Well, folks, this is it. Labyrinth of Lies and Sacrifice by C.F.E. Black is the final book in the Sacrificed Hearts series about maidens' hearts being sacrificed to monsters. What sets this book apart from the other five is that the monster here is not a creature of legend but a mythical place of madness and nightmares controlled by mind magic. The book reads as a cross between Labyrinth and Alice in Wonderland with a supplemental love story built in. Due to the nature of the labyrinth, which is powered by mental and emotional trauma, this book is one of the darker ones in the s ..read more

Assassin of Fire and Sacrifice by Mary Mecham is the second to last book in the Sacrificed Hearts series, which I have been binging for the past two weeks. This book is a little different from the others. It is the only one in which the main character voluntarily sacrifices her heart by responding to a marriage request from her worst enemy with the intent to kill him and liberate the people she was brought up with. As a result, the romance in this book is fraught with anger and mistrust, making it less of a "cozy" love story than the others. The "monster" in this book is the legendar ..read more

Of all the Sacrificed Hearts books I've reviewed so far, Island of Secrets and Sacrifice by Deborah Grace White was the one I was looking forward to reading the most. She is the author of my favorite mermaid series, The Vazula Chronicles, and this book had a similar premise only without the mermaids. It takes place in the same world as the Singer Tales, one of my favorite fairy tale anthologies, and has a relatable protagonist and charming love story with undertones of "Beauty and the Beast." Suffice to say, this book had a lot of thought put into its setting, plot, and characters, and it shin ..read more

I am more than halfway through the Sacrificed Hearts multi-author series of books about maidens falling in love after being sacrificed to "monsters." The third book in the series is Mask of Deception and Sacrifice by Callie Thomas. This book is a perfect blend between The Phantom of the Opera and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It follows the premise of the series more closely than Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice but not quite as literally as Mountain of Dragons and Sacrifice. The story boasts a compelling romance full of drama and passion between two characters who were forced to hide their faces from ..read more

As a member of the street team for the Sacrificed Hearts series, I have been eager to read these books about unexpected romance from many of my favorite authors. The series plays on the trope of sacrificial maidens who learn that their "captors" are not what they appear to be and grow to love them. In other words, they can be interpreted as loose retellings of "Beauty and the Beast," one of the most beloved love stories. The first book in the series, Mountain of Dragons and Sacrifice by Tara Grayce, is a quintessential starting point for this series. I recently reviewed Netflix ..read more

Where Infinite Shimmer, the last visual novel in Time Princess, encompasses everything romantic and girly in a seemingly misplaced cyberpunk setting, The Underground City: Stirring Shadows does quite the opposite. Although the dystopian world of The Underground City is so similar to Infinite Shimmer that it could have easily been a spinoff about a different character living a different life, Sera's circumstances are not nearly as appealing as Aurora's. This visual novel takes everything a player would expect from the genre instead of twisting it into a Barbie-like setting. While this is great ..read more

Today is International Mermaid Day, and it comes with big news for mermaid fans. I recently shared a leaked promo video for Disney Junior's Ariel that was taken down shortly after. Today, in honor of International Mermaid Day, an official teaser was launched containing only footage from the show without any of the interviews from its creators. There was also an update from Rainbow SpA's upcoming animated series, Mermaid Magic, which is scheduled to release around the same time period as Ariel. Finally, my friend Kae-Leah Williamson's Wattpad book, The Siren Queen, was recently completed along ..read more

I was late to the party with my review of Super Princess Peach, so I decided to be more timely with her latest installment, Princess Peach™: Showtime! for the Nintendo Switch that launched last Friday. The game is a mix between the dress-up elements of Time Princess and the gameplay elements of Disney Princess Enchanted Journey/My Fairytale Adventure. Although it provides more of a challenge than the Disney Princess games of the past as one might expect of a Super Mario Bros. title, it can easily be completed in a full day, which makes the steep price tag questionable. Stil ..read more

A Spark of Storms by Susannah Welch is a gender-bent retelling of "Aladdin." This is far from a new concept for me, so the obvious Disney influence on the cover was what first attracted me to this book. The Disney version of Aladdin is very different from the original fairy tale. The author uses that story as inspiration and makes it her own in a clever way while building a female-empowered fantasy world that gives a strong start to her Heart of the Queendom series. Though the feminist messaging of this book is a little overstated, it aligns perfectly with the archetype of Princ ..read more

There are so many retellings of "Cinderella" that one would think it would be impossible for a new version of it to be fresh and original. Yet, Abigail Manning proves that it is possible with Framed in Florals, a lovely and suspenseful adaptation of "Cinderella." This book is most similar to Amazon Prime's 2021 Cinderella jukebox musical only much better. Both adaptations feature Cinderella as an entrepreneur who attends the ball to pursue her career ambitions with the handsome stranger she'd encountered previously as a bonus perk. Both Cinderellas are enchanted so the ..read more