Tag: Romantasy

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Book: “Shield of Sparrows” by Devney Perry

Publishing Info: Red Tower Books, May 2025

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

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

Book Description: Long ago, the gods unleashed monsters upon the five kingdoms of Calandra to remind us that humans are insignificant—that we must pray to the gods for mercy throughout our fragile, fleeting lives.

I didn’t need a deity to remind me I was powerless. Being a princess had never been more than a performance—twenty-three years of empty titles and hollow traditions. My sister revels in the spectacle, basking in the attention and flawlessly playing her part. I was never asked to be part of the charade.

Until the day an infamous monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince walked into my father’s throne room and ruined my life. The day I married a stranger, signed a magical treaty in blood, and set off across the continent to the most treacherous kingdom in all the realm.

That was the day I learned that not all myths are make-believe. That lies and legends are often the same. And that the only way to kill the monsters we fear was to become one…

Review: I was approached by the publicist to read and review this book, so I’ll be honest, I knew next to nothing about it going in. I had the vague understanding that the author was fairly prolific in the contemporary romance world, but as I read very little of that genre, I’d never checked out any of her books. Beyond that, the book summary look interesting, but also fairly generic. Well, let this be a lesson to never write anyone off! This was one of those books where I ended up binge reading it late into the night over two nights total!

I’m always a bit nervous when an author unfamiliar to the genre decides to tackle fantasy. Will they understand the conventions of the genre? Will they be be able to add something unique and not become mired in generic tropes? I think these are valid concerns. But not only did Perry prove me wrong in these concerns, but I think she also highlighted a key factor in why the romantasy genre may need MORE cross-over authors.

Romantasy is a super popular, fairly new genre, and as such, publishers are whipping out new titles as fast as they can without a steady list of veteran authors to pull from. And over the last few years, this desire to catch the bandwagon has produced a run of books where it feels like debut authors were not given the proper editing support they needed or titles were picked up that really had no business being published in their current state. And lacking many veteran voices in the genre, this can lead to the feeling that the genre as a whole is a bit shaky as far as quality goes. Perry illustrates how an experienced author with numerous books under her belt can elevate even the most mundane romantasy tropes and produce a book that feels like a breath of fresh air to the genre!

So, now I’ve written several paragraphs and not really talked about this book at all! But let’s start with the characters. Right off the bat, I liked the variation in the main character from the typical leading lady we see. There are a million and one feisty, snarky, fighter FMCs in romantasy. Instead, we follow the overlooked sister, Odessa, who has her rather dull life already plotted out before her. So when she’s thrust into the role of new Queen and secret spy, she’s totally unprepared. And by that I mean…actually unprepared! She doesn’t suddenly reveal incredible powers of fighting prowess or the skillset to properly infiltrate a foreign nation. We see her flounder her way through the “spying” again and again, and the book devotes a healthy amount of time to her attempts to learn to fight. By the end of the book, it’s been months, and it’s clear that while she can now pull off basic moves, she’s by no means a powerhouse. Instead, her strengths are found in her resilience, her empathy for those around her, and her bravery in the face of a world of new dangers and unknowns.

I also really enjoyed the romance and the romantic lead! It’s easy for the readers to guess the real situation, but I particularly appreciated the care that was taken with the main character’s handling of this situation. Odessa’s attempts to balance her obligations, bond with the man she believes to be her husband, and deal with her growing attraction for another all feel believable and sympathetic. I’ve seen this sort of set up go very wrong in the past, and I was glad to see that avoided here.

I also have to give a shout out to the creativity and complexity to the plot line and the world-building. While there is a heavy focus on the romance, it’s definitely of the slow-burn variety, which leaves a lot of page time freed up. And instead of the fluff that I feel like I often see in books like this, here we get not only a rich world, full of creative and horrific monsters, but also a detailed history and political situation that took several twists and turns towards the back half of the book that I didn’t see coming! I was also impressed by the author’s dedication to portraying the horror that would be living in this world. There are terrible monsters filling this land, and that being the case, terrible things often happen to those who live in it. There were a few scenes that definitely had me tearing up! Again, it was gratifying to read a romantasy that took its world-building seriously, even when that lead to rough situations and scenes.

So, shocking no one at this point, you can see that I really enjoyed this one! It took me completely by surprise and now not only can I not wait for the sequel, but I’m even thinking about checking out some of this author’s contemporary romance books (if I can find the time to escape my massive TBR!). If you’re a romantasy fan who’s aching for a book with a bit more meat on the bones, this is definitely one to check out. That said, it does end on a cliffhanger of sorts, so go in knowing you’ll have a wait for any real conclusion (talking to my aunt here!)!

Rating 9: A perfect example of the highs that the romantasy genre can reach when in the hands of a skilled author! Swoon-worthy romance, rich world-building, and an fast-moving plot that doesn’t let up!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Shield of Sparrows” isn’t currently on any Goodreads lists, but it should be on Romantasy TBR 2025.

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

Book: “Behooved” by M. Stevenson

Publishing Info: Bramble, May 2025

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

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

Book Description: Bianca knows her duty comes before her heart. So when the threat of war looms, she agrees to marry the neighboring kingdom’s heir. But not all royal weddings are a fairytale, and Prince Aric, Bianca’s betrothed, is cold, aloof, and seems to hate her on sight.

To make matters worse, on their wedding night, an assassination attempt goes awry―leaving Aric magically transformed into a horse. Bianca does what any bride in this situation would do: she mounts her new husband and rides away to safety.

Sunset returns Aric to human form, but they soon discover the assassination attempt is part of a larger plot against the throne. Worse, Bianca has been framed for Aric’s murder, and she’s now saddled with a husband who is a horse by day and a frustratingly attractive man by night.

As an unexpected romance begins galloping away with their hearts, Bianca and Aric must rely on each other to unravel the curse and save the throne.

Review: Right off the bat, the comparisons to “My Lady Jane” are inescapable! Who knew there could be two fantasy novels where the love interest is cursed to turn into a horse by day?? Unfortunately, while this one did have a few high points, I mostly set it down wishing that stupid Amazon hadn’t cancelled the “My Lady Jane” show!

I do think this book is at its best when it was leaning into its romcom elements. The absurdity, the banter, and the swift-moving romance are all best appreciated in line with tropes found romcoms. In these moments, the characters were amusing and the love story sweet, if a bit underdeveloped. On the other hand, I think the book struggled when approached from a fantasy perspective. There simply wasn’t enough “there” there. The magic system was incredibly ill-defined and there were many plot moments where, if you allowed your brain to turn back on, you’d be left scratching your head.

I also struggled to enjoy the main character. While I appreciate the author’s creation of a character who suffers from chronic illness, I think the execution was too heavy handed to be very effective. In the first few chapters, especially, it feels as if this is the only aspect of Bianca’s character that anyone cares about, including Bianca herself! It’s referenced a truly boggling number of times in a very small number of pages. Of course, this is an important part of her life and is a source of friction between her and her parents, who see this only as a weakness. However, I began to feel as if Bianca didn’t have anything else making up her character either, defining herself completely around this one aspect of herself, which seems completely contrary to how one should understand people who live with chronic illnesses.

I also struggled with the romance itself. Alas, the story leans heavily into the miscommunication trope, one of the banes of my existence. The wild leaps of logic were truly baffling at times. For example, on the night of the attack, Aric and Bianca are both attacked. But for some reason Aric goes on to think that Bianca was behind it all? And, as is so often the case with this trope, much of the confusion and animosity between them could have easily been solved with a few very short conversations.

Overall, this was an ok read. Strangely, this is one of those cases where I feel like the book would have been better served to have leaned more fully into the comedy aspects of the story. The attempts at serious fantasy elements or its handling of important themes all became stumbling blocks to my enjoyment of the book. That said, straight romcom readers may enjoy this one more than me! Especially if you don’t care as much about the fantasy portions of the story!

Rating 7: While the book did have some sweet and funny moments, I struggled to enjoy it due to its weaker main character and the heavy use of the miscommunication trope.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Behooved” can be found on this Goodreads list:2025 Cozy Fantasy Romance

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

Book: “Inked in Ashes” by Shannon Mayer

Publishing Info: Kindle edition, April 2025

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

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

Book Description: I’ve spent twenty-five years in the Hollow, poor as dirt, cursed with a stepmother who hates me, and dreaming about a faraway land that I don’t understand. Only two things that make life worth living are my falcon, Fetch, and my best friend, Molly.

But when Moll’s plot to land a royal husband at the palace ball goes horribly wrong, I find myself staring at a king with a glass stiletto buried in his chest and a blood-covered Molly standing over him. We’ve got to move…and fast, or we’ll both wind up swinging from the hangman’s noose.

Worse? The palace sorcerer is using everything he can to find the culprit including raising the dead.

More complicated? Duncan…brother to the King, whose eye I’ve unintentionally caught, a man whose secrets might be deadlier than the undead soldiers breathing down our necks, is making me second-guess everything I’ve ever known. With revolution brewing and a mysterious man calling to me from my dreams, I have no choice but to embrace my fate…But what if my fate is beyond anything I could ever imagine? What if the only land I’ve ever known isn’t home at all?

What if I’m trapped inside a fairytale, and the only way out…is through?

Review: Any one who is familiar with my reviews will understand immediately why I was interested in checking this book out, based on the description above! Always love me some fairytale action! And this one had a super unique take, with essentially one fairytale set within another. The opening sequence which set up the book and this premise was fantastic, laying out high stakes, a great villain, and introducing some of the magic of this world. The story then shifts to the “inner story” and we pick up with our main character.

First of all, I really enjoyed Harmony. It was refreshing to follow a protagonist who not only is an adult but who is also looking at life through an adult’s viewpoint. Her early interactions with her friend Moll perfectly speak to that rather panicky stage that can happen in one’s twenties when you look around and realize life is going on, you’re aging, and you need to get your shit together. Of course, Harmony and Moll’s stakes are much higher than your average person in our world!

Again, no surprise for those who know my preferences, but I loved the heavy focus on the sister-like bond between Harmony and Moll. This relationship served as a healthy balance point to the romance. Too often in stories like this the love story seems to overwhelm every other aspect of a character’s personality. But by having Moll as such an important and crucial part of Harmony’s life, Harmony herself remains a fully realized character throughout.

I also really enjoyed all of the nods to fairytale tropes and plot points. Some are more subtle than others, but it was always fun running up against a new one! That said, for all of the the light-hearted moments, the author definitely didn’t shy away from the more awful aspects of fairytales as well. Right from the start, it’s clear that this is a violent, dangerous world, and that doesn’t let up throughout. The story itself follows a fairly predictable fantasy plot line, but the pacing was steady and quick, so I never found myself losing interest.

Overall, this was a fun, fast read. It fully took advantage of its fairytale setting and by the end I was excited to see where the story would go from here! Fans of fairytale fantasies should definitely give this one a shot!

Rating 8: Brimming with whimsy and romance, “Inked in Ashes” is fresh fairytale fantasy that is sure to please fans of the genre!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Inked in Ashes” isn’t on any Goodreads lists currently, but it should be on Twisted Fairytales.

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

Book: “The Never List” by Jade Presley

Publishing Info: Red Tower Books, April 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from publicist!

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

Book Description: Threatened by invaders, the kingdom of Lumathyst is on the verge of chaos, and no one can stop it. Unless the four immortal god-princes find their fated mate―and safeguard the throne―Lumathyst will fall.

Five women have tried. Five have failed. And tonight in the royal city, the princes need to find their Chosen and hope she can survive the transformation that will make her immortal.

Only Rylee Gray wasn’t supposed to be here. She snuck in for her own dark reasons―and now they claim they’ve found their perfect match. Her. Of course, they have no idea she’s concealing a secret big enough to damn them all.

The four princes have no choice. They’ll use every delectably wicked skill they have to make Rylee fall for all of them…or watch their kingdom collapse.

Review: So, I’ll be honest, I’m not really a fan of “Why Choose” romances. I usually struggle with them both on a personal preference side of things (I’m a monogamy gal myself) and on a practical level (I think it’s very difficult to write a number of romantic interests who all are equally developed and interesting). But I never want to write off a trope altogether. Love triangles are also not my thing, but I can think of a handful of books that used this trope that I very much enjoyed! So all of that to say, I was happy to check out this book when I was offered an ARC for review! Hope lives eternal!

I’m going to try to review this both from my own subjective take and from a more objective angle, as, again, those who love “why choose” romances are going to have a totally different experience of that aspect of this book than I did. So to start with the obvious positives, this book was incredibly fast moving! Things get started right away and never really let up! Probably not surprising when you have the primary plot to get through, plus the introduction of an entire cast of characters, all who need to be developed enough to serve as romantic interests! While I think the balance was off between the spice and the plot, I will say that what we do get of the trials was interesting and fun to follow.

Our main character, Rylee, was also easy to root for throughout. Between these flare-ups of fun action scenes and the fast moving pace, at the best points in my reading experience, this book reminded me of my experiences reading Armentrout’s books: that is, they’re fun in that “kind of stupid, turn your brain off” sort of way. But still fun!

However, as I mentioned above, this book definitely struggles finding the correct balance between the smut scenes and the plot itself. There were often large jumps in time between scenes, and between that the rather thin descriptions that make up the actual plot elements themselves, it sometimes felt like we were just jumping from one spicy scene to the next. Nothing wrong with some spice, but I never want to pick up a book and feel like that makes up over 50% of the book, and this one felt over that even at times!

I also struggled with the type of tropes used here. I went on a bit of a rant about mix and matching romance tropes and where that can go wrong in another review recently. And I think here we see another example of that. On one hand, you have the “why choose” trope where the FMC ends up in a relationship with numerous love interests. And on the other hand, you have “fated mates,” which is, by definition, tied up in exclusivity and the rarity of the connection between one individual and another. Trying to mix the two waters down the appeal of both, in my opinion. Not to mention, I just don’t think the core fans of either of these tropes are also often huge fans of the other! Like I said, there’s an inherent contradiction between these tropes’ approach to romance, one that would like carry over to readers’ preferences. All of this to say, I’m not sure this book really pulled this off either. The fated mates trope, especially, felt like it was missing the mark of what readers may expect from that sort of romance.

Overall, this was an ok read. I don’t think I’m the primary audience for this one, so I can’t speak to strongly for how fans of “why choose” romances will react. I suspect well! The book is a fast, fun read, so if you’re on board for the tropes at its heart, you’ll probably like it. That said, there’s a pretty stark imbalance between the plot and the spice, so readers should go in aware of that fact.

Rating 7: “Why choose” romance readers will likely really enjoy this! I’m not sure it will speak to “fated mates” fans in quite the same way.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Never List” can be found on this Goodreads list: April 2025 Most Anticipated Romance Releases.