These books feature characters and content for adults.
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The Maidens: Entertaining enough
After a murderer strikes the college her niece attends, psychotherapist Mariana feels determined to discover the killer.
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The Six Deaths of the Saint: The best short story
The Saint of War spares the life of a servant girl so she can fulfill her destiny as the kingdom’s greatest warrior.
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Malibu Rising: Lackluster and slow
This story follows the four Riva siblings over the day leading up to an infamous party that will result in a wildfire.
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The Paris Apartment: An excellent audiobook
Jess arrives at her brother’s apartment in Paris where he’s supposed to be expecting her, but he’s not there. Now she must engage with the strange inhabitants of the building – and their secrets – if she’s going to find out what happened to him.
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One Dark Window: Duology review
In a kingdom where magic is confined to decks of cards and the use of magic comes with a cost, a young woman stumbles into a family that aims to change everything.
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The Heiress: Quick and easy
Camden, the heir to a wealthy estate, and his wife Jules are pulled into the fold of Ashby House, where his despicable family still lives. But questions begin to arise about his adoptive mother, her four dead husbands, and her own mysterious past.
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An Education in Malice: Atmospheric and vampiric
In this erotic horror retelling of “Carmilla” set in the 1960s, Laura is a new college student in St. Perpetua’s writing program, where she is swept up with the seductive and alluring Carmilla, a fellow student, and the professor she’s obsessed with.
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Bluebeard’s Castle: Subversive, but long
A gothic romance writer, Judith, finds herself swept up in a romance with a mysterious man named Gavin who feels like he came right out of one of her books, except it’s not quite what she expected. This is a story about what the reality of a “gothic romance” might look like.
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The Golden Couple: Contrived and underwhelming
An ex-therapist with a revoked license (who still does “consultations”) agrees to help a couple with their struggling marriage, but they’re hiding more lies than she initially thinks.
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Water for Elephants: Captivating and well-written
This story follows a man named Jacob at two different points in this life: when he’s 90 (or 93, he can’t remember) in a nursing home, and back when he joined a circus after a tragic loss in his 20s.
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We Are the Light: Emotional and hopeful
After a community is shaken by a violent tragedy, Lucas, who insists his deceased wife visits him as an angel, forms an unlikely bond with an ostracized young man who has decided to set up camp in Lucas’s backyard.
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Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Book 2): A charming sequel
The prickly professor Emily Wilde is working on a new project, and is swept onto a new academic adventure to uncover the secrets of Faerie Doors with her former rival, Wendell Bambleby.
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A Curious Beginning: A romantic mystery
After a close call with an intruder, Veronica Speedwell is deposited with a curmudgeonly but handsome fellow scientist for safekeeping, where she must unravel the secrets of her lineage and find out who is out to get her.
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The Tainted Cup: A fantasy detective story
An assistant investigator must solve a string of murders involving trees exploding out of people, a powerful old family, and magical enhancements, all before leviathans destroy the sea wall.
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Station Eleven: The microcosms at the end of the world
When a flu pandemic kills the majority of humans in a short span of time, the ones who are left must contend with a new world. This story follows an interconnected web of people across the years before and after, from a Shakespeare actress in a traveling caravan to a former corporate professional now living…
These books target an audience in the 18-23 age range. New Adult tends to straddle the line, featuring tropes or plot points beloved in Young Adult, but with Adult characters and content.
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Long Live Evil (Book 1): Fun and campy
Rae, who’s dying of cancer, is teleported into the world of her favorite fantasy series for a chance to find a cure. There’s just one problem: she’s woken up as the villain who’s supposed to get executed early on. Now she has to scheme her way into survival.
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The Hemlock Queen (Book 2): Tense and subtly gory
After the events of the eclipse, things begin changing very fast for Lore, Bastian, and Gabe. Now they’re wrapped up in politics and scheming Gods while war looms on the horizon.
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Throne of Glass: Full series review
This series follows a young assassin with a mysterious past who was raised by an infamous Assassin’s Guild leader. Everyone wants to use her unique skills for themselves – or otherwise eradicate the threat she poses. As she struggles for freedom, she is also forced to confront her deepest secrets.
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Iron Flame: A mid sequel
Book 2 in the Fourth Wing series by Rebecca Yarros.
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Divine Rivals: Sweet and well-written
Two competing young journalists navigate life, love, and the front line in the midst of war between gods.
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August 2023 DNF Roundup
In lieu of a review this week, I’m covering a quick list of some recent DNFs (books I gave up on). Come sip the tea.
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House of Hunger: An addicting sapphic gothic tale
In a world where blood is a valuable commodity, a young woman named Marion agrees to become an indentured bloodmaid for a noblewoman – but not everything in the mansion is as it seems.
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Ninth House (Book 1): Gripping and creepy
Alex Stern, who has lived a hard life of drugs and petty crime, is offered a place in Yale’s secret dark magic societies because of her unique ability to see ghosts. One semester in, a woman turns up dead – and Alex thinks the societies are involved.
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Fourth Wing (Book 1): The best of 2023 so far
Despite being untrained, dealing with chronic pain, and having a target on her back, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail’s mother forces her to enroll in a dragon-riding military college – where the mortality rate for first-years is something like 50% or more. Now Violet has to survive not just the deadly training but the other ruthless students…
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Zodiac Academy (Book 4): Shadow Princess – DNF review
Book 4 in the Zodiac Academy series.
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The Foxglove King: Fun and thought-provoking
Lore, a necromancer who can wield death magic, must spy on the crown prince in a world where such magic is a highly-priced illicit commodity. Here the church and the monarchy are dangerously interwoven, and Lore must find a way to navigate the obscenely opulent royal court.
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Zodiac Academy (Book 3): The Reckoning – More of the same
Book 3 of the Zodiac Academy series.
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Zodiac Academy: Ruthless Fae (Book 2) – The revenge story
Book 2 of the Zodiac Academy series.
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Zodiac Academy: The Awakening (Book 1) – A mixed bag
A pair of twins who’ve just aged out of the foster system learn that they’re not just Fae changelings, but apparently heirs to a Fae throne when they are whisked away to Zodiac Academy in a parallel world.
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A Court of Silver Flames (Book 4): A new favorite
Book 4 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
These books have characters and content for teenagers.
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My Lady Jane: Funny and charming
In an alternate history where some humans can shift into animals, Lady Jane Grey’s history is completely rewritten. In this version of events, King Edward, her cousin and dearest friend, marries her off to Gifford – who’s a horse. Not only that, but in the process, she’s unwittingly swept up in a plot to steal…
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Tress of the Emerald Sea: Fun and whimsical
When the boy she loves disappears, Tress sets sail to find him – except on her planet, the seas are made of deadly spores.
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The Isles of the Gods (Book 1): Surprisingly enjoyable
In a world where slumbering gods are awakening, a young sailor, a prince, and a scholar must survive both the ocean and their enemies if they’re going to prevent a war.
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Lies We Sing to the Sea: A decent YA debut
Leto’s story begins with her death. After she is sacrificed to the sea god, she finds herself transformed – and saddled with a mission to kill the prince.
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The Book of Essie: Compelling and interesting
Essie, the youngest daughter in an evangelical family with a reality TV show called Six for Hicks, is pregnant. Now she must orchestrate her freedom.
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Ruthless Vows (Book 2): An okay sequel
Iris and Roman deal with the fallout as the war front heads toward Oath.
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Throne of Glass: Full series review
This series follows a young assassin with a mysterious past who was raised by an infamous Assassin’s Guild leader. Everyone wants to use her unique skills for themselves – or otherwise eradicate the threat she poses. As she struggles for freedom, she is also forced to confront her deepest secrets.
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A Study in Drowning: Entertaining but predictable
Effy, a freshman and the only girl in her college, is accepted to take on the daunting task of redesigning a mansion that pays homage to her favorite author – but things at Hiraeth Manor are stranger than she realized.
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Little Women: Sweet as a toothache
Little Women follows the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, as they grow up in the American Civil War era.
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Divine Rivals: Sweet and well-written
Two competing young journalists navigate life, love, and the front line in the midst of war between gods.
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August 2023 DNF Roundup
In lieu of a review this week, I’m covering a quick list of some recent DNFs (books I gave up on). Come sip the tea.
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A Deadly Education: Perfect for teen readers
At the Scholomance, half the students won’t survive to graduation. El is doing well enough – except her magic is powerful and inconveniently primed for evildoing, so she has to be careful not to raze the whole place down.
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The Ocean at the End of the Lane: Whimsical and creepy
A middle-aged man suddenly remembers the strange, magical happenings he experienced as a child when he returns to visit the house at the end of the lane from his childhood home.
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The Hawthorne Legacy (Book 2): Entertaining but not mind-blowing
The plot thickens as Avery tries to find the one man who may know why a stranger left his billions to her instead of his own family.
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Mary Jane: A delightful, cozy read
In 1975 Baltimore, 14-year-old sheltered Mary Jane takes a summer nannying job in a home where the psychologist father is treating a drug-addicted rock star and his movie star wife.
