Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens review

Seventeen-year-old Ellery is a non-believer in a region where people swear the supernatural is real. Sure, they’ve been stuck in a five-year winter, but there’s got to be a scientific explanation. If goddesses were real, they wouldn’t abandon their charges like this, leaving farmers like Ellery’s family to scrape by.

Knox is a familiar from the Other World, a magical assistant sent to help humans who have made crossroads bargains. But it’s been years since he heard from his queen, and Knox is getting nervous about what he might find once he returns home. When the crossroads demons come to collect Knox, he panics and runs. A chance encounter down an alley finds Ellery coming to Knox’s rescue, successfully fending off his would-be abductors.

Ellery can’t quite believe what they’ve seen. And they definitely don’t believe the nonsense this unnervingly attractive guy spews about his paranormal origins. But Knox needs to make a deal with a human who can tether him to this realm, and Ellery needs to figure out how to stop this winter to help their family. Once their bargain is struck, there’s no backing out, and the growing connection between the two might just change everything.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

With this being my fourth F.T. Lukens book, its not a surprise to say that I enjoyed Otherworldly. But I was actually really surprised, upon the introduction of Knox–one of our main characters–with how much I immediately liked this book!

Otherworldly opens with Arabelle, a woman who wants to be immortal, leaving an offering at a crossroads for a goddess. When the goddess’ shades–minions, basically–comes to listen to her bargain, they gift her Knox, a magic familiar who can help her learn the secret to living forever.

With neither of our main characters being named Arabelle, I was actually a bit confused by this opening. I was expecting to read a story about Knox and Ellery, so who was this Arabelle? Why was she important to the plot?

Turns out, her story is the perfect place to start Knox and Ellery’s own adventure.

Immediately after this opening, I was left with a mystery that needed to be solved. As his goddess’ creation, Knox had access to his goddess through letters during his stay with Arabelle. But his goddess hadn’t responded to his letters in a while, and he became increasingly worried something was wrong.

So, in the first chance he got, he ran.

He soon runs into–literally–Ellery, our other main character. Ellery is the child of farmers, but a five year long winter has left their farm struggling. In order to help try and save the farm, Ellery moves to the city to get a job, but wishes they could figure out a way to stop winter for good.

Thus, a bargain: Knox will help Ellery stop the winter if Ellery helps Knox experience humanity.

I was really wowed by the setup for Otherworldly and how involved it was. It was obvious that there was a lot of thought put into this world and how the conflict would go, even from the beginning pages of this book, and I was excited to absolutely love this story!

Unfortunately, it did have its downsides.

I found this book to be a bit immature, and I wanted to get into the characters’ heads a bit more as they discussed the plot and how to survive the conflict. Maybe its part of growing up, but YA just hasn’t been hitting the way it should for me recently. While I’ve been loving the idea of YA books, I ultimately keep finding the characters a bit hard to relate to and their thought processes childish. For example, Ellery’s crush on Knox throughout this book felt very school-age and self-conscious, with jealousy and questions of “does he like me???” that had me rolling my eyes at times.

Inversely, while I could understand the reason why these characters took some of the actions they did, I felt as though there could have been more description into their thoughts than this book actually had. There was a bit of reading between the lines to follow their thought processes, while I would have preferred everything to be laid out within the pages of the book, even if it would end up veering into being over-explained instead.

While I still love F.T. Lukens’ writing and the worlds they create throughout these stories, it was obvious as I read Otherworldly that this was not going to be the five star book I had hoped it would be. I really loved the idea of the characters and this world, but the writing style (and possibly age rating, though that’s more my fault than the book’s fault) had me wishing this book was bigger than it was.

Midnight Mayhem (Clover Pack #3) by Savannah Lee review

Friends. Family. Mate.

After living most of my life on the run, I’ve finally found a place I belong. A place to call home, with a mate bond I never expected to have. I’d love nothing more than to enjoy it.

But Queen Tantaii won’t rest until she gets what she wants, the ancient ring that will give her the power to destroy the mortal realm, and everyone in it.

And I have it.

I know she’s lurking, biding her time in the shadows for the perfect moment to strike. She’s the mother from hell, and she knows exactly where to strike to hurt me the most.

But her plan won’t work.

I’m done running. I’m done hiding.

I’ll take the fight to her, and end this. Once and for all.

Midnight Mayhem gets released May 1st, 2024!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

One of the first notes I wrote down while reading this book is “if RowanXCallan has 100 fans, I’m one of them. If RowanXCallan has no fans, I’m dead”, and I feel like that’s a pretty good description of my feelings for this series in general.

I really enjoyed the characters in this series and watching them grow throughout! This author does a really good job at making you care for these characters, whether that’s because she’s about to rip your heart out by killing someone you love _{^{(*glares at Savannah Lee. She knows what she’s done.*)}} or because she’s somehow convinced you to have mixed feelings for someone you thought you hated ^(???).

I also really loved how the relationship between Rowan and Callan has developed throughout the books, surprising absolutely no one. This is not a constructive point to bring up in a book review (just me yelling into the void), but there’s a scene very early on in this book where Rowan’s packing a suitcase and Callan’s quietly staring at her ass that has me screaming every time I think of it. Just thinking of how far they’ve come since the first book, when they were attracted to each other but couldn’t do anything because they weren’t mates……………………….

^*yelling*

I also loved how this book called back to previous books in the series, which really helped show just how far these characters have come! Seeing the allies they’ve made along the way continuing to help, even when readers least expect them to show up? Showing how something seemingly small can amount to so much more??? 👌👌👌

That being said, I do think this book could have benefited from better pacing and a bit more length in general. With so much action going on, there’s no time for readers to take a breath and just enjoy seeing the characters in a way I wish we had gotten. We’re jumping from one major conflict to the next without any time between them, and that felt very overwhelming to read.

With as much as I loved the first two books in this series, I was quite disappointed to find that I felt more neutral about this final book’s plot. While I love the characters and world building Savannah Lee has done in this series, I needed a little more fluff and buildup to this grand final battle before I could absolutely adore this book.

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli review

On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.

Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for.

Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’m sad now.

I’ve been really loving every witch x witch hunter book I’ve picked up recently, so when I saw Heartless Hunter coming out, I knew I needed to grab a copy! I was positive I was going to really enjoy this book, though I am a bit sad to find that I didn’t 100% love it.

Heartless Hunter is the story of Rune, a socialite who spends her nights as the infamous Crimson Moth, a witch helping other witches escape their hunters. In order to gain access to more information about the witch hunters’ plans, she begins flirting with Gideon, a high ranking witch hunter and her best friend’s older brother.

And he, surprisingly, begins flirting back.

I really liked the relationship between Gideon and Rune, despite how “fake” the two promised themselves it was. As characters, these two were really interesting to read about, and I really loved the opposites attract relationship here. A witch and a witch hunter. A rich socialite and a poor seamster. I loved seeing the way these two differed, yet still seemed like a perfect match for the other!

I will say, however, that some of the choices in this book and decisions Rune made throughout seemed a little too convenient for the story. She seemed a lot smarter and genre-savvy than she should have been for the information she had, and there were a few moments than can only be explained by deus ex machina.

That being said, I was very pleasantly surprised by the twist ending of this book! While I could tell certain aspects of the story were going in this direction, there was a large detail I hadn’t considered that brought this entire book together, and I applaud this author for surprising me in that sort of way. I’m very interested in seeing what happens in the sequel, though I do hope the next book is a little bit nicer to Rune and Gideon.

This Day Changes Everything by Edward Underhill review

Abby Akerman believes in the Universe. After all, her Midwest high school marching band is about to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City—if that’s not proof that magical things can happen, what is? New York also happens to be the setting of her favorite romance novel, making it the perfect place for Abby to finally tell her best friend Kat that she’s in love with her (and, um, gay). She’s carefully annotated a copy of the book as a gift for Kat, and she’s counting on the Universe to provide an Epic Scene worthy of her own rom-com.

Leo Brewer, on the other hand, just wants to get through this trip without falling apart. He doesn’t believe the Universe is magical at all, mostly because he’s about to be outed to his very Southern extended family on national TV as the trans boy he really is. He’s not excited for the parade, and he’s even less excited for an entire day of sightseeing with his band.

But the Universe has other ideas. When fate throws Abby and Leo together on the wrong subway train, they soon find themselves lost in the middle of Manhattan. Even worse, Leo accidentally causes Abby to lose her Epic Gift for Kat. So to salvage the day, they come up with a new mission: find a souvenir from every location mentioned in the book for Abby to give Kat instead. But as Leo and Abby traverse the city, from the streets of Chinatown to the halls of Grand Central Station and the top of the Empire State Building, their initial expectations for the trip—and of each other—begin to shift. Maybe, if they let it, this could be the day that changes everything, for both of them.

This Day Changes Everything gets published February 13th, 2024!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’m actually very surprised by how much I liked this book!

Two years ago, I got an ARC of Always The Almost, Edward Underhill’s debut novel, and I… didn’t really like it. I understood the concept in theory and thought it was generally okay, but my hatred for the main character and his tendency to turn himself into a victim drove me to rate the book two stars.

But I thought Edward Underhill deserved a second chance, and so when I saw ARCs available for This Day Changes Everything, I decided I needed to try it out.

The beginning of this book actually wasn’t going well for me. It was bringing up a lot of the same concepts I find in other trans YA books and hate, such as a teen with no support whose entire life sucks and there’s no way to cheer them on. I don’t know what’s with the trend of ONLY trans YA books being so depressing, but I know I’ve talked time and time again about my frustration for not getting any wholesome trans YA stories like I can in adult books.

But then I got 50% of the way through this book and things really turned around!

A lot of that is due to the fact that Leo and Abby, our two main characters, find themselves and their community around the 50% mark. For these two teens growing up in communities where there aren’t really any other people like them and they have no one to talk to about the struggles they’re facing, finding a community was really important! I think this really helped turned this book around from the depressing outlook both Leo and Abby had on life and helped them find joy and magic in the mundane.

If you want a YA book about queerness, finding a community, and the awkwardness of teen feelings and falling in love, I actually really recommend This Day Changes Everything!

How To Dance by Jason B. Dutton review

Nick Freeman works hard as the star of the weekly karaoke night at his bar, hoping his singing talent, quick wit, and winning smile will distract from his cerebral palsy. But one night at the bar, watching a professional dancer light up the dance floor with her boyfriend, he realizes that entertaining strangers will never give him a fraction of the joy he sees in this woman’s eyes.

When Hayley Burke notices Nick’s reaction to her dancing, she urges him to acknowledge his passion and try a few moves himself—only to be mortified when she realizes Nick can only walk with the aid of a metal walker.

As Nick and Hayley fumble through misunderstanding into friendship, Hayley begins to enjoy Nick’s company more than that of her self-centered boyfriend. Nick tries to fight his attraction to Hayley, believing she deserves a dance partner who can move like her boyfriend does—but as Hayley and Nick continue to find their rhythm together, she shows him that “dancing” is about so much more than moving your feet.

How To Dance gets published February 6th, 2024!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I have mixed feelings about this book.

How To Dance tells the story of Nick, a guy who has to use a walker to get around due to his cerebral palsy, and Hayley, a dancer who wants to share with Nick the happiness she gets while dancing. The two start off on the wrong foot, but one of my favorite things about this book was actually the way they end up caring for each other!

Both Nick and Hayley have to work through some personal conflicts throughout the story, which I thought ended up being interesting lessons for readers as well! While Hayley is struggling with her dancing and how she wants it to be integrated into her life, Nick is struggling with the social aspects of cerebral palsy and how his perception of how others view him is negatively impacting his own viewpoint of himself.

But such big issues ended up making the characters feel a little flat, as though they weren’t fully developed people outside of their conflicts and were completely defined by these problems they faced.

I also wasn’t all that into the inclusion of Hayley’s boyfriend, though I understand that he was a big part of her own personal plot. Having Nick and Hayley fall for each other while Hayley had a boyfriend, as well as Hayley’s own wishy-washy decisions about her boyfriend (at one point they seem to break up, and then later, Hayley is angry at Nick for making her boyfriend think she’s actively cheating on him) was one of my least favorite parts of this book.

I did end up enjoying my time with this book enough to give it four stars and I appreciate the lessons this author was trying to share with readers through this book, but I am aware of the fact that it had enough issues to be on the cusp of a three star kind of read for me as well.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood review

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I don’t know a single thing about these Trek Wars and the Star Star, but from a purely bookish viewpoint of The Love Hypothesis: this book was pretty good!

The Love Hypothesis got popular a few years ago for being a… Reylo(?) fanfic turned into its own standalone book. I heard people gushing about it practically everywhere on social media, with so many posts that I decided I had to get my own copy to see if I could understand the hype.

And then I let it sit in my kindle for two years.

But I actually really enjoyed my time reading this book once I finally picked it up!

In The Love Hypothesis, we follow Olive, a PhD student who needs to convince her best friend she’s over her ex so her friend can make a move. She ends up kissing a random person in the halls as her best friend passes by, and is surprised to find that its Adam, a grumpy professor who she is sure is not going to take the sudden kissing well.

Except he does. And he comes up with a plan for them to fake date.

The Love Hypothesis was definitely a fun and kind of silly read! There are a couple moments in the story where we get a little more serious and focus on a conflict I wasn’t expecting out of this book, but I know I definitely enjoyed the wacky hijinks of these two fake dating!

The Getaway List by Emma Lord review

When Riley graduates high school with a rearview of shenanigans but an empty road for a future, she does what they all say to do—pack her bags and head for New York. Her plan is a little loose, but her main goal is to find Tom—her childhood best friend and co-creator of The Getaway List. Years ago, they made a list of all the adventures they wanted to do together, but Tom has been increasingly distant ever since he moved to New York with his famous scriptwriter mom four years ago.

When Riley arrives in New York, her reconnection with Tom is as effortless as it was when they were young—except with one, unexpected complication that will pull Riley’s feelings in a direction she didn’t know they could take. As she, Tom, and their newfound friends work their way through the items on The Getaway List, Riley learns that sometimes the biggest adventure is not one you take, but one you feel in your heart.

The Getaway List gets published January 23, 2024!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The very first thought I had while reading this book was surprise at how similar the main character, Riley, and I were.

It felt as though Emma Lord somehow snuck into my brain and jotted down all my thoughts. Riley’s feelings about graduating high school and her anxiety over her future felt so real, so similar to my own feelings on being an Adult that it was almost terrifying, in a way, to connect with a character as much as I connected with Riley.

Sure of really only one thing in her life, Riley latches onto it–her friendship with Tom, who moved to New York with his mom a few years before the story starts–and begins designing plans to visit him for the weekend. The two had a list of things they wanted to do before he moved away, and Riley plans on doing everything on the list… only to have her plans derailed when she realizes that she feels more like herself in New York than she ever felt at home.

I fall in love with almost every Emma Lord book I read, so it was no surprise to find myself really enjoying Riley and Tom’s story. It’s just so easy to fall in love with all of these books, and I love her tendency to hint at her past books in her new ones, like all these stories are existing simultaneously in this big, lovely world.

It’s easy to fall in love with life in an Emma Lord book.

That being said, The Getaway List isn’t my favorite book by this author. While I loved the characters’ found family vibes and loved seeing Riley find herself in New York, there was just something off that I can’t quite put my finger on. Was it the sometimes-antagonistic relationship between Riley and Tom VS their moms, even though I can understand the parents were just trying their best? Was it Riley and Tom’s relationship, solely because friends-to-lovers is a trope I struggle with?

While I can’t quite explain it, I can say that I really enjoyed this book, and I’m excited for more Emma Lord books in the future!

Beach Read by Emily Henry review

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Emily Henry has a gift for pulling readers in with a very humorous writing style, even if the contents of the book don’t quite match the level of humor.

Beach Read tells the story of January, a woman who finds out at her dad’s funeral that he was cheating on her mom and living an entire second life with another woman. Now the owner of the house he kept secret for years, all she wants to do is sell it and write her next book before the quickly-approaching deadline.

Except she has writer’s block. And she finds out her dad’s neighbor is her college nemesis.

Like I said, there was a lot of humor in this book, which I can attribute more to Emily Henry’s writing style than I can anything particular about this book. This author just writes a lot of weird and silly situations in the backgrounds of these books that have readers hooked until the final page.

Unfortunately, another thing I am finding with Emily Henry’s books is that once they’re done… they’re gone. Immediately after finishing Beach Read, I knew I would never think of this book again. Unless someone asks me about this book, no part of it is ever going to enter my thoughts in the future.

They’re good while you’re reading them, but entirely forgettable once you’re done.

Love, Just In by Natalie Murray review

Sydney TV news reporter Josephine “Josie” Larsen is approaching 30 and coming dangerously close to failing at life. Lost in a vortex of other people’s career milestones, engagement parties, and baby showers, Josie is perennially single, abandoned by her globetrotting family, and invisible to her boss – except for the one time he tuned in while she was mid-panic attack on live TV. As a punishment, Josie is shipped off to cover another reporter’s six-month leave at a regional bureau in Newcastle.

But Josie has more waiting for her in Newcastle than yawn-inducing stories about bicycle lane protests. The city is also the domain of Zac Jameson – her best friend since high school. This should be a happy turn of events, but Zac has barely spoken to Josie for the past two years. Not since his fiancee tragically died in his arms in a car accident and he left Sydney to try and cope with his grief.

Now thrown back into each other’s lives, Josie and Zac have to navigate their neglected friendship and secret attraction to each other while struggling with their careers and mental health.

Love, Just In gets published January 3rd, 2024!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

When I first began this book, I actually wasn’t sure that I was going to like it.

Maybe we can blame it on not really knowing the characters and story. Our main character, Josie, had a panic attack live on her local news due to a cancer scare, has to move to a smaller town to appease her boss, and re-meets her best friend, who she hasn’t talked to two years after his fiancee died. That’s a lot of drama to throw on a reader as soon as they pick up a book!

But one thing that I thought this book did really well were the flashbacks to Josie and Zac’s past.

Every so often, an entire chapter is thrown into our story detailing an event that happened in the past. These events are mostly random, just a small, everyday scene that helps readers understand the relationship between our two main characters and really helps them feel like real, fully-fledged people!

It was also very easy to tell through these flashbacks that Zac had a crush on his best friend. There was so much yearning, even within the first flashback, that I immediately became obsessed with finding out how these two characters would eventually get together!

And the more I came to care for the romance in this book, the more I could care about the characters and Josie’s drama.

Honestly, I think the lesson in this book was a very nice one to read, and I love that this book can be used to help people with health anxiety gain the confidence to get the care they need.

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth review

Bel would rather die than think about the future. College apps? You’re funny. Extracurriculars? Not a chance. But when she accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s basically forced into joining the robotics club. Even worse? All the boys ignore Bel—and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn’t seem to like her either.

Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, while Teo cares too much. But as the nights of after-school work grow longer and longer, Bel and Teo realize they’ve made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made each other and the team better. Because girls do belong in STEM.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

One of my favorite things about YA as a genre is seeing characters find out where they belong. Whether that’s a place, a group of friends, or a hobby they want to pursue as a career, I love seeing people fall in love with their future.

I really enjoyed seeing Bel fall in love with robotics and getting her chance to shine throughout this book. Despite the challenges of being a girl in a male-oriented field and having to prove herself to not only the guys in the group, but also the other girl on the team (who was simultaneously fighting to get her own voice heard by the guys), it was easy to tell that engineering was something Bel loved and excelled in, even if she didn’t know it yet.

That being said, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the romance in this book, which truly felt like its weakest part. As Bel learns to fall in love with engineering, she is also falling for Teo, the captain of the robotics team. There wasn’t anything necessarily wrong with their romance, but when paired alongside a story of female empowerment and girls in STEM, the romance felt basic and lackluster.

I feel like this book’s best quality is how inspiring its storyline is. I can definitely see this book helping teens put their best work into the things they love and put serious consideration into career paths they might not have considered normally, and so I can’t help but really appreciate this story!