talknerdybookblog's reviews
2607 reviews

Skeletal Hearts by J. Rose

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Representation: Polyamorous main character, deaf main character, Main character with social anxiety

Safety Rating: Safe with Exceptions

• No cheating
• No OW/OM drama
- There are still a few scenes where Theo, Enzo and Hunter reminiscence about their dead lover, but they are not as bad as in Book 1
• No pushing the Heroine away
• No separation

Possible Triggers: Yes

• Physical abuse
• Psychological abuse
• Torture
• Imprisonment
• Graphic violence and gore
• Serial murder
• PTSD
• Self-harm
• Panic attacks
• Suicidal ideation
• Kidnapping
• Gun violence
• Medical trauma from gunshot and addiction

Ending:

Cliffhanger

Corpse Roads by J. Rose

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Representation: Polyamorous main character, Partially deaf main character, Main character with social anxiety

Safety Rating: Safe with Exceptions

• No cheating
• Does have OW drama (kinda)
- Hunter, Enzo and Theo were in a poly relationship ~5 years ago; their partner died on mission. There's a lot of angst + drama around the fracturing of their friendship and being in another poly relationship again. Plus a lot of reminiscing about their past relationship. 
• No OM drama
• Does have Theo and Hunter pushing the Heroine away
• No separation

Possible Triggers: Yes

• Physical abuse
• Psychological abuse
• Torture
• Sexual assault, including the Heroine witnessing side character's being r@ped recounted
• Imprisonment
• Graphic violence (e.g., whipping, mutilation, dismemberment of dead body)
• Serial murder
• PTSD
• Self-harm (i.e., trichotillomania, the compulsive need to pull out your hair)
• Panic attacks
• Suicide of a pregnant woman

Ending:

Cliffhanger

Burning Embers by Katie May

4.5

Representation: Gay supporting character, Lesbian side character, Gay side character, Achillean side relationship

Safety Rating: Safe with Exceptions

• No cheating
• Does have OW drama
- The heroine has been unrequitedly (she believes) in love with her best friend, whom she met in one of her first foster care homes. But as they grew up, she saw him dating other girls. She reaches a breaking point just before this book, seeing him disappear with OW for what she assumes is an ONS, and determines she needs space. This need for space worsens once she learns he has a "girlfriend" (who also lives in the small town the Heroine just moved to). Note: this friend of her will definitely be in the harem eventually.
-- "Girlfriend" is in quotes cuz we learn that he's never slept with the OW - just chaste kisses I think (but maybe not even that) - cuz this OW gives him access to info he needs to protect the Heroine
- the Heroes (we get their POVs) are betrothed to the town's Queen Bee as a political match. Essentially, her father is very powerful yet she failed to materialize a mating mark which would signify what group of people she'd be the anchor for. As a result, her very powerful father assigned her to Heroes' group cuz they landed in hot water a few years ago and needed help out of it (this was the price).
-- It is important to know that the Queen Bee is very much so not interested in the Heroes, and she, in fact, genuinely befriends the Heroine and encourages the Heroine to get closer to the Heroines. Also, the Heroes absolutely disdain the Queen Bee.
• Does have the Heroine and Grayson pushing each other away. Reid and Ashton also push the Heroine away.
• No separation

Possible Triggers: Yes

• Stalking
• Murder
• Sexual assault
• Description of a dead body
• Imprisonment
• Physical violence
• Allsuion to past abuse
• Threat of knife violence
• Medical trauma
• Panic attacks

Ending:

Cliffhanger

Found and Forged by Ivy Asher

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Representation: Polyamorous Heroine, Black Hero, Latino Hero, Polynesian side character, Black side character, Non-verbal side character

Safety Rating: Safe

• No cheating
• No OW/OM drama
• No pushing away
• No separation

Possible Triggers: Yes

• Attempted murder
• Knife & sword violence
• Medical trauma
• Classism

Ending:

HFN. Heroine marries her mates. But there's a plot point that leads into the spin-off series.

The Marked and the Broken by Ivy Asher

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Representation: Polyamorous Heroine, Black Hero, Latino Hero, Polynesian side character, Black side character, Gay side character, Achillean side relationship

Safety Rating: Safe

• No cheating
• No OW drama
• Does have OM drama
- the Heroine's mates are pissed that Enoch, + his coven also have marks (although they're different from the mating marks on the guys). Since the Heroine has no idea why they were marked, she can't say 100% that they aren't mating marks, but she knows that she doesn't have feelings for the other coven (i.e., what she feels for her mates - even when they weren't yet mates - is not the same as what she feels for this other coven)
• Does have the Heroes pushing the Heroine away (they're pissed about the other coven getting marked)
• Does have a brief separation

Possible Triggers: Yes

• Murder
- Spoiler about who dies:

The two gay side characters die.

• Confinement
• Attempted murder
• Starvation
• Blood Drinking
• Gore
• Knife & sword violence
• Enslavement
• Kidnapping
• Grief
• Sexual assault

Ending:

Cliffhanger

Sunkissed by Kasie West

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Representation: Latina supporting character

Mature Themes:

• Sexual content doesn't surpass kissing

Possible Triggers: Yes

• Supporting character's father is in permanent care as a result of an injury
• Financial stress (supporting character helps pay his family's bills)
• Medical trauma 
• Panic attack (on-page)

Ending:

HFN

Under a Northern Sky by L.L. Meyer

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Representation: POC main character, Gay supporting characters, Nonverbal side character, Achillean side relationship

Note: This book delves extensively into r@pe culture, which includes the Hero's ignorance of its pervasiveness in the town he governs. 

I found it incredibly frustrating that the Hero's double standard when it came to victims of r@pe was never addressed:

 

The Hero arrests the man who beat and attempted to r@pe the Heroine (the 2nd time) and allows the criminal to officially challenge him (in a fight to the death) which restores the r@pists honour as a warrior. 

Yet, later in the book, the Hero recounts that he challenged and then killed his father because he discovered his father ordered one of his soldiers to r@pe Gray (a man). This was his father's ploy to mentally break his son's only competition to be the next ruler. When the Hero discovers his father's soldier in the act, he immediately kills him and rescues Gray. 

So, I'm curious: why does Gray's r@pist get an unhonourable death, yet the Heroine's attempted r@pist gets an honourable one?

Safety Rating: Safe with Exceptions

• No cheating
• Does have brief OW drama
- In the Hero's first POV he remarks on a tavern servant's lips and remarks how he'd like to hook up with her. But this thought is dropped and never revisited ( plus this OW is in a relationship with someone else in the book).
- Hero also remarks that he would've married a separate woman (she's in charge of nursing the Heroine back to health) if she hadn't gotten pregnant by an OM. As a result, he describes his relationship with this OW as weird (i.e., lots left unsaid). But that random thought is as far as the drama goes.
• Does have brief OM drama
- Hero is jealous of any man the Heroine smiles at / is kind to until they solidify their relationship
- Hero is very jealous to learn that the Heroine isn't a virgin and refuses to so much as hear her ex-lover's name 
• Does have the Hero pushing the Heroine away
• No separation

Possible Triggers: Yes

• PTSD
• Murder of Heroine's family recounted
• Mutilation of the Heroine recounted (she was burned repeatedly with a boiling hot knife)
• Attempted r@pe of the Heroine (twice)
• R@pe of side character recounted
• Physical assault
• Whipping of the Heroine
• Misogyny
• Death of an infant recounted
• Grief
• Knife violence
• War
• Intimate partner violence recounted (between Hero's parents)
• Hero killed his father
• Imprisonment
• Confinement
• Starvation

Ending:

HEA

Bonesmith by Nicki Pau Preto

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Representation: Bisexual supporting character, POC side character

Mature Themes:

• Swearing
• Sexual content doesn't surpass kissing
• Underage drinking

Possible Triggers: Yes

• Parental neglect
• Murder
• Knife violence
• Kidnapping
• Childbirth described
• Gore
• Violence
• Confinement
• Description of dead bodies
• Death of parents

Ending:

Cliffhanger

Falling Like Stars by Emma Scott

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

No strong representation of diverse characters or minority identities.

It felt like the MCs were never in the right place to be in a relationship. They both had too much unresolved trauma to make me think that the depth of their relationship with each other was believable. E.g., the (extreme) ex-fiancée drama goes until 90% of the novel.

Safety Rating: Not Safe

• No cheating
• Does have OW drama 
- Hero's ex-fiancé (who he's been in a relationship with on and off for six years) is still very much in his life. They still share a house in LA at 60% into the novel. 
- And, while she's positioned as the villain of the story, the Hero goes out of his way to prioritize her feelings to ensure she's ok. This includes leaving the Heroine on their first date to calm his ex down, taking her to the Oscars as his date (which occurs after meeting the Heroine) to help her career, and travelling to see her straighten out the third-act conflict (major spoiler):

his ex insinuates on IG that she's pregnant with his kid, but she isn't

- Also, I'm pretty sure the Hero proposes to the Heroine with the same ring he gave to his ex (it's his grandmother's ring)
Note: the Heroine is never jealous of the Hero's relationship with his ex. She never had one moment of insecurity that rang false to me since she had no reason to trust him initially. 
- Very minor but might annoy some readers: The Heroine works as a PA on movie sets and, therefore, sees the Hero doing sex scenes for the movies they're working on. Despite how much all actors laude how unsexy these scenes are, the Heroine actually gets aroused and isn't jealous. The Hero apologizes as he didn't realize what scene they'd be shooting til too late and would've warned her. He was thankful + relieved she wasn't jealous. 
• Does have OM drama
- Heroine is in the midst of having a short-term fling when she meets the Hero. She sleeps with this fling once <i>after meeting the Hero.</i> But after feeling unfilled, she decides to break it off with him.
- When the Hero leaves the Heroine on their first date to deal with his ex, she begins to have intrusive thoughts (e.g., she doesn't deserve to be happy) and decides to have a ONS with a creepy guy who's also staying at her motel. She doesn't go through with it but is caught by the Hero leaving the OM's room. This leads the MCs to separate for a few weeks and results in the Hero inviting his ex to be his Oscar date.
• Does have the Heroine pushing the Hero away
• Does have two separations
- the first lasts a few weeks and occurs after the Hero appears to go back to his ex and the Heroine appears to have a ONS (neither of which is true). SPOILER: After the Oscars, the Hero wakes up in the primary bedroom (which is now his ex's room) confused - he fell asleep on the couch. He's unsure if he slept with his ex that night but operates as if he did - he ensures he gets tested for STDs before sleeping with the Heroine. However, it's insinuated that his ex might have r@ped him that night, and the rest of the book is about him avoiding that possibility.
- The second separation occurs when the Heroine admits that she wants a serious relationship with the Hero but also acknowledges neither of them is in the right place to be in a relationship. Heroine goes to therapy, and the Hero financially separates from his ex and moves out of their house. During this second separation, there are no other people.

Possible Triggers: Yes

• Hero is struggling to extricate himself from an abusive relationship
- Emotional and physical abuse depicted on-page
- His ex attempts to r@pe him the night of the Oscars when he was black-out drunk. This was an effort to get pregnant so his ex could exploit him further.
- Obviously, the third-act conflict was the ex insinuating the Hero got her pregnant. While this wasn't the case, the Heroine wasn't mad at the Hero or jealous. The Hero's angst was more about how he'd be stuck with his ex for 18 years and feared that she got pregnant by assaulting him.
• Death of Heroine's boyfriend in prologue from a drunk driver
• Complicated grief
• Panic attacks
• PTSD
- Hero has trouble separating accidents (the Heroine accidentally bit his lip too hard during sex) with his abuse from his ex

Ending:

HFN. Engaged to be married.

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-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

4.0

Representation: Lesbian main character, Indian-British main character, Black lesbian side character with Alzheimer's 

Mature Themes:

• Swearing
• Sexual content doesn't surpass kissing

Possible Triggers: Yes

• Panic attacks
• Lesbophobia, including a flashback to Iona being physically assaulted for being lesbian back in her 30s
• Psychological and emotional abuse (between Emmie and her fiancé)
• Bullying
• C@ncer
• Suicidal ideation
• Infidelity
• Vomit
• Side character with Alzheimer's 

Ending:

HFN