When I told my Barista, Jess, that I was looking for a long series to hold my attention, she was flabbergasted to discover I’d never read the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or seen the show True Blood, which is based off them. In between customers who had come in for their daily dose of Botany and Beans magic, she got up google and started showing me some of the ovary-busting hotness that is the male half of the True Blood cast. Colour me intrigued. I found myself downloading the first book there and then, right in the coffee shop. This is my review of the first instalment, Dead Until Dark.

I’ve been reading a bit more fantasy lately. After finishing the Last Witch series by M.J Lawrie, I was in a bit of a funk, but I saw this entire trilogy on Kindle Unlimited and I was sold. This series is fast paced, with great characters, and a great romance subplot too. Let’s talk about it!

Can you believe it’s March already?

I wrote the last Life Lately post in December, and it feels like a week ago, not twelve! Quite a bit has happened in the last 3 months, so I thought I’d so a little update post. After all, things can get so busy, it can be nice to look back and reflect on things once in a while.

When scrolling through books in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited programme for something new, the cover for The Last Witch caught my eye. With a black background and fiery red seven pointed star, how could my witchy heart not be intrigued? I’ll admit, this wasn’t the best written, or the best edited book I’ve ever read, but the story…

Ah, the story…

Well, that’s something we desperately need to talk about.

I could quite literally talk your ear off when it comes to indie fantasy romance authors. There are so many incredible, talented writers out there doing the hard thing and putting out their own work solo. I have a few main favourites, though. Authors who, every single time they release a book, I will one-click without thinking twice, so I thought I’d share them with you. In the following article, you’ll discover five of my favourite authors and my favourite fantasy romance book/series they’ve released so far.

Enjoy!

Having been a fan of Stacey Rourke’s work for years I’m ashamed to say I’ve read little of her work. I’ve got a lot of her titles on my TBR, but at this point adding a book to my TBR feels like throwing it into a hellmouth. As in, I’m probably going to forget all about it and if I go looking end up with singed eyebrows. The Legends Saga caught my eye through one of Stacey’s TikTok’s, which featured lots of headless horseman imagery and a spooky asf soundtrack to match. Long story short, I was sold, and went and downloaded the book immediately, vowing that I would get this book read within the next few weeks. Shockingly, I kept my promise to myself, and boy am I glad I did.

I saw this little gem on Amazon First reads and couldn’t resist. I’m a sucker for anything witchy and I was also really happy to see that this book was getting lots of good press over on Instagram and Tiktok because it really does deserve it. Let’s take a look at why!

In my search for more Dark Academia books I came across Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas in the same article which recommended Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. Seeing as I loved Ninth House so much, I thought I’d also give this book a try. It was… creepy… eerie… unusual? There are so many words I could use to describe this book, so let’s take a look at why.

After reading Ninth House, the first book in the Alex Stern Series by Leigh Bardugo, I was immediately drawn to book two. Even though book one didn’t exactly end on a cliff hanger, the Darlington story arc left me seriously wanting. Luckily for me, and totally unintentionally, I had just finished Book One when Hell Bent released on the 10th of January 2023. I was so relieved when I discovered this, because the thought of waiting a year or so to go back to Yale was almost unbearable.

I spent the last few months in a haze of Dark Academia obsession. This week’s book review is of one of the best books I’ve read in ages, and definitely one of my favourite Dark Academia novels that I’ve ever read. This for me surpassed Babel, If We Were Villains, and The Secret History. Anyhow, that’s enough gushing from me, let’s get down to business…

I was looking for a new sci-fi read this month, a palette cleanser between all the fantasy I’ve been reading lately. I have Amazon Prime, so when I got my Amazon First Reads email this month I was more than intrigued to find Meru being offered as one of the reads. I was also convinced to download this book because I saw it was a Nebula and Hugo award finalist, and the books I’ve seen previously crowned winners by these contests never fail to disappoint. Intrigued, I started to read.

If you follow me on social media, or subscribe to my newsletter you know I’m a practicing witch. This something that I’m fairly new at, having only properly established a practice in the last two years. I’ve done ALOT of reading in that time, and wanted to pass on my favourite recommendations to you! This is by no way an exhaustive list, as there are hundreds of incredible books that give a comprehensive and intimate look at witchcraft, but these are some of my favourites.

I am a huge fan of The Secret History By Donna Tartt and also a huge fan of dark academia in general. I got a big hit of the genre from Babel by R.F. Kuang earlier on in the year, but apparently it wasn’t enough!  I’ve been seeing this cover floating around Instagram and Tiktok, and when in the mood for something dark and thriller-esque for the end of 2022, I couldn’t resist starting this. It’s been on my TBR for a while, but as soon as I heard dark academia meets Shakespeare I was sold.

2022 has been a crazy year, but it’s also been full of some incredible books, which I’m so grateful for! I hope 2023 will bring just as many amazing stories into my life, but first, let’s look back at the last 12 months and which literary gems made my top 5!

Check out what’s been going on with me in the final half of 2022, as well as what I have planned for my writing in 2023!

I’d never heard of this book before last week, but when one of the Infiniverse Explorers from my reader group dropped the cover into one of the threads before proceeding to tell me this little gem was on sale for 99c, I couldn’t resist. She told me this book was seriously enchanting, and boy was she right!

Introduction: Another day another review. Following on from my review of Babel, I will be reviewing The Poppy War, also by R.F. Kuang- I have a bit of an obsession at the moment!

I picked up the Tiktok Sensation after, surprise surprise, seeing it toted on Tiktok as the Historical Fantasy Debut of the year. This book was everywhere on social media, and after I found out the trilogy had concluded with the third book The Burning God, and none of the bloggers were threatening to string up the author by her ears, I decided to give it a go.

Babel is a Gaslamp fantasy narrative on Colonialism that should not be missed. Following the journey of adopted Chinese orphan Robin Swift as he is brought to England and trained in preparation for Higher Education at the Oxford Institute of Translation, also known as Babel, we are introduced to a unique take on the British Empire of the 1830s. Here, silver and foreign linguistics are power to be amassed, and immigrants such as Robin and his friends are merely assets to be used in strengthening the hold of the crown on their homelands.

A recap of my incredible signing experience in Seymour Indiana <3