Book Review: Heartless Hunter (Crimson Moth #1) by Kristen Ciccarelli

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Have I found a book that everyone is talking about, that I've been sleeping on for a while, and have now discovered my new favorite author?

Yes.

Does this have everything I never thought I needed?

Also yes.

Heartless Hunter is about a girl named Rune who's secretly a witch, but she's playing two versions of herself: a socialite and a superhero of witches, kind of like Scarlet Witch. She's saving witches from the horrible Blood Guard, witch hunters that are hunting down witches and eradicating them. One witch hunter she cannot stand is Gideon Sharpe, the brother of her friend Alexander Sharpe. Rune, Verity, and Alex are trying to save as many witches as they can under the name the Crimson Moth, and Gideon has been hunting down the Crimson Moth for two years.

When Rune learns that a witch that she knows is locked up, she and her friends plot to figure out where she is and how to get her, and one of the things she does is fake-date Gideon, even though she hates his guts and wants him dead as a doornail for what he and the Blood Guard has done to the witches she couldn't save. She doesn't expect Alex to reveal that he's in love with her and asks her to go to Caelis with him so they can be married and live forever so she can be free. Nor did she expect to actually fall in love with Gideon, but she did.

The relationship between Rune and Gideon was very nice and cool, very slow-burn, wasn't expecting to love that since I'm not a huge slow-burn romance type of girly, but this was written just right. And the ending?! With that ending and another witch coming back from the dead?? Whaaat?

I'm already reading Rebel Witch as we speak and I'm already in love with this duology, gonna be my favorite one out of the year, I can just feel it. The story is so good, the way the world and the characters pull you in as you read...love it.

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Book Review: Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan

Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My first review in a long time...god I miss doing them.

I read Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan and I enjoyed myself. I liked Liyen and how headstrong she was, trying to make sure the choices she made for her kingdom of Tianxia were the perfect choices for it-which means that she's not gonna bow down to the Queen and get her blessing. She wants the Shield of Rocks and Sand I believe so they can take down the barrier so they can live in peace and not locked up in a shield and not being able to go out to the world, to see it and see what is out there. While she was trying to do that, that's when she met the God of War, Zhangwei, whom she hates immediately because he burned her home down and also possibly killed her beloved grandfather, which was terrible, but there was a reason why.

Her grandfather gave her the Divine Lotus Flower because she was poisoned by the Wangchuan Waters, and he gave it to her instead of Queen Caihong, so she could heal and live. When the God of War comes and tries to get her to fall in love with him so he can get the Divine Lotus, she starts to fall for it...only for her to learn that it was all a trick to get her to relinquish the flower, and he tries to get it from her by stabbing her.

Liyen gets mad and goes back to Tianxia, where she tries to navigate the court without the blessing of Queen Caihong when the darker forces attack and she's in their clutches. She meets Lord Dalian and learns a secret: her Aunt Shou is one of them. Lord Dalian wants revenge on Queen Caihong for what happened to their people and how his sister died. But the more Liyen learns about the past and what happened, even going to the Temple of the Crimson Moon to learn about her past. When she rejects both destines and rewrites her own, that's when she gets the memories of the time she was immortal and remembers the love she shared and loved with the God of War, Zhangwei.

The ending was slow, but at the same time, I enjoyed myself reading it. I was close to crying when I read the ending, and I didn't want this story to end. I wanted to know what happened to Liyen and Zhangwei, though it did also turn out funny when he came back when she summoned him and said that she's gonna marry him in front of the whole entire court, and she was trying not to laugh (but I laughed because that whole thing was funny.) I enjoyed this book and now I wanna read all of Sue Lynn Tan's works :)

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Book Review: Murder, She Wrote: Design by Murder by Jessica Fletcher

Design For Murder by Jessica Fletcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again, Jessica Fletcher solves a murder, this time with a murder dealing with two models during NYC Fashion Week.

I enjoyed this book, but what took me out of it was the detective, Aaron Kopecky, coming around every time she wanted to do something. It irritated me, like he wanted her to be his new wife because he talks about her ALL THE TIME. It got on my last nerve, and I wanted to scream, because bruh, I wanted him to focus on his job, not on her. I felt like he showed up and wanted to be around Jessica, not giving her any room to breathe or to do anything, but in a Jessica way, he does back off and he gets that she's not interested in him right now.

But the mystery felt...boring, in my opinion. Two models died--one was seventeen, another twenty-something, and they were and weren't weirdly connected. One died from a poisonous lipstick while another was killed in her apartment by someone named Jordon Verne. I kept trying to figure out what was going on in the story, to see if I could figure it out...But I thought that the doctor did it, but when this Jordon Verse confessed after being in a room with both Jessica and Sandy Black, then I just felt...disappointed.

I wanted it to be a bit...better, in my opinion. But all it did was make me a bit sad and a little bit excited for it, and I did enjoy myself reading this book because this was all I really wanted to read once I was done with Shield of Sparrows. But because of the stalking Detective and the clues that kinda went nowhere, I'm giving this book a 4.75 stars.

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Book Review: Ever After High: A Semi-Charming Kind of Life by Suzanne Selfors

A Semi-Charming Kind of Life by Suzanne Selfors
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book made me so angry and also so so happy at the same time as I finished it last night. I felt so sorry for Darling Charming because she doesn't want to be a damsel in distress-she wants to be a warrior princess like her favorite characters she secretly reads, like Maid Marian, Athena, and people like that. She's getting bored with her Damsel-in-distress classes and is always helping her brother, Dexter, in Hero-in-Training classes.

One day, Dexter gets sick and Darling decides that she wants to help him...by taking his armor and pretending to be Dexter. The more she did it while Dex was in bed, getting over a princely cold, that's when she realizes two things: since Parent's Weekend is coming up, King and Queen Charming would want to see their sons joust and Darling walking like a princess in the parade, even though that's not what she wanted to do.

It nearly tore her apart that she couldn't be what she wanted to be, or the fact that her parents couldn't accept her for what she really wanna be, but somehow, she tries to keep her secret and her secret yearning of being a knight or a warrior princess secret from her parents by secretly helping Dexter while he's sick.

This book made me so mad for Darling, mostly because her parents want her to be one thing, while she wants to be another thing. It's like they're putting her in a box, and all she wants to do is get out of said box and be who she really wants to be. Damsel in Distress classes are boring AF she longs to hold a sword and read books about princesses fighting and saving themselves. I was close to putting this book as a three-star or even a two-star because of the parents, but I gave it a 4.25 stars because of how good it was, and how Darling kept helping Dexter.

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Book Review: The School for Wicked Witches by Will Taylor

The School for Wicked Witches by Will Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A book about a school for witches that is set in Oz?

Sold.

I was locked in.

But sadly it fell flat for me in so many ways.

I did like the magic in the book-it was cute and fun and I wanted more. The schools that Ava went to sounded like a fun place I would teach in. But the whole escaping from one school to get to another, and then meeting a very wicked witch who went to the same wicked school who wanted to see them again after they made a deal with her, to a boy who has bone fire magic who can glow like he's ghost rider...

I was expecting more from this book, even though it is a middle grade, but it felt like it was lacking something and I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe if I read the second one it'll be better and much more fun, because now she wants to leave the WOW school and go back to the other school, which in my mind doesn't make any sense, but the more I think about it, it might just make sense after all.

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Book Review: Payback's A Witch by Lana Harper (The Witches of Thistle Grove #1)

Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book twice-once in the fall, the second time during April, and I loved it so much. It had ghost possession, a magical competition, a woman coming back home after years of being in another magicless town...it was so perfect that I immediately put all of them on my tbr to get to this year because of how good it was. The fall vibes in the book were total perfection and I loved every bit of it, even the romance.

Emmy Harlow has just come back to the town of Thistle Grove after being gone for so long, and she is back to become the Arbiter of the magical games Thistle Grove has every year, she left because of her relationship with one Gareth Blackmoore that left her feeling so upset. When she does come back, she does feel her magic returning after years of it not returning after so long, and she finds out that her best friend and fellow witch Natalia Avramov has also been scorned by this Gareth Blackmoore that they decide to team up and destroy him during the annual games.

What Emmy didn't count on was the fact that she was falling hard for Talia (which I loved) and she didn't want the Blackwoods to win this year, so as Arbiter, she does try and make sure the teaming up of Talia and Rowan help bring down the Blackmoores, and she also spends time in her small town and sees how it changed after she left. But that twist at the end of the book was SO GOOD, have Emmy compete after what happened in the last trial, which I loved very much, and how she knew pretty much everything to help the Avramovs win the trials and knock off the Blackmoores.

I also loved how Emmy talked down to Igraine, who needed to sit her old behind down.

The ball at the end and how Taila gave the wreath to Emmy was so on point for her that I was smiling at the end. I now wanna read the rest of the series because of how good the first book was and how the author incorporated magic and romance in this small town I really don't wanna leave. I want to be a permanent member of this town because it was SO GOOD.

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Book Review: Throne of Secrets by Kerri Mansicalco (Prince of Sin #2)

Throne of Secrets by Kerri Maniscalco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alright, Prince Gluttony/Gabriel Axton, you are also one of my favorites.

Even though I was entirely focused on the ice dragons and why they would be attacking people all over the place and all that, I still enjoyed this book so much. In the beginning, though, Gabriel made me mad for what happened to Wrath (my mans didn't deserve it okay, he came back looking like he got into a fight with Flordia Man and lost), and he still does needs to pay his healing/hospital bills, but I DIGRESS. Before I get into an angry match with him, he still goes into my good graces.

So this one did have enemies to lovers, like spot-on fighting in the scandal papers, but when Gabriel decides that he wants to change Miss Adriana from a reporter to a romance columnist like Lady Whistledown, boy was Adriana pissed. But she did it anyway, and she started going to a club called the Seven Sins club to have a very lovely tryst with a mysterious stranger...who just so happens to be Gabriel himself...who announced that he was looking for a wife, so he was holding a Bachelor like competition to see who can become his princess.

I have since realized that I don't like Bachelor-like competition trials because I don't watch the show and it's very stupid, but somehow I enjoyed this one better than I did, and I now may want to read more books with this in it without me actually watching the show.

So how does the ice dragon situation fit in?

Well, the ice dragons are all acting very weird and we don't know why. One day they were cool with the hunts and they didn't hurt people. Minutes later they tweakin' and now they're attacking people left right and sideways and Gluttony doesn't even know why...but it turns out Adriana does, and it was because of a hexed object called the golden pen I believe, that started to make the ice dragons tweak as if they were on Monster Hunter, and once the pen was destroyed, the ice dragons were back to normal. For me, that was the meat of the story, because I started to wonder what happened to the ice dragons and why they were tweakin' like that.

All in all, a really good book but the Bachelor competition took me away from it, kind of. But I still enjoyed it, though!

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