Short AF Book Review | The Last Soul Among Wolves | ARC Received By Netgalley

 Hi friends! So today I'm going to be doing a review on "The Last Soul Among Wolves" by Melissa Caruso. This review is going to be short and sweet (like the title suggests) and spoiler free (however there will be the Goodreads synopsis in this and sometimes it can contain spoilers, especially with this being the second book in the series, so please keep that in mind!)

"The Last Soul Among Wolves is the brilliant second instalment in Melissa Caruso's Echo Archives series, a whip - smart adventure fantasy featuring cursed relics, sapphic romance, and a magical murder mystery.

All Kembral Thorne wants is to finish her maternity leave in peace. But when her best friend asks her for help, she can't say no, even if it means a visit to a run - down mansion on an isolated island for a will reading. She arrives to find an unexpected reunion of her childhood friends - plus her once - rival, now - girlfriend Rika Nonesuch, there on a mysterious job. Then the will is read, and everything goes sideways.

Eight potential heirs, half of them Kem's oldest friends.

Three cursed relics.

The rules: one by one, the heirs will die.

The prize for the lone survivor: a wish. And wishes are always bad business.

To save their friends, Kem and Rika must race against the clock and descend into other realities once more. But the mansion is full of old secrets and new schemes, and soon the game becomes far more dangerous - and more personal - than they could have imagined."

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley, however all opinions are my own.

So the reason I wanted to read this is genuinely because I read the first book (also as an ARC) in January and I loved it, so I applied for the second one. Friends, I was genuinely so happy to get this sequel, however I feel a little 50/50 about this one compared to the first. Let's start off with the good. The storytelling in this book was just as fun, and magical as the first one. The author did such a good job at making us feel like we were there with Kem and Rika. The twists and turns were just as, if not more, twist and turny as the first book. I loved learning more about Kem and Rika and what their life was like. I loved that we got to know more about the villains and their lore. I was so happy to see that there was still that witty banter and yearning there was in the first. I genuinely feel like this series is like nothing I have ever read before. However, this book for some reason just slogged on for me. It's not that I wasn't enjoying all of the content, I just found it so difficult to want to pick it up and there was nothing really pulling me until the last 10 chapters. If I wasn't already so invested in this series, I may have DNF'd it at the start. Both of these books so far have had a slow start and a STRONG finish but for me, the slow start just lasted a little too long for my liking in this one. I'm definitely still going to be picking up the next book when it comes out, however the next book will also definitely determine whether or not I would still recommend this series to others.

I gave this book a 3/5 star rating on Goodreads.

This book is already out!

What did you think of this book? Who were your favourite or least favourite characters? Do you have any books you'd recommend for me to read and do a review on? Please let me know down in the comments below!

Have a wonderful day!

Love, Doe!

Short AF Book Review | Will It Hurt

Hi friends! So today I'm going to be doing a review on "Will It Hurt" by Lily X. This review is going to be short and sweet (like the title suggests) and spoiler free (however there will be the Goodreads synopsis in this and sometimes it can contain spoilers to please keep that in mind!)

"A wytch prone to chaos. A grieving, murderous vampyre. When hate turns to heat, can they work together to bring a loved one back from the dead?

A wytch and a vampyre walk into a bar - except they don't. It's a cafe. And they almost kill each other first.

But snap judgements never last. If only Jinn didn't desperately need a wytch to cast a retraction spell, and Aisla Lami wasn't the only one available for miles.

The hate is still there, but so is something else. Something that's way more complicated. As their forced partnership begins to feel a little less forced, the two start to believe they might actually have a chance to bring a loved one back from the other side... Or do they?

Four nights. Two powerful beings. One goal."

So the reason I wanted to read this is genuinely because 1: as you all know I love queer books, but 2: the author spoke about a "shadow strap" and I said SAY LESS. Friends, I LOVED this book. However, before I get into this review, please look up the trigger warnings before you read this book, this book deals with a lot of heavy topics and if those topics are something you can't read, I'm sure the author would rather you not. Now into the book review. This book was fucking incredible. This book hurt me, this book made me sob, this book made me cackle. I am not lying when I say I woke my partner up at 1 in the morning laughing my ass off at a singular line in the book. The author did such a good job at making sure there were so many points of light within this book using humour to get us through such dark topics. Yes this book is heavy, and heart  breakingly beautiful. However it truly touches everything with a softness that you could only get from a sapphic book. I loved how there was a familiar essence throughout the book with it being set in Scotland making it easy to imagine and feel like we were there with Jinn and Aisla. I loved that Lily used Aisla to speak about what it was like to be a POC in Scotland. I adored that this book was dual POV so we truly got to see the enemies to lovers trope play out through both their thoughts and feelings.  There was honestly just so much that I was not expecting to happen in this book and the twists and turns really got me. Also, as a girly who does not like spice in her books usually. The spice in this was... something else (let's just say, my partner enjoyed this book too and they did not read it). The way that it was integrated into the story made it much more enjoyable to read, and also had such a fun way of being added into the magic systems. I am hoping and praying that this book will become a series. I have so many questions that I need answered and I genuinely just need more of Aisla and Jinn in general. I love this book so much and would 100% recommend it to anyone and everyone who just wants a good sapphic enemies to lovers.

I gave this book a 5/5 star rating on Goodreads

What did you think of this book? Who were your favourite or least favourite characters? Do you have any books you'd recommend for me to read and do a review on? Please let me know down in the comments below!

Have a wonderful day!

Love, Doe!