FaRoDays – 3

S.A. HEIDEN

The Bowyer’s Baker

Hugh Baum is tasked to get approval from the Kingdom to expand the Baum Bowyer business, but the magistrate in charge holds a 50 year grudge against the Fae. Hugh could have found a way to work around it, but when Lisette, the beautiful and fierce baker comes to town, both males are distracted by her presence. The rivalry between Hugh and Acworth intesifies as Lisette tries to dodge their advances and establish her family bakery. She has no interest in a courtship and is having a hard enough time keeping the business afloat. Unfortunately, Magistrate Acworth is a cruel and corrupt Fae, and when his sights are set on Lisette, only trouble ensues.

Heat Level: Smoldering **

FaRoDays – 2

VELA ROTH

Blood Dance

Phoebe, a widow in her thirties, feels like a princess every time fanged, immortal Alethas spirits her out of her father’s castle for dances under the full moon. After years of making sacrifices for her eleven sisters, she’s tempted to let him fulfill all her secret desires. But loving him could get her killled.

Heat Level: Scorching ****

FaRoDays – 1

In order to be a bit spoiler-free for anyone else who may be participating in FaRoFeB I’ve decided to post these one day later than the books are received. For anyone unfamiliar with the event, it’s a fantasy romance book give away done in December, much like an advent calendar. It used to take place in February, hence the ‘feb’ at the end, but now there’s lots of different events for FaRo lovers, all year long. It’s a great way to check out new authors and find some hidden gem reads – if you’re into fantasy romance, at least.

The first book of the giveaway is How to Marry a Winged King, by A. J. Lancaster, which is a Cinderella retelling. I’m in the middle of reading something else right now and I tend to only read one book at a time (and one audio book at a time) but we’ll see where this one ends up in my TBR pile. Have you read it before? Let me know in comments! Keep in mind that this is a judgement free zone, it does not matter what people choose to read, so long as they’re reading.

I Joined a Book Club – and I LOVE It

It started out small, like most ideas. Jaedia (good friend who I adore) was talking about setting up a reading journal for 2025 – and I loved that idea. I’ve had lots of journals before, but never a reading journal. Why not start one. So I started browsing YouTube for spread ideas. That’s where I found JashiiCorrin. I watched a few of her videos and then before I knew it, I joined her reading club discord – the BBBC (Bujo Buddies Book Club). There, they have a monthly book club that works much as you would expect any book club to, along with reading buddies and other book related chatter.

I lucked out, because their next meet up was only a few days away, and it was a book that I had already read last month, The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst. Even though I’m pretty shy, I wanted to throw myself into this community so that’s exactly what I did. The club meeting started, and they had it set so that you could either talk (I didn’t have a microphone set up yet) or you could type in the channel, and participate that way – if you just wanted to lurk, that was perfectly fine, too.

Normally when I read a book I might delve into the review section on goodreads, or I might see something about it posted to tiktok or instagram, but here were 35 people discussing their opinions in such an open and frank matter – I loved every second of it. I loved seeing how people interpreted things, and while the discussion did tend to slant to a very harsh review of the book, most people did finish reading / listening to it and almost everyone agreed that while it was not an earth shattering piece of literary writing, it was an overall good book that they did enjoy. We also learned how voting for the next books would take place in the new year, and we were presented with a theme to then make book suggestions from. The theme for January is book covers that have bones and flowers on it. I decided to recommend The Bone Orchard, by Sara A. Mueller. Two books will be chosen, and then we’ll vote on them around mid-December. I’m excited to see how that goes!

Over all, it was just a really good time hanging out with people who love books. It was something I’ve never really participated in before, and I’m already looking forward to the December meet up even though the book is one that I’m a little less enthusiastic about (I believe it falls under a self help / productivity category, which is not exactly my genre of choice – but I’ll still read it). Do you belong to a book club? Do you enjoy it? Let me know in comments, and who knows, maybe I’ll find myself in another club or two over the months, we’ll just have to see.