kathigh86's reviews
286 reviews

Wow. Wow. Wow. 

I'm honestly struggling to form words. I wish I could bottle this book up and drink it whenever I'm sad. I want to force all my friends to read this book. I want MORE from this series and author!!!

I loved everything about this book. Celeste and Magnus... their relationship is so complex and emotional. I appreciated that even though this book is *technically* a second chance romance, their backstory is lightly discussed aside from where they went wrong. Celeste and Magnus are so seductive whenever they're together, even beyond a sexual meaning they're so alluring. Any scene with Celeste and Magnus doing literally anything? I'm hooked and reading for the next hour. 

The found family dynamics in this book were amazing. I love the journal entries and watching the group (but especially Celeste) grief for Doris. The thievery in this book was just realistic enough to be believable, but just unrealistic enough for it to be fun to read. It felt like I was watching Oceans 8. 

The only thing I would change about this book is for it to be longer, maybe another trip for a clue would have been nice. 

Beatrice and Santiago, oh I absolutely need more of them. 

*Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC*

Imagine watching The Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff for the very first time... that's what this book felt like. It's cheesy and over the top lovey-dovey. No man would ever act like how Grant does, or say the things that Grant does but I loved it anyways. I really loved the messages between Addie and Grant in the beginning, I'm a sucker for online friends to lovers/secret identity tropes. 

After about the 65-70% point, I was really dragging my feet along. I feel like this book would have been a great novella. I feel like the cheesy aspect of this book became way too tacky. 

I would recommend this book to people looking for a palate cleanser that requires absolutely no brain power. This will get you giggling and kicking your feet. 

EDIT (10/2024) This author has falsely claimed to be indigenous. I do not support authors who cannot respect and honor other cultures. Especially if they write stories with characters from those cultures.

There were plenty of elements I loved about this book, but there were also a few that I really didn't enjoy.

What I liked: I loved the pacing, it was fast and kept me hooked throughout the whole book. The setting was amazing, it was perfectly eerie, I couldn't have imagined a better location for a haunted castle. The horror wasn't extreme, which for me personally is great! I was able to read this book at night without having to keep the light on. 

What I only kind of liked: The romance between Pen and Neil was interesting... There were moments were I loved them and their interacts, and you can really feel the pining for each other. But there were also areas where their relationship in general had the potential for more. I feel like their emotional conversations could have lasted longer or at least not been cut short by ghost shenanigans. The mystery aspect was "meh." It was shallow and predictable. But this wasn't a make or break for me, I went into this book for the romance. 

What I hated/thought was completely irrelevant to the story: The fact that Pen through the book at Neil.... I hated that. I also didn't like when Pen threw her shoe and it (accidentally) hit Neil. I feel like there are other ways of showing hatred for someone. Pen also could have apologized a lot sooner.

I appreciated the diversity of the characters and the commentary on being in the publishing industry as a BIPOC author. 

I look forward to seeing how this series and the author themselves evolve!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

This book has plenty of similarities with Howl's Moving Castle which I LOVE! The 'cozy' parts of this fantasy really come out in the beginning of the book when Foss is dealing with her heartsickness and when she first arrives at Sylvester's house. There were some parts of this book that were gory and really eerie

specifically the mists and conflict in the bar and castle

, which kind of caught me off guard but didn't impact my overall enjoyment. This book is kind of strange in the way that the magic felt otherworldly (think Alice in Wonderland but in an old-timey fairytale).

To be completely transparent, the first half of this book was very slow and a little hard to get through. It was repetitive and really focused on Foss' inner monologue. There were points, of course, where there was some interesting dialogue or some key plots points. But the real action didn't start until after the 50% mark, then it was more medium-fast paced.

I kind of have a love/dislike relationship with Foss. I found a lot of her inner monologue to drag on and on. She was very self-deprecating but it's understandable when you think about the people she was raised around. Otherwise, I found that she was a really good representation of a "selfish" but for good reasons FMC. There were points where she made some really silly decisions, and I kind of wish we got more explanation or displays of guilt from that.

Sylvester... pretty flat, dare I say boring. I feel like he added very little to the story even though he was the MMC. I do like him, I just wish he had more to his character.

Cornelius!! Love of my life. He's like a perfect mix between Salem from the 90s version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service. For a good chunk of the book, he is what kept me going. 

I'd recommend this book to those who like an independent FMC, talking cats, corrupt kingdoms, magic houses, and the slowest of burn romances.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review!*

Didn’t really connect with the characters as much as I thought. I was not as invested in the story as the previous books. I might revisit this series when the next book is published.

Liz Tomforde does it again! I have been waiting for Isiah and Kennedy's story for so long. To say it delivered would be an understatement. I loved their friendship and their moments alone. You could really feel the trust they have for each other throughout the whole book. The ending made me cry, which was not anticipated, but definitely added to the emotional depth of the characters. 

As usual, I cannot wait for Rio's book to be published and to see what else Liz has in store!

Not interesting enough. Didn’t like that they brought up teacher names and thought about school related things during spicy time.