Is there anything more fun than a murderous wedding? You add to that some horror and mayhem and a time loop, and well, my romantic heart just couldn't pass it up. So I tore into Kiss Slay Replay with glee and morbid fascination, certain I was about to have the time of my life.

Let's talk about the time loop first. Now I'm a big fan of that plot device, but if you're going to use it, don't dawdle. Since the time loop is never a surprise to the reader (it's usually heavily advertised beforehand, and in this case, it's printed right there on the cover), we already know going in that that's where the story's headed. So it's best to get there as soon as possible and have the protagonist be clued in, so we can get to the fun part of actually breaking the time loop. But if you drag that first part out, then it can start to feel a bit like slow going, and that's what happened here.

Speaking of protagonists catching on, Willa just isn't the brightest bulb in the shed. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, she's in denial. I get it. In real life, if I were ever to get stuck in a time loop, I would be in denial too. But this isn't real life, and reading about such waffling and wallowing just isn't that enthralling.

And even after she's clued in, Willa still remains stuck there. In crucial moments when she could be breaking the time loop or running the heck away, we yet again find her doing her makeup for hours or ruminating about her ex and gazing into his eyes from across the room. At one point, she was supposed to be hiding quietly from a group of rabid something or other, but instead she gets into a loud argument. I mean, what can you say about such ridiculous behavior?

To Willa's credit, she does get there eventually since the book does end. But it was an uneven journey, with her alternatingly gathering up her courage, then losing it again to indecision and inaction. There was even a moment she said to herself, "Help how? I'm frozen. I'm useless," and I thought to myself, Girl, no truer words have ever been said.

So apparently, this is what's known as bubblegum horror. But I must be living under a rock cause this is the first time I've encountered it. I think the tone threw me off for a bit there. It was light and frothy, but then every time we get to the gore and violence, it was brutal. There was definitely some whiplash, but I adjusted eventually.

That all sounds very mixed, but I did have fun here. I thought the concept was interesting, every iteration of the time loop different enough to keep my attention, and Willa's self awareness of her shortcomings added a comedic slant to every frustration. Even when we get to the time loop explanation (which turned out to be the most jumbly word salad of scientific terms I've ever heard), it was more funny than anything else.

Now obviously, if you're stuck in a time loop, I wouldn't use this book as a blueprint on how to act. But if you're looking for some high stakes fun and gore, and especially if you're a fan of time loops, this isn't that bad of a choice.

Readaroo Rating: 3.5 stars

Oh boy. Sometimes you have to wonder, when a premise is so eye-catching, maybe there's just nowhere more interesting for the story to actually go?

The idea of this forgetting pill is what initially caught my attention. Landon is shocked and devastated when he learns that the love of his life Rose has decided to erase their entire love story by taking this pill. She's now living in Edinburgh and has moved on with her life, but Landon cannot. So he goes there to try to recreate their love a second time.

The narrative is dual timeline and dual point of view. Now, if you're familiar with dual anything, then you probably know where I'm going with this next. And yes, one of the two is indeed more interesting than the other. Rose's point of view, where she rehashes their original love story, is honestly a bit dull, and there wasn't much there other than physical attraction. Now, nothing wrong with physical attraction (I'm a big fan of it myself), but it doesn't make for a riveting read.

Not only that, but Rose possesses traits that I tend to find very annoying in a book. She shows no remarkable (or even likable) characteristics, yet everyone she meets instantly falls in love with her, including Landon and Poppy. From then on, no matter how difficult or mean she is, they remain steadfast in their devotion to her, bending over backwards to accommodate her every whim while she doesn't really do anything back. In fact, in the lead-up to the falling out between the main characters, Landon is the one who had to constantly apologize even though Rose was the one in the wrong.

Sigh. This tendency in recent contemporary novels to glorify the main female character while making everyone else around her bend to her will, however unreasonable or unlikable she may be, is exhausting. And so is the message that if one has mental health issues, it is perfectly okay to take it out on one's partner rather than go seek professional help (or even do some introspection). Both detract from what should've been a sympathetic protagonist, and both make me feel slightly uncomfortable while reading it.

But Landon's point of view wasn't all roses either (har har). While his storyline was more interesting, it did start to feel slightly icky as it went on. Because here is his beloved, having gone to so much trouble to forget and leave him behind, and he can't respect her boundaries. Could there be any circumstances in which that would be okay? But on the other hand, if one of our partners just one day up and vanished and forgot everything, would any of us really just sit back and accept it? I don't know, it's an interesting bone to gnaw on.

And so that gets to the crux of my biggest issue, which is that even though I got hooked on the premise, I probably should've thought about it a bit before diving in. Because if I did, I would've realized that while there are a few different ways the narrative could've play out, none of them were really appealing and some of them were quite problematic. And just like my imagination, it really did play out like that. The last portion of the story, as everything culminated and resolved, was quite a bit of a hot mess. It felt like the author didn't know where to go to wrap it up, so she tried to go everywhere at the same time.

This wasn't all bad. It did make me tear up in one place and there were a few passages that I thought were interesting. But for how emotionally charged the story was supposed to be, my investment felt lackluster. It wasn't that long of a book, yet I crawled through it, bogged down by my indifference to Rose and Landon.

At the end of the day, I think I just wasn't the right audience for this. If I were younger and just starting out on my adult life, maybe I would've found this to be profound. But I've long since aged out of that demographic, and now my cold, wizened heart just can't see past the characters to appreciate the speculative within.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

The second book in a stunning series, The Girl in the Tower is the chance to step back into the magical world of medieval Russia and reunite once again with one of my favorite literary heroines of all time.

What a joy it is to come face to face with Vasya. She is the embodiment of everything I adore in a female protagonist—clever, brave, strong of mind and spirit. We'd previously left off with her being forced to flee her village after saving her people from evil and being branded a witch in return. Now she intends to find freedom and adventure dressed as a boy for safety. But of course trouble finds her almost immediately.

And so we're off. Unlike the first book, which very much took its time to build out the atmosphere and the lore, this book didn't need such luxury. It took a few chapters to set the scene, and then we go right to the action. There is mystery and intrigue aplenty, with evil, villainy, and danger around every corner. And Vasya is right in the thick of things, never able to catch her breath once it gets going.

Watching Vasya grow and grapple here, as she matures into who she is meant to be, is a large part of this story's appeal. She's still the same feisty and courageous girl we've always known, but with age and experience comes confidence. There is so much adversity around her, yet she does not falter under its weight. In fact, she blossoms. When it comes to heroines you can cheer for, it doesn't get much better than this.

Katherine Arden has matured as a storyteller. Her lyrical, earthy passages bring this world into sharp relief, and her nuanced portrayal of Vasya's dilemmas and complicated relationships with those around her are the real emotional core of this book. Every time Morozko or Solovey enter the scene, they steal it with their quiet affection and steadfast loyalty to Vasya. In particular, the relationship between Morozko and Vasya is captivating, especially in the vast gulf of all that is unsaid and unrealized between them.

Which brings us to the romance. This series came out before the whole romantasy frenzy, before it had seemingly cannibalized the entire fantasy genre. And wow, was it a different world back then. Whereas now it often feels like fantasy must first and foremost be smut (and an excessive amount at that), back then the romance wasn't so in your face. It was more subtle, and as a result, more compelling. We feel so much yearning between Vasya and Morozko, yet the writing remained restrained and controlled. Every time these two characters were together, I couldn't help but want more (instead of cringing at the excess and hoping for less). And that's the way it should be.

There's something utterly enchanting about this series. Every moment feels like a dream, like a fairy tale of the most extraordinary caliber. To open its pages is to fall headlong into its magic, and I happily do so again and again.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

Horror has historically been a rocky genre for me. I feel like I always go in with such lofty expectations—excitement! creepiness! immersion!—and yet, what I get is hardly ever that. I find myself, more often than not, yawning my way through it, and so here we are again.

I can't fault the premise. A ghost ship floating around for two decades with hundreds of souls on board, all of them dead, and no one could find this ship until now? For a space-loving gal like me, you might as well be waving catnip (spacenip?) in my face. But alas, the premise was pretty much the highlight of the whole thing, and it didn't really get better from there.

If I had to put my finger on the biggest issue here, it would have to be its overreliance on being inside the main character's head and using her ruminations and indecision and paranoia as a way to drive the story forward. Ah, you're thinking to yourself, but isn't that what domestic thrillers do? And you'd be right, except not only is this not supposed to be a domestic thriller, but I'm not a fan of that genre for the same reasons.

So I was forced to endure what I would've thought twice about picking up, had I known what it was going in. And the more time we spent in Claire's head as she waffled back and forth, second-guessing herself, reliving over and over the trauma of her childhood, the less appealing I found her. There's something about spending paragraphs and pages in her head that just made my eyes glaze over and my neck droop.

You add to that all the time spent with the crew arguing back and forth on what to do, the detailed descriptions of the spaceship they found, and their careful searching of every room on that ship, and you might as well have shot me with a tranquilizer dart. I frequently caught myself nodding off, only to rouse again to check how far into the book I was, convinced I'd almost reached the end, then being dumbfounded at the realization that I somehow wasn't even halfway in.

Also, call me crazy, but I'm a firm believer that not every story has to have a romantic subplot, and this book is the perfect example of that. The attraction between Claire and Kane was distracting and quite frankly baffling. Because what could he possibly see in her as she freaks out and waffles about? And so the precious few brain cycles I should've been using to think about the mystery surrounding the spaceship was instead being commandeered into puzzling over what's going on with these two nutters.

Between all the shenanigans in Claire's head and the equally silly shenanigans between Claire and Kane, by the time we finally get to the unraveling of the spaceship mystery, it somehow came across anticlimactic. Maybe I didn't buy into the explanation. Or maybe it just felt like it was quickly glossed over so that we can get back to more silliness. Either way, I was left unfulfilled.

Derelict spaceships is such a classic scifi horror trope, with so much potential and possibilities, that the fact that not much came of this was terribly disappointing. Readers more used to domestic thrillers may find the excessive ruminating to be on par for the course. But those hoping for predominantly scifi and horror elements will probably be hard pressed to find satisfaction here.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

A poignant and luminously hopeful tale about the joys, mistakes, and repercussions of growing up and falling in love, Sunlight Finds You took my breath away from the first page to the last.

I'm always drawn to a good coming-of-age story, especially one with a fierce female protagonist. Here we have Nora, seventeen years old, when she meets shy and clever Leonard at school. Soon the two of them are inseparable, but this was the 1950s. Social norms clash with the exhilaration of young love, and they are forced to break off their relationship. What follows is a series of decisions and actions that Nora must take, the consequences of which she will feel for the rest of her life.

I opened this book to the first page and was immediately captivated. Nora made for a compelling main character, with her strong personality, her love for her family, and the impetuousness with which she fell for Leonard and he for her. It was a tale brimming with the optimism of youth and the headiness of young love, and I couldn't help but be swept away.

There was something about the quiet and reflective prose and the fascinating characters that made me forget what I was reading was completely made up. I was so immersed in this tale, I often didn't want to stop. I wanted to inhale it in one go, to sink in and not surface for air until I had reached the very end.

It was clever to structure the narrative as a much older Nora looking back on her younger life. Not only did it add insight, but it also showed how resilient Nora was in spite of all that befell her. That resilience was a large part of the charm of this tale, with its tone of grace and buoyancy turning this story from one of sadness into one of hope and redemption.

The story seamlessly weaved in and tackled so many worthwhile topics—societal norms, family dynamics, parental expectations, class and gender differences, grief, regret, and forgiveness—all of it done with a subtle and deft hand.

Recently, I've been picking up books about women in suburbia set during this time period, only to be disappointed with the results. So many books seem unable to make up their minds about what they want to say, often walking back at the last moment what they've been trying to accomplish up to that point. I'm glad that wasn't the case here. There was no wishy washy, no attempt to walk Nora back from all that happened to her. In fact, her strength in the face of pain and adversity is the whole point of this book.

What an absolutely irresistible story this turned out to be. Everything about it was so masterfully done, I'm still dazzled and reeling in the aftermath. I can't believe this was the first I've heard of Laura Moriarty. It's clear there'll be no stopping me now from digging through the rest of her backlist.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

Meteorologists in love? Well, don't get too excited. Let's just say I would've had a better time sticking to my favorite weather blogs than whatever the heck I got here.

I have a lot of words to describe In Stormy Weather, but if I had to pick just one, it would be excessive. Everything is just so over the top—the characters, the romance, the storm chasing, the working in a male dominated field, even the spicy scenes. At some point, you have to wonder if subtlety is indeed dead or if this book was just out on a personal mission to kill it.

Where to begin? Quincy is a meteorologist in a field where literally every single other person is a guy (at least according to this book). And every time she has an interaction with them, they immediately look down on her and disparage her because she's a woman. Now, I'm a girl in STEM, so I know what it's like to be a female working in a male dominated field. But how can there not be a single male ally out there for Quincy except the love interest?

And so we start into what can only be described as slavish ass kissing on the part of Sebastian for the entire 400 pages of this book. Every time they get together, he calls her amazing and brilliant and resilient and yada yada yada. Like, I get it, girl is accomplished. But no real person talks like this unless they're aiming to be sycophant of the year.

Speaking of compliments taken too far, we also have Quincy's two BFFs. Every time the three girls are together, they first have to take turns complimenting each other on how amazing and successful they are, before we can move on. Like come on! How do these poor souls ever find the time to exchange any useful information, when they need to preface every single exchange with many platitudes of greatness?

This book was primarily written in dialogue form. It must take up at least 95% of all prose in here. But just because something has the potential to be banter doesn't mean it succeeds. The majority was so bland and, quite frankly, an obvious attempt at filler that I often caught myself losing focus and skimming, just to get to something good. You add to that the never ending reassurances between the characters on how successful and awesome and badass they all are, and you can see how this starts to feel like a slog.

Back to meteorology for a second (the main reason this book caught my eye). It is a science of predictions, so everything comes with a rate of confidence. But the way this book tells it, it's all black and white, and the only two people in the entire world who can make the right call are Quincy and Sebastian. And they do so by taking a millisecond glance at the data, followed by Sebastian goading Quincy into being a "badass bitch" and telling their discoveries to the world. As if having your lover "believe in you" is the only thing you need to be good at your job.

And don't even get me started on the spicy scenes (long to the point of cringey), page length (also long), the incessant Truth or Dare (inserted into every conversation), Quincy's credentials (having millions of followers on social media, which was brought up again and again), and the storm chasing (putting oneself and one's partner and potential rescuers' lives in danger, just to "prove" oneself). Like, have mercy!

Obviously, this book does not believe in the concept of subtlety. It has the bones of a good romance, but it was firmly buried under a tsunami of "rah rah go Quincy you're a girl" messaging that got real old real quick. And if someone's really that educated and accomplished and they still have to put their lives in imminent danger over and over again just to make themselves believe it, then probably the right place to work through that is in therapy and not through their lover and their friends complimenting them to death.

So there you have it. I probably would've had more fun just reading weather blogs, which I will go do right now.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

"Why aren’t we all just fucking dead, really? It is most troubling to me."

Ah yes, it has been a bit. But it also feels like no time at all has passed since I was last in the company of my favorite investigative duo.

There's nothing quite like picking up the second book of a promising series. Of course there's tons of excitement and anticipation, but if I were being totally honest, there's also no small amount of doubt coloring the whole thing. After all, what if I imagined my enjoyment of the first book? What if what I took for brilliance and intrigue was in fact mediocrity catching me on a good day? But have no fears here, my friends, for A Drop of Corruption was every bit as good as its predecessor.

Let's talk about the mystery first. As usual, we are immediately dropped into the thick of things. A treasury officer has disappeared, but he did so in a room where all the doors and windows are locked from the inside. Hmm, so a proper locked-room mystery? Challenge accepted!

But that was just the start, and perhaps the easiest part. Because from then on, Ana and Din follow an ever more complex web of secrets and red herrings and misdirections, all building up towards the big finale. And what a finale it was, as satisfying and inevitable as you would expect from the best mysteries.

Speaking of, if you've read enough of this genre and have thought about its inner workings, then you know what makes a good mystery—they can be as complicated and intricate as you'd want along the way, but when you get to the reveals, they must be clear and straightforward, as if you’re uttering nothing more than the unavoidable truth. And Robert Jackson Bennett has not only cracked the crux of this principle, but he is able to execute on it again and again.

The writing is as sharp and engaging as ever, with a hint of the droll wit that I've come to associate with this series and its characters. It pulled me in and kept me riveted throughout. Normally with a book, when I put it down and then picked it up again, it takes me a few pages to return to the world inside. But with this book, my mind snaps to it immediately, never wandering, never wavering as I devoured the tale within.

By the way, did we see that the series rebranded from Shadow of the Leviathan to Ana and Din Mysteries? I'm so glad. The old name felt a bit lumbering and awkward, misleading you into thinking that the books were predominantly fantasy instead of what they really are, which is mystery forward in a fantasy setting. But the new name corrects that, making it clear that this is first and foremost a mystery, with our eponymous characters at the helm, sussing out all manners of secrets and depravity across the Empire.

All that is to say, if you're a fan of mysteries and have been holding off on this series because of its fantasy element, let me give you a nudge. The mystery components in here are so well done, it would be remiss for any fan of the genre to miss it. But on the other hand, if you're already a reader of both genres and just haven't gotten to this series yet, well, what the heck are you waiting for?

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!