Mystic Brews & Bookish Views

" There once was a girl, clever and good, who tarried in shadow in the depths of the wood. There also was a King- a shepherd by his crook, who reigned over magic and wrote the old book. The two were together, so the two were the same. The girl, the King... and the monster they became."   This story reads like a spell scrawled in blood and fog- dark, lyrical, and bound by cursed cards. Reading The Shepherd King duology felt like surfacing from deep water and finally being able to breathe again. Rachel Gilling's writing style is absolutely spellbinding- the lyrical prose, the haunting vocabulary, and the vivid phrasing pull you into a world where magic, madness, and destiny intertwine.  What truly sets this series apart is its uniqueness- from the eerie allure of the mist-shrouded kingdom to the Providence Cards and the unsettling magic they bestow. The magic system felt ancient and arcane, yet fresh and imaginative, rooted deeply in nature and the supernatural. Each creatu...

 I recently closed the final pages of the Heartless Hunter and The Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli- and while I was pulled in by the spellbinding premise, the duology left me feeling... softly bewitched, but not fully enchanted. From the first page, I was drawn to the bones of this world: witches hunted and hidden, rebellion woven into the very threads of their blood, and a dark empire ruled by cruelty and control. Rune, a sharp-edged witch masked in secrets, and Gideon, a golden soldier with shadows behind his smile, were the kind of characters I usually fall hard for. And yet... the flame never fully took. Their enemies-to-lovers arc burned a little too fast for my liking. One minute, there was hatred sharp enough to draw blood, and the next, an emotional leap into love that felt more like a spell cast off-page. I longed for more slow-burn tension, more earned softness between them before the sacrifice.  Speaking of sacrifice, Rune's ending was undeniably powerful. A moth-...