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Showing posts with the label five star read

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

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Purchase Crescent City #3 Rating:  5/5 Spice:  3/5 Plot:  5/5 Primary Genre:  Fantasy Romance/Urban Fantasy Blurb:  Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust. Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied. In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City s...

House of Breath and Sky by Sarah J. Maas

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Puchase Crescent City #2 Rating:  5/5 Spice:  1/5 Plot:  5/5 Primary Genre:  Fantasy Romance/Urban Fantasy Blurb:  Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar are trying to get back to normal―they may have saved Crescent City, but with so much upheaval in their lives lately, they mostly want a chance to relax. Slow down. Figure out what the future holds. The Asteri have kept their word so far, leaving Bryce and Hunt alone. But with the rebels chipping away at the Asteri’s power, the threat the rulers pose is growing. As Bryce, Hunt, and their friends get pulled into the rebels’ plans, the choice becomes clear: stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight for what’s right. And they’ve never been very good at staying silent. In this sexy, action-packed sequel to the #1 bestseller House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas weaves a captivating story of a world about to explode―and the people who will do anything to save it. My Thoughts: Bryce gets her own little crew of friend...

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

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Crescent City #1 Rating: 5/5 Spice: 1/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Fantasy Romance/Urban Fantasy Blurb:  Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life-working hard all day and partying all night-until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She'll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths. Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss's enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he's offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach. As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City's underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each ...

Skyshade by Alex Aster

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Lightlark #3 Rating: 5/5 Spice: 1/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Romance Blurb: The pulse-pounding third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Lightlark Saga, by acclaimed author and #BookTok sensation Alex Aster. Love kills kingdoms… Back in Grim’s castle on Nightshade, Isla is reeling in the wake of a brutal battle and the devastating truths it exposed. Her future—and the fate of the world—now hinge on a heart split in two. Past Isla, who fell in love with the ruler of Nightshade, fights to resist feelings she considers treasonous. The Isla of the present, who has seen the ruin her powers can cause, will do anything to save Lightlark and its king. As the line between enemy and friend is tested, Isla is more desperate than ever to understand the oracle’s final prophecy and change her heartrending fate. But a storm is coming. And with it, a long-buried evil greater than anything the realms have faced before. With the clock ticking on her destiny and th...

Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree

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Legends & Lattes #2 Rating: 5/5 Spice: 0/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Cozy Fantasy Blurb: Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her! If only things were so simple… It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint. A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior surviving on inertia, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover. As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when there isn’t a job to get in the ...

It's Different This Time by Joss Richard

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Purchase Here Rating: 5/5 Spice: 1.5/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Contemporary Romance Blurb:  In this sweeping, second-chance romance, a twist of fate forces two former roommates to move back into their beloved New York City brownstone and face the events that led to their estrangement—and confront their unresolved feelings for each other. Subject 74 Perry Street So begins the email that turns June Wood’s entire world on its head. Five years ago, she lived on Perry Street with her former best friend Adam Harper. But why is the management company reaching out to her about it now?  Still smarting from the news of her hit TV show being canceled, June has nothing else to lose. She boards a plane from Los Angeles to New York City to find out more about the mysterious email and the promised opportunity it alludes to. It turns out that, thanks to an unbelievable legal loophole, if she and Adam can live together in the stunning West Village brownstone for a month, it’s theirs. Any ...

The Goode Girls of Maple Lane by Jacqueline Firkins

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Purchase Publish date: September 16, 2025 Rating: 5/5 Spice: 1.5/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Adult contemporary romance Blurb:  🐕🐕 A struggling vet student and a rescue golden retriever save each other in this heartwarming, Fall-themed rom-com about second chances, found family, and the wholesome side of the internet. Cameron Goode is on the verge of giving up her dream of becoming a vet. Buried under debt and juggling two jobs with a full course load, she’s utterly overwhelmed. Then a local rescue organization reaches out about a neglected golden retriever in desperate need of help. The last thing Cameron needs is another responsibility. But something inside her shifts when she looks into the eyes of the dog, who is so obese that she can barely move. Cameron is Aggie’s last chance. And she’s not going to let her go. Cameron brings Aggie home, where the promise of Autumn is in the air. As the leaves begin to change, so do both Cameron and her rescue, whose recovery she chronic...

Everything She Does Is Magic by Bridget Morrissey

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Purchase Fableview #1 Rating: 5/5 Spice: 0/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: YA Sapphic Fantasy Romance Blurb:  In the charming town of Fableview, every day is Halloween. Get ready to fall under the spell of this bewitching sapphic romance, perfect for fans of Gilmore Girls and Wicked! Darcy Keller, resident ray of sunshine and town spirit princess, loves every moment of Fableview’s fall festivities. But she’s also really ready to leave for college next year, even though her parents expect her to stay and take over their Halloween empire. Enter brooding new girl Anya Doyle, a real-life witch and almost a full member of her coven. In order to be initiated, she has to choose a mortal ally to act as her “protector.” But having moved around so much, Anya is completely friendless. So she does what any self-respecting teenage almost-witch would—she lies and tells her coven her secret crush, Darcy, is willing to do the job. Desperate to solve their personal problems, they agree to help each o...

Never Been Witched by Molly Harper

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Purchase Starfall Point #3 Rating: 5/5 Spice: 1/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Paranormal Romance/Witchy Romance Blurb:  "Amid magical shenanigans...this book might just have you laughing out loud." —Hazel Beck for Witches Get Stuff Done. Shy, sunshiney small-town antiques expert and full-time witch-slash-ghost wrangler catches feelings for the charming, perfectly polished customer in an expensive suit as they work together to renovate his family's historic (and definitely haunted) hotel. Alice Seastairs is in a precarious position for a witch—isolated from her coven and regretting a lot of her choices. Keeping herself from her sisters is the only way she can protect them from a threat only she knows is coming. While Alice should be searching for the final missing Welling locks and protecting the ghostly residents of Shaddow House, she distracts herself with a job offer from Collin Bancroft. Handsome, surprisingly sweet and filthy rich, Collin needs her expertise to restor...

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

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Purchase Caraval #1 Rating: 5/5 Spice: 0/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Romance Blurb: A legendary competition. A mesmerizing romance. An unbreakable bond between two sisters.Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over. But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner. Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a g...

Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakely

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Purchase Rating: 5/5 Spice: 0 Primary Genre: Contemporary Romance Plot: 5/5 Blurb: Always each other’s plus-ones, but never each other’s real dates, two childhood best friends have one last summer wedding to fall in love in this dual-narrative debut—a grown-up The Summer I Turned Pretty. Best friends Joni and Ren have been inseparable since childhood. So when Joni moves across the country for her job, the two devise a creative way to stay in they’ll be each other’s plus-ones every year for wedding season, no matter what else is happening in their lives. It’s a tradition that works, until a line is crossed and the friendship they once thought was forever is ruined. Now Joni is back at their families’ shared summer home for her sister’s wedding, and she’s determined to make the week perfect, even if it means faking a friendship with Ren—and avoiding the truth of why they have to fake it in the first place. How hard can it be to pretend to be friends with the person who once knew you b...

Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver

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Purchase The Ruinous Love Trilogy #1 Rating: 5/5 Spice: 2.5/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Dark Romance Blurb: The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice—unlike anything you’ve read before—now available in all bookstores. When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of like-minded, pitch-black souls. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match? My Thoughts: This book was the funniest dark romance I have re...

It’s A Love Story by Annabel Monaghan

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Purchase Rating: 5/5 Spice: 0/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Contemporary Romance Blurb: From the USA Today bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, a novel about a former adolescent TV punchline who has left her awkwardness in the rearview mirror thanks to a fake-it-till-you-make-it mantra that has her on the cusp of success, until she tells a lie that sets her on a crash-course with her past, spending a week in Long Island with the last man she thinks might make her believe in love. Rules for a love story: There are none. It’s all a lie. Jane Jackson knows that true love is a lie. Laughter is the only truth—you can’t fake a belly laugh. Jane should know, she spent her adolescence as "Poor Janey Jakes," the barbecue-sauce-in-her-braces punchline on America's fifth-favorite sitcom. Now she’s a Creative Executive at Clearwater Studios and she’s living by a new mantra: Fake it till you make it. Except, she might have faked it too far. Desperate to get her first project g...

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

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Click book cover art to purchase Legends & Lattes #0 Rating: 5/5 Spice: 0/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Cozy Fantasy Blurb: When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn't always what we seek. In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books. Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it. What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn...

Back In the Shadows by J.A. Owenby

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  The Shadow Series #2 Rating: 5 /5  Spice: 3/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Dark Romance Trigger Warnings: Please check the author’s website before reading here Blurb:  𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬. 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐲. One, two, they took what's mine. My little lamb was stolen from me. Three, four, blood on the floor. The monster she awakened has broken free. Five, six, death's favorite tricks. My darkness hunts relentlessly. Seven, eight, feel my rage. Hell itself bows down to me. Nine, ten, kill again and again. Each death brings her back to me. Eleven, twelve, straight to hell. Where screams ring eternally. Welcome back to your darkest nightmare. I am Death, and they've stripped away my mask of mercy. My little lamb, I will paint the streets red until you're safe in my arms again. “Back in the Shadows” plunges readers deeper into Death's twisted realm, where love and violence dance in perfect harmony. This isn't just a story—it's a desce...

In the Shadows by J.A. Owenby

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The Shadows Series #1 Rating: 5 /5  Spice: 5/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Dark Romance Trigger Warnings: Please check the author’s website before reading here Blurb:   When you finally meet the monster hiding under your bed. One, two, I’m coming for you. She’s my obsession. Three, four, kneel on the floor. I want to possess her in every way. Five, six, I’m up to my old tricks. She knows me as The Portland Serial K!ll3r. Seven, eight, lay in wait. Little does she know I’m watching her. Nine, ten, never to be seen again. Welcome to your worst nightmare, Little Lamb. Who am I? Let me introduce myself. I’m Death. And I have found my Queen. Ella McCloud you’re the flicker of light in my dark, dark world. The color in my grayscale existence. I yearn for you like the night yearns for the stars. **Dear readers, this dark romance contains multiple POVs, multiple storylines, and many exciting moving pieces that come together in one satisfying and unexpected HEA. If you enjoy a single...