Tag: 8 Rating

Serena’s Review: “Scion”

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Book: “Scion” by James Islington

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader’s Advisory:

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

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

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

Publishing Info: Forever, September 2026

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

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

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

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

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

Previously Reviewed: “The Second Death of Locke”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Serena’s Review: “A Snake Among Swans”

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Book: “A Snake Among Swans” by Hannah Kaner

Publishing Info: Harper Voyager, September 2026

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

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

Book Description: Tilde has always heard the whispers of the kithwood, the voices of her ancestors speaking through the mysterious forest of her homeland. But now both the kithwood and her kingdom are in danger.

For Tilde is the only surviving heir of a conquered land. To unite the people and finally stop the bloodshed, she marries the aging warlord, King Liran. Her duty is to bind their nations and bear him a son.

But the swan king’s court is dangerous. Tilde is a threat to the claim of Liran’s older sons, who will do whatever it takes to remove her, to the princess Elise who has only ever known loyalty to her family, and to the priests who own them all.

Yet none of them know that Tilde is a snake in their midst, with allies on her side and dark, forbidden power of her own. She wants her kingdom back, and she will sacrifice everything to claim it.

For the queen to rise, the swans must fall.

Review: Overall, I enjoyed this read. I had a bit of an up-and-down experience with her previous trilogy, so while some of those struggles showed up again here, this book also served as a strong reminder of why I’ve enjoyed this author so much in the past.

In many ways, this is a very familiar high fantasy tale. The world-building isn’t incredibly unique, and the character archetypes are familiar. Many of the themes are also what you’d expect from this sort of novel: feminine rage and the weights of duty and power in the face of desire. All of this can sound like negatives when listed out like this, but I think it’s books like this that also remind us why we’ve seen these stories before, and that’s because they can be truly excellent if done well!

Kaner’s lyrical, poignant style of writing elevates familiar themes and raises them to levels that feel powerful and lasting. This was especially true of Tilde, a character who knew what she wanted and was willing to make difficult decisions to accomplish her goals. While her story unfolds, there were several lines that I stopped to reread, as they so perfectly encapsulated the struggles of women in these sorts of medieval worlds that are loosely based on European history. Kaner perfectly hones in on just how infuriating this situation is: the lack of power and choice, the relegating of one’s personhood down to only the ability to produce an heir. It’s enraging. But the ability of the author to draw out such strong feelings is a testament to her skill.

I will say that pacing was a problem in some of the other books I read by this author, and I had similar struggles here. I was immediately drawn into the story, but somewhere around the middle, things really began to lag. It was at this point that I started becoming tempted to skim a bit. Luckily, as the story got into the back third, things began to pick up again, and I was roped back into the story.

It’s hard to say this was an enjoyable read when so many of the emotions are focused on rage and injustice. Perhaps a better description would be saying it was a powerful read. The pacing and plotting weren’t perfect, but I was able to get through the lull to the conclusion. I’m definitely curious to see where the story goes from here, and I would recommend this to readers looking for a classic medieval fantasy with a sapphic love story at its heart.

Rating 8: Powerful themes of feminine rage permeate this read. But there’s also a lovely sapphic romance to get you through some of the parts that will infuriate you!

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Snake Among Swans” can be found on this Goodreads list: Reactor’s 30 More SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2026.

Kate’s Review: “Kiss Slay Replay”

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Book: “Kiss Slay Replay” by Rachel Harrison

Publishing Info: Berkley, September 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC2026

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

Book Description: Every wedding guest’s worst nightmare is on repeat in this wild and twisty new horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of So Thirsty and Play Nice.

It’s the picture-perfect wedding The venue is dreamy, the weather is beautiful, love is in the air—and Willa Sullivan is having a bad time. She’s excited to celebrate her best friends finally having the big wedding they’ve always wanted, but this is the first time she’s seen her ex-fiancé in months, and he brought a date. Everything feels off, like she stumbled into an alternate universe. But things start to look up when Willa meets Danny, the groom’s charming and single childhood best friend. When they sneak off together, their rendezvous is interrupted by a masked killer terrorizing the reception. Willa and Danny fight to save the ones they love and survive the night, but the killer is unrelenting. A final girl, Willa is not.

Or is she? She wakes up and it’s the morning of the wedding. She just had the most intense nightmare of her life. Only as the day unfolds, there are some uncanny coincidences that make her question whether it was really a dream, déjà vu, or something more sinister. After a horrifying turn of events, Willa comes to understand that she’s stuck in a loop of carnage and terror that she must learn how to escape or else suffer a fate worse than death—being an eternal wedding guest.

Review: Thank you to Berkley for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC26!

I am usually not super anxious when I go to ALA every year and I am on the hunt for ARCs. For one, Serena and I have basically perfected the ARC hunt strategy, figuring out where the publisher’s booths are ahead of time, getting there early to get in line for the exhibits hall, and knowing that in all likelihood we will get the books that we want. I had Rachel Harrison’s newest horror novel “Kiss Slay Replay” on my ‘seek out’ list, and on one of the mornings at opening I determinedly but politely and NOT obnoxiously made my way towards the publisher tables in hopes I’d see it. And lo and behold it was there!…. And people were SWARMING for it. I was lucky enough to get a copy, because my inherent need to not be a dick about ARCs meant I was one of the last people to get one before they were gone. It’s admittedly great seeing horror get such an enthusiastic response. And I was very excited to see what Harrison was going to do with it.

And it definitely lived up to what I was expecting, and kind of went a few steps further. The premise is definitely one we’ve seen before, at the very least in films like “Happy Death Day” and “Groundhog Day”, but Harrison takes it a step further and makes it even more fun by altering the threats of the time loop wedding massacre for each time Willa has to go through it. It could be a masked murderer at one loop, but then it could be zombies at another loop, with each scenario being campy and out there but still being grotesque and very horror centric, even with the humor and outlandishness. And while I don’t really like the film “Cabin in the Woods”, I kept thinking about it as I read this and it was in a positive way. Harrison has her tongue planted firmly in cheek in this story and while it sometimes had me squirming, it was a true hoot and felt like a fun horror movie that kept me interested. So much so I read it in one afternoon!

But there is also an undercurrent of pathos and melancholy in this book as we follow Willa during a particularly hard moment in her life. She is still reeling from a recent breakup of a long term relationship/engagement, and is now going to the wedding of a friend in their circle, and having to face her friends for the first time in a group setting after years apart after this huge change. It fits for a time loop story, as Willa is not only literally trapped in a loop that won’t go forward on her friend’s wedding day, but even before this she feels stagnant and lost, unable to move forward after her monumental break up and wallowing a bit in the aftermath. Much like the aforementioned film “Happy Death Day”, Willa is stuck in grief which has altered her life and relationships, and perhaps to actually be able to move forward literally she will need to start to move forward emotionally. It’s well worn territory, but Harrison makes it feel fresh and it is effective and bittersweet seeing her have to process all of this. I really enjoyed that aspect, and it was very on brand for Harrison’s horror stories that have some pretty relatable womens experiences at their heart.

“Kiss Slay Replay” is another fun and lighter (not light, but lighter) horror story from Rachel Harrison! If you like time loop stories, check this one out!

Rating 8: A fun and heartfelt Sci-Fi horror tale that feels like “Happy Death Day”, “Groundhog Day”, and “Cabin in the Woods” all rolled into one, with some melancholy undercurrents. Quite enjoyable!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Kiss Slay Replay” is included on the Goodreads list “Time Loops”.

Kate’s Review: “A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up”

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

Book: “A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up” by Elizabeth Agyemang

Publishing Info: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, September 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the author

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

Book Description: TRON meets sixth grade in this heartfelt and fantastical graphic novel where a pixelated quest helps one girl navigate grief, friendship, and the wilds of middle school.

Sixth grade. The game just got real. For Lexie, this year was supposed to be all about joining clubs, claiming the perfect lunch spot, and gaming after school with her best friends. But shifting friendships and the grief of losing her beloved grandfather make middle school feel more like someone switched her life to hard mode.

Then Lexie discovers a mysterious journal tucked inside her grandfather’s things. It’s filled with cryptic notes and cheat codes from an unfinished video game he was Warrior’s Quest. When Lexie and her older sister, Eunice, are suddenly transported into the game’s pixelated world, the line between reality and fantasy starts to blur. Can Lexie and her sister level up and face the monsters in the game—and in real life—or is it game over for good?

Review: Thank you to Elizabeth Agyemang for sending me an eARC of this graphic novel!

I have lots of fond memories of playing computer games with my sister and/or the neighbor kids after school when I was a kid. We would play games like “Oregon Trail”, “Are You Afraid of the Dark: Orpheo’s Curse”, “The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain”, and more that I can’t remember the names of. When Elizabeth Agyemang reached out to me with “The Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up” these memories definitely bubbled up, and when I read that the premise was not only kids being sucked into a video game and having to find their way out, but also kids dealing with real life anxieties, I was on board to give it a try.

Taking into account the target audience I found “A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up” to be a fun fantasy/Sci-Fi tale with a good premise of kids being sucked into a video game and having to find their way out. Our main character is Lexie, who is dealing with starting sixth grade and the stresses that come with that as well as the recent death of her grandfather, a video game designer that she misses very much, and how she and some friends become part of a mysterious game they find in his belongings. The description makes reference to “Tron” and it definitely fits, and made me think a bit about “Jumanji” as well. I enjoyed seeing Lexie and her friends have to solve the game mechanics and how it makes literal villains out of the mean girls that Lexie and her friend Mika have been dealing with while also making an escapist game seem like a way to get away from the real world problems she’s been going through (more on that in a bit). The game itself felt pretty realistic, and this elder Millennial was hit with a full on nostalgia bomb of playing CD ROM games with friends.

The strongest aspect of this book, however, was how Agyemang tackles real life issues that may be relevant to the intended audience, aka middle grade kids who are experiencing life changes as they get older. Whether it is the grief that Lexie and Eunice are experiencing in the aftermath of their grandfather’s death (and their opposite ways of dealing with said grief), or the growing pains of entering a new school environment and how that can cause issues between friends, or the difficulties of dealing with other kids who aren’t so great, or racism, and so forth, we have a story about a girl who is going through a LOT and is having a hard time dealing. It’s presented in an empathetic way without being overly melodramatic, and I definitely think that some of the things Lexie is going through would be relatable to middle grade readers. Lexie herself is an enjoyable protagonist who misses her grandfather so much, and her grief and awkwardness about her new school life are realistic to be sure.

“A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up” is a cute graphic novel that will be fun for kids who may be navigating some tougher issues and who happen to enjoy a nice video game!

Rating 8: A cute middle grade tale about school growing pains, grief, and teamwork in life and video games.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up” is included on the Goodreads list “Middle Grade Graphic Novels of 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “The Calamities”

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

Book: “The Calamities” by Chuck Wendig

Publishing Info: Del Rey, August 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: The heir to one of the world’s most influential families reckons with the demonic secret to their power, in this contemporary dark fantasy that melds occult magic with shocking family drama from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Mourning Mayne knows he’ll one day bear the duty of managing his family’s vast empire of wealth and power. But the feckless Mourning has always struggled to accept this legacy, which is one of cruelty, domination, and exploitation… and something even darker.

Because the Maynes are no ordinary family: Hidden in our world are the fiends—half-human, half-demon, and possessed of dark magic born from buying human souls—and the Maynes are one of the oldest and most influential fiendish families.

But when Mourning’s estranged father, the formidable and terrifying Hadrian Mayne, demands that he return to the fold, Mourning has to make a decision whether to accept his legacy and embrace his role in the family, or to forge his own destiny, and with it, change the course of the world.

Because along the way home, he will meet Key, a black-market seller of human souls, and Quinn, an artist who may hold the dark truth behind the fate of the fiends. Alone, they have all struggled with the darkness of their fiendish nature… but together, they might find a path out of the shadows.

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

It’s been a few years since “Succession” ended, and while I don’t particularly MISS it (it was good but it ended well and man they were all just horrible), I was still immediately thinking of it when I read about Chuck Wendig’s new novel “The Calamities”. We all know that I like Wendig as a horror author, and the idea of him writing a book about an uber wealthy and uber powerful family that just so happens to have demon blood and soul snatching powers just tickled me. “Succession” meets cosmic and demon horror? Hell yes! The Roy Family is basically filled with demons anyway, why not do a story that just leans all the way into that?

Only a man who feeds on human souls and misery could come up with boar on the floor as far as I’m concerned. (source)

Off the bat I will admit that the theme of ‘billionaires and billionaire families are soul sucking demons’ is a bit on the nose, but that doesn’t make it any less resonant. Especially these days. And Wendig is always so thorough and deliberate with his world building that even if the theme is obvious, he makes it feel fresh and brings in so much originality, probably because he has built an entire mythos around the idea of ‘Fiend’ families (aka people who have demon blood in them and who take human souls for feeding) gathering wealth, power, and souls for their own devices, hoarding and exploiting power with no care for the consequences. With different families having rivalries and motives to hold on to souls to consume, we have a lot of well done motivations and a tellar history and world of people with demon blood and soul snatching powers. The horror in this book is less ‘demonic’ and definitely more in the realm of body and cosmic horror, with some really nasty moments that had me squirming, while also building up the suspense in a way that kept me reading. Wendig is such a reliable horror writer and while this one did feel a little bit meandering at times, I was generally locked in.

And unsurprisingly so, the characters in this one are a feast, with morally grey ones, traumatized ones, funny ones, and incredibly creepy ones. Wendig has the gross entitlement and cruelty of a wealthy family a la the Sacklers or Du Ponts, but also brings out interesting complex characters who are sometimes infuriating but at other times wholly sympathetic. We also get an interesting examination of the way narcissistic parents can favor some kids while scapegoating others, and how they can pit their children against each other. This dynamic is especially prevalent in the Maynes Family, with our protagonist Mourning being a black sheep to his cruel and megalomaniacal father Hadrian while his twin siblings Lachlan and Lorelei are highly favored and keep him under their boots because of this advantage (this whole family was very Lannister-esque). But we also have characters like Key, who is a black market soul merchant who finds herself teaming up with Mourning when his father (and their fount of souls) disappears, who is also struggling with her own culpability in the business even if she doesn’t have the monetary advantages of the Maynes and other Fiend families (and uses her soul stealing skills in a way that leaves her incredibly conflicted as the story progresses). Other characters include an artist named Quinn who has a part to play in the nefarious plan, and a Fiend named Silas who has a cold and predatory nature, but who has been muzzled. While sometimes the four perspectives felt a little harried, I overall enjoyed them.

“The Calamities” also has set up a clear path to more books about the Fiends, and I would absolutely keep reading about them should this come to pass. I so enjoy Chuck Wendig and his creepy horror tales, and this one is another good time.

Rating 8: The world building is stellar and while the metaphor is kind of obvious Wendig creates a nasty and fun world of demons, billionaires, cosmic horror, and undoing familial trauma and damage.

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Serena’s Review: “Reliquary”

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

Book: “Relilquary” by Hannah F. Whitten

Publishing Info: Orbit, August 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Does she even want to?

Review: There must be something in the water, since many of my favorite fantasy authors have all seemed to come to the collective understanding that now is the time to try their hand at the horror genre. And so I must dutifully follow, our blog genre/reviewer standards be damned!

Luckily for me, what Whitten has written here is a wild, Gothic ride that veered way further into the fantastical than I had expected when I first picked it up. The general setup, however, played into some of my favorite elements of Gothic fiction. We had the creepy, mysterious house, the strange family, and secrets whose answers might be even more dangerous when they are finally revealed.

For all that there is a creepy house, the horror elements were largely focused on the ocean and aquatic themes. And all of this was truly terrifying and surprisingly disgusting and disturbing. As far as the actual horror goes, beyond the suspense of the general setup, the primary way it plays out is through increasingly disturbing moments of body horror. This is definitely not one to read if you have a weak stomach or really struggle with body grossness.

I can’t get into too many details about how the story plays out, as there were a ton of late-game reveals that really twisted the story into an entirely different beast. There was definitely not a lack of creativity, and, like I said, the book took on a much more fantastical flavor toward the end than it did with its more typical Gothic setup. For me, this was a pleasant turn of events. But it also comes fairly late in the game, and then the book whacks you over the head again and again for the remainder of the read with increasingly out-there twists. So readers who are vibing with the more general Gothic premise or who are expecting a more grounded horror story might find themselves off balance when this shift comes.

I really enjoyed all of the characters we had here. Of course, “enjoyed” in cases like this often means loving to hate them. The entire family was so disturbing, all in different ways. And the book did a great job of highlighting the various ways that different personalities might buckle and twist under these circumstances. There’s a lot of toxicity here, but many different flavors are on display.

There was also a surprisingly interesting romantic subplot. For a book that takes place over only a few days, I was surprised by the depth of this plotline. Partly this is because the love interest was one of the most interesting characters in the book. His arc is tragic, frustrating, and compelling.

I also really enjoyed the main character. Through her, Whitten expertly portrayed a woman whose struggles with tragedy and guilt have led her to extreme levels of passivity and a desire to belong that trumps almost anything else. What makes this all the more interesting is that Claire herself is largely aware of her own failings in this area. But that doesn’t make her any more capable of disrupting her own habits. She knows they are deeply unhealthy, and for much of the book, she’s embraced them as part of herself. This can make her frustrating to read at times, but also makes it all the more gratifying when she finally comes around.

The pacing of the entire book was a bit odd. It starts slow, which is expected with this sort of horror, the type that is leaning strongly into dread and revels in the slow reveal. But it does make for a jarring experience in the back half when the wheels seemingly come off and it’s full blast for the last third of the book. Not necessarily a full blast of action, but more one heavy scene after another. And, while I liked how things wrapped up in the end, I was left with a few too many questions about parts of it to be fully satisfied.

That said, this was still a great read. It was horrifying, heart-wrenching, and deliciously cruel at times. But there was also just enough softness and heart, especially to Claire’s story and the slow arc of her relationship with the MMC, to properly balance things out. Readers who enjoy horror that leans into the fantastical should definitely give this one a shot!

Rating 8: I’ll never look at the ocean the same way again. Or get on a submarine, for that matter. But here Whitten expertly blends the horrific with the fantastic, all while exploring deep themes of family trauma and grief.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Reliquary” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Seaside Gothic and Horror Releases Coming in 2026.

Serena’s Review: “The Art of Charming a Changeling”

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Book: “The Art of Charming a Changeling” by Sylvie Cathrall

Publishing Info: Orbit, August 2026

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

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

Book Description: On her first day working in the prince’s galleries, art conservator Florrie Hyverfell discovers that the most famous portrait in the collection is not only a fake-it’s also inhabited by Vern, a fairy trapped in the forged painting.

Tracking down the stolen original is the only way for Florrie to save her job and for Vern to escape his canvas. Yet as they journey to a famed fairy museum to find the missing artwork, Florrie finds herself taking more than an art historical interest in the changeling painting’s charming inhabitant.

Review: I know Cathrall’s first duology was a bit hit or miss for some fantasy readers, with people sometimes falling off the slower pacing and verbose style of writing. But I really enjoyed it, especially the epistolary format and the creative world-building that expanded in truly wild directions by the time the entire thing came to a close. That being the case, I was excited to pick up another book by this author, especially as this one seemed to have the trappings of a Regency romance novel as well!

It didn’t quite hit the same highs as the other duology, but I’ll go more into that later. But what it did do right, it did very well. From the start, I remembered why I enjoyed this author’s prose. She has a flowing, whimsical style that somehow elevates these sorts of “day in the life” cozy fantasy novels into a place where I am less likely to get bored. This is obviously a subjective point, but I often struggle with cozy fantasy novels that don’t have much plot balancing things out. And like those, this is very light on the plot. There are pages and pages where not much really happens, but because the author’s style of writing is so lovely, I was more than happy to just sit back and go at this more languid pace.

However, some readers may struggle here if they don’t connect with the writing as well. This is definitely one of those books where the author uses twenty words when one is only needed, and the plot is truly secondary to pretty much everything else going on on the page.

I also really enjoyed the main character, the love interest, and the cast of side characters we met along the way. The main character especially was incredibly sympathetic and compelling, nicely balancing a desire to do the right thing with her own struggles with her role in this kerfuffle and her larger artistic ambitions. The love interest was also lovely, though his niceness also left him feeling a bit one-dimensional at times. As the story went on, more depth was given here, but I did at times wish for a bit more spark beyond the simple golden retriever energy he was giving off. The side characters were also very good, for the most part. There was a cousin, Chary, whom I actively disliked through most of the story, and I’m not sure if that was intentional on the author’s part.

As I mentioned above, while the style of writing carried this book for me, I do think there were a few things missing here that were in the first duology. For one thing, the format in the first book, with characters exchanging letters back and forth, better played into this wordy style of writing. It added a little “oomph” to the proceedings, for lack of a better word. Here, there were times where even I began to struggle with the glacial speed of the plot and the detailed descriptions of almost everything.

Further, I also think that the world-building and general mystery of the first duology also better held up this pacing/style-of-writing issue. There, even if the plot itself wasn’t moving quickly, the reader was constantly learning new things about this world and being fed new little tidbits to piece together the mystery at the heart of that story. This book follows a much more traditional questing plot and is set in a fairly familiar fantasy world, so the slower moments didn’t have these extra bits to fall back on when things began to drag.

That said, I still very much enjoyed my experience with this book. Even with my quibbles, I enjoyed this cozy fantasy much more than I typically do with other books in this subgenre. However, much of this came down to my appreciation of this style of writing, and that might be hit or miss for some readers. If you enjoyed her first duology, though, I think there’s still a good chance you’ll like this book too!

Rating 8: A bit on the slower side, but I still enjoyed my time with this one!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Art of Charming a Changeling” isn’t on any Goodreads lists currently, but it should be on Cozy Fantasy Romance reads.

Kate’s Review: “Heart of Glass”

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Book: “Heart of Glass” by Jennifer Hillier

Publishing Info: Minotaur Books, August 2026

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

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

Book Description: A serial killer recants his long-ago confession regarding a small-town high school girl―and her then-best friends are forced to confront what really happened that night and what’s happening now.

Seaside is a small coastal town, known originally for the local amusement park. But twenty-five years ago, a serial killer dubbed The Carnival Killer confessed to the murder of a local high school girl. Now, he’s recanted that confession.

Barb, Nicolette, and Lorelei were best friends – then they met “Sam” at Wonderland, the local amusement park. After hanging out with him there, and accompanying him to the drive-in movie, where the twenty-something handsome drifter made out with Lorelei in the backseat. That night was the last time Lorelei was seen alive, her murdered body surfacing a couple of days later in a local cranberry bog.

Barb’s dreams of leaving Seaside and becoming a successful writer never materialized and she is a freelancer for the local newspaper and, secretly, writes anonymously about reality tv stars for a hugely successful gossip web-site called Reality Bitch. Specifically, she writes savagely about a long-running show set in Canada called Trophy Wives.

Nicolette left town shortly after Lorelei’s body surfaced, never to return. Ultimately, she married a very rich man, moved to Toronto and rebranded herself as Cole Lennox, one of the stars of Trophy Wives.

With the amusement park about to reopen, revitalizing the dying town of Seaside, the Carnival Killer recants his confession about killing Lorelei, the dead body of young woman washes ashore, and the truth about what happened that night twenty-five years ago – and what is happening now – threatens not only the carefully constructed lives of Barb and Nicolette, but the very fabric of Seaside itself.

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

It felt like it had been forever since a new Jennifer Hillier book had hit the ground, and I, for one, was really missing her thrillers and mysteries (while wholly respecting her writing on her own timeline and not my insatiable need to read her books, of course!). Basically every book of hers I have read I have enjoyed, and after waiting for about four years I was ever so happy to see that her new book “Heart of Glass” was finally coming out. It felt like the perfect read to start the send off of summer, and as I read it and enjoyed it I told myself that I needed to slow down and savor it…. only to tear through it in a couple days. What can I say? I really missed Hillier’s work!

“Heart of Glass” is another woman centered thriller with complicated protagonists and a dark mystery at its heart, which I have come to expect from Hillier and what I always look forward to most about her books. We are following two women in this story, both from Seaside, a tourist trap town with a defunct but soon to reopen amusement park, who share a dark secret from their past that has a link to a notorious serial killer. The first is Barb, who never left her hometown and is now not only a journalist for the local paper, but who also writes anonymous snark reviews of a popular reality show called “Trophy Wives”. The second is Cole, formerly known as Nicolette, who left Seaside as fast as she could after their friend Lorelei was murdered and reinvented herself into a trophy wife, who happens to be on the show Barb reviews. Both of them are haunted by their friend Lorelei’s murder, which was assumed to be killed by a notorious serial killer, who is now recanting his confession… which means Barb and Cole’s long held secret may be in danger of cracking open. It is SUCH a great hook, and I greatly enjoyed both of their perspectives, as messy, complicated, and traumatized as they were. Both Cole and Barb were such great characters, and I was wholly on their sides and cheering them on even if at times they were making TERRIBLE decisions. There is just enough messiness if them that their storylines were incredibly soapy, but then very upsetting at the same time as we slowly see what they were both going through on the night Lorelei was killed, and how these girls were changed forever into the walking disasters we see in the present day. I just loved them both.

As for the mystery, there are a few going on at the same time, which makes the read both deeply addictive, but also sometimes muddled. But muddled as it was, with some kind of wild reveals and some aspects that felt unexplored, it still reads incredibly fast, and I had a lot of fun with it. I figured out a few of the twists pretty early, but there were also a couple that did legitimately catch my off guard. I also liked the way that we jumped back and forth from the past and present to get a fuller picture, as well as seeing the transcripts from the interview that the Carnival Killer gives as he recants his confession. It has a lot of different storytelling devices and they all worked pretty well.

“Heart of Glass” was a fun breezy thriller that I definitely enjoyed. It was a great end of summer read and thriller fans, rejoice, because Jennifer Hillier is BACK.

Rating 8: Another fun and suspenseful thriller from Jennifer Hillier! “Heart of Glass” has suds, lots of twists, and some flawed but easy to root for heroines.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Heart of Glass” is included on the Goodreads blog post “Readers’ 60 Most Anticipated Fall Books”.

Kate’s Review: “If We Survive the Night”

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Book: “If We Survive the Night” by Jo Salazar

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, August 2026

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

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

Book Description: It’s kill or be killed in this heart-pounding apocalyptic horror. The first book in a new series, If We Survive the Night combines the ruthless zombie perils of The Last of Us with the every-woman-for-herself angle of Yellowjackets. What type of person does it take to survive the end of the world?

Sixteen-year-old Quinn is used to being told that what she feels inside isn’t quite right. After getting kicked out of multiple foster homes and narrowly escaping juvenile detention, she’s undergoing therapy at a residential treatment center for “troubled” girls. Looking for a night of freedom, Quinn sneaks onto the roof with her best friend Keisha, and what she sees changes everything…

She witnesses the start of the zombie apocalypse.

As zombies, or “carriers” as the news calls them, infiltrate the treatment center, escape becomes crucial. Quinn and Keisha make a pact to leave together, but several unexpected complications screw up their plans.

As the girls battle the carriers and wrestle with their doubts about each other, Quinn realizes she has never felt more alive. Maybe this is exactly the kind of world she was built for. And part of thriving in this cutthroat environment means cutting off the dead weight – even if that means putting other lives at risk…But even if she’s willing to sacrifice everything, can anyone really outlive the apocalypse?

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

It has honestly been a bit since I read a straight up zombie apocalypse story. I think that zombies kind of cooled off after they were basically everywhere, but we are starting to see a bit of a resurgence with “The Last of Us” and the “Walking Dead” spin offs we’ve seen as of late. I enjoy zombies but hadn’t dabbled in a bit, and when Jo Salazar’s book “If We Survive the Night” ended up in my mailbox I was ready to jump back in. I had certain expectations going in, as it’s a zombie story and it’s YA, but this one actually ended up surprising me in mostly good ways.

As a zombie apocalypse novel it hits all of the beats the sub-genre needs to hit, but finds freshness in the perspectives at hand and by focusing on teenage girls who are all suffering from various mental health issues and have been in a treatment facility for them. Having not only girls but teenage girls be the center of the story was a really compelling choice, and all of them having various mental health problems made for other conflicts that complicated the whole situation even more. We have teenagers who are already vulnerable enough by their age and their gender, and then you add in things like impulsivity, dysregulation, rigid thinking, and violent tendencies and that makes them all the more unpredictable in an incredibly dangerous situation, and Salazar isn’t shy to show how these kinds of difficulties can play out. It’s also pretty frank with how difficult it can be for people to interact with people with these kinds of issues, especially when they aren’t receiving the supports and treatments that they need or are being pushed away and silenced.

Which leads me to the aspect of this book that worked the best for me, which is the fact that our main character Quinn is a complete psychopath who is learning that she can absolutely THRIVE in the zombie apocalypse because of her complete lack of empathy. We meet Quinn with her fellow inpatients at the treatment center, and she is clearly troubled but somewhat held back because of being in the program. But when the ‘carriers’ as they are calling them start to overrun society and end up at the facility (and we have little explanation as to what has caused it to happen, but hey, that’s probably fairly realistic), Quinn starts to calculate who would be a good ally to have and who would be a liability, and starts to cull the herd with glee. It is such a great choice because so often in zombie apocalypse fiction we see good people not only trying to outlast and outrun zombies, but also outrun dangerous people while ALSO trying to hold onto their humanity. But Quinn? Quinn is more than happy to shed that part of her and really lean into her violent and psychopathic tendencies, and that makes the story all the more compelling, even if following her became more and more grating because of how terrible she can be. It is like if instead of following Rick Grimes “The Walking Dead” instead decided to put a spotlight on The Governor and had us follow HIS POV. It’s so daring and unique, and deeply disturbing at times as well. I don’t know how amped I am to keep following Quinn, as this is definitely a set up for a series, but props to Salazar for going there with this character, especially for a YA audience.

“If We Survive The Night” is fun and quick! It’s been a bit since I’ve picked up a zombie story and this one was a nice revisit to the sub-genre!

Rating 7: A fun new zombie apocalypse novel with a protagonist that feels more like a Governor than a Rick (if you know you know), “If We Survive the Night” is unique and gory zombie horror.

Reader’s Advisory:

“If We Survive the Night” would fit in on the Goodreads list “Zombie Apocalypse Books”.