Fire’s Catching: “Mockingjay: Part 2”

It’s been eighteen years since Suzanne Collins wrote “The Hunger Games”, the smash hit literary sensation that continues to feel relevant and capture the attention of readers. This ongoing series will be a review series of both the Suzanne Collins books, as well as the film adaptations of the novels. I will post my review on the last Thursday of the month as we revisit the totalitarian world of Panem and the hope of the Mockingjay.

Film: “Mockingjay: Part 2”

Oh good, the film that I’ve been kind of dreading in this revisit to “The Hunger Games” world. It’s not that I dislike the film. I actually enjoy it a fair amount. But it’s definitely the roughest of the series because of how it all ends, and because of that it’s the one that I revisit the least. And when I do revisit it I ALWAYS either skip the scene where the Capitol Children/Prim are murdered in cold blood by Coin’s bombing, or leave the room if my husband is watching with me because heaven forbid we skip any scene in a movie when he is there. But I steeled myself to watch it in its entirety for this series. And I did, but I definitely sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. Which I guess means the film did what it was supposed to do!

When this first came out my husband thought that separating it into two parts was merely a cash grab, but I actually appreciate that by separating it we can take our time with some of the things that happen in the second half of the book. We get more time with Katniss and the Nut (I especially like the scene where she is held hostage by a loyalist who is also, clearly, suffering), and we get more time seeing the progression towards the Capitol and the final showdown. We also get to spend more time with other characters and what they are seeing (one of the strengths these movies have always had) as the war continues, whether it’s Snow watching his power slowly slip away as he is surrounded by sycophantic supporters, or Coin and Plutarch scheming (he SEES you, ALMA, HE SEES YOU). I do kind of wish that we had a little more focus on Johanna’s drug abuse and addiction in the wake of her being held prisoner and wounded (I had no clue this was a thing until I read the book), and less time on Gale and Katniss will they or won’t they (ugh, stop kissing him, why is this so emphasized as a potential thing in the films?). But overall the film doesn’t waste too much time and it doesn’t feel padded or like it has a problem with filler. And this is the film that finally starts to really show how villainous Coin is, I imagine to make it feel like a high stakes reveal for the second film as opposed to the first of the two, and while I wish that we had more evidence of how terrible District 13 as a whole is, at least there is finally acknowledgement of it (though it puts a lot of it on Coin when, to me, the entire District is a potential problem in the book).

Jennifer Lawrence is just a masterclass in acting in this one. She has always been good, but I feel like in this one she really captures how physically and emotionally exhausted Katniss is at this point. Gale is becoming more monstrous with every passing moment (I said what I said, I find Gale to be a monster by the end and even though he’s a victim of fascist oppression and violence he is STILL a monster), Peeta is brainwashed and still wants to kill her, and she is surrounded by people who, even if they do care for her (like Haymitch), are using her for their own ends. She has to keep putting herself out there as the Mockingjay, no matter how close it comes to killing her MULTIPLE times, and then she gets thrown back into another boobytrapped arena as the rebels have to maneuver through the Capitol. By the time Prim is killed by Coin and she has to go back to the remnants of 12, Lawrence lets out all of the pain and trauma in a scene that still gets me absolutely sobbing.

As for the other actors, another standout is Josh Hutcherson as he plays Peeta as not only a brainwashed potential liability, but also as someone who is fighting through that and slowly finding his way again and finding his way back to Katniss. He plays it really well when the team is going in the Capitol as it’s hard to tell if his resentment and anger towards Katniss is because of his brainwashing, or his probably justified frustration with how he feels like she’s played him for propaganda and/or survival throughout their two times in the arena. Donald Sutherland as Snow continues to be God tier (particularly the scene in his greenhouse where he tells her that he wasn’t behind the bomb that murdered Capitol children/Prim), Elizabeth Banks as Effie is so tender in this one, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch is also spot on (so sad that his last scene had to become a letter due to Hoffman’s death). Julianne Moore is also nasty and snakelike as Alma Coin. And as for new faces, we have Gwendoline Christie for about two minutes as Commander Lyme from District 2 (another franchise wasting her talents honestly, LOOKING AT YOU TOO STAR WARS), and then Michelle Forbes (known best to ME as Ro Laren on “Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Lt. Jackson. Jackson is prickly but loyal, and I liked Forbes’s portrayal of a character who isn’t around super long.

Another solid film adaptation! We are now done with the original film adaptations and will move on to “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”. It’s going to be time for, as my friend Michael says, LUCY GRAAAAAY!!! And just to note, my final two film reviews will be posted at the start of November and the start of December, as I have Horrorpalooza starting next week and running through October, and then I need to give myself time to see “Sunrise on the Reaping” when it comes out in late November.

Serena’s Review: “The Ice Beyond”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Ice Beyond” by Olivia Wildenstein

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Casablanca, September 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: I had two childhood dreams: to shift into a wolf, and to win Nordin Stormsson’s forbidden heart. My first dream shattered the day my mother confessed I wasn’t a shifter, but a valkyrie—stranded in a land far from my people. My second was crushed when Nordin rejected me…only to claim another as his mate.

Heartbroken, I crossed beyond the wards in search of my birth clan. My freedom came at a cost. Dragons, vampyrs, and enemy wolves stalked me through the dark. They weren’t the only ones who came after me, though.

Nordin came too. He seized me before they could, stealing my body and then my heart. For a time, I dared to dream once more, to imagine a future with Nordin in the land of ice and wolves. Until I uncovered my beloved’s most closely guarded secret.

A truth about my past.

One that ruined us all.

Review: This was a very mixed bag read for me. There were parts that I really enjoyed, and then others that I really struggled to get through. I think the world-building was one of the most interesting parts. Of course, it’s hard to go wrong with Norse mythology and fantasy, and I think the familiar elements from this were used well, as well as some nice twists to things to build a more unique and individual version.

As the story continued, we were given more and more information about this world, and more and more little subplots were added in. On one hand, I was interested in many of these newly introduced aspects of the story, but on the other, it did begin to feel a bit overwhelming, with very little resolution coming to any pieces of the story. There were a bunch of questions left wide open, and at a certain point, this did begin to feel frustrating rather than interesting.

I also struggled to enjoy the main character and the love interest. The main character wasn’t a complete loss, but the author chose to include diary entries and letters written by this character between chapters, and these really didn’t help me connect to her. The tone of voice used by Zas in these written portions was so juvenile, so silly, that I had a hard time keeping it in my head that I was supposed to be reading about a new adult woman. I guess 19 is still fairly young, but if a character is written as a very young 19, it’s always going to give a bit of an “ick” factor to the spicy aspects of the romance. And such was the case here.

Beyond how young she sounded, Zas was frustrating in her focus. She learns she has this entirely unknown history, and while this should be a driving force for her story, instead her inner dialogue and these letters revolve almost exclusively around the romance. I get that this is a hard balance to strike, as this is a romantasy title, so the love story should come first. But be that as it may, something in the balance here between the romance and Zas’s own personal arc didn’t work.

I also didn’t love the romantic interest. Nordin was your typical bossy, possessive romantic lead. He wasn’t the worst I’ve seen, but it was frustrating watching the entire progression of the romance come down to him just deciding for them both when the romance could or could not happen.

I also didn’t love the first-person, present-tense style the book was written in. However, as this is so common in romantasy, it’s hard to really hold it against this book in particular. I, for one, just want this entire trend to die a quick death, as I think it makes even skilled authors come across as weaker than they are. But plenty of romantasy/romance readers seem to be fine with it or even prefer it, so I’ll likely remain in the minority on this one.

Me and the other hold outs for third person and past tense!

So this was just an ok read. I know this author is fairly popular, and I’m still curious to go check out her older books, as I think the world-building was interesting and there were aspects of the characters I liked. If you’ve enjoyed this author in the past, I imagine this will be for you. Also, if you enjoy most trending romantasy nowadays, this fits in well with many of the other currently popular titles.

Rating 7: The world-building was interesting and I had a whole lot of questions about where things were going. Alas, I didn’t get many answers, but instead had to spend way too much time reading juvenile sounding journal entries.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Ice Beyond” should be on this Goodreads list: Norse Fantasy.

Kate’s Review: “Better Than Revenge”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Better Than Revenge” by Bea Fitzgerald

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, August 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Their feud made them iconic. One decision made them infamous.

After all, where’s the fun in rivalry if there’s no bloodshed?

Nadine Heywood and Harper Moore have been rivals since their first days at drama school, a feud that has consumed them. A feud more passionate, more clawing than the gossip magazines ever note. Hollywood’s It-Girl versus the acclaimed starlet, caught in an obsession that can only lead to one someone’s downfall.

After beating out Harper in every category for best actress, Nadine believes she has finally done it. She’s won – completely and irrefutably. So why are thoughts of Harper still tormenting her? Why doesn’t victory taste at all sweet?

When a knock at her door reveals Harper covered in blood, Nadine realizes this could be the ultimate opportunity to bring her opponent down. Or change them both forever.

With flashbacks to Harper and Nadine’s infamous in-fighting building toward a murder that makes them iconic, and excerpts of an interview with Nadine for Harper’s upcoming true crime documentary, this is a salacious tale of scandal, ego, and infamy about two frenemies who may be more to each other than they would ever like to admit.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Throughout the years I can think of numerous pop culture/Hollywood based ‘feuds’ between famous women that were rooted in some truth but were probably manufactured to an extent to drum up press and attention. For my elder millennial self I think of Hilary Duff vs Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears vs Christina Aguilera, and Jen vs Angelina, all having a grain of truth but all splashed on gossip sites and magazines to the point that SOME of it had to be made up or at least exacerbated. Probably in part due to misogyny and the constant need to pit women against each other. Hell, even today we see people commenting on modern starlets and who is or isn’t in their photos, or how they stand when near each other. I was thinking about this a bit as I read “Better Than Revenge” by Bea Fitzgerald, as two talented young starlets capitalize on their decades long rivalry, the lines between hate and love blur, and one of them ends up murdering someone and seeks out the other for help. How delightfully seedy! I was, of course, on board.

I will say off the bat that this is less of a thriller and more of a soap operatic character study in fame, jealousy, sexism to an extent, and rivalries and how the public LOVES a good rivalry. Our protagonist is Nadine, a movie star whose entire acting life has been entangled with Harper, a former classmate at theater school who is ALSO a huge star…. and whom Nadine has hated for their entire lives as they have been constantly pit against each other by others AND each other. It’s over the top in its constant needling and cattiness, with both Nadine AND Harper being generally insufferable but also just vulnerable enough that I was invested in their entire soapy journey from rivals to enemies to beyond. It is also an interesting take on the way that Hollywood gossip and fame loves a salacious story that will only bring MORE eyes to a person or topic, and how sometimes people take a narrative and lean all the way into it. It’s not really revelatory that celebrity culture and worship comes with perceived heroes and villains and the public enjoys watching a fight, manufactured or not, but this story is still fun watching Nadine and Harper be completely vicious to each other while they very clearly NEED each other in more ways than one.

I kind of wish there was a little bit more on the thiller angle. We don’t get the aforementioned ‘Harper goes to Nadine whilst covered in blood asking for her help’ until we are more than halfway into the story, and while we do get little sprinkles of hints about it throughout the narrative (mostly in the ‘true crime doc’ description interludes, which I did really enjoy), this is first and foremost a book about two women who will do anything tear the other down but who also are dependent on each other as their rivalry spirals and evolves and creates something passionate and incredibly toxic. It’s fun, but the parts around the murder and the cover up were a bit rushed as the story went on and started cyclings towards its conclusion. It’s fun and entertaining but the murder and the fall out takes a back seat to all of Nadine and Harper’s other drama. Not to say that it isn’t enjoyable, because it is. But if you want more of the murder and less of the Sapphic toxic back and forth, just know it leans more into the latter.

Overall, I found “Better Than Revenge” to be fun and the right amount of soapiness that I enjoy.

Rating 7: Soapy and catty with incredibly compelling and unlikable main characters, “Better Than Revenge” is a bit sleazy (in a good way) and a fun thriller, even if there isn’t much of a mystery to be found.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Better Than Revenge” is included on the Goodreads list “August 2026 Queer Releases List”.

Another Take: Summer 2026

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Don’t just take it from us, other readers like these books, too! And we have decided that we would like to showcase other reviewers and bloggers that have their own thoughts and feelings about books that we have loved. Here are a few of the books we’ve enjoyed recently and what other bloggers have to say about them.

Book: “Hopeless Necromantic” by Shiloh Briar

Book Description: Four years ago, Sikras ‘Catseye’ Nikabod had it all: a beautiful wife, friends and family, and the endless luxuries that came with being the all-powerful necromancer to the queen.

Now, his brother-in-law is a walking corpse, he’s wanted for tax evasion, his oldest friend, Vessik, has slaughtered thousands of the queen’s people with a skeleton army, and his wife is dead. Sort of.

With the kingdom under threat, it’s only natural for the queen to task Sikras with the totally normal, not-at-all-cruel chore of brutally murdering his dearest friend. Sure. Great. It’s not like he already failed to stop Vessik’s reign of terror twice or anything.

Turns out, it’s hard to kill a monster when you can’t stop remembering the good man he used to be. Harder still when you’re pretty sure his descent into madness is kind of, sort of, hypothetically … all your fault.

Raise a glass. Raise the dead. Just don’t raise your hopes.

Serena’s Review (8 Rating)

Lace and Dagger Books (5 Stars)

Book’d Out

The Constellation of Moon (4 Stars)

Book: “The Eye of Leviathan” by M. A. Carrick

Book Description: In an alternate Spanish Golden Age, the Council of the Sea Beyond has risen to unrivaled power, exploiting the Otherworld’s most precious resources for their own gain. Estevan seeks to uncover their secrets, but he risks the exposure of his that he is a faerie, masquerading as a mortal.

The Hungry Girl is the human whose place he took. Lost among the fae and desperate to find some purpose for her existence, she leaps at the chance to help a group of Spanish explorers in the Sea Beyond…only to be horrified at the atrocities they commit.

A faerie pact has separated them– but only together can they bring down Spain’s worlds-spanning empire and save the homes they have both come to love.

Serena’s Review (9 Rating)

The Lily Cafe (4 Cups)

Jam Reads

Realms of My Mind

Book: “Reliquary” by Hannah F. Whitten

Book Description: Sometimes, you just want to belong. When Claire’s fiancé mysteriously dies of an unknown neurological illness, seemingly destroying her chances at the belonging she’s sought, she’s prepared to sink back into the lonely life she lived before. Orphaned by a freak boating accident in her childhood, she never expected to find connection like she did with Elias, anyway. Even if sometimes, that connection seemed more like something he felt obligated to than something he wanted.

Their relationship wasn’t perfect—his coldness, his secrets, his strange aversion to the ocean—but what relationship is?

When Elias’s family reaches out—his incredibly wealthy family, from whom he was estranged—and invites Claire to a wake at their family home on a private island, Claire is given the chance to have connection again. To belong to something, just like she’s always wanted. Just like Elias knew she was desperate to have.

Even if that family is a little strange. Even if their home built partially into the sea stirs up memories of the accident that killed her parents and sister. Even if Ash, Elias’s older brother, seems insistent on Claire leaving as soon as possible.

Claire can’t bring herself to be lonely again. And as the strange circumstances of Elias’s familial connection with the sea becomes more and more apparent, her window for escape is rapidly closing.

Does she even want to?

Serena’s Review (8 Rating)

Winter Is Coming

Bewitching Books, Ravenous Reads (5 Stars)

Movies We Texted About (9 Rating)

Book: “Fabulous Bodies” by Chuck Tingle

Book Description: Fashion influencer by day and grave-robber by night, Poppy Stringer is on call when Eddie Michaels—a flamboyant, piano-slamming rockstar and queer icon—unexpectedly dies. All Poppy has to do is retrieve Eddie’s body from the medical examiner’s office, but what starts as a routine delivery quickly goes off course when Eddie wakes up.

Poppy must fight for her life in a blood-soaked night of carnage and fabulous entertainment all across Palm Springs.

Kate’s Review (9 Rating)

Read With Me Sasha Marie

Capes and Tights

Just Read It Already

Book: “It Came From Neverland” by Cynthia Pelayo

Book Description: 1914, Wendy Darling works by day as a school teacher and by night, she assists soldiers who have returned home from the Western Front. There is one mysterious patient who despite all the care they’ve given him, is in a deep sleep, unable to wake up. One night, when he murmurs the words “Peter Pan,” Wendy is thrown back to a darker time, one that she wishes she could forget.

When one of her students goes missing, it brings back memories of when children went missing and were later found murdered in London many years ago. Wendy believes that Peter Pan, the entity that she believed killed those children, is back. She and her brothers had a close encounter with Peter Pan, after all. But her brothers only remember Peter Pan and Neverland as a fantasy of childhood games.

When another child goes missing and signs start to point to Wendy, Scotland Yard digs into old reports, finding that Wendy knew the names of all the children who had been killed. As Wendy tries to prove her innocence, she also has to find a way to stop Peter Pan once and for all.

Kate’s Review (9 Rating)

Books, Bones & Buffy (4 Stars)

Rami Ungar the Writer

Macabre Daily

Book: “Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II” by Shane Hawk (Ed.) & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (Ed.)

Book Description: They’re baaaaaaaaaack!

As any savvy horror fan the monster never truly dies. The team that brought you the bestselling dark fiction anthology Never Whistle at Night has risen, hungry, from the grave to summon more dark delicacies for your delectation. In these twenty-one brand-new, groundbreaking, gruesome stories—authored by both established and newly unearthed Indigenous talent—the contributors are fully embracing both supernatural horrors and the everyday horror of living under colonialist rule.  

Featuring stories of unspeakable yet satisfying terror, from twisted psychological tales to gore-filled monster hunts, this new selection of sinister stories will sate your darkest appetites and leave you slavering for more. Never Whistle at Night, Part Back for Blood is a further celebration of Indigenous survival and the enduring tradition of transforming adversity into art.

Kate’s Review (Rating 9)

The Horror Lounge

A.C. Wise

Rachel, Horror Reader (4/5 Stars)

Serena’s Review: “Scion”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Scion” by James Islington

Publishing Info: S&S/Saga Press, September 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: My job, when you think about it, isn’t so different from a lot of people’s. I have to deal with a ton of boring planning. Inconvenient hours. Some pretty awkward face-to-face interactions. And like most of us, I’m really only clocking in to try and crawl out from beneath my debts.

The more old-fashioned crowd do still get hung up on the ‘killing people’ part, I guess, but that’s a them problem: it’s been perfectly legal to take out lifers for ages. Besides, once ultrawealthy morons realised they had a way to live forever—limited resources be damned—there was only ever going to be one genuinely practical deterrent. So someone’s got to do it.

And luckily, my genetic compatibilities make me really, really good at it.

Still. This next job… I don’t know. It’s something I haven’t had to deal with in years. Kind of the opposite of my regular duties. Strange, that it got thrown my way.

I’m sure it’ll all go totally fine though.

Review: I was excited to jump into this book when I was offered a review copy by the publisher. I’d heard a lot of great things about this author, but hadn’t gotten around to reading his original series. So, instead, this seemed like a great entry point: a short and sweet sci-fi story in a new world. And, for what it’s trying to be, I had a lot of fun with this book.

A comparison that comes to mind when thinking about this book is Martha Wells’ “Murderbot” series. This is both a positive and speaks to a few of the negatives I felt reading this book. For the positives, the main character here has a unique, snarky voice that very much allowed the book to read at a snappy, quick pace, similar to “Murderbot.” The concept itself is fairly similar, too. While the premise talks about our main character being an assassin, they instead spent much more of their time as a bodyguard for a specific character throughout the story. I had fun with this idea, though I did wish we had gotten a bit more from the assassin angle that had been hinted at in the summary.

For the negative, while I think the voice of this main character was fun, by the end of the book, I still didn’t feel like I really knew much about Azure as a character. Instead, I felt like I knew a lot more about the character that Azure was tasked with guarding. Similarly, while the world was interesting, with hints of dystopian politics and cyberpunk stylization, there were a lot of little tidbits about how this world works that were simply dropped on the reader without much explanation. But, again, the comparison to “Murderbot” works well. There, too, the world and character are only briefly introduced in a short novella, but then the entire concept expands greatly as the series continues. I’m hoping that there will be a similar expansion here.

Like I said, this is a short read, and I did enjoy what we had here. But it did feel like a bit of an incomplete concept. There were hints of greatness in the character, hints of interest in the world, and hints of larger conflicts to come. However, as a self-contained work, it didn’t ever quite reach the highs that I was hoping for. That said, I think there is a lot of potential, and the story definitely ends on a high note with a wide-open door to future books that may expand on some of the weaker areas we had here. If you enjoyed this author’s previous work, I’m sure this will be a hit! And if you’re looking for something that could go the way of the “Murderbot” series, this also might be for you!

Rating 8: Fun, fast, and introducing a whole lot of potential, even if I was left wanting in a few areas for this specific book.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Scion” can be found on this Goodreads list: Best of Cyberpunk

Kate’s Review: “Mazywood”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Mazywood” by Tananarive Due

Publishing Info: S&S/Saga Press, September 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: When Johnny—a filmmaker and grandson of the famous Black actress Mazelle Washington—brings his family to Mazywood, the secluded California mountain lodge left behind by his grandmother, he expects a quiet retreat. Instead, he uncovers a legacy of rage, secrets, and terror that has haunted his family for generations.

Set primarily in the present day, with haunting flashbacks to Hollywood’s Golden Age, Mazywood explores three generations while following Johnny as he pieces together the true story of his grandmother. As a young Black actress whose career spanned from the 1920s to the 1940s, Mazelle brushed shoulders with giants like Lena Horne, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel. But beneath her public appearance, she carried a secret she had kept and nurtured since she was a child, when a dark wish came true and changed the course of her life forever.

Now, fifty years after Mazelle’s death, Johnny finds himself confronting the truth she buried—and the consequences she left behind. For a monster lurks outside Mazywood, hidden for generations, and Johnny brought his family to its hunting grounds.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing with with an eARC of this novel!

One of the first Tananarive Due stories I read was “Return to Bear Creek Lodge”, a short story that was part of a winter horror collection, and I had my curiosity piqued when I found out she wanted to expand upon that story (and the previous story “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge”). It was a weird and strange tale, and the thought of a full on novel about it was absolutely exciting. Fast forward a few years, and I find myself with her newest novel “Mazywood”. I loved “The Reformatory” so much it was a priority for me this year, and when I looked deeper into it I realized that THIS was the novel that was going to be the expanded lore of Bear Creek Lodge and the weird monster thing that lives in the woods. But not only that! It was also going to be a historical fiction novel following Mazelle Washington, the bitter grandmother from the previous stories who was also an up and coming Black starlet in the Golden Age of Hollywood, whose career was shaped, and destroyed, by racism. I was on board SO FAST.

Much like previous tales set at Bear Creek Lodge, the horror bits of “Mazywood” involve Johnny, the grandson of former movie star Mazelle Washington, who is at her mountainous and isolated estate in winter. But unlike the previous stories, Johnny is no longer a teenager, but a grown man approaching his sixties, who has become a successful filmmaker in his own right. His wife Tasha convinces him to take the family to his grandmother’s estate, long left empty, for a family weekend (but also so Tasha can research Mazelle for a book she plans to write, but ALSO to break the news to their teenage daughters that Tasha is pregnant). Johnny has bad memories of the lodge and his grandmother, but relents, thinking the OTHER memories of a monster have to be just made up from a scared kid’s mind. The horror here is the isolated cabin and the monster for sure, but Due takes us to places that I wasn’t really expecting as the snow comes down, the power goes out, and the family is suddenly in danger of potentially being eaten like others were in the past. We have some great monster moments, whether it’s the fleeting descriptions of the monster from the POVs of our characters, or hints to its presence, but we also have some great familial tension that adds to it (Tasha and Johnny feeling anxious about an unplanned pregnancy, their daughter Imani’s ADHD making itself known at not so good times, Johnny’s trauma about his grandmother bubbling over). I found the suspense top notch and the mystery about the monster well done. And I did find myself misting up at times because of COURSE things can never be so black and white and Due knows how to pluck at the heart strings when some realities are revealed, and that is all I will say about THAT, but just know I was crying a bit on and off.

The real emotional weight and meat of this story, however, is finally getting to follow Mazelle during her rise in Hollywood, and finally finding out how she transformed from wide eyed ingenue to the bitter and cruel elderly woman we knew from the previous stories… as well as her connection to the strange creature. We see how Mazelle was first a child performer with an amazing hook: a terrific (though strange) dog named Scout that could do almost any trick and seems to be completely in sync with her. As Mazelle gets older and still tries to find a big break, the cogs of old Hollywood and its corruption and racism are prevalent at every turn, whether she’s type cast into an incredibly racist caricature of a role, or has to work ten times harder than white performers but with little to show for it, or how she has to contend with criticism from the Black community for conforming when it’s clear that if she wants to make it she has absolutely no choice but to do so. The Mazelle that we have known from the previous stories is bitter and cruel and has created rifts between her and her loved ones that seem too large to cross. But the Mazelle here is so sympathetic and tragic as she deals with racism, misogynoir, humiliation, and sexual violence all the hands of powerful white Hollywood elites who see her as nothing more than a cash cow until she is tapped out. Due paints a stark and biting portait of the shit Black performers had to go through during this time, and also brings in real life people like Hattie McDaniel, Sammy Davis Junior, and Lena Horne to emphasize that this struggle and injustice wasn’t just limited to Mazelle’s youth during the silent era. I really loved seeing the real life people and how they were used to make these points (and I know that Clark Gable was a complete shithead in a lot of ways, but I enjoyed how Due touched on his relationship with Hattie McDaniel because it does seem like they genuinely enjoyed each other’s company).

“Mazywood” is another spectacular horror novel from Tananarive Due! If you haven’t read any of her books yet, you MUST pick this one up (and then go back and read the short stories that preceded it).

Rating 10: A searing story that is part monster in the woods horror tale, part historical fiction examination of racism in Hollywood’s Golden Age, “Mazywood” is a fantastic new book from Tananarive Due!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Mazywood” is included on the Goodreads post “Peek If You Dare: Our Guide to New Horror Books Coming This Fall”.

Serena’s Review: “The Wretched Divine”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Wretched Divine” by Adalyn Grace

Publishing Info: Feiwel, September 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Aurelie Chantelune was born to serve. Raised as a knight in a kingdom ravaged by demons, she’s spent her life honing her blade, driven by the memory of the monsters who tore her family apart and by the knowledge that she’s one of the few who can stop them.

If Aurelie can claim her first kill, she’ll inherit a legacy passed down through the Chantelune a soulbond with Yuriel, an angel whose power is vital to her kingdom’s survival. But when those she loves begin turning into the very monsters she’s sworn to destroy, Aurelie is forced to seek help from the last place she ever imagined. Desperate, she forges a second and far more dangerous bond with Severin, a demon she can hardly trust, but who claims to know how to end the war for good.

With their lives and fates entwined, Aurelie, Yuriel, and Severin must team up to hunt down a cure capable of turning demons back into humans. But the more they learn about one another and the deeper their relationships grow, the more Aurelie begins to question the war and her place in it. With both of her bonded on opposing sides, she’ll have to make a continue to stand with the angels, or risk everything by trusting a demon.

Review: I promise I won’t go on another rant about love triangles in this review. For one thing, the book summary does a great job of making it pretty clear that that’s where things are going. And for another, while I still didn’t love the love triangle, I actually didn’t hate this one as much as others. Mostly this was because there wasn’t an obviously preferred choice right from the start.

Just to jump right in from there, I actually really appreciated the fact that both love interests were given a decent amount of page time, and even by the end, it wasn’t super clear which direction things were going to go. I was a bit nervous when I read the original setup that we’d get the typical romantasy character types here: the goody, blond angel character who is clearly not a real candidate, and then the dark, mysterious demon character who’s the obvious endgame from the very first moment. But, if anything, I found my actual interest in these two going the opposite way. Yuriel seemed to have a lot more depth and character to him, in many ways making him my favorite character even above Aurelie herself. Severin, on the other hand, was rather bland and predictable. So while the book didn’t make it incredibly clear which direction the romance was going, I definitely had a preference, and it was refreshing to see the “dark bad boy” archetype shucked a bit, with the angel character ending up with more depth between the two.

I also found Severin and Aurelie’s chapters and scenes together to be some of the weakest, writing-wise. Here, we had the stereotypical “enemies to lovers” banter, and it all just felt so tired. It wasn’t bad, necessarily, but it was so familiar that you will feel like you’ve read these exact same exchanges many times in the past.

Aurelie’s chapters in particular were a challenge. While the book is marketed as new adult, Aurelie very much reads like the worst examples of YA heroines: impulsive and lacking any true depth to her emotions or motivations. At best, I didn’t care what was going on with her, and at worst, she would actively annoy me with the nonsensical approach she would take to situations.

All of this said, I still enjoy this author’s writing style. It’s very approachable and free-flowing. For all my frustrations with some of the character beats and the romance, I still sailed through this book at a steady clip. So, while this wasn’t my favorite book by this author, I definitely think it’s one worth checking out if you’ve enjoyed her books in the past and don’t mind love triangles as much as I do.

Rating 7: While I didn’t love the love triangle, it was nice to find that the angel love interest was actually more compelling than the demon. Dear lord, spare me from another dark, mysterious love option who’s immediately the obvious endgame.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Wretched Divine” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Romantasy TBR 2026 and Most Anticipated Adult Fantasy & Sci-fi of 2026.

Kate’s Review: “Rooted”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Rooted” by Leopoldo Goût

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, September 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Aurora, a successful art lawyer, has returned to Mexico to celebrate a recent campaign for the repatriation of stolen artifacts. In particular a mysterious statue of an Aztec god.

There’s nothing wrong with Aurora. But Mexico City isn’t as she remembered, and as she cares for her ailing mother, home isn’t as she remembered either. Nothing is as she remembered. Elements of her past hint at darkness and power, and reality begins to crack and warp the streets.

There’s nothing wrong with Aurora. But some sicknesses can’t be healed. As Aurora’s sanity unravels, she must pry apart her family’s secrets and accept the simplest of The Flayed One cannot stay buried.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

I really loved Leopoldo Goût’s previous horror novel “Piñata”, as I found the story, themes, and critique of violent colonialism to be incredibly powerful as well as very creepy. So of course I wanted to read his newest novel “Rooted”. And also, look at that cover. I’m not usually that in tune with the impact of book covers (I know Serena comments on covers a fair amount!), but this one really jumped out at me. Throw in themes of artifact repatriation and the violent history of colonized Mexico (and the wrath of the Old Gods), and I was super pumped to check it out.

Once again Goût centers his story and its themes with a backdrop in Mexico City, and with a huge theme of Mesoamerican mythology and folklore. Our protagonist is Aurora, a lawyer who is returning to her original home of Mexico City as she oversees repatriation of ancient artifacts that had been stolen and sent to other museums. Now that the artifacts are being returned she can celebrate as well as see her mother Maria, who returned to Mexico from Aurora’s childhood in Texas after Aurora grew up. But once she is there she starts having strange visions and hallucinations, as well as memories that don’t make sense, and they seem to have to do with a statue of Xipe Totec, also known as The Flayed One. It’s a great premise, and there are so many questions of what Aurora is seeing, what the statue means, and what the memories and dreams could mean. It’s creepy and at times incredibly gory, with lots of nasty body horror bits as well as commentary about family secrets and familial traumas that are kept from the younger generations out of a misguided attempt to protect them. There were times that I would go from squirming over some of the body horror stuff, and then I would feel a deep melancholy because of the difficulties in the relationship between Aurora and Maria, with Maria hiding things in hopes of protecting Aurora, but only making it worse in trying to keep her safe.

I do think that sometimes the story stalled here and there. It had a true bang of a prologue, and then the set up of Aurora going to Mexico City to work as a lawyer within repatriation deals of Mexican artifacts being brought back to Mexico was incredibly fascinating for me (as I used to work in museums and these questions are always present). And with the set up of the Xipe Totec statue ever present and the weird things that Aurora was seeing made the slow burn of the plot nice and creepy, but I did find myself wanting the plot to move forward a bit faster with repetitive creepy moments weighing it down until we got some answers. We did eventually get there and once some of the pieces fell into place things picked up again, but I think it could have been tightened up without sacrificing a build up of suspense.

But pacing issues aside, I enjoyed the themes and horror elements of “Root”. Leopoldo Goût delivers another satisfying horror tale! I look forward to seeing what more he brings as time goes on.

Rating 7: It was a little slowly paced at times, but the body horror, folklore, and look into family secrets and trauma all worked well for me.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Rooted” is included on the Goodreads list “All the New Horror Books Arriving in September 2026”.

Book Club Review: “The Unicorn Hunters”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

We are part of a group of librarian friends who have had an ongoing book club running for the last several years. Each “season” (we’re nerds) we pick a theme and each of us chooses a book within that theme for us all to read. For this blog, we will post a joint review of each book we read for book club. We’ll also post the next book coming up in book club. So feel free to read along with us or use our book selections and questions in your own book club! This season’s theme is books with specific colored covers where we all drew a color and matched it with a book.

Book: “The Unicorn Hunters” by Katherine Arden

Publishing Info: Del Rey, June 2026

Where Did We Get This Book: ARCs from ALA!

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Prompt Color: Yellow

Book Description: Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded and drove her royal father to his death. Now she is a young woman, sovereign duchess of an occupied realm, and France means to crown their conquest by marrying her to their king. Such an alliance would put her title, her lands, and her body forever in the hands of her enemies.

But Anne refuses to be the last duchess of Brittany.

Her only hope of resisting conquest is another alliance sealed with marriage, so Anne arranges a daring last gambit: a secret betrothal to Charles of France’s greatest rival. But secrets are hard to keep in a world where rival courts spy on each other with diviners.

The forest of Brocéliande was once the haunt of Merlin the Enchanter and the long-lost faerie queen. But magic is long gone from Broceliande, except for the occasional sight of a unicorn and one critical quirk: This ancient forest is completely hostile to divination.

While pretending compliance with France, Anne plans a unicorn hunt in Brocéliande. A bit of pointless pageantry. A diversion so she can wed in secret.

Or so she thinks.

In this rich and epic novel, the author of the acclaimed Winternight trilogy turns the real history of a remarkable woman into an unforgettable tale of mystery, enchantment, and the price of power.

Kate’s Thoughts

So about ten years ago (maybe not quite but almost) “RuPaul’s Drag Race” was having a close to end of season Ball where the queens had to create runway outfits based on the theme “Gayest Ball Ever”. They had to do a rainbow outfit, a Village People based outfit, and a unicorn outfit. The eventual winner of the season, Sasha Velour, based her unicorn look on the unicorn aesthetics of the Unicorn Tapestries, as she said that ‘that is what she thinks of’ when she thinks of unicorns. Which made me guffaw because how on brand for Sasha Velour. This was something I kept thinking about when I read “The Unicorn Hunters” by Katherine Arden, which takes the very real Anne of Brittany and the French conquest and sets it against a more fantasy based backdrop, where unicorns and magic are real as Anne tries to fight a marriage that would put her home in the hands of those who may wish to do her harm in the name of power. It’s a really cool concept, and it worked out well in what it set out to do.

While fantasy still isn’t really my genre (once Anne found herself dealing with the fae in their realm I was a little less invested), I definitely appreciated the way that Arden seamlessly blended fantastical elements (magic, faeries, unicorns) into a very grounded in history Brittany, bringing Anne’s historical story into a tale that has believable magical elements. It never felt too twee or shoe horned in awkwardly, and I found myself enjoying the threads that were being pulled together to create a historical fiction tale with fantasy beats. Anne herself was an enjoyable protagonist, who has to use cunning and wits to try out outmaneuver adversaries while also staying true to what her expectation and place would be within her position. She is clever and cunning but never felt like a stereotypical ‘girl boss’ that wouldn’t ring true for her time and place. Which may sound a LITTLE strange given that this is a book with unicorns and magic, so why NOT girl boss her up a bit, but it worked well for me showing that power doesn’t have to look one way for women. And given that it came up in book club that Anne had a pretty difficult and sad life when all was said and done, I did appreciate how Arden wanted to give a bit of a ‘what if?’ alternate reality for her. I also really enjoyed the writing style, I found that it flowed well and I really could picture what she was conveying.

So while it’s not totally within my genre wheelhouse, I appreciated “The Unicorn Hunters” and how it blended historical fiction and fantasy to create something unique.

Serena’s Thoughts:

I won’t go through my entire thoughts again on this one but will link my review below. Suffice to say, I still loved this book, even reading it a second time in fairly quick succession. If anything, I was even more impressed by the masterful style of writing that Arden utilizes here. It’s so subtle and yet so crucial to truly capturing the feeling of the medieval setting and the characters who would people this time and place. For all of its fantastical elements, I think these smaller flourishes, the court politics, the interactions between the siblings, and the understated courtly love story are what truly provide the backbone of this book. And the very particular, almost stylized prose is really what holds it all together.

I still highly recommend this one to pretty much all fantasy fans, but especially those who enjoy historical fiction as well. And for a more detailed review from me, here is what I posted back in June when I reviewed it originally: “The Unicorn Hunters.”

Kate’s Rating 7: While some of the more blatant fantasy beats didn’t hold my attention, the way that Arden cobbles history with fantasy to create a shared tale was well done.

Serena’s Rating 10: To repeat what I said before: Absolutely brilliant! Arden’s beautiful, lyrical writing captures the deep peace of the unicorn, the terrifying shadows of the dark forest, and the endless well of strength found in one woman who sets out to change her fate.

Book Club Questions

  1. This book is a mixture of fantasy and historical fiction. How well do you think it blends these two genres and their conventions? Was one genre stronger than the other?
  2. For the historical side of things, what did you know about Anne of Brittany before? How did you feel about this interpretation of hre story and her as a woman in history?
  3. The unicorn and the mythology around it plays a central role in the story. Did the author bring any unique twist to her version of the unicorn myth or the themes often explored alongside unicorns?
  4. The book grapples with themes of women and power and the limited choices they faced. We see both Anne and Marguerite approach their limited avenues to power in very different ways. What did you think about what the book did with these themes?
  5. There are fantastical and “real life” threats that Anne faces throughout the story. Did any of these plot points stand as more compelling?
  6. What did you make of teh end of the book and the final resolution?

Reader’s Advisory

“The Unicorn Hunters” is included on these Goodreads lists: Most Anticipated Adult Fantasy & Sci-fi of 2026 (Standalones & New Series) and Unicorn Books.

Next Book Club Pick: “Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions about Dead Bodies” by Caitlin Doughty

Serena’s Review: “The Thief and the Traitor Bride”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Thief and the Traitor Bride” by V. L. Bovalino

Publishing Info: Forever, September 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Nore Gordon is a woman of many talents: she can speak a variety of languages, disguise herself in plain sight, and has made a name for herself as a successful wine merchant. But unbeknownst to those closest to her, it is all a front for Nore’s true role as the favoured spy of the Lindle crown.

Tasked with infiltrating enemy lands in search of a powerful relic, Nore is forced to engage the services of a great thief. Unfortunately, the only person for the job is her estranged husband Caspian. Both Nore and Caspian bear the scars of the disastrous end of their marriage, but if they are to survive their deadly new assignment, they must pose as a happily married couple to avoid detection.

As danger closes in, Nore finds herself tangled in a web of lies and deceit-and though Caspian is at the centre of it all, she may not hate him as much as she once did. But Caspian has betrayed her before, and trust can be far more deadly than deception.

Previously Reviewed: “The Second Death of Locke”

Review: This is a tough review to write, because some of my experience of this book is affected by my absolute adoration for the first in this series. I was blown away by “The Second Death of Locke,” and to spoil my own review, the best parts of this book also just happened to feature the main couple from that book. That being the case, while starting to think about what to say about this book, I found it all coming out rather…ranty. Which isn’t fair! Because this is by no means a bad book; in fact, in many ways, it is an incredibly well-written fantasy romance that doesn’t shirk on the challenges of representing a character who is by no means reliable and who has been actively manipulated her entire life. But…it also wasn’t “Locke,” and I guess that’s what I wanted.

So let’s start with the good things, because really, there are many. Even my later criticisms should be taken with a grain of salt, because comparison is the killer of objective reviews. For the good, this author continues to prove that one doesn’t need to dumb down one’s writing when working within the romantasy or fantasy romance genres. This seems like it should go without saying, and yet. The prose was tight, lyrical, and suitably adult for the heavy topics the story was covering.

I will say, however, that the magic system, while very interesting, is still very confusing. I’m not always a big fan of glossaries or additional information included at the end, but a more laid-out explanation that could be referenced would have been helpful here, especially since the author introduced even more to an already complicated system. And, while I appreciated the map in the beginning of the book, it was notably leaving out some very important locations that are pretty central to the story, so I wish that had been expanded upon as well.

Beyond that, I appreciated the careful work the author put into her main character. Nore’s arc is not an easy one to write. She’s a woman who has been manipulated her entire life and is very much gaslit about her role in the world and her relationship with her mentor. This is fairly obvious to the reader right from the start. So it can be frustrating to watch Nore behave in some fairly unlikable ways due to this brainwashing. However, the book wouldn’t have the emotional climax it does or hit nearly as hard had Nore somehow been more aware of her circumstances. Indeed, her naivety is essential to demonstrate the challenges that those in abusive, manipulative relationships like this face, as well as those who hope to extract them from them. The author does a great job of carefully building up Nore’s history through a series of flashbacks that neatly illustrate how she’s come to where she is. From there, the book moves through her slow awakening to the reality around her.

But, like I said, this doesn’t make her a particularly fun character to read about. For a character who is meant to be a master spy, I wish we had seen more competence from her in the few moments that she is given to operate independently (though this restriction is also part of the manipulation, so I’m not sure how well it would work). So it’s easy enough to set aside some of the frustrations with her naivety in this area.

However, the romance was incredibly frustrating. I enjoy second-chance romances, but they are hard to write. And here we had a good example of where it can go wrong. The story plays out skipping between the present, where Nore and Caspien have been forced to work together after years apart following some terrible betrayal in the past that has left them both hating one another. This hatred seems to go both ways, though we see more from Nore, of course, as we’re reading the story from her perspective. Interspersed with this are flashbacks to their past in which they fall in love and eventually marry. So, we don’t get to the actual betrayal until nearly the 50% marker in the book. This leaves a lot of time to really build up this betrayal as fairly massive. And when we get to it…man, it really fell with a thump. Both characters, but mostly Nore, react so instantaneously and so poorly that I was immediately frustrated and annoyed. For characters who have been in love for years and happily married for a good chunk of that, the switch to immediate hatred with no room for explanations just read as ridiculous at best, and unlikable at worst. Nore, in particular, comes across as incredibly hypocritical in this scenario.

Now, once the romance starts building back up in the present timeline, I did enjoy these two together. Nore was at her best in the scenes with Caspien. And while he wasn’t my favorite love interest ever, I was fully on board with Caspien pretty much from the start. Between this book and the first (where the emotional stakes at least were much more known by both characters, even if they didn’t admit them to each other), I think it’s fair to say that this author has an incredible way with writing romances between two characters who are in love already to some extent. This is a pretty rare talent, as there’s often a reason that romance authors just end the book once the characters have acknowledged their feelings, usually at the very end of the story. However, I don’t think the enemies-to-lovers bit worked as well here, unfortunately.

We do get to see more of Locke and Kier and man, I was so happy when they showed up. Unfortunately, Locke’s presence did expose more of my frustrations with Nore, as even the small bits we get from Locke were so much more compelling than much of Nore had been for much of the story. Kier was also wonderful, and the little snippets of their love story were so sweet.

On a final note, I think the pacing of this one was also a bit off. The first book was also on the slower side, but this one really dragged in the middle. Part of this was the frustration in having to wait so long for the reveal of what went wrong in the past (and then the disappointment when it came). But there were also a lot of slower travel scenes and bits that felt drawn out past their usefulness. I think a decent amount of paring down in this middle section would have made the entire book a tighter, more enjoyable read.

That said, this was still incredibly well written, and, while frustrating at times, I appreciated the unique arc that Nore traveled. The romance was at its best in the second half of the story, and I was happy to get to spend more time with Locke and Kier. While this didn’t quite live up to the high that was the first book, I still enjoyed it and am excited to see what comes next!

Rating 8: While this didn’t quite live up to the high that was “The Second Death of Locke,” this was still an incredibly well-written fantasy romance with a lovely second-chance romance at its heart (though you do have to wait a bit for it!)

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Thief and the Traitor Bride” can be found on this Goodreads list: Gothic Fantasy (not sure I would put it here, but oh well!)