My SPOILER ALERT Book Reviews!

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Calder Brand — Revenge, Love, and the Long Road Home (4 out of 5 ⭐) Author: Calder Brand by Janet Dailey Genre: Historical Romance / Western Fiction Published: 2021 ⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS Violence & gunshots Death (including parents and spouses) Cattle stampede Infidelity Unwed pregnancy Alcoholism Prejudice & social stigma Child endangerment Revenge-driven violence 🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨 This review contains FULL AND COMPLETE SPOILERS , including the ending. Proceed accordingly, cowboy 🤠 🐎 Overview: Do You Need to Read the Calder Saga First? Short answer: nope . Calder Brand is technically a spinoff of the Calder Saga, but it reads perfectly well as a standalone. I haven’t read the original series, and I never felt lost. The book gives you everything you need — context, history, and plenty of emotional damage — right on the page. One small curiosity: this book is published as written by Janet Dailey in 2021 , even though Daile...

⭐⭐⭐ First Time, Long Time — A Very Slow, Very Awkward Love Triangle (3 Stars) Author: Amy Silverberg Genre: Literary Fiction / Contemporary Fiction Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3 out of 5) ⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS ⚠️ Age-gap relationship Incest-adjacent dynamics (father/daughter romantic overlap) Infidelity Grief & death of a sibling Emotional manipulation Sexual content Mental health struggles 🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨 This review contains FULL AND COMPLETE SPOILERS , including the ending. Proceed accordingly or turn back now. 👀 📚 What Is First Time, Long Time About? First Time, Long Time by Amy Silverberg follows Allison Cohen , a Los Angeles adjunct professor, book club facilitator, and horoscope writer who drifts through life being everyone’s emotional sponge while quietly unraveling herself. When Allison meets Reid Steinman , a legendary radio DJ and her father’s literal hero, they begin an age-gap relationship that’s messy, intense, and… unsettling. Thi...

⭐ 0.5/5 Stars — Shadow Cell : When Spycraft Becomes Self-Fanfiction ⭐ Author: Andrew Bustamante & Jihi Bustamante Genre: Nonfiction / Espionage Memoir / Intelligence Rating: ⭐ 0.5 out of 5 (and I was feeling generous) ⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS Espionage & intelligence operations Paranoia Interrogation & detention Institutional politics Extreme ego inflation Secondhand embarrassment 🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨 This review contains FULL SPOILERS , including the ending. If you want to believe this book is real-life Jason Bourne … maybe stop here. 😬 📚 What This Book Claims to Be Shadow Cell is marketed as a groundbreaking, insider account of modern CIA operations, written by husband-and-wife operatives Andrew Bustamante and Jihi Bustamante . We’re promised: A CIA mole A hostile foreign power (“ Falcon ”) A revolutionary intelligence model And a daring couple who saved the day What we get instead is a memoir that reads like spy-themed ...

⭐⭐⭐⭐ An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister — A Fake Marriage, Real Feelings, and Academia at Its Most Cutthroat Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5 stars) Let me say this up front: this book is dangerously charming. The kind of soft, slow-burn romance that sneaks past your defenses and suddenly has you rooting for two emotionally repressed academics like it’s your full-time job. 📚💔➡️❤️ Somehow, An Academic Affair managed to soften even my cold, jaded heart — and that is saying something. ⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS Workplace harassment Academic precarity / job insecurity Toxic parents Emotional neglect Sibling conflict Institutional sexism 🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨 This review contains FULL SPOILERS , including the ending. If you want to go in blind, bookmark this and come back later. Everyone else? Welcome to Hobart. ☕📖 💘 Enemies-to-Lovers + Fake Marriage = Academic Perfection At its core, An Academic Affair is an enemies-to-lovers , fake marriage romance — and yes,...

  ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Gay the Pray Away — Heartbreaking, Hopeful, and So Needed (4/5 ⭐) Author: Natalie Naudus Genre: YA Contemporary / LGBTQ+ / Coming-of-Age / Religious Trauma ⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS Religious trauma & cult dynamics Homophobia & conversion ideology Emotional abuse Child abuse (non-graphic) Shunning / family estrangement Control of bodily autonomy Threatened physical violence 🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨 This review includes a FULL, COMPLETE plot summary , including the ending. Proceed accordingly 💥 📖 What Is Gay the Pray Away About? At its core, Gay the Pray Away is about unlearning shame . It follows Valerie Danners , a 17-year-old girl raised in an ultra-religious community governed by the Institute of God’s Basic Principles (yes, it’s as suffocating as it sounds). Valerie has been taught that her feelings are sinful, her body is dangerous, and obedience is love. Then she meets Riley —and everything cracks open. This book is clearly written for qu...

⭐⭐⭐⭐ You Will Never See Me — A Brutal Noir Descent Where Survival Is the Only Victory Author: Jake Hinkson Genre: Noir Thriller / Psychological Crime Fiction Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5) ⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS ⚠️ This is a dark, unsettling read. Please check carefully. Graphic violence Sexual assault Stalking Kidnapping Misogyny Murder Domestic abuse Alcoholism Self-harm / suicide Child abuse (past) This book does not blink. 😬 🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨 This review contains FULL SPOILERS , including the ending. If you want to go in blind, stop here and come back when you’re emotionally prepared. 🩸 🖤 A Hook So Good It Practically Writes the Book for You Alice Hardy is a professor, a wife, a mother — and she’s having an affair. One night, after leaving her lover Jason Brennan’s apartment, Alice gets lost in his neighborhood and is attacked in an alley by a man wielding a hunting knife. She doesn’t freeze. She doesn’t submit. 👉 She slashes his throat and runs. Then comes the fatal decision:...