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:

✪✪✪✪✪

The Thirteenth Child

  

The Thirteenth Child
by Erin Craig
 
Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pub Date: September 24, 2024
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Gothic
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop
 
This is the story of Hazel, a young healer navigating a ruthless court to save the life of the king, grappling with a pantheon of gods with questionable agendas as she fights for agency and true love in her own life as the goddaughter of none other than Death himself.

All gifts come with a price.

Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.

When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.

But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?

From the astonishing mind of Erin A. Craig comes the breathtaking fairy tale retelling readers have been waiting for— what does a life well-lived mean, and how do we justify the impossible choices we make for the ones we love?

 
My Review: WOAH! I've read a few books by Erin but this book is IT. This is her masterpiece for me. I couldn't put this book down at all.
 
Hazel is  a lovely girl. She doesn't have the best life or circumstances right now, but she can handle it. It's okay she doesn't get a lice of cake or even a cake on her birthday. It's okay she lives out in the barn.
 
It's all okay because her godfather is going to come for her one day and give her this wonderful life she's both been promised and dreamed about.

When that day finally comes, everything is going to change.
Hazel is given a gift from her Godfather, who is death himself. She is promised to be a great haler and live a long full life. So, he leaves her to read books upon books of medial knowledge. A cozy cabin all to herself with everything she could need.

 
The biggest issue was he left her there alone for the whole year. She was lonely and despite reading all the books and gaining the skills and knowledge she needed to become this great healer, it doesn't change that Hazel was just a child still.

But it's not all bad the whole time. He does return and understands more of who she is and what she wants and so they do end up spending more time together and it ends up not being so bad after all. Especailly when they leave to her new home and she given a lovely home, lots of land, and even a puppy! 

Hazel's work starts right away when she's brought to her new home and things start right off the bat with someone needing her help not even 5 min being there. 

After that, things just keep going for her. Lots of healing, time at home, gardening, raising her puppy and even falling in love. But the biggest and true test is when she is carried off to court to heal the King. From there, this book somehow got even better and I couldn't stand when it was over. I wanted so much more. 
 

My Rating:

✪✪✪✪✪

Weekly Spotlight - Cozy Mystery

 

A New Lease on Death
In this darkly funny supernatural mystery about an unlikely crime-solving duo that launches a commercial, unique, and genre-blending series, death is only the beginning.

Ruby Young's new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she's kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there’s more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can't solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn't kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can't, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. The roommates form an unlikely friendship as they get closer to the truth about Jake's death…and maybe other dangerous secrets as well.

Get It Here 

 

Murder by the Book

Addie Greyborne loved working with rare books at the Boston Public Library—she even got to play detective, tracking down clues about mysterious old volumes. But she didn't expect her sleuthing skills to come in so handy in a little seaside town . . .

Addie left some painful memories behind in the big city, including the unsolved murder of her fiancé and her father's fatal car accident. After an unexpected inheritance from a great aunt, she's moved to a small New England town founded by her ancestors back in colonial times—and living in spacious Greyborne Manor, on a hilltop overlooking the harbor. Best of all, her aunt also left her countless first editions and other treasures—providing an inventory to start her own store.

But there's trouble from day one, and not just from the grumpy woman who runs the bakery next door. A car nearly runs Addie down. Someone steals a copy of Alice in Wonderland. Then, Addie's friend Serena, who owns a nearby tea shop, is arrested—for killing another local merchant. The police seem pretty sure they've got the story in hand, but Addie's not going to let them close the book on this case without a fight . .

Get It Here

 

 

Dead as a Door Knocker

ILL THIS KILLER DEAL LEAD TO A DEAD END?

Meet Whitney Whitaker. A hopeless romantic when it comes to real estate, she knows what it takes to find—and flip—the home of one’s dreams. A fixer-upper is like catnip to Whitney: she can’t resist the challenge of turning an eyesore into a priceless work of art. So when one of her clients decides to liquidate a crumbling property, Whitney seizes the opportunity to purchase it for a song. But soon a curious incident of the cat in the night-time leads to a change in tune. . .

Sawdust is the name of Whitney’s cat—of course. Whitney’s passion for gut-renovation may be a mystery to him but one thing Sawdust knows for sure is this: Dead bodies don’t belong in flower beds. So why is there one in this new, albeit old, house? Now it’s up to Whitney, along with the help of hot-and-cold Nashville Police Detective Collin Flynn, to find the truth about what happened before the mortgage property forecloses and Whitney loses her investment. . .and maybe her own life.

Get It Here

 

 

Murder at the Playhouse

Late summer 1933. After a quarrel with too-plucky-for-her-own-good amateur sleuth Kitty Underhay, dashing ex-army captain Matthew Bryant is nursing his wounds, and a tumbler of brandy, when there’s a heavy knock at the door and he finds himself arrested for murder. The body of aspiring actress Pearl Bright has been found, strangled with one of Matt’s own bootlaces, and the evidence seems to be stacked against him.

The local constabulary might have locked Matt up, but before they can throw away the key, Kitty hears the news and hies to his aid, determined to prove his innocence. And when her investigations lead her to the home of retired theatre impresario Stanley Davenport, and the local amateur dramatics society, Kitty uncovers a web of deceit that stretches far beyond the stage make-up. But Kitty’s digging is bringing her to the attention of the killer. Without her partner in crime-fighting, can Kitty expose them and clear Matt’s name? Or will it be curtains for them both?

Get It Here