Tag: reader

Review: Exo by Colin Brush

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Exo with a coffee cup in a car

Alexis:

Exo comes out on November 18th, 2025!

A debut sci-fi mystery set on an abandoned future Earth, featuring a twisty mystery straight out of a John le Carré novel, a group of larger-than-life characters who’d be at home in the work of John Scalzi, and a deeply weird and dangerous hyperdimensional entity to haunt the dreams of any reader of Kim Stanley Robinson.

Humanity is dying. Banished from the Earth, our descendants eke out lives in orbital habitats and moon colonies–and look with longing on our former home.

But Earth is uninhabitable. Over hundreds of years, its oceans have transformed into an annihilating liquid entity––the Caul. Every living creature approaching its shores is irresistibly compelled to enter. . . and is never seen again.

Scientists working in facilities seek to understand and stop the Caul. And scavenging the shores are the penitents––those who resist its siren lure.

In Exo, Brush explores a myriad of classic sci-fi themes, including environmentalism and what it means to be human. 

The Caul itself was almost impossible to picture, yet Brush’s descriptions mirror the alien vastness of the invading substance. I’ve read sci-fi books with post-apocalyptic Earths before, but the Caul was a very unique and fascinating entity. 

The story goes back and forth in timelines. In the present timeline, Mae, an old woman and ex-policewoman, finds rogue scientist Carl dead—murdered—and his daughter, Sofria, on her own. In the past timeline, we’re reading Carl’s scientific and personal diary entries about his arrival on Earth and study of the Caul. 

I did enjoy this book as a whole; however, it’s not really a twisty murder mystery. Exo is a scientific, mathematical kind of sci-fi book. While it is gritty, it’s a haunting, slow moving book that you have to read slowly to ponder over. The murder mystery and investigation take a backseat to the Caul and Mae trying to help Sofria, and nothing really gets solved until the very end of the book. Yet I enjoyed learning about the Caul, Mae and Sofria, and Brush’s prose, and the ending was satisfying!

Thanks so much to Diversion Books for my ARC in exchange for a review! ⁣

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐.5 /5 

Review: The Sacred Space Between by Kalie Reid

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The Sacred Space Between in front of an autumn coffee shop display with balloons

Alexis:

Happy Pub Day! 

One of my ARCs that I just finished releases today! The Sacred Space Between is described as: “An enchanting enemies-to-lovers fantasy about an exiled saint and the devout iconographer sent to paint him, for fans of Divine Rivals and A Study in Drowning.” 

Well, I love both of those comps, so you know I had to read it!

What I Liked: 

  • Reid’s writing style: It can definitely be compared to Rebecca Ross and Ava Reid’s writing style. It’s lyrical, and just from a prose level, I really enjoyed it! I loved reading all of the details Reid included in the story.
  • The atmosphere: Her writing is perfectly atmospheric. You can feel the damp heaviness of the moors. As someone who studied abroad in England, you can definitely feel the UK influence in the setting, and it worked really well for the dark themes Reid presents. Each page drips with atmosphere, whether we’re in the Abbey or in the moors.
  • The memory magic: What an interesting concept for a magic system! Reid really captured the haziness of not being able to trust your own memory. 
  • The first half of the book: I was sucked into the first half of the story. The Sacred Space Between follows 2 main characters: Maeve, an iconographer for the Abbey, and Jude, a saint who was exiled to live in the moors. When Maeve is sent to paint Jude’s new icon, Maeve is forced to confront her beliefs and realize that the Abbey, the saints, her religion—all of it may not be what it seems. And I think Reid did a fantastic job of detailing Maeve’s descent into questioning and reckoning with her beliefs, religious trauma, and the only life she’s ever known.

What I Didn’t Like As Much:

  • The second half: Unfortunately, I didn’t resonate with the second half of the story as much as the first. I found myself wondering when it was going to finally wrap up and end—something that is never a good sign. The pacing began to feel a little inconsistent. To me, some of the decisions Maeve and Jude made didn’t seem to fit with their characters.
  • The ending: After the climax, there are two more chapters where there is an abrupt tone shift, and without giving anything away, it just didn’t work for me. Plus, all of the reveals happen at once, which felt a little too convenient, and nearly every transition scene seems to begin with one of the characters fainting.

Conclusion:

Overall, I still enjoyed reading The Sacred Space Between. I think Reid is a promising writer, and I loved her prose. If you’re interested in learning more about the book, check out the synopsis below! Thanks so much to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for my ARC for review.

VERDICT: 🕯️🕯️🕯️/5 

Synopsis:

The Abbey has controlled the minds of its patrons for a millennium through memory magic, stolen from exiled saints. At fifteen, Jude was exiled from the Abbey to the bleak moors in the countryside, to maintain their control over his burgeoning magic. Almost a decade later, he wants to live a normal life free from the Abbey’s oppressive gaze. When they send Maeve, a stubbornly devout iconographer, to paint an updated icon of him, Jude makes it his mission to get rid of her as soon as possible. That is until he discovers she holds the same tainted magic of the saints as he does, and that the icons she paints may be the key to destroying the Abbey’s power.

As Jude and Maeve draw closer, the two of them face a choice—they can take on the full power of the Abbey and risk their lives for freedom or escape back to exile and make the most of their fading memories. But this institution has eyes everywhere, and the only thing the Abbey loves more than a saint is a martyr.

Review: Red Demon by Sill Bihagia

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An ARC package of Red Demon sits on a wall

Alexis:

Happy October 1st! 🎃

Thanks so much to author Sill Bihagia for sending me this beautiful ARC package.

Red Demon was released on September 16th! It’s a science fiction/fantasy book with found family and themes of coming of age, resilience, and redemption. It has a mystery woven throughout and some really interesting worldbuilding.⁣ The bioengineering concept was fascinating. 

Overall, I enjoyed this one and appreciated Jesse’s resilience and will to survive. I liked reading from his POV, and my favorite part of the story was him forming a connection to his adopted brother, Asher. 

My main critique is that the pacing in the first half dragged, as Jesse growing up and finding his new family took up a large part of the book. I love a good coming of age story, but since this was advertised as a fast paced book, I expected just a little more action and for the plot to move along faster; the actual plot didn’t start until the second half of the story. Additionally, the ending felt too abrupt.  

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐/5

I have several more ARCs to read, and I look forward to digging into them this fall!

If you want to learn more about Red Demon, check out the synopsis below.

Synopsis:

On an isolated planet where unity is as engineered as its people, Jesse seeks the truth behind the slaughter of his family-starting with the immortal who spared him.

A century ago, two human lines nearly wiped each other out rather than acknowledge their shared humanity. But when Jesse’s mining town is slaughtered under mysterious circumstances, it’s clear ancient bigotries are still alive, and rebels have access to some magic or tech capable of wide-scale genocide.

The Red Demon bloodied her swords in that massacre-a bioengineered immortal left over from that century old war. Jesse expected her to be upholding his empire’s fragile peace, not killing her own. But Jesse is too optimistic and stubborn to break. Better days are coming, and he’s willing to take on an immortal to protect the life he’s rebuilt among the ashes.

Faruhar, the so-called Red Demon, is not the mastermind Jesse expects. Her fragmented mind is ravaged by guilt over crimes she cannot remember committing, and a code impressed on her by a few kind people she cannot forget.

Review: House of the Beast by Michelle Wong

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Kindle with House of the Beast in a coffee shop and strawberry matcha

Alexis:

Happy Pub Day to House of the Beast by Michelle Wong!

This dark, new adult fantasy debut is about a young woman who strikes a deal with a mysterious and alluring god to seek revenge on her aristocratic family—featuring illustrations throughout by the author. 

I am going to include the synopsis here, because otherwise, this review might not make all that much sense.

Synopsis:

Born out of wedlock and shunned by society, Alma learned to make her peace with solitude, so long as she had her mother by her side. When her mother becomes gravely ill, Alma discovers a clue about her estranged father and writes a message begging for help. Little does she know that she is a bastard of House Avera, one of the four noble families that serve the gods and are imbued with their powers—and her father is a vessel of the Dread Beast, the most frightening god of all, a harbinger of death.

In a desperate exchange for her mother’s medicine, Alma agrees to sacrifice her left arm to the Beast in a ceremony that will bind her forever to the House and its deity. Regardless, her mother soon passes, leaving Alma trapped inside the Avera’s grand estate, despised by her relatives and nothing but a pawn in her father’s schemes.

Now vengeance is the only thing that keeps Alma going. That, and the strange connection she has with her god—a monster who is constantly by her side, an eldritch being taking the form of a beautiful prince with starlit hair that only she can see. He tells Alma that she has been chosen to bring change upon their world, and with his help, Alma plots a perilous journey to destroy the House that stole everything from her.

What I Liked:

First things first, the cover! It’s gorgeous, mysterious, and gothic, which fits this book perfectly. Secondly, Wong includes her own illustrations throughout the story, and even on my Kindle, they added a little something extra to the story.

When I’m in the mood for a dark fantasy, I want it to be dark, and this hit the spot. The atmosphere overall is dark and gothic, with small sprinklings of humor. I especially enjoyed the monsters that Wong included in the story; there’s even a woman who creates Frankenstein’s monster-esque creatures. There are plenty of body horror elements.

The entire concept of being a vessel of a god called the Dread Beast is dark and fascinating, and I really felt for Alma when she was forced to lose her hand by her abusive father. Additionally, as the Dread Beast himself is a harbinger of death, death magic plays a role in the story.

I also enjoyed the cast of characters that we get. Wong did a great job of making them each well-rounded by having them have complicated feelings, motivations, and distinguishing characteristics. 

Overall, I connected with the first half of this book more than the second half. The first focuses more on Alma’s struggle as she is thrust into this strange and dark new role, as well as her loneliness, grief, and desire for revenge on her father. It shows just how out of place she feels in the world, which leads her to forming a connection with Aster, her god/monster who only she can see and hear.

What I Didn’t Like Quite As Much:

The second half of this book lost me a little bit. While I enjoyed the action scenes, as Alma fights monsters and deals with her antagonistic father, the emotional side of it just fell a little too flat for me. The final fight/climax didn’t have the impactful emotional impact that I expected. On top of that, Aster’s character was always held at arm’s length from me as the reader, especially since the story itself jumps over the time when Alma actually forms her connection to him, so I didn’t feel his connection to Alma as much as I wanted to. On top of that, there was one mention of a TV that completely took me out of the story for a minute and felt very out of place.

That being said, I loved Wong’s descriptive language and how she didn’t shy away from dark topics, and I appreciated how she turned several tropes on their heads. Thank you so much to HarperCollins and Netgalley for my ARC of House of the Beast in exchange for a review!

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Review: The Floating World by Axie Oh

Anna and Alexis1 Comment
The Floating World held over a mountain

Alexis:

The Floating World is a classic YA fantasy with great worldbuilding and interesting twists.

I definitely loved the world the most! I found it so intriguing. It definitely has a steampunk vibe to it mixed with Korean mythology, and I enjoyed learning about the world, its history and legends, and its politics. There’s a decent amount of political and military intrigue with the POV of a character named Jaliel. 

I loved the main characters, Ren and Sunho. They both had interesting backstories and motivations. I was definitely getting some Howl’s Moving Castle vibes, with a dash of Shadow and Bone. 

My only main criticism is that the dialogue sometimes fell a little flat and felt stilted. Also, some of the critical scenes felt like they happened really fast while some of the side scenes went on a little longer.

Overall, this is a great start to a series, and I found myself drawn into the story—there was never a dull moment! There’s definitely a lot to build on for the sequel!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Macmillian for my ARC in exchange for a review. The Floating World releases on 4/29/25! 

VERDICT: ⛰️⛰️⛰️⛰️⛰️/5

Synopsis:

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn’t realize she’s the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined…

Review: Nightstrider by Sophia Slade

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A matcha latte over a money tree and Nightstrider cover

Alexis: 

It’s been 6 years since Anna and I started this blog! She’s actually pregnant and hasn’t been reading as much as usual, hence why she hasn’t been posting any reviews lately. But I’m looking forward to being an aunt, and I hope you enjoy another fantasy review from me.

Nightstrider is a dark fantasy with well-written characters, different POVs, and interesting magic/worldbuilding. ⁣

⁣One of my favorite aspects of this book is definitely the magic and worldbuilding. The dream magic felt so unique, as did the two different realms. 

I loved all of the main characters. Sometimes I struggle with books with a lot of POVs, but Slade balanced them well! I was interested in all of their backstories and motivations, and their dialogue and banter was great.

There’s a portal, an evil night creature/king who can cross the boundary between the dream and waking realms, LGBTQ representation, and hints of romance. There’s also some political intrigue and plenty of action. Nightstrider had everything I was in the mood for, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel. 

To stop a vicious demon’s conquest, nightmares and humans will band together.

From Sophia Slade, stunning new voice in epic fantasy, comes this dark, romantic tale about a world split in two and the four misguided souls who must come together to save it, for fans of Holly Black and Hannah Whitten.

⁣VERDICT: 🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒/5 ⁣

Review: The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton

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A Kindle on marble table with a coffee cup

Alexis: Happy Halloween! 🎃

I hope you all have a fantastic day, whether you’re watching scary movies, eating a bunch of candy, or having a party (on a Thursday? Have fun, though)!

In other news, I recently got engaged! I also read The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton while I was on a plane. I tend to read more lighthearted books when I fly, and this was the perfect choice. 

After I got used to the writing style, I found the story whimsical, hilarious, and witty. It’s a historical fantasy romcom where rival ornithologists hunt across England for a rare magical bird.

As Goodreads says, “When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning. Now keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can’t trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.” 

If you want a quirky, sweet as pie, funny story full of romance, academia, and of course, birds, then I recommend it.

VERDICT: 🐦🐦🐦🐦/5

Flashback Friday: Childhood Reads

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A stack of books sits on a gray blanket next to lit candle

Alexis:

Happy Flashback Friday!

Do you still think about the books from your childhood? I’ve been thinking about my childhood favorites recently.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke was my all-time fave, and a new book in the series is actually being released this fall! I’m planning on rereading the original series before I read the new book, since it’s been a while. It made me start thinking about rereading all of these books some day.

Here is a list of just some of my childhood favorites that I still think about:

  • Caesar’s Antlers by Brooks Hansen
  • Charlotte’s Rose by A.E. Cannon
  • Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech
  • Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
  • The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
  • The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari
  • Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
  • The Misty of Chincoteague series by Marguerite Henry

Review: In The Weeds by B.K. Borison

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A Kindle rests on a desk flatlay with a cactus pillow, cloud wrist rest, and cactus print envelope.

Alexis:

Now that the weather is warming up, I’m reading more fun romance books. In The Weeds is the second book in the Lovelight series by B.K. Borison. I reread Lovelight Farms, the first book, this past Christtmastime, and I’m glad my library got the second book!

In The Weeds follows Beckett, a farmer on Lovelight Farms, and Evelyn, a woman he had a one-night stand with during a work trip and can’t stop thinking about. 

Romance books set in small towns with a fun cast of characters are my favorite. Lovelight Farms has become one of my fave romance books, and In The Weeds is such a cute sequel! The town is such a great setting, and I love the reccuring characters.

Beckett is grumpy and a man of few words, but he also has an army of cats and begrudgingly adopts an orphaned baby duck. Evelyn is described as a ray of sunshine. She’s bubbly and connects with everyone around her, and I liked their dynamic. 

Beckett also has a noise sensitivity/sensory issues, and I really appreciated the representation. 

While Lovelight Farms is still my favorite in the series, I enjoyed In The Weeds, and I’m looking forward to reading the third one—Mixed Signals!

Review: The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten

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Alexis: 

I recently reread The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten, which was one of my favorite reads of 2023, and I’m happy to say that I loved it just as much the second time around.

I read the sequel and the next installment in the trilogy, The Hemlock Queen, directly after. I can’t say too much about this book without going into spoilers, but I can say that I really enjoyed the beginning, but I thought the ending was especially well done; there were some stories included near that end that I enjoyed reading, and that added a lot to the lore and religion of this world.

However, I found that the middle of this book did drag a little, and I kept wondering when Lore, the main character, was actually going to do something or make a decision.

Overall, I didn’t love this one as much as The Foxglove King, but I did enjoy it. I’m looking forward to the last book!

If you’re interested in a fun yet gritty fantasy series with necromancy, an undead horse named Horse, a religious cult with religious trauma, and a love triangle (/quadrangle?), then I would recommend this series.