Book Review: The Temptation of Magic (Empyreal #1) by Megan Scott

November 10, 2025November 7, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★
Audience: NA Fantasy Romance
Length: 384 pages
Author: Megan Scott
Publisher: Harper Collins
Release Date: August 27th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Nicole Palmer has needed to study the supernatural art in a local Cornish manor for years. Encoded in it is the last message from her mother on how to stay safe from The Wake—the organization that governs all supernaturals. As an Empyreal, Nicole has the ability to hunt and kill dangerous creatures, making her invaluable. But if her power was ever triggered, they would find her, use her, and then kill her.

Like they did her mother.

Securing an undergraduate research role to study the collection, Nicole discovers her greatest enemy—one of The Wake’s Empyreals. Kyan McCarter is their best hunter, stationed at the manor to track and kill a deadly creature, but when they realise a painting’s been stolen by his prey, Nicole and Kyan are forced to work together to find it.

As the creature threatens to expose Nicole’s power, her tenuous alliance with Kyan threatens her heart. If Kyan finds out what she is, he’ll hunt her next—or risk execution. No one disobeys The Wake and survives. Especially not when the art they’re seeking holds the key to a conspiracy that could get them both killed, and change the lives of creatures, and humans, forever.

SERPENT AND DOVE meets A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES, in this luxurious, forbidden romance.

NEVER FULLY ENGAGED.

I kept waiting for this book to really GRAB me and the further I got into the audiobook the more I realized, I just didn’t care. There was nothing inherently wrong with the plot, I thought the characters were fine, but it was missing something that I could not nail down yet desperately needed.

The romance left me wanting too. I had heard that there was a fated mates trope in here (which I love, but lets me down too often) and the let down was more present here. It was fine. Though, FYI, this is NOT young adult — it seems tagged that way on Goodreads — it’s NA for the sexual content, but more YA in writing style.

And while I loved the dark academia x monster fae concept, I am realizing I was still confused by the magic and world building. There were a lot of crisscrossing names and terms that I got lost in the shuffle.

I’m not sure I’ll continue the series.

Overall audience notes:

NA Dark Acadamia/Fantasy Romance
Language: moderate
Romance: innuendo, vague open door
Violence: moderate – high
Content Warnings: blood/gore, murder, weapons and magic altercations

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Book Review: Never Thought I’d End Up Here by Ann Liang

November 9, 2025June 15, 2025 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 320 pages
Author: Ann Liang
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: June 3rd, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the author of the instant New York Times bestseller I Hope This Doesn’t Find You, Never Thought I’d End Up Here is another hilarious and romantic romcom from Ann Liang, this time following a former model determined to get revenge on the boy who ruined her life.

Leah Zhang has spent her whole life in LA – it’s all she’s ever known. But after accidentally wishing her cousin ill health and a very depressing marriage at her wedding, her parents stage an intervention. She’s forgotten most of her Mandarin, has zero regard for etiquette, and can’t hold a conversation with her own grandparents for longer than a minute. Their solution? Send her on an intensive two-week travel program across China’s most beautiful cities. To them, it’s the perfect opportunity for Leah to get back to her roots. To Leah, it’s simply a much-needed escape.

But before Leah can even begin to enjoy the luxurious hotels, stunning scenery, and mouth-watering cuisine, she finds that also on the trip is her former classmate and least favorite person cynical, sarcastic Cyrus, who’s somehow only gotten more annoyingly handsome since they last saw each other.

While Leah might be tempted to shove him off the peak of the Yellow Mountain when nobody’s looking, she can’t get rid of him just yet. After all, she might never get another chance to get revenge on the boy who ruined her life.

Yet the deeper they wander into China’s provinces, the deeper Leah finds herself falling in love – with the boy she once thought she despised, the home she never thought she’d call her own, and the parts of herself she thought were already lost.

GOOD THEMES.

I love a good young adult book I feel I can actually hand to young adults. Ann Liang continues to deliver fantastic coming of age novels that hit you in the feels and supply a sweet romance too.

I loved the traveling aspect of this one. Touring cities with beautifully written imagery brought China to life. And I loved that this immersion for Leah helped her reconnect with her roots. It wasn’t perfect and filled with fumbles and I feel that’s a resonating aspect that we all go through with big experiences. Leah was letting go of a future she thought she had to participate in and found a way to be and love herself. The growth of Leah’s confidence was one of my favorite themes.

And the romance? Oh it was the sweetest childhood friends turned enemies turned slow burn lovers. Cyrus is down bad and I am here for every moment of that. The romance isn’t the front of this story but does provide such a good dual plot line that brings a lot of growth moments for the characters too. These are the kind of travel romances I adore reading.

Overall audience notes:

YA Contemporary Romance
Language: low
Romance: kisses
Violence: low
Content warnings: bullying (recounted), body image (theme throughout)

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Book Review: Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

November 8, 2025August 7, 2025 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 464 pages
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 4th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…

OKAY I GET IT NOW.

This wasn’t really on my radar because I figured the spice would overwhelm my enjoyment of the book but a friend read it and her review convinced me that I needed to go for it and I DID AND I LIKED IT A LOT Y’ALL. The book, not the spice, I still skipped that.

BECAUSE, the story was so dang solid. It really was more than the spice. I was hooked on this plot. I LOVED getting all of the swimming/diving knowledge about competitions, practices, etc. I know very little and this is why I love unique sports romances.

And Scarlett with her mental health moments and therapy? Also in love. As an athlete in another life it was incredibly relatable and I loved seeing her move through that journey. SWEET LUCAS. Good heavens. I think the duet narration in the audiobook sold him x1000 for me. Every single moment and interaction between them was incredible.

I could have used a little less of Pen (Penn? Audiobook problems). She kept popping up and adding another dash of drama that I don’t think the book needed. Otherwise though? I’m not even a little bit mad I picked this up. It was amazing.

Overall audience notes:

Sports Romance
Language: strong
Romance: y’all I stopped counting
Violence: low
Content warnings: death of a parent (recounted), depiction of trauma and PTSD, bullying

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Book Review: Perfect Fit by Clare Gilmore

November 7, 2025November 7, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Clare Gilmore
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: October 29th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A hilarious and heartfelt rom-com about having it all, slowing down to see the big picture, and finding out that the person you least expect could be your perfect fit.

Josephine Davis has spent her entire twenties building Revenant: a fashion brand headquartered in downtown Austin. When her biggest investor orders Josie to hire a consultant, the last person she expects to be working with is Will Grant – the twin brother of Josie’s ex best friend.

Sure, Will and Josie may have shared one mistake of a kiss during senior spring break nine years ago, but they’ve never been friends. She remembers him as moody; he always thought of her as shallow. Romance isn’t on the table for either of them until they blink, and realize there’s a reason they can’t stay away from each other.

But there’s Will’s sister to consider – whom Josie hasn’t spoken with since their falling out – not to mention, Will and Josie live seventeen hundred miles apart. And it’s not like she has time for a boyfriend anyway when she’s an overworked CEO. As Josie’s burnout looms while she falls deeper and harder for Will, she contends with the fact that eventually, she’ll have to make a choice: stay alone to be productive, or slow down to be in love.

GREW ON ME.

I am not a corporate girlie so I feel like the beginning was a little lost on me and I wasn’t quite clicking with everything happening. Gratefully this got better over the course of the book and I found myself truly enjoying the story. I think if you come into this with a little more of a fiction lens than romance you’ll like it too. DON’T WORRY, there is romance, but there’s a really big focus on Josie and herself as she grows throughout the book.

I loved that Josie was hardworking and deliberate about who she was and what goals she had AND at the same time could recognize that maybe some of her decisions were creating a lifestyle that was racing towards burnout. That fine balance between work vs. life is hard sometimes and this explored it well.

The romance is very low angst, it’s a sweet story of two old friends running into each other again (literally) and how all of those previous memories resurfaced. I loved how supportive Will was and the way they learned to lean on each other.

Overall audience notes: