Book Review: Wedding Cake Killer by Livia J. Washburn

Wedding Cake Killer by Livia J. Washburn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

CW: murder (off-screen), conmen

So this small town Texas cozy mystery is basically if Dororthy Zbornak was a retired schoolteacher in Weatherford, TX solving mysteries and also at the same time getting in trouble with the DA and the law…somehow. Because I felt like I was going to become a senior citizen once I was done with this book. I liked it but I just didn’t like how the DA was acting when the best friend’s partner died and blamed her for it…like she had a really good reason to kill her husband.

On top of that, they didn’t know Roy that well until they found out by a private investigator that he was a conman, falling in love with women and then getting all their money and leaving. It’s like it came out of nowhere, and I was kinda thrown back a bit, because I just thought that Roy was just a good ol’ boy who loved Eve, but it turns out homie was a conman who was murdered at a bed and breakfast…ah. Interesting.

In the middle of all of this is Phyllis, Weatherford’s Sherlock Holmes, who owns a house and shares it with her friends Sam, Eve, and Carolyn. I felt like, throughout the book, I was hanging out with 60-something year old people trying to solve a murder that happens after a wedding…which was out of the blue for me because I thought Roy and Eve was going to be together forever. Looks like that’s not going to be the case, and that she’s a widow after she married about three times I believe.

I liked this book, the recipes sound good and I didn’t like the DA in the book. He just rubbed me the wrong way.

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Book Review: A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

CW: Depression, Unhealthy & abusive relationship, blood & gore (please take care of yourselves after reading this book, please)

You liked me best when I was like an oil painting; perfectly arranged and silent.

First off, I really didn't know what I was going into when I picked up this book. All I knew is that is was a vampire novel about a reimaging of Dracula's Brides. But when I finally read it, it blew me away. It is a story about Constanta, the first of his brides who is in a relationship with Dracula-and fun fact, he's not even named in the book, which I thought was good-he is known as "you" and nothing else. In the beginning, it's just them, Constanta and Dracula, living their best lives. Then you see him being a total dick, which made me want to punch this man in face, because he started to become obsessive, making sure she stayed in the house, telling her everything he could to make her stay inside the house, like he had this fear that someone was after him, and this family they were building was going to die because of the humans and all of that. Then it became poly when they went to Spain to meet Magdalena, and it was the three of them.

I loved the relationship between Constanta and Maggie, because they always protected each other and always tried to please said arsehole who had force them to basically shut them out of society, and Magdalena went into a depression (yop she did, and I felt sorry for her). Dracula tried to bring her back to life with all his lies and trying to coax her out of her depression, but that didn't work, so they went to Russia, when they met Alexi, who became their last and final bride, and that's when thine shit hit the fan.

Because it was Alexi that got so sick and damn tired of being cooped up in the house all the time, so he did something shocking-he brought people in the house. Of course, Magdalena was fucking happy that the house was lively, but oh no, Mr. "Y'all can't have humans in the house, they'll expose us and shit" couldn't take it and downright expose them, pissing Alexi off, telling him that they were his friends, "so why can't we have friends over?"

Nooope. Mr. Dracula wasn't havin' that, so he put his hands on him (actually, he just slapped Alexi) and that was the tip of the fucking iceburg (if you can't tell, I really hate Dracula in this book SO SO MUCH). Constanta then started to have an idea: why don't we kill Dracula? We're sick and tired of his shit, so let's kill him. Of course, at first, Alexi and Madgelena didn't agree, but then after thinking about it, they came together and said sure let's kill him.

So how did they do it, you ask?

Well one, they waited till he was gone to go down to his precious basement that they can't go down in, to look for information on how to kill him. When they find out, they (meaning Alexi and Constanta) came back up and decided to kill him the next day-which was when the mob came and tried to burn the house down. So they coaxed him from his basement, tricked him into bed, and then Constanta staked the hell out of him, even when the dick begged her not to do it.

This book does have sex scenes (not that much of it, tbh), gore and a meditative look into a terrible, horrible relationship, and seeing one woman taking it upon herself to free the three of them, because if they kept him alive, he'll keep doing this for the rest of their lives, and they weren't havin' it. It does have bisexual rep and also polyam rep, and honestly, I loved this book so much (while hating Dracula all the same at the same time) that I wished I could give this book a ten star. But please, if you can, take care of yourselves after reading this book...even though it's really, really good.

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Book Review: A Dance with the Fae Prince by Elise Kova

A Dance with the Fae Prince by Elise Kova
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again, Elise Kova kicked it out of the park with this book. I annotated this one, and I have to say, I really liked it, and on top of that, I found things I didn’t even know I liked. I would’ve given this book a three out of five stars if it wasn’t for Katria getting on my last nerve about not being in love and all that, but then after I saw her reasoning and how slow burn this romance was (I don’t even like slow burn romances that much) and why, because of her father and Joyce (whom I hate with a passion) showed her that she didn’t want to fall in love, but when Davien showed her what love is and told her that he’ll show her what it is, what love really is, she keeps shutting him down, calling him a liar each time.

To tell you the truth, I read this as a straight up fantasy novel, not a fantasy romance novel, so for me, romance is kinda low on the list of things I want in a fantasy novel. But the more the romance came up in the book, the more I actually…started…to…like…it? A lot? Though for a minute it started to aggravate me because she keeps turning him down. And the first time he walks in the room he tells her to close her eyes…like bruh, I want to see your face, I don’t want to hide it, darn it!

When they brought up the Boltov bloodline and how they’re taking out the Aviness bloodline so they can keep the throne, I got more interested in that than the romance. But watching Katria and Davien grow to fall in love and have it a slow burn romance was kinda fun to watch, tbh. How Katria killed the old Boltov king with just a knife was actually really good to see, because we get to see her grow from being the human who worked hard and was scarred, to being brave and strong to the point, she learns that she’s half fae and that they clipped her wings (ow that hurts). Davien thought the reason was that because her family kept her human and the way she was to keep her grounded, I guess.

At the end, Katria became Queen, she went back to the human world to get her horse and sister back, and she’s living happily ever after with Davien. This book was really good and very interesting to annotate, and if I could write a millions of things I loved about this book-from the worldbuilding and the history of Dreamsong and the Boltov and the Avieness family, then we’ll be here all day. So I’ll leave it here and keep thinking about both Davien and Katria.

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Book Review: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Mortal Instruments has finally come to the end with this book…and it made me cry while I was reading it. And even though it needed more Magnus Bane, it was actually so good that I had to finish it off with some wine, popcorn and cheese (don’t try that at home unless your older). So the Mortal Instruments ended with City of Heavenly Fire, and this book hurted like a MFer for real.

This book introduces the characters that are in the Dark Artifices series-Emma, Julian and the Blackthorn children (Ty, Livvy, Dru, Tavvy and Mark) who were attacked by one Sebastian Morgenstern (whom I hate with a fucking PASSION). Emma and Julian saw him turn Andrew Blackthorn into an Endarkened, and they also saw Sebastian tell his soldiers to take Mark to the faeries so he can become part of the Wild Hunt. Then they went to Alicante (where the majority of the book took place before they went to Edom at the end) to testify in front of the Clave and the rest of the Shadowhunters, who were trying to find Sebastian but turns out they couldn’t find him. When the Dark War happened and the Endarkened attacked, Emma cut down a few I believe to protect the Blackthorn children, but it was Julian that killed his own Endarkened father.

Clary, Jace, Alec, Isabelle and Simon, though torn apart because of Sebastian, went to Edom to go and kill him, and also somehow along the way save the four representatives that Sebsatian and the Fairies kidnapped. Alec was worried all the time about Magnus, and also had a heart to heart about his sexualty with Jace and his father, and the funniest part in the book was when Simon and Izzy was about to get their swerve on, Alec walked in on them and yelled MY EYES which was so goddamn funny-I laughed so hard at that.

But it was the ending that got me. Sadly they didn’t save everyone-Sebastian killed Raphael, and Clary went along with Sebastian’s sick plan for them to rule, only to turn around and stab him with Heosphoros and the Heavenly Fire within the blade, burning out all the evil in him and returned Sebastian to Jonathan. Then he died and the rest of the Endarkened died, and when they couldn’t get a way out of the fake Alicante, Magnus summoned his father to make a deal to get them out…and Simon stepped up to the plate, saying the Asmodus can take his immortality and memories.

Everyone said no, but Simon said he wanted to do it. He did, and the Dark Wars were over. I think a year later Clary went to see him when he was human and didn’t have his memories, and it still hurted her to see her best friend not remembering her. Then Isabelle and Magnus went to see him before the wedding of Luke and Jocelyn, and told him that there was a way to get his memories back…which was to become a Shadowhunter.

At the end, this book was so good that I did cry at some parts, but I loved it so much that I’m a bit sad now that this book series is at an end.

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Book Review: Blood Red by Mercedes Lackey

Blood Red by Mercedes Lackey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very good retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, but with werewolves and Elemental Magic and fighting. I was honestly going into this book not really liking it, but after I read the whole entire thing, I was in love with how the story went, how Rosa is the Hunt Master and is always learning all the time about what’s going on before she judges, and also how they took down the shifter that was killing all of those people in that village.

I liked how Mercedes Lackey made sure she respects the romani people in the book (even though the characters uses the slur, I will not write said slur down) and I also liked how she showed Rosa taking the train and seeing how taking the train can affect her magic and how she dealt with people and how she was serviced on the train. Even though half the book she was at Count Graf’s home, I also love how comfortable she was as she went through the Graf’s tests (which was very weird, tbh). But when Dominic and Markos showed up, and Markos revealed that he’s a werewolf, but he shifts, I really enjoyed how Rosa asked questions and she kept getting reassured that he isn’t going to harm her in anyway.

When they went to the village to hunt down the shifter, I liked how they did it together, and when Markos left to hunt down the shifter and didn’t come back (after their whole ass argument about it) Rosa jumping into action immediately was a really good point in the book, and how she calls for the forest spirits to help her drag each and every werewolf out before going in and finding Markos and fighting the huge werewolf shifter.

I got worried when I thought Dominic was dead, but then I got scared when Rosa was almost killed. But they survived and now Rosa went back to Count Graf’s place and Markos and Dominic is staying in the village to make sure those shifters never come back to harm the village. Another thing I loved about this book was that Rosa showed the mayor of the town a tiny bit of magic, something simple and easy that even I could do if I ever lived in this world.

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Book Review: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book two of The Kiss Quotient made me laugh, cry, and also made me want to hug Esme as she tries to navigate the new world of America (well not a “new world” to me, but a new world to her). I really loved the fact that she decided to get a job and got her GED, even though she was trying to seduce Khai, who is autistic and was trying to hide the fact that she’s got a little girl at home. I also loved the fact that Khai was learning how to love her, even though he thinks that he’s not suited for love AT ALL, and that each time Esme asks him if he loves her, he tells her no and shuts her down, which I was honestly proud of, though at the same time a bit upset, because he didn’t know how to tell his feelings.

I cracked up when Quan and Michael (yes, MichaelStella was in this book, but only a little bit) taught Khai about sex after the first time he and Esme got their swerve on, and Esme was mad at him the next day (which I understand) and then the most beautiful thing happened-when Esme went to cut his hair, Khai told her that he was austistic and showed her how he wanted to be touched-which once again, reminding me of the cutting hair kink I didn’t know I have until now.

The whole motorcycle situation almost made me want to hit Khai in the face, but then after he explain why he kept it in the garage, I understood completely, but to yell at Esme like that??? I really didn’t think that he needed to go that far-just explain calmly and she’ll understand it. But just watching the both of them grow, even though they had to go through some rough bumps in the road. I’m gonna be really sad once I read the last book in this series, because I really love this series so much, its one of my favorite series this year.

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Book Review: A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari

A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So I listened to the audiobook of this, and I loved it. The narrator took me on this journey with Saffron, who was trying to solve a mystery featuring a very poisonous plant. I'm thinking about getting the physical copy of this book so I can read it again, because it was that damn good.

I think what I liked about this book was the fact that it was in a school setting. I also like how I can relate to Saffron and also ship her with Alexander as well. They are my favorite double-team when they are trying to solve the case. I happen to like Alexander in this book more than I thought-being helpful and giving advice and questioning her while she tried to solve the case. It's one of my favorite books of all time, and now all I want to do is reread it and love it even more.

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Book Review: Dragon's Oath: A House of Night Novella by PC and Kristin Cast

Dragon's Oath by P.C. Cast
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I haven't read a House of Night novel in a long time, so reading this one was kind of refreshing. I liked the growing relationship between Anastasia and Dragon, is was cute tbh. I liked the magic and stuff that happened in it.

The relationship between Dragon and Anastasia was really cute, really snarky at times, but they loved each other. So that was really cute to read. I also liked how Anastasia did the spells as cool, calm and collected, all the white Dragon protected her. It was very cute and very romantic, all the way up to the end, when it jumped back to the present day, where Dragon swore to find her again when he died. (as you can tell, I wrote this in my book journal so things are going to repeat themselves, and I'm sorry about that).

The one thing I really didn't like was the fact that Kalona's Raven Mocker was in the book, controlling the human. It almost felt like I was reading a weird chapter of an old anime fanfiction I used to read when I was in middle school/high school or something like that. I loved this book as a teenager, but as an adult it was an eh. The Dragon x Anastasia story was cute, tbh.


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