[Review] A Cat Café Christmas by Codi Gary, narrated by Felicity Monroe

Cover image from the TheStoryGraph Site.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand-Alone

Release Date: 4 October, 2022

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Genre: Contemporary Romance/Fiction

ISBN: 9781668612118

Edition: Audiobook (also available in paperback and eBook)

Rating:★★★★☆ (4.75 stars over all)

Review Written: 13 January, 2024
Content Warnings: Mentions of Fraud, mentions of animal death (not depicted), mentions of infidelity

Summary:  

Veterinarian and animal lover Kara Ingalls needs a Christmas miracle. Opening the Meow and Furrever Cat Café to find loving homes for adorable, adoptable cats was a dream come true—but with more cats than customers, it’s quickly turning into a nightmare. If Kara can’t figure out some way to get the café out of the red, it won’t last past the holidays.

Marketing guru Ben Reese may be annoyingly smart and frustratingly bossy, but when he hatches a plan to put the café in the “green” by Christmas, Kara realizes that she’d be a fool to turn down his help. And so what if he turns out to be an excellent problem solver and nerdy-hot—he can’t even handle fostering one little kitten. She needs to keep their relationship professional and focus on saving the cafe.

But if Ben and Kara can set aside their differences—and find homes for all the cats by Christmas—they might discover that, by risking their hearts, they’ll have their own purr-fect holiday . . . together. 

See more by Codi Gary on her website.

[Review] Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Cover image from the TheStoryGraph Site.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 1 June, 2021

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends, a division of Macmillan Publishing

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/LGBTQIA+/Contemporary/Thriller

ISBN: 9781250800817

Edition: Hardback and Audiobook (also available in Paperback and eBook)

Rating:★★★★★

Review Written: 16 September, 2021
Warnings: Racism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Bullying, Hate crime, Outing, Stalking, Car accident, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Murder, Blood, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Sexism, Police brutality, Cursing, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Grief, Biphobia, Gore, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, Slavery, Torture, Alcohol, Injury/injury detail, Child death, Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Addiction, Confinement, Self harm, Sexual content, Vomit, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry

Summary:  

A compelling, incendiary, and unputdownable thriller with a shocking twist, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé delves deep into the heart of institutionalized racism with this compulsive debut.

Hello, Niveus High. It's me. Who am I? That's not important. All you need to know is...I'm here to divide and conquer. - Aces

Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students' dark secrets to light.

Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can't escape the spotlight when his private photos go public.

Head girl Chiamaka isn't afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power.

Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they're planning much more than a high-school game...

See more by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé on her website.

[Review] The Project by Courtney Summers

 

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 2 February, 2021

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Genre: Young Adult/Thriller

ASIN: B088KSMYJS

Edition: Audiobook (also available in Hardback and eBook)

Rating:★★☆☆☆

Review Written: 29 July, 2021
Warnings: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Car accident, Suicide, Grief, Death, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, Child abuse, Violence, Pregnancy, Body horror, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Gore, Infertility, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Cults

Summary:  

"THE UNITY PROJECT SAVED MY LIFE."

Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo's sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there's more to the group than meets the eye. She's spent the last six years of her life trying - and failing - to prove it.

"THE UNITY PROJECT MURDERED MY SON."

When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and reunite with Bea once and for all. When her investigation puts her in the direct path of its charismatic and mysterious leader, Lev Warren, he proposes a deal: if she can prove the worst of her suspicions about The Unity Project, she may expose them. If she can't, she must finally leave them alone.

But as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members, and spends more time with Lev, it upends everything she thought she knew about her sister, herself, cults, and the world around her - to the point she can no longer tell what's real or true. Lo never thought she could afford to believe in Lev Warren . . . but now she doesn't know if she can afford not to.

WELCOME TO THE UNITY PROJECT.

See more by Courtney Summers at her website.

[Review] A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 5 March, 2019

Publisher: HarperCollins

Genre: Adult Fiction/Contemporary/Literary

ISBN: 9780062699763

Edition: Audiobook (also available in Hardback and eBook)

Rating:★☆☆☆☆ (1.5)

Review Written: 27 July, 2021
Warnings: Domestic abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide, Child abuse, Death, Sexual violence, Grief, Child death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Abortion, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Self harm, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Hate crime, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Islamophobia, Medical trauma, Gaslighting

Summary:  

This debut novel by an Arab-American voice,takes us inside the lives of conservative Arab women living in America.

In Brooklyn, eighteen-year-old Deya is starting to meet with suitors. Though she doesn’t want to get married, her grandparents give her no choice. History is repeating itself: Deya’s mother, Isra, also had no choice when she left Palestine as a teenager to marry Adam. Though Deya was raised to believe her parents died in a car accident, a secret note from a mysterious, yet familiar-looking woman makes Deya question everything she was told about her past. As the narrative alternates between the lives of Deya and Isra, she begins to understand the dark, complex secrets behind her community.

See more by Etaf Rum on her goodreads page.

[Review] Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

 

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Legendborn #1

Release Date: 6 October, 2020

Publisher: Simon Schuster Audio

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Science Fiction/Retellings

ISBN: 9781797113463

Edition: Audiobook (also available in Hardback and eBook)

Rating:★★★★★

Review Written: 22 March, 2021
Warnings: Racism, Death of a Parent, Grief, Death, Slavery, Rape, Blood, Gore, Sexism, Bullying

Summary:  

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight. 

See more by Tracy Deonn at her website.

[Review] How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Thorne Chronicles #1

Release Date: 8 October, 2019

Publisher: Daw Books

Genre: Science Fiction/Fairytale Formula/Space Opera/Fantasy

ISBN: 9780756417499

Edition: Paperback/Audio (also available in Hardcover and eBook) Rating: ★★★★★

Review Written: 22 March, 2021
Warnings: Confinement, Violence, Kidnapping, Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Xenophobia, Blood, Cursing, Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Summary:  

Now in mass market, the first in a duology that reimagines fairy tale tropes within a space opera--The Princess Bride meets Princess Leia.

Rory Thorne is a princess with thirteen fairy blessings, the most important of which is to see through flattery and platitudes. As the eldest daughter, she always imagined she'd inherit her father's throne and govern the interplanetary Thorne Consortium.

Then her father is assassinated, her mother gives birth to a son, and Rory is betrothed to the prince of a distant world.

When Rory arrives in her new home, she uncovers a treacherous plot to unseat her newly betrothed and usurp his throne. An unscrupulous minister has conspired to name himself Regent to the minor (and somewhat foolish) prince. With only her wits and a small team of allies, Rory must outmaneuver the Regent and rescue the prince.

How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse is a feminist reimagining of familiar fairytale tropes and a story of resistance and self-determination--how small acts of rebellion can lead a princess to not just save herself, but change the course of history.

See more by K. Eason at her website.

[Review] Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Kingdom of the Wicked #1

Release Date: 27 October, 2020

Publisher: Jimmy Patterson Books (Imprint of Little Brown)

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Romance

ISBN: 9781549184055

Edition: Audiobook (also available in hardback and eBook)

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Review Written: 22 March, 2021
Warnings: graphic murder, abuse of a corpse, graphic depictions of dead bodies, witchcraft, demon summoning, deadly sins, religious bigotry, toxic relationships

Summary:  

Two sisters.

One brutal murder.

A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself…

And an intoxicating romance.

Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe—witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin… desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost—even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.

Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked Princes of Hell that she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems… 

See more by Kerri Maniscalco at her website.

[Review] The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 7 April, 2020

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror

ISBN: 9781094136943

Edition: Audiobook (also available in hardback, eBook, and paperback)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 27 January, 2021
Warnings: child death, child abuse, abuse of a corpse, rabid humans, death, vivid gore, attempted suicide, infidelity

Summary:  

Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the '90s about a women's book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a real monster.

Patricia Campbell's life has never felt smaller. Her ambitious husband is too busy to give her a goodbye kiss in the morning, her kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she's always a step behind on thank-you notes and her endless list of chores. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime and paperback fiction. At these meetings they're as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are marriage, motherhood, and neighborhood gossip.

This predictable pattern is upended when Patricia meets James Harris, a handsome stranger who moves into the neighborhood to take care of his elderly aunt and ends up joining the book club. James is sensitive and well-read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn't felt in twenty years. But there's something off about him. He doesn't have a bank account, he doesn't like going out during the day, and Patricia's mother-in-law insists that she knew him when she was a girl--an impossibility.

When local children go missing, Patricia and the book club members start to suspect James is more of a Bundy than a Beatnik--but no one outside of the book club believes them. Have they read too many true crime books, or have they invited a real monster into their homes?

See more by Grady Hendrix at his website.

[Review] Seveneves by Neil Stephenson

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 19 May, 2015

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Genre: Adult Science Fiction/Alternate Time Line

ASIN: B00WNBHNWW

Edition: Audio CDs/Hardback (also available in audiobook, eBook, and paperback)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 14 December, 2020
Warnings: mass death, destruction of the moon, space race

Summary:  

What would happen if the world were ending?

A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.

But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain...

Five thousand years later, their progeny -- seven distinct races now three billion strong -- embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown ... to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.

See more by Neal Stephenson at his website.

[Review] Columbus Day by Craig Alanson

 

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Expeditionary Forces #1

Release Date: 11 January, 2016

Publisher: Kindle/Independently Published

Genre: Military Science-Fiction/Army in Space/Supposedly Science Fiction

ASIN: B01AIGC31E

Edition: Kindle and Audiobook (available in paperback)

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Review Written: 9 October, 2020
Warnings: Military in Space, Old Boys Attitude, Sexism

Summary:  

We were fighting on the wrong side, of a war we couldn't win. And that was the good news.

The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits.

When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn't even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren't our enemy, our allies are.

I'd better start at the beginning....

See more by Craig Alanson at his website.

[Review] Romanov by Nadine Brandes

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 20 June, 2019

Publisher: Dreamscape Media LLC.

Genre: Young Adult Romance|Magical Realism|Fantasy|Eurasian Fiction

ISBN: 9781974927258

Edition: Audiobook (available in hardback, eBook, and paperback)

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Review Written: 4 September, 2020
Warnings: Historical Death, Magic, Spellwork, Torture

Summary:  

The history books say I died.

They don’t know the half of it.

Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before.

Nastya’s only chances of survival are to either release the spell, and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s never dabbled in magic before, but it doesn’t frighten her as much as her growing attraction for Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her . . .

That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.

See more by Nadine Brandes at her website.

[Review] A Song of Wrath and Ruins by Roseanne A. Brown

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: A Song of Wrath and Ruins #1

Release Date: 2 June, 2020

Publisher: HarperAudio (an imprint of HarperCollins)

Genre: African Fantasy/Fantasy/Young Adult/Young Adult Romance

ASIN: B07XM8PJ9B

Edition: Audiobook (available in eBook, and hardback)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 6 August, 2020
Warnings: Death, Violence, Sexual Exploits, Magic

Summary:  

For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts his younger sister, Nadia, as payment to enter the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal - kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.

But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic...requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.

When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a heart-pounding course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?

See more by Roseanne A Brown at her website.

[Review] The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Hunger Games

Release Date: 19 May, 2020

Publisher: Scholastic Audio

Genre: Action & Adventure/Post-Apocalyptic/Romance

ISBN: 9780374307097

Edition: Audiobook (available in eBook and hardcover)

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Review Written: 9 July, 2020
Warnings: Death, Torture, Inhumane Conditions, Experimental Science

Summary:  

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the 10th annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined - every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

See more by Suzanne Collins at her website.

[Review] The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series: Stand Alone

Release Date: 9 October, 2019

Publisher: Macmillan Audio/Wednesday Publishing

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Dystopian Fiction/Girls & Women Fiction/Fantasy Romance/Thiller

ISBN: 9781250623225

Edition: Audiobook/Hardback (also available on Kindle)

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Review Written: 12 June, 2020

Summary: A speculative thriller in the vein of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Power. Optioned by Universal and Elizabeth Banks to be a major motion picture! Survive the year. No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden. In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their 16th year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive. Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life - a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make their fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other. With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

See more by Kim Liggett at her Website.