Book Review: The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Hanna Alkaf

The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Hanna Alkaf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Grimoire of Grave Fates is the first anthology that I didn't have to read for class, and also it was really good. I enjoyed the interconnected stories about the many students that go to the school, and figuring out the mystery of one terrible professor who died. I really enjoyed reading this anthology and trying to find out who killed the terrible professor-which I really didn't like the moment he appeared and was talked about the whole entire time.

The ending fell short for me, mostly because I wasn't even expecting the Vice principal to actually commit the murder. I thought it was one of the students who really hated him for all the terrible things he said and done. But for an administrator to do it? And somehow put poison that turns your blood into sand? That oddly interested me throughout the book, and I wish we'd gotten a part where the professor or one of the students actually explained what the hell was in Hourglass Poison.

The only character I really didn't like was the professor. The more the students brought up who he was and what he said to them, I felt happy that he was gone. No one should suffer under than man, though the real question I posed throughout this book was, Why didn't they fire him and throw him out on his keester if he's saying and doing these horrible things to the other students?, that was something I wanted to know. And how come no one even suspected the Vice Principle? I find that kinda of messed up, but then, no one even knew about her, tbh.

Those are the only parts I didn't like and what I had on my mind while I was reading this, but other than that I enjoyed this book so much.

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Book Review: Beyond the Ruby Veil by Mara Fitzgerald

Beyond the Ruby Veil by Mara Fitzgerald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This...this was the most UNHINGED slow-burn book I've ever read. Ever. I did look up the CWs for this book, and, um...that didn't prepare me for this unhingeable book about a girl who keeps causing problems, always, and the girl who can summon water, but it turns out she was actually stealing water from other kingdoms. What's the idea the girl gets (her name's Emanuela) to stop her? Oh, she's going to try to steal the water back.

But before she can do that, she has to deal with a little problem on her wedding day: a woman called the watercrea comes and takes her up the tower in the Ruby Veil, where she starts to drain her blood. Well, Emanuela didn't like that, not one bit. She escapes the Watercrea's castle and then she goes to her supposed fiancee's house, where it turns out that he married another girl two days after she was taken up to the tower, just when she was taken because of her omens that she had hidden on her side and had never blossomed ever since she discovered it when she was seven. Emanuela was shocked that her best friend, Ale, got married again-and that's when the watercrea shows up again, trying to get her back into the tower.

Emanuela said "Bet" and...well, she pushed her and killed her.

Then she and Ale went underground in the tunnels into a new city, where they sneaked in and met a girl called The Heart and her brother, and that's when things started to get so unhinged that I couldn't even believe it. From one thing to the next, the action just jumps off the page and you don't know how this story is going to end until the end, when Emanuela and the Heart, Verene, was in an iron cell and Verene swears that she won't work with Emanuela escape or even work with her because she hates her so much. Emanuela, once again, said "Bet" and at the end, a girl escaped the iron cell. Who was it?? Was it Emanuela? Was it Verene? Whoever it was, I can't wait to find out who it was that escaped when I finally get to book two.

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Book Review: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am shocked and pleased that I have enjoyed the Atlas Six. I had a fear that I wasn't going to like it, but to be honest, I truly enjoyed it. I didn't care for the plot, since it is a slow build. I cared about the characters more than I ever did the plot, and on top of that, I may have liked some of them, like Reina, Libby, Parisa, Nico and Tristan. The one I really didn't care for as much as I would've loved to, was Callum. I thought that he was going to die, and I was prepared for it, but then, sadly, it didn't happen, all because Libby was kidnapped by her ex and not killed by anyone else.

The whole thing about Parisa's past and Callum just casually bringing it up was something I really didn't like at all. I was mentally going "Bruh, for real? Now? For real?" And then him just...manipulating Tristan while Libby is trying to figure out what he can do and all that was fun, especially when they did what I THINK they did (LibbyTristanParisa with absinthe) and then the mystery of Nico and Gideon and how Nico was protecting Gideon from his mama (which is fair, seeing as that she gives me the bloody creeps).

I was kind of side-eyeing Atlas the whole time, because there was something about him I just didn't like at all. He made me sniff and look at him with a very deep side eye because he's supposed to be the "Caretaker" but in my opinion, he didn't do much caretaking to me. But then when it came to Ezra's point of view (and I straight up hate Ezra) and seeing what Mr. Atlas was planning...I immediately hated him and wished him to go to doody town as much as I wanted Nico to go until he grew on me, and where I want Callum to go because I really don't like Callum at all, to be honest.

I am going to read the second book because I really enjoyed this one so much.

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Book Review: A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I bought this book a long-ish time ago, and reading it now for a reading challenge made me grateful to get it (because if I didn't, I'd be running around with my head chopped off trying to find this book) and when I say that I enjoyed this book friends, I ENJOYED IT. I enjoyed it so much that I wrote down so many quotes that screamed at me to write because it was so good. I wanted to go to Dalloway and spend time with the girls from Godwin House and go to their little Night Migration sessions and just have fun, and also before Felicity because that's how much I truly enjoyed and adored this book.

I wasn't keen on Felicity at first, with the story sounding all kinds of weird and not right when she talked about her dead girlfriend Alex Haywood, thinking that either she or Margery had come back to haunt her. She came back to school to finish up her high school diploma, and during her time in school, she met the rest of the Godwin House Girls and the one and only Ellis Haley.

Ellis Haley was a prolific writer who wanted to write about the Dalloway Five, five young witches who had died quite horribly. Felicity, who once upon a time was obsessed with the story and with witches and witchcraft, didn't want anything to do with Ellis's project. But she got roped into it, and soon enough she was helping Ellis with how some of these young women die, along with trying to straighten out her own mind and to also find out what really happened with Alex.

One night, she and Ellis went to Alex's grave, and Felicity knew that there was nothing in her grave-in fact, she knew that the grave was empty. Ellis offered to dig it up, and Felicity told her no. Instead, that's when Ellis gave her The Secret Garden to read to Alex, and the next morning the book showed up, along with a piece of hellebore in the middle-the hellebore that grew on Alex's grave.

At this point, I thought that it was suspicious that The Secret Garden showed up, along with the hellebore, but then things just started getting weirder and weirder and weirder, to the point that Felicity went back to Alex's grave, dug it up, and found Clara there, dead.

I was shocked too when I read it.

Scared out of her mind, she went to talk to Ellis about it...who, it turned out, killed Clara the same way one of the Dalloway girls was killed. Then the final showdown between Felicity and Eliis, which didn't end well, and at the funeral, Ellis's mothers tried to give Felicity her book, but she turned it down. Years later, Felicity came in contact with the book again in London, and when she read the thing in the beginning of the book I cannot remember, she quickly shuts the book and goes to her flat with her girlfriend.

I truly enjoyed this book so much. I want to read it all over again because of how good it was. It had the dark academia vibes along with the queer ones that I really loved.


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Book Review: Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though this book is supposed to be Gossip Girl meets Get Out (never seen it before) I thought it was Gossip Girl meets Pretty Little Liars, and it was SO PERFECT. Black Dark Academia trying to stop someone from trying to ruin their lives, while also uncovering who they are and stopping them? My god this was perfect. I honestly bought this book because of the title (yes, Motorhead did come to my mind when I saw the title) but now, after reading this book and really loving it (please check the CWs because GOOD LORD) I didn't want this story to end.

Chiamaka became my favorite character in the book. I was worried about Devon while I was reading it, because of the fact that his relationships seem to go wrong, and he was getting betrayed left, right, and sideways. Chiamaka's relationship with Jamie then Belle looked like it was going swimmingly, then it got ruined because of Aces spilling her secrets. When both Chiamaka and Devon team up to find out who Aces is and why they are doing this to them-the only black students in a predominately-white school. But when the both of them found out about the history about the school and how the black students that went there disappeared...

Wow.

Oh my god.

I wasn't expecting it, it came out of nowhere, and my mouth DROPPED.

I wanted both Devon and Chiamaka to expose this horrible school for what they did and are doing to the black students that went there. And they tried at the Snowflake Ball, but sadly, it looked like everything was going to backfire on them, when the protest happened and the school blew up. I did get worried that Chiamaka wasn't going to be a doctor, and thank god that she did. I'm also glad that the both of them are in really good relationships and that they are fighting the system.

This was a really good black and queer dark academia novel, might be one of my favorite books of this year, and I highly reconmend all of y'all to read it.

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Book Review: Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ever wanted a book that gives you a hug and some coffee the moment you open it? That’s how I felt when I read Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree, and I loved every single moment of it. I loved how we’re on Viv’s journey from stopping on being an adventurer to being a coffee shop owner, bringing the love of coffee and treats to the river town of Thune. I loved seeing her grow and change her ways, and also find some non-violent ways of handling things, from coming to an agreement of thimblets to the Madigal and actually helping people in one little way to another.

I fell for the little rattkin Thimble is the bestest of all the boys and I would do ANYTHING for him. I can almost smell him making the cinnamon rolls or the thimblets (which is actually a real recipe). I also like Tandri and how she soothes Viv out and is always coming up with really good ideas (and she’s really talented when it comes to doing art and designing the menu). Another thing I really liked about this book is that it was so cozy and that I wanted to visit Thune and go to Legends and Lattes and get a nice cup of coffee and a treat and enjoy myself.

The only thing I didn’t like about this book, which didn’t annoy me like most fantasy novels, was the fact that Fennus appeared out of nowhere. Viv and the others was just minding their own business and Fennus would show up, waiting the Scalvert’s Stone and taunting Viv a bit. But I did like that her old crew showed up and visited her, even helped her rebuild when the original coffee shop was burned down.

The one thing I was curious about was the gnome playing cards, but then I just chalked it up to the fact that he just wanted a place to rest, have some coffee and play chess. Also have the direcat Anthy or Amity curl up next to him. I just wanted this gnome to live his best life and mind his own business. That’s it.

But I truely enjoyed this book, I would read it again so I can be enveloped with this with a warm hug and some coffee next to me.

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Book Review: Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams

Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I normally don’t read books that comes out in a year. I normally wait for the next year to read them. But this time, on my trip coming back home, I picked up this book and I fell in love with it as soon as I opened the book and started to read it. I have never read a book this cozy before in my life, and I’m wishing that I heard more about this author, because this book was so good. Grumpy x sunshine, grumpy bodyguard teaching the sunshine flower stone owner how to date, and slowly but surely falling in love with her, and also bodyguarding her best friend while she’s planning her own wedding to the brother of the sunshine flower store owner.

I really enjoyed this book so much-I was really not expecting to enjoy this small town book and crackle at the residents in the novel. Like Mrs. Mabel and Mrs. Harriet fighting, the grocery-store scene of them putting things in their baskets, and them falling in love. I was relating so hard to Annie and how awkward she was on dates and when it came to Will, calling him every single interation of his name, she felt much better, even comfortable with him. And Will really wanted to leave Rome, until he realized that he didn’t want to.

But before he came to the revelation, Will didn’t do romance. The reason why he didn’t do romance or relationships was because of his parents. He had a pretty bad relationship with it, so that’s why he always have one night stands and little flings. But when it came to Anne Walker, he started to become her practice date, he started to fall for her. He’d get jealous whenever she even talks to a man in his vicinity, he even drinks the consent juice and asks her if it’s alright if he touches her.

And Annie was the one character I really liked in this book. She told Will not to call her ‘Angel Annie’ because she didn’t like it, she reads romance novels and tries to hide it, but at the end, she showed her best friend and sisters after finally explaining herself and what happened between her and Will, and also went on her first date after her date disaster, when the guy said that ‘she was boring’. But I really liked how brave she was when she told Will the things she wanna do, but she couldn’t because everyone put her in a box and she wants to live her life…

…and Will, whom I love to bits, tells her that “You were waiting on someone to let you be yourself.”

And that quote nearly sent me.

And the ENDING. I loved it. It almost made me cry. Now I wished someone did that for me, because it was so good. Sarah Adams became one of my new favorite romance author and I need to read the other two books because this one was really cute and really cozy as well.

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