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Book Review: The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst

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I purchased a copy of Sarah Beth Durst‘s The Spellshop.

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Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

my review

This was really quite marvelous, super sweet without being cloying or overly sappy. Kiela is an impressively practical heroine, and I do so love a practical heroine. The love interest is shy and awkward, while the town and townspeople are wonderfully accepting. But the real star of the show for me was the sparkling banter between Kiela and her best friend/assistant/sentient spider plant, Caz.

Yes, it plays a little loose and fast with the world-building and magic system. And yes, as much as I adored Kiela and her practicality, she is also a little too naive and socially awkward to be believed. I thought for a while that perhaps she was supposed to be autistic-coded. But in the end, I decided that not every character who is oblivious to social cues is written to be autistic. Regardless, I see there is a second (standalone) book coming out, and I’ll definitely be picking it up.

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Other Reviews:

Book Review | The Spellshop

Serena’s Review: “The Spellshop”

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Audio Book Review: Pretty When She Dies, by Rhiannon Frater

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I have had a copy of Rhiannon Frater’s Pretty When She Dies for a while. So, the memory of where I got it is vague. I believe I was probably given an Audible code for a free copy.

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Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry…in a new, horrific, unimaginable way… Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas. Her new hunger spurs her to leave a wake of death and blood behind her as she struggles with her new nature. All the while, her creator is watching. He is ancient, he is powerful, and what’s worse is that he’s a necromancer. He has the power to force the dead to do his bidding.

Amaliya realizes she is but a pawn in a twisted game, and her only hope for survival is to seek out one of her own kind. But if Amaliya finds another vampire, will it mean her salvation… or her death?

my review

The narrator, Kristin Allison, did a good job, and I enjoyed this book beyond the 25% mark. I spent the first quarter of the book thinking I was going to end up DNFing it because I wasn’t having a good time. The beginning of this book just feels like female victim porn. Every person the FMC meets victimizes her somehow (most, even her family, with a sexual edge). I disliked it intensely, and it’s suuuuper cliched. I just don’t enjoy reading rapey stories. I’m not talking about trigger warnings or anything like that; I just mean I do not enjoy it and generally try to avoid it in stories I read for entertainment.

However, once the FMC meets the MMC, the story changes (pacing, tone, and the expected plot arc all shift), and the rapey victimization subsides; I then enjoyed the rest of the book. Now, because I know it’ll be a ‘no’ for many readers, I’ll state up front that cheating is involved. The FMC steps into someone else’s established relationship as ‘the other woman.’ That’s a dynamic you don’t often see because many people wouldn’t forgive an FMC for that. So, fair warning. I noted it with a bit of a raised eyebrow, but let it go easily enough.

All in all, despite the rough beginning, I finished this happy. I loved the side characters (almost pretty when she does photomore than the main characters), and the FMC showed a surprising backbone. Admittedly, the MMC is somewhat of a cardboard cutout, the relationship is quite shallow, and the FMC’s sudden mastery of her power feels a bit deus ex machina. Plus, the story and language are a little dated. (I think it was first published in 2008.) Describing women of color as “exotic” is generally understood as a microaggression now, for example. But, all in all, I’ll likely read the second book at some point.

Other Reviews:

Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater

Review – Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater

 

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Book Review: Bride of Brutal Hearts, by Kate Stevens

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I received a free copy of Kate Stevens‘ Bride of Brutal Hearts.bride of brutal hearts cover

Two vicious kings. One captive bride. Their magic should have destroyed me.

Instead, it made them mine.

When my sister’s name is called for the vampires’ harvest, I step forward. It’s a death sentence, but she has a family, a future. All I have is a dusty bookshop, an ailing body, and a fate that always ends in fangs.

As the only volunteer, I’m claimed as the newest Mortal Bride—a living sacrifice to their two wicked kings.

The Conqueror, ruthless and imposing, his icy demeanor concealing his fiery intensity.

The Butcher, charming and capricious, his divine beauty disguising his cruel desires.

The kings intend to drain my lifeforce to fuel the spell securing their reign. But when the ceremony goes awry, we’re all ensnared in an obsessive bond… one not even death can break.

The Conqueror and the Butcher now hunger for more than my blood. They want all of me, forever.

I should resist them. I should hate them. They are the monsters who devour my people.

But no matter how brutal their hearts, I crave them just as fiercely.

my review

I enjoyed this. At almost 800 pages to tell a fairly straightforward story, it’s far too long (and then ends on a cliffhanger to boot), and I have a few complaints. But overall, I enjoyed this. I liked Jules’ evil golden retriever routine, the dark and brooding Luc, and their relationship with each other. Nessa is pleasantly plump and has a backbone, though she isn’t really able to utilize it here. I’m hoping future books will allow her to grow in ways that allow her to find some agency for her internal fortitude. I appreciated the diversity and representation of endometriosis.

Here’s my main complaint. Stevens sets up a whole soulbond, fated mates kind of scenario that is supposed to bind people together. Each takes half the other’s soul. Or, in this case, the three share thirds. That makes them equal within the bond. Now, obviously, this is dark romance, and I’m not complaining about the dark themes. Nessa isn’t socially equal. Outside of the soulbond, she would have been a slave. (This is very much a master/slave dynamic.) She’s physically smaller. So, she’ll never be an equal in strength. She’s new to the whole scenario, while the men have been companions for 500 years. She’s not an equal there either. All par for a dark bride of brutal heartsromance course. However, the soulbond is supposed to bind them as equals within the bond, and it doesn’t. The individuals might not yet have it in them to treat each other as equals, but the internal demands of the bond should be balanced. Nothing about what the bond seems to make Nessa want and do is balanced between her and the men, and, according to the lore Stevens created, it should have been. Plus, I was so sick of them not trusting anything she said when they are supposed to be in her thoughts.

Despite that. I’ll be looking for book two when it comes out.

Other Reviews:

Bride of Brutal Hearts (Bloodborne Court #1) by Kate Stevens