These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling

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These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling

Available Now

If you enjoy teenage witches discovering their true self while also trying to balance their friendships and coven secrets, this book is everything you’re looking for.  

Hannah is an elemental witch, descended from a long line of witches.  Part of a tight knit coven of other Elementals, she splits her time between normal teenage summer activities like beach parties with her best friend Gemma and a summer job at the Fly By Night Cauldron, and weekly magic lessons with the coven’s high priestess Lady Ariana.   

It’s during one of these beach parties that Hannah and her friends discover a horrible sight in the woods.  Someone has sacrificed a raccoon in the middle of a burning pentacle. Consumed by the fear of a Blood Witch seeking revenge against Hannah and her ex-girlfriend Veronica, the two witches nearly expose their magic in front of all of their friends.  Exposing their magic could cause them to be sanctioned by the Council and face strict punishments. This is just the beginning of a series of horrific and threatening events that begin to plague Hannah and her friends. When a house fire nearly kills her friend Benton, once again forcing her to choose between saving a friend and exposing her magic, he enlists her help in finding out who the threat really is.   If being stalked by a potential Blood Witch isn’t enough stress for Hannah, she meets Morgan, a cute new ballerina who has just moved to town and has secrets of her own.  

How does one witch handle dealing with a jealous ex-girlfriend, finding a killer, meeting a new girlfriend, and telling your lifelong best friend that you’re a witch?  The only way you can: by doing whatever it takes to not get grounded by your parents.  

I loved this book!  There is so much teenage drama packed into this book.  Jealous exes, first date stresses, secrets, friendships, identity, it’s all in here.  I really enjoyed Gemma’s character-she’s Hannah’s best friend and is completely accepting of Hannah being a witch. She’s fun, smart, inquisitive, and really truly cares about Hannah’s happiness.  There were several different characters that I was sure was our evil nemesis and I was wrong every time. It’s fast paced, with great characters, and a story that many teens will be able to relate to.  

If you’d like to try out this bewitching tale, you can get a copy here:


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Kingdom of Exiles by Maxym M. Martineau

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Kingdom of Exiles by Maxym M. Martineau

Available June 25, 2019

This was so good!  The world building was amazing and if any book gets the Netflix treatment this year-it needs to be this one.  I would love to see all of the beautiful, colorful beasts brought to life.

Leena is a beast charmer, gifted with the magical talent to tame wild beasts and bond them to her.  Betrayed by her first love and ostracized by her people, Leena is on the run trying to curate a collection of beasts that will give her enough power to finally clear her name.  After surviving a murderous attack, Leena is forced to join Noc and his clan of formally dead assassins known as Cruor. 

Leena has two choices, die or supply the group with beasts. 

Leena chooses to live.

Surrounded by people who would love to see her dead, Leena must find the assassins their beasts, discover who put a hit out on her, and survive falling for the deadly leader of Cruor.  

This one is so much fun!  I love all the descriptions of the beasts and their special gifts.  Not only can Leena bond with them and make them appear, but they live in a magical beast realm that sounds amazing.  A little like Fantastic Beasts but way deadlier and infinitely sexier.  

Leena is incredibly strong and intelligent.  She has a lot going on-death threats, being exiled from her people, dangerous beasts, a man that can kill her if he falls in love with her-it's a lot to process.  Because yep, not only is Noc a formerly dead assassin tasked with killing her, he's also cursed.

I love a good curse.

Magical worlds, beautiful beasts, intense fight scenes, found family, super steamy love scenes-this checks all the boxes.

And, it's the first book in a series…

 Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for letting me read an advanced copy of this title.  All opinions and mistakes are my own. 

 If you would like to dive into the magical beast world of Kingdom of Exiles, you can do so here:

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Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald

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Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald

Available June 11, 2019

Reader Friends, this book is beautiful.  Absolutely lovely in every way. From the clothes, to the city, to the way people speak to one another, it’s just lovely.  I’m also not going to apologize for my overuse of the word “lovely.”

On a beautiful December morning while on his way to a prayer meeting, Joe Reynolds meets a young woman wearing a disheveled dress, no coat, and looking completely out of place at the train station so early in the morning.  It’s when he stops to offer her assistance that he realizes something is slightly off. Her clothes don’t seem quite right, it’s too cold to not have a coat, and how did she get to the train station?

One year later, he sees her again.  The same Nora from a year ago. Same dress, same pearls, same perfume.  How is that possible and what is going on? Together, Nora and Joe begin a complicated and magical relationship revolving around her mystical appearance and the confines of the train station.  

This is one of the stories that the less you know, the more amazing it is.  The twists and turns are revealed slowly throughout the story and each one adds a complication that Joe and Nora deal with together with love and respect.  I really loved how the author made the city itself an integral part of the relationship. Grand Central made a gorgeous backdrop for this novel.  From the ladies’ lounge to the hotel, the restaurants and shops, the station provided everything Joe and Nora could need.  However, even with the luxurious hotel rooms and room service, being confined to one location is still a limitation that will tax anyone.  Joe and Nora have a truly loving relationship that is tested over and over again by family, war, and time.  Even with the magical existence of Nora, their relationship is still just like that of anyone else. Lisa Grunwald does an incredible job of exploring the lengths we are willing to go to ensure the happiness of those we love.  When Nora fully realizes that the passage of time is affecting her very differently than those around her, her actions are quite different than other novels I’ve read that deal with the same concept.

I loved this story.  I loved how Joe and Nora were with one another.  I loved the setting and the writing. It’s just a lovely, lovely story.

If you would like to fall into this gorgeous story, and help support the site, you may do so here:



Recursion by Blake Crouch

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Recursion by Blake Crouch

Available June 11, 2019

This was fantastic!  Absolutely amazing! More exclamation points please!

If you enjoyed Dark Matter or the Wayward Pines trilogy, definitely pick this one up.  By the way, since no one asked, the Wayward Pines books lead to me binging Twin Peaks last summer and that show was so incredibly odd and I never quite knew what was going on.  

Anyways.  

Recursion is the story of what happens when brilliance meets desperation.  Searching for a way to help stop the dementia that is slowly stealing her mother, Helena creates a device that will change the history of medicine.  What was meant to be a way to preserve a person’s precious memories turns into a potential weapon that could have devastating effects.

Barry, depressed and steal grieving for his daughter a decade after her death, is investigating a woman’s suicide after he is unable to talk her down from the ledge.  Plagued with FMS, False Memory Syndrome, the woman is devastated by the memories of a loving husband and son. But she was never married and has never been a mom so how does she know about this other life?  Why does it feel so real? With more and more FMS cases coming to light, Barry gets swept up in a mystery so profound it’s capable of destroying the world.

This is one of the fabulous sci-fi books that are better when you know nothing about it.  I went into this not knowing the plot, only the author. The characters are great, the science went way over my head, and the story moved very quickly.  There are so many twists and turns and explosive events that it just got better and better the further you read. Fast paced, gripping, and emotional, Recursion is an incredible story of strength and perseverance.

If you would like to get your hot hands on this book, and help support the site, you can do so here:





Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title.  All opinions are my own.



Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

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Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

Ivy Gamble has always wanted magic.  The real magic. The magic her sister has.  Instead of going to a magical high school and practicing spells and charms, she barely graduated normal high school.  After her mother’s death, Ivy’s dream of joining the FBI disappeared, just like her relationship with her sister. After years of barely speaking, the sisters are thrown together when Ivy is hired to investigate a murder at Osthorne Academy, a school for magical children and where Ivy’s sister Tabitha, teaches.  

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Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

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Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Available now

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is an incredibly engaging and well-written story of a therapist, her therapist, and the clients that have impacted her life.  Lori Gottlieb’s writing makes you feel like you are sitting next to her-but not too close or too far away-enjoying a great cup of tea and chatting with your best friend.

After the breakup of a long term relationship, Lori Gottlieb, a therapist, finds herself not only heartbroken, but unsure of how to cope with her new reality.  Under the guise of needing a therapist referral for a client, Lori finds herself in the office of Wendell, her new therapist. From his quirky double knee tap to signal the end of the session or his comfortably frumpy office, Wendell proves to be an excellent therapist. Kind, compassionate, and caring, his guidance leads Lori on to the path that is best for her life. Many of the answers that she seeks for her own life come from the very questions that are asked of her by her own clients.  

Gottlieb gives us a behind the scenes glimpse of therapy sessions with a high maintenance Hollywood producer, a young woman dealing with a tragic illness, and a woman trying to find a steady and healthy relationship.  Gottlieb writes with such care for her characters and her own story. I found this to be highly engaging and flew through this book in one sitting.

If you would like a copy of this book for yourself, and help support the site, you can do so here: