Special thanks to Grace Fell at Spark Point Studio and Balzer + Bray for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
Rust in the Root Publisher: Balzer + Bray Pub Date: 20 September 2022 Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Panda Rating: (4 pandas)
📖SYNOPSIS
The author of the visionary New York Times bestseller Dread Nation returns with another spellbinding historical fantasy set at the crossroads of race and power in America.
It is 1937, and Laura Ann Langston lives in an America divided—between those who work the mystical arts and those who do not. Ever since the Great Rust, a catastrophic event that blighted the arcane force called the Dynamism and threw America into disarray, the country has been rebuilding for a better future. And everyone knows the future is industry and technology—otherwise known as Mechomancy—not the traditional mystical arts.
Laura disagrees. A talented young mage from Pennsylvania, Laura hopped a portal to New York City on her seventeenth birthday with hopes of earning her mage’s license and becoming something more than a rootworker.
But six months later, she’s got little to show for it other than an empty pocket and broken dreams. With nowhere else to turn, Laura applies for a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a branch of the US government dedicated to repairing the Dynamism so that Mechomancy can thrive. There she meets the Skylark, a powerful mage with a mysterious past, who reluctantly takes Laura on as an apprentice.
As they’re sent off on their first mission together into the heart of the country’s oldest and most mysterious Blight, they discover the work of mages not encountered since the darkest period in America’s past, when Black mages were killed for their power—work that could threaten Laura’s and the Skylark’s lives, and everything they’ve worked for.
⚠️CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
Racism, use of racial slurs, slavery (historical), genocide (historical), violent death (on-page)
Hello, hello friends! I’m so excited to be back with another #UltimateBlogTour with @TheWriteReads gang for The Miraculous Sweetmakers: The Frost Fair by Natasha Hastings. Don’t forget to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour: here or click on the banner below! 😍
Special thanks to HarperCollins for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
Falling for the hopeless romantic was never part of the plan…
Elle Van Helsing wants to start her life away from home. Constantly living under the shadow of her brother, she plans to find romance and survive on her own: even if it’s financially harder than she thought. Getting a job at a dive bar three doors down from her new place is the perfect solution. Well, it was until the owner has a family emergency and asks his nephew to help out in his absence. The guy she used to have a crush on until he ruined it.
Cal Holt might be a legend on the ice, but off it? He’s alone and likes to keep it that way. It’s easier to protect himself when he’s always a jerk, but the one person who gets under his skin is Elle. Torn between wanting to get to know her and pushing her away, he’s surprised when he learns she hates him. She looked at him differently the year before, and now that they’re stuck managing a bar for a few weeks, tensions rise.
She’s a hopeless romantic who wants grand gestures and sees the world through rose-colored glasses. He’s a grumpy cynic with a permanent scowl. She dreams of love, and he wants a one-night stand. She plans to build a life on campus, and he plans to leave and head to the NHL. Complete opposites in every way, they shift from enemies to friends…but Cal refuses to fall in love, and Elle deserves more. For the girl who never felt enough, and the guy terrified to feel, fear might ruin their chance at finding love.
Carter Beckett is the NHL’s resident badboy, top player both on the ice & in the bedroom, and quite possibly the sexiest man to ever grace my field of vision. But worst of all? He knows it.
He’s arrogant, self-centered, and the man doesn’t seem to know what a filter is, let alone how to use one. He’s had everything served to him on a silver platter, including endless strings of women, and apparently, I’m up next.
His only problem? I have no intention of falling for his shi—um, charm.
I have the solution to all my sexual frustrations in a drawer at home, and it’s far less complicated than Carter Beckett. Sure, he may be pretty, but he’s also a walking, talking reminder for you to wrap it before you tap it.
But then I start letting my guard down, and he starts showing me pieces of himself I had no intention of seeing. The bricks surrounding me may be tumbling down one by one, but I’m not sold yet, which means for the first time in his life, Carter’s the one begging.
For my time, my trust, for a single chance.
For me to just…consider him.
TL;DR:This is an ultra corny, cheesy sports romance that I wasn’t sure would work for me at the start because of some of the things the MMC was doing/thinking/saying, but Carter’s frantic golden retriever energy really grew on me by the end! This was a pretty angsty romance filled with plenty of drama (including OW drama) and it honestly could’ve been shorter but I had a lot of fun reading it! I’m really excited to read about the other guys on the team already—especially sweet, sweet Adam! 😍
What I Liked:
This was an all-around good time. Were the characters, interactions and dialogue OTT sometimes? Yes. But I genuinely laughed out loud several times and often had a grin on my face while reading. This friend group was definitely awesome even though they were slightly messy at times!
The chemistry was✨intense!✨ Carter and Ollie had an amazing connection that jumped off the page and only served to heighten the sexual tension as they circled each other and their feelings. This was pretty steamy (featuring a dirty-talking hero who loves to eat! 😉) and there were a lot of steamy moments but I think the author balanced all of it well with the sweeter and more romantic and swoony moments.
Speaking of swoony… When Carter falls, he falls hard! This man is an absolute SIMP for Olivia and of course, we loved to see it. If you love a simp hero that will do anything for his heroine, then you’ll definitely love Carter. He adored spoiling Olivia in the most loved-up ways, and though he’s goofy AF most of the time, when he decides to get romantic, he holds absolutely nothing back. It’s really cute and reading about how much he loves Olivia was swoontastic to the max! 😍
You’ll enjoy this if you’re a fan of sports romances, particularly hockey romance. I loved that this is set in Canada (the second one I’ve ever read!) but I also really loved the team dynamic between the guys. Carter, Emmett, Garrett and Adam had such great chemistry and their banter was everything I love about the team aspect of sports romance—they had me cracking up!
This brings me to the friendships and other relationships in this story and I loved all of them! The guys were a great group and I appreciated how they could genuinely count on each other’s support and also be vulnerable with each other. Ollie’s bestie, Cara, was *a lot* and I felt her character was slightly exaggerated at times, but she was a true ride-or-die bestie and I loved how you could feel that through the writing. The relationship between Carter and his mum + sister was hilarious and definitely made me understand where his goofiness came from, plus, I really liked Ollie’s dynamic with her brother Jeremy and his family (Alannah is adorable!).
However, my fave relationship was between Hank and Carter. OML, Hank was an absolute GEM and I would protect him at all costs. I love how he became a pseudo-father/grandfather figure to Carter when he lost his dad and their dynamic was just perfection! Even better, he loved his steamy romances and even formed a mini-book club with Ollie! 😂 It was too cute.
What I Struggled With:
Carter says he’s not immature and he’s just goofy but there were moments when that line was very thin, very blurred or just wholly demolished. I wish he took things a little more seriously at times but I suppose when it really counted, he was. His thoughts about Ollie would also sometimes start out very sweet but end very weirdly sexual—like, it was too much and it felt weird to read it.
This romance was very swoony but sometimes also trod the line of being overly cheesy for me. I do enjoy cheesy romance but it got a bit much for me here when the characters kept repeating the same mushy things and continued to spout endless professions of love mostly because they kept repeating it over and over again!
The drama was a lot and it was mostly OW drama—which I hate—and I didn’t really see the point of it. Why was this woman such a horrible human being and fully obsessed with ruining their relationship when she already had a hockey bf but decided to ruin her own relationship too? It only served to fuel Ollie’s insecurities and to bring up Carter’s past but it felt unnecessary!
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time curled up reading in bed with or which book you wish you had time to read today!
I’m hoping to spend my Sunday night in bed reading my ARC of Runaway Groomsman by Meghan Quinn. I’ve been looking forward to reading this for a while so I’m excited to dive in before it releases on Tuesday, 11 October!
📖SYNOPSIS
From USA Today and Amazon Charts bestselling author Meghan Quinn comes a heartfelt romantic comedy about new beginnings and finding the romanticized happily ever after in the most unlikely of places.
Hollywood screenwriter Sawyer Castle knows a good love story when he sees it. But when it comes to real life romance, he’s a mess. That’s how he finds himself standing at the altar…as his ex-girlfriend ties the knot with his very famous best friend. The pressure, the resentment, the media coverage—it’s all too much—and before he knows exactly what he’s doing, he’s making a run for it, leaving a shocked congregation and flashing cameras in his wake.
Needing to lie low amid the media fallout, Sawyer lands in the charming town of Canoodle, California, where he crosses paths with Fallon Long, who runs the Canoodle Cove Cabins, a family-owned business and Sawyer’s new short-term residence. Overwhelmed with renovations and her long list of responsibilities, Fallon is struggling to make ends meet while attempting to bring the cabins back to their original glory. So when Sawyer arrives, she is grateful for the income, but immediately writes him off as just another vapid Hollywood hack, until he begins to prove her wrong at every turn.
As Fallon comes closer to saving the family business, an undeniable bond forms between her and the handsome screenwriter. But the pressures of her family obligations and Sawyer’s notoriety might prove to be too much for anyone to handle. Could Canoodle be the setting for a new romance—or is true love just a Hollywood cliché?
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
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