booksalacarte's reviews
659 reviews

Flame and Fire- 3.25⭐️ 3🌶️

Fantasy Romance
New Adult
Self Discovery
Magic
Dreams
Intrigue
Mystery
Politics
Slow Burn

Yay! A map!!!

Falling back into the story after a year was a little harder to do. The epilogue helped, but I was still grasping at details from book one up until chapter 7, and even then it was because I remembered, not because the writing reminded me. I wish there had been a little more heavy reminders of what happened in the last book before the FMC left her castle. 

Seeing the FMC care so deeply about her citizens through watching how a different kingdom treats their people was a great focal point as a new ruler… but the freedom from book one’s events wasn’t felt as acutely as I would have expected before we dive headfirst into a plot where she keeps her power and freedom a secret. Past that some of the characters act super suspicious and the FMC brushes it off! plot was fairly predictable, unfortunately. And it felt like she was willfully ignorant throughout. The surprise ending happens and it feels like a disconnected twist with absolutely no explanation of why it was happening beyond a verbal shoulder shrug. The twist ending could have been given a little more foreshadowing. Instead it just happened and took care of a glaring problem, that could have been an interesting dynamic change in the next book, like it was nothing. 

The characters were interesting. The characters outside of the love triangle definitely took a hit in this installment. I’m their complete absence I wondered if they were necessary at all. Once we had them back, so little was given in their development.

The FMC felt so emotionally/romantically immature (but I gave her the benefit of the doubt due to being raised locked in a tower).  The worry she had about what her indecision and choices would look like to everyone else… well, it’s exactly what it looked like. All of the autonomy the FMC fought for was basically gone by going on this trip that didn’t make a lot of sense. The badass from the end of book one was COMPLETELY missing. 

The world-building was decent. There was a little growth from book one… little thought put forward about the kingdoms past what we already knew… almost like the MC’s were ignoring the fact the the FMC knew next to nothing about the land she lived in or the land politics/history. She read a lot about it, but only when she was forced to deal with something political. Again with the willful ignorance. But seeing what the plot of the next book do with the twist will better help what is or is not going on. 

As for the magic, I wish there had been a little more. Instead we got another book where she is suppressing her powers instead of growing into them.

Over all, I still really liked the premise of the story and I’m interested in the possibilities! I just wanted the momentum from book one to keep going for book two, instead of feeling like a stutter step. 

Thank you Courtney Thorne for this Advanced eReader Copy in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions are my own.

This Vicious Grace- 4⭐️ 3-🌶️

New Adult 
Fantasy Romance
Savior Storyline
God/goddess magic system
Self discovery
slow burn 
Found family

This Vicious Grace was such a great read! The premise of the magic is convoluted and interesting. I can see where we can possibly get a lot more info into the whole magic system in the next book. I feel like this book just focused on the FMC’s magic and not the system as a whole. There was an opportunity to make the whole magic system more full and to take a look at the invading army itself, and it was glossed over and missed almost completely, I was left disappointed. 

I actually really liked how the worldbuilding happened. It was an info dump during a boring funeral of the FMC’s 3rd husband. I immediately had so many questions and needed to know more. It was so interesting to be in an Italian fantasy! The language made it so wonderfully rich and layered.

One of the main things I wish had been drawn out was the ending battle. The chapters literally counted down to the exact day of the battle… then to have it over so quickly was a little disappointing. I wish that it had just been more. More strategy, more of a look into the invading army.

The internal struggle the FMC has hit me so hard. I found myself tearing up about her lemon tree right along with her. But at the same time I didn’t love her. Seeing her grow as a character was nice, but she was a little too dependent for my taste.

Be aware that there is spice. It’s not closed door, but more like cracked open. I appreciated it and how it was done. The dirty jokes were dirtier than the spice. 

I enjoyed the story I’m really looking forward to the next book!

Until the stars fall-2.5⭐️3🌶️

Romantic Fantasy

Dual POV

Training

Slow burn

Journey

Fated mates

The plot tools were unfortunately very obvious, and didn’t have the impact I would have hoped. So much I saw really far in advance.

This feels like a fantasy version of Sabrina starting Audrey Hepburn. Where the FMC has a crush on the younger brother, then goes away to get cultured and comes back to fall in love with him, only to fall in love with the older brother.

The familiarity of characters introduced to each other was shocking. The author just chose to skip over polite conversation.

The nicknames are soooooo bad. Like every time I read them I want to DNF the book. It’s bad.

 Thank you Vanessa for an ARC of your book! All opinions are my own.

4.5⭐️275🌶️

Contemporary Fantasy Rom-Com
Witches
Orphan
Nanny
Found family
Slow burn
Grumpy sunshine
Secrets
Twist
Miscommunication



The world building was set up so nicely! With the girls needing to be taught about magic and the readers getting to sit in on it. It’s a very good way to introduce low stakes magic. 

This found family is amazing. I want to live at Nowhere House.

The characters were well flushed out. I enjoyed every single one of them. I wish that there had been a little bit more depth to Mika, but I was really happy with the character arc in the book.

This was the epitome of a cozy read. It was a Santa see that read like a romcom. The stakes were high, but not death high. The stakes were high for the family, but not high for the kingdom/world. I do wish that this book had Linda little bit more into the magic foundational he or structurally.I

To gaze upon wicked gods- 3.5⭐️ .5🌶️

Fantasy

Dual POV

Magic

Eastern Asian influence

Colonized nation

Rebellion

Intrigue

Coming of age

War

The cover of this book is beautiful. Truly.

The plot was interesting, bringing up the question of technology vs magic. Whether the magic would stunt an empire from growing to their full potential because of the reliance in the mythical… and how it would hold up against technology and modernism. I found the call to look at the morality of power and what it means to different people to be a good topic to pursue. I appreciated the book showing the birth of a political assassin, even if it was really annoyingly that the FMC’s grandma taught her everything that she needs to know about fighting, stealth, knife work… a bit too conveniently.

The pacing of the book was broken up quite a bit by repetitive inner dialogue as well as for-shadowing mentioned multiple times, making the twists and turns fairly predictable.

The characters were fine. The FMC having her inner struggle of morality was interesting… both FMC and the MMC being morally grey was ok… but having feelings for the MMC with the oppression and emotional manipulation was icky. It gave Stockholm syndrome vibes and not necessarily in a good way. The book was mostly in the FMC’s POV, with a single VERY short chapter in the MMC’s POV. It almost felt like we were meant to sympathize with the MMC? While he was painted as a terrible person TO the FMC the whole time. Ugh.

Anyway… I wish things were a little deeper, when it came to the side characters. They felt very surface level. 

Over all, this book gave post-apocalyptic earth realm colonizing other realms. Finding a love story in the opposing sides is hard to empathize with. I think I want to know what is going to happen, but at the same time I hope this is just a duology.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine and Del-Rey for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Better Left Unsent- 3.25⭐️ 1.5🌶️

Contemporary romance

Clean romance

Workplace romance

British chick lit

Past relationship drama

Family drama

Self discovery

Slow burn

This was a cute British chick lit. The idea of having unsent drafts absolutely calling people out leak out gives me so much second hand embarrassment. I can’t even imagine the fall out.

I enjoyed the formatting of the book and having texts and emails injected into the storyline so that we can see exactly the stakes for the FMC. 

I wish that we learned a little more about the MC. I felt like we didn’t know him well enough. So much of the FMC’s back story is given and flushed out, it felt like we didn’t know much about the MMC… but there was so much potential for a MMC with so much depth.

The pacing was decent. Sometimes it felt like there was a bit too much back and forth. One time moving past something, only for the FMC to come back to it and restate. 

The twist was pretty good! 

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Throne of Air and Dark ess- 2⭐️4🌶️

Second book

Fantasy romance

Arthurian Reimagining

Multi pov

Fated Mates

Shifter

Mid/plus size FMC

Badass FMC

Journey

Found family

Politics

Prophecy

Intrigue

War

Check your trigger warnings.

At the end of book one, I was intrigued by the premise of the story. The reimagining of Arthur and Roundtable is always exciting for me. This book definitely encompasses the journeying aspect of the Arthurian legend. 

The story picking up immediately after the end of book one. A lot of the lingering questions from book 1 were approached in this book, but so much foreshadowing happened that the twists and turns were expected. 

It came to point about 60% through where I just started skimming because I was tired of all of the Spice that didn’t move the plot forward. It was exhausting having every other plot beat be a bedroom/tent spicy scene. I was ready for the plot to move forward and it seems like every time that things started moving, It got stalled out because of this.

I think part of the faded meat trope that makes it harder to do well is that there isn’t enough establishment of one’s self before the trope is included in the plot. I feel like with their meeting bond being foreshadowed so early in the series, it feels like they have been an official couple for quite some time. And so all of the grappling back-and-forth with  accepting their mating bond was exhausting and made we want to DNF the book. 

The characters are decently flushed out. I love the badass FMC. She was so solid in the first book that I found her wishy-washy in this book. It felt like all the character building and personal growth became completely undone. 

The addition of the two new Pov is were fine… But not necessary. I found that it seemed to just be a way to make us not forget about the characters who were left at home. By the time they were introduced, I was already fatigued by the whole story and found myself not invested.

I will not be continuing this series.

Thank you’re NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op for an arc copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Crown of earth and sky 2.75⭐️ 4🌶️

Fantasy romance
Dark themes
Dual narration 
Arthur reimagining
Revenge
Fae Shifter romance
Secrets
Found family
Intricate magic system
Magic with cost
Mid/plus size FMC

Tw: suicidal thoughts, memories of rape and child abuse.

The writing gets very stilted when it goes from regular dialogue/scene into a spicy one. Almost the spicy scenes were written separately, then added in where the author thought things were getting slow. When it comes to this story, I almost think that there was enough plot going on that all of the spice wasn’t necessary and did the story a disservice.

Why in the world didn’t we get an explanation about the specific differences between the fae kingdom’s powers until chapter 52! That’s something that should have been laid out WAY earlier. Little things like that make me really annoyed.

There was repetitiveness, some near repeat of a paragraph earlier in the book, that brought me out of the reading and made me annoyed.

The characters are decently flushed out. The found family was very apparent and I enjoyed the different dynamics between characters, I only wish there had been more. I’m assuming with the last chapter we will see more as the series goes forward. 

The plot and pacing was also good…  there are many unanswered questions, leaving a decent trajectory for the next book. 

Thank you NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the eARC. All opinions are my own