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.

“The Witch Finder” is a dystopian post-apocalyptic story where the America we once knew, and the world as a whole, has been practically destroyed when fragments of the moon crashed to earth, triggering a nuclear war. In the aftermath, the survivors went back to tribe-like societies, forgetting their history in order to survive. By the time the book starts, we are close to a thousand years after the apocalypse and are in the south of America where magic is real, and The Church has become God instead of the other way around. That’s where Malachi and his crew come in. They hunt down not only magic users (witches, that all tend to be women) but also heretics and people who go against The Church in a “free thinker” sort of vein. Malachi is not likeable to start, he’s not meant to be, as the whole story focuses on his transformation from staunch believer in The Church to a free thinker himself. I just don’t think his transformation was as complete as I would have liked.

This is my first truly “smut” book. Everything smut and spicy is so BIG on social media that I decided to see what the fuss was about with a book I’ve had for awhile but kept putting off. This is my first Katee Roberts book, too, so I’m sure that people who are familiar with her work are not surprised in the least that this was smut with a “plot” that revolves entirely around said smut. Do with that as you will. Loosely, this book is about vampires, with a half vampire trying to find a way to escape these predators and her abusive father. Along the way she learns there is more to her than meets the eye and apparently sex and orgasms and breeding is the way to unlock her powers and her freedom. I think the only thing I’m really glad about is that I read this version rather than the books individually, otherwise I think I would have been even more disappointed.

I’m a big fan of Wells’s “Murderbot” series so I wanted to give her new fantasy book a try! But I went in knowing that “Witch King” is nothing like the Murderbot novellas, and I didn’t expect it to be, either. These are all new characters in a world very different then what I was used to, so of course I didn’t go in expecting the same humor and voice that I get with Murderbot. I think a lot of people kind of forget or don’t realize that when starting this book… Which is a dual timeline of our main character, a demon named Kai, and his witch bestie, Ziede as they try to uncover who abducted them, why, and the greater conspiracy around that—all while going back 60 years to see a young Kai as he becomes the demon and Witch King we see in the present chapters. This is a very ambitious fantasy world full of complicated political intrigue and warring factions and races all with their own kind of magical abilities and belief systems. The magic system felt vague from start to finish, however, and I think only one timeline truly delivered on the experience I was hoping for from Wells.

I know I say this a lot, but I LOVED the idea of this book. Put the Olympian gods smack dab in New York during the height of prohibition and make them the biggest criminal organization selling booze and running brothels? Uh, yes please! I have recently been on a mafia and organized crime kick so I figured this was the perfect time to finally settle in and read this book, especially since I do love me some Greek mythology. But the story I got wasn’t the one I was expecting, and not in a good way either? Kind of, even now I’m still a bit conflicted.