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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 Desperate for answers, Rhea delves deeper into her mother’s music, uncovering Belle’s last unpublished album Night Songs, which leads her back to her roots in ways she never could have imagined.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.   

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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.

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Book Review: To Kill a Queen

Rating: 2 stars

Enter a shadowy world of crime in Elizabethan London with this twisty historical mystery featuring a queer sleuth and a dash of romance!

When Queen Elizabeth I is nearly assassinated, the rebellious heir to a criminal legacy seizes an opportunity for a better life.

London, 1579. In the treacherous alleyways of London, Jack has left behind the life of petty crime, hoping to atone for the past by rooting out murderers. As the eldest child of a notorious and infamous figure who controls the slums, Jack has no safe place to land and dreams of a future off the streets. When an attempt is made on the Queen’s life, it falls to Jack to catch the would-be-assassin and fight for different future.

With the help of a coroner, Damian, a sultry barmaid with a secret, and the criminal connections from Jack’s past, the unlikely investigator dives into the case. But the former thief’s informants keep turning up dead, and every lead seems to vanish just when it feels within reach. As Jack follows the trail deeper into danger, the question who can truly be trusted? 

With the promise of security and redemption hanging overhead, Jack must uncover who orchestrated the assassination attempt before time runs out in this historical mystery, perfect for fans of Tasha Alexander.

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

To Kill a Queen was overall an okay read for me. What I feel like I enjoyed most about it was getting to learn more about Jack and the characters and the investigation into the assassination attempt on the queen’s life. For me, these two components of the book were what I enjoyed most because they are what kept me coming back to reading this book. Everything else about the book was a disappointment to me, as it had such potential but ultimately missed the mark.

What I enjoyed about the characters in To Kill a Queen was seeing the different relationships between them. In particular, I enjoyed learning more about Jack and his past. I wanted to learn more about what had happened before the events in this book, such as what had happened to his best friend and why the two of them acted the way they did towards each other in this book, and how he managed to become the investigator we see him to be. I also enjoyed seeing his relationship with other characters in this book, such as the coroner Damian, whom he saw as more of a father than his actual father, his father Axe, and the relationship that started to develop as the story goes on with Jenny. I was really invested in seeing how all of these relationships in this book would develop as the story went on, and I feel like this book did a decent job of delivering on this somewhat for me. There are some character relationships I was really rooting for here that I found myself ultimately disappointed with how they turned out, but I’ll delve into that later on.

What I also enjoyed when reading To Kill a Queen was seeing Jack investigate the assassination attempt. This investigation had so many twists and turns that I found myself eager to see where it was all going. Add in whenever Jack came close to uncovering who was responsible for the attempt, the people who had the information turning up dead, and I found myself very eager to find out how everything would come together. Even the truth of the situation didn’t end up ruining it all for me because I felt like it made sense to what Jack uncovered as he investigated. I will say for those who are hoping for a masterful case here, this book won’t be for you because this case definitely isn’t all that masterful once the truth is finally revealed.

Okay, now onto why this book was such a disappointment to me. So, to start with, remember how earlier I had mentioned that some character relationships that I was really rooting for in this book, but that I was then disappointed in how they turned out? The biggest example that comes to mind for me is the dynamic between Jack and Damian. In the beginning of To Kill a Queen, they had such a wonderful relationship: Damian, the coroner, and Jack, his protege. Throughout the book, they got along really well as Jack saw Damian as the father he never really had, due to how he was brought up. He trusted Damian wholeheartedly more than he trusted anyone else in this book. Then, later on in the story, it’s revealed that Damian has a gambling problem and owes some really bad people a huge debt, and he goes to someone Jack has been warning him since the beginning of the book to never go to to fix his problems: Jack’s father. And because he goes to Jack’s father, Axe, to take care of his gambling debt, you can imagine how this impacts the relationship between Jack and Damian. Jack basically sees this as a betrayal and finds that he no longer trusts Damian. This also ruined for me the way I felt about their relationship, too, because I honestly was hoping their dynamic would stay intact.

Another issue I had with To Kill a Queen was the overall plot itself. The investigation into the assassination attempt was interesting to read, but the story in between was just not all that interesting to me. Yes, I wanted to learn more about Jack and find out his story, but I felt like the information the author gives in this book just wasn’t enough to keep me interested. I felt like with a majority of it, I was just thrown into the story and was expected to know what was going on. The best example that comes to mind for me is concerning Jack’s strong dislike of his father, Axe. Like, I understand his father is in charge of a criminal empire. But I never truly saw his dad as a villain when reading To Kill a Queen until he obliterated Jack’s relationship with Damian. That was the only time when I understood what Jack was talking about when he talked about his dad being a bad person who couldn’t be trusted. Which reminds me that I feel like, as a reader, it’s never explained how Jack becomes the investigator he becomes in this book. None of that backstory is ever given here, just given little snippets here and there, where I see him struggle with doing the right thing, and at times, I found that was frustrating for me, too.

Overall, To Kill a Queen is an enjoyable read if you want to read a book about a simple case with an interesting investigation and getting to see the dynamics between all of the characters. However, if you want a more complex book than I don’t recommend this one for you because it will disappoint. To Kill a Queen was published on November 11, 2025, for those interested in giving this book a read.       

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Book Review: The Witch’s Orchard

Rating: 4 stars

A ninth generation Appalachian herself, Archer Sullivan brings the mountains of North Carolina to life in The Witch’s Orchard, a wonderfully atmospheric novel that introduces private investigator Annie Gore.

Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore joined the military right after high school to escape the fraught homelife of her childhood. Now, she’s getting by as a private investigator and her latest case takes her to an Appalachian holler not unlike the one where she grew up.

Ten years ago, three little girls went missing from their tiny mountain town. While one was returned, the others were never seen again. After all this time without answers, the brother of one of the girls wants to hire an outsider, and he wants Annie. While she may not be from his town, she gets mountain towns. Mountain people. Driving back into the hills for a case this old—it might be a fool’s errand. But Annie needs to put money in the bank and she can’t turn down a case. Not even one that dredges up her own painful past.

In the shadow of the Blue Ridge, Annie begins to track the truth, navigating a decade’s worth of secrets, folklore of witches and crows, and a whole town that prefers to forget. But while the case may have been buried, echoes of the past linger. And Annie’s arrival stirs someone into action.

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

From start to finish, The Witch’s Orchard was a thrilling read that I couldn’t wait to read to its conclusion. With the setting taking place in a small mountain town in North Carolina, I felt like I could imagine what the inhabitants were like whenever Annie described them, as they all seemed like the typical people who would live in such a place. I also felt that I could imagine the terrain where this story takes place, and I was excited to find out where Annie’s investigation would lead me as a reader.

One of my favorite things about the story here was uncovering the mystery surrounding these young girls’ disappearances. There’s just something really exciting to me about reading books where people go missing through the investigator’s eyes to uncover who’s responsible and why. I think a lot of the excitement, to me, stems from trying to figure out who’s responsible, as the investigator is interviewing people and uncovering clues. And along with that, these disappearances happened in such a small town, which made it more interesting because there are only so many people who could’ve taken them. I found myself feeling like Annie and having a difficult time pinpointing who I thought had taken them.

What I also enjoyed about The Witch’s Orchard was the local story about the Quartz Creek Witch. During her investigation, Annie asked everyone in the town about this story, and each person’s account of it was different. And I loved that not everyone told her this story the same way, because I felt like it was just another mystery, along with finding out what happened to the girls who disappeared in this town. It also made you wonder if the person who took the girls felt a connection to the Quartz Creek Witch in that the person responsible felt like they were giving these girls a better life than the one they had.

If there’s anything with this book, I didn’t particularly enjoy it was the lack of character development and the ending. In this book, I wanted to learn more about Annie and her life. While The Witch’s Orchard does give you a sneak peek into her past before coming into this town, I felt like it gave me just barely enough to keep me hooked on the story. But I wanted to learn more, especially about her relationship with Leo, which gets hinted at throughout, and how she grew up, which also gets hinted at here. I also wanted to learn more about these characters in this small town she goes to, but I feel like with this book, we barely get to know them before the case is solved and she goes back home. That’s why I wasn’t particularly fond of the ending, too, because I wanted to see what happened with these characters now that Annie figured out who took the girls.

But overall, I enjoyed reading The Witch’s Orchard. It was a book with just enough mystery to keep me hooked and coming back for more. I also enjoyed the setting, taking place in a small mountain town in North Carolina, and the different local stories about the Quartz Creek Witch. The perfect read for anyone looking for a simple mystery to enjoy. The Witch’s Orchard was published on August 12, 2025, for anyone interested in giving this book a read.          

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