Friday, 21 November 2025

REVIEW - Bite of Passage by Zoe Forward

The Book

Release Date: 3 November 2025

Goodreads Link

What happens when fake turns dangerously real― and the line between forbidden and forever vanishes?.

Gemma
Ruthless, hedonistic, mercenary, Skarde Blackmann is unattainable.
He’s fictional. He’s an on-screen TV assassin-for-hire vampire who can’t be her ticket out of a lonely existence as a barely-making-ends-meet ER nurse, no matter how much she wishes it.
Until…he speaks directly to her. And sucks her into his world.

She shouldn’t be in this medieval dark fantasy where she’s hunted by a merciless ruling vampire society. They want to end her before she’s bitten by her sexy vampire protector. But he’s become her wildest, most dangerous dream.


Skarde
Her untimely entrance into his life is a complication; she’s quirky, eccentric, infuriating…
Much to his chagrin, she’s hotter than the sun that will burn him to ash.
Her arrival in his life was foretold to trigger the downfall of his kind…and him.
One bite will make her his queen of the night. That one taste of her blood will turn him into a monster with no hope for redemption.

He’s not sure how long he can resist.

My Review    4 STARS 

**My thanks to the Hidden Gems and author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

The description of this pulled me in before the book cover.  I really liked the description and thought that the book was worth the chance.  I was not disappointed.

The author does throw a lot into the book, but I liked how different it was than some of the other books that i have read recently and that in a lot of ways she was actually a lot stronger than he was.

There are some good supporting characters and i would be interested to see what happens with Val and Cade for sure.

Wednesday, 5 November 2025

REVIEW - The Queen's Card: A Sleeping Beauty Retelling by Erin Archer

The Book
Release Date: 24 February 2025

Sleeping Beauty meets Once Upon A Broken Heart in this fairytale retelling about love and finding yourself. But the heroine isn’t the princess, it’s one of her royal guards.

He hates mortals.

She defends them.

Twenty-year-old Mira is training to be a Keeper of the Wards, a secret society within the mortal guard. With it comes magic, but she has to earn it first. She's on a quest to prove herself when the powerful enemy queen—with a penchant for tarot—threatens the princess and the alliance her kingdom so desperately needs. Powerless against the magic and running out of time, Mira's only hope is to deal with the threat head-on.

When Mira confronts an enemy breaching the kingdom’s wards, she’s captured by the Raven—the ruthless and enigmatic second-in-command to the enemy queen. When secrets unravel, loyalty will be tested, and enemies will become unlikely allies. Together, they must stop the enemy queen’s twisted arcana magic from destroying the realms, but it will force Mira to face her deepest fears.

Will Mira accept who she truly is or will the realms fall to darkness?

If you want an enemies-to-lovers slow burn romance with a raven-shifting love interest, then this fairytale fantasy romance is for you.

This book is upper YA/new adult featuring some mature situations and adult language. The romance is slow burn with some steam.

The Queen’s Card is the first book in the Fairytale Tarot series, perfect for fans of Once Upon a Broken Heart and A Curse so Dark and Lonely who crave a little steam.

My Review     4 STARS
**My thanks to NetGalley, for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

It's taken me a little while to get through this book.  That's no fault of the book, book slumps suck, but this was a really good book when I got back into reading.

Mira is wanting to be a Keeper like her older sister and her mother before her.  But she doesn't realise is that fate is going to put her on another path when she first encounters Bael.

Bael is in service and does not like it, he has his secrets, but as Mira and he spend time together feelings develop between them,  They both work toward a common goal, but when Mira discovers secrets that have been kept from her the world she knew changes and so does what she wants.

Is a lovely read, the world building and description is great, you can really see yourself there.