The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates - 5 ⭐️
Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry - 1.5 ⭐️
All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Breenan - 4 ⭐️
Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa - 5 ⭐️ ***
Down to Ursa by Lissa Sharpe - 3.5 ⭐️
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker - 5 ⭐️ ***
Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa I have read more times than I can count. It’s in my Top 5 favorite books/series— which, funnily enough, so are When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker and Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan. I have read The Bargainer series countless times and I never tire of it. Their relationship is what I want to see in more romances. (Stories that rely solely on sex and no genuine relationship are textbook examples of poor writing. They give het pairing written by a man in a tv show, ngl.)
The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates was also amazing and an instant favorite. I was not a horror fan before my first Darcy book— and ,honestly, still don’t consider myself one, but she beautifully incorporates my favorite elements from other genres into this one. Found family, page-turner FILLED with plot twists, bit of romance, blending supernatural and human causes (or scientific), character development, and more. Unputdownable.
Shield of Sparrows was meh. I finished it. Parts of it were good. Most of it had me wanting to yell because the plot holes were so infuriating and obvious problems. I wanted to DNF on numerous occasions. Ultimately, it was really dumb in a lot of ways. Like, plot holes you could drive a truck through.
Down to Ursa was an interesting surprise. It’s a Tarzan-retelling in a somewhat sci-fi take, but written in an older style, I assume in homage to the original. I never read the original, I’ll admit. I was pleasantly surprised, but wish the story were longer to make it one book. In this, Mina has been separated from Ursa and is fighting to get back to him, but the book ends when they find a way to leave Earth— well before they get separated. I’ll probably read the second book, I just wish she’d either made the book longer so that we know HOW they got separated to begin with.
