books and bouquets

  Rating :  ★ ★ ★ ★ Cawpile : 7.00 / 10 Release Date : 25th May 2021 Genre(s) : YA Urban Fantasy Anthology Happy Release Day! Massive thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.  I just want to start off by saying this anthology was great! It contained some really unique and incredibly diverse vampire stories (a lot of own voices authors also!) which took a fresh perspective on the genre, and was a true delight to read. Each short story is accompanied by a short ‘discussion’ by the editors, briefly talking about an issue related to the story about vampirism (such as mirrors, coffins, bats). Seven Nights For Dying by Tessa Gratton   ⭐️⭐️⭐️  This first story follows our main character who is an overweight bisexual teenager looking to be transformed into a vampire. It follows her week long journey of transition, giving her plenty of time to fully think about her decision. There was also trans representat...

  Rating :  ★ ★ ★ ★ Release Date : 18th May 2021 Genre(s) : Adult Urban Fantasy Massive thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Lights of Prague follows Domek Myska, a lamplighter, whose job secretly involves keeping the city of Prague safe from pijavice (vampires) and Lady Ora Fischerová, an aristocratic, bisexual widow, who just happens to also be a pijavica. It follows their relationship, and their intertwining storylines as they both attempt to save Prague, before the pijavice, who have recently discovered a cure, take over the city. I love these characters and the dual perspective the story followed. Domek is such an unlikely gentlemen, which was refreshing considering the majority of modern male love interests seem to be the alpha male type, and Domek was quite the opposite. Whilst, Ora was definitely a badass (with an emotional side). The romance between them is definitely not the focus of the book, b...

Rating :  ★ ★ ★ Release Date : 8th March 2020 Genre(s) : New Adult Romance "You showed me how important it is to live in the moment, to experience my children's life and not just plan for their future." This is the first Cora Reilly book I’ve read, and it was fun! It’s a mafia romance, which follows Cassio, a recent widow and the ruthless underboss of Philadelphia, and Giulia, who is his soon-to-be wife, who just happens to be 14 years his junior. It has some of the best tropes: arranged marriage,  age gap,  single dad, brooding alpha male. My favourite thing about this book has to be the characters. They all felt like well-rounded, unique characters which I gained a connection with. Giulia was a really nicely developed character - she had a lot of personality: her own hobbies (painting, which you get to see quite a bit of) and style (she loves sunflowers, how cute) and she was  powerful . If Giulia wanted something, she’d get it; if she didn’t like something a chara...

  Rating:  ★★ ★★ Release Date: 4th May 2021 Genre(s): Graphic Novel (YA/Middle Grade) Massive thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Sprite and the Gardener follows Wisteria, a sprite, who wishes she could be like her ancestors and use her magical talents to help take care of gardens and nature. This graphic novel fills me with pure happiness - it's just  so magical and whimsical.  First of all, the illustrations are  gorgeous.  The colour palette is absolute perfection - I wouldn't change a single thing - all of the delicate pastel colours compliment each other and the storyline. The character's faces have manga-style artwork, which I thought actually worked really well with the character's personalities. My favourite thing has to be the little sketches at the end of the book, and original WIPs from the draft stage. It shows the development of the story and how it went from being one sing...

  Rating :  ★ ★ ½ Release Date : 17th June 2013 Genre(s) : New Adult Romance I just want to start off by saying I  really  wanted to like this book, especially after reading Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas and  loving  it. But in my opinion, it’s just not on the same level unfortunately.  Bully follows Tate and Jared, childhood best friends and now enemies. Jared makes it his life mission to bully, humiliate and  borderline emotionally torture  Tate - until one day, after spending a year in France, she begins to fight back. How will Jared cope? First of all, the plot was great: a fast-paced bully romance which features enemies to lovers -  fabulous.  The angst, the drama, the tension, was all executed perfectly. I had a throughly great time reading this book, but I just cannot ignore all of the bad aspects.  The biggest downfall of this book was the  characters ; the majority (if not all) did not feel well developed and ...

Rating:  ★ Release Date: 26th May 2011 Genre: New Adult Romance This review does contain spoilers - take caution reading. Right ok, where do I start... I picked this book up because one of my favourite youtubers said it was one of her favourite adult romance novels, so I thought I'd give it a try, that was my first mistake.  This book follows Travis 'Mad Dog' Maddox and Abby aka 'Pigeon' (what kind of nickname is that anyways? He never even justifies it..) and the course of their friendship (if you can call it that) and whirlwind relationship. Travis appears to be this alpha male type character - but ultimately he's just an abuser.  I'm just going to go ahead and write a list of every single thing wrong with this book, so here goes: ~ It is inherently  sexist and misogynistic ~ Travis is the ultimate 'bad' boy (not even in the kinda good way) arsehole stereotype who has serious anger issues. Examples include: Him beating up his friends for simply mak...

Rating:  ★★★ Release Date: 7th May 2020 Genre(s): Religious Poetry Massive thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review. I do really love poetry (when I read it) and the premise of this: growth and healing, sounded right up my alley. The sunflower project is a collection of poems grouped into the four stages of a life cycle of a sunflower - it symbolises unLYSHed's life journey and growth to becoming the person she is today.  My favourite aspect is definitely the writing style - it's  beautiful, raw, intimate and emotional.  The honesty in her words makes you feel a genuine connection to the writer, it leaves you enthralled and hoping for the best for her. It address abuse, sexual assault, loss of faith (and gaining that faith again), heartbreak, trauma, self love and your own worth. One quote that particularly resonates with me is: "your heart is happy now but your mind remembers then do not be ashamed"...

Rating :  ★★★ ★ ½ Release Date : 13th April 2021 Genres(s) : YA Fantasy  Massive thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Go and read this right now, it’s so hard to put into words the connection I have formed with this book, but just trust me. The prison healer follows Kiva, a prisoner in the ruthless prison Zalindov and the challenges she faces once the notorious Rebel Queen is captured - she must fight to keep the Rebel Queen alive, and do so at whatever cost, including facing the lethal Trial by Ordeal. Can Kiva survive the four elemental tasks, that no other inmate has ever succeeded in doing?  I adored  all  of the characters in this book, and that isn’t even an exaggeration. Kiva is far from your typical YA female lead, she is so  strong and fierce , whilst also being sensitive and caring. Tipp, a young boy with a stutter, was so lovable. It truly makes you reflect on how cru...

Rating :  ★ ★ ★ ★ Release Date : 15th April 2021 Genre(s) : Young Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy Massive thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. I  adored  this book - it had everything you could truly need from a YA sci-fi/fantasy novel. And isn’t the cover just  stunning?  Pastel pink follows Harlow, a reincarnated Pastel Zeek living on Zadok, who was previously murdered on Earth as Ruby, a human. It follows her life in both of these locations - and how they intertwine. The book starts straight into the action - with a graphic depiction of Ruby's murder in the human world, which hooks you into the story straight away. First of all, I  loved  the reincarnation aspect, I'm fairly sure I've never read a book which has quite done it justice? But this certainly did! It was so easy to tell between Harlow's chapters and Ruby's chapters, as they had such different storylines and 'personalities' (even ...

Rating :  ★★★ ★ ★ Release Date : 22nd August 2020 Genres(s) : Fantasy romance Massive thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for providing me with a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book so much!  It was a super short and quick read, which I managed to read in one sitting. It follows Nitya, an 18 year old girl who wants more from life than her current lifestyle gives, and her journey working in the Palace's kitchen (and the people she meets along the way -  wink wink ) I genuinely have no faults with this book, other than I wish it hadn't ended! Munson's writing style is  perfection.  I thought the characters were written perfectly, the world building was exquisite (which I was shocked at - how can you be so drawn into a world that is only developed 35 pages?!) And the romance was to die for! But, please be warned this book is targeted at adults, and there are some fairly erotic scenes.  I will most certainly be picking up ot...

Rating :  ★★ ★★ Release Date : 5th April 2021 Genre(s) : Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Paranormal Romance Massive thank you to BooksGoSocial and Netgalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. I was initially torn whether to rate this 4 or 5 stars, but since reading this book I haven't been able to stop thinking about it! So I've decided to settle on an unofficial 4.5. Violet City is an alien-invasion sci-fi, which follows Penelope Simmins, your average teenager, and 'Rowan', her alien captor, a Volkranian who eerily resembles a human. The first chapter jumps straight into the action and I was hooked straight away, I binged the entire book in less than 24 hours, because I just needed to know what happened next! It was fast-paced, action-packed and all-round fantastic!  My favourite thing about this book was definitely the romance, especially the chemistry and tension built between the 2 main characters. I think it happened very naturally (even thoug...

Rating :  ★★ Release Date : 6th April 2021 Genre(s) : Horror Graphic Novel Massive thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Vain is a horror comic which follows 4 vampires: Lost, Fanny, North, and Marquis - collectively known as 'The Vain' - across several decades. They are constantly evading the capture of Felix Frankin, an FBI agent who is investigating the suspicious burglaries which only seem to steal blood (he begins to wonder whether this is a war offence... or perhaps something more sinister). It reads much like a typical American style crime TV show. My favourite part of this was, without-a-doubt, the comic style illustrations (I thought this was a graphic novel going into it, but I was soon proven wrong) and I  LOVE  the cover, how stunning! But, please be aware this is an  adult horror comic,  therefore, there are some extremely gruesome scenes, with lots of gore and violent scenes. I a...

Rating:  ★★★ Release Date: 5th April 2021 Genre(s) : Sci-Fi Massive thank you to Interstellar Flight Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Local star is a polyamorous space opera which follows Triz, a guttergirl (spaceship handywoman), her friend Casne and her ex Kalo. When Casne is accused of war crimes, Triz with the help of her ex, Kalo, must do everything she can in an attempt to save her, whilst also saving their Hab which comes under attack from the notorious Cyberbionautic Alliance (ceebees). I picked this book up because it had  polyamorous rep  -which honestly is not something you see in books often. I loved how it normalised triads and quadfamilies (a family unit based around a four-person platonic, romantic and/or sexual relationship) as the norm, and it was super refreshing to see how poly relationships can also work in a platonic sense! Further, I adored how non-binary and neopronouns were normalised. For examp...

Rating:  ★★★ Release Date: 30th March 2021 Genre(s) : Fantasy Romance/Paranormal Romance Massive thank you to Victory Editing and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Supernatural lesbian enemies to lovers . Honesty that was the only reason I needed to pick up this book up and I’m really glad I did! It follows Silvia, a vampire hunter, and Keir, the heir to the vampire throne.  I want to start off by saying I absolutely adore the character of Keir, they ooze confidence, sass and sex appeal. Now getting into the actual book... I was hooked from the very first page of this book and could not put it down, it's fairly long and I read it in 24 hours. I will admit the start of the book is kind of rocky - there are a fair few grammatical errors (which is to be expected with an arc, however, it does still impact on the reading experience), but once you're past the first 100 pages - god does it pick up! I'd say the plot is predominantly roman...

Series rating:  ★★★★★ *This review contains spoilers* Goodreads synposis: Cinder “A forbidden romance. A deadly plague. Earth's fate hinges on one girl . . . CINDER , a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen - and a dangerous temptation. Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future. This is not the fairytale you remember. But it's one you won't forget.”   Review   The fairytale retelling aspect of these novels is so cleverly done, in such a way that comparisons can be drawn without it being obvious that the book you’re reading is, in fact, a retelling. This series has its own, well developed plot,...