Tag: strong female lead

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.

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Top Ten Tuesday – Books I have Never Reviewed

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the Broke and Bookish and now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl where bloggers are given a prompt that is usually a list of ten bookish things.

This weeks prompt was –

Books I Never Reviewed (Share the titles of books you never reviewed on your blog/tiktok/insta/etc. and if you liked them or not!)

Okay so this was actually a really easy prompt to start (and a really hard one to finish I could keep going forever) because I have just started and there are sooooo many books that I haven’t reviewed yet. I am going to tweak the prompt a little to SERIES that I haven’t yet reviewed or finished reviewing.

  • Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce – I love Tamora Pierce’s world so much and I am much due a reread of her series!
  • The Twelfth Keeper series by Belle Malory – the final book is out! It came out late January and my fyp didn’t think to tell me this until I randomly looked it up (i have been waiting for this book for at least three years) and its out! So reviews are coming for the whole series and the new book Until the Sun Rises!
  • All of KM Shea’s Magiford series and the individual trilogies – this is sweet clean paranormal fantasy with a new couple every trilogy (I have my favourites but honestly they are all five star couples).
  • Three Dark Thrones Series by Kendare Blake –  (and the prequal! Which is on my TBR as well as a complete reread of this epically dark fantasy).
  • Kirenmala and the Kingdom Beyond by Sayantani DasGupta – Indian mythology, vibrant worlds and a really cute demon prince this should have been reviewed by me before but I am 100% digging it out later for a reread.
  • Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger – I have only reviewed the first! I have read the rest before but now I am going to go back and revisit them (I can barely remember all the complexities of the plot!) and this time review them too!
  • Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard – only reviewed the first one which is a travesty because this series is honestly in my top reads of all time and I am always thinking about it so I should have!
  • Eragon by Christopher Paolini – I haven’t reviewed any of these books but I really am going to because he was the author that got me into fantasy and dragons and without this series I would not have so many cluttered shelves of epic fantasy! I also got the illustrated edition that I need to show of so a review for this is definitely coming.
  • Elven Alliance by Tara Grayce – currently on my third read of the entire series and there is a new book coming out so I need to catch up on all my reviews for then!
  • Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas – again only reviewed the first book but I am going to buy the series in paperback for my third reread (I originally read them on Borrowbox) and then reviews upon reviews and book lists are coming.
  • Galdoni by Cheree Alsop – this whole trilogy is just gorgeous (and she has written another sci-fi book that I also loved!). We have winged gladiators, a sweet romance and a beautiful exploration of the best and worst of humanity, even if the protagonists are regularly told they are less than human. Reviews are coming!

This is more than 10 now so I am going to stop now but this post really reminded me of all the reviews and books I want to share with all of you so its now a 2025 goal to review all of the books on this list!

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Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the Broke and Bookish and now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl where bloggers are given a prompt that is usually a list of ten bookish things.

This weeks prompt was –

Love Freebie…. Top Ten Romance Tropes!

Rivals to Lovers – Celaena Sardothian and Sam Cortland are honestly one of the most beautiful couples I have ever read – just EVERYTHING about their relationship is swoonworthy. So Rivals-to-Lovers has to go to their romance in Assassins Blade.

Enemies to Lovers – Powerless, Kai Azer, Paedyn Gray. Everything about their relationship redeemed Enemies to Lovers for me, they are just such a swoony couple and I was supporting them from page one (that meeting scene….how could I not?)

Friends to Lovers – Changeling by Molly Harper (she is also best friends with his sister so we get the friends older brother trope in there too!)

He falls first and harder – Graceling, Kristen Cashore (tho Kat falls pretty hard for Po too!).

Flirty sparring – I think this again has to go to Powerless (I had to try really hard not to add sharing a bed non romantically and comforting them from nightmares because all of these are in the perfection that is Powerless).

Arranged Marriage – Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson – this was tricky, I love arranged marriage theoretically but it is rarely done well (if you have any recs I’d love them.) Arranged Marriage is a huge trope in it but not romantically.

Royalty/Aristocrat – I think that Jessica Day George’s couple from Dragonskin Slippers (review coming!) Luka and Creel might just have to take this one, the book is slightly younger than many of my other recs (still a 12+ because of violence etc) but it is 100% worth a read and it does hold up even as an older reader.

Slow Burn Romance – This was tricky because slow burn can mean over the book, the series or whatever but I think it goes to Connor and Jade from KM Shea’s Magiford subseries! It is the only book I haven’t written a full review on yet but I promise its coming!

Academia Romance –  Deadly Education, slow burn, subplot romance, dark but stunningly intricate and deadly.

Do you have any recs with these or other tropes??

Happy Reading!

Lottie

7

Damsel, Evelyn Skye

14+B

This is just so so so good.

I read it in one sitting! It has dragons, princesses, mazes and above all a really intelligent main character who was such a joy to read. Elodie’s love for her people guided so much of her decisions and the rest were made up out of love for her sister Floria. Throughout all of this there was the feeling of nostalgia but also of something new. Of something I hadn’t ever really seen done before. Evelyn Skye creates a vast world and timeline, introducing us to specific pinpoints that show who came before and how their path has molded Elodie’s. I love the message throughout that Elodie, intelligent strong and resourceful as she is couldn’t have survived without the sacrificed princesses that came before her and all of their research and experiences was building up and then culminating in her.

The theme of doing the honestly abhorrent thing for ‘the greater good’ was an idea that was explored through different characters, and its rare that I honestly am not sure who is the villain. I hate some of them yes, love others but in the end the true villain is the circumstances that have lead them here. The history that has ended up with a whole kingdom believing it is the right thing for three princesses to be sacrificed to a dragon every year for eight hundred years (don’t worry I’m not giving spoilers, anything I mention I make sure is the first few chapters or the synopsis).

Its just so beautiful, the exploration of this golden kingdom which is built on the blood and pain of young naive girls because no one questions it. Arranged marriages are common among royalty, you pick the brides from lower noble families from starving duchies and no one ever notices.

This book is one I will remember forever and honestly could write forever on but I’ll go a head to the star ratings (and gush some more in them!).

World – 5/5 stars, its explored beautifully we really get the impressions of all the different locations and landscapes from the dusty dessert that is Elodies home to the glittering palace to the darkness of the lair.

Plot – 1000000/5, its not just the story of Elodie its the story of all the princesses before her and it’s the story of a stepmother who knew something was wrong and was ignored and a royal family who had been raised in such a mess they didn’t know what was right anymore.

Romance – NA

Characters – 1000000/5 – just so good. We have so many different characters, some of which get a pretty limited amount of page space but we never feel that they aren’t real. They are always so realistic and we can always feel their dilemmas and pain even if they are not one of the multiple POVs throughout the book.

Things to be aware of: Threat, death (mentioned and avoided but only moderate on the page), corpses and flashbacks of death.

This needs to go on everyone’s TBR!

Happy Reading

Lottie

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Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce

13+

In the final installment of this epic quartet Tortall is at war and Keladry has been sidelined.

The war has been brewing for most of the series and with her battle experience with the Kings Own, Keladry expected to be assigned to the front lines. Instead, her dour once training master assigns her to command a refugee camp. Keladry is furious at first, she is being picked to be a nursemaid in chainmail to a camp instead of fighting like she should. However because Kel is one of the most balanced heroines i have ever read she goes at her post with diligence and loyalty despite lack of funds.

I love the realism of the war, we get the interactions between Kel and Sir Wyldon the overall commander of that area and we really understand just how difficult it is to make the decisions. Wyldon knows that people in Kels camp die because he cannot send more than two squads of soldiers but he also has to make decisions that will make sure that Tortall isnt invaded completely. This realism of war, refugee camps and strained resources made more difficult by selfish nobles is something that Pierce has created extraordinarily and I just love it.

Keladry has also been given an assignment by the Chamber to find the ‘rat man’ who enchants the killing machines and her assignment is keeping her from doing this so that adds an extra level of worry and also a dilemma – should she abandon her camp for the Chamber and Tortall?

We also have the refugees themselves – finally a none noble perspective who is not a servant! and all the dogs and cats and birds (with a supernatural intelligence because they have been around Daine) with their own loyalties. The pets are just the sweetest and Pierce writes the best animal sidekicks.

World – 1000000000/5 – i just love it, in this final part of the series we get to see Sranca and Tortall in all their amazingly detailed worlds.

Romance – NA

Characters – 5/5 – I love Kel, she is just everything that a classic heroine should be and the rest of the cast support the story and have their own stories so well its seamless.

Plot – 100000000/5 – so good, it flows, it has all the world-building details i need but there is never a moment of boredom.

Things to be aware of: its a war, there is death and fantasy violence.

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Graceling, Kristen Cashore

14+

Okay so first I LOVE the covers. ‘dont judge a book by its cover’ may be apt but i certainly do judge the cover if it doesnt fit the book. Both the first and second versions of the covers really fit the essence of this story and I love how they are both on opposite style sides. I first read it with the cover with her standing against a gray background which really captures the characters internal separation from the people around her but the latest cover is more of a traditional fantasy vibe with just a few simple elements tied together that really scream the book.

I have just reread this book for the third time and to my delight the plot still holds up. I dont know quite how to describe the plot. The book is split up into three different sections, The Lady Killer, The Twisted King and The Shifting World and they all have their own plots and storylines within the overarching story which keeps it from dragging and becoming boring.

Katsa is a truely strong heroine and I enjoyed how Cashore showed us that she still has her limits, (especially emotionally and psychologically) but despite that she does choose to do the right thing. I almost feel like there could have been a book before this about how Katsa slowly realised just how much the king was using her but this story launches us right in at the perfect point as the seven kingdoms change forever. I found it a quick paced read, especially in the later two sections which improved massively. In the beginning I felt it lagged a little but gave us some interesting world-building details.

The world premise is a fantasy/historical feel with the fantasy Graces. People (seemingly at random but i am hoping we learn more in the next book!) are Graced with supernatural abilities, some relitavely innocent like being able to hold your breath for a very long time and some very dangerous like strength, perfect aim, heightened senses and in Katsa’s case a Killing Grace. Gracelings are easily picked out because they have different coloured eyes, like Katsa’s blue and green, and Po’s silver and gold. I also enjoyed seeing how Katsa’s relationship with her power changed as she used it further and further out of her uncle’s control and it struck a very delicate balance; having an assassin/kings executioner as the main character means the reader expects them to already have a lot of training and have a firm grasp on their power but Cashore also balanced that with Katsa’s power being stretched in other ways.

World – 4.5/5 – Love the concept of the Gracelings, we get a good look at different kingdoms and different types of people in it.

Characters – 4/5 – I do love Katsa’s strength and resilience, and Po is a very sweet cinnamon roll of a love interest even through he can hold his own. Bitterblue is a character we have only just started to explore (and one of the books on my TBR is titled Bitterblue so I can guess we’ll be seeing more of her!) but the rest of the supporting characters felt a little flat. I enthusiastically loathed King Leck but I did wish we learnt a bit more about his backstory as the main antagonist.

Romance – 4/5 – Swoony Romance A – I enjoyed it again! Their romance is somehow deeply entangled in the story and yet barely a subplot. They do sleep together on page, but it is barely anything and I honestly think it could have been removed or you could skip it (its only about half a paragraph) and it isnt graphic at all. It does push up the rating a little but I would say you could read it a little earlier if you dont mind/skip that.

Plot – I have gushed about it up there so I’ll just say 4.5/5 stars!

Things to be aware of: There is a bit of violence – it is quite a high tension novel and several people do die. There are a few sexual innuendos and threats as well as mentions of SA. Power being exploited and a very potent form of propaganda/metal control is explored (i am trying really hard not to give a spoiler here) but all of that only makes it up to about a 3/5 of violence. Two very vanilla sexual scenes that border on fade to black (click on the orange link to see what I mean by Sexy Romance).

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As Good as Dead, Holly Jackson

14+B

The last instalment of this thriller left me wide eyed. I love it! It is exactly what I have wished authors would do but they always seem to steer clear of but Jackson goes for it 100% and this is the best ending I could have imagined – and one I didn’t!

I am trying really hard not to give spoilers (I think I am going to do a series roundup with this one where I will chat about spoilers but spoilers have no place in a book review). Pip is only a few weeks away from Kings Collage Cambridge and getting away from it all the mess and complexity in Little Kilton.

But Pip has been replaying the events of the last two books, especially the bloody end of Child Brunswick in the last book over and over. She hears gunshots in every sound, even just a door opening and closing and her own heartbeat. It is heartbreaking to see the fierce Pip of the first book so unsure about her own morality and the morality of everyone around her. She has seen the lines be drawn and redrawn and she has lost all faith in the justice system.

It has failed her multiple times with wrongful accusations and letting the rapist Max Hastings which she gave to them on a silver platter with multiple witnesses get away free. She has started identifying with the criminals she has been told are evil but instead she just sees it as gray. She cannot sleep and has resulted to drugs bought from Luke, her local drug-dealer and a part of the equation that started all this mess six years ago. I love the realism of this, it really shows the more complex lines in some of these cases – who are victims and who are victims who have been portrayed as villains.

She has decided one last case – a Jane Doe murder from Cambridge when she goes to uni. A black and white case and justice at the end of it to rewrite the rules of the world. Of course, this isn’t going to happen.

She starts getting weird notes, and the stalker quickly escalates from online threats to chalk figures without heads on her drive to beheaded pigeons.

This was honestly the most chilling read yet, for the first time Pip is going to die if she doesn’t work quick enough and for the first time we understand just how deep this whole entangled mess goes with Andie and Charlie and the rest of Little Kilton. I – I was honestly worried about Pip’s sanity at the beginning but she soon stabilised out into the intelligent if slightly obsessive Pip we love.

Plot – 1000000/5 – just so good, there are so many ties even back to the first chapters of the first book and Holly Jackson is a genius. Just so good.

Characters – 10000/5 – oh they are perfect! And I loved seeing a different side of Andie she is such an interesting complex character.

World  – 5/5 stars – so good, I love how Holly Jackson doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of the world.

Romance – 10000/5 stars – Soft Romance – oh my god I love Ravi. I just love him. He is perfect in every way and we truly get a test of how far he is willing to go for Pip. He is the first book boyfriend I’ve read that completely believes the heroine even when evidence points against it. And I love it.

Things to be aware of: 14+B – I almost made this a 15, it was truly terrifying and dark in places so if you don’t like threat – and I’d say I’m pretty good with mature dark content – then give it a few more months! Warnings: murder (slightly more graphic here), kidnapping, serial killerism, police injustice, wrongful accusations, misogyny rape (mentions to the past books) and violence 5/5 and high threat, animal death

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Good Girl, Bad Blood, Holly Jackson

13+B

This was the sequel to a good girls guide to murder and Pip has promised not to investigate again into any crimes after she ended up at the hospital for the double homicide case. She has gained internet fame documenting her search for justice and the events of the last book on her podcast titled – what else? – a good girls guide to murder and is in her last year of high school – investigation is an obsession Pip is refusing to go down again.

Of course, this promise is immediately shattered when her friends older brother Jamie goes missing. The police dismiss the case, he is a twenty-four year old who dropped out of uni and has run away twice before with no contact. Connor (her friend) begs Pip to investigate and after trying to get the police involved she reluctantly agrees.

Unlike last time her investigation is more public with episodes of her podcast regularly airing to share the new developments (I wondered personally about if the villains were getting a little too much forewarning because of the podcast but they didn’t which I was relieved about). Pip is asking people for any footage/sightings of Jamie, but the case goes far wider than that.

I loved that the previous book contained some of the major clues for this one and it really emphasised how despite the small town appearance, so much more goes on under the surface people don’t want to acknowledge. Some people are furious with Pip for exposing crimes they would have preferred not to know about and as the trials for the guilty from the last book go on the themes of injustice vs justice with an added element of vigilantism is really interesting to read. It doesn’t have quite the complexity of the previous book, I feel like Pip was really wading through five years of secrets there that she didn’t have in this book but it was completely unputdownable.

Plot – 5/5 – it was great, it kept me guessing and I am hooked for the next book despite it resolving nicely.

Characters – 4.5/5 – they were great! Half a point deduced because the new characters of this one didn’t have quite the depth and darkness of the last book which balanced so well against Pip’s organised investigation. Love love love Ravi and his feelings about Jamie were so well expressed – he has been the family that lost their son and he is trying to desperately stop that from happening to Jamie’s family.

World – 5/5 – I love it, it is so realistic the underbelly of the little town that no one looks at but everyone kinda knows is there.

Romance – 5/5 – Soft Romance – like the last book it is a subplot but I still love it so much!

Things to be aware of: child death (referee too) serial killers, gun violence, drugs, mentions of past SA (none graphic, nothing on the page), violence in general, dangers of catfishing, also several f-bombs that all seemed to be in the same chapter but in case you avoid that I just thought I’d mention it!

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A Good Girls Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson

13+B

Okay so I have heard so much about this series, people are talking about it all over booktube and several of my friends have loved it. And it held up.

I used to read a LOT of mystery – I mean a lot, I still have an entire three deep shelf of enid blytons mysteries – and this is a nice step up and it does hold up! The investigation style with Pip conducting various recorded interviews, getting access to police logs and cross examining different peoples accounts unfurled an insane story about Andie Bell and Sal Singh two teenagers who died five years ago.

It is a cold case Pip takes on as a summer project because the inaccuracies have always nagged at her. Sal is universally believed to have done it in her town and yet Pip’s personal experience of Sal isn’t one of a boy who could kill his girlfriend in cold blood. It is complex, the logs, Pip’s own life apart from her investigation which starts to overlap more and more and then the realisation that several people she knows had a very intimate part in the lead up to Andie Bell’s murder. I am trying not to give too many spoilers and that is so hard in mystery so I’ll stop there!

Plot – 1000000/10. I did predict a few things but the lies and the coverups had my doubting myself several times before I realised I was right!

Characters – 5/5 stars. They are nuanced and none of the main cast feel like a recycled archetype while they still show all the different things that have lead to a seemingly simple cold case. It is horrifying how the police didn’t even bother interviewing several people surrounding her because they just instantly assumed it was Sal, her Indian boyfriend who committed suicide. i am diverging from characters here so I will just say that I appreciated Pip calling the reporter out on his racism and prejudice he was insufferable and it is people like him that meant Sal would never have got justice for something he got caught up in.

World – 5/5 stars.  well its our world! I love it being set in England tho – so many books are sent in America it is always nice to have a British book. It felt realistic, Holly Jackson didn’t end up ignoring the natural assumptions and darker side of mystery while not making it glorified or graphic.

Romance – 4/5 – Soft Romance – *giggles and kicks feet in the air* just adorable

Things to be aware of: Racism, sexual assault, rape, murder, police injustice, drugs – none of the SA is on the page or the murder. Animal death (specifically a dog)

2

The Love Interest, Helen Comerfield

13+

This is superhero satire and I love it so much! It might be the first one I have read which actually acknowledges throughout the book how toxic and weird it is that superheroes always have a love interest which is used as bait and regularly helpless in villain situations.

The world is a parallel universe (it is explicitly set in 2024) but superheroes exist and the HPA are the organisation that controls them and is essentially the superhero base. The Diviner (the only female superhero which the HPA acknowledges) is an oracle who produces prophecies of disasters in certain locations from which new superheroes will emerge. The HPA made me simmer with anger throughout, their leader Ron King ‘King Ron’ a former superhero who now leads them is such a chauvinistic man (I think they actually use that term in the book as well). He constantly sees women as weaker and thinks they can only serve as Love Interests. He is incredibly charismatic and our mc struggles to unite the different versions of him which is very realistic because he is an absolutely amazingly written character (even if I hate him).

It was so creepy the little things that were side details that the HPA did. Like Jenna’s sister Megan mentioned that the HPA like it when the Love Interests die young so that the superheroes can have their eternally twenty something love interest for merch and trauma etc. Megan Jenna’s sister is my favourite character but I cant give any spoilers so just let me say she is absolutely just so girlboss but also loves her sister and is so protective.

The essential basic plot is that Blaze a new superhero rescues a young woman (Jenna Ray) who is about his age and so the HPA and the media all assume that she will become his Love Interest. Jenna heartily disagrees with this despite finding him later attractive. I am trying really hard to not give spoilers but I do wish the author had stuck a little harder to the original Jenna’s mindset of this is never going to work between us.

Anyway we have feminism, superhero satire, an amazing supporting cast and a really evil corporation so lets do the stars!

World – 4/5 – I enjoyed it!

Plot – 4/5 – it was rapidly paced and a little predictable but I did enjoy it a lot as we uncovered the HPA’s toxicity.

Characters – 5/5 stars!

Romance – 3/5 – Soft Romance– not my favourite thing about the book, it almost undermined the message – there is romance but it feels like it is a subplot that is growing throughout the book which was nice.

Things to be aware of: sexism is the big one but I think other that its just manipulation and deception – I say just! Some fantasy violence but nothing really in a 13+ – I think you could read it younger but maybe wouldn’t enjoy it as much if you hadn’t had as much of the content it satires.

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