Search

Rainy Day's Books, Video Games and Other Writings

Open Search

Book Review: A Knight on Wolf Island

Rating: 4 stars

When fate thrusts a young man into hell, who must he become to claw his way out?

After the Providence sank beneath the ocean, blacksmith Tayen washes up on the shore of an unknown island as the only survivor. Haunted by the drowning screams of his crewmates, his only desire is to block out those traumatic memories and return home. But there’s something else on the island, lurking in the shadows and roaming free at night, intent on keeping him there. His mother knew them as yee naaldlooshii. He knows them as wolves. But not just any wolves—skinwalkers.

From his Navajo ancestors, who come to him while he dreams, Tayen learns that his destiny on this island isn’t simply to survive; he’s destined to kill an evil that has endured for centuries. Drawing on his late mother’s teachings and his own wit, Tayen must find the courage to fight for his soul, whatever the cost.

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

A Knight on Wolf Island follows the story of young Tayen and his quest to escape this cursed island, conquering the evil skin walkers that follow his every movement at night. In this book, you learn how he comes to wash up on the shores of this island, how these creatures came to be, and you see Tayen learn to inhabit the island while he comes up with a plan to destroy these creatures. I found this aspect of this book fascinating because it helps set up the world Tayen inhabits and helps me, as the reader, understand the choices he makes in order to survive in his struggles against the skin walkers.

What I also enjoyed reading in A Knight on Wolf Island was reading the story about how the skin walkers first appeared on the island. I felt like that interlude was great to include because it gave insight into how these creatures first came to the island and how they were able to survive for so long. I also enjoyed reading about the skin walkers because they sounded like fascinating creatures, so I was curious how Tayen would deal with them on the island once he settled into surviving there. I especially enjoyed it when you see the relationship he develops with the one he calls Trickster because they end up having an understanding with each other that he doesn’t have with the rest of the skin walkers that inhabit the island.    

What I also enjoyed reading in this book was seeing his dreams and learning more about Tayen’s ancestry through them. They felt like they were a transformative experience from when he first appeared on the island and were an eye into letting him know what he was getting into when it came to fighting the skin walkers. A way for him to become the warrior he needed to be to fight these adversaries. Because I feel like from the first dream to the last, he transforms into a different man on the island as he realizes what he really needs to do in order to defeat the skin walkers so he can escape.

If there was anything in this book I didn’t particularly enjoy, it would have to be the ending. Mostly because after everything Tayen goes through, I expected it to be different. I was hoping that in this book, there would be an epilogue for his story once he gets off the island to see where he goes and find out what happens to the island overall, but that was missing here, so it felt almost like his story wasn’t complete to me because of it. Like I was missing a chapter in his story that should’ve been there.

I also found it strange too that he knew exactly what to do to survive on the island. I understood him knowing how to forge weapons and armor due to his experience as a blacksmith. But him just knowing right off the bat how to get items together to build a fortress in the forest so he could have somewhere to live away from the skin walkers didn’t particularly make any sense to me. I felt like with that aspect of the story, there should’ve been way more struggle for him and mistakes in getting things together than there was. Or, if he knew how to get those things together, more information about Tayen’s character that could explain it to you in a logical manner.  

However, I enjoyed reading A Knight on Wolf Island as I enjoyed learning about this cursed island and how Tayen survived it. Also, enjoyed reading about the skin walkers and seeing Tayen fighting against them, and seeing the connection between his dreams and what he was going through while on the island. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading fantasy books, especially books with an element of survival in them, along with anyone who enjoys reading about creatures like these skin walkers. A Knight on Wolf Island is scheduled to be published on October 20, 2026, for anyone interested in reading this book.

0

Book Review: Traitors’ Nest

Rating: 4.5 stars

Lovely War meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this new YA fantasy from acclaimed author Frances Hardinge, about the people caught in a game played by the gods where castles are moved around the world like chess pieces

Far above the valleys and villages of the Kingdom of Thaletal, a Great Game is played. Players move castles around the realm like chess pieces—and the ordinary villagers are mere pawns at the whim of their tactics.

When 16-year-old Burr’s peaceful village is disrupted by the arrival of an ominous new castle, he decides he’s had enough. But what starts as a plucky coup soon escalates—and then the castle is wrenched away to a far-flung corner of the kingdom, where whispers mount of a mysterious ancient maiden whose magpies collect her debts at dangerous prices.

Here, the stakes are higher than the tallest turrets, and every move counts. Burr must work with his sisters and friends—and rely on the unexpected help of an intriguing heiress—to unravel the secrets of the Magpie Maiden and the origins of the Great Game before he becomes just another casualty of the Players’ deadly contest.

I received an audio copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

I enjoyed listening to Traitors’ Nest for my first audiobook read. As I’ve never listened to an audiobook before, I wasn’t sure how this was going to go, but I can definitely say this was such an enjoyable experience for me, as this was such a good story to give a listen to.  

What I enjoyed about it was learning about the moving castles from the perspective of a young teenager. It felt magical because I didn’t know where the story was going, and I found myself feeling for this group of villagers who had taken over a castle and didn’t understand what they were doing. Learning about this from Burr made it all the more real because he played such a pivotal role in the story. I enjoyed learning about everyone through his eyes and getting an understanding of how castles work as well as getting a good grasp of the rules and laws of owning a castle once the villagers took over the castle they inhabited.

What I also enjoyed about Traitors’ Nest was seeing the different relationships that formed as the story progressed. You can see that as the story goes on, everyone that inhabits the castle starts caring about each other, even those who initially didn’t know the villagers. I also enjoyed learning more about castles through the eyes of a certain player and the strategic rules of making them jump. It felt like I was listening to a strategy game and having to figure out the rules as the game went on, and I loved it.

I loved listening to Traitors’ Nest too because I felt like the story also had so many twists and turns. Yes, there were times when the characters’ castle was in a place, and you had an idea of what was going to happen there, but there were moments when that wasn’t the case too. Those moments were great for me because I felt like that’s when the author created the story I heard in this book and made me even more interested to see the direction the story was going. I felt like there were a lot of great moments of storytelling where I learned a lot about the world the inhabitants of the castle lived in, which allowed me to understand the choices they made in this book.

There wasn’t anything in particular with Traitors’ Nest I didn’t dislike. Maybe if I had to pick anything, it would have to be the reveal of who the traitor is among the people in the castle. Mostly because this character was someone I expected to betray them by going off hints that had been given throughout the story. And the way the traitor is revealed too just felt hastily done to me because I felt like the character that betrays them is usually way smarter than that most of the time in the story. Up until their identity is revealed. I was also disappointed by it because this character is someone in the story that I felt was an interesting character to have in the story and was actually someone that I enjoyed getting to know. It was someone I really wanted to know more about their background and find out their motivation behind making the decision to betray them.

But overall, I enjoyed listening to Traitors’ Nest as my first audiobook read on NetGalley. I found the plot enjoyable, and the narrator’s voice telling their story enjoyable. Seeing castles in such a fantastical way wasn’t what I expected, but I enjoyed it all the way through, as these characters were such a delight to read about. I highly recommend this book to young fantasy readers, as I believe it’s a good book for those looking to get into the genre and for anyone in general who loves reading fantasy, as I don’t feel like you’ll be disappointed with this one. Traitors’ Nest was published on September 8, 2026, for those interested in checking out this book.  

 

0

Book Review: Night Songs

Rating: 3 stars

In this haunting family saga, a young woman must delve into her country star mother’s music to break a curse that has plagued the women in her family for generations—before her time runs out.

On the morning of Rhea’s eighteenth birthday, she makes a shocking discovery—her mother was the famed singer of some of country music’s most iconic tunes, the legendary Lulabelle “Belle” Powers, and she’s just inherited her massive estate. Eager to know more about this woman she barely remembers, Rhea travels to Nashville to retrace her mother’s footsteps. But as she gets to know Belle’s closest friends and learns more of her story, she can’t help but think something is being kept from her.

It isn’t until years later that her mother’s best friend Hess reveals the truth—her mother believed all the women in her family were cursed to die at thirty-three—Belle’s exact age when she passed away in a mysterious plane crash. Hess dismisses the curse as pure superstition, but Rhea feels something sinister stalking her, her own life beginning to mirror her mother’s as she gets closer to her thirty-third birthday. Desperate for answers, Rhea delves deeper into her mother’s music, uncovering Belle’s last unpublished album Night Songs, which leads her back to her roots in ways she never could have imagined.

Alternating between Rhea’s journey and Lulabelle’s untold rise to country queen, Night Songs is an electric story of inheritance and resilience, love and freedom, and the power of music to connect across generations.

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

Night Songs was an okay read for me. When I started reading this book, I was initially enjoying it. What I enjoyed about it when I started was the different perspectives of Belle and Rhea and wanting to find out more about this curse that killed the women in their family when they turned thirty-three. As a thirty-three-year-old woman myself, this plot line intrigued me because I was curious to find out what caused this curse in their family and what was going to happen in the story that would cause Rhea to put a stop to it.   

I especially enjoyed Belle’s chapters because I was interested to find out how she became a famous country singer. I also just found out of the two family members in the story, she had a more interesting story to tell. For me, Rhea’s story was interesting in the sense of finding out more about the curse and how it ended up being broken. But for Belle, I enjoyed her perspective more because of the people she had in her life because you really got a good introduction to what they were like in the past verses what they are like when the story is told from Rhea’s perspective. I especially enjoyed seeing her relationships with Hess and Clayton and how both those relationships impacted her career as a musician.

I also enjoyed getting to see the world through Belle’s eyes because of how strong of a woman she is. In this book, she doesn’t put up with shit, and I loved that about her character. I also loved seeing her experiences in Nashville as I felt like this book was a great way to travel there without having to leave your home. Even though I’ve been to Nashville myself several times, I still enjoyed reading about her experiences there.  

Now to talk about what I didn’t like about Night Songs. The biggest issue I had with this book for me would be with how the curse ends up being handled. I’m not going to go into all the details in case anyone reading this review decides they want to read this book themselves, but I felt like this book doesn’t really give too much away when it comes to the curse. At all. Initially, I didn’t mind this because it added to the mystery surrounding this curse that impacted generations of women in their family. But I figured with the curse, there at least would’ve been stories about it passed down by the men in their family or something. But there isn’t even that when Rhea eventually finds out that this curse exists. The only explanation she gets from a family member about what this curse actually could be ends up frustrating me because it feels like it comes from out of nowhere in the story. I also found it to be a cop out because out of everything that could’ve been the cause of their family’s curse, the author made this decision and didn’t give a good explanation for it. I wouldn’t have minded it so much if there had been more family history given for it from past generations that explained it. Instead, it felt like the explanation was rushed and left me disappointed. Especially because there were some horror elements in this book that could’ve been used in the story instead that would’ve made for a better plot in the story.  

Then, there’s the fact she doesn’t even find out about the curse until six months before she turns thirty-three. So she meets her mother’s friends when she’s eighteen, but they keep this curse a secret from her up until that point of her life. I get that they more than likely didn’t believe that the curse was real, but they didn’t even tell her about it until she was near her thirty third birthday. So they kept it completely secret from her too even though she had more than a right to know.

And that’s not the only issue I have with Night Songs. I also wasn’t the biggest fan of Rhea’s relationship with Micah along with how she ended up breaking the curse. So the reason I’m not the biggest fan of Micah is because I feel like she gets involved in this book with the very first guy she meets when she gets to Nashville. Because when she meets him, she knows next to nothing about him and the way she describes him doesn’t endear him to me as a reader. She initially finds herself uncomfortable when she’s around him, yet for some reason can’t stop herself from engaging in conversation with him. Like their whole relationship in this book never makes sense to me because she never describes him in a way that sounds like she’s in love with him.

I’m also not the biggest fan of how Rhea breaks the curse in Night Songs. Without giving too much away, she basically doesn’t make any choices that could cause her death. I feel like she lives out of force of will and while that can be a powerful motivation, I don’t feel like it leaves a huge plot hole in this story. Again, I feel like the author could’ve used the horror elements she had captured in the story here to make this curse more interesting or at least provided a deeper explanation with what she gave us readers. But since she didn’t, I’m disappointed as a result by what the curse ends up being and how its handled in this book.

Not to say I didn’t still enjoy reading Night Songs though. I just enjoyed it because I found I enjoyed reading the story from Belle’s and Rhea’s perspectives and the characters that can be found within this book’s pages. I especially enjoyed reading about Belle’s relationships with Hess and Clayton and seeing Nashville through her eyes. So if you enjoy reading a book with strong women that flips between multiple perspectives, you could potentially enjoy reading this book. Otherwise, this book might not be for you.

Night Songs published on August 11, 2026, for those interested in giving this book a read.   

0

Book Review: Beast Becomes Her

Rating: 4.5 stars

Netflix’s Wednesday meets Norse mythology in this gorgeous dark contemporary fantasy following a teen berserkr sent to a secret magical academy where she must unmask the real killer behind the gruesome campus murders or risk becoming the next victim.

Edith has always been a good girl—she has to be, or her foster family might think she’s like her violent father. No matter how much anger simmers inside her, she keeps it buried, hidden…

Until the day she’s pushed a step too far, and that anger comes bursting out in the form of literal claws.

It’s then that Edith learns she’s a berserkr, a descendant of ancient Norse warriors with the ability to turn into animals. To avoid jail for attacking a student, Edith is shipped off to the mysterious Skallagrim Academy. The ancient school is supposedly a haven for people like her, a place where she can learn to control her powers and then push them down so deep that they’ll never come out again.

But someone—or something—is stalking the dark halls of Skallagrim.

On her second night, Edith stumbles upon a gruesome murder and is caught at the scene of the crime by Amund, who is tasked with hunting down wayward berserkir. Now, with Amund suspecting Edith as the killer, she’ll have to catch the real culprit to prove her innocence before she ends up in the hunter’s crosshairs—or becomes the killer’s next victim.

From start to finish, I enjoyed reading Beast Becomes Her because the story told in this book’s pages felt extremely relatable to me. Especially with how women are normally expected to repress their anger instead of it being acceptable for us to let it out whenever we feel it, which was a huge theme throughout this book. That’s why I found that I could relate to Edith’s character and everything she and the rest of the characters in this book go through. Edith had an extremely difficult upbringing that made me empathetic to her character, and I found I could relate to it, as I know what it’s like being around someone like her father.   

I also enjoyed the school Skalagrim, and meeting all of the characters at the academy. While it would’ve been nice to have had the opportunity to learn more about mythological beings other than berserkers, I really enjoyed the magical aspects of the story that were incorporated here. It was nice to see the magic that the author incorporated into the story, along with the mystery surrounding what was going on at the school that was causing all of these deaths to occur.

I also really enjoyed the mystery in Beast Becomes Her surrounding what was going on too, because it really wasn’t until the last one-hundred pages of the book that, as a reader, you don’t find out who’s responsible for what’s happening at the academy. And once you do, I found myself feeling terribly for both Edith and Amund because the revelation hurts them both in different ways. It’s also a wonderful twist because you never see it coming, and you wonder what’s going to happen to this person in the story now that you know they are responsible for all of the terrible things that’ve happened.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed Beast Becomes Her, and I highly recommend this book. Especially to those who enjoy fantasy books with a story that has a murder mystery told within its pages that takes place at a magical school. I especially recommend this book to women because I feel like one of the things I liked the most about this book was how it tackled the subject of feminine rage, as well as how it talks about domestic violence and its impact long after someone is no longer in a violent situation.

0

Book Review: Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #3)

Rating: 4 stars

The final book in the Ruinous Love Trilogy – a friends-with-benefits dark romantic comedy.

Murder.

Mayhem.

And spice.

Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska, far away from his almost-fiance and his derailed surgical career. It’s a simpler head down, hard work, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.

But then the real circus finds him.

Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with the Silveria Circus, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder when she’s not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with an injured leg, Rose finds herself stuck in Nebraska, at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.

The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.

…And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.

Like the rest of the books in this trilogy, Scythe & Sparrow was an enjoyable read for me from start to finish. I was pretty sad to finish reading this book because I knew once I finished, I would be done reading these books for the first time. However, I enjoyed reading this book anyway because I was eager to see how Fionn and Rose’s relationship came to be.

What I enjoyed about this book was that Rose wasn’t a perfect killer here. It was something I wasn’t expecting with her character because of how she came across in the trilogy, up until I read her story. Rose comes across as a very confident, competent woman, so discovering that she’s actually not the best at killing and also gets queasy around blood was a twist in her story I wasn’t expecting. But I love the way her character is portrayed and how she handles herself despite how she gets when it comes to blood.

What I also enjoyed about reading Scythe & Sparrow was seeing the relationship between Fionn and Rose develop. Of course, I knew from the beginning that the two of them were going to end up together, but seeing their story unfold was wonderful to me. Especially because it felt like a realistic friends-with-benefits turning into love relationship.

If there was anything that I didn’t enjoy reading this book, it would be the conflict that results in a rift in their relationship. Yes, it was interesting to get to see Leander make an appearance here. However, I wasn’t too happy with what Fionn had to do in order to protect Rose, and that it caused them both heartbreak before the two of them were together again. While I enjoyed seeing how they were able to find each other again, I just wasn’t too happy with the circumstances that caused it.

I will also add that I’m sad to have finished this trilogy because I enjoyed reading these characters’ stories so much. I wasn’t sure when I first started reading The Ruinous Love Trilogy how I would feel about it, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going to see how their relationships were going to unfold, and I found I enjoyed reading about these characters and seeing their love for each other.  

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading Scythe & Sparrow, the last book in the trilogy. Even though I’m sad to have finished reading these books, I highly recommend this series. Especially to those who enjoy romance stories that have some dark humor and are looking to read books that have a happy ending. For those interested in listening to the Spotify playlist I listened to while reading Scythe & Sparrow, you can check it out here.

0

Book Review: Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #2)

Rating: 4 stars

“I don’t just want to hear her laugh, I need to earn it. Every time I gain a little ground, I want more. I want to break out of the shade and back into her light. Without even realizing it, I’ve become addicted to it. To her.”

From the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the genre-breaking international TikTok sensation Butcher & Blackbird comes the second book in the Ruinous Love Trilogy—a hate-to-love dark romantic comedy packed with danger, chaos, and heat.

Contract killer Lachlan Kane wants a quiet life working in his leather studio and forgetting all about his traumatic past. But when he botches a job for his boss’s biggest client, Lachlan knows he’ll never claw his way out of the underworld. At least, not until songbird Lark Montague offers him a use his skills to hunt down a killer and she’ll find a way to secure his freedom. The catch? He has to marry her first.

And they can’t stand each other.

Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to hide inside. The surly older brother of her best friend’s soulmate, Lachlan thinks she’s just a privileged princess, but Lark has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows of her bright light. With her formidable family in a tailspin and her best friend’s happiness on the line, she’s willing to make a vow to the man she’s determined to hate, no matter how tempting the broody assassin might be.

As Lachlan and Lark navigate the dark world that binds them together, it becomes impossible to discern their fake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them.

There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep.

And this one has come for blood.

Just like Butcher & Blackbird, I really enjoyed reading Leather & Lark immensely, as it packed just as much intensity and heat as its predecessor. If anything, I love finding out how Lark and Lachlan first met, which leads to their intense dislike for each other. And waiting for the two of them to realize that they had already met before as the story progressed was entertaining. It was also nice to get to see Rowan and Sloane again, even if it was through someone else’s eyes.

What I also enjoyed about Leather & Lark was seeing the progression in Lark and Lachlan’s relationship from dislike to love. Seeing the two of them together, realize how much they actually have in common, and seeing the dynamic of their marriage of convenience shift as they start to work together to find out who’s killing the people in Lark’s family’s orbit. And of course, the soundtrack for this book was also good to listen to, just like its predecessor. I also enjoyed getting to meet Lachlan’s wacky boss, as he’s definitely an interesting character in this story.  

If there was anything with this book I disliked, it would be the storyline surrounding the mystery killer who was haunting their lives. I wasn’t too fond of him because he had chapters from his perspective in this book that didn’t really add much to the story. Like, I understood his motive, but he killed quite a few people before he went after the main characters in this book. And there’s never any explanation given in the story for why he kills those people before he targets Lachlan and Lark.  

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading Leather & Lark and am excited to finish reading the final installment in the trilogy, Scythe & Sparrow. For those interested in giving a listen to the Spotify playlist I listened to while reading Leather & Lark, you can check it out here.  

0

Book Review: Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #1)

Rating: 4 stars

Every serial killer needs a friend. Every game must have a winner.

When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small-town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in the Ruinous Love Dark Romance trilogy of interconnected stand-alone dark romantic comedies. This dual POV novel ends on a HEA.

From beginning to end, I enjoyed reading Butcher & Blackbird immensely. With its witty main protagonists, both serial killers who kill bad people, along with a soundtrack you can listen to as you read their story, I was thoroughly enjoying this read. I’ve never listened to a curated playlist while reading a book before, and I actually enjoyed the playlist provided for this book, so I listened to it while writing this review. Listening to music while reading a book I enjoyed was a whole other experience, something I now realize I’ve been missing out on, and will need to make a much better effort to try moving forward, as I feel like it definitely helped suck me into the world of these characters and their story.

What I really enjoyed about Butcher & Blackbird was seeing these two different people who bring out the best in each other. Yes, they both kill people, but from the start, I saw the connection between them. With Rowan, he was good at making Sloane feel comfortable in her own skin and feel loved as she is. With Sloane, she was good at being there for Rowan during his darkest moments in this book, when most people would’ve fled. I also loved seeing their relationships with the other characters in the story, who I know will play a crucial role in the other books in the trilogy, such as Rowan’s brothers, Lachlan and Fionn, and Sloane’s best friend, Lark. You could see how much they both care about the people closest to them, and it was nice to see, when they are together, how the people they care about interact with each other.

If there was anything about this story I wasn’t particularly fond of, it would be how slow-moving their romance developed. Granted, I understood that they would start as friends before becoming more than friends. But I felt like there was more between them from the start, and it seemed like both Rowan and Sloane took a very long time to get to that point. At times, in the book, it was painful to watch. Because there were several moments where I thought, “maybe this is when it’s finally going to happen,” only for nothing to come of it. It was like Brynne Weaver built moments of suspense in their romance with no direction to guide it.  

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading Butcher & Blackbird from start to finish and am excited to see what happens in the next installment in the trilogy, Leather & Lark. For those interested in giving a listen to the Spotify playlist I listened to while reading Butcher & Blackbird, you can check it out here.

1

Book Review: When the Rain Came

Rating: 4 stars

The rain never stops. The world is drowning. Survival is everything. When the Rain Came is the first YA book in an all-new, action-packed dystopian adventure series by New York Times bestselling author Matt Eicheldinger.

“If we stay here, if we keep wandering without a real plan, we won’t last. Maybe The Hill is dangerous. But maybe it’s not. It’s the only plan we have.”

Seventeen-year-old Aurora knows how to survive. Life in the foster system has taught her how to stay quiet, stay smart, and stay ready. But nothing could prepare her for this: a never-ending storm that swallows cities, drowns forests, and turns the world into a flooded wasteland.

Trapped in a collapsing house with her strict prepper foster parents, Aurora is forced to live by their rules just to stay alive. Until the day they disappear without a trace.

Alone. Abandoned. And running out of time.

All Aurora has is a waterlogged scrap of paper and a “The Hill.”

With looters closing in and the floodwaters rising higher each day, she’s left with one impossible choice—stay and wait for the storm to take her, or risk everything on a journey through the drowned remains of the world, to a find a place that may or not exist.

It’s forward or nothing.

With echoes of Life As We Knew It, The Last of Us, and Hatchet, Aurora’s story is a gripping, emotionally resonant survival story about resilience, found family, and one girl’s fight to reclaim her future in a drowning world.

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

When the Rain Came was an action-packed, gripping read that had me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen next. A story from the perspective of a character that you couldn’t help but feel empathetic towards, as she’s someone who’s never had anyone that she saw as family. Then, when she finally gets people in her life that she might actually see in that way, things in her life go haywire, and then they abandon her to the elements, and she has to learn to survive in a drowning world.

And I enjoyed every minute reading this gripping story, wondering where Aurora was going to end up next. I felt like this was a wonderful read because it had you on the edge with every chapter, and I felt like I could imagine the world Aurora was living in as she was doing everything she could to survive. It was truly an apocalyptic story, which was what I enjoyed about it, as you saw what these characters had to do to survive this world.

What I also enjoyed about When the Rain Came was seeing the story told from Aurora’s perspective. I found her character very enjoyable in this story because even with what was going on, she kept moving forward. She didn’t give up even when things were very grim for her. She kept fighting even when things were really bad. I also enjoyed the mystery surrounding the Hill in the story here, too, and not truly knowing if this place is somewhere the characters really want to go or not. I am also interested in finding out in the next book what’s going to happen to Aurora and the rest of the characters. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to everyone who loves young adult dystopian fiction. When the Rain Came is scheduled to be published on March 17, 2026, for those interested in reading this book.         

1

Book Review: The Book of Blood and Roses

Rating: 4.5 stars

In book one of a seductive sapphic paranormal fantasy, a vampire hunter goes undercover at a mysterious university and falls in love with her roommate, an alluring vampire.

“Then her red eyes are on mine, gentle, deadly. She takes her time kissing my neck. I pull her closer and say: Bite me.”

In the mists of the Scottish Highlands is a university where vampire students study alongside humans.

Rebecca Charity is a vampire hunter undercover at the university, searching for the mysterious Book of Blood and Roses, a lost compendium of ways to kill vampires. If she finds it, she’ll be one step closer to avenging her parents, who were slain by those creatures of the night.

But when Rebecca arrives, she finds something unexpected: a coffin. Her new roommate is Aliz Astra, scion of one of the most powerful vampire families… and the most beautiful woman Rebecca has ever met.

The maddeningly gorgeous Aliz is everything that Rebecca has always hated, but also everything she ever wanted, and now Rebecca doesn’t know if she wants to kiss or kill her.

When Aliz rescues her from a vampire attack one moonlit night, she accidentally makes Rebecca her familiar. Now, they must work together to break the curse, but as they get closer to solving the mystery, Rebecca and Aliz get closer, too.

But can a vampire hunter ever fall in love with a vampire?

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

From beginning to end, I enjoyed reading The Book of Blood and Roses immensely. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I chose this book to read, but it met all of my expectations. The author does a wonderful job of giving me, as a reader, enough background on the main character, Rebecca, to understand her dislike of vampires and how she comes to be the vampire hunter I see as in the beginning of the story. As her story goes on you see Rebecca’s perspective when it comes to vampires change as she comes to realize when attending this school to blend in that not all vampires want to hurt humans.

What I also enjoyed about The Book of Blood and Roses was seeing the slow development of Rebecca and Aliz’s relationship. While this book does seem to describe their relationship as enemies-to-lovers, I’m not sure I see it that way. Only because while Rebecca doesn’t like vampires in the beginning of the book, I felt like she was pretty attracted to Aliz very early on in the story. I would say as soon as she sees her before she even knows that they are going to be living together as roommates, which doesn’t seem to happen for a little while because she somehow manages to avoid discovering that she even has a roommate.

I also enjoyed seeing Rebecca as a vampire hunter for Callisto and learning more about her background in that regard. I found that aspect of her life to be very interesting to me because I wondered what that was like for her. It was also interesting seeing what her relationship was like with Penny and how that impacted her life once she began attending this school. I will say though that I wasn’t really all that fond of Penny from the beginning because even though Rebecca seemed to trust her, I felt like from the start, she just always seemed cold and distant anytime her and Rebecca talked to each other. And it just felt odd to me since she was the character that introduced Rebecca to the world of vampires and because of how Rebecca felt about her throughout. Then again, Rebecca had been a part of this organization for a couple years at this point and had made zero progress on moving up so maybe I shouldn’t have been quite so surprised.  

If there was anything with this book I didn’t enjoy it would have to be that the truth surrounding the death of Rebecca’s parent’s felt rushed. I honestly wasn’t expecting to find that out in this book since Rebecca hadn’t initially been told what had happened to her parents when she first joined Callisto. Since this is supposed to be a series, I was expecting the truth surrounding her parents to occur later in the series, not something that becomes a main plot reveal in this book to be used for the next book. I think the reason it bothers me so much is because of the way she finds out more than anything. While the way she finds out is pretty cool overall and it does take a moment for the dots to be connected, I do also feel like it’s a rushed plot in the story. It makes sense with everything that happens to her character, but I also felt like it could’ve been better explained and better fleshed out.

Overall though, I really enjoyed reading The Book of Blood and Roses as I found I enjoyed Rebecca’s character and seeing her relationship with Aliz continue to develop. I also enjoyed reading this book since it was from the perspective of a vampire hunter attending a school with vampires while trying to blend in and learning more about her life as a vampire hunter. Just wasn’t all too fond of how the truth surrounding the main characters parent’s deaths gets revealed. Highly recommend this book for those who enjoy reading books with vampires, enjoy romance and wouldn’t mind reading a series. The Book of Blood and Roses was published on January 13, 2026, for those interested in giving this book a read.     

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑