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ashleysreadingroom's reviews
290 reviews
The Gods Time Forgot by Kelsie Sheridan Gonzalez
3.5
He watched her looking up at the moon, wishing he could tell her that the orange of her gown made her look like his favorite part of a sunrise, the part that burned the brightest. But he wouldn’t dare. She had no need for his reassurances.
Emma. That's what they keep calling her but yet it doesn't feel right. That cannot be her, but the Harrington's are adamant that is their daughter. Rua plays along when the threat of being locked up in an asylum becomes a very real threat. Emma had been missing for a whole day before Rua was found coming out of a Hellmouth coated in blood, and with no memory. She is forced to quickly adapt as they make the Harrington's do their best to make their place in society. Enter Finn Donore.
There is a connection there, an unexplainable one. A feeling as though they have met before.
What to Expect:
📖Dual POV
📖Standalone
📖Irish Mythology
📖Murder
📖Gilded Age Fashion
📖New York Setting
📖Bridgerton meets Fantasy
When I first picked up this book, I wasn't immediately invested. My brain was having a hard time with the memory loss bits and it took me a decent chunk to get my barings straight and understand what was going on. Once we meet Finn I could not put down the book. The tension between the two was so palpable; I didn't want it to end. I nearly finished it that very day, but I had to go to bed at some point. I was so excited to find out how it all came together, but I did find myself a tad disappointed. The ending could have been so much more and I was left with a million questions. I think this would have made a fantastic duology. Where first we learn the secrets and then we live through the resolution. The characters deserved an ending worthy of their story.
Overall, I gave this book 3.5 ⭐. It was the ending that made me fall less in love because the story deserved just a bit more. It was all over too fast.
Thank you to netgalley and Alcove press for the arc.
Emma. That's what they keep calling her but yet it doesn't feel right. That cannot be her, but the Harrington's are adamant that is their daughter. Rua plays along when the threat of being locked up in an asylum becomes a very real threat. Emma had been missing for a whole day before Rua was found coming out of a Hellmouth coated in blood, and with no memory. She is forced to quickly adapt as they make the Harrington's do their best to make their place in society. Enter Finn Donore.
There is a connection there, an unexplainable one. A feeling as though they have met before.
What to Expect:
📖Dual POV
📖Standalone
📖Irish Mythology
📖Murder
📖Gilded Age Fashion
📖New York Setting
📖Bridgerton meets Fantasy
When I first picked up this book, I wasn't immediately invested. My brain was having a hard time with the memory loss bits and it took me a decent chunk to get my barings straight and understand what was going on. Once we meet Finn I could not put down the book. The tension between the two was so palpable; I didn't want it to end. I nearly finished it that very day, but I had to go to bed at some point. I was so excited to find out how it all came together, but I did find myself a tad disappointed. The ending could have been so much more and I was left with a million questions. I think this would have made a fantastic duology. Where first we learn the secrets and then we live through the resolution. The characters deserved an ending worthy of their story.
Overall, I gave this book 3.5 ⭐. It was the ending that made me fall less in love because the story deserved just a bit more. It was all over too fast.
Thank you to netgalley and Alcove press for the arc.
To train a demon by R.R. Mangold
5.0
"I am still me." I say aloud and it echoes in my head. I am still me. I have been saying this every day since I died, and it is beginning to taste like a lie.
If you asked me if I have been waiting for this since my arc read of To Touch a Reaper, you would be 100% right. Thank you Rena for giving us the story we needed to heal.
If you haven't read To Touch a Reaper yet and are about to pick this book up, NO YOU ARE NOT. Put it down and begin where it all began, then return here. If you have read To Touch a Reaper, then continue reading the rest of what I write and I hope you enjoy this novella like I did!
Jimi used to be a nurse until he wasn't. He was in love with a reaper and wanted her to experience life after her years of helping death. Unfortunately, that meant they didn't get to live that life together because a deal had to be made. To Train a Demon follows Jimi on some of his years of servitude to Moloch as the countdown from 100 years works its way down toward his freedom. Toward Mila and his afterlife together.
What you can expect:
📖Demon x Human Spice (just a sprinkle)
📖Reunited Love
📖A dash of Dark humor
📖Age Gap
📖Brooding MMC
📖Novella
Thank you so much Rena for sending me a copy and thank you for healing my heart after To Touch a Reaper!
If you asked me if I have been waiting for this since my arc read of To Touch a Reaper, you would be 100% right. Thank you Rena for giving us the story we needed to heal.
If you haven't read To Touch a Reaper yet and are about to pick this book up, NO YOU ARE NOT. Put it down and begin where it all began, then return here. If you have read To Touch a Reaper, then continue reading the rest of what I write and I hope you enjoy this novella like I did!
Jimi used to be a nurse until he wasn't. He was in love with a reaper and wanted her to experience life after her years of helping death. Unfortunately, that meant they didn't get to live that life together because a deal had to be made. To Train a Demon follows Jimi on some of his years of servitude to Moloch as the countdown from 100 years works its way down toward his freedom. Toward Mila and his afterlife together.
What you can expect:
📖Demon x Human Spice (just a sprinkle)
📖Reunited Love
📖A dash of Dark humor
📖Age Gap
📖Brooding MMC
📖Novella
Thank you so much Rena for sending me a copy and thank you for healing my heart after To Touch a Reaper!
Curse and Spindle by Chelsey Ann Tompkins
5.0
Maybe it was simply that you always remember your first kiss and we’d shared ours below that sycamore tree the last time we’d met.
Chelsey has quite the token place in my heart as one of my favorite authors to date. She has such a way with words and always tells a story in a way that makes me never want to put the book down.
Curse and Spindle resumes the pattern of why I adore her writing style so much. This book is dual pov following Seraphine and Korven. Seraphine is given a curse 25 years after she was supposed to initially receive it, and her childhood friend, the Ravenfae prince, Korven, is the one to deliver it to her. Korven's life is tied to Seraphine, so they are both banking on success. The curse is a bit of a challenge because Seraphine is in spirit form, and the only ones that can see her are fae, but they can't be the answer to her curse.
What you can expect:
📖Raven-Fae Prince
📖Bachleor interviews
📖Spicy but she's partially in spirit and slowly returning from the bottom up
📖Sleeping Beauty Retelling
📖Childhood friends
📖Curses
📖Banter
📖Feet-kicking good time
Thank you Chelsey, for the arc. This was such a fun little read and I cannot wait for what you come up with next!
Chelsey has quite the token place in my heart as one of my favorite authors to date. She has such a way with words and always tells a story in a way that makes me never want to put the book down.
Curse and Spindle resumes the pattern of why I adore her writing style so much. This book is dual pov following Seraphine and Korven. Seraphine is given a curse 25 years after she was supposed to initially receive it, and her childhood friend, the Ravenfae prince, Korven, is the one to deliver it to her. Korven's life is tied to Seraphine, so they are both banking on success. The curse is a bit of a challenge because Seraphine is in spirit form, and the only ones that can see her are fae, but they can't be the answer to her curse.
What you can expect:
📖Raven-Fae Prince
📖Bachleor interviews
📖Spicy but she's partially in spirit and slowly returning from the bottom up
📖Sleeping Beauty Retelling
📖Childhood friends
📖Curses
📖Banter
📖Feet-kicking good time
Thank you Chelsey, for the arc. This was such a fun little read and I cannot wait for what you come up with next!
Tusks, Tails & Teacakes by T.L. Stone
5.0
“Sometimes the bravest thing an adventurer can do is plant roots instead of pulling up stakes.”
I started this book the same day it hit my email, but didn't get very far at first. I had a huge case of sleepies and was opting to pile on the naps rather than read, but when I finally got beyond the first chapter, I finished this book in three hours. One thing about me is I very much enjoy the cozy fantasy genre. I love sitting down and enjoying a book where the characters are doing simple things and all we're doing is learning about their past adventures, meeting the new friends they are making, and going through the motions of overcoming rather simple challenges. Simple being very understated because restoring an inn to its former glory is no simple feat.
Tusks, Tails & Teacakes hits all the marks for what I want in a cozy fantasy and it very much made me want to go bake pastries and experiment with my starter.
This story follows Lira who has just returned to her home of Wayside to retrieve her grandmother's cookbook that she hid in a tavern way back when she left to go on her life of adventuring. Only things don't go according to plan because the book has been walled in and someone else broke into the tavern and is trying to steal from the till the same night she's there. This is the start of a very great and grand friendship between Sass and Lira.
If you liked Legends and Lattes or Cursed Cocktails, you might really adore this story. And from the sounds of it, Sass's story is next!
What you can expect:
📖 Baked Goods
📖 Found Family
📖 Bookwyrms (new and old magical creatures)
📖 LGBTQ Rep
📖 Neurodivergent Rep
📖 Low Stakes
📖 Small Town
Thank you so much to the Nerd Fam and the Author for the arc!
I started this book the same day it hit my email, but didn't get very far at first. I had a huge case of sleepies and was opting to pile on the naps rather than read, but when I finally got beyond the first chapter, I finished this book in three hours. One thing about me is I very much enjoy the cozy fantasy genre. I love sitting down and enjoying a book where the characters are doing simple things and all we're doing is learning about their past adventures, meeting the new friends they are making, and going through the motions of overcoming rather simple challenges. Simple being very understated because restoring an inn to its former glory is no simple feat.
Tusks, Tails & Teacakes hits all the marks for what I want in a cozy fantasy and it very much made me want to go bake pastries and experiment with my starter.
This story follows Lira who has just returned to her home of Wayside to retrieve her grandmother's cookbook that she hid in a tavern way back when she left to go on her life of adventuring. Only things don't go according to plan because the book has been walled in and someone else broke into the tavern and is trying to steal from the till the same night she's there. This is the start of a very great and grand friendship between Sass and Lira.
If you liked Legends and Lattes or Cursed Cocktails, you might really adore this story. And from the sounds of it, Sass's story is next!
What you can expect:
📖 Baked Goods
📖 Found Family
📖 Bookwyrms (new and old magical creatures)
📖 LGBTQ Rep
📖 Neurodivergent Rep
📖 Low Stakes
📖 Small Town
Thank you so much to the Nerd Fam and the Author for the arc!
I Accidentally Summoned a Demon Boyfriend by Jessica Cage
4.0
This was The Spice Girls Book Club pick for February. It's also the last book we are reading together as a club and I feel like it was such a good book to wrap us up with. I Accidentally Summoned a Demon Boyfriend is so unserious it's great.
Rayna has had next to no luck in the dating world and let's face it; she's not getting any younger. A bad date and a few glasses of wine later and a why not mess with a book that has a love spell in it? Now there's a hunk of a demon in her bedroom and she think she's dreaming so the logical thing to do is take his demon body for a test ride. Over and over again.
Except, it's the next morning....he's still there...and he is very real and somehow they're soulmates?????
This book was so funny I was kicking my feet and the storyline was so unexpected. If you are looking for a book with great banter, humor, and spice well you've found it!
Rayna has had next to no luck in the dating world and let's face it; she's not getting any younger. A bad date and a few glasses of wine later and a why not mess with a book that has a love spell in it? Now there's a hunk of a demon in her bedroom and she think she's dreaming so the logical thing to do is take his demon body for a test ride. Over and over again.
Except, it's the next morning....he's still there...and he is very real and somehow they're soulmates?????
This book was so funny I was kicking my feet and the storyline was so unexpected. If you are looking for a book with great banter, humor, and spice well you've found it!
Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn
📖Selwyn’s Struggles - A lot went down at the end of book one so I was really glad we saw how it effects him (well not hehe happy but relieved we didn’t just leap over this)
📖The truth about Bree’s bloodline and seeing how corrupt them mf’s are - like I hope y’alls pillows are spicy hot when you’re trying to sleep
📖Valec - a welcome addition to the story
📖Love triangle - this might anger a few people but I dig it. book two opens up more on how both play key roles in her life and how either could be suitable IMO. I just like Sel more.
5.0
I am going to start this off by saying that because this is book two I really don’t want to say much about what happens or what you can expect but I will mention a few of my favorite things or things that impacted my brain in such a huge way reading this story.
📖The truth about Bree’s bloodline and seeing how corrupt them mf’s are - like I hope y’alls pillows are spicy hot when you’re trying to sleep
📖Valec - a welcome addition to the story
📖Love triangle - this might anger a few people but I dig it. book two opens up more on how both play key roles in her life and how either could be suitable IMO. I just like Sel more.
I loved book two just as much as the first. It was so great to be back in this world again. I was worried how confused I was going to be since I didn’t reread book one before diving in, but it was like a walk in the park. I loved that we got more Selwyn in this one because he was one of my favorites in book one.
I am so ready for the next one.
Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose Darling
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.
This is my second attempt trying to read this book. its just not my vibe at all. I am dreadfully bored every time.