Author: thelibraryladiesmn

Serena’s Review: “A Heart So Haunted”

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Book: “A Heart So Haunted” by Hollie Nelson

Publishing Info: Alcove Press, October 2025

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

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

Book Description: Landry is ready to clean house—not just Harthwait, but the traumatic memories and family entanglements that haunt her. Left reeling from her aunt’s sudden death, Landry knows she has to restore the old house and sell it for much needed cash. Preferably, before autumn arrives. But as renovations begin on Harthwait, she notices some motion sensors activate when no one is home, doors slam shut, and every night, at a quarter after midnight, the disembodied crying begins. Then, when she uncovers a hidden door during the renovations, she dares to open it.

Behind the door is a world of nightmares, some of which are hers, while others belong to a monster—who is trapped inside and desperate to get out. Both haunted by their pasts, Landry makes a deal with the monster, but as they develop feelings for each other, she realizes that the thing that looks like a beast may not be the most beastly thing after all.

This rich and spellbinding tale explores the idea of what we call home and who we call family.

Review: While I’m not as committed to celebrating the Halloween season as Kate, I do try to find a few books that both align with my typical reading genres while also touching on Halloween themes. And this one, with its promise of a haunted house and beastly love interest, felt like it neatly checked that box!

This was one of those cases where I think my expectations (and many other readers’, I suspect) were misaligned in a number of ways. Perhaps I wouldn’t have greatly enjoyed it more had I been more properly prepared for the sort of book I would be reading, but it would have at least been a bit less jarring. And, ultimately, I think the readers who are more likely to enjoy this one would have an easier time finding it.

As it stands, the book description and even the cover, though to a lesser extent, prep the reader for a gothic fantasy story featuring a darker tone that explores not only the romance but the nightmares that surround these two characters. And yes, technically we do get that. But this aligns way closer to the cozy fantasy genre than it does to gothic or horror fantasy. From the very start, the overall voice of the story is lighthearted. Even the “creepy” moments are treated with such a soft hand that I never felt even the teensiest bit of trepidation. And, like I said, there is nothing overtly wrong with this, but it wasn’t what I had been led to expect and it ultimately wasn’t what I wanted.

Perhaps I could have gotten on board more easily with this bait-and-switch of vibes if the story itself had been strong. But boy, did this one drag. I knew we were in trouble when in one of the early chapters, the characters hear a bump in the house… and then proceeded to talk about who should go check it out, whether they should go check it out, jokes about how neither wants to check it out… for pages! Before, you guessed it, finally going and checking it out! By which point, any suspense or tension had been so thoroughly killed that I was bored before we even got into the room in question.

This poor pacing continued throughout the story and really was my primary problem with it. Very little truly happens. And I mean, very little. Instead, pages and pages are devoted to the smallest of interactions and depictions of mundane scenes. This could easily have been edited down to a shorter novel or perhaps even a novella. And I’d argue it would have been stronger for it!

I also never felt invested in these characters. There were, perhaps, smidgens of interest to be found in the predicament of the MMC, but even that wasn’t enough to really hold my interest. And I will say that the romance itself was one of the stronger elements. However, there were also numerous side characters who felt so pointless that it almost boggled the mind. (One of these side characters was the other half of that early, pointless scene I described above, which didn’t endear me to him.)

Overall, this was a bit of a disappointment. I think the author has potential, and I did enjoy the romance. But the story felt bloated with unnecessary characters and drawn-out scenes that severely hampered the pacing and plotting of the main story itself. I will say, cozy fantasy readers who enjoy slower-paced books still might enjoy this one!

Rating 6: Bogged down by unnecessary side characters and drawn-out scenes, this one failed to capture my interest, ultimately.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Heart So Haunted” isn’t currently on any Goodreads lists, but it should be on Gimme a Beast.

Kate’s Review: “Road Trip With a Vampire”

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Book: “Road Trip With a Vampire” by Jenna Levine

Publishing Info: Berkley, September 2025

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 vampire who can’t remember his past and a witch with secrets of her own hit the road in this zany, cross-country romantic comedy from beloved author Jenna Levine.

Reformed bad witch Grizelda “Zelda” Watson had hoped to never see another vampire again when she slipped away to sunny California for a fresh start. She’d grown tired of them and their nonsense ages ago. But when a vampire with amnesia unexpectedly shows up on her doorstep with a letter from her old friend Reggie, and asks for her help, she can’t say no. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Peter Elliott is tall and gorgeous, looks great in yoga shorts, and has the kind of dark hair and surly expression Zelda’s been a sucker for for hundreds of years.

Peter isn’t completely harmless—he is fanged, after all—but he’s harmless enough, and soon becomes the only person in Zelda’s new life who knows the truth about what she is. If she can help him decipher the cryptic notes in his journal, the only clues to his lost memories, she might as well try before sending him on his way.

But when an alarming message from Peter’s past coincides with a clear sign that Zelda can’t keep running from her own, they embark on a cross-country road trip for answers—only to find what they’re looking for in each other.

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

I had high hopes after “My Vampire Plus One” that the next book in the series by Jenna Levine would focus on the witch Zelda that had been hinted at in the story of Reggie and Amelia. I love vampires, but I may love witches more, and the thought of a bad girl witch turned yoga enthusiast having her time to shine absolutely tickled me. And when I saw that “Road Trip With a Vampire”, the third (and final! SOBS FOREVER!) book in Levine’s Vampire series was focusing on that very topic, I was stoked as hell. And then it was going to be a road trip romance?! SURELY THERE WOULD ONLY BE ONE BED AT THE INEVITABLE HOTEL!!!! I was eager to leap into the book, and my high hopes were pretty well met. Finally a witch was having her time to shine!

Romance novels can be hit or miss for me, and sometimes the tropes that are chosen can be tricky if they feel like they are a bit too well worn or overused in a genre. I know that some people have a pretty hard time with amnesia plot lines, and I also know that witch stuff can sometimes feel twee. But Levine’s characters of Zelda and Peter are both very likable, and I enjoyed learning their back stories through flashbacks, found media (like newspaper clippings about Zelda’s many many antics over the years, sometimes with my beloved Reggie), and their slow melding of storylines through these devices. It made for the tropes that could feel repetitive or cliché easier to swallow.

As for chemistry, I don’t think that it was AS strong as the first two books, but that being said I was ultimately rooting for them to figure it out, even if the conflict that almost always has to happen to tear the couple apart until an inevitable happily ever after was a little shakier this time around. Hell, even the reconciliation aspects felt a bit stalled, and dragged a fair amount to the point I was like ‘okay you two let’s just get it together’. BUT, ultimately I did like them and it was kind of fun having the romance be between a witch and a vampire this time around instead of another vampire and human angle. And the steamy and sexy scenes were pretty good, so that made up for any lagging that was happening in the last fourth of the book (not just sexy blood play, but sexy magic play as well!!!).

We also got to get a bit more outside of the vampire lore from the first two books and had some additional witchcraft world building! I enjoyed seeing Zelda go from her morally grey past as Grizelda, whose mischievousness went a little too far and became a wake up call, to Zelda, a more zen and compassionate yoga instructor who is just trying to make good as best she can. I liked the magic parts, and how she would have to use it in various situations, even when it wasn’t exactly voluntary. Heck, I even would have loved more of it!

I’m sad that this series is ending, but I think that it ends on a pretty good note, wrap up wise. I will be very curious to see what Jenna Levine does next, and definitely think that if you are looking for a charming autumn romance read with a little bit of spooky this is a fun book to pick up.

Rating 8: Another fun and steamy paranormal romance from Jenna Levine, rounding out her vampire romance series and ending it on a cute note.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Road Trip With a Vampire” is included on the Goodreads lists “A Dash of Spice: Autumn Romance Reads”, and “Witchy Fall Vibes”.

Book Club Review: “Someplace Generous”

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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 genres from a hatch and matching them together in one book. 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: “Someplace Generous: A Romance Anthology” edited by Elaina Ellis and Amber Flame

Publishing Info: Generous Press, May 2024

Where Did We Get This Book: the library!

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

Mix-and-Match Genres: Romance and Short Stories

Book Description: In these pages, desire is centered and explored through queer, trans, Black, AAPI, Latinx, Jewish, disabled, and neurodivergent lenses, and the ages of authors and characters span generations.

The brilliant authors herein have spun lush, poetic tales featuring characters and perspectives historically excluded from romance narratives. Through a variety of styles, lengths, and subgenres–ranging from flash-fiction to short stories, speculative to satire to romcom–there is something here for every kind of reader.

Two Modern Orthodox Jewish women cross a magical threshold on the holiday of Shavuot. A Chinese American grandmother in a nursing home plays matchmaker, just in time for the Lunar New Year. A nonbinary sexworker with psychic abilities helps an older woman connect with her long-lost lover. Two disabled young adults find new levels of intimacy as they work to overcome shame. An enslaved couple jumps the broom and can see the future, which is freedom.

The lovers in Someplace Generous–whether they are sapphic vampires or undercover super-heroes, teenagers, or middle-aged mamas–choose each other, and along the way, they choose themselves, too.

Featuring twenty-two stories by twenty-two authors, Someplace Generous presents voices largely new to the genre of romance-fiction, each bringing a fresh take on what it means to tell a love story.

Kate’s Thoughts

I’ve had a generally okay run of short stories and anthology collections in recent years, so much so that I am not nearly as hesitant to pick them up as I had been in the past. And when book club picked “Someplace Generous” for a romance short stories collection I was actually kind of optimistic. I really liked the idea of a romance short stories collection that had a focus on diverse and own voices reads, as for so long romance was a genre that could have fairly narrow focuses when it came to story and characters (many genres really). So I was hopeful! Unfortunately, this one was disappointing.

There were a couple stories that I did like! I especially liked “How To Open A Door” by Sammy Taub, which centers on a gamer dealing with PTSD after a not so specified ‘incident’ who finds connections online through RPGs. She eventually connects with Hax, a fellow gamer, and they start to build a romantic bond. This one was sweet and I liked the progression of their relationship. Another standout was “Runner” by Rachel McKibbons, in which a woman obsessed and hyperfocused on true crime (specifically women disappearing) starts up an interaction with a stranger. There was just something really intimate to me about this story, and I found it to be soft and quietly bittersweet. There were a couple others that worked for me too, like a story about a seance with a psychic sex worker and a grieving widow, and a forbidden romance between two Orthodox Jewish women.

But there are a LOT of stories in this collection, and a lot of them didn’t connect with me at all. I think that one problem was that there were a lot of entries of ‘flash fiction’, which makes for VERY short stories with little time with the characters. This can be done successfully for sure, but it’s hard to pull off and in many cases the authors didn’t pull it off here. And even some of the longer stories felt half thought out and not really well explored, and I found my thoughts wandering while I was listening more than I was hoping for.

It’s a really good concept and an important imprint to be sure, but “Someplace Generous” was overall a miss of a short stories collection in my opinion.

Serena’s Thoughts

I second everything Kate said. Similar to her experience, I’ve had some recent successes with short story collections, which have shifted my generally pessimistic views more toward the positive. Plus, who doesn’t want more romance in the world? But this was a definite example of ambition outpacing talent, perhaps both on the editing and the writing side.

Like Kate said, there were certainly some standout pieces that I did enjoy (often these ended up being the longer ones, which speaks to an important point about the balancing act that must be struck in word count when writing a short story). The handful that I enjoyed were better able to capture a true sense of character—a necessity, particularly in the romance genre, as the characters and the relationships between them usually make up the majority of whatever plot there is.

However, the vast majority of these simply didn’t work for me. Many of them felt like ideas instead of actual stories. Kate mentioned the “flash fiction” entries, and these ones were true sticking points for me as well. I’ve only ever seen “flash fiction” work in fanfiction, and that comes down to the crucial point that readers go into the story already knowing everything there is to know about the world, characters, and their relationships. Here, we were given single-page-length stories where I was left feeling as if I’d read the writing prompt handed out to students at a college writing seminar instead of an actual story.

Beyond that, several of the stories simply didn’t have anything to say and weren’t very well written. I understand that the editors set out a bit of a tightrope before themselves: with a title like Something Generous, the concept of telling prospective authors to go back to the drawing board or simply, “No, we won’t be including that story,” has to be incredibly difficult. But, as they say, that’s why the editors get paid the big bucks (I know they don’t! And editors are criminally underpaid, but my point stands that the role comes with a lot of responsibility, and some of that is making the tough choices and having to deliver unwelcome news). All in all, this collection would have been better served had the number of stories been substantially cut down, allowing the gems to truly shine.

Kate’s Rating 5 : I love the concept and a couple of the stories did work for me, but too much flash fiction, and too many half baked stories made for an overall weaker collection.

Serena’s Rating 5: The only thing I really liked about this was the idea behind it, unfortunately, and the collection as a whole would have been better served with more judicious selection.

Book Club Questions

  1. What was your favorite story in this collection?
  2. What other kinds of themed story collections have you read over the years? Do you prefer a theme, or do you like a collection by a single author more?
  3. Are you familiar with the story telling structure of flash fiction, which is used a fair amount in this novel? What were your thoughts on it in this collection of short stories?
  4. Were you familiar with any of the authors in this book? Do you think you would read more stories by any of them?
  5. Who would you recommend this book to?

Reader’s Advisory

“Someplace Generous” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but it should be on Romance Anthologies/Collections.

Next Book Club Pick: “My Best Friend’s Exorcism” by Grady Hendrix

Serena’s Review: “Red City”

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Book: “Red City” by Marie Lu

Publishing Info: Tor Books, October 2025

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

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

Book Description: Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation. An exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates that market it to the world’s elites in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more.

Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor’s edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city―and the paths of their lives―will be irrevocably transformed.

The daughter of a poor single mother, Sam would do anything to claw her way into the ranks of Grand Central in search of a better life. Plucked away from his family as a boy to become a Lumines apprentice, Ari is one of the syndicates’ brightest rising stars. Once, they might have loved each other. But as the two alchemists face off across opposite sides of an ever-escalating conflict, ambition becomes power, loyalty becomes lies, and no transformation may be perfect enough for them both to survive the coming war.

Review: I’ve met Marie Lu twice now, and both times she was incredibly kind, interesting, and did a fantastic job selling me on the concept of her upcoming title. I was particularly interested in this one, as it was her first venture into writing adult fantasy. Beyond that, the familiar-yet-appealing premise of deadly rivals who fall in love will likely always hold some appeal. Unfortunately, all of this promise didn’t live up to the reality of the book.

Overall, my primary emotion while reading this book was boredom and disconnect. But before getting into my struggles, I do want to quickly touch on some aspects that did work for me. For one thing, of all the relationships and characters presented, I was by far the most invested in the complicated, painful nature of the relationship between Sam and her mother. We don’t often see a mother/daughter relationship explored in this way, and whenever we got back to Sam’s POV (my preferred of the two, by far), I was always intrigued by the added layers of complexity that were given to this dynamic.

Beyond that, I liked the idea of this world, with rival alchemical gangs duking it out in an alternative Los Angeles. Even here, however, while my curiosity was piqued, I never felt like aspects of this world and magic were ever fully drawn together. At times, it felt like disjointed pieces floating in a world full of potential, but not much more.

All of that said, I really struggled to keep reading this one. If I didn’t have an ARC copy, there’s a decent chance I would have DNF’d this. For one thing, I really hate books that are written in present tense. I think authors have been made to fear both third person and past tense, being told by publishers and various TikTok accounts that all readers care about in their books is the ability to self-insert, something they claim is only possible with first person and present tense. I simply don’t think this is true. And while it is definitely possible to write excellent novels using different perspectives and tenses, I do think that others flop more often than not. Sometimes readers will review a book and mention not being able to “connect” with the story, and my personal theory is that this often comes down to the wrong choice being made with regards to tense and perspective. Here, the present tense style repeatedly kicked me out of any ability to immerse myself in the story. Others may enjoy this style, but I found it to be restrictive more than anything for this story.

Beyond that, the pacing was incredibly slow, especially at the start of the book. I can get on board with a story that builds slowly, but to do that, I must feel invested in either the characters or the world pretty much from the start. Here, I just couldn’t get myself to care about either of these characters. Sam was by far the better one, especially with her strained relationship with her mother. But Ari was just a blank, with very little actual characterization holding him together. We’re told that he’s pretty and charming. But that’s pretty much it. I can take the author’s word on the prettiness, but the charm has to at least be present on the page, and we didn’t even get that.

The plotting was also strange. It’s clear that the romance is pretty much the central point of the book/series, but that made various plot points in this book feel as if they were just thrown in to elongate the book. For example, both characters end up getting together with other characters at points in the book. And, knowing where the book was going, I just couldn’t care less about any of this. I felt like my time was actively being wasted, being asked to care about relationships that were so clearly being set purely as stumbling blocks to the primary romance.

So, yeah. I didn’t enjoy this read. It felt like a chore more than anything. This was all the more disappointing as I think Lu is a very talented author, and I was super excited by the concept of this book going in. However, the execution just wasn’t there.

Rating 6: I really struggled to get through this one or to care about anything that was happening. But those less bothered by present-tense writing may enjoy it more!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Red City” can be found on this Goodreads list: All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in October 2025

Kate’s Review: “The Hunger We Pass Down”

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Book: “The Hunger We Pass Down” by Jen Soofong Lee

Publishing Info: Erewhon Books, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: Single mother Alice Chow is drowning. With a booming online cloth diaper shop, her resentful teenage daughter Luna, and her screen-obsessed son Luca, Alice can never get everything done in a day. It’s all she can do to just collapse on the couch with a bottle of wine every night.

It’s a relief when Alice wakes up one morning and everything has been done. The counters are clear, the kids’ rooms are tidy, orders are neatly packed and labeled. But no one confesses they’ve helped, and Alice doesn’t remember staying up late. Someone–or something–has been doing her chores for her.

Alice should be uneasy, but the extra time lets her connect with her children and with her hard-edged mother, who begins to share their haunted family history from Alice’s great-grandmother, a comfort woman during WWII, through to Alice herself. But the family demons, both real and subconscious, are about to become impossible to ignore.

Sharp and incisive, The Hunger We Pass Down traces the ways intergenerational trauma transforms from mother to daughter, and asks what it might take to break that cycle.

Review: Thank you to Erewhon Books for providing an ARC of this novel at ALAAC25!

I know that there are probably a fair number of people who are getting a bit tired of horror that acts as metaphors for trauma and grief, but I do not share their concerns. I’m still all about horror being used to tell stories about the human experience in creative ways, and I don’t see myself getting bored of it any time soon. This is one of the reasons I was definitely interested in reading “The Hunger We Pass Down” by Jen Soofong Lee, a new ghost story that examines a couple generation of Chinese-Canadian women who have been dealing with a lot of tragedy and loss, possibly because of a family curse that has been passing down since World War II. I was excited to read it, but I can also tell you that I wasn’t prepared for the emotional wallop it was going to bring.

The idea of a cursed family standing in for generational trauma is always going to be catnip for me, and “The Hunger We Pass Down” is a solid example of that. We have the Chow Family, with mother Alice still dealing with the fallout of her divorce as she tries to care for her kids Luna and Luca while also running a successful online business. She feels stretched thin, but starts to find the house tidied up and her online orders ready to go though she has no memory of doing any kind of work towards any of it. We also follow up the family line, going all the way back to World War II Hong Kong where her great grandmother Gigi was being used as a comfort woman for Japanese soldiers, abused, held against her will, and raped. Which is where the family curse starts. As a horror story we have ghosts, we have doppelgangers, and we have lots of loss, violence, and tension. Lee handles the dread well, and the descriptions of the various spirits and spectres were pretty unsettling, even terrifying at times. I kept thinking of myths of vengeful spirits who take out rage on anyone in their way, and Lee really creates something truly scary here.

And as mentioned above, I do like the metaphor we have at hand, and I found that to be a strong element of this book as well. The trauma of captivity and sexual abuse and rape is something that Gigi has to endure as a ‘comfort woman’ in Hong Kong, and the generational trauma passes down throughout the generations from mother to daughter. What really struck me is that this is also a very heavy family saga, and the bleakness of the way that violence can rewire a persona and keep cycles going just oozes off the page. It’s deeply emotional and it just works, even if I found it a very hard read at times. It’s a well done story to be sure, but man you really need to steel yourself for it. I also found the ending a little bit abrupt, and while it absolutely made sense for what the overall theme was, it still kind of felt like there could have and maybe should have been more. These aren’t bad things, but I was a LITTLE unsatisfied, and had I realized this was more literary I probably could have better prepared myself for it, emotionally.

“The Hunger We Pass Down” is emotional and creepy, and it’s filled with lots of real world terrors to round out the ghostly ones. I found it to be well done, and very, very sad.

Rating 7: A bleak and emotional family saga about multiple generations of women and curse passing from mothers to daughters, “The Hunger We Pass Down” is scary, but more sad than anything else.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Hunger We Pass Down” is included on the Goodreads list “She’s Not Feeling Good at All: Sad Female Characters”.

Serena’s Review: “Kill the Beast”

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Book: “Kill the Beast” by Serra Swift

Publishing Info: Tor Books, October 2025

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

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

Book Description: The night Lyssa Cadogan’s brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced.

Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and―even more surprising―retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.

When the witch Ragnhild decrees that Alderic and Lyssa must gather the other ingredients to forge the weapon together, or else the spell will fail, Lyssa gets more than she bargained for. Alderic is ill-equipped for the task at hand, and almost guaranteed to get himself killed.

But as the two of them search for the materials that will be the Beast’s undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa’s better judgment, they begin to forge a blooming friendship―one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa’s quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.

Review: Between the “Beauty and the Beast”-esque title and the lovely cover art on the front, it was a no-brainer that I would check this one out! But, surprise surprise, reading through the book description, this one sounded like something very different than yet another fairytale retelling (as much as I do love them).

I think this turned out to be a fairly decent debut book. It didn’t blow me away, but it also presented a solid story, an interesting world, and a refreshingly different male lead character. One of the biggest themes of the story revolves around rage and how this can drive a person past the point of wise decision-making. Our main character, Lyssa, is almost entirely driven by anger. At times, yes, this did make her character feel a bit one-dimensional, and I don’t know if there was enough focus on the end results of her violence, but I also thought that the author picked a lane here and committed to it, which I always appreciate.

As I said, I really liked Alaric. We’ve all read the million and one brooding “shadow daddies” that seem to pop up in every fantasy book you read nowadays. So it’s always refreshing to see an MMC who breaks that mold. What’s more, I appreciated the fact that the relationship that builds between Alaric and Lyssa was different from the sort that we typically find in this sort of book. That said, I do think most readers will look at the title, the genre, and the book description and, perhaps, have expectations for how things will play out that may not be met.

The writing and pacing were also good. I was able to easily slide into this world and felt fairly connected to the story throughout. Like I said, it wasn’t blowing me away (and I think some of the comparisons to T. Kingfisher and Naomi Novik might be doing more harm than good), but I think it all showed great promise for an author whose next work could be even better. I’ll definitely be giving it a shot!

Rating 8: Full of rage and wit, this one had just enough twists from what we’ve come to expect from fairytale fantasy to feel fresh and new!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Kill the Beast” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Gorgeous covers I love and Novels with Bisexual Protagonists.

Kate’s Review: “The Mean Ones”

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Book: “The Mean Ones” by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

Publishing Info: Creature Publishing, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: So what if Sadie hears talking dead animals and a strange, comforting male voice in her head? The therapist insists these are just symptoms of PTSD. It makes sense considering that she hid under the bed and watched as her best friends were slaughtered.

But the murders were seventeen years ago, back when her name was Sabrina. Now, she’s Sadie: a perfectly normal 29-year-old. She works as a physical therapist assistant and lifts weights with her boyfriend, Lucas, who’s the sweetest, most considerate man—as long as he’s not angry. But when Lucas spontaneously agrees to join a couples trip to a cabin in the woods, the visions get worse, a strange figure stalks her during the night, and that male voice in Sadie’s head keeps calling, asking her to do things she’s never fathomed.

Sadie’s not sure if it’s her paranoia or something else entirely . . . But she is sure of one thing—this time, she’s not going to sit idly by as everything starts to unravel.

Review: Thank you to Creature Publishing for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC25!

Back in June when Serena and I were in Philadelphia for the ALA Annual Conference I found myself circling and flagrantly stalking the Creature Publishing table, as they only had the table for a limited time, and I was DETERMINED to seek them out. Specifically for the book “The Mean Ones” by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, as not only had it been getting some pretty solid hype, it also promised to have “Midsommar” and “Yellowjackets” vibes. True, I didn’t really like “Midsommar”, and I haven’t watched “Yellowjackets”, but the vibes of both? I’m INTO THOSE VIBES! It took a few awkward circles (as well as a few polite ‘no, I’m looking for this specific publisher, thanks’ to a few well meaning reps at tables surrounding the area) but I finally got my hands on a copy, and had high, HIGH hopes that it would be as awesome as I was hoping it would be. And whaddaya know? It was even MORE awesome!

Oh I just loved this. I’m appreciating folk horror more and more as time goes by, and weird entities in the woods and cult horror really tick off so many boxes for me. “The Mean Ones” definitely has both at hand, and I thought that Schlote-Bonne was great at building up a slow suspense both in the present with Sadie (though when she was a child her name was Sabrina) as an adult on a camping trip with her dodgy boyfriend Lucas and his friends, and also in the past with Sadie/Sabrina as a tween at camp with her best girl friends who are also not terribly kind to her. But both in the past and present she has been hearing things and seeing things, and while she tries to ignore it and just be normal it just keeps building up until something horrifying happens. Like friends Allie and Blakely being brutally murdered in front of Sadie/Sabrina by something sinister. The mysteriousness of what is going on in the woods, what Sadie/Sabrina is seeing and hearing, and what really happened to her friends and herself at camp is so well done and so well paced, and some of the moments of horror really unnerved me. There’s just something about a oh so wrong looking deer in the distant brush that just FREAKS me out in the best way. I’m trying to be vague because this is so good and it’s best to go in with as little info as possible, but at the end of the day if you like folk horror, this will surely be up your alley.

But it’s also the very real, relatable human aspects of Sadie/Sabrina and the way that she is pushed and mistreated by the people who are supposed to care about her that will probably resonate with readers. I really liked her as a protagonist, finding her to be relatable in a lot of ways as lord knows I’d been the odd girl out or picked on in my adolescent female friendships, and Sadie/Sabrina was REALLY familiar in her choices, anger, and pain. She has suffered from so much trauma that she has tried to mold herself into someone normal, but in doing so has become a people pleaser not unlike her time as a third wheel in her friendship with only friends Allie and Blakely, who treated her pretty poorly in ways that tween and teenage girls can sadly fall into when it comes to clique behavior. It makes for a protagonist you want to root for, and as we learn more about her and how she has been coping and twisting herself up, we also see a woman that could be so much more… though perhaps in a ‘good for her’ kind of way that we have seen in films like “The Witch” and “Midsommar”. Feminine rage has its moment along with the folk and cult horror aspects, and Schlote-Bonne pulls it off handily. I loved every bit of Sadie/Sabrina’s character arc.

“The Mean Ones” is one of the best horror novels I’ve read this year. I am so glad I stalked the publisher’s table at ALAAC, and I will absolutely be checking out Tatiana Schlote-Bonne’s other books.

Rating 10: Spectacular folk and cult horror with shades of feminine rage, “The Mean Ones” is a knock out.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Mean Ones” is included on the Goodreads list “God Forbid Women Do Anything”.

Joint Review: “What Stalks the Deep”

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Book: “What Stalks the Deep” by T. Kingfisher

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, September 2025

Where Did We Get This Book: Netgalley!

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

Book Description: Alex Easton does not want to visit America.

They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted.

But when their old friend Dr. Denton summons them to help find his lost cousin—who went missing in that very mine—well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do…

Previously Reviewed: “What Moves the Dead” and “What Feasts at Night”

Kate’s Thoughts

I have found myself repeatedly charmed by T. Kingfisher’s stories. I think that once I figured out that they’re less scary (though there are certainly some scary beats to some of them!) and more cozy in their horror-esque elements and just embraced it it clicked into place, and because of that I was interested to see what she was going to do with another “Sworn Soldier” novella. I like Alex Easton as a protagonist, I like the world that she has built that is of our own but with some tweaks and differences, and I was curious to see what kind of horror theme we were going to get this time. And she had me at caves, because MAN do caves freak me out.

It’s not the monsters in “The Descent” that scare me, it’s the caving stuff (source)

“What Stalks the Deep” is another kinder gentler horror tale from Kingfisher, and while I think it’s probably the weakest of the series for me thus far I still found it to be enjoyable and at times tense. Alex Easton has fought in wars and seen strange and dreadful things over the years while being a Sworn Soldier for Gallacia, but they still have their personal anxieties, and going to America to look for a missing person in a remote cave system in Appalachia is one of them. It was interesting seeing Easton in a wholly new environment and culture, as The U.S. and Europe are certainly filled with differences, and I thought it was a really cool choice to have Appalachia with its mysteries and general otherworldliness adding to it.

I don’t want to spoil much here, as I think Kingfisher deserves to have the build up and the reveals, so when talking about the horror bits I’m going to be as vague as I can be. In terms of the supernatural, this felt a bit like a spin on John Carpenter’s “The Thing” but maybe by way of “E.T.” as opposed to the body horror scares of that film. I liked Easton and their new compatriots trying to figure out where the missing man Oscar ended up, be it lost in a cave or perhaps something worse, and I liked that we had some pretty claustrophobic moments in the cave itself. Much like what I referenced above with “The Descent”, the true horrors in this book are more about the perils of mining and caves and the unpredictability of both.

I am very pleased that the “Sworn Soldier” series is continuing! T. Kingfisher continues to have really creative stories for a really charming protagonist.

Serena’s Thoughts

I completely agree with Kate’s assessment that much of the true horror to be found in this book comes from the cave itself. There is plenty of time and focus devoted to the many ways that a coal mine can kill you. And that’s not even getting into the sheer claustrophobia-induced terror that comes with vivid descriptions of crawling through tight spaces, not knowing what’s ahead and without the ability to turn around.

Beyond that, I continued to enjoy Alex as a main character. Endlessly practical with many believable foibles (such as the instinct to volunteer to do what we least want to do just to prove something to… someone…), Alex is a sympathetic and hilarious narrator. This one was all the funnier for the snide observations of American behavior. (Alex has strong feelings about our propensity to shake the hand of everyone around us.)

The monster in this one wasn’t quite as terrifying as the ones found in the first two books, perhaps. That said, it did follow a trend seen in many of Kingfisher’s horror novels—that is, the ability she has for creating creatures that are at once horrific and terrifying, but who, through some combination of childlike ignorance and sadness, are also bizarrely sympathetic. It creates this odd emotional state in the reader where you both want Alex to succeed in getting rid of this horrible thing, but are also slightly sad that it had to come to this in the first place. Without getting into spoilers, I was happy with the direction one aspect of this took in this book in particular!

Overall, I very much enjoyed this latest entry in the series! I think I enjoyed it a bit more than Kate, so I’ll bump this one up in my rating!

Serena’s Rating 8: It’s so weird to both be terrified by the monster but also kind of wanting to pat it on the back and tell it “it will be ok??” Another excellent entry!

Kate’s Rating 7 : With echoes of “The Thing” but without the dread (though the claustrophobia is scary on its own) and another strange mission for our charming protagonist, “What Stalks the Deep” is a fun entry in the “Sworn Soldier” series.

Reader’s Advisory

“What Stalks the Deep” is included on these Goodreads lists: Novella Length Fantasy & Sci-Fi and Perfect Reads for All Hallows’ Eve.

Serena’s Review: “Savage Blooms”

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Book: “Savage Blooms” by S.T. Gibson

Publishing Info: Orbit, October 2025

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

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

Book Description: Adam has been in love with his best friend Nicola since college, but the closest he can come to admitting his feelings is inviting her to travel with him to Scotland in search of a legendary cave from his grandfather’s bedtime stories. When a storm washes out the road, Adam and Nicola find themselves at the mercy of Eileen, an eccentric aristocrat, and Finley, her brooding groundskeeper. The Americans quickly get more than they bargained for as they become entangled in Eileen and Finley’s world of mind games, kink, and ancient enchantment.

Review: Oof, this book was not what I expected and not what I wanted. Yes, I did see the word “kink” snuck in there at the very end of the book description, and while kink isn’t really my thing, I’m not for writing off entire books based on one piece of it. Well, more fool me, as the percentage of this book summary that focused on plot versus erotica was WAY out of line with what the book actually had to offer.

I was led to believe that this was going to be a Gothic fantasy set in the Scottish countryside. I was promised mystery, I was promised enchantment, I was promised misty nights and shadowy doors. But no, what I got was page after page of spicy scenes with practically no plot to speak of. This book could have been set anywhere, at any time, about any random characters, and it hardly would have mattered.

Now look, there is nothing wrong with erotica in principle. That said, it needs to be incredibly clear right from the start (and this includes the book summary!!) that that is what readers are getting. When I say there was no plot here, I mean there was really no plot here. What little plot we got felt like it was there just to move characters from one sexy-times room to another sexy-times room. The erotic scenes were pages long and took up well over fifty percent of the book, I’d say.

Beyond that, when we did come up for air and have a moment to get to know these characters, I found them all to be incredibly unlikable. None of these people felt like they were in a healthy place in their own lives, let alone in various combinations of “relationships” (if we can even call what we’re seeing here “relationships”). It was incredibly toxic and messy, but not in a fun way. More in a frustrating, “get your shit together” way where I just wanted to smack everyone across the back of the head.

It’s hard to know how much to focus on editing when reviewing ARC books since they are early copies and still going through the publishing process. But this one was above average with its errors. And it was across the board: spelling errors, missing words, and inconsistencies in basic facts given in the plot. It was incredibly distracting. Of course, much of this could change in the finished book, but even for an ARC, this book was in a poor state.

I know that Gibson is a beloved author, so I’ll be curious to see how this is received. Frankly, it feels like one of those books that fans might gaslight themselves into thinking is good, just for the author’s sake. Because as it stands, this isn’t something I’d recommend to just about anyone.

Rating 5: Don’t sell me straight erotica under the guise of “Gothic fantasy” and expect it to go well.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Savage Blooms” can be found on these Goodreads lists: 2025 Gothic and Creepy Fruit.

Kate’s Review: “The October Film Haunt”

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Book: “The October Film Haunt” by Michael Wehunt

Publishing Info: St. Martin’s Press, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: Horror Movie meets the scope and emotion of Stephen King in this heart-pounding, magnetic tour de force about a woman pulled into a cult horror film that is determined to have a sequel, by critically acclaimed author Michael Wehunt.

Ten years ago, Jorie Stroud was the rising star of the October Film Haunt – a trio of horror enthusiasts who camped out at the filming locations of their favorite scary movies, sharing their love through their popular blog. But after a night in the graveyard from Proof of Demons – perhaps the most chilling cult film ever made, directed by the enigmatic Hélène Enriquez – everything unraveled.

Now, Jorie has built an isolated life with her young son in Vermont. In the devastating wake of her viral, truth-stretching Proof of Demons blog entry — hysteria, internet backlash, and the death of a young woman — Jorie has put it all, along with her intense love for the horror genre, behind her.

Until a videotape arrives in the mail. Jorie fears someone might be filming her. And the “Rickies” – Enriquez obsessives who would do anything for the reclusive director – begin to cross lines in shocking ways. It seems Hélène Enriquez is making a new kind of sequel…and Jorie is her final girl.

As the dangers grow even more unexpected and strange, Jorie must search for answers before the Proof of the movie’s title finds her and takes everything she loves.

This riveting and layered horror novel unleashes supernatural terror in a world where truth can be manipulated, and nothing is as it seems. Beautiful and horrifying, with an unforgettable cast of characters, The October Film Haunt will shock and delight readers all the way to its breathless final page.

Review: Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of this novel at ALAAC25!

Before I head out to the Annual American Library Association Conference every year I make a list of titles that I am going to keep an eye out for. Usually it’s from authors that I love, or hyped up titles that I keep seeing across my feeds, but there are also dark horse selections of books that may not be getting much attention, but I still keep stumbling upon. “The October Film Haunt” by Michael Wehunt was one such book, as it’s a debut and I hadn’t seen MUCH about it around the time I was plotting out my searches. But the premise of a horror film aficionado content creator getting too involved in a cursed film urban legend (that may actually be a REAL creature lurking in some woods) was tantalizing to say the least. It only sweetened the deal when the rest of the plot involved a zealous and potentially dangerous cult following radicalized by Internet lore and connection. Scary AND a bit timely? Oh yes, I was interested, and was stoked when I snagged a copy at the conference.

I love a cursed film urban legend, and the foundation of “The October Film Haunt” has a really well developed and creepy one to hold up the rest of the tale. It feels a little like “Slenderman” meets the original “Blair Witch Project” (at least with it’s wild ‘this may have actually happened’ marketing), with a cult horror film rumored to be real inspiring a tragedy with people who were too engrossed with the lore, as well as questions about culpability of content creators who feed into the mythos and hysteria for their own gains only for it to spin completely out of control. Our former horror content creators Jorie and Beth are brought back together after a falling out due Internet backlash in the wake of their content about the cult film “Proof of Demons” by mysterious director Hélène Enriquez, possibly contributing to a girl’s death, mostly because they feel like someone or someones are watching them, stalking them, and coming after them. The slow dread as they are stalked and harassed is effective and chilling, as is the slow build up of the “Rickies” who are after them. I also just loved the creep factor of the way that Wehunt explores the way that the Internet can stir up an almost shared psychosis and cult-like mentality that can make people do scary and murderous things (something that has felt all too relevant as of late). And hey, I really enjoyed the lore of the Pine Arch Creature. I was a Slenderman fan back during the Marble Hornets days so it’s kind of fun to see how much he has endured as a modern folk legend, even if he feels played out by many at this point.

This was more literary than I was anticipating. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you, as I love it when horror stretches beyond the genre limits than is usually expected (hell, I absolutely loved the book “Reprieve” which was SUPER literary with a horror backdrop). And I do like that it kind of matched the surrealistic and disjointed paranoia that Jorie and Beth are experiencing as they are getting more and more engulfed in their past actions catching up to them and being possibly targeted by a group of zealous fans. But I will also acknowledge that sometimes it made for the story hard to follow, or could throw off the pacing, especially when we would jump to perspectives of other characters and get snippets of their actions and motivations within the same surrealistic and disjointed style. I think that had there been a faster pace with the story in general when we were in the Jorie and Beth sections (or even the interludes, which I almost always really enjoyed) it could have been easier to swallow, but as it was I found the book a bit trickier to get through because of the choppy pacing and weirdness as a whole. And for horror fans who aren’t as into a literary style when it comes to reading, I could see this being a very cumbersome read. It’s just good to have expectations managed going into it, I think.

“The October Film Haunt” is dark and strange, and it probably won’t be for everyone. I appreciated what it was trying to do, and if you like some experimental literary edge to your horror stories, it may be worth checking out.

Rating 6: A strong premise, well done lore building, and some great introspection about groupthink has the makings of a creepy literary horror tale, but be warned that sometimes it gets in the weeds a little bit. Overall, an interesting horror story that is sure to spark debate!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The October Film Haunt” is included on the Goodreads list “Lost Films & Cursed Movies”.