CW: Violence, Torture, Flashbacks to SA, Emotional Abuse. (I will not go into detail about any of this in my review.

It took me two and a half months, but I finally finished reading The Serpent & The Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent. I purchased this book at Tropes & Trifles after seeing the book described as “Hunger Games with Vampires.” I couldn’t agree more. I’d also add that anyone who enjoys Sarah J. Maas would probably enjoy this series. The Serpent & The Wings of Night has me hooked and I’m curious to see how the rest of the series will play out.

Oraya is a human woman rescued by Vincent, the King of The House Of Night. Vincent has been training Oraya to be more than her human self, so she can defend herself when necessary. Part of that training was to aid Oraya as she entered the Kejari, a bloodthirsty competition where the winner would receive a gift from Nyaxia, the goddess of vampires. Oraya is introduced to Raihn, a Rishan vampire and Vincent’s sworn enemy. Oraya and Raihn team up as they need to survive all the trials, each having their own agenda for winning. As they train together, their bond strengthens and Oraya is tested between her allegiance to her father and the love she’s developing for Raihn.

I am obsessed with all the lore in this book. I loved Obitraes, the three vampire houses, how they came to be, and how Nyaxia fits into this. As a Dungeons & Dragons player, Nyaxia was giving Raven Queen vibes. The similarities between the two are uncanny. The book has this darker tone and shows the horror the vampires inflict on humans and each other. I’m glad there was a map to reference with a glossary list of terms, so I could quickly page back and forth if I was ever confused about any of the terminology. If Carissa Broadbent were to write more books within Obitraes, I would buy them all.

As far as the characters, I loved Oraya. She was angry, scorned, and strong. She can hold her own against the vampires she seeks to destroy. The only thing I would have wished for is for Oraya to have something else about her besides only wanting to kill vampires. Her personality was a little lackluster because she only has room for vengeance and I’d like to see more from her as a character. Raihn is the stereotypical Romantasy male character and I’m here for it. I liked the banter Oraya and Raihn had. Also, I liked how much consent was present throughout this book. With vampires, there’s always a blurry line with vampires feeding from humans and I felt this book was respectful in developing Oraya and Raihn’s relationship.

I’m highlighting everything I loved about this book, so this should easily be a five-star book, right? I mentioned this already, but this book took me two and a half months to finish which is way too long. Every time I read this book, I’d read fifty pages and then not read for several weeks. It’s funny because every time I read a chapter, I enjoy it. This book has so much lore dump which slowed down the book for me. While the Kejari was interesting, seven trials were a lot. This book could have benefitted from cutting some things and the story would have been the same.

I’m hooked. There are so many cliffhangers and I’m curious how much will be revealed in the next books in the series. I rated The Serpent & The Wings of Night four stars on Goodreads.

I have quickly been incorporating audiobooks into my routine. I listen to audiobooks the most while I’m at work and if the audiobook is interesting enough, I will listen to it while driving. I had With Love, From Cold World by Alicia Thompson on hold since August? I heard mixed opinions about her books, so I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this one. I was pleasantly surprised! With Love, From Cold World was so cute, and I plan on reading more of Alicia Thompson’s books in the future.

Before I get into the review, I just have to say, that it’s so odd when female audiobook narrators try to mimic male voices. The audiobook narrator especially during the intimate scenes was trying to lower her voice and it did not work. It was so CRINGE. Can we please have more male audiobook narrators out there? Please and thanks.

Lauren Fox works at Cold World, a winter-themed theme park in Florida. Lauren enjoys what she does, but she contemplated going back to school. Lauren has been bickering with her co-worker, Asa Williamson, as he constantly bothers her. Lauren and Asa are paired up to create a proposal to help generate more revenue for Cold World. Lauren and Asa’s partnership develops into something more as they spend more time together.

I liked both Lauren and Asa as characters. They both had interesting stories and perspectives that I think contributed to how they interacted with each other. In romance, I think it’s easy to have two characters, they hook up, break up, and then stay together in the end and that’s the whole book. In With Love, From Cold World, listening to Lauren and Asa as they talked about their pasts, I felt for them! They both had been through so much and I think they bonded over their hardships. At first, I wasn’t fully convinced they would be good together as I initially thought they were better off as friends. By the end of the book, these two were adorable together.

Besides the romance, I thought there were so many memorable moments. One scene that comes to mind is Lauren berating Asa’s parents for abandoning him. I listened to this while driving home from a friend’s house and was like “YES LAUREN”. We love seeing the female lead calling out Asa’s problematic parents. Besides this scene, I liked how the theme park served as the setting for the story. If this existed in Florida, I’d go to it, why not?

With Love, From Cold World was so cute. Besides the cringe audiobook narrator, this was a book I looked forward to listening to. To avoid any more cringy audiobook narrations, I’m going to read Alicia Thompson’s physical books in the future. I rated With Love, From Cold World four stars on Goodreads.

CW: Suicide, Claustrophobia (will not be discussed in greater detail in this review).

I finished reading We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix last week. I’m not sure what I just read. I don’t read horror often and I don’t mind weird books, but I still want to understand what’s happening. If I had to summarize We Sold Our Souls to someone, my summary would be all over the place which is how it felt reading this book. We Sold Our Souls was interesting, however, it’s my least favorite Grady Hendrix book I have read thus far.

Kris Pulaski is broke, working at Best Western, and unsatisfied with her life. In the 90s, she was a part of a moderately successful metal band called Dürt Würk. That is until Terry Hunt, the leader singer, threw the rest of the band members under the bus for a solo career. After a horrific event, Kris is led to believe that Terry could have sold their souls away for a successful career. After escaping a rehab center, Kris is out for revenge.

For a book that’s supposed to center on a deal with the devil, that’s not a central plot point to the story. Instead, there are references to “Black Iron Mountain” and this organization finding vulnerable people to make deals with. There’s a sleazy-looking lawyer who has connections to the devil, but I don’t know if he’s a demon in disguise or if he’s human. There are also these white creatures that feed on souls. If this all sounds odd, it’s because it is. Nothing felt fleshed out or explained and I’m left feeling lost.

We Sold Our Souls reminds me of Kill Bill if Kill Bill took place at a metal version of Woodstock. Kris is trying to explain how dangerous Terry is and no one from her former band believes her, so they lock her up in a rehab center. Kris breaks out and begins her revenge. I liked following Kris as she got closer to confronting Terry. I think it’s easy for the reader to root for her to succeed.

Without spoiling the book, the ending is left to be interpreted and I hate that. The pinnacle confrontation occurs on stage at this music festival and something big happens. Some of the fates of the characters are unknown and it feels unsatisfying. On top of that, there are also unanswered questions about the devil and how these deals are made. It was frustrating. I think We Sold Our Souls could have been a longer book if it could have expanded on some of these story points.

I struggled with how to rate We Sold Our Souls. It sounds like I hated the book. I wouldn’t say I hated the book, I think this could have been a much better book if things were expanded on. I rated We Sold Our Souls two stars on Goodreads.

I finished my first audiobook on Libby! The last time I listened to an audiobook was when I was a kid. This was back when audiobooks were on CDs. Audiobooks have obviously changed a lot and have become more accessible than ever. I rented several audiobooks from my library and quickly realized what I could and couldn’t listen to. If I listen to an audiobook, it has to be a book with a simple premise. Romance or YA are easy go-tos versus Fantasy with lots of world-building. I went through my Goodreads TBR and settled on The Babysitter’s Coven by Kate Williams as a good audiobook choice. The Babysitter’s Coven had an interesting premise, but I thought this book wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

Esme Pearl is a seventeen-year-old high school student who babysits for extra spending money. Esme and one of her best friends start a babysitting club to help get more babysitting jobs. While babysitting and attending classes, Esme has some weird things happen to her that she can’t explain. After learning that there might be a connection between the new girl at school and Esme’s mom, Esme knows more about why these events happened to her and what that means for her as a babysitter.

The Babysitter’s Coven is described as “Adventure in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer“. From what I read, I think this description is wrong. Instead, I’d say that if you plucked Raven from Teen Titans and had her start a babysitter’s club, that’s what this book was. The original comparison made me want to read this in the first place, so the fact that this book was not what I had hoped; contributed to why I didn’t enjoy this.

Since I read this as an audiobook, I found myself picking apart the writing more than if I had read the physical book. Esme is supposed to be seventeen, but the way she’s written, she talks like a middle schooler. She and her friends would say IDK and ASAP in sentences when talking to each other. Yikes. I am trying to remember if I was that cringy in high school. While I know I’m not the target audience for this book, there are YA books on my bookshelf I love to read even though I’m thirty. That said, if I were to read this when I was in high school, I probably would have loved it.

The Babysitter’s Coven was a cool concept on paper, but this did not work for me. This wouldn’t be a book I would re-read nor would it be a series I would continue with. I rated The Babysitter’s Coven two stars on Goodreads.

I have watched booktubers rave about If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio. I haven’t seen anyone critique or offer anything negative about this book. As such, this book has appeared on several dark academia-recommended reading lists. While I’m not a big Shakespeare or theater person, I couldn’t pass up on the premise. I am in the minority here because while I liked If We Were Villains, I rated this book lower than most reviewers.

Oliver Marks is released from prison after ten years for a murder he may or may not have committed. Detective Colborne picks Oliver up from prison and comes up with a compromise. Before he retires, he wants Oliver to tell him the truth of what happened ten years ago. Since he’s retiring, it’s not like he will take any action no matter what Oliver tells him. Oliver agrees and directs Colborne to his former college campus, an elite liberal arts college where he and his friends studied Shakespeare. In between auditions, Oliver reminisces about his friends and the moment everything changed for them.

If We Were Villains is without a doubt a dark academia thriller. I loved how the college campus is described and how Oliver and his friends live in a tower. It’s completely unrealistic, but I don’t care. With thrillers, I expect to finish these books within a day or two. If a thriller is slower-paced, I will probably rate it lower because it took me longer to finish. If We Were Villains does not fall into this, I ended up reading 200 pages in one sitting and could not be bothered to do anything else until I finished this book.

If We Were Villains has an average Goodreads rating of 4.15 stars which is pretty high. While reading this book, certain things stuck out to me that bothered me. Starting with the characters, I didn’t like how Meredith, one of Oliver’s friends, was portrayed. Meredith is described as being eye candy for almost every single male character. If I had to read another section about how Meredith was curvy and how her clothes looked on her body, I was going to lose it. To give this book the benefit of the doubt, some of these descriptions were during the college’s plays, but still, we get it, she’s curvy. What bothers me is that’s all I know about her. I don’t know much about her personality, or hobbies, she’s attractive, and that’s it. It feels like a tired trope to see female characters written this way, so to read it in this context, I was over it. On top of that, the other two female characters, Wren and Pip, were overshadowed by Meredith, so I didn’t know much about them either.

Besides Meredith, Oliver ends up beginning a relationship with her. However, Oliver has feelings for James. This book does a bait and switch of hinting at Oliver and James’s relationship, but never allowing it to happen. It’s interesting because theater brings so many people with different identities, so I find it strange how Oliver is paired up with Meredith when their chemistry feels forced.

The last thing I will mention is the ending. If We Were Villains has one of those endings that completely shifts the entire book into two pages. It’s hard to discuss without spoiling the book, but I found the ending unfair to Meredith. The ending is left open to interpretation which is fine. I prefer books to have everything wrapped up at the end, but that’s just me.

It makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy this book. I liked If We Were Villains although, I disagree with other book reviewers who would put this on their favorites list. I’m glad I read this, I don’t think I need to own a physical copy of the book. I would consider reading from this author again. I rated If We Were Villains three stars on Goodreads.

Pumpkin coffee is back, and Home Depot has its Halloween decorations, which can mean one thing: It’s officially the start of spooky season. For the next two months, I will pick books to read that feel spooky to me. This could be a paranormal romance, a gothic thriller, straight-up horror, and more. Since my last TBR, I downloaded Libby, my library’s audiobook app, so now I have been reading more than ever. I will share all the physical books I plan to read along with the audiobooks I hope to listen to.

The first book I will be reading is The Serpent & The Wings of the Night by Carissa Broadbent. When I first heard about this book, it was described as the Hunger Games mixed with Vampires. Sign me up. I started this book back in August and then I got distracted. I’m about 50 pages in and determined to finish the book by the end of the month. The second book I plan on reading is Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. I had this book on my July TBR, but I wasn’t able to read it before Gen Con. The third book not pictured in this photo is We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. We Sold Our Souls is about a band where one of the lead singers may have made a deal with the devil. I think there’s a nice variety in the books I have chosen and each book fits the theme of the next two months.

Besides the physical books on my TBR, I also have a graphic novel on hold at the library. I’m planning on reading Crumbs by Danie Stirling. Crumbs is based on a Webtoon comic about a young seer who struggles with her powers. As far as audiobooks, I have two audiobooks I’m planning on listening to this month. The first is The Babysitter’s Coven by Kate M. Williams. I’m not exactly sure what this book is about. Esme is the main character and weird things have happened to her, but I’m not far enough in the book to figure out what’s happening. The second audiobook I plan on listening to is This Spells Love by Kate Robb. This is a romance where a woman casts a spell to erase her ex from her past, but the spell backfires. Both audiobooks are due in two weeks, so we shall see if I can find the time to listen to them.

This is my favorite time of the year, so I love to match what I’m reading with the season.

It’s been fun to be in a regular book club with friends. My friends started it towards the beginning of the year, but I joined a few months ago due to prior commitments. Being in a book club has helped expose me to new authors or genres I don’t normally read. This month’s book choice was Never Lie by Freida McFadden. I haven’t read anything by Freida McFadden before reading this book. It seems like the book she’s known for was The Housemaid. Never Lie kept my interest which is exactly what I wanted from this book.

Tricia and Ethan are newlyweds who are looking to buy a house. They trek to a showing for a home that used to belong to infamous psychiatrist, Dr. Adrienne Hale. Adrienne disappeared several years ago and hasn’t been seen since. Tricia and Ethan are trapped in the house due to the snow outside. As they go through Adrienne’s belongings, Tricia finds a hidden room with interview tapes from Adrienne’s patients. Tricia becomes obsessed with listening to the tapes and uncovering what happened to Adrienne.

Never Lie was a page-turner. I had a friend over at my house and with only thirty pages left in the book, I told her I needed to finish this book. She understood as she’s a reader as well. If I’m reading a thriller and I don’t feel compelled to keep reading, there’s no way I would give it above a two-star rating. There’s enough intrigue with Never Lie and I like how the story is told. There are chapters jumping back and forth in perspective from Adrienne before her disappearance and Tricia as she’s exploring Adrienne’s house. There are sections with the transcript of Adrienne’s interviews as Tricia plays the tapes. I liked the concept of this and while this isn’t new, I found it interesting to read.

Another thing I liked about Never Lie was the setting. Never Lie primarily takes place in a historic mansion with the backdrop of the snowstorm trapping Tricia and Ethan in the house. It gives more of a horror vibe since there isn’t anywhere for Tricia and Ethan to go but stay in the house. It adds to the creepiness of the book.

With that said, there were portions of the book I wasn’t a fan of. Tricia as a character was the worst. She came off as obtuse and naive. She would talk about Ethan in a way where she would recognize his red flags and then immediately play it off as not being a big deal. Now that I finished the book and I know the twist, this all makes sense. The twist is predictable and something that has been done in other thrillers I have read. Am I becoming a book hipster now? Most of the characters aren’t good people except for Luke. I have read thrillers where all the characters suck and loved those books, but I can’t say the same for Never Lie.

I hate to harp on this, but the events that unfolded in Never Lie were not logical. Without spoilers, the way that some of the characters acted, I find it so hard to believe. The characters were not smart at times which is weird to me. Adrienne Hale has multiple PhDs and yet, she made some of the silliest decisions in the book. I don’t think this ruined the book for me, but also, I wouldn’t find myself re-reading this book in the future.

In writing this review, it makes it seem like I did not like this book. I did like Never Lie. I finished the book in two days and would have stopped reading it if I didn’t like it. I don’t think there was anything groundbreaking or unique about this book which is fine. I’m waffling on whether I would read another Freida McFadden book because this book didn’t wow me, but maybe I haven’t given her enough credit. I rated Never Lie three stars on Goodreads.

I purchased Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce earlier this year while on my road trip to New Mexico. I did not know this book existed beforehand and I’m not usually one to purchase books I have never heard of. With that said, the premise of this was too cute. A fake dating romance with one of the characters being a theater kid and the other working at a game store, it’s like this book was written for me. I’m happy to say that Dungeons and Drama lived up to all my expectations and was such a cute book to read.

Riley Morris dreams of becoming a stage director on Broadway. After the spring show is canceled and Riley is caught driving without a license, Riley feels in a bit of a funk. As for her punishment, she works at her dad’s game store. After seeing her ex-boyfriend stopping by, Riley catches Nathan Wheeler and pretends to be his girlfriend. Nathan goes along with it as he’s interested in someone else in his DnD group. Riley is looped into their campaign and slowly develops feelings for Nathan. Pretending to be his girlfriend isn’t as hard as she thought.

I loved this book. Riley and Nathan were adorable together. Reading Dungeons and Drama was a trip down memory lane. I frequent game stores and when I was in college, there was a local game store we would always go to as one of my friends worked there part-time. I felt that this book captured what a game store environment is like and the regulars became side characters that mattered to the story. I liked reading about Riley and her finding the similarities between theater and tabletop. She ends up playing a Bard which was so fitting to her personality.

There was no way that I wasn’t going to love this book. As an added bonus, I saw that this book is apparently the first book in this series with book #2 potentially being released next year. I would continue in this series as this book was everything I wanted it to be. I rated Dungeons and Drama five stars on Goodreads.

CW: Suicide, depression, death of an animal. None of these will be expanded upon in detail in this post, but more for a forewarning to the content of The Midnight Library.

While at a friend’s cabin this past weekend, I finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. This book had been on my Goodreads to-be-read shelf for years. It’s highly rated with an average 4.0 star rating from other readers. I am in the minority because while I’m glad I read this, I didn’t love it. I had expectations of what I wanted this book to be and those expectations let me down. Instead of writing a traditional book review, I wanted to expand upon some of the themes that were brought up in The Midnight Library.

The Midnight Library centers on Nora Seed. Nora is depressed and after a series of events, she’s committed to ending her life. Nora is suddenly transported to a library where each book within the library represents a different life path for her. For every book she picks up, she sees how her life is different. In one book, she’s an Olympic swimmer. In another, she’s a glaciologist in the Arctic. If Nora is unhappy, she is pulled out of the book and back to the library. With Nora’s reality coming to fruition, Nora must figure out what she wants before it’s too late.

I thought long and hard about this. If I ended up at The Midnight Library, I would not want to view other versions of my life. I am happy with my life. I have an amazing husband, I have several hobbies I balance, and I find joy in simple things like exercising regularly or playing video games. I have a good group of friends from different social circles. I have had several opportunities to travel to bucket list places which I feel fortunate to have been able to do. I don’t think there is such a thing as the perfect life and I wouldn’t trade my life or experiences for anything else.

Throughout the book, Nora has a “Book of Regrets” and that helps Nora figure out which books to choose. Her regrets are: quitting swimming, not going to school to become a glaciologist, quitting a band, and choosing to not marry a man she was in a long-term relationship with. I was thinking about what my version of regrets would be. If I had to pick, I think mine would be: quitting figure skating lessons, not being able to study abroad in college, not finding the time to play the alto-sax, and choosing a different major in college.

I chose to quit figure skating for a few reasons. Figure skating reminded me of my dad and that’s tough when I was navigating the grief I felt after he passed. I will always be passionate about figure skating and I still skate to this day. When the weather is chillier, I want to go to open skating at the local ice arena in my area. Studying abroad in college would have been awesome. However, I was already behind in my degree since I switched majors. Additionally, I didn’t have the money to study abroad. All my international traveling has been post-college and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Funding my own trips has made me appreciate traveling so much more. I played the Alto-Sax in both high school and college. I quit playing because the Anatomy classes I needed overlapped with Band. I am proud of myself for trying Band in college though. It made me a better musician in many ways I wouldn’t have predicted. My Alto-Sax is at my mom’s house. Part of me wants to pick it up and play it. I don’t think I can part with it permanently. The final “regret” is choosing a different major in college. In my professional life, I’m not using my degree. I wish I would have done a more generic degree versus something so specific. Going to college was life-changing for me in many ways and I learned so much about myself. I wouldn’t be the person I am without my time at Winona State University.

I am glad I read The Midnight Library even though I didn’t love the book. This book made me think and reflect on my own life based on what Nora learned about hers. I wouldn’t change anything in my life and it makes me appreciate every memory, hardship, and moment I won’t take for granted.

I am excited to read all the books I picked out this month. Last month, I let myself be a mood reader. Mood reading is exactly what it sounds like. I didn’t pre-plan what I was going to read, instead, I chose whatever I wanted to read without any rhyme or reason. It was a nice break from the TBR format from previous months. The theme for this month is shorter books. Every book I plan on reading is 330 pages or less. Here are the books I plan to read in July.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Nora Seed wanders to The Midnight Library, a library between life and death. Each book in The Midnight Library allows Nora to view a portion of her life if she made a different decision. She wants to build the perfect life for herself, but is that even possible?

I think the concept of The Midnight Library is fascinating. I don’t think I would go to The Midnight Library if I had the option. Things worked out in my life how they were supposed to. Viewing alternative choices would only make me feel worse. I’m curious to see how this book plays out.

Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

Riley has big dreams of working on Broadway. She has been busy working on this year’s high school musical which she enjoys. Riley is grounded and as punishment, she has to work at her dad’s game shop. Riley meets Nathan, one of the employees at the game store who also runs a DnD game. Riley realizes that her initial flirtations with Nathan might be something more.

This book was written for me. Romance involving table-top roleplaying games, I mean c’mon.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde is a professor at Cambridge who studies Faeries and folklore. She travels to a small town to continue her studies and meets her academic rival there. Emily is determined to stay busy and not make friends with anyone. In her path for knowledge, she discovers potentially dark fae magic that could threaten to destroy all she holds dear.

The first three sentences in the Goodreads preview of this book are “A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love at the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series”. This sounds right up my alley. I didn’t know that curmudgeonly was a word, but now I have to figure out how to use this word more often.

This will be a great reading month for me. In a few weeks, I will be going to a friend’s cabin and there’s nothing that I love more than sitting in the sun and reading a book.