What Is Dark Within Me by L.B. Black

I grabbed WHAT IS DARK WITHIN ME on impulse because of the author's Threads posts (very good marketing tbh) and I did not regret it at all. At its surface, this is a dark gothic romantasy about a woman who falls in love with the devil, but if you go down several levels, it's also about overcoming religious trauma, accepting your true self, and finding a love that is both brutal and true.

The writing in this was exceptional and felt very episodic, like I was watching a TV show in book form. I also loved the author's take on magic and the hierarchical systems that enforce it. Her writing style reminds me a lot of Freda Warrington, who is one of my favorite speculative writers. This was very slow burn and has a prickly, morally grey FMC and a villainous hero who would burn the world down for his love. There was nothing I didn't enjoy about this and I can't wait to read the next book in the series, plus everything else this author wrote. LOVE.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Swallowed by Meg Smitherman

I loved THRUM by this author, so when I found out she was writing another science-fiction horror romance, I was all over that like white on rice. SWALLOWED has a similar, eerily claustrophobic premise: a team of scientists go to an Earth-like planet to see if its conditions are compatible for human life. But something outside their camp lurks, and Jill, the botanist, can't help but wonder if it's the same thing that was responsible for the death of her mother's team on the first expedition all those years before she was born..

Meg Smitherman has a beautiful, poetic writing style and she does a great job of writing body horror that is genuinely terrifying without being overly graphic (which is a tough line to not cross). I also think her sex scenes are decent, which is always a must with smut. SWALLOWED is spicier than THRUM but I still liked THRUM better because I think it had a better atmosphere and pacing. SWALLOWED was very slow to start and while some of this is to set the stage and establish the characters, it ended up making the book feel a little unevenly paced and-- I'm so sorry-- boring.

The second half of the book nearly made up for the first. Excellent twists, genuine horror, and some fun reveals about the heroine's morally grey nature. I don't think I'd read this again but I'll definitely be recommending it to people looking for botanical horror, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars

Grave Matter by Karina Halle

This is one of the easiest five-star reviews I've ever written because GRAVE MATTER was a wild rollercoaster ride of equal parts thrills and chills from start to finish and I never wanted to get off. It's set in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. The heroine, Sydney, is a biologist who's been selected for an exclusive and important project working up close with fungi-- specifically a newly discovered glowing species-- at a facility owned by the reclusive Madrona Foundation.

However, as soon as she gets there, something feels off. They take away her technology and her phone, the animals in the woods don't look right and don't move right, and she keeps getting flashes of things that look a whole fucking lot like ghosts. Add to that a brooding love interest who is kinky and forbidden and a backdrop that is both lush and terrifying, and you have a recipe for a luscious dark truffle of a book that is as delicious as it is insidious.

Less is definitely more going into this book, for sure. I am SO glad I didn't read spoilers and went in cold. Halle can be a hit-or-miss author for me but her new books are all so amazing and I think this might be my new favorite of hers. Gothic is definitely a genre she does well. Can't wait to read more from her!

5 out of 5 stars

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

Even though ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF is not a long book, it took me several months to finish because the subject matter was so heavy. Not that I'm surprised-- this is the same author who wrote SOMEDAY, MAYBE, an ugly and raw portrayal of the isolating and destructive power of grief. I was more than expecting this book to hit well below the emotional belt... which it DOES, by the way.

Anuri is a British-Nigerian woman struggling with alcohol addiction and femdomming her loyal army of simpering paypigs on OF while also running her booming scented candle business. But she's also the stepdaughter of a successful white parenting influencer named Ophelia, who posted every single one of her most humiliating and vulnerable moments online for clicks. When she became a teenager, she'd had enough and began to push back, and then Ophelia and her father had a second daughter, Noelle, who replaced Anuri.

Anuri, watching and stalking her stepmother through screens, is seeing the same destructive patterns happen to her half-sister. And this, and the fact that her past is publicly accessible, drive her to sue Ophelia, to force her to wipe her content off the internet forever and finally bring herself peace. But Ophelia didn't get to where she was by submitting to pressure, and she's willing to fight dirty to stay in the spotlight.

This is honestly such a timely read, because the first wave of parenting influencers' kids are starting to come of age and I think it's pretty clear that their lives were not nearly as rosy as their mothers pretended. Anyone who has complained about the ethics of parent influencing is going to feel vindicated by this book because it explores literally all the horrors: the bullying from peers, the lasting emotional damage, the conflict of interest when a child's best interests prevent loss of income to the home, and, of course, how putting children online also puts them into proximity to predators and other dangerous people. 

Ophelia's whiteness adds another layer of ick to the situation because she uses her Black husband and Black daughters in a way that essentially commodifies their Blackness and their bodies, in an attempt to gain credibility and access to spheres where she really doesn't belong. By the end of the book, it's interesting to examine her as a character when all of the layers have been peeled away, because her corrosive style of influencing basically ate away at everything that really made her her, until all that was left behind were her own unresolved traumas.

ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF is not an easy read but I still liked it a lot. The characters felt like real people and I think that was part of what made it so difficult to read; it was hard to remember that I wasn't actually watching real people screw up their lives. My only qualm with the book is that I think in an effort to portray Anuri as multi-faceted, there was too much time spent on her with her friends in scenes that could feel repetitive, which did bog down the pacing. But for the most part, I think having these connections were integral in showing how Anuri was bolstered by her "village" to finally take a stand against a toxic and narcissistic parenting figure who was allowed to wield far too much power.

I can't wait to see what else this author writes. She seems to be getting better with every book and I love that for her and for me.

4 stars

Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson

What the FUCK did I just read, a memoir.

No, but seriously, the last thing I read that had me holy shitting like this was probably Ania Ahlborn's BROTHER. And BLOOM is so insidious, starting out like a cute little sapphic cottagecore romance. Ash seems like a manic pixie dreamgirl straight out of homesteader TikTok, and yet, beneath her little cottage, a dark secret lies...

I liked this book... as horrible as it was. The writing was beautiful, even poetic at times, and I think this is a masterclass on how to make two toxic, deeply fucked up and unlikable people compelling. I saw a lot of reviews about how much people hated Ro but I think that was the point; she's needy and doesn't have boundaries and a deeply flawed person, and those flaws end up being exploited in the worst way.

One of the running themes in this book is Ro ignoring Ash's red flags even though if they came from a man, they would alarm her. And she questions this multiple times, wondering if her fear and unease is internalized misogyny rearing its ugly head-- because of course, a woman could never do anything violent or terrible? Except this is, in and of itself, internalized misogyny, and it is a narrative that enables violent and predatory women to fly under the radar in a society that only sees women as victims or recipients of violence. And I think that was the ultimate goal of this book.

I don't really have much else to say because I don't want to spoil anything, but don't worry-- the kitty lives.

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars

Barbarian's Concubine by Lisa Cach

Some romance is trashy and that should be okay. I hate the idea that books aren't allowed to be cheesy and camp, that everything has to be high art. BARBARIAN'S CONCUBINE brands itself as Fifty Shades of Grey meets Game of Thrones; it knows what it is and what it's doing, and it does that well: geopolitics and slightly uncomfortable sex scenes that somehow manage to be both hot and cringe.

My favorite thing about this book is the character development of Nimia. She was very naive in the first book (and very much a victim of grooming, which made this worse). In BARBARIAN'S, she figures out that she has a right to be angry with the man who tricked her into thinking he would be her benevolent initiator; that actually, he was a prisoner and a creep. Unfortunately, escape leads her into the hands of an equally ambitious and depraved man who plans to use her for revolution. Also there's some light magic and some rather hilarious, almost culty shenanigans, and ofc, lots of Roman debauchery.

I'm kind of surprised that this book doesn't have more ratings but I think historical romance/erotica tends to be niche, and this is smut-with-plot in the vein of those old Ellora's Cave novellas, where even though a significant amount of focus is on sexual situations, there's also a lot of story, too. The slavery component, SA, and (I feel) deliberately unsexy sex scenes will be deal-breakers for some. The heroine is also hypersexual, and since I'm not, I won't comment on the accuracy of this rep. I think it does feel sensationalized at times, though.

Overall, this has a fun, pulpy vibe to it that makes it curiously addictive. I read both books in just over two days and I'm in a little bit of a reading slump right now. Definitely a 70s bodice-ripper throwback.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Slave Girl by Lisa Cach

I think I might have gotten a copy of this as a Netgalley ARC years and years ago, but now the whole series is out so I thought I'd buy all the books for fun. Lisa Cach was a bodice-ripper author for Love Spell in the 90s so it was such a fun surprise to see that she was not only still writing, she'd also turned her hand to writing spicy Roman erotica, about a half-Celt, half-Asian slave who's a prisoner to a Roman.

The writing and political intrigue in this book are really well done and even though it's a novella, I feel like the pacing is tight and doesn't feel rushed or uneven. Most of the smut is also great, too. My only qualm is that the book feels uncomfortable at times because her master (who is NOT the love interest by the way) got her when she was young, and he's been grooming her for like nine years in preparation for taking her virginity, and some of his lessons felt very icky (I think they were supposed to). Interestingly, the heroine's hypersexuality and fondness for her master feel more like a matter of survival than titillation, because when she's presented with an alternative future that offers freedom and knowledge, her disgust for him is a revelation.

I'd recommend this to people who liked Game of Thrones and Kushiel's Dart, as I feel like this book has similar vibes, only it feels less exploitative than both of those. The elements of Greek and Roman mythology and geo-politics give this more oomph than it would have had if it were just spice (not that there's anything wrong with that, just that spice for spice's sake doesn't do much for me). I'm glad that I have all of the other books in the series because SLAVE GIRL ends on a wicked cliffhanger.

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars

Irish Vice by Alix Key

After bulldozing my way through IRISH BRUTE, I could not wait to pick up the sequel. Not just because it's one of the best mafia romances I've ever read, but also because it's a-- wait for it-- Jane Eyre retelling. And a damn good one, too, honestly. It's not exact retelling but it's one of those ones where it's close enough to the source material that I'm having a blast trying to figure out what she'll keep and what she won't.

As far as sequels go, this is one of the better ones I've read too, because not only is there intense development with the plot, the character and emotional development really takes off here, as well. There were some twists that made me gasp and cringe, Samantha learns to overcome some of her traumas to wrest control over her life, and Braiden (sort of) learns when to be soft and make compromises.

That said, this book is a LOT darker than the first. Towards the end there's a pretty graphic torture session and while I was glad it was not as visceral as it could have been, it was still hard to read. Braiden also does some of those totally outlandish sex scenes that feel like they're shock fodder for Booktok. In this case, filling her vag with ice and fucking her with a pool cue.

I still loved this book, though. It's beautifully written and so entertaining. I almost don't want to read the last book right away because it's the last one, but I NEED IT.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Irish Brute by Alix Key

An Irish mafia Jane Eyre retelling? The way I was so excited for this-- and it was so good. Samantha is a lawyer with a dark secret, and when she hears the Italian mobster who always overshadowed her childhood killing her childhood friend/cousin on the phone, she knows she's in terrible danger. Enter her client, Braiden Kelly, who takes it upon himself to offer her marriage in exchange for protection.

This has BDSM but it's all consensual and I felt like the kink and total power exchange were done really well. The Jane Eyre parallels were also brilliant and I loved how the author infused this with gothic vibes, even though it was definitely still a mafia romance. It was actually one of the better Jane retellings I've read that was a deviation from the original formula, and I thought that was super fun for me.

If you like the Underboss Insurrection series by Cate C. Wells, I think you'll really enjoy this, as it has similar vibes but with more spicy times.

4.5 out of 5 stars

The Absolutely Positively Worst Man in England, Scotland and Wales by Anne Stuart

THE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY WORST MAN IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND WALES is pure camp, in case you couldn't guess from the title. Anne Stuart was writing dark romances before dark romances were even really a thing, and people used to refer to her morally grey heroes as "gamma heroes," which, in the romance reader parlance, used to refer to brainy, scheming, morally ambiguous men who operated on the same continuum as a high-functioning sociopath.

She's been writing these sorts of books for decades and has it down to an artform at this point, although now that she's gone the self-publishing/small press route, I have noticed that her overusage of certain words has skyrocketed and the banter between characters has become circuitous. I'm a fan of her work so this was more amusing than annoying, but because of this I would recommend that people who are new to this author don't start with her newer books; they have, in essence, almost become endearing parodies of themselves.

THE ABSOLUTELY is about a man named Kit, who is frenemies with an old roue named George. George is engaged to an heiress named Bryony, whose freckles are basically her whole personality. Her companion is her cousin, Cecelia, a renowned beauty. Both of these girls are kidnapped by the men for nefarious purposes; George because he wants the money and Kit, simply because he's bored and figures it might be a good time. Kit is literally the worst, but his encounters with Bryony stymie him because he's unprepared for her blend of headstrong and combative innocence. A lot of this author's books follow this formula but I fucking LOVE it.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The Beauty by Aliya Whitely

Well, that was fucking disgusting (complimentary).

Mushroom horror seems to be really popular right now and the best thing about it is that, like mushrooms, every take I've read on it so far has been so unique, despite belonging to the same species. THE BEAUTY is extra bizarre because it's got queer-coding, body horror, feminine rage, and eldritch terrors. What would happen if women turned into mushrooms? What if the sex was disfiguring and weird?

WHAT THEN?????

This did not scare me so much as make me very uneasy and squeamish, although I did like what it was trying to do. THE BEAUTY is a literal dismantling of the patriarchy via literal emasculation, and in today's current political climate, there's something kind of satisfying about that. I did give the frozen mushrooms in my fridge an extra side-eye, though. Maybe I won't be eating those anytime soon...

My only dissatisfaction was actually with the ending, which felt way too abrupt. I wanted closure and I didn't really get that. I also had a lot of unanswered questions, and maybe that was the point, but I don't have to like that.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Love Flushed by Evie Mitchell

After reading and loving KNOT MY TYPE, I was super excited to dive into LOVE FLUSHED, especially since the heroine has Crohn's. I don't have Crohn's but I have a serious food intolerance that often causes me to have intestinal cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea. I have had to experience bathroom anxiety and bowel incontinence for years, due to problems with my diet, and it is the actual worst. And there's a lot of shame around talking about it, because it's gross, and people don't want to hear about it, which is why I snap up every spicy tummy book I can get my hands on. I want to support the cause.

Annie owns an eco-friendly toilet paper company inspired by her bathroom struggles, but she needs a supplier-- her current ones don't share her ethics, not when they can compromise them for a better deal. Cue Linc, the owner of a papermill and her ex-lover. After he betrayed her in the worst way, she can barely stand to be in the same room with him, but since their friends are getting married and they work in the same industry, it's hard to avoid each other. Especially when they each have something that the other needs.

I didn't like this book as much as the first one, but it was still really, really good. I loved the way that Mitchell included Annie's chronic illness in the book and it was all just so beautifully done, and made me feel really seen. The backstory between them also made sense, and even though I'm not usually a fan of second chance, I felt like this was a pretty solid way of going about it without making one of them the bad guy. I just wished they had a little more chemistry between them. I usually love Daddy kink but I wanted more from it than what I got here. Frankie and Jay melted those pages. Linc and Annie felt barely warm.

That said, this was a very cute, short read and I'm always a huge fan of male and female friend groups that actually uplift each other. If you're looking for something sweet and somewhat low-angst (apart from the sob-sob backstory that nearly did make me cry), this is your book. 

3.5 out of 5 stars

Because the Night: A Vampire Romance by Kylie Scott

I was overjoyed when Kylie Scott offered me an ARC of her new vampire romance, BECAUSE THE NIGHT, because vampires are one of my favorite things of all time and I've been craving a good paranormal romcom to fill the void that Ali Hazelwood's BRIDE left in my soul. After powering through this book, I can safely say that BECAUSE more than filled that craving. In fact, reading it was a nostalgic hearkening back to the paranormal boom of the aughts, when I was blissing out on the Sookie Stackhouse series.

This was an absolute delight.

Skye is an ordinary human who does ordinary human things, until she ends up in the basement of a house in the Hollywood Hills where a vampire is waiting to turn her world completely upset down. One minute, she's working an underpaid job and thinking about the mounting bills, the next she's playing tour guide to her vampire "daddy" as his latest creature of the night DIY project.

This is largely an ensemble cast story with a character-driven storyline, and that makes it super easy to get into if you love books like that. I enjoyed reading it before bed because it wasn't too complex and I could just enjoy the characters bantering with each other until it was time for sleep. Henry was my favorite, with Benedict coming in as a close second. But number one in my heart was obviously Lucas: we stan a grumpy, arrogant, and slightly homicidal vampire king who's very "touch her and die." In a world full of Draculas, be a Lucas.

This book is relatively short for a novel, and when I put it down, I still wanted more. I hope there's going to be a sequel because I would happily spend more time in this world. 

Thanks to the publisher/author for sending me a copy!

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars