Review: The Cursed King by Abigail Owen

3 August, 2026 8:00 pm , Leave a Comment ,

The Cursed King
Inferno Rising #4
Abigail Owen
Publisher: Entangled
Publication date: Oct. 25, 2021
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating:

Airk Azdajah, the rightful King of the White Clan of dragon shifters, spent half a millennium being tortured by the false High King Pytheios. The only reason he’s alive is a the man who kills Airk will be consumed in his own fire. So Airk was kept alive—barely—and unable to shift in his prison cage, driving the creature half of him into madness. Airk escaped, but he’ll never be truly free. Because what good is a king who can never let his feral dragon loose, never fly, and never lead his people?

Angelika Amon is the last unmated phoenix. The problem? She has no powers. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Angelika hates being dormant, especially now that her three sisters are blissfully mated to powerful dragon shifter kings and are very much part of the fight to take down the rotting king Pytheios. What good is a completely powerless phoenix in a battle to save the dragon kingdom?

Desperate to find some way to help, she offers herself to Airk as a mate—just for political leverage. Now a dormant phoenix is mated to a dragon who can’t shift. But the balance of power is about to change when Pytheios decides to claim Angelika for himself…

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Posted in: Fantasy Romance

Typhoons & TBRs

2 August, 2026 8:01 am , 5 Comments ,

This post is linked to Sunday Post, Staking the Shelves, Sunday Salon, and #IMWAYR

 

As I predicted, it’s been a very active summer. We’ve already had 3 typhoons head our way since June 1st, with another heading our way this weekend. The incoming typhoon was listed as a Cat 5 level typhoon. So this week will be spent watching the weather, and preparing the house. Needless to say, due to the high temperature and humidity, the choppy waters, and the constant vigilance of what’s developing out in the ocean, we haven’t done much of anything this summer. We already had one trip cut short when we tried to travel right before typhoon season started, only to have a typhoon arrive on opening day. So, this summer may be less fun in the sun, and more indoors with a book. Not that I’m complaining. After taking a few years off due to school, I have enjoyed catching up on all the books I’ve been wanting to read.

This month I took a break from going through my TBR on Goodreads. I read The Cursed King and Kamisama Kiss, but that was about it. I was starting to get burnt out because the books were just not bangers for me. I can’t say it was because I wasn’t in the mood for them, because I was. I just had a hard time with the characters, the writing style, or sometimes the story as a whole, and in the end it left me wanting more. So, instead of completely burning out and needing a break from reading all together, I decided to shift my focus to my summer reading challenge, catching up on my book club reading, and took a walk through the library and snatched up a few books that caught my eye. Oh and I also signed up for a couple of ARC’s that I’m excited to read. So, thankfully, I was able to divert myself away from a reading slump.

 

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Posted in: Ramblings

Review: Gladiator by Anna Hackett

31 July, 2026 8:00 pm , Leave a Comment ,

Gladiator
Galactic Gladiators #1
Anna Hackett
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: Oct. 23, 2016
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating:

Fighting for love, honor, and freedom on the galaxy’s lawless outer rim…

When Earth space marine Harper Adams finds herself abducted by alien slavers off a space station, her life turns into a battle for survival. Dumped into an arena on a desert planet on the outer rim, she finds herself face to face with a big, tattooed alien gladiator…the champion of the Kor Magna Arena.

A former prince abandoned to the arena as a teen, Raiden Tiago has long ago earned his freedom. Now he rules the arena, but he doesn’t fight for the glory, but instead for his own dark purpose—revenge against the Thraxian aliens who destroyed his planet. Then his existence is rocked by one small, fierce female fighter from an unknown planet called Earth.

Harper is determined to find a way home, but when she spots her best friend in the arena—a slave of the evil Thraxian aliens—she’ll do anything to save her friend…even join forces with the tough, alpha male who sets her body on fire. But as Harper and Raiden step foot onto the blood-soaked sands of the arena, Harper worries that Raiden has his own dangerous agenda…

 

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Posted in: Fantasy Romance

Review: Winterbourne by A.M. Blythe

20 July, 2026 7:59 pm , 1 Comment ,

Winterbourne
A.M. Blythe
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication date: July 15, 2026
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating:

Three rules keep a memory thief alive.

Rule #1: Don’t touch skin.
Rule #2: Don’t look too long.
Rule #3: Don’t let them see what you really are.

Tonight, I’m breaking all three.

Kira Shadowmere is the best memory thief in Vespera — a city where memories are bottled, sold, and savored like wine, and the people they’re stolen from are left to rot. One touch, one pull, thirty seconds: she can lift the worst night of your life right out of your head. The Guild pays in silver. Her conscience pays in everything else.

But memory thieves don’t live past twenty-four. Tomorrow is her birthday.

One last job should buy her way out. Instead, it binds her — soul-deep, unbreakable, fatal — to Lysander Winterbourne: the last son of a slaughtered house, the lord who executes thieves like her, and the only person in the world whose presence quiets the curse that’s been drowning her since she was three years old.

She should run. He should kill her. Neither of them does the smart thing.

Now the Guild’s master wants her caged, a power no Null should have is waking in her blood, and the deeper Kira digs, the clearer the truth becomes: she isn’t the only memory thief in this story. Someone has been inside her head. Someone has been editing. And what they took will cost her the only family she has left.

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Posted in: Fantasy Romance

Review: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

17 July, 2026 8:00 pm , 1 Comment ,


Red, White & Royal Blue
Red, White & Royal Blue #1
Casey McQuiston
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication date: May 14, 2019
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating:

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince.

As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

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Posted in: Romance

Sneak Peek Wednesday: Reaper’s Quest by Debra A. Kristi

15 July, 2026 7:53 pm , 2 Comments ,

Reaper’s Quest
Curse of the Royal Reaper #1
Debra A. Kristi
Publisher: Ghost Girl Publishing
Publication date: July 13, 2026
Genre: Fantasy Romance

Two rival reapers. A century of overdue souls. Revelations sure to crumble foundations.

Raven Gunn blamed herself and the cheat she used on her last job for her team’s assignment to the cursed reaping. Her father even packed the tool responsible for the cheat in her travel bag, silently suggesting the need, while reminding her not to trust her designated coreaper, Chace Badden. A hundred years of accumulated reapings, a prohibited reaper-tool, her born rival tasked as her partner… What could go wrong? She definitely wouldn’t allow Chace’s good looks to compromise her focus. Not. One. Bit.

Chace Badden suspected family connections were to blame for his team’s assignment, and he trusted nothing about the current reaping task. Especially not the Fae bastard showering Raven with unnecessary attention. That pr*ck needed to go. Raven was his coreaper and the pretty boy held no claim. Of course, the same could be said for Chace given Raven was his coreaper and his rival, professionalism and distance needed to remain steady between them.

But as more complications arise and old ones intensify, will Chace and Raven’s rivalry cloud emotions, hinder task success, and pave the road for, not only failure but, something far more concerning than mortal danger? Because the overwhelming number of unreaped souls is turning out to be the least of their worries.

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Posted in: Excerpt

Top Ten Books On My TBR By New-To-Me Authors

14 July, 2026 4:41 pm , 7 Comments ,

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

 

Today I’m going through my TBR and listing some of the books that I’m most interested in reading, that were written by author’s I’ve never read before. A lot of these books are by debut authors or authors who are indie-published and may not be big household names…. yet.

 



Posted in: Ramblings

Review: Not His Dragon by Annie Nicholas

13 July, 2026 8:00 pm , 2 Comments ,

Not His Dragon
Not This #1
Annie Nicholas
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: July 25, 2016
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating:

Eoin Grant hasn’t encountered a female of his race in decades, and this crazy person’s scent declares her unmated. Fate set her in his path, and he won’t let this opportunity slip through his claws. No matter how wary she is of him. After all, how many chances does a dragon have at finding love? But fate can be a crueler mistress than his perfect mate. Of all things, she thinks she’s human.

Business is taking off for Angie Weldon. She put her freakishly sharp nails to good use when she opened her back-scratching spa in downtown New Porter City. The local shifter community pounced on her skills and she’s knee-deep in shed fur. By the end of the year, if lucky, she could afford to move out of her crappy apartment.

Dollar signs flash before Angie’s eyes when a dark, brooding stranger books her solid for a week but she notices the possessive fury in his glare. She’s been around enough shifters to know the look, and she won’t go down that road again. Angie is literally swept off her feet by the intense shifter and he wants more from her than she’s willing to give. She figures it’s best to avoid eye contact and back away slowly. Until he changes her life by insisting she’s a dragon.

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Posted in: Fantasy Romance, Urban Fantasy

Review: Forsaken Mate by Vasilisa Drake

10 July, 2026 8:00 pm , 1 Comment ,

Forsaken Mate
Shifted Fates #1
Vasilisa Drake
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: June 1, 2023
Genre: Paranormal Romance

I thought my fated mate would cherish me. Mine kills me in cold blood.

After a decade of bullying me, the Alpha Heir discovers I’m his predestined mate. But just because he rejects me in front of the whole pack doesn’t mean he’s going to let me go.

When I flee my fated mate, he gives chase. The Alpha Heir would sooner murder me than let me live out of his reach.

Only death isn’t the end for me. The afterlife is a bit more fiery than I pictured, but that’s fine. I’m used to fighting to survive, and literal Hell just might be a step up from what I’ve been dealing with.

Even if that means facing off against minotaurs and murderous mermaids.

Even if, when I find refuge in a seemingly abandoned castle, I find the most dangerous creature in the underworld.

The good news: He agrees to train me, so I’ll never be left weak and at the mercy of another.

The bad news: His training methods involve a variety of unconventional methods, such as infiltrating my dreams and pinning me beneath him when we spar.

The worst news: He’s never going to let me leave his castle.

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Posted in: Paranormal Romance

Review: Kissed by Iron and Glass by E.V. Everest

3 July, 2026 8:00 pm , 3 Comments ,

Kissed by Iron and Glass
E.V. Everest
Publisher: Golden Bird Press
Publication date: April 23, 2026
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating:

When my stepmother sold me at auction, I thought I’d experienced the cruelest fate. I was wrong.

Because now I belong to the Iron King, a fae with a heart as cold and unyielding as the cursed iron that encases it. To keep his throne, he needs a queen–his fated mate. And I’m supposed to use my ability to protect him, to see through deception… by posing as one of his potential brides.

Assuming I can survive.

The Iron King’s Bridal Trials are a glittering nightmare of cutthroat fae and deadly secrets. His kingdom is on the brink of rebellion, and every fae lady is willing to kill for the crown.

But when the clock strikes midnight during my first dance with the Iron King, everything changes. Because maybe, just maybe the man I loathe might also become the man I love…if two hearts can break a curse of glass and iron.

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Posted in: Fantasy Romance
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