xoashleysbookhaven's reviews
12 reviews

Spring Harvest by Rektok Ross

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

Rektok had her grip on me from the beginning of Spring Harvest. As a PNW native, I was excited to see Oregon represented for the location of the Music Festival. 

I loved Alix’s character development throughout this story. I knew immediately she would not be my favorite with her over-confidence and her disregard for the other characters as if she was anyone better. However, the twist in character development I was not expecting was that of Jenny who was introduced as sweet, meek, and passive. 

Spring Harvest has enough creep and thrill factor to keep you on your toes, drama to keep you guessing, and entertainment to keep you excited. Now, I’m off to find a festival with all things garlic cause YUM!

If you like Coachella, Vampire Diaries, and Mean Girls — this read is for you!

Between Sun and Moon by Jaclyn Kot

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

BSAM picks up right where BLAD leaves off. This time Sage not only learns many secrets of her past, but is now torn between her love for the God of Life and the God of Death.

Told from dual POV’s and dual timelines (through flashbacks), Jaclyn has once again sucked me into her fictional universe.

I loved learning about the history of the old Gods, the return of some unexpected characters, and some twist and turns I was not prepared for. Be forewarned, Jac leaves you on a cliffhanger with this one… and if you’re anything like me, you’re gonna need some tissues 😩🫠

Dark Corruption by Effie Campbell

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Buckle up, Buttercups. Dark Corruption may be the end to the McGowan era, but it’s equally as enticing of a ride as the rest of the stories have been.

Brought up in the mafia world under a war between the McGowans and the Thompsons, each of the McGowan babes love in their own very twisted way.

Thought to be the introverted, quiet, brother of the clan, Ewen typically shys away from relationships. That is until an employee of his Adult Club starts acting strange and he cannot keep his eyes or his hands to himself.

He quickly finds out she is not who she says she is and makes it his mission to make her sëxůal fantasies a reality, to include a wild game of Hide and Seek.

“RUN.” 🥵🔥

Full of spice, drama, masked men, stälking, the entire McGowan clan, our favorite friend, Alfie, and some exciting twists and turns, Dark Corruption is sure to keep you on your toes. 

After meeting Mac, I was positive I had found my McGowan man, but Effie has shocked me and moved Ewen up to the top of my list of McGowan faves 👏🏼

Time Fall by Madilyn DeRose

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Because of a heist gone wrong, Creed finds himself blitzed to 1779 where he meets Liam.

Creed is quirky, reserved, full of chaos, and forever on a mission to find his twin brother who disappeared into thin air.

Liam is sweet, patient, the calm to Creed’s storm and everything this modern world needs.

Full of twists and turns, Creed and Liam get to learn how to navigate each other’s worlds, while going through traumatic relationships/heartbreaks, self-discovery, and a gay/bi-awakening.

This was my first MM romance and as per usual Madilyn did not miss a beat 👏🏼 

You Saw the Best in Me by Taylor James

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

“To every woman who had their girlhood stolen by a man, fück them; it was ours first.”

If you’ve ever been put in a position where you’ve had to be on the run, afraid to look over your shoulder for fear of who would be looking back at you, or scared to trust or befriend anyone, you’ll relate to Karina.

Karina has been on the run since she was 17 from an obsessive, abüsive, stalker, ex. Upon moving into her new apartment at Forest Falls, she meets her grumpy neighbor, Mav, and they immediately begin a prank war. Through banter, wit, and traüma bonding, their love quickly grows. Mav’s love and protectiveness over Karina is all she’s ever dreamed of, but she constantly questions whether Mav can handle the chaos her life brings.

I absolutely love the family Karina has built for herself in Forest Falls (and Rose Hills). This story goes to show that even with the deepest traüma, you can find your happily ever after.

This was a bit quick-paced for me, giving it the unrealistic factor… especially given all of Karina’s past and traüma, but overall a lovely read.

Blurred Lines by Madilyn DeRose

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

Holy Hot Bälls of FIRE.

I thought SR (book 2) took me on the rollercoaster of my life. Blurred Lines has me questioning my sanity. As it has been in all 3 FYTA books thus far, it is so easy to put myself into Em’s shoes and relate to her in some way or another.

When you battle a plethora of mental health diagnoses, your inner dialogues can sometimes be very unkind to you or have you spending so much time gaslighting, second-guessing, and manipulating yourself. We’ve seen much of Em’s inner dialogue, Lizzy, already throughout the series. However, in this book, we also got to take a dive into Jay’s inner dialogue - Jay being the villain in Em’s story.

Madilyn does such a superb job switching perspectives and characteristics between each of the MMC’s POV’s! It really makes you feel like you are part of the storyline or at least can relate to it in a lot of ways.

Blurred Lines had me on my toes, clenching my teeth, and wanting to scream, cry, and throw my Kindle at times. It is full of twists and turns, some predictable events and some you never saw coming.

Sentence Redacted by Madilyn DeRose

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

This one was an emotional ride, y’all. My heart broke for Em for having to relive her past traumatic events and do what she thought was best to protect herself and to protect Alden. My heart also broke for Alden who spent most of Sentence Redacted left in the dark, while watching the love of his life fall in love with someone else.

On the flipside, we were introduced to Kade who Em met in Switzerland when she ran to Europe to escape her reality… and instant swoon 🫠 Upon Kade’s surprise arrival to the states, pretty much everyone falls in love with him. His love for and protectiveness over Em is [almost] unmatched; save for the same she gets from Alden… and y’all these fictional men are perfect.

Sentence Redacted is full of love, anger, resentment, pain, and growth. The banter and witty comebacks are always top tier 🤌🏼

Buckle up, buttercup… you’re about to go on one heck of an emotional ride.

Faded Pages by Madilyn DeRose

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Faded Pages follows FMC Em and her daily struggles with mental health and self-deprecation. Her bf, Mason is the most selfish, entitled, ignorant and unsupportive, douche-nugget. After 2 years abroad, her best friend Alden has returned back home with a love so fierce, she doesn’t know what to do with it. 

While stuck between a rock and a hard place, she must choose between the toxic relationship she’s used to or a love she’s never known and feels so undeserving of.

As someone who struggles with severe anxiety (in multiple forms) and at times MDD, this one pulled on my heart strings and had me in my feels. I too, battle with intrusive thoughts, a hot temper, and can be so dang stubborn 😅

Smoking Gun by Lainey Lawson

adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

I’ll be honest; I totally broke the rules and was drawn into this book for the cover because how freaking adorable 😍

Don’t let that deter you. 

This was my intro to cowboy romance and it was chef’s kiss 🤌🏼

The perfect light and fluffy read between all of my dark themed reads 😅

If you’re looking for small town romance, brother’s best friend, secret identity, COWBOYS, found family, and a plot twist that will completely blow your mind - look no further.

Fall in love with these characters the way grumpy Gage instantly fell for sassy Blythe 🥹

Lainey absolutely blew this one out of the rodeo with it being her debut novel and I cannot wait to get my hands on future reads, including the next standalone in the Bunkhouse series.

Belladonna by Madilyn DeRose

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

As if being in love with Lock wasn’t already enough, we get introduced to Seraphim. A double-horned masked, vampire daddy, who can shrivel your body up in orange smoke, and is LITERALLY hot to the touch? Umm… yes 🙋🏻‍♀️ 

I promise Lock is still my #1, but holy hot cannoli did Raf do a number on my little black heart.

Raf’s connection, if you will, to Sam has Samara and Hemlock running circles around the covens - from San Fran to Seattle to Alabama and Colorado. His menacing manipulation on Sam has her in constant question of whether she is Lock’s true mate or if he just wants to use her to strengthen his power.

Belladonna threw me for a loop. Full of twists and turns, the banter that I love so much, angst, and all the spice I could ever want 🥹 I never want this series to end - no pressure to Madilyn or anything.