From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper
Length: 368 Pages
Genres: Contemporary Romance and Fantasy
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

A special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

I previously had the good luck to get an ARC of the first book in the series, Payback's a Witch, by Lana Harper, and I gave it a whopping five stars! It was witchy and funny and sexy, so obviously I jumped at the chance to get my hands on the sequel! Unfortunately, I didn't like this one quite as much.

Isidora "Issa" Avramov comes from a long line of badass, darkly-inclined witches, but has her own softer side as well, one that yearns to design her own ready-to-wear, sustainable fashion. She also loves animals, and at eighteen she worked at a shelter. Unfortunately for her, goody-two-shoes and green magic expert Rowan Thorn also worked there and certainly lived up to his name--he was a thorn in Issa's backside the whole time she was there, until finally she snapped and served up some magical retribution.

Now, Issa and Rowan see each other as enemies, just as their families have for generations. But when a necromantic curse--the Avramov family's specialty--is cast on a Thorn, leaving the girl weak and with hardly any magic, they must come together to get to the bottom of who could have the motive and means to create such deadly magic. And even more shocking, Issa thinks she might like Rowan. Like Rowan.

I was really excited to sink my teeth into this book, mostly because the Avramov's were the most fascinating of the families to me, and the heroine, Isidora, is Talia's little sister (Talia was my favorite part of Payback's a Witch!). Rowan started off a bit one-dimensional, something a lot of the characters outside of the protagonist face, and just when I thought he was getting a bit more depth, I felt he went right back to his old ways (which is pretty much perfect, might I add). They had a cute relationship, and I liked how much they talked things out to resolve conflict. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling like the mystery and history of Thistle Grove was just overall more exciting than the romance in this installment.

But please, if you loved the first one, give this one a go as well. If anything, it'll produce some laughter and sunshine for your day, along with a lot of snark and spells! 

Book Review: The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Length: 352 Pages
Genres: Gothic and Historical Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

A special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Trigger Warnings in this book for Murder, Racism, Colorism, and Mentions of Rape

"I was going to die in this house. The knowing swept through me, heavy with grief, cold and oracular as the whispered words of a saint.

San Isidro was my tomb."

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas is a book I've so been looking forward to, namely because I'm such a huge fan of a Gothic and am loving how they are having a bit of a revival (which is good news for my own book!), but also because I thought it was so refreshing to see this sort of novel set someplace outside of the usual European setting. The result is a haunting blend of religion and magic, priests and witches, and the horrors of colonialism in Mexico.

When Beatriz accepts the hand of the handsome and wealthy Don Rodolfo Solórzano, it is not because she loves him--it is because she has lost everything after her father was executed during the overthrow of the Mexican government, and wants nothing more than to have a place to call home for her and her mother. But the Solórzano family estate, Hacienda San Isidro, is a place full of secrets--and perhaps something even more insidious. For something in San Isidro is angry, something that slams doors, that leaves rats eviscerated, that causes spectral, girlish laughter.

Exhausted and terrified by sleepless nights doing battle with San Isidro, Beatriz feels she has no one else to turn to but the church. There, she finds Andrés, a mestizo priest with strong familial roots within San Isidro, and startingly, powers that seem not of this world. Together, they hope to cleanse San Isidro of its ghosts--both literal and figurative--and to get to the bottom of what happened to the first Doña Solórzano.

This novel is beautifully atmospheric--I especially appreciated the wonderful descriptions of San Isidro and the land around it--spooky and wonderful all at once. The two protagonists of The Hacienda, Beatriz and Andrés, are very interesting and well-fleshed, and the relationship that blooms between them (deliciously slow-burn might I add) is lovely, too. My only qualm with it is that I felt the other characters, particularly that of Rodolfo and his sister, really suffered from a lack of dimension. I think there was a lot that could have expanded upon to add more depth to these characters and even some scenes within the novel. But these are nitpicks that will not hinder the enjoyment of The Hacienda in any way for other readers! 

If you are a fan of Gothics like I am, this one is a must-read and a breath of fresh air for the genre while holding onto what makes it so enjoyable: mysteries hidden within dark houses, secretive families, untimely deaths, and of course, a hint of forbidden romance!

Book Review: Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
Length: 288 Pages
Genres: Historical Fiction and Fantasy
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

A special thanks to NetGalley and Tordotcom for an ARC of this book!

Trigger Warnings in this book for Racism, Homophobia, Body Horror, Violence, Gore, Antisemitism and Sexism

“Like we understood to make wide circles around the drunks on the streets and how calico cats were the luckiest of all, we understood immortality as a thing for men. Men lived forever in their bodies, in their statues, in the words they guarded jealously and the countries they would never let you claim. The immortality of women was a sideways things, haphazard and contained in footnotes, as muses or silent helpers.”

Having already read some of Nghi Vo's work previously, I had very HIGH expectations for her newest work, which is inspired by Old Hollywood, only made much darker and much more magical.

Luli Wei (we never learn her real name) has always loved movies. When she was a little girl, she would trade inches off her hair for a ticket inside the theater to see Juliet kill herself over her beloved Romeo, or perhaps get a glimpse of Su Tong Lin, the only woman on the big screen who looked like her. Luck seems to be on her side when she stumbles across a movie set and is immediately chosen to be an extra for the film. The magic of movie making gets in her blood, taints it. But the world of the stars is one that will chew you up and spit you out, or worse, leave you a brainless extra that they trot out in times of need, called "nodders". Once, Luli was told she was "cold as the Atlantic", and it will be that ice in her veins that will keep her alive and famous--and grant her her most famous role as the hissing and red-tailed "siren queen". But even after fame has found her, her pride and temper might cost her more than just her next role--it might cost her her life.

This a novel that is full of a strange magic, both in the prose and the subject matter. Changelings stalk the movie sets, people drink up other people's years in teacups, and the truly famous become real life stars--hung aloft in heaven by some amazing power that also grants them immortality. Luli is a character with an amazing depth; she is bitter and strong and wise, with a surprising inner softness and loyalty. She wants to be something. But most of all, she wants to belong to herself and herself only, a hard thing in the line of work she has chosen. Told from her point of view, we get a sort of pseudo-biography that could belong to any Old Hollywood starlet, detailing her childhood spent in her family's laundry in Hungarian Hills, to her many powerful and doomed loves, if not for the whispers of monsters and magical mayhem, imps and silver kisses. 

This is a book that will wrap you up in its spell, holding you fast until the very last page, and leave you gasping for more. There is no doubt that Nghi Vo is not only here to stay but a gale-force talent to be reckoned with, one that will certainly hold us captive for many more years to come.

Book Review: The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
Length: 435 Pages
Genres: Historical Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Trigger Warnings in this book for Graphic Depictions of War, Blood, Death, Gore, and Mentions of Rape

"Because people love war heroes...but even in my own beloved homeland, war heroes are supposed to be clean and uncomplicated. Those urging me to write my memoir will want a patriotic young woman who fought to defend her country, a heroine to root for with a story clean and simple as a full moon--and I was that young woman, but I was more. My moon had a midnight side."

I have previously read one other book by Kate Quinn called The Huntress, and while I didn't love it, I knew she was talented with a great knack for storytelling and an obvious love for history. Previously, I had watched the 2015 movie, Battle for Sevastopol, which was a fictionalized account of Red Army sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko's life. She was a woman who killed 309 Nazis, and famously said on an American tour: "Gentlemen, I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist invaders by now. Don't you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?" So when I realized Quinn's newest book was about her, I knew I had to get my hands on it! And I'm so happy I did.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko is a single mother, a history student, a grinder at the Kyiv Arsenal Factory--and a deadly sniper. When war broke out, she knew she had to do something--something to ensure a place for her young son, free of Fascism. With six months in a sniper school under her belt, she enlisted without a second thought, and challenged the registrar who pushed her to become a nurse. She wanted to be in the infantry, or nothing else.

In two-and-a-half months, Pavlichenko wracked up 187 recorded kills. Her biggest war, however, would be fought against men who thought her weak, men who wanted her for her body and would have her demoted if she refused them, and two men who break down her ironclad defenses and touch her heart. But with war comes sacrifices, of sleepless nights, of peace, of her beautiful city of Odessa, and of those she cares about the most--her platoon, her friends, her love.

Lyudmila has seen the horrors of war and doesn't want the fame and medals that come along with it. But Stalin has other plans for her. The "girl sniper" will be sent to America with two other students to make speeches and hobnob with the President in order to convince them to open up a second front in Europe. Without them, more Soviet blood will be spilt, more buildings bombed and more families torn apart. There, Lyudmila's quick temper will be tested, and surprisingly, she will find a friend in the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. And quickly, shockingly, find herself at the center of a plot to assassinate Franklin D. Roosevelt.

I adored this book--Quinn painted such a vivid picture of life at the front, and most importantly, of being a woman at the front, and I found myself entranced, practically unable to put it down. Lyudmila was an astounding woman and I think that Quinn really captured her character and spirit, and of course she would, since she researched her so fully, and read her autobiography as well. Right now, it is hard to imagine us being allies with Russia--we've been enemies in the not-so-distant past, and are enemies this very minute--but without Russia we might live in a very different world today, one in which Fascism won. As Quinn says in her notes it is often said "that Word War II was won with British intelligence, American steel, and Soviet blood." For lovers of fiction covering WWII, here is a book that will open up a new side of the war, featuring a woman who was a finely-honed instrument of death and is almost always forgotten, along with all the other amazing and brave women who made our victory possible.