In These Waters, in the Songs, in the Sighs, the Star Waits

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous book, Stars of Fortune, or don't mind knowing spoilers for it.
SPOILER ALERT

~Bay of Sighs~
The Guardians Trilogy
Book 2
By Nora Roberts
Amazon ~ Powell's

Mermaid Annika is from the sea, and it is there she must return after her quest to find the stars. New to this world, her purity and beauty are nothing less than breathtaking, along with her graceful athleticism, as her five new friends discovered when they retrieved the fire star.

Now, through space and time, traveler Sawyer King has brought the guardians to the island of Capri, where the water star is hidden. And as he watches Annika in her element, he finds himself drawn to her joyful spirit. But Sawyer knows that if he allows her into his heart, no compass could ever guide him back to solid ground...

And in the darkness, their enemy broods. She lost one star to the guardians, but there is still time for blood to be spilled—the mermaid’s in the water and the traveler’s on the land. For she has forged a dangerous new weapon. Something deadly and unpredictable. Something human.


Knowing the characters from the last book, I admit I wasn't too excited going into this one. The ditzy, child-like mermaid as the main romantic lead? Not really my idea of a great time. Still, I was at least interested in how the group as a whole would progress, and I didn't mind spending more time with Sawyer, so I went ahead and dove in.

That, My Dear Sir, Is What You Call Life

~To Sir, With Love~
By Lauren Layne
Amazon ~ Powell's

Perpetually cheerful and eager to please, Gracie Cooper strives to make the best out of every situation. So when her father dies just five months after a lung cancer diagnosis, she sets aside her dreams of pursuing her passion for art to take over his Midtown Manhattan champagne shop. She soon finds out that the store’s profit margins are being squeezed perilously tight, and complicating matters further, a giant corporation headed by the impossibly handsome, but irritatingly arrogant Sebastian Andrews is proposing a buyout to turn the store into a parking garage. But Gracie can’t bear the thought of throwing away her father’s dream like she did her own.

Overwhelmed and not wanting to admit to her friends or family that she’s having second thoughts about the shop, Gracie seeks advice and solace from someone she’s never met—the faceless “Sir”, with whom she connected on a blind dating app where matches get to know each other through messages and common interests before exchanging real names or photos.

But although Gracie finds herself slowly falling for Sir online, she has no idea she’s already met him in real life…and they can’t stand each other.


I actually have no idea how I found this book. I want to say it was someone's blog post, but I can't, for the life of me, find where I found it. Regardless, I was immediately drawn to this book by its promised combination of You've Got Mail setup with the enemies-to-lovers trope. Plus I figured it would be a cute, quick book that I could read along with my mom. At least, I hoped it would be.

Shambling Guide on How to Catch Idiot Humans Who Ran in the Dark With a Hangover

The Shambling Guide to
New York City
The Shambling Guides
Book 1
By Mur Lafferty
Amazon ~ Powell's

A travel writer takes a job with a shady publishing company in New York, only to find that she must write a guide to the city - for the undead!

Zoë Norris is looking for a fresh start in New York City. She's found a seemingly perfect position as a travel book editor, but there is one thing holding her back—being human.

Zoë isn't going to let anyone—not even her blood-drinking boss or her death goddess coworker put her off from delving deep into the monster underworld. But her job, not to mention her life, might be in peril when the line between monster and human starts to crumble...with Zoë right in the middle.


Phew, this is the first physical book I've read in quite some time. That's right, my library didn't have an e-book of this one available in time for the Vampire Book Club's discussion date (though I did request it and its sequel for the future), so I had to hoof it old-school (it's been probably 5 years since I went full digital) through a paperback copy! Was it worth the papercut potential?

With Every Flap of the Strixes’ Ink-Black Wings Came Shadows

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books, Crown of Feathers & Heart of Flames, or don't mind knowing some spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT

~Wings of Shadow~
Crown of Feathers
Book 3
By Nicki Pau Preto
Amazon ~ Powell's

I had a sister, once…

Veronyka is no longer an orphaned stable boy or a nameless Phoenix Rider apprentice: she is the daughter of Pheronia Ashfire, the last queen of the Golden Empire…and the niece of Avalkyra Ashfire, the resurrected rebel queen who tore the empire apart.

We shone brightly, burned fiercely.

Now that the secret is out, everyone at the Eyrie treats Veronyka differently, and with Tristan still a hostage of the scheming Lord Rolan—and Sev with him as a spy—Veronyka feels very much alone. Except for her beloved phoenix, Xephyra, of course, and her new friend, Kade, who has his own reasons for wanting to save Tristan.

Was it always going to come down to this? Sister against sister? Darkness against light?

Veronyka is determined to do whatever it takes to get Tristan back, even if that means revealing her identity to the world and inheriting a throne she’s not sure she wants. But when she discovers that Avalkyra has bonded with a strix—a legendary creature of darkness that feeds off the life force of others—Veronyka realizes she has more to deal with than an encroaching war with the empire. Val is willing to destroy everything to get her revenge on a world that rejected her, and if Veronyka wants to bring peace to the empire and Pyra alike, she must face down her sister once and for all.

The world began with Ashfire queens…perhaps they will also be its destruction.


I can't begin to tell you how pumped I was for this book. I didn't even want to read the book's summary, I was so ready to just dive in. With the last couple series enders I've read being a bit disappointing, I probably should have had a bit more apprehension going in, but with my re-read out of the way (and two amazing audios enhancing my experience) I was eager to see what the shadows had in store for me...