Draven's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 02 Jan 2025 11:53:23 -0800 60 Draven's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Lights Out (Into Darkness, #1)]]> 219438480
I want someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it.

Trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

I want things most people don’t, craving darkness and depravity instead of light and love.

Josh Hammond has spent his life avoiding the limelight, but his online persona is another story. At night, he posts masked thirst traps for his millions of fans to drool over, but one follower has caught his eye: Aly. After reading a comment begging him to break into her house wearing a mask, he decides to take her up on her offer.

Together, Aly and Josh live out their darkest fantasies, unaware that Aly has captured the attention of someone else. Someone with far more sinister intentions than a little light stalking. As Josh turns from predator to protector and the stakes heighten, he must ask himself how far he’s willing to go for the woman he’s obsessed with.

Lights Out is a fast-paced dark romance with a morally gray male lead. Some themes and scenes may be disturbing to listeners. Please check the TWs at the beginning of the book.]]> 14 Navessa Allen Draven 3 4.20 2024 Lights Out (Into Darkness, #1)
author: Navessa Allen
name: Draven
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:
I don’t know if it’s a combination of me not particularly having a mask kink myself, overhype from Booktok or finding the female narrator’s voice uninspiring for Aly’s POV chapters but the story went kind of flat for me somewhere midway through. It’s funny in a great way for dark romance but maybe just not my five star cup of tea.
]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Draven 0 to-read 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Draven
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution]]> 196977 448 R.R. Palmer 0691121877 Draven 0 to-read 4.09 1941 Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution
author: R.R. Palmer
name: Draven
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1941
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Intermezzo 209310298 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love and family, from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties � successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women � his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude � a period of desire, despair and possibility � a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 432 Sally Rooney 0735281823 Draven 0 to-read 4.03 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Draven
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Anathema (The Eating Woods, #1)]]> 209741142 A spellbinding gothic dark fantasy about a shunned woman who is forced beyond the mortal realm's forbidden boundary, into a terrifying world of cursed souls and grotesque creatures.

Only the banished know what lies beyond the woods ...

There are whispers about what lurks in Witch Knell—the forest where sinners go to die. The villagers call it The Eating Woods because what’s taken is never given back. Only those who’ve lost their senses would dare to go near it.

Or the banished.

Maevyth Bronwick knows better than to breach the misty labyrinth of trees, but a tragic turn of events compels her beyond the archway of bones, to a boundary no mortal has crossed before. One that cloaks a dark and fantastical world that’s as dangerous as it is alluring.

It’s there that he dwells, the cursed lord of Eidolon. The one tasked to keep her hidden from the magehood that seeks to crucify her in the name of an arcane prophesy. Zevander Rydainn, known to his prey as The Scorpion, is the coldest, most calculated assassin in all of Aethyria and he’d sooner toss his feisty ward to a pack of vicious fyredrakes than keep her safe.

If only he could.

Maevyth’s blood is the key to breaking his despised curse and vanquishing the slumbering evil in Witch Knell. Unfortunately for Lord Rydainn, fate has other plans for the irresistible little enchantress. And his growing obsession with her threatens to destroy everything.

Including himself.

Anathema is a full-length, gothic dark fantasy, the first book in The Eating Woods duology. Perfect for readers who enjoy a plot-heavy and atmospheric story with a unique magic system, a slow-burn romance and a touch of horror.]]> 688 Keri Lake Draven 0 to-read 4.14 2024 Anathema (The Eating Woods, #1)
author: Keri Lake
name: Draven
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Calendar Girl: Volume One (Calendar Girl #1-3)]]> 26253863
No money. No life.

The time limit was one year. On January 1st I had to pay up or my Father was going to be killed. When you’re faced with an ultimatum like this, you do whatever you have to do.

And that’s exactly what I did.

The job…Exquisite Escorts. My role, serve as high priced arm candy to anyone that can afford the $100,000 price tag for a month of my company. Sex is optional (for me) and a 20% increase on the price.

Mia Saunders just barely escaped a paltry life back home in Las Vegas until she gets the call that her Father has been beaten to within an inch of his life for not paying his gambling debt. Problem is, the lone shark is her lousy, ruthless ex-boyfriend. Another guy in a long line of men she’d fallen head over heels for. Not anymore. Mia’s mission is simple. Serve as a high-priced escort for her Aunt’s company and pay monthly against her Father’s bad debt. A month with a rich man who she doesn’t have to sleep with if she doesn’t want to? Easy money. At least that’s the way it was supposed to go.
]]> 277 Audrey Carlan 1943893993 Draven 3 3.96 2015 Calendar Girl: Volume One (Calendar Girl #1-3)
author: Audrey Carlan
name: Draven
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2018/05/25
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
Fun, fast-paced romantic read. I'm enjoying this series more than I expected to. While Carlan may not be the best romance writer I've ever read (some dialogue is pretty juvenile, especially between Mia and Ginelle) I am enjoying her sense of humour and adventure throughout and I'm going to read Volume 2, because I am genuinely curious to follow Mia on her journey and see if it takes her back to Mr. January, Wes, in the end like I hope it will.
]]> <![CDATA[De Profundis and Other Writings]]> 5304 252 Oscar Wilde 014043089X Draven 0 to-read 4.23 De Profundis and Other Writings
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Draven
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Draven 4 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Draven
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at: 2008/04/10
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
I find Mansfield Park to be Austen's most underrated novel and deserving of more praise. Fanny Price is ten times the woman Emma Woodhouse is and she earns her happy ending! Ladies, ditch Emma and take a stroll over to Mansfield Park. I think it's long overdue
]]> The Leopard 30235632 This is an alternate cover edition for 9780375714795

In the spring of 1860, Fabrizio, the charismatic Prince of Salina, still rules over thousands of acres and hundreds of people, including his own numerous family, in mingled splendour and squalor. Then comes Garibaldi's landing in Sicily and the Prince must decide whether to resist the forces of change or come to terms with them.]]> 294 Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa Draven 0 currently-reading 4.03 1958 The Leopard
author: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
name: Draven
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Body Check 201144140 New York Times bestselling author of the Briar U series Elle Kennedy’s first hockey romance, Body Check, is now released in an expanded version, with both new and enhanced scenes by the author! More story, more hockey—and more heat!

After a childhood spent being dragged around the country by her hockey coach father, Hayden Houston intends to take some time to figure out her future. Whether that future will include her currently off-again boyfriend remains to be seen. What it certainly won’t include is the for-one-night-only guy she just met at a bar.

It seems hockey star Brody Croft did not get the memo about being temporary. Big, bold and driven, he’s dedicated in everything he does. Up till now, that’s been his team—the one owned by Hayden’s dad. But his night with Hayden has sparked something he didn’t expect. The two of them are good together. Really good. There’s a connection he’s never experienced before, one he knows they’d be wrong to ignore. Even with a game-fixing scandal testing both their loyalties—to teammates, to friends…to family.

Part of Hayden wants to turn tail and run. A complicated relationship with a bad boy hockey player is exactly what she never wanted. But when it comes to Brody, Hayden is realizing that people can be so much more than what they seem.]]> 304 Elle Kennedy 1335425535 Draven 0 to-read 3.36 2009 Body Check
author: Elle Kennedy
name: Draven
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> NSFW (Play, #2) 36053944 Being bad never felt so good...Ěý

Everything in my office is off-limits.ĚýMaking a charity calendar of the hot guys on your floor? Not allowed.Ěý

Shrinking your boss' underwear when he sends it for dry-cleaning? Can't do that either.Ěý

But those things keep the natural balance.ĚýSee, Avery Banks, our resident rising star, is a shark.Ěý

The tall, blond, and gorgeous kind with zero patience and even less forgiveness.Ěý

Good thing I'm the Mae West of executive assistants. I live to put grown men in their place.

He wasn't supposed to find out.

Now he's made it his personal mission to screw me the way I screwed him.Ěý

OK. Not exactly the way I screwed him..

Avery's new game is hot. Messy. Twisted.

But he's my boss.ĚýAnd what we're doing is strictly NSFW.Ěý

Luckily, Avery and I have one thing in common.

We both suck at following the rules.Ěý

NSFW is a fresh, modern twist on office romance from bestselling author Piper Lawson.]]> 336 Piper Lawson Draven 2 4.04 2017 NSFW (Play, #2)
author: Piper Lawson
name: Draven
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves:
review:
I’m genuinely confused that a book titled “NSFW� had the most SFW sex scenes I’ve read in a while. Near fade to black cop outs. Which is a shame, because the banter was fun but just too PG for me in writing style.
]]> Beartown (Beartown, #1) 52292127
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.]]> 432 Fredrik Backman Draven 4 4.24 2016 Beartown (Beartown, #1)
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Draven
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/22
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves:
review:
I came into this book thinking it would be a small town victory story and was filled with trepidation when I realized it wasn’t that kind of story. I almost stopped reading; I’m a woman and there’s a limit to how much violence against women by proxy a soul can withstand but this was so masterfully written, so detailed and complex while also striking hard at the truth of the matter when it comes to rape that the book I nearly discarded became one I couldn’t put down.
]]> <![CDATA[Eyes on Me (Salacious Players' Club, #2)]]> 89469221 He's a voyeur―it means he likes to watch.

In Garrett Porter's line of work, that's a gift. As one of the owners of the Salacious Players' Club, he's comfortable on the sidelines and has always felt that he works best alone.

Until he stumbles on a cam girl app and finds himself watching the one person he should stay far away his step-sister, Mia Harris.

There are three big problems with this.

One, Mia and Garrett can't stand each other.
Two, she has no idea he's the man on the other end of the video.
And three, he's hooked―on the app, and on her.

Now Mia has awakened something in Garrett. She has him wanting and doing things he said he'd never do again, like opening up and getting attached. He's falling for her, but she's falling for the man he's only pretending to be.

If he's going to make this right, he has to do more than just watch.]]> 320 Cate 1728282144 Draven 3 3.89 2022 Eyes on Me (Salacious Players' Club, #2)
author: Cate
name: Draven
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/22
date added: 2024/04/22
shelves:
review:
Normally I’m not a fan of big age gaps and I’m really not a fan of them mentioning that the characters met when one was a child. It’s usually an instant ick but the smut by Sara Cate is always so good, I was able to look. Past it and enjoy the book but I just could give more than 3 stars but it’s just not my kink.
]]> <![CDATA[Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)]]> 26187
A devastating new weapon of destruction.
When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati...the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has now surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy -- the Catholic Church.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces they have hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.
Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair...a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

An explosive international thriller, Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.]]> 572 Dan Brown Draven 3 3.90 2000 Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)
author: Dan Brown
name: Draven
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2003/08/05
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Icebreaker (Maple Hills, #1) 63133206
Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.

Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.

But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.

Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried…because she could never like a hockey player, right?]]> 433 Hannah Grace 1668026031 Draven 3
I need more angst in my romance/smut but if you love heart eyes romance with tons of spice, this is definitely the book and author for you. ]]> 3.83 2022 Icebreaker (Maple Hills, #1)
author: Hannah Grace
name: Draven
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/15
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves:
review:
Great spice but just a little too much on the sweet side for my romantic tastes. It’s not exactly an insta-love trope but Nate went from manwhore to devoted so quickly that the playboy reputation actually felt untrue to his character by the end.

I need more angst in my romance/smut but if you love heart eyes romance with tons of spice, this is definitely the book and author for you.
]]> <![CDATA[Survival of the Richest (The Trust Fund Duet, #1)]]> 210704384 And a war fought on the most dangerous battlefield–the heart.

“Skye Warren absolutely owned me with Survival of the Richest. A twisty, raw exploration of money, greed, love, and lust, you’ll be left with your heart in your throat and hooked on the pages to discover what’s coming next! An absolute must-read.� ~ A.L. Jackson, New York Times & USA Today bestselling author

“What an incredible book! Survival of the Richest has everything � Skye Warren’s beautiful writing, a sexy, compelling story; intricate characters, and a provocative love triangle that will captivate you until the very end.� ~ New York Times bestselling author Nina Lane

My story starts with a plunge into the cold water of Manhattan’s harbor. A strong hand hauls me back onto the deck of the luxury yacht. Christopher was supposed to be my enemy.

Instead he protects me with fierce determination. That should have been my happily ever after, but then Sutton appeared–ruthless and seductive. He doesn’t care that my heart belongs to someone else, because he’s determined to win. No matter the cost.

It’s an impossible choice, but I can’t have them both.]]> Skye Warren Draven 4
Merged review:

Read this as part of the Winter Nights collection, a free download. Perhaps read is the wrong word. This book consumed me. I’m not usually a fan of triangles in romance novels or slightly taboo undertones with step-sibling relationship involved but this one sucks you in the moment Harper tumbles off that railing. It’s dark, twisted, messy and deliciously complicated. A perfect rendering of how first love can twist the knife no matter how many years pass. I desperately want Harper to pick Christopher and I both hate and love that I’m not sure she will or if Christopher will deserve it in the end.]]> 3.92 2018 Survival of the Richest (The Trust Fund Duet, #1)
author: Skye Warren
name: Draven
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/12/20
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves:
review:
Read this as part of the Winter Nights collection, a free download. Perhaps read is the wrong word. This book consumed me. I’m not usually a fan of triangles in romance novels or slightly taboo undertones with step-sibling relationship involved but this one sucks you in the moment Harper tumbles off that railing. It’s dark, twisted, messy and deliciously complicated. A perfect rendering of how first love can twist the knife no matter how many years pass. I desperately want Harper to pick Christopher and I both hate and love that I’m not sure she will or if Christopher will deserve it in the end.

Merged review:

Read this as part of the Winter Nights collection, a free download. Perhaps read is the wrong word. This book consumed me. I’m not usually a fan of triangles in romance novels or slightly taboo undertones with step-sibling relationship involved but this one sucks you in the moment Harper tumbles off that railing. It’s dark, twisted, messy and deliciously complicated. A perfect rendering of how first love can twist the knife no matter how many years pass. I desperately want Harper to pick Christopher and I both hate and love that I’m not sure she will or if Christopher will deserve it in the end.
]]> Trespasses 60417483 Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between allegiance to community and a dangerous passion.

Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family's pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who's made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment - Michael is not only Protestant but older, and married - Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites. Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, and everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.

As tender as it is unflinching, Trespasses is a heart-pounding, heart-rending drama of thwarted love and irreconcilable loyalties, in a place what you come from seems to count more than what you do, or whom you cherish. ]]> 304 Louise Kennedy 0593540891 Draven 2 3.91 2022 Trespasses
author: Louise Kennedy
name: Draven
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/01
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves:
review:
This book would have been a lot more successful in selling the tragic ending of Michael Agnew if we had been given actual reasons to like Michael Agnew to start. Instead we are presented with a serial adulterer her father’s age, having an affair with his friends daughter with no insight into him or his work as a lawyer during The Troubles other than files on a table top. I was given no reason to love or mourn Micheal, only get the repeated ick as this affair was framed as a great love. I was more invested in Tommy, only to see him become the villain for motives left unclear. The only saving grace of this novel is the thread of the bond between Cushla and little Davy throughout.
]]> Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]> 527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Draven 0 to-read 4.17 2025 Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Draven
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Prince Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles, #11)]]> 21412673 458 Anne Rice 0307962520 Draven 2 3.80 2014 Prince Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles, #11)
author: Anne Rice
name: Draven
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2020/02/01
date added: 2024/03/14
shelves:
review:
It breaks my heart that I didn’t love this return to the Chronicles from Anne Rice but I have to be honest about what I consider to be a wasted opportunity. If the point of the first three quarters was meant to be a trip down memory lane, why frame it as separate chapters rehashing each character’s previous journey spread across the globe instead of using it as an opportunity to bring beloved characters together early on to have these conversations together and luxuriate in the memories? By the time it came to those glorious moments, her glorious writing, its richness and depth of spellbinding, we were in the final hundred pages and it was over too quickly, leaving me more disappointed than wanting more.
]]> Priest (Priest, #1) 25507389
I've always been good at following rules.ĚýUntil she came.ĚýMy name is Tyler Anselm Bell. I'm twenty-nine years old. Six months ago, I broke my vow of celibacy on the altar of my own church, and God help me, I would do it again.ĚýI am a priest and this is my confession.

Priest is a standalone, full-length novel with an HEA. ĚýFor mature audiences only]]> 354 Sierra Simone Draven 2 3.59 2015 Priest (Priest, #1)
author: Sierra Simone
name: Draven
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2023/07/23
date added: 2024/03/14
shelves:
review:
It isn’t the taboo sex that’s getting the two stars, I’m a fallen catholic myself so give me all the sinning and debauchery amongst the pews. It’s the cringey descriptions of everything else, be it physical or emotional descriptors, the thousands too many references to The Walking Dead and how this all inevitably felt more like a love letter to religion than a love story between Tyler & Poppy.
]]> Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.� —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]> 623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 Draven 4
I can’t give Iron Flame five stars like I did Fourth Wing because I’m bitter and petty. I’m bitter that Jack Barlowe is still a form of alive and Liam is still dead. There’s so many villains to go around in this series that Barlowe could and should have died in Iron Flame to even the scales of injustice.

I’ve decided not to panic about the Xaden twist because I firmly believe that Rebecca Yarros didn’t kill Liam and maim Sawyer just to also kill off Xaden in future books too. You don’t write a “I will find you in every lifetime� love story just to have the heroine end up with Dain “Ross Gellar� Aetos. It’s bad enough he got a redemption arc but she’s not George RR Martin. We’re going to get the ending we want, we just need patience.

Book 3 will be the battle for Xaden’s soul & Violet’s second signet will play a part. At least, that’s my theory for now.]]> 4.33 2023 Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Draven
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/13
date added: 2024/03/14
shelves:
review:
4 stars because of **spoilers ahead**:

I can’t give Iron Flame five stars like I did Fourth Wing because I’m bitter and petty. I’m bitter that Jack Barlowe is still a form of alive and Liam is still dead. There’s so many villains to go around in this series that Barlowe could and should have died in Iron Flame to even the scales of injustice.

I’ve decided not to panic about the Xaden twist because I firmly believe that Rebecca Yarros didn’t kill Liam and maim Sawyer just to also kill off Xaden in future books too. You don’t write a “I will find you in every lifetime� love story just to have the heroine end up with Dain “Ross Gellar� Aetos. It’s bad enough he got a redemption arc but she’s not George RR Martin. We’re going to get the ending we want, we just need patience.

Book 3 will be the battle for Xaden’s soul & Violet’s second signet will play a part. At least, that’s my theory for now.
]]> Anita de Monte Laughs Last 127306192 New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death

1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten—certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.

But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.

Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.]]> 342 Xóchitl González 1250786215 Draven 0 to-read 3.76 2024 Anita de Monte Laughs Last
author: Xóchitl González
name: Draven
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Olga Dies Dreaming 57693171
Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1%, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets...

Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.

Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico's history, Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream--all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.]]> 369 Xóchitl González 1250786177 Draven 0 to-read 3.95 2022 Olga Dies Dreaming
author: Xóchitl González
name: Draven
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present]]> 202473205
Populist rage, ideological fracture, economic and technological shocks, war, and an international system studded with catastrophic risk—the early decades of the twenty-first century may be the most revolutionary period in modern history. But it is not the first. Humans have lived, and thrived, through more than one great realignment. What are these revolutions, and how can they help us to understand our fraught world?

In this major work, Fareed Zakaria masterfully investigates the eras and movements that have shaken norms while shaping the modern world. Three such periods hold profound lessons for today. First, in the seventeenth-century Netherlands, a fascinating series of transformations made that tiny land the richest in the world—and created politics as we know it today. Next, the French Revolution, an explosive era that devoured its ideological children and left a bloody legacy that haunts us today. Finally, the mother of all revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, which catapulted Great Britain and the US to global dominance and created the modern world.

Alongside these paradigm-shifting historical events, Zakaria probes four present-day revolutions: globalization, technology, identity, and geopolitics. For all their benefits, the globalization and technology revolutions have produced profound disruptions and pervasive anxiety and our identity. And increasingly, identity is the battlefield on which the twenty-first century’s polarized politics are fought. All this is set against a geopolitical revolution as great as the one that catapulted the United States to world power in the late nineteenth century. Now we are entering a world in which the US is no longer the dominant power. As we find ourselves at the nexus of four seismic revolutions, we can easily imagine a dark future. But Zakaria proves that pessimism is premature. If we act wisely, the liberal international order can be revived and populism relegated to the ash heap of history.

As few public intellectuals can, Zakaria combines intellectual range, deep historical insight, and uncanny prescience to once again reframe and illuminate our turbulent present. His bold, compelling arguments make this book essential reading in our age of revolutions.]]> 400 Fareed Zakaria 0393239233 Draven 0 to-read 4.12 2024 Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present
author: Fareed Zakaria
name: Draven
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Diavola 157035866 Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.

Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.

It isn’t easy when she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he’s practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone—including her blandly docile husband and two kids—falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.

The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails—the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.

(Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)]]> 293 Jennifer Marie Thorne 1250826128 Draven 0 to-read 3.85 2024 Diavola
author: Jennifer Marie Thorne
name: Draven
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bye, Baby 127305890
On a brisk fall night in a New York apartment, 35-year-old Billie West hears terrified screams. It's her lifelong best friend Cassie Barnwell, one floor above, and she's just realized her infant daughter has gone missing. Billie is shaken as she looks down into her own arms to see the baby, remembering—with a jolt of fear—that she is responsible for the kidnapping that has instantly shattered Cassie’s world.

So begins the story of Billie and Cassie's friendship--both in recent weeks, and since they met twenty-three years ago, in their small Hudson Valley hometown the summer before seventh grade. Once fiercely bonded by their secrets, including a traumatic, unspeakable incident in high school, Cassie and Billie have drifted apart in adulthood, no longer the inseparable pair they used to be. Cassie is married to a wealthy man, has recently become a mother, and is building a following as a fashion and lifestyle influencer. She is desperate to leave her past behind--including Billie, who is single and childless, and no longer fits into her world. Hurt and rejected by Cassie’s new priorities, Billie will do anything to restore their friendship, even as she hides the truth about what really happened the night the baby was taken.

Told in alternating perspectives in Lovering’s signature suspenseful style, Bye Baby confronts the myriad ways friendships change and evolve over time, the lingering echoes of childhood trauma, and the impact of women’s choices on their lifelong relationships.]]> 352 Carola Lovering 125028936X Draven 0 to-read 3.70 2024 Bye, Baby
author: Carola Lovering
name: Draven
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Summer We Fell (The Summer, #1)]]> 63898425
Now, a decade later, tragedy has brought us back to the place where it all happened—my best times, and my worst.

Our lives have changed, but that pull between us is just as strong as ever.

Only this time, it’s more dangerous too.]]> 318 Elizabeth O'Roark Draven 0 to-read 4.03 2023 The Summer We Fell (The Summer, #1)
author: Elizabeth O'Roark
name: Draven
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series]]> 51774149 The perfect read and perfect gift for Game of Thrones fans

The official, definitive oral history of the blockbuster show from Entertainment Weekly's James Hibberd, endorsed by George R. R. Martin himself (who calls it "an amazing read"), reveals the one Game of Thrones tale that has yet to be told: the thirteen-year behind-the-scenes struggle to make the show.

Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon shares the incredible, thrilling, uncensored story of Game of Thrones, from the creators' first meetings with George R. R. Martin and HBO through the series finale, including all the on-camera battles, off-camera efforts, and the many controversies in between. The book also features more than fifty candid new interviews, rare and stunning photos, and unprecedented access to the producers, cast, and crew who took an impossible idea and made it into the biggest show in the world.]]> 452 James Hibberd 1524746754 Draven 3 4.08 2020 Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series
author: James Hibberd
name: Draven
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/12
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves:
review:
I have to say that given all the books I’ve read on Game of Thrones, this one was a bit of a letdown. It doesn’t offer anything new or insights previously secret. It reads like a compiled of every Entertainment Weekly article on Game of Thrones and I’m not sure it was necessarily needed. I’d recommend Kim Renfro’s book to fans first.
]]> White Nights 29610266
A poignant tale of love and loneliness from Russia's foremost writer.

One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.]]> 128 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0241252083 Draven 0 to-read 4.02 1848 White Nights
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Draven
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1848
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Portrait of a Lady (The ^AWorld's Classics)]]> 1392801 Portrait of a Lady is the masterpiece of James's middle period, and Isabel is his most engaging central character. This edition provides a new introduction and notes, and includes Henry James's own Preface.]]> 632 Henry James 0192823620 Draven 3 3.64 1881 The Portrait of a Lady (The ^AWorld's Classics)
author: Henry James
name: Draven
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1881
rating: 3
read at: 2010/02/12
date added: 2023/12/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Blonde Identity (Blonde Identity, #1)]]> 63310912
It's the middle of the night in the middle of Paris and a woman just woke up with no memory.

She only knows three things for certain:

1. She has a splitting headache.

2. The hottest guy she has (probably) ever seen is standing over her, telling her to run.

And oh yeah...

3. People keep trying to kill her.

She doesn't know who. Or why. But when she sees footage of herself fighting off a dozen men there's only one explanation: obviously. . . she's a spy!

Except, according to Mr. Hot Guy, she's not. She's a spy's identical twin sister.

Too bad the only person who knows she's not the woman they're looking for is this very grouchy, very sexy, very secret agent who (reluctantly) agrees to help her disappear.

That's easier said than done when a criminal organization wants you dead and every intelligence service in the world wants you caught. Luckily, no one is looking for a pair of lovesick newlyweds on their honeymoon. And soon they're lying their way across Europe--dodging bullets and faking kisses as they race to unravel a deadly conspiracy and clear her sister's name.

But with every secret they uncover, the truth shifts, until she no longer knows who to trust: the twin she can't remember or the mysterious man she can't let herself forget...]]> 304 Ally Carter 006327664X Draven 0 to-read 3.73 2023 The Blonde Identity (Blonde Identity, #1)
author: Ally Carter
name: Draven
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All the Light We Cannot See 18143977
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here]]> 544 Anthony Doerr 1476746583 Draven 0 to-read 4.31 2014 All the Light We Cannot See
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Draven
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Taste: 2021 Edition 59567145
Welcome to TASTE! A gift designed just for you from eleven of your favorite NYT and USA TODAY bestselling authors. A delicious banquet for your reading pleasure.

Fall into the page-burning fantasies crafted to delight you. Experience the excitement of true love despite all odds!

Savor each bite—some steaming hot, others offering that decadent slow-burn you cannot resist.

Like all things deliciously decadent, this anthology is only available for a limited time. Get your FREE copy of TASTE now!

FREE BESTSELLERS INCLUDED:
Born to be Bound by Addison Cain
Rebel by Helen Hardt
Twist Me by Anna Zaires
Mine by Natasha Knight & A. Zavarelli
Ruthless Surrender by Zoe Blake
The Mistwalker by Regine Abel
Darkest King by Amelia Hutchins
Captive Vow by Alta Hensley
Hard Code by Misha Bell
Flame to Frost by Myra Danvers]]> 1919 Addison Cain 1956399143 Draven 1 3.80 2020 Taste: 2021 Edition
author: Addison Cain
name: Draven
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2023/11/06
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves:
review:
Nothing in this omnibus deserves a review. Just a random, messy collection of poorly written and edited erotica with no cohesive themes running throughout. It was a free download for a reason.
]]> The Nanny 61530932 A woman discovers the father of the child she is nannying may be her biggest (Only)Fan in this steamy contemporary romance by Lana Ferguson.


After losing her job and being on the brink of eviction, Cassie Evans finds herself with two choices: get a new job (and fast) or fire up her long-untouched OnlyFans account. But there are no jobs to be found, and as for OnlyFans. . . . Well, there are reasons she can’t go back. Just when all hope seems lost, an ad for a live-in nanny position seems the solution to all her problems. It’s almost too perfect—until she meets her would-be employer.

Aiden Reid, executive chef and DILF extraordinaire is far from the stuffy single dad Cassie was imagining. She is shocked when he tells her she’s the most qualified applicant he’s met in weeks, practically begging her to take the job. With hands that make her hindbrain howl and eyes that scream sex, the idea of living under the same roof as Aiden feels dangerous, but with no other option, she decides to stay with him and his adorably tenacious daughter, Sophie.

Cassie soon discovers that Aiden is not a stranger at all, but instead someone who is very familiar with her—or at least, her body. She finds herself at a loss for what to do, given that he doesn’t remember her. As their relationship heats to temperatures hotter than any kitchen Aiden has ever worked in, Cassie struggles with telling Aiden the truth, and the more terrifying possibility—losing the best chance at happiness she’s ever had.]]> 421 Lana Ferguson 059354935X Draven 0 to-read 3.54 2023 The Nanny
author: Lana Ferguson
name: Draven
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Forget Me Not 61618737 An ambitious wedding planner must work with her grumpy florist ex, whose heart she broke, on the most high-profile wedding of her career, in this spicy and emotional romance from popular fanfic author Julie Soto.

He loves me; he loves me not...Ěý

Ama Torres loves being a wedding planner. But with a mother who has been married more times than you can count on your fingers, Ama has decided that marriage is not the route for her. But weddings? Weddings are amazing. As aĚýsmall business owner, she knows how to match her clients with the perfect vendor to give them the wedding of their dreams. Well, almostĚýperfectâ€�

Elliot hates being a florist, most of the time. When his father leftĚýhim the flower shop, he consideredĚýit a burden, but he’s stuck with it. Just like how he’s stuck with the way he proposed to Ama, his main collaborator and girlfriend (or was she?) two years ago. But flowers have grown on him, just like Ama did. And flowers can’t run off and never speak to him again, like Ama did.Ěý

When Ama is hired to plan a celebrity wedding that will bring her business national exposure, there's a catch: Elliot is already contracted to design the flowers. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. Add in a meddling ex-boss, and a reality TV film crew documenting every step of the wedding prep, and Ama and Elliot's hearts are not only in jeopardy again, but this time, their livelihoods are too.]]> 341 Julie Soto 1538740885 Draven 0 to-read 3.94 2023 Forget Me Not
author: Julie Soto
name: Draven
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Vicious (Villains, #1) 36797830
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find--aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge--but who will be left alive at the end?

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.]]> 364 Victoria E. Schwab 1250183502 Draven 4 4.32 2013 Vicious (Villains, #1)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Draven
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/28
date added: 2023/09/28
shelves:
review:
What an interesting take on the modern idea of the superhero; where the powers are terrifying and consequential and neither character is a hero in any way, shape or form. A tale of the dark side in us all given the ultimate power. Who do we become?
]]> The Guy from That One Summer 61294700
I have no idea just what I'm in for. A drink on the rocks with a little...twist.]]> 36 C.C. Monroe Draven 1
Merged review:

Not a book; barely even constitutes a novella. Feel like we were sold a rough draft plot sketch as a something with substance. I know it’s not meant to be more than short and sweet pure smut but if that’s the case, the writing should be perfect and the smut should set my iPad on fire. This fell short on both counts.]]> 3.77 The Guy from That One Summer
author: C.C. Monroe
name: Draven
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2023/01/07
date added: 2023/08/10
shelves:
review:
Not a book; barely even constitutes a novella. Feel like we were sold a rough draft plot sketch as a something with substance. I know it’s not meant to be more than short and sweet pure smut but if that’s the case, the writing should be perfect and the smut should set my iPad on fire. This fell short on both counts.

Merged review:

Not a book; barely even constitutes a novella. Feel like we were sold a rough draft plot sketch as a something with substance. I know it’s not meant to be more than short and sweet pure smut but if that’s the case, the writing should be perfect and the smut should set my iPad on fire. This fell short on both counts.
]]> Ruthless Beauty 177086674 Only my brother and I survived that fateful night.
Now someone has returned to finish what they started.

My notorious, gang leader brother keeps me in a gilded cage, out of his business and away from the sinister underworld of Reaper Falls.

When a threat too great for him to handle throws my perfectly orchestrated life into chaos, I’m finally set free. Free from not only him, but from myself.

Because I’m not the girl everyone thinks I am.

Those who crossed my family will pay a hefty price. I’ll make sure of it.

The only complication? Three men who refuse to let me out of their sight.

Emilio, my newly appointed, grumpy bodyguard.

My best friend, Rhys, who turned me down when I confessed my feelings for him.

And Torsten, the assassin who I want to kill as much as I want to f*ck.

Not only is my entire future on the line. We’re risking our lives, and hearts, as we try to uncover the true enemy before it’s too late.

Ruthless Beauty is a standalone with a HEA. This book contains dark content, please see the author's website for details.]]> 486 Cassia Briar Draven 2 3.97 Ruthless Beauty
author: Cassia Briar
name: Draven
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2023/08/06
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves:
review:
Yes, I came here for the smut( no pun intended) but I have to say I’m disappointed. I’m a quality over quantity gal and the sex scenes lacked the details needed to be truly hot because there were so many to fit in. Add that to the insta love with Torsten that often took precedence over the decades long relationship with Rhys and Emilio, which didn’t wring true or plausible coupled some very juvenile dialogue and this was an all-around smutty miss for me.
]]> Misfits: A Personal Manifesto 57748024 A powerful manifesto on how speaking your truth and owning your differences can transform your life.

In this sensational agenda-setting début, Michaela Coel, BAFTA-winning actor and writer of breakout series I May Destroy You and Chewing Gum, makes a compelling case for radical honesty.

Drawing on her unflinching Edinburgh Festival MacTaggart lecture, Misfits recounts deeply personal anecdotes from Coel’s life and work to argue for greater transparency. With insight and wit, it lays bare her journey to reclaiming her creativity and power, inviting readers to reflect on theirs.

Advocating for â€misfitsâ€� everywhere, this timely, necessary book is a rousing and bold case against fitting in.]]> 112 Michaela Coel 1250843456 Draven 0 to-read 4.17 2021 Misfits: A Personal Manifesto
author: Michaela Coel
name: Draven
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Savages 15924400 320 Don Winslow 009957666X Draven 4
It's modern noir. It's rapid-fire, brilliant vocabulary on speed. It's dark, gritty, real and frankly, very sexy. A 21st century masterpiece!]]> 3.77 2010 Savages
author: Don Winslow
name: Draven
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2013/06/06
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves:
review:
Reading Savages is like sitting down at a grungy dive bar with a friend you haven't seen in years, telling you the craziest, wildest story you've ever heard, while doing tequila shooters with a beer chaser. No matter how many random tangents he goes off on, he always comes back to the original story and it just gets better and better.

It's modern noir. It's rapid-fire, brilliant vocabulary on speed. It's dark, gritty, real and frankly, very sexy. A 21st century masterpiece!
]]> Death Valley 91239751
Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.]]> 240 Melissa Broder 1668024845 Draven 0 to-read 3.46 2023 Death Valley
author: Melissa Broder
name: Draven
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Talking at Night 62583508
They’re opposites in every way. She overthinks everything; he is her twin brother’s wild and unpredictable friend. But over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer—destined to be one another’s great love story.

Until, one day, tragedy strikes, and their future together is shattered.

But as the years roll on, Will and Rosie can’t help but find their way back to each other. Time and again, they come close to rekindling what might have been.

What do you do when the one person you should forget is the one you just can’t let go?]]> 400 Claire Daverley 0593653483 Draven 0 to-read 3.91 2023 Talking at Night
author: Claire Daverley
name: Draven
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)]]> 60714999 Human or vampire, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always � always � guard your heart.

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.

But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.

Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown� and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.

But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone � but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night is the first book in a new series of heart-wrenching romance, dark magic, and bloodthirsty intrigue, perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.]]> 504 Carissa Broadbent Draven 0 to-read 4.30 2022 The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: Draven
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Darkest Temptation (Made, #3)]]> 56250307 410 Danielle Lori Draven 3
Ronan’s great but no one beats Nico for me. ]]> 4.04 2020 The Darkest Temptation (Made, #3)
author: Danielle Lori
name: Draven
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/02
date added: 2023/07/02
shelves:
review:
Unfortunately, bully romance is just never going to hit all the right spots for me. I love the Made series but this just felt too disconnected from the other two books. I might’ve rated it higher if it wasn’t set primarily in Moscow and with so much untranslated Russian. I don’t want to read with Google Translate open next to me.

Ronan’s great but no one beats Nico for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)]]> 60784546 After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again�

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands � that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper � an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.]]> 357 Rebecca Ross 1250857430 Draven 0 to-read 4.14 2023 Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Draven
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)]]> 58340706
Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom of Blunder—she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.

But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. And the highwayman? He just so happens to be the King’s nephew, Captain of the most dangerous men in Blunder…and guilty of high treason.

Together they must gather twelve Providence Cards—the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.]]> 399 Rachel Gillig 0316312487 Draven 0 to-read 4.25 2022 One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Draven
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 528 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Draven 5
This is fantasy the way I enjoy it best. Yes, there’s dragons, mythical lands and magic but at its heart, it’s character-driven. You fall in love with these characters, you cheat death with these characters, you embrace these characters like family, dearest to your heart. It doesn’t read like YA and it’s definitely not Twilight with dragons. There’s swearing, violence and lusty, undiluted sex. It deserves every single word of hype it’s receiving.

What Yarros has achieved here is her own, one of kind, lightning strike. I’m so glad I came for the ride. ]]> 4.56 2023 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Draven
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/26
date added: 2023/06/26
shelves:
review:
There’s a shortlist of books that have made me cry and Fourth Wing has just been added to the list.

This is fantasy the way I enjoy it best. Yes, there’s dragons, mythical lands and magic but at its heart, it’s character-driven. You fall in love with these characters, you cheat death with these characters, you embrace these characters like family, dearest to your heart. It doesn’t read like YA and it’s definitely not Twilight with dragons. There’s swearing, violence and lusty, undiluted sex. It deserves every single word of hype it’s receiving.

What Yarros has achieved here is her own, one of kind, lightning strike. I’m so glad I came for the ride.
]]> Follow 38916888 262 Tessa Bailey 1977905609 Draven 5
I love that all the sass and lust came with humour and that a giant Great Dane was a pivotal supporting character. I love that she found a way to express every millennial’s nostalgia for Pretty Woman into a healthy kink between two consenting adults while keeping the sex scenes top tier filthy.

She has the rom-com secret sauce down to an art. ]]> 3.75 2017 Follow
author: Tessa Bailey
name: Draven
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/22
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves:
review:
This might be my favourite insta-love romance I’ve read so far and no one writes insta-love better than Tessa Bailey.

I love that all the sass and lust came with humour and that a giant Great Dane was a pivotal supporting character. I love that she found a way to express every millennial’s nostalgia for Pretty Woman into a healthy kink between two consenting adults while keeping the sex scenes top tier filthy.

She has the rom-com secret sauce down to an art.
]]> <![CDATA[The Boyfriend Candidate (Fool Me Once, #2)]]> 62197594
Enter Logan, the gorgeous, foul-mouthed stranger she meets at a hotel bar. Audacious and filterless, Logan is Alexis's opposite-and boy, do opposites attract! Just as she's about to fulfill her hookup wish, the hotel catches fire in a freak lightning storm. In their rush to escape, Logan is discovered carrying her into the street, where people are waiting with cameras. Cameras Logan promptly-and shockingly-flees.

Alexis is bewildered until suddenly pictures of her and Logan escaping the fire are all over the internet. Turns out Logan is none other than Logan Arthur, the hotshot candidate challenging the Texas governor's seat. The salacious scandal is poised to sink his career-and jeopardize Alexis's job-until a solution is he and Alexis could pretend to be in a relationship until election day…in two months. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 384 Ashley Winstead 1525804960 Draven 3 3.75 2023 The Boyfriend Candidate (Fool Me Once, #2)
author: Ashley Winstead
name: Draven
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/20
date added: 2023/06/20
shelves:
review:
I genuinely did laugh out loud at parts of Logan & Alexis� story, especially the waiter scene but this rom com was missing the rom for 85% of the book. The opening meet cute/stranger to lovers hinted at the possibility of great spice but to have it be relegated to the last 30 pages killed what would have been pretty decent spice. Also, definitely could have used POV chapters for Logan.Felt one-sided without his point of view.
]]> Three Women 42201100 A riveting true story about the sex lives of three real American women, based on nearly a decade of reporting.

Hailed as “a dazzling achievement� (Los Angeles Times) and “riveting page-turner that explores desire, heartbreak, and infatuation in all its messy, complicated nuance� (The Washington Post), Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women has captivated readers, booksellers, and critics—and topped bestseller lists—worldwide.

In suburban Indiana we meet Lina, a homemaker and mother of two whose marriage, after a decade, has lost its passion. Starved for affection, Lina battles daily panic attacks and, after reconnecting with an old flame through social media, embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming. In North Dakota we meet Maggie, a seventeen-year-old high school student who allegedly has a clandestine physical relationship with her handsome, married English teacher; the ensuing criminal trial will turn their quiet community upside down. Finally, in an exclusive enclave of the Northeast, we meet Sloane—a gorgeous, successful, and refined restaurant owner—who is happily married to a man who likes to watch her have sex with other men and women.

Based on years of immersive reporting and told with astonishing frankness and immediacy, Three Women is both a feat of journalism and a triumph of storytelling, brimming with nuance and empathy. “A work of deep observation, long conversations, and a kind of journalistic alchemy� (Kate Tuttle, NPR), Three Women introduces us to three unforgettable women—and one remarkable writer—whose experiences remind us that we are not alone.]]> 306 Lisa Taddeo 1451642296 Draven 4
There is a part of all of us in Three Women. ]]> 3.72 2019 Three Women
author: Lisa Taddeo
name: Draven
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2023/06/16
shelves:
review:
It’s a slow starter but it simmers like every repressed primal scream felt by Maggie, Lina and Sloane. It’s sharp and it stings, the brutal truth that female desire is still considered with shame, to be diminished and compartmentalized. We’re still expected to be wrapped in apologies for simply wanting, whatever it may be.

There is a part of all of us in Three Women.
]]> Slaughterhouse-Five 168646 Ěý
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
Ěý
Slaughterhouse-Five , an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.�

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O’Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut’s words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as “the kind of writer who made people—young people especially—want to write.� George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be “the great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us . . . a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves.�

More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut’s portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]> 215 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0440180295 Draven 2 4.08 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Draven
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1969
rating: 2
read at: 2010/06/01
date added: 2023/06/04
shelves:
review:
Not something I would've picked up out of natural curiosity and with reason. Wasn't really my "thing" but I read it as part of a LOST-related reading list I intend to complete.
]]> The Lemon Grove 20939590
Each summer, Jenn and her husband Greg return to Deia, on Mallorca's dramatic west coast. This year the arrival of Emma, Jenn's stepdaughter, and her new boyfriend Nathan threatens to upset their equilibrium. Beautiful and reckless, Nathan stirs something unexpected in Jenn. As she is increasingly seduced by Nathan's youth and the promise of passion, the line between desire and obsession begins to blur. What follows is a highly-charged liaison that puts lives and relationships in jeopardy. For Jenn, after this summer, nothing can ever be the same.]]> 290 Helen Walsh 147221210X Draven 3
I wish she had stayed in that mindset throughout the book. The petty jealousy and rivalry with her stepdaughter felt immature and trope-y and by the end, it felt like she was trying to make it a thriller, which it isn’t. A very uneven story. ]]> 3.23 2014 The Lemon Grove
author: Helen Walsh
name: Draven
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/09
date added: 2023/05/09
shelves:
review:
It’s an uncomfortable topic and it’s a good thing an affair between a middle aged woman and a 17 year old boy makes readers uncomfortable. I don’t believe Walsh was trying to romanticize the affair so much as lean into the psychology of feeling as though you’ve forgotten yourself along the years and bent too far under the weight of expectations and doing the right thing. The somewhat animalistic nature that comes to a woman in her 40s, feeling most in bloom but societal pressures repressing it.

I wish she had stayed in that mindset throughout the book. The petty jealousy and rivalry with her stepdaughter felt immature and trope-y and by the end, it felt like she was trying to make it a thriller, which it isn’t. A very uneven story.
]]> Mother's Day Inn 123271309 I had everything under control until I met Theo.

My life was simple, straightforward, and clean. I thrived in my career, improved daily at being a single parent, and disguised any not-so-ideal parts of my life pretty well.

Like the fact I carried more than a few insecurities my ex-husband left me with. The biggest being the simple notion that I was one of many options, and my idea of love was ridiculous.

I knew it only existed on the big screen or in the pages of books, but I still wanted it.

Still yearned for it. Still hoped that maybe, somehow, I’d find it.

Never once did I think I’d find it in the lifeguard nearly ten years my junior.

Theo plans to dismantle everything I thought I knew. He wants to rip down every wall I have and rebuild it with just four words.]]> 118 Lee Jacquot Draven 5
I’m so picky with age-gap, there’s usually some cringeworthy dialogue involved but not here. Perfectly executed and guaranteed to make your thighs clench. ]]> 3.72 2023 Mother's Day Inn
author: Lee Jacquot
name: Draven
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/06
date added: 2023/05/06
shelves:
review:
Deliciously spicy, in a delightfully unexpected way. A bullseye on the erotica novella format. Jacquot has the gift for the format.

I’m so picky with age-gap, there’s usually some cringeworthy dialogue involved but not here. Perfectly executed and guaranteed to make your thighs clench.
]]> <![CDATA[Nightingale: A Charity Anthology in Support of Ukraine]]> 60604488
All royalties from this project will be donated to relief and human rights organizations working in Ukraine. We aren't affiliated or endorsed by these charities. We are simply authors who want to help.]]> 1486 Skye Warren Draven 2
Two stars are for the saving grace that was the Roni Loren original short story. That was worth the wait to read. ]]> 4.21 2022 Nightingale: A Charity Anthology in Support of Ukraine
author: Skye Warren
name: Draven
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/30
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves:
review:
I bought this to support the Ukrainian resistance. It’s an anthology but I don’t know whose idea it was to compile mostly epilogues because that defeats the purpose of getting readers to purchase the books individually, when we know the ending.

Two stars are for the saving grace that was the Roni Loren original short story. That was worth the wait to read.
]]> 44 Chapters About 4 Men 52544987
One woman’s secret journal completely changes her marriage in this hilarious and biting memoir � the inspiration for the Netflix Original Series SEX/LIFE.

School psychologists aren't supposed to write books about sex. Doing so would be considered "unethical" and "a fireable offense." Lucky for you, ethics was never my strong suit.

44 Chapters About 4 Men is a laugh-out-loud funny and brutally honest look at female sexuality, as told through the razor-sharp lens of domesticated bad girl BB Easton. No one and nothing is off limits as BB revisits the ex-boyfriends—a sadistic tattoo artist, a punk rock parolee, and a heavy metal bass player—that led her to finally find true love with a straight-laced, drop-dead-gorgeous . . . accountant.

After settling down and starting a family with her perfectly vanilla "husbot," Ken, BB finds herself longing for the reckless passion she had in her youth. She begins to write about these escapades in a secret journal, just for fun, but when Ken starts to act out the words on the pages, BB realizes that she might have stumbled upon the holy grail of behavior modification techniques. The psychological dance that ensues is nothing short of hilarious as BB wields her journal like a blowtorch, trying to light a fire under her cold, distant partner. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but in the end, BB learns that the man she was trying so hard to change was perfect for her all along.]]> 352 B.B. Easton Draven 0 to-read 3.53 2016 44 Chapters About 4 Men
author: B.B. Easton
name: Draven
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blind Side (Red Zone Rivals, #2)]]> 60633773 The hottest college football safety in the nation just asked me to be his fake girlfriend.

And I just asked him to take my virginity.

Clay Johnson has the abs of Adonis and the deadly smirk of the devil, himself. There’s hardly a day he’s not headline material during football season, and never a day he isn’t a bullseye target for every girl on campus.

He used to be the easiest of all the players for me to wrangle as the Public Relations Coordinator, but after a nasty breakup with his high school sweetheart, he’s a mess.

And a complete pain in my ass.

We meet to discuss his behavior and review media relations standards. But when he witnesses how I fall to pieces in front of my guitar-toting crush, his wheels start turning. And he cooks up this absurd plan.

He helps me get noticed.
I help him make his ex jealous.
All by pretending to be in a relationship.

What he doesn’t realize is that this bookworm is a virgin, and far from versed in seducing a musician. So, to sweeten the deal, I convince him to help me � not just to get my crush’s attention, but to knock his socks off once I have it.

But the more I come unraveled at the hands of Clay Johnson, the more trouble I have discerning what’s fake and what’s undoubtedly real � particularly, the way my heart flutters every time that breathtaking man touches me.

We set the rules. We put the safeguards in place.

But they say rules are meant to be broken.
They probably should have added that hearts are, too.

Blind Side is a fake dating college sports romance with "lessons" and opposites attract. It is a complete stand-alone. ]]> 408 Kandi Steiner Draven 4
First time reading this author and I’m happy to stay and continue the ride along. ]]> 3.99 2022 Blind Side (Red Zone Rivals, #2)
author: Kandi Steiner
name: Draven
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/12
date added: 2023/02/12
shelves:
review:
Don’t let the blurb fool you. Yes, this is a college fake dating romance plot but there’s nothing amateur about the spice and sexual tension. That’s grown-up level. It’s a really fun balance between the angst of youth and the passion of adulthood. Steiner never takes herself too seriously and in doing so, it’s really easy to fall in love with her characters. And a man who’ll act out smut scenes from romance novels? What’s not to love about Clay?

First time reading this author and I’m happy to stay and continue the ride along.
]]> xo, Zach 36533273 334 Kendall Ryan Draven 2
I don't hate this book but I'm apathetic towards it. Everything felt so contrived. The chemistry, the personalities, even some of the spelling of the character names. Trying so hard to be modern and effortless that it reads fake. Especially Zach, 300 pages of horn dog dialogue but he's really just a lovesick puppy. Once again, all so very juvenile that it's hard to believe this isn't self-published by a teen in her bedroom but in fact written by an adult.]]> 3.79 2018 xo, Zach
author: Kendall Ryan
name: Draven
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2020/02/19
date added: 2023/02/08
shelves:
review:
I'm still waiting to like a Kendall Ryan book. I have 6 more to go but hopes aren't high.

I don't hate this book but I'm apathetic towards it. Everything felt so contrived. The chemistry, the personalities, even some of the spelling of the character names. Trying so hard to be modern and effortless that it reads fake. Especially Zach, 300 pages of horn dog dialogue but he's really just a lovesick puppy. Once again, all so very juvenile that it's hard to believe this isn't self-published by a teen in her bedroom but in fact written by an adult.
]]> Jane & Edward 61358660 This powerful reimagining of Jane Eyre, set in a modern-day law firm, is full of romance and hope as it follows the echoing heartbeats of the classic story.

A former foster kid, Jane has led a solitary life as a waitress in the suburbs, working hard to get by. Tired of years of barely scraping together a living, Jane takes classes to become a legal assistant and shortly after graduating accepts a job offer at a distinguished law firm in downtown Toronto. Everyone at the firm thinks she is destined for failure because her boss is the notoriously difficult Edward Rosen, the majority stakeholder of Rosen, Haythe & Thornfield LLP. But Jane has known far worse trials and refuses to back down when economic freedom is so close at hand.

Edward has never been able to keep an assistant--he's too loud, too messy, too ill-tempered. There's something about the quietly competent, delightfully sharp-witted Jane that intrigues him though. As their orbits overlap, their feelings begin to develop--first comes fondness and then something more. But when Edward's secrets put Jane's independence in jeopardy, she must face long-ignored ghosts from her past and decide if opening her heart is a risk worth taking.]]> 352 Melodie Edwards 0593440773 Draven 0 to-read 3.92 2023 Jane & Edward
author: Melodie Edwards
name: Draven
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Liberty Falls 60796516
No, really, I’d pay almost anything to see my childhood rival on his knees, ankle in hand, with my foot dangling in his smug little face.

And I’m pretty sure if you asked him, he wouldn’t mind me tasting his boots.

Sounds a little much, but it’s been like this since we were old enough to talk, and even then I’m sure it was a race as to who spoke first. I’m pretty sure we were born to be this way, and in the three decades since, nothing has changed.

For those reasons alone it shouldn’t surprise me when Kam pulls one of his classic moves and forces us to compete in yet another bet. Only this time, the winner isn’t subjected to something like our usual Designated Driver duty or eating a lime off the floor.

This time, it’s for each other. It’s to end the undertones of tension that neither of us can deny, and put the neverending torment to rest.

But in the end, the real question still remains�

Is this just another bet, or are we playing for keeps?]]> 113 Lee Jacquot Draven 4 3.92 2022 Liberty Falls
author: Lee Jacquot
name: Draven
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/04
date added: 2023/02/04
shelves:
review:
The spice is just right with this one. It does indeed live up to the hype. It’s a dash of enemies to friends to rabid lovers and it works in this novella format. Sexual tension and dirty talk done right. I look forward to my next read from this author.
]]> <![CDATA[DC's Harley Quinn Romances (2023) #1 (DC Holiday Special)]]> 89521566 86 Alexis Quasarano Draven 0 to-read 3.34 DC's Harley Quinn Romances (2023) #1 (DC Holiday Special)
author: Alexis Quasarano
name: Draven
average rating: 3.34
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Clarissa, or, The History of a Young Lady]]> 529243 1534 Samuel Richardson 0140432159 Draven 0 to-read 3.39 1748 Clarissa, or, The History of a Young Lady
author: Samuel Richardson
name: Draven
average rating: 3.39
book published: 1748
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hello Beautiful 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano Draven 0 to-read 4.14 2023 Hello Beautiful
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Draven
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Seven Ages 76549 The Seven Ages was written during a ten-week period in the summer of 1999.

The fierce, austerely beautiful, and visionary voice that has become GlĂĽck's trademark speaks in these poems of a life lived in unflinching awareness. Many of the poems in this collection bear the familiar features of GlĂĽck's earlier work, returning to themes of nature and the classical narratives that explain the phenomena of the world around us. Like Ararat, GlĂĽck's fifth book, this collection explores the hazards and pleasures of the domestic sphere and the family with an eye to the demonic. As in The Wild Iris, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993, and Vita Nova, imagination supplants both empiricism and tradition in these poems. Unlike her past work, many of these poems inhabit the realm of dreams, moving backward in time to an eidetic, unrecoverable past and ahead to an as-yet unrealized future. "Earth was given to me in a dream/ In a dream I possessed it."
In these poems, GlĂĽck is wry, dreamlike, idiomatic, undeceived, unrelenting.

This new transparent mode, although charged by the indelible imagery and exact phrasing her readers will recognize, represents an ecstatic departure from her previous work.

]]> 80 Louise GlĂĽck 0060933496 Draven 5 4.02 2001 The Seven Ages
author: Louise GlĂĽck
name: Draven
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/31
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
Introspection at its earthiest, most raw and yet interwoven with a delicate fragility and vulnerability. An invitation into the mind of Gluck: past, present, future; that simultaneously holds up a mirror to the reader’s own journey of the self.
]]> The Romance of the Forest 93135 326 Ann Radcliffe 0543930130 Draven 0 to-read 3.51 1791 The Romance of the Forest
author: Ann Radcliffe
name: Draven
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1791
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kingdom of the Cursed (Kingdom of the Wicked, #2)]]> 57393616 From #1 New York Times bestselling author of Stalking Jack the Ripper Kerri Maniscalco comes the sizzling, sweepingly romantic sequel to Kingdom of the Wicked!

One sister.
Two sinful princes.
Infinite deception with a side of revenge…Welcome to Hell.

After selling her soul to become Queen of the Wicked, Emilia travels to the Seven Circles with the enigmatic Prince of Wrath, where she’s introduced to a seductive world of vice.

She vows to do whatever it takes to avenge her beloved sister, Vittoria...even if that means accepting the hand of the Prince of Pride, the king of demons.

The first rule in the court of the Wicked? Trust no one. With back-stabbing princes, luxurious palaces, mysterious party invitations, and conflicting clues about who really killed her twin, Emilia finds herself more alone than ever before. Can she even trust Wrath, her one-time ally in the mortal world...or is he keeping dangerous secrets about his true nature?

Emilia will be tested in every way as she seeks a series of magical objects that will unlock the clues of her past and the answers she craves...]]> 466 Kerri Maniscalco 0316321966 Draven 2 4.27 2021 Kingdom of the Cursed (Kingdom of the Wicked, #2)
author: Kerri Maniscalco
name: Draven
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2022/12/28
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:
I can’t give this three stars when it took 320 pages for us to stop going in seven circles of hell to get to a point! All these riddles and nothing was actually tied to the other princes, the feast meaningless in the end, all the slow burn romance stunted to ensure we buy book three. There had better be a battle royale at this end of this because this level of frustration as a reader deserves better than a cookie cutter finish at the end of this story.
]]> The Game 63235520
I spent twelve hours writing algorithms for one of the largest companies in the world and then came home to work on a pet project of mine—feeding facts about the men I knew into a formula to find my perfect match before my twenties came barreling to a close.

But then a man knocked on my door and handed me some papers that turned my life upside down.

Apparently, a father I never knew existed had left me something in his will. That something turned out to be part ownership in a professional football team.

Next thing I knew, I was learning a sport I knew nothing about by spending time with the team’s quarterback who was out with an injury, a man who my formula would definitely determine was all wrong for me.

Christian Knox was too handsome and confident for his own good and could have any woman he wanted. Only lately the only woman he seemed to want was me.

But there was no way I was getting involved when I was now his boss, even if he was insanely gorgeous and had the dirtiest mouth I’d ever come across.

It would be wrong, wouldn’t it?

Probably. But you know what they say about things that are wrong...sometimes they feel so right.]]> 359 Vi Keeland 1959827030 Draven 0 to-read 3.99 2023 The Game
author: Vi Keeland
name: Draven
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2)]]> 60526802
1972, BLACK RIVER FALLS, Alicia Western, twenty years old, with forty thousand dollars in a plastic bag, admits herself to the hospital. A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, Alicia has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and she does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby. Instead, she contemplates the nature of madness, the human insistence on one common experience of the world; she recalls a childhood where, by the age of seven, her own grandmother feared for her; she surveys the intersection of physics and philosophy; and she introduces her cohorts, her chimeras, the hallucinations that only she can see. All the while, she grieves for Bobby, not quite dead, not quite hers. Told entirely through the transcripts of Alicia’s psychiatric sessions, Stella Maris is a searching, rigorous, intellectually challenging coda to The Passenger, a philosophical inquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and existence.]]> 190 Cormac McCarthy 0307269000 Draven 0 to-read 3.83 2022 Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Draven
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Night Shift 59808102 From the author of the breakout thriller Every Last Fear, comes the electrifying new novel about a pair of small-town murders fifteen years apart—and the ties that bind them.

“The night was expected to bring tragedy.� So begins one of the most highly-anticipated thrillers of 2022.

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in Linden, New Jersey, four teenage girls working the night shift are attacked. Only one survives. Police quickly identify a suspect who flees and is never seen again.

Fifteen years later, in the same town, four teenage employees working late at an ice cream store are attacked, and again only one makes it out alive.

Both surviving victims recall the killer speaking only a few final words. . . . “Goodnight, pretty girl.�

In the aftermath, three lives intersect: the survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who’s forced to relive her tragedy; the brother of the original suspect, who’s convinced the police have it wrong; and the FBI agent, who’s determined to solve both cases. On a collision course toward the truth, all three lives will forever be changed, and not everyone will make it out alive.

Twisty, poignant, and redemptive, The Night Shift is a story about the legacy of trauma and how the broken can come out on the other side, and it solidifies Alex Finlay as one of the new leading voices in the world of thrillers.]]> 384 Alex Finlay 125085038X Draven 0 to-read 3.92 2022 The Night Shift
author: Alex Finlay
name: Draven
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kingdom of the Wicked (Kingdom of the Wicked, #1)]]> 52735921 Two sisters.
One brutal murder.
A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself...
And an intoxicating romance.

Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe - witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family's renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin...desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister's killer and to seek vengeance at any cost—even if it means using dark magic that's been long forbidden.

Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked—princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia's side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women's murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems...]]> 372 Kerri Maniscalco 0316428469 Draven 4 3.87 2020 Kingdom of the Wicked (Kingdom of the Wicked, #1)
author: Kerri Maniscalco
name: Draven
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/05
date added: 2022/11/05
shelves:
review:
A generous 4 stars. This was hyped as a slow burn but it’s really a low simmer. Could be a 5 star outing if the pacing were better. Just feels bogged down in parts where Maniscalco gets caught up trying to prove she’s Sicilian and well-researched in with witchcraft mythos. That said the potential for the series is there and the simmer, however so to boil, between Emilia and Wrath is worth the wait.
]]> Luckiest Girl Alive 22609317
As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all� and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?]]> 338 Jessica Knoll 1476789630 Draven 0 to-read 3.50 2015 Luckiest Girl Alive
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Draven
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tell Me Lies 32735369 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.]]> 352 Carola Lovering Draven 0 to-read 3.46 2018 Tell Me Lies
author: Carola Lovering
name: Draven
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Court of the Vampire Queen 60338559 Three Powerfully Alluring Vampire Men
And One Queen to Rule Them All

All Mina ever wanted was to escape her father's control. Half human, half vampire, she lived eternally torn between two worlds, never fully experiencing the pleasures of either—until her father chose her as the pawn in his latest political move, gifting her to the darkly powerful and dangerously seductive Malachi Zion.

Malachi is not a vampire to be trifled with. He rules with an iron fist and has a reputation for the darkest of sins. But the longer Mina spends with him, the more she realizes he's not the monster she first thought—and as fear bleeds into lust, then trust, then something more, Malachi opens Mina up to a world she never knew could be hers for the taking: including the love of Malachi's two closest friends and companions.

Now surrounded by all three men, the center of their shockingly seductive world, Mina may finally have the power to face down her father and take back the life—and crown—that by all rights should be hers.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN.

NOTE: Court of the Vampire Queen combines all three books in the Bloodline Vampires series. ]]> 496 Katee Robert 1728264693 Draven 3
This is really good reverse harem vampire smut. However, there’s little to no meaningful plot. There’s no buildup, be it world-building or backstory and without it, we have very little reason to care about anything but the smut, which starts right out of the gate.

So, come for the smut, it’s top tier but don’t expect anything else. ]]> 3.28 2022 Court of the Vampire Queen
author: Katee Robert
name: Draven
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/12
date added: 2022/10/12
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars.

This is really good reverse harem vampire smut. However, there’s little to no meaningful plot. There’s no buildup, be it world-building or backstory and without it, we have very little reason to care about anything but the smut, which starts right out of the gate.

So, come for the smut, it’s top tier but don’t expect anything else.
]]> Shrines of Gaiety 60371805
The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.

With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson gives us a window in a vanished world. Slyly funny, brilliantly observant, and ingeniously plotted, Shrines of Gaiety showcases the myriad talents that have made Atkinson one of the most lauded writers of our time.]]> 439 Kate Atkinson 0385547978 Draven 0 to-read 3.78 2022 Shrines of Gaiety
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Draven
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> If We Were Villains 30319086
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.]]> 354 M.L. Rio 125009528X Draven 0 to-read 4.11 2017 If We Were Villains
author: M.L. Rio
name: Draven
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Hating Game 54333378 USA Today bestselling author Sally Thorne bursts on the scene with a hilarious and sexy workplace comedy all about that thin, fine line between hate and love.

Lucy Hutton has always believed that the nice girl can get the corner office. She’s charming and accommodating and prides herself on being loved by everyone. Everyone except sarcastic, cynical, and intimidating Joshua Templeman. Her nemesis.

Josh is the dark and brooding to Lucy’s light and cheery, the crisp pressed suit to her retro outfits and bright red lipstick. And he gets under her skin like no one else can. Trapped in a shared office together five days a week, they’ve become entrenched in an addictive, never-ending game of one-upmanship.

When a new executive position is announced, Josh and Lucy are top contenders for the promotion, but the idea of working for the other is so unthinkable that they strike a deal: whoever doesn’t get the job will walk away. The stakes have never been higher and as the competition heats up and the barriers between them begin to fall down, Lucy starts questioning just who her opponent truly is and whether this man she’s hated all this time is even the real Josh.

Maybe Lucy Hutton doesn’t hate Joshua Templeman. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either.]]> 388 Sally Thorne 0063063530 Draven 3 3.96 2016 The Hating Game
author: Sally Thorne
name: Draven
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/25
date added: 2022/09/25
shelves:
review:
I must say, this book came hyped as spicier than it is. It’s a great rom-com but spicy, not really. You’re here for the witty banter and repartee not sexy times. It’s the slowest of slow burns. It’s a good time but dare I say it: the movie actually did it better.
]]> <![CDATA[The American Roommate Experiment (Love Deception, #2)]]> 60114057 From the author of the Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ Choice Award winner The Spanish Love Deception, the eagerly anticipated follow-up featuring Rosie Graham and Lucas MartĂ­n, who are forced to share a New York apartment.

Rosie Graham has a problem. A few, actually. She just quit her well paid job to focus on her secret career as a romance writer. She hasn’t told her family and now has terrible writer’s block. Then, the ceiling of her New York apartment literally crumbles on her. Luckily she has her best friend Lina’s spare key while she’s out of town. But Rosie doesn’t know that Lina has already lent her apartment to her cousin Lucas, who Rosie has been stalking—for lack of a better word—on Instagram for the last few months. Lucas seems intent on coming to her rescue like a Spanish knight in shining armor. Only this one strolls around the place in a towel, has a distracting grin, and an irresistible accent. Oh, and he cooks.

Lucas offers to let Rosie stay with him, at least until she can find some affordable temporary housing. And then he proposes an outrageous experiment to bring back her literary muse and meet her deadline: He’ll take her on a series of experimental dates meant to jump-start her romantic inspiration. Rosie has nothing to lose. Her silly, online crush is totally under control—but Lucas’s time in New York has an expiration date, and six weeks may not be enough, for either her or her deadline.]]> 400 Elena Armas 1668002779 Draven 3
Experiment still has the humour, quirk and charm we’ve come to love from Armas but was missing the palpable tension, the heat. It was just a little too sweet, a little too gooey. It’s missing the spice for balance. I’m left wanting more. ]]> 3.78 2022 The American Roommate Experiment (Love Deception, #2)
author: Elena Armas
name: Draven
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/16
date added: 2022/09/16
shelves:
review:
It’s very difficult for a sequel to live up to the original and unfortunately, this one just missed the mark of the first book’s magic.

Experiment still has the humour, quirk and charm we’ve come to love from Armas but was missing the palpable tension, the heat. It was just a little too sweet, a little too gooey. It’s missing the spice for balance. I’m left wanting more.
]]> <![CDATA[One of Us Is Lying (One of Us is Lying, #1)]]> 58679358 On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.]]> 416 Karen M. McManus 0593565371 Draven 0 to-read 3.87 2017 One of Us Is Lying (One of Us is Lying, #1)
author: Karen M. McManus
name: Draven
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dangerous Women 17702284 Dangerous Women:

"Dangerous Women was conceived of as a cross-genre anthology, one that would mingle every kind of fiction, so we asked writers from every genre � science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical, horror, paranormal romance, men and women alike � to tackle the theme of Dangerous Women, and that call was answered by some of the best writers in the business.... Here you’ll find no hapless victims who stand by whimpering in dread while the male hero fights the monster or clashes swords with the villain, and if you want to tie these women to the railroad tracks, you’ll find you have a real fight on your hands. Instead, you will find sword-wielding women warriors, intrepid women fighter pilots and far-ranging spacewomen, deadly female serial killers, formidable female superheroes, sly and seductive femmes fatale, female wizards, hard-living bad girls, female bandits and rebels, embattled survivors in postapocalyptic futures, female private investigators, stern female hanging judges, haughty queens who rule nations and whose jealousies and ambitions send thousands to grisly deaths, daring dragonriders, and many more."

Every story in this volume appears here for the first time. Included is a long novella by George R.R. Martin from the world of his Song of Ice and Fire series, telling the tale of the vast Targaryen civil war that was the original "Dance of the Dragons". Also included is a new Jim Butcher tale from the world of his wildly popular Harry Dresden novels; an original story by Lev Grossman about Brakebills, the school in his bestselling novels The Magicians and The Magician King; a new work by Diana Gabaldon about the early life of Jamie Fraser from her world-famous Outlander series; and original stories of powerful women from Megan Lindholm (known for her novels as “Robin Hobb�), Brandon Sanderson, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Joe Abercrombie, Sharon Kay Penman, Carrie Vaughn, Lawrence Block, and many others. It is a monumental collection of unforgettable work.

Contents:
- Introduction by Gardner Dozois
- Some Desperado by Joe Abercrombie (a Red Country story)
- My Heart is Either Broken by Megan Abbott
- Nora’s Song by Cecelia Holland
- The Hands That Are Not There by Melinda Snodgrass
- Bombshells by Jim Butcher (a Harry Dresden story)
- Raisa Stepanova by Carrie Vaughn
- Wrestling Jesus by Joe R. Lansdale
- Neighbors by Megan Lindholm
- I Know How to Pick ’Em by Lawrence Block
- Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson
- A Queen in Exile by Sharon Kay Penman
- The Girl in the Mirror by Lev Grossman (a Magicians story)
- Second Arabesque, Very Slowly by Nancy Kress
- City Lazarus by Diana Rowland
- Virgins by Diana Gabaldon (an Outlander story)
- Hell Hath No Fury by Sherilynn Kenyon
- Pronouncing Doom by S.M. Stirling (an Emberverse story)
- Name the Beast by Sam Sykes
- Caretakers by Pat Cadigan
- Lies My Mother Told Me by Caroline Spector (a Wild Cards story)
- The Princess and the Queen by George R.R. Martin (a Song of Ice and Fire story)

]]> 784 George R.R. Martin 076533206X Draven 3 3.71 2013 Dangerous Women
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Draven
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/12
date added: 2022/09/12
shelves:
review:
Purchased this before the release of Fire & Blood so not really needed any longer for following the chronology of A Song of Ice & Fire but it’s still a good collection of short stories by respected sci-fi and fantasy writers.
]]> This Close to Okay 53916130 9781538715376

From the award-winning Southern writer who Roxane Gay calls "a consummate storyteller" comes a cathartic novel about the life-changing weekend shared between two strangers: a therapist and the man she prevents from ending his life.

On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing on the side of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett.

Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. But what she doesn't realize is that he's not the only one who needs healing -- and she's not the only one with secrets.

Alternating between Tallie and Emmett's perspectives as they inch closer to the truth of what brought Emmett to the bridge's edge -- as well as the hard truths Tallie has been grappling with in her own life -- This Close to Okay is a vibrant, powerful story of two strangers brought together by wild chance at the moment they needed each other most.]]> 311 Leesa Cross-Smith Draven 0 to-read 3.68 2021 This Close to Okay
author: Leesa Cross-Smith
name: Draven
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sweet Salvation (Ruthless Games, #3)]]> 57567962
Once upon a time, I saved Marcus Constantine’s life.

Then he, Theo, and Ryland saved mine.

But that’s not enough anymore. It’s not enough to just survive. I want a future with these men. I want peace and happiness.

And the only way to find it is through war.

We’re done playing defense. This time, the game won’t stop until the blood of our enemies runs as red as the roses on my tattoo. Because it’s a different game now, and we make the rules.

More and more, I think Marcus was right. Our souls really are bound by blood.

These men are a part of me.

And God fucking help anyone who threatens them.


This is the final book in the Ruthless Games series, a new adult reverse harem romance. It contains steamy bedroom scenes, violence, and dark subject matter. Please venture between these pages at your own discretion.]]> 276 Callie Rose Draven 1 4.09 Sweet Salvation (Ruthless Games, #3)
author: Callie Rose
name: Draven
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2022/09/03
date added: 2022/09/03
shelves:
review:
I am running out of ways to describe my apathy towards this entire series. By the end I just didn’t care anymore. Didn’t care if they all lived, who would win the game nor if they got a happily ever after and no amount of sexy threesomes could change my feelings on it start to finish.
]]> <![CDATA[The Maddest Obsession (Made #2)]]> 45186065 She fears the dark.
He rules it.

Her dresses are too tight, her heels too tall. She laughs too loudly, eats without decorum, and mixes up most sayings in the book. Little do most know it’s just a sparkly disguise, there to hide one panic attack at a time.

Nobody can crack Gianna’s facade . . . no one anyway, until he comes along.

Most see a paragon of morality; a special agent upholding the law. In the New York underworld, others know him as a hustler, a killer, his nature as cold as the heart of ice in his chest. Christian Allister has always followed the life plan he’d envisioned in his youth, beneath the harsh lights of a frigid, damp cell. With a proclivity for order and the number three, he’s never been tempted to veer off course. But perhaps one should never say never . . .

One winter night and their lives intertwine. She hates him—his stone-cold demeanor, his arrogance and too-perceptive eye—but over the years, even as their games consist of insulting each other’s looks and intelligence, she begins to live to play with him.

Nowhere in Christian’s plans had he ever prepared for Gianna. She’s chaos embodied, not his type, and married, but none of that can stop his eyes from following her wherever she goes.

All along, she doesn’t even know that she’s his—his frustration, his fascination.

His maddest obsession.]]> 331 Danielle Lori 1093765003 Draven 4 4.38 2019 The Maddest Obsession (Made #2)
author: Danielle Lori
name: Draven
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/29
date added: 2022/08/26
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars. Could give it a five but I’m less of a fan of the bully romance during the first half but man, that second half of all consuming, obsessive, you’re mine passion? Inject that into my veins all day, ever day. Perfect mix of angst and devoted love I can’t get enough of. Bring on Ronan and book three.
]]> <![CDATA[Sweet Retribution (Ruthless Games, #2)]]> 57567923 I knew my shadows were hiding something, but I never expected this.

The game is over� for now. But once again, three simple gunshots have blown my world to pieces.

I came back from the darkness last time. I pulled my life back together. This time, though? I don’t know how to do that.

Secrets are buried deep in Halston.
Alliances are formed in darkness.
And vengeance is the only balm for a broken heart.

I was never meant to be a part of this game.

But if they didn’t want me to play, they should never have touched what was mine.

This is the second book in the Ruthless Games series, a new adult reverse harem romance. It contains sexual situations, violence, and dark subject matter. Please venture between these pages at your own discretion.]]> 251 Callie Rose Draven 2
Give me a reason to care Ms. Rose. Maybe Book 3 will salvage the series but my expectations are low. ]]> 4.01 Sweet Retribution (Ruthless Games, #2)
author: Callie Rose
name: Draven
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2022/08/15
date added: 2022/08/15
shelves:
review:
Here’s my problem with this series: I bought all three books at once but as I’ve gone through the first two books, I find myself struggling to care about two crucial components of this trilogy. I struggle to care about Marcus the main love interest and I struggle to care about this bizarre mafia hunger games competition the foursome is involved in and every time I find myself getting interested, it’s interrupted by a sex scene that’s always random and out of place.

Give me a reason to care Ms. Rose. Maybe Book 3 will salvage the series but my expectations are low.
]]> The House Across the Lake 58909880 The New York Times best-selling author of Final Girls and Survive the Night is back with his most unexpected thriller yet.

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy surprises, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake unveils more than one twist that will shock readers until the very last page.]]> 369 Riley Sager Draven 0 to-read 3.57 2022 The House Across the Lake
author: Riley Sager
name: Draven
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter 37380 359 Carson McCullers 0618084746 Draven 0 to-read 3.99 1940 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
author: Carson McCullers
name: Draven
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1940
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wicked Beauty (Dark Olympus, #3)]]> 58882280 She was the face that launched a thousand ships,
The fierce beauty at the heart of Olympus,
And she was never ours to claim.

In Olympus, you either have the power to rule... or you are ruled. Achilles Kallis may have been born with nothing, but as a child he vowed he would claw his way into the poisonous city's inner circle. Now that a coveted role has opened to anyone with the strength to claim it, he and his partner, Patroclus Fotos, plan to compete and double their odds of winning.

Neither expect infamous beauty Helen Kasios to be part of the prize... or for the complicated fire that burns the moment she looks their way.

Zeus may have decided Helen is his to give to away, but she has her own plans. She enters into the competition as a middle finger to the meddling Thirteen rulers, effectively vying for her own hand in marriage. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather see her dead than lead the city. The only people she can trust are the ones she can't keep her hands off—Achilles and Patroclus. But can she really believe they have her best interests at heart when every stolen kiss is a battlefield?

A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Helen of Troy, Achilles, and Patroclus that's as sinful as it is sweet.]]> 380 Katee Robert 1728231795 Draven 5 4.08 2022 Wicked Beauty (Dark Olympus, #3)
author: Katee Robert
name: Draven
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/26
date added: 2022/07/26
shelves:
review:
This is the Katee Robert book I’ve been waiting for. After the insta-love of the first two books, I’m finally gifted with some angst, some enemies to lovers and it was worth the wait. The first bodyguard/forced proximity scene between Helen, Achilles and Patroclus made me downright feral. MMF is decidedly my new favourite trope/kink.
]]> The Gray Man (Gray Man, #1) 6547865 Courtland Gentry is a good man. But he’s a great assassin.

To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always.

But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness.

But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive…]]> 456 Mark Greaney Draven 0 to-read 4.12 2009 The Gray Man (Gray Man, #1)
author: Mark Greaney
name: Draven
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire, #1)]]> 58261945 From New York Times bestselling author Jay Kristoff comes Empire of the Vampire , the first illustrated volume of an astonishing new dark fantasy saga.

From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hand sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs� sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.

It has been twenty-seven long years since the last sunrise. For nearly three decades, vampires have waged war against humanity; building their eternal empire even as they tear down our own. Now, only a few tiny sparks of light endure in a sea of darkness.

Gabriel de LeĂłn is a a member of a holy brotherhood dedicated to defending realm and church from the creatures of the night. But even the Silver Order could not stem the tide once daylight failed us, and now, only Gabriel remains.

Imprisoned by the very monsters he vowed to destroy, the last silversaint is forced to tell his story. A story of legendary battles and forbidden love, of faith lost and friendships won, of the Wars of the Blood and the Forever King and the quest for humanity’s last remaining

The Holy Grail.]]> 725 Jay Kristoff 0008350442 Draven 0 to-read 4.28 2021 Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire, #1)
author: Jay Kristoff
name: Draven
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Give Me More (Salacious Players Club, #3)]]> 59420466 Playboy. Man whore.
Basically, I get around, and I’m not afraid to admit it.

So when my best friend opens up Salacious Players� Club and asks me to head the construction, how could I say no?
Now we’re on a cross-country road trip touring other kink clubs, and I couldn’t be happier.
Life is good.

Then Hunter suddenly asks me to sleep with his wife…while he watches.
I’ll do anything for my best friend, but this is the one request I should say no to.
Isabel is the woman of my dreams, but she’s his.
And the exact reason I should say no is the one reason I say yes.
Because it’s not only Isabel I want.

These are the two most important people in my life, and if we go down this path, how will I ever be able to walk away?
I’m not sure my best friend understands just how much I’m willing to do for him—and why.]]> 358 Sara Cate Draven 4 4.18 2022 Give Me More (Salacious Players Club, #3)
author: Sara Cate
name: Draven
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/19
date added: 2022/07/19
shelves:
review:
This isn’t exactly plot-driven writing & I started at book 3 but that’s not the point. This is some of the filthiest, most delicious smut I’ve ever read. The kind that makes your thighs clench. And if you don’t come out of this a little bi-curious and spicy, you’re lying to yourself.
]]> Where the Crawdads Sing 37703550
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world–until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 370 Delia Owens 0735219095 Draven 4
The prose is raw and wild; slightly hypnotic in its naturalism. You feel as though you can breath in the mist of the swamp, the cool mud between your toes, the isolation is own living, breathing character.

The only part that kept this from being a five star review was the length and the excessive number of AH poems. Felt dragged in certain points. Extended when brevity would have added a unexpected sharpness. That said, I hope the adaptation does the prose justice. ]]> 4.42 2018 Where the Crawdads Sing
author: Delia Owens
name: Draven
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/15
date added: 2022/07/15
shelves:
review:
I know that there’s some controversy surrounding the author and a murder, shading very closely in between blurring lines of fiction and reality but that aside for the sake of an objective review, this is a beautifully written book.

The prose is raw and wild; slightly hypnotic in its naturalism. You feel as though you can breath in the mist of the swamp, the cool mud between your toes, the isolation is own living, breathing character.

The only part that kept this from being a five star review was the length and the excessive number of AH poems. Felt dragged in certain points. Extended when brevity would have added a unexpected sharpness. That said, I hope the adaptation does the prose justice.
]]> Briefly, A Delicious Life 59366260
In 1473, fourteen-year-old Blanca dies in a hilltop monastery in Mallorca. Nearly four hundred years later, when George Sand, her two children, and her lover Frederic Chopin arrive in the village, Blanca is still there: a spirited, funny, righteous ghost, she’s been hanging around the monastery since her accidental death, spying on the monks and the townspeople and keeping track of her descendants.

Blanca is enchanted the moment she sees George, and the magical novel unfolds as a story of deeply felt, unrequited longing—a teenage ghost pining for a woman who can’t see her and doesn’t know she exists. As George and Chopin, who wear their unconventionality, in George’s case, literally on their sleeves, find themselves in deepening trouble with the provincial, 19th-century villagers, Blanca watches helplessly and reflects on the circumstances of her own death (which involved an ill-advised love affair with a monk-in-training).

Charming, original, and emotionally moving -- gorgeous and surprising exploration of artistry, desire, and life after death.]]> 304 Nell Stevens 1982190949 Draven 0 to-read 3.75 2022 Briefly, A Delicious Life
author: Nell Stevens
name: Draven
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> How to Read Now 60018643 How to Read Now explores the politics and ethics of reading, and insists that we are capable of something better: a more engaged relationship not just with our fiction and our art, but with our buried and entangled histories. Smart, funny, galvanizing, and sometimes profane, Castillo attacks the stale questions and less-than-critical proclamations that masquerade as vital discussion: reimagining the cartography of the classics, building a moral case against the settler colonialism of lauded writers like Joan Didion, taking aim at Nobel Prize winners and toppling indie filmmakers, and celebrating glorious moments in everything from popular TV like The Watchmen to the films of Wong Kar-wai and the work of contemporary poets like Tommy Pico.

At once a deeply personal and searching history of one woman's reading life, and a wide-ranging and urgent intervention into our globalized conversations about why reading matters today, How to Read Now empowers us to embrace a more complicated, embodied form of reading, inviting us to acknowledge complicated truths, ignite surprising connections, imagine a more daring solidarity, and create space for a riskier intimacy--within ourselves, and with each other.]]> 340 Elaine Castillo 0593489632 Draven 0 to-read 4.03 2022 How to Read Now
author: Elaine Castillo
name: Draven
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Trust 58210933 An unparalleled novel about money, power, intimacy, and perception

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly boundless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.

Hernan Diaz's TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.

At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.]]> 402 Hernan Diaz 0593420314 Draven 0 to-read 3.77 2022 Trust
author: Hernan Diaz
name: Draven
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Killer Vacation 60191114 295 Tessa Bailey Draven 4 3.56 2022 My Killer Vacation
author: Tessa Bailey
name: Draven
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/25
date added: 2022/06/25
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars. What a delight! The perfect summer beach read. I’m not sure if anyone is doing banter better than Tessa Bailey these days. And the dirty talk…Myles� dirty mouth makes Brendan look like a Boy Scout practically. Deliciously steamy, I ate it up in a day.
]]> <![CDATA[Good Girl Complex (Avalon Bay, #1)]]> 57693481 She does everything right. So what could go wrong?

Mackenzie "Mac" Cabot is a people pleaser. Her demanding parents. Her prep school friends. Her long-time boyfriend. It's exhausting, really, always following the rules. Unlike most twenty-year-olds, all she really wants to do is focus on growing her internet business, but first she must get a college degree at her parents' insistence. That means moving to the beachside town of Avalon Bay, a community made up of locals and the wealthy students of Garnet College.

Mac's had plenty of practice suppressing her wilder impulses, but when she meets local bad boy Cooper Hartley, that ability is suddenly tested. Cooper is rough around the edges. Raw. Candid. A threat to her ordered existence. Their friendship soon becomes the realest thing in her life.

Despite his disdain for the trust-fund kids he sees coming and going from his town, Cooper soon realizes Mac isn't just another rich clone and falls for her. Hard. But as Mac finally starts feeling accepted by Cooper and his friends, the secret he's been keeping from her threatens the only place she's ever felt at home.]]> 368 Elle Kennedy 1250796733 Draven 2
I disliked every character save Daisy the dog and Uncle Levi. If this was supposed to be enemies to lovers, you might want to write some actual angst and conflict. The attempted SA by the villain that got this whole story going isn’t even addressed or mentioned again. This was lust packaged as true love and frankly, not even spicy enough to make up for the lack of quality banter. Felt phoned in, I’m sorry to say. Re-read The Score or The Deal instead. ]]> 3.54 2022 Good Girl Complex (Avalon Bay, #1)
author: Elle Kennedy
name: Draven
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2022/06/23
date added: 2022/06/23
shelves:
review:
I just want to start by saying I love Elle Kennedy. I’m a big fan of hers but this one fell so flat.

I disliked every character save Daisy the dog and Uncle Levi. If this was supposed to be enemies to lovers, you might want to write some actual angst and conflict. The attempted SA by the villain that got this whole story going isn’t even addressed or mentioned again. This was lust packaged as true love and frankly, not even spicy enough to make up for the lack of quality banter. Felt phoned in, I’m sorry to say. Re-read The Score or The Deal instead.
]]> Beyond a Darkened Shore 32295486
The people of Mide have thankfully always been safe because of Ciara’s unearthly ability to control her enemies� minds and actions. But lately, a mysterious crow has been appearing to Ciara, whispering warnings of an even darker threat. Although her clansmen dismiss her visions as pagan nonsense, Ciara fears this coming evil will destroy not just Éirinn, but the entire world.

Then the crow leads Ciara to Leif, a young Northman leader. Leif should be Ciara’s enemy, but when Ciara discovers that he, too, shares her prophetic visions, she knows he’s something more. Leif is mounting an impressive army, and with Ciara’s strength in battle the two might have a chance to save their world.

With evil rising around them, they’ll do what it takes to defend the land they love…even if it means making the greatest sacrifice of all.]]> 435 Jessica Leake 0062666266 Draven 0 to-read 3.78 2018 Beyond a Darkened Shore
author: Jessica Leake
name: Draven
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hook, Line, and Sinker (Bellinger Sisters, #2)]]> 58310915 In the follow-up to It Happened One Summer, Tessa Bailey delivers another deliciously fun rom-com about a former player who accidentally falls for his best friend while trying to help her land a different man...

King crab fisherman Fox Thornton has a reputation as a sexy, carefree flirt. Everyone knows he's a guaranteed good time--in bed and out--and that's exactly how he prefers it. Until he meets Hannah Bellinger. She's immune to his charm and looks, but she seems to enjoy his... personality? And wants to be friends? Bizarre. But he likes her too much to risk a fling, so platonic pals it is.

Now, Hannah's in town for work, crashing in Fox's spare bedroom. She knows he's a notorious ladies' man, but they're definitely just friends. In fact, she's nursing a hopeless crush on a colleague and Fox is just the person to help with her lackluster love life. Armed with a few tips from Westport's resident Casanova, Hannah sets out to catch her coworker's eye... yet the more time she spends with Fox, the more she wants him instead. As the line between friendship and flirtation begins to blur, Hannah can't deny she loves everything about Fox, but she refuses to be another notch on his bedpost.

Living with his best friend should have been easy. Except now she's walking around in a towel, sleeping right across the hall, and Fox is fantasizing about waking up next to her for the rest of his life and... and... man overboard! He's fallen for her, hook, line, and sinker. Helping her flirt with another guy is pure torture, but maybe if Fox can tackle his inner demons and show Hannah he's all in, she'll choose him instead?
]]> 400 Tessa Bailey 0063045702 Draven 3
This was so close to being a 4 star for me but it lacked the amount of romance the first had to balance the angst. The majority was actually about Fox & Hannah growing up more than their actual relationship, and while wonderful, I was missing some of the sugar and spice content in Sinker. Felt almost but short or sped up. That can happen. It’s hard to recapture the magic of the first book in a sequel. Still a great read. ]]> 4.05 2022 Hook, Line, and Sinker (Bellinger Sisters, #2)
author: Tessa Bailey
name: Draven
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/17
date added: 2022/06/17
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars

This was so close to being a 4 star for me but it lacked the amount of romance the first had to balance the angst. The majority was actually about Fox & Hannah growing up more than their actual relationship, and while wonderful, I was missing some of the sugar and spice content in Sinker. Felt almost but short or sped up. That can happen. It’s hard to recapture the magic of the first book in a sequel. Still a great read.
]]> <![CDATA[It Happened One Summer (Bellinger Sisters, #1)]]> 55706166 Tessa Bailey is back with a Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com about a Hollywood “It Girlâ€� who’s cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a surly, sexy local who thinks she doesn’t belong.Ěý

Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.

Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.Ěý]]> 379 Tessa Bailey Draven 4
Tessa Bailey may have just converted me to rom-com fandom. ]]> 4.05 2021 It Happened One Summer (Bellinger Sisters, #1)
author: Tessa Bailey
name: Draven
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/15
date added: 2022/06/15
shelves:
review:
Rom-coms aren't usually my thing. I prefer angst and push and pull but there's something to be said for a male MC like Brendan, a man who decides what he wants and pursues it single-mindedly, while remaining adorably rough around the edges. And where other rom-coms can become nauseatingly sweet when love s established early on, this one has enough spice to set multiple pans on fire. The banter was sexy, the sex and dirty talk were borderline filthy.

Tessa Bailey may have just converted me to rom-com fandom.
]]> <![CDATA[Beautiful World, Where Are You]]> 56622112 Here is the extraordinary, thrilling new novel from Sally Rooney, author of the internationally bestselling Normal People and Conversations with Friends.

Beautiful World, Where Are You tells the story of Alice and Eileen, two best friends approaching their thirties, and on very different trajectories. Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Italy with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.

Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?]]> 352 Sally Rooney 0735281793 Draven 4
I also felt Beautiful World� was a sharper glance into Rooney herself, as though she was letting us in on her very secrets and musings. The ending felt more introspective than poignant and angsty as her other works. ]]> 3.74 2021 Beautiful World, Where Are You
author: Sally Rooney
name: Draven
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/13
date added: 2022/06/13
shelves:
review:
Is there anyone who writes the unspoken better than Sally Rooney? Whether it’s unspoken attraction, desire, hurt and/or fears? It’s a tension in the writing only she can weave, both exquisite and terrible simultaneously. One always feels there are the other, unspoken friend in the room with her characters. It’s incredibly satisfying as a reader.

I also felt Beautiful World� was a sharper glance into Rooney herself, as though she was letting us in on her very secrets and musings. The ending felt more introspective than poignant and angsty as her other works.
]]> <![CDATA[The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)]]> 45047384
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 394 T.J. Klune Draven 0 to-read 4.37 2020 The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Draven
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Cult Classic 58772761 Hilariously insightful and delightfully suspenseful, Cult Classic is an original: a masterfully crafted tale of love, memory, morality, and mind control, as well as a fresh foray into the philosophy of romance.

One night in New York City’s Chinatown, a woman is at a work reunion dinner with former colleagues when she excuses herself to buy a pack of cigarettes. On her way back, she runs into a former boyfriend. And then another. And . . . another. Nothing is quite what it seems as the city becomes awash with ghosts of heartbreaks past.

What would normally pass for coincidence becomes something far stranger as the recently engaged Lola must contend not only with the viability of her current relationship but with the fact that both her best friend and her former boss, a magazine editor turned mystical guru, might have an unhealthy investment in the outcome. Memories of the past swirl and converge in ways both comic and eerie, as Lola is forced to decide if she will surrender herself to the conspiring of one very contemporary cult.

Is it possible to have a happy ending in an age when the past is ever at your fingertips and sanity is for sale? With her gimlet eye, Sloane Crosley spins a wry literary fantasy that is equal parts page-turner and poignant portrayal of alienation.]]> 304 Sloane Crosley 0374603391 Draven 0 to-read 3.28 2022 Cult Classic
author: Sloane Crosley
name: Draven
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>