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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
Hell yeah, that was good! 98% and he still wants to waterboard her. That’s my kind of romance. 🥰
ST is the president of chaotic bisexuals and poly. 🧎♀️🧎♀️🧎♀️
What. A. Mess. 10/10.
The plot was so fun and intriguing, but ✨spice✨ was the central theme of this and dang was it gooooood.
Spooky, delicious, kinky, unpredictable, MESS.
Bravo. My favorite ST so far!!!!
ST is the president of chaotic bisexuals and poly. 🧎♀️🧎♀️🧎♀️
What. A. Mess. 10/10.
The plot was so fun and intriguing, but ✨spice✨ was the central theme of this and dang was it gooooood.
Spooky, delicious, kinky, unpredictable, MESS.
Bravo. My favorite ST so far!!!!
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
My first S.T. Gibson book and it didn't disappoint.
I had a great time reading this book! It was very fun and very entertaining. I loved the atmosphere, the setting and the gothic aesthetic.
A haunted spooky house and ancient fae lands full of mysteries and secrets. It was just a perfect combination for an amazing book!
In my opinion, this book was erotica first and fantasy second. Which sometimes it’s just what you really need and want.
The plot was very mysterious and tense, it kept you guessing secrets and hidden motives until the reveal.
All of the four characters were so unique and different to each other. They were messy, toxic and troubled; full of mistakes and jealousy.
The romance was bisexual and poly, which I loved. With a lot of very well written kinky sex scenes.
Overall, I had so much fun reading this book and I can’t wait to read the next one in the series.
My first S.T. Gibson book and it didn't disappoint.
I had a great time reading this book! It was very fun and very entertaining. I loved the atmosphere, the setting and the gothic aesthetic.
A haunted spooky house and ancient fae lands full of mysteries and secrets. It was just a perfect combination for an amazing book!
In my opinion, this book was erotica first and fantasy second. Which sometimes it’s just what you really need and want.
The plot was very mysterious and tense, it kept you guessing secrets and hidden motives until the reveal.
All of the four characters were so unique and different to each other. They were messy, toxic and troubled; full of mistakes and jealousy.
The romance was bisexual and poly, which I loved. With a lot of very well written kinky sex scenes.
Overall, I had so much fun reading this book and I can’t wait to read the next one in the series.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is fun because we get to see Gibson go full VC Andrews, with a gothic highland manor, two young people who are drawn into the web of the people who live there, and the fae and twisted family secrets lurking at the edges of the property. Lots of well written fairly kinky sex scenes, dramatic reveals, and spooky architecture. Ending felt a bit sudden, but it was still a good time.
This was my first book from ST Gibson and I went in not knowing fully what to expect, but I was hoping for a quick, low stakes read with a completely different vibe from my last book to change things up. This definitely delivered for what I was looking for, and while different from a lot of what I typically read, I devoured this one in less than 24 hours.
I think the author did a good job at building up the setting - the book feels very atmospheric, and almost like you lose sense of time in a way that feels incredibly fitting given faerie folklore which this book is built on. There are nods to time passing ("a few days later" type phrases), but I could just as likely believe the book start to finish happened in a week as I could that it happened in six months. In all honesty I think she could've built up the atmosphere even MORE and it wouldn't have felt overdone at all.
The various relationships definitely feel very insta-lust but I don't think the book is trying to be anything else, so that's not a bad thing. While I typically read books with fewer smut scenes, I think these were well crafted - they never felt too long, they weren't repetitive, and I think consent, kink, and polyamory is handled really really well. I expected going into this it would be "porn with plot" and I do think it's about as balanced as a book of this type can be.
There are some things I think make the book weaker - the author references things using brand names (Volvo, Starbucks, etc) which in this book, pulls me out of the story a bit and doesn't always fit the POV of that given chapter. I think she could also trust the reader a bit more - there were some lines which felt very on the nose explaining things which subtext was already hinting at, and I think the story would be stronger if she left some of those things up to subtlety. For example, it's very clear from the mention of the missing art pieces/empty spots on the fireplace etc that the family is not as flush with cash as they used to be. We don't need to immediately be told that wealthy old families get themselves through hard times by selling off treasures, she did a good job at hinting at that already.
On the complete other end of subtlety and subtext, the ending left me mostly confused. I don't entirely understand some of the logic/conclusions some of the characters are making, and it all happened so quickly that it wasn't flushed out as much as I would've wanted. That said, it did end on a cliffhanger that has me looking forward to book 2, and overall I enjoyed this read! I think in light of the rushed/confusing ending, and some things in the writing I think could be tightened up a bit, I'd give this 3.75 stars.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I think the author did a good job at building up the setting - the book feels very atmospheric, and almost like you lose sense of time in a way that feels incredibly fitting given faerie folklore which this book is built on. There are nods to time passing ("a few days later" type phrases), but I could just as likely believe the book start to finish happened in a week as I could that it happened in six months. In all honesty I think she could've built up the atmosphere even MORE and it wouldn't have felt overdone at all.
The various relationships definitely feel very insta-lust but I don't think the book is trying to be anything else, so that's not a bad thing. While I typically read books with fewer smut scenes, I think these were well crafted - they never felt too long, they weren't repetitive, and I think consent, kink, and polyamory is handled really really well. I expected going into this it would be "porn with plot" and I do think it's about as balanced as a book of this type can be.
There are some things I think make the book weaker - the author references things using brand names (Volvo, Starbucks, etc) which in this book, pulls me out of the story a bit and doesn't always fit the POV of that given chapter. I think she could also trust the reader a bit more - there were some lines which felt very on the nose explaining things which subtext was already hinting at, and I think the story would be stronger if she left some of those things up to subtlety. For example, it's very clear from the mention of the missing art pieces/empty spots on the fireplace etc that the family is not as flush with cash as they used to be. We don't need to immediately be told that wealthy old families get themselves through hard times by selling off treasures, she did a good job at hinting at that already.
On the complete other end of subtlety and subtext, the ending left me mostly confused. I don't entirely understand some of the logic/conclusions some of the characters are making, and it all happened so quickly that it wasn't flushed out as much as I would've wanted. That said, it did end on a cliffhanger that has me looking forward to book 2, and overall I enjoyed this read! I think in light of the rushed/confusing ending, and some things in the writing I think could be tightened up a bit, I'd give this 3.75 stars.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I can't remember the last time I was this utterly disappointed by a book. It promises to be so many things and doesn't manage to be any of them.
After Gibson's magnificent A Dowry of Blood, I was all but shaking out of my skin with excitement when my request for ARC of this book was approved. However, the excitement did not last long, and the problems began pretty much from the first chapter.
This book feels like it was written in a week. Not only did the whole faerie plot feel like an afterthought to what was just supposed to be a smutty novel, but the amount of typos, misspelt words, missing spaces in-between words and other technical mistakes is just appalling. I don't know if it's general practice to release the ARCs into the world without an editor looking at them first, but I couldn't help but feel like Savage Blooms was never even proofread after it was finished. Even Eileen's pet name "Ilsa" is misspelt as "Isla" in Chapter 33.
Additionally, there are so many inconsistencies. Just as an example, in Chapter 4 it's stated that Adam's laptop is charging in his room, but in Chapter 11 we are told that he never took it out of the car "just in case". The same happens with Nicola's birth control: we are first told that she is startled by an alarm reminder for her birth control (chapter 18) but it's later revealed that she's got an IUD (chapter 24), which obviously does not require any reminders.
But the problems don't end there. Give the book a good editor, and those can be dealt with. The problem that cannot be solved that easily is the story itself because it makes absolutely no sense. The whole premise it's build upon is contradicted in the final chapters. If Robert hated Craigmar with everything he had, why would he have told Adam stories like it was the best place in planet Earth?
However, the thing that really is the doom of this whole story is the pacing. It all havvens over the course of approximately ten days. Ten days is usually the amouth of time people that meet each other for the first time need to start talking about what school subject was their favourite and who is theit current celebrity crush. In Savage Blooms, however, it seems like as much as four days is enough to act like it's actually been four years. It's so unrealistic that it's hinestly laughable. And this is probably the main reason why the whole actual plot feels so much like an afterthought - the point of the story was clearly to just wrote some BDSM-ish sex scenes, but for some reason, they were not enough on their own? Though in all honesty, those scenes were all very boring, at least to me.
Speaking of which, another thing that felt like an afterthought was the queer realtionships. Why bother at all if the grand total of pages actually dedicated to m/m and f/f romace is ten? For what it's advertised as, this book is so boringly heterosexual. And it would've been fine, honestly, if it didn't try to be something more. But then again, it's hard to demand queer relationships mean something when ever the heterosexual ones have zero ground beneath them.
Finally, for what is supposed to be a gothic novel, there are way to omany references to pop cultire that are completely unnecessary and that shatter the atmosphere. Bumblу dates? Tesco? Podcasts? Starbucks? You've got to be fucking kidding me.
Ultimately, the only person I did not hate was Finley. Both Eileen and Nicola are absolutely pathetic and one-dimensional, and I have no idea why a woman would write other women like that. Adam's only qualities are that he's blonde and tall. Oh, and good, you can't forget good. Because everyone else is evil. Or at least that's what we're told.
In all honestly the only good thing about this book is that Gibson spells "come" the way it's supposed to be spelled and not with a "u", which would've made me DNF it instantly.
P.S. At one point, we are told that Adam is wearing sweatpants without any underwear but somehow produces a condom out of his back pocket. Are you really meaning to tell me that he didn't bother to put on pants but spilled a condom into his pocket because he was feeling lucky?
P.P.S. (SPOLIERS) I can look past incestious relationships in fiction because it's fiction but writing a romance scene and making a point of saying "his sister" when he's all but inside her is certanly a choice. If we're supposed to keep in mind that they're not related by blood and therefore it's "not really incest" then why draw attention to her being his sister? Was there really no other reason why Robert could've ran away other than being jealous?
Thank you to NEtGallery for provising me with a free copy of this book in exchange for a review, you're the best, as always ❤️
After Gibson's magnificent A Dowry of Blood, I was all but shaking out of my skin with excitement when my request for ARC of this book was approved. However, the excitement did not last long, and the problems began pretty much from the first chapter.
This book feels like it was written in a week. Not only did the whole faerie plot feel like an afterthought to what was just supposed to be a smutty novel, but the amount of typos, misspelt words, missing spaces in-between words and other technical mistakes is just appalling. I don't know if it's general practice to release the ARCs into the world without an editor looking at them first, but I couldn't help but feel like Savage Blooms was never even proofread after it was finished. Even Eileen's pet name "Ilsa" is misspelt as "Isla" in Chapter 33.
Additionally, there are so many inconsistencies. Just as an example, in Chapter 4 it's stated that Adam's laptop is charging in his room, but in Chapter 11 we are told that he never took it out of the car "just in case". The same happens with Nicola's birth control: we are first told that she is startled by an alarm reminder for her birth control (chapter 18) but it's later revealed that she's got an IUD (chapter 24), which obviously does not require any reminders.
But the problems don't end there. Give the book a good editor, and those can be dealt with. The problem that cannot be solved that easily is the story itself because it makes absolutely no sense. The whole premise it's build upon is contradicted in the final chapters. If Robert hated Craigmar with everything he had, why would he have told Adam stories like it was the best place in planet Earth?
However, the thing that really is the doom of this whole story is the pacing. It all havvens over the course of approximately ten days. Ten days is usually the amouth of time people that meet each other for the first time need to start talking about what school subject was their favourite and who is theit current celebrity crush. In Savage Blooms, however, it seems like as much as four days is enough to act like it's actually been four years. It's so unrealistic that it's hinestly laughable. And this is probably the main reason why the whole actual plot feels so much like an afterthought - the point of the story was clearly to just wrote some BDSM-ish sex scenes, but for some reason, they were not enough on their own? Though in all honesty, those scenes were all very boring, at least to me.
Speaking of which, another thing that felt like an afterthought was the queer realtionships. Why bother at all if the grand total of pages actually dedicated to m/m and f/f romace is ten? For what it's advertised as, this book is so boringly heterosexual. And it would've been fine, honestly, if it didn't try to be something more. But then again, it's hard to demand queer relationships mean something when ever the heterosexual ones have zero ground beneath them.
Finally, for what is supposed to be a gothic novel, there are way to omany references to pop cultire that are completely unnecessary and that shatter the atmosphere. Bumblу dates? Tesco? Podcasts? Starbucks? You've got to be fucking kidding me.
Ultimately, the only person I did not hate was Finley. Both Eileen and Nicola are absolutely pathetic and one-dimensional, and I have no idea why a woman would write other women like that. Adam's only qualities are that he's blonde and tall. Oh, and good, you can't forget good. Because everyone else is evil. Or at least that's what we're told.
In all honestly the only good thing about this book is that Gibson spells "come" the way it's supposed to be spelled and not with a "u", which would've made me DNF it instantly.
P.S. At one point, we are told that Adam is wearing sweatpants without any underwear but somehow produces a condom out of his back pocket. Are you really meaning to tell me that he didn't bother to put on pants but spilled a condom into his pocket because he was feeling lucky?
P.P.S. (SPOLIERS) I can look past incestious relationships in fiction because it's fiction but writing a romance scene and making a point of saying "his sister" when he's all but inside her is certanly a choice. If we're supposed to keep in mind that they're not related by blood and therefore it's "not really incest" then why draw attention to her being his sister? Was there really no other reason why Robert could've ran away other than being jealous?
Thank you to NEtGallery for provising me with a free copy of this book in exchange for a review, you're the best, as always ❤️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Incest, Death of parent
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When I tell you this book rooted itself into my soul... It's everything I wanted it to be. It's everything S. T. Gibson delivers better than anyone else in the game.
The gothic vibes are perfection. This house and the ancient land it sits on where something isn't quite right and there's always a sense of something lurking?? The balance between something a little feral and wild and something manicured and carefully maintained?? Take me there!
The characters are perfection. Deep and nuanced and distinct, messy and curious and bold. Sometimes a little jealous, sometimes a little toxic, sometimes a little aggressive. And the romance?? A poly, kinky smorgasbord of dynamics and lessons and explorations that, as a reader, it's impossible to look away from.
The storyline? It's subtle, but also perfection. It's tense and mysterious and almost otherworldly. I spent so much time trying to parse what was really going on, trying to dissect secrets and determine what was real and tangible and what could be the fabrications of an unwell mind or an exaggerated story passed down through years and years of generational traumas. It kept me guessing right up until an ending that made me physically gasp.
I absolutely devoured this book and cannot overstate how eager I am for the next one in the series. If you're looking for queer poly antics in an ominous old mansion delivered to you in a character-driven, spicy little package, this is the book for you.
Special thanks to Orbit for early access in exchange for review.
The gothic vibes are perfection. This house and the ancient land it sits on where something isn't quite right and there's always a sense of something lurking?? The balance between something a little feral and wild and something manicured and carefully maintained?? Take me there!
The characters are perfection. Deep and nuanced and distinct, messy and curious and bold. Sometimes a little jealous, sometimes a little toxic, sometimes a little aggressive. And the romance?? A poly, kinky smorgasbord of dynamics and lessons and explorations that, as a reader, it's impossible to look away from.
The storyline? It's subtle, but also perfection. It's tense and mysterious and almost otherworldly. I spent so much time trying to parse what was really going on, trying to dissect secrets and determine what was real and tangible and what could be the fabrications of an unwell mind or an exaggerated story passed down through years and years of generational traumas. It kept me guessing right up until an ending that made me physically gasp.
I absolutely devoured this book and cannot overstate how eager I am for the next one in the series. If you're looking for queer poly antics in an ominous old mansion delivered to you in a character-driven, spicy little package, this is the book for you.
Special thanks to Orbit for early access in exchange for review.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The horniest haunted house book you've ever read, in a good way.
S.T. Gibson's darkly atmospheric writing shines again here, creating the perfect Gothic Scottish mansion vibes. Adam and his best friend Nicola travel to a secretive Scottish manor to find the secret behind his Grandfather's connection to the home, and get more than they bargained for. Dark fae discoveries and kinky group explorations ensue.
Your enjoyment may vary with this one depending on your perfect ratio of horny vs. spooky - I'm actually hoping that the next instalment in the series leans into its spooky side more, as sometimes the spicy scenes felt like they were getting in the way of the story, even though they were well-executed and were part of the overall journey.
Thank you so much to Orbit and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!
S.T. Gibson's darkly atmospheric writing shines again here, creating the perfect Gothic Scottish mansion vibes. Adam and his best friend Nicola travel to a secretive Scottish manor to find the secret behind his Grandfather's connection to the home, and get more than they bargained for. Dark fae discoveries and kinky group explorations ensue.
Your enjoyment may vary with this one depending on your perfect ratio of horny vs. spooky - I'm actually hoping that the next instalment in the series leans into its spooky side more, as sometimes the spicy scenes felt like they were getting in the way of the story, even though they were well-executed and were part of the overall journey.
Thank you so much to Orbit and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
No
2.5 stars – not for me, but maybe for you?
This one just never fully came together for me. I felt like it was missing both strong character development and a solid plot—and usually if one of those is working, I can overlook the other. But in this case, neither landed.
That said, the vibes were immaculate: spooky Scottish manor house, misty lochs, eerie atmosphere. I was there. And I did enjoy the almost horror-like take on the fae—it felt fresh and had a few moments where I genuinely thought, let me just turn on the lights real quick…
The story was intriguing in theory, but the execution felt vague and hard to latch onto. It was also very spicy, and to be honest, the spicy moments were the parts that worked best for me—they had tension and weight, even when the rest didn’t fully deliver.
Unfortunately, the ending was a major letdown. I get what it was going for, and I’m sure it was meant to be meaningful or thought-provoking. But after spending the whole book wondering what was really going on, the reveal felt... mid. And by the time we hit the final page, I was frustrated more than anything.
At the end of the day, this might just be a case of “not the book for me.” But if you’re here for vibes, spice, and a bit of spooky fae horror, it might hit different for you.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes