First off, this book was nothing like I expected it to be; so don’t go in thinking this is a traditional horror book – or mystery – it isn’t. I’ve not read any of this author’s other works, so I was going in a bit blind here. I saw it on NetGalley and it looked interesting, and so I requested it. I think perhaps I might not have been the right audience for this book, or perhaps I just wasn’t reading it at the right time.

First off, I am prefacing this with I got this book in Fairyloot’s August 2021 box – Lovestruck. Mind you, I haven’t enjoyed YA contemporary in some time. It just hasn’t hit me in the right way that it does for others. Not that it isn’t good, a lot of it is, but generally isn’t for me. Saying that, I felt obligated to read this book as it came in my box. I hadn’t heard of this (but now that I’ve read it, I’m seeing it everywhere!) so I went into this with pretty much no knowledge of anything. That is totally on me. Word to the wise: read book summaries before starting books.

Malice is one of those books that was recommended to me and I saw on lots of lists as being such a great read, so I decided that it was time to try it and see if I liked it. I feel like I’m being overgenerous with my three star rating. It was really a 2/2.5 for me. This book just didn’t work for me on so many levels.

about it before I read it. In fact, it didn’t seem that anyone was really talking about it. But I knew I was going to give it a try

If you know me, you know I love Tricia Levenseller. She is one of my auto-buy authors because I feel like I’m guaranteed to like anything she writes. I also can’t decide if Daughter of the Pirate King or The Shadows Between Us is my favorite book of hers. I enjoyed this one, because the rep in it is stunning and gave me many feelings.

You know those books that just make you melt? That you can’t help but sigh and say, “oh, I just love this!”? This is one of those books. It was so cutesy and was so sweet that my teeth still hurt thinking about it. Okay I lie, there is a lots of banter and enemies to lovers in this book and it was done so well.

way outside of my comfort zone. I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six and liked them both. So I figured I’d give Malibu Rising a chance. My mother and I read it one after the other and then talked about it. She’s read Evelyn but not Daisy.

Fire with Fire was a Fairyloot pick. However, it had already been on my radar of books I was interested in. DRAGONS. Who doesn’t love dragons? I love them in all their forms. It also mentioned sisters and rivals and dragons and who doesn’t love all those things? I was really hoping that I was going to be blown away by this book, but in the end it was middle of the road for me.