Month: June 2025

Exploring Magic and Mystery: The Otherwhere Post Reviewed

by Stefani

The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor

Published: February 25, 2025 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis: Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.

Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words Your father was innocent.

To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.

Her secretive, infuriatingly handsome mentor knows she’s lying about her identity, and time is running out to convince him to trust her. Worse, she begins to receive threatening letters, warning her to drop her investigation—or else. For Maeve to unravel the mystery of what happened seven years ago, she may have to forfeit her life.

Rating:

Review:

This book was an interesting journey. The world building and magic system was a 10 out of 10. It was fantastic and magical. I loved learning about these worlds and how the magic worked. And I loved that we had a mystery wrapped up in this beautiful fantasy world. When this book was good it was spectacular, when it wasn’t then I honestly wanted to stop reading. In total, a bit of a mixed bag.

Maeve was pretty boring if I’m going to be honest. I wanted to be able to root for her so badly. But she just didn’t interest me at all. I understand that she separated herself from other people because she was treated badly nd the stigma that her name carries but she just didn’t do anything particularly interesting. Even when she was searching for the truth about her father I just couldn’t get invested in her.

I also was really confused about exactly what her father did?? It must have been something pretty terrible for people to verbally, emotionally and physically torture his daughter for it….right? The actual incident of what happened is only ever discussed in vague detail and euphemism. They’ve given the event a name and we get vague references to roots and trees and people dying. But that’s about it. We learn almost nothing else about it. I found that frustrating. Everyone else might already know what happened but I don’t! I need someone to tell me and I didn’t get that. Every time they vaguely mentioned the “crime” I just found myself screaming in my head, “BUT WHAT DID HE DO??!!!”

Tristan as a young adult love interest was so refreshing. He is kind, quiet, patient and melancholy. He’s very gifted but he prefers not to draw attention to himself and he identifies with Maeve in all the right ways. More importantly, he listens to her and lets her decide what the best decision is for her. And he’s there to comfort her and help her if it doesn’t work out. That is such a nice change from the usual male love interest in young adult books.

In the end it was a beautiful book that won’t be the most memorable for me.

Pride’s Children: Netherworld Review – A Captivating Continuation

by Stefani

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Published: September 19, 2022 by Trilka Press

Buy this book at: Amazon

Synopsis: Every decision he makes from here on will hurt someone .

Is his happiness even in the equation any more?

Pride’s NETHERWORLD, Book 2 of the trilogy, continues the epic saga—one day later.

In Book 1, Pride’s PURGATORY , rising Irish megastar Andrew O’Connell embarked on a beautiful friendship with reclusive author Dr. Kary Ashe , and committed to his stunning costar Bianca Doyle ’s directorial debut film Dodgson , a Lewis Carroll biopic.

He never imagined either would shatter the impenetrable wall he built between his professional and personal lives.

His future as a leading man depends on being an bankable obsession in the lives of the women he seduces, on and off screen.

But a past regret makes his gorge rise when offspring are on the way and he’s suddenly responsible for their very existence.

Rating:

Review: ***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you Alicia!***

This book was such a lovely complement to the first book in the series. We pick up right where we left off with Kary working on her latest book idea, a fantasy that is far outside of her comfort zone. Andrew is jet setting across the globe for role after role as he becomes the most sought after actor in the business. And Bianca is scheming, really stepping it up a notch from the last book.

I always quite enjoy the author’s writing style. The occasional insertions of the character’s inner thoughts is a nice touch. I’m not sure it would work in any other book but it works for this one. It provides a deeper insight into the character’s and why they’re doing what they are doing. The style might not be for everyone but it makes the story easy to digest.

My only complaint on this book is that the middle dragged a bit. It felt like we were waiting on something to happen. Based on the synopsis I knew what the “something” was. As a result it felt like it took forever to get there and since the plot has a bit of a lull at the same time it dragged the plot down a little.

But apart from that I was delighted by this book. Kary was frustratingly pragmatic, seemingly more so than in the first book. But it’s her defense mechanism and survival technique. But I desperately wanted her to just drop the walls for a moment. Andrew was so sweet and I find myself falling for him more with every book. Even though he was a bit of a knucklehead in this one, I’ll forgive him for it. While I felt like Bianca was a rather dull villain in the first one, she justified her villain title in this one. I really hope that karma visits her in the end.

Overall, this book was great. I think I enjoyed it even more than the first one. I can’t wait to see what comes next.