Queen Reviews

  Another month in the books for 2025!! I wish that I was able to read more books by black authors this month. Unfortunately, I was reading a lot of ARCs this month and getting into March as well. I definitely am going to try to slow down after this batch that I've read so I can dive into some diverse reads. I already have the screen shots of the books I want to read on hand. Hopefully you had a great Black History Month! A reminder to also read diverse every chance you get! Not only during February! With that being said, with this being the shortest month of the year, I only was able to knock out 7 books. I finished one right as the month turned to March. Look for that review in a little bit. I had to put that one on ice since it was for an ARC. I'm going to also be putting out a video version of this review so that you can get a little  more in depth info. It'll prob be a Tik Tok with a short link on Instagram. With that being said. Here are the books that I was able to r...

In Curse by Gia Detroit we meet Siena who is on the search for justice for her sister who is tragically killed in a plane crash. While there she meets Matti, a mafia capo who is also trying to find out what has happened in the crash. There was a lot but also not much happening in this book. I almost feel like there was a lot of running around with not a lot of substance. The FMC was doing everything but being smart about what she was doing, which caused me to shake my head way too often in this book. Then the miscommunication between the FMC and MMC was just a little irritating. I didn't believe in their relationship at all. Especially since they didn't even really get to speak to each other. They just kinda felt drawn to each other and did the do and BAM. Love. I was like....ummm ok. Especially considering the circumstances of everything. It was strange and unbelievable. Then we have Vin who is the MMC's bestie and also the heir apparent. He not only is apparently harborin...

I enjoyed this book in a weird way. Not a bad weird, just weird. Like this book is definitely a thick read. So, that was one of my negatives for this book. It was long and it didn't really feel like it needed to be. So what ended up happening is that it felt like some of the changes the characters had emotionally were drastic at the end due to the build up taking a long time to happen. Another side effect of this was that there wasn't one concrete issue. There was multiple issues that made things seem to drag on. It made it seem like there was no end in sight or that the ending that we were going to get was going to be unsatisfactory. The only other negative I have is that if I could shake the FMC or give her some head smacks, I definitely would have. Some of her actions just made me wonder if she had common sense. Then she kind of wised up towards the end...a little. Other than that, I enjoyed this read. Like Maddox was a good MMC and everyone else you meet are characters that...

 The next series that I decided to take on in my re-read sessions was the Wolf Hotel series by KA Tucker. This series was one that I devoured when I originally read it so I wanted to see if it still hit the same as then! This first book definitely has taken advantage of the naive virgin trope and really let it go full tilt. We meet Abbi as she is going through one of the worst moments in her life. She just found out that her fiancé cheated on her. Of course she comes from a super religious background meaning that they feel like it's ok for the man to do this while she must remain chaste. I mean all the things that young adults get into are things that she was forbidden to do, whether it was drinking, partying or wearing and talking about certain things. Our girl is oblivious. So when she runs into the one and only Henry Wolf, who has done just about any and everything, she is intrigued and curious. I liked that the FMC wasn't someone who fell into her upbringing heavily and did...

 This book was really, really good. I laughed, I cried, I shouted out loud. The banter between the characters and how the FMC was depicted was done very well . I enjoyed the story that was told and how it was almost a role reversal. I won't spoil what roll that is but it was nicely done. This story was able to capture the tight rope and skill that so many sex workers have to walk daily. Whether they are a professional high class worker or one that is just on the edges of society. The things that we see Vivienne go through in this book. What made it so amazing is it could be applied to you even if this isn't the profession that you choose. Everyday we deal with putting on a persona when in public, we deal with family drama and sometimes we don't feel like we're enough. Watching Vivienne go through this story and meet Jeremy and everyone else was such a good read. I can't profess enough how much I loved this story. Jeremy being able to see past her profession to her a...

 This book was better than I had anticipated. With a series such as this one, that has been out for awhile and has a following, there are a lot of things that you hear when you are looking for recommendations for books. Us book lovers tend to be harsh on some books and series and unfortunately this was one of them. I heard a lot of either hating or loving the characters in this series. I for one managed to like almost everyone. Of course those that aren't meant to be liked don't count. The lore through out this book was enough for my Mythology loving heart to gorge on while the plot itself was something I could enjoy and get plenty of laughs at. I love it when books make me have out loud emotions or make me want to hop on social media and post about it right then and there. I feel like that is what an author should aim for when writing. Make me FEEL something when I read your characters. Whether it's strong dislike or deep friendship and love for them. I deeply wanted to sm...

 This is a book with many secrets. We meet Karina as she is trying to figure out why her perfectly thought out assassination plan didn't work. Slowly but surely we get brought into the world of kill or be killed. Karina's target, Lucas Bianchi is definitely a man to not be trifled with. Yet he still manages to have a soft spot for our FMC despite the fact that she is out to get him. Then we encounter Prince who is the right hand man of Lucas. They all begin a journey that I don't think either of them realized was going to be in their future. At least not Prince and Karina. The story of these three was definitely getting interesting and then we get left with another mystery of sorts. I think that this was a good story. I was able to read it without getting bored and the characters were definitely interesting. It was a little hard to follow the motives of everyone until they are kinda laid out for you. I am left feeling a little incomplete. There is definitely more that needs...

  Wow. I need a moment to marinate on what just happened. Kara...girl...idk what to say about her right now. In this book she was able to get some great things accomplished  but also....that ending. Had me like...AGAIN?! Flynn was out here kicking butt and taking names. Of course there was the typical political drama *eye roll*. I almost wish that Flynn would just embrace being a dictator. The way things are up in Glynfyls is enough to make you want to smack someone! There is also so much clarification that we get in this book. We get more information on all parties. I mean from more clarification on the who all the Overlords previous have been to more information about the Original Houses. I was very interested in all the little bits of information we were able to get. This is one of those series that you HAVE to read the blurbs at the beginning of the chapters. It gives you so much information and context on what is about to happen that, if you skip it, you miss things. Anot...

 I have no words for how amazing this book was. From the beginning to the end I was hooked on both Gideon and Ava. I enjoyed seeing how these two damaged people tried to make things work. Not to mention Gideon Cross is a dirty man! Oh my goodness, I just couldn't believe how dirty this mans mouth was! I mean wow. Not only that but if there was a character whose dominance like...leaked out of pages in attempts at breaking the fourth wall, then it's definitely Gideon Cross!! Watching these two (and Carey) go through the doubts and craziness that is life has been great. I mean there is probably no other character that I relate to more the Ava, in a lot of her reactions to situations. I can't wax poetic enough about this book. I can't wait to read the next one in this series which technically won't be a re-read. It will be the first time that I will read the second book. I definitely feel a hangover coming on after this one.  The spice in this book was top tier. I mean ...

  Here we are at the end of the first month in this new year! I can't believe it's already over! This edition of the Wrap Ups is going to be packed with some information about my bookish life on top of the breakdown for where the books that I was able to read in January fell!  Bookish Life Update- I have managed to put together my second book shelf and it's already almost full. I need to buy another...already. My backlog of special edition books is so large that once I get them all, I know the list will still continue to stay long! I have added another subscription to my line up. Which brings me to a total of 6. One of them I'm thinking about canceling...simply because I haven't really known any of the titles that they have and they don't seem to have many special editions outside of the subscription. We'll see how I feel by the end of the next renewal. Anyway, I've decided to set my goal for this year at 100 books! Which is 25 more than last year. For ...

  This book was extremely spicy! I mean like, they were getting it on from the first chapter type ish. Like there was barely time to even get to know the characters and they were getting it on. I'm a spice lover but dang....you barely even get a chance to see them get to know each other. I feel like this was a very surface level book that didn't get too deep and threw tons of spice at you. I wish there was a little bit more information on what was going on and why. Like why do parents who run a corporation need to be the WORST parents in the world to their children? Like what's their deal? Then the girl just falling in immediately with these guys and them essentially adopting her despite having this whole tough guys persona was...different. You'd think they'd all need time to warm up to each other before all that happened but no. Everything progressed extremely quickly. You'd almost think this was a novella and not a 500+ page book with plenty of time to flesh o...

  This book was not that great. I was very surprised that I even managed to finish it. The amount of eye rolling that I did should cause a condition. This story follows Alexis as she makes bad choice after bad choice after even worse choice. She doesn't seem to grow from any of these bad choices and to top it off she can't seem to really do much of anything. Gabe, is probably the WORST mafia leader there ever was. He just seems like a guy who is playing at being a mafia boss. The poor guys that follow him might as well expect to die because he also doesn't make the best choices. Every chance he had in this book to try to do something that seemed even remotely boss-like...was a failure. He didn't do anything right except not be a jerk when he found out that he could possibly be a father. He lost every battle against the opponents that are mentioned, he wasn't able to spot a spy when they were right in his face and then he was just determined to not make the right rel...

  This was a another good entry into this series. This book focused on Felicity and life after finding out that her aunt was a crazy killer who was out to mess up her friends lives. We also meet Kai who is water dragon shifter on an island that is hidden from humans. Of course Felicity has to go to this secret island where she meets Kai and the sparks fly. I enjoyed the whole native feel to this book. It felt like the land wanted to be kept secret and all of the characters in this story had to play a part in making sure that the land was able to get what it needed. Then again they were up against something that I'm sure a lot of native people have had to deal with, and that's whether you want to control how you are revealed or to keep yourself hidden. They know that as technology and everything else advances more and more, things aren't necessarily going to be in their favor. I enjoyed getting to know this new world that we haven't had the opportunity to get to know yet...

 This brings me re-read of this series to an end. Now there is nothing but new things to start with this series and I can't wait. The author heard the desperate cries of her fandom and brought us back to the world of Shara and her Blood. For this book in particular, I couldn't wait to see how things were going to go against a Queen the likes of Marne Ceresa. Sure enough it was interesting. Marne showed that there is a reason that she is Triune Queen and put Shara to the test. I enjoyed reading the back and forth between these two. It will be interesting to see if Marne decides to be on Shara's side if and when she goes against the Dauphine. Shara showed more growth in this book and I can't wait to see how the continues. We also get to see more of her blood and their internal thoughts in this book. Some of them we hadn't heard from in awhile and they got their shine in this book. I really appreciated that. They tend to fall into the background with so many big person...

This book was so much better than I thought it was going to be! I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't a story that was able to capture the complex relationships that we have with people in our lives. They can be morally bad and yet we still can care about them. They can truly so evil things and not care about anyone but us and SHOW us this and we still love them. This was never clearer than when I was reading this story. Oraya was the human daughter of the vampire king, who had to learn how to survive in a world that saw her as weak and as prey. Her father encouraged this and wanted her to enter a trial that would end with her getting the power she needed to no longer be weak. In a world as savage as the one that they live in, I can understand why they both were looking to do this. Despite the fact that Oraya is at a HUGE disadvantage here and has a high chance of death. We see how much she has to battle with everything while in the trials...including her heart. We me...

This is the second entry in the Alpha Territories series and I really enjoyed the first book. This second one however, not so much. I felt almost lost in the sauce. There was the main story of the evil brother who killed the dad, then finding Jordan for Sienna, a classist love story between a Prince and a maid and finally we get whatever the heck Sienna is. The fact that no one has said what she is yet, but everyone just knows she's other was kinda annoying. Then the fact that she has this complex where she thinks that she knows what's best for everyone. I understand that Jordan might have a disability but this man says that he wants to stay and loves it there and she just won't accept that. She can't even see beyond her own prejudice against the other creatures despite it being proven time and again that she too is other. It made me want to scream and shake her. Then Bee... being a jelly belly was just not it. You can't claim to be a bestie and be that ...

 This book was not what I expected. I definitely thought that it was going to be more spice than it was. I mean since the name is Breed For the Beast. There was plenty of steamy moments in the book but it was pretty much that for awhile. Nothing but steam until finally there wasn't. The plot of everything else was ok. The whole betrayal and the beef between the guys was interesting but I was also not really invested in anything other than watching how they managed to deal with the betrayer. It was interesting watching how this particular family worked. Though there didn't seem to be any true menace other than the one guy who was an enemy of Lugh (our MMC). Lugh and the rest of the Irish Mob definitely didn't seem menacing at all. I liked the story for what it was but I probably wouldn't read more by this author. The spice in this book was alright once we finally got to it. I was hoping for something more than what we ended up getting. I would give this book a 3 out of 3...

  This book almost felt like a biography. Not in like an educational way but in that this could literally be something that happened to this author and I would not have been surprised. This book had to do with a romance author who was going through some rough times and found that it was hard for her to write. So when a friend decided to help her out and try to give her something else to focus on, she becomes a nanny to a hockey star. Then of course sparks fly and that's the story. Of course there was some drama that happened in between, but this could definitely be someone's real life story...easily. I found that to be an interesting aspect to the story. I can't tell if I liked it or not so I'm just gonna say it was meh. I have been heavily into my contemporary romance era and I'm dying to escape. That could also be part of it. The story itself was good. My only complaint was the slight moment when the characters had a moment of strife with each other. The situation...

This book was different. I think this may have been the second book that I've read where the MMCs already had a relationship and then they were adding in the FMC. I think that this book definitely handled things better than the other book that I read with this did. You could see the relationship that was built with the characters and I loved that. However, my only complaint in this book was that the FMC started to get a little annoying. She was being childish in situations that I thought she should be looking at through a different lens but then again she is in her early 20s. I liked seeing that she had moments of growth thanks to the guys. The relationship they managed to build with not only each other but with family members in this story gave it such a wholesome feel. I definitely don't think I thought this book was going to go in the direction that it ended up going in but I really enjoyed it.  This book was S P I C Y. Whew. This throuple definitely was leaving no stone unc...

  Well cheers to a successful year!! All the holidays and everything going on this year. I will be posting my End of the Year review with some fun categories that will be a little different then this one but we have to send December off with a bang! As the days were getting colder, the less books that I was reading but they were still just as good! I had another full month with no DNF's so I'll call that a month well read!! I really had a great year and I can't wait to break it down for you in my end of year wrap up. For now though, let's recap the books that I was able to read this month! Favorite Character  - Cyan (Legacy of Chaos): I really loved Cyan! Like I felt so seen! Nerdy girls everywhere should feel very seen by her. She was someone who was a nerd who feel for a fellow nerd. She also took no smack and she knew her stuff. I was so glad to get a FMC like her! She really made reading about the trauma that Stryker was going through much more bearable. Not only th...

 I think this book was better than the first one! I really enjoyed the first one and missed this book when I had to put it down. It was so enjoyable! The antics from the characters and the drama from the villains really made this worth it. We are able to learn so many new things in this book that it just really made it feel like non stop entertainment. I would definitely recommend this series. I didn't want this one to end. And that announcement at the end! Ma'am excuse me. I was seriously about to just jump into the next book because I don't know if I'll be able to wait long enough to get back to the next one. It's already downloaded. No spoilers because every reveal in this book is so worth it. Every. Last. One. That's all I got. Start the series.  The spice was off the chizarts ok. I mean, there is almost everything that you could ask for in this book.5 out of 5 on the spice scale. This was such an enjoyable read that I just have to recommend it. I also have ...