This is about three deaths. Actually more, if you go back far enough. I say deaths, but perhaps all of them were murders. It’s a grey area. Murder, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So let’s just call them deaths and say I was involved. This story could be told a hundred different ways.

Within six months of Pen Sheppard starting university, three of her new friends are dead. Only Pen knows the reason why.

Things don’t go wrong in an instant. There isn’t one single moment when the world suddenly splits in two. Rather, it begins with a minute crack, and then another and another, until they join together, getting bigger and wider and all the time you keep fooling yourself that this can still be fixed. That you can fill them in and everything will return to normal.
The Academic Night was the beginning. A hairline fracture, a fissure too small for Frank to notice. But I can hardly blame him; at the time I didn’t see it either.

College life had seemed like a wonderland of sex, drugs and maybe even love.

Looking up into his eyes, I wanted to shrink the world so it was only as large as the two of us, ask him if this could be love, but he was already moving his head, turning his eyes south to calculate the bare minimum of clothes that needed to be shed. We ended up having sex on that roof, minimal moving, fumbling, functional, rubber-infused sex.

 

Full of perfect strangers, it felt like the ideal place for Pen to shed the confines of her small home town and reinvent herself. But the darkness of her past clings tight, and when the killings begin and friendships are betrayed, Pen’s secrets are revealed. The consequences are deadly.

‘Sometimes, other people pay the price for you trying to do the right thing.’

The rest of this review can be found HERE!

*Book source ~ Home library

From Goodreads:

Starting with Giles' research into the various monsters and demons Buffy and the gang have encountered, this book then delves into the folklore that inspired the show's bad guys - their mythology, science, cultural, literary and historial origins. "The Monster Book" looks at how vampires are created on the show. There are interviews with the series creator, Joss Whedon, as well as the writers, make-up and costume artists, stunt men and actors. It explores the mythology surrounding vampires and other ghouls, in other forms of popular culture. Meet the vampires and other Sunnydale hellmouth creatures, safely, in this monster book.

I’d like to start by saying I screwed up and bought this book (used) without paying close attention to the title. It’s only for Seasons 1-4. I’ve looked but can’t find a comprehensive guide to all of the Buffyverse monsters and that’s a disappointment. There are also some editing issues. Anyway, as for this book, it is loaded with info, almost too much at times, that includes the mythology, folklore and popular culture of each section. The monsters are sorted into said sections: demons, vampires, magic users, primals, ghosts, the walking dead, bogeymen, invisible people and human monsters (Hello, Faith!). All of the info goes up to 1999 (there may be a few 2000 references, I can’t recall), so it’s now way out of date in regards to the popular culture sections. Supernatural, True Blood, Vampire Diaries or Walking Dead (etc.) aren’t mentioned regarding the popular paranormal stuff that’s so widely known today. But other than that it is a pretty good guide, limited as it is to Seasons 1-4, and I do recommend it for fans of Buffy.

*Book source ~ NetGalley

Substitute teacher Cerise Norrell’s life would be perfect if she could just find the right sub to obey her very specific Domme demands. About ready to give up her search, she goes to a BDSM-type Speed Dating event and meets William Gentry. William is known in the community as Chilly Willy because his skin is always cool to the touch. She agrees to give him a chance and William is ecstatic. He believes he’s finally found the Domme he’s been searching for throughout his very long life, the one who will put an end to his loneliness and satisfy his every need. But he’s got a huge secret and his Mistress Cherry has a crap-load of baggage. Will they be able to work through their issues or are they doomed to be alone forever?

The description of this story is what hooked me. A Domme looking for a specific type of submissive and when she finds him it turns out he’s a vampire. Come on! That’s intriguing! I love Femdom especially when the sub is a big strong guy or in this case, supernaturally strong and one you would think would be the one in charge. I love the juxtaposition. If you’re expecting a lot of kinkiness then this really isn’t the BDSM book for you. However, if you like role play then this is it. Cerise’s fetish is role playing and she never likes to do the same scene twice. The variety is wonderful and the sex is pretty good. Not overly graphic, but more hot, steamy and even sweet. I wouldn’t call this erotica, per se, but it’s definitely paranormal romance with a lot of steam. And I mentioned sweet, right? Because it is. Cerise and William have issues that they need to work out and there were plenty of times I wanted to smack Cerise, but overall I enjoyed their story.

*Book source ~ NetGalley

Rebecca Moore finds out her husband is cheating on her. She thought she had a happy marriage. Maybe not exactly exciting, but at least satisfying. Now, she discovers it’s all a lie. Her husband is banging a much younger co-worker and Rebecca has to decide what she’s going to do. Above all, she must think of their twin ten-yr-old daughters. So, instead of confronting her husband or filing for divorce she eventually decides that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander and sets about looking for a younger man to diddle with. Meeting grad student Jared changes her life in ways she never even dreamed.

Talk about getting even and in a big way. Wowzers! Rebecca meets Jared and while I didn’t particularly like him (too arrogant and dominant for my tastes), he was interesting and dark. And he showed Rebecca things she never would have learned if her husband hadn’t been such a twatwaffle. Make no mistake, this is not a sweet romance nor does it have a HEA. However, it is a great story about discovery, pushing limits and learning that one is never too old to learn about oneself.

Regrettably, I had two DNFs in a row this week, and a few other books I'm not terribly excited about.  So I'll go ahead and post my first review for a book I actually finished two weeks ago, in one day.

Jenny Han is an author that feels a bit like a landmine to me.  On the one hand, she's awesome at writing characters I care about, and I think she has the hallmark of a great contemporary writer, which every great contemporary writer needs--being able to capture small slices that feel so true to life, the equivalent of world-building in fantasy.  On the other hand, I don't know if I quite trust her as an author the way I do, for example, Shannon Hale.  I've read The Summer I Turned Pretty and Han's co-written Burn for Burn trilogy, in addition to To All the Boys I've Loved Before, which precedes this book.  In all of those books (except The Summer I Turned Pretty, which I just didn't really like), I was totally loving it until the ending.

Something similar happened here.

For the record, I'm normally the kind of reader that deliberately tries not to finish a book too quickly--and all the more the more I like it, because I'm a really fast reader and I don't want things to zip by if I really like them. Still, I read this in one day.

This book is chock-full of those real moments and characters and relationships that you love: Lara Jean's relationship with her dad and each of her sisters; Lara Jean's rosy outlook and being in love with love, and wanting to be easygoing but still actually being sensitive and insecure and yes, occasionally jealous. Her love for baking! Mrs. Rothschild and Kitty's matchmaking. The Assassins game. Lara Jean's volunteering at Belleview--which totally fits in with her character, but also adds a lot of excitement and has a very specific purpose for the plot.

To my disappointment, this book opens just about where To All the Boys I've Loved Before left off, which means that the scandal at the end of that book continues in this one.  It makes sense that Han dealt with it, and especially considered the ramifications of Peter not being able to fully protect Lara Jean, but there were times when I thought the sex-positive agenda was nearly overpowering the story and the characters.  This probably won't bother (or even register for) most other readers as much as it did for me, though.

Still, I laughed and smiled a lot throughout the book--but I'll admit that I hurt a lot, too, because again, Han has written characters you can't help but fall in love with, and she's not gentle: she puts you through the entire emotional spectrum.

How was the romance?  I liked it for the most part, actually.  Given the blurbs about the book, I knew John was going to come into the story, and my initial reaction was GO AWAY!  But then he appeared, and I totally fell in love with him, to the point where I wanted him in the story more than he actually was, and he really did win me over completely.  At first I felt tortured because of course I still like Peter, but after thinking on this book a few days (and yes, it's the kind that stays with you), I have to say I'm Team John all the way.

But the worst part is, I had read this book thinking that this was the second book in a trilogy, and that softened the ending for me.  Since Han said this is only a duology, though, I may have to reread it and reevaluate my rating based on the ending.  The ending here was still a little rough, and Han's endings have been notoriously unsatisfying to me.  But I love the characters.

For the most part, I think readers who loved the first book will love this one.  Still has the great characters, writing, and romance, but with the complicating factor of a love triangle.  Han navigates it with appreciable deftness, though.