Bull Moon Rising

    

Title: Bull Moon Rising

Series: Royal Artifactual Guild #1

Author: Ruby Dixon

Publisher: Ace, October 15, 2024

Pages: 427

Genre: Fantasy Romance

As a Holder’s daughter, Aspeth Honori knows the importance of magical artifacts . . . which is why it’s a disaster that her father has gambled all theirs away. Now that her family is in danger of losing their hold—and their heads—if anyone finds out the truth, Aspeth decides to do something about it. She’ll join the Royal Artifactual Guild and the adventurers who explore ancient underground ruins to retrieve the coveted arcane items.
 
It’s a great plan—with one big problem. The guild won’t let her train because she’s a woman. Aspeth needs a chaperone of some kind. The best way to get around this problem? Marry someone who will let her become an apprentice. Who better than a surly guild member who requires a favor of his own? He’s a minotaur (it’s fine) who is her teacher (also fine) . . . and he’s about to go into rut (which is where it gets tricky). He also has no idea she’s a noble (oops), and he’ll want nothing to do with her if he discovers her real identity.
 
Now Aspeth just has to pass the guild tests, thwart a fortune hunter, and save her hold—oh, and survive a rut with her monstrous, horned husband, whom she might be falling in love with.
 
It’s time to dig deep. Literally.

I loved this book. I read the hardback version in just over 2 weeks, which feels so fast! Do you know how strong you have to be to read a hard cover book?! Very strong. 

I'm obsessed with this world. I want to get inside of the brain of a slitherskin, that's for sure. But being in Aspeth and Hawk's mind were good for this book. The teacher/student relationship was perfection. And Aspeth not wearing her glasses, so she had to be inches from him to see him worked so well. Just everything. I loved her nonchalance toward a marriage for sex only. Like she was totally fine with that and I love that for her. 

Never meet your heroes, you know. Aspeth really had to learn that lesson the hard way with Magpie. But I am very interested to see where this series could go!

Ratings

Stars: 5/5

Spice: 5/5

Never Ever Getting Back Together

              

Title: Never Ever Getting Back Together

Author: Sophie Gonzales

Published: Wednesday Books, November 29, 2022

Pages: 392

Genre: LGBTQ YA Romance

It’s been two years since Maya's ex-boyfriend cheated on her, and she still can’t escape him: his sister married the crown prince of a minor European country and he captured hearts as her charming younger brother. If the world only knew the real Jordy, the manipulative liar who broke Maya’s heart.

Skye Kaplan was always cautious with her heart until Jordy said all the right things and earned her trust. Now his face is all over the media and Skye is still wondering why he stopped calling.

When Maya and Skye are invited to star on the reality dating show Second-Chance Romance, they’re whisked away to a beautiful mansion—along with four more of Jordy’s exes— to compete for his affections while the whole world watches. Skye wonders if she and Jordy can recapture the spark she knows they had, but Maya has other plans: exposing Jordy and getting revenge. As they navigate the competition, Skye and Maya discover that their real happily ever after is nothing they could have scripted.

I love reality television in the worst way. I struggled with the concept for this book though. It felt like this book about a sapphic romance barely passed the Bechdel test. Now, two girls who share an ex getting together is very on brand for a sapphic love story. So there is that. And ultimately, I finished this book. The antics were really cute. But the way that these girls were willing to accept his baloney stories and think he's genuine is such crap. So good on Maya for going through with it to get some petty revenge. He deserved it, that's for sure.

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 1/5

Spellbound

             

Title: Spellbound

Series: Magic in Manhattan #1

Author: Allie Therin

Published: Carina Press, July 29, 2019

Pages: 296

Genre: LGBTQ Fantasy Romance

New York, 1925

Arthur Kenzie’s life’s work is protecting the world from the supernatural relics that could destroy it. When an amulet with the power to control the tides is shipped to New York, he must intercept it before it can be used to devastating effects. This time, in order to succeed, he needs a powerful psychometric…and the only one available has sworn off his abilities altogether.

Rory Brodigan’s gift comes with great risk. To protect himself, he’s become a recluse, redirecting his magic to find counterfeit antiques. But with the city’s fate hanging in the balance, he can’t force himself to say no.

Being with Arthur is dangerous, but Rory’s ever-growing attraction to him begins to make him brave. And as Arthur coaxes him out of seclusion, a magical and emotional bond begins to form. One that proves impossible to break—even when Arthur sacrifices himself to keep Rory safe and Rory must risk everything to save him.

Rory and Ace are adorable. I really enjoyed the world-building here. The magic system was really well done, I loved the idea of passive and active powers. But I also really enjoyed the historical aspects, particularly the super cute speakeasy. I have gotten out of the habit of finishing series that I like. I'm going to work on that next year. I think I would enjoy seeing how Rory and Ace get themselves out of their magical pickle.

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 2/5

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

            

Title: Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Series: Cerulean Chronicles #2

Author: TJ Klune

Published: Tor Books, September 10, 2024

Pages: 406

Genre: LGBTQ Fantasy

A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.

He’s the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.

Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there's the island's sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.

But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.

Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.

For as chronically online I am, I am also ridiculously unplugged from some of the book-world controversy. When I read the first book in this series, it was my introduction to T.J. Klune. He is such a swoony author. That man really knows how to pull my heartstrings. But this series is also at the heart of some pretty big controversy. I did read this second book, despite that. I'm still feeling weird about that choice. I really enjoyed this book, and a lot can be said for "separating the art from the artist." But at the same time, the choices made in the creation of this series were problematic and I found it really hard to forget about that while reading. 

But I've obviously made the choice, and it is a beautiful story. But I think that's all I can give it..

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Hexennacht

                             

Title: Hexennacht

Series: Wheel of the Year #2

Author: C.M. Nascosta

Published: Meduas Editoriale, April 22, 2024

Pages: 217

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Hexennacht is the Night of Witches, Samhain’s calendar twin. A night of revelry and dancing, of bonfires and sisterhood
. . . but it had been on another Hexennacht when her fortunes changed. Cast from the ancient circle, dispossessed of belonging. A solitary witch, practicing her craft alone . . . at least, until the day Anzan arrived at her door.

She never expected to fall in love with the quiet Araneaen upstairs, and could not have foreseen how easily he would spin his web around her heart.

When Anzan's future in Cambric Creek and their happiness is threatened, Ladybug has no choice but to open a door from the past and let a familiar face back into her life. Stepping outside her comfort zone is the last thing in the world she wants to do, particularly when she and Anzan are so happy in their insulated little bubble . . . but if she doesn't act, the bubble may burst beyond her control.

Have you seen this cover? It's the most perfect cover ever. Fabio, eat your heart out! Anzan's hair care is top notch. 

I love this story though. As much as it was about Anzan and Ladybug together, it was more about Ladybug really coming into her power. It was so good to read about her building up her community and her confidence. And then she was able to just tell Anzan what's what when he pulls his little stunt. What's the point of fighting for a place in their community if he's not going to help her with it? So cute. I can't wait to see how some of these changes in Cambric Creek are going to pan out. 

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Spice: 4/5

The Black Bird Oracle

             

Title: The Black Bird Oracle

Series: All Souls #5

Author: Deborah Harkness

Publisher: Ballantine Books, July 16, 2024

Pages: 446

Genre: Witch Romance

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, an Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.

On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family’s dark past and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power—if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.

In this stunning new novel, grand in scope, Deborah Harkness deepens the beloved world of All Souls with powerful new magic and long-hidden secrets, and the path Diana finds at Ravenswood leads to the most consequential moments yet in this cherished series.

Are you kidding me? More All Souls? I am feeling very lucky. I tell you what though. This series does not paint witches in the most flattering light. Even after things felt like they were mostly settled at the end of The Book of Life, she has managed to give us even more shadiness from the witch's and the Congregation to keep us guessing. 

This had everything I've come to love about this series. It's such a lush world. Diana and Matthew are as toxic as ever, but it works just as well this time around. But now Matthew's toxic possessiveness extends to their children. I really have a lot of grace for him though because of the whole vampire affliction though.. I do miss Cora though. I know that Diana "released her," but I kind of expected that she would still hang around. 

As shocked as I am that there is more to see in Diana and Matthew's story, the way that this story was introduced was awesome. I don't love that we've drawn this line around Diana's father having been controlling and such, but it really did allow this whole world to be kept a secret from her and consequently us. 

And then there's the twins. I can't freaking wait to get to know them more. This has definitely been left open for more stories to be told about Diana and Matthew and their ever-growing family. And I'll be there to read them!

Ratings

Stars: 4/5