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The Starving Saints Book Review
coffeestarsbooks November 21, 2025 12:20 pm The Starving Saints Release date: 20th May 2025 Publisher: Harper Voyager Genres: Fantasy ⊹ ⋆ Horror ⊹ ⋆ Gothic Horror ⊹ ⋆ LGBTQ+ ⊹ ⋆ Add to Storygraph Add to Goodreads Join the conversation: Bluesky Instagram Twitch Discord “But time is inexorable, as is the human stomache” ― Caitlin Starling, The Starving Saints ☕✨ CONTENT WARNINGS: (click to reveal) Cannibalism, gore, body horror, war, death of a parent, animal death, child death, confinement, injury, death, murder Synopsis: Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately…
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Brigands and Breadknives Book Review
coffeestarsbooks November 21, 2025 12:00 pm Brigands and Breadknives Release date: 11th Nov 2025 Publisher: Tor Genres: Fantasy ⊹ ⋆ Cosy Fantasy ⊹ ⋆ High Fantasy ⊹ ⋆ LGBTQ+ ⊹ ⋆ Add to Storygraph Add to Goodreads Join the conversation: Bluesky Instagram Twitch Discord “A life truly lived is a glorious tangle. One is never lost. And if one is lucky, one is never found either.” ― Travis Baldree, Brigands and Breadknives ☕✨ CONTENT WARNINGS: (click to reveal) Violence, alcohol, injury, death, blood, mild religious bigotry (towards fictional religion) Synopsis: Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling…
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An Education in Malice Book Review
dark academia⊹ ⋆fantasy⊹ ⋆gothic fantasy⊹ ⋆lgbtq+⊹ ⋆retelling coffeestarsbooks February 27, 2025 12:02 pm An Education in Malice Release date: 13th Feb 2024 Publisher: Orbit Genres: Dark Academia ⊹ ⋆ Gothic ⊹ ⋆ Fantasy ⊹ ⋆ LGBTQ+ ⊹ ⋆ Pair it with: A bitter black coffee and raspberry jam on toast Add to Storygraph Add to Goodreads Join the conversation: Bluesky Instagram Twitch Discord “I learned how to survive the cutthroat world of girlhood, where all strangeness was unrooted as ruthlessly as weeds from a garden.” ― S.T. Gibson, An Education in Malice ☕✨ CONTENT WARNINGS: (click to reveal) Homophobia, Blood, Alcohol, Toxic Relationship, Death of a parent, Teacher/Student relationship, Death, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual…
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The Jasmine Throne Book Review
From Goodreads: Author of Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess’s traitor brother. Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin. Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the…
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Babel Book Review
From Goodreads: Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. Babel is the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization. For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of…
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Legends and Lattes Book Review
From Goodreads: After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time. The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is. If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone. But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient…
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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Book Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab From Goodreads: A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget. France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and…
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The Bone Shard Daughter Book Review
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart From Goodreads: The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands. Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic. Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin…
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Darkdawn Book Review
Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff WARNING: NEEDLESS TO SAY, THIS REVIEW IS OF THE THIRD BOOK IN THE SERIES SO WHILE THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER FREE FOR DARKDAWN IT WILL CONTAIN MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NEVERNIGHT AND GODSGRAVE. IF YOU SCROLL DOWN, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, GENTLEFRIENDS. From Goodreads: A ruthless young assassin’s journey for revenge comes to a stunning end in the conclusion of this acclaimed epic fantasy trilogy. The Republic of Itreya is in chaos. Mia Corvere has assassinated Cardinal Duomo and rumors of Consul Scaeva’s death ripple through the street of Godsgrave like wildfire. But buried beneath those same streets, deep in the ancient city’s bones, lies a secret that…
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Lord of Secrets Book Review
Lord of Secrets by Breanna Teintze From Goodreads: Magic is poison. Secrets are power. Death is . . . complicated. Outlaw wizard Corcoran Gray has enough problems. He’s friendless, penniless and on the run from the tyrannical Mages’ Guild – and with the search for his imprisoned grandfather looking hopeless, his situation can’t get much worse. So when a fugitive drops into his lap – literally – and gets them both arrested, it’s the last straw – until Gray realises that runaway slave Brix could be the key to his grandfather’s release. All he has to do is break out of prison, break into an ancient underground temple and avoid killing himself…
