Bark At The Ghouls

I have a bit of a backlog of these since I've been doing my best to get through some of my tbr pile. So anyhow, here's another post that everyone loves to see (lol and yikes).  However, I've always reviewed what I consider the good, the meh and the not-so-great and seeing books others have DNF'd also helps people decide what they'd like to read next. We can't all love the same things and someone might read my words and say "Hey, I love that thing you hate. Thanks for the recommendation!" But it's all helpful as long as it's not hateful. So here goes the first batch!  Ooops, nope. That's totally not what this post is about. It's your last chance to turn back! #1 The Baby Dragon Cafe by A.T. Qureshi I purchased this book new with a B&N gift card because the cover was so cute and the reviews at the time were all stupendous. Sadly, turns out I didn't think it was stupendous. The more I read, the more awkward the romance grew. I quit...

This is a cute read with a little too much going on. My 2 Cents for Free! First Witches Club by Maisey Yates Released March 2026 Source: TBR See more @ Goodreads This was a cute book about three women who all happen to have lousy cheating cheaters for husbands. They come together when yet another victim of a cheating spouse lands in the hospital. They become unlikely friends and all find some kind of work in a nearby witchy apothecary. It moves along at a steady clip and new romances blossom super fast. Too fast for me actually. I think each woman deserved her own book because the romances felt really under baked. All three in one made it feel crowded and rushed and sometimes made my head spin. But it’s decent and a little witchy and has a slightly cozy feel despite all the dickhead husbands. Final Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Publisher Plot Synopsis  When three betrayed wives stumble into a magical apothecary shop, they discover that revenge is sweet—but finding true love and their own power is ...

I didn't like this one nearly as much as I thought I would. My 2 Cents for Free! The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch Released October 2024 Source: Purchased See more @  Goodreads I thought I was going to love this one, but I only ended up liking it. The plot had too much political nonsense that was no fun at all. I picked it up to escape reality and instead I found myself reading about yet another man attempting to control the world (holidays) to enrich his holiday and make himself look like some sort of savior. Ugh. I wasn't at all in the mood for this so it's probably me not the book. And, oof, the capitalism of it all.  Anyhow, the romance was cute and the two MC's adorable although I wish Hex had been given more of a POV, but the bigger plot overshadowed it all for me and sucked a lot of the joy out of it. A 2.5 bumped up to 3 because though I was bored and annoyed by the political wrappings, the characters weren't awful and I'll probably read the ne...

   New Books Because You Know You Deserve Them! This is where I spotlight brand new releases that are tempting me so you can succumb to temptation too. The focus will be on dark fiction and romance and the occasional thriller that catches my eye. Today I found three horror novels and two monster romances from new-to-me writers. Will I find the time to read them all? Who knows but I'm going to try my best. First the HORROR because it'll always be my first love.   Pig Wife by Abbey Luck (graphic novel) Accidentally trapped in an underground bunker, a teen girl must navigate the bizarre secrets within. This astonishing indie-horror graphic novel will keep readers guessing—and turning pages! Mary had a bad feeling even before they arrived at dead Aunt Pearl’s house. Dragged to a remote mining town so her mom and stepdad can settle Pearl’s estate, Mary can't wait to escape from her wreck of a family—but she’s stuck with them in the middle of nowhere. After a vicious fight, Ma...

Well, I finished. Winter's Fury by A.E. Rayne Released July 2017, 738 pgs Source: Purchased from Audible Goodreads  | Amazon IN A WORLD RULED BY MEN, ONE WOMAN WILL RISE She was their greatest warrior; the daughter of the king. But her uncle stole the throne and sent her away to marry Eadmund, the drunken son of their worst enemy. Now she must pick up her sword again to restore her family’s honour and return to the home she loves. Despite her skill with a sword, her prowess in battle, and her reputation as the greatest warrior in Brekka, without her father to protect her, Jael was merely a pawn, a woman to be married off so her uncle could forge an alliance to fulfil his own desperate ambitions. Eadmund is broken hearted, tortured by the murder of his first wife, but his father had lost patience with him. He wanted heirs for his kingdom. He wanted his son back, restored to the fierce warrior he had once been. And when his daughter has a dream about Jael, the woman who would save h...

Here I am late to yet another party. A Court of Thorns and Roses bby Sarah J. Maas Released May 2015 Source: Purchased from Audible Goodreads  | Amazon When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world. At least, he’s not a beast all the time. As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever. From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie ...

This was, dare I say it without losing my horror membership card, a cozy feeling little horror-romance story. The Ghost and Mr. Moore by Wendy Dalrymple Released July 2021 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon Joseph Moore is looking for a fresh start for himself and his son River after the recent death of his wife. With the ink already dry on the purchase of a rambling rural Victorian-era home in St. Augustine prior to her death, and family in close proximity, he decides that the property will be the perfect place for him and his son to heal. However, almost as soon as they arrive, Joseph realizes that they aren't proud new homeowners, but unwanted visitors. Carolina Braun knows that she's dead... she just doesn't want to accept it. Free-spirited in life, her family always held her back from living the way she wanted. Now, more than a hundred years after her death, Carolina is still holding on to the fact that she never got to really live and wants...

A great film and an even better book awaits . . . The Shape of Water by Guillermo Del toro & Daniel Kraus Fantasy Romance Released March 2018 Amazon  ♦  Goodreads It is 1962, and Elisa Esposito—mute her whole life, orphaned as a child—is struggling with her humdrum existence as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore’s Occam Aerospace Research Center. Were it not for Zelda, a protective coworker, and Giles, her loving neighbor, she doesn’t know how she’d make it through the day. Then, one fateful night, she sees something she was never meant to see, the Center’s most sensitive asset ever: an amphibious man, captured in the Amazon, to be studied for Cold War advancements. The creature is terrifying but also magnificent, capable of language and of understanding emotions…and Elisa can’t keep away. Using sign language, the two learn to communicate. Soon, affection turns into love, and the creature becomes Elisa’s sole reason to live. But outside force...

Circus of the Damned by Cornelia Gray M/M Romance, Dark Fantasy Magician Gilbert Blake has spent his entire life conning drunkards in the seediest pubs in the darkest towns, careful to hide the true depths of his power. But when he spends a little too much time in Shadowsea and the infamous slumlord Count Reuben gets wind of his abilities, hiding within the Circus of the Damned may be Gilbert’s only chance at survival. But there’s more to the Circus than meets the eye. Every time a performer dies, a new one must take his place, or the entire circus suffers the consequences. And while the handsome ringmaster Jesse isn’t one to coerce unwilling performers into giving up their souls to the devil, a recent death in their ranks makes Gilbert exactly what they need. Yet the longer Gilbert stays with the Circus, the more danger he seems to bring them. Being with Jesse is more than Gilbert could have hoped for, but as Count Reuben’s men continue to search for Gilbert and the Circus...