June’s Recommendations

June the 24^th 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!

Also a link to KM Shea’s website where you can learn more!

June 10, 2025 0

The Lies of Vampires and Slayers by KM Shea

13+

Oh I love this trilogy so much! KM Shea has written so many amazing couples but honestly this might be my favourite out of all 5 star Magiford trilogies!

The main character Jade has left her slayer family to work on the first of the magiford paranormal police teams and I loved her from page one! With social anxiety and insane weaponry skills that put her far above the other paras on her team she has no idea how to interact with other paranormals. She came to the city to try to show that slayers can be more to modern society than assassins and feared paranormals – but how can she do that when her own team are afraid of her?

And then we have Connor – possibly the swooniest mmc I have ever read and honestly my favourite vampire of all time. I cannot say more for spoilers because I have read this trilogy so many times all the details have run into each other but let me say – read it!

We also get so many cameos from the other Magiford trilogies – especially Killians and Hazel so that was fun to read!

World – 5/5 – love so much! We have this paranormal city in northern America that has become the hotspot of politics and we have so many different characters and different supernaturals and other little bits and pieces!

Characters – 10000000/5 – I love them! all of considines siblings, the whole team, Jade and Connor especially and everyone else! They all live in my head constantly and everything about them is so real I feel like I could take a plane to America and Jade would be patrolling the streets!

Plot – 1000000000/5 – everytime I pick up this book I read it in less than one day, I just inhale it and then its gone (until I pick it up again a few months later and yes I know that the Magiford world has become an obsession but I cant help it!).

Romance – 10000/5 – Soft Romance – ahhhhhh! I love them so much!! We have enemies to lovers AND friends to lovers AND alternate egos AND nicknames AND everything I love *swoon*.

Content Warnings: some violence, minor grief.

March 19, 2025 0

Waiting on Wednesday: Shades and Shadows

Thanks to Net Galley and Amazon KDP for this e-ARC read and as always all opinions are my own.
Pub Date **20 Feb 2025**
Publisher: Own Voices
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy
Age Category: 13+

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that originated at Breaking the Spine but has now linked up with Waiting for Wednesday at Wishful Endings. It is always a fun chance to display books that are going to be joining our bookshelves very soon in 2025!

13+

I really enjoyed the world on this one! It felt like a combination of paranormal/urban fantasy and the more biblical demons/angels urban fantasy. It launches us into a complex world that we only see parts of through the perspective of the mc, who isn’t particularly focused on the world. Her focus is rescuing her dad which means that the world and all the details have been woven in on a ‘ari needs to know’ basis which keeps the pace rapid throughout the different worlds.

However despite the worldbuilding details I struggled to interacted fully with the main character. While several of the supporting characters brought their own interesting stories to brush against Ari’s, I felt like Ari reflected the world around her instead of being her own distinct identity.

Despite this it is a rapidly paced paranormal read that has an excellent world and a series I will continue!

World – 4/5 – the world was solidly developed and I would enjoy to see it taken further (maybe Ari visiting hell??) in the next book.

Characters – 3.5/5 – I enjoyed some characters like Ceph and Lena but struggled to connect fully with the main character like I said above (this might just be me not quite fitting with the book tho so give it a try!) One of the prominent races shown in the book are angels, but they aren’t the biblical angels, they seem to follow a different harsher kind of rules and yet some race expectations like being able to fall from heaven do exist. The Darklands have a biblical feel, but religion is never mentioned in it.

Romance – 3.5/5 – Soft Romance – the love interest seems stereotypical in some ways in the beginning, but then he does separates from the mass of paranormal love interests with his own personal quirks through still fulfilling paranormal genre expectations.

Plot – 3.5/5 – the plot seemed relatively simple at the beginning, and it maintained that ease of understanding and reading throughout despite a few plot twists.

Content Warnings: some fantasy violence. I really struggled putting an age recommendation on this book – it almost felt like slightly middle grade and YA? I would say it rests on the border in some areas and then more YA in others but 13+ seemed a good age rating to settle on.

February 5, 2025 0