Wicked as They Come by Delilah S. Dawson

DNF @ 25%

I just read BLOOM by this author and it was fantastic. When I found out that she was writing books during the aughts-early 2010s paranormal boom, I was THRILLED. And it's a morally grey vampire romance? Say less.

The beginning of this book was really great. I'm actually sad that so many people are hating on the heroine because I thought she was really sympathetic and relatable. A hospice nurse who just went through a bad and abusive divorce, whose nana is dying of cancer? Of course she'd be prickly and hesitant to commit. Like, duh.

Where the book lost me was the way the world building was set up. At first I was digging the portal fantasy/Alice in Wonderland vibes, but steampunk is not my favorite and I just found some of the writing passages too clunky to really get into the story the way I wanted to.

P.S. This book uses the g-word a lot if you don't want to see that. It's not used particularly offensively (imo) and the world it's used in is alternate Victorian, so it makes sense given the context, but I know some people are particularly sensitive about this word's usage.

2 to 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Manchineel by Jessica Carrasquillo

How weird is it that I've read two books this year where people got murdered with manchineel fruits this year? I had literally never heard of this plant before and now I feel like I'm seeing it EVERYWHERE.

Anyway, THE MANCHINEEL was exactly what I look for in a spicy romantic suspense book: I love books that have this inevitable, claustrophobic feeling of doom hanging suspended over the characters like the sword of Damocles. And Elyse, with her history of trauma and her newfound obsession in the talent agency lawyer who's supposed to help grow her social media presence, is like a match in the powderkeg that is this book. You know there's going to be an explosion and that it's going to be BIG.

I think this book reminded me a lot of WATCH THE GIRLS by Jennifer Wolfe and PRETTY THINGS by Janelle Brown-- not because the plots were similar but because all three books are about beautiful, dangerous women who are willing to do anything to get what they want. While reading, I kept asking myself if Elyse was a sociopath. There's a belief that sociopaths can't feel love but they do-- just in a different way, and usually because they feel an affinity for their love interest that reminds them of themselves. Ben, with his similar background of poverty, abuse, and being "othered" was a kindred spirit to Elyse, just more successful-- as if he were a reflection of what she could have been herself.

Whether or not you like Elyse, or think that she's a sociopath or just incredibly warped and made desperate by trauma, this is a fascinating read with a compellingly toxic romance. I don't normally like cheating romances at all but if I am going to read one, I like it like this-- where everyone is flawed and toxic and desperate and none of the ugliness is swept under the rug. When I wasn't reading this book, I was thinking about it, and the characters. I imagine I'll be thinking about them for a while. Jessica is such a talented author and I can't wait to read more of her work, if this is what I can expect from her.

5 out of 5 stars

The Bone King and the Starling by Elizabeth Stephens

One of my friends has been trying to get me to read Elizabeth Stephens for the longest time and after reading THE BONE KING AND THE STARLING, I clearly need to snap up her backlist because this book was soooo good. It reminded me a lot of a more violent and explicit version of Elizabeth Vaughan's WARPRIZE, with heavy dashes of a non-rapey Khal Drogo, set in an alternate Norse fantasy kingdom where mammoths roam across the ice.

The plot of this book is pretty simple. Starling is a Black thrall living in a viking community. Her mother was taken for her beauty but her father was a douche, and when she was orphaned, she basically became a slave-ward in this viking community lorded over by indolent and corrupt lords who starve their town into poverty by embezzling the lion's share for themselves. I guess they heard about Trump's trickle-down economic plan.

When Calai, the bone king, comes to the village, he is disgusted by the living conditions and the squalor. He also does not support slavery at all. I feel like if you're going to write slavery into a fantasy novel, this is the best way to do it, as it is not romanticized at all, and ends with a violent uprising against the oppressors. As soon as we get a taste of Calai's wrath, I was just sitting there kicking my feet, waiting for him to burn everything down to the ground for his lady AND BOY DID HE.

If you love hot warrior heroes, sweet heroines, and books where they're both virgins(!!!!), this book has all of that, as well as touch her and die, who did this to you?!, and "my wife."

4 out of 5 stars