Billie Mae Reviews

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas My rating: 5 of 5 stars Another beautiful story from Isabel Cañas! She's quickly becoming one of my favorite horror authors. After Beatriz's father is executed and disgraced, and her family loses everything, she becomes determined to get it back by any means possible in order to give herself and her Mamá a better life without having to rely on people who begrudge them. But unfortunately for Beatriz, she marries into a murderous family and inherits a haunted hacienda that seems determined to scare her to death. When it becomes clear no one will help her, she turns to the only person she can. A really hot, witch priest. The author left just enough breadcrumbs that you can sort of guess what might have happened, and be right, but when you get the full spectrum of what actually happened, you're like oh shiiiiit. The horror was so well done that you can totally feel Beatriz's terror. If that's not enough to convince you, I repeat: hot, witch priest. View all my reviews

The Mummy by Anne Rice My rating: 3 of 5 stars So....this is what The Mummy could have been? Interesting. Ngl, the movie will always be my favorite but the idea of Evie falling for Imhotep instead of Rick is interesting. Blasphemy, but interesting. I don't have much to say about the book itself tbh. This was certainly one of my least favorite of Anne Rice's works, but it was still entertaining. Some rich asshole unearths a mummy that happens to be Ramses the Great, who has taken an elixir which gives him immortal life. He later makes the mistake of resurrecting his lost love, Cleopatra, and she ends up coming back as a half-crazed zombie. So, that's fun. View all my reviews

Peach Girl, Vol. 4 by Miwa Ueda My rating: 4 of 5 stars In this one, Momo and Toji end up getting together (ง •̀_•́)ง They date throughout the summer and still haven't smooched. Sae has turned into a paper person, which I find hilarious. Momo joins a booster team, and even though she feels like the girls are using her, I enjoyed their friendship. Ngl, Toji's sad haircut and Kiley growing out his hair really emphasised how much cuter Kiley is than Toji. Sae catching Goro's attention is infuriating, especially given his immediate judgment of Momo. Very curious how this series will end things with her tbh. View all my reviews

The Night and Its Moon by Piper C.J. My rating: 1 of 5 stars The Night and Its Moon is advertised as a sapphic love story about star-crossed lovers, destined to be together but doomed to be apart due to tragic circumstances. In actuality, it's a convoluted pile of purple word salad, racism, and misogyny. It's also 100% Witcher fanfiction. I'm aware this is Piper CJ's debut novel, written in February 2022, but it reads very similarly to A Chill in the Flame and A Frozen Pyre, which came out in November 2024 and August 2025. Piper has shown little to no improvement in her writing craft whatsoever. Her editor is either not doing their job or is very, very bad at their job. I'm not sure which. Not only has the writing itself not improved, but Piper has clearly not unpacked her own internalised racism and misogyny because this is just as bad as her most recent publications. The Night and Its Moon focuses on Amaris and Nox and their respective journeys. They both grew up in a child mill masquerading as an orphanage. Despite the church making regular visits to this orphanage, they somehow haven't discovered that the matrons are selling these orphans to do child labour, be child brides, or to brothels. Or if they have, they don't give a fuck. Very few of these children get to find a family and have a happy story. Nox is the only person of colour in this orphanage/mill, described as bronze-skinned and tanned, but in the character art, she is depicted as South Asian. She is the serving girl to the head matron and Amaris's unofficial guardian. Amaris is albino, with lavender eyes and has such pure, pristine skin that the matrons refuse to let her do 'hard labour' because they don't want to mar her skin. (more on that later.) Eventually, Amaris is sold into a brothel, and she and Nox make plans to run away together. Things don't go according to plan, they separate, and Nox ends up going to the brothel in Amaris' place, while Amaris convinces a Reever(aka a Witcher) to take her away. From this point onward, there is a lot of time-jumping. Amaris trains at Uaimh Reev to become a Reever, but all she actually does is run up and down a mountain. We jump from when she first arrived, to when she started training, to 3-5 years later, when she's 18 and ready to take her vows. Nox, meanwhile, has been living her life as a sex slave. I'm going to touch more on Nox and her arc a bit further down because I have a lot to say. In actuality, there isn't much plot. After Amaris finishes training, she goes on her first dispatch, meets some faeries, and learns they're cursed, and then goes to try and talk to the queen, only to realise the queen cursed them, and is made to fight a dragon. While Nox just...searches for Amaris and has a ton of awful things happen to her. Over 500 pages in this book, and that is literally the entirety of the plot. Oh, at some point, they go to a temple, which I guess is their church? And they worship an all-mother, yet everything is sexist as hell, despite there being a queen ruling and a female goddess as their main deity? There's a Black priestess who is only there to offer sage advice and magical wisdom; she's never even named. (But it's definitely giving Nenneke at the Temple of Melitele.) CHECK MY GOODREADS FOR THE REST View all my reviews

Savage Blooms by S.T. Gibson My rating: 4 of 5 stars pre-review alright, i'm mentally preparing for this book to be fucked up and wild as hell. 😂 -- plot Savage Blooms focuses on Adam Lancaster as he travels to a haunted estate in Scotland called Craigmar. His grandfather has told him stories about this magical place all his life and as his grandfather has passed, Adam decides to go on a pilgramage to see this place in order to learn more about the man that was so close to him. He brings his best friend, Nicola, along for the ride and eventually the two of them are swept up in a spiderweb of faeries, generational curses, and kinky sex. my thoughts Okay, so, while this book is marketed as an erotic horror, it didn't have enough horror to my liking. It definitely had that gothic horror atmosphere to it and that sense of dread that would accompany a story such as this, but I kept wanting it to be a bit scarier than it was. I felt like it was focused moreso on the erotic rather than the horror, which is fine, I just would've preferred the opposite. I also had a hard time figuring out if Craigmar was influencing everyone to be so horny or if that's just how they all were normally, lmfaooo. There were times when something scary would happen and their solution to calm down is to have a bdsm lesson, and I'm just like okaaaaaay???? I also wish the author would've actually gone full freak shit with her erotica because it comes off as too clinical sometimes. Like I appreciate that we want our characters to all be consenting to what's happening here, but maybe if it had been more clear that it was Craigmar influencing them to sleep with each other, that wouldn't have been necessary. Idk, it just took me out of the story when Nicola was like no anal, please hahahahhaha. But I absolutely loved reading about the mystery behind Craigmar and the curse of the Kirkfoyles. I would've ate up an entire book just about that. I loved Eileen as a character. She's devious and manipulative and I'm fascinated by her and want to learn more about her. She was my favorite character, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed by the finale to her grand plan. I was hoping for something a little more evil(like she was actually intending to sacrifice him) because WHAT DO YOU MEAN FINLEY, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR HER?!?! Anyway, can't wait for the sequel. :) View all my reviews

Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay My rating: 3 of 5 stars Meh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it was alright. I wish the serial killers were more exciting tbh. I loved book one so much and the others haven't managed to live up to it yet. View all my reviews

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling My rating: 2 of 5 stars This was always my favorite in the series. I loved the introduction of the Time Turner and the Animagi. Now, I realize the time-turner logistically doesn't make a lot of sense, what with the whole grandfather paradox thing it creates. But, still a fun idea. I also love the introduction of the Marauder's and the Map, but how did the Weasley's never realize that Peter was sleeping in Ron's bed every night?? I love how the only idea for punishment wizards have is to put everyone in a giant prison with soul sucking demons that make you feel misery for the rest of your days. like what do they do with people who just did like super minor crimes? do wizards go to jail for theft? do they even need to steal things like food? as sad as I am for lupin that he can't find a job because he's a werewolf(also wtf is up with the correlation to aids in this??) why did dumbledore think it was a good idea to hire a werewolf to work with a bunch of children, and not let anyone know? I get that it's a stigma that could ruin his career but it's also putting a bunch of kids in danger?? also, I still want to know what was up with Vernon's parents because how they produce two absolute demons? Marge is also satan incarnate. View all my reviews

Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree My rating: 5 of 5 stars Travis Baldree is the only man I trust to write female-led fantasy books. I'm glad I read Goblins and Greatcoats before this because I loved knowing that Zyll was just fucking with everyone the entire time. Fern reciting the tale of the necromancer to Astryx made me cry!! You just know that was her finding her calling, and I just kept waiting for her to realize it. While the first two books were more stationary, focused on fixing up the coffee shop/bookstore, this is definitely more a little mini-adventure for Fern. 10/10 I could read a million of these. View all my reviews

Goblins & Greatcoats by Travis Baldree My rating: 5 of 5 stars I would die for Zyll. View all my reviews

Laurie by C.G. Drews My rating: 5 of 5 stars Love knowing that Hazelthorn and Don't Let the Forest In are in the same universe and that Laurie also went to Wickwood. Honestly, highly recommend reading Don't Let the Forest In, then Hazelthorn, then this. Very cool how it all came together and had me going 'OOOOOOH!!!!!!' View all my reviews

Thomas by C.G. Drews My rating: 5 of 5 stars Honestly, I could read a whole book on Thomas just terrorizing all of Andrew's bullies. Another amazing story. View all my reviews

Hazelthorn by C.G. Drews My rating: 5 of 5 stars Everything C.G. Drews writes is incredible. This was so creepy and so fucked up and so gross in the best possible way. View all my reviews

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare My rating: 4 of 5 stars So I enjoyed Clockwork Prince far more than Clockwork Angel. The book isn’t very plot-heavy and way more character-focused, but I’m not mad about it. I enjoy reading about them even though I don’t particularly love them all. (Seriously, though, like Mortmain doesn't show up through the whole book, and it's mainly the characters going from place to place and just learning some information.) View all my reviews

The Dawn of the Cursed Queen by Amber V. Nicole My rating: 1 of 5 stars I apologize in advance for what will surely be another long af rant review. I listened to the audiobook, thinking it would make getting through this book a bit easier. Shockingly, it made it worse. What the hell was that voice she was doing for Nismera? It's literally like a Power Rangers villain, literally sounds like Rita Repulsa, or a bad English dub of an anime villain. Also, the term 'I hate/hated it/myself/everything.' is said over 200 times, and each time the narrator said it, I wanted to die. -- Well, here we are again. Book 3. Dawn of the Cursed Queen. Some of you may be wondering why I keep reading this series if I hate it so much. I'll tell you why. It's because I'm not a quitter. If I start something, goddammit, I have to finish it. Having said that, the writing has not improved whatsoever. It almost seems like we just published the first, maybe second, rough draft with very minimal editing. I really want to know what the fuck the editor of this series is even doing. Like, it’s really their fault this book flows so fucking poorly. There are so many words that need to be removed, changed, or added to improve the flow. Complete lack of contractions, tons of instances where characters and creatures are introduced with no explanation or description as to who they are, how they are relevant to the story, or what they look like. Statements that are just inherently wrong. Words that are misused. I found out that the editor did the first book for free, which tracks considering how poorly that book is written and edited, but this series is trad-published now, so she should have money to pay her editors. Why are these books not improving?? I have a bunch of in-universe questions, but if I ask them all, I'll never get through this review, so I'm going to leave you with these two. How, exactly, is a brain-eating zombie worse than a flesh-eating zombie? Wtf is the difference? And, why do elves have mauve skin and tails in this universe? CHECK MY GOODREADS FOR THE REST OF THE REVIEW. View all my reviews

The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten My rating: 5 of 5 stars WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCK. So the last 80 pages just had me in tears the whole damn time. Loved the trilogy as a whole. I definitely think this book was a bit slow in the first half but the last portion was good. I loved the ending. Without giving too much away, it was a nice change of pace from how that type of ending usually plays out in romantasies. The main thing I want to gush about is Alie. spoilers I LOVE how Hannah manages to almost trick the reader into thinking Jax might not be that bad of a guy but the second Alie decides to accept him, he shows that he hasn't changed at all. AND SHE KILLS HIS ASS. I have been dying to see that happen in a book for soooo long. I felt so god damn vindicated. I also loved when she admits to Bastian that she could have very easily fallen for him despite the fact that he was a horrible person. He was handsome and he had a mask of charm and he was kind to her, but beneath it all he's still the same man who murdered his father and ripped out Gabe's eye. He's still a conqueror who wants to take over a bunch of countries and wage war on them. She could overlook that if she wanted to, but Alie is an actual person with morals and who cares about other people so she does what she has to do and I fucking love that about her. Honestly, if Hannah Whitten wants to write a novella on Alie and Finn falling in love and going on sexy pirate adventures together that would be totally fine with me. Thank you, good bye. View all my reviews

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas My rating: 5 of 5 stars 10/10 beautiful. View all my reviews

The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice My rating: 4 of 5 stars Loved the third-person perspective. These books are wild, honestly. Lestat is so funny to me; I love how full of himself he is, and then when he finally meets his match, he weeps like a baby. It was interesting to read about the Talamasca; the twins' tale was absolutely insane and pretty upsetting. It was nice seeing what happened to Daniel and Armand after IWTV. This book was slow to get through, mainly because it's basically just kind of like Anne Rice's vampire world-building/historical info-dumping, and if you're into that kind of thing, then you'll really like this book. Truthfully, not a lot actually happens. The first 200 or so pages are spent catching up with various characters who have been seen before or are important later. There's a POV from Marius, some dude named Khayman, Daniel, Jesse from the Talamasca and more. If you came here because you liked the Queen of the Damned movie and were hoping for a spicy romance between Lestat and Jesse, then you'll be disappointed. Because that's exactly why I read this book the first time around, and I was mad as hell. Anyway, I liked it. View all my reviews