alyssas_bookshelf's Reviews (91)

Five Brothers

Penelope Douglas

3.0

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I love Penelope Douglas soooo much but not this particular book. It wasn’t the worst, but I also ended up skimming through the last few chapters just to get it finished.

#justiceforarmy #dallaswashotter #tracedeserveda2ndchance #whataboutiron #whothefuckisdexsmom

Also.. spoiler alert.. five brothers doesn’t mean she fucks five brothers at once.. sad about that. 🥲

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicide

Marked by the sea

J.P. Sina

4.0

adventurous dark relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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YUUUUUP. This was the one. 😚🤌🏻

Don’t you dare judge me.. Kiss of the Basilisk changed me for life and gave me the courage to finally say fuck it and really jump into monster romance. With Marked by the Sea being my first official read of the genre— I am NOT disappointed or ashamed. This was a masterpiece and scratched an itch I didn’t even know I had.

Also.. extra love to my sweet baby Rowan. 🩵🌊🧝🏼‍♂️

My Guardian Demon

A.D. Craig

2.0

funny relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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There were a lot of grammatical/spelling errors and the overall flow of the book didn’t quite make sense, but it was a short quick read and desperately needed after finishing a couple of lengthy books, so it got the job done. I didn’t hate it and honestly thought it was kind of cute. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Kiss of the Basilisk

Lindsay Straube

5.0

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Heyyyy besties, quick question:
What the fuck? 🤗

I don’t even know where to begin.. The spice? Every page felt like I was eating a ghost pepper, but like.. in the most enjoyable way possible. So now you’re thinking.. well you just read straight porn and that’s all.. and I’d probably say yes, BUT HEAR ME OUT— Because the plot??? The plot was SOMEHOW still there and still had an absolute chokehold on me.

The FMC did make a choice towards the end that pissed me off, but I’m going to put my faith in the 2nd book fixing my heart and stick with 5 stars because at the end of the day.. I ATE this shit up.

Eluvonia

K.R. Blackwood

4.5

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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“𝙄'𝙢 𝙙𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙖 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙪𝙣𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙛𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙙.”
I feel like this quote is the perfect description for how I feel after finishing Eluvonia. 100% should not have read this while I was hungover because the ending had me crying like a baby (you know what you did.. 😑😭) and it just made

my headache worse.

My only reason for not giving this a full 5 stars is because around chapter 26 it started to feel rushed.. we were fast forwarding the timeline too quickly without key moments being put in place. It was like 1 second we were still enemies and then next thing I knew we were way more loving and there wasn't anything that really happened to have that switch make sense. Otherwise, I LOVED this book and will not rest easy till I have the 2nd book in my hands.

Tropes:
• Dragon Shifters 🐉
• Shadow daddy 🖤
• Enemies to forced mates to allies to potential future lovers..? 🤔
• Lots of unique creatures & magic system 🔮🧜‍♀️🐉🧝🏼‍♂️
• Found family

Spice level: 2🌶️ (open door but only 1 brief scene)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, War

Moderate: Cursing, Slavery, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol

The Sapling Cage

Margaret Killjoy

DID NOT FINISH: 25%

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I feel soooo bad DNF’ing a book but I just wasn’t vibing with this one, and I have so many books on my tbr that I don’t want to waste my time.. I’m not a huge fan of YA and I’m not sure if this one is considered YA but it definitely felt like it, so I wasn’t able to really get into it. I do enjoy the idea of the book though and am so happy for everyone who loves it.

I Who Have Never Known Men

Jacqueline Harpman

3.5

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This was a very interesting read that I usually wouldn’t pick up, but I don’t regret having done so in the slightest. I think that if I was into reading for more than just vibes this would have ended up being a favorite of mine, but alas.. the brain yearns for silly fantasies and can’t comprehend the depth of reads like this one.. (It’s genuinely upsetting, I’m not trying to be sarcastic 🥲)

“‘𝘽𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡, 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙚𝙣?' '𝙔𝙚𝙨. 𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙩? 𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙝𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙝𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙧 𝙡𝙖𝙢𝙚, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡.’”

‼️ Potential spoilers?? ‼️
I enjoyed the way that men truly did not have a place in this book aside from stating that the guards were male and there were other cages found with men in them. These women were completely alone and had almost nothing and they STILL went on to do astonishing things and create and care and find moments for the little things like laughter in what is meant to be such a desolate and unkind environment. Women are truly beautiful, powerful and more importantly, resilient.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

Axie Oh

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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: No

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This was an absolutely beautiful re-telling of a famous Korean folklore “The Tale of Sim Ch'ŏng”. While listening to the book it almost felt like watching the movie Spirited Away and I was in awe throughout the whole story. I cried, I laughed, I formed new opinions about myself and the world.. I truly never wanted this one to end.

🪷 “𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙧 𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙞𝙘, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙩’𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙡 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚.”
🪷 “𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮.”
🪷 “𝙒𝙖𝙞𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙚, 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙚𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙖.”

The Dawn of the Cursed Queen: The latest sizzling, dark romantasy book in the Gods & Monsters series!

Amber V. Nicole

3.5

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense slow-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

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"𝙄'𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙤𝙧 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙖𝙛𝙚𝙩𝙮, 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙤𝙧 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙄 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙢𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙠𝙚 𝙤𝙣." ❤️‍🔥

How does one even rate a book that felt like it was wayyy longer than it needed to be (seriously.. it took me 26 days to finish this and it put me in a slump because I just couldn't get into a good flow with all the filler chapters) but also had a mind blowing end...?

Did I love it? No. But did I love it? Yes.

•  Feminine rage/Powerful FMC
•  VERY well written spice (3🌶️)
•  Variety of unique creatures
•  Multiple POV's, including ones from the villains

The Throne of Broken Gods

Amber V. Nicole

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective 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: Yes

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I have no words. I was originally going to rate this 4 stars because it felt like it was soooo long. The back and forth was weighing on me for a little bit, but the ending of this book makes the last 100 pages of any SJM book seem like a child's story. My mind is thoroughly blown and I'm going to need at least 24 hours to recoup and digest all the information I just learned because WTF was that? (in the best way

possible) 🙂

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, War

Minor: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol