Tag: 7 Rating

Kate’s Review: “The Break-Up Retreat”

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Book: “The Break-Up Retreat” by Camilla Sten

Publishing Info: Minotaur Books, June 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: An undercover journalist goes to expose an exclusive psychological wellness clinic where women go to recover from heartbreak, with dire consequences, in this creepy thriller from The Bachelorette Party author Camilla Sten.

Welcome to Himlafall Clinic, where we use revolutionary therapy techniques to heal you from heartbreak. Whether you are going through a devastating breakup, or can’t seem to stop picking the wrong partners, we are here to help you change your life, once and for all…

Isobel Anderssen has heard rumors. Nestled deep in the Swedish woods, there is a clinic. Primarily aimed at helping women who have gone through devastating break-ups, the Himlafall Clinic is meant to heal your mind and help you move on.

Sometimes people are never heard from again.

Armed with a fake story and a contraband phone to record interviews, Isobel is ready to expose Himlafall’s founder and get closure for the families of missing loved ones. But when she gets there, nothing goes to plan. Her contact is missing. The founder, Dr. Martina Hastings, knows how to get under Isobel’s skin in ways she didn’t anticipate. And all the while, the ghosts of the missing haunt her at every turn. It is clear something is going wrong and Himlafall, and Isobel must uncover the truth, before she disappears once and for all.

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

After my previous therapist retired at the beginning of the year, I have started with a new person this summer and I am finding it to be incredibly gratifying and cathartic. I’ve been in therapy on and off basically since I was a teenager (of SO many different types), and this new one has been really challenging me to look inside myself and reflect on a lot, which has been great. Whenever I read a book that has some kind of therapy as a focal point, especially a thriller, I thank my lucky stars that I’ve only had good experiences with my mental health counselors, and I was thinking about that as I read Camilla Sten’s new thriller “The Break-Up Retreat”. No weaponized therapising in my life, I’m happy to report! But it does make for a solid thriller premise, and if you throw in an undercover reporter posing as a patient it makes me all the more intrigued.

“The Break-Up Retreat” has a lot of positives going for it! By having our protagonist Isobel being an undercover reporter checking into a trendy but potentially sinister mental health retreat, we hit the ground running and the tension starts right away. Himlafall Clinic has a lot of hype around it for women who are going through rough relationship fallout, with its founder Dr. Martina Hastings being a media darling and a beaming advocate for helping women work through their despair. But at least one person has disappeared after going to Himlafall, and whispers online have made Isobel think that there is something dark going on, which could be a great story to break out with. I love that concept and have loved it since reading up on good ol’ Nelly Bly, and Sten makes things go weird from the jump which builds the tension almost immediately. Isobel’s contact has gone missing, the other patients are offputting, and the staff seem strange and like they are hiding things, all while Martina is doing unconventional methods in therapy while isolating her patients from the outside world. I love this kind of thing, and I loved the questions about Martina’s motives as she psychologically picks at people she is supposed to be helping. Sten keeps a lot of her cards close to her vest and lets suspense go tauter and tauter until it’s about to snap.

I also enjoyed how we got this from not only Isobel’s POV, but also through found media like message boards, interviews, Internet comments, and news articles. I absolutely love supplemental clues that give us perspectives outside of the protagonist, and these are all pretty subtle at first until things start clicking into place. It broke up the chapters pretty well too, and given that sometimes I did find myself lagging behind at times when the chapters could feel a little repetitive as Isobel investigates these parts did a good job of getting me back on task and back into it.

“The Break-Up Retreat” is a perfect summer read for the beach or the pool, with a solid mystery and a promising premise rising to the top.

Rating 7: A really enjoyed the tension and the entire concept of this one, with a potentially sinister therapist and a plucky undercover reporter trying to expose it all.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Break-Up Retreat” is included in the Goodreads post “A Month-By-Month Guide to Summer’s Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers”.

Serena’s Review: “The Winged Game”

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

Book: “The Winged Game” by Sophie Kim

Publishing Info: Del Rey, June 2026

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

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

Book Description: Carriwitchet, the violent, rugby-esque game played atop winged beasts, was once Taissa Cho’s whole life, and she was once the United Kingdom’s most promising player. Until her nemesis, rival player Kion Locke, destroyed her career in a single moment. Expelled from the sport in disgrace, Taissa has spent the last two years dreaming of nothing but revenge and relishing watching Kion’s team plummet to the bottom of the league.

So when Taissa is offered the chance to redeem herself and her career, she can’t refuse—even if the offer is coming from the very man who ruined everything in the first place. It’s close to a dream come true . . . except for that pesky clause in her contract that demands she and Kion enter a fake relationship in order to garner some much-needed positive PR for the team. This could not be a worse match. Taissa and Kion only have two things in their love of the game, and their undying hatred for each other.

Yet as a mysterious illness befalls the winged creatures of the entire league—putting both the beasts’ lives and the very sport itself at stake—the athletes find themselves partnering up in other ways, determined to crack the case of the eerie sickness. As their investigation takes them on a whirlwind adventure, Kion and Taissa are prepared for anything . . .

Anything, that is, but their fake-for-the-cameras relationship to maybe, just maybe, become something real after all.

Review: I know that sports romances have been having a bit of a moment recently, but as a romance reader who almost always avoids contemporary romance, I’ve missed most, if not all, of the big hits. That being the case, I was excited to see that Sophie Kim was coming out with her own fantasy twist on the subgenre!

Ultimately, this wasn’t my favorite read ever, but I think much of that comes down to my own preferences and the fact that I think this will sit much more comfortably alongside the “sports” romances than the “fantasy” romances. Kim’s writing is still quite approachable and fun, and I largely enjoy her style, which reads quickly but isn’t dumbed down in any way. The banter and dialogue were by far the best parts of the book and had me chuckling out loud at times. I also think that the enemies-to-lovers aspects, most exemplified in said banter, were done quite well. Due to the lower stakes of the book (they aren’t mortal enemies or anything), this sort of progression from “enemies/rivals” to eventual lovers makes more sense. And the snappy, quirky banter also fits better than it does in some of the enemy-to-lovers romantasies we see, where the love interests are quipping away in the middle of a life-or-death situation.

Oddly, the book had both too much sport and not enough, I think. For readers who really enjoy sports romances, there isn’t as much of that here as I think they’d expect. Aside from a few scenes, we don’t see a lot of it. But, again, I’m not a reader of that subgenre, so maybe that’s the convention there too, and I just assumed more actual sports-playing happened on the page.

On the other side, the sports scenes we did get didn’t really work for me, mostly because I was way too caught up on exactly how this whole sport/league worked. Call me a fantasy snob, but I do need something to hold my wild fantasy concepts together. Other than this being a sort of Quidditch spinoff where the players ride mythical beasts rather than brooms, I’d be hard-pressed to explain the rules. I also thought the general setup was rather odd. The riders form a deep connection with their steeds, and each team only plays on one sort of creature. So if you start with one team/steed, that’s what you’re stuck with forever. Even though there were only a few sports scenes, these persistent questions about rules and practicalities did distract me from the book itself.

I also didn’t love the romance. The MMC was your typical grumpy hero and really didn’t have anything new to offer to the standard version of this character you’ve probably read a million times before. The fake dating also felt rather silly at times. Again, this is probably more of a me issue, as fake dating isn’t my favorite trope. There were moments that I thought worked, but then others that had me rolling my eyes a bit. A certain marketing photo shoot comes to mind.

Overall, this was just ok. I got through it quickly and did genuinely find it funny at times. However, the sports aspect didn’t work for me, as I felt it was too underdeveloped for me to become invested. And while I enjoyed the “enemies to lovers” aspect, the fake dating trope didn’t work as well. Fans of Kim and sports romances, however, are much more likely to enjoy this and should definitely give it a shot!

Rating 7: For a sports romance where the players ride mystical beasts, I found the actual “sports” of it all rather underwhelming.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Winged Game” can be found on this Goodreads list: 2026 Most Anticipated Romantasy & Fantasy Romance Releases

Kate’s Review: “Headlights”

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

Book: “Headlights” by C.J. Leede

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, June 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: Every instinct tells him to run. Every memory tells him he can’t.

Special Agent Daniel Stansfield is ready for a change. Burnt out and defeated by the job, it’s his last day with the FBI. But before he can turn in his badge, he’s summoned back to Denver, the city he ran from four years ago, with a chilling message: it’s happening again.

Seemingly innocent people are waking up on the side of the highway, with no memory of how they got there, wearing the skin of victims they’ve allegedly never met. And they each share one haunting detail: a strand of a stranger’s hair is tied around their tongue.

Now Daniel is pulled back into the gruesome cycle, and every clue leads him deeper into the shadows of his own past. He will have to confront the ghosts of his traumatic childhood and face what’s been hunting him all along— before he and the people he loves become the next victims.

Perfect for fans of The Shining and Longlegs, bestselling author CJ Leede’s Headlights is a pulse-pounding hunt across the frozen wilderness of Colorado.

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

I so greatly enjoyed C.J. Leede’s previous horror novel “American Rapture” that it was basically a no brainer to pick up whatever she came up with next, and that is how “Headlights” ended up on my radar. I was so thoroughly blown away by what Leede did with a plague/end of world tale that I had high hopes for what could and would be done with a serial killer horror tale that no doubt had some kind of supernatural twist. I went in expecting one thing but ended up with something a little bit different. And that wasn’t a bad thing.

The horror elements of this book harken to some classic horror fare like “The Shining” while also pulling in some hard boiled detective vibes a la “True Detective”. Our protagonist Daniel is an exhausted and burnt out FBI agent who has been haunted by a gruesome set of killings where seemingly random people murder and skin someone, then wear their victim’s skin and wake up with no memory of the act as well as with hair wrapped around their tongue. It’s haunting because there has always been a weird connection Daniel has, but he’s never been able to solve it. Once it starts happening again just as he’s about to re-enlist in the military, it all spirals out of control and Daniel is having visions, being drawn to one of the women left behind, and watching his life fall apart as he tries to solve it. It’s a story that has a bit of a slow start, but once gears shift for Daniel and he finds himself on the run across Colorado and looking for answers it keeps the interest and pace up. The horror parts are gory and nasty and Leede doesn’t feel a need to hold back, and the mythos at the heart of it felt pretty creative and original (I’m being vague for a reason, I want to keep any spoilers to a minimum).

This is also another pretty solid entry into trauma and grief as horror, with Daniel being a character who is easy to root for in part because of all of the loss he has dealt with his entire life. Whether it’s his mother’s death at the hands of his father, or the loss of his loving and doting foster parents, or the way that his marriage to wife Josie has fallen apart, Daniel’s losses are great and he keeps being run through a ringer. It’s also an interesting examination of not just Daniel but also Hannah, the woman he is drawn to even though she may be a piece in the serial killing puzzle, and their connection and grief and traumatic pasts make for an interesting dichotomy as the story goes on.

And what I found most charming and just had to comment on here is what a lovely love letter this book is to Colorado. I’m someone who has very vague ties to Colorado, as the connection is my husband who spent some time there as a teenager and found it incredibly formative. I’ve traveled to Colorado with him and seen the joy that the state brings him, and have found similar joy being in Leadville, and Estes Park, and Denver. There truly is something magical about the state, and the way that Leede highlights so many aspects of it, whether a trip to the Stanley Hotel or descriptions of the winter settings or Blucifer the horse or the lore referencing “The Shining”. It feels like Colorado is a character in and of itself and has a grounding part to play. As someone with fond memories walking around the Stanley grounds and looking out our window to see mountains, or smoking weed around a bonfire in Leadville and talking about a mish mash of topics, these moments really spoke to me.

“Headlights” is a creative and disturbing horror tale that kept me guessing. If you are a horror fan and find yourself on the way to Colorado soon, it could be a fun read to accompany the trip.

Rating 7: The pacing was a little slow at times, but not only is it a unique serial killer horror mystery, it’s also a love letter to Colorado that made me smile throughout the story.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Headlights” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2026”.

Serena’s Review: “A Dark and Wild Wood”

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

Book: “A Dark and Wild Wood” by Sarah Nicole Lemon

Publishing Info: Harper Voyager, May 2026

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

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

Book Description: Ever since she was a child, Salomé has been plagued by visions of spirits and dangerous powers she can’t control. After watching her foster mother burn as a witch, she and her beloved sister Rochelle are raised together in a convent, a grim and dreary existence. Until one day, Rochelle vanishes.

Determined to find a way to save her, Salomé runs: first to a brothel, and then, after a terrible accident, away from the village and into the woods. Deep amongst the trees of the wild Black Forest, she comes face-to-face with Lord Death.

Rather than taking her life, he brings her to his home at the heart of the woods, a strange manor full of locked rooms and mysterious corridors, crumbling one moment, magnificent the next. He promises to make her his apprentice and teach her how to harness her mind and magic. His words are as seductive as his presence—but should one trust Death?

A swirling mirage of dark fairy tale, gothic romance, and historical fantasy, A Dark and Wild Wood is a novel best devoured all at once. But proceed with caution, as everything is not what it seems…

Review: So, unfortunately, I think we’re running headfirst into another case of a book being poorly marketed right from the top. Whether marketers were trend-chasing or honestly didn’t consider the differences, this book says right there in the summary that this is a gothic romance. And oh boy, it is not. (To be fair, it seems that the author has been clear that this is not a romance, but it’s too bad that they seem to be putting forward a message that is now at odds with their own publisher’s summary.)

Yes, there is a “romance,” but there is a gaping gulf between books that have romance elements and books that are “romances,” gothic or otherwise. The latter has many conventions that are expected, such as happy endings, relationships that readers root for, etc. The former can be found in all kinds of different books (horror, thriller, fantasy, etc.), and there’s no guarantee that the romance is even a good thing at all. And the latter is definitely the case here. And that’s fine! But unfortunately, when the book puts itself forward as a “gothic romance,” I feel like a lot of readers are going to pick this one up and be massively disappointed by what they find.

That aside, once I settled into the sort of book I was reading, there were elements that I enjoyed. While the pacing was a bit all over the place (slow at the beginning, only to pick up speed later in the story), it did work with the sort of gothic fairytale that was being spun here. In this way, the comparisons to “Bluebeard,” a deeply disturbing fairytale in its own right, are much more apt for this book. Fairytales often start from the very beginning, and such is the case here, starting with the birth of our main character. The writing itself was also often beautiful and further established the dark fairytale tone of the overall story.

I was more conflicted about the characters themselves. As I mentioned, this is not a romance in any way, mostly because the relationship itself is deeply unhealthy and abusive, and Death is not a hero, romantic or otherwise. Given the “Bluebeard” comparisons, it’s clear that you are not meant to root for this relationship or like Death at all. However, I also struggled with Salome. At best, she was incredibly naive, but at worst, the reader was never given enough information to truly understand the connection she felt with Death or why she craved that relationship in the way that she did. On one hand, abusive relationships are never understandable to outsiders looking in. But on the other, I do think more could have been done to show Salome’s twisted understanding of this relationship and her own manipulated feelings.

Further, I think the actual fantasy elements and magic system were interesting but not fully explored. I kept wanting just a bit more from this aspect of the story.

Overall, this book showed a lot of potential on the part of the author, but it just wasn’t quite as polished as I would have liked with its characterization of the main character and some of its fantasy elements. I think the writing itself was quite strong, and the primary missteps come down to the way the book has been presented. If readers go in with the understanding that they are reading a gothic dark fantasy novel first and foremost, I think they are much more likely to enjoy what they find here.

Rating 7: While not a romance story in any way, the writing had some beautiful moments. I only wish the main character was a bit more fleshed out.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Dark and Wild Wood” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Bluebeard Retellings and 2026 Gothic.

Serena’s Review: “Worthy of Fate”

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Book: “Worthy of Fate” by A.N. Caudle

Publishing Info: Ace, May 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!

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

Book Description: The Gem

Marked by the Gods, Kya is forced to partake in a Trial for a chance to be deemed Worthy. If she succeeds, she’ll be gifted great powers. If she fails, she could lose her life or worse. But that’s only the start of her worries. Now, the same plague that took her home is spreading and threatening the fate of the realm. Can Kya survive the Trial of the Gods and gain the needed power to rid the world of the growing threat before it’s too late? Or will she be drawn to what awaits her in the shadows?

The Shadow

Ryker has waited a long time for her—his mate. Now he’s found her. He plans to claim what is rightfully his, but dark forces threaten to destroy his Nation should he embrace the bond he so desperately desires. Unable to escape the drive to be near her, he waits for his precious gem, lingering in her shadow.

Review: This was a really confusing read. It was trying so hard to be so many things that I felt off-balance for much of my time reading it as we jumped from storyline to storyline and between one trope and the next. For one thing, while there are a million and one fantasy books featuring some sort of trial with the Gods, that is the most distinctive feature highlighted in the marketing for this one. That being the case, I was incredibly surprised by how quickly this particular plot point seemed to wrap up. Even if it’s familiar, there have been some really good books featuring trials, and I was really expecting this portion of the book to make up the primary plot. I enjoyed what we had from it, but it just wasn’t enough and left me a bit floundering once I realized the book was moving on to the next thing.

The two main characters weren’t bad by any means (even if the FMC had some supremely questionable decision-making towards the end), but they also didn’t offer up much that was new. Kya was stabby. Ryker was a shadow daddy. You get the gist just from those two short sentences.

I was also a bit disappointed to realize this was a fated mates romance. This one fell into the trap that so many romances do when it comes to this trope. That is, by calling them “fated mates,” the author neatly sidesteps any necessary work to show their relationship building up as they begin to know, understand, and care for the other. Instead, the heavy lifting is immediately swept aside by the simple fact that they are “fated,” with no other work done. In many ways, this robbed the story of any actual romance. The characters feel like an established couple almost from the start.

There was also something really odd going on with the writing in the last portion of this book, as far as the romance goes. Maybe it was just me, but it felt like I, the reader, was almost being drowned by a constant wave of pronouncements of love and devotion from these two characters. It got to the point that I was actually counting to see how many pages we could go before running into the next grand romantic proclamation. And boy, it wasn’t many! I enjoy devoted sentiments as much as the next person, but it almost felt like secondary embarrassment reading these two gush over each other nearly constantly.

All of this said, the book was a fast read, and I think readers who enjoy fated mates more than I do will absolutely love this one. Be warned that the supposed trials are a very minor portion of the story. But if you’re in it mostly for the romance, this does leave much more room to devote to these two, which definitely comes into play. So, while it wasn’t really for me, I do think there’s an audience for this book, especially on the more romance-heavy side of romantasy.

Rating 7: I wanted more from the trials and could have taken fewer declarations of love, all things considered.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Worthy of Fate” isn’t currently on any Goodreads lists, but it should be on Books With Fated Mates.

Serena’s Review: “A Kiss of Crimson Ash”

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

Book: “A Kiss of Crimson Ash” by Anuja Varghese

Publishing Info: Orbit, May 2026

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

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

Book Description: Nandapore is a city of secrets and spellcasters where seduction reigns and a power-hungry king is never satisfied, plotting to unleash a weapon that has only lived in myth… until now.

To stop him, an ancient goddess seeks out a newly crowned queen, a heartsick prince, a common thief, and a courtesan with magic in her blood. Together, they chart a course through brothels, temples, taverns, and palaces, setting a trap for the empire’s most powerful men.

Linked by desire, destiny, and a dangerous foe, they each must decide…

Review: This was a mixed bag of a read for me, partly because it felt like the book was mis-marketed as a romantasy when it was more fantasy-focused, truly. But then at the same time, the book felt the need to include repeated and often unnecessary (either for plot purposes or character development purposes) spicy scenes that felt like they were shoe-horned in simply to chase trends and/or reinforce that this book is an adult book instead of YA. For the former, I think all books are worse off for trying to capture what are only brief moments of popularity that will likely either date your book immediately or fall off so quickly as to be useless. And as for the latter…

That is, simply write your book with adult characters and trust your audience.

What I liked most was probably the mythology and the ties to Indian culture and history. I especially enjoyed the blending of elements that seemed to come from actual folklore alongside a pantheon of deities that were created specifically for this world. I think this sort of approach for fantasy folklore is often the most successful, where authors don’t feel too tied down to recreating exact myths or using deities from actual religions within their fantasy story. I think a bit more could have been done with them, ultimately, but the general approach was good.

The story itself was OK. I wasn’t blown away by anything that was happening (indeed, there were several moments where side characters would randomly show up with the exact thing needed for a given situation or conflict), but I also was interested enough throughout to keep going. The writing itself was fairly limited with regard to its imagery as well, which was unfortunate, as if there is one word that comes to mind when I picture India, it is “lush.” It would have been nice if the writing could have better risen to the inspiration it was calling upon.

The characters were likewise fine. I didn’t hate them, but they also all felt fairly flat. And it’s here where I really hold the spicy scenes against the book. My personal preference is for a limited number of spicy scenes, used in a way that moves the characters or relationship forward. But that’s just my own taste. However, books are also limited to a certain page count, and the inclusion of certain scenes means taking page time away from other aspects of the story. If a good handful of these spicy scenes had been taken out, and the story refocused on developing these characters more fully, not only would the book itself be better, but the spicy scenes that remained would have hit with more of an impact.

So, overall, this was just an OK read. I don’t feel like I wasted my time reading it, as I got through it quickly and it had flashes of fantasy elements that I did enjoy. However, the overuse of spice, the flat characters, and the limited word craft didn’t ever let me become fully invested. That said, if you’re looking for a more spice-focused Indian fantasy story, this still might be a good read for you!

Rating 7: It never quite reached the potential that you could see glimmering behind the unnecessary spice scenes.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Kiss of Crimson Ash ” isn’t currently on any Goodreads lists but it is on: Romantasy TBR 2026

Serena’s Review: “Storm Breaker”

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

Book: “Storm Breaker” by Nisha J. Tuli

Publishing Info: Entangled: Mayhem Books, May 2026

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

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

Book Description: For nineteen-year-old Poet Graves, New Manhattan has always promised safety―if she obeys. Raised within the ruling Houses and betrothed to a powerful heir, she enters Amery Academy knowing her future has already been decided.

But Amery is nothing like she imagined. Its trials are brutal, its loyalties conditional, and its rules designed to expose weakness. As Poet struggles to survive, she must hide the truth that could get her executed: the storms don’t fear her―they answer back.

When a dangerous outsider from beyond the city walls enters the academy, Poet is drawn to him despite everything she’s been taught to believe. He threatens the life she’s been promised. And choosing him could cost her not just her future, but her freedom.

Review: It’s fun that dystopian novels are having a bit of a resurgence, it seems. Kate, of course, is doing her timely Hunger Games read-through, and there have been several new romance/romantasy dystopian books coming out that I’ve enjoyed reading. Not least of which was Seek the Traitor’s Son by the OG Veronica Roth, which I read and loved recently! That being the case, I was excited to check out another such novel when the publisher approached me about reviewing this book.

So, while this book didn’t blow me away, I will say that it is a dystopian novel that will please those who deeply love dystopian novels. That is, if you’re familiar with the tropes and storylines that come with this sort of book and that’s your jam, well, this one has that all in spades. On the other hand, this isn’t the most original story that’s ever existed, so if you’re looking for a fresh take on the dystopian romance story, this probably isn’t it.

To start with what I liked, I feel like this book was very fast-paced, very readable, and very approachable to readers who aren’t necessarily super familiar with genre conventions. The world-building isn’t super complex, but it’s easy to understand what’s going on here and who the major players are. This, of course, leaves a lot of room in the story for characterization and the romance plotline to take over as the main features. Thus, how well this book works for you will largely come down to how you feel about Poet and the MMC.

For me, however, I thought Poet was a weaker example of a female main character. In many ways, she read as very familiar and very YA, using the worse interpretation of that term. Many YA heroines are excellent, but there is also an unfortunate habit of writing them to be inconsistent, inscrutable, and rather unlikable. And we saw that all here. Poet makes decision after decision that not only makes no sense for her as a character but also makes no sense for pretty much anyone ever. It could be argued that this is part of her growth, but if so, I found it to be an unsatisfying arc. Look, adults continue to learn and grow too. But Poet was learning some pretty basic lessons that had me viewing her as a sixteen-year-old teen (on the young side, even) rather than an adult woman.

The romance was also just OK. It was a hard sell when I was struggling so much already to enjoy Poet, and unfortunately, the MMC didn’t do enough to compensate. I didn’t hate him by any means (which should probably be chalked up to a huge win given how I feel about other MMC characters in romantasies), but he was also just kind of there much of the time.

I know this author is fairly beloved for her YA books, and maybe I’d feel better about her writing if I had started there. Unfortunately, I went into this one with the promise of reading an adult dystopian romance, and with that came different expectations, especially with regards to characterization. Ultimately, it’s hard to read an adult spicy romance novel when the main character feels like she’s 16.

Rating 7: Fans of this author will likely love this. But it read as too YA for what I was expecting going in, especially with regards to the portrayal of the FMC.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Storm Breaker” can be found on these Goodreads lists: YA Dystopian Books With Female Lead and Apocalypses and Dystopias.

Kate’s Review: “Abyss”

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

Book: “Abyss” by Nicholas Binge

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, May 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: Severance meets Lovecraft in this surreal tale of corporate horror and existential dread.

Joe always had potential, but he doesn’t expect much, and he hopes that his new job as an admin assistant won’t expect much of him. But when he enters the offices of Ponos—a company he’s never heard of and knows nothing about—he discovers that potential is exactly what they want from him.

A feverish dive into the inhumanity of both late-stage capitalism and the crippling anxieties of modern life, Abyss adds a new level of meaning to ‘wage slave’.

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

I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of novellas lately, or at least more than usual. Sometimes novellas can worry me in the same way short stories do in that it can be trickier to convey a story with a more limited page count, but it obviously can be done, and I’ve had a pretty good run of novellas as of late. “Abyss” by Nicholas Binge is the most recent one, and I was able to get through it in about a day. Not only because of the length, but how fast paced it flowed as a horror story about not only dimensional monstrosities, but also the monstrosities of corporate culture and late stage capitalistic greed and exploitation.

I’ve never had a corporate job, but from what I’ve heard from my friends who have the metaphors in this book work. (source)

I’ve made mention before that cosmic horror isn’t exactly a sub-genre that I delve into often, but “Abyss”‘s hook was too good to pass up, and as a Lovecraftian kinda tale it is pretty good at hitting the components that are expected. There is a slow building unease as our protagonist Joe starts his new menial job at Ponos, a corporation he isn’t familiar with but will pay the bills. From the jump there are strange things about it, like the complete lack of people outside of a few oddballs he stumbles upon, an over enthusiastic A.I. ‘assistant’ who keeps messaging him in stranger and stranger ways, and the skittishness of his higher up. As the job goes on the tension rises, as the reader follows Joe into creepier and creepier situations until he his fully confronted with a cosmic threat that is not only running this lucrative and powerful company, but is possibly using the blood of the workers to fuel itself. I like the high strangeness of the being and the creepiness of the peons that are trying to please it, with a solid backstory to why it is here contrasted with a stodgy and boring but also threatening corporate setting. I know “Severance” is how people are comparing, but I kept thinking about “Office Space” as a horror story, and that’s a good thing.

The true beating heart of this novella, though, are the satirical elements and messages that Binge puts forth. The main metaphor at hand is that the cosmic being that is being fed at Ponos has been put in place by the wealthy to maintain their power and to suck as much from the workers as possible all in the name of profits, and while that’s certainly a cathartic and relevant bit of satire, it’s kind of an obvious one when it comes to a story like this. For wholly understandable reasons we’ve seen a lot of commentary about the uber wealthy and their money hoarding within horror stories by sacrificing and downplaying the working class, so much so that it’s a little obvious. But there is a whole other point in “Abyss” that is connected to Joe and the story at hand, and that is the concept of the isolation and ennui of modern worker life, especially post pandemic. We live in a time where technology should theoretically make it all the easier to connect thanks to social media and varied means of communication. But Joe’s life is incredibly isolated, as he goes to work, goes home and dicks around online, and that’s about it. He isn’t really in touch with his mother and doesn’t seem to have any in real life friends. One of the main defenses against the horror and ruin at the hands of the cosmic in this is the idea of connection, with tech making it harder to connect under guise of bringing people together. That, to me, was a far more interesting avenue to explore because it felt so emotionally resonant.

“Abyss” is sure to please those who like cosmic horror as well as satirical observances of modern late stage capitalism. It’s a fast read, so consider adding it to your list!

Rating 7: The satire is a little on the nose but the message at the heart resonates. Add in some fun cosmic horror and a nefarious corporate setting and you have an enjoyable horror novella.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Abyss” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2026”.

Serena’s Review: “West of Wicked”

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Book: “West of Wicked” by Nikki St. Crowe

Publishing Info: Bramble, April 2026

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

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

Book Description: Dorothy Gale doesn’t know where she came from. She has only the vaguest memory of her life before landing in the dull, gray world of the vast Kansas prairie.

Then a cyclone rips through the night and carries her, her dog, and the farmhouse somewhere a lot farther than Dorothy imagined. She’s in a strange land that’s apparently cursed, shrouded in shadow. And to get home, Dorothy needs to seek out a wizard, following a treacherous path and watch out for a never-ending list of forest beasts, witches, a cursed mercenary, and perhaps most dangerous of all, the wizard himself.

Nikki St. Crowe vividly reimagines the world of the Wizard of Oz, where the villain gets the girl…and the girl gets the power.

Review: I had heard of this author before because I looked into a “Peter Pan” retelling that she wrote at one point. That one seemed like it was a “reverse harem” romance, so I gave it a pass. But this one sounded like the more straightforward “enemies to lovers” trope, and, combined with my nostalgic love of “Wizard of Oz,” I thought this might be a good entry point to this author.

And, while I didn’t outright love it, I can also see the appeal of this author for sure. Right from the start, she has a very compelling style of storytelling. The pacing is quick, but I never felt like the author was skimping on the characterization or world-building. I had a decent understanding of just who Dorothy was and what was important to her fairly early in the story. As her arc continues, there were added layers given to her motivations and changes in perspective, so I appreciated that growth was there.

I also enjoyed the twists and turns taken with the world of Oz and the original characters. Frankly, this carried much of the book for me, as I was always eager to meet new characters or see new locations and explore the unique take the author was bringing to these classic elements. That said, if you feel at all “precious” about these originals, this book might not be for you. The author plays fast and loose with any original characteristics; I found this fun, but it could also be jarring if you were hoping to find characters that were more in line with their original versions.

Probably not surprising anyone, I mostly had gripes with the romance and the spice. On the spice side, the story starts out with a completely unnecessary erotic scene between the main character and a throwaway character. Now, I know that some readers enjoy spice for spice’s sake. But for me, these kinds of unnecessary spice scenes so early in a book make me feel as if the author thinks that readers are just hornballs who will put down a book if they don’t get a sex scene in the first 25 pages. This scene literally had zero impact on the story and could have been removed with no one the wiser. I wish it had been.

The romance itself was more interesting and developed at a slower pace (this made the initial jump right into a sex scene with the soon-to-be ex all the more weird!). There were also some big twists that came toward the end that I enjoyed. However, as always it seems, the book definitely sets up a secondary romance in the end as well. This is purely a subjective thing, and readers who enjoy love triangles and bait-and-switch romances may enjoy this aspect more.

As it stands, I think I’ll wait and spoil myself on how the entire trilogy ends before committing to reading more of the series, largely due to my feelings regarding the romance. I enjoyed the overall writing and Dorothy as a character, but the romance is a big question mark, and I’ve been burned too many times in the past to blindly keep going.

Rating 7: I liked this interpretation of “The Wizard of Oz” and its classic characters, but the spice and romance raised some big question marks for me personally. Other romance readers who enjoy certain tropes, however, may enjoy it more!

Readers Advisory:

“West of Wicked” can be found on this Goodreads list: April 2026 Most Anticipated Romance Releases.

Serena’s Review: “An Arcane Study of Stars”

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Book: “An Arcane Study of Stars” by Sydney J. Shields

Publishing Info: Orbit, April 2026

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

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

Book Description: When Claudia Jolicoeur is rejected from Cygnus University, a devilish stranger named Dorian appears in her nightmares and offers her a bargain: he will get her into Cygnus if she learns how to free him from a prison of stars. He takes a bite of her soul to seal the deal, and Claudia wakes to a letter from the High Sage of Cygnus stating she will take the place of Odette Dufort, a Rhetoric student who passed away.

Her arrival raises suspicions, rumors that she had a hand in Odette’s death spread like wildfire, and Cassius MacLeod, the High Sage’s apprentice and Claudia’s fellow Rhetoric student, seems hellbent on humiliating her. Determined to clear her name, she searches for any evidence that could prove her innocence. When someone—or something—starts slipping her pieces of Odette’s diary, Claudia uncovers a horrifying truth: over the last century, celestial witches at Cygnus have been murdered. Odette was one of them, and Claudia could be next. For her own protection, Claudia needs to free Dorian—and fast.

By night, she studies the stars, slowly unraveling the mystery of Dorian’s prison. By day, she and Cassius wage rhetorical war as debate partners in class. What begins as a fierce rivalry devolves into something deeper, darker, and dangerously sensual. As Claudia inches closer to the truth, she must decide: would trusting Cassius be the last mistake she ever makes?

Review: Well, here we go again. Every once in a while I seem to hit a reading slump where I pick up one book after another and keep bouncing off of them. I should have perhaps been a bit more wary of this one, as I didn’t love the author’s first book, “The Honey Witch.” But I keep looking for a book to scratch that dark academia itch, so here we are.

Let’s start with some positives, though. The book starts off with an incredibly strong opening chapter, setting the stage of a trapped god who is awoken by a woman’s scream. And as the story continued, I kept wanting to get back to this energy! Not only did the writing of this opening chapter feel superior to much of what was on offer in the rest of the book (I’m not sure if this was due to a tone change, veering away from the more serious “high fantasy” tone used in this prologue or what), but the world-building and history explored in this subplot were by far the most interesting parts of the book. It was only here that the story came near to anything resembling the “dark” portion of “dark academia,” and it was also the only portion of the book that felt like it had any true stakes involved.

That said, even here, I felt like most of the twists and turns were projected so far in advance that the impact was completely lost when these reveals actually landed. We get to the end, and there’s supposed to be this major twist, and I just found myself raising my eyebrows at it all. Wasn’t this obvious from practically the start? Beyond that, there were some late-game twists in the romance that I really hated. I’m not going on another rant about this; I can’t. But I’m so sick of these romance twists.

But unfortunately, the romance and the characters were the biggest letdown. We had another example of “enemies to lovers” turning into “instalove” almost immediately. There wasn’t enough time to build up any sort of real antagonism between these two. And, likewise, there wasn’t enough time for me to buy into the extreme levels of devotion being proclaimed on the page shortly after this shift in their relationship occurs.

Beyond that, the romance took a distinct turn into the BDSM realm that I wasn’t expecting at all. I usually look for the label “dark romance” when making my selections, as I know that BDSM love stories aren’t for me. But, again, this one didn’t give any hints that this was the sort of spice content that would be on offer. I don’t think it was particularly extreme by any means, but again, this is a romance topic that is never going to work for me, and I wish I could more easily discover it going in so that it wouldn’t hit as a surprise halfway through a book I’m now committed to reading/reviewing.

Overall, this book might work better for dark romance readers. I think many of the tropes that the romance plotlines follow will work much better for these readers. I also know that I was an outlier in my opinions of “The Honey Witch,” so there are definitely fans of this author who will enjoy this. Indeed, based on the strength of the captured god subplot, even I could find the appeal in parts of what this author has to offer. Unfortunately, the romance was really not for me.

Rating 7: While I liked some aspects of the fantasy world and there is potential in the overall world-building, I didn’t enjoy the love story at all.

Reader’s Advisory:

“An Arcane Study of Stars” can be found on these Goodreads lists: 2026 Fantasy Romance/Romantasy books to look forward to and 2026 Fantasy (All sub genres w. romance).