Kate’s Review: “Nothing Tastes As Good”

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Book:”Nothing Tastes As Good” by Luke Dumas

Publishing Info: Atria Books, March 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: Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over three hundred pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck—in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.

Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight.

Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he’s human?

Nerve-racking, sinister, and at times surreal, Nothing Tastes as Good is an unputdownable thriller that combines The Substance with the best of Stephen King and keeps you guessing until the final page.

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

I’m an elder millennial, so I was a teenager around that Y2K time when heroin chic bodies were in and they were calling Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson fat when they had perfectly svelte bodies. And yeah, it absolutely affected me. Story time! When I was a freshman in college I had to go to the student health center for positional vertigo, and while I was being examined the doctor told me that I was at 140 pounds (probably due to not having lunch in my meal plan, not really having snacks, and walking around the U of MN Duluth campus basically all day). This was the lightest I had been in years, and the doctor said that at 5’9″ and with my frame I was actually bordering towards underweight. And in my mind I was like ‘AWESOME!!! Underweight!!!!’ instead of ‘hmm, that may be an issue’. I’m still not really at peace with my body (decades later, hitting perimenopause, and after having a kid), but I’m trying to be at least more neutral about it. Especially since I now have a six year old daughter who has already told me that she didn’t want to wear her winter jacket because it makes her ‘look fat’. I had a lot of these thoughts swirling in my head as I read “Nothing Tastes As Good” by Luke Dumas, which takes diet culture, corporate greed, a little bit of MAHA ideals about body presentation, and throws it in a “The Substance” flavored blender. It’s gross, it’s upsetting, and it’s a really good horror read. More so given that we’re starting to see these really thin trends coming back.

As a body horror book, this one has a lot of nasty and stomach churning moments. I already have a fair amount of squick when it comes to body horror (I actually still haven’t seen “The Substance” outside of clips here and there before I feel like I may barf), and it’s not just because of the weird thing Emmett Truesdale’s body is doing whilst participating in a drug trial for a product called Obexity. It sure seems like a miracle drug as the pounds start to fall off in record time, and Emmett is more than happy to ignore the side effects because of his new body making his self perception and the perception of others so much more positive. But I’m sure that you can imagine that the side effects get worse and worse and crazier and crazier, and there is gore, there are weird body moments, and I was squirming a bit as I kept reading and the pounds kept dropping. I enjoyed the slow burn suspense, with the story being told through a fairly typical narrative, but also through Emmett’s body transformation discovery blog, through interviews after SOMETHING happens, and through notes and other hints from news articles and the pharmaceutical notes as the study goes on. And some descriptions were just so gross, but it’s exactly what I would expect from this kind of horror tale.

Dumas also has some really interesting and pointed commentary about how society views fat people and fat bodies, and clearly has a lot to say about how Emmett is treated throughout the narrative, be it while he is dropping pounds while on Obexity (with the aforementioned side effects wreaking havoc but being brushed away), or how he is treated during his time as a child whose disordered eating can be mapped due to trauma cycles done to him or even to his caregivers before him (specifically his stepfather), or even when he is yo-yoing and reminiscing about losing weight then gaining it all back and then some before the drug trial. I imagine that a lot of this is familiar to those who have struggled with disordered eating or body image issues, and Dumas doesn’t really mince words when showing how dehumanized Emmett feels when he is fat, and how the very fact he is actually seen and treated as a human being when he is thinner propels his desperation to stay on a drug that is making him do horrifying things out of his control. It’s scathing and a clear indictment on fatphobia from ALL fronts, be it family, friends, lovers, strangers, or even medical professionals, where someone is more comfortable being monstrous if they are at least treated like a human. Oof. It was rough.

“Nothing Tastes As Good” is an effective commentary and doesn’t hold back with the squirmy bits you want in a body horror tale.

Rating 8: A nasty and unnerving body horror tale that has a lot of insightful points about fatphobia in society.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Nothing Tastes As Good” is included on the Goodreads lists “Beauty Parlor of Horror”, and “Weird Lit”.

Book Club Review: “Girls Made of Snow and Glass”


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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. Re-visiting some of our past themes, we’re once again pulling random words from and finding a book that matches the prompts. 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!

Book: “Girls Made of Snow and Glass” by Melissa Bashardoust

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, September 2017

Where Did We Get This Book: The library!

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

Prompt Words: Snow, Spell

Book Description: Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, “Girls Made of Snow and Glass” traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

Kate’s Thoughts

I remember this book crossing my path back when it came out, and while the idea of a “Snow White” reimagining definitely piqued my interest I ultimately never picked it up. Because of this I cackled a bit when it was picked for book club because apparently it was my fate to eventually read this book. I have enjoyed a fair amount of “Snow White” retellings if done well, and I liked the sound of this one because it sounded like it was going to have a bit more insight into the Queen’s motivations. Unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to the expectations I had for it.

I did enjoy the way that Bashardoust approached the relationship between Lynet (our Snow White) and Mina (our evil queen/stepmother). It’s not so often that a reimagining of this story actually tries to create a somewhat positive relationship, or at least the potential for one, between these two characters, and by doing so and making Lynet and Mina more victims of their circumstances (put in place by their fathers) and less mortal enemies, though there is certainly conflict there. It was a unique way to tackle a reimagining, and this was the strongest aspect of the book for me.

But on the other hand, there was a lot of not so complex and somewhat fraught storytelling as we saw Lynet and Mina go on their paths in the narrative. I felt like we didn’t really get a good sense of their relationships with the other characters, even those that would be pretty important, and I felt like the magical systems and their magical afflictions (Mina being made of glass and Lynet being made of snow) were very surface level without much substance. Are they metaphors that could be interesting, sure, but when they are just there to be obvious metaphors it isn’t as compelling as it could be.

So there was a lot of potential and some solid character beats, but overall “Girls Made of Snow and Glass” was pretty middle of the road.

Serena’s Thoughts

On paper, this book should have been right up my alley. And it did work in some ways, just not in all the ways that I wanted. Its biggest positive is the creative take it offers on the “Snow White” tale. This included an elaborate (if a bit confused and badly defined) magic system, a dual perspective shared between the Queen and the Snow White character, and a refocus of the primary relationship away from the romances and more fully on this mother/daughter relationship.

This last part, especially, was particularly well done. It’s rare that you see the major emotional stakes of a YA fantasy story focused on the relationship between two women, especially when one is in a mother/stepmother role. On the other hand, this left the romances feeling very underwhelming. It also felt weighted toward Mina’s relationship, leaving the sapphic love story between Lynet and her love interest feeling fairly weak.

My major problem came down to the writing. It wasn’t bad, by any means. But it was also incredibly dry and simple. There wasn’t much of a voice given to either character, and the author was quick to fall into the trap of telling the readers exactly how they should interpret any given scene. While the themes of beauty, independence, and feminine rage were interesting, none of them were presented or surfaced in anything resembling a subtle way.

So, ultimately, I didn’t dislike this book, but I also had hoped to enjoy it much more than I did. I really love fairytale retellings, but this felt very much “of its time,” a time when YA fantasy especially was given to underestimating its readers and relying on overly simplistic storytelling techniques.

Kate’s Rating 6 : I definitely appreciated the deconstruction of the Snow White and Evil Queen relationship in this book, but I felt like the storytelling wasn’t as focused as I would have liked it to be.

Serena’s Rating 7: While I appreciated the focus on the relationship between Mina and Lynet, the storytelling itself left much to be desired.

Book Club Questions

  1. This is a Snow White retelling that jumps through timelines and through perspectives of both the Snow White character and the Evil Queen character. Were you able to follow it as it jumped between times and perspectives?
  2. What did you think of the father/daughter relationships in this story?
  3. What were your thoughts on the relationship between Lynet and Mina? Was it surprising you to you that Bashardoust went in this direction?
  4. What were your thoughts on Felix? How did he compare to other Huntsmen portrayals?
  5. What did you think of the way the concepts of snow and glass were used as metaphors in this novel? Did it work for you? Why or why not?
  6. Did you have any opinions on the magical systems in this book? Did they seem consistent, and did they make sense?
  7. How did you feel about the ending? Was it satisfying?

Reader’s Advisory

“Girls Made of Snow and Glass” is included on the Goodreads lists 2017 YA Fairy Tale Retellings and YA Fantasy with Major Sapphic Girls.

Next Book Club Pick: “Space Cat” by Nnedi Okorafor

Serena’s Review: “Only Spell Deep”

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Book: “Only Spell Deep” by Ava Morgyn

Publishing Info: St. Martin’s Griffin, March 2026

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

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

Book Description: Judeth Cole has always had certain uncanny abilities. But when she arrived at Solidago – her grandfather’s estate by the sea – she was forced to keep them secret. There she lived a harsh life under his rule and the haunting legacy of her late grandmother, Aurelia. Until the fateful day she ignited a fire with her magic. It was the last time she saw her family alive.

Seventeen years later, she’s living in Seattle as Jude Clark, and failing at life, when she makes a last detour through her favorite bookstore, selecting a book to read as she waits to die. But when she pulls it from the shelf, an invitation to her for a clandestine midnight meeting slips out.

Jude is quickly swept up into a world of secrets and magic, discovering a circle of powerful new companions led by the mysterious, enigmatic Arla. The source of their magic, Arla tells her, is a goddess, trapped and bound, that they call The Fathom. But Jude swiftly realizes Arla wants this power all to herself, and that she’s willing to kill for it.

Terrified, Jude turns to Levi Orman, the handsome bookseller who’s seen her at her worst. With his help, she begins a research journey that leads her from the crystal waters of the Mediterranean to the icy waves of the Greenland Sea and back to Solidago, the house she swore to never return to. With the Fathom threatening to break free and Arla on the hunt, Jude must finally face her past to save her future.

Review: I’ve read a few books by this author, and while none of them have blown my socks off, they’ve also been solid fantasy reads. I don’t read too many contemporary fantasy novels, so Morgyn has been a good option for keeping a toe in the waters of that particular subgenre. This one stood out for its comparisons to Rebecca and the promise of another gothic read.

So, this was a bit of a mixed-bag read for me. On one hand, I do see the comparisons to Rebecca, but that mostly coincides with some basic staples of gothic fiction. Sure, there’s specifically a fire, but I’m not sure this is quite enough to justify this comparison. On the other hand, I did enjoy the gothic elements we got here. I wish there had been a bit more done with them, but the atmosphere of this book was one of its primary high points.

The pacing was pretty unsteady, however. It started off strong, and I was immediately drawn in and invested in the character and story. Things were happening, the plot was moving, tension was building. But then it felt like the book ran headlong into a brick wall somewhere around the one-third mark and then was mired there for a good chunk of the middle. Yes, the ending once again picked up the pace, and things concluded on a high note. But this middle section dragged.

On paper, this is the section where I should have been becoming more invested in the characters and the romance, as much of the page time was devoted to dialogue and smaller moments. But somehow the balance always felt off between description and action, and I found myself losing interest more and more often.

Further, one of the elements I enjoyed about the fantasy portion of the story were the Goddesses who were introduced. Instead of languishing in prolonged research during this middle portion, I wish the book had devoted more time to fleshing out this part of the story. There were a lot of interesting ideas here, but by the end of the book, I was left with questions and wishing we had gotten more from this particular avenue.

I was also fairly lukewarm on the characters and the romance as a whole. Readers should definitely not go into this expecting much from the romance. It is very secondary to anything else, and I didn’t find it particularly compelling. The main character had a more interesting arc, but even here, there were several themes that were thrown in that felt almost like they were there simply for the shock factor rather than to be truly dealt with in a meaningful way.

Overall, this was just an OK read. I really enjoyed the beginning and the ending, and I thought there were some interesting fantasy elements, particularly the Goddesses. But the pacing was uneven to the point that the middle of the book lagged badly, and the romance felt almost unnecessary for the amount of attention it got in the end. Fans of this author will likely be pleased, but it didn’t quite work for me.

Rating 7: It’s an odd thing for me when the love story feels like the part that doesn’t quite fit. Some interesting fantasy concepts are held back by uneven pacing, as well.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Only Spell Deep” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Best Magical Realism: Witchy Fiction and Fire Burn And Cauldron Bubble.

Kate’s Review: “The Darkness Greeted Her”

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Book: “The Darkness Greeted Her” by Christina Ferko

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, February 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: Penny’s abusive father is dead…but she still hears his voice in her head, encouraging her to hurt those around her. She can’t go to school or be around her friends or even draw with a sharp pencil without her intrusive thoughts urging her toward violence. Desperate to get a handle on her OCD, she agrees to spend the summer at Camp Whitewood—an exclusive therapy retreat in the woods.

She feels optimistic when she arrives. The other girls all have their reasons for being there, which makes Penny feel a little less alone. But then she starts seeing things that can’t possibly be there: the gold watch her father was buried with, his favorite whiskey spilled on her cabin floor…a terrifying figure she calls the Shadow Man looming at the foot of her bed. Penny thinks she is losing her mind, but when a girl goes missing, and is later found dead, it’s clear that whatever is happening at Camp Whitewood isn’t all in her head.

As the hallucinations become increasingly intense and more girls wind up dead, Penny must work with whoever is left standing to figure out what is real before the Shadow Man uses their traumas against them and claims their lives.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

I had a LOT of emotional issues when I was a teenager. I had three separate therapists addressing different parts of my mental health, was on medication for a couple of years, and have been in therapy throughout most of my life (and I am incredibly grateful to have had all that access to these things over the years). I never got to the point where I was in need of intensive in patient therapy, and I certainly never found myself shipped off to a wilderness therapy camp that has secrets and perhaps a roving monster in the woods. So while THAT aspect of “The Darkness Greeted Her” by Christina Ferko wasn’t super relatable, the mental health aspects were (at least to some degree, it was NEVER as all encompassing for me as it was for main character Penny).

The biggest theme of his horror novel, as so many horror tales have done in recent years (and I’m not mad about it!), is how people who have gone through traumatizing childhoods are shaped and haunted by said trauma. For Penny and her camp mates, they all come to Camp Whitewood with the hopes of finding peace and psychological help, but instead are being tormented and in some cases eaten by a monstrous entity in the woods that takes the shape of their fears and pain. Old hat? Sure. But for me it’s still effective, and I think that it’s always something to be talked about for YA readers and a message I probably could have used as a depressed teenager back in the day. But not only did we get insight into our first person protagonist’s trauma, I also liked getting some chapters that would lay out the formative moments that brought that other girls to this therapy camp. So we do have a shadow creature living in the woods that is a threat, but at the same time we have a number of teenagers who have dealt with all too real horrors, like abusive alcoholic fathers, guilt over horrible mistakes that have become internalized to a dangerous degree, and other traumas that have festered and caused these girls to be susceptible to the monster’s appetites.

In terms of the suspense and dread, I will say that some of the pacing felt a bit off, and perhaps at times a bit too drawn out. It wasn’t a particularly scary story to me, but that is almost assuredly a ‘your mileage may vary’ situation because there are definitely some creepy and suspenseful aspects, especially with the worries about whether or not Penny was going to be overcome by her Harm OCD tendencies and hurt someone else or herself. The monster was interesting in that it shifts its form to reflect the different campers fears, mixing in folk horror with “Nightmare on Elm Street” to a degree (it also got a little close to Wendigo mythology, but didn’t use the term or the specific background so I feel like it wasn’t fully treading into appropriative territory, correct me if I’m wrong though!). The metaphors of trauma and mental illness bolstered it up quite a bit.

So all in all, “The Darkness Greeted Her” is another solid horror story that makes monsters out of real life horror stories. I think that teenage horror fans will probably enjoy it.

Rating 7: A creepy story about trauma and monsters, of the supernatural and all too human kind, though it felt a bit laggy at times.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Darkness Greeted Her” is included on the Goodreads list “Queer Fiction Set at Camp”.

Serena’s Review: “Green and Deadly Things”

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Book: “Green and Deadly Things” by Jenn Lyons

Publishing Info: Tor, March 2026

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

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

Book Description: Mathaiik has trained all his life to join the sacred order of the Idallik Knights, charged with defending their world from the forces of necromancy. Only vestiges of that cursed magic remain, nothing like the fabled days of the Grim Lords, the undead wizards who once nearly destroyed the world.

But when an even stranger kind of monster begins to wake, the Knights quickly prove powerless to stop them. Whole forests are coming alive and devouring anyone so foolish as to trespass, as if the land itself has turned upon humanity.

It’s a good thing, then, that the Grim Lords were never truly destroyed. One of their number sleeps below the Knights’ very fortress. And when an army of twisted tree monsters attacks the young initiates in his charge, Math decides to do the unthinkable: he wakes her up.

This is only the beginning of his problems. Because said necromancer, Kaiataris, knows something history has forgotten. The threat of this wild magic is part of a cycle that has repeated countless times–life after death, chaos after order. And if she and Math can’t find a new way to balance the scales, this won’t just be the end of the world as they know it, but the end of all life, everywhere.

Review:I feel like deadly, horrific plants have been having a bit of a moment in horror and fantasy recently. I can think of a number of titles that have played around with this concept, all horrifying in their own ways. And this book starts off with more of the same! A walking, murderous forest, and not in the “Cool! Look at the Ents!” kind of way.

From there, the world-building just expands, and I loved learning more about this world. Math is a great entry point, having grown up in an order of Knights meant to fight evil necromancers, but with his feet on both sides of the magical divide, with his own secret plant magic. And even here, with the good guy of the book, the ways in which his plant magic is described… yeah, pretty gross. But also very cool, especially as the lore of this world explodes outward once he raises one of the long-thought-defeated necromancers of old and realizes there is much more to this world than he thought.

This reveal was one of the coolest factors of the book, and it immediately shifted not only the stakes of the conflict but also revealed some truths about Math and everything he thought he knew. Kai was also a fantastic character, bringing in a wealth of knowledge. She and Math had great chemistry, and I enjoyed the push-and-pull nature of their growing trust. It was very much a “two steps forward, one step backward” affair with these two.

Some of the late reveals I felt were a bit more predictable. And there definitely came a point when I wanted to smack Math upside the head to get with the real program going on here. But, even with that being the case, his perspectives and priorities made sense for him as a character, so I wasn’t overly frustrated by it.

The one drawback was the pacing. The story starts off incredibly quickly and does a neat job of setting up the primary players and the situation ahead. But then, toward the middle, the story started to drag. Math and Kai spend a lot of time traveling, always interrupted by the fairly predictable return of some bad guys to get in their way. While I was interested in the greater evil that was building in the background, some of these more minor action scenes began to feel repetitive. At the same time, Math and Kai’s relationship also stuttered a bit in the middle, so it was a bit of a struggle to retain interest during this portion.

However, things picked up again, and by the end, I was once again invested in what was taking place. It’s also refreshing to read a stand-alone fantasy novel with a story that feels contained and complete. Readers who are looking for a unique action fantasy story should definitely give this one a go!

Rating 8: While the middle portion lagged a bit, the creepy plant magic and endearing characters kept me invested throughout!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Green and Deadly Things” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Can’t Wait Books of 2026 and Horror to Look Forward to in 2026.

Kate’s Review: “You Did Nothing Wrong”

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Book: “You Did Nothing Wrong” by C.G. Drews

Publishing Info: St Martin’s Press, March 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: A relentless, horror-inducing psychological suspense for fans of The Push and Baby Teeth by New York Times bestselling author CG Drews.

Single mother Elodie’s life has become a fairy tale. She’s met Bren, equal parts golden-retriever devoted and sinfully handsome. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, to the crumbling family house he’s renovating. She has a new husband, a new house, and a new baby on the way. Everything is perfect.

Then Jude claims he can hear voices in the walls. He says their renovations are “hurting” the house. Even Elodie can’t ignore it–something strange is going on. The question is, is it with the house, or with her son?

Then the one secret Elodie has been hiding is revealed, and no one is safe anymore.

A pulse-pounding, clever take on the haunted house novel, You Did Nothing Wrong examines the complexities of motherhood and the twisted bonds of family as it races to its shocking ending.

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

We are getting some interesting subversions of the haunted house horror sub-genre recently! I love a haunted house story, but I’ve been pretty pleased with the way that authors have been experimenting with the themes that come with the sub-genre. “You Did Nothing Wrong” definitely falls into that category, because something that starts off seeming like just a ghostly tale turns into something even scarier than things that go bump in the night.

Whew, this book is intense for so many different reasons. We follow Elodie, a young mother to an autistic six year old named Jude (more on him in a bit) who has just married Bren, and is pregnant again. They move into a new house that Bren is trying to fix up, but Jude keeps talking about how the house is alive. And Elodie starts seeing strange things too. This is one layer of the tension, because Drews also throws in hints and clues to Elodie’s past, which carry a whole lot of darkness even if they aren’t apparent from the jump. Elodie is a narrator that I would shift between wanting to root for, to being completely horrified by, and I never quite knew if she was someone I could trust as a protagonist. But I had the same thing happen with Bren, who on the surface seems so kind and patient and doting, but has little flashes of menace and aggression. But then again, is that actually the case, or is it because we see what Elodie sees? As the story goes on and the tension between Elodie and Bren escalates, mostly because she also thinks she’s seeing things in the house AND because Bren is potentially abusing or manipulating Jude. As the story goes on Elodie gets more unhinged, but is she paranoid? Or is it something else altogether? Drews kept me guessing a good long time, and I was tearing through this book desperate to find out what happened next.

Another stressful point is the themes with Jude, who is presumed to be autistic based on how he is written, but who hasn’t been diagnosed because Elodie refuses to do so in case it is somehow blamed on her. As someone who has a child who is presumed autistic, there were beats in here that felt very familiar, either due to the way that some people just refuse to understand some of the more uncomfortable things about autistic people, or the way that things can go south in the blink of an eye without necessarily knowing why because your kid doesn’t really know why either. You add in a possessive obsession she has to her child and it makes it all the more intense. But then again, I was ALSO freaking out at Bren because I was so afraid that he was going to hurt Jude due to HIS misconceptions about how to treat an autistic child. It made me so uncomfortable but I’m pretty sure that was the point. Gosh I just wanted to sweep Jude up.

I do think that the ending had a few too many shocks and surprises, however. I’ve never been one to get behind a thriller novel that has a lot of last minute twists just to get a rise out of the reader, and while this book still stands very well on its own two feet due to the things I mentioned, I do think that there was a bit of an overreach when it comes to how things all shook out by the end.

But that’s a quibble in the long run, because overall I greatly enjoyed “You Did Nothing Wrong”. It kept me stressed out and it kept me flipping the pages whenever I had a chance. I definitely recommend it.

Rating 8: An addictive horror tale with unreliable narration and incredibly tense moments flies high for awhile, but has a slight petering out of an ending.

Reader’s Advisory:

“You Did Nothing Wrong” is included on the Goodreads lists “Autism in Horror Literature”, and “Dark Literature”.

Diving Into Sub-Genres: Werewolf Fantasy

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We each have our own preferred genres of choice. Kate loves horrors and thrillers, really anything that will keep her up at night! And Serena enjoys escaping through hidden doors into realms of magic and adventure. We also read mysteries, historical fiction, graphic novels, etc. etc. And that’s not even counting the multitude of sub-genres contained within each greater genre. In this series, one of us will present a list of our favorites from within a given sub-genre of one of our greater preferred genres.

I am once again copying Kate’s theme! She’s did vampire horror, I did vampire fantasy. She did werewolf horror, I did…well, you get the idea. But it truly is funny seeing the places where horror and fantasy overlap. For this reason, Kate and I have had some good luck find authors who write books that we both can appreciate, perhaps for different reasons.

So, unlike werewolves in horror, werewolves in fantasy are often paired with romance. I’m sure there are exceptions, but it’s hard to think of any! Beyond this, there’s always a decent chance that the main character will also end up being a werewolf and the concept will be explored from an insider perspective. Werewolves in fantasy often have much more control over their “curse” than the ones you’d see in horror; more often than not, it’s just another magical power rather than something that has any true downside. They’re also more likely to show up in urban/paranormal fantasy than a straight fantasy novel.

So, let’s get to the list!

“Blood and Chocolate” by Annette Curtis Klause

Thinking back, this may have been the first werewolf book I ever read. I have clear memories of checking it out from the library and whizzing through it. Now, with many years and many other werewolf books under my belt, it still stands out as one of the more unique version of the werewolf story I’ve come across. Mostly this comes down to the way that the romance was handled. I remember being completely shocked by the direction this book took in the end, and I think even now, it subverts some expectations that readers would have going in. Alas, this was then made into a movie where the director completely butchered it. I mean, actually butchered it! Totally changed the ending, undoing all that made the book stand out as unique and depriving the heroine of the conclusion to her personal arch. Truly tragic stuff. So, yes. Read the book but do not, I repeat, DO NOT, watch the movie.

“Written in Red” by Anne Bishop

While this series had a fairly steep and disappointing decline towards the final few books, it stands out for having one of the more unique versions of werewolves in fantasy. The book manages to straddle both the urban fantasy genre as well as a more straight, second-world fantasy novel. In this world, the Others are powerful magical creatures (including werewolves) and the humans are very much living at the grace of these beings. The first few books are particularly strong, following the main character Meg and the very beginnings of her romance with the resident werewolf leader of her small corner of the world.

“Moon Called” by Patricia Briggs

There are a bunch of urban/paranormal fantasy series out there that feature werewolves. I can probably name half a dozen off the top of my head. But I think one of the most popular has been the “Mercy Thomas” series by Patricia Briggs. Mercy herself is a coyote shifter, but her romantic interest(s) are both werewolves. Much of it is stand werewolf fare, but as the series progresses, we get more lore about werewolf society and the role they play in the supernatural society, as well as the “real world.” There’s also a companion series called the “Alpha and Omega” series that features a female werewolf, so if this series is up your alley, there’s more to be had from this world featuring a main character werewolf to boot!

“Shiver” by Maggie Stiefvater

At this point, this author is best known by her “Raven Cycle” series. But before she had that, she produced this interesting YA werewolf series! Given how much creativity was present in the “Raven Cycle” series, it should come as no surprise that Stiefvater also brought a lot of creativity to her interpretation of werewolves. Here, the change between wolf and human is determined by the temperature, not phases of the moon. That being the case, Sam, our werewolf character, is doomed to be wolf for large chunks of each year, with only a few summer months of life as a human boy. And, of course, there’s also Grace, the young woman who meets Sam as a boy but who suspects a similarity between him and a yellow-eyed wolf she’s seen in the woods.

“The Last Werewolf” by Glen Duncan

Up to this point, most of these books have had fairly tame versions of werewolves, especially as compared to their horror compatriots. But here, Duncan gives a fantasy version of werewolves that doesn’t shy away from the violent, chaotic existence that would be life as a werewolf. This book is definitely on the dark side and is more literary than the other picks as well, so if you’re a fantasy reader who leans in that direction, this would be a good one to check out. It also features a male werewolf as the lead character, which also feels a bit unique compared to other titles on this list so far.

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by J.K. Rowling

Granted, werewolves are way down the list of important fantasy tropes in this series, but I thought to include it because it’s one of the few truly negative-only versions of werewolves in fantasy I have on this list. There’s no upside to being a werewolf in this world; we see Lupin not only struggle with the effects of the transformation itself, but also with the bigotry of this world towards werewolf. As the series continues, a villain werewolf is introduced and is portrayed as one of the more horrific enemies out of many horrific options. Lupin also continues to struggle with his own life choices and the realities of his curse. So, not a central part of the series, but this is definitely a different version of werewolves in fantasy than we’ve seen in the other books on this list.

What werewolf fantasy books have you enjoyed over the years? Let us know in the comments!

Serena’s Review: “Queen of the Night Sky”

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Book: “Queen of the Night Sky” by Amalie Howard

Publishing Info: Avon, March 2026

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

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

Book Description: The Kingdom of Oryndhr has been saved by the will of the Royal Stars. But King Roshan, once Sura’s best friend and chosen love, has changed. She can sense corruption growing in him, and her own magic is being twisted by his command to dangerous ends. As dreams of her strange shadow guardian return in force, she is left unsure of her path—and of her heart.

When an attempt on her life leads to her rescue on the back of an azdaha, the dragon-like creature she once thought a myth, Sura truly finds herself in uncharted territory—in a land far beyond Oryndhyr’s borders. Everlea is full of magic, ruled by the deadly and enigmatic Night King, Darrius. And to Sura’s shock, Darrius is none other than the man in her dreams…and possibly her soul fated mate.

As a prophecy unfolds, the old gods awaken, and a war between kingdoms looms, Sura has no she must fully embrace her destiny as Starkeeper and the entirety of her power before it’s too late. But all power comes at a cost…and darkness has a way of slithering into the smallest spaces.

Previously Reviewed: “The Starlight Heir”

Review:Once more for the people in the back: no more bait-and-switch in romance/romantasy! I honestly am at the point where it’s incredibly hard to review some romantasy books that I read. Mostly because authors/publishers seem to refuse to properly label their books/series initially, which then leads me to epic levels of rage when I run into tropes and themes that I know that I don’t care for and would otherwise simply have avoided rather than read and end up needing to write a negative review. Because, at the end of the day, book reviews and reading experiences are entirely subjective. I can’t speak to the quality of any particular romantasy book outside my own experience of it. Sure, those who enjoy certain tropes may love it! But how could I say when I am not the reader for that book? I don’t like certain tropes, and thus, I don’t usually like those books, which then leads to negative reviews. Simple.

All of this to say, while I read the first book in this series and didn’t strongly connect with it, I was still interested enough to see where the story would go from there. It wasn’t doing anything extraordinary, but the general set-up was fine, and I was happy enough to see how the romance would play out. Well, color me surprised when I opened up this second book and discovered I was suddenly reading a “why choose” romantasy, not at all what had been set up in the first book.

Like I said, there are plenty of readers who enjoy this trope, and I am by no means saying that it is objectively bad. Just not for me. But here I am, now having committed to reviewing the second in a duology based on the set-up from the first book, which was your fairly standard romantasy fare, only to find it swerve straight into a trope that I avoid so as not to be writing negative reviews for books that just aren’t for me. Well, the publisher/author really has no one to blame for this but themselves. Had I known in the first book that this is where it was going, I would have just passed, and this negative review wouldn’t exist. Hate to do it, but… properly label your dang romantasy titles from the very start!

So, I won’t talk any more about the romance. I didn’t like it. I didn’t care for the characters involved, and I particularly didn’t care for the imbalanced level of connection and history between various pairings, thus making the entire “why choose” premise feel poorly weighted in one direction. The emotional stakes were definitely weighted one way, and the character assassination that had to happen to set up the other romantic interest was frustrating to read. Even by “why choose” standards, I don’t think this one was done particularly well.

Probably not a surprise, but this book goes hard on its spicy scenes. Given the balance between spice and plot is weighted heavily toward the former, I will say that these scenes were written well. I wasn’t terribly invested in the characters involved, but the author did a good job avoiding cringe-worthy descriptions or oddness, something that isn’t always a guarantee with romance. Readers who are enjoying the romance of it all will be pleased, I think, with how the love scenes play out.

However, the book also feels way longer than it needs to be. Actually stepping back and looking at what happens in the plot, it’s very little. And the book itself is not short by any means. I think some healthy editing would have tightened this up into a more streamlined affair and a more enjoyable read all around. While the spice scenes were good for what they were, this balance between romance and plot did feel off, and one or two fewer erotic scenes might have helped the plot feel more relevant.

Shocking no one, I didn’t love this one. I hate having to write negative reviews, especially when I’ve been contacted directly to review a book. But I’m committed to honest feedback first and foremost, so here we are. As I’ve harped on ad nauseam at this point, I really do try my best to simply avoid romantasy reads that contain tropes that I’m not going to enjoy. It’s incredibly frustrating that I can list off a handful of books within the last six months alone where I went in being sold one thing and then ran headfirst into the brick wall of these very same “avoid at any cost” tropes. And here, had I known going in that the duology was taking a hard turn into this trope, I would have simply passed when asked to review this. Alas.

Note: I want to include a few points for transparency and clarity.

I received a copy of this book from a marketer who did identify it as a “why choose” trope. But I also think this makes part of my point even stronger: most readers are not hearing directly from publishers and thus would not have been given the opportunity to note that the type of romance series they started was definitively NOT the one they would be continuing if they picked up this second book.

The marketer has also since informed me that this book is identified as “why choose” on retail sites. That said, I think it is fairly unreasonable to expect romance readers to be on the constant look out for major switches to the type of romance they are reading between one book in the series and another. If I started a cozy romance novel, and then book two suddenly became a dark romance, I don’t think an updated listing on Amazon could counter the justified frustration at a bait-and-switch of that kind.

Rating 5: Not for me. “Why choose” fans will likely be pleasantly surprised, but if you thought the first book was representative of where the duology was headed, you’d be wrong.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Queen of the Night Sky” can be found on this Goodreads list: March 2026 Most Anticipated Romance Releases.

Serena’s Review: “Mother of Death and Dawn”

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Book: “Mother of Death and Dawn” by Carissa Broadbent

Publishing Info: Bramble, March 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: Netgalley!

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

Book Description: In the wake of a crushing defeat, Tisaanah and Maxatarius have been ripped apart. Tisaanah is desperate to rescue Max from his imprisonment, even as her people’s fight for freedom grows more treacherous. But within the walls of Ilyzath, Max’s mind is a shadow of what it once was… leaving his past a mystery and his future at the mercy of Ara’s new, ruthless queen.

Meanwhile, in the Fey lands, Aefe has been dragged back into this world by a king who vows to destroy civilizations in her name. But even as her past returns to claim her, her former self is a stranger.

Tisaanah, Max, and Aefe are thrust into the center of a cataclysm between the human and Fey worlds. The unique magic they share is key to either winning the war, or ending it.

But that power demands sacrifice. Tisaanah may be forced to choose between love and duty. Max cannot forge his future without confronting his past. And Aefe must decide between reclaiming who she was, or embracing who she has become.

The choices they make will either reshape this world forever…or end it.

Previously Reviewed: “Daughter of No Worlds” and “Children of Fallen Gods”

Review: At this point, I’ve read a few different duologies from this author, as well as a few standalones. Looking back, I think the standalones are the strongest of the group, mostly because both of the series fell off a bit in their final book. Still great reads, of course, but with a few hiccups with pacing and plotting. So, while I really enjoyed this book, it does reinforce this idea: this is a good book, but it’s not as strong as the ones that came before it and once again stumbles a bit in its landing.

But let’s start with the unqualified good things, and that is mostly the characters! Max and Tisaanah remain excellent, both as separate characters experiencing their own arcs throughout this story and as a couple working toward their romantic resolution. And, like both of the previous books, this story doesn’t go easy on them. Both experience some truly traumatic things, and it’s only through the force of their will (and in Tisaanah’s case, her unceasing hope) that they pull through. They are motivated not only by the betterment of those around them, but also to get through their challenges to be there for one another. Amidst all of the darkness and trauma, there’s a truly lovely romance here, and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

As for the other characters, I have mixed feelings. I truly appreciate the inclusion of the villain arcs for Aefe and Caudan. It’s rare for an author to truly make me understand and sympathize with a villainous character. There’s a bunch of drama and angst here, which is an interesting contrast to Max and Tisaanah’s steady, solid love. However, I also felt like Aefe’s chapters were retreading a lot of ground from the first book, hitting repetitive emotional beats and, overall, simply a bit lackluster in comparison to the rest. Perhaps some simple editing—cutting these down to what was truly necessary—would have helped.

I also think the pacing was fairly uneven. The story starts off incredibly slowly and takes a while to truly build momentum. By the midpoint of the book, things begin to pick up. But then, once we get to this point, the book becomes a whirlwind in which one thing after another happens back-to-back in a way that left me looking for an emotional touchstone to connect back to the characters, the obvious heart of the story. Much of what I’ve just written sounds almost word-for-word like my experience reading her latest book in the Nyaxia series. It’s an odd thing, to be both too slow and also too much at times in the same book.

However, this was still a solid read and an excellent conclusion to the trilogy. I really loved following Tisaanah and Max’s story especially, and I think their romance is one of my favorites from Broadbent. If you enjoyed the first two, this is definitely a must-read! And, overall, this is a great fantasy romance trilogy for those looking for love stories that don’t skimp on the world-building and epic stakes of fantasy novels.

Rating 8: A bit of uneven pacing throughout, but the strong characters and swoon-worthy romance make it all well worth it!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Mother of Death and Dawn” can be found on this Goodreads list: Can’t Wait Sci-Fi/Fantasy of 2026.

Kate’s Review: “A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets”

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Book: “A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets” (Saffron Everleigh Mysteries #3) by Kate Khavari

Publishing Info: Crooked Lane Books, June 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: London, 1923. Returning from Paris, botanical researcher Saffron Everleigh finds that her former love interest Alexander Ashton’s brother, Adrian, is being investigated for murder. A Russian scientist working for the English government has been poisoned, and expired in Adrian’s train compartment. Alexander asks Saffron to put in a good word for Adrian with Inspector Green. Despite her unresolved feelings for Alexander, Saffron begins to unravel mysteries surrounding the dead scientist.

As if a murder case weren’t enough, her best friend Elizabeth’s war-hero brother, Nick, arrives in town and takes an immediate interest in Saffron. Saffron learns Alexander has been keeping secrets from her, including a connection to Nick, who Saffron and Elizabeth begin to suspect is more than he seems.

When another scientist is found dead, Saffron agrees to go undercover at the government laboratory. Risking her career and her safety, she learns there are many more interested parties and dangerous secrets to uncover than she’d realized. But some secrets, Saffron will find, are better left undiscovered.

Review: I took a bit of a break from the Saffron Everleigh Mysteries after reading “A Botanist’s Guide to Flowers and Fatality”. I didn’t really do it deliberately (I mean not totally…), as I think it was more a matter of lots of other books coming out and just getting lost in the shuffle. But now that Kate Khavari’s fifth book in the series is coming out this summer (and after being asked to read it… stay tuned!), I decided that it was time to get back on the horse. And so I picked up “A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets”, another botany STEMinist mystery with botanist Saffron Everleigh at the forefront in post WW1 London! And it was fun picking it back up, I’m happy to report.

Saffron gets pulled into another plant/poison based mystery when her old beau Alexander reaches out, saying his brother Adrian is suspected of murder after a man he’s traveling in a train car with drops dead of poisoning. Alexander hopes that Saffron will be able to help clear Adrian, and even though she is still a bit stung by Alexander she agrees to help. I admit that I missed Saffron and her flatmate/best friend Elizabeth. I felt right back into their banter again, and liked how they support each other not only in the mystery at hand but also in their day to day lives. Given that the second storyline of this book involves the sudden reappearance of Elizabeth’s brother Nick and how suspicious Elizabeth is of it, it was interesting seeing how these two friends deal with the mystery at hand as unexpected details come together (also it was a real hoot seeing Elizabeth and Saffron and Michael Lee from the previous book go to a night club of sketchy repute in hopes of finding information. Yes we’ll talk about Lee in a bit). And it does all tie in with Alexander’s worries fairly well. In fact, the mystery itself with dead scientists and a lab with unknown research was entertaining.

And the setting is still so perfect for me. We are now in 1923 London, and while WWI is behind them we are still seeing how it affected not only Saffron and Elizabeth and those around them, what with Elizabeth’s brother Nick cropping up unexpectedly and stirring up the grief of losing Wesley, Elizabeth’s brother and Saffron’s sweetheart, we also see the way that scientific research was affected post-War. Specifically in how the lab Saffron joins on the down low and the kinds of research it is doing with the memory of mass death still fresh. It’s fun how Khavari took a science thriller premise, that so much in the present focuses on scary new tech and the dangers of it running amok, and translates that kind of fear to a fear of tech one hundred years prior. That is what made this particular mystery stand out for me.

I will say that my big quibble that kind of marked down the experience for me is a petty one, and it’s one that plays a huge part in the story that kind of spoils some lingering questions from the previous book (and honestly, it’s also probably why I put off reading this one for as long as I did because I just knew it was going to happen). I want to talk about it but know that it’s a big ol’

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Recall in my last review, I talked about Saffron finding herself in a bit of a potential love triangle, with the two points being old love interest Alexander (who had been away on a scientific excursion and came back super bitter about her for some reason) and Michael Lee, her forensic partner in poisonings last book. I thought that Saffron had much more chemistry with Lee, as the work together well and he always bolstered her intelligence while also trusting her judgement. Plus he was just more fun and less of an ass than Alexander, who was being a total jerk to her in the last book. Well, this book quashed it pretty fast and it’s made clear that Alexander is the one for her, and I was PRETTY irritated by that, mostly because HE WAS STILL BEING SUCH A WHINEY BABY TO HER IN THIS BOOK. He asks for her help with his brother, refuses to tell her why, and leaves out SO MANY DETAILS that she would need to know to be able to help him and gets all sour when she calls him out on it. WHY is this the guy that she is destined to be with? He’s such a drip. I do hope that Lee continues to show up because he’s a hoot, and maybe he and Elizabeth will start something up (honestly? That would be iconic).

So irritating romance nonsense aside, overall I enjoyed “A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets”. It had some interesting stakes, set up a clear path forward, and had some more science-y shenanigans with an unique historical lens.

Rating 7: A compelling mystery that still has a unique hook, “A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets” is another fun thriller with Saffron Everleigh and her friends buoying the story.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets” is included on the Goodreads list “Best Fiction Books About Plants”.

Previously Reviewed: