By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild #2) by Ruby Dixon

 
By the Horns by Ruby Dixon

My Rating: ★★★★

While joining the Royal Artifactual Guild was never Gwenna’s dream, she’s determined to leave behind life as a servant in favor of better work. Now she finds herself working triple as hard not only because she’s a repeater, but because she’s also a woman trying to enter an openly misogynist field. It wouldn’t be so bad if all her friends were part of the five again. Instead, she can only trust one person while someone is going around killing repeaters! Gwenna would be worried she was next if she wasn’t busy trying not to get outed as a necromancer. Things are about to become totally unglued because someone on her team is actually there to sniff out thieves, and he thinks it might be her!

I really enjoyed the first book and basically almost everything I’ve ever read from Ruby Dixon, so of course I had to pick this up! This time around, we follow Gwenna and Raptor through their rotating perspectives in this hilarious minotaur romance. Unlike the previous book, this one leans more into the romance side of things. I would’ve been cool with that if the romance plot didn’t end up making Raptor seem like a big dummy. For some reason, he was unable to put two and two together and realize that Gwenna was his mystery hospital woman. He’s much smarter than that even when thinking with the wrong head, so I wasn’t buying it.

That said, I enjoyed the character growth and additional world building. I loved Gwenna in the first book, so I was super excited to follow her in her own story. We didn’t know Raptor well before, but he seemed pretty solid and very likable, so that was confirmed while reading this. I also really enjoyed seeing Gwenna’s necromancy abilities develop. We saw some of our old favorites while being introduced to some new characters, but we didn’t really get to know the new characters that well, which was unfortunate.

All in all, I really enjoyed this! It was a fun, light read that had me cracking up at times. I still find it hard to believe that Raptor didn’t figure out who Gwenna was early on, but I’ll live. The story seemed to wrap things up for the entire series so I don’t know if there will be any more, but I’ll be back with the third book if there ever is one!

Vampire Family, Vol. 1 by unfins

 
Vampire Family, Vol. 1 by unfins

My Rating: ★★★★★

I received a copy from WEBTOON Unscrolled through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Natalia Dragomir has grown up in a secluded gothic mansion with her family, but she’s always wished to step out into the human world. As a vampire, she’s used to being portrayed as an evil monster by human media, but she just wants to connect with other people her age and experience something new. Above all, she’s bored! Getting her dad’s permission to go to a human school comes with one major rule: never let anyone know she’s a vampire. That should be easy… except the boy she sits next to in class, Evangelo Dante, is a vampire hunter! And he’s in love with her?!

When I saw that unfins had the first volume of a different series coming out, I had to jump on it! Their work is absolutely hilarious with wonderful artwork, so it was no surprise that I really enjoyed this. We mostly follow Natalia, but we do flip to a few other perspectives, and it’s truly a treat. This volume is the first 15 episodes of the webtoon, so it does end abruptly, but I was expecting as much since I’ve noticed this does happen with some publications that appeared on webtoon first.

If you’re looking for a hilarious read with interesting characters and a new take on vampires, then this might be for you. I really enjoyed following Natalia, who has a lot of misunderstandings as this is her first experience around humans. Poor Evangelo isn’t far behind her as he tries to figure out how to stake her… if he ever does! I really liked Natalia’s family as well, so I’m looking forward to getting to know them outside of what we’ve seen of them. It’ll be interesting if or when we meet Evangelo’s family since we didn’t see them in this volume, but I’m sure it will add a new round of humor to the story. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes from here!

How to Grill Our Love, Vol. 1 by Shiori Hanatsuka

 

How to Grill Our Love, Vol. 1 by Shiori Hanatsuka
My Rating: ★★★

I received a copy from Kodansha Print Club through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kenta is doing well in every part of his life but dating. When his love for cooking saves him from accidentally ghosting his date, things finally start looking up… until he has to move for work! It’s a good thing Chihiro really likes him because she proposes on the spot. Now entering a long distance marriage, will cooking be what keeps this new couple together?!

I thought this was a really cute read, but I have mixed feelings about Kenta. It was clear he might not be the most reliable narrator about his dating life pretty early on. It left me wondering whether or not he’d been accidentally ghosting his previous dates or if they were indeed no shows. It was a miracle Chihiro turned up when she did, or these two would’ve never had a chance!

The story is mostly focused on the food, which makes sense given the title, but I’m not really buying the romance at this point. I think it would’ve been more believable if it was an arranged marriage because Kenta and Chihiro barely know each other. Cooking is helping them get to know each other as we get to know them, but the story is also very superficial about its characters. It felt more like it was supposed to be a stand alone about Kenta’s love for cooking and all of the other characters and a romance was an after thought. 

That said, it’s the first in a series, and it is a feel-good story that’s light and fun to read. As long as I don’t go into it with any expectations other than to have fun and mostly read about food with excellent artwork bringing the story to life, it’ll always be a good pick-me-up. However, if you’re looking for something with a little more substance, this might not be your thing.

The Exorcism of Faeries (Morbid Realities #1) by J.L. Vampa

 

The Exorcism of Faeries by J.L. Vampa

My Rating: ★★

I received a copy from S&S/Saga Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

On the surface, Atta Morrow is just a botany grad student who works at a morgue. Behind the scenes, she’s searching for the cause of the plague that’s been impacting everyone for the last six years. It doesn’t seem that anyone is getting any closer to the cure, but if she teams up with the professor dubbed “Dr. Frankenstein,” perhaps they’ll uncover something… if they can get past their growing feelings for each other.

I thought this sounded pretty interesting, so I had to pick it up! We follow Atta Morrow and Sonder Murdoch through their rotating perspectives in this series opener. The strange plague that can cause flora to grow in your veins is becoming increasingly more frightening, but no one can figure out the cause or the cure. I thought the plot was pretty interesting, but there was a lot of filler, and the story seemed to be stuck going somewhere and nowhere at the same time. I think this had something good going for it, but it just got lost in the filler and I eventually lost interest by the halfway point.

Scepter of Memories (Witchlings #4) by Claribel A. Ortega

Scepter of Memories by Claribel A. Ortega

My Rating: ★★★★

Something weird is going on in Ravenskill, and it might be worse than anyone is expecting. It’s hard for Seven, Thorn, and Valley to get to the bottom of things when people are slowly starting to forget them! Just when things couldn’t get worse, Ambert reveals the next phase of his plan: make sure the trio are arrested! Anyone who remembers them is in danger if they try to help them, so what’s Seven to do? Grab her friends and flee! Now Seven and her friends find themselves carefully traveling through the Grim in hope they find the answers they’re looking for. The lives of everyone in Ravenskill depends on it!

I’ve loved this series from the beginning, so I’m always happy to pick up another book! Unfortunately for me, I’ve grown tired of the forgetting hex, so I was struggling my way through some of the earlier chapters. It makes sense that Ambert would go straight for another round of the forgetting hex, but I also hoped we would be done with fighting against him as he enacted the same powerful hex again.

That said, once the story started picking up, I got over my feelings on the forgetting hex and really got into the story. We really saw Seven, Thorn, and Valley face some of their harshest battles yet. I felt so sad for them because on top of everything, they were forced to leave Ravenskill and worry about their friends and family’s lives the whole way. I’m glad they had each other along with some new allies they made along the way, but it was tough.

I loved much of the cast of characters, especially some of the new characters we met. It was really interesting to see the world outside of Ravenskill, so I’m looking forward to seeing whether or not this will impact the next book… hopefully in favor of the trio! I did think it was kind of odd that the story started winding down like it was the end of the series when I knew the final book was already released, and then the ending was like, about that… Phew. I’d be beside myself if I was the trio and all their allies. I’m sad to see the series come to an end soon, but I’ll be happily opening the final book soon.

Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke, Vol. 6 by Ushio Shirotori; Ichibu Saki

 

Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke, Vol. 6 by Ushio Shirotori; Ichibu Saki

My Rating: ★★★★

When Claire accidentally uses her magic on Dion, she knows she needs help from her old friends… only they aren’t close friends in this timeline! Now she has to decide whether or not she’s going to fess up about being from a year in the future, and if she should mention that she was engaged to Prince Vik. Will her old friends believe her? And why is she getting odd advice from Vik’s older brother?!

I wasn’t exactly the most excited about the last volume, but I’m happy to say that this one was much better! The story finally got into a good groove again and things are very quickly diverging from the previous timeline in major ways. Claire hasn’t figured out most of why that is yet, but she is determined to save her former fiance from any plots against him. It looks like we might get to know more about some of the villains in addition to seeing Claire fully discover that help may come from the most unlikely of sources. There wasn’t much character growth in this volume, but the plot busted a move and I enjoyed it. I do wish I had volume 7 already since I feel like I’d enjoy both more if I read them back to back, but I’ll just have to reread this once I get it!

Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke, Vol. 5 by Ushio Shirotori; Ichibu Saki

Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke, Vol. 5 by Ushio Shirotori; Ichibu Saki

My Rating: ★★★

When Claire decided to use her magic to switch to a previous save point, she didn’t realize how hard it would be. However, she’s determined to use the knowledge she has to prevent tragedy from occurring again. Claire finds herself in Paffuto as a noblewoman given special treatment by the royal family, but that’s not the only change in this new timeline. Prince Vik has an older brother who seemingly didn’t exist before, and she may not be the only one who remembers the other timeline. Now Claire is forced to think quickly as she’s getting a grasp of everything she might be facing.

I was interested in seeing how the big shakeup would pan out, but I can’t say that I feel super invested in it after this volume. The story was choppy on and off, and Claire couldn’t seem to figure out why events were different this time around despite making different choices before she even got to Paffuto. There weren’t any huge changes in events, so we mostly watched Claire reflect on people, events, and sometimes herself as she relived events in a slightly different way. Her reflections were often repetitive, so it felt like a chore to read at times.

Overall, I did still like reading this, but it felt like we were just going through the motions. I’m hoping this changes in the next volume since I was left wondering if retconning might’ve been a mistake. I’ll be picking up the next volume anyway, so I’ll be finding out soon enough.