Can't Wait Wednesday #244

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Elena and Raphael return for the hauntingly poignant conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh’s genre-defining Guild Hunter series.

A thousand years.

It’s been a millennium since Elena’s fateful first meeting with Archangel Raphael. She has survived war and loss, experienced beauty and cruelty. But no matter what, she has always held on to her mortal heart, as she and Raphael have held on to each other. Passionate and vibrant, they’ve built a life that has stood the test of time, growing ever stronger with each turn of the sun.

But change is coming—of a magnitude they could have never imagined—and it will forever alter the trajectory of their existence.

Even as they grapple with the cataclysmic shift in their personal lives, the Cadre of Ten, which has maintained a hard-won peace for centuries, begins to simmer with dangerous fault lines. The specter of madness looms in one archangel, the promise of war burns between two others, and in darkness far from mortal and immortal eyes stirs an ancient, slumbering power.

Suddenly, the future is terrifyingly uncertain . . . at the very moment that Elena and her archangel need to protect a treasure infinitely more precious than eternity.

I am so, so, soooo behind with this series! Ack, it's saddening as I loved it when it was first going. Then I somehow fell behind and then one book led to two to five to...I don't even want to count! lol. I still buy them though as I learned how hard it is to find an older MMPB when you're wanting to complete a series!

TITLE: Archangel's Eternity
AUTHOR: Nalini Singh
PUBLISHER: Berkely
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2026

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns to Victorian Scotland in the latest in the genre-blending Rip Through Time series.

Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Mitchell has grown accustomed to life in Victorian Scotland after travelling 150 years into the past into the body of a housemaid. She’s built a new life for herself. Even though she works as an assistant to forensic-science pioneer Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie, she considers them true friends. And with Gray in particular, perhaps, someday, something more.

Late one night, Gray and Mallory are summoned urgently to the home of Lady Adler, a patron of Gray’s undertaking business, and they assume there's been a death in the household. But instead, they arrive in the midst of a seance with a ghost demanding Gray's presence. The ghost is Lady Adler's former maid, who had gone missing but now requests that Gray investigate her murder. Although Gray and Mallory are skeptical, they agree to look into the matter, whether she's dead or alive. But unsure if there's been a murder or not, unable to call out the medium as a fraud, and concerned for the fate of the young maid, Gray and Mallory are once again drawn into a mystery much more puzzling--and more dangerous--than it first seems.

Speaking of series I am behind on...lol. I am irrevocably behind on pretty much all of Kelley's books but I love them and they're generally pretty easy to dive back into!

TITLE: An Ordinary Sort of Evil
AUTHOR: Kelley Armstrong
PUBLISHER: Minotaur Books
GENRE: Time Travel Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: May 19, 2026

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays

 

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker. 

Here are the rules:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a page
3. Pick out 2 lines that are SPOILER FREE
4. Name the title, author, etc.

"She would, but she'd remember their faces. Scruffy cat. Nyx was better than both of them combined." p 89

TITLE: The Heartless One
AUTHOR: Emma Hamm
PUBLISHER: Gallery Books
GENRE: Fantasy Romance
RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2026

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and The Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week's topic is: Top Ten Books Titles That Describe Me/My Personality

*in no particular order

10. A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN--I'm a little bit fierce and a little bit broken inside
9. TELL ME NO LIES--I do not like liars
8. SOME GIRLS BITE--not literally bite, but yeah, I don't take crap from people either. Lol.

7. HAPPILY AND MADLY--another array of emotions that fun through me at times. lol
6. UNHINGED--we all feel like this sometimes, right?

5. MEDDLING KIDS--Scooby Doo was a big part of my childhood to the point that it feel like a part of me still!

4. CURSED LUCK--definitely feel like I was cursed with bad luck at times!
3. BETWEEN THE LINES--I've always been a reader, so this just felt like a perfect fit!
2. STORYBOUND--same answer as above!

1. FANG FICTION--and then at the tender age of 13, I read my first vampire book and never looked back!

Review--The Heartless One by Emma Hamm

 

Princess Jessamine and Elric’s story continues after she has brought him back to full physical form in this second book in a romantasy trilogy from USA TODAY bestselling author Emma Hamm, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas.

She won the heart of Death…now she must fight for the hearts of her people.

Jessamine never expected to be on the Deathless One’s side—let alone be in love with him. But now that Elric has returned to his corporeal form and Jessamine has joined the coven of witches that sustain his power, the two are stronger than ever.

But the kingdom is still in turmoil. Jessamine and Elric must prepare their coven of witches to meet the kingdom’s forces in battle—before the man who’s usurped her throne learns how to harness the power of Elric’s fellow gods. How can Jessamine accept that to fight for her kingdom, she might have to fight against it?

The Heartless One by Emma Hamm picks up right where we left off in The Deathless One and was a whirlwind of plans, deception, secrets, and more! This book gave off the vibes of feeling sort of "middle" like but ultimately became so much more and I cannot wait to see how things will conclude in the next installment.

Elric is now in corporeal form and has helped Jessamine build a small coven of witches. He knows the more that they can gather, the more powerful Jessamine will be, but still fears his past fears becoming a reality where the witches just want to continually use him for the power he has and leaving him dead again and again. But that's a problem for later perusal as the next step in helping Jessamine gain back her kingdom is finding her cousin, Fortuna who seems to have an idea of what Leon's ultimate plan was for taking over her kingdom after murdering everyone, including Jessamine herself.

At times, it felt like the plot was a little simplistic, but that's not so much of a complaint as more observation. Reading so many different novels there's always puzzle pieces to the plot going from one point to another and then following a different point to three more sets...it gets overwhelming at times. So having Jessamine with a shorter list of goals was almost a relief. Yes, she does have a more detailed plan overall to getting her kingdom back, but her path feels a little easier in first she is trying to add a few more witches to her growing coven and then she must find her cousin.

The way Hamm draws all this out though is remarkable. It feels like a longer scheme of events than it is, but is told through a remarkable set of pacing. It's not slow, it's not abrupt, it's just the right pace for the events at large and I enjoyed it massively. It's nice to be able to stay in the fantasy romance genre and not have it swell into something overly complicated where excessive notes are needed. This is easily followable and feels like a good movement from point A to point B with very little a.1-a.26 involved before point B!

There was still plenty of conflict and secrets to arise in this one that will threaten the growing romance between Jessamine and Elric. That is to be expected from a second book in a trilogy to be honest! Lol. I was happy that they were more of the external and internal problems versus another love interest, so that was refreshing. The romance was still just the right amount of spice for me without being overwhelming and constantly on the page. There's a lot going on so the moments that Jessamine and Elric could steal together were even more special.

The ending to this one was ideal. We are on the precipice of the finale and a great battle to overcome is looming. There will be even more challenges to face before we can get to the hopefully HEA ending, but at the rate this series has gone so far, I do believe Hamm won't let us down in that regard. Whether how much heartbreak will be put through the ringer before that happens remains to be seen. Lol. I always fear the worst but hope for the best, especially with fantasy. Great things are expected to come out of this last book and I cannot wait for it to happen! If you're looking for yet another amazing fantasy romance series to dive into, be sure to check out The Gravesinger trilogy!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars

It's Monday! What Are You Reaing?

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

Last Week I Read:

The Deathless One by Emma Hamm (4.5 stars)
The Heartless One by Emma Hamm--review to come later today!

Review that was Posted:

West of Wicked by Nikki St. Crowe (ARC) (4 stars)

Currently Reading:

The Library of Shadows by Rachel Moore

What I Plan to Read Next:

It Came from Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo (ARC)

Other Posts of Interest:

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays
Can't Wait Wednesday #243
Books from the Backlog #181
Book Blogger Hop #406
Stacking the Shelves--The BIG One

Stacking the Shelves--The BIG One

 

Stacking the Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! The meme is now hosted by Reading Reality.

What a week! I'll admit the first half was dull and boring and just more of the usual. Although I got quite the surprise on Monday! Nearly all of my B&N preorders arrived! All the ones that would release on Tuesday! This was the first time that I ever got my books BEFORE release day! One was delayed from the herd but that came on Wednesday I think? Another was also delayed and didn't ship until after Tuesday, but amazingly enough it still arrived this week! 

I also got to attend TWO author signings this week after a month of no signings! It was GREAT! I met Kelly Andrew and then Rachel Vincent came here with Kaylie Smith as her conversation partner and it was just a lot of fun! I love attending signings even if I am still super shy and can never think of a question to ask during the Q&A! And this week I have another TWO signings to attend!

Sadly, it seems the bookstore really likes this location that is not in the best of areas and I still can't figure out why. Size wise, it's only marginally bigger than their own store and it confuses people when they think they are going to a signing at the bookstore because they are listed as the host. I was in line early for Rachel's signing and she even looked a little confused as to where her ride dropped her off as the offsite location is not marked very well as to what it is. And the rest of the street is pretty abandoned. It's just not ideal but I don't think the bookstore plans to stop coming there sadly.

But anyway, onto the goods and oh boy are there a lot of them this week! This has to be the most releases I've had on one day and I still have one more book that I need to obtained that I will pick up next week at a signing!

The Wicked Sea by Jordan Stephanie Gray
The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer
Release Me by Tahereh Mafi
Infinite Shores by Pascale Lacelle--B&N edition! Not sure why Goodreads only had the standard one so far.
We Become Darkness by Grace Morrow
The Verdant Cage by Jess Lourey
Rites of the Starling by Deveny Perry
The Seventh Sister by Dawn Kurtagich
The Gravewood by Kelly Andrew--SIGNED! Plus art card!
The Alchemary by Rachel Vincent--SIGNED!

And then I received my preorder goodies from Grace Morrow for We Become Darkness!

art print
bookmark

SIGNED bookplate!

THANK YOU Grace!!

And that was it for me this week! This was really a great week...now if only I wasn't so tired! Lol. What all did you get this week?

Book Blogger Hop #406

 

This meme is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addict!

This week's question is: If you could revisit one of your past reviews, what would you change, and why? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

MY ANSWER: Agh! Can we just say all of them for the first 2, maybe 3 years? Lol. I don't even want to go back and look at those to be honest. The first review I wrote on this blog was probably pretty bad. I mean, I am pretty sure it's cringe-worthy. So I'm not even going to look! Lol. You've been forewarned if you decide to tread back that far!

Review--The Deathless One by Emma Hamm

 

A princess murdered at the altar makes a deal with the god of death for vengeance and to save her people in this first in a unique romantasy trilogy.

Jessamine was raised to be a leader for her people, but when the land is overrun by an incurable plague, she must enter a political marriage to save them all. A union that should have brought hope only brings death as her new husband murders her at the wedding altar and seizes the throne.

But her death is just the beginning. Her spirit is met by the Deathless One, a god of death yearning to return to the mortal plane, and he needs her help. The two of them make a deal—her life and the return of her kingdom in exchange for his resurrection. But the Deathless One is a known trickster, and a deal with him is one made in blood.

Jessamine knows the Deathless One is a dangerous ally, but the longer they work together, the more she wants him and the less she can stay away. As their connection deepens, soon she wonders if she even wants this contract to end. Perhaps the more appealing throne is the one by his side, but she’d have to turn her back on her people to get it.

Emma Hamm's The Deathless One is the start of a new fantasy series featuring a young woman who is killed at the altar by her fiance and must make a deal with death himself in order to find out why and get her kingdom back. This is a story of a woman fueled by revenge and a desire to live and get justice for herself and her kingdom.

Jessamine is a princess in a kingdom that forbids magic and yet, it's magic that she turns to, to study, in hopes of finding a way to cure the plague that has been running rampant in the kingdom and turning people into feral zombies. Of course, being a fantasy, they aren't throwing that term out, but it's what came to mind when they popped up on the page.

Jessamine knows that her marriage to Leon will likely never be one of love. It's a necessity to help strengthen and protect her kingdom from these plagued people who are constantly on the rise and attacking. But as they walk to the altar together to exchange vows, he kills her and tosses her broken body off a cliff.

Then we have the Deathless One himself. A god of death incarnate. He has been worshipped by witches for centuries and yet, has always remained a prisoner of sorts, never being granted the ability to take on physical form. He has always been used and never granted his own kind of freedom. Then he happens upon Jessamine and strikes a bargain with her. He will bring her back to life and help her get her kingdom back, if she will bring him back to life. And the deal is struck.

I am always up for a good revenge story! Love them and this one was just brimming with revenge as Jessamine is determined to figure out exactly who played a role in Leon killing her and taking over her kingdom. He had to have help and she is determined to track down the perpatrator. 

Then we have the Deathless One who is determined to gain his physical form back. He was the ultimate deity of mystery! There's always something about death as a corporeal being that makes things more exciting. While I wouldn't necessarily consider him the Grim Reaper, he does have some rein over death, so it's somewhat fitting. He and Jessamine develop a complicated relationship naturally and there's some chemistry brewing between them. This is not one of the spicier romantasies out there, but there's still plenty of heated moments between the two. I always feel like when it comes to spice, less is more. So far it seems, in this series at least, Hamm is taking that to heart too. I'd rather there be less romantic interludes but have them being heated and intense as I feel like it makes more of an impact than constantly stopping the story for said romantic interludes. But that's just me! Lol.

It seems as if this one is going to be a trilogy, as there's three books listed on Goodreads currently and this book does definitely leave things open-ended at the final page. I did like that they weren't too much of a cliffhanger, yes, quite a lot still has to be done, but the characters were taking a nice pause in the "plan" before getting back to the planning. If that makes any sense! Lol. We're not left hanging in the balance over things but I suspect that could change with the second book. For now at least things are somewhat at ease.

If you're looking for a fantasy series with a woman teaming up with a god of death in order to exact revenge over the man who stole her kingdom and her life, then this is the perfect series to read! Two people join together with a thirst for revenge is my kind of story and this one hit on all the right notes!

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

Books from the Backlog #181

 

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. This is a fun meme hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books!

Secret Identities. Extraordinary Powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies — humans with extraordinary abilities — who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone... except the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice — and in Nova. But Nova's allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.

I added Marissa Meyer's Renegades to my TBR pile in November of 2017! My plan then was to wait until 2018 for the final book of this "duology" to be released and then read it. But when the second book rolled out, it was announced that it would be a trilogy...so I was like I might as well wait for it to all be out then! And then here we are over 8 years later and have I even read the first book? Not yet! Too many loooong books and not enough hours in the day! Why must I need sleep?