It's been a while since I read a work of erotic horror that pushed my limits like this, but still made me feel so compelled to continue. So this is what a mouse hypnotized by a serpent feels like. First, a word of warning: the trigger warnings are all the way in the very back and I missed them going in. This is very violent, and graphically so, including disfiguration and what I would consider body horror. One of the triggers, for example, is "destructive fisting."
Ehvy is a medical examiner who is on a tour of an old creepy mansion with friends, when she happens to meet one of the descendants of the house, Will Sandridge. His presence there intrigues her because not only is he incredibly attractive, and they have an instant connection, his family history is highly sordid. Sex parties and murdering of the townsfolk? Naughty, naughty. But Ehvy is very into naughty. She is also very into Will.
I don't want to say too much else but the story becomes a cat and mouse game of sorts between Will and Ehvy. Ehvy is determined to know more about the man who literally haunts her dreams, and Will is... well, eager to continue their relationship in a way that is frightening, once you see what else he gets up to in his free time. Until the very end, I was never 100% completely sure what endgame was.
People who like gothic horror, erotic horror, and vampires who actually act like vampires will enjoy this book. The writing was great, and stylistically, this feels very much in the vein (ha, vein) of authors like Clive Barker and Lucy Taylor. If you read this, expect bloodsplatter.
Thanks to the author for providing me with a copy!
The author was kind enough to gift me books two and three in her Phantom Saga series after my father was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. It was such a wonderful present and a great pick-me-up, but I've been so slow in reading anything that isn't easy because I've been so depressed. Anyway, I finally finished ANGEL'S KISS and I'm happy to report that it is a wonderful sequel to the phantom.
ANGEL'S MASK was more of a straightforward retelling of the Phantom story we know and love, but ANGEL'S KISS takes more liberties with the story. What happens when the Persian Daroga continues to dog Erik's every step in an attempt to avenge the Shah he worked for? What happens when Christine begins to make it big and endures the jealousy of La Carlotta and the suspicions of those who believe in the curse of the Ghost? And how does Erik reconcile his jealousy and obsession with learning to treat Christine as a person?
There was a little bit of second book syndrome with this book, as most of it is character and relationship building. It has a little less action and suspense than the first book, which was a lot of will they/won't they with Christine discovering the identity of the man seducing her through the mirror. However, what this book lacks in tension, it makes up for in atmosphere and smut and exquisitely researched depictions of Paris and its opera house. It is also delightfully gay, with Erik and Raoul being canonically pan/bi, and several queer side characters. Also Christine gets her femdom on! Girl, you RIDE that phantom D.
I'm excited to read ANGEL'S FALL. Hopefully it doesn't take me as long to get through as this one did but they say genius can't be rushed, so if I have to take my time fangirling over my obsessive masked strangle king, then so be it.
Thanks to the author/publisher for sending me a copy!
I have been going through some shit lately, and haven't wanted to read anything too dark or disturbing. Which hurts me in my soul because I am a dark romance girlie at heart, and dark romance novels and thrillers are basically my favorite things to read. ERIK'S TALE was the perfect antidote to my quandary because even though it's dark (very dark), it's the prequel to a book I already read, so I know everything turns out OK. (And trust me, with a book like this, you're going to want that guarantee.)
This book chronicles Erik's very dark past as a child who was the product of rape, and who grew up in a highly abusive home with a mentally ill mother who literally tried to cut his face off, and an alcoholic father (not the rapist in question, FYI) who resented his "cold" wife and bastard/disfigured son. This whole portion was very hard to read and I basically wanted to give Erik the biggest hug. The circus/freak show portion is also very hard to read, but these two sections are the worst (in terms of content) parts of the book. Once you get past them, you'll be good to go for the rest of the story.
That's because from here, the book basically catapults into the globe-trotting WTFest of one of those old skool 70s bodice-rippers, where the protagonist is hurdled towards misfortune after misfortune, somehow managing to survive despite all odds. I thought specifically of Natasha Peters's DANGEROUS OBSESSION and SAVAGE SURRENDER. Especially with the role Erik played in various royal courts, and his wandering journeys with the Roma people. The retro vibes of this book played quite well with the many references to the original Leroux story (which I've read). One of my favorite OTT elements of the original book was Erik's nightmare torture forest made of metal. So many retellings omit this detail (and I've always wondered if the Nome king's metal forest in the Oz series was inspired by Phantom!). It's such a cool detail and I'm glad Ms. Mason made use of it.
I really enjoyed ERIK'S TALE and that says a lot about me because I'm notoriously not a fan of novellas. I feel like it takes a talented author to make a story come full circle in a limited amount of pages, and usually characterization and story suffer. Neither of those things is the case in this book. I also loved how beautifully queer it was, with asexual, trans, gay, and sapphic characters all given representation. Also, I stan our Strangle King-- some of the people he murdered were in defense of said trans character. We love a spicy cinnamon roll vigilante, don't we? Also it's written in first person, so you really get a feel for all of his arrogance, vulnerabilities, and intelligence, all firsthand. (Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel...)
My only real qualm is that everything was moving so fast that sometimes it felt very boom-boom-boom and I almost wished it was bodice-ripper saga length just so we could have time to soak into some of these settings. There were also more typos in here than in ANGEL'S MASK, but apparently I have a first edition (collectible! SUCK IT BITCHES) so I'm guessing some of these have been fixed (this didn't factor into my rating, btw, but some people get weird about typos-- w/e it's indie). It's also my understanding that this author has started putting TWs into her books. This edition didn't have one inside, but I believe she has them on her website if you're nervous about anything specific.
Overall, though, this was a win, and exactly the thing to get me out of a pretty bad funk. And I'm very grateful for that. Can't wait to read the next in the series. :)
Thanks to the author for sending me a review copy!
I was so excited to get a copy of this book. One of my favorite historical fiction (and fantasy, let's be honest) tropes is court intrigue, and the prospect of a gay romance filled with spymasters, assassins, and Shakespearean plays really tickled my fancy. Mostly because I'd read a book before with that exact blend of tropes, called AN ASSASSIN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND TREASON, and loved it. I fully expected to become just as obsessed as this one. Which is maybe not fair to the book, but it's a fact of the world that if you read something in a genre that blows you away, that's going to frame how you approach similar books going forward.
BY ANY OTHER NAME is an okay book. Honestly, it felt like more of a 2, 2.5 book but I'm rounding up a little because the writing was great and it was fun having a shallow, self-absorbed hero as the protagonist. He's an actor and he, well, acts like it. Which made him more fun than the stoic, super macho heroes that seem to be en vogue nowadays. I like a hero who's lax with his masculinity. He has a sad backstory too: he was nearly sold into slavery and only barely escaped, and now lives on the fringes of society with revenge in his heart, as he plays females on stage to survive.
When his voice starts cracking, though, that throws a wrench in his plans and through a series of unfortunate circumstances, he ends up working for one of the lords of society that he hates so much, trying to stop Queen Elizabeth from being assassinated. DON'T read the summary/blurb for this book by the way. It has major spoilers, including something that I assumed would happen right from the beginning but is actually gradually foreshadowed and built up to in the narrative. I think it's supposed to be a shock in the book, but because it's mentioned IN THE SUMMARY, it was not a surprise at all. Publishing houses, I'M BEGGING YOU. Don't do this.
I'm giving this a mid rating because it felt much, much longer than it needed to be. The pacing is not great and the book takes ages to build up to where it's going. It's also less about court intrigue than it is about one of those SIX OF CROWS-ish heist gang sort of plots, and had I known that, I wouldn't have applied for this book, because I don't like SoC or heists. I also didn't really feel the chemistry between Will and James. They felt very platonic, more like friends than love interests. I wish their relationship had been developed more, maybe with pining or, you know, some sort of emotional understanding. Just because you have your characters physically get together, that doesn't mean you're selling it.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
THE HILLS OF ESTRELLA ROJA is a queer college-age YA graphic novel set in Texas, with supernatural elements. Marisol is forced to return to the mysterious town she hasn't been in since she was a child after the death of her grandmother. Kat, on the other hand, is a paranormal podcaster who receives a mysterious email urging her to go to the same town to investigate something called "devil lights" and various mysterious disappearances.
Estrella Roja, which means red star in Spanish, is creepy right off the bat. They don't get a lot of outsiders, so there's a lot of ominous staring and whispered conversations that the girls clearly aren't meant to hear. Kat ends up approaching Mari because they lock eyes at a diner and she seems the friendliest out of everyone. They end up hitting it off, as two queer girls in a weird situation. When they go to the library, they find old articles hinting at murder and occult phenomena. Mari finds creepy photographs and journals in her aunt's house. Basically, SHIT GETS REALLY WEIRD.
I don't want to spoil anything, but this was a pretty cute read. Even if you don't like horror, nothing too scary happens. (I'm not a fan of horror or gore-- I will be very quick to nope out if heads start rolling.) My ARC was not full-color, but I liked the art in the few sample pages I had. It's done in that minimal, indie style, which is common in imprints like First Second. I also liked that one of the girls was Latina and a lesbian, and the other girl was bisexual and had a non-binary best friend. The diversity felt super casual, and added to the story-- especially with regard to Latinx folklore. Tonally, it reminded me a lot of the '90s Scooby Doo movies, like Zombie Island and Witch's Curse.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
There's this writer for the New Yorker who does satire and I keep thinking his stupid satire posts are real because this is the kind of world we live in now. HOW TO STAY PRODUCTIVE WHEN THE WORLD IS ENDING is a lot like that. It's high-level satire but so dry that you could almost take it seriously. This is basically a parody of a self-help book but with just enough good advice thrown in that you might find yourself Googling, "Can satire give you stress dreams?"
The answer, in case you were wondering, is yes.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
This book, LIFE AND DEATH DESIGN, seems to fall under the Human Factors umbrella, which is basically where psychology and engineering intersect. Designing technology and interfaces for people can be difficult, because computers are rational and algorithmic machines, and people are intuitive and emotional messes.
I work in this field and picked up a whole bunch of these types of books that I thought would be relevant and interesting for my job. I think this book will work best for people who are new to the field of psychology and don't have a lot of experience in it, bar a few introductory classes, because the case examples described in here are pretty bare bones basic.
My favorite parts of this book were definitely about the dangers of projecting your own biases in design and the importance of language when communication instruction or coaching. One of the best, most useful classes I ever took in college was actually a course in communication and technology, which covered everything from how to construct various kinds of business emails, to how to do an effective PowerPoint presentation.
I'm not sure I'd keep this book but it had some incredibly helpful lessons and ideas that I might jot down for my own reference. Books like these should be required reading for everyone in the digital age.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
I was a little torn on how to rate this at first because it wasn't super useful to me, personally, but I think for other people it will be an easy five-star rating. I found it a little too dry, which makes sense since this is intended to be more instructive, but I read this other Rosenfeld publication recently I liked a little better because it had so many examples in the text. I wish there had been more samples of what good copy/content looks like in this book.
The author clearly knows her subject well and is very passionate about that and I admired her in-depth knowledge of her subjects. I also appreciated the reminder to be familiar with and able to define specific terminology, and the emphasis on being diverse and inclusive. She talks about something called The Culture Trap, which is basically how an industry's "culture" can actually gatekeep against diversity because people are more likely to cater to people who resemble themselves.
Also, she includes little mini-interviews/blurbs from other professionals working in the tech sector. Two of the companies represented were Bumble and McAffee.
If you're in tech, I think this has principles and ideas that will help you no matter what part of the org you work in. However, this book is written assuming that you already 1) work at a rather large and successful company and 2) know your work already and simply want to become better, so I would not recommend this to people who are new or small.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
Half of this wasn't useful for me and my career goals, but the other half had me highlighting everything like crazy. This is a great book for anyone who wants to go into product management. It has examples of what "a day in the life" looks like, suggests programs and training you might want to have under your belt, talks about delegation and how to work with other teams in a constructive and compassionate way, and all sorts of other good stuff. I actually stuck several Post-Its into the book to keep track of useful sections and terms that I want to incorporate into my vocabulary for my next review. Also, there's a funny section that made me laugh out loud. I think it was called something like "44 Ways You Know You're a PM" and it was hilarious. The author struck a great balance between chatty and instructional, like a great business professor. I loved it.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
I feel like I get most of my followers on Goodreads because the books I read are so weird, that people are like, trying to figure out my system. "Does she read bodice-rippers on Wednesdays and nonfiction on Fridays? WHERE did she hear about an art coffee table book about stuffed Victorian hunting trophies?" I have weird taste in books, okay? I'm not even going to bother defending it; my taste is eclectic and odd, because so am I. But if there's one thing that's basically guaranteed to snag my attention, it's weird nonfiction books about FUN!SCIENCE.
MUST LOVE TREES is a book written by a dude who is a tree aficionado. (Treeficionado?) I think he might be TikTok famous but I'm not sure. What I am sure about is that this man LOVES trees. In addition to some scientific information, he also creates a fake award set for best trees in movies (he calls them the Treemies), talks about going for walks in his neighborhood and taking paths to see his favorite trees, provides lists about most huggable trees, and then even brags about his impeccable taste in Christmas trees, followed by a breakdown by genus.
I like trees but apparently I don't LOVE trees. Not like this guy, anyway. But I appreciate and admire his enthusiasm. I also appreciated and admired the art in this book, which was cartoony and cute. The cover actually doesn't do this book justice, imo. I'm giving this a three because sometimes this book could be too cheesy and it would make you feel how one-note this book is, hard. For what it is, I think it's really fun, and this would probably be a great resource in an elementary school or middle school science lab because I think kids would get a kick out of it. But it's not something I'd pick up again and again. (Although I miiiiiight be obsessed with sweetgum trees now, SO PRETTY.)
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
Just in time for Pride Month, 365 GAYS (plus one for leap year) is a comprehensive tome of many famous and inspirational LGBT+ people, spanning as many letters of that alphabet as possible (as well as including a handful of allies who performed exceptional works of allyship, such as Princess Diana, who helped normalize people who were HIV+ in a way that very few were willing to do at the time). The careers shown in here are amazing, from writers (Dorian Gray and Alice Oseman), to YouTubers (Troy Sivan and Jojo Siwa) to actresses (Kristen Stewart and Dan Levy) to politicians, activists, royalty, athletes, artists, scientists, and more. It's racially diverse as well, which is also wonderful, because I have read other books about LGBT+ folks that have, unfortunately, skewed very white. This is just a really great and important collection and the cover and illustrations are beautiful, so it's AAAART, as well.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
I was initially kind of scared when Jess Kara told me that this book was angsty and sad (I can't remember the exact words she used, sorry!), but DON'T ASK IF I'M OKAY ended up being way more empowering and life-affirming than I was expecting. It's a really heartfelt story about overcoming trauma and grief, and how having a solid support group can help with things like mourning and PTSD.
Gage is a teenage boy who should be college-bound but isn't. He's been suffering from pretty bad depression and panic attacks ever since his cousin and best friend, Hunter, died. Cooking for his loved ones gives structure and meaning to his life but it isn't sustainable. Especially when his emotions get out of control and he ends up losing his temper, sometimes in a violent burst of rage.
Depression and grief looks different from everyone and I appreciate seeing books that show it manifesting as anger or numbness. I also liked how Kara showed Gage second-guessing himself in his friendships and romantic relationships, and how accidental microaggressions committed by his friends and family could take root in his psyche and cause lasting damage. It was devastating how a simple word or comment could make him feel so bad, and just goes to show how you never know what anyone's triggers are or where people are coming from, so it pays to take extra care with what you say to people.
I loved how food played a role in this book, and the descriptions made my mouth water. I also liked how Gage's stepfather played such a positive role in his life. Stepfathers are often portrayed as mean or sinister figures in books, so it was nice to see him be such a role model for Gage, especially since he was ex-military and one of his friends with PTSD sort of ended up showing Gage that you can still be a strong and okay person who is going through some shit. Gage's friends were also lovely and I liked all the nerdy pop-culture references. They felt very natural, the same way that the ones in FURRY FAUX PAW did, but I feel like this was aged up for older teens, whereas FURRY felt a little younger.
I've really been impressed with Jessica Kara's writing! This book in particular felt like a throwback to the old skool angsty YA of the 2000s, like Laurie Halse Anderson, and I think if you enjoyed books like TWISTED or SPEAK, you'll love this.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
I love poetry that tells a story, and there were some really solid ones in here that painted such vivid scenes. Like, there's one about the simple act of making soup and how hard it is when you're feeling depressed. And there's another about comparing skin to sin. I also really liked some of the risky and interesting choices the author took, like prayers made out of predictive text or using footnotes to break up the meter of a poem. Not all of the poems were to my tastes but poetry is a personal experience. This was still a really great collection, though, with some truly noteworthy pieces.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
This is a pretty solid Southern Gothic. There's elements of Practical Magic and dabs and dashes of Roanoke Girls, but it's got too much Sarah Addison Allen in it to be truly creepy. What it ends up being is a pretty teen-friendly novel about first love and quiet scares that verges on but doesn't quite succeed at being horrifying.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
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