Continuing in the footsteps of its predecessor’s epic fantasy, with its robust political machinations and warring factions, “Kinship of a Dragon” follows up almost immediately after “A Dragon Called Blood”, the first book in the Blood History series. And, just like the first book, the second book in the series is a chonky boy! Understandably so given the several plot lines the author continues from the first book, but the strongest plot points this time around barely involved our main characters, Corbin and Blood, at all. Corbin’s story is rather simple in comparison: he and his dragon are still trying to exist despite the hatred aimed at them for what they are, and keeping their lady love and her mother from being kidnapped. They fend off assassins sent after them, but the big, sweeping world changing events that occur in this book are handled by one of the (many) side characters this time around.

This was my first Edwardian historical fiction romance and I have to say, it was kind of charming. You still have the formal gowns and bodices of regency romances, the demure courtship practices, and the flowery language that makes historical fiction romances so delicious, but there are just enough modern touches (like cars) to give it a bit of a twist. In “Proper English” we follow Pat, who is about to embark on a new adventure with leaving her family home now that her brother is married. With no desire to marry a man, Pat needs to figure out what her new purpose is now that she’s not managing a household estate. She has dreams to open a shooting school for women, or perhaps becoming a lady’s companion, but nothing is grabbing her yet. She hopes that a house party where she can shoot and show off her marksmen skills with her brother, their family friend, and a few others will be just the break she needs to figure out what new direction her life will take. That’s until the house party gets crashed by her friends’ fiancée, and a slew of guests neither she nor her brother were expecting. As Pat’s passions kindle for Fen, a locked door “whodunit” murder mystery threatens to destroy not just her blossoming romance, but her brother and her friends' life as well. You’ll come to this book for the sapphic romance, but stay for the murder mystery, trust me.

It's no secret that the author leaned heavily on “You’ve Got Mail” in this book, she even has the characters say so at one point which was… something. But here we have a sapphic romance between a bookstore owner being evicted from the location she ran with her mother, and the property developer (and secret romance author) whose family business was the one to evict the cute, bubbly bookstore owner to begin with. These women communicate online, hiding their identities (for Rosie, it’s her full name, and for Jane it’s her name and the fact that writing romance books isn’t her day job), so when they discover that the woman they are crushing on online is the one causing them headaches off the screen, drama ensues. Or it should. This story is laced with so much sweetness and convenient, easy solutions that the delectable drama and tension that should come with two women falling for someone they shouldn’t due to their current circumstances never manifests.

The premise of this paranormal, urban fantasy romance sounds super cute, even if, admittedly, I wasn’t going to read this book. You see, I wanted to mainly read book 2 in this little series of “semi” stand alone romances, but then I found out how big of a role the main couple in book 2 play in “A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon”, and here we are. Mariel is a very powerful nature witch. This fact is never, ever hidden. Yet some how nature witches aren’t considered powerful? Or just not flashy enough to be deemed that impressive so Mariel struggles to gain her families approval. She struggles so much that she accidentally summons a demon when she means to summon flour, and now he can’t leave until he makes a deal for her soul. Queue the romcom hijinks with all the forced proximity, sunshine and grumpy love interests, and sort of enemies to lovers. Honestly there are so many tropes in this romance that it felt like the author was going through a check list at times, but that wouldn’t have bothered me if the FMC hadn’t done something to make me knock a whole star off this rating.

This book was delightfully cute! This YA space “thriller” reads almost like a sitcom, where the aliens look like the Pac-Man ghosts, the jocks are overly brawny, the nerds overly brainy, and the key to saving the galaxy as we know it is the love and innocence of an eight-year-old girl. Which can, at times, put this book on the younger side of the YA side of things, but more on that in a bit. We are told the story of young Max, his two friends, and little sister being abducted in a humorous 1st person POV after the fact. As in, the book starts at an inciting incident, Max says, “ok, but let’s back up and see how we got here”, and hijinks ensue. It all starts following a trip to Muir National Forest gone very wrong—including a pair of the most over the top “Granola Twins” in existence. The book is charming in it’s silly, over the top humor and scenarios—including many a bathroom joke. Although, I will say that having read all the books and seen the media this book claims as comps, it’s not a very accurate picture.