Review: The Rose Bargain - Book #1 Rose Bargain Duology - Sasha Peyton Smith - February 2025 I'll be honest—when I picked up The Rose Bargain, I was skeptical. As someone who typically steers clear of romantasy and fantasy in general, I expected to struggle through another overwrought magical romance. Instead, Sasha Peyton Smith delivered something unexpectedly engaging that reminded me why I fell in love with dystopian fiction during the mid-2000s boom of series like Divergent and The Chemical Garden. The premise immediately hooked me: an Immortal Queen who once saved King Edward's kingdom, only to usurp his throne and rule with an iron fist for decades. Every year, she offers eighteen-year-olds "Rose Bargains"—the chance to gain something precious in exchange for a devastating sacrifice, whether physical or emotional. It's a brilliantly dark concept that feels fresh despite drawing from familiar fairy tale elements. Our protagonist Ivy wants nothing to do with...

Eva is Waiting Romola Farr Publication date: February 14th 2025 Genres: Adult, Historical, Thriller Following the death of her mother, Lily is sent to a remote girls’ boarding school, tearing her away from all the excitement of London in the Swingin’ Sixties. Bereft, she develops a relationship with Rainer, the husband of Sylvia, the headmistress. One day, Bella, the school Collie, goes missing whilst playing on the shore below sheer cliffs. Despite a rising tide, Lily is determined to find the beautiful dog and discovers her trapped between rocks in a cave. Deepening water swirls around them as her fingertips dig into the sand and touch the smooth surface of what she believes to be an animal skull. From that moment on, she is haunted by a young girl pleading for help. Lily speaks to her headmistress and learns that eleven years previously a pupil went missing. Eva was a refugee from Hungary, and it was assumed by the police that she had run away. Forced to stay on at schoo...

Brimstone & Blades Maria Alexander Publication date: June 3rd 2025 Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult It’s 1689. Sixteen-year-old Julie de Maupin is on the run with her boyfriend, a young swordmaster named Sérannes. They perform sword fights and songs in taverns to survive. But when a diabolical creature kills Sérannes, it also injures Julie in the attack. Plunged into the dangerous world of French magic, Julie needs to return to Paris to find the great magician that can heal her devastating wound so she can avenge Sérannes’s death. On the way, she finds the creature is controlled by a necromantic coven called the Shadow Holders. Defeated during the Affair of the Poisons, they’ve returned but this time with traitors in the royal court to crush Louis XIV and terrorize France. With her found family of magical and moggie misfits, Julie must use her sword, wits, and gender-bending wiles to send the threat back to Hell. But will they be enough? Magic is illegal, and so is...

In a city where every scandal and secret counts, iron-willed inventor Weston Witaker’s world is turned upside down by Lady Penelope, leaving him determined to win her heart. Readers who love Kathleen Ayers, Lisa Kleypas, and Sarah MacLean will devour Tall, Dark and December by Tracy Sumner, a steamy, reverse age-gap, My Fair Lady retelling. “This was so refreshing and exciting. The story itself was so easy to read, extremely funny in parts, sensual and oh, so romantic. It has everything I have come to enjoy in a really good book.” - Zena, Amazon     “A charming story about a love finding resolution in spite of the two main characters, the artist and the engineer, fighting against it. Sumner is a master at writing words that show the reluctant yearning…” - Tina, Goodreads “ …a rollercoaster of turns and moments. Just when I had a inkling it will all be very predictable, the tables turn and it all gets so fresh and full of action.” - Ioana, Goodreads Read Now! USA ...

Review: Pearl - Sherri L Smith and Christine Norrie - August 2024 In "Pearl," Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie weave a poignant tale set against the backdrop of World War II, focusing on Amy, a young Japanese-American girl caught between two nations at war. This graphic novel, gifted to me by Scholastic Publishers US, exceeded my expectations with its emotional depth and powerful storytelling, earning it a well-deserved 5Ps rating on The Phantom Paragrapher. The story unfolds in 1941, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, as thirteen-year-old Amy travels from Hawaii to Hiroshima to visit her family. However, the devastating events of Pearl Harbor trap her in Japan, where she finds herself conscripted into translating English radio transmissions for the Japanese army. Amy grapples with conflicting loyalties and the fear of internment camps in America, all while forging new friendships and slowly feeling a sense of belonging in a country now at war with her homeland. Smit...

Review: Divine Rivals - Book #1 Letters of Enchantment - Rebecca Ross - April 2023 When this series popped onto Instagram, it caught my attention as everyone was reading it. I then added the book to my wishlist and it was brought for me as an Instagram book gift. In this last part of 2023 and into 2024, I have started to get back into reading a bit of fantasy though of course it now has its terminology of "romantasy". Divine Rivals is historical meets fantasy but in a way could be set in a modern world but for me, it still held a strong historical feel to the book. The book starts with Iris's brother Forrest heading off to serve in the war to fight for Eden - one of the gods and goddesses who have just awoken after being in slumber for hundreds of years. The war is on between Eden and Dacre and is a War of the Gods but it's the humans who are suffering and fighting for their lives. Iris is working as a journalist alongside Roman and when tragedy strikes Iris's fa...

Review: Silence For The Dead - Simone St. James - April 2014 One of my reading goals for 2024 is to get through the author Simone St. James booklists, so far I have read one of her books and the other was a DNF. Silence for the Dead is the 3rd book by this author I have read and the second one I have enjoyed. I was surprised though that when I started this book I was transported back to the year 1919-1920 - just after The Great War  had ended and during the second wind of the influenza plague. As we know the first one started ravaging families in 1918. The book starts with a young female called Kitty off to work at a Mental Institution, the institution is housed in an old family home that once belonged to a wealthy family who one day vanished without a trace. Strange things are happening inside the walls though as at night, the patients are hearing voices and hallucinating. They are convinced it's part of their PTSD and illnesses but the truth is that bad terrible things happened...

Viscount Overboard Misty Urban (Ladies Least Likely, #1) Published by: Oliver Heber Books Publication date: December 5th 2023 Genres: Adult, Historical Romance, Romance When the war-scarred Viscount Penrydd washes up in 1799 Newport minus his memory, Gwenllian ap Ewyas decides not to tell him he owns, and threatened to sell, the property she’s made a refuge for her and other lost souls. Gwen found healing from her haunted past by making St. Sefin’s into a sanctuary for the hurt and abandoned, and she’ll do anything to preserve the place—including lie to the English lord who owns it until she can win him to her cause. But making Penrydd her stableboy is a dangerous game, especially when he’s a target for an outside menace moving into Newport. Even more unsettling for Gwen, under the scars and arrogance is a man she can admire and possibly love. But as shadows from both their pasts appear at St. Sefin’s, Gwen risks losing her livelihood, her home, and her heart when Penrydd lea...

Review: Becoming the Dark Prince - Book #3.5 Stalking Jack the Ripper Series - Kerri Maniscalco - July 2019 Ever have those days where you want to read, but everything you try is just not your cup of tea and grabbing you? I was like that yesterday as it took me 5 times to get to something that would keep my interest - everything else -the four previous titles were just DNFs. When I get like that and I just really want to read, I find novellas are an excellent tool as they just hit the reading spot and they end up being quick reads as well. This was one I have had on my Kindle for a couple of years as I enjoyed Books 1 and 2 but sadly Escaping Houdini was a DNF. This book is set just after the Houdini but still at the same time upon the ship from the UK to the US. There have been a few murders upon the ship and it looks like Thomas Cresswell - our Dark Prince aka Dracula and Meso aka Faust along with Audrey Wadsworth have captured the killer, but he isn't confessing to all of the...