Will I ever timely review my ARCs again? Who is to say? But in the meantime, I hope y’all enjoy reading my reviews of these books. I received review copies of both the e-book and the audiobook of We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark, and I did do a mixed format reading of We Who Will Die, but with the physical copy I got from Book of the Month. I received a review copy of The Seven Rings by Nora Roberts as an e-ARC, but proceeded to listen to it once it came out on a copy I purchased. And They Lived Happily Ever After has lived in e-ARC form on my kindle for literal years and I read it via audiobook from my library. Also, you’re getting a bonus DNF review of Plus Size Player by Danielle Allen, which SO MANY people will love and should love. I received the audiobook review copy through Netgalley. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to review these books even if my reviews are often late.
We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark
I have no idea how to review a book where basically every thought I have involves a spoiler. So I’m going to keep it short and sweet. If you liked The Vampire Diaries and couldn’t quite decide between Stefan and Damon, or, honestly, even if you had a side, you should pick this up. Don’t read anything else, just go read this book. For those of you who feel neutral about TVD, here’s my pitch for you:
Arvelle gets blackmailed into joining this very dangerous gladiator type competition situation to save her brother’s life. The deal is that she’s going to stay alive throughout this competition and then she’s going to kill the emperor. You should read this if you’re willing to go through a journey to watch a closed off FMC remember how to let people in and start building a found family. You should read this if you really like politics in your fantasy romance. You should read this if you don’t mind the romance being a little… up and down so to speak. You should maybe not read this if you don’t like a lot of violence in your reads.
All in all, I had a blast reading this, by which I mostly mean listening to this. As always, I loved Meg Sylvan, who narrates the majority of the book. It is told entirely from Arvelle’s POV. Troy Duran did a good job with the male voices too. I cannot wait to read book two!
The Seven Rings by Nora Roberts
There’s something about the way Nora writes regular every day things, like cooking, that have me wanting to romanticize my life. To try harder in the kitchen. And then I remember that I don’t have ghosts who will clean up my messes for me and that will goes right out the window. But really, there’s just something about Nora Roberts’ writing that has me very willing to accompany her along the mundanity of life that’s spiced up by the evil ghost lady doing her evil deeds. Meanwhile, I’m over here like, “Can’t wait for the party!” So I really enjoyed this entire trilogy. Do I think it’s perfect? Not really, no. I think the pacing is uneven, but since that’s like most of what I loved, I’m not complaining. In other words, I would widely recommend this for fans of Nora, but if you’re not a fan, I’d like to do a deep dive into what you like about the books you like. For me though, this is probably my favorite para-Nora I’ve read in… many, many years.
And They Lived Happily Ever After by Therese Beharrie
I absolutely loved the beginning of this book. Gaia and Jacob hit it off in person at a party neither of them really wanted to be at and it was so fun that they were seeing one another in a new light. Jacob is Gaia’s best friend’s younger brother. And Beharrie always seems to shine for me when she’s writing that meet cute scene and that early banter. Usually her magic stays with me the whole way through, but unfortunately the magical realism element in this book just threw me off as did this side-plot about the character who stars in the next book in this series.
Essentially this book follows Gaia, who is an author with this magic power where what she dreams is recorded on her laptop and her dreams are based on what she wrote previously. So she’s able to sort of live in her dream life and fix the dialogue and interactions between her characters. After re-meeting Jacob, she finds herself dreaming of him as her hero, only Jacob is also actually in the dream. There was something about these interactions that just didn’t sit quite right with me. The ethics of it are probably normally something I would gloss over because fiction, but for some reason, I couldn’t quite manage. Anyway, I would recommend this to people who enjoy that little magical element that exists for no clear reason and defies explanation more than I do.
Bonus Review of a DNF:
Plus Size Player by Danielle Allen
It turns out, I am not in the mood for this much spice. And the real problem is, I’m not sure I ever am these days. That said, Danielle Allen writes SO WELL so I definitely recommend this book if you’re okay with reading a lot of very sexy scenes. Where I DNF’d, the characters were getting it on in the middle of our FMC’s first pretty important work event and something about that had me at the end of my rope. Mind you, this has not always been something that bothers me. But this weekend? I couldn’t do it. That said, the audiobook is fab because I love the narrator, but also, I can’t skim read an audiobook to find out what happens, so that’s unfortunate. I’m just grateful it’s a romance so I know these two will find their way to happiness together by the end.
Closing Thoughts
Mixed results here with the books I wound up talking about, but I finished a series and started one that I’ll continue with, so I think that’s a win! Have you read any of these? They’ve all been out for at least a month and a half, so if any appeal to you that you haven’t picked up yet, you can grab them right away.
xx
firewhiskeyreader 