Hello lovelies!

I hope you are all doing well. There have been so many exciting news for the book community this past week and I wanted to gather them all here and share them with you!

Books being published today (June 15th)

The Prince and The Pauper retelling: Sisters of the Snake by Sasha and Sarena Nanua

Synopsis: A lost princess. A dark puppet master. And a race against time—before all is lost.Princess Rani longs for a chance to escape her gilded cage and prove herself. Ria is a street urchin, stealing just to keep herself alive. When these two lives collide, everything turns on its head: because Ria and Rani, orphan and royal, are unmistakably identical.A deal is struck to switch places—but danger lurks in both worlds, and to save their home, thief and princess must work together. Or watch it all fall into ruin.Deadly magic, hidden temples, and dark prophecies: Sisters of the Snake is an action-packed, immersive fantasy that will thrill fans of The Crown’s Game and The Tiger at Midnight.

A rich, dark urban fantasy debut: Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Synopsis: A rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a teen witch who is given a horrifying task: sacrificing her first love to save her family’s magic. The problem is, she’s never been in love—she’ll have to find the perfect guy before she can kill him.
After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.
Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?
With mounting pressure from her family, Voya is caught between her morality and her duty to her bloodline. If she wants to save their heritage and Luc, she’ll have to find something her ancestor wants more than blood. And in witchcraft, blood is everything.

I am fortunate enough to have received an ARC and be part of a Book Tour! I will be having an author interview soon so stay tuned!!

A Fantastical Historical Romance: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

Synopsis: A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance.
Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it's a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.
Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he's under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.
When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her--hopefully proving, once and for all, that she's as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.

Book deals

Chloe Liese is one of my new favourite romance authors (reviews for The Bergman Brothers series soon!) and I am beyond thrilled that she is releasing more books into the universe!
Tricia Levenseller’s The Shadows Between Us is getting a companion book!! 🥳
The Queen Holly black is releaqing a new book. Enough said.

Book cover reveal

Lokk at all these beautiful cobvers and books coming to us in the next few months! How blessed are we? I am especially excited for Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye!

Book news

Sanaa Lathan To Make Feature Directorial Debut With Paramount Players’ ‘On The Come Up’!! You can read the full article here.

This is so excitng!!

There were just so many goof bookish news this week so I wanted to share! Hope you enjoyed!

Hello lovelies!

I decided to read this book after reading: April Lee @ Booked Till Midnight‘s review and let me tell you she has impeccable taste. Here’s my review.

Title: The Shadows Between Us

Author: Tricia Levenseller

Synopsis: Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:

1) Woo the Shadow King.
2) Marry him.
3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.

No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she’s going to do everything within her power to get it.But Alessandra’s not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen—all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen?

4 stars: Aphrodite – Goddess of love and beauty. That means that I really liked the book, whether it was the writing style, plot or characters. It means it was an amazing book that I would completely recommend for the beautiful piece of art it is. However the book is not a Persephone because something keeps it from making it one of my favourite book ever.

Iris– Goddess of rainbows. Nothing new here, we all know that rainbows represent the LGBTQ+ community so this Goddess will be featured whenever a queer relationship or character appears.

I haven’t been feeling too well this week and this was the perfect dose of escapism. I’m usually wary of fantasy standalones because the story and characters are sometimes underdeveloped and even though some things could have been dealt with in more pages this was an overall satisfying book.

I have a soft spot for morally gray female characters and Alessandra Stathos just joined the list of my favorites. I love love love her ambition. She’s cunning, manipulative and ruthless and the beat part is that’s she’s unapologetic about it. But she also learns to care for her new friends and the ones she loves and that was beautiful. I really appreciate how multi dimensional she felt. She wasn’t just cunning or just loving but a great mix of both. That’s how women should be written. I love how sex positive and confident she was. She knows her skills and assists and she isn’t afraid to use them. This could have been a “I’m not like other girls character” but she strayed from that default by learning to care about her friends, by seeing women as friends rather than rivals. I loved her cunning brain.

I mean, the book opens with:

“They’ve never found the body of the first and only boy who broke my heart.
And they never will.”

How could you not like her?

Then there’s the story. I rather liked the quick pace; I was actually surprised by how much I liked it. I don’t mind when things are slow in fantasy because I understand that the author has to build a new world but the author managed to do that in a few sentences and explanations here and there. It surprisingly worked! I liked all the intrigues at the court and the big reveal to them ruder mystery. That was a nice and unexpected subplot.

And then there’s the love story. It was so great to read about the two main characters falling in love as they spread lies and tried to avoid doing just that. Kallias was looking for a friend and Alessandra for a king she could murder to become the queen. It was so nice to see how their vision of each other shifted; they were magic on screen.

Overall this is a nice story about ambition, love and friendship. It wasn’t groundbreaking but a lovely story all the same. I will be reading more form this author!

Tag: tricia levenseller

The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller – Book review aka give me all the morally grey female characters!!