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🦋Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle🦋

Genre: Adult, Queer Horror

Series Status: Standalone

I can't believe with how much smut I read, the first Chuck Tingle book I've read is his serious Horror book and I actually liked it? It was really easy to read, and easy to understand. Tbh, I'd recommend it as an entry into horror fiction because it's not convoluted, or even that scary/gross. Quite an interesting commentary on Christianity and Conversion Therapy and how they don't actually ethically align with each other.

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🩸City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare🩸

Genre: YA, Contemporary Romantasy

Series Status: 4th Book (Mortal Instruments)

I was originally going to stick with my original rating since I felt that the plot of this wasn't so intriguing enough to warrant a 5⭐️. Then I remembered that I technically gave Red Scrolls of Magic 5 stars and I enjoyed this way more than that, so fuck it! I just really fall into the writing of Cassandra Clares's book, get so invested, and easily fly through them. Also, for me, this is where the series picks up since all the characters are established, and I love reading about this group and seeing all their dynamics. I think this used to be my second least favorite in the series just above City of Ashes, but now I'd say I liked this more than that and City of Bones. Simon has always been one of my favorite characters and I forgot that he's essentially a protagonist for the majority of this book, so it was just fun getting to spend so much time following him. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of his relationship with Isabelle forming cause I couldn't remember when they initially got together, so this is all fresh for me again.

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🇫🇷🗼The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu🚂🇮🇹

Genre: YA, MM Contemporary Romantasy

Series Status: 1st Book/Companion Novel (Eldest Curses/Shadowhunter Chronicles)

This is a 5⭐️ because I don't like to lower my original ratings unless I vehemently disagree with them. I still really enjoyed this book because I love Alec and Magnus, it's so cute to see their budding relationship and their being unsure around each other. It is also just fun to get extended time with these characters since in TMI they're both secondary, getting surprises like finding out how Helen and Aline meet, seeing more of Magnus' relationship with Tessa, learning more about Magnus' past. The book has a lot going for it! Just something about the writing didn't click with me the way regular Shadowhunter books do. I don't know if it's cause this is a fully co-authored novel and not just a short story but it did read noticeably different, which affected my enjoyment. I feel like this time around was more of a 4⭐️ experience. I still really enjoyed it, just not as obsessed!

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🇲🇽🇮🇹🇩🇪Less by Andrew Sean Greer🇫🇷🇮🇳🇯🇵

Genre: Adult, Literary Fiction

Series Status: 1st Book (Andrew Less)

I don't think I have much I can say about this. Me and books that win the Pulitzer Prize don't usually mesh. The fact that I even liked this is a massive shock to me. My friend got me this about 3 years ago as a random book she just found that she thought it sounded interesting. I started it in April of 2023 and am only just finishing it which tells you everything, I found it boring and hard to get through at first because I just wasn't interested, I'm not a big fan of just straight contemporary, it's for no reason I can name, I just struggle to get through them. The book didn't hook me until I spoiled the ending for myself, and that twist is what made me want to finish it and have been meaning to for the past 2 years.

I don't know why Freddy, the ex whose wedding Arthur is avoiding throughout the book, being the narrator changed how I viewed the story, but it did. So I bucked up, got access to an audiobook and forced myself through. It's funny because there are so many nods to the fact Freddy is the narrator even though he always refers to Freddy the character in the 3rd person.

I liked the fact that Arthur is 50 in the book. This obviously won a prestigious award because it's "thought-provoking" and his age plays a part in that. While running away from his current feelings and problems the book looks back on Less in the past and what he's been through; relationships, bad decisions, and funny moments. Showing that they're all worth something even if they didn't go the way he expected.

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⭕️City of Glass by Cassandra Clare⭕️

Genre: YA, Contemporary Romantasy

Series Status: 3rd Book (Mortal Instruments)

It will be nice to read Fallen Angels and be able to write a review that isn't centred around incest because wow, still a big part of this book. They don't find out they're not related until page 400, and even then Clary and Jace do not get to acknowledge it until right before the epilogue, so this was a lot of inappropriate pinning. Also, the fact that Clary kisses her actual brother as well. She didn't know, but thats always the case with her: Clary Fray the original brotherfucker.

I've not lowered my rating though because this is still a great book plot-wise. I think the twist about the mortal mirror being the lake was so genius. The stuff around Jace being a Herondale is set up well. Getting to see more of the shadowhunter world and the politics of it for the first time is really interesting. Overall it's just a fun book, but I am now more excited to get into the later half of the series, to get away from incest angst, and to the more respectable incest disgust with Jonathan's weird obsession with wanting to own his sister.

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🛥City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare🛥

Genre: YA, Contemporary Romantasy

Series Status: 2nd Book (Mortal Instruments)

So I was wrong about the fact that they find out they're not siblings in this book – they don't! So, that's fun. Now have to wait probably like 300 pages into City of Glass. I can't believe how long the incest ruse lasts? I also loved how down for it the book is. Clary and Jace separately at different points don't care that they're related and still want to be together, which I found funny. Standing on incest business #justsiblingthings™️. They even kiss while fully believing they're related.

One thing I'll say though, is it is heavily set up. If you know they're not related going in, there are so many little things here and there pointing to them not being siblings. I also raised my rating, because minus the incest stuff (which I stated in my last review, I can't judge,) I enjoyed this as much as the first book, so there's no reason for it to have a lower rating. That is also partly why I wanted to reread the series cause for a while now, I've felt that my hatred of City of Ashes was very biased and I was curious what I'd think. I've always considered it the worst Shadowhunter book but it's literally fine? Same quality as City of Bones. Going forward though is where it starts to hit for me because I loved City of Glass the first time I read it.

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🦴City of Bones by Cassandra Clare🦴

Genre: YA, MF Contemporary Romantasy

Series Status: 1st Book (Mortal Instruments)

I don't this is going to be that long of a review. It was interesting going back since I have never reread this since reading it originally in 2017. It's not a bad debut, I've read worse from more recent ones, and this has stood the test of time with the series still going now almost 20 years later. Not that it doesn't have its issues. There was a casual slur here and there that was "acceptable" in 2007, and obviously.. the whole incest stuff.

Now, if you're someone who could never get passed that and don't like the series because that – FAIR. I personally don't mind because I know they're not actually related. I do think it was a weird choice given that Clary and Jace are endgame and start dating after believing they were siblings, but like.. the drama? The angst. It's weird as fuck but I get what Cassie was going for, having read literal incest taboo romance. Falling for someone and finding out you're related doesn't negate those initial feelings you had, and if that's not angst, I don't know what is. If you're disgusted by it, though, totally fair. Maybe not the most appropriate for a YA story.

I also forgot how mean all the characters come off! All a bunch of assholes in the beginning.

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🧜‍♀️Hexed by Emily McIntire🧜‍♀️

Genre: Adult, MF Dark Romance

Series Status: 6th Book (Never After, Finale)

I enjoyed this more than I was expecting. I also flew through it, almost 600 pages in less than 3 hours! I've been putting it off for months, I partly think because of the cheating aspect and how angsty the book was gonna be because of it, but I loved it. All the yearning, and resentment. I also really enjoyed the plot and found it quite engaging. So I think this leaves my Never After ranking as such;

1. Scarred

2. Wretched

3. Hexed

4. Crossed

5. Twisted

6. Hooked

But in reality, I enjoyed them all for different reasons and at different severity. So with that, I'm looking forward to starting her Sugarlake series, even though it is completely different tonally.

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🪷Immortal Sue Lynn Tan🪷

Genre: Adult, MF Romantasy

Series Status: Standalone (Celestial Kingdom Series)

I loved the Celestial Kingdom Duology and didn't love the companion short story collections, so this was always gonna be interesting for me. Thankfully, I did like it! It just didn't hit enough for me to give it a higher rating. I liked the main character and how she did not give an inch! I thought the plot was interesting, I just wish the romance was handled better? I feel like I was more told these characters had feelings for each other than really feeling it myself. To be honest, I mean the main character specifically but things develop fast and just don't feel natural. It technically could coincide with the twist of the book, but it was also not insinuated at all that the romance was because of it.

I also wasn't a big fan of the end. I don't want this to be a spoiler review but I just feel like the characters we are taught to hate at the very beginning of the book get off a bit light, and their actions a bit too justified. I also felt a bit weird about where the romance leaves off. In this instance, I'm not a huge fan of the Mortal X Immortal romances concept, where they're just comfortable with the fact that one of them is gonna die in the future. I get that's real life, but considering what the plot of this was you'd think they would be against it.

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👻Love at Second Sight by F. T. Lukens👻

Genre: Young Adult, MM Paranormal Romance

Series Status: Standalone

After their last 3 novels, I think I can confidently say that F. T. Lukens is my favourite non-fantasy YA author. It's so funny as well, given that I didn't like their initial 2 books but these last 3 have been SUCH hits. It's also funny reading this after The Shadow Bride because it affirms that YA is such a large spectrum. This definitely falls in the "lower" YA range, and comparing the two makes me just believe more that YA needs to be divided off like the children's section. We have 0-3, 4-8, 9-12. I think YA should be split 13-15, and 16-18 cause it's just such a large maturity gap.

This was such a cute story. F. T. Lukens has really nailed their formula. The writing is good, the plot is engaging, the cast of characters is fun, and the romances are always adorable. I really enjoyed reading it. This and Spell Bound make me sad that they only write standalone because they're so fun that they'd make a good light-hearted comfort series. Catch up with your favourite group of paranormals, etc.

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☠️The Shadow Bride by Shelby Mahurin☠️

Genre: New Adult, MF Paranormal Romantasy

Series Status: 2nd Book (Scarlet Veil, Finale)

This hurts. I was originally going to give this a biased 4⭐️ because this is my favourite romance that Shelby Mahurin has written, but going over everything I want to mention in this review makes me feel like I shouldn't. It deserves the 3⭐️. I say three stars mean that I liked the book, and I did. I ONLY liked it.

The first issue I took with it was that within the first 100 pages, Frederic dies. IDK if it was to try and establish how serious the new antagonist is since technically they were never actually able to defeat him in the first book, or as shock value but it just made me feel like the entire plot of the first book was pointless? Especially since the villain's goal in this book was so.. outlandish. In reality, the only thing the plot of the first book now accomplished was resurrecting Fillipa and then Célie temporarily becoming a vampire – I'll get there.

So the new antagonist was Death itself, which as a whole I wouldn't have minded if this was a story of Pippa being unnaturally resurrected and upsetting the balance, Death wants to reverse it but Célie wants to try and save her sister. It's not. He wants to recreate the spell that was used on Fillipa, tear down the veil and become king of everything... what?! It just feels so random and tbh very frustrating, I got annoyed a lot reading this, especially at Pippa, she's not a sympathetic character at all.

The biggest thing for me though was the end because it just made the entire series feel pointless. Everything is wrapped up in a nice bowl, with no real long-lasting consequences. So first Dimitri dies which already feels kind of lazy because he had betrayed them multiple times throughout the book, so his dying was just like.. oh, OK. Makes sense. Célie is then made to kill Michal. She and Pippa are to go into the realm of Death, which is somehow something separate from Death the entity, and bring Michal back which would tear open the veil. They do, also bringing back Dimitri, making his death pointless and with that, all 4 of them come back human — which is a decision I fucking hate.

Pippa, I don't care about as much because she died unjustly, though does make her death also pointless in Serpent and Dove. Dimitri bothers me because it seems like an easy out to solve his blood addiction. Betrays them the entire book and then gets to just become human – problem solved. But Célie and Michal.. made the vampire protagonists of the vampire romance series human. To me, it makes the series as a whole feel pointless tbh. I understand that Célie as a God-fearing woman who never wanted to be a vampire, this is the best outcome but it just feels so.. boring. Then to add fuel to my fire the entire book leads up to Célie and Michal becoming vampire blood mates, where they'll only be able to survive off each other etc etc, for them to be made humans??! So what was the point in that even being a thing?? It was literally for fuck all!!! Such a waste of time.

Then you have side characters. Why is Brigette a thing? Was she just there to make Célie jealous? Jean Luc was barely even a character. After they defeat Death you don't even get to see them again, which feels so wrong for how much Jean Luc meant to Célie. Then, Coco and Beau. They're barely in the book, then get engaged in the epilogue! I think it was more for fan service since this is meant to be the finale for this entire world, but it kind of feels flat to me since they're barely even involved. Which, Beau's the fucking king! Why was he not involved!!!!

So, yeah. I still liked this book. I still liked this series. It was a disappointing end though. This is seemingly a trend for me with Shelby Mahurin: love the first book setting everything up, but don't enjoy the actual follow-through.

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🏕Cubs & Campfires by Dylan Drakes🏕

Genre: Adult MM Romance

Series Status: 1st Book

This was cute. It didn't completely hit for me, which is why it's only 3⭐️, but I did really enjoy it for what it was. It also randomly took place in 2005? Partly because of homophobia around that time in America when it came to the FCC and censorship played a large part in the setup of the story, but it was very random!

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🩸The Scarlet Veil by Shelby Mahurin🩸

Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy

Series Status: 1st Book/Spin-off (Serpent & Dove)

Upon rereading, I can safely say this is my favourite thing Shelby Mahurin has written. It's funny because I consider her an auto-buy author, but I had issues with Serpent and Dove as a series. Nothing specifically, I enjoyed it, but it just didn't HIT. I loved the first book, medium enjoyed the 2nd, and liked the finale well enough. Despite that, I was excited when this was originally announced and it didn't disappoint! I've now reread it as a refresher going into The Shadow Bride since it's finally out, and I'm looking forward to Michal and Célie's relationship coming to fruition.

This is just a fun story. I never would have expected that I'd enjoy reading from Célie's perspective more than that of Lou or Reid, but something about a character that isn't as capable is just fun. It fuels the stakes because they can't defend themselves and adds a layer of excitement/stress to any encounter. I also think the mystery in this was well done, too. Rereading it I could see how everything was laid out, and tbh I forgot who the Necromancer actually was, lmao. So getting to the end again was like "ohhhhhhhh.. yeah."

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🍆Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions by Fae Quin🍆

Genre: Adult MM Romance

Series Status: Standalone

I enjoyed this. This was just a fun, brain-empty type of book. I liked the couple's dynamic, and I liked the smut. That being said, I do think it was too long. This book is almost 600 pages and for what? What happens? It all takes place over an 8-day camping trip wedding.

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😈For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn😈

Genre: Adult MF Paranormal Romantasy

Series Status: 1st Book

I should probably start by saying that when I started this I'd never seen a single episode of Hell's Belles, that was all new content to me. For transparency though, before starting this review I have since watched the first 100 parts, so I'm a *bit* more in the know. It's my sister who's a big fan of the series along with one of her friends, the reason I even had a copy of the book was that she'd bought it for herself and I decided to try it out.

It's a cute PNR. I'd personally class this as a more cosy fantasy than anything. There's not much of a plot, or any real structure to the way the book progresses. It's genuinely just about Lily forging a life for herself after her death and establishing the Hellp Desk. With that though, part of the reason I've only given it a 4 is that I think it was a tad too long. 620 pages is a bit much for me when I'm not already previously invested in the characters and the world. So, getting through the last 200 pages was a bit of a chore, despite still enjoying it.

This is also a very big me thing, and probably something that I need to examine but I also sometimes felt that the way characters talk to each other about mental health etc felt a bit stiff/inauthentic. Tbh, I feel this way about the TikToks too. Everything they're saying is correct, just how they're saying it makes me kinda cringe watching/reading it cause it feels a bit too "this is the correct thing to say" rather than how real people would have that conversation. Which I can understand because it's trying to relay certain messages addressed to the audience who may have gone through similar experiences. It's not inherently wrong, just a personal preference thing on my end.

Having now finished though, and watched the beginning of Hell's Belles, I'm looking forward to the potential Penny x Greg, Ruggie x Angel books.

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🐉The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 🐉

Genre: Adult High Fantasy

Series Status: 1st Book/Standalone

This book is 804 pages and I don't think I can discuss it in any depth. I loved this way more than my first time reading it. I feel like I was able to enjoy the complexities, rather than just begrudge them. I've been in a massive adult Fantasy slump for about 4 years. If fucking wasn't a huge part of the plot then I couldn't get myself to pick it up. This is not the first adult regular Fantasy I've read in the interim, last year I read the Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence and it was one of my favourite things I read that year. However, this is the first High Fantasy I've read that was anywhere close to this length since around 2021 – and I was able to solely read it physically! With Red Sister, I ended up co-reading with their audiobooks.

I just love these characters and this world. Eadaz and Sabran have my whole heart, and I hope they get to meet somewhere. With how much I loved this, I'm excited to finally read A Day of Fallen Night. I've been putting that off since I got it with the excuse of wanting to reread Priory first! Well.. I did it, and tbh it was the correct choice because now I'm gagging to start it

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🎨Not Catching Love by Saxon James🎨

Genre: Adult MM Romance

Series Status: 5th Book (final)

Saxon James is very hit-or-miss with me on whether the writing is gonna hit. This is an instance where it didn't and that's why it's a 3⭐️, because being honest, I actually really appreciate what this story is about. Xander is someone who is mentally unwell and refuses to get help and has been that way the entire series. Most of this book is about him getting confronted with that. Whether it's Derek putting in boundaries, targeting his abandonment/attachment issues when it comes to physical distance, or him being forced to finally go to therapy despite his misguided view of mental health professionals. The story is good. It just didn't hit how I need romance to hit to give it a higher rating!