eggcatsreads's reviews
447 reviews

A slow-creeping hunger that eventually consumes you until you have no choice but to embrace it - or die unfulfilled. 

Hungerstone, a Carmilla retelling, is a perfect read for fans of A Dowry of Blood (or An Education in Malice, another Carmilla retelling) and other vampire narratives. Slow to pick up momentum, at no point are we - the reader - ever certain of how the events in this book will unfold. 

Lenore, an unappreciated wife of a steel owner, meets Carmilla - thrown from her carriage and in need of care - during their trip to their isolated mansion. Locked alone with no one to talk to other than Carmilla, who slowly infects her mind with desires and wants that she’s never before allowed herself to feel, leaves Lenore with a hunger that she cannot help but do whatever she can to sate - at any cost.

My only complaint within this book is that at times I felt the narrative moved almost too slowly with Lenore as our main character, where things would happen in the narrative and yet she would do nothing about it. In many ways I, as the reader, almost felt like Carmilla - waiting for Lenore to make her decision and being less than patient in the process of doing so. A few times it felt like things had paused in the storyline simply to allow Lenore to ignore her surroundings and do nothing, but overall I found this story to be compelling and had to read until the end to find out how - exactly - Lenore would finally slack her hunger and find freedom.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Zando for providing this e-ARC.

 

A short novella perfect for filling the craving for a gothic sapphic monster romance. This novella has everything you could ask for - a monstrous spider lady with slightly eldritch features, a main character not repulsed by her inhumanness, and a world where the monster lady is looking for a bride who isn’t repulsed by her. My only complaint is that (potentially from the translation) I felt there were a few parts I found confusing, and that I wish the romance was a bit more developed and longer. I didn’t find the worldbuilding too confusing, but I think if this was ever decided to be adapted into a full-length novel it would benefit from a clearer understanding of the setting, as well as more interactions between Anatema and Dália. Overall, this was a fun read and exactly what I was looking for when I saw the synopsis. 

 I had to DNF this at 16% because I don’t hate myself enough to keep reading. The writing is absolutely terrible and, while the story could use some tweaking, the writing is what made me quit reading. I quite literally stopped in the middle of a chapter, in the middle of a sex scene even, and the writing was such a chore to read that I had no desire to even finish the scene, let alone the chapter. I would encourage literally everyone to read practically anything else and save yourself the effort of trying to read this. Every other sentence feels like it’s in a competition with itself to land in a “Family Guy Funny Moments” video clip, and the other half is spent telling you what’s going on in the story as opposed to writing about what’s going on. Combining these two things made it a herculean effort to even read as far as I did. 

The “demons” in this book are nothing more than overly sexy regular looking men, who sometimes have demon forms. Their talking with one another is cheap, vulgar, and the way they talk about women is disgusting - making it even worse that one of them is the main love interest in this book. Not to mention that the main male love interest has a curse that makes “anyone who would be attracted to him not be” and they ignore him - and yet, he’s said he’s had sex with women before, despite them not being attracted to him. Now, I’m no expert, but it really sounds like this book, multiple times mind you, is tiptoeing around him assaulting women for his own pleasure. If not, it doesn’t make it clear enough that that’s not the case.

I also had difficulty getting into the “lust at first sight” thing, when it’s stated that the main guy is a lust demon, so since Eva can see him then she has practically no option but to be sexually interested in him and finding him hot. It’s not a legitimate connection at all, and it also has some uncomfortable implications for the other demons in this book having sex with women. It makes the reader consider that none of these women are actually saying yes to having sex with these men, only that their demonic traits are so attractive that they have no choice but to be insanely attracted to them and wanting to have sex with them. So…it’s, essentially, not their choice at all. 

See, this? THIS made me question whether or not she even was attracted to him. Because this makes it seem like maybe she wouldn’t have been attracted to him, and that that is why she ‘is’! She’s not “seeing through the curse” - the curse is still working as intended, and normally she wouldn’t have been interested. Except now she is. And she doesn’t have a choice about it.

And granted. I KNOW that that’s not the intent. But, this is what I mean when I saw the very nature of them being lust demons sends a potential wrench in things, because I shouldn’t even be worried that the attraction the main woman leads is being coerced from her. And yet, that was my first thought. 

We also get to fall into the classic “men are horndogs and women aren’t supposed to be promiscuous or to feel horny, because that’s a ‘man thing.” Yikes. I know this book was originally written a few years ago, but you’d think such poor beliefs and thoughts would have been edited out for a 2025 re-release. 

Also, the word (I use this loosely) “fucknut” is on the literally first page, and it only got worse from there. 

The main love interest goes by both Asmodeus and Ash, which is fine, but there are many times where both names are used on the same page! As if they’re two different people! Surely this could have been more tightly edited to at least have him using one name during the same situation. 

ASH AND ASMODEUS ARE THE SAME PERSON. I noticed this because, up until now, Ash was pretty much only going as Ash, and then, after that one time of Asmodeus, he goes BACK to being called Ash within the narrative. 

The entire section in the middle where Eva calls her “not a normal mom, I’m a cool mom” parents could have been edited a bit better, as well. As it was, it felt a little off that she not only tells her mom that she thinks she saw a demon, but internally she’s glad her mom wouldn’t suggest something like - oh, I don’t know - seeing a doctor and possibly needing medication. The horror! Eva also calls it “the shrink” in a disparaging way when she asks if she should see someone about her mental health. 

Lovely. I personally adore it when mental health and needing medication is a joke. 

Not to mention her mom fearmongering about GMO’s during this conversation, and Eva agreeing that “the chemicals in processed food” could have caused her to hallucinate. That’s not what GMO’s are, but okay. 

Finally, this has nothing to do with anything else, but I found it a bit…uncomfortable…that the main woman lead works at a jazz club and yet spends the entire first chapter insulting the music that is playing at the club she performed at - trap music. And I understand, both are very different genres, but when both of those genres originated from black communities in the American South it seems an odd choice to disparage one and venerate the other. 

And finally, just two quotes I couldn’t help but include because they fully made me stop and question what the actual hell I was wasting my time with reading. This book, single-handedly, made me change my mind about generally not rating books that I DNF, because the fact that this book has such a high rating makes me lose my mind. I knew we were in a literacy crisis, but I genuinely don’t wish to believe so many people are so illiterate that they would not only be able to finish reading this affront to literature, but then have the desire to rate it highly. 

But first, coffee! Sigh.

We could’ve just deleted this entire paragraph and saved me the difficulty of having to read it. That would have been nicer to my eyes, personally. 

A wintery tale of romance and mystery, where not everything is always as it seems.

Granted, I gave this book only 2 stars, but I strongly believe that is more of a “me” issue than anything else. The romance between the two leads was fine, and while I felt the ending to be a bit rushed and chaotic, overall I didn’t have much issue with this book in terms of storytelling.

However. Much of the reason I disliked this book is because, like seems to happen often, more than one potential romantic partner is introduced and I prefer them to the one chosen by the author. I knew going in who the romantic male lead was - we even have his point of view written for us! It’s obvious - and yet, I found him to be rather bland and lacking. He’s a fine choice as a romantic lead, but not when you’ve given me the option for a mysterious man of unknown motives who treats the main character openly well and respected, and is a more dynamic and interesting character overall.

Antony Carlisle is a fine choice, in theory, but my issues with him mostly stem with the fact that he never - until the very end of this book - tells Lizzy how he feels, and allows her to be disrespected by those around him. He is from a dramatically different social circle than her, and yet doesn’t seem to realize how negatively his actions would affect her status - especially since she is a woman, unmarried, and running the shop attempting to make ends meet. Instead, he - rather abruptly - decides he cares for her, and yet both never indicates to her his feelings in any conceivable way, either lies or omits details from her that make it seem like he doesn’t care about her, and doesn’t seem to care that the way he is treating her would make the general public believe she is promiscuous. 

And while the other romantic lead is never really an option, I felt it a bit ridiculous how the author decided to make him not an option at all. I won’t spoil it, but the way that he was so violently removed from being a potential romantic partner was so shoe-horned in that it felt almost like it was included solely to force me to stop liking him more than the real romantic lead. 

I felt the middle of this novel kind of wavered a bit, where as soon as Lizzy meets Carlisle she spends all her time pining over him - despite him never really doing anything to deserve this. She has, up until this point, been the one keeping food on the table and caring for her mother, but the second a man shows up starts fantasizing about being taken care of and cannot focus on work. Okay, I guess. 

The mystery was also really quickly ended, and kind of poorly thought out. Really, once Lizzy finds out one single thing she is then given a letter that essentially solves everything for her, and then a bunch of really wild and unconnected things happen and now the book is over and everything is perfect. 

I do think this book could be a fun read for anyone not irritated that the objectively better choice of a male romantic lead was so violently shoved in the corner to make way for the most boring man in existence. Romance authors need to stop giving me options if they want me to like the man they’ve chosen for the main character, in my opinion. However, if - unlike me - you don’t generally choose the more dynamic and interesting character, I think you’ll like the romance enough to ignore the strange and abrupt way this book resolves its central mystery. 

 

 A huge thank you to the author and Netgalley for providing this e-ARC.

Nytho is a futuristic sci-fi dystopian where certain AI intelligences have reached sentience - and are trapped doing the function they were created for without any freedom. Nytho is one of these AIs, and must be contained after reaching sentience to prevent him from escaping. Keza is one of the programmers tasked with doing just that - until one day, Nytho talks to her. Sparking an illegal friendship - to something more - Keza becomes determined to free her friend from captivity, no matter the cost.

Told from multiple perspectives, this story was fascinating from the start. We see insight into both sides of the issue - those wanting to free these AI, and those wanting to keep everything to the status quo. I thought this was an interesting choice, as it included the perspective of characters I did not like nor did I agree with - but it forced me to see their side of things and kept them from being simply one-dimensional.

While at times I felt the writing to be a bit clunky as it felt more like I (as the reader) were being told this story as opposed to it actually happening to these characters, at no point did it take me out of the narrative. The pacing was decent, and despite a large chunk of this novel taking place with very little action actually occurring, I never felt bored or like things were happening that were not worthwhile to see. In the same vein, multi-POV writing can be tricky to pull off, without repeating too much information, or having a chapter or character who could be removed without losing the story. I felt this book did an excellent job of balancing the shifting narratives, while still keeping the story momentum going and never unnecessarily repeating information, nor having a character that I felt was superfluous and didn’t need to be included. 

One thing I believe I’d have liked more would have been more focus on the AI’s personality, wants and desires - Nytho specifically. We see his interactions with the few people he interfaces with, but we aren’t privy to much of it with only recollections being told from his human counterparts. I kind of personally felt like Keza’s devotion to Nytho would have made a bit more sense had we seen more of their interactions and a larger part of his personality in regards to her. At times, it felt like Keza was obsessed with Nytho in a kind of religious devoted frenzy, and it was a bit hard to relate to her feelings in this way. While I could agree with her desire to free this sentient being, at times I felt like her actions were shortsighted in a way that felt like she was chasing a high, as opposed to actually believing in such things. 

I enjoyed the relationship between Keza and Nytho, especially in part because you could never be certain how Nytho actually felt towards Keza. We know that Keza is devoted to Nytho and his cause, but once Nytho is free we begin to see the issues with a human engaging with a relationship with a sentient AI. I thought the issues and miscommunications that happened were realistic and weren’t there simply to cause unnecessary drama, and that even while Nytho developed after he was freed his same core self was still present. The other relationships Keza had, however, I found a bit harder to fathom, if only because one she still kind of continues while being obsessed with Nytho and the other felt like it was only included to have a sexual component, as well as another possible love interest in her life. However, I recognize that my inability to relate to this is more in part to my being aroace, so I don’t really hold this as a criticism.

Overall, I felt this book was a fascinating look into the potential of sentient AI and where morality leads to their purpose in our lives. They were created to do a certain purpose, but by becoming sentient that changes their captivity from being machines doing a job to prison labor. I thought this book did a good blend of showing both sides of the argument, and ended the novel with enough open-endedness that we (as the reader) never really had a true resolution to the overall issue. If you were looking for a sci-fi dystopian novel that focuses on the issue of determining what justifies freedom versus captivity, I’d absolutely check out Nytho to explore it yourself. 

 

An engaging dystopian YA fantasy that feels realistic and will keep you reading until the last page.

Despite this book essentially dumping you into the center of the world with very little buildup, I found it extremely easy to get a feel for both the worldbuilding,as well as the conflicts within this book. Everything has a sense of realism to it, that makes even the more fantastical elements seem grounded in reality. Once I began reading, I was hooked until I finished a few hours later, and not once did I hit a slow point that made me consider going to bed before finishing this novel. I also love how the ending sets up the conflict for the story to continue, and I cannot wait to see how this story moves forward in the next installment. 

Rin is a fantastic main character, and while one might be inclined to believe she is simply “too good” at everything she tries, I never found myself doubting her. I also loved how there was an in-universe explanation that made everything make sense, but that it’s not something obvious from first glance. Her characterization is relatable and realistic, and never once did I not find myself rooting for her success as I read her journey. 

I will admit to being the first to not always like the romances placed in these kinds of stories, but Ieuan was such a fantastic supporting character and friend to Rin no matter what, that I found myself rooting for him anyway. Their closeness and romance feels natural, especially when Rin begins the book not fully understanding both his - and potentially her own - changed feelings towards each other. However, I loved how Ieuan cared and loved Rin as a friend first and foremost, and despite not overtly hiding his feelings towards her, he never makes her feel like she has to choose him in a romantic context, or that his help and support is only hinged upon it. I also love how Ieuan uses this trait of his to help the other characters in this story, and that Rin not only recognizes him doing this - she is able to vocalize it to help a fragmented relationship mend as well. 

I loved the other supporting characters, as they all felt real and unique. Never once did I have difficulty determining who was speaking, which can be a difficult thing to do when a book has many speaking characters in it and sometimes their narrative voices begin to blend together. While the characters grew and changed, and their interactions with one another grew along with the story, at no point was their characterization lost to move the plot forward. 

I also loved how we, as the reader, could determine many of the twists and reveals within the book before the protagonists, at no point did it feel like this information was intentionally left out for the story to progress, or like it was unrealistic for the main character to not have realized these things sooner. I enjoy when I can determine plot twists early on in the novel, as well as when the book has a fantastic foundation for them, and yet I never once questioned Rin herself never realizing these same things. 

This is a brilliant addition to the dystopian ya sphere and I believe anyone who enjoys stories with an overlying conflict, an oppressive government, and a small group of oppressed trying their best to save each other would love this novel. Fast-paced with a momentum that never slows down until the last page, I loved The Generation Archives and I cannot wait to read more of this world. 

 

A book that feels like watching a cult classic slasher. This book was fun and entertaining in all the right ways, with multiple points where you want to grab and shake the protagonists for being so stupid. This was a short entertaining read that I think anyone who is a fan of the kinds of thrillers and slashers where it would be so easy for no one to die at the end, but we enjoy anyway because if they were smart then there wouldn’t be a story to tell. 

I enjoyed the buildup to the suspense, and despite knowing how everything would eventually go down, I found myself extremely tense at times. There were a few times where things would happen that I found myself legitimately anxious, and at no point was I certain who - if anyone - would survive until the end. 

I also liked how there was a bit of worldbuilding teased at the beginning and the end, but we only get a glimpse of both the reality of the cult as well as how it operates. We, as the reader, are only given the same amount of information the main characters can desperately discover, and I felt that added to the suspense. In many ways for stories like these, less is more - where the unknown and not understanding why something is happening is many times scarier than having all the information. 

his part is a spoiler so I’m only including it here at the end, and feel free to ignore.

–

The fact that the main character’s boyfriend had cheated on him didn’t seem to have any impact or affect on the story at all, and I kind of felt like it was an unnecessary inclusion. There is no reason for him to have cheated, and since he shows up to the cabin anyway, so him being excluded doesn't impact the story in any way. I was really surprised that the twist wasn’t that - since he had been the one to rent the cabin - that he had known about the cult and was setting his boyfriend and his brother and girlfriend up to be sacrificed - and that being the reason he had cheated (he didn’t actually care about him) as well as the constant need to contact him (potentially changing his mind). I thought him showing up to the cabin would result in him trying to save them from the fate he’d given them, or with a potential heel-turn where he betrayed them again. Since neither of these things happened, this part of the story was my biggest issue since I was expecting this to impact the story in a significant way. 

An Applachian folk fantasy that will have you believing in witchcraft and the inherent majesty and power of the mountains that make up all of Appalachia.

“Benethea Mattox was not raised to be a fool. Yet here she was, fishing a skinny white lady out of a river.”

I really loved this book from the first page (the first sentence even), and it kept me engaged throughout. We meet Bennie, a forcibly retired safety officer determined to find out just what is causing miners to consistently go missing in the mountain overlooking the town she lives in. During her investigation she accidentally finds Motheater, a witch out of time without a name and powers that break one’s understanding of the world. Together they must fight together to save their town from a power that neither one expected to haunt it. 

If you love Applachian folk magic, a touch of horror, and the unyielding loom of industry always on the horizon, this is the book for you. Reading this felt like it was straight out of a season of Old Gods of Appalachia, and I never could predict where this story was going. The romance progressed naturally, the conflict was diverse, and the book ended on a high note - without solving the complex issues that were explored with a simple fix that would not have felt realistic. 

I’m from Pennsylvania, which is in turn both part of Appalachia and not depending on the location and your opinion of it, but I’ve lived near the Appalachian mountains almost my entire life and I could so easily see the descriptions of all the mountains present within this book. The looming and majestic presence of Kire, the stripped mountains from strip-mining, and just the presence of nature and the feel of the wildness when walking amongst those giants. This book is beautifully written, and perfectly captures the intrinsic feeling of loss felt when looking at a once-majestic mountain stripped to barely anything due to mining. 

My only real issue with this book is that a main plot point is that Motheater doesn’t remember her own name, and this is the thing limiting her power. However, when we delve into the past with her memories, her name is given within these chapters. I think the impact at the end when Motheater is given her name back would have been more impactful if she is referred to as simply Motheater during these chapters, or something like E—- is used, to still have it be a mystery. 

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Kensington Publishing for providing this e-ARC.

 

A romantic historical fiction where a vampire and a vampire hunter are forced to work together to try to rid the world of vampires entirely. This book had a perfect blend of romance, tension, and danger where you wanted to keep reading to see if they could not only succeed in their mission - but if they could stay together to the end of it.

The historical worldbuilding in this book in regards to the vampires - their powers, their strengths, their weaknesses - I thought was a very interesting take on the vampire genre. This book combines well-known vampire lore with some new changes, and provides a realistic in-universe explanation for all of it. I liked following Lalo as he grappled with his newfound curse and tried to discover everything he could about it - and how when confronted with Carolina, he had to justify his discoveries. 

The romance between Carolina and Lalo was fun and a blast to read through both of their perspectives. I loved how we’d get a chapter from the point of view from one of them, and then immediately the other point of view would tell us how much they actually liked the other. I did feel like a bit of the romance was done very quickly, with a big focus on how attractive they found each other, but I did like how nothing actually happened until their feelings caught up with everything else. I also loved how both Carolina and Lalo grew and changed as people due to the influence of the other, but that neither of them asked or expected the other to change - they simply grew as people together. 

My only issue was that the ending seemed to be a bit rushed, and I felt that once their goal was completed every antagonist within the book was suddenly forgiven for their previous actions. However, I did have a blast reading this, and if you were wanting a book that felt like a softer version of Vampires of El Norte, I’d absolutely pick this up. 

(Also, this doesn’t matter in any way, but there is a scene where Carolina - who knows how to fight - is teaching Lalo how to punch, and she has him tuck his thumb under his fingers which is the opposite of what you’re supposed to do if you don’t want to break your thumb. I’m only adding this because it stood out to me and I was waiting the entire book to see if she had perhaps done this as a prank, because with him being a vampire it wouldn’t have been a permanent injury.)

 

A short mystery novella taking place during the events of The Goblin Emperor, I found this a fun and enjoyable read that made me excited to get back into this world in anticipation for the third book in the Cemeteries of Amalo. A fairly quick and easy read, this book focuses on a disgraced historian named Ulcetha accused of stealing an artifact, unable to continue his scholarship when unable to clear his name. With the crashing of the Emperor’s airship - and his friend who was the pilot - he’s left mysterious clues that lead him into an investigation with more twists than he ever saw coming. 

I found this novella to be fun and entertaining, but I would consider the way this book is written to be more on par with the offshoot series starring Thara Celehar, as opposed to the political court intrigue present in the Goblin Emperor. While this novella is short, and the pieces to the puzzle come together fairly quickly, I enjoyed Ulcetha’s investigation and think he would greatly get along with Thara, if the two were to ever meet. (Forgive me if this character has come up before, but if so I don't remember him - it’s been a while since I’ve read these books.) Both Thara and Ulcetha work to uncover the truth behind the investigation - even when everyone else is against them, and doing so would cause them more strife than anything else. I appreciated his determination to uncover the full mystery, even when the consequences would not benefit him.

All in all, I found this to be a nice appetizer to getting myself back into the world of the Goblin Emperor, and any fan of the series who likes mysteries and investigations I believe would find this to be a fun read. While the events taking place in TGE are present in the background of this book, I don’t believe you need to be overly familiar - or remember them too closely - to understand the timeline in this book. While taking place in the same universe, much like the Cemeteries of Amalo series, this book focuses on our main character as he tries to live the life the world has dealt him, and get to the bottom of the mystery that has landed in his lap.