Honestly, what can I say about this book that hasn't already been said? It was huge when it came out, filling a niche so many of us were looking for in turbulent times and Travis Baldree seems to be really loving it, but still being honest with himself about how he approaches the project. Absolutely wonderful little story, I'm hoping that it gets an RPG of it's own or something. I would play the absolute shit out of that. But many happy years of writing whatever he wants, I will read it no matter what.

I admit, prequels usually do it for me anyway, but knowing that we'd get a prequel to this was a huge deal for me. The setting of a beach side town where there's nothing to do but read? Goals, honestly. The emotions were a little more pronounced here, a little more raw at times and I loved it for that. All of the characters were just as loveable as the ones in the first book and that little threat that still hung above everyone gave just enough of a danger to keep the story going. Travis has said that he originally started the book as a cozy fantasy Murder, She Wrote sort of thing taking place in the same world but in the end he scrapped it because he couldn't find the joy in the story. And even though I would read the absolute hell out of that I'm glad he didn't allow himself to be pressured and ended up writing this instead because I loved it. The little prologue absolutely had me in tears with the bittersweet tone, I just can't get enough of this series or characters. Can't wait to see what he does next.

This book, hooooooly shit this book. I picked it up on a lark at the library while I was looking for some dark academia vibes and I got a sexy, dark, vampire love story with World of Darkness vibes as a spin on the OG lesbian vampire story, Carmilla. (Which my friend had to tell me that's what it was because I'm an idiot and didn't realize. I also thought Oliver and Company was an original story growing up so like...Not my strong suit.) But this book was pretty, sexy, kinky af and dark. Vampires still had an edge while not being these untouchable demigods that some stories like to make them out to be. I have yet to pick up anything else by S.T. Gibson but I'm keeping an eye on my local library to do so because this one was exactly what I wanted without me realizing it.

Another random pickup at the library, I ate this book in 5 hours, perhaps less. I cannot remember the last time I did that. It was just exactly what I wanted in that moment. I am a huge mood reader and this is one of those rare times where a book I picked up was absolutely perfect for what I wanted to read. If you liked the movie Crimson Peak then this is definitely in the same vein. Another thing I absolutely LOVE in books is when there's a big house to explore and there's nice descriptions of the rooms and what's found in them, this had a good amount of that as well. The romance was simple but sweet and a protective love interest is always great. But the descriptions and the atmosphere is what got me to keep reading. I have a couple of her other books waiting on my shelf, hoping they're just as good.

Alright, once again, my thoughts on these books are not toward the author themselves. After all, they published a book and I haven't done that so who tf am I to talk? But...This book...Did you catch the AI art on the cover? I didn't, I found this just as that stuff was being brought into my bookish world. I think there may be AI art inside the book as well and that sucks, an artist should have been hired. That being said, the purple edged pages got me to pick this one up at the library and this was kind of my first book that was touted as a 'dark' romance. I have written things that I would consider dark romance so I thought I knew what to expect...What I didn't realize is that sometimes 'dark' can mean 'borderline abusive' and, again, I've found catharsis in writing it but maybe I'm just not meant to read it. Fair enough, no marks against or for, just not for me. Moving on into the story itself, there's a big mystery that when boiled down to it's base parts is pretty simplistic but enough to carry the story, that is...If all of the questions are answered. But the MC in the character at the end of the book admits that she just never found out the answers to some stuff and that just kind of ground my gears. Minor spoilers as well here, but the book mentions that the male love interest has a vasectomy. Hell yes, I thought, finally a book with a straight romance that doesn't end in pregnancy...NOPE. They get it reversed or something and she's pregnant at the end. That was a huge strike against the book for me, why even fucking mention the vasectomy at all? Just let him go raw, babes. Unless of course this very weird and overbearing man maybe convinced or coerced your character into doing such a thing. But that may be me projecting. God fucking dammit do I hate a pregnancy trope. Alright, so these can be drawn up to taste, right? What about the technical aspects of the writing? Well, it needed another editing pass, desperately. Bad sentence structure and typos throughout. It was about 100+ pages too long for the simplistic story, most of it filled with sex which I'm not judging but the sex just...Wasn't very good to read. I was skipping the sexy scenes about halfway through to get to the end. I don't know, the author tried to instill some poetic moments or dialogue within and it just came across as juvenile. Mind you, I don't know the age of the author, so if this is their first book and they're in their 20s or something then it feels about right. This book, if I found it AO3 then I would have been fine with it. But seeing it in physical form at a library raises my expectations, it just does, sorry not sorry. This should have stayed online as a freebie. Also, I'm going to admit that a bad ending can and has ruined entire books and even series for me. I'm very hesitant to start series for this reason. But the ending of this book was so masturbatory and not in a sexy way. The main character in the book publishes a book with the SAME TITLE as the actual book and she's given awards and fawned over and has interviews and just...It took me so far out of it. Again, I don't judge the author for writing it, but just say the character has a successful book or something. You don't need to give it the same name...Like...That just left a bad taste in my mouth. It's also one of those books where when it ended it sort of left me with an 'okay then...' feeling. But as I thought of it days after I just got pissed. There were just so many things that rubbed me wrong about it and now I just have a deep hatred of the this book,(again, NOT the author, I'm sure they're lovely) it put me off reading fiction for like 6 months afterwards.( I admit, some of it was perhaps envy because I think I have written better things, but I haven't tried to publish any of it because of fear of rejection. I'm being totally honest here, the author has done something I want to do, I have dreamed of doing and the fact that it was subpar just made that little demon in my head really mad. I'm flawed, I know this.) Anyway, I can't recommend this book to anyone except maybe a person who's really looking for that 'dark' romance and have exhausted all other options.

'Jeez, Gob, you seem really negative...' I hear you say and you're right, about that one book. It's literally the only book that I have this feeling toward, I wanted to get it out of the way so we can just continue talking about books I enjoy because I swear there's a lot of them. There's only one other book I can think of that I wouldn't recommend to at least someone, but I've had enough negativity so I'm switching back to positive for now. Becky Chambers has my absolute whole heart with this series. Last time I checked they were on sabattical from writing because of some family issues. I fully support taking all the time you need for that, and if they decided to never come back to it again, they would still have my support. Because a person is more valuble than a book series. The first two books of this series are just so damn good that I've reread them about 4 times, now. And I am NOT a rereader of books. But there's something so cozy yet deep and meaningful about these books that keeps me coming back when I'm feeling lost. Sibling Dex, a gender-neutral protagonist, hells yes. And it's not a major consideration of the story? Even better. And they're searching for something that they can't name but they know it's missing and they think the woods will fix it? They're just like me fr. All taking place in a sci-fi world that's cozy? Didn't even know that was possible, absolutely in love. A showcase of what the world could be without capitalism? Amazing. A robot character that's learning what it is to be human and to be alive? Always love that. Honestly, I can't say enough about it, it's a short but meaningful walk in this lovely little world that Becky Chambers has built and I'm never going to get enough. I will say, this a world that I feel like could be made into a cozy RPG. Just the concept of a tea monk is so perfect for that, I really want that to happen.

A sequel to the first and just as good, more introspection on what it means to live and be human and to believe in things bigger than yourself. Honestly I can't read the first without then reading the second because it just continues the whole arc perfectly. Showing that just because you figure out one thing, doesn't mean there isn't a hundred other things that you still have to ponder over and that's what living is. Seeing stuff, thinking thoughts and being present in the moments that matter, not letting bigger things squash the meaning out of everything. Just amazing and so comforting. A hug in a book.