Book Review: The Games Gods Play (The Crucible #1) by Abigail Owen

March 11, 2025September 26, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 634 pages
Author: Abigail Owen
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower
Release Date: September 3rd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Percy Jackson for adults meets The Hunger Games with a slow burn romance between a contestant and Hades himself.

Every hundred years, the gods toy with us mere mortals.
And we let them.

The gods of myth are alive and well.
Once every century, they select a new ruler in a cutthroat competition, pushing mortal players to the limit. But this year, Hades is done sitting on the sidelines. And he’s picking a champion no one expects—in this modern mythic romantasy, she’ll fight for her life…
for the god of Death.

VIBE CHECK.

You know when you’re just here for the vibes? That’s this book. I loved it. I loved the mythology aspects and the competition was nice and brutal. For an 18 hour audiobook I had no time flying through this one. It is engaging and full of good twists and you know what, I’m here for the romance too.

I liked the pacing and all of the side characters. I think some aspects of the action scenes could have had a bigger punch, but I thought all of the different games were interesting and led to good character development for Lyra. She still has a ways to go, but y’all know I love a good arc over the course of an entire series. And I’m wildly obsessed with Hades.

I’ll absolutely pick up the next one. I need to know what happens next.

Overall audience notes:

Fantasy Romance
Language: high
Romance: 2 open door; innuendo
Violence: high
Content Warnings: loss of life, murder, blood and gore

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Book Review: No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall

March 10, 2025February 13, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Mystery/Thriller
Length: 336 pages
Author: Kate Alice Marshall
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release Date: January 23rd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The author of What Lies in the Woods returns with a novel about three sisters, two murders, and too many secrets to count.

Emma hasn’t told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn’t spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she’s pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red.

That’s when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents’ house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can’t sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there.

Were murdered.

And that some people say Emma did it.

Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don’t want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.

I FIGURED IT OUT.

I might not be a thriller gal, no matter how hard I try. This go around, I figured out what happened in the first few chapters and was only surprised by one twist. I didn’t really care for any of the characters either. Another situation where basically everyone had done something bad so I didn’t feel attached to anyone.

The audiobook narration was great, no issues there.

And also I felt like nothing felt new? The points of the plot were what you would expect and I was hoping for something fresh or to really hold my attention.

Overall audiobook notes:

Thriller/Mystery
Language: moderate
Violence: high
Trigger/Content Warnings: multiple murders, child abuse, gun violence

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Book Review: Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave (Finlay Donovan #5) by Elle Cosimano

March 9, 2025March 8, 2025 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Cozy Mystery + Romance
Length: 320 pages
Author: Elle Cosimano
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Release Date: March 4th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From New York Times bestseller and Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano, comes Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave—the hugely anticipated next installment in the fan-favorite Finlay Donovan series.

Finlay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet . . . but at least there’s not a body in her backyard.

Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a dead body is discovered in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help. At first a suspect, Mrs. Haggerty is cleared by the police, but her house remains an active crime scene. She has nowhere to go . . . except Finlay’s house, right across the street.

Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case—or sacrificing either of their bedrooms. After all, they’ve dealt with enough murders over the last four months to last a lifetime and they both would much rather share their beds with someone else.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the gifted audiobook.

THE SERIES CONTINUES.

I’m grateful I got a chance to listen to this book rather than digitally read because I am simultaneously over this series and need to know how it all ends, you know? I have no idea if the next book is the finale, but one can hope.

I still enjoy Finlay and her humorous ways. And blessed be that she FINALLY let Nick in on a few very important aspects of her life.

There is the same song and story of Finlay’s ex-husband being caught in the investigation cross fire but it did take him out of a lot of this book so I wasn’t too upset.

I ended up liking Mrs. Haggerty and the book club. She took no talk back and her pestering ways grew on me.

It’s another quick read with all of the things you’ve come to expect from this series. I’m just hitting that wall (as I usually do with long cozy mystery series) where the will to continue is waning.

Overall audience notes:

Cozy mystery
Language: low
Romance: fade to black
Violence: moderate
Content warnings: murder

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ALC Book Review: Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven

March 8, 2025February 25, 2025 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★
Audience: NA Fantasy
Length: 352 pages
Author: Laura Steven
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: March 4th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.

They’ve loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They’ve killed each other in every one.

Evelyn remembers all her past lives. She also remembers that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a supernatural being whose soul―and survival―is tethered to hers.

The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her for bone marrow transplants in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to:

1. Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first.
2. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse.
3. Try not to fall in love.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the gifted audiobook.

A BIT BLAND.

I am an Addie La Rue fan so jumping onto reading this. I did think the audio production was good and I enjoyed the narrator. No qualms there. I more or less had issues with the storyline.

The whole premise surrounding the I have to kill you to save you was fine, until the repetitiveness of the story drove me wild. Over and over again Evelyn asks Arden why are you doing this and over and over again Arden saying you just have to trust me. Without a stronger mystery plot holding everything together it felt like I was going in circles.

Some of the flashbacks were interesting and I didn’t mind the writing style. There’s a fated quality that works out well enough. I would try another book by this author.

Overall audience notes: