Tag: 2026 Releases

Blog Tour Review: Forgive-Me-Not by Mari Costa

Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

Hi friends, I’m excited to be back for another blog tour today and this time it’s for an adorable new graphic novel! I’m here to share my thoughts as part of the blog tour hosted by Toppling Stacks Tours for Forgive-Me-Not by Mari Costa.

Thanks to First Second Books for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Click the banner above or here to check out the other incredible bloggers on the blog tour!

Forgive-Me-Not
Publisher: First Second Books
Publication Date: 14 April 2026
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Rep: LGBTQIA+, Queer

Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

A queer “enemies to lovers” journey of a lost princess and a changeling who was made to take the heir’s place as part of a fey scheme.

Aisling is many things to many people: princess, heir to the throne, teenage daughter of two loving parents… She’s also about to learn a lot more about herself: changeling. Fey creature. Hunted. Feared. Loved?

Forgive-Me-Not is the name given to the true princess — the lost teenage biological daughter to the king and queen, who’s grown up in the chaotic and untrustworthy realm of Faerie. When Forgive-Me-Not breaks into Aisling’s room the night before their 18 th birthday looking for revenge, the two embark on a long and arduous journey. And what starts as a confrontational and adversarial pairing grows into a bond of mutual understanding, friendship, and maybe something more…

📚 BUY A COPY
⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Kidnapping, torture (recounted), blood, murder, mild violence

TL;DR: Oh my, what an adorable feel-great graphic novel! This had the cheesiest ending but it still had me giggling and feeling a buoyant giddiness that left a big smile on my face long after I’d finished reading. This is a timeless fairytale where princess meets knight and they fall in love, but with a changeling twist and a sapphic bent that I loved.

The artwork was fantastic and complemented the story really well. I loved the contrast between the brighter spring palette human world and the darker autumnal palette of the faerie world. I think this contrast was also reflected well in the personalities between Aisling and Not. I loved the art style so much, with clean lines, intense colours, and very emotive character expressions and actions! There were some chibi-adjacent illustrations that I found adorable, and I particularly loved how the expressions in those scenes were conveyed too.

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Blog Tour Review: The Wicked Sea by Jordan Stephanie Gray

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Hi friends, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a tour (not since September 2025!), so I’m excited to be back with a blog tour review today! I’m here to share my thoughts (and a few favourite quotes) as part of the blog tour hosted by Toppling Stacks Tours for The Wicked Sea by Jordan Stephanie Gray.

Thanks to Requited for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Click the banner above or here to check out the other incredible bloggers on the blog tour!

The Wicked Sea (The Wicked Sea #1)
Publisher: Requited
Publication Date: 7 April 2026
Genre: New Adult Fantasy Romance
Rep: LGBTQIA+, Pansexual

Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

In this dark and sultry romantasy a mermaid battles hatred—and lust—for the wretched warlock who saved her life.

Mermaid Zephyra of the Syl dreams of freedom. On the run from a dangerous captor and years of abuse, she’s shed her tail, grown legs, and hidden herself on land in the merrow-loathing kingdom of Mortia, left to steal and barter on the dirty streets. But her freedom is short-lived when she’s caught and sentenced to death by the brutal warlock, Arion Stone.

Arion is as beautiful as he is cold and deadly, only interested in punishing the merrow he views as evil. He has grown as strong as any warlock might, but at great personal cost…which can only be remedied by the heart of the God of Death, lost to a fabled kingdom beneath the ocean’s treacherous depths.

So Arion offers Zephyra a deal she can’t refuse; help him find the mystical heart, and he’ll spare her life. With no other options, Zephyra agrees, entangling their souls and forbidden desires in a magical bargain until death do they part. But Zephyra’s past is catching up to her, and the enemy she fled seeks vengeance. If Zephyra and Arion can’t learn to fight together–and trust each other–there are worse things awaiting them than just death.

Of course, in the wicked sea, everyone has secrets, and no one should be trusted.
For fans of: Enemies-to-lovers, Magic Sensual Bonds, Winged Romantic Lead, Forced Proximity

📚 BUY A COPY
⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Imprisonment, graphic descriptions of torture, gore, dismemberment, blood, violence, death, and murder

TL;DR: The Wicked Sea is a fun fantasy romance featuring killer mermaids and warlocks, a steamy enemies-to-lovers romance, and a thrilling race against time across this world, trailed by powerful and deadly enemies. Don’t let this (beautiful) pastel cover fool you—this story gets dark and very gory, and covers fairly tough topics, so I would recommend checking content/trigger warnings beforehand. While there were elements I wish had been done better to deliver a stronger story, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this! If you’re a fan of Quicksilver and Phantasma, chances are you’ll like this too.

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ARC Review: Better the Devil by Erik J. Brown

Dini @ dinipandareads3 Comments

Special thanks to Sparkpoint Studio and Storytide for providing a digital ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

Better the Devil
Publisher: Storytide
Publication Date: 20 January 2026
Genre: Young Adult Psychological Thriller

Panda Rating:

(3 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

A harrowing, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller about a queer homeless teen who, in a bid for safety, assumes the identity of a boy who went missing ten years ago…only to find that his new home is anything but a safe haven—from All That’s Left in the World author Erik J. Brown! Perfect for fans of Karen McManus, Holly Jackson, and Ryan La Sala.

When a runaway teen is arrested for shoplifting, he’s desperate not to be sent back to the hyper-religious parents he knows will never accept him. While at the police station, he notices a resemblance to the aged-up photos of Nate Beaumont, a child who went missing ten years ago—and, in a moment of desperation, he takes Nate’s identity in hopes that it will help him make a quick getaway.

Before he can run again, Nate’s family arrives and welcomes him home to a life he never had. As “Nate” watches and waits for his chance to run, he finds that the Beaumonts are nurturing and loving, very different from his own parents.

But soon unsettling things start to happen—vandalism, alarms going off in the middle of the night—and it becomes clear that someone knows “Nate” isn’t who he says he is…and that the real Nate wasn’t kidnapped, but murdered.

As he starts to unravel the mystery, he gets ever closer to the devil he may know—and learns he might be their next victim.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Murder, blood, mild gore, killing of animals (recounted), physical abuse, conversion therapy (mentioned), homomisia, torture

TL;DR: Better the Devil wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. The title, cover, and synopsis led me to expect a slightly more “horror” take on a psychological thriller. While maybe that was my misinterpretation, I do think this wound up being much less thrilling than I wanted. This was a very slow-paced mystery thriller, and while there were interesting parts, I didn’t find that enough happened to make those 400 pages feel worth it.

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