Book Review: Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek

 

I waited so patiently for my library to get this one... and then devoured it in three days!

 

Everyone who lives at the edge of the woods knows that it's home to demons, magic, and other horrible things, but for Liska Radost, it's her only hope. So when her magic becomes too much to bear, she delves into the woods, where she hopes to wish it all away. But instead she finds the Leszy, demon guardian of the woods, who promises to remove her powers in exchange for one year of servitude. Now she's stuck in the haunted forest, with only the inscrutable Leszy and her own monstrous magic for company.

 

This was such a charming and smooth read. Maybe because it follows a well-worn path of authors like Naomi Novik or because fairy tales of girls locked into indentured servitude have survived hundreds of years, but regardless, A.B. Poranek has added another classic to that canon. As a Polish-Canadian myself, it was also really exciting to see my own culture and language reflected in the kinds of stories I've read since I was a kid. Mostly because I never realized I say 'oj' just as often as the characters do! Also it helped me learn some words I've never heard before.

 

Again, while I can't say the story felt fresh, I can say it felt warm, cozy, and familiar. Like a warm blanket on a cold night. Liska Radost, as a character, hit all the beats I was hoping for and was well fleshed-out in her desires, emotions and arc. Her romance with Leszy was believable and warm, and I thought they suited each other pretty well. Each plot twist developed the world of the book as it happened, including some I hadn't even thought of until they were revealed. And best of all: the end arrives satisfyingly. If the book is a warm blanket, the ending is someone bringing you a hot mug of tea. It wraps up all the loose threads, leaving just enough space for readers to imagine what might happen next without feeling left on the cliffside.

 

Altogether, since September is coming up, I think this book is the perfect transitional read from summer romances to autumn witch fantasies (if you're anything like me, at least)

 

Hope to see you soon,

Aleks <3 

 

 

Book Information

Title: Where the Dark Stands Still

Author: A.B. Poranek

Published: 27 February, 2025

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Format: Hardcover, borrowed from library

Pages: 368

Book Review: Problematic Summer Romance

Whenever I see an Ali Hazelwood new release, it is an instant read for me. I know, a bold statement for sure, however, I love the way she integrates science and "smart" elements within her novels (why yes, I was a fan of The Big Bang Theory, how did you know?). Problematic Summer Romance (PSR) is perhaps the least science-focused of the books I have read from her thus far, but it was no less enjoyable. It helps of course, that there were connections to the first book in the series (Not in Love) and we get more Eli and Rue content! Honestly, my biggest regret is that I didn't save it to read on my camping trip, on the beach and with a drink in hand. 

PSR focuses on Maya, who has fallen in love with her brother's best friend, Conor, with whom she has a significant age gap (15 years!). Hazelwood fully fleshes both characters out by way of flashbacks to three years prior, and watching this relationship grow from afar is so "kick your feet" sweet. There were a few lines of dialogue throughout the way which perhaps were a liiiittle cringe, however, I forgive Hazelwood as she can write characters that you cannot help but resonate with - cringy sentiments are pretty normal for a new and exciting relationship after all. Maya is an interesting and kick-ass woman, who ultimately knows who she is and what she wants and is not afraid to go for it and bear the brunt of rejection should it end poorly. Meanwhile, Conor is the kind of broody MC that we all know and love, and seeing him slowly warm up to Maya's personality, youth, and excitement is a wonderful ride. The plot is funny and full of touristy moments that leave you wanting to head to Italy yourself, and ultimately is the PERFECT Summer Romance!

Recommended for people who enjoy: contemporary romance, STEM, steamy, age gap romances, slow burn romances. 

Rating: 4/5 stars

Book Information

Title: Problematic Summer Romance

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Published: May 27, 2025

Publisher: Berkley 

Format: Ebook, read via Libby app

Pages: 416

Summary:

Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life. 

Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him.

It’s such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother’s best friend and the girl he never even knew existed. As Conor loves to remind her, the power dynamic is too imbalanced. Any relationship between them would be problematic in too many ways to count, and Maya should just get over him. After all, he has made it clear that he wants her gone from his life.

But not everything is as it seems—and clichés sometimes become plot twists.

When Maya’s brother decides to get married in Taormina, she and Conor end up stuck together in a romantic Sicilian villa for over a week. There, on the beautiful Ionian coast, between ancient ruins, delicious foods, and natural caves, Maya realizes that Conor might be hiding something from her. And as the destination wedding begins to erupt out of control, she decides that a summer fling might be just what she needs—even if it’s a problematic one.

Have you read PSR yet? What did you think? Leave us a comment below!

Happy Reading, 

Mari

Book Review: Rewind it Back

  

After waiting for what felt like forever after reading book #4 in the Windy City series, I finally got my hands on #5! And of course, as is fitting for the end of this series, we get Rio's story (a character who appears in all of the previous books as the goofy, hapless and looking for love comedy relief). After rooting for him for soooo long, we finally get to see him fall in love with his childhood sweetheart, Hallie. For Rio, I felt like we saw some surprising depth and growth, fleshing him out beyond the comedy relief sidekick to a person with deep thoughts and feelings.  

     Now, Hallie is an interesting character - to be honest, I was somewhat unsure when I first found out that Rio's love interest wouldn't be a character we already know. However, Hallie was a refreshing and surprisingly likeable character, whom I felt it was easy to fall in love with as she navigated meeting Rio again after 6 years. I personally enjoy a trope where the two love interests dislike one another and find themselves pushed together as a result of miscommunication, and their quasi-enemies-to-lovers arc was delightful to read. And of course, as a fan of the series, it was so heartwarming to read how she meets the rest of the couples and becomes a part of the Windy City family. 

    As for the plot, while at times a tad predictable (I definitely called the big twist about the parents before the end), the path that Hallie and Rio take to find their way back to one another was, simply put, sweet. And not to mention, Tomforde definitely delivered on the spice, as I knew she would!

Recommended for who enjoy: romance, sports romance, and second-chance childhood sweethearts.

Book Information:

Title: Rewind it Back (Windy City #5)

Author: Liz Tomforde

Published: May 20, 2025

Publisher: Kindle Edition (read via Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 491

Summary:

HALLIE

When I was eleven, my family moved next door to his.
When I was thirteen, he was my first crush.
When I was sixteen, we fell for each other.

And when I was nineteen, we broke each other's hearts.

Six years later, I've landed an internship with a big-name interior designer in a new city. Unfortunately, that city just so happens to be the one he plays hockey for.

I thought Chicago was big enough to avoid him, until I get the surprise of a lifetime and unknowingly move in right next door. Even worse? The renovation project I'm assigned to in hopes of turning that internship into my full-time dream job...

It's his house.

But how am I supposed to update his bachelor pad into a family home when we can't even stand to be in the same room?

I may have loved Rio DeLuca once, but I'm not that same girl anymore.

RIO

I never thought I'd be the only single one left in my friend group. But after years of trying to find love, I've concluded it may not exist for me anymore.

That is, until I accidentally hire Hallie Hart to renovate my house and our jaded history has me rewinding memories I've kept secret for years.

You see, there's something that my friends don't know.

That connection I've been looking for since I moved to Chicago, that one person some search their entire lives to find . . . I had already found her when I was twelve years old.

And now the only girl I've ever loved is moving into the house next door.

Again.

Let us know if you've read this and how you liked it!

Happy reading, 

Mari

Book Review: To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniqull Blackgoose

 

Indigenous dragon riders! Need I say more?

 

To Shape a Dragon's Breath follows a young woman, Anequs, who bonds with the first dragon hatchling on the island of Masquapaug in recent memory. But her situation is complicated by the Anglish colonizers and their strict regulations of dragons and dragoneers. After signing up for an academy on the mainland, Anequs is plunged into a world different from her own, with new rules and new threats she never imagined. But she must survive and succeed, or risk the death of her dragon.

 

I keep wanting to say that this book is a breath of fresh air (and not just because of the pun), but the more I think about it, the more Blackgoose's book feels like a return to what I liked about dragon books as a kid. Well, at least it felt closer to that than other dragon books I've read recently (I'm looking at you, Fourth Wing). Books that turn dragons into sentient fighter jets and limit them exclusively to military service or to royal bloodlines. The world of To Shape a Dragon's Breath isn't devoid of all that. Anequs enters into a realm where dragons are mostly owned by the rich, or by the military, and are bred and sold in the same as way as racehorses. But for Anequs' community, among other in Markesland, treats dragons as partners, helpers in planting crops and stopping hurricanes. It's a return to what I remember seeing dragons as when I was a kid: helpers, friends, partners.

 And aside from all that, the book is just an engrossing read. The kind that kept me up late. The world-building is fun! The "Anglish" colonizers might sound familiar, but Blackgoose defamiliarized a society we should be used to by re-imagining the Anglish as colonized themselves by Norse culture. Readers have to learn the confusing ins-and-outs alongside Anequs, and traverse a world where no one explains the rules until you've already got them wrong. As if that wasn't enough, Anequs also has to negotiate the active colonization of her community, and the difficulty of balancing Anglish rules with her own beliefs and desires. 

 It all wraps up in a book you really lose track of time with! I can't recommend it enough.

 See you next time,

Aleks 

Book Review: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

    Listen, did I have it on my 2025 bingo card that I'd be reading another Hunger Games novel? No, I sure didn't. Admittedly, after the last one, I was unsure what to expect from Haymitch's story - Snow's novel was (for me at least!) underwhelming, at times confusing, and overall a prequel which felt at times pretty removed from the original series. 

    Not this one. I think what made SOTR so good for me was that it hit ALL the nostalgia that we were wanting from the last one - I'm talking Easter eggs GALORE. Every time a new character hit the page, there was some connection to the original cast of characters, and I think that for me, it made this story feel like coming home to a series that I hadn't known I missed. Not to mention that the story felt well paced, the character development made sense, and we now have a good understanding of why Haymitch is the way he is towards Katniss and Peeta. I appreciated that underlying theme of obscuring truth, something which in todays political climate is important to understand and be able to interact with. I think Collin's brings this theme into her writing in both subtle and overt ways (poor LouLou!), and while reading this book you begin to feel this creeping fear that the government of Panem is not too far removed from current governments today...

Favourite Quotes: “I love you like all-fire.”  

“They will not use our tears for their entertainment.”

Recommended for: every damn person who read The Hunger Games growing up!

Book Info:

Title: Sunrise on the Reaping

Author: Suzanne Collins

Published: March 18th, 2025

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Pages: 387

Summary from Goodreads: 

When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight... and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

What were your thoughts on this book? Feel free to start a discussion in the comments!

Happy reading, 

Mari

Review: Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

 

I'm choosing to believe it was fate that I saw this book at the thrift store during a reading slump. Especially since I first spotted it in someone's hand and they (miraculously) put it back on the shelf. Well, their loss.

 

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries follows the titular professor's time studying faeries in a cold, distant country. Her attempts are hampered by her awkward social skills and eventually by the charming academic rival that follows her north.

 

Fawcett's book arrived during the height of BookTok and publisher's obsession with fae and faerie romances, so when I first heard about it, I chalked it up to being much the same. But anything to with academia always pulls me in. Maybe its my brain's own desire to catalogue and draw connections? I'm not sure. So I gave this book a shot. And wow, it felt like a breath of fresh air. Fawcett's world and characters feel far more connected to Naomi Novik's tales of Slavic folklore and Marie Brennan's Victorian dragon academics than it did to faerie romances and stories I've read and heard about in the past. In my opinion, that connection stems from the underlying respect and gravitas the book holds for folk and oral histories. Emily, as a character, lives and breathes folk and faerie stories, and her love is built on a respect both for the faeries she studies and also the people whose lives are intertwined with the fantastic. Even the residents of Hrafnsvik, who originally see Emily's search as naive and perhaps dangerous, come to understand and respect her knowledge and skill. I've seen fae romances in which their existence is equated to elves, or portrayed as an overwhelmingly powerful and unknowable "other" force. Fawcett's book, like other tales focused on the folklore aspect of fae, treats them with the same respect and understanding one might hold towards the ferocity of nature. Which is arguably what likely inspires many faerie stories.

 

On top of that, Emily and Wendell have such a beautiful, believable bond. I like any book couple with a "I love you. I will kill you for doing that, but I love you" energy, and these two both have it in spades. And on top of that, the book knows when to give their relationship space to breathe, and when to hone in on their feelings. I think, and I hate to repeat myself, its the sense of respect both characters have for each other that makes for a believable and enticing romance between them. 

 

I have yet to pick up the other two books in the series (each copy is $30+ in Canada!), but if fate (or faerie magic) wants to drop them off at the thrift store again, I won't hesitate to grab them.

Book Info:

Title: Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries

Author: Heather Fawcett

Published: January 12th, 2023

Publisher: Del Rey Books

Pages: 317

Based on this, try: A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater, Uprooted by Naomi Novik, An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

 

Catch you next time,

Aleks