Phantasma

 

Phantasma
by Kaylie Smith

 

Book: Wicked Games #1
Publisher: Forever
Pub Date: September 3, 2024
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Adult, Gothic
Format: Print
Source: Bought
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop

When Ophelia’s sister disappears, there is only one way to save her. Ophelia must enter Phantasma, a deadly contest inside a haunted mansion, and claim its prize—a single wish.

Phantasma is a maze of twisting corridors and lavish ballrooms, of demons and temptations. Ophelia will face nine challenges, each more dangerous than the last. There can only be one winner, and the other contestants will stop at nothing to eliminate their rivals.

Every day the house creates new monsters. But just as Ophelia’s fears threaten to overwhelm her, a mysterious stranger offers her a bargain.

Charming, arrogant and infuriatingly attractive, Blackwell claims he can guide her through the lethal trials ahead. All he asks in return is ten years of her life.

Ophelia knows she shouldn’t trust him. Blackwell doesn’t seem dangerous, but appearances can be deceptive. Worse still, she feels a dark and irresistible attraction drawing them closer and closer.

Her life is on the line. But in Phantasma, the only thing deadlier than losing the game is losing your heart . . .

 

My Review: OMG I LOVED this book. 

The entire book was fantastic. From the characters, world building, romance and everything in between, I was so here for it.

Ophelia and Genevieve start the book a pretty bad note. Their mum was just found dead. Ophelia takes her necklace and quickly performance the spell to become the next necromancer in the family. Then they visit her at the funeral home and THEN they find out their home is at stake. 

There is A LOT going on. Things get more tense when Ophelia finds out that Genevieve kinda secretly knew about more than she let on and didn't tell Ophelia about it. That among other things, ends up causing a fight between them.

When on the look for her sister, Ophelia comes to find out that she must have entered Phantasma. So the logical thing to do was enter as well clearly. 

Then comes Blackwell. I loved his character. The banter between him and Ophelia. They are great together and Blackwell ended up being a much bigger role than you'd think which was fantastic. 

I don't have much about this book that I didn't like. There were moments that it was a little all over the place but really if there was anything it was minor. I loved how the author brought in a character with OCD and really brought a new light to it. The variations of it and was really well brought out and one of the best representations of it. 

Overall, I loved this entire book. I couldn't put it down and then didn't want to even when it ended. I'm so excited for more books in this series. 

 

My Rating:

✪✪✪✪✪

Weekly Spotlight - May Reads

 

Storm Breaker
From the publisher who brought you Fourth Wing comes your next romantasy obsession...

For nineteen-year-old Poet Graves, New Manhattan has always promised safety―if she obeys. Raised within the ruling Houses and betrothed to a powerful heir, she enters Amery Academy knowing her future has already been decided.

But Amery is nothing like she imagined. Its trials are brutal, its loyalties conditional, and its rules designed to expose weakness. As Poet struggles to survive, she must hide the truth that could get her executed: the storms don’t fear her―they answer back.

When a dangerous outsider from beyond the city walls enters the academy, Poet is drawn to him despite everything she’s been taught to believe. He threatens the life she’s been promised. And choosing him could cost her not just her future, but her freedom.

A gripping dystopian romance filled with forbidden power, ruthless challenges, and a heroine who refuses to burn quietly―perfect for fans of Divergent and The Hunger Games.

Includes two bonus scenes from the Hero’s POV

Get it Here

 
 

The Ballad of Falling Dragons
Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the world will face its most devastating moonfall yet, forcing her to pick a path:

Chase death.
Or life.

Desperate to save his kingdom from ruin, Kaan’s crown has never felt so heavy. His many larks to scattered friends and family remain unanswered, and time is running out.

As allies merge and enemies surge with bloodlusting agendas of their own, secrets brew hot enough to burn, but none so mighty as the truth nesting within the icy depths of Raeve’s long forgotten past.
Something … Other.

Something with the knowledge to change it all.

Get it Here

 

An Ordinary Sort of Evil
New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns to Victorian Scotland in the latest in the genre-blending Rip Through Time series.

Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Mitchell has grown accustomed to life in Victorian Scotland after travelling 150 years into the past into the body of a housemaid. She’s built a new life for herself. Even though she works as an assistant to forensic-science pioneer Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie, she considers them true friends. And with Gray in particular, perhaps, someday, something more.

Late one night, Gray and Mallory are summoned urgently to the home of Lady Adler, a patron of Gray’s undertaking business, and they assume there's been a death in the household. But instead, they arrive in the midst of a seance with a ghost demanding Gray's presence. The ghost is Lady Adler's former maid, who had gone missing but now requests that Gray investigate her murder. Although Gray and Mallory are skeptical, they agree to look into the matter, whether she's dead or alive. But unsure if there's been a murder or not, unable to call out the medium as a fraud, and concerned for the fate of the young maid, Gray and Mallory are once again drawn into a mystery much more puzzling--and more dangerous--than it first seems

Get it Here

 

Death's Daughter
Perfect for fans of Ninth House, Nightshade, and Neon Gods, Death's Daughter is a dark, spicy and deliciously autumnal contemporary romantic fantasy in a dark academia setting, in which the only daughter of Death is named his successor, making her both a powerful ally and a massive target, all while she tries to make it through her final year at college . . .

Time for her to join the family business
Jocasta's carved out a normal life at Beecher University―well, as normal as possible with a name like Jocasta and being the only child of Death.
She has good friends and a messy situationship with her former TA. But her friends, her crush, and her classmates don't know the truth about who - or what - she is. They would be horrified to discover Jo must feed to survive - and she feeds on them. But she refuses to take lives, feasting instead on their disappointments, failures, and rejections. It's not a perfect system, but it works.

Until a sexy stranger - and descendant of Lust - shows up on campus because Death just named Jo as his successor, making her a powerful ally and a massive target.

Jo's safe little bubble is about to burst, but she will do anything to protect the people she loves. Even if it means becoming what she hates...

Get it Here

May Reading Challenge

 

Let's get reading! May Reading challenge is here!  

Here is a list of books to help you get started:

School Setting:

Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

 

Blue Cover:
The Hawthorn Legacy by Jennifer Barnes

The Selection by Kiera Cass

A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

We welcome you to comment with your suggestions and tell us which bingo spot you’re most excited about this month!

Where Shadows Meet

 

Where Shadows Meet
by Patrice Caldwell
 
Book: Where Shadows Meet #1
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pub Date: April 1, 2025
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Vampires
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop

The dark and thrillingly romantic debut vampire fantasy that questions what it truly means to sacrifice for love.

You have no idea what I’ve done for love. Just as you have no idea what you may one day do.

Once long ago, a girl named Favre sacrificed her wings for love. Thana, the young goddess she so willingly gave them up for, sacrificed that same love for power. But everything has a cost.

Favre never got over the loss of her wings. And Thana’s choices led to a life of eternal night, and later, their destruction. Favre has bided her time ever since, waiting for the chance to resurrect the girl she loves who turned her into the creature she hates.

Now, a thousand years later, Leyla, the crown princess of the malichora—an ancient race that survives on human blood —must travel to the Island of the Dead when her best friend is captured during an attack on her nation’s capital. Along with Najja, a fierce, beautiful seer, and the last person she expected to help her, Leyla forges down a dangerous path, intent on saving her friend. But nothing is as it seems. The closer she gets to her goal, the more she risks awakening an ancient evil and destroying everything she holds dear.

Set in the aftermath of a war between vampires, humans, and the gods that created them, Patrice Caldwell’s devastatingly romantic fantasy debut, Where Shadows Meet, centers the heart-wrenching pain of loss and the struggle of self-discovery to ask: do we choose our fates, or do our fates choose us?

 

My Review: DNF. 

No, OMG no.  

In theory, the book sounded. However, it didn't turn out that way.

Had to DNF at 25%, it was so bad that it gave me a headache trying to get through it and there was no hope in picking it back up. 

A lot of characters. A lot of jumping around between characters and time lines. It was hard to understand, keep up and even be engaged. Things are all over the place. Moments of the past thrown in at the worst times.  

The concepts, development,  characters,  world building,  etc. Could have been so much better, but the overall execution of the book was not there.   

Will not continue the series.

My Rating:

✪

Spellcast

 

Spellcast
by Sophie Jordan
 
Book: A Fire in the Sky #3
Publisher: Avon
Pub Date: July 28, 2026
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Dragons
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop

New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan is back with an epic romantasy set in the world of A Fire in the Sky, about a girl on the hunt for the witch who cursed her, unaware of her own dormant power…waiting to emerge.

For ten long years, Arden has been invisible, trapped in her village by a spell she cannot break. She listens to friends chatter, watches her family grieve, but can never touch, speak, or be seen. Living like a ghost among those who’ve forgotten her, she dreams of vengeance against the witch who cursed her.

Until one fateful day, her village is devoured in flame, and everything changes.

From the wreckage rises a pride of dragons that can transform into humans. Their piercing eyes slice through her curse, and for the first time in a decade, Arden can be seen.

Swept off to the Crags by the enigmatic alpha dragon, Tage, Arden is forced into a world of fire and power, where danger lurks in every shadow. Though she plots her escape at every turn, Tage’s fiery intensity and undeniable magnetism spark an unwilling response in her.

But Arden’s fate is bound to a secret she has yet to uncover, a magic older and more perilous than she could ever imagine. With war on the horizon, Arden must decide whether to trust the dragon she swore to defy, harness the wild magic around her, or risk losing everything.

Sometimes all it takes to break a curse… is to cast another spell.

 

My Review: So excited to jump back into this world. Sophie's dragons are amazing as always.

Now, do be aware this could seem like a stand alone as it doesn't follow the same characters as the first two books. In this book it focuses on another set of characters. Same world, just a different view. 

Arden is just trying to exist in a world where she doesn't. Least, not that anyone can see anyway. After one night as a kid she ran off and little did she know the words she let out was actually a spell. Thinking she was cursed by some witch, she goes on the hunt to find her and undo this curse. Unfortunately she won't learn the truth until it's too late. 

From the sidelines in a way, she watches her family look for her and mourn her. Watches her sister get married, have kids and even witness the tragedy that will ultimately also take another from her. There isn't anything Arden can do about anything. 

When more tragedy strikes Arden and she loses everything and everyone, she thinks it couldn't get any worse until a group of dragons come along. When they shifted back into human forms she notices they are looking at her, like they can actually see and hear her.  Turns out magic can't hide from magic it seems and so they could all see her. 

From there Arden has no choice but to go with them. Some want to get rid of her while the leader Tage has other plans. He his kind, he isn't the same as other groups of dragons set on destroying. He wants to be better, he doesn't just want to hurt humans or anything for no reason or simply that he can. 

But what was supposed to keeping Arden as a guest turned into something way more. 

This book was fast paced and I couldn't put it down. I loved being back in this world and getting another view of it. I loved every moment of it that I finished the book in a sitting and then immediately upset I didn't have another book to dive into. 

Sophie will make you fall in love with dragons all over again. Especially if you've been around since the Firelight days. I loved her YA dragon series and now I get to love them all over again as an adult and I can't wait for more.

 

My Rating:

✪✪✪✪✪

Weekly Spotlight - Dark Academia

Endless Anger

Sometimes the pomegranate doesn't fall far from the tree...

Asher Anderson is angry―at the world, at himself, at the way his best friend Lucy Wolfe seems determined to tune out this buzzing connection between them. He doesn't mean to solve all his problems with violence, but maybe he has too much of his father in him. That's why the faculty at Avernia College hates him, right? Because of the "evil" blood in his veins?

He should know better than to darken the old, ivy-covered university's door, but it's practically a law of the universe: wherever Lucy goes, Asher follows. Even if that means entering a twisting labyrinth of secret societies, human sacrifices, and a very personal history soaked in blood.

Lucy is used to being an outcast. She's even used to Asher being her dark, brooding shadow. What she isn't used to is him shattering her resolve by taking her up against library bookshelves as she desperately pretends her heart hasn't always been his. She should know better than to play with fire, but with unexplained deaths and pointed threats ripping apart the university's fabric, Asher and Lucy soon find themselves at the center of the turmoil…where they'll have to confront their feelings or die trying.

From USA Today bestselling author Sav R. Miller comes the first in a dazzling spin-off trilogy focusing on the children of the original Monsters & Muses: a dark and twisted contemporary romance inspired by the Greek Furies, set at an exclusive (and dangerous) university.

Get It Here

Arcana Academy

Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and a whole lot of illegal magic. After a job goes awry, Clara is sentenced to a lifetime in prison for inking tarot cards-a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy.

Just when it seems her luck has run dry, the academy's enigmatic headmaster, Prince Kaelis, offers her an escape-for a price. Kaelis believes that Clara is the perfect tool to help him steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time.

In order to conceal her identity and keep her close, Kaelis brings Clara to Arcana Academy, introducing her as the newest first-year student and his bride-to-be.

Thrust into a world of arcane magic and royal intrigue, where one misstep will send her back to prison or worse, Clara finds that the prince she swore to hate may not be what he seems.

But can she risk giving him power over the world-and her heart? Or will she take it for herself?

Get It Here

 

 

Enigma

Enigma, a twisted Hades and Persephone meets scorching dark academia romance—a tale of love and obsession between two rivals.

There are secrets she must uncover.

There are secrets he must keep.

Salem Salazar is fascinated with death. The black sheep of her scandal-ridden, wealthy family, she arrives at Mortimer University as a legacy on the hunt for answers about what happened to her perfect, older sister. There, she discovers that her sister is far from the only girl to have gone missing at Mortimer. Salem will do anything to discover what dark forces are killing Mortimer's students...even if it means using herself as bait.

And Cazimir van der Waal has caught her scent. The mysterious artist and teaching assistant has a dark past, a hidden agenda, and a ravenous appetite for a beautiful, golden-eyed girl who seems determined to risk her life.

Where she is ice, he is fire. Where she is organization, he is chaos. Where she is precision, he is passion. Together they are explosive--their fates linked as secret societies and death stalk them both.

Enigma is a sensual, epic love story for those who also crave the frightful, the puzzling, the suspenseful, the dangerous and the dark.

Welcome to Mortimer.

Get It Here

 

 

Nocticadia

A dark, atmospheric tale of deadly secrets and forbidden love.

Mortui vivos docent.
The dead teach the living.

After watching my mother succumb to a mysterious illness, I promised myself two things. I’d find the cure for what ravaged her. And leave the godforsaken city where she abandoned me.

Four years later, I receive an acceptance letter from Dracadia University, one of the oldest, most prestigious schools in the country. Nestled on a secluded island off the coast of Maine, it’s rumored to be haunted by the souls of the mental patients exiled there centuries before. Those whose bones are said to make up the island’s white sandy shores.

And restless ghosts aren’t even its most daunting peculiarity.

Devryck Bramwell, known on campus as Doctor Death, is a brilliant pathologist in charge of the midnight lab. He’s also my devastatingly handsome professor, who seems to loathe tenacious first-years, like me. Except, his dark and enigmatic gaze tells me all the ways he’d devour me if given the chance, and his stolen kisses burn my lips with forbidden jealousy.

I crave his authority.
He aches for redemption.
Together, we’re toxic. Delicious fodder for the prying eyes hellbent on exhuming the rotted skeletons of our pasts.

For the dead have much to teach, and it’s only a matter of time before Dracadia’s most depraved secret is resurrected.

Nocticadia is a standalone dark academia gothic romance.

Get It Here

Bad Bunny

Bad Bunny 
by Lexi Davis
 
Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: Author
Pub Date: March 24, 2026
Genre: Adult, Romance, Dark, Holiday
Format: eBook
Source: Author
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  
 
He’s not the Easter Bunny.
When Nora brings a fluffy white rabbit into her kindergarten classroom, she expects squeals, giggles, and maybe a science lesson about spring.

What she doesn’t expect is for the rabbit to bite her.
Or to shift into a six-foot-five, battle-wounded man with the face of a fallen god.

What she really doesn’t expect…
…is for him to be naked.

He claims he’s a prince.
He claims he’s being hunted.
He claims there’s an enchanted sword powerful enough to save his kingdom — and he needs her help to find it.

She thinks he’s insane.
He knows she’s his.

Bonded.
Fated.
Mates.

Sorren is not from her world.
He’s older. Wilder.
Royal. And on the run.

This Easter, the hunt begins.

Not for eggs.

For a throne.
For survival.
For her.

Because once a prince claims his mate…
He doesn’t let her go.

Bad Bunny is a steamy page-turning, heart-pounding, swoony bunny shifter fantasy featuring a possessive prince, fated mates, forced proximity, enchanted weapons, ancient magic, and a heroine who refuses to bow to destiny.

Perfect for readers who love paranormal romance, fantasy shifters, protective alpha heroes, and high-stakes romantic adventure.

 
My Review: I loved this! I get so excited waiting for the next holiday themed novella by Lexi, it's always such a good time.

Nora has herself a lovely white bunny for her kindergarten class. This should be fun, the kids will be excited to have a bunny, want to hold it, pet it and all the things right? 

Until that bunny bites her. She swears that it understood what she said when she was upset about it, but at least he was great with the kids. But now...uh well they no longer have a class bunny .. You see one moment there was a bunny and the next there was a man standing there in his full on birthday suit. 

Then we go down the road of fated mates, a magical sword and both are in his uncles sights. 

This book was an absolute blast. I was so giddy over this book. In fact, it may have topped the other novellas. I don't think I've come across a bunny shifter romance before, but after this one, I wouldn't be opposed to another. This one also had fantasy compared to the others and I'm here for anything Lexi writes. Fantasy was woven in perfectly while still getting that romance we've come to know and once again it hit every mark. 

 

My Rating:

✪✪✪✪✪

The Crimson Crown

 

The Crimson Crown
by Heather Walter
 
Book: The Crimson Crown Duology #1
Publisher: Del Rey
Pub Date: August 27, 2024
Genre: Adult, Retelling, Fantasy
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the wickedest of them all? Snow White’s dark queen tells her side of the story in the first book of a queer, witchy duology that reimagines the classic fairy tale—from the author of Malice.

Legends tell of a witch who became a queen—the heartless villain in the story of Snow White.

But now the wicked queen is stepping out of Snow White’s shadow to become the heroine of her own legend.

Her real “once upon a time” begins when she is just Ayleth, a young witch who lives in the forest with her coven. The witches practice their magic in secret, hiding from the White King and his brutal war against witchcraft.

Ayleth, however, faces a war of her own. Her magical gifts have yet to reveal themselves, and as the threat of the Royal Huntsmen intensifies, Ayleth fears she will never become the witch her coven needs.

To prove herself, Ayleth sets out on a perilous quest that sends her to the White Palace, a decadent world of drama and deceit. There, Ayleth encounters an unlikely figure from her past: Jacquetta, a witch who once held Ayleth’s heart—and betrayed her.

As events at the palace escalate, Ayleth finds herself caught in the web of the White King, whose dark charisma is as dangerous as the sinister force that seems to be haunting the palace—and perhaps even Ayleth herself. With the threat of discovery looming, Ayleth and Jacquetta must set aside the wounds of their past and work together to survive.

As she uncovers the secrets of the White Court—and those of her own heart—Ayleth must find the strength to transform into someone she never imagined she could be.

A powerful witch, the very wickedest of them all.

 

My Review: LOVE this. 

Ayleth has it pretty tough right now. She's her mother second but doesn't really want it nor really wanted anyway. It should have been her sister that was her mother's second. Her sister that died and ever since it hasn't ever been the same.

Ayleth may not be perfect, may not have any real magic right now and may be just a little bit lost in life. But she is going to become something she never dreamed of before and it will benefit her so well.

When the time comes for her to escape in order to find something she thinks will fix everything, she takes it. Ayleth is going to make her way to the King's home and find the bloodstones that can bring her sister back, fix the veil and everything will be right again.

However, nothing really goes as planned.

Ayleth runs into an old flame and once believed things could mend between them until that love turns into a betrayal in the worst way. When the stones are not where they were meant to be. When the person who could help her is ended right in front of her. 

When in the end its someone Ayleth didn't think could be behind it all. When she finally realizes what these shadows really are and finally embracing it and coming into her magic like she couldn't believe. 

Ayleth has all the power she could want. She is going to take this kingdom and make it hers and has no issues with showing those who failed and hurt her just what she is capable of. 

I loved this book so much and cannot wait to dive into the next one. This was so good and I couldn't put it down.

Extra bonus point as I'm not the biggest Snow Whit fan, but this retelling was one of the best I've ever read.

My Rating:

✪✪✪✪✪