Aimee

Full review closer to pub. date but this was an absolute joy!

The Midnight Bargain is a fun fantasy, historical romance novel that follows the struggle of our main character Beatrice Clayborn trying to avoid a marriage that will force her to give up her magic for a large chunk of her life. The world building and magic here was really enjoyable and I loved the idea of the plot, though I do think the first couple of chapters really try to hit you over the head with just how unfair this world is, while that's true it did seem a little hamfisted for me.

I enjoyed the dynamic between Ysbeta and Beatrice and definitely found myself rooting for them. The romance was the bigger miss for me in this book, it felt a little too insta love for my personal tastes and I think I would have enjoyed the book more if there was no romance.

Overall, this was a fun book to read and the writing style was really nice. I just wish it had gone a little deeper into the world.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC! All opinions are my own.

Ignite the Sun has such a cool concept and world, the idea of the sun being a legend and the world shrouded in darkness was so intriguing to me. However, while the concept was really interesting I felt the world building and characters weren't explored enough. The story seemed to begin at breakneck speed and I had no time to get to know the world, or the characters. I just felt like I couldn't care about the characters the way I wanted to. This continued throughout the story, particularly with Siria, her entire arc felt somewhat shallow.

The mythology and descriptions of the world however, were great. Hanna Howard is great at showing me a picture with her writing and I did feel like I was really experiencing the locations in the book.

Overall, I think this book had a lot of potentia but it didn't quite have the payoff I wanted. I would be interested in reading more of her work though.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this title!

The Vanished Queen follows various characters in the waning rule of an evil king. Anza joins the resistance after her father has been executed, Esvar is the second son of the king, fighting to get his brother on the throne and overcome the similarities he sees between himself and his father.

This book is beautifully written, I was engrossed almost immediately. I felt it excelled at introducing me to these characters and the world. All the characters have very visible flaws that they struggle with, and this is portrayed really nicely. Where this story excells is absolutely the characters, and especially the women. This story felt like a love letter to womens resilience in a world that treats them as objects and pawns. Anza and her discovery of the disappeared queens journal show us two different female struggles and I thought it was very well done.

All the characters developed well throughout the book, and by the end I felt as though I really understood their motivations and feelings. In a nice bit of representation, Anza appears to be bisexual and speaks of her previous lovers, male and female at various points throughout the book.

I felt the story flowed quite well, with the exception of some dragging at around 25-30%. It is definitely more of a slow burn story, there's a lot of set up and political intrigue before there is any kind of big climax. To me this all led to a satisfying conclusion but I can see it being frustrating to other readers. Overall, this book was an a real gem for me, and it'll stick with me for a long time.

This book is certainly dark and I would mark it with trigger warnings for: sexual assault, forced abortion, domestic abuse and suicidal thoughts.

Thank you to netgalley for this book.