A Waltz with the Bone King: A Short Macabre Romance by Amanda Cessor

A WALTZ WITH THE BONE KING is a beautiful novella featuring the death and the maiden trope. Lorelai, a sickly and beautiful woman with morbid interests, meets the King of the Dead while walking in the woods. He has fallen in love with her and wants to court her, but every meeting with him carries a risk of death. Little does she know, she's been living on borrowed time already, and like Jareth, he has reordered time and turned the world upside-down for her already...

The Victorian goth-punk vibes of this reminded me a lot of Corpse Bride and Adalyn Grace's BELLADONNA, especially with the message that all of us are living on borrowed time at every moment and that while death is the true end to every story, it is nothing to be feared. The ending of this book made me cry because it made me think of my dad, who was ill with a terminal illness for almost six months. He was so at peace at the end, after going through so much discomfort and pain, and so much of what Lorelai had to say about her thoughts on death and living reminded me of him.

If you like cozy whimsigoth stories, you'll love this book. Especially if you love respectful skeleton daddies and the death and the maiden trope. I can't wait to read more from this author. I really like her writing style.

Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a review copy!

4 out of 5 stars

I'm in Love with Mothman by Paige Lavoie

To be honest, after reading this book, I might be in love with Mothman, too.

I've been following Paige Lavoie on social media for a while and her videos promoting her Mothman books are amazing, but I was a tiny bit hesitant to read them because I wasn't sure if I was into monster romance or not. But she kept sharing these tantalizing quotes where he called her his "flame," and some primal scenes, and finally, I couldn't take it anymore, I was like, SOLD.

Heather is a burned-out influencer with a chronic illness (Hashimoto's). After trying a new skincare line gives her a bad breakout and leads to a PR snafu, she has a little bit of a mental breakdown and decides to go dark, abandoning her online persona to go live in a cabin in the middle of the woods. As one does.

She quickly finds out that she might not be the only thing in those woods. A brother-sister duo is quick to inform her about the local lore involving a certain moth creature that has been rumored to terrorize locals. The brother, Chris, even has scars. But when Heather finally encounters her cryptid neighbor, he's not what she expected at all.

This was great. It had romcom vibes but with a darker edge that kept it grounded. I loved the casual representation of Heather's chronic illness and bisexuality. I also liked Moth's shapeshifting abilities and how his imperiousness was juxtaposed against his hilarious social faux-pas (drinking syrup out of the bottle at a pancake house, trying to eat the tablecloth in her kitchen, etc.). The cottagecore vibes were everything and I will absolutely be reading the sequel. I had SO much fun with Moth and Heather.

4 out of 5 stars

Whatever Whispers by Genna Black

This was honestly such a delight-- so many of my favorite tropes: sadist with a heart of gold, nanny x single dad, student x professor, anxiety rep, secret societies, and a slapdash of dark academia. Quinn Ivor attends Cypress U, in no small part because of her father's influence. But he's cold and harsh, and since Quinn is oblivious to the steps he's taken to protect her, she hates him. When he dies, she obviously feels conflicted, but she needs to stay in school for her trust.

Enter Jack Hollis: her professor, although when she meets him, she doesn't know that yet. He's raising his niece like his own daughter because his sister is a drug addict, and he's been trying to balance teaching with being a full-time dad. Given Quinn's nanny experience and financial woes, she seems like the perfect candidate for the job. But her father's legacy has dark ties that go well beneath the skin...

I liked this book a lot. Quinn and Jack had explosive chemistry, and even though this is pretty light for a dark romance, Jack was just dangerous enough to deliver on the "touch her and die" energy that I crave. I wish the secret society had been fleshed out a little more, and that maybe the stakes were a little higher, but it feels like the author left a lot of that intentionally vague so she could explore the mystery behind the school even more in the sequel, which I will absolutely be reading.

I'm gonna have to get my hands on all of this author's other books, because damn.

4 out of 5 stars

Chapter and Curse by Elizabeth Penney

 

CHAPTER AND CURSE was literally everything I look for in a cozy mystery: it's got a likable heroine, a swoon-worthy hero, a little black cat, cozy English village setting, secret bookshop inheritance, and, of course, lots of sinister murders. If this took me a while to get through, it was mostly because I didn't want it to end. 

Wish fulfillment fantasy at its finest, a mother and daughter trio move from Vermont to Cambridge to live with a distant aunt in her bookshop. But she's having thorny issues of debt and inheritance and then somebody frames her for murder! OH NO! Luckily, her aunt has tons of friends, and there's the son of a hot duke to help them look into things. But as it turns out, some of auntie's friends aren't so friendly, and they have secrets that go back DECADES.

Reading this made me want to move back to the UK. Lord, I miss those tiny little villages. 

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars

Bloodmoon Ritual by Kate Rivenhall

 

I thought this sequel to THE ECLIPSE RITUAL was going to take place in the same compound so color me surprised when BLOODMOON actually took place with a different sect of the cult, with a different leader. Temperance, our heroine, is the twin sister of one of this rival sect's enforcer's, Rhyder, and he's been obsessed with her since they were both children. But during a raid, she was rescued from the cult and rehomed with a foster family. Now she lives in the city, where she has a boyfriend and a job. So when the cult comes through looking for hos to bring back for fun and she sees her brother, all hell breaks loose... because boy, does he remember her.

I loved Ronan and Bee so much that I knew any following act would have a difficult time matching my expectations, but I did really enjoy this book. Temperance is a quieter, bookish heroine, but she still has these unexpected moments of bravery that made me appreciate her a lot as a character. Rhyder had to win me-- and the FMC-- over, after he BURNED HER LIBRARY (excuse me), but his devotion to her and willingness to put himself on the block for her every time, made it hard to stay *too* mad at him for long.

Also, we love a virgin hero. It was great to see a dark romance where the hero was a virgin and the heroine had actually had multiple partners, and besties, HE DOES NOT SLUT SHAME HER FOR IT.*

*he just gouges out her ex-boyfriend's eyes :')

I was a little confused about the world-building because this sequel made the series seem almost dystopian(?) whereas when I was reading THE ECLIPSE RITUAL I just figured it took place in our present day, but on an isolated compound, like the ones the FLDS had in Utah. The Bloodmoon Ritual itself also kind of confused me, because I wasn't sure what the point of it was, and considering that it was the title of this book, I felt like it could have been foreshadowed more and maybe played more of a significant element between the development of the couple and the furthering of their relationship.

But overall, this was such a treat to read. I think I might have scandalized the old lady who was reading over my shoulder on the cruise ship when I was just chilling with my incest smut in the cafe. WHOOPS.

Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a copy!

3.5 out of 5 stars

The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft

 

I picked this up from a lending library because I really liked the cover and it had a mixed media mystery format that kind of reminded me of Marisha Pessl's NIGHT FILM, which is one of my favorite books of all time.

THE EXTINCTION OF IRENA REY is a pretty bizarre book. This literary phenom of an author (compared to authors like Borges, Ishiguro, and Murakami) is in the middle of the Polish wilderness, surrounded by a summit of her translators who at first self-identify and identify each other by the languages they work on. Our narrator is Spanish, but there's also Swedish, Serbian, English, etc.

Irena Rey is about to release a new book, which is why they're all there, but instead she's acting super weird. Her husband is nowhere in sight, now she's claiming that there isn't a book, she's feeding them weird mushrooms and shit, and ceremonially dispenses these weird and creepy goodie bags that none of them can figure out.

And then she goes missing.

I liked the premise of this book a lot but it didn't feel like it knew what it wanted to be. So it ended up being one of those really strange and bizarre books where I couldn't tell if it got lost in its own mythos or if I genuinely was too stupid to figure out what was going on. I often feel this way after reading some of Mona Awad's work, so if you're a fan of that author, you may well enjoy this. I almost DNFed but I wanted to pull through just in case the ending was worth the pay-off (it was not, imo).

2.5 out of 5 stars

Given to the Ghoul by Desirée M. Niccoli

 

GIVEN TO THE GHOUL was a free download during the Monster SYKD event and I was excited for this one because even though I don't read a ton of monster romance, I was familiar with this author's work and knew I really enjoyed her writing style.

GIVEN TO THE GHOUL is a very short novella about a woman living in a desert town that kind of has a sort of death cult lottery system: to appease the ghouls that live in the desert, they occasionally sacrifice one of their own. This year, because she rejected his advances, the sheriff has decided to rig the system and make sure that Mina's name is the one that is called. Not before he offers her a Judge Claude Frollo "choose me or the fire" moment first, though.

Mina is dumped in the dessert with a single bottle of sunscreen and a canteen of water. The days are hot and the nights are freezing, and when she meets the ghoul she's exhausted-- but he isn't what she's expecting: he brings her a sandwich and promises he isn't going to eat her. Well... not in that way, anyway. Hehehe.

I really liked this story, for what it was. Like other reviewers, I wish it was longer. I think she could have gotten a whole book out of this premise and raised it to R. Lee Smith survivalist horror heights. Not that I'm telling the author how to write-- I just wanted more, because their society was so twisted, and it was such a "maybe humans are the real monsters" moment that I was curious about how they functioned. The pacing is super fast burn but I thought the relationship between Garyth and Mina was cute. Get you a man who gets you the skulls of your book-burning enemies for your garden.

Read this book and then get yourself FOLLOW ME TO THE YEW TREE as a little treat afterwards.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars