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  • Book Review: “Daindreth’s Assassin” by Elisabeth Wheatley

    Stars: 4.5 out of 5

    Genre: Fantasy Romance

    Book Length: 276 pages

    Format Read: Paperback

    Published: 2021

    This book was highly enjoyable. I loved the slower pace and the enemies-to-lovers trope of the story. As this book also doesn’t contain sex scenes, the yearning is written excellently. To be fair, I would say the enemies-to-lovers trope is primarily at play at the beginning; they feel more like a friends-to-lovers couple as the story progresses. Friends-to-lovers is my favorite between the two tropes, so I was happy.

    The story’s pacing feels cozy until the action scenes begin; once we’re in a fight, the pace picks up appropriately, and the scene plays out in my mind clearly based on the description. This is perfect because I find I hate when a book’s action picks up too quickly and makes me go back to read like “wait, wait, WAIT, where are we? What happened??” I stayed immersed in this book from beginning to end.

    I enjoy Elisabeth’s writing as well because it clearly conveys the story and characters’ feelings, and it doesn’t have the shock factor written into it that some of the most popular authors lean on. The book is written for an adult audience, but without an abundance of cursing or crude jokes and comments. These things are in the writing, but not forced in for the sake of it; these moments fit the overall story or emotion for the moment.

    My Favorite Moments

    **Spoilers Ahead**

    Amira’s (second time) meeting Daindreth on pages 41-44, and specifically when he kissed her hand in greeting. Her sassing Thadred was also wonderful. I, too, choke to death all the time.

    Daindreth asking King Hyle for Amira’s hand in marriage on pages 48-50 was a top favorite moment. I felt just as confused as the rest of the room with the court.

    That moment is quickly followed by the fight between Amira’s stepmother and herself. The anger was palpable and satisfying. Queen Hyle never stood a chance. This results in what any good MMC does.

    Page 71 is one of the first moments that I really liked Daindreth. He betrays everyone’s feelings on this later, but he tries here and other times in the story.

    The meeting between Amira and the Empress sets the perfect tone for their whole relationship in the book.

    The whole of chapter 9. It’s an entire favorite.

    Page 141 – “Who did this?” Gets me every time.

    The kiss on page 176 and the resulting conversation with his possessiveness and yearning showing on 177-178 – gah! I have no words for how good it is.

    Chapter 17 made me mad in the best way. The betrayal.

    Finally, on page 233, my eyes couldn’t open any wider, and I might have cheered aloud. “The chokehold broke like a cut rope.”

  • Favorite Books I read in 2025

    In 2025, specifically starting in August, I got started on a whole reading kick. From August to the end of December, I ended up reading about 75 books. Today, I will share the ones that I read during that time that were my favorites. Some of them are considerably older than being released in 2025, so they weren’t released at that time, but I read them in 2025.

    A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

    You may be tired of hearing about this book (or not), but this was the first book that started me on the reading kick and romantasy/fantasy romance genre in August 2025. I read it completely on August 16 in one sitting! The very next day, I had to get the next book in the series from my local Barnes & Noble.

    Many fans of the series say that this is their least favorite of the ACOTAR series, but I enjoyed this book so much because of everything that it lays out for the subsequent books. The author writes so many little sentences that don’t seem to foreshadow anything at the time, but then it comes back later, sometimes even 2 books later!

    I ended up loving all 5 books of this series that are currently out, but because the first one got me started on this whole new world of books and it was the first domino that led to 75 books being read, it has a special place in my heart.

    When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker

    This book destroyed me in the best way. The whole world that is presented in this story is so beautiful, and the writing is so poetic that I fell in love with this story and these characters. I am completely emotionally invested in their story.

    Without spoiling anything, the story does get bittersweet towards the end, but it is such a sweeping romance as well that I read it while my heart ached alongside these lovely characters.

    The next book in the series is coming out in May 2026, and I had to preorder it because of my absolute need to hear how their story progresses. As I said, I am completely emotionally invested.

    Tears of the Wolf by Elisabeth Wheatley

    This was my first step into proper fantasy romance genre books, as well as my first step into independently published books. I was not disappointed.

    Elisabeth’s writing is slower paced than what I began to expect from more “romantasy” type books, but it was refreshing in that way. The story itself doesn’t come across as slow; it feels more cozy until the action portions begin. I fell in love with these characters because this story was more “friends-to-lovers” than any of the previous stories I read above that are more of the “enemies-to-lovers” trope, so while I do enjoy a good “enemies-to-lovers”, I found that “friends-to-lovers” is preferable to me.

    I hope to continue reading and writing more reviews on the individual books that I have been reading; it’s just been difficult getting myself out of reading-mode and into writing-mode!

  • Daily Writing Prompt 8.15.25

    Daily writing prompt
    How do you plan your goals?
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    “How do you plan your goals?”

    I use Ryder Carrol’s Bullet Journal method everyday. I have a Bullet Journal edition LT1917 journal and I follow the method from Ryder’s book where I start each day by writing the date and I fill in the events for the day, and then I write the to do’s for the day. As I go through my day, I will write notes and thoughts or more to do’s that pop into my mind. I use the typical signifiers of different things like an open bullet point for an event, a closed bullet point for a to do, etc. At the end of the day, I will mark the things that I have completed and migrate the things that I should do the next day. My bullet journal also has long form journaling that I will start with a note bullet (-) and it has stickers and pictures of my family.

  • Daily Writing Prompt 7.31.25

    Daily writing prompt
    How would you describe yourself to someone who can’t see you?
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    “How would you describe yourself to someone who can’t see you?”

    I’m not sure other than “brown long hair, brown eyes, and pale complexion.”

  • Daily Writing Prompt 7.30.25

    Daily writing prompt
    What traditions have you not kept that your parents had?
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    “What traditions have you not kept that your parents had?”

    Because the beginning of my career was in retail for about 8 years, I don’t really decorate for Christmas or play Christmas music often after Thanksgiving passes. When you have 8 years in a row of the Christmas music starting the day after Halloween, it becomes the last thing that you want to hear in your house. Now that I’m approaching 3 years in insurance, I am beginning to feel like this year could be the first year of putting my Christmas tree up. We will see how I feel in November/December.

  • Daily Writing Prompt 7.27.25

    Daily writing prompt
    If you could bring back one dinosaur, which one would it be?
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    “If you could bring back one dinosaur, which one would it be?”

    Liopleurodon, because it is fun to say and because it would live in the ocean.

  • Daily Writing Prompt 7.26.25

    Daily writing prompt
    If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
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    “If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?”

    I would probably like to take another trip up to Washington State. I enjoyed it there when I visited a few years ago and I would like to see it again and experience the mild summer days again.

  • Daily Writing Prompt 7.25.25

    Daily writing prompt
    What’s the story behind your nickname?
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    “What’s the story behind your nickname?”

    My nickname is just a shorter (easier to spell) version of my name. It didn’t really come from anything except people started calling me that as long as I can even remember. I’ve always been “Kat.” Except when I was in trouble.

  • Daily Writing Prompt 7.23.25

    “What are your future travel plans?”

    Honestly, I don’t have any future travel plans. I would like to visit the Wizarding World theme park someday, but otherwise, I have no plans to travel in the near-future.

  • Daily Writing Prompt 7.21.25

    “What do you listen to at work?”

    I’m limited in what I can listen to because I work in a no smartphones workplace, so I only have access to locked-down iheart radio. It plays one song at a time and I have to manually move it forward with each song (because of the lock-down settings that are on the computer. I’ve tried to fix it and they can’t do anything for me.) Lately, my favorite station to listen to on the site is Three Days Grace radio. Or NF radio.