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Tag: fantasy romance

  • Book Review: “Tethered” by Elayna R. Gallea

    Book Review: “Tethered” by Elayna R. Gallea

    Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

    Genre: Romantasy

    Length: 407

    Format Read: Hardcover Trad Release

    Published: September 8, 2026

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    We start “Tethered” by meeting Luna, our main female character, as she is getting ready for her arranged wedding to the vampire prince, Sebastian. Everything starts very quickly and Luna is (understandably) afraid for her life in her new surroundings with the vampire royalty.

    Their wedding goes as planned, but they find out that they have been magically tethered together and cannot get more than 30 feet from one another or else they feel immense pain. As well as being physically stuck in the same location, Sebastian and Luna don’t necessarily get along right off the bat. They have some disagreements and misunderstandings as they get to know one another in their forced proximity situation.

    I enjoyed this story quite a bit. Sebastian and Luna are a cute couple together and they learn to love each other despite the differences that they encounter in one another. They have a few struggles in this journey, but they learn to trust one another in the process. This first book ends on a cliff hanger, but I expect these two will continue towards a happily ever after in the end.

    Potential spoilers below:

    I felt like Luna and Sebastian’s story was disconnected from the other characters and the world as a whole — part of this is explained that they don’t want others to find out about the tether since that would be an exposed weakness of the vampire royalty.

    Most of the book takes place in Sebastian’s room and he frequently passes messages to guards and servants in the hallway before rejoining Luna in his room. And it’s not because this book is especially spicy. Sebastian and Luna stay mostly separated, with Sebastian either sleeping on the floor while Luna is ill, or they have a pillow wall between them.

    This release of the book has one spicy scene that wasn’t in the indie release. Even with this scene, I felt that the characters are isolated and written almost like younger characters; this makes sense for Luna in her early 20’s, but Sebastian is over 300 years old at this point.

    Overall, this is a cute vampire romance story that takes place in a fantasy world. I definitely recommend it, especially if you’re looking to get into reading romantasy or fantasy romance and the genre is new to you. I think new readers will find this to be a good entry point because it is an easy read and a short read, while still being the first in a series. But also keep in mind, the trad releases of the rest of the series haven’t been released yet; the series shows that the indie releases complete the series, but they are not as spicy as the new trad releases are noted to be on the author’s website. The author’s website shows that the indie versions of the book are “upper YA” while the trad releases will be “adult and open-door”.

  • Book Review: ‘Dragon Blind’ by Dr Iman Christians

    Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

    Genre: Fantasy Romance/Romantasy

    Length: 411 pages

    Format Read: Paperback

    Published: 2025

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    ‘Dragon Blind’ by DR Iman is a beautiful story. One of the things I absolutely loved about this story was the main character’s independence. The main character Asha has become blind later in childhood, but that doesn’t drive her into a narrative of helplessness throughout the story for the situations she’s in. I love that about her. She also is not continually saved by the male main character in every event in the story, which I found to be well done. The prologue set that particular mood for this story rather quickly; from page one, in fact.

    The main male character Adriel is well done. He has emotions and leans more progressive than Asha’s family, but he has understandable shortcomings there as well; the overall culture wants to make decisions for Asha so Adriel’s driven in that direction, too. Fortunately, he really doesn’t get to “save” Asha every time; she mostly helps herself by way of her bond with dragons. In particular, Drakkar.

    If you like sassy dragons, you will love Drakkar. Drakkar is an excellent, sassy, helpful dragon friend that any woman would like to have by her side.

    I only had issue with one inconsistency; at the beginning, Adriel tells Asha that his kingdom takes care of and empowers individuals who have conditions such as blindness, but when she actually visits his kingdom, we don’t really find that to be the case. She is able to find books in the language she can read, but it is still very limited along with overall accessibility around the castle. I couldn’t tell if this was a story inconsistency or a way to show that the existing king was not as good as he should be, or even to show that Adriel was not as aware as he could be. If that is the case, my personal opinion would be that he can grow to improve in his awareness.

    Overall: 4 stars because this is a beautiful fantasy journey and story with wonderful characters and emotional depth. 2 spicy peppers in my opinion because there is a detailed open-door scene.

  • 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!