlin's Reckless, Pack Darling fits into that great middle ground � Basically, it's a perfect choice for those who don't want super sweet or super dark. Pack Darling is just right.� � Rambling Reader, ŷ

“I honestly can't give enough stars to this book. I think it easily deserves six, seven or even eight stars, but unfortunately there is no option to add extra stars, so I'm gonna have to go with five and an amazing review. But somehow I doubt a review can really do justice to this amazing book.� � Ines, ŷ

“I love the books that sneak up on you!....Oh my goodness. I have to wait until September for book two. I am dying inside from anticipation. I read this twice in three days! How many more times will I read it between now and then!? I highly recommend this book for people who enjoy Lily Archer's Omega Academy . Pack Darling is similar in awesomeness without aliens. I can't wait to read more by Lola Rock!� - Ali, Have Coffee, Need Books]]>
356 Lola Rock 1959927000 maddy 3 4.38 2021 Pack Darling Part One (Pack Darling #1)
author: Lola Rock
name: maddy
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
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<![CDATA[Lola & the Millionaires: Part Two (Sweet Omegaverse, #3)]]> 53418968
As romances between Lola and the pack members are developing left and right, the woman who swore she wanted nothing to do with alpha is turning to them like a bloom to the sun. If only it weren’t just one monstrous alpha that twisted her own thoughts. Lola is quickly realizing that her worst enemy is herself, and it’s like walking the tightrope to find a balance with the pack that gives her strength rather than sends her toppling to the ground.

But Indy won’t be ignored. One way or another, he’s determined to get his hands on her again. Lola needs more than a pack to shield her. She needs to be ready to fight.]]>
333 Kathryn Moon maddy 4 4.31 2020 Lola & the Millionaires: Part Two (Sweet Omegaverse, #3)
author: Kathryn Moon
name: maddy
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
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<![CDATA[Baby & the Late Night Howlers (Sweet Omegaverse, #1)]]> 49205606
After years of assuming she was a beta, discovering her omega designation in a biker bar surrounded by alphas isn’t exactly fulfilling any fantasies for Baby. She only wanted to get laid, not get knotted, bitten, and bonded. Now Baby’s entire life is about to turn upside down.

With the sexual frenzy of her heat on its way, she needs to find a pack, a nest, and alphas she can trust.

The Late Night Howlers have given up hope�

After years of waiting for an omega to choose them, this motorcycle club of alphas is ready to move on with their lives. Until one sweet woman takes a chance on them.

A rundown bar and apartment building is no place to spoil a new omega but the Howlers are determined to do right by Baby when she needs them. All they have to do is keep her satisfied while resisting the mouthwatering temptation to bite and bond her, permanently.

When a rival MC comes sniffing after Baby, her safety is put at risk and the Howlers may be torn apart forever.]]>
426 Kathryn Moon maddy 4 3.96 2019 Baby & the Late Night Howlers (Sweet Omegaverse, #1)
author: Kathryn Moon
name: maddy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
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<![CDATA[Lola & the Millionaires: Part One (Sweet Omegaverse, #2)]]> 53418962
These alphas are everything Lola dreamed of, but they already have an omega—a playful male model who won’t stop flirting with her. And Lola is only a beta, one who comes with deep scars and an unshakeable aversion to alphas and their powerful presences. If only she could resist their perfect beta, Leo, whose patience and determination to see her heal breaks down one wall after another.

When the alpha who all but destroyed Lola tries to start a game of cat and mouse that’s all claws, the safest place for Lola may be the one she’s most terrified of, in the arms of an alpha pack.]]>
366 Kathryn Moon maddy 4 4.27 2020 Lola & the Millionaires: Part One (Sweet Omegaverse, #2)
author: Kathryn Moon
name: maddy
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
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<![CDATA[Hoarded by the Dragon (Monstrous Matches, #4)]]> 75424169 He’s powerful and wealthy and he hates me.
But I have something he wants.
It wasn’t a part of the plan.
I’m the thief stupid enough to break into a dragon’s hoard� and walk away pregnant with his baby.

More details to come...]]>
379 Lillian Lark maddy 4 4.06 2023 Hoarded by the Dragon (Monstrous Matches, #4)
author: Lillian Lark
name: maddy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
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The Most 201626978
A riveting, single-sitting read set over the course of eight hours, The Most is an epic story in one single day, masterly breaching the shimmering surface of a seemingly idyllic mid-century marriage, immersing us in the unspoken truth beneath.]]>
144 Jessica Anthony 0316576379 maddy 1 3.31 2024 The Most
author: Jessica Anthony
name: maddy
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
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what was the purpose of this story if you’re not even going to tell me what happened after or even if they confessed to each other????????
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<![CDATA[Bull Moon Rising (Royal Artifactual Guild, #1)]]> 205435930 The special first edition hardcover will include a gorgeous, shimmering jacket with effects, brilliantly illustrated four-color endpapers, striking and detailed-stained edges, and a beautiful foil-stamped case.

In a world of magical artifacts and fantastical beings, a woman determined to save her family joins forces with an unlikely partner, in this steamy romantasy by USA Today bestselling author Ruby Dixon.

As a Holder’s daughter, Aspeth Honori knows the importance of magical artifacts . . . which is why it’s a disaster that her father has gambled all theirs away. Now that her family is in danger of losing their hold—and their heads—if anyone finds out the truth, Aspeth decides to do something about it. She’ll join the Royal Artifactual Guild and the adventurers who explore ancient underground ruins to retrieve the coveted arcane items.

It’s a great plan—with one big problem. The guild won’t let her train because she’s a woman. Aspeth needs a chaperone of some kind. The best way to get around this problem? Marry someone who will let her become an apprentice. Who better than a surly guild member who requires a favor of his own? He’s a minotaur (it’s fine) who is her teacher (also fine) . . . and he’s about to go into rut (which is where it gets tricky). He also has no idea she’s a noble (oops), and he’ll want nothing to do with her if he discovers her real identity.

Now Aspeth just has to pass the guild tests, thwart a fortune hunter, and save her hold—oh, and survive a rut with her monstrous, horned husband, whom she might be falling in love with.

It’s time to dig deep. Literally.]]>
432 Ruby Dixon 0593817028 maddy 2 3.94 2024 Bull Moon Rising (Royal Artifactual Guild, #1)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: maddy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
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<![CDATA[No Way Out (Darkling, beloved, #1)]]> 218108145
There’s no way out of the maze, there is no way out of the maze. No way out of the maze. No way out.

None.

A teacher.

A student.

A scarecrow.

One dangerously lusty halloween night in a small Ohio town that will never be forgotten.

No Way Out is a horrific romance that is not suitable for readers under 18. Please check content warnings before proceeding.
For the reader: This is a novella, is intended to be a short read, light on the plot and heavy on the spice and horror elements meant to scratch a very specific itch. Beware.]]>
118 Santana Knox maddy 1 3.50 No Way Out  (Darkling, beloved, #1)
author: Santana Knox
name: maddy
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
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Project Hail Mary 54493401
Except that right now, he DZ’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]>
476 Andy Weir 0593135202 maddy 5 4.49 2021 Project Hail Mary
author: Andy Weir
name: maddy
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
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Normal People 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]>
273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 maddy 5 3.81 2018 Normal People
author: Sally Rooney
name: maddy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2025/01/06
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Nothing to See Here 42519313
Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth.

Thinking of her dead-end life at home, the life that has consistently disappointed her, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—while also staying out of the way of Madison’s buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her—urgently and fiercely. Couldn’t this be the start of the amazing life she’d always hoped for?]]>
288 Kevin Wilson 0062913484 maddy 5 3.95 2019 Nothing to See Here
author: Kevin Wilson
name: maddy
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/04
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The Husbands 193781998 An exuberant debut, The Husbands delights in how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?]]>
352 Holly Gramazio 0385550618 maddy 5 3.50 2024 The Husbands
author: Holly Gramazio
name: maddy
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
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<![CDATA[Little Stranger (The Web of Silence Duet, #1)]]> 213798776
She betrayed him, and now he wants revenge against the foster sister who became his forbidden obsession the second he laid eyes on her. After she sends him to prison for years, he’s free and ready to haunt her.

Everything about Olivia belongs to Malachi Vize.
Her mind
Her body
Her soul
Her fear
Her pain

On Halloween night, he can no longer lurk in the shadows. All he has left to own is her heart, even if he needs to take it.

This story comes with extremely triggering content. Please read the "Content Warning" page.]]>
207 Leigh Rivers maddy 0 to-read 3.75 2023 Little Stranger (The Web of Silence Duet, #1)
author: Leigh Rivers
name: maddy
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: to-read
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Monstrilio 62888191 A literary horror debut about a boy who transforms into a monster, a monster who tries to be a man, and the people who love him in every form he takes

Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.

A thought-provoking meditation on grief, acceptance, and the monstrous sides of love and loyalty, Gerardo Sámano Córdova blends bold imagination and evocative prose with deep emotional rigor. Told in four acts that span the globe from Brooklyn to Berlin, Monstrilio offers, with uncanny clarity, a cathartic and precise portrait of being human.]]>
336 Gerardo Sámano Córdova 1638930368 maddy 4 4.12 2023 Monstrilio
author: Gerardo Sámano Córdova
name: maddy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
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Tell Me Lies 184599087 Tell Me Lies is about that one person who still haunts you—the other one. The wrong one. The one you couldn’t let go of. The one you’ll never forget.

Lucy Albright is far from her Long Island upbringing when she arrives on the campus of her small California college, and happy to be hundreds of miles from her mother, whom she’s never forgiven for an act of betrayal in her early teen years. Quickly grasping at her fresh start, Lucy embraces college life and all it has to offer—new friends, wild parties, stimulating classes. And then she meets Stephen DeMarco. Charming. Attractive. Complicated. Devastating.

Confident and cocksure, Stephen sees something in Lucy that no one else has, and she’s quickly seduced by this vision of herself, and the sense of possibility that his attention brings her. Meanwhile, Stephen is determined to forget an incident buried in his past that, if exposed, could ruin him, and his single-minded drive for success extends to winning, and keeping, Lucy’s heart.

Alternating between Lucy’s and Stephen’s voices, Tell Me Lies follows their connection through college and post-college life in New York City. Deep down, Lucy knows she has to acknowledge the truth about Stephen. But before she can free herself from this addicting entanglement, she must confront and heal her relationship with her mother—or risk losing herself in a delusion about what it truly means to love.

With the psychological insight and biting wit of Luckiest Girl Alive, and the yearning ambitions and desires of Sweetbitter, this keenly intelligent and staggeringly resonant novel chronicles the exhilaration and dilemmas of young adulthood, and the difficulty of letting go, even when you know you should.]]>
383 Carola Lovering maddy 3 3.61 2018 Tell Me Lies
author: Carola Lovering
name: maddy
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
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My Dark Vanessa 44890081
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.]]>
373 Kate Elizabeth Russell 006294150X maddy 4
this book, while somewhat grotesque and harrowing with description, was beautifully poise in how it handled the subject matters at hand. it felt like every action had a purpose, and the resolution definitely felt heartening.]]>
4.09 2020 My Dark Vanessa
author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: maddy
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves:
review:
i honestly don’t even know how to accurately depict how im feeling after finishing this. my soul is crushed, and my heart feels heavy. the words feel sticky, like they’re sticking to my stomach lining. i feel sick, but i also feel a profound sense of relief for vanessa, that after so many years of torment and not being able to recognize the abuse, the abuser, she was able to finally (somewhat) settle with the truth.

this book, while somewhat grotesque and harrowing with description, was beautifully poise in how it handled the subject matters at hand. it felt like every action had a purpose, and the resolution definitely felt heartening.
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The Ministry of Time 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge�: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as �1847� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,� “Spotify,� and “the collapse of the British Empire.� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.]]>
339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 maddy 0 to-read 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: maddy
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Vanishing Half 52195151 From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.]]>
350 Brit Bennett maddy 5 4.25 2020 The Vanishing Half
author: Brit Bennett
name: maddy
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

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Ecstasy (Ecstasy, #1) 51707189 Zara.
Eli.
Alex.

Three students at Caven U who are all really, really f*cking tired of life.

Zara has a substance problem. Eli is a star athlete with a secret. And Alex? He’s just a f*cking a**hole.

Their paths collide one night at a party that quickly spirals out of control. A series of volatile moments follow, enveloping the three of them in a whirlwind of drama, drugs, and destruction.

Zara feels like she’s slipping under, losing her grip on reality. And if she isn’t careful, one of the boys just might pull her all the way down.

But the thing about almost dying at the hands of someone you hate?

In the moment before you take your last breath, the fear can feel a lot like...ecstasy.

And that’s a high you only get once in a lifetime.

Dark romance, suitable for 18+.]]>
410 K.V. Rose maddy 3 3.83 Ecstasy (Ecstasy, #1)
author: K.V. Rose
name: maddy
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves:
review:

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Betty 48564330 A stunning, lyrical novel set in the rolling foothills of the Appalachians in which a young girl discovers stark truths that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

"A girl comes of age against the knife."

So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence--both from outside the family, and also, devastatingly, from within. The lush landscape, rich with birdsong, wild fruit, and blazing stars, becomes a kind of refuge for Betty, but when her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, she has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.

But despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters, and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write. She recounts the horrors of her family's past and present with pen and paper and buries them deep in the dirt--moments that has stung her so deeply, she could not tell them, until now.

Inspired by the life of her own mother, Tiffany McDaniel sets out to free the past by telling this heartbreaking yet magical story--a remarkable novel that establishes her as one of the freshest and most important voices in American fiction.]]>
480 Tiffany McDaniel 052565707X maddy 0 to-read 4.41 2020 Betty
author: Tiffany McDaniel
name: maddy
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[SKIN: A Dark Retelling (The Renegades Series Book 1)]]> 201822845 Obsession was a five-letter word. Ten years in the making. And her name was Emily.

But the real question was who was I?

When my pretty little pet leaned forward, offered me a view of her cleavage, and tried to make a deal, I said why the hell not?

Five days. Thirty minutes. She could ask me anything to her heart’s content. Anything but my name. She had to figure that one out on her own.

It should have been easy enough. I was the man she stole from, whose life she ruined, whose future she destroyed.

I was the man she left behind and she was� mine.

SKIN is a dark Rumpelstiltskin retelling and book one in The Renegades Series. Each title is a standalone in an interconnected world while each story is a retelling of a fairy tale, nursery rhyme, fable, etc. The focus is dark romance so please heed the trigger warnings at the beginning of every book.]]>
358 Sybil Knight maddy 0 3.88 SKIN: A Dark Retelling (The Renegades Series Book 1)
author: Sybil Knight
name: maddy
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Until Tomorrow Comes (Beauty in Lies, #1)]]> 56568381 271 Adelaide Forrest maddy 0 to-read 3.82 Until Tomorrow Comes (Beauty in Lies, #1)
author: Adelaide Forrest
name: maddy
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/03
shelves: to-read
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In Love with the Devil 218394403 If you love a bird, cage it, then let it fly. If it returns, then it knows where home is.

JULIAN

Like a breath of fresh air, a little bird flew into my life. Astoria was desperate for me to be her hero, but I’m no hero.

I tried to train her to be my pet and it broke both of us.

I let her run, gave her time and space, but she’ll never be free of me. I’ll always find her. She’s mine.

ASTORIAHe snuck into my home, always wearing a mask, did unimaginable depraved things to me, then whispered his own name into my ear. Julian.

He insisted I was his then destroyed me.

No matter where I run, nothing calms my craving for him. It’s disgusting but I'm addicted. I’ll never forgive him. I shouldn’t.

*This book explores very dark themes. Your mental health is priority. Please check the content warning at the beginning of the book or contact author before starting this book.
]]>
528 Sky Blu maddy 0 3.95 In Love with the Devil
author: Sky Blu
name: maddy
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves:
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Forbidden 11335538
Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As de facto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is A love this devastating has no happy ending.]]>
466 Tabitha Suzuma 144242754X maddy 3 3.93 2010 Forbidden
author: Tabitha Suzuma
name: maddy
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
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Older 209745049 Before he discovered my age, he uncovered my heart.

Bruised and abused, and victim to a loveless household, I shimmered with new life the moment he found me drowning my sorrows in a lake beneath the stars.

A chance encounter. An unspoken connection.

I was smitten; he was curious.

But, as everyone knew, fate could be decidedly cruel.

He called me Halley, like the comet.

I called him Reed.

And my best friend?

Well…she called him Dad.

Older is a forbidden, slow-burn, age-gap romance standalone, ending in an HEA.]]>
436 Jennifer Hartmann maddy 4 4.07 2024 Older
author: Jennifer Hartmann
name: maddy
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Need You Tonight (Loving on the Edge, #6)]]> 17798500 She’s making a wish list, and he wants to be on top.

From foster kid to trophy wife, Tessa McAllen is about to reinvent herself all over again—and defy every insult her cheating ex-husband ever used against Selfish? She’s championing a charity. Stupid? She’s getting her degree.

Boring in bed?

Kade Vandergriff can help her with that one. When they encounter each other at a singles event held at one of his restaurants, Tessa blurts out that kink is for girls who try too hard, and Kade instantly wants to show this sassy stranger how thrilling a night under his command can be…but when he learns her name, the game changes for both of them.

In high school, Tessa was the popular girl who stuttering, awkward Kade fell for. But she chose another. Now, as she eagerly learns lesson after lesson, he’s going to make sure she never forgets him again.

]]>
400 Roni Loren 1101629819 maddy 4
Merged review:

i got this book at a bookstore as a mysterious wrapped book, and i will say when i read “fiction erotica� i thoroughly thought it was going to be pure porn, 0 plot. i was however pleasantly surprised, and loved the characters histories and development, and couldn’t put it down once i started.]]>
4.22 2014 Need You Tonight (Loving on the Edge, #6)
author: Roni Loren
name: maddy
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/09
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves:
review:
i got this book at a bookstore as a mysterious wrapped book, and i will say when i read “fiction erotica� i thoroughly thought it was going to be pure porn, 0 plot. i was however pleasantly surprised, and loved the characters histories and development, and couldn’t put it down once i started.

Merged review:

i got this book at a bookstore as a mysterious wrapped book, and i will say when i read “fiction erotica� i thoroughly thought it was going to be pure porn, 0 plot. i was however pleasantly surprised, and loved the characters histories and development, and couldn’t put it down once i started.
]]>
Sabotage 60600222 Raylee Lexington Adams is my stepsister and the one woman in the world who can make my blood boil.

She’s vindictive, a lot of crazy, and absolutely stunning.

I hate everything about her except for when she’s on her knees begging me to use her as my own personal toy.
We’ve been playing a game of cat and mouse for far too long. We have used each other for our own sick pleasure.

I’ve ruined every relationship my little princess has ever had.A sure way that she’ll come crawling back to me, begging me for what only I can give her when another man fails her.

But I'm tired of watching others get a piece of what is mine. So, I did what any rational man would do—I staked my claim, showed the world that she belonged to me, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to make her believe it too.

RAYLEE
Colton Remington Knox is a man I despise but can’t say no to.

He’s what any girl would call a walking red flag. But I’ve never claimed to be a smart woman when it comes to men. Why should he be any different?

I’ve always managed to hold my own against him. But this time, he’s gone too far. Posting a video of me on my knees for him, for what? To brag? Embarrass me? He’s acting like he DZ’t know me very well.

Colt wants to play a game? I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I win. No matter what it costs me.

People already think I have no dignity, so why let them down now?


Things to know about Sabotage
A dark college/stepbrother romance
TW (Please see author's note at the beginning of the book. If you have no triggers and want to go in blind, please skip to the prologue.)
J/P (jealous/possessive) H
OTT (over the top) H
Told in multiple POVs]]>
229 Shantel Tessier maddy 3 3.98 2022 Sabotage
author: Shantel Tessier
name: maddy
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/29
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[My Dark Romeo (Dark Prince Road, #1)]]> 123002250 Inked in tar and sealed in tears.

From Wall Street Journal bestsellers L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington comes an explosive marriage of inconvenience...between a tarnished Romeo and a reluctant Juliet.

It was supposed to be a harmless kiss at a lavish debutante ball.
A clandestine moment with a handsome stranger.

But unlike his namesake, my Romeo isn’t driven by love.
He’s fueled by revenge.

To him, I’m a chess piece. Leverage.
His rival’s betrothed.

To me, he is a man deserving of poison.
A dark prince I refuse to marry.

He thinks I’ll accept my fate.
Well, I plan to rewrite it.

And in my story, Juliet DZ’t die.
But Romeo? He perishes.

Authors� Note: My Dark Romeo is a standalone reluctant arranged marriage
romance between a cruel billionaire heir and a feisty heiress unafraid to
fight back. It is set in the decadent Dark Prince Road world.]]>
368 Parker S. Huntington maddy 3 4.08 2023 My Dark Romeo (Dark Prince Road, #1)
author: Parker S. Huntington
name: maddy
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/14
date added: 2024/07/14
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Never (Never, #1) 198334193
Growing up, Daphne always knew Peter Pan would come for her. The way he'd come for her mother, and her grandmother Wendy before that. The Darling girls. Their stories are all the same: the forever-young boy at their window after their thirteenth birthday, and the shimmering, magical land behind a star.

When Peter doesn't show for Daphne until she's seventeen, inexplicably full-grown and with no excuse for his tardiness, Daphne doesn't know what to think. Still, she has always been told that Peter Pan is her destiny. It's beyond choice to take his hand and leap into the stars, no matter what comes next.

But in Neverland, Peter's true colors begin to show. One moment, he's making Daphne's heart flutter, and the next, he's forgotten her entirely. So when Daphne stumbles into the path of Jamison Hook, the pirate son of Peter's nemesis, she lets herself get swept up in his vulgar charm, despite the warning signs.

Both boys are trouble, and both have dangerous secrets about this strange fantasy land they call home—and if she loses her heart to either one, Daphne might just lose herself, too.]]>
383 Jessa Hastings 1464220336 maddy 2 3.37 2023 Never (Never, #1)
author: Jessa Hastings
name: maddy
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
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The Book Thief 19063 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(Note: this title was not published as YA fiction)]]>
592 Markus Zusak maddy 5 favorites, 5-star-reads 4.38 2005 The Book Thief
author: Markus Zusak
name: maddy
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/30
date added: 2024/06/30
shelves: favorites, 5-star-reads
review:
i will reread this book a million times and still keep reading it. i absolutely love the point of view that this story is told from, and will think about it probably until i die
]]>
The Grace Year 43263520
In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that DZ’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.]]>
416 Kim Liggett 1250145449 maddy 0 to-read 4.11 2019 The Grace Year
author: Kim Liggett
name: maddy
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Magnolia Parks: Into the Dark (Magnolia Parks Universe, #5)]]> 197054431
How many loves do you actually get in a lifetime? Everyone knows by now that Magnolia and BJ are in the stars, but is that enough?

Magnolia and BJ are reeling from a devastating loss as they try to plan what’s been dubbed “the wedding of the century�. As family tensions mount and their respective pasts begin catching up to them, they finally have to look the truth in the Can they learn to trust and be with one another again, or will they die trying?]]>
720 Jessa Hastings 0593474953 maddy 5 4.34 2024 Magnolia Parks: Into the Dark (Magnolia Parks Universe, #5)
author: Jessa Hastings
name: maddy
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/12
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Bloom 78627220 A sweet sapphic romance takes a deadly dark turn in this sharp-as-a-knife novella from the New York Times bestselling author.

Rosemary meets Ash at the farmers� market. Ash—precise, pretty, and practically perfect—sells bars of soap in delicate pastel colors, sprinkle-spackled cupcakes stacked on scalloped stands, beeswax candles, jelly jars of honey, and glossy green plants. Ro has never felt this way about another woman; with Ash, she wants to be her and have her in equal measure. But as her obsession with Ash consumes her, she may find she’s not the one doing the devouring…]]>
203 Delilah S. Dawson maddy 3 3.82 2023 Bloom
author: Delilah S. Dawson
name: maddy
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves:
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<![CDATA[The Mindf*ck Series (Mindf*ck, #1-5)]]> 44799982
They took too much.
Left too little.
I had nothing to lose...until him.
**
I didn't expect him.
I didn't want to fall in love.
But I can't let him go.
Logan Bennett makes the world a safer place.
He's brilliant.
He's a hero.
He locks away the sick and depraved.
But while he's saving lives, I'm taking them. Collecting the debts that are owed to me.
Ten years ago, they took from me. They left me for dead.
They should have made sure I stayed dead.
Now I'm taking from them.
One name at a time.
I've trained for too long.
I've been patient.
I can't stop now.
Revenge is best served cold...
They never see me coming, until I paint their walls red.
Logan doesn't know how they hurt me. He doesn't know about the screams they ignored. He doesn't know how twisted that town really is.
He just knows people are dying.
He doesn't know he's in love with their killer.
No one suspects a dead girl.
And Logan doesn't suspect the girl in his bed.
They're looking for a monster.
Not a girl who loves red.
Not a girl in love.
I'm a faceless nightmare.
At least until I tell them the story they've pretended never happened.
But in the end, will Logan choose them? Or will we watch them burn together?

**Graphic**Adult language**Some triggers could be too much for the easily disturbed reader**Sexual content**Fucked up moral compass; read at your own risk.]]>
683 S.T. Abby maddy 5 4.62 2016 The Mindf*ck Series (Mindf*ck, #1-5)
author: S.T. Abby
name: maddy
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Fire in His Blood (Fireblood Dragon #1)]]> 33828851
Claudia's a survivor. She scrapes by as best as she can in a hard, dangerous world. When she runs afoul of the law, she's left as bait in dragon territory. She only has one chance to survive - to somehow 'tame' a dragon and get it to obey her.

Except the dragon that finds her is as wild and brutal as any other... and he's not interested in obeying.

What he is interested in is a mate.]]>
328 Ruby Dixon maddy 3 3.90 2017 Fire in His Blood (Fireblood Dragon #1)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: maddy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/06
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Barbarian's Heart (Ice Planet Barbarians, #9)]]> 32602258
My mate nearly died.

He wakes up from his coma…and he can’t remember me. Or our son. Every memory of the past two years is gone. And that changes everything between us. How can I love someone that DZ’t remember me?

How can I not, when I know he’s still my mate underneath it all?]]>
222 Ruby Dixon maddy 2 3.88 2016 Barbarian's Heart (Ice Planet Barbarians, #9)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: maddy
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Barbarian's Taming (Ice Planet Barbarians, #8)]]> 31818909
I need... affection.
Attention.
Okay, I'm lonely. Really lonely.

Strangely enough, the only person that I think understands what I'm going through is the same blue-skinned brute that stole my sister. It's wrong to hook up with him, even as a mindless fling.

Except... I'm not so good with the whole 'rules' thing.
And he's not so great with the 'fling' thing.]]>
243 Ruby Dixon maddy 3 4.02 2016 Barbarian's Taming (Ice Planet Barbarians, #8)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: maddy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/04
date added: 2024/05/04
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Survive the Night 55664968 It’s November 1991. Nirvana’s in the tape deck, George H. W. Bush is in the White House, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the shocking murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father—or so he says.

The longer she sits in the passenger seat, the more Charlie notices there’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he DZ’t want her to see inside the trunk. As they travel an empty, twisty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly anxious Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s jittery mistrust merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?

One thing is certain—Charlie has nowhere to run and no way to call for help. Trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse played out on pitch-black roads and in neon-lit parking lots, Charlie knows the only way to win is to survive the night.]]>
335 Riley Sager maddy 4 3.65 2021 Survive the Night
author: Riley Sager
name: maddy
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/03
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Trak (Virilian Mail Order Mates #1)]]> 50528967 It seemed like a straightforward agreement: become a mistress to a gorgeous, alien Virilian male until an offspring is produced, then go home with five million dollars.


Desperate for money to continue her brother’s expensive medical treatment, Anna Baker signs the contract to enter herself in the running to produce an heir for one of these alien males. It DZ’t sound so bad, and hey, she’s always wanted to travel. To Anna’s surprise, she is chosen out of hundreds of qualifying women, but she DZ’t expect to be tossed in a transport ship, shuttled to a disreputable space station on the other side of the galaxy, and dropped off in a stranger’s bedroom. Her match is swaggering scoundrel Trak Letu, Prince of the Virilian fleet Exir, who turns out to be as infuriating as he is sexy. All she has to do is have his child and she can go home a rich woman, but the easier time passes with Trak, the harder it is to imagine leaving him, or the child he is desperate for.


Prince Trak’s people are heading for extinction, and honestly, mail-ordering a female from a distant planet isn’t his ideal way of meeting the mother of his future child. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to ensure his species� survival, but the female chosen for him isn’t just beautiful, she’s opinionated, intelligent, and more passionate than he could have imagined. As time passes, he begins to dread the day Anna does have his baby, for he does not look forward to sending her back to Earth. However, Trak isn’t the only alien who desires her. When a trade deal goes badly and Anna, herself, becomes the currency, Trak must navigate a deadly path that unveils a frightening and dangerous face that all Virilian males strive to keep hidden. Even if he saves her, he could still lose her.


This story can be read alone with no cliffhangers and no cheating. I write what I love to read, so there is always consent and always a happy ending.]]>
131 Ella Blake maddy 3 3.94 2020 Trak (Virilian Mail Order Mates #1)
author: Ella Blake
name: maddy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Barbarian's Touch (Ice Planet Barbarians, #7)]]> 30524238
Well, this girl escapes. 

Of course, that means I go from frying pan into the fire, and my situation gets even more dangerous. Just when I have no hope left, a new hero appears. Sure, he’s blue, horned, and has a tail. He’s also fierce, protective, makes me purr... and thinks I'm perfect.

But is what we have real or just a mating instinct? 
]]>
322 Ruby Dixon maddy 3 3.97 2016 Barbarian's Touch (Ice Planet Barbarians, #7)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: maddy
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
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Bound by Gold 206718444 No hero can save me. To survive this, I need a villain.

I have a dark secret.

To save my father, I had to figure out how to launder dirty money…and marry one of the heads of the New York mafia. But someone found me out.
And he wanted to make me pay.

Malachi Bedford is not a good man. He thought I was helping his enemy willingly, so he humiliated me, degraded me, and blackmailed me into giving him information about the mob boss he planned to destroy.
Then he discovered the truth behind my actions, and everything changed.
Now, this villain, this monster, has become my savior. He’ll fight for me. Kill for me.

Set the world on fire.
For me.

He’s obsessed with me in a way that I know isn’t right or healthy. But I’m very quickly learning that I don’t care. I’m bound to him. Forever. And I can’t bring myself to hate him for it.

Hell, I might even love him for it�

Bound by Gold is a spicy, angsty, romantic Rumpelstiltskin modern day fairy tale retelling. This is not a love triangle. The book contains dark themes that might not be suitable for everyone. Please check for full content disclaimer at the beginning of the book or on my website ]]>
386 Eva Marks maddy 2 3.68 2024 Bound by Gold
author: Eva Marks
name: maddy
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
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I Hope This Doesn’t Find You 127165042 I Hope This Doesn't Find You is Never Have I Ever meets To All the Boys if Lara Jean wrote hate emails instead of love letters.

Sadie Wen is perfect on school captain, valedictorian, and a "pleasure to have in class." It’s not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She'd never send them of course -- she'd rather die than hurt anyone's feelings -- but it's a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie's work.

All her most vehemently worded emails are directed at her infuriating cocaptain, Julius Gong, whose arrogance and competitive streak have irked Sadie since they were kids. "You're attention starved and self-obsessed and unbearably vain . . . I really hope your comb breaks and you run out of whatever expensive hair products you've been using to make your hair appear deceptively soft..."

Sadie doesn't have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them... that is, until they're accidentally sent out.

Overnight, Sadie’s carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It's her worst nightmare -- now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they're not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there's one person growing to appreciate the "real" Sadie -- Julius, the only boy she's sworn to hate...]]>
285 Ann Liang 1338827162 maddy 0 to-read 4.12 2024 I Hope This Doesn’t Find You
author: Ann Liang
name: maddy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/01
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Don't You Dare 58511930
A party game. A dare. A single kiss.

That’s all it took to flip my world upside down.

I’ve always classified myself as straight, and as far as I can tell, so has he.

I didn’t think one kiss would change that, but I was so wrong.

Now, I can’t stop thinking about him. In all the ways I shouldn’t.

My best friend.

Aspen.

His taste is branded in my memory, his touch seared in my skin.

And I want more.

This simmering attraction I feel only grows with passing time.

Which is why I start tossing out new dares.

Riskier ones that toe lines we never thought we’d cross.

I’m gambling with our friendship, knowing it could ruin us.

But there’s so much more at stake here.

Like my heart.


*Don't You Dare is a new adult college romance featuring two best friends, too many baseball puns, scorching dirty talk, and a whole lot of bi-curious exploration. Not suitable for anyone under 18 years of age.*]]>
412 C.E. Ricci maddy 4 4.07 2022 Don't You Dare
author: C.E. Ricci
name: maddy
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/04/30
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<![CDATA[The Dragon's Bride (A Deal With a Demon, #1)]]> 59126709
Desperate times call for desperate measures, which is how she finds herself making a deal with a demon. Freedom from her husband…in return for seven years of service.

She expects the service to be backbreaking and harsh. She DZ’t expect to be put on an auction block in a room full of literal monsters and sold to the highest bidder.

To Sol.

A dragon.

He might seem kinder than his fearsome looks imply, but she knows better than to trust the way he wants to take care of her, or how invested he is in her pleasure. In her experience, if something seems too good to be true, it certainly is.

Falling for Sol is out of the question. She’s suffered enough, and she has no intention of staying in this realm…even if she leaves her heart behind when she returns to her normal life.

Author's Note: Please check the author's website for all tropes, tags, and CWs.]]>
190 Katee Robert maddy 3 3.65 2022 The Dragon's Bride (A Deal With a Demon, #1)
author: Katee Robert
name: maddy
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/18
date added: 2024/04/30
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well, this was certainly � a book�
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The Locked Door 57795665
While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement.

Until the day the police arrived at their front door.

Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.

Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.

Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her.

As long as they don’t look in her basement.]]>
313 Freida McFadden maddy 3 4.00 2021 The Locked Door
author: Freida McFadden
name: maddy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
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The Song of Achilles 13537029
Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia to be raised in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. “The best of all the Greeks”—strong, beautiful, and the child of a goddess—Achilles is everything the shamed Patroclus is not. Yet despite their differences, the boys become steadfast companions. Their bond deepens as they grow into young men and become skilled in the arts of war and medicine—much to the displeasure and the fury of Achilles� mother, Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece, bound by blood and oath, must lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.

Built on the groundwork of the Iliad, Madeline Miller’s page-turning, profoundly moving, and blisteringly paced retelling of the epic Trojan War marks the launch of a dazzling career.]]>
351 Madeline Miller maddy 4 4.31 2011 The Song of Achilles
author: Madeline Miller
name: maddy
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/25
date added: 2024/04/25
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Before We Were Strangers 23505796 USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection� post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City.

To the Green-eyed Lovebird:

We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House.

You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more.

We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other.

Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding�

I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello.

After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half?

M]]>
321 Renee Carlino maddy 3 4.27 2015 Before We Were Strangers
author: Renee Carlino
name: maddy
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/20
date added: 2024/04/20
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The Teacher 198218463 A mind-bending, psychological thriller from Freida McFadden, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Housemaid!

Lesson #1: trust no one

Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except�

Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye.

Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says.

But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet.

From the New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden comes a story of twisting secrets and long-awaited revenge.]]>
362 Freida McFadden maddy 4 4.15 2024 The Teacher
author: Freida McFadden
name: maddy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/19
date added: 2024/04/19
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Yellowface 62060532
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]>
329 R.F. Kuang maddy 4 physical-tbr 3.77 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: maddy
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/16
date added: 2024/04/16
shelves: physical-tbr
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Big Swiss 50361265 A brilliantly original and funny novel about a sex therapist’s transcriptionist who falls in love with a client while listening to her sessions. When they accidentally meet in real life, an explosive affair ensues.

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house, built in 1737, is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss, since she’s tall, stoic, and originally from Switzerland. Greta is fascinated by Big Swiss’s refreshing attitude toward trauma. They both have dark histories, but Big Swiss chooses to remain unattached to her suffering while Greta continues to be tortured by her past.

One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss’s voice at the dog park. In a panic, she introduces herself with a fake name and they quickly become enmeshed. Although Big Swiss is unaware of Greta’s true identity, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she’ll do anything to sustain the relationship�

Bold, outlandish, and filled with irresistible characters, Big Swiss is both a love story and also a deft examination of infidelity, mental health, sexual stereotypes, and more—from an amazingly talented, one-of-a-kind voice in contemporary fiction.]]>
333 Jen Beagin 1982153105 maddy 3 3.62 2023 Big Swiss
author: Jen Beagin
name: maddy
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/14
date added: 2024/04/14
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<![CDATA[The Wicker King (The Wicker King, #1)]]> 33158541
August and Jack struggle to keep afloat as they teeter between fantasy and their own emotions. In the end, each must choose his own truth.]]>
305 K. Ancrum 1250101549 maddy 2 4.00 2017 The Wicker King (The Wicker King, #1)
author: K. Ancrum
name: maddy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/08
date added: 2024/04/08
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Tender Is the Flesh 49090884
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.� Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.]]>
209 Agustina Bazterrica 1982150920 maddy 3 3.76 2017 Tender Is the Flesh
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: maddy
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/08
date added: 2024/04/08
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If We Were Villains 32874746
A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extras.

But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students� world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent.]]>
370 M.L. Rio maddy 4 4.00 2017 If We Were Villains
author: M.L. Rio
name: maddy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/04/07
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My Girl 203524307 A psychopath DZ’t love. He possesses.

When you lose interest in a possession, you get rid of it. As I become bored of stalking innocent Rae, I decide to end her life.

But then she shows me the truth: underneath that good girl disguise lies a deviant little monster.

She reminds me of myself.

I wear a mask to hide who I am; Rae hides behind a normal façade every single day. She’s capable of so much more than she realizes, and that potential intrigues me.

A new challenge falls into place.

Can I make this girl hurt others like me? Yearn for blood like me? Kill like me?

I won’t stop until I find out. As long as my girl amuses me, I’ll let her live.

And when she no longer interests me, I’ll discard her.

Author’s Note: This is a horror story with explicit content. An extended content list is located on the author’s website. Reader discretion is advised.]]>
380 Audrey Rush maddy 0 3.52 My Girl
author: Audrey Rush
name: maddy
average rating: 3.52
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/03
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Alone with You in the Ether 61187675 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone With You In The Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.


Chicago, sometime �
Two people meet in the armory of the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy.

After their meeting, those things do not change. Everything else, however, is slightly different.

Both obsessive, eccentric personalities, Aldo Damiani and Charlotte Regan struggle to be without each other from the moment they meet. The truth—that he is a clinically depressed, anti-social theoretician and she is a manipulative liar with a history of self-sabotage—means the deeper they fall in love, the more troubling their reliance on each other becomes.]]>
272 Olivie Blake 1250888174 maddy 3 3.73 2020 Alone with You in the Ether
author: Olivie Blake
name: maddy
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/02
date added: 2024/04/02
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Cleopatra and Frankenstein 59142475
Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.

As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.]]>
378 Coco Mellors 1635576822 maddy 3 3.93 2022 Cleopatra and Frankenstein
author: Coco Mellors
name: maddy
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/31
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Giovanni’s Room 18915870
In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin's now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.]]>
178 James Baldwin 0345806573 maddy 2
update: i DO want to preface that i think this book is a very important piece of literature, especially being written in the 1950s with these topics. however, i just dont think it was for me personally. im separating importance from personal enjoyment here, as i did not like the writing style or the prose very much.]]>
4.36 1956 Giovanni’s Room
author: James Baldwin
name: maddy
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1956
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/26
shelves:
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im so beyond confused?????? i feel like i completely missed the point of this book and was so frustrated while reading it that i couldn’t understand anything that was really happening. 1.5/5⭐️

update: i DO want to preface that i think this book is a very important piece of literature, especially being written in the 1950s with these topics. however, i just dont think it was for me personally. im separating importance from personal enjoyment here, as i did not like the writing style or the prose very much.
]]>
The Warm Hands of Ghosts 154462576 New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale

January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something DZ’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?

November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two men form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.

As shells rain down on Flanders, and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.]]>
325 Katherine Arden 0593128257 maddy 0 to-read 3.97 2024 The Warm Hands of Ghosts
author: Katherine Arden
name: maddy
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/25
shelves: to-read
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A Little Life 39100683
In rich and resplendent prose, Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and transcendent hymn to brotherly love, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance.

Source: penguinrandomhouse.com]]>
951 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539266 maddy 5 4.29 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: maddy
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/24
date added: 2024/03/24
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Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1) 58080257
I was told that dreams were our heart’s desires. My nightmares, however, became my obsession.

His name is Michael Crist.

My boyfriend’s older brother is like that scary movie that you peek through your hand to watch. He's handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college’s basketball team and now gone pro, he’s more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than me.

But I noticed him.

I saw him. I heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid…For years, I bit my nails, unable to look away.

Now, I’ve graduated high school and moved on to college, but I haven’t stopped watching Michael. He’s bad, and the dirt I’ve seen isn’t content to stay in my head anymore.

Because he’s finally noticed me.

Michael

Her name is Erika Fane, but everyone calls her Rika.

My brother’s girlfriend grew up hanging around my house and is always at our dinner table. She looks down when I enter a room and stills when I am close. I can always feel the fear rolling off of her, and while I haven’t had her body, I know that I have her mind. That’s all I really want anyway.

Until my brother leaves for the military, and I find Rika alone at college.

In my city.

Unprotected.

The opportunity is too good to be true, as well as the timing. Because you see, three years ago she put a few of my high school friends in prison, and now they’re out.

We’ve waited. We’ve been patient. And now every last one of her nightmares will come true.

*Corrupt is a STANDALONE dark romance with no cliffhanger. It is suitable for ages 18+.]]>
518 Penelope Douglas 1952646006 maddy 3 4.08 2015 Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1)
author: Penelope Douglas
name: maddy
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/14
date added: 2024/03/14
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Maybe Meant to Be 63389536 332 K.L. Walther maddy 3 3.55 2020 Maybe Meant to Be
author: K.L. Walther
name: maddy
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/11
date added: 2024/03/11
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The Wall of Winnipeg and Me 64407796 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mariana Zapata’s most beloved book, The Wall of Winnipeg and Me—now with new exclusive content!

Vanessa Mazur refuses to feel bad for quitting—she knows she’s doing the right thing. The thankless job of personal assistant to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans for her life, and none of them include washing extra-large underwear one more day for a man who could never find it in him to tell her good morning, congratulate her on a job well done, or wish her a happy birthday—even when she was spending it working for him.

The legendary “Wall of Winnipeg� may be adored by thousands, but after two years Van has had enough.

But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door begging her to come back, she’s beyond shocked. Mr. Walled-Off Emotions is actually letting his guard down for once. And she’s even more dumbstruck when he explains that her job description is about to become even more outrageous: something that takes the “personal� in personal assistant to a whole new level.

What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?]]>
475 Mariana Zapata 0063325861 maddy 3 4.07 2016 The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
author: Mariana Zapata
name: maddy
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/10
date added: 2024/03/10
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<![CDATA[Picking Daisies on Sundays (Picking Daisies on Sundays, #1)]]> 169690624 Perfect for fans of Lynn Painter and Jenny Han, this romantic comedy follows a hopeless romantic finishing college who agrees to embark on a fake relationship with her childhood best friend, who, unfortunately for her, also happens to be her first love.

Daniella Daisy Maria wanted love. It’s all she hoped for when watching endless rom-coms every Friday night. What she hadn't hoped for was to find it in her childhood best friend Levi. It was the hand-trembling, heart-thumping kind of love that wasn't supposed to happen when you saw your best friend. But it all ended when he didn’t feel the same way and she vowed to never see him again.

Four years later and one night in a crowded bar in the West Village, there he was, just as perfect as ever. Maybe it was the lighting or the way his hair curled above his brow, but she couldn’t say no when he asked her to be his fake girlfriend for his sister’s wedding. Another chance at being his friend and mending her immature mistake? How was she supposed to say no?

The weight of possible rejection from her dream grad school quickly became the least of her problems. With old, resurfacing feelings at every staged, romantic interaction and stolen glance, she struggles to find confidence. She couldn't help but think that maybe she should’ve said no to protect her heart for a second time.]]>
327 Liana Cincotti maddy 3 4.03 2023 Picking Daisies on Sundays (Picking Daisies on Sundays, #1)
author: Liana Cincotti
name: maddy
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
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Picking Peaches (Rosewood) 175997488 Harassing a stranger at the grocery store probably wasn’t a great idea, but Georgia really needed those condoms.

Imagine her surprise when she found out Ashton was her new neighbor the next day. The single dad next door was hot, and also insisted on helping her move in. Who would turn down a free moving service done by a team of tall volleyball players?

Ashton Reid hadn’t focused on anything other than his daughter in the last five years. Being a single dad was quite a handful, but when the woman next door caught his eye, he found himself considering his future with someone else for the first time in a long time.

Lucky for him, Georgia and his daughter got along quickly, and once Ashton and Ruth Reid inserted themselves into Georgia’s life, she was a goner. Their sweet smiles and cute antics won her over before she even realized it. Juggling writing her first book and not catching feelings for her new neighbor was going to be difficult.

If not impossible.]]>
209 Ansley B. Calloway maddy 3 3.48 Picking Peaches (Rosewood)
author: Ansley B. Calloway
name: maddy
average rating: 3.48
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
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<![CDATA[A Dowry of Blood (A Dowry of Blood, #1)]]> 60578344
This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . . Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband's dark secrets. With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.

"A dizzying nightmare of a romance that will leave you aching, angry and ultimately hopeful." -- Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf]]>
250 S.T. Gibson 031650128X maddy 4 3.92 2021 A Dowry of Blood (A Dowry of Blood, #1)
author: S.T. Gibson
name: maddy
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/03
shelves:
review:

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Maybe in Another Life 23492661
From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do comes a breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.]]>
342 Taylor Jenkins Reid maddy 4 3.77 2015 Maybe in Another Life
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: maddy
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/29
date added: 2024/02/29
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Addicted to You (Addicted, #1)]]> 17830264 Librarian's Note: Alternate cover for this ASIN can be found here.

No one would suspect shy Lily Calloway’s biggest secret. While everyone is dancing at college bars, Lily stays in the bathroom. To get laid. Her compulsion leads her to one-night stands, steamy hookups and events she shamefully regrets. The only person who knows her secret happens to have one of his own.

Loren Hale’s best friend is his bottle of bourbon. Lily comes at a close second. For three years, they’ve pretended to be in a real relationship, hiding their addictions from their families. They’ve mastered the art of concealing flasks and random guys that filter in and out of their apartment.

But when they go on a family boat trip, surrounded by open seas and limited male bodies in sight, Lily’s confronted with a big fear. Only one guy onboard can fill her addiction, and she’s sworn off going there with Loren Hale ever again.

Now the only person who can truly help her can barely help himself.

**This is a New Adult book recommended for readers 18 and up**]]>
335 Krista Ritchie 0989339203 maddy 4 3.75 2013 Addicted to You (Addicted, #1)
author: Krista Ritchie
name: maddy
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/28
date added: 2024/02/28
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Daisy Haites: The Great Undoing (Magnolia Parks Universe, #4)]]> 63922275 »Daisy Haites - The Great Undoing« ist der vierte Band von Jessa Hastings' TikTok-Sensation, dem Magnolia Parks Universum, und setzt Daisy Haites' Geschichte fort.

Daisy Haites dachte, sie hätte alles in ihrem alten Leben hinter sich die Kriminalität, ihre Familie und den Mann, den sie liebt. Doch als ihre Sicherheit erneut bedroht ist, muss sie wieder zu ihrem Gangsterbruder Julian und ihrem Ex-Freund Christian zurückkehren, die beide verzweifelt versuchen, sie zu beschützen.
Alles wird noch komplizierter, als Magnolia Parks mit einem gebrochenen Herzen auftaucht, und Julian ihr näher kommt als er sollte. Denn sich zu verlieben ist für Julian nicht nur unerwünscht - es könnte für alle Beteiligten tödlich sein ...

In diesem TikTok-Bestseller kehrt Londons attraktivste Gangsterfamilie zurü Daisy und Julian müssen in dieser dramatischen Fortsetzung nicht nur ihr Leben, sondern auch ihre Herzen beschützen.]]>
366 Jessa Hastings 1398717002 maddy 5 4.47 2022 Daisy Haites: The Great Undoing (Magnolia Parks Universe, #4)
author: Jessa Hastings
name: maddy
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:

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A Thousand Boy Kisses 29504138 370 Tillie Cole maddy 5 4.30 2016 A Thousand Boy Kisses
author: Tillie Cole
name: maddy
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/02/22
shelves:
review:
oh to love and be loved like this�
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Out on a Limb 126855557
That is until she has a one-night stand with the incredibly charming Bo, a perfect stranger. And that one night changes everything.

While Bo is surprisingly elated to step up to the plate, Win finds herself unsure of whether she can handle this new challenge on her own or if she’ll need a helping hand.

Together, Win and Bo decide to get to know one another as friends and nothing more. But, as they both should know by now, life rarely goes according to plan.



Content sexual content, pregnancy and symptoms of pregnancy, brief discussion of abortion (pro-choice stance, not performed), ableism in reference to a limb difference, verbally abusive ex-partner (no reappearance), death of a parent (past, off page) depression and suicide (past, off page), cancer (past, not reoccurring), amputation (referenced, past)]]>
408 Hannah Bonam-Young maddy 4 4.49 2023 Out on a Limb
author: Hannah Bonam-Young
name: maddy
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/21
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves:
review:

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Where's Molly 203760167
“Molly Devereaux has been missing for more than two weeks, and police are still searching for the girl who seemed to vanish out of thin air. The world still wants to know... Where's Molly?�

In my dreams, I never escaped the Oregon woods.

Life after death isn't easy to accept, especially when I still feel like a ghost.

Now, I live deep in the mountains of Montana—the paradigm of beauty. But they are also the home of horrors.

Horrors that I only unleash at night.

When my pigs are allowed to feast.

It is strongly recommended to read Haunting Adeline and Hunting Adeline before reading Where's Molly.

Important Note: This is a dark romance that contains dark subject matter. Please refer to the author's website for content warnings]]>
243 H.D. Carlton maddy 3 4.18 2024 Where's Molly
author: H.D. Carlton
name: maddy
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves:
review:

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