The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide | Book Review

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The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide
Published by S&S/Saga Press on April 15, 2025
Genres: Fantasy, LGBT, Romance
Pages: 464
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

Content Warnings: Death, Suicide, Blood, Explicit Sexual Content
Rating:

Lord Nicholas Monterris is trapped. The only heir to a declining dukedom, Nic is destined for a marriage of convenience. What he didn’t expect was for his bride to be Lady Leaf Serral, daughter of his father’s hated rivals. Now they must all be locked inside mouldering Monterris Court for the duration of the contract negotiations, along with head negotiator, master vowsmith Dashiell sa Vare—beautiful, perfect Dashiell sa Vare—an old flame Nic has neither forgiven nor forgotten. What could go wrong? Only a dead body turning up mere hours after they lock the doors. The first could be an accident, but a second death reveals something sinister is unfolding at Monterris Court, and long-buried secrets begin to surface. As accusations fly, Nic must work with his former lover and his future bride to uncover the killer before they become the next targets.

The Gentleman and His Vowsmith was one of the first books I read this year (2026), and while I was very excited about the premise, it was ultimately just okay. Not great, but not terrible either. 

It is a beautiful combination of fantasy set in Regency England with a high-stakes murder mystery and queer romance. The setting? Very atmospheric. The characters? Loveable. The murder mystery? Somewhat confusing. Magic system? New and exciting. Romance? Full of yearning. So why was it just okay? Because none of it is particularly memorable. Here I am, two months out from reading the book trying to write a review and I am struggling to put into words exactly what went wrong. So I guess, let's talk about what I did enjoy.

First and foremost, I loved the setting. Ide transports the reader effortlessly into the crumbling manor of a destitute noble family who has many a secret to hide. The Monterris's were once a well-respected family, but, due to many unfortunate financial mistakes and blunders, have found themselves just shy of the poorhouse. A marriage to a wealthy family is necessary to save face, but the family is so plagued by secrets that such a marriage may never work. We are lead through dark, decrepit halls, into the dank servant passageways, and through overgrown, molded, and deteriorating wings of the manor as we follow Nic and Leaf while they investigate a series of unfortunately (or fortuitous?) murders. The setting really gripped me, keeping me reading even when I wasn't particularly interested in other aspects of the story.

Second, the characters are extremely loveable, especially Leaf. She is a headstrong young woman with a plan and once she sets her mind to something, there is no stopping her. She is the perfect partner for Nic, an otherwise shy recluse. And while Leaf is supposed to marry Nic, there is absolutely zero romantic chemistry between the two as Nic is unapologetically gay. According to Leaf, "As gay as a spoon." Yes...that was said by Leaf. Funny, but out of place for the supposed time.

Other than the loveable characters and the deeply disturbing manor, the yearning between our gentleman, Nic, and his vowsmith, Dash, is palpable. The two have a complex history and it rears its head, threatening to undo them both in the process. There is spice in this book, so if gay sex or spice in general make you uncomfortable, this may not be the book for you.

Despite how much I enjoyed our characters, the atmosphere, and the love affair, the overall story was just okay. There were moments that a scene did not make complete sense or the dialogue was so modern it pulled me out of Regency England into modern-day America. Not a great feeling. I was also angry at the lack of or unwillingness of people to communicate with each other. The entire affair and murders could have been prevented if people had just talked to each other and said what they meant. I get it...we wouldn't have a story if that were the case, but it was overwhelmingly frustrating for me as an outside person looking in.

Overall, The Gentleman and His Vowsmith is a rather light-hearted read for a book filled with so much death, making it a great palate cleanser between more intensive reads.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon | Book Review

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samanthan Shannon
Series: The Roots of Chaos #1
Published by Swoon Reads on September 1, 2020
Genres: Epic Fantasy, LGBT
Pages: 848
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

Content Warnings: Murder, Death, Depression, Grief, Miscarriage, Plague, Suicide, Torture, War, Parental Death, Racism, Classism
Rating:

A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens. The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

The Priory of the Orange Tree was one of the best books I read in 2025. Usually, I find Booktok and Bookstagram suggestions to be slightly over hyped, but that was not the case here. In fact, I am kicking myself for waiting so long to pick this one up! It ended up being one of the book club picks on Fable, and that finally gave me the nudge to pick it up.

First and foremost, I absolutely adored Shannon's prose. Her ability to weave world-building with character development and plot rivals that of the greats, leaving me begging for more. This, coupled with multiple points of view, had me so immersed in the story that I forgot I was reading a book; everything else ceased to matter once it was opened. We as readers are introduced to elaborate, fully realized characters with cultural and religious differences that are so detailed it's as if they exist right alongside the reader. At no point did a world full of dragons and magic and alchemy feel unrealistic or fantastical. In fact, it felt quite the opposite!

“We may be small, and we may be young, but we will shake the world for our beliefs.”

Apart from an absolutely engaging story and characters, Shannon also holds up a mirror to her readers, asking us who we are when the world demands change. We are faced with a series of characters all seeking to survive the end times. Some bury their heads, demanding the world remain as it was, while others, full of hope and eagerness, forge a path forward through the dark. Others still attempt to change the world within the confines of current political systems and cultural norms, making slow, yet substantial changes for the better. We are reminded that burying our heads or trying to force change too quickly ultimately results in the same thing: loss. Shannon makes it clear that the best path forward is often slow, but it's steady. Eventually, these incremental changes add up, and by the end of the book, the world is saved (duh!), but there is still a shattered world begging to be fixed, to be rewritten into something better.

“Just because something has always been done does not mean that it ought to be done.”

The political and cultural tension in The Priory of the Orange Tree is a beautiful reflection of the world we are currently living in. The rise of fascism and isolationism did not occur overnight, as some people seem strongly to believe. Instead, it was the result of decades of small changes that eroded the very fabric of our governments, not just here in the United States but across the world. Fixing this is going to take the same strength and devotion to maintain small, steady changes as our main characters took to save the world from an impending devourer of worlds. This is not a fight we win overnight, nor a fight a single president will suddenly fix. Sure, the big bad is defeated in the end, but the world must still undergo drastic changes to sustain the ideals our main characters fought so hard for.

The Priory of the Orange Tree is, without a doubt, a 5-star read. I would even go so far as to say it is one of the few 6-star reads I have read in my life, and I cannot wait to see whatever Shannon has to offer. If her other books are anything like Priory, I know I am going to be in for such a treat!

Reading Without Resolutions: Letting Go of Bookish Pressure

It's that time of year again when people are celebrating their reading accomplishments, and the naysayers are out in full force. This discourse happens every single December, with people creating posts, videos, and comments, dragging and degrading those who have read 100+ books. I will never understand this perspective, as reading just one book is winning!

With this discourse comes the return of New Year's language: goals, challenges, numbers, accountability. Even reading, which is one of the quietest, most personal pleasures, gets lumped into productivity culture, which is where I think some of the animosity toward those who have read more than us stems from. We're encouraged to set book counts, maintain reading streaks, and hit monthly targets. To read more. To read better. To read correctly. And in all of this, pressure begins to creep in. If reading has ever felt like another obligation on your to-do list to "keep up with the Jonses," then this post is for you.

When Reading Becomes Performance

Reading is deeply personal, often happening in private silence without witnesses. With the advent of social media, especially that of Bookstagram and BookTok, reading culture has become an increasingly outward performance.

We track our books.

We announce our goals.

We measure our success by volume.

None of these things is inherently bad, however. I love tracking my reading progress, setting goals, and logging my daily reading. However, when you are chronically scrolling through these book tracking apps and websites, such as GoodReads, Fable, and Storygraph, or even on Bookstagram or BookTok, it can subtly shift the way reading feels. Instead of asking yourself What do I want to read?, we start asking, What should I be reading? If you are a slow reader, like me, you begin to feel guilty for not reading faster. Reading becomes a task to complete, not something to inhabit and enjoy.

A lot of this pressure stems from unspoken ideas about what a "good reader" looks like, pressure that is promoted by influencers. A good reader finishes books quickly, reads widely and diversely, keeps up with new releases, always has something constructive to say, and never seems to struggle with posting, reviewing, and generating content.

The reality is, most of us don't look like this. Some of us read slowly. Some of us get stuck in reading slumps where we read little to nothing for long stretches of time. Sometimes we choose to reread the same comfort read over and over again because the world feels like too much. This doesn't make you less of a reader. It just makes you human.

Why Reading Resolutions Often Backfire

Like all resolutions and goals, reading resolutions are usually made with the best of intentions. They promise motivation, consistency, and structure, but for some readers, they end up doing the exact opposite. Instead of encouraging us, they make us feel guilty and unworthy, but why does this happen?

1. They prioritize quantity over experience. A book finished isn’t always a book enjoyed. When numbers take center stage, attention shifts away from immersion, reflection, and pleasure.
2. They ignore seasonal and emotional shifts. How you read in winter may not resemble how you read in summer. Energy, focus, and capacity fluctuate seasonally, and rigid goals rarely account for that. When I am going through a particularly difficult time, I tend to hide in books, but when I am happy and healthy, reading takes a back seat in favor of activities outside of the home.
3. They turn reading into a metric. Once success is measured numerically, falling behind can feel like failure, even when reading is meant to be restorative. It becomes a competition, with ourselves and others. Who has read the most? Who has read the least? A good reader should be reading 50, 100, 200 books a year, right?
4. They create guilt around rest. Not reading becomes something that needs to be "fixed," rather than a neutral or even necessary pause. You are not required to read every day. Taking a break or entering into a slump is normal!

Reframing Reading as Rest, Not Achievement

I am not saying you can't continue to set reading goals, but how you treat that goal should change. Reading should be reframed as rest, not output. When you do this, you shift how you interact with books and reading. You give yourself permission to choose books that match your energy, read at your own pace, take breaks when needed, and even DNF books that just aren't working for you.

Reading without rigid resolutions doesn't mean reading without intention. You can still set the goals, track your progress, and celebrate your wins, but you should also include softer, more responsive reading practices that help alleviate the pressure of "success."

Instead of focusing on book count, try noticing your reading patterns. What kinds of stories are holding your attention right now? When do you feel most drawn to reading? What pulls you away from it?

Instead of forcing yourself to complete books, open yourself up to honesty and give yourself permission to engage in "anti-resolution" behaviors. Stop reading a book you are not enjoying. Don't panic when you pause or take a break and return to reading when the interest naturally resurfaces. Allow for reading seasons, choosing heavy books during the quieter periods, and lighter reads when your focus is more scarce. Reread your favorites again and again. Read short, "easy" books and read long, difficult books "badly."

Reading should bring you pleasure and enjoyment. If at any point you feel pressure to read more, I strongly encourage you to take a step back and reassess what you really want to get out of reading. 

Remember, there’s no universal pace you’re supposed to maintain, and, just like the rest of life, your reading doesn’t move forward in a straight line. It expands and contracts in relation to everything else you’re carrying. Some years are full of books. Some years are quiet. Both still belong to you as a reader.

You don’t need a reading goal to begin a new year. Reading doesn’t ask to be improved. It asks to be returned to. So, whether you set a goal or not next year, I hope that reading brings you peace, joy, and well-deserved rest in the coming new year.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas | Book Review

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Series: Cemetery Boys #1
Published by Swoon Reads on September 1, 2020
Genres: YA Fantasy, LGBT, BIPOC
Pages: 344
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

Content Warnings: Murder, Transphobia, Misgendering, Deadnaming, Death, Grief, Blood, Violence, Abuse, Racism, Deportation
Rating:

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him. When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

If you are looking for a book to help diversify your shelf, look no further than Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. While it is distinctly and beautifully Young Adult, it is YA fantasy done right. Cemetery Boys is a coming-of-age story rooted in gender expression, familial ties, and culture. Thomas does an exceptional job of immersing the reader in the family's cultural roots, including both the good and the bad. This truly highlights how families sometimes get things wrong, but that those transgressions can be forgiven when real change takes place, and people grow.

Our main character, Yadriel, is a young, trans boy, struggling to be accepted by his family for who he truly is. What's interesting is that, unlike other books where the queer character is wholly accepted or wholly rejected, Yadriel exists in a liminal space. His family very clearly loves him, with several fully accepting his transition, while others express their love with backhanded, transphobic comments to boot. This made the story feel so much more real as we watch Yadriel struggle with what many young queer children experience. Yadriel wants nothing more than to be fully and wholly accepted by his family for who he truly is, and we watch as he struggles to reconcile his desire to be a part of his family while also being authentically Yadriel. All of this is tied to the disappearance of his cousin, whom the family believes has been murdered. Yadriel believes that if he can find his cousin and help his soul rest, he will finally be accepted into the family as his true self.

“You don’t need anyone’s permission to be you, Yads.."

During this process, Yadriel unexpectedly resurrects a ghost of one of his fellow classmates, Julian, and the two set off to find themselves. What unfolds is a beautiful, yet humorous, love story of two boys coming into their own. I am getting teary-eyed just thinking about the ending and the purity of the love Yads and Julian share. It is sure to move even the most stoic of readers.

Thomas is a truly exceptional storyteller, although there are several instances of info-dumping, which reduced my 5-star rating down to a 4. I generally like to be shown instead of told, as I am sure many of you do too, but it didn't pull terribly away from the story. Overall, a very solid read that will leave you craving more.

Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid | Book Review

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid
Published by HarperCollins on March 4, 2025
Genres: YA Fantasy, Dystopian, LGBT
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Source: OwlCrate

Content Warnings: Abuse, Violence, Gore, Death of a Child, Classism, Misogyny, Trauma, Body Commodification, Fire, Suicide, Murder, Adult-Minor Relationship
Rating:

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society. Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet. Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks. When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive. For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption. As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing. And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.

This year, I have read almost all of the books Ava Reid has written, and I have come to two conclusions: they like to use the word "gorge," and they are a talented writer but not great at telling a story. This last point is extremely disappointing. Reid has some of the most gorgeous prose I have ever read and some of the absolute best passages and lines of any author, but their stories almost always fail to deliver. Fable for the End of the World is one of these cases where the story fell flat, despite the beautiful prose.

Fable for the End of the World takes place in a future where the Earth has been ravaged by climate change and war, resulting in strange evolutions among the wildlife and a significant class divide. Despite the obvious issues of capitalism and innovation that brought about the present landscape, the wealthy continue to push capitalism, hiding away in their pristine cities and attending banquets and parties while the common folk suffer. In order to survive, people take on astronomical debts, and eventually, that deceptively endless supply of credit runs out, and the debt must be paid, often in blood. Unfortunately, this often results in parents turning over their children or elderly parents to participate in the Gauntlet, in which they are hunted by modified women on live television. These televised events are deliberately sprinkled with ads to encourage even more spending while reminding those with less are in a precarious situation. You can't fight oppression if you are fighting for your life.

This dystopian future is not much different from our own, minus the grotesquely "mutated" animals and humans, of course. I thoroughly enjoyed Reid weaving modern-day politics into a fantastical tale, as this helps put our current political and social climate into perspective for readers, especially young readers. We are living in a time where the class divide is deepening, and the disconnect between the common folk and the ultra-wealthy is becoming increasingly noticeable. Contrary to what you might think, you are closer to homelessness than you are to becoming a billionaire, and they do not care about you. Fable for the End of the World makes this very, very clear. The poor and struggling are a source of entertainment to die at the whims of those with more, especially to keep a corporation going. It calls out corporate oligarchies, the dehumanizing nature of online and streaming culture, the commodification of women's bodies, and our obsession with violence as a form of entertainment.

There is a passage toward the end of the book that sums this up rather succinctly. I am going to quote most of the passage because of everything in the story; this is the most important message:

"Debts. It all began with debts. Student loans, medical bills, mortgages, credit cards—all of it weighing down New Amsterdam's government like an anchor attached to a bloated corpse. People died and passed their debts on to their children, on to their children's children. Shackled by the debt that followed them for generations, people stopped buying houses and cars. The birth rate plummeted. There was a shortage of doctors and skilled professionals because who was going to take on the extra debt of getting an advanced degree, on top of everything else?

In an act of benevolence, Caerus bought all of New Amsterdam's debt. They begin a staggered program of loan forgiveness to jump-start the economy...And in order to entice people to buy houses and cars and to get their degrees, Caerus offered a massive line of credit to anyone purchasing their products: up to five hundred thousand credits.

...Looking back, anyone could've predicted what happened next. The erosion of lines between corporation and government. People clamoring for Caerus's CEO to replace the governor. An election with questionable democratic integrity. Schools that used to be state-run dissolved and replaced with a new standard curriculum created by Caerus.

...Caerus was running every other aspect of life in New Amsterdam—why not education, too? Why not military and defense? Why not housing and transportation? Why not health and human services?

..Because the truth is, things could always be worse. Sure, some people couldn't pay their debts and have to die for it, but those people are the stupid, the indulgent, the weak. As long as it's always somebody else, it's easy to blame them, easy, even, to cheer for their deaths."

As Trump's second term has worn on, I have found myself on more than one occasion thinking about this passage. The writing is on the wall, and so many are just sitting on the sidelines saying, "It could be worse!" And while that is true, that isn't an excuse to justify being a bystander to fascism and corporate greed. It was this passage and the underlying themes of the narrative that originally prompted me to give Fable for the End of the World a 4-star rating, which I have since reduced to a 3.5 because the rest of the story wasn't there.

The enemies-to-lovers trope was poorly executed, with the two leading girls falling in love significantly faster than they should have. They were enemies all of two seconds before sharing a bed. Like, I get times are tough, but what?? 

There is also zero resolution. Inesa's time in the Gauntlet does nothing. It doesn't spark revolutionary thoughts, it doesn't open anyone's eyes, it just is. This was incredibly frustrating to me, but, at the same time, extremely realistic. If the Palestinian genocide has taught me anything, it's that many people are willing to look atrocities in the face and say, "Eh...not my problem." I was really hoping Reid would offer young readers not only hope, but also the tools they need to fight against corporate oligarchs, fascism, and oppression. This would have been the perfect opportunity to provide those tools; instead, I was left saying, "That's it??"

My other major complaint with Fable for the End of the World is the number of times Reid used "gorge." It was used so often that I, too, wanted to vomit. Please learn a new phrase. Thankfully, Reid did a much better job in A Theory of Dreaming, which I recently finished, so maybe they are learning.

Despite the flaws in storytelling, Fable for the End of the World is a must-read, especially for younger folks. Books are political, as they should be, and Fable for the End of the World is a great way to introduce young readers to the threats we are facing today. They are our future, after all, and I will always choose not to sacrifice them for corporate greed.