Others: Leaning positive This is a story about hunger. 1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada. A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets. This is a story about love. 1827. London. A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined. This is a story about rage. 2019. Boston. College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge. This is a story about life— how it ends, and how it starts.
Genres: fantasy, romance, horror, historical fiction
Lists: …
Alix E. Harrow
2025 · 320 pages · 12 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveSir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story--they’ll have to rewrite history itself.
What made the match, strongest first
Heather Fawcett
2025 · 368 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveEmily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project yet: studying the inner workings of a faerie realm—as its queen. Along with her former academic rival—now fiancé—the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare filled with scholarly treasures. Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world: How can an unassuming scholar such as herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in, for Wendell’s murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell’s magic—and Emily’s knowledge of stories—to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.
What made the match, strongest first
Isabel Cañas
2025 · 400 pages · 11 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveWhen a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust…from New York Times bestselling author Isabel Cañas.In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong. Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can’t help but notice the growing tension between them every time she enters the room…and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood gets stronger. In the fight for her life, Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets, and each other… not knowing that one of these things will spell their doom.
What made the match, strongest first
Louis Sachar
2025 · 320 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Positive"The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us. Long ago and far away (and somewhere south of France) lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and an odious prince. However, one month before the ""wedding of the century,"" Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe. The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures—the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold—he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess. When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and, of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess—or risk ruin? "
What made the match, strongest first
Kaylie Smith
2025 · 448 pages · 10 reviews
Others: MixedWelcome to Enchantra. There’s only one rule: Never, ever trust your heart. When Genevieve Grimm’s mother dies, she’s left with questions no one can answer—until she receives an invitation to Enchantra, a cursed palace in Italy, frozen in time and shrouded in strange fruit. So when the hostile and sinfully handsome Rowin Silver refuses to let her inside, Genevieve finds her own way in . . . only to realize her mistake. For Enchantra is a twisted labyrinth, carved from gleaming silver and thorned hedges, where Rowin and his six siblings are forever trapped in a deadly game, at the mercy of a wicked Devil and his ghastly spectators. Only one occupant of the house can survive. Genevieve now must win or die. Rowin warns her he’s the deadliest of the Silvers. That he always wins. That her only chance is to compete as his wife . . . so they must convince their audience that they’re desperately in love. And while Genevieve’s willing to do whatever it takes to survive, she knows she can’t trust Rowin, that the desire burning between them is a lie. After all, it was Rowin who taught her Enchantra’s first rule . . . Never, ever trust your heart.
What made the match, strongest first
Venessa Vida Kelley
2025 · 464 pages · 3 reviews
Others: PositiveBenigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. He invites Benny to join the show’s eclectic cast and share in their shocking secret: the tank will cage their newest exhibit, a live merman stolen from the salty banks of the East River. More than a mythic marvel, Benny soon comes to know the merman Río as a kindred spirit, wise and more compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own. Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both.
What made the match, strongest first
MixedI'm not going to talk about the plot any further, but this was, like I said, it's a very slow book, particularly at the start, though it does ramp up in pace drastically at the end. That was my only kind of critique is that I think the ending was quite rushed.
Not a fanwhen I read Burri Bones the Midnight Soil in the Midnight Soul I didn't want to read as much of her. I'm going to put it in Put it down here.
Loved itThis is so much fun. It's vampires. It's multiple timelines, different time periods.
MixedIt's really good so far, but I'm just like curious how things are going to connect cuz we have two different storylines. And this is a very slow-going book, and I'm still I feel like in the intro of the book.
MixedI think it's actually pretty well written, but for a like toxic sappic vampire story. Again, pacing really off.
Loved itThis one absolutely hit it out of the park for me. It was the most vampiry vampire book I've read in a while and it was also exactly what I wanted from this genre.
Loved itYou read the entirety of Burri Bones and the Midnight Soil? Yes. ... And should I read it then? I liked it like a lot.
