Tuesday, September 16, 2025
A Summer 2025 Unhaul
Saturday, September 13, 2025
Stacking the Shelves: The Stuffed Cat Edition
Monday, September 8, 2025
August Wrap-Up & September TBR
August is over, which means summer is also almost over. That's crazy to think about. I don't think August really had any super exciting happenings. There were some fun things, like my birthday, seeing some movies, prepping for my upcoming trip, and such, but overall, it was a quiet month. I think I needed that since work has picked up a bit now.
In this wrap-up,
I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received,
and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!
Books Read in August
I read seven books in August, which is surprising considering I felt like I was in a bit of a reading slump the entire time. I guess it helped that I had ebooks on hand to assist in pushing me through the slog of trying to find a great read. Because of that, I only read four physical books: Voidwalker by S.A. MacLean (ARC), Psycho Shifters by Jasmine Mas, Teacher of the Year by M.A. Wardell, and Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose Darling. I also read one NetGalley ARC, Our Vicious Oaths by N.E. Davenport, and one library ebook download, Destroy the Day by Brigid Kemmerer. Psycho Fae by Jasmine Mas was actually the only Kindle Unlimited book I read in August. That's crazy to think about. I'm getting better at not just reading KU books all the time. Not that there's anything wrong with KU books. I just need to read the books I buy too.
Books Bought/Received in August
August did some monetary damage, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been, so I'm okay with what I spent. Now, I know September will be bad because of the new JLA release, so I'm making peace with that now. After that, though, I must slow down once again. Overall, I bought 20 books in August and received 14.
The 14 books I received included mostly books that I'd ordered in previous months: Feathers from the Sky and Thorns from the Fall by Jess Wisecup (author website order), The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley (July Illumicrate order), Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout Bad Women Books edition (sub that I'd paid for back in April), Rose in Chains by Julie Soto (June FL book), and the first four books in the Bridge Kingdom series from Arcane. The others included two NetGalley eARCS, We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark and Our Rogue Fates by Sarah Glenn Marsh; Mooncalled by Patricia Briggs, a used bookstore purchase with trade credit; a UK ARC of What Fury Brings I traded for; and Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood, which my sister gave me.
Now, for what I bought. I only received eight of the 20 books I purchased. Those included Immortal Consequences by I.V. Marie (FairyLoot YA), Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer (FairyLoot Romantasy), Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard (Amazon - replacement for old copy), Heartless Sky by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk by Carissa Braodbent, Kiss the Villain by Rina Kent, and Bespelled and Bewitched by Laura Thalassa (BN preorders).
As for the remaining 12 books, some of them should be on their way soon and others won't ship out for a while yet. The ones on their way include the FairyLoot August Adult and Epic subscription books, the Waterstones edition of Dire Bound, the Acrylipics edition of A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, the German set of the Flesh & Fire series, and the FairyLoot edition of Wild Reverence and three books in the Iron Fey spinoff series.
The month of August had a few surprises thrown in for films. TV shows were about the same, though. I rewatched Home Improvement episodes once again. I'm almost done with that, so I'll find something else to watch soon. I'm thinking Parks & Rec sounds like a good rewatch. It's been a while. I also watched a few episodes of The Kingdom on Disney+. It's the Chiefs football documentary. I'm not a big football watcher, but the Taylor and Travis relationship has me feeling like I'm watching a romcom, so I went ahead and watched it. I also saw Fantastic Four: First Steps in theaters with my dad and sister, and then I watched KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix over the holiday weekend. Both films were fun. I will say, the KPop Demon Hunters hype was a little bit over-the-top, but it was still fun.
September TBR
Honestly, the TBR hasn't changed much since last month. Voidwalker is the only thing that I finished from the physical copies list. I'm still about 60% done with Of Sky & Embers by Claire Butler (ebook), and I'd like to finish Salt in the Wound by Sierra Simone. Other books to read include The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz, The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O'Keefe, Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa K. Roehrich, The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten, Silver Elite by Dani Francis, Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli, and Lightlark by Alex Aster. I need to read We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark, Our Rogue Fates by Sarah Marsh, and To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast as well. Those three are all NetGalley eARCs. OH! I can't believe I almost forgot! I have to read The Primal of Blood and Bone when it releases on September 23! That will be all I do that day. I took the entire day off work to read it.
***
Okay, well, that's the month of August, plus some September sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Stacking the Shelves: The Rough Week Edition
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Stacking the Shelves: The Back From Break Edition
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Review: Voidwalker by S.A. MacLean

My Review
I haven't ever really read a book like this, so I'm going to throw some comparison titles out there and hope I'm not too far off base. I think, if you're a fan of Stacey McEwan's Glacian trilogy or Ice Planet Barbarians, you might enjoy S.A. MacLean's Voidwalker. Both of those other titles have wintry settings with love interests of a different species. Voidwalker is definitely darker, though, in that the male main character, an antler-and-tail-having monster with big sharp teeth, has to eat humans to survive. It's a bit of a twisted sci-fi-esque romantasy.
I'm not usually squeamish, but it was weird to me how the female main character could be intimate with a creature that eats people and has eaten people alive. In the wise words of Edward Cullen, it's like a lion falling in love with a lamb and vice versa. And unlike Twilight, it was sort of uncomfortable to think about. I thought the storyline would have a male monster character that didn't follow his fellow creature's diet, not that he just did it more politely. It was strange, especially with one specific scene at the end that, unfortunately, automatically dropped my rating and enjoyment. It was just a bit icky when that scene happened. Too icky for me. I was able to have fun with the story up until that point.
Because of the daeyeri creatures' diet, I'm not sure if Voidwalker should be recommended for seasoned monster romance vets or if it's something wannabe monster-romance readers would enjoy. The spicy times were pretty tame based on some other monstrous books I've read, but the mind games I had while thinking about the male main character eating people just made me believe the story isn't for the newbies.
With this being a romantasy story, there are, of course, two main characters in Voidwalker. Fi is a smuggler who can walk in the Void, which is basically like portal jumping between different lands, and Antal is the daeyeri monster with powers that are a tad confusing. I liked both of them, but Antal is useless for like 80% of the story. How did he ever survive by himself? And although I did like the characters overall, I don't think I ever connected with them enough to fall in love. They were simply entertaining.
Now, as for the descriptions of the world and magic, they were a bit dry at first. At times, they took me out of the story. However, when there were dialogue and action scenes, I was invested. It's when the action slowed down that I found my mind wondering to other things. The plot itself was fun. I was able to read it fairly quickly, despite Voidwalker being a chunk of a book. Having to partner up with a monster to take down an even more monstrous monster is typically a good time. The two main characters were kind of disasters together too, which made the story entertaining. Honestly, if it wasn't for the diet, this would have been a good read.
All in all, I think this one was too weird for me. I'm not a big monster-romance girlie, so it makes sense. I don't dislike the genre, I'm just particular about the monster romance I choose to consume (pun intended). I thought this one would be a bit more palatable, though, since it's traditionally published. But, the eating people thing didn't work for me. It's a very beautiful cover, though, and maybe I'll want to pick up book two once I've had more time to digest the story.