Metal Slinger

 

Metal Slinger
by Rachel Schneider
 
Book: Fire & Metal #1
Publisher: Saturday Books
Pub Date: May 12, 2024
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Magic
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop

Even though she's not one of them, Brynn has spent her life among the Alaha, training to be a guard and waiting for the chance to attend the annual market hosted by the Kenta–the very same people who exiled her adopted community to a life at sea. Going to the market is a rite of passage eagerly anticipated by all young guards, but Brynn does not anticipate breaking a century-long peace treaty while there. Nor does she plan for the intense encounter with an enemy soldier that now threatens to unwind the fragile coexistence between their people–and everything Brynn once believed about herself to be true.

Brynn's loyalty to the Alaha is tested when the truth of her identity is brought to light by this soldier who's taken an oath to bring her back to where she belongs. Narrowly escaping death on the violent high seas, Brynn's connection to the Alaha is further tested when she learns about the world of magic she's been denied. She was once certain of her fate and where she belonged, but the dark, knowing eyes of this stranger have her questioning everything, including her heart.

 

My Review: Erm... So I'm not sure what the hype is about this book. 

I made it about 10 chapters in before I had to put it down and decide if I could pick it back up and finish it or mark it as a DNF. 

The story up until then is so boring. The amount of errors makes it really hard to read at times too. Basically up to this point, the book has done nothing but give me a headache. 

Kai is the leaders son and is choosing Brynn to be his wife. He wants her, his family is happy about the choice, and they'll lead this place together one day. He is pretty pushy about it and Brynn likes Kai but marriage wasn't on her list of things and the more Kai pushes the more I want to have words with him and they aren't kind ones. 

Brynn seems to have the shitty end of the stick here. She was essentially adopted into the Alaha home. Training, excited to visit the market and just really just needs a chance in life. She seems to constantly get in trouble, a lot of them with Kai. Or perhaps trouble just follows her since when they finally get to visit the market she kind of breaks a peace treaty and now they want Alaha to send her back to them. 

So far, I'm not impressed nor really care for any of the characters at all. They could use some work on personality traits and more development too. 

After sometime, I did pick the book back up and tried to push through it. I did have to skip some chapters until I finally reached a point where the book somewhat redeemed itself. Around the 70% mark is when the book was finally interesting enough for me and started to grab and hold my attention, though I wasn't 100% sold on the story yet. There are still many things to be answered, development could use more work but it was getting there finally.

In the end, I did manage to finish the book. Is it worth all the hype around it? No. Its just another overhyped book that didn't make the cut for me. Not sure if I'll attempt the next book. There are things I want to know more about and get the answers to that hopefully the next book will be able to give and who knows maybe it's the next book that will make the series worth it to me. In the meantime I'll just leave it at this and perhaps I'll take a look at the second book down the line.

My Rating:

✪✪

Babylonia

 

Babylonia
by Costanza Casati
 
Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: Landmark
Pub Date: January 14, 2025
Genre: Adult, Mythology, Retelling, Historical
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop
 
From the author of the bestselling Clytemnestra comes another intoxicating excursion into ancient history, as Casati reimagines the rise to power of the Assyrian empire's only female ruler, Semiramis.
When kings fall, queens rise.

Nothing about Semiramis's upbringing could have foretold her legacy or the power she would come to wield. A female ruler, once an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire - certainly no one in Ancient Assyria would bend to her command willingly. Semiramis was a woman who knew if she wanted power, she would have to claim it.

There are whispers of her fame in Mesopotamian myth- Semiramis was a queen, an ambitious warrior, a commander whose reputation reaches the majestic proportions of Alexander the Great. Historical record, on the other hand, falls eerily quiet.

In her second novel, Costanza Casati brilliantly weaves myth and ancient history together to give Semiramis a voice, charting her captivating ascent to a throne no one promised her. The world Casati expertly builds is rich with dazzling detail and will transport her readers to the heat of the Assyrian Empire and a world long gone.

 
My Review: I love a good mythology retelling. Went into this book excited.

The start was slow. Kind of boring and was on the edge of leaving this as a DNF. 

However, hang in there. Around chapter 10 is when it starts to finally pick up and I'm so glad I held on. 

The story picks up, the pace picks up, things are becoming interesting and pulled me in. 

Semiramis first comes off as an orphan taken in but never really fit in or belonged. When she meets Onnes, its as if she finally awakens. More of herself starts to come out.  

Semiramis leaves with Onnes after a horrid scene at her home. She will leave with him and on the way he makes his plans to know to want to marry her.  

They marry, they have a good home, all seems to be going well. Semiramis is learning from one of the slaves being her eyes and ears. She is eager to wander and explore the area more though. So she asks Onnes to train her, as its a place she finds interesting.  He agrees. Onnes is kind and listens and answers all her questions. They are equals and its actually nice to see.

When Semiramis joins them at war, things are going to change for everyone. Her strategy worked, they won. But she has seen things now that will change her. Onne's won't be the same again and the King will start to see her as more than his brothers wife. 

As the book moves on, so much happens. The paces keeps you on your toes. Rumors will spread. People will die. Semiramis will rise as Queen and so much more. I'm so glad I stuck it out and now I can't wait to see what the author will come up with next! 

 

My Rating:

✪✪✪✪

Weekly Spotlight - Lexi Davis Novellas

 

Naughty Saint Nick

Between her son’s impossible-to-assemble bike, a half-finished bottle of wine, and the ghost of a marriage gone wrong, she’s barely holding it together.

Then a stranger’s voice crackles through her son’s walkie-talkie, warm, kind, and wickedly funny.
“Saint Nick,” he calls himself. He’s a neighbor. A good one. The kind who checks in on her and makes her laugh when she forgets how.
But the more they talk, the less neighborly it feels. What starts as lighthearted banter turns into late-night confessions, laughter, and a spark that lingers long after the signal fades.
Saint Nick seems nice...but Amber can’t shake the feeling he might also be a little naughty.

Maybe she should invite him over and find out?

Naughty Saint Nick is a darkly funny, steamy, and emotionally charged holiday romance about loneliness, temptation, and two strangers who collide when they least expect it. It blends small-town Christmas charm with neighbors-to-lovers heat, a single-mom heroine, late-night walkie-talkie flirting, secret longing, and a protective cinnamon-roll hero with a dirty mouth. Perfect for readers who crave grown-up holiday stories with heat, humor, heart, and a touch of naughty Christmas magic.

My Review

Claimed by Her Monsters

On Halloween night, the storm comes for me…and so do three dangerous men who swear I’m theirs.

Hours after I’m tossed from my latest foster home, a beautiful stranger shows up to claim me. He takes me to a mansion that breathes like a living thing. The halls listen. The portraits watch. Outside, thunder calls my name.

He tells me to stay in my room.
I don’t.

Downstairs I meet his Mick, the big one who growls.Caspian, the quiet one who can’t stop staring.Alister, the grump who brought me here. My “guardian,” or something far more dangerous?
A storm rages outside. The house whispers. The lights die. They tell me I’m the key to whatever’s waking inside these walls…and inside me. I have to complete a ritual before midnight or the thing under my skin will tear me and this town apart. They say it’s simple.

Fight and die.
Yield to it, and to all of them, and live.

But in this house, nothing is what it seems, least of all me, and when the clock strikes twelve, I’ll have to decide whether to resist the monsters at my door or admit they already own my heart.

A wicked, why-choose Halloween romance with crackling chemistry, haunted-house vibes, and a fierce heroine who doesn’t have to pick. High heat. No cheating. HEA.

My Review

Cupid Is A Liar
I thought the worst thing that could happen on Valentine’s Day was getting stood up.

I was wrong.

When my date ghosts me and I decide to confront him, I don’t expect the night to spiral. I don’t expect danger and I definitely don’t expect the quiet, intense man from down the hall to step in and change everything.

Damian Salvanti is calm under pressure.

Terrifyingly observant.
And far too willing to put himself between me and the world.

The more time I spend with him, the more unsettling the truth becomes.

He knows me.
My routines.
My fears.
The things I want but never say out loud.
Because Damian hasn’t just been watching out for me.

He’s been watching me…

Cupid Is a Liar is a dark, fast-paced Valentine’s romance featuring an obsessive, morally gray hero who falls first, a heroine who chooses danger over safety, and a love story that blurs the line between devotion and obsession.

My Review

Soul of Shadow

 

Soul of Shadow
by Emma Noyes
 
Book: Soul of Shadow #1
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pub Date: July 29, 2025
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Mythology
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop

A thrilling Norse mythology inspired contemporary romantasy sure to excite fans of The Vampire Diaries and Atlas Six.

Charlie Hudson just wants to get through junior year. Since the death of her twin sister two years earlier, she’s drifted through life, going through the motions at school and parties and even at home. The spark that once burned so brightly within her has all but flickered out.

Until her classmate goes missing in the forest, leaving nothing behind but a pair of shoes and strange symbols carved into a tree.

Drawn to the disappearances by forces she can’t explain, she finds herself investigating the mysterious, alluring newcomer in town, Elias Everhart. With piercing eyes and sharp wit, he dances around her questions, only intriguing her further. Elias has a secret. More than one.

But what Charlie doesn’t know is that those secrets will lead her to a place she never imagined: a world hiding in plain sight, made of magic, gods, and monsters - and a first love fated to fall apart.

In Emma Noyes's Soul of Shadow, truths and temptations lurk in the darkness, and for Charlie, the only thing more dangerous than facing her past, is the boy with the power to change her future.

 

My Review: Erm... so this was something.

At the 5th chapter mark I was really struggling to continue with this book or call it quits. Quite frankly it's so far been very boring and I don't like Charlie at all. She lost her twin, broke down for one night and never really felt anything again. They went from a circus act of two to just her now and she practices magic to such a degree she'll have her hands bleed from it. But it's all coming off as just her trying to not feel any emotions, anything she can do to be distracted or just anything that isn't going to make her see like any other person struggling with a loss. I wasn't enjoying that and the pace has been so painfully slow.

A boy in from her school is also recently declared missing and the night she is out with friends at the bonfire that happens before the start of school every year, they find this missing boys shoes.

Then school starts and Charlie has a moment with her brother Mason who even comments its a surprise she stopped long enough to think of someone else.

I got to about chapter 10 before finally calling it quits and DNF this book. There was soo much going on, like it was trying to check every box to appeal to the YA crowd. The main character was so annoyingly difficult, the pace never picked up enough to even get me remotely interested in continuing. There is barely talk of any Norse Mythology at the start and was hoping to have a little more to draw you in but nope. 

The book should have kept it directed to YA and stop trying to make every YA tread into adult territory. Maybe this book will find the readers meant for it, but overall this was such a headache that I regret reading as much as I even did. There are no plans to give this book a second chance never mind continue on with the series. 

My Rating:

✪

The Astral Library

The Astral Library

by Kate Quinn
 
Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: William Morrow
Pub Date: February 17, 2026
Genre: Fantasy, Historical, Magical, Adult
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop
 
From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.

Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives...inside their favorite books.

The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself?

 
My Review: LOVE this, absolutely a must read! 

Alix is having one heck of a hard time. Working more than one job, all of various hours and days. None of which are enough for her to survive on. She's behind on giving her roommates her part of the rent. Getting groceries comes with a lecture from the cashier no one asked for. She has an IOU for a fancy outfit that she wont have a place to need it for. 

Really, life just sucks. 

A stop at the library will do just the trick to change everything. What's not to love about a library or a good book? How about when a door opens and brings her right into the Astral Library.

SO much happens in this book. Costume changes by her good friend who just happens to find this world near the end. Book traveling. Saving people in books, learning about their stories and sending them to other realms.  

BUT what happens when all the danger was coming from inside all along?? OH and I HATE the board so much, oh so very much.  They all should've been eaten... 

I LOVED the way Alix stood up for the Astral Library, for books, for what it stands for, for what it means for so many people. The passion was felt. A Library, a book or even both is a sanctuary. Books gave me my reason for existing and still is the only the reason.  

I loved the passion and would have loved to be right there fighting like she did. Though, the Library can hold its own just fine too.  

The story was amazing. Beautifully done it brought out all the emotions. The pace was fantastic and moved so well that I haven't read something so well paced in a while. Everything about this book was perfect. Every single book lover, book dragon, etc. needs to read this book.   

My ONLY complaint is that the Astral Library is fiction. Oh what I wouldn't give to find sanctuary like that.   

My Rating:

✪✪✪✪✪

Weekly Spotlight - Books set in Japan

 

Shadow of the Fox
One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll… at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.

My Review

 

A Mortal Song
Sora's life was full of magic—until she discovered it was all a lie. 

Heir to Mt. Fuji's spirit kingdom, Sora yearns to finally take on the sacred kami duties. But just as she confronts her parents to make a plea, a ghostly army invades the mountain. Barely escaping with her life, Sora follows her mother's last instructions to a heart-wrenching she is a human changeling, raised as a decoy while her parents' true daughter remained safe but unaware in modern-day Tokyo. Her powers were only borrowed, never her own. Now, with the world's natural cycles falling into chaos and the ghosts plotting an even more deadly assault, it falls on her to train the unprepared kami princess.

As Sora struggles with her emerging human weaknesses and the draw of an unanticipated ally with secrets of his own, she vows to keep fighting for her loved ones and the world they once protected. But for one mortal girl to make a difference in this desperate war between the spirits, she may have to give up the only home she's ever known. With its breathtaking action, heart-wrenching conflict, and unexpected romance, this vivid standalone contemporary fantasy will delight fans of Julie Kagawa and Laini Taylor. Dive into the captivating world of the kami today!

Get it Here

 

 

Ink
On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.

Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.

My Review

 

 

The Woman in the White Kimono
Oceans and decades apart, two women are inextricably bound by the secrets between them.

Japan, 1957. Seventeen-year-old Naoko Nakamura’s prearranged marriage to the son of her father’s business associate would secure her family’s status in their traditional Japanese community, but Naoko has fallen for another man—an American sailor, a gaijin—and to marry him would bring great shame upon her entire family. When it’s learned Naoko carries the sailor’s child, she’s cast out in disgrace and forced to make unimaginable choices with consequences that will ripple across generations.

America, present day. Tori Kovač, caring for her dying father, finds a letter containing a shocking revelation—one that calls into question everything she understood about him, her family and herself. Setting out to learn the truth behind the letter, Tori’s journey leads her halfway around the world to a remote seaside village in Japan, where she must confront the demons of the past to pave a way for redemption.

In breathtaking prose and inspired by true stories from a devastating and little-known era in Japanese and American history, The Woman in the White Kimono illuminates a searing portrait of one woman torn between her culture and her heart, and another woman on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.

Get it Here

Gracie Gets Lucky

Gracie Gets Lucky
by Lexi Davis
 
Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: Author
Pub Date: March 3, 2026
Genre: Adult, Romance, Dark, Friends to Lovers
Format: ARC
Source: Author
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon
 
She wants a one-night stand. He wants forever.
Gracie Smith has a plan for St. Patrick’s Day.
Find a bar. Find a stranger. Have a reckless, forgettable one-night stand.
No feelings. No promises. No complications.
There’s just one problem.
A man.

Her lifelong friend, Beck.
Best friends since kindergarten, they grew up in each other’s backyards, scraped knees and whispered secrets. A first kiss they promised meant nothing.
He’s her safe place. Her comfort. The one person she can truly be herself with.
But this St. Patrick’s Day, with green lights flashing and beer cups overflowing, Beck is done standing by while Gracie gives herself to men who don’t deserve her. Done pretending friendship is enough. Done watching her break her own heart.
Tonight, he’ll make her see him.
Make her see herself.

Tonight, he'll ruin the friendship.
A spicy, emotional friends-to-lovers novella about crossing the line, choosing forever, and realizing the most dangerous thing isn’t losing your best friend, it’s never taking the chance at all.

My Review: Ah! I'm loving these Holiday themed Novellas.

Gracie is ready to get lucky tonight. Ready for a one night stand, Gracie is going to look around the bar and find someone to take home and all will be well. 

Uh, until her bestie Beck overhears that and he isn't happy about it. Beck wants Gracie and their forever friendship is going to be more or nothing.

Gracie and Beck are best friends since kindergarten. Gracie doesn't see it as more, yet when her friend asks to make a move, she feels more than she may want to admit. 

Beck finally spits out why he wasn't really talking with Gracie for a while and said its now or never. If he can't have all of her than he can't be friends anymore. 

Maybe it was Beck going all out on a guy that wouldn't leave Gracie alone. Maybe they both knew all along. But tonight their friendship is going into a new territory. 

Boy was it worth it. To watch the night play out, to them finally giving into each other and then seeing how their life unfolded was so beautiful and will pull on your heart strings. Seeing what a lifelong friendship to lovers can become and knowing that these two are destined to make it forever AND their parents are besties too. You know those two probably knew this was bound to happen too. 

So amazing, as usual. Can't wait for the next Holiday special. 

 

My Rating:

✪✪✪✪✪

Soul Screamers Vol. 4

Soul Screamers Vol. 4
by Rachel Vincent
 
Book: Soul Screamers
Publisher: Harlequin
Pub Date: January 1, 2014
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy
Format: Print
Source:  Bought
Book Links:  Goodreads  Amazon  Bookshop
 
Saving the world has never come easy and Kaylee Cavanaugh's died to prove it.

The final collection of New York Times bestselling author Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series is packed with emotion, with intrigue, with secrets, with family and above all, with love.

Don't miss WITH ALL MY SOUL, FEARLESS and a brand-new novella, LAST REQUEST.
 

My Review:  DNF.

After the last book, I was very hesitant to continue with the final volume. But I gave it a try and just couldn't get through it, not even half way. The last book really made it hard to continue this series and this book didn't change my opinion on it enough to like it again.

 

My Rating:

✪