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Wicked Tales & Wild Romances

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Step into a sanctuary of Wicked Tales & Wild Romances, where we explore the most captivating corners of dark fantasy and heart-tugging rom-coms. This is more than just a reading log; it’s a collection of Curated Chronicles for the Modern She-Wolf who isn’t afraid to get lost in the shadows or fall for the monster. ​Whether it’s a slow-burn magic system or a spicy contemporary trope, every story here is chosen to be Wildly Devoured.

  • Ever After

    by Olivia Vieweg. Pub Date 9/1/2020

    5 Stars. Best enjoyed when you want to see some gorgeous illustrations of zombies.

    Ever After is a beautiful post-apocalyptic adventure that takes place in Germany and features two very different girls fighting their own demons who get lost outside of the barricaded city where they live. Eva meant to get lost while Vivi was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    The world has been taken over by a plant-based plague that affects human beings and is passed by bites or scratches. Barricaded in Weimar city in a mental hospital, Vivi is haunted by the ghosts of her past and barely sleeps in order to escape them. She is deemed well enough to help on the outskirts of the city with to do some work and is put on Eva’s team. Horrible events unfold, causing Vivi to have to escape from the asylum and hide on a train. However, when that train start to move outside the city, she finds she’s not the only one on it, and she’s bound for a life changing adventure in the dangerous wilds of the world.

    The illustrations are truly beautiful and the friendships that form in the vast post apocalyptic world of rural Germany are not sweet, but are nonetheless potent. Amid the pages of vivid, pastel-colored landscape, Vivi and Eva both discover things about themselves and overcome past, festering wounds under the surface. Survival doesn’t always mean taking care of one’s body, sometimes it means taking care of your soul as well. Sometimes it also means doing things you never thought you would for someone else.

    Thank you to NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for the advanced copy of this adorably dark graphic novel in exchange for a fair and honest review. ❤

  • Who Wants to Marry a Duke

    By Sabrina Jeffries, pub date Aug 25, 2020

    4 Stars. Best enjoyed by one’s self–just trust me on this…

    Marlow “Thorn” Drake, Duke of Thornstock, had met Miss Olivia Norley far before his brother Grey hired her on as a chemist to test his late father’s remains. Her face is burned into his memory from a scandously shared kiss many years before, when he first came back from England. That kiss changed his life in more ways than one, and not in a good way. With the sour memories turning themselves over in his head, he is convinced that this beautiful bluestocking is up to something besides stoking the fire in him…

    Miss Olivia Norley, a bookish science-minded woman, also remembers that kiss with Thorn, and the denied marriage proposal thereafter. She never could figure out why he acted so very coldly toward her the next day or why he came to offer in the first place. Although that evening played over and over in her head for years after it happened, she can’t let that get in the way of the one chance she has to make herself a name in the science community amongst her Uncle’s peers–regardless of the very real chemical reaction reigniting between Thorn, now a rake of the first order, and herself.

    Will Thorn and Olivia give in to the the draw they feel toward one another, or will their past and their secrets continue to keep them at arm’s length?

    This is a delightful bodice-ripper romance rife with secrets, murder, misunderstandings, and plenty of compromising content! I really love a good Edwardian romance and the one was the perfect thing to get me out of a reading slump. Olivia is a smart and logical person who wants nothing more but to make a name for herself in the science community and is fiercely driven to do so. At first, she approaches Thorn’s advances as experiments as she has no misgivings about his lusty intentions. Despite Thorn’s better judgement and suspicions of this woman who once spurned his marriage proposal, he has an undeniable attraction to her. This book contains a good dose of mystery, a healthy heaping of folly, and enough heat to light a bunsen burner!

    Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the advanced galley in exchange for a fair and honest review. ❤

  • In the Dark

    by Lisa Deresti Betik. Pub Date September, 1, 2020.

    5 stars. Best enjoyed with your favorite little curious mind.

    In the Dark is a beautifully illustrated book for kids about a ‘darker’ side of science–what happens when most of us are sleeping at night!

    This book covers many different subjects concerning biology, astronomy, and anatomy. For example, the first section is on the human body and why sleep is important for repairing and maintaining our bodies and brains. It acts as a fantastic reminder for both children and adults as to why sleep is so important. I found the review of circadian rhythm to be an interesting reminder that I think kids will be able to integrate into their lives as they grow.

    The next two sections cover nocturnal creatures and plants and the biology that they’ve developed in order to adapt and survive. It covers predator/prey relationships, the anatomy of the eye of a cat verses that of a human, how plants capture and store energy for nighttime, and also moon gardens (everyone should have one!).

    The last section is all about one of my personal favorite subjects: Astronomy! There is a lot to learn and some very cool and beautiful charts that kids can reference regarding meteor showers, constellations, planetary positions, aurora borealis, and the phases of the moon.

    There is so much information and so many opportunities to learn in this book for both kids and parents. For someone like me who has always had a passion for science, this was a nice little refresher course–I picked up a few cool new facts as well!

    It is so important to foster a love of science in young minds and I think this book does that with panache. The colorful and beautiful illustrations accompany some very fun information, which gives kids, especially those who are visual or right-brained, the opportunity to retain some very useful information that they will definitely be able to apply to the world around them. I have a feeling that I will be buying a few copies for birthday presents and we will probably be planning meteor shower watching parties soon.

    Page 40, In the Dark

    Thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. I loved this one.

  • The Most Beautiful Thing

    Cover of The Most Beautiful Thing

    by Kao Kalia Yang, pub date October 6, 2020

    Five Stars. Best enjoyed with a tissue nearby.

    I don’t often review children’s books, but I have to say that The Most Beautiful Thing caught my eye. The cover illustration is gorgeous and my own relationship with my grandmother fueled my desire to check this out.

    The story is about a young Hmong American girl whose grandmother was a staple in her life and whom she helped care for and who helped raise her. As it should be in any culture, it is a privilege to be able to take care of one’s elders and hear their stories and history. The book talks about the tales that her grandmother told her when she would ask about the cracked soles of her feet and the little ways she changed herself or things she would do to show respect and love to her grandmother. These short tales and anecdotes mingle with reality of life of the author as a child and are emphasized by the sweeping, colorful illustrations throughout, which takes the reader on a beautiful journey. The writing is very matter of fact and gives a glimpse into the lives of the people involved.

    Arguably, the overarching theme of the story is that the most important and beautiful things in life are the things we can inherit from our parents and grandparents. Not just genetically, but the stories that they pass down, the lessons that they can teach us, and the love they both give us and that they plant within us. This is an important lesson that every child should learn, especially now.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for the advanced galley.

    Page 32, The Most Beautiful Thing

  • HEIRESS FOR HIRE

    By Madeline Hunter, Pub Date: 4/28/2020

    Historical Romance, 5 Stars. Best enjoyed when you need a really good read to get you out a slump!

    When Chase Radnor breaks into Minerva Hepplewhite’s home, the last thing she expects him to ask when he wakes up after she hits him with a bedpan is if she was once known by her former married name. Minerva did everything she could to get away from her old, unpleasant life with her late husband, even going so far as to change her name, and now some strange and handsome nighttime intruder has come barging in to her life claiming that she has inherited money from a man she never knew–the intruder’s recently passed uncle and Duke, nonetheless!

    Chase Radnor is intrigued by the handsome and keene Ms. Heppelwhite, who has her own ambitions of becoming an inquiry agent like himself. Perhaps he can use her help in investigating the death of the very uncle who brought him to her doorstep–or, more precisely, on her floor with quite the headache. Chase and some of his family members suspect that his uncle’s death wasn’t an accident at all. Unfortunately, with Minerva as one of the heiresses, she’s also one of Chase’s lead suspects.

    As Minerva and Chase investigate the incident individually and delving deeper and deeper into the events leading up to the Duke’s death and how he could have possibly known Minerva, they find themselves skirting Chase’s family politics, trying to discover one another’s secrets, and (despite their better judgement) falling for one another.

    This was a fantastic romp into historic London with a cast of wonderful, well-rounded characters and a tapestry of interwoven mysteries that slowly unravelled, revealing a beautiful romance.

    Minerva was ambitious, astute, and kind. She had experienced some less than ideal situations in her past, but instead of rolling over she found a way out and built the best life she could with those closest to her, using her intelligence to make a better life for them all. Chase was also a clever person who had a passion and mind for inquiry work and a bottomless need to find the truth where he could. Together, they made an impassioned couple with a passionate bedroom chemistry!

    I really enjoyed this read and it was everything I look for in a London-based historical romance, ad i cannot wait for the next one in the series!

    Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an advanced copy, provided in exchange for a fair and honest review.

  • Unfamiliar Familiars

    By Megan Lynn Kott & Justin DeVine, Pub Date: September 1, 2020.

    Cover

    5 Stars. Best enjoyed with your favorite furry being nearby.

    Unfamiliar Familiars gives the modern witch (or interested reader) a few extra options for what kind of furry companion might be best fit them. It delves into forty unusual creatures that most wouldn’t associate with magical practices. How do you know which of these cute or unusual creatures might fit you best? Why, through a short, silly quiz that matches you! My unusual familiar is a Dik-Dik, which is totally fair given my short stature.

    Overall, this book was absolutely adorable and was a very fun read. The illustrations are fantastic and rendered in a gorgeous pallet of various water colors. The quiz has some funny questions that made me smile, like “PANDAS,” and each creature’s description contains some interesting facts about the creatures as well as a few fun, potentially ‘magical’ properties each creature may possess. It also gives some suggested names for your new familiars, their zodiac and elemental associations, and their strengths and weaknesses, all which offer plenty of humor and pop culture references!

    Thank you to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy, provided in exchange for a fair and honest review!

  • Kingdom of the Wicked

    By Kerri Maniscalco. Pub date: 10/27/2020

    Five Stars! ***** Best enjoyed on a fall day when you’re not too hungry or thirsty–there are a lot of super delicious food references in this one, along with some seriously hot love interest moments.

    Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria work in their family’s restaurant in a village located on the coast of Sicily. They are also witches, called strenghe, who live secretly amongst the superstitious populace of their home, carefully avoiding suspicion and the witch hunters that may follow it. Emilia is content in her place in the restaurant’s kitchens where her family creates some of the best loved dishes in the village. That is until she stumbles across her twin sister’s desecrated body in the basement of the local Catholic church, her heart viciously removed from her body. All contentment disappears as vengeance begins to take hold of her heart. In her search for her sister’s killer, she invokes some forbidden magic, accidentally summoning Wrath, one of the very Princes of Hell and part of the court of the Kingdom of the Wicked that she has been warned against since she was a child. However, Wrath, despite being pissed that she has entrapped him, is more than willing to help her. As they delve deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, it seems that Vittoria was not the first witch whose heart has been stolen, and Emilia may be the next target. That is, if Wrath doesn’t steal her heart first.

    https://beyondwords.life/sicily-dreamy-adventure-along-coast/

    I loved the setting of this book. It’s not often that a YA is written that sets itself in a Mediterranean country, and just hearing “seaside village in Sicily” invoked visions of weathered brick buildings and cool blue waters. It was the perfectly contrasting backdrop for a dark mystery with a tense, delicious romance. Maniscalco is truly an artist when it comes to building three-dimensional characters with truly deep emotions and motivation for revenge as well as grief, loss, betrayal, and love. I could practically feel the heat coming from my kindle in some scenes and found myself gripping the edges during others.

    A mark of a truly good book is how lost you can get in what is happening. When I finally came up for air, I was shivering in my hammock and it was practically morning. That should alone should drill home how good I thought this was, and I am so excited for this October!

    Thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown for the advanced copy in exchange for this review ❤

  • The Wild

    By Owen Laukkanen, pub date September 14, 2020

    Best enjoyed outside where you can smell fresh air and dirt–even better if you can surround yourself with forest.

    Dawn messed up. Dawn messed up bad enough that her mother and her step dad showed up at her middle aged drug dealing boyfriend’s house to pick her up and drag her off the Out of the Wild, a program for wayward teens. Now, Dawn is experiencing some of the toughest situations she’s ever had to deal with…at least the ones she’s willing to talk about.

    Along with other messed up kids like her and int he company of two counselors, it looks like Dawn is going to be hiking non-stop over the course of the next three months until she can prove that she is responsible and respectful and has turned her life around. Maybe it will give her the opportunity to confront ‘WHAT SHE DID,’ the thing that started her down this path in the first place.

    When things go horribly awry, Dawn is not only going to learn–quickly–about what she is capable of and what she is willing to do in order to survive, she will also need to learn what Doing the Right Thing really means if she has any intention of living with herself.

    I’m a sucker for survival stories, especially those where someone who is completely unprepared to get lost in the woods does exactly that. Extra points when something nefarious or untoward is occurring at the same time. So many extra points. I really dug this whole story and I practically gobbled it all down in one sitting.

    It reads as a very matter of fact guidebook without losing its flavor. Even with the obvious foreshadowing–and I mean, the author literally tells you that something bad is going to happen and points out mistakes that the characters make–there were still some surprising twists and turns. It gets very Lord of the Flies-y while also maintaining the dark, urgent, survival-driven vibe of the movie “The Edge.”

    Laukkanen did an amazing job of describing the landscapes and scenes, the struggles, aches, and pains, and even the scent of the very air. You are sucked right into the story, experiencing it right next to the characters and embracing the exhaustion, excitement, and fear as if you are there. Highly recommend.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the advanced reader copy, provided in exchange for an honest and fair review.

  • Court of Miracles

    by Kester Grant Publishing Date

    4 Stars–Best enjoyed all in one sitting.

    In an alternative revolutionary-era France, there is a silent war waging between the rulers of the day and those who rue the night. The nobility, after having brutally crushed the revolution and all those who supported it, rule the common people with a clenched iron fist of oppression. However, those on the fringes of society–beggars, thieves, assassins, smugglers, prostitutes, and drug runners, also known as The Wretched–have created their own courts in which to rule the city’s darker dealings and the very night itself, a place that Those Who Walk by Day only hear as passing whispers; a society of legend: The Miracle Court.

    After witnessing her father sell her older sister, Azelma, to the man known as The Tiger, enacting Lord of the Court of Flesh, young Nina Thenardier, with vengeance in her heart, takes her cat burglar talents to the Court of Thieves, where she pledges her self to the Lord there in exchange of a home and protection after stealing from the crown prince himself. The Lord knows talent when he sees it and Nina is known henceforth as the Black Cat.

    Over the years, Nina continues to plan some what to get her sister, Azelma, out of the clutches of the nefarious Tiger. However, when one of her plans go awry and she finds herself saddled with a new sister, Ettie, whom the Tiger has his sights on, Nina feels she must do all she can to protect this beautiful, young girl from the same fate as Azelma. Her plans and plots take her from the sewers of Paris to the deepest darkest prisons, and to the very palace itself in pursuit of her ends. Throughout her story, she meets handsome princes and revolutionaries, all while dodging danger pursuit of a better life for her sisters.

    This is an amazing story against the living backdrop of Mother Paris. Nina is a savvy girl who experiences moments of romantic interlude with various characters but never for one second allows it to distract her from her goals and her higher purpose. On this, she remains fixated.

    The story is only further enhanced by the setting and characters, both which were described in a way that made it feel real and alive. Every character of the story was well fleshed out. I could see the dust on the ghosts, the shine of the gold around the thieves’ necks, and could practically feel myself drowning in the overwhelming gilt and brocaded silk of the palace and the honey-sweet venom of the Queen’s words. All in all, it was absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait to get my hands on another Grant offering.

    Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the advanced copy of Court of Miracles in exchange for a fair and honest review. All of the above opinions are my own.

  • Ruthless Gods

    by Emily A Duncan. Release Date 4/7/2020

    3 Stars. Best enjoyed slowly, like a square of deep, dark chocolate.

    Picking up the pieces left behind from the events in Wicked Saints and working to end the war between Kalyazin and Tranavia (one way or another), Nadya and Serefin find themselves at the brink of something big, dark, and more dangerous than they have ever done.

    Serefin’s very sight, although not good to begin with, is changed after his experience in the temple and is now hosting a fallen god within him, while Nadya has been cut completely away from her gods and has been imbued with a strange, dark power that has scarred her hand and left her off-balance. However, despite these struggles, there is work to be done.

    Someone in the court is trying to usurp Serefin’s throne.

    Nadya must reconnect with her gods so she can fulfill her divine purpose as a cleric.

    And the Black Vulture must be confronted before he destroys the world.

    Overall I liked the story and I want to know how it ends. There were some very enjoyable parts throughout, such as the descent into the Black Vulture’s layer as well as the later portions of the book when they reach the forest where all hell breaks loose. The plot slowed a little in the middle but otherwise was intriguing. However, I felt that this one suffered a little from the problem that sometimes happens with constantly switching POVs where one is taken out of the story and has a hard time reconnecting. Because of this, it took me longer than I would like to admit to finish it. There are also portions later in the book where it feels like huge swaths of certain character’s stories are missing and it’s very disjointing, although it is certainly plausible that that is the whole point. The last third of the book takes on an interesting, ethereal quality after all. Also, if you’re looking at this for the romance aspect, prepare for that to fall a little short and just enjoy the ride.

    I would recommend this to anyone who has read Wicked Saints. I think the story is still a good continuation, and it sets readers up for an explosive third installment!

    Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair review.