Book ratings and a short review.
An Author’s Reading Addiction: My August Book list.
Genres: LGBTQ+ Fantasy Fiction, Contemporary Fantasy Fiction
My Review:
Don’t let the vampire setting fool you, the real hook here has very little to do with supernatural lore and everything to do with identity and personal ambition. It’s written with enough depth that the blood-drinking element feels secondary to the human struggle.
Genres: Mystery Romance, Amateur Sleuths
My Review:
I lost track of time reading this, which is usually the sign of a narrative that knows what it’s doing. The pacing pulls you straight into the characters’ immediate experience, leaving little choice but to ride out the plot alongside them in a single, uninterrupted sitting. Consider my sleep schedule officially collateral damage.
Genres: Contemporary Women Fiction
My Review:
Some books demand an intense critical breakdown, but this one works its charm through pure comfort and a surprisingly sharp existential core. It wraps you in a low-stakes, cozy atmosphere while quietly serving up a solid reality check on risk-taking and self-discovery. Safe to say I swallowed it whole in one sitting.
Genres: One-Hour Literature & Fiction Short Reads, Women’s Short Stories
My Review:
This punchy short story packs an unnervingly personal punch. It captures that quiet, widespread tendency to dial ourselves back into faint outlines just to exist around other people. Brevity aside, reading it feels less like observing a fictional character and more like getting uncomfortably called out.
Genres: Women’s Psychological Fiction
My Review:
While officially framed as a companion piece to The Space Between Us, this novella shifts the lens entirely, offering a far candid look at Lena’s actual motivations. What it lacks in page count, it makes up for in subtext, proof that conciseness often carries way more weight than a bloated, multi-hundred-page epic.
Genres: Teen & Young Adult Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic
My Review:
On paper, it looks like a standard dystopian “all the adults vanished” setup, but the real narrative weight is far more psychological. It offers a razor-sharp look at unaddressed trauma and how survival instincts can twist interpersonal bonds into toxic territory, even when everyone means well. When the authority figures meant to protect you turn into the threat, the resulting co-dependency isn’t pretty, but it makes for a fascinating study in coping mechanisms.
Genres: Vampire Thrillers / Suspense, Pulp Thrillers
My Review:
Constructed like an intricate labyrinth, this isn’t just another gothic mystery, it’s a psychological portrait of loss. Beneath the supernatural suspense lies a vampire stubbornly clinging to her remaining humanity in a desperate attempt to repair what’s broken. It uses its creature-of-the-night premise to deliver a surprisingly grounded look at grief and memory.
Genres: Dark Romance, New Adult & College Romance
My Review:
I had to let this one marinate before typing out my thoughts. It’s the kind of book that quietly demands a full multi-angle diagnostic rather than an immediate knee-jerk reaction, forcing you to step back and process the subtext long after swiping past the final page.
The Second Son: A Dark Renaissance Fantasy Adventure
Genres: Historical Fantasy, LGBTQ+ Fantasy
My Review:
Having enjoyed Faustus’s initial arc, diving straight into book two felt like a logical next step, and the expanded worldbuilding didn’t disappoint. The clever integration of changeling lore adds a distinct folklore flavor that elevates the narrative beyond standard fantasy tropes. It’s a solid sequel that knows exactly how to build on its foundation without relying on cheap gimmicks.
Genres: Love Triangle Romance, Epic Fantasy
My Review:
Despite a long pause after the first installment, the sequel managed to completely recalibrate my expectations. The author doubled down on character development and world-building, delivering a narrative with a surprisingly heavy impact. Consider this proof that the series isn’t just surviving its own premise, it’s actively thriving.
Invisible Women of the Bible: What Their Stories Teach us — And Why Your Story Still Matters
Genres: Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) Biographies, Christian Old Testament Biographies
My Review:
This isn’t just a commentary on obscure biblical figures; it’s a profound masterclass in unearthing worth from the margins. Grounded in raw personal experience, it speaks directly to anyone who has ever felt overlooked, delivering a quiet, deeply therapeutic reminder that being invisible to the world never means you are unseen. A short, necessary read for the weary soul.
Genres: Gaslamp Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
My Review:
Reaching the end of book two leaves you in that ideal, agonizing cliffhanger limbo, thoroughly impressed by the author’s precision and genuinely annoyed by the linear nature of time. It’s a showcase of pure narrative control, leaving just enough unresolved to turn the waiting period into its own form of torture.
Genres: LGBTQ+ Anthologies & Collections, LGBTQ+ Horror eBooks / Action & Adventure
My Review:
Anthologies can easily devolve into disjointed collections, but this one actually justifies its own layout. The structural variety keeps the pacing sharp, turning what could have been a random assortment of tales into a remarkably cohesive curated experience.
LAST TRAIN TO PARIS: Act One of The Third Season
Genres: Multicultural & Interracial Romance, Billionaires & Millionaires Romance
My Review:
Instead of leaning into standard romance tropes, this sequel operates on absolute patience, turning restraint into an art form. The narrative lets character growth dictate the intimacy rather than forcing convenient sparks, using craft and setting as subtle psychological subtext. It’s a masterclass in slow-burn pacing, delivering a resolution that feels grounded, emotionally earned, and entirely dignified.
Redeem Me: A Dark Historical Romance
Genres: American / Women’s Historical Romance
My Review:
Rewriting history with a silver lining is always a risky move, but the narrative trick here actually lands. It acknowledges the bleak, uncompromising reality of its era without sacrificing narrative catharsis, delivering an optimistic resolution that feels earned rather than cheapened by revisionism.
Genres: New Adult & College Fantasy, Urban / Paranormal Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy
My Review:
Across six volumes, this series executes a remarkably ambitious pivot, starting as an atmospheric, slow-burn fantasy and maturing into a heavy, unsparing study of inherited trauma and generational lore.
The structural execution isn’t without its friction; tangled timelines and abrupt mid-chapter POV shifts occasionally demand an active, diagnostic read. Yet the narrative payoff makes the effort trivial. By sacrificing safe tropes for genuine psychological depth and letting its enigmatic final volume recontextualize the entire architecture, the series delivers an ending that feels fully, impeccably earned.
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