chronicallybookish's reviews
1478 reviews

This series is my favorite historical romance series, and I am heartbroken that it’s over. I fear I will forever be chasing the high The League of Extraordinary Women gave me. This book, especially, since it’s my favorite of the quartet.
Catriona is by far my favorite of Dunmore’s FMCs, mainly because I relate so heavily to her. She was clearly neurodivergent-coded in the earlier books, and I’m so glad this book really doubled down on that, making it undeniable, and outright confirming it in the authors note. There’s a real depth to the portrayal. It goes beyond quirky or eccentric, really exploring everything from social troubles to sensory overload and burn out. We see it in social situations, in internal monologue, in the sex scenes. It colors every part of Catriona’s experience—it’s a true part of who she is, and I really appreciate that.
Similarly, I utterly adored Elias. Being in his head, watching him scheme and then screw up all his schemes by falling in love.
And the chemistry between the two of them? I was swooning so hard.
The plot in this one also felt especially strong. It was layered, with the artifact plotlines, the suffrage plotlines, and the romance. All of these aspects were braided together seamlessly, and each of them held my interest and kept me engaged. I stayed up far too late reading this book because I simply could not put it down, and then I picked it up first thing the next minute and read for another two hours straight in order to finish it before getting out of bed.
As soon as I finished this book, I wanted to immediately pick up Bringing Down the Duke and do a reread of the series. Dunmore is a supremely talented writer, and as sad as I am to see this series end, I’m even more excited to see what she does next.

This book was SO FREAKING GOOD! I don’t know why I put off reading it. I think that I thought it wouldn’t live up to the first in the series? But it did.
This series is basically criminal minds but in a medieval high fantasy setting. Must I say more?
I adored the characters. Catrin was easy to relate to and I love being in her head. Simon is the epitome of book boyfriend—though I wanted a little bit more of the two of them being flirty. I wish the book had leaned into the fake marriage trope a little harder. That said, what interactions we did get had me giddy. I love their relationship so much.
Once again, this book was the perfect blend of fantasy and mystery. Both aspects were distinct, engaging, and stood on their own; and they were interwoven beautifully.
I desperately want more books in this series. Please and thank you.

3.5ish stars—maybe 3.75?
The premise and plot of this book are so fun and so strong. The pacing was fast and engaging. However, I wanted more from the writing and characters.
There were several points at which I almost DNFed this book in the first 30%—and I probably would have if not for the fact that it was an ARC and I’ve met the author and she was so nice that I desperately wanted to like this book. Ultimately, I’m glad I didn’t DNF. I had a good time with the latter half of that book, but man was that first 30% rough. The writing was not up to par. It was shallow, and the diologue was especially rough, very unnatural. My main issue, however, was how much I could not stand to be in Ford’s mind. I liked Corrie, but Ford was annoying as hell to read about. He was so whiny and melodramatic, I genuinely could not stand it. He did mellow out as the book went on—or maybe I just got used to him-but I still never really got to the point of actually enjoying his POV.
The book was also extremely instalove-y. Technically, it was more insta-lust, but that’s not a trope that works for me either, especially when there wasn’t much chemistry between the characters early on. They did have a spark later in the book, but that first 1/4 of the book was unconvincing and just cringey.
That said, it was a genuinely fun book. The setting was beautiful and well described, the plot was, as I said, so fun and very unique. The premise and plot really are the main selling points of this book, and they were both well executed. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the archaelogical dig and reading about Corrie and Ford’s explorations.
As the story wears on, we also get more character depth and development, and by the 50-60% mark, my original complaints had faded. The writing still wasn’t to the level I personally wanted it to be, but I was enjoying myself, and I no longer wanted to throw the book against a wall every time the chapters switched to Ford’s POV. The plot twists were predictable, but they were still engaging to read, and I think that’s the most important part.
While this wasn’t my favorite, I did overall enjoy it more than not.  I think Jo Segura has a lot of potential, and I’m excited to see what she will do next.

 3.5 stars
A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch is the second book in the Glimmer Falls series. Technically, it can be read as a standalone, but I don’t recommend it.
My feelings on this book are complicated. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but I didn’t find this one to be as compelling. Both of our main characters felt a bit bland; the plot was fun, but dragged at times. I think my main issue is that I was unconvinced by the relationship between Astaroth and Calladia. I mean, he literally just tried to kill your best friend yesterday, but sure, forgive him because he bonked his head. Maybe I could’ve gotten behind it if their chemistry was next level, but I barely felt any sparks at all.
I had a good time, most of the time, and it answered some of my questions that I had left over from the first book, but I found myself underwhelmed overall.
I can’t decide whether or not I will be continuing the series. 

Baby’s first OmegaVerse!
So this was… an experience
I can genuinely say I’ve never read anything like this. I’ve kind of always known Omegaverse wouldn’t be for me, and even as tame as this was, this book definitely cemented that fact in my mind—however, it is Ali Hazelwood and everything Ali Hazelwood writes I will surely become obsessed with. 
I am so in love with her writing and her characters, and I was curious to see how that would translate into world building. The world in this book is sort of our world, in the sense that cities had the names of cities and they had modern technology and some pop culture references, and yet it was wholly distinct in that the geopolitical atmosphere revolved around interspecies relations, countries didn’t seem to exist the way they do in our world, and of course, Vampyres and Werewolves exist. The worldbuilding was a little muddied in terms of real world vs fictional aspects and the why and how of what was the same or different, however I really enjoyed the politics of the world and how Ali explored the science of Weres and Vampyres.
I also absolutely adored Misery—although it took me ages to get over her name because why would you do that—as a character and narrator. She was voicy, relatable, and far too easy to love. She had so much depth and drive and I felt completely sucked into her head the entire time I was reading. Characters who come off as frosty and closed off but are actually the world’s biggest softies are my personal cryptonite—and seeing her interact with Ana? I was obsessed and read their scenes with a huge smile on my face.
I enjoyed Lowe as a hero, though he didn’t feel quite as strong as the heroes in Love, Theoretically or Check & Mate. Though he was far from a cardboard cut out, I still felt he could have used a little more depth to his character outside of Alpha.

The spice in this book is definitely way beyond anything in any of Ali Hazelwood’s previous books. Not only does it venture into the realm of knotting, but there were a lot more scenes than there have been in any of her prior work. The omegaverse aspects didn’t work for me, but I definitely think that’s a personal preference thing. I have no understanding of the trope (genre?), but I do think this is a pretty mild iteration of it. There are some discussions and semi-vague descriptions of knotting, but nothing more than that. I definitely won’t be picking up any OmegaVerse books in the future—with the exception of anything Ali writes. She will always be the exception.
This book ended in such a way that makes me think that there will be further installments in this world (Ali also confirmed she has another paranormal romance coming in 2025 at her recent Seattle event) and I’m actually really looking forward to it. I really enjoyed this world and these characters and would LOVE to see more of them in the future!
I truly just adore everything this woman writes and I was grinning like a fool and laughing out loud throughout the entire book.

Riley Rhodes is a cursebreaker investigating a cursed Scottish castle. Clark Edgeware is a disgraced archaelogist who can’t allow a “scam artist” cursebreaker to get in his way. Enemies to lovers, forced proximity, Scottish castle setting. I was so excited for this one!
Unfortunately, I was incredibly underwhelmed. The “enemies” were just two people who had no actual reason to hate each other. I actually kept forgetting that this was set in Scotland because there was nothing about the setting, story, or characters that felt distinct from a typical American setting. There was no culture or atmosphere. The writing was also very surface level. The narration was clunky and often left me feeling disconnected. The characters were interesting, but they lacked emotional depth and their relationship never convinced me beyond the physical. It was a horrific case of insta-lust that never developed past that point.
The cursebreaker aspects were interesting, but those too felt underdeveloped. There was no real world building around it. No how or why, no details beyond the absolute bare minimum. It didn’t make sense if I thought about it for more than two seconds.
I just needed more depth to the characters and their relationship, and I wish the writing were a bit stronger.

 It’s been two weeks since I read this book, but I keep putting off writing this review because I don’t want to admit it but… this book was so disappointing.
Vengeance of the Pirate Queen is a standalone spin-off of the Daughter of the Pirate King Duology. It follows Sorinda, the assassin of Alosa, the newly minted pirate king when she is sent to explore new waters on a rescue mission to save lost pirates.
DotPK is one of my roman empire series. I’ve read it three times. I think about it often. I love it—and I loved Sorinda in that series. Not to mention the fact that the love interest in this book is Kearan, who was my all time favorite side character in the original series! I had such high expectations for this book, and it fell flat on every count.
Every aspect of this book felt underdeveloped to me. I enjoyed learning Sorinda’s back story, but her personality felt underdeveloped. She lacked a depth that made her feel like a real person. I enjoyed Kearan more and he felt more rounded, but the two of them together lacked chemistry. They had some fun lines of banter, but there was no romantic spark. They read to me like friends, and I wasn’t convinced that there was or could be anything more to them.
Similarly, the plot felt haphazard. It was unique, but it was rushed, and a few plot points were brought up once and then abandoned and never mentioned again.
An invincible man who can control the dead? There is so much potential there! Unfortunately, the execution was not where it needed to be. We get only the most preliminary depiction of the magic—leaving me unsatisfied and with far too many questions—and the book focuses more on the King of the Undersea himself. Levenseller makes an attempt at displaying a villain who is a villain because he is a corrupt, selfish, and manipulative man who wants to control everyone—especially Sorinda, a woman. Again, there is potential here. But the depiction ends up too on the nose and too shallow. If you’re going to write a character study of a manipulative man who became corrupted due to an obsession with power and control, you need to commit to that, and you need to explore it deeply. There was no resonance in this depiction, because we are told more than shown his manipulations. We are constantly told, point blank, He is a manipulator who wants control and power and submission from me. It’s so unsubtle that it’s just annoying. The true insidiousness of these kind of men is their ability to hide in plain sight and to manipulate—but his actions were just outright obvious manipulations, and Sorinda is well aware of that fact at every turn (which she should be, because it’s obvious) that it all rings hollow.
And that’s not to mention the fact that, at the end, his entire manipulitous nature is assigned to the magical object itself, thus causing any real exploration that was attempted to be essentially null and void either way. If you’re trying to make a statement on corrupt men in our world and society (and the way this read very much felt like someone trying to Make A Statement) you cannot then blame that thing on a magical object that corrupts its user. That negates the whole point. And that aspect of the magic didn’t even make sense in the context of the object itself or the world as a whole.
However, there were redeeming qualities. The book was fast paced and easy to read, and I truly loved some of the side characters, both new and returning. Especially Kearan. He has my whole heart and I loved seeing more of him and getting to know his character more deeply. Similarly, I thought the premise was unique, if not executed especially well.
I will continue to read more of Tricia Levenseller’s work, but unfortunately this one has left me disappointed.