K.F. Breene's A Ruin of Roses

A Ruin of Roses is a delicious and very sexy retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast. I was worried stepping into the story that it would be boring or mundane as the base plot was already well known. I am a big fan of Disney movies- real & animated. Belle is the Disney princess I would want to be or try and be friends with. BUT! Back to the main topic- A Ruin of Roses - I really enjoyed this book and version of the story! It’s an enemies to lovers, forbidden love, emotional scars and redemption, injury, different worlds, riddled with magic and curses kinda book/series! The characters are, underneath the crass language and layers of curses, as lovely as Disney gave us. The beast is watching out for his people as much as he can to keep them safe as their defender against demons, he’s strong, selfless, a man of his word, intelligent and scarred. Finley, our Belle, is an outsider/nerd, intelligent, creative, loves books, a healer, beautiful, she’s strong, defends the people she loves and kick ass. Hadriel, one of the castle’s sidekicks, is a wonderful, grudgingly helpful, and funny character. As the series progresses, I think we will meet more of the castle characters to love and laugh with as the fight against the demon lord continues.

    This book is not for the faint of heart or someone who wants to clutch their pearls upon hearing very creative sexual kinks and actions. It is spicy, juicy, all levels of action I haven’t read very often (let alone even tried) and will leave you feeling faint, satisfied, or looking for your battery powered friend hidden in the nightstand drawer. Beyond that, as another heads up, the language is very crass. It’s consistent though, so you can get used to it rather than continually be pulled out of the story as sometimes happens.

    I didn’t realize this was a longer series so it ends with a rather huge cliffhanger that makes you want to yell at the characters “go! Get “them” go save them! Don’t just stay there!” Like a favorite show’s season finale is really the best way to explain it. Now I’m off to add to my book checkout A Throne of Ruin and see what happens next with Nyfain and Finley.

    

Legacy is a thrilling, motivational, romantic story. This is a reread for me and I chose Legacy to try and help motivate me to start moving as the winter is melting away into spring. I would like my extra weight and sad muscles to melt away and tone up. Help me Adrian and Lina! I really enjoy the layering in this story between the characters. It’s not just a current day forced proximity or meet cute. Raylan and Adrian meet as young kids, we get snippets of them growing up, entwining here and there, reconnecting later, but still with important windows into their individual lives and how they are where they are when the story truly begins and love blooms. Raylan has an entire life before really settling into the current day while Adrian has a giant career and life long stalker. The layering of relationships, especially with the grandparents, the many kinds of love shown throughout the novel, the family and friendships, the killers, the way to cute and funny dogs and the positive messaging to find joy in life just sucks me into this story. I wish I lived in town near everyone. I wanna be a friend and neighbor, come over for food, wine, workouts, and girl time!

 
    Nora Roberts might be a bit formulaic, but I love her formula. It rarely gets old 9it's a comfort really) and I have almost everything she writes as Nora Roberts. Her mysteries are believable, and you can almost see yourself as the heroine in the story. There are just enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat and wanting to know how everything will unfold and play out. She reminds you to be happy you aren’t the one being chased and stalked by evil! Roberts is always good for a dive into the darkness surrounding the killers but then she bobs out into the sun again so you can bask in the love blooming in the pages. Another thing I love about Nora Roberts is she tries to pick different professions to write the story around and in Legacy we get that spark of fun with the heroes, Adrian and Raylan. Adrian is a fitness guru and Raylan is a comic book illustrator and creator. So fun! I just want to go grab my sketch pad and draw, maybe paint, then later do some yoga to stretch out.

Sarah J. Maas' House of Flame and Shadow

Bryce Quinlan: Better than Expected.  (Once you read this amazing book, you will laugh.) 

House of Flame and Shadow is freaking pulse pounding, thrilling, had me constantly on the edge of my seat, gifts us with a full (!!!!) cast ensemble, mates and romance are around most corners, keeps you thinking and wondering what the heck is going to happen next and how are they going to end the book and this series?! How are we, oops they, going to live through this!? “Through love, all is possible.” And Maas definitely loves us. I also really enjoyed all the crossovers to her other series…. Maas is so talented. No spoilers here but if you love Sarah J Maas and you have loved or enjoyed the Crescent City series- just read this beautiful monster of a novel. It is 100% worth it. Light it up! 

Now I need some bookish friends who have read and finished this book to go gush and spill the tea about ALL THE THINGS!!!!! THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I need to talk about! Like, I got CHILLS when Hunt screams.... and what about Tharion Ketos?! And what seems to be a set up for ---- nope, stopping myself now.... 

Books and Sharing- the Unpleasant Side

 

Today is another cold, ice slicked day, but at least the sun is shining. The ice is glittering as you try not to fall while penguin walking from your car to school and work. This had me thinking of bookstagram, and book reviews in general. I don't know why, it just did. I recently saw a bookstagram account I follow share their DNF (Did Not Finish) for 2023 and I remember thinking, “Wow! That is so bold to put that out there! How brave to share the unpleasant side of books.” As readers, we don’t love or even like some books and at times even detest or can’t finish a book for a multitude of reasons. Do you want to know if I didn’t like, didn’t finish a book, or had some other unpleasant feelings towards a book? It’s such an individual thing and the author and their team have put so much work into getting published and out into the world. Should I cushion my review and feelings of a book I didn’t enjoy with some positivity or just let it fly where I stand, when I share with you? I feel like I tend to do a sandwiching with bad or negative things, okay, confession, I literally do this with everything in my life… something positive, something negative or corrective, something positive. In taking up a position as a book blogger though- is that ok or is that enough? Is it a turnoff to read someone’s dislike or just if it happens periodically, as we know happens with inevitable book slumps?

For people who visit my blog and Insta often (thank you friends!), can you tell my tone and choice of words as to what my enthusiasm or position of a book might be, even if it’s not explicitly said? I do have shelves on Goodreads (happy to friend you there) that I will shelve books so I remember in the future how a book landed. Examples of the more unpleasant shelves are “can get annoying frustrating,” “never going to finish,” “once was enough,” “plan never to read,” and “started stopped might try again.”

What is the etiquette bloggers are wanting to set as their standard? What do you want to hear or know? I can share with you, that if I posted on a book and you wanted to know more or you read it and wanted to rant or rave, I would be so happy to dive in and gush or purge beyond my short opinion I posted! Talk books with me! LOL!

Recap of My Bookish Love for 2023

 Hello Dear Readers! 

Happy New Years 2024! 

2023 was a surprising year for me! I had no idea I would venture into the world of Instagram bookstagramming. I was trying to remember to update The Small Book Blog at least once a month and not always doing well with that task. However, with encouragement of my dear friend who loves to push me to be my best self, I dove into the deep end and have been happily treading water and swimming fairly successfully for the last half of the year as a bookstagrammer  (@smallbookblog) AND keeping up with my web blog too! Wahoo! Go me! Now I just need to keep reading, learning, making more bookish friends, and sharing my world of books with anyone and everyone. 

For those readers tracking their annual number of reads, I use Goodreads. I love that website for tracking books, looking up books, etc. This year my annual goal was to read 80 books. I am shocked to share that I not only achieved my reading challenge goal but almost doubled it! At the end of 2023, I will have read 142 books!!!! I am happy to say, after looking at all their beautiful covers and remembering snippets of them, there are very few that didn't bring me joy. I am posting my bookish adventures with this post. Hopefully they aren't too tiny to see. How did you do with your 2023 reading goals? I am unsure what my 2024 book challenge will be, but historically I try to do a few more books if I achieved the previous years goal. No stress, just trying to grow and see what I can do. 

With this look back, I just wanted to wish all my delightful and beautiful bibliophiles a very Happy New Year! "Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one." -Brad Paisley 

Erin Sterling's The Ex Hex

The Ex Hex is a cute paranormal romance. We follow two lineages of witches whose role is to reinforce the town of Graves Glen ley lines periodically. However, from a past entanglement, subsequent breakup that results in a potentially drunken curse placed on the lost love, Vivienne isn’t excited to work alongside Rhys all these years later. Unknown to the other, both look back on their lost romance as the one that probably got away all these years later. When the ceremony goes disastrously wrong, Vivienne and Rhys are forced to troubleshoot what happened and how to correct the magic before it’s too late. More than just twisted magical sparks are flying before long. 

This is a fun romance with magic and witches. I would call it a “beach read.” It’s entertaining, sexy (with some spice for those of you wondering, a mostly open door for a few quick scenes), and an uncomplicated storyline that pulls you in with creative twists, but not under into the world of heavy emotions or darkness. It is magical happiness in an adventurous story of wishes and hexes gone wonky. 

Rebecca Yarro's Iron Flame

“Sorry to inconvenience you, but this year the role of Violet Sorrengail”—he points to me—“ will be played by Xaden Riorson”—he taps his chest—“ who will drag her, kicking and screaming if he has to, into a real relationship with real discussions, because he refuses to lose her again. If I have to evolve, you do, too.”

            -Rebecca Yarros, Iron Flame

OMG! This is such a great second book in a long series!!! I feel like the above quote really encapsulates it. Iron Flame gives us more foundation, it adds twists yet answers questions while posing more… there is love, sex, violence, love, betrayal and loyalty… ugh! So many secrets, revelations and discoveries! I really can’t say anything more specific without being a potential spoil sport & I don’t want to be, but my gosh! Soooo good!!!!

Once again Yarros takes us into her world, expanding it, while we taste, touch, feel and experience it. The action and movements I could picture and walk the frozen grounds and dark caverns with the characters, happily in the safety of my reading space of course. Lol! I wouldn’t want it shorter or longer because we needed everything to set up the longer series. We need the mundane with the exciting and electric elements. I knew when I learned this was a 5 book series it would get messy, complicated, more history would come forward to keep the series elongated, entertain, interesting and add as many elements as possible to weave the story and characters into. If it was just 3 years of college with an epilogue at the end, no one would love or be as addicted to this series as we are. There are so many things to talk about and yet… I can’t… not here. Hurry up and read dear readers so I can theorize and have a therapy session with you!

I wonder what my signet would be… I definitely would be a rider with my dragon and not a flier with a gryphon. And yet I am still waiting on my letter to Hogwarts too. Luckily it's Christmas time and magic is in the air. *winks*

Alix E. Harrow's Starling House

 

This book… it’s good! I can see why Reese Witherspoon wanted this book to be her book clubs’ monthly choice. The writing is fantastic, it’s engaging and everything just flows. I did the audiobook version and it was almost relaxing. The reader was wonderful to listen to and, like I said, the story was a smooth ride. I wasn’t pulled out of it at all…well… other than to have to pause and work here and there. *Winks*

We find ourselves wandering through the pages of mystery, adventure, magic, and light horror within the walls of Starling House as Underland gets stronger and the monsters more frequent. I enjoyed the research and information on the past. It really helped inform on the present predicament Arthur and Opal find themselves trying to fight. I loved how sentient the house is and the magic within it- the house can accommodate whatever the warden needs, or the house decides is needed, even updating itself with the changing times for things like plumbing and electricity! I also loved the idea of the magic fighting the outside world so you can’t map it, photograph it, describe it… it’s almost a living thing, deciding who is a trespasser and who is welcome. Starling House protects its own.

This is my first Alix Harrow book and after reading Starling House, it has given me the push I need to finally read her 10,000 Doors of January. I will admit I have been moving it down my TBR pile. I think it’s the “10,000” in the title, my mind says, “that’s how long the book is” and I shy away. I just checked, less than 400 pages. *Phew* I will also share, I felt Starling House had tones of Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House and Stephen King’s Fairy Tale. I’m just delighted I pushed myself to read this book and find a new author to follow. I hope you do to. Let me know!

Hannah Grace's Icebreaker

Drama, drama, drama! At least in Icebreaker it's the good and juicy kind. *winks* I enjoyed this book wat more than I expected to. It made me reminisce my college dats, dating, campus fun, going to events, and feel blessed at how much happier my liver is without ALL the college drinking. LOL! 

Icebreaker's plot went deeper than I expected. At first, I was figuring it would be like the movie Cutting Edge or the book Pucked, but it really held its own! I loved the competitive ice skater vs competitive hockey player. There was an inherent understanding of what they need to get done to succeed and also how enjoy life and blow off steam. It has a good intro and story, we meet the players, there is a natural arc, realistic twists and issues to try and tear Anastasia and Nate apart, followed with understanding and the reiteration that positive communication is key, and finally, we get our beloved happily ever after. As Susan Elizabeth Phillips would tell us, that's what you need for a successful romantic comedy novel. Anything less is a tragedy. Also, these aren't really spoilers since you know this is marked as an "enemy to lovers" book.

Also, wowza! Ms. Grace gives us steamy, spicy, drippy, sexy scenes throughout the whole book! You will not be disappointed and...this is your warning if you are listening to an audiobook. I had no idea my 30 minute jog through the park was going to be 25 minutes of lusty bedroom antics. I can't even remember if I was jogging, or stutter step jogging, or going between jogging and racing. LOL!

If you want some great romance, Icebreakers is your friend.