fantasy_fiction_and_fae's reviews
473 reviews

This crazy trilogy was funny, scary, sexy, and disturbing the best ways. Although all three have a super slow burn with the romance, it makes up for it in the end. Repeatedly. 

I love the Kane brothers and their batshit crazy wives. It’s given me many hours of entertainment and I’m sad that their stories are over. Or are they???? We shall see…

I would like to also mention that if someone reading this is not aware, this book is the third book of a dark romance trilogy and should be read in order. 

If you are sensitive to triggers, know that there are several of them. If you aren’t into dark romance, don’t bother reading this or the other two. Giving a bad review of a genre you don’t like is a waste of your time and brings down the rating for the author. It would be like me leaving a one star Yelp rating/review on a caprese salad at a newer restaurant knowing I hate tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. 
*steps down from the milk carton
Thank you ✌🏼

"She watches me through the cracks in the bricks"

In a remote village called Banathel, there is a long history of witchcraft and superstition. They believe in evil, and it attaches itself to young women in the town and they have a specific way of dealing with it. Thirteen-year-old Alice Webber claims that a witch is haunting her, and the story comes across to journalist Sam Hunter. He wants to interview the family for a detailed story about the town's phenomenon and this young girl.

When Sam meets Mina at a local bereavement group to deal with the death of her brother, he proposes that she go with him to see Alice as she is a new child psychologist who needs experience in her field. Mina wants a proper job in her field of study, but it's difficult if no one wants to hire someone due to their lack of work history in psychology. 

Together, Sam and Mina stay with Alice's family to study her to find out the best way to treat her ailment because surely, she isn't possessed by a witch. Things are not all as they seem. Alice's condition worsens as time goes on rather than better and Mina is sure she can figure out how to end her condition, but something keeps stopping her. Mina feels eyes on her everywhere, always watching. She gets feelings to avoid places and things, and something just isn't right. Whether it has to do with witchcraft, however, she is not convinced no matter the odd feelings she continues to have. Someone is trying to tell her, but she can't seem to get answers. Alice's parents are frustrated, and Mina desperately wants to find the truth. The truth however doesn't want Mina to know. 

This is a slow-paced quirky story that certainly has the creepy factor laced throughout. I appreciate a mystery horror/thriller book that actually does feel scary and makes the hair on your arms rise. I can't seem to find any that brings that chill I want to have when reading a book in that genre lately. 

I listened to the Audio ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.  Expected publication February 25, 2025 

Good Bad Mother by Anya Mora
Pub Date 2/17/2025 Narrated by Lauryn Allman, Penelope Rawlins

Amelia on the outside has a perfect life and is a stay-at-home mom with a beautiful baby girl. She met the perfect man and after a quick whirlwind romance became pregnant and they got married. Timothy is successful, handsome, a hard worker, and comes from one of the wealthiest families in the country. After they got married, they moved into her dream home on an exclusive island that only the rich can afford which means she also lived across from her new in-laws. A mother-in-law who didn't hide her distaste for her since she didn't grow up alongside these elite people and did not condone their relationship or the quick wedding due to her pregnancy. As a matter of fact, Timothy and his family knew next to nothing about her life, and she planned to keep it that way. Although the past seems to not stay a secret no matter how hard you try. If Timothy and his snobby family found out about her past, she would lose everything. 

The truth is, Amelia isn't the perfect wife. She isn't the perfect mother, and it seems up until now, she is no longer the perfect liar. When her past comes back to haunt her, the perfect life she tried so hard to get starts crumbling all around her. When her true name comes out and what she has been running from since she was eighteen comes crashing back to haunt her. 

This was a slower-paced story about a woman who was desperate to run away from a horrible past and make a new life for herself. It goes through the struggles of being a new mother in a relatively new relationship that came with horrible in-laws and the stress she carries trying to keep her past a secret. As the story progresses, a few people are suspicious of the possible main antagonist as the poor woman had many people wishing her to fail and I appreciated the surprise of who was harassing her for weeks and how the story ended. It was an easy read and finished it in one day. 

I would like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook before its release on 2/17/2025 in exchange for an honest review. 

I love a dark romance but this was a bit short to appreciate the reasons why the characters are the way they are. (Yes, I know it’s a novella) Stone is psychotic, and unhinged. Emily is broken but numb from her traumatic past. A past that included Stone and one of the reasons he was locked up 10 years ago. The last time she saw him until tonight. 

The triggers are triggering so if you have any issues with that, right off the bat, don’t bother.

If you love a crazy man that will break a guys face for just speaking about you the wrong way, Stone is your man. 

I love Teddy Hamilton as a narrator. He knows how to deliver and usually meets the mark and makes Stone come to life as the cold hearted killer character meant for this story. 

In a brief sentence explaining this book: A pregnant woman with a stressful life meets an unhinged nurse after a car accident and their worlds collide in a way that is not in favor of the pregnant woman. 

 

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and her only wish is to make a good life for herself and her unborn daughter. After an upsetting meeting with the sperm donor father of her child (who is an absolute loser), she heads out to stay with her brother for a few weeks and hopes to deliver her daughter and figure out what to do with her life now that she will support this baby alone without financial stability. In a desperate decision due to lack of money, she decides to get one more workday done before she leaves to see her brother turns out to be the worst mistake of her life as she drives straight into a nasty New England blizzard. 

 

Losing control of her car in a whiteout, she crashes her car into a tree and is hurt. In a panic, she knows she cannot walk, but her car also is out of commission. She fears she will die in the cold before she is discovered in the storm, but a very large scary man sees her car off the road and offers to help her. This is when her nightmare begins, and she never arrives at her destination. Now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.

 

This was an Instagram book club pick and also is when you should take other people's opinions with a grain of salt because I saw a bunch of negative reviews of this book, and I do not agree with them. I really enjoyed it. I saw a few references saying it was just like Misery by Stephen King. The only similarity to his book is the blizzard and accident. The rest of this story is nothing like that book and I was happy with how it ended as well. I don't want to get into more detail since I hate it when I read a review and see spoilers, so I will not do that.

Am I glad to have read this book? Yes 

Not getting into details but I was extremely upset at the end of the last book and a good portion of this one in regards to killing off a major character. I was straight up pissed when it happened. The story progresses and makes up for that loss thankfully. When a major character is yeeted without a good outcome it really turns me off. The end of the Divergent series is a good example. Absolutely livid at how that ended. 

Holding off reading book 9 and book 0. I need a zodiac break… 

I am speechless 😶 . I am angry🤬. I am distraught 😭