ARC Review: Captive Traitor King by Brigid Kemmerer

Title: Captive Traitor King
Author: Brigid Kemmerer 
Series: Braided Fate #2
Genre: Adult/Fantasy Romance/
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: November 3, 2026
Edition: Ebook
Source: NetGalley
Pre-Order: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Kobo | Powell's | 

 

 

Synopsis:

    CAPTIVE. Asher has always sworn loyalty to Jory, the princess he’s loved from afar—but now the King of Incendar has claimed a place in his heart too. Someone wants them both dead, and only Asher’s blade can keep them safe. Yet his past won’t let him go, and he must decide if he can break free—or remain prisoner to his old scars.
    TRAITOR. Princess Jory of Astranza agreed to marry the King of Incendar to secure peace, but betrayal runs closer than she ever imagined. With her own brother unmasked as her enemy, two kingdoms teeter on the edge. To protect her people, she must take the throne. But there are still dark secrets to unravel that will force Jory to confront where her true allegiance lies.
    KING. Maddox Kyronan has discovered trust—and something more—with his reluctant bride and her deadly protector, but the fragile alliance between their nations threatens to unravel. His people are starving. His enemies are circling in. Torn between the crown and his heart, Ky risks losing it all.
    As buried truths surface and tensions reach a breaking point, Jory, Asher, and Ky must confront the desires that could save their kingdoms—or shatter them forever.

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Review: In the Wake of the Ruined by Kalie Cassidy

Title: In the Wake of the Ruined
Author: Kalie Cassidy 
Series: The Siren Mage #2
Genre: Fantasy Romance/Mythology
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: July 7, 2026
Edition: Ebook
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Kobo | Powell's | 

 

Synopsis:

The realm has a new queen… and a new monster.

   Imogen can no longer hide. She has claimed her ancestral crown, and now the corrupted bond she shares with the ancient deity Eusia is stronger than ever. Though she is determined to sever it, doing so is no easy feat. The threat of war looms. Shifting alliances, a hunger for magic, and her feelings for Theodore, King of Varya, attempt to thwart her at every turn.
   Meanwhile, Theodore is battling the strain of his own crown and commitments. When Imogen suddenly appears on his ship, every dutiful resolution he’s ever made threatens to snap. As they draw nearer to ending Eusia, lurking dangers and their perilous desire for one another prove more insurmountable than they could have imagined. 
   Will the chaos, ruin, and death that Imogen was prophesied to usher into the realm be the end of all things, or the beginning? 

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Review: Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

Title: Iron Kissed
Author: Patricia Briggs 
Series: Mercy Thompson #3
Genre: Paranormal/Mystery
Publisher: Ace
Publication Date: January 2, 2008
Edition: Digital
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Kobo | Powell's | 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis:

   Though Mercy can shift her shape into that of a coyote, her loyalty never wavers. So when her former boss and mentor, Zee, asks for her help, she’s there for him. A series of murders has rocked a fae reservation, and Zee needs her unique gifts, namely her coyote sense of smell, to sniff out the killer.
   But when Zee is accused of murdering the suspect Mercy outed, he’s left to rot behind bars by his own kind. Now it’s up to Mercy to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not.
Mercy’s loyalty is under pressure from other directions, too. Werewolves are not known for their patience, and if Mercy can’t decide between the two she cares for, Sam and Adam may make the choice for her.

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ARC Review: Nightcurse by Emma Hinds

Title: Nightcurse
Author: Emma Hinds 
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fantasy/Mystery
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: October 13, 2026
Edition: Ebook
Source: NetGalley
Pre-Order: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Kobo | Powell's | 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis:

   Cursed with eternity, haunted by love–discover the truth about living forever in this achingly atmospheric dark academia fantasy
   Emrys Swift is so dead. One hundred and fifty seven years worth of dead, to be exact. He’s a Revenant, nightcursed, destined to be stuck being seventeen forever. Hidden away, he spends his infinite days as an undead librarian of witchlore at the NeverEnd library–until a new Revenant arrives and magical artifacts start going missing, jeopardizing his beloved home.
   Emrys’s mortal enemy and annoyingly attractive shapeshifter Aubrey Vale is determined to solve the mystery – with Emrys’s help. Suddenly Emrys and Aubrey are magically bonded together on a quest into the dark and frost-bitten world of night-kin. But as Emyrs and Aubrey interrogate ghosts and face drowning by mermaids, deathly creatures aren’t the only spectres haunting them. With the ghoulish Night Hunt chasing them down, can they outrun the secrets of Emrys’ death and Aubrey’s life? And if they can save NeverEnd’s future, can they have a future together?

Hauntingly gorgeous and tender, Emma Hinds’ Nightcurse is both a Gothic mystery and an enemies-to-lovers romance about navigating life and love in the face of death.

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Review: Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

Title: Blood Bound
Author: Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson #2
Genre: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy/Mystery
Publisher: Ace
Publication Date: January 30, 2007
Edition: Ebook
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Kobo | Powell's | 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Synopsis:

   Mercy has friends in low places—and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind. But this new vampire is hardly ordinary—and neither is the demon inside of him.
   When the undead and the werewolves sent to find him don’t return, the local vampire queen turns to Mercy for help. A coyote is no match for a demon, but Mercy is determined to get her friends back—including the two werewolves circling around her heart.

 

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