On My Bookish BS

I love me some fantasy/romantasy but I was utterly unprepared for the world created by N.E. Davenport in Our Vicious Oaths.  Malachi and Kadeesha are two of the best written MCs I have come across in a fantasy in a while. He is devious, deadly, and DELICIOUS in the best of ways. She is cunning, caring, and freaking brilliant and also FREAKING DELICIOUS. The two of them together? I have no words.  The complexity of their relationships, to each other, to their families, to their friends, to the courts which they serve, to the wider universe in which they exist is just mind blowing. Davenport did an incredible job creating this all-encompassing world that I just wanted to get lost in. I wanted to know more about every single character; there were relationships growing and changing in the wings that I wanted to know more about. The main story line was so satisfying, each twist and turn made me go OH! YES! OOOO I didn't see that coming! OF COURSE! I just loved the ride, and the pay...

Air & Essence - the follow up to Blood & Brujas by Mikayla Hornedo - had me SALIVATING for a chance to read this ARC.  Blood & Brujas was one of the most INTENSE and interesting books I read in 2024 and I was like WAIT... THE SEQUEL ISN'T OUT YET. BUUUUUUT I NEED TO KNOW.  Blood & Brujas was a beautifully wound tapestry of lore of vampires and witches and brujas and lobos wound around generational trauma in a time of war.  Air & Essence continues those story lines with the additional complications of growing love stories, betrayal, and so much character growth that it's insane that Mikayla is able to keep everything straight.  The prose is beautiful, the world is magical, and every character is so real you either love or hate them with so much intensity that it's insane. There are characters I cheered when they died, or I want to punch right in the jaw. There are characters I want to hug and protect and characters I root for every time they are ...