Tag: orbit books

Book Review: The Shadows that Listen (Angel Ruin #1) by Louisa Carmody

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Louisa Carmody
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: September 9th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

WHO WILL SURVIVE THE NIGHT?

The Shadows that Listen is an unputdownable dystopian romantasy with a delicious slow burn romance, from debut author Louisa Carmody. Perfect for fans of Crescent City and Silver Elite.

It’s been five years since the world was brought to its knees by an immortal war. Daemons crawled from the depths of hell and the sky bled gold as the angels arrived. Humanity thought it was saved, but the angels did not come to protect us.

Amara is a human warrior working for the Angel Intelligence Agency. She spends her days searching for those who don’t make it home after curfew. But when her boyfriend Jeremy goes missing, she decides to venture into the shadows to bring him back. Even if it means death.

Nathaniel is an archangel tasked with leading the destruction of humanity, for which he cares little. He doesn’t have time to protect little humans running around in the dark, especially those who stab him in the stomach.

But Nathaniel and Amara will soon realise they share a foe, one that lurks in the shadows and stalks them from the skies. She might long to kill him, but Amara knows that having an angel at her side is the only way to find the man she loves.

The shadows lengthen. They listen. Who will survive the night?

Thank you Orbit Books for the gifted copy.

I’LL READ BOOK TWO.

I didn’t know a single thing about this book and I decided that it was a gem! I appreciated that even though it’s an “urban” fantasy I didn’t feel like it was. The setting gave off purely fantasy vibes. Add in the humans + angels + demons combo and I was sat.

There was too much conversation around finding Jeremey because I just didn’t like Jeremy, but that was my biggest complaint. I liked the plot and that things kept moving. There’s good reveals and *AHA* moments that I can’t wait to see play out in book two.

The romance is a slow burn. THANK YOU FOR THE SLOW BURN. I did think it was funny Amara called Nathanial archangel for so much of the book. I couldn’t even remember what his name was most of the time because of it. I’m real down bad for these two so I can’t wait for more in this department too.

Overall audience notes:

  • Dystopian fantasy romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: high

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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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