Knight of the God King - Victorian Women Knights vs the Dark

 This is my second Lauren Blackwood arc of the year, and it never gets old! A beautiful premise of knight protecting the King using a musical harmony for magic and a nefarious nebulous entity called the Dark. The royal palace, its intrigues and the long list of women in administration, Lauren definitely places them on weighty roles for the unwinding tale - a squire who was treated shamefully by his knight, a new royal knight who is blackmailed by her kin over her dark past and a powerless princess are thrown into the vortex of political mayhem and magical dissonance in this YA tale.

I adored the character arc for Cali, although, in some places, her tolerance and naivety made me want to scream, given she was smart enough to engage in flirting, it just seemed incongruent with her normally smart character. Other than that minor gripe, all's well! Beric was a beautifully stitched character, his past and his present, in confluence with the gimmickry being maintained at the palace, was akin to a tightrope walk - balanced and measured for absolute accuracy. 

This was a fast paced , quick read, and I managed to polish the ARC in a day.

My ebullient thank yous to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC! And I cannot wait to see what more Lauren has to unfurl in her upcoming ventures!

#Netgalley #KnightofTheGodKing #StMartinsPress #FemaleKnight

The Scarlett Ball - Selection but think horrific

 This atmospheric thriller with gothic vibes, muted suspense and a fascinating shop turned society girl with nerves of steel and immutable sense of self-preservation is an absolute delight!!! Nghi Vo wraps the reader, form the get go, in a cocoon of dark alleys, stormy nights and rampant street dogs, all in a day's work, for the shop girls in the City, a perfect setting to start out on an adventure. Judith, finds herself in a precarious position, tasked with impersonating a missing heiress, and charm her way into a world of elemental chaos. 

The three balls, Judith is contracted to attend, are for the powerful 400 families of New York, to bind their daughters to Demon Lords, and Judith needs to wear the face of a bastard, to carry out the impersonation. The social faux pas, traps and schemes that Judith gets pulled into as she tries to bring Ginny to life, are horrific, shocking and, frankly, sensational! I adored the twists and the finale! Such panache and unapologetic horror sprinkled throughout the tale! 

The macabre vibes are in the details of this one, and as an audiobook, the production team have done splendidly in culling the air of mystery and the mental fortitude to claw back from pits, that makes this tale so FANTASTIC! Natalie Naudus exudes a phenomenal performance as she effortlessly glides through Judith's monologues, voicing her thirst for power and acknowledging pain paves the way to that goal, giving the tale the shock of electricity needed to bring the vision to life, in all its gory details!

I polished the ALC in 2 days - could not stop myself! My scarlett thank yous to Netgalley and Macmillian Audio for the ALC and my curtsies to Nghi Vo for a well executed chilling rendition!

#OctoberReads #TheScarlettBall #Netgalley #MacmillianAudio #SelectionXMacabre

Hallowed Bones - Haunting paranormal YA romance

 Cosmic Coven Cauldrons!!! If your heart races with unmentionable things groping in the dark, fueled by your darkest emptions, if you canno find yourself choosing between the scarred sensitive kind, wild and deep kind, erudite and perfect kind and of course, shadow daddy kind of book boyfriends , lose yourself in a schism of s magic system that unravels slowly with the tale's unfolding, feeding your senses and bringing new plotlines to light, and love all things dark and witchy - then this series opener will give you all that and then some!

Lucy Smoke draws out a sepulchral atmosphere in this new witch series, drawing on the Salem plotverse. The Sons of Salem are a dying coven who need a priestess - entering on cue, is Haven, their ingenue witch whose power entices and calls to them, her magical ignorance proving to be her undoing to her awakening powers. The coven are haunted by their pasts, which is a complicated web of hurts, betrayals and sacrifices, as they flounder to embrace Haven into their fold.

The writing is bold, crisp and moves at a break neck speed - I ravaged through it in a matter of hours - THAT good! With multiple romances blossoming and a world teetering on the verge of a supernatural serial killer, the pack have their tasks set and the book culminates in a glorious cliffhanger that will keep you vested for more...

My lupine thanks to Netgalley and St Martins Press for granting me the ARC! I cannot wait to see this series fully waxed!

#OctoberReads #HallowedBones #Netgalley #StMartinsPress #CovenMysterySeries

The Lost Spectacular - Romancing the losses in lyrical symphony

 Dearest reader, does a fathomless love of books, illustrations and versions tug at your lavender pressed memories of a days when pages mattered and being well read was the norm, does a whimsical rhapsody sifting through tomes and times with equal measure of endearment and mischief call to your soul, would divergent mindsets but a singular passion provide undercurrent enough to tempt you to romance?

Come, if you will, to the Spectacular - a collection of lost tales, things, loves and hopes, brilliantly reimagined and lovingly collected, through literature, time and seasons of existence - a memory, a place, a fleeting moment between words, anything and everything that can be captured - by whim, will or want, all for your enjoyment!

This book was EXTRORDINAIRE! A soft, mellifluent and gentle tale, that cultivates love, understanding and emotion without losing the bigger picture. I ADORED Noon and Munro - two sides to growing up after being exposed to the magic of the Spectacular, the circus unlike any other.  While Noon converges on the feeling, to build and provide the support via her bookshop, Munro pursues the curatorship, designing his museum to capture the embodiment of lost whimsy. At loggerheads in purpose, Noon is invited to run the Spectacular, much to Munro's consternation and there begins the tale....

Fluid, evocative and absolutely mesmerizing, Zoe Duhaime crafts a potent tale with misty escapades into the annals of literature that are reminiscent of sunny days, cozy couches and evoke the fuzzy childhood memories that these tomes preserve in their tales. A fantastic premise and an ebullient love story unfold, and I , for one, thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the experience!

My dhanyawaads and merci beaucoups to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for granting me the ARC! This was one the BEST reads in 2026!

#thelostspectacular #kensigntonpublishing #romancingwhatwaslost #netgalley #septemberreads

Disenchanted - Disgruntled witch wages war against fairytale mayhem

 Dearest reader, if you be in search of magically infused mayhem, wishing to brew a potency of fairy tale cursing and lavish thy attention on steadily slow burning romantic overtures, whilst plunging through emotional torrents of guilt, love and loss , through the bespectacled eyed of a scarlet haired wench, then cast thy eyes this way!

Lucy Jane Wood evokes the 'with great power comes great responsibility' quote from spiderman, tuning it to a witchy frequency. Sage hemlock has battled her errant magical symptoms away through sheer will of force, having lost her parents in a freak accident. She has dedicated her life to eradicating said powers from her life, family and community, in a bid to make herself normal. Her mentor to this endeavor is the ancient witch Lilara, who cast away her magic.

What follows is a riot of fairy tales as Sage unwittingly  sets loose the other witch's magic and tries to control the calamitous fortunes from befalling her friends, family and community. She is aided in this by the handsome, dapper and confusingly sweet Cas, and the spiritually steadfast Maggs, add in a cat familiar, Mal, and you have the insta witch quartet - ready to battle all evil that threatens their community.

My rose scented thank yous to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for granting my wish!

#Septemberreads #Disenchanted #disgruntledwitchXmagicalmayhem #Berkleypublishinggroup #Netgalley 

The Tarot Trials - terrifying, tumultuous and tantalizing read from Katee Robert!

 Hold on to your tarot cards folks - the future is a quick draw with violent exchanges on the cards between the major and minor arcana with a bluff of champions, competing in gladiator style to form the Cinque, who have final voting powers on the resource distribution and administration of the city. 

Kestrel, aims to be like her namesake, a harbinger of change for the isolated and impoverished dregs by taking her place in the Tarot Trials and securing her position as the champion of the Moon, reviving the bond her mother possessed before her act of treason, resulting in her being executed. Soaring in and out of pain, in an adrenaline infused bloodbath, the 17 champions of the Gods need to battle against each other, honing their divine powers, matching wits against the machinations of the lower court, while simultaneously furthering their individual propagandas. The formation of alliances, the hide and seek and the massive powerplays are stunning and visceral, as Katee Robert drags us, bruised, battered, kicking, screaming and hoarse, through the streets of the lower courts, with a promise of blood, atonement and unchecked power!

Lindsey Dorcus does a phenomenal job at bringing the story to life. With her natural inflections for the various characters and the pauses that absolutely sell the emotion, she excels at weaving the emotionally charged conversations with an infusion of realism! My favorite has to be the Tower and the stark admonishments of Death, the stoicism of the Wheel and the flirty playfulness of the Sun - she captures them all in effortless ease!

This was an gorge fest of arcane gods, political gimmicking, grand standing and playing a false system while trying to stay true to oneself! A stellar and sizzling opener to the series, and I CANNOT wait for the next one to come out! Brava to Katee for bringing the tarot to life while staying true to its archaic origins and giving it a deeper meaning! And my fortune laced thank yous to Macmillian Audio and Netgalley for allowing me to relish the ALC! It was a tumultuous listen, that I would go back to anyday!

#MacmillianAudio #TheTarotTrials #Octoberreads #hungergamesXtarotmagic

The French Illusion - Stoic interlude between corridors of power and kidnapping nexus

 Have you ever immersed yourself in a John Grisham novel? A book where there is no sensational plot twist, no sudden cliffhanger.. a throwback to when storytelling dealt more with the minutiae rather than self flagellation of characters, which felt like you had to channel your inner vibe with the MC to feel the tale - this novel is none of that.

What it is , however, is a SLOW, SEMINAL, TEXTBOOK THRILLER - no lengthy back stories, just a matter of fact rollout of a series of events, their consequences, effects and repercussions, laid out in fascinating detail by a master!

It has been a while since I picked up a Grisham, and i was hoping for more legalese in this one - while that remained unfulfilled, the phenomenal unfurling of a kidnapping with political, prejudice based justice, was mesmerizing! I polished the chapters off, in quick succession, and completed the book in a day!

The core plotline spins around the kidnapping of honeymooners in Paris, with the ransom set at $2 million per person, the bride released without consequence, but the groom, with ties to the military is detained, even after the ransom is paid and subject to visceral treatment and numbing capture. The brutality of unmonitored captivity and the inhumane subjugation techniques are ruthlessly explored, as are the procedures and regulations governing the involvement and bureaucracy of governmental departments orchestrating a time sensitive negotiation. Grisham being the mastermind, doesn't soften any blows nor does he side with any ideal - he just states it as it is, like the stoic sea of intrigue that he so effortlessly embodies!

My thank yous to Netgalley and Double Day Books for this Arc - it has been a throwback thursday kind of feel!

#SeptemberReads #TheFrenchIllusion #Netgalley #DoubleDayBooks