Just a Little Secret

 Just a Little Secret (Dare Crossover Series #2)- Carly Phillips & Erika Wilde)

Blackstone Pub

Release Date: July 25, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Georgia Brooks had no intention of bidding on a bachelor at the charity auction, but her sister has other ideas and gifts her with a man for her birthday weekend. But not just any man . . . Drew Daniels. A hot, gorgeous lawyer who makes her want to shed her good-girl image and learn all sorts of new and risqué things.

Attorney Drew Daniels is more than willing to introduce the beautiful Georgia to her naughtier side. Their weekend together is steamy and romantic . . . and it doesn’t hurt that a rival of Drew’s has his eye on Georgia, too. Stirring the other man’s jealousy is a fun side benefit.

Their tryst should have been just about pleasure, but Drew finds he’s attracted to more than Georgia’s outer beauty and he wants to keep her as his own. When Drew suggests they continue their affair, Georgia is too smitten to say no. Even if her parents expect her to marry her lawyer father’s right-hand man.

Georgia finds herself falling for Drew harder and faster than she could have imagined. Until she discovers he's keeping a secret that has the potential to break her heart.

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A bachelor auction could be incredibly awkward- unless just the right woman bids on you! Drew Daniels and Georgia Brooks meet before the auction and have instant chemistry, but he walks away because he sees nothing but complications. When Georgia's little sister buys Drew as Georgia's birthday present, he gets a second chance to make things right. And the two are definitively right together! 

As you should expect when Carly Phillips and Erika Wilde get together, the chemistry between Georgia and Drew is magnetic from the first eye contact, and only gets hotter from there. Drew brings Georgia out of her shell and she becomes confident enough to stand up to her mother, who is putting heavy emotional blackmail on her to marry the man Georgia's mother thinks is best. Georgia is sweet, kind, down-to-earth, and fits into Drew's life and family perfectly. So why is he panicking? Drew may be smart, sexy, and fun, but he isn't looking for a relationship. Having recently made partner in his law firm, he knows he has crazy hours and lots of work ahead of him to keep his career on track- things his last serious girlfriend didn't put up with, so why would Georgia? 

This was such a fast read, I didn't want it to end. I loved watching Georgia grow in confidence and Drew learn a few lessons about women and love (and groveling). Sparkling dialogue, wit, and fun, this one has it all! Don't miss it!

I received an ARC from BookSprout in exchange for an honest review  

Weaver and the Witch Queen

 

The Weaver and the Witch Queen- Genevieve Gornichec

Ace

Release Date: July 25, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Oddny and Gunnhild meet as children in tenth century Norway, and they could not be more different: Oddny hopes for a quiet life, while Gunnhild burns for power and longs to escape her cruel mother. But after a visiting wisewoman makes an ominous prophecy that involves Oddny, her sister Signy, and Gunnhild, the three girls take a blood oath to help one another always.

When Oddny’s farm is destroyed and Signy is kidnapped by Viking raiders, Oddny is set adrift from the life she imagined—but she's determined to save her sister no matter the cost, even as she finds herself irresistibly drawn to one of the raiders who participated in the attack. And in the far north, Gunnhild, who fled her home years ago to learn the ways of a witch, is surprised to find her destiny seems to be linked with that of the formidable King Eirik, heir apparent to the ruler of all Norway.

But the bonds—both enchanted and emotional—that hold the two women together are strong, and when they find their way back to each other, these bonds will be tested in ways they never could have foreseen in this deeply moving novel of magic, history, and sworn sisterhood.

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 Gunnhild, Oddny, and Signy are the best of friends and sworn sisters- from a young age they know their destinies are tied together. When their farm is burned and Signy taken captive, Oddny goes to Gunnhild's family for help. Gunnhild, who ran away as a young woman to learn magic, returns to help find Signy with King Eirik and his band of raiders as uneasy allies. The connections between Gunnhild, Oddny, and Signy must last through both the mundane and the magical worlds as they fight politics as well as other witches in the battle to reunite.

This is a historical fantasy, so magic is as normal as any other job here, and Gornichec treats it that way. We learn the rules with Gunnhild but never get overwhelmed by anything, And Gornichec voices one of the rules that I've always noticed but no one ever mentions when it comes to prophecies: when you try to avoid them, that's when everything comes true! In an interesting twist that I rather liked, we don't know what the prophecy is, but when Signy and Oddny's farm is attacked we learn that the real attack is meant to be on Gunnhild. Since no one can find her, this is supposed to draw her out. Not for something she's done but for something she might do against a trio of witches she's never met. Clearly not a great plan since what happens? Gunnhild and Oddny join forces to track down Signy, discover their enemies, and defeat them- thus fulfilling the prophecy the other witches wanted to avoid in the first place. 

All three women have the same dream: not to follow the traditional path of a woman of their time. Signy puts it best though, what can you do if you don't want to follow that path? What else is there? This book is, for better and for worse, about answering those questions. In some ways that's the interesting theme of the book: does a person have control over their own fate? Can they choose their own path or do they have to follow the traditional one set out for them by society? What happens if you're different? Many of the characters are, in one way or another, struggling with these questions, even before we realize it. I will probably end up going back and rereading the book with these struggles in mind the second time around to see what I think of them in that light. I think it will be very interesting.  

Genevieve Gornichec (The Witch's Heart) returns with another vivid and enchanting book. You can tell Gornichec has done some research on what life might have been like in this time and place- the homes, the food, the clothes, all come across as very real. Whether entering one of the living halls or walking down the street in Birka, you get the feeling you are walking with the characters. And I'm a bit of a history nerd, so I admit there were times when I was reading this and going "wait, this reminds me of something I read in The Real Valkyrie or Children of Oak and Ash", but I promise you don't actually need to know anything about the true history of the time period to enjoy the book. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The Court War

 

The Court War (The Godstone #2)- Violette Malan

DAW/Penguin Group

Release Date: July 25, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: The second book in this epic fantasy saga spins a tale of magic and danger, as a healer finds herself pulled deeper into a web of secrets and world-ending magic.

With innovative worldbuilding, witty banter, and world-ending magic, The Court War is epic fantasy at its best and most compelling.

Fenra Lowens, with her partner Elvanyn Karamisk, has already faced the Godstone. Now she has a different, simpler getting the stick-in-the-mud practitioners of the White Court to return to the old ways of practice, the ways that keep the World healthy.

But before she has a chance to present her case, the uneasy balance of power between the practitioners of the White Court and the mundanes of the Red Court—in existence since the World itself began—suddenly erupts into open warfare.

Fenra is torn between helping her friends and fellow practitioners and moving ahead with the demands of an increasingly impatient World. Though she has help from unexpected allies, Fenra begins to suspect that this conflict isn't just about politics. The hand of an old enemy may be at work here....

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After the events of The Godstone, Fenra Lowens goes to the council of the White Court of magic practitioners to encourage them to return to the old ways, when practitioners traveled through the different Modes and kept the World healthy. But the council is set in its ways and sees its job as keeping power for themselves at the expense of others- and is happy to make Fenra the scapegoat when things start to go wrong. When the Red Court nonmagical council declares war on the White Court to try and take the White's power for itself, chaos descends. The average people are the ones in danger. The World is not happy and is ready to create chaos to prove it. And Fenra is caught in the middle of all of the battles.

Fenra is in the unenviable position of knowing how to save the World and has pretty much no one in power who is willing to listen. Fortunately, she's incredibly stubborn and determined and has the dogged instincts of a healer who will fight to the end for her patient. And her allies are as stubborn as she is, particularly Elva. I quite liked that about both of them. It was never a question of "if" something could be done with them, but "how". They were also smart enough to question who they could trust, but once someone had earned their trust they would do whatever it took to rescue them if needed. Which happened often because there were plenty of backstabbing politicians and others out only for themselves!

Once again, Violette Malan shows her incredible talent as a world-builder in The Court War. She builds not one world but multiple ones (personally, I hope we get to spend more time exploring the New Zone if there's a third book- there sounds like a lot that could be done with a world and different magic there!) as well as the sentient World itself; there are a variety of belief systems that fit together; magic with carefully constructed rules that we never feel we're being lectured over but discover in often unique ways. From the very food and drink to the clothes and architecture around our heroes, Malan seems to effortlessly create her wonderful worlds. Yet she never forgets that the most important thing, perhaps the most grounding thing, of the story are the human beings. Humans in all their extremes, both good and bad, are what make the world go round, and that is certainly true here.

I definitely recommend reading The Godstone before reading The Court War, since the events of book 1 lead directly to book 2. You can start with book 2 and catch up, but you'll enjoy it more reading them in order. 

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

Not That Duke

Not That Duke (Would Be Wallflowers #3)- Eloisa James

HarperCollins/Avon Books

Release Date: July 25, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚

Synopsis: Bespeckled and freckled, Lady Stella Corsham at least has a dowry that has attracted a crowd of fortune-hunting suitors--which definitely doesn't include the sinfully handsome Silvester Parnell, Duke of Huntington, who laughingly calls her "Specs" as he chases after elegant rivals.

And then--

The worst happens. Marriage.

To the duke. To a man marrying her for all the wrong reasons.

How can Silvester possibly convince Stella that he's fallen in love with the quirky woman he married? Especially after she laughingly announces that she's in love--but not with that duke.

Not with her husband.

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This was a book I definitely had mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I loved Stella and felt for her throughout the entire book. Stella is short, plump, red-haired, freckled, wears glasses, doesn't hide that she's smart, and doesn't play the games the superficial women of Society play. She's no one's first choice and her aunt is always harping on about what she needs to do differently if she wants to get a man to propose to her. She has no friends, and is miserable all the time. Kind of like what I imagine I'd be like if I were dropped into a Regency ballroom. But she also doesn't let any of that affect how she treats other people. She's kind instead of cruel or bitter, even though privately Stella watches the beautiful people like Lady Yasmin and her ardent suitor the Duke of Huntington and wishes she was like them. Or that the Duke would look at her the way he looks at Yasmin. 

The Duke, Silvester, was harder to get my mind around and I'm still not actually sure if I liked him. He spends the first half of the book chasing Yasmin and when she marries Silvester's best friend, Silvester decides to marry Stella instead. Why? Maybe he realizes he never really had more than superficial feelings for Yasmin and at least is in serious lust for Stella. He does like the conversations they have when they play chess and that she actually challenges him and sees him as a person and not as a way to be a duchess. Are these reasons to basically blackmail her into marriage? No. Why doesn't he court her the way he did Yasmin? Show Stella that he actually cares for her? No idea. Since we see things mostly from Stella's point of view Silvester seems to go from tolerating her while he pursues Yasmin, to saying cruel things about her to make Yasmin laugh, to apologizing and treating her as if they are siblings, to kissing her, to running off with Yasmin, to coming back and proposing to her. Then he doesn't even have the decency to listen to her when she says no and work on courting her- he goes to her aunt, tells the aunt they've kissed and now must marry, running over Stella's feelings on the subject. Once and a while he seems to panic at the idea that he might be in love with Stella, though we never find out why, and he shoves the idea away and decides it must be lust instead. 

So there were lots of questions here and I felt like Stella kind of deserved more. But I was proud of her- she stands up to Silvester and tells him she deserves to be first for someone. That she won't settle for less than anyone else, no matter what she looks like. I also loved that it wasn't just Silvester and his rather obvious appreciation for Stella's body that made her feel more confident in herself but her friend Merry and Silvester's mother and their positive and obvious love for Stella as she is that helped her begin to feel confident in herself. 

On their own, there were pacing issues and Silvester issues that made this not my favorite of James' books. But in the end, it is Eloisa James' sparkling, witty writing that won the day and charmed me with this book.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

 

 

Resonance Surge

 

Resonance Surge (Psy-Changeling Trinity #7)- Nalini Singh

Penguin RandomHouse

Release Date: July 18, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: StoneWater bears Pavel and Yakov Stepyrev have been a unit since birth, but now Pavel’s life is veering in a new direction, his heart held in the hands of Arwen Mercant, a Psy empath—and the only man who has ever brought Pavel to his knees.

This is it. A point of irrevocable change. For Pavel . . . for Arwen . . . for Yakov . . . and for another pair of twins whose bond has a far darker history.

A low-gradient Psy, Theodora Marshall is considered worthless by everyone but her violently powerful twin, Pax. She is the sole person he trusts in their venomous family to investigate a hidden and terrible part of their family history—an unregistered rehabilitation center established by their grandfather.

Places of unimaginable pain designed to psychically wipe minds, leaving the victims shells of their former selves, the Centers are an ugly vestige of the Psy race’s Silent past. But this Center was worse. Far, far worse. And now Theo must uncover the awful truth—in the company of a scowling bear named Yakov who isn’t about to take a Marshall at face value . . . especially a Marshall who has turned his dreams into chilling nightmares.

Because Yakov is the great-grandson of a foreseer . . . and he has seen Theo die in an unstoppable surge of blood. Night after night after night . . .

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Resonance Surge is the story of Theodora Marshall, a low-gradient Psy and granddaughter to former Councilor Marshall Hyde, and Yakov Stepyrev, of the StoneWater bear clan in Moscow. Yakov has been assigned the job of helping Theo investigate an unregistered "rehabilitation Center" that Theo's powerful twin Pax has traced back to Marshall Hyde. But in the days of Silence these centers were accepted, so why hide one? Naturally, Yakov doesn't trust Theo, even if his bear is sure there's something very special about her. After all, they've been having dreams about Theo for longer than they've known her.

Theo is under no illusions when it comes to her family. She knows they are terrible people and her grandfather was the worst of them all. What she isn't sure of is where she falls in the scheme of things. When her brother finds clues that make no sense, but seem to connect her to a hidden research center, she wants answers. I liked that Theo is willing to find those answers no matter what the cost. She accepts that the friendship she has developed with Yakov will be destroyed when they find the answers and considers the good times he shows her as 'stolen moments', but she never considers turning away. Yakov is her perfect balance, willing to accept her fierceness and remind her that sometimes it is needed to survive while teaching her how to play and enjoy life. I had to laugh every time Theo thought she knew what to expect thanks to her "research" on bears, but Yakov slid right past her defenses anyway. They really are a perfect match. And since Yakov is Pavel's twin, we are also treated to Pavel and Arwen (Silver's brother from Silver Silence) and some of their mating dance as well! I loved that we got to see into Arwen's mind, behind the confident exterior to the man trying to make sure he knew who he was before making the decision to fully commit to Pavel. And the flashbacks to some of Arwen's excuses not to date Pavel were priceless! So much better than "washing my hair". 

Resonance Surge is another example of Nalini Singh's brilliance when it comes to worldbuilding. Having built Silence and what it allowed many Psy to become, then ended Silence, she now has her characters dealing with the aftermath. Things aren't simply "ok" in the fall of Silence. It isn't only the faltering NetMind (which plays very little role here) that the Psy need to deal with, it is questions like: what happened to the people who were tortured under Silence? In this case: what about the people who were "rehabilitated"? And, of course, what evils could be hidden inside accepted rehabilitation facilities? Singh knows how to put layers on top of layers to create characters and a world full of light and darkness, vibrancy and life, and keep the reader captured in the story well past the last page.

While Resonance Surge can be read as a standalone, you'll get more out of the world and its characters if you at least read the other Trinity books first. Plus they are all awesome, so you should read them anyway.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

 

 

Thief Liar Lady

 

Thief Liar Lady- D. L. Soria

Random House

Release Date: July 11, 2023

Rating: 📚📚

Synopsis: I’m not who you think I am.

My transformation from a poor, orphaned scullery maid into the enchantingly mysterious lady who snagged the heart of the prince did not happen—as the rumors insisted—in a magical metamorphosis of pumpkins and glass slippers. On the first evening of the ball, I didn’t meekly help my “evil” stepmother and stepsisters primp and preen or watch forlornly out the window as their carriage rolled off toward the palace. I had other preparations to make.

My stepsisters and I had been trained for this—to be the cleverest in the room, to be quick with our hands and quicker with our lies. We were taught how to get everything we wanted in this world, everything men always kept for themselves: power, wealth, and prestige. And with a touchingly tragic past and the help of some highly illegal spells, I would become a princess, secure our fortunes, and we would all live happily ever after.

But there’s always more to the story. With my magic running out, war looming, and a handsome hostage prince—the wrong prince—distracting me from my true purpose with his magnetic charm and forbidden flirtations, I’m in danger of losing control of the delicate balance I’ve created . . . and that could prove fatal.

There’s so much more riding on this than a crown.

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Spoiler Alerts!

I'm a fan of reading re-tellings of fairy tales and myths (though they don't all work, many do) and it had been a while since I've seen a fresh take on Cinderella, so the idea of a spin where Cinderella was conning the prince and in league with her stepmother and sister the whole time? Let's try it!

I didn't hate the book, but I didn't love it either. I struggled a lot with it. At first I was definitely confused by Ash's motives and the politics- those were a huge and annoying tangle but sort themselves out as you keep reading. Eventually, you have two different motives going on: Ash's stepmother Seraphina wants Ash to snag a rich lord, while Ash's grandmother wants Ash to snag the prince so she can influence politics and help the rebellion of a neighboring/occupied kingdom. Ash's main motive seems to be to prove to both women that she can do the jobs they've given her, despite them not totally having faith in her. As we all know, Ash gets her prince (thanks to magic that she keeps enchanting him with- something I was not ok with), our story starts in the lead-up to the wedding with her playing the part of the doting, innocent fianceé. She plays so many roles and lies to so many people (including herself) that I never felt like I knew her. The parts I did know, I didn't really like. Morally grey or completely self-centered on proving herself without worrying about what she was doing to anyone else? I'm still not sure, but I feel like she was on that scale. The other characters were either equally hidden (her stepmother and sisters) or completely flat and one-dimensional. The thin worldbuilding meant that I never figured out the magic and its rules, the politics, or much of anything else.

There were really good ideas here, and a lot of potential. But the book dragged in the beginning and then went on longer than it should have in the end. Ash never seemed to know what she was doing, despite priding herself on always being in control. And I never felt like I knew the world or any of the characters enough to feel even a touch of magic for this story.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review