The Naturals are back in Vegas! I absolutely devoured the third book in this series, we had both Sloanes backstory and an epic complex twisted mystery which I adored. One of my favourite things was how we can see Cassie beginning to understand the people around her more, both Sloane and Lia and her lies.
Against the backdrop of Vegas and luxury, the serial killer roaming the casinos is especially dangerous and elusive, and when all the suspects are expert bluffers then the FBI are stuck at every turn.
One of my favourite things is Sloane and the way we get to see more into her loneliness created by her Natural power and her abusive neglectful family. Her open vunerabilty and non-explicit but very very obvious autism have solidified her as one of my favourite characters which is a tough spot to claim in a super complex cast that I absolutely adore.
Let’s dive into the star ratings!
World – 4/5 – I love it as always but I wish we had got more of Vegas, a lot of it was inside their apartment.
Romance – 5/5 – oh so so good!
Character – 5/5 – yes yes yes!
Plot – 5/5 – I am speechless. Speechless. Best plot twists yet!
Violence Rating: Level 5
Romance Rating: Soft
Content Warnings: abuse, child abuse, neglect, serial killerism, murder, gambling.
I am used to having sequal disappointment, but this one was honestly a worthy continuation to the series and added something to the original plot and world.
In this one a serial killer is now copying Daniel Reddings murder MO, but seemingly erratically – we have a collage class that teaches about Daniel Redding’s genius in his serial killing, various potential suspects and all of the internal drama as the Naturals battle against their own pasts.
I read this one in one day and honestly I adored it. A full five stars because it was so good.
World – 5/5 – gritty and great.
Romance – 4/5 – continuation of the love triangle and I’m not going to say who she ends up with but I enjoyed it a lot.
Characters – 5/5 – I love the way that Jennifer lets us in on small bits of information about the characters so slowly, it’s realistic and also makes every book have so much more mystery and reveals to them than just the main case.
Plot – 5/5 – I was not expecting that reveal at all!
Violence Rating: Level 5, no SA, just psychological murders.
To begin with why is this not more famous than the inheritance games? This book is flawless, and honestly? It deserves the title of the best of series ten times over because what do you mean I was absorbed and obsessed from page one?
Okay so the premise surrounds the FBI and serial killers – the FBI are secretly using children with almost supernatural abilities to track down serial killers and our main character has just been recruited.
To begin with, the way that Jennifer writes the serial killers perspective is just so so stunning and dark, and I absolutely adore that it really shows how psychological it is to have to figure out a serial killers motive. There is this undercurrent throughout that the only way they can figure out the serial killers is because they are one push away from becoming them themselves which is just perfection and I adore a good moral edge.
This is much darker than the Inheritance Games and her debutante series because it focuses on the worse of murders and also abusive households. All of the children in the program come from extremely abusive homes because that is the reason they have developed these abilities – to read emotions, to understand patterns and numbers, to tell when someone is lying perfectly even on paper, to be able to lie over and over and get away with it.
World – 5/5 – dark, gritty, perfection.
Romance – Soft – 5/5 – we have a love triangle emerging but unusually I actually get both the men’s appeal so I’m loving that!
Plot – 5/5 – I was shook by the end! It was so good and so out of no where that honestly you just need to read it!
Characters – 10000/5 – yes. Just yes they are so complex and difficult and I want a spin off from all of their POVS!
Romance Rating: Soft – kisses, low description, no making out.
This was a fun enemies to lovers rom com that I breezed through quickly. It’s light and fun and hits lots of the iconic rom-com moments from movies that Liz loves so much. For me personally I found it a little too surface level, unlike Betting on You the characters didn’t have the same chemistry and tension. This feels younger than Betting on You, (which I loved) which I think is what threw me off. This feels very much younger YA compared to Betting on You and I think that if I had read this one earlier I may have enjoyed it more.
There were just too many things that annoyed me with this book. I felt like Liz changed herself massively for Wes, and in pursuit of the other guy, which I always hate. This was published in the 2020s, we should be over the Girl Changes Herself trope, yet that was a huge part of this book and yet nobody questioned it? Wes was just happy to change her from the ‘odd’ outfits she wore before and enjoyed shopping with her? I think this was supposed to be a cute moment but no. Just no.
I also hated that the childhood friends-to-lovers i was promised was more bullies to lovers. Wes and Liz’s prank war could have been fun if it was in good humour, but Liz wasn’t enjoying it and he was escalating the pranks to a ridiculous degree like duct taping up her car so she couldn’t get to school. It just did not hit well at all, and I am not going to read the sequel because what was this?
If you want to read Lynn Painter I would recommend Betting on You more because it just hit so much harder for me and the romance was sizzling off the pages even when nothing romantic was happening!
Romance – Sweet – 1/5 – its a no from me.
World – 3/5 – its our world but very high school rom-com energy.
Characters – 4/5
Plot – 3/5 – it does what every rom-com plot should, and I cant complain of anything but there just wasn’t anything that really reached out to me and stood out from the other rom-coms I’ve read.
Content Warnings: mothers death, several years prior.
Romance Rating: Sweet – kisses, some making out but nothing close to any doors closed or otherwise.
Why is age gap EVERYWHERE? I cannot open a fantasy book – even if it is a high fantasy, and the romance is the tiniest of subplots that takes up less than 1% of the book! – and not end up with an age gap. Some books have an equality between their main characters in their romance but it seems so common even in popular books especially if they are non human.
NB: Some spoilers (light or as many as you could find on a blurb) will be present in this post for Poison Study, Order of Blood and Ruin, Lightlark, Throne of Glass.
I am going to break down human age gaps first then move on to paranormal and fantasy races etc.
One of my most recent reads, Poison Study by Maria V Snyder had an age gap. A huge one, 19 and 33. I have read it a few times before when I was younger but it always is something I wince at. It just seems so odd, and exaggerates the power dynamics between them – I have written another post on Equality and Power which talks about power dymanics outside of Age Gap – when honestly it isn’t fully nessacary. Yes, Valek was supposed to help the Commander to power and that had to be early enough that Yelena was in the country and the orphanage, but I really wish something had been done to age up Yelena or nudge Valek down out of his thirties because that is a gigantic age gap.
I am not blaming this book specifically, another book I absolutely adored and read over and over (title retracted because of spoilers) has an age gap which gets worse during the series. In the beginning it is sixteen and twenty, which was pushing it a bit, but I was willling to let that go. Then he gets trapped in a time warp in space and ages to twenty five, and she is still only eighteen. We have gone from four years (with her a minor and him an adult) to seven years with her barely an adult.
This trend of FMCS always being exactly eighteen is weird too, its like they decide to make them the age that they can say they are adults even if they essentially are not especially in comparison to the looonng lives of their love interests.
I really loved a series by KM Shea which had an age gap that somehow circumnavigated all of the power dynamics that usually come with it in a really wholesome lovely way. In that Jade is twenty six, she has an established career, she has an apartment, she has a very supportive family whom she could return to if she wanted. She is not the lonely vulnerable eighteen year old that so many vampire novels are populated with and so when Connor the vampire (who’s age is old but never quite stated and it’s a spoiler so I wont say) comes along they have a relationship first as friends and then lovers that doesn’t fall into the toxic almost fatherly but sexual relationship which I find so odd in many fantasy books.
We’re on non-human relationships now so lets consider some more!
Lightlark (I’ve only read the first one!) has two love interests both of whom are old. Much older than our eighteen year old heroine Ida (again eighteen! And I honestly am not even annoyed at the author at this point, it is so so common its an industry problem and societal more than a personal thing as the trope is so easy to fall into.) They are fae like elementals and live for a long time and it works with the lore and the worldbuilding. But I refuse to believe that it isn’t possible to a) age up Ida a little bit. B) pop a few more rulers in the timeline so that Oro and Grim are younger or c) do both! I would love a heroine who is several centuries old (if you have any recs drop them in the comments!) but it is so so rare.
A series I love and haven’t finished, the Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas (I’m trying to pick out popular examples but its so frequent I could do more) features a thousands of years age gap between Caeleana and Rowan. Lets not start on the power dymanics of her relying on him to control her magic or that he treats her so badly at the start, but the age gap itself is huge. I believe she is nineteen at this point, possibly even eighteen or twenty but either way she is a long long way from several thousand.
The Trope of the older mysterious man is so so common that I cant even hate the books that they are in (I adore some of these with my whole obsessive bookish heart) but I really think that it needs to stop. The occasional old fae is fine, but it is just so common and none of them acknowledge the difficulties of this like that they are from different generations and often cultures, with different expectations.
I digress to go read but what are your thoughts on this incredibly popular trope that is rampant in so many fantasy books?
I have so many thoughts about this one because it is such a difficult read to review. This is the third time I have read this book and it manages to surprise and horrify me even though I know what is going to happen.
I think I’m going to start with the romance, because this is the most difficult part to pin down, especially with no spoilers. We do have romance close to the end (I rated it Sweet) but I really struggled with the age gap, 19 and 33, and I think that might be why I cannot give it a full five stars. Fantasy so often has these HUGE age gaps and sometimes when it is within human lifespan parameters it is trickier for me to except than when the MMC is like five hundred plus years. If we ignore the age gap, and the power dynamics, I do really enjoy how the enemies-to-lovers trope is drawn out so they are properly enemies first.
The world is military fantasy based. The Commander has taken over from the old king, divided up the kingdom underneath Generals and everyone is assigned to a specific duty. I would have loved some more exploration of that, but the touches we did get showed the effects upon the people of the palace. It is really clear how Yelena sees the world especially after her very traumatic experiences, and the subsequent betrayals mean that we see through her a world that is grimly political and mostly emotional less.
Characters – 4/5 – I enjoy them a lot!
Romance – 3/5 – Sweet – I have already said something so I will let it be.
World – 4/5 – solid fantasy world
Plot – 4/5.- there are no twist around moments that make you gasp out loud because it is a slow reveal. Part of the beauty of the plot is that the protagonist almost knows what is going to happen and what she is going to find but just cant admit it to herself yet.
Romance Rating: Sweet
Violence Rating: Level 6
Content Warnings: SEVERE – rape, (past, vividly remembered and practically on page), physical abuse, child abuse, torture, sexual assault (from a different man, this is on page, she is clothed but causes PTSD from the last time)
This poetry anthology is one that I have multiple times read cover to cover like a novel, and I cannot stop absorbing every single poem she writes. This anthology delves deep into the Greek myths but also imagines the deities living in our times – Eros lost without Psyche as her immortality wanes, Aphrodite finally able to reach out to other women, Hera able to divorce Zeus, Zeus being held in court for his crimes. Every time I read one of these I think WOW then I read it again and I am speechless. Each poem (sometimes mixed with some prose) breathes life into the myths and reimagines the motivations and minds of the great goddesses of Greek Myth.
She is releasing Hekate soon and I absolutely cannot wait because I love her work so much!
Honestly this was great! I wasn’t expecting this at all, and I may say that before but this one was a read I don’t think I will ever forget.
Set in a medieval (or perhaps colonial times? It’s tricky to pin down exactly!) French village, the Beast is a unknown power that roams the hills and kills shepherdesses, growing a reputation as something supernatural. Our two main characters discover the victim of one of the beasts hunts and a survivor of a little girl hiding in the trees and from there they decide to use the beasts murders as a cover to get the girls of the village away from the abusive men. However as the king sends soldiers to hunt down the beast, the beast itself roams closer and everyone teeters on the verge of famine, it has become far more complicated than they could have ever imagined. But it is their only chance of getting out.
I genuinely am not sure how this one has not become a booktok obsession because it is dark and twisty and teeters on the edge of the supernatural – honestly this is going to be a best read of 2025 I know it!
Plot – 5/5 – perfection.
Characters – 10000/5 – so so so good, I honestly cannot describe how great these characters are. From the insolent soldiers to the scared girls all seeking a way out to the Beast itself roaming the woods hunting its prey they are just all so complex and intriguing.
Romance – NA – there is no romance, a hint of it perhaps between the main two girls but it might just be a very close friendship. Especially with how dark it is and how they are constantly in high stress tension ruled scenarios I cant tell.
World – 1000/5 – dark and historically inspired??? Sign me up, I loved it!
Romance Rating: NA
Violence Rating: Level 5
Content Warnings: Domestic violence (a lot, but not described explicitly on page), sexual violence (hinted at, and discussed in the past, one attempt by a priest is stopped), child death.
June the 24th is international fairy day and no I am not making that up that is something that actually does exist! In honour of that I am going to be giving my ultimate Fae read- and if you have any faerie ones that are no-spice/low spice then I would LOVE to have them!
A Court of Midnight and Deception by KM Shea
The second trilogy of the Magiford Paranormal Books (so you can read the first and get your vampire hit and then read this one! Spoilers are present for the previous trilogy, but only surrounding the main couple of the last series which is probably predictably going to happen so you can take a view on that!).
This has Fae. Tea drinking, etiquette obsessed, monarch-less but snobby about the one they are given, fae. With quirks and charming cultural details, it is set in an America that knows that paranormal exist but they have to present to be charming and less threatening than their faerie myths declare. They are none the less the fae of the myths, bound by tradition and powerplays within them but when the half-human Leila becomes their queen, the Night Court is at its most vulnerable.
If you like tropes here are some!
Marriage of convenience
Reluctant Monarch x Grumpy Assassin
Horsies but dangerous ones
Fae Power Games
No-nonsense heroine.
Content Details
These are what is generally called ‘clean’ fiction, no swearing and no sex (or allusions to it!). I would rate this Soft on my Romance Ratings, and Level 2 or 3 on the Violence Ratings. Genuinely no content warnings either! For a general age rating I would probably say 13 and up would enjoy it the most – it’s a Paranormal Romance, and I don’t think many people in middlegrade are looking for that, but I would have enjoyed it then and I do now so honestly this is sutiable for 12+!
If you want to know what kind of world you are going to be addicted too… then here is a timeline of the rest of the Magiford Books!
There is a reason that Judy Blume’s books have become modern YA classics and honestly this one feels timeless and yet a perfect snapshot of less than a year and a relationship that would change forever and yet change nothing.
I originally picked this up because it was a banned book in American schools, and I got curious because I had loved Blume’s Tiger Eyes the previous month. I can see why it is banned because it explores sex more explicitly – but not gratificationally to the reader – than YA books especially ten or so years ago did. I enjoyed this one because of how directly it discusses the difficulties of teenage life, and Blume’s straightforward writing style guides us through a summer with Katherine that somehow changes everything and nothing.
The plot was relief to read after the trope filled books on my shelf and this is definitely a book that I would recommend for readers who are looking for a lasting impact. When you finish it you don’t think – wow, this was perfection – but you slowly start to realise that the simplistic prose and the characters stay with you in a way that lots of four stars don’t.
World – 4/5 – its our world. Albeit a few years ago so I can’t really say much about it.
Characters – 5/5 – human. So so human. They all are complex or some of them even aren’t because we are seeing them through Katherine’s eyes whom doesn’t really understand some of the people’s emotions.
Plot – 4/5 – it is achingly straightforward and realistic while still being interesting which is very very rare.
Romance – 4/5 – Swoony C – can’t say much for the spoilers but realistic and also perhaps a little toxic. This is not the idealised romance that many YA feature where they always know what to say and respect each others emotions completely without ever discussing triggers/experiences and it was enjoyable for that.
Romance Rating: Swoony C
Violence Level: Level 1 – but with content warnings, this is not a romance level 1!
Content Warnings: attempted suicide by a side character, negative body image (between Katherine’s parents and focused on her mother. Small sentences but heartbreaking.)
Damsel in Delight 