When I told my Barista, Jess, that I was looking for a long series to hold my attention, she was flabbergasted to discover I’d never read the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or seen the show True Blood, which is based off them. In between customers who had come in for their daily dose of Botany and Beans magic, she got up google and started showing me some of the ovary-busting hotness that is the male half of the True Blood cast. Colour me intrigued. I found myself downloading the first book there and then, right in the coffee shop. This is my review of the first instalment, Dead Until Dark.

I’ve been reading a bit more fantasy lately. After finishing the Last Witch series by M.J Lawrie, I was in a bit of a funk, but I saw this entire trilogy on Kindle Unlimited and I was sold. This series is fast paced, with great characters, and a great romance subplot too. Let’s talk about it!

Can you believe it’s March already?

I wrote the last Life Lately post in December, and it feels like a week ago, not twelve! Quite a bit has happened in the last 3 months, so I thought I’d so a little update post. After all, things can get so busy, it can be nice to look back and reflect on things once in a while.

When scrolling through books in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited programme for something new, the cover for The Last Witch caught my eye. With a black background and fiery red seven pointed star, how could my witchy heart not be intrigued? I’ll admit, this wasn’t the best written, or the best edited book I’ve ever read, but the story…

Ah, the story…

Well, that’s something we desperately need to talk about.

I could quite literally talk your ear off when it comes to indie fantasy romance authors. There are so many incredible, talented writers out there doing the hard thing and putting out their own work solo. I have a few main favourites, though. Authors who, every single time they release a book, I will one-click without thinking twice, so I thought I’d share them with you. In the following article, you’ll discover five of my favourite authors and my favourite fantasy romance book/series they’ve released so far.

Enjoy!

Having been a fan of Stacey Rourke’s work for years I’m ashamed to say I’ve read little of her work. I’ve got a lot of her titles on my TBR, but at this point adding a book to my TBR feels like throwing it into a hellmouth. As in, I’m probably going to forget all about it and if I go looking end up with singed eyebrows. The Legends Saga caught my eye through one of Stacey’s TikTok’s, which featured lots of headless horseman imagery and a spooky asf soundtrack to match. Long story short, I was sold, and went and downloaded the book immediately, vowing that I would get this book read within the next few weeks. Shockingly, I kept my promise to myself, and boy am I glad I did.

I saw this little gem on Amazon First reads and couldn’t resist. I’m a sucker for anything witchy and I was also really happy to see that this book was getting lots of good press over on Instagram and Tiktok because it really does deserve it. Let’s take a look at why!

In my search for more Dark Academia books I came across Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas in the same article which recommended Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. Seeing as I loved Ninth House so much, I thought I’d also give this book a try. It was… creepy… eerie… unusual? There are so many words I could use to describe this book, so let’s take a look at why.

After reading Ninth House, the first book in the Alex Stern Series by Leigh Bardugo, I was immediately drawn to book two. Even though book one didn’t exactly end on a cliff hanger, the Darlington story arc left me seriously wanting. Luckily for me, and totally unintentionally, I had just finished Book One when Hell Bent released on the 10th of January 2023. I was so relieved when I discovered this, because the thought of waiting a year or so to go back to Yale was almost unbearable.

I spent the last few months in a haze of Dark Academia obsession. This week’s book review is of one of the best books I’ve read in ages, and definitely one of my favourite Dark Academia novels that I’ve ever read. This for me surpassed Babel, If We Were Villains, and The Secret History. Anyhow, that’s enough gushing from me, let’s get down to business…