The Phantom Paragrapher

Review: Of Thunder and Amethyst - The Weather Court Gem Series - KC Silver - November 2024 After the last two days not reading anything and then this morning trying a range of books and nothing grabbing me, I moved on to an ARC from Luna Literary Management PR and I finally found a book that I loved this morning. Of Thunder and Amethyst gave me vibes of an adult version of The School for Good and Evil with themes of other dystopian books I had read that included games and trials like The Hunger Games. In Of Thunder and Amethyst, every year there is an event called The Undertaking in which 8 people from the 8 villages are chosen to compete for the Heart and survive the Undertaking to save their village and bring it prosperity for the upcoming year till the next games. For Karmine, she is a legacy as her mother and father both participated in the Undertaking when they were 22 years old and her mother won it and holds the record for finding the "heart" the fastest. With a mum ...

Review: Her Greatest Adventure - Book #2 Greatest Love Series - Hannah Cowan - May 2023 Prepare to have your heart swept up in a whirlwind of emotions because Her Greatest Adventure by Hannah Cowan is a perfect blend of heart, humor, and a dose of romance! Adalyn and Cooper’s story is everything you didn’t know you needed in a “brother’s best friend” romance—layered with depth, filled with sparks, and wrapped in a plot as sweet as it is chaotic. Adalyn Hutton is determined to stick to her plans, even when life throws her a curveball. With no travel buddy and limited funds, she reluctantly enlists Cooper White—her brother’s best friend and the last person she’d ever expect to share an adventure with. Adalyn is fiery, independent, and oh-so-relatable. Her sarcasm and determination make her the kind of protagonist you cheer for, even when she’s getting in her own way. Cooper, on the other hand, is an absolute gem of a book boyfriend. He’s the quiet, steady force that balances Adalyn’s c...

Review: His Happy Place - Book #2 Getaway Collection - Zakiya Dalila Harris - August 2022 When life feels overwhelming or a reading slump creeps in, I find solace in the bite-sized brilliance of an Amazon Original Story. Their brevity is perfect for scratching that literary itch without committing to a full-length novel. His Happy Place by Zakiya Dalila Harris delivered just that—a suspenseful, quick read—but left me grappling with the open-ended conclusion that these stories are infamous for. While I enjoy a bit of ambiguity, I also crave closure, and the ending of His Happy Place left me with a lingering, maddening what if . Did I figure it out, or am I just telling myself a story? The premise is captivating: a romantic getaway to a remote cabin in upstate New York. Ama’s boyfriend, Nathan, promises her a weekend of intimacy and escape, far from the chaos of city life. On paper, it sounds idyllic. But the serenity of the wilderness quickly turns unsettling as Ama starts to questio...

Review: Cross My Heart - Book #1 The Oxford Legacy - Roxy Sloane - September 2023 This title caught my attention as it sounded like something up my alley and OMG it was. I have to say it ended up redeeming itself with the cliffhanger ending as it started as a 4-star read for me and then dipped in the middle but that ending pushed it back up there where it was almost a 5-star read but not quite. The book starts with Tessa heading to Oxford University to study in their graduate programme under some obscure scholarship foundation. The thing though that Tessa has an ulterior motive for joining the ranks of Oxford students, her older sister Wren committed suicide when she returned home from Oxford after her life just crashed. We learn that Wren was sexually assaulted and that was her downfall, her life she believed was no longer worth living. Tessa wants someone to pay and armed with the few facts she has from Wren; she is determined to find the culprit and make them pay. Her path takes her...

Review: Forget Me - Lisa Sherman - August 2022 For someone who finds reading the equivalent of breathing, when I get into reading slumps it takes away a passion of mine as everything, I try just ends up being blah and boring. When I do feel like this, I find what helps me is reading thrillers and one of my favorite tropes in thrillers is the amnesia storyline. In Forget Me, we meet Wanda Dellas who has washed up on the shore with a gunshot. Someone wanted her dead, but the thing is that she has no clue how she ended up in the water and to be honest, she isn't even sure that she is Wanda Dellas yet all the signs point to her being this person. Now five years later, Wanda is working as a cleaner and is mum to a five-year-old daughter named Astrid when she awoke, she was also pregnant. This surprised her as well as she thought she didn't want children at all.  While watching TV with her daughter, her daughter sees a picture on the TV and says "Look Mummy, That's You"...

Review: Do Not Disturb - Freida McFadden - September 2021 One of the authors that I have found that I have always enjoyed their thrillers is Freida McFadden, she is one of those authors that everyone would have heard of as in the past couple of years she popped up in the world and skyrocketed to rival James Patterson's books. In Do Not Disturb, this book reminded me a bit of Psycho with the whole Bates Motel theme. The book starts with Quinn killing her husband as it was either her or him and she knew she had to fight back as she wasn't planning to be the one leaving in a body bag. Turned out her husband was cheating on her, she just didn't know who, and now Quinn is on the run and stopped at a small motel in the middle of nowhere called Baxter's Motel. The motel is run by a husband-and-wife couple named Nick and Rosalie. Two years ago, a girl was murdered in Room 201 and Nick's wife became bedridden and spends her time watching the hotel rooms with her binoculars. ...

Review: Her Greatest Mistake - Book #1 Greatest Love Series - Hannah Cowan - January 2023 In a mission to clear my bookshelf, I picked up Hannah Cowan's first book in the Greatest Love Series and was surprised at how quickly I got through it though, to be honest, it was an easy read and a theme I have read several times over. Her Greatest Mistake starts with Braxton and Maddox sitting in their treehouse as Maddox is off on his hockey journey as his career is just starting and Braxton tells him, she will always be by his side as their love is forever. Years pass and we see that the pair went their separate ways and lost contact with each other and how Braxton broke Maddox's heart which was a twist that made this title a little different as normally it is the guy that makes the first "bad move" not the female. The other thing we read is that there is bad blood between Braxton's father and Maddox that stems from years ago and played a huge part in their separation ...