Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles, #3) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of Dream Dark, here.

I find myself, yet again, coming back to a series in which it has been eight years since I last read the book prior... yikes! High school me was very motivated and the iBooks app had me in a chokehold - as well as having a family member who owned a book store. But alas, here I am, finally making my way to finish this series. I have always loved this series, and was heartbroken when only Beautiful Creatures received a movie adaptation and the rest were never made.

Ethan and Lena are such a great couple, and I love that the books are in Ethan's perspective -  even though Lena is the female lead, this story is so focused on Ethan and his responses, that his voice really stands out as an outsider to Lena's world and as someone who has become so intertwined into her world. His perspective, especially with everything that happens to him throughout the book, is so vital in understanding the connection between mortals and casters. His friendship with Link and his constant worry about him shows him in a multi-dimensional light that adds layers to his character without pushing his needs to the side.

Lena's involvement in this book takes somewhat of a sideline to Ethan's own development, along with Link and Ridley's constant will-they-won't-they situationship they have going on. I honestly really enjoyed the chapters that focused on Link's life and adjustments as he navigates his friendships and relationships on top of the paranormal musings of the town. Sure, it has been years since I have dived into this series, but the relationships between the characters are so easy to get right back into and understand their dynamics. The plot picks up in this installment, and I found it so natural to just be transported back into the world. The stakes became higher and I loved how we were not just circling around Ethan and Lena's relationship instead of actual plot points.

The pacing felt very natural, and the authors do a great job in keeping the reader engaged in the story without sidelining other plots in order to push a certain narrative. The antagonists of the story do not feel like they cause all of this destruction without actual motives - it was believable, and their involvement in Ethan and Lena's story blended well with their own side plots. I will say, the flashback/backstory portions of this installment started to lose me for a bit, but it was more so because I was hooked into Ethan's development.

If you are a fan of Fallen by Lauren Kate or Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, this series is certainly for you. It is so reminiscent of early young adult paranormal romances, and has a great ensemble of characters that keeps the reader entertained and invested in the story. I will certainly be seeing this series through and cannot wait to see how Ethan and Len's story pans out.

You can add Beautiful Chaos on Goodreads now, and follow the authors to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

Cursed Bunny was on my TBR shelf for nearly a year-and-a-half, and I had been looking forward to finally diving into these short stories. Considering many described these stories as grotesque and horror-filled, I was excited to see what Chung had in store for readers. However, I felt unsatisfied with the cohesiveness of the collection, as well as mislead in the sense that only a few of the stories truly held onto the horror genre as advertised. The science fiction and magical realism were certainly present, but did not hold my attention as much as the other stories, and I found myself bored by the end of the collection. Only a few stories stood out to me, while the rest had no impact on my subconscious after finishing this book - once again, the magical realism and fairytale stories did little for me.

While I do have my issues with the collection as a whole, Cursed Bunny does an excellent job at gaining the reader's attention from the very first page. Constructively, I would have put the stores in a different order, as the current order tends to fall off by the end. Chung is a champion at truly harnessing the horror she wishes to convey, and I did genuinely feel a sense of unease during those particular short stories. The Head takes first place as most memorable and has sat with me since reading this book. It felt surreal yet entirely plausible in the sense that women are often haunted by what comes from them and how their bodies speak to them in ways that may not be understood by society. Chung's ability to really get into body horror and the grotesque realism of life is appreciated, and is clearly elevated off the page and into the reader's mind.

In no way am I stating that Chung's works are overrated, but rather this anthology of short stories felt lackluster when looking back at them as a whole, singular piece of art. She is able to touch upon a number of important topics throughout these stories, but their connection to each other felt weak, and I had to push myself to find interest in order to see this through to the end. I found that a majority of these stories did not leave a large impact on me as a reader, and I would have loved to see a cohesiveness to her stories that would have allowed readers to come to a major realization at the end that tied everything together. Instead, the stories ended, and so did my interest in her tales.

Overall, the prose in a number of these stories truly wraps the reader up in the tale, while others felt more like filler chapters that became easily forgettable as you move on to the next story. I would certainly have enjoyed a more structured set of stories that did not genre-jump as much - while horror, science fiction, and magical realism can be interesting avenues to connect, Chung's stories did not flow into each other to warrant a breakthrough. I am definitely open to exploring more of her work in the future, but perhaps rather when it is a single title rather than a collection of short stories.

You can add Cursed Bunny on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date with releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Hooked (Never After, #1) by Emily McIntire Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

Imagine you wrote Peter Pan and this is what they do to your IP once it enters public domain. This book has been on my TBR for what felt like forever, and with its resurgence on TikTok, I finally decided to give in... little did I know what I was in for. Hook is not a serious person at all because what do you mean you have been filled with an intense rage since you were 11-years-old? I am sure they mentioned his actual age somewhere in this book, but I literally cannot remember what the age gap was - Wendy is twenty-years-old and he speaks like he has been on this planet for eighty years, but is probably just in his mid-twenties.

It was very much giving Hardin Scott using Tessa in After with the vibes Hook's intentions were with Wendy - she is incredibly naive and kept sheltered by her father, but her friends are constantly trying to get her out of her shell. That being said, Maria is so incredibly annoying and a horrible friend. I can understand the resentment that the guy she had her eye on was interested in her friend -- Wendy -- instead of her, but my word it is not something to get hung up over, especially because she never spoke to him before.

Hook's inner monologue had me bursting at the seems... he is so... not an adult. I completely understand pulling directly from the source material, but his "dark side" being combined with characters that had the most ridiculous names made me not take him seriously. He also seems to have zero common sense while at the same time is able to hatch out these elaborate plans. The man is afraid of clocks, for crying out loud. And we are supposed to believe he is running around town killing people? Sure.

Wendy... this girl essentially is a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. He literally snatches her up and locks her in a basement and she is over here yanking on chains trying to free herself, all while thinking "It's because he cares!" Well yeah, cares about revenge. Even with James falling for her as they spend more time together and he learns more about her, I still could not see their chemistry unless it was a spicy scene. I will not victim blame this girl because I do not even know what I would do if put in the same situation -- probably make fun of James -- but that is besides the point.

The side characters are not interesting at all, and even Wendy's super powerful father is basically a deadbeat dad. The plot's pacing felt inconsistent and characters were just popping up out of thin air instead of becoming gradually intertwined in the story. To be quite honest, the best chapters of this book were literally the spicy scenes, because any other chapter was just information dumps and James realizing that he actually has the detective skills of a rock. His perspective chapters are full of his trauma dumping, re: afraid of clocks, and basically gaining a third brain cell.

Maybe if I read this book years ago like I first wanted to, I might have enjoyed it a little more. This just did not hit the spot like I thought it would, and felt entirely underwhelming by the end - so much so, that I do not think I would consider continuing on with this retelling series unless I truly ran out of books to read. The premise had a lot of promise, and in the beginning it felt like it was headed somewhere, but then abandoned the true "dark" part of "dark romance" and just quickly wrapped up without making me feel as though there was something on the line for the characters. I had multiple friends text me and ask why I was reading this... and to that I say... I wish I knew.

You can add Hooked on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Lights Out (Into Darkness, #1) by Navessa Allen Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

TikTok has led me to places I never knew I would go, and after seeing about one hundred videos about this book, I knew I had to see it out for myself. With the way it is described, I thought it would rival Butcher & Blackbird and maybe Haunting Adeline in terms of being dark, but I was left wanting more and feeling slightly misled. Do not get me wrong, I enjoyed Aly and Josh's story, but even the tagline on the cover notes "The couple that slays together, stays together," and yet there was not a ton of slaying at all throughout the entire book. This leans more towards a stalker romance with BDSM elements, but I would not call it a dark romance in true form.

I was not in love with the first person perspective - it is never my first choice, but Aly's inner dialogue felt underdeveloped and she was constantly referencing her "lizard brain" when she is a whole adult woman. However, her character as a whole was pretty entertaining to read, and while she does make some choices I was not pleased with, she added the "quirky" aspect to her and Josh's relationship. She was so real for spending hours on TikTok watching and favoriting the thirst trap videos because girl... same. Aly must have a horror kink because this girl is horny about twenty-four hours a day, and she literally does not care how dangerous the situation is.

The second Aly thinks she knows who her stalker is, she starts tracking him, and when she realizes that he is hot, she literally celebrates. This reminded me so much of Haunting Adeline, and I just know her and Addie would be friends. Her self preservation goes out the window and across the yard at nearly every scenario - going into a room alone with a known rapist... girl, get out of there!!

Josh is hands-down one of the funniest stalkers - compared to Aly's inner dialogue, I found his much more enjoyable and humorous. I did not love his Batman voice and references, and I thought he would be more dangerous throughout the book - it felt like Aly was more prepared to commit crimes than he was even though he is a literal stalker. Based off of the summary, I was under the impression they would be killing or committing crimes a lot earlier in the story, but it really was not towards over halfway into the book. Together, they literally commit one crime together and it was not even that exciting.

The scariest part of this book is that Aly said they were not going to have any safe words, and when she told Josh that he could do anything he wanted to her, his first thought was knife play. Like let's be so serious right now, this probably would have sent her spiraling. Their spicy scenes were pretty good, but I would have preferred them more spaced out rather than being somewhat lumped together in the second half of the book.

The epilogue was a fun way to wrap up their story, and I would have loved to see more chapters like that in the actual book. Josh was a fun male lead, but he could have been a little more wild, especially compared to other stalker romances out there. If you are looking for a tame introduction to stalker romances or dark romances in general, Lights Out definitely provides the gateway.

You can add Lights Out on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2) by Brynne Weaver Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Please check trigger warnings before reading - reader discretion is advised. You can read my review of Butcher & Blackbird on my blog, here.

Well... this was... something. I had absolutely loved Butcher & Blackbird, and was excited to dive into this book ahead of the final installment's release. I genuinely do not understand how we went from the first book to this one - it felt as though Lark and Lachlan had no chemistry between each other until the very end of the book. Compared to Sloane and Rowan, this was a major downgrade and really made the book tough to get through.

Lachlan is constantly growling at Lark, and while kind of cute at first, it became very tired, very fast. That goes for the Batman references and Lark's never-ending cackling at every other thing that comes out of Lachlan's mouth. I am assuming this was supposed to play into banter between the two, but it was giving more "I want my character to be crazy but not too crazy" which just ended up falling flat in the end.

Looking back at the content from the first book and comparing it to what we see in Leather & Lark, I was pretty disappointed. The pizza smoothie was truly the only thing that made me uncomfortable, whereas the first book had so much going on all of the time. We get one third of the way into this book and essentially nothing of importance has happened besides Lark and Lachlan meeting. Sloane and Rowan show up so much in the beginning, you would have thought that this book was supposed to be centered around them instead of Lark and Lachlan.

It does not bring me any pleasure in saying that this book was honestly boring, and maybe I went in with high expectations, but I never would have anticipated such a turn from the plot. The killing is minimal and the relationship between Lark and Lachlan does not really become anything until after 70% into the book. The spice scenes are so tame compared to other dark romance book out there, and to be frank, this was basically just heavy petting until the bonus chapter at the very end.

The "action" chapters that were supposed to have me worried for the characters fell short, and it felt obvious on what was going to happen as the story went on. If I could have shouted into the pages of this book at the characters, so much would have been avoided if they communicated with each other and some of the side characters. For being murders, they were incredibly unaware of events unfolding around them.

I wish I had more to say - there were some moments between Lachlan and Lark that made me think the story was about to turn a corner, but then the plot would get sidetracked and any development felt abandoned. Everything kept coming back to Sloane and Rowan, and it felt pretty clear that the author should have just written another book about them or kept Butcher & Blackbird as a standalone instead of expanding on their story. I think I will wrap up this series once Scythe & Sparrow is released, but I would not continue if the series was not already coming to a close.

By total coincidence, this is the second book in a row I have read involving a male lead with the last name Kane and a marriage of convenience trope. Big shout out to Terms and Conditions, you were able to keep my good memories of these tropes alive.

You can add Leather & Lark on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Terms and Conditions (Dreamland Billionaires, #2) by Lauren Asher Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of The Fine Print on my blog, here.

I was apprehensive going into this second installment - The Fine Print was not my favorite read, but when I realized that Terms and Conditions was an actual marriage of convenience book, it spiked my interest. And with a marriage contract that accidentally gets printed on print paper because Mr. Billionaire heir does not know how to reload the printer? I could not have been happier.

Declan Kane is up to inherit billions and the CEO position of Dreamland, on one condition - marry and have a child. When his bride-to-be ditches him at the last minute, his younger assistant takes her place, and his sanity along with it. He sees the wife and child as collateral damage in the path to becoming CEO, and for some reason is set on low-key being an absentee father? I understand he is doing this in order to secure his inheritance, but man, it is a literal child, not a toy you put away after getting tired of playing with it after a few years.

Iris unironically needs to be an actress - she is so hilarious and is always fooling everyone around her, especially Declan. She makes up rumors at work so people get things done faster, and Declan is so shocked that she is able to do it without anyone catching on. The way she is able to get people to do what she wants without them realizing it made me really enjoy her character, and the friendship she has with Cal was so refreshing to see. It was an added plus that Declan was obviously jealous of the relationship she has with Cal, because he wanted her to be that open with him from the start.

The way that Iris and Declan clearly are interested in each other before anything even truly starts with their contract had me dying - the perspective changes gave a great view of what they each thought of each other. Declan's inner thoughts are high-key hilarious - at one point, he sees Iris apologizing to her plants because she had to move them, and immediately thinks she is insane. I knew he would be obsessed with her immediately after that. Their banter is pretty funny when they are actually agreeing with each other, and Iris jokingly saying "Are you sure you're a virgin?" to Declan had me audibly snorting, she is so unserious when her guard is down.

Declan is 36-years-old and needs to learn to act like an adult - there were a number of times that he consistently puts his needs and wants above everyone else's, and then acts shocked that Iris is upset with him. And Iris... she is 23-years-old... she should be at the club!! Not working twelve hour days and sacrificing her relationships to please Declan. 

I was a little off-put by the way Declan did not seem to help Iris with nearly anything in this book - she was always the one making plans, setting up dinners, fixing proposals, and so many other things. I did not love the way he was putting work above her, especially during important moments - it made him really feel like a villain, when he was the one who needed her, not the other way around. His groveling texts to Iris made him feel like a major boomer who does not know how to act like an adult and hold himself accountable for the way he acted and the things that he said to her in anger.

There is not a ton of spice in this book, and it really does not even start to pop up until over two-thirds of the way into the story. It is definitely tame, but I do wish it showed up a little more in this story - more often than not, it would be in dreams that Declan or Iris had of each other. 

I enjoyed this much more compared to The Fine Print - Declan was much more interesting than Rowan, and sure, he may have made some not so great choices throughout this book, but I still have him ranked above Rowan. Rowan and Zara's scattered appearances in this book only had me interested in Iris and Zara's potential friendship - considering Iris does not really have anyone outside of her mother, Nana, and Cal, I really wanted her to gain some female friends. Declan's father plays such a large role as an antagonist in Declan's life, and we see it overtake the plot when I wish it could have focused more on Iris and Declan's relationship.

You can add Terms and Conditions on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!