Tag: orbit books

Book Review: All Hail Chaos (Time of Iron #2) by Sarah Rees Brennan

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance?
Length: 558 pages
Author: Sarah Reese Brennan
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: May 12th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

THE EMPEROR IS HERE. AND SHE MADE HIM WORSE.

Rae is a fantasy reader who’s been transported to her favourite fictional world of swords and sorcery, castles and monsters. Playing the villainess, she thought she could change the narrative, but this version of the plot is far much more deadly than the one she knew.

Her friends are on the run: the Cobra shelters in an eerie manor haunted by dark secrets, while Emer and Lia stoke a revolution in the gutters. Undead armies roam the kingdom, raiders camp at the city gates, and the irresistible emperor – Rae’s favourite character ever, now possibly the greatest monster in the land – wants her to be his evil queen.

What’s a villainess to do? It’s time for wicked bargains and fake engagements, in a fantasy where the most dangerous thing you can do is believe in someone.

All Hail Chaos is Sarah Rees Brennan’s wicked, unmissable sequel to the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling Long Live Evil (‘delicious, subversive’ Leigh Bardugo).

Thank you Orbit Books for the gifted copy.

I DON’T KNOW.

I wasn’t super keen on picking this one up but I got a copy so I wanted to try?? And I, once again, have mixed thoughts. I do not think this is a bad book or poorly written. Just maybe not the story for me. I apparently have a hard time with book within a book plots. Where the main character more or less already knows what’s going to happen, then I already know what’s coming and I like more of a mystery.

There is supposedly a romance in here? For three different POV’s, there’s three sub plot romantic lines and I never felt fully invested in any of them. I think the plot overwhelms the deeper connections between the characters. I did like the audiobook narrator but there desperately needed to be different narrators for each POV. I was getting lost because the story telling in general all ran together.

Maybe I’ll read the third? I am completely undecided on that fact but you never know.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy romance?
  • Language: mild – moderate
  • Romance: 2-3ish quick & vague open door
  • Violence: moderate

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Book Review: The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam (Hart and Mercy #3) by Megan Bannen

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 432 pages
Author: Megan Bannen
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: July 8th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy comes a new heartwarming fantasy rom-com with an opposites-attract twist set in the delightful world of Tanria.

Immortal demigod Rosie Fox has been patrolling Tanria for decades, but lately, the job has been losing its luster. After one hundred and fifty-seven years of being alive, everything is beginning to lose its luster. When Rosie dies (again) by electrocution (again) after poking around inside a portal choked with shadowy thorns only she can see, she feels stuck in the rut that is her unending life.

Thanks to Rosie’s meddling, the portal’s inventor, Dr. Adam Lee, must come in person to repair the damage. When all the portals begin to break down, he declares an emergency evacuation of Tanria. In the mad rush to get out, Rosie and Adam end up trapped inside the Mist. Together.

And uptight Adam Lee in his bespoke menswear seems to know a lot more about what’s happening than he lets on….

Rosie is determined to crack the shell of his cool exterior. But the more she learns about Adam, the more she realizes that they both have personal histories as tangled and thorny as the plant that has them trapped inside the Mist. Maybe two people who have found themselves stuck in this life can find a way to unstick each other … just when their time on this earth seems to be running out.

GOT ME IN THE FEELS.

This series is delightfully quirky with just the right level of heaviness balanced with heart and humor that make me love this writing style. I liked having the time jump before the start of this one and seeing the evolution of Tanria and what some of my favorite characters have been up to.

The set-up for the plot led to a small cast with all the forced proximity you could want (with a bonus side character romance too!!). I really enjoyed the smaller cast. It felt like a very tight knit found family and I fell in love with each one of them.

And I loved the dynamic between Rosie and Adam. His dry wit combined with her more effervescent nature was the perfect blend. Slowly getting Adam’s backstory was fantastically executed and I loved how that mystery unfolded. There were so many memorable moments and key scenes that made you think and ponder life and the price of immortality.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 3ish open door
  • Violence: moderate
  • Content warnings: loss of a loved one

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Book Review: The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed #1) by Brigitte Knightley

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 416 pages
Author: Brigitte Knightley
Publisher: Orbit Books
Release Date: July 8th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The first in a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy duology featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world, perfect for fans of The Love Hypothesis and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, is in dire need of healing. Naturally – such is the grim comedy of fate – the only healer who can help is Aurienne Fairhrim, preeminent scientist, bastion of moral good, and member of an enemy Order.

Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick – so desperate that, when Osric bribes her to help him, she accepts, even if she detests him and everything he stands for.

A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders, much to Aurienne’s disgust. As Osric and Aurienne work together to heal his illness and investigate the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction, which only fuels the heat between them.

WORKED FOR ME.

I didn’t know what I would be getting when I picked this up but I was hopeful for a good enemies to lovers romantasy. I think that mostly delivered and I’ll read the second book because this did leave me curious about where that would go.

Some of the humor/innuendo/spice didn’t work for me and just wasn’t funny. That was my biggest gripe throughout that kept taking me out of the story.

On the other hand we have another case of a man falling first and falling head over heels so hard we doesn’t even realize it and GOSH I LOVED THAT. The banter is snappy and witty and it has a very unhinged level of antics that played off well for the plot. All of the wild things he’d do for her really worked for the characters.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: multiple open door
  • Violence: high
  • Content warnings: high violence, on page torture, loss of life, medical content

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ARC Book Review: Hopeless Necromantic (The Catseye Chronicles #1) by Shiloh Briar

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 368 pages
Author: Shiloh Briar
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: June 2nd, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Sticks and stones may break their bones, but he’ll just resurrect them.

Four years ago, Sikras ‘Catseye’ Nikabod had it all: a beautiful wife, friends and family, and the endless luxuries that came with being the all-powerful necromancer to the queen.

Now, his brother-in-law is a walking corpse, he’s wanted for tax evasion, his oldest friend, Vessik, has slaughtered thousands of the queen’s people with a skeleton army, and his wife is dead. Sort of.

With the kingdom under threat, it’s only natural for the queen to task Sikras with the totally normal, not-at-all-cruel chore of brutally murdering his dearest friend. Sure. Great. It’s not like he already failed to stop Vessik’s reign of terror twice or anything.

Turns out, it’s hard to kill a monster when you can’t stop remembering the good man he used to be. Harder still when you’re pretty sure his descent into madness is kind of, sort of, hypothetically … all your fault.

Raise a glass. Raise the dead. Just don’t raise your hopes.

Thank you Orbit Books for the gifted ARC.

LOVELY SURPRISE.

I took a chance on this one, purely because of the cover, and you know what? It delivered. I had a genuinely good time reading this and actually read the whole physical copy without waiting for an audiobook or ebook. And that’s hard for my current era of life.

This felt like a cozy fantasy but with enough action to take the edge off of *cozy* that I usually get bogged down by. I think the world building could have been a little more clear, but if you don’t focus too hard enough of it makes sense to know what’s happening. The themes were well woven in and I loved all of those poignant moments too.

I also really loved the characters. It is a unlikely trio coming in to save the day and I genuinely laughed out loud multiple times at some of the banter and properly placed quips. I loved the relationship they all had with one another. Sikras and Ben were such a pair and I loved the love between them.

Helspira was the perfect counter balance of chaotic good. I adored her character and loved that we had the POV of both her and Sikras. It was very much a slow burn romance between them but I do think there needed to be a bit more romance in some kind of construct before getting together.

I will absolutely be reading the next book and continuing this adventure!!

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: mild
  • Romance: closed door
  • Violence: moderate-high
  • Content warnings: loss of loved ones, war themes, necromancy/undead

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