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Jaymin Eve

If you know me, you know I’m a simp for a wolf shifter romance, and so I was super excited to start this smutty series. Originally published in 2020, these new paperback editions were re-released in 2025 and include the art from the original covers within the endpapers. Overall I had fun reading this series, if you’re looking for something easy to consume, but it sort of becomes a slog by the third book.

Rejected (2025)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️

Mera Callahan is a 22 year old wolf on the cusp of her first shift. Her pack, based in Northern California, have treated her like an outcast since she was a child, thanks to her father attempting to challenge the Alpha. When her first shift occurs, she finds out she also has a true mate, who hates her guts like the rest of her pack, and her mournful howl opens up a different dimension. That’s how she meets their wolf shifter god, the Shadow Beast, who is puzzled by how he has been summoned, and spirits Mera away. During this journey she meets creatures from all the different universes, and learns that there is a greater plan to why she was kidnapped.

I thought this was a mostly unique shifter story, with creative world-building, and an entertaining cast of characters. Mera was hilarious, and I enjoyed her feisty banter with the Shadow Beast. I also really enjoyed the sexual tension between the two of them. The book does end on a cliffhanger, however!

Reclaimed (2026)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️🌶️

In the sequel, Mera finds herself reverse kidnapped by her pack and in a rage, summons shadow powers that call into question if she’s really a wolf shifter or something greater. With these new powers, Mera finds herself on a quest with the Shadow Beast and her supernatural bff Angel as they try to reclaim the Shadow realm from evil forces.

Everything gets a whole lot crazier for Mera in this book, including her relationship with Shadow. Her humor really detracts from the seriousness of the plot and kind of ruins the romance. Didn’t like this as much as the first book, and it ends on an even more devastating cliffhanger.

Reborn (2026)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

In the final book, Mera is stuck with her pack once more in a daze while she tries to figure out something terribly wrong with her world. She struggles to find her way back to the Library of Knowledge, and rebuild the shattered heart of the Shadow Beast. After rekindling their love, they once again have to prepare and set off for the Shadow realm in order to take down a creator of worlds who is upsetting the balance of the entire galaxy.

Sable Sorensen

Here’s a double book review for you all, after finishing both books in the series so far. A third book is coming sometime next year, hopefully that will be the last one as I’m not sure I’ve really loved this series.

Dire Bound (2025)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

I oscillated between my views on this novel, until literally the very end where many of my concerns were resolved. However, the glaring issue I have is the basis of this book: romanticizing a military regime. Initially, Meryn finds the Bonded repugnant, all the money spent on Nocturna’s version of the military industrial complex completely disdainful. Yet, as she is slowly indoctrinated we find her parroting opinions like absolving soldiers of actions imparted on behalf of nobility (when clearly Bonded soldiers choose to be there), justifying torture as a routine part of war, and embracing negative reinforcement as a part of her training method with Stark.

Several plot twists were scented from the beginning of my read—Stark being her soulmate, the children actually being stolen by her own kingdom, Meryn becoming alpha as well as many common tropes: only one bed at the inn, “who hurt you”, etc. While the writing style reads engagingly and with a certain amount of charisma, it’s blunt and choppy quite often with several grammatical errors. The vibe of the story overall feels bombastic, I would not call the writing elegant. It’s like the Die Hard of romantasy novels which some people prefer that style but it ends up feeling a bit juvenile to me. Yet, the parts of grief about her mother were eloquent and poignant.

Now, the Pinesol Prince (mfer always smelling like the clean scent of pine) was a twist I couldn’t have predicted. He was one of my biggest issues, with his actions feeling so possessive and gross. I hated his pet name for her, hated how dominant he was sexually—when he’s already royalty, that’s not an attractive kink anymore. And then him proposing to her right after her mom died! It all felt wrong but I couldn’t place it, and yet it all makes sense in the end. That aspect of the story was some masterful writing, crafting the ultimate villain. But sleeping with the enemy FOR THE WHOLE BOOK is so traumatizing. I can’t imagine rereading this book as a smut. Once you know Pinesol Prince’s evil, your pussy will shrivel up reading those scenes a second time.

I do think that in the end the book is building towards something powerful, with a more interesting magical system coming into play. Anessa also reveals that the utter brutality of the military and the Bonded is by design under Brightbane, and not the kind of Kingdom that Meryn has to embrace or mimic. So, while that does make me think perhaps the authors aren’t trying to glamorize militaristic violence, they’ve spent 600 pages writing a love letter to it.

Fury Bound (2026)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Kaylee Archer

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️

This book takes off with a jolt, being one of the most action-packed novels I’ve read all year. A riveting paranormal romance set in Victorian times, the story revolves around Cordelia—a young and powerful witch—who is kidnapped from her manor by werewolves. We go from one fight scene of her capture to her being prisoner of the Albion Pack, to several more epic fight scenes before the end of the first book.

Jordan Lynde

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

This debut novel is an ode to true love that dedicates each and every page to its dark song. The story begins with Eleanor being miserably betrayed and falling into desperation, with pleas that attract the notice of an otherworldly stranger that promises to fulfill her deepest desires. And yet, this stranger, Enver, is devoid of almost all emotions, unable to reciprocate any of her feelings. Pulled into his world, Eleanor / Nell must fight her way through a labyrinth filled with other people also puzzling their way out, lest they become eternal servants to the cursed castle in which they are trapped. While Enver serves as her captor, he is also her lover, showing her all the ways in which she can be pleasured.

Elizabeth May

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

A brand new fantasy based in a world of gods and mortals, this story begins after a brutal war between the two of them, which then requires the human royal family to pay in blood sacrifice as a means to maintain peace between the two realms. Bryony Devaliant, young princess of Hellevig, savagely broods over how much she hates the god-king that has forced her into ritual suicide for the safety of her people. After he strips his divine blessing from her, her life quickly turns upside down.

This story would have gotten four stars from me if it weren’t so predictable. As soon as I found out Evander was a prince, I knew how this shit is ending—Bryony claimed by him and them ruling his lands side by side. Then, when Theodora mentions how she met Bastien, I also knew exactly what the second book would be about: their love story. On top of an extremely predictable plot, the story is just a whole lot of nothing going on. Bryony hangs out in a palace and learns some blade work while the world sort of self destructs. We never get ANY kind of closure on the demigod black market; it’s as if that part of the plot is completely forgotten.

Lee Nichols

ADVANCE REVIEW COPY

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️

Thank you to the publisher for providing this advance copy for review, via NetGalley. This is the first book in the Fae Isle Trilogy and follows the story of two childhood friends who are from an island off the coast of Maine. Their community is full of people who are descendants of faeries, and possess small gifts of magic. The story begins when twenty nine year old Pandora returns home for the summer to enjoy time with her family, friends, and possibly discover her magical “gift.” Traumatized as a teenager by her childhood love for reasons related to these possible gifts, Pan denies she needs or even wants one, and is adequate just the way she is.

Leo, a rare bookseller and Pan’s jilted lover, returns around the same time, guided by his gift. He runs into Pan very unexpectedly and finds himself awash with intense feelings. The first half of the story involves the two of them repairing their relationship, and the second half joins them together in trying to handle the chaos that soon takes over their hometown. Accompanied by their three other childhood friends, Pan and Leo face hard decisions on how to help their magical community.

While I enjoy the lighthearted charm of this story, the narration is a bit disjointed. Pan’s chapters are told in the first person, as if being read from her diary, while Leo’s are written in third person. The story would read more consistently if the narration were uniform. The plot is also rather linear, and there isn’t very much to add more complexity to the story. I also found it really frustrating that the first time Pan and Leo rekindle their romance is completely edited out, behind closed doors. That seemed like it could have been a special moment and a good opportunity to add more steam to the story.

Delemhach

ADVANCE REVIEW COPY

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to the publisher for providing this advance copy for review, via NetGalley. I was very excited to read this new series, as i have read seven of Delemhach’s book thus far, barring the ether witch storyline. The House Witch was the first book that motivated me to submit my first review on StoryGraph, so I’m happy to be able to write one for this latest title.

The Dues and Dont’s of Magic is an ambitious book, a touch stern and somber compared to Delemhach’s other books. It boasts a more complex magic system, as well as social and political commentary. The book takes place in a world that has recently transitioned from persecuting magical folk to slowly striving to integrate them with normal humans. The two main characters, Ben and Spidena, meet when Ben seeks out memory altering magic. They have an extremely rocky start to their relationship: Spidena is abrasive, loud, rude, and arrogant. Ben is cagey, mysterious, and ignorant to magical people. I found myself really bothered by Spidena so the author succeeded in getting her personality across!

Unfortunately, neither of these characters had grown on me by the end of the book. Spidena was talented and persevering, and Ben seemed to try to adapt to his situation. But nothing about the either of them seemed endearing. They both have tragic back stories and their personalities just seemed cold. The real art came in the supporting characters—the little mushroom sprite, the intelligent raven, the magical duck. The friendly people they met on their journey were also more charming than the MC’s. The circumstances of their situation truly DRAGGED them along this story. They were constantly victims of chaos as they traveled.

Robyn Abbott

ARC REVIEW

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to the author, via NetGalley, for providing this advance copy for review. And big thanks to any publisher that allows export to Kobo because I truly despise reading on my laptop using Netgalley’s wonky UI!

This review is a bit special to me as it was the first request I was approved to read. The beautiful cover art attracted me initially to this story, written in first-person narrative as told by the female lead. Her narration oftentimes sounds bitter and frantic, and while I find this point of view more intimate, I did not love the areas where the FL assumes the reader’s scorn or judgment. The story begins with explaining that she’s been training for years to be a keeper of a gold vault. In this world, there are multiple keeps that revolve around two important roles: protecting grain and protecting gold. And that protection is QUITE involved—literally carrying pieces of gold in hundreds of pockets sewn into her dress.

When the time comes for Mira, the narrator, to be married off, she’s captured en route to her husband’s home by what I assume are Vikings, and they sail away to a floating kingdom. Some thunderous events occur at this point, of which I must confess I was this many years old before I realized that gold is one of the most electroconductive metals. As such, Mira becomes quite revered by the seafaring heathens once she arrives in their raucous society.

While much of this becomes a tale of cautious exploration, the first striking part of this seafaring community is their ritual collective mourning. Abbott writes quite soulfully and descriptively here, and it is in this segment that Mira learns of the humanity of her captors.

From this point on, Mira starts integrating into the Norsen society, to the point of even falling in love. The way Abbott describes Mira’s inner turmoil is visceral and compelling. Unfortunately for anyone desiring juicy bits, there are none in this story. This is fully a behind-closed-doors romance. Nevertheless, the plot moves rhythmically much like the waves the story is set in. King Arik’s court is boisterous and charming, and the dialogue between characters often made me smile.

Louis Sachar

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The rare occasion I decide to not read romance occurred when Sachar’s first non-children’s book was published last year. I’ve had this book checked out for probably three months and finally read it. Really, I should have read it much sooner because it was delightfully entertaining.

The story follows a slow-aging alchemist who relays his tale in first-person narrative, looking backwards. In charge of delivering a love potion for the spunky Princess Tullía, who is set to marry a dreadful prince of a neighboring nation, Anatole must navigate through fickle court politics while preserving his own life. There are a lot of fun and real historical facts peppered throughout the story, and it becomes a nervous adventure halfway through the book.

Rebecca Robinson

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️

The first book in this series was my favorite book of 2025, leaving me so awestruck that I didn’t even have the words to leave a written review. The second book in the Dark Inheritance trilogy doesn’t leave one wanting. Vaasa possesses the kind of cunning and regality of a heroine that fantasy readers pine for—her levels of deception and subterfuge pulling apart entire kingdoms and sewing devious plans together. Yet, within all that she does not lose her softness for love. The first book focused on Vaasa finding her bearings and sense of self, trying to put together her broken soul after the death of her parents and subsequent arranged marriage. The second book finds her in dire straits, struggling to hang onto her bartered magic while resisting the attempts of nobility to turn her into a figurehead for the kingdom of Asterya.

Reíd chases after her surreptitiously, his bond with Vaasa and her feelings for him described in such vivid beauty, that one really must praise Robinsons’s writing prowess. The man who yearns, EARNS. And Reid’s schemes to get close to Vaasa in the enemy capital are impressive—full of underhanded political deals and a little luck borne from the persecution of witches. Vaasa, similarly schemes between four men trying to tear her apart in their quest for the throne.

The most remarkable part of this book regards Ozik, the nefarious madman and Vaasa’s adolescent tutor, who has thrown her into this mess. We end book one with deep hatred for this villain, but his behavior in the second book makes you wonder what his real goals are. He doesn’t treat Vaasa all too unkindly, and the hints he leaves for her make us contemplate if he is trapped in his own version of hell from which only Vaasa can free him. I actually start feeling some strange sympathy for him throughout most of the book, and relief for his presence, considering the fact that he forces her to outsmart all the suitors trying to use her.

Tessonja Odette

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️

It’s always exciting when YA authors move into the adult territory, and especially cool to read local authors. With that being said, I was already wincing before the story started thanks to the seven-page glossary. Thankfully, you don’t need to read it as all the lore is explained within the story.

But the story? At its core, this is another vampire novel dressed up in an alternate style. Much like Armentrout’s book Fall of Ruin and Wrath, which touts the Fae as some new race with a different name, this book refers to the vampires as “Sinless.” The magic system is intriguing—I appreciate that art is treated as illicit and politically subversive, and something that feeds dark creatures. And yet the lyricism of the main character, Inana, in the first fifty pages smacks as juvenile heartbreak. Later, I actually cringed as she tells the male lead to “fuck off” and one of the Shades says “oh I’d take you up on that, I like it rough, love.” Is this foreshadowing (lol puns!) the lack of finesse in the prose? My love of smut shall not redeem this crude approach.

The most noticeable “style” to this prose is the liberal use and copious amounts of f-bombs, which lose their flavor when splattered over every page. The other choice incorporates the seven deadly sins into the story, and makes this at least the third book this year I’ve read using them as a plot device. However, unlike the others, this book is set within a hierarchal religious cult, belying that the author probably grew up in some terrible Christian society and is possibly using her novel as a critique. The more the story goes on, one begins to believe it IS a critique, but of Catholicism, more specifically.

Jessi Cole Jackson

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️

Two words: sex magick. Do you like skulls? Do you like horny MC’s? Then this book is for you. Set in a unique world of mythical creatures and a great goddess, this society worships the sanctity of animal skulls and the story just throws you into the chaos of magic blowing up from the first chapter. Adela is a 33 year old chunky lady who has been slowly moving up roles as a “keeper”, people who monitor the well being of magical animals. After many years of apprenticing / polishing magic skulls that possess the power of long dead creatures, she is thrust into a powerful role of “matching” these skulls to priests from one of the goddess’s orders.

The male lead, Kian, is a bisexual man who apparently is obsessed with BBW’s and Adela quickly becomes his muse. There is literally no build-up to their relationship—it’s love at first sight. Oftentimes the writing of the intimate scenes is so dramatic and ridiculous, it reads more like the author’s fanfic for her own life. Both characters will talk about how they had “the best sex ever” when it’s literally just oral and slapping flesh in a kitchen pantry.

Kian is in the midst of carrying out a revenge plot when he meets Adela. He pines for a magic-less society where goddess orders hold less power and influence over normal people. His whole scheme is to destroy the matching process that Adela is in charge of, which honestly makes little sense: if there are no more skulls left to be matched to priests, then technically that would make the current priests more powerful as ever thanks to the elimination of future magic-wielding generations. Go figure—there’s not a lot of contemplation going on with either of the main characters. The first person narration and dual POV doesn’t have the most eloquence either.

Susanne Valenti & Caroline Peckham

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Despite the bevy of typos and errors in this second revised edition (literally one being a long sentence that was repeated), this sequel roared with action, yearning, and adventure.

The book continues as Callie works together with Magnar, ye olde slayer, to find her father and sister and take down the Blood Bank in Realm G. Their chemistry is a whole lot of fun, with Callie’s crass humor crackling against Magnar’s confident arrogance. Slowly she learns how to listen to her slayer blade, Fury, sense her surroundings, and gain stealth as she follows along in Magnar’s steps.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Montana faces the repercussions of her escape into the wilds of NYC from the first book, while Prince Erik’s attraction to her morphs into a dark obsession. Both sisters get one explicit intimate scene in this sequel, and they’re damn good. Montana has to navigate a complex vampire society while treading lightly, which is a hard task when her righteous rage consistently lends to copious sarcastic and vitriolic remarks. All the while, she’s battling her growing attraction to Erik and trying to remain self-aware enough to deeply hate him.

The authors handle the romance in this book very naturally—there is no instant attraction, and when the lust does take hold, both twins constantly question their judgment. Because of this, the intimacy feels quite heart-pounding when it does occur! This sequel also includes POVs for Erik and Magnar which fill in their character histories and accomplish much world-building. The lore is deepened and by the end of the book, Erik seems to be on the edge of an epiphany. Very excited to read the third book, as the plot slowly plummets towards devastating consequences.

Things I’m looking forward to in the third book: I NEED THIS GIRLS TO EAT PROPER