ravensandlace's reviews
551 reviews

Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

4.0

Title: Hunting Adeline

Author: H.D Carlton

Genre: Dark Romance

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Series: Cat and Mouse (#2)

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: same trigger warnings for book 1 with the addition of severe PTSD and a lot of rape. I accidentally deleted my trigger warning picture, as the trigger warnings are located in the front of the book.

Normally, when I finish the first book in a series, I give myself a break before I start the next book. I might start another book and then come back to the series. Maybe wait a couple of months so I can let the book marinate in my mind. Not with the series. I did two things that I simply never do: I started the second book (this one) right away and I looked up a spoiler while reading the book. Be warned that the rest of the review will be spoilery and it is highly recommended that you read the first book. Read at your own risk. 

I had to know if Zade rescued Addie from being trafficked. That was the spoiler I looked up. I couldn’t fathom what would have happened in Addie was left to be raped and cut repeatedly in that traffick house. Those scenes were so heartbreaking and I was almost crying, I was so stressed out for her. Because that exact thing happens to thousands of men, women, and children every single day. I knew I just couldn’t continue with the book until I knew Addie was safe. I was getting legit heart palpitations. The last book that affected me so badly was The Song of Achilles. 

The amount of trauma in this book was a lot. Addie had so much done to her and she had to heal from it. It was so heartbreaking. Zade wanted to help her so badly but didn’t know how to give Addie what she needed when she didn’t even know what she needed. The way they worked together to work with Addie’s trauma was amazing. I also appreciated the fact that Addie’s PTSD wasn’t cured. There were still bad days and that felt very realistic. Zade wasn’t the cure but he made sure he was there for Addie when the days were bad. 

I simply just cannot write any more about this book because I am getting stressed out all over again. Overall, this book series broke me and then put me back together, albeit a little jagged and mismatched. My heart still hurts from this book and I read it a few months ago. I don't recommend this series to just anyone. You need to be well-seasoned in extremely dark romance and honestly, you need to be like 25 years old to read this book. I don’t like putting ages on books but this one needs it. But truly, I loved this book so much.  

Honor Among Thieves by Ann Aguirre, Rachel Caine

4.0

Title: Honor Among Thieves

Author: Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Format: hardback library

Series: The Honors (#1)

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: theft, assault, death, drug use, blood, brainwashing

I wasn’t sure about this book at first. I picked it up because I own the third book in the series and I wanted to read the books to see if I wanted to keep the last book or not. The main character, Zara, was an acquired taste for me. She was a very hard girl and I didn’t always understand her motives. In this early part of this book, she talks about her mom and how she left her mom because she knew she was bad? I know her dad had something to do with it but honestly, I wasn’t sure. 

That was such a weird way to start my review but sometimes I never know how to start a review. I just truly didn’t understand Zara for a while. Why cause so much problem for the one parent that actually cares about you? Zara’s mom did what she could to make sure Zara wasn’t traumatized anymore by her dad but still Zara was difficult. But as I read the book more, she grew on me even though I didn’t always understand her motives. I found out she is so incredibly loyal to those she loves. I loved how this turned into a found family book. Nothing warms my heart more than to see the found family trope. 

While I enjoyed the book, it was the ending that saved it for me and bumped up the rating from three stars to four. The reveal of what the Honors program truly was was very interesting. I am hoping we will get more information about it and just how it started. I am very excited to finish the rest of the series and see just what it’s about. 

Overall, this was a good book as I mentioned. Zara was a hard character to love and understand but in the end, I grew to love her despite her attitude. I think there will be a lot of people who will understand Zara in ways that I wasn’t able to. I think she is one of those characters that isn’t for everyone but that’s okay. Overall, I can’t wait to continue the series. Especially since I get more of Nadim, the ship. I didn’t talk about him a lot but I truly enjoyed him. And I especially loved the interactions between him and Zara. 

Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

4.0

Title: Hollow Fires

Author: Samira Ahmed

Genre: YA mystery

Format: paperback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: dead body, xenophobia, bullying, racism, death, assault, racist slurs, attempted murder

I’m going to start by saying I truly enjoyed this book. One of the best things about this book was its readability. This book tackled the hard topic of xenophobia in a way that was easy to digest. I still felt incredibly angry about what Safiya went through but it was put in a way that helps you to understand just what Safiya goes through. As a white woman, I couldn’t even begin to understand how xenophobia affects others. This book made sure that you understood exactly what it was like to experience xenophobia. I was truly astounded that Safiya dealt with xenophobia simply by going to school. 

Another one of my favorite things about this book was the use of different multimedia. It had podcast transcripts, emails, interviews, etc. It helped to break up the heaviness of the plot, which is Safiya trying to find out who murdered a boy. It had some podcast transcripts that made me so mad but it was good to have all those different viewpoints so we could truly understand everything.

I’ll mention one last thing about one of my favorite things about this book. I appreciate that Safiya and her friends still acted like teenagers. Sure, they wanted to do what they could to bring the murders to justice and bring awareness to xenophobia but they also got excited about cute boys, shopping, etc. It was quite refreshing because oftentimes when teenagers are trying to figure out mysteries, they forget to be high schoolers. It was honestly one of my favorite parts of the book. 

Overall, this was a very good book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m so glad my YA Not Club chose this book. Here’s a little fun fact for you. This book was based on a trial that happened in the 30s, which I didn’t realize until we discussed the book at our meeting. If you want to know what the case is about, search for Leopold and Loeb. The case happened in 1092’s Chicago. But overall, I highly recommend this book. 

Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

4.5

Title: Haunting Adeline 

Author: H.D Carlton

Genre: Dark Romance

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Series: Cat and Mouse (#1)

Star Rating: 4.5 stars

tw: non/dub-con (non, dubious consent) between MCs, graphic violence, human trafficking, stalking, child trafficking, child sacrifice, child death, kinks of gunplay, somnophilia (interest in having sex with a sleeping person), bondage and degradation

*these trigger warnings can also be found in the book. 

I will, without a shadow of a doubt, never read this book or the sequel ever again. I will own them one day and they will sit on my shelf to be pretty and that’s it. I have never had a book that stressed me out so badly to the point I had legit heart pains. I couldn’t read fast enough. I think I even gave myself a headache reading this book. But I am so obsessed with this book and I tell everyone about it, as long as they are of proper age, of course. 

Both Zade and Adeline are incredibly messed up in their ways. Zade is especially depraved with some of the things he has an interest in. Both of these characters are characters I shouldn’t even like. I should have been incredibly annoyed with them especially Adeline as she made bad choice after bad choice. I can’t stand characters that put themselves in situations they don’t even have to be in but I was just obsessed. Something about this book had me hooked. But I loved them both. I couldn’t help it. Does that make me depraved and awful? Probably. 

I do want to point out something. The author points out that none of the stuff that happens in this book derives from antisemitism or QANON. But they do. QANON has built their entire weird cult on child trafficking, and how the government is part of the large-scale child/human trafficking plot, among other things. Just turn on Fox News and you will see QANON’s reach. So do with that information what you will. It might change how you view the book and the series. I’m also not saying that child and human trafficking aren’t bad because they are awful. But the way QANON goes about it doesn’t help anything. They point fingers at the wrong people and distract from what is truly the problem. I also want to point out that those who are trafficked don’t usually get kidnapped by strangers (I mean they do sometimes) but statistically they are trafficked by people, they know like relatives and trusted friends. I’m not trying to dissuade anyone from reading this book. I just want everyone to understand what they are getting into. 

Overall, this is a very incredibly fucked up book and I don’t mean that lightly. I have read a lot of depraved books in my day but never one as depraved as this and I read Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty series (if you know, you know). I don’t recommend this book to just any old Joe off the stress. You need to be well-versed in very dark and depraved books to be interested in reading this. I wouldn’t even recommend this to someone who is 18 years old. I would say you should be at least 25 years old and I mean that with my whole heart. But if you can handle what the trigger warnings offer, then absolutely check this book out. 

Family Ties by J.L. Quick

3.0

Title: Family Ties

Author: J.L Quick

Genre: Dark Romance

Format: ebook from Happily Booked PR

Series: Savagely Depraved (#2)

Star Rating: 3 stars

tw: graphic sex scenes, voyeurism, forced exhibitionism, non/dub consent, captivity/Stockholm syndrome, scratching, rimming, edging, blackmail, slapping/hitting, anal sex, bondage, branding, drowning, somnophilia, bondage, homelessness, murder

A special thank you goes to Happily Booked PR  for providing me with an early copy of this book. Please know that this does not influence my rating or thoughts on the book itself.

This arc was a little two-in-one special. There was a prologue called Dark Duels. We are introduced to some of the characters that we would meet in the main novel, Family Ties. I enjoyed the novella a lot. It was just a bunch of spicy scenes, which I didn’t mind at all. Plus we got a little taste of just how depraved this little group is. I wanted more of them to be honest. But that’s just me being greedy. I’m always greedy when it comes to dark romance.   

Family Ties itself was a good book. I’ve never read a book with pet play before. I found that I enjoyed reading it. I can't say that I’m an expert with the particular kink (and let’s be real, my family reads my reviews so I’d never say that out loud anyway) so I can’t tell you if it was done in a healthy way or not.  

While I truly enjoyed the book as a whole, my one complaint was how compliant Abigail became. This might just be a me thing, however. I’m used to female MCs fighting for their lives and making things difficult. Abigal fought for a minute and then just settled into her life within a couple of days. I just wanted a bit more fight. But honestly, that’s just me being picky. I imagine that deep down inside, she truly enjoyed this lifestyle but didn’t quite know how to express that. 

Overall, I truly enjoyed this book and the novella that came with it. I’m ready to continue the series and see just how far things will go since it ended on a nice little cliffhanger. I hope we get more of the group that Grant, the male MC, is involved in. They seem like a wild bunch and I’d love to get to know them more.  

Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers Edition by Anton Treuer

4.0

Title: Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask

Author: Anton Treuer

Genre: Nonfiction

Format: hardback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: racism, kidnapping, disease, murder, mutilation, infant death (all of this mentioned, it is not explicit)

I read this book as part of my YA Not Club. The theme for that month was to read books by Native American authors for Native American Heritage Month. I chose this one because I was drawn to the cover. It’s a stunning cover and I just kept staring at it during our meeting. I was hoping that no one would take it when we were able to choose our books. 

I learned so much from this book. I confess that I do not read American history nor do I study it. It’s never been a topic that has interested me since it is filled with so much hate and bloodshed. The only thing I do study about American history is their participation in World War I and World War II. So I don’t know much about Native Americans except for what school has taught me. Which, let’s be real, was not great and often biased. It took me until adulthood to learn just how much of a trashcan Christopher Columbus was. So that goes to show you how great the American school system is.

Since there was so much info in this book, I’ll just share what info I found super interesting. But I highly suggest everyone go read this book because I have barely touched on what this book talks about. 

• First Nations seems to be the most correct term when talking about Native Americans.
• There were at least 90 million First Nations before European contact. 
• The swastika was used by Native Americans before the Germans. It was used to present the cardinal direction and the circle of life. 
• There were 2,300 tribal languages spoken before contact. 650 are spoken now. 
• Some reservations have an unemployment rate of over 50%. 

Overall, this was a great book. I read the young readers' edition so it was written in a way that was easy to understand. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in learning about Native Americans as it covers a lot of different topics. It’s a great start if you are interested in Native American history.  

Den of Vipers by K.A. Knight

4.0

Title: Den of Vipers

Author: K.A Knight

Genre: Dark Romance

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Series: NA

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: torture, assault, selling of humans, burns, blood, self-harm, child abuse, alcohol, drug use, parental death, blood play, dubious consent, cancer, drug use mentioned, murder (a lot of it), kidnapping

This was the first reverse harem book I’ve read and it was recommended by my friend. Honestly, you are going to see me talk about her a lot because she always recommends me such good books. I have yet to read one I didn’t like that she recommended to me. I needed a good book that I could become obsessed with as I was having a little bit of a book hangover and I couldn’t find a book that I wanted to obsess over. And let me tell you, I was obsessed with this book. I loved every character but Diesel has my heart. I’ll talk about him more later. 

I appreciated that every character got page time with their chapters. Roxy got the most page time but I didn’t mind that. She was such a badass who took no crap from anyone at all, let alone her Vipers. She made sure to put every single one of them in their place. She was almost a bit cartoony with how badass she is but I found I could forgive that simply because I loved her so much.  

There are four Viper boys: Diesel, Ryder, Kenzo, and Garrett. Out of all the boys, Diesel was my favorite. Yes, he was lethal and not all there but he understood Roxy in a way the other boys didn’t quite understand. Roxy spent a lot the time trying to fix her boys, especially Garrett. Diesel spent time trying to fix her instead. He understood her in a way the other Viper boys didn’t. But I loved how much each of those boys loved Roxy. She had them wrapped around her finger and I was living for it.

One of my cons about this book was the length. This bad boy is over 600 pages. It’s one of the longest dark romance books I’ve ever read. Don't get me wrong, I’m greedy when it comes to spicy books and want my money's worth but even this book kind of overstayed its welcome. It could have been cut down by a few 100 pages and it wouldn’t have affected the story at all. The ending dragged out a little bit. It would have been wrapped up a little bit earlier as there were things they were doing that didn’t pertain to the ending.  

Overall, this was a great book despite my complaint about the length! I’m certainly going to read more reverse harem books because I loved this one so much and I just hope they live up to my expectations. I truly am going to be obsessed with this book for a long time. 

Dante by Sadie Kincaid

4.0

Title: Dante

Author: Sadie Kincaid

Genre: Dark Romance

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Series: Chicago Ruthless (#1)

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: murder, parental death, cancer, kidnapping, mutilation, rape, torture, physical abuse, incest, human trafficking, gun violence

This was another book recommended to me by my friend from high school. I saw that she posted on Facebook about this book and I asked her if this would be something I like. She said that I would certainly like this and she was right! This was another winner. I was so obsessed with this book. Unfortunately, I was so caught up with this book, that I didn’t take many notes so while I loved this book, I don’t quite remember a lot of what happened so this review will probably be a little bit on the shorter side. Plus it’s hard to write a review about dark romance books when most of the book is them just having sex. I was just living for the vibes of this book more than anything.  

What I do remember was how explosive Kat and Dante were. They were constantly fighting and fucking (pardon my language). It was just wild and I was living for every moment of it. They were truly like water and oil at times. However, there is one part in which Dante is incredibly awful to Kat. It left a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn’t quite get rid of. But other than that, I enjoyed their relationship and I appreciated that I got a happy ever after. 

Overall, this was a great book. I’m not sure if I will continue with the series. I didn’t have any interest in the other side characters and if I’m being honest, they kind of annoyed me. They didn’t add anything to the story for me. Maybe one day I will, but it’s not a pressing need for me. I’m perfectly fine just reading this book for now. 

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas

4.0

Title: Catwoman: Soul Stealer

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: YA Superhero

Format: own hardback book (#115 of own wrapped books)

Series: DC Icons (#3)

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: fighting, illness, blood, domestic violence, child abandonment, PTSD, explosions, racism, murder, death

I confess that I don’t know much about Catwoman. She was a villain (is she truly a villain? I feel like she is just trying to make it in the world) I know that she and Batman have a complicated history. But that’s about it. So if what SJM wrote about Catwoman is true, I honestly wouldn’t know. If she embellished anything, then I wouldn’t know that either. Regardless, this was a great book. 

Selina was a great character. I could never fully figure her out and I loved that I was kept guessing about her until the very end. Her growth from a hard individual to someone with friends also made me happy. Her friendship with Poison Ivy made my heart so happy. You all know that I am such a sucker for character growth and Selina had some of the best growth I’ve ever seen. I truly enjoyed everything about it. 

Luke Fox was a pleasant enough character. There wasn’t a lot of difference between him and Batman though. His whole setup was pretty similar to Batman. He was even called Batwing. But I did like him. I just wasn’t as enthralled with him as I was with Selina. His POV was so broody and it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I also didn’t appreciate how judgy he was to everyone. He, himself, is part of the one percent but here he is judging Selina for being part of the one percent. That just didn’t sit right with me. 

I need SJM to write a Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn story. I know it’s canon for Ivy and Harley to be together and the way she wrote those two together made me so happy. I truly love the two of them together. I would get on my knees and beg for this. I hope once she is done being busy with Crescent City and ACOTAR, she will write this. It will probably be unlikely but a girl can dream, right?  

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I will certainly read more books about Catwoman and will probably read Marie Lu’s book in this series as I don’t think I’ve read anything by her and I’ve heard high praises for a lot of her books. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of comic books or are interested in getting started in comic books.  

Batter Up by Brittany Ann

4.0

Title: Batter Up

Author: Brittany Ann

Genre: Romance

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Series: Batter Up (#1)

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: mentions of abuse, grief, blood, assault, guns, gun violence, kidnapping, murder, attempted rape

I am so upset with the ending of this book. Yes, that’s how I’m going to start this review and I made sure to let the author know. I’m part of her street team so I started reading her books because she’s got some new ones releasing and I wanted to be up to date. I commented in the group chat that I was starting this book and she told me she would see me back here later to yell at her. And she was right! I cried at the end, my heart hurt so bad. Because that ending devastated me in every way. But goddamn, I truly loved this book and the characters. I still think about this book daily.

Gwen was a fantastic MC. I appreciated that she was confident in some ways but still had to work on her confidence in other places. She felt so real to me in that way. I just enjoyed her so much and her POV. And I also adored the chemistry between Dean and Gwen. They communicated so well, after the initial shock of course. But I loved that they were willing to do whatever it took to make their relationship work. 

Dean reminded me a lot of Dean from Supernatural and it wasn’t just because of his name. He was bossy and crazy overprotective of the people he loved, and there was nothing wrong with that in the slightest. I enjoyed his character so much. I loved how broody his POVs were. I loved how sensitive he was too. He truly just wanted to be loved by the one person he loved most in the world. I felt for him and I just wanted what was best for him.

Overall, despite my absolute devastation at the end of this book, I am excited to continue with this series. Gwen is an absolute badass and I can’t wait to see her kick ass and take names. I also want her to have her happy ever after because she deserves it so much.