lollylovesbooks's reviews
696 reviews

Such a beautiful fantasy.
I loved the journey the main character went on - both her actual travels and her personal growth. She's not perfect and doesn't need to be.
I particularly liked that battles weren't glamorised in any way - that the deaths were seen as a waste.
Having listened to the (beautifully narrated) audio I don't know how to spell the character names, but my favourite side character was the soldier friend - her loyalty and courage were amazing.
Can't wait to continue with the second book.

This was great at tying together familiar characters from the Sirens series and Bliss series - closing a few gaps along the way.
I loved all the main characters, and having seen them individually before made it all the more special.
The suspense storyline was great too, and supported the character development.

MMF (2 men sharing 1 woman), romantic suspense, BDSM

Luca and Theo were both great characters. Loved their reasons for fake dating, and Marci for setting them up.
I definitely preferred the character/romance development to the "story" side of things, but it was very enjoyable.
Loved seeing some of the characters from earlier books too.
MM paranormal romance (both witches), fake dating, anxiety rep.

Reading this has showed me I'm not a fan of the kidnapped-by-aliens style of romance. So I'll leave the sub-genre to those who do enjoy it.

100% not a fan of the guy's response when she was nearly raped. Particularly "claiming" her again like he did.

Not 100% sure how I feel about this. Didn't enjoy the breeding aspects, and wasn't a fan of the creepy age situation. The initial setup was good though.

This one definitely packed an emotional punch. Lots going on for Riley both professionally and personally. Great continuation of the series.

A lot of the focus here is on Riley coming to terms with where her life is at, and processing what it means for her. But alongside this are 2 different guardian cases with dangerous killers.
Really enjoyed this one, this series has so many great characters and ongoing threads.

Fun queer fantasy romance with fae and new powers.

This story follows on Robin, who finds himself captured and taken to a prison camp for fae, after neighbors notice his pointy ears and fancy a pay day. Only once he's there, Robin discovers that he inherited more than his ears from his mother, as he turns the place to ice.

Let's start with the obvious. Is there anything new about a fantasy book where someone discovers they have powers, gets swept into a different world, and finds themself in the middle of a war? No, of course not. But does this book do it well, and with its own twist? Yes it does.

I liked that Robin had known he was half-fae, but just thought he didn't have powers. I also appreciated the comparisons he made in how histories were told in the human realm vs the fae realm. The types of magic were really interesting too, with different members of families having differing powers along a theme.

I enjoyed the romance thread in here - particularly the comments from some of the friends Robin had made. There's just always something great about the dynamic when a character falls for their guard.

With the title "A Betrayal of Storms" it's fair to say that while reading you're fairly certain there will be a betrayal. I thought the build up of this was done really well, as you're not certain which of the characters that betrayal will come from.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free digital copy. All thoughts are my own.

Magic, intrigue, and forbidden love

Della and her sister have been imprisoned for having magic, and are given a way out. The Princess is engaged to marry a Prince from a nearby country, but wants nothing to do with him. All Della has to do is take her place, convince the Prince all is well, and then conveniently die before the wedding (not as final as it sounds, with her magic). Only there's more going on in her new home than expected. And her personal guard of a Knight is awfully attractive...

This took me a little while to get into, but once I did get into it I didn't want to put it down. This was such a fun take on a forbidden bodyguard romance.

While I did enjoy the setting generally, it was absolutely the back-and-forth between Gal and Della that caught me. The balance of power, the tension, wondering how much to trust each other, and the pay off from the slowwwww burn.

I'd have loved to see more of her sister's magic. Or actually her sister generally - I loved their scenes together.

Definitely enjoyed this one and will look out for future books in the series.

Thank you to BookSirens and the author for the free digital copy. All thoughts are my own.

A fun Christmas romance movie in book form.

I knew very little about this book going in, only that it was a sapphic Christmas romance written by Ashley Herring Blake - possibly I'd never looked at details, possibly I'd forgotten. Having really enjoyed the experience of reading with no knowledge, it makes it somewhat harder to write a review and choose which bits to highlight.

Charlotte is a violinist in New York, and is having all the career success she ever dreamed of. But she won't admit to anyone, not even the other members of her quartet, why she thinks December is cursed and wants to avoid Christmas. One of the quartet takes matters into her own hands and invites the whole group home for Christmas. Meanwhile, in Nashville, Brighton is working in a bar and feeling sorry for herself, after being kicked out of the band she helped form. After plans with her parents get cancelled, her friend decides to drag her to their family home for Christmas. The only problem is that Charlotte's friend and Brighton's friend are sisters... and 5 years ago Brighton left Charlotte at the altar.

I have really been enjoying second chance romance this year, but it's a trope that's so easy to do badly. In this case, though, it was done so so well. The reasons for what happened 5 years ago, as they were slowly revealed, made perfect sense. And they also really fit with the opportunity to return to the relationship after the characters had grown up a bit more.

If you prefer your romance books to have 'normal' and 'realistic' plotlines this isn't for you. In the best spirit of Christmas movies we have, aside from the whole managing to end up in the same house thing, a series of Christmas-themed dating activities for singles in the town. It's honestly amazing, and fits the setup so well.

The queer rep in this book is sensational, and completely normalised within the story. It's so nice to see this type of rep included as standard, without it being a big deal to the characters.

And I have to mention the steamy scenes (partly so those who only read closed door know to avoid). I loved how we got a flashback/memory scene while Charlotte and Brighton were still dancing round each other in the main timeline. And all the scenes were both hot and beautiful.

I had such a good time reading this book - with the biggest grin on my face throughout. In case you couldn't guess, I highly highly recommend it, and am planning to make it an annual Christmas read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free digital copy. All thoughts are my own.