Just Like Heaven (Smythe-Smith Quartet #1) by Julia Quinn

 
Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn

My Rating: ★★★★

Honoria Smythe-Smith is the youngest of her siblings and has always tried her best to fit in with her closest sibling, Daniel. When Daniel started bringing his best friend around, she tried to fit in with Marcus as well. The rest was history… at least until Daniel had to flee the country after a night of gambling gone awry. Three years and a bad leg gash later, Marcus is knocking on death’s door with Honoria and her mom to the rescue. The longer Marcus and Honoria are together, the more they realize their feelings are no longer platonic.

When I saw that the Smythe-Smiths had a spin-off series, I knew I had to read them. I love the main series, but a series following the various members of the famous Smythe-Smith quartet? Count me in! In this series opener, we follow Honoria and Marcus through their rotating perspectives. Honoria is getting ready to perform in her family’s annual musicale as well as start her third year of hoping to find a respectable husband. This time around, she’s got her eyes set on a Bridgerton, which Marcus approves of… sort of.

Speaking of Marcus, he’s practically a Smythe-Smith himself due to spending so much time with the family. He barely had any family to begin with, and now he’s all alone in the world and missing his best friend who has barely written since he fled the country. Marcus is shy and very serious, and he hates visiting London, but it’s something he’s willing to do so he can keep his promise to Daniel. The promise in question? Make sure Honoria marries well. It’s a promise Honoria has no idea about.

I absolutely loved this book. While Honoria and Marcus aren’t the most entertaining characters nor do they have the type of chemistry that’s on fire, it’s a romance I can get behind. They’re both sweet, kind, and caring characters who genuinely care for the people around them. I particularly enjoyed Honoria’s relationship with her family, and how she enjoyed practicing for the musicale despite being a terrible violin player. It’s fun to watch how each of her cousins react differently about the show while she’s determined to make it fun for the family that are no longer performing as part of the quartet. I also loved that Marcus appeared to be ultra serious and stand-offish but that he’s actually just shy and socially awkward. It was also nice to see how much he cared for the people around him.

While the romance isn’t on fire, it’s soft and sweet. It was so much fun to watch the pair fall in love and then realize that they had fallen in love. It’s even funnier to watch them interpret the other’s interest in each other as the exact opposite of what they actually feel. I had a lot of fun reading this, and it was even funnier to see an old favorite character again. Lady Danbury is one of my favorite characters, so I’m excited to see her turning up to the muscales in each book.

Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies (Pies Before Guys Mystery #1) by Misha Popp

Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies by Misha Popp

My Rating: ★★★

Ever since Daisy Ellery left home, she’s been determined to never let anyone get close enough to make her want to stick around one place for long. Not only does she have the ability to use magic, but she also runs a small and secret business called Pies before Guys. Daisy is very picky about her clients because she uses her magic and pies to kill men who abuse others. Between her main job, she also bakes and sells pies infused with her magic to brighten their days. Everything seems to be going well when someone tries to blackmail her. Daisy must either kill three women on her blackmailer’s list or they’ll out her for murder. Now she finds herself in quite the pickle, but she knows she must protect these women and find her blackmailer before time runs out.

I thought this cozy mystery had an interesting premise, so I knew I had to read it as soon as possible! We follow Daisy, a woman from a long line of Ellery witches who used their magic for good. Because of this, Daisy feels like something went wrong when she was born because she likes to use her magic to help people by killing the men who abuse them. It would be frowned on by her ancestors, so she is filled with shame while knowing that she is still helping women get out of terrible relationships.

I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot. There is a great cast of interesting characters, such as Daisy, Frank, and Melly. Then there’s a small cast of unsavory characters, some of which Daisy works to eliminate. We got to know some of these characters pretty well, and I found that I really liked Frank. Sure, he’s a cranky old man who is rough around the edges, but it turns out he’s also a really caring and solid guy. I also found Melly to be quite interesting at first, though it seems that she lost quite a bit of steam and brain cells as the chapter flew by.

We also have a small love triangle that seems to fizzle out, or so I thought. Daisy is pursued by two people: Noel and Melly. She had quite a bit of chemistry with Melly at first and I really thought that should be the end game, but then the chemistry evaporates and never returns. Plus, the Melly we get to know and the Melly we see as the main plot gets rolling are almost two different people. Daisy has crazy chemistry with Melly 1.0, but absolutely no chemistry with Melly 2.0, so that was interesting to watch happen. Then there’s Noel. I really thought he was quite boring and one dimensional, but as the book goes on, it turns out there’s a lot beneath the surface. It took a while for it to be revealed, but it’s there! He and Daisy don’t have much chemistry, but he seems like a good guy and he’s got an interesting backstory that made me more interested in him as a character.

As I said, I really enjoyed the first half of the book! However, it started to lose me around halfway through. There was a lot going on once Daisy discovered who her blackmailer was, and it made me start to lose interest just because there was so much going on. We have the blackmailer plot, a romance, a pie contest, two pie businesses, and Daisy’s past catching up with her. I think I would’ve liked the book better if it didn’t have so much going on at the same time because I really like the overall plot and the core characters.

Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt

 
Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt
My Rating: ★★★★

I received a copy from Penguin Young Readers Group through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wil’s life turned upside down the day her mom went missing. People in town say her mom just got up and abandoned their family, but she knows something bad happened. Whatever occurred, she knows it has something to do with the Clarke family. Unfortunately, Wil’s accusations ultimately end her friendship with her long time best friend, Elwood Clarke. Obsessed with stalking the Clarke family while hoping something leads to her mom, Wil gets much more than she bargained for when Elwood runs away. It turns out the Clarke family are members of an old cult and her former best friend is their next human sacrifice.

This book was an absolutely wild read. We follow Wil and Elwood as their lives continue to take a turn for the unexpected, only now it has a supernatural twist neither of them could’ve ever predicted. Wil is a stubborn and ill-tempered teenager whose grief has only fed into her anger. Her dad has disappeared into the bottle while hardly anyone in town listens to her shouting that the Clarke family had something to do with her mother’s disappearance. Meanwhile, Elwood is a long-time victim of verbal and physical abuse just trying to keep his head above the water. His entire life has been mapped out for him, only he never realized that included his parents and their cult sacrificing him in the woods.

I wasn’t sure what to expect once I started the book because it was dragging along for a bit, and Wil seemed like she was trying too hard to be “hard.” However, once the story gets rolling, it really gets rolling. I gathered early on that Elwood was our deepest connection to the supernatural even before things started happening given how strange his family was. I don’t want to say too much on this front because I don’t want to spoil anything, but phew. This was an excellent read and while it does have classic tropes one finds in the young adult genre, it also has a lot of heavy themes that make sense to the story rather than appearing for the shock value.

Plus, there is an interesting cast of core characters. While we don’t follow Wil and Elwood’s small group of friends, they strap in for the wild ride and I really liked all of them. They are excellent and supportive side characters that really help bring things together. I was really surprised that I liked one of the characters, Lucas, as the book continued. He is definitely a character that snuck up on me. I also like that we get to see a little more below the surface of some of the important players everyone fights against.

The supernatural plot is excellent and different from anything I’ve read before. Who and what is Elwood, and why must he be sacrificed? What is this cult about anyway? I had several questions and about half of the answers were truly explosive. Once the ball gets rolling, this is an excellent story with a lot of world building and backstory that doesn’t feel like it’s going overboard. Everything unfolds in due time, and none of it seems off the wall or out of place. I also really enjoyed the character growth we see despite these characters going to hell and back. This is a very strong debut novel and I’m looking forward to what the author publishes next.

Radiant Sin (Dark Olympus #4) by Katee Robert

 
Radiant Sin by Katee Robert
My Rating: ★★★★★

No one knows exactly how dangerous the Thirteen can be than Cassandra. They protect their own at all cost, and then they protect Olympus with everything they’ve got. Cassandra’s parents played with fire to further their ambitions and lost their lives in the process. Unfortunately, the reality of what they were up to when they lost their lives still affects her and her sister well into adulthood. It’s why Cassandra is determined to get out of Olympus. When she takes on the task of entering a very public fake relationship with her boss and using it to gain information on what a new and dangerously powerful person is up to, she’s on it. How can she say no when the payment is two tickets out of Olympus with enough money to start over without struggling?

This time we follow Cassandra and her boss and long time crush, Apollo, as they go undercover of sorts for a week-long party. I was not expecting their chemistry to be on fire, and boy, it was! These two were sizzling off the pages from the very start. It’s clear the pair have had a thing for each other for a long time, but neither of them has let the other know. Cassandra plans on getting the hell out of Olympus with her sister. Plus, she really doesn’t have plans to get too tangled up with the Thirteen. Meanwhile, Apollo’s heart beats for Cassandra, but he refuses to let it be known. He doesn’t want his position Apollo and as her boss make anyone feel like they have to date him. It’s why he plans to never let her know he’s interested.

However, things change when Apollo asks Cassandra to be his plus one for a week-long party. He needs someone as sharp as he is to help uncover what’s going on with the new powerful players in Olympus. It requires them to publicly pretend they’re dating, and faking a relationship quickly becomes reality when they each let their feelings for each other slip out. The story has some of my favorite tropes: fake dating, there is only one room, there is only one bed. Phew! It was so great to go from one disappointing book in the series to an absolutely excellent one.

Of course, the week-long party brings a lot to the table. There’s deceit, backstabbing (both literally and metaphorically), and relationships all on the line. Plus, it was a fun mystery because what exactly is going on, and what is the point of the seemingly strange party events? With the other plus ones slowly going missing and none of the Thirteen being concerned by it, Cassandra has her hands full in more ways than one.

It was also a delight to see more members of the Thirteen as well as getting to see them interact with one another. While many of them may have claws, some of them are pretty solid people, Apollo included. A sizzling romantic mystery that world builds and provides more character building? I absolutely loved it!