Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil review

Book: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

Author: V.E. Schwab

Pages: 533

Date(s) Read: July 4th, 2025 to August 24th, 2025

Date Published: June 10th, 2025

Rating: 4/5

Genre: Sapphic, Horror, Vampires

Characters: 4/5

Writing style: 4/5

Story: 4/5

Ending:  2/5

Cover: 2/5

Format: Hard Cover

Date Bought: June 1st, 2025

Book Cost: 18.00

Review:

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil was for me what blood is to a vampire—enough to slake the thirst, but far from satisfying the hunger. It's a gothic horror novel that oozes atmosphere and is compulsively readable. This book is a good novel but after binging this book over the past few days, I’m left feeling oddly hollow and unsatisfied.

 

In Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil we follow three vampires, and bits and pieces of their lives. I can't really say more than that without giving much of the plot away as the stories are interwoven. This is an interesting story in that it's a very character driven story about 3 different protagonists you aren't going to like. You're going to love—to hate Maria, Charlotte will leave you feeling confounded and underwhelmed, and you'll be trudging through Alice's dull story and even duller personality just to get back to the other two. There are plenty of interesting characters in this book, but they all feel woefully underused. Whole books could have been written about just the other characters who're far more compelling and likable than Maria, Charlotte, and Alice.

 

The book is an addictive and compelling narrative that really falls apart in the last 50 pages. It could have been so much more, I would loved more elaboration on their travels and histories but we only get the briefest of glimpses into various decades and time periods that most people would be dying to know about. That's the thing with this book, it feels like a giant missed opportunity.

 

That all being said it has plenty of atmosphere and if you're looking for a sapphic vampire story this will scratch that itch but you're going to walk away feeling a bit unmoored by the end result. If you want a satisfying sapphic vampire novel Lucy Undying edges this one out story wise, though again this one is good it's just not great.

The Knight and the Moth

 

Book: The Knight and The Moth

Author: Rachel Gillig

Pages: 400

Date(s) Read: January 15^th, 2025 to August 18^th, 2025

Date Published: May 20^th, 2025

Rating: 5/5

Genre:  Fantasy

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 4/5

Story: 5/5

Ending:  5/5

Cover: 4/5

Format: Hardcover

Date Bought: April 5^th, 2025

Book Cost: $20.95

Review:

The Knight and the Moth was a slow, arduous read but well worth it.

 

I'll have to be honest, the only time I could really enjoy this book was when I was on Adderall. It's a slow, dense book I felt myself really slogging through at times. I don't know if it's the pacing or writing style.

 

That being said, the twist ending and revelations in this book are so shocking that I can't help but highly recommend this book. I am still in disbelief over everything that happened the last 100 pages. Guys, I am shook.

 

In this novel Six is a diviner who dreams of portents from the Gods. When her fellow diviners disappear she decides to leave the cathedral she's called home for the last 10 years, in search of them. Accompanying her is a moral and courageous boy king who comes from a turbulent past with something to prove, a maternal lady knight, and a faithless heathen, as well as a talkative and overly emotional gargoyle that you can't help but love.

 

It's not going to be easy to get past the first half of the book but I absolutely promise you it is sooooo worth the journey. I will be thinking about this book for a very long time and you will too once you pick this one up.

Nectar of the Wicked review

 

Book: Nectar of the Wicked

Author: Ella Fields

Pages: 338

Date(s) Read: July 7^th, 2025 to August 12^th ,  2025

Date Published: July 12^th, 2023

Rating: 5/5

Genre: books-read-2025, fae, fantasy, read

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 5/5

Story: 5/5

Ending:  5/5

Cover: 4/5

Format: Hard Cover Special Edition

Date Bought: June 2025

Book Cost: $40.00

Nectar of the Wicked is a salacious and at times indecent, but it's also highly compelling as well as very emotional. I admit I teared up at the end. I read this book, and within the first few chapters, I expected a tawdry, trashy novel, and at times it is, but it's so much more than that.

 

Flea enters in a marriage contract with the enigmatic Florian. He's dark, brooding, violent, and somehow very sexy.  Florian whisks her away to a majestic estate with nothing but ulterior motives. Amidst high sexual tension flea searches for her family and her place in the world of the fae.

 

The Spice level is off the charts. This is not for the prudish. It's hot but I am on antidepressants which kills your sex drive so the very long two-chapter marathon sex scene doesn't do much for me but if spice is your jam you will be very happy.

 

Flea is beautiful, kind, naive, and endearing. I really felt for her throughout her journey and I straight up was on the brink of crying towards the end of the book. She goes through some truly harrowing things that will really make you emotional.

 

It's at times downright improper but the book is also very well written with plenty of intrigue, politics, and mystery to keep you there for more than just the sexual content. Again, that stuff doesn't do anything for me on my cocktail of antidepressants but I still enjoyed it.

The Crimson Crown review

 

Book: The Crimson Crown

Author: Heather Walter

Pages: 533

Date(s) Read: July 7^th, 2025 to August, 10^th 2025

Date Published: August 27^th, 2024

Rating: 5/5

Genre: 5-star-books, 6-star-books, books-read-2025, fantasy, gothic, read, sapphic

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 5/5

Story: 5/5

Ending:  5/5

Cover: 3/5

Format: Hard Cover

Date Bought: June 2025

Book Cost: $10.00

Review:

The Crimson Crown is a dark gothic romantasy fantasy retelling that will grip you from the first page. Filled with sapphic love and longing, girl power, and all things dark and creepy this novel swept me off my feet.

 

In this novel, Ayleth is a witch reeling from the loss of her sister and the long-ago betrayal of her lover. In her mothers eyes, she's just a lackluster replacement for her more powerful dead sister. The other witches treat Ayleth as if she has no value. In an effort to bring her more powerful sister back from the dead, she travels to a dark castle filled with a cast of unique and interesting characters. It's a tale of love, loss, and revenge.

 

There wasn't a moment of this novel that I felt was slow, over wrought, or poorly written. I absolutely ate this novel up and you will too if you like sapphic romance, dark fantasy, and fairytale retellings.

A Bright Heart review

 

Book: A Bright Heart

Author: Kate Chenli

Pages: 432

Date(s) Read: June 17^th, 2025 to August 5^th, 2025

Date Published: October 17^th, 2025

Genre: asian-fiction, fantasy, time-travel, bipoc-main-characters, books-read-2024, books-read-2025

Rating: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 5/5

Story: 4/5

Ending:  5/5

Cover: 4/5 (special edition)

Format: Hardcover (Faecrate edition)

Date Bought: 2025

Book Cost: $30.00 

When I first read A Bright Heart I gave it three stars and thought the last third of the book was a mess. After my reread of it I have no idea what I was thinking. This is a great book, it's very fast paced, action packed, and romance filled.

 

In A Bright Heart Mingshin is betrayed by her lover Ren. Ren jails her and kills so he can marry her cousin Aylin. As Minghsin lay dying she prays for a second chance. Her prayers are answered and she wakes up two years before her death and vows to do things right this time.

 

Mingshin is a lovable, intuitive and intelligent female lead you will always side with. There's never a moment in this book you won't be cheering for her. The male love interest, Jieh, is affable and good looking. He's not your typical brooding, overly possessive male love interest. He actually values Mingshin for her mind and see's her as a person rather than an object to possess.

 

I was overly harsh when I read this the first time. I'm not sure why, but on rereading this in preparation to read the second book, I found myself glued to the pages, even knowing the bigger points of the plot because I had read it the previous year. If you like asian fantasy worlds, dramatic political intrigue, family drama, and a love story with depth, you will appreciate A Bright Heart.

A Dance of Lies review

 

Book: A Dance of Lies

Author: Bittney Arena

Pages: 448

Date(s) Read: July 14^th, 2025 to August 2^nd, 2025

Date Published: June 10^th, 2025

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 5/5

Story: 5/5

Ending:  4/5

Cover: 4/5

Format: Hardcover

Date Bought: July 1^st, 2025

Book Cost: 26.99 

A Dance of Lies is a jewel of a book. The world is lush and vibrant with an unforgettable story and noteworthy characters being led by a fantastic female lead who has various struggles both mental and physical, to overcome. The revelations and twists will have your jaw dropping.

 

In this fantasy world, full of the perfect amount of world-building, I should add, we are introduced to Vasalie Moran. Once the Kings Jewel she has spent the last two years wasting away in jail for a crime she didn't commit. King Illian is willing to release her if she acts as a spy for him during the crown's gathering on the Isle of Anell. While there, she meets a motley assortment of interesting, unique, and lovable characters with different and varied motivations and personalities. Vasalie longs to interact and make friends with others, but her precarious position as Illians spy keeps her from involving herself with others until a particularly devious request forces Vasalie to make some tough decisions.

 

This novel takes a lot of care in its handling of tough themes. Vasalie herself is left with permanent disabilities and changes to her body from the years in prison with malnourishment and lack of movement. Vasalie is a multifaceted heroine who has become my all-time favorite female main character. She struggles with not only various ailments, but deep psychological pain, and the morality surrounding betraying those around her in a bid to save herself. Never has a heroine struggled so much with such quandaries; it was really refreshing.

 

This book of course wouldn't be a romantasy without romance, and you will get a unique love triangle with two very different men in terms of looks, personality, and places in their respective societies. It's like night and day. Usually, when I read romantasy the various love interests are all highly similar, brooding and sulking, stoic males. You won't find that here; men have real personalities. They also both have fully fleshed-out pasts.

 

I have one complaint, it's a small one. It ends on a cliffhanger and since it was just released there's no book two yet, but rest assured knowing that as soon as it's available for preorder it's going to be at the top of my TBR.

 

If you have even a passing interest in romantasy and are looking for a heroine with more depth than usual and male love interests with personalities that doesn't entail growling then you need to run to your local book store and grab A Dance of Lies.

Wish Upon a K-star review

 

Book: Wish Upon a K-Star

Author: Kat Cho

Pages: 336

Date(s) Read: May 11^th, 2025 to July  28^th, 2025

Date Published: April 29^th, 2025

Genre: Asian-fiction, bipoc-main-characters, books-read-2025, contemporary-asian,

Rating: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3/5

Story: 3/5

Ending:  4/5

Cover: 4/5

Format: Hardcover

Date Bought: June 6^th, 2025

Book Cost: 18.99

Wish Upon a K-Star is the cotton candy equivalent of a k-pop inspired novel. It's fluffy light and fun, but lacks any ounce of depth or nuance. If you want a deeper and memorable k-pop experience I recommend K-Pop Confidential by Stephan Lee or I'll Be the One by Lyla Lee.