Saturday, June 20, 2026
Stacking the Shelves: The Mysterious UPS Package Edition
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Review: Dhampira by Amy Pennza
DhampiraPublication
Date: June 16, 2026My Review
Dhampira is dark, almost gothic tale of a young half vampire getting stuck in a world of magic and terror. If you're a fan of Netflix's Castlevania or stories like Rin Chupeco's Silver Under Nightfall, then you'll love this dark, twisted tale. Even fans of more popular stories like Jennifer L. Armentrout's From Blood and Ash, Liv Zander's Court of Ravens duet, or any of Melissa K. Roehrich's books will enjoy Dhampira. It has the same vibes with great worldbuilding.
The book is all about Corinthe, the daughter of a small town's healer and a secret vampire, who finds out her father is a crazy vampire king she'll either need to escape from or end. And of course, during this journey, there are a couple of love interests to help her out. Lorcan is the mysterious royal vampire who's always at her father's side, and Vander is the captain of the guard. Each of the three main characters display unique powers, and seeing their relationship form felt fairly realistic in their fictional world. They're all trying to survive the maniacal king they serve. It is a personal peeve of mine, however, when the MM part of an MMF relationship has already been formed prior to the book's starting timeline. I feel like it makes a third of the poly relationship seem less important to the story. Or maybe I'm just greedy and want flashback scenes of all the characters forming romantic relationships.
I honestly flew through this book. That's rare for me with review copies. Not because I don't like them, but because I'm a huge mood reader, so a review book has to hit me hard to keep me obsessively turning pages over a two-day span, and Dhampira accomplished that feat. While the villain was a bit one-dimensional, which was kind of understandable given his madness, the worldbuilding overall was super interesting. There were a lot of mythical creatures, strange powers, and warring beings. The idea of a three-way war between witches, werewolves, and vampires with elves sitting in the background makes my Underworld/Charmed/Buffy/LOTR fangirl heart happy. It was pretty cool. I think a series or an even longer book could've made this an epic tale similar to Jay Kristoff's Empire of the Vampire trilogy.
The story was still a very fun time. I do think the ending was a bit chaotic and rushed, though. I'm hoping there's a sequel to settle the world back down, but I'm also not sure the story, especially the romance element, needs a sequel. Even though there were a few unanswered questions, those don't seem urgent enough to require another book. But I still want one, and I guess that's all that matters as long as the author writes it.
All in all, I am so happy with Dhampira. It made reading fun again when sometimes it just doesn't feel easy. I appreciate every book I read, but Dhampira helped me fall in love with that process again. It's such a good time with a digestible plot and fantasy world, but, at the same time, it has darker horror tones and intriguing romances to keep readers on their toes. I can't wait to add my preordered physical copy to my shelf of treasured vampire tales. It definitely deserves a place with my Jex Lane Beautiful Monsters set and my Reaper duology.
Saturday, June 13, 2026
Stacking the Shelves: The Second Set Edition
Monday, June 8, 2026
May Wrap-Up & June TBR
May was not a good month mentally, but I survived. June is a new dawn, a new day, with a new season coming up to boot, so maybe I can cheer up a bit. We shall see.... Honestly, things are already looking up, but I'm trying not to set my hopes too high. I did that last month, thinking that I could take a much-needed vacation in late May/early June and those hopes got crushed. Hard. I'm hesitantly hoping that the end of June will work. I want time off so bad!
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 May
I read nine books in May, which is crazy considering how bogged down I was with work. All I could do for a couple of weeks was come straight home, curl up in a ball, and scroll on my phone until my brain stopped working. But, I managed to read somehow, someway. Only four of the books were physical copies, though. Those included Hunt the Villain by Rina Kent, Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter, Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood, and Bonds of Hercules by Jasmine Mas. Technically, Blood Bound was also a NetGalley book, as I received an e-ARC for it and got about 10% in when I got a physical copy at ApollyCon that I started reading instead. In addition to Blood Bound, I also read two other NetGalley books. I was on a roll in May. Those were Dhampira by Amy Pennza and Nemesis Mine by Amy Archer. My reviews will be posted in June. I also managed to read three other ebooks, including Frozen by Stardust by Elizabeth Helen, Wolfseeker by Amy Pennza, and Suck by Cora Rose and E.M. Lindsey.
Books Bought/Received in May
May wasn't as bad as last month, since there was no ApollyCon, but it still wasn't great for someone who claims to be on a book-buying ban. Anyway, in total, I purchased 13 books and received 15 titles for review or from preorders that I'd already paid for in previous months. The numbers are slowly going down. The dollar amount isn't as low as it needs to be, but as long as I'm not overwhelming my physical TBR, I can deal for now.
The 15 books I received mostly consisted of the preordered books that all decided to arrive in May. This included the Waterstones edition of Riftborne by Bree Grenwich and Parker Lennox, the hardcover author edition of Tortured Souls by Melissa K. Roehrich, the FairyLoot set of books 1-3 in the Lady of Darkness set, the Acrylipics editions of The Crown of Gilded Bones and The War of Two Queens, the author hardcovers of the first two books in Emily Blackwood's Wings So Wicked series, The Witch Collector by Charissa Weaks blue author edition, Kings of Anarchy by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, and The Night Prince by Lauren Palphreyman FairyLoot edition. I also received two ebooks: Soul Sworn by Kate Dylan via a NetGalley review copy and A Vow in Vengeance by Jaclyn Rodriguez via Nook. Technically, I "purchased" this Nook copy, but I used my credit, so I don't really count that. It was on sale at the time for like $1.99 anyway. The final book I received was Flamefall by Rosaria Munda, which was a book I got via trade credit from my local bookstore.
Now, for what I bought in May. It actually wasn't terrible. I'm pretty proud of myself. There was only one real issue, and that was a special edition that I didn't expect to drop. But anyway, the seven books I bought that actually arrived in the month include the Fury Bound Waterstones edition; the US Fury Bound edition, Archangel's Eternity by Nalini Singh, and The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A. Parker (B&N); my May Adult FairyLoot book, Deathbringer by Sonia Tagliaren, and the Romantasy book, Verity Guild by Mai Corland; and The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch (indie bookstore).
As for the remaining six books, they include preorders that haven't arrived yet. The FairyLoot preorders were for This Blade of Ours, Broken Dove, and the Sorrowsong University duology. Then, I had one Illumicrate preorder for The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy, and the major culprit for how much money I spent was the Tome Tunnel edition of A Fire in the Flesh by JLA.
I don't think I watched anything particularly fascinating in May. I'm making my way through The Middle as a meal show. It has some funny moments but it's definitely not a favorite. I also rewatched the first three Hunger Games films and learned that I don't own either Mockingjay Part 1 or 2 on DVD/Blu-ray, so I couldn't watch Part 2 since it wasn't on any of my streaming apps like the other three movies were. Grr...
June TBR
My TBR is similar to last month, but I have made some progress on my NetGalley reads. Thank goodness. Now, I only have To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast and A Viper Among Kings by Sydney Olivia on my immediate NetGalley TBR with the new additions of Turncloak by L.K. Steven and Soul Sworn. (Note from future me who is editing this paragraph: I've finished Soul Sworn. Yay me!) I'm still reading The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde and Lore by Alexandra Bracken. I'd still like to try to continue my Melissa K. Roehrich read-through and get through the final two Legacy books, and I need to read J.R. Ward's Crown of War and Shadow for book club. Maybe. We might be swapping this one for something else. To add some new things to the mix, I'm thinking I'll be in a vampire mood due to the upcoming season of The Vampire Lestat, so it'd be nice to read the Empire of the Vampire trilogy, Bride of Brutal Hearts by Kate Stevens, or Feathers from the Sky by Jess Wisecup.
***
Okay, well, that's the month of May, plus some June sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!






























