Earl Grey Books

Hello, my friends! Here we are with my next round of five most recent reads. Today we’ve got some monster romance, some Agatha Christie, a YA contemporary and a new favourite for the year. So without further ado, let’s jump in.

Sin & Spell (Tenebra City #2) by A.M Kore

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Flame & Fraud (which you’ll see my review for further down in this post), so I figured I should get around to this one first. This series was my introduction to monster romance—Quiver & Quill blew me away so much that I immediately fell in love with the genre and with this series. I didn’t love this one quite as much as Q & Q, but I just don’t know whether anyone will ever beat Gideon for me. What I did love about this one is that it definitely has an adorable side to it too—Eden, our incubus, is deceptively sweet and I really loved seeing that side of him. Just like in the first book, there are so many references to classic literature, pop culture and, of course, hints to the other books that just makes this world feel so much more immersive to me. You can tell that A.M Kore has a bunch of things up her sleeves for the rest of the series, and I can’t wait to discover what all of that is.

Evil Under the Sun (Hercule Poirot #23) by Agatha Christie

I took a couple of months’ break from reading any Christie, but I’m happy to be back now. This was a pretty enjoyable one to come back too—I love the stories when Poirot is on holiday or just a little outside of his comfort zone, and this one takes place on an island off the coast of Devon. It’s an interesting case as well, and I really didn’t expect it to take the turns it did, but I hardly ever guess where Christie is going. My only complaint with this one is that I feel like Poirot wasn’t as involved as he usually is—he rarely speaks until it comes to the reveal, and while he’s usually tight-lipped about the workings of his mind until then, this one felt almost as if Christie sort of just forgot about him until then. I guess Poirot finally got the holiday he wanted, though…

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

This featured in a post I did a few weeks (maybe months) back, and I finally got around to reading it. This was one that I really wasn’t sure that I’d like—I’ve never really been interested in reading about ghosts, but it just sounded like so much fun that I had to give it a chance. I absolutely loved this. I honestly didn’t even realise until I finished it, but this is one of my favourite reads of the year. I love books about grief—I’ve lost most of my family in the last few years, and so I find something comforting about reading about other people’s experiences. This didn’t affect me as strongly as I’d anticipated—there are definitely some intense moments, and I cried at a few points, but this is about more than just Florence’s grief. It’s a really fun book despite that loss—there were definitely parts that made me smile and laugh, and I’m so glad there was. Both Florence and Ben are adorable, and I really enjoyed seeing how they both grew throughout the story as well as learning more about their histories. I also didn’t hate the ghost aspect—I really thought it would get on my nerves, but honestly, I ended up enjoying it, and it fit into the story really well rather than it feeling like it was just tacked on. My absolute favourite thing is the discussion of romance books in here—it’s so clear that Poston is a reader of the genre as well as a writer. I loved getting to see the names of some of my favourite romance authors and others I hadn’t tried yet. It felt like a real love letter to the genre, and I think it’s an absolutely wonderful book through and through.

Flame & Fraud (Tenebra City #3) by A.M Kore

I received an ARC of this title in return for an honest review. All thoughts are my own. All of the books in this series so far have bought something different into the world of Tenebra City, and this one certainly brings the intensity. I’ve loved getting to see the different aspects of the world—Eventide Falls in Quiver & Quill, the bakery in Sin & Spell, the newspaper in Grinch & Guile, but in this one, we get to see Cadmus, the heir to one of the most powerful dragon families and the fashionable hacker about to turn his world upside down. If you’re looking for a monster romance that leans more heavily on the adorable romantic side, then this is not the one for you, but if you want something that brings the heat from the very start and doesn’t let up, then Flame & Fraud is definitely for you. I honestly tend to prefer the former—I love some spiciness, but I love the sweet side of that too, but this one was so fantastic that I kind of forgot about the sweet stuff. That’s not to say there aren’t any cute moments between the two leads, but it’s definitely ramped up the heat from the previous books. I really, really enjoyed this one to the point where I’m kind of questioning whether this one might be my new favourite, even though I didn’t think anything would beat Q&Q for me.

Just at the end here, I wanted to say that I really recommend checking the content warnings that A.M Kore provides on her website before going into this one because there are a lot of potentially triggering things in this one. Kore also provides content warnings for the previous books if you’re considering picking those up.

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

When I heard that Olivie Blake (which is her pseudonym) would be releasing a contemporary YA, I knew that I was going to have to read it after enjoying The Atlas Six so much. I’m so glad that I did because this was adorable. Bel and Two are honestly just so cute and this just made me really, really happy. I love when YA contemporaries talk about the fact that it’s okay to not have everything worked out at 17/18—there’s such a huge amount of pressure at that age and it’s totally fine to not know what you’re doing. I also really liked the robotics side of this—I didn’t understand any of it, but it still a lot of fun to read about. I was really surprised when I first saw this about how short it was, but it still packs a punch. It definitely checked all the boxes for me when it comes to a good YA—fun, adorable, with some serious moments as well, and it’s one of my new favourites for sure.

And that’s it for today. Have you read any of these? Are any on your TBR?