YA Fantasy

 The Witchery by S. Isabelle 

I was clearly NOT paying attention at the beginning of this book because I completely missed the introduction to the characters and their powers. Whoops. Therefore, I spent a good portion of the book trying to figure out who was who and what they were doing. That really detracted from the story, which was my fault. But, the audiobook narrator was very robotic, so much so that I had to stop and check to make sure that it was an actual human and not AI.  I know that this was YA, but it felt both very young and too old at the same time, which can be on brand for high schoolers. But, it hurt the flow of the story. Sometimes they acted more like they were in college than high school, then they would do something that reminded you they definitely were still teenagers. Logan was the most age appropriate character; she was confused about her powers, wanted to fit in, and found a boy she liked. We never really got any answers about Trent; who was he promised to? What kinds of powers does he have? It seemed like he was going to be the wolf boy, but he wasn't. That the witch that Iris saw as a mentor ended up being bad really messed her up, and is going to impact her relationship with Matthew. That his twin became a witch at the end of the book is interesting.  I will listen to book 2, mostly to see if any of the unanswered questions get answered, but if it doesn't start pulling things together I will not be continuing.  

I LOVED This RomCom

 The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas 

This book had some of my favorite tropes: fake dating, enemies to lovers, only one bed. Aside from office romance, what's not to like? The banter was top tier. The yearning. The longing. I was smiling and kicking my feet for most of this book. If you're going to tell me that some Clark Kent looking man with the body of superman wants to be my fake date to a wedding in SPAIN and he wants me to be his date to a charity gala where I have to spend his money to make sure that nobody else wins him in a bachelor auction, count me in. Immediate yes. The way their communication improved throughout the course of this book. And when he told her, 'when I kiss you, I want you to know it's for real' or whatever he said? He was making sure she knew from the jump that he wasn't pretending. He was only pretending because that's what she needed in the moment. He was so down bad for her. He started learning Spanish for her specifically for this trip. The only thing this needed was for them to end up engaged. And when she FINALLY confronted her ex! She needed that. That was the thing that finally allowed her to really acknowledge and accept her feelings for Aaron. I ate this up. I don't care. I was down bad for Aaron. Whatever Elena wants to write, I'm reading. I'm not sure how she's going to top Aaron for a love interest, but I'm going to buy it.  

First in a Crime Series

 Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell 

There was a lot in this book that hasn't aged well. There was a lot in this book that was interesting, science wise. I do not like thrillers or true crime, but I do like a good mystery, cop show, and crime novel. I think this is going to fit that bill. Kay is a medical examiner. We are starting with a serial killer. The cop, who she is not a fan of, initially suspects the husband. We are led to believe it might be the District Attorney, who Kay is casually dating; it's not him but he's bad news and they break up by the end of the book. Suspicion is cast on her 10 year old niece, Lucy, because of a computer break in; turns out that was her boss, and a plucky reporter was able to get him fired. The real culprit was a 911 operator who liked the way the callers sounded. Each victim had called once before for some reason and that's how he picked them. He had maple syrup urine disease, that's how they found him. And, he showed up at Kay's house to kill her. The cop was watching her house, on a hunch. I could not believe that disease was real. I looked it up on either the Mayo or Cleveland Clinic; it's real. The science aspect of this book was interesting, despite the fact that everyone was smoking and a doctor should know better. I will read the next book before making up my mind about this series.  

Prequel

 This might be a prequel, but it is attached to the end of the third audiobook. For a novella it was the strongest of the series. We have a quites divorcee who is trying to get her life back on track with her coffee shop. We have a guy who is only back in town to settle his dad's estate. They knew each other in high school; she was the smart girl who was his math tutor, and he was the bad boy. They both had a crush on each other but never did anything about it. Now, they are older and both know it's only temporary but willing to act on it. Then, while cleaning up some papers at he finds an apology note of sorts, that changes everything for him and he decides to stay. So, they get to give this a real shot.  Their break up and reconciliation was rushed, but it was a novella so that's to be expected. Otherwise, this was enjoyable. But, it definitely should have come first instead of after book 3.  

Better Than Book 2

 Bad News Cowboy by Maisey Yates 

This was better than book 2, but it had some tropes that I don't like (older brother's best friend). Kate has a crush on Jack, but she doesn't realize she has a crush on Jack. Then, she's out at the bar flirting with a guy and Jack doesn't like it and he punches the guy. Jack agrees to teach her how to flirt, just so she can know what she's doing for when she joins the pro rodeo circuit next year. And then it's downhill from there because she gets her first kiss from Jack. And then he agrees to help coach her. And then they work on a charity event together. And they decide to have a purely physical relationship after Jack has a bad encounter with her father, who has had nothing to do with him his entire life and he decided to open up to Kate. Then Jack falls in love with Kate, but she can't handle it. And when he takes her out on a date and confesses his love to her, it ends with Connor punching him in the face in front of the whole town. Then Liss has her baby and he shows up to the hospital because he's that kind of guy. Then he pays back his father the money he took which means the NDA he signed it no longer valid, but he doesn't really care if people know who is dad is or not. Oh, and Kate wins the charity rodeo event. And then, she goes to him and apologizes and they get back together. It went about the way I expected it to go.  

So Unique!

 Midnight on the Celestial by Julia Alexandra 

I won this in a goodreads give away and I'm so glad I did. This is one of the most interesting and unique books I have read in a while. I was expecting it to be dystopian in nature, which I love, but it's not. It's a fantasy dystopia mix with a YA romance thrown in. I am assuming I got an unedited proof, which I hope gets cleaned up before publication because I would hate for the grammar police to destroy this book over a few misplaced commas and typos. So, in this society some people are born with abilities, called morphias. Our main character can bring back the dead. When you turn 18 you are given a trial to see if you and your power are a danger to society or not. She fails. There are two choices, have your power stripped from you or go on board the Celestial and over the course of four years try to earn a retrial. The catch: you only get one chance at retrial and if you fail your powers are stripped on the spot. She opts for the ship, even though her family doesn't want that, so she runs away to it. Her first day is rough, but her roomie is nice and helps her out. Her last name carries a lot of weight and she gets a good job on the ship because of it, but she had a rough go at first. She makes friends, and has a blossoming relationship. But, the ship is having issues. You can't be out of your room at night or bad things happen; a girl is murdered toward the end of the month and she is set up to take the fall but the family she is serving just so happens to be there and vouches for her so they can't blame it on her. And, she ends up being one of the people to earn a retrial. Except, it's not a trial, it's an extraction. So, she uses her powers to attack the bad guys and they are able to get off the ship and she and her friends go to her house to her dad. Well, he's actually a really bad guy. He's trying to start a war and he's using the morphic prison to do so. He even faked his son's death to send him to the prison so he could lead the army. Her older sister has been working to stop him and breaks her, her friends, and their brother out of prison. Brother makes a potion that wakes up all of the prisoners because daddy dearest has been keeping them drugged. They capture him and turn him in, but he eventually escapes. But, the plans that she and her boyfriend have been making to build a school for morphics have come to fruition and it all ends well. I was hooked from the first page. I would read more books from this world. I want to know what happens next. Give me more.  

Korean Mythology

 The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim 

I think this would have been higher if I had read a physical copy of this book instead of listened to it. I am not familiar with Korean mythology (this is only the second book of Korean mythology I have ever read and both have featured a nine tailed fox, so that is as far as my knowledge goes). If I had a physical book I would have (hopefully) had an index, a dictionary, a cast of characters or something so that I could have flipped back to remind myself of what the different creatures were, their characteristics, and abilities. Instead, I was floundering if they were just named and it was not a fight scene. Aside from that, it was very interesting; I am a huge mythology fan so that was my entire reason for picking up this audiobook.  I loved the relationship between Hani and Seokga the Fallen. I love a grumpy x sunshine (or in this case reverse it since I put her first and she was the sunshine) and they fulfilled their roles wonderfully. But, they were also both really well developed characters. She was not just a nine tailed fox, but a notorious one at that. He was on a quest for redemption, but basically only going through the motions as he hadn't really learned anything until he met her. She didn't pander or treat him like a god, and I think that was what endeared her most to him. His brother, despite being the "good" god was really all that virtuous since he was just going to let them lose the big battle. The only reason he got involved is because he wanted what she had; a relationship with his brother. When I started this I did not realize that it was the first in at least a duology, but I will definitely be listening to the second book. I can't wait to find out what these two get up to next!  

This PMO

 Zodiac Academy: Cursed Fates by Susanne Valenti and Caroline Peckham 

I had hoped to get this book read before school started, but no such luck. Instead, it took me basically the entire month of August to read. And it RUINED MY LIFE for the entire month.  Tory and Darius are feeling the effects of her rejecting the mating bond and are pining after each other. And worse than that, they finally talk out their issues. He stops being horrible to her and he actually realizes what he did, and just how bad it was. One way that he tries to make it up to her is by going to the mortal realm and finding her ex-boyfriend who left her to drown and beating him up and forcing him to apologize. Then, he and the other heirs find their apartment and get their stuff; he realizes just how bad their lives were before and hits him like a train the stark differences and what he was doing and trying to take away. Tory realizes she can remove dark coercion when she helps his mom, then she is able to help Xavier, twice. First, she removes his dark coercion, then she records herself pushing him out of a window and posts it, outing him as a Pegasus, so Lionel can't keep him locked up anymore. And, he can't hurt him either. Darius is done for; he is so in love with her. Then there's Darcy and Lance. They are happy as can be. But, Kylie still thinks she is sleeping with Seth so she tries to prove it, but instead catches the two of them, and Lance gets arrested. Darius gets him a fabulous lawyer and they have a great plan, then Lance burns it all down to try to protect her and gets himself sent to Darkmore Penitentiary for 25 years. The one time Darius is able to sneak her in to visit him, he's a jerk to her so she can move on with her life, except that's not working. The book ends with Lionel and Clara trying to force the twins to be on his side, but Darcy is able to break away from the shadows after Clara has been using her to attack the heirs; she burns away the shadows with her phoenix fire. But Tory is forced to become Lionel's Guardian and has to protect him against her will. And the book ends with Darius and Tory on opposite sides. Oh, and we find out Diego is a nymph and he dies trying to protect Darcy. I need a break from this series because I am so mad at it. I still like it, but this is too much and I can't look at these characters any more. They keep doing the dumbest things. Max and Geraldine are the only characters behaving in a way that makes sense. I need a break from all of them and their nonsense.  

Cozy Mystery #2

 Murder is a Piece of Cake by Valerie Burns

This series is still so cute. Maddy is such a good lead for a cozy mystery; she is funny without being vapid, likeable without being a pick me, she is not afraid to make mistake and learn and grow and she's not an irritating know it all; you want her to succeed, which is not always the case in a mystery or cozy mystery. I adore her! And her bravery is inspiring; she just up and moved to a completely different state where she didn't know a single person in the first book like it was nothing. In this book we get introduced to a new character who is immediately unlikable, and it turns out he's the sheriff's estranged husband, not her ex-husband, her still husband. So, when he is killed (because he was the worst) Maddy and the Sheriff are the top two suspects. Then, the horrible jerk of a mayor is also killed by the lawyer to "protect" Maddy. And, we still have the whole, 'someone close to me isn't loyal' clue left by her dearly departed great-aunt to deal with. So, that's suspicious. This was cute and fast paced and I can't wait to see what comes next!  

Historical Romance #2

 The Earl I Ruined by Scarlett Pechkam 

This was both better and worse than the previous book. Better because I love a fake relationship. Worse because both characters were so stupid. So. Stupid. Just desperately trying to ruin their own happiness and for why? For some self-righteous idea that they were helping the other person. They were ridiculous. I ate it up. The third act break up pissed me off. But he came in and rescued her and they FINALLY realized that neither was pretending to love the other. Then, her brother showed up to save the day and talk some sense into her. And instead of this lavish wedding, which she stood him up at, their real wedding was a small, intimate affair. I can't wait for the next book in this series, as long at it keeps the momentum that this one had.