Stacking The Shelves [462]

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, ebooks and of course audiobooks now that they are so prominent in the book community!

In other words, no matter the shape or form your book has – it belongs in Stacking the Shelves.

The Stacking the Shelves meme was originally created by me in 2012, before Madeleine started co-hosting with me on Reading Reality in 2017. She became the only host in 2021 when I became inactive and I am now happy to join as a participant!

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It's been years since I've participated to my own feature and I'm really thrilled to start participating again! I don't know yet if it'll be a weekly thing once again, but I will do my best to make a habit out of it once more! 🖤

This week was a really great one!

The books I'm most excited for are the special edition books 2-5 of Her Vicious Beasts series by E.P. Bali produced by Romance Cartel.

Her Vicious Beasts is one of my big discovery of 2024 and I'm completely obsessed with this series!

If you love Romance Cartel, I'm a rep for them and you can get 10% off with them with the code Tynga10 on pre-orders until September when my term ends!

I also received two pre-orders:

Bubbles by Tate James (I haven't read book 1 yet, don't look at me!)

Court of Lies and Deceit by Marion Blackwood (no, I haven't read book 1 and 2 either)

I received the ALC A Diary of a Mafia Princess by the lovely Elle Thorpe and I'm completely obsessed with the Saint View universe. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this crazy group of people and I refuse to shut up about it. I'm currently 20% into it!

Also, from Libby I got:

Kill Order by Tate James, the conclusion to the trilogy, and if I'm not mistaken, the whole Shadow Grove universe as well. I'm 70% into it, and I love it so much. Leon is my man 🖤

Thrilled to be back, I hope everyone has a great week!

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by Tynga at Saturday, August 15, 2026

 book mail, Stacking The Shelves  Leave your mark

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Review: On Wings of Blood (Bloodwing Academy, #1) by Briar Boleyn

On Wings of Blood (Bloodwing Academy, #1) by Briar Boleyn ★★★★☆ Read: November 29, 2025 575 pages

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This book felt like a promise it never intended to keep.

From the very beginning, On Wings of Blood sets up a world brimming with intensity—dragon riders, soul magic, an FMC who literally teleports from another realm with a powerful legacy behind her. But somewhere along the way, it forgets to follow through.

Medra enters the story with mystery and power—only to become painfully ordinary. Her magic fades into the background, her origin is barely explored, and her mother’s soul (which fuses with her to save her life!) is all but forgotten after being transferred to a dagger. No closure, no weight. Just… dropped threads.

Drake had potential, but instead of opening up to Medra and building something with depth, he withholds, manipulates, and sabotages a connection that could’ve been genuinely gripping. He’s not a villain—but he’s definitely not the romantic payoff this story needed.

Add in the “mean girl” drama that felt outdated and overused, and a surprising lack of actual dragons in a dragon rider book (they show up, but far too late to save it), and the whole thing ends up feeling hollow.

Not a bad book—but one that could’ve been so much more. I hope the sequel remembers the promises it made.

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by Tynga at Friday, August 14, 2026

 academy, Bloodwing Academy, Briar Boleyn, dark romantasy, Dragon, Review, Romantasy, Vampire  Leave your mark

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Review: A Little Bit Obsessed (A Little Bit Unhinged #1) by Chrissy Hopewell

A Little Bit Obsessed (A Little Bit Unhinged #1) by Chrissy Hopewell ★★★★★ Read: August 3, 2026 376 pages

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I did not expect to love this book as hard as I did.

I went in thinking dark romcom — vigilante brothers who hunt predators, a mafia princess who wants nothing to do with the life, forced proximity with a man who has absolutely no business being this attractive while committing felonies. And it IS funny. Genuinely, laugh-out-loud, tears-in-your-eyes funny. But underneath the humor is something with real teeth, and Hopewell never once lets the comedy undercut the emotional stakes.

Wes is the kind of MMC I will follow anywhere. He is meticulous, morally grey in the most compelling way, and so quietly devastated by his own feelings that watching him fall is like watching a controlled demolition in slow motion — everything precise and calculated until it's suddenly, catastrophically not. The way he cares for the FMC is unhinged and tender in equal measure. He will do objectively terrible things to keep her safe and then feel genuinely offended that she didn't protect herself better. His love language is surveillance and baked goods, and somehow that tracks.

Callie is the perfect match for him — not because she's fearless, but because she keeps choosing to stay even when her brain is screaming at her to run. She's spent years being invisible to the people who were supposed to see her, and Wes sees her with his entire body. Every tracker, every uninvited pie, every moment of fury when someone else touches her — it's the most intense attention she's ever received, and watching her fight against how much she wants it is agonizing in the best way.

Noah. Oh, Noah. The impulsive brother, the one who runs hot, the one everyone underestimates. He is so much sharper than he lets on, and the moments where his emotional intelligence cuts through the chaos are some of the best scenes in the book. He's getting his own story next and I am not ready.

The pacing is tight. The banter is *chef's kiss*. The spice is earned and woven into the emotional arc, never decorative. And there's a subplot involving competitive baking and an elderly woman that I cannot say more about except that it is one of the most delightful threads I've encountered in dark romance. Trust the pie. The pie matters.

This book made me laugh, made me clutch my chest, and made me genuinely sad when it was over. Five stars and I need book two immediately.

Tropes: stalker romance · vigilante MMC · forced proximity · captor/captive · morally grey · obsessive love · touch-her-and-die · he fell first · mafia adjacent · dark comedy · brothers dynamic

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by Tynga at Sunday, August 09, 2026

 A Little Bit Unhinged, banter, captor/captive, Chrissy Hopewell, Dark Rom Com, forced proximity, found family, kidnapping, morally grey, Review, serial killer, stalker, touch her and die, vigilante  Leave your mark

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Review: Soul Eater (Monstrous, #1) by Lily Mayne

Soul Eater (Monstrous, #1) by Lily Mayne ★★★★★ Read: December 26, 2025 329 pages

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I didn’t expect to fall this hard for a monster romance, but Soul Eater swept me right off my feet. What won me over wasn’t the world or the action, though both are gritty and atmospheric. It was the relationship. Danny and Wyn pulled me in with their contrast: a soft-hearted human who somehow stayed gentle in a brutal world, and a stoic, ancient monster who slowly, almost reluctantly, learned how to care. Their bond felt intimate in a way that crept under my skin. It’s a journey built on trust, devotion, and that slow realization that you’ve become someone’s safe place without meaning to.

The tropes here are my kryptonite: grumpy x sunshine in a post-apocalyptic setting, forced proximity on the road, caretaking, protective instincts that border on feral, and a love that grows in the quiet moments between danger. I also loved the thread of found family, especially with Edin, whose presence adds both tension and humor. The dynamic between these three kept me smiling even through the darker stretches of the story.

What surprised me most was how emotional it became. Danny’s inner world is written so well that I felt every insecurity, every moment of longing, every fragile step toward believing he might be wanted for who he is. And Wyn, for all his silence, ends up being one of the most tender characters I’ve read in a while. Their connection isn’t just spicy, though the intimacy is unique and beautifully done. It’s a story about choosing each other again and again, even when the world keeps trying to tear them apart.

This one made me ache in the best way, and I already know I’ll be thinking about these two long after finishing the last page. I can’t wait to see Edin again in the next book, and I’m secretly hoping for more glimpses of Danny and Wyn along the way.

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by Tynga at Wednesday, August 05, 2026

 Demon, forced proximity, found family, grumpy x sunshine, Lily Mayne, military, MM, Monster Romance, Monstrous, Post-Apocalypse, protective MMC, Review  Leave your mark

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Review: Fight (Sky Ridge Hotshots #1) by Sloane St. James

Fight (Sky Ridge Hotshots #1) by Sloane St. James ★★★★☆ Read: July 21, 2026 384 pages

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This was my first firefighter romance. I grabbed it from the library because the covers kept showing up everywhere, and I figured — why not step outside the comfort zone? I'm glad I did.

Callahan Woods is a man who rebuilt himself around rules after betrayal shattered everything he trusted — his judgment, his relationships, his ability to read people. The rules work. They keep him safe. And then Prescott Timmons walks into a bar and makes every single one of them irrelevant. He doesn't fall for her gracefully. He falls fighting, and the resistance is half the tension.

Scottie is the real revelation here. She's not a damsel despite everything she's survived. She's a woman who had every choice stripped from her and decided to take them all back — one at a time, on her terms. The way she approaches her own freedom — methodically, deliberately, with full awareness of what she's claiming — is quietly powerful. She's not reckless. She's reclaiming. There's a difference, and this book knows it.

What surprised me most is how well the miscommunication worked. I usually have zero patience for it, but here, both characters have real psychological reasons for not asking the hard questions. His silence comes from trauma. Her secrecy comes from survival. Neither of them is being stupid — they're being human, and damaged, and afraid. When the truth finally comes out, it's because there's no exit. And honestly? That's the only way these two were ever going to be honest with each other.

The consent in the spice scenes deserves a mention. Every "Still with me?", every verbal yes he waits for — he does it because that's who he is. But for her, being asked carries a weight he doesn't even understand yet. That layering is what elevates scenes from hot to meaningful.

Callahan earns his redemption not through apologies but through action. He doesn't just say he'll protect her — he does the work quietly, without announcing it, without asking for credit. The most important thing he does in this book, he does behind her back, and it's the most loving act in the entire story. That's the kind of love that doesn't perform. It just shows up.

This isn't my usual genre. No fantasy, no morally grey antiheroes, no dark elements. But the emotional intensity held me, and the character psychology was real enough to keep me invested all the way through. Sometimes stepping outside the comfort zone is worth it.

Tropes: firefighter × EMT · enemies-to-lovers · forced proximity · only one bed · grumpy/sunshine · reformed playboy · miscommunication (earned) · us vs. nature · new girl in town · strong FMC in peril · religious trauma · consent as love language

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by Tynga at Thursday, July 30, 2026

 contemporary, EMT, Firefighter, religious cult escape, Review, Sky Ridge Hotshots, Sloane St-James, small town, Survival Stories  Leave your mark

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3 Ways to Print Your Reading Journal Book Cover Images

Starting a book journal is so exciting — but it can also feel a little daunting. In this journaling tips

series, I want to demystify one piece of the process at a time, to make your journey as smooth as possible.

One of the most common questions I get from readers who pick up my journal is, "How do you print the book covers?" So let's go over your options today.

A quick note: this applies to reading journals in general, though I'll be using Tynga Publishing reading journals as my example throughout.

Option 1- Mini Photo Printers

Plenty of book journal enthusiasts swear by mini photo printers. Their 2” x 3” peel-and-stick photos fit snugly onto the review pages of Tynga Publishing journals, which makes this probably the easiest method to get started with.

A few popular options: Canon's Ivy 2 to HP's Sprocket and Liene's. Here's how it stacks up.

Pros:

• Quick and easy — most come with their own app and walk you through the whole process
• High-quality images
• Peel-and-stick photo paper available, so there's no separate glue step

Cons:

• The price — these run $100+, and depending on how much you print, it may not be worth it
• The peel-and-stick paper adds up fast — you're looking at nearly $1 per photo
• Sizing is rigid. Printing smaller images (like for your reading challenge tracker) gets complicated, and printing anything larger isn't possible at all

Option 2 — Home Printers

This is the option I personally use, and I find it's both the cheapest and the most customizable. It takes a bit more effort, but I've put together a beginner-friendly guide walking you through using Canva to print your images at exactly the size you need.

Home printers prices have very wide range of budgets, which allows you to select the perfect tool for your budget. I personally use mid level printer, the Canon Pixma TR7620a Home Office Printer, but honestly, even the cheapest printers will give you acceptable results — just make sure you pick one with color capability if you want color covers.

A home printer also means ink, and there are ways to save there too. I use off-brand refills at $28 for 830 color pages. There might be cheaper options out there, but I'm happy with this quality.

If budget is your main concern, regular printer paper paired with scrapbooking glue tape works beautifully — I used this method for well over a year before discovering something even more fun: peel-and-stick printer paper.

Right now I'm using Waterproof Printable Vinyl Sticker Paper for inkjet printers in a glossy finish (currently sold out where I bought mine, but I paid $16 for 20 sheets). I've also got my eye on Uinkit's glossy sticky photo paper — just $26 for 100 sheets, which is hard to beat. If glossy isn't your vibe, they also carry a matte version for a slightly higher price.

Pros:

• The cheapest option I've found. You can fit 9 standard cover images onto a single sheet — factoring in ink and paper, that's roughly 3 cents per 2” x 3” cover
• Flexible — use regular paper, matte sticker paper, glossy sticker paper, or even standard photo paper, whatever suits you
• Print any size you need — with my Canva guide, you're not locked into one dimension
• High image quality potential, depending on your printer and paper choice

Cons:

• More hands-on — you can't just tap print and walk away
• You'll need to cut around each image, since it prints on a full 8.5" x 11" sheet

Option 3 — Retail Print Labs & Photo Kiosks

If you'd rather skip owning any equipment at all, your local pharmacy or big-box store's photo counter — think Walgreens, CVS, Costco, or Walmart — is worth a look. Upload your images through their app or website, then pick up same-day in-store or have them mailed to you.

Pros:

• No equipment, ink, or paper to buy and store
• Prints are typically inexpensive — often $0.25–$0.35 per standard small photo
• Lab-quality results with zero guesswork on your end

Cons:

• Sizing is limited to their standard photo dimensions, so you may need to get creative arranging multiple covers per print, or trim down afterward
• No peel-and-stick — you'll still need glue or tape
• Requires a trip out, or a few days' wait if ordering for mail delivery

**Please note that I haven't tried this method.

A couple of honorable mentions: custom sticker printing services like Sticker Mule or StickerYou will turn a whole sheet of your cover images into ready peel-and stick stickers without you touching a printer — though there's usually a minimum order and shipping wait. And if you print covers rarely, a copy shop like FedEx Office or even your local library's printer is a no-commitment, pay-per-page option.

Whichever method you land on, there's no single "right" way to do this — only the one that fits your budget, your patience, and how much your covers mean to you. If you haven't already, check out my step-by-step Canva sizing guide to pair the second printing option.

Got a method I didn't cover? Drop it in the comments — I'd love to add it here.

Take me to the step-by-step guide to printing book cover images at exactly the right size.

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by Tynga at Tuesday, July 28, 2026

 Journaling Tips, printing, Reading Journal  Leave your mark

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Review: Morning Glory Milking Farm (Cambric Creek, #1) by C.M. Nascosta

Morning Glory Milking Farm (Cambric Creek, #1) by C.M. Nascosta ★★★☆☆ Read: July 3, 2026 247 pages

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⭐ 3.5
I finally gave in to the BookTok hype and picked this one up, and I get it. I get why people lost their minds over it. The premise is absolutely unhinged — broke millennial takes a job milking minotaurs for a pharmaceutical company — and Nascosta commits to it with such straight-faced worldbuilding that you just... accept it. The client taxonomy alone (the good little cows HAHA) is the kind of detail that makes you forget you're reading something completely absurd.

Rourke won me over slowly, which I think is the point. He doesn't come in loud. He comes in through small questions — how was your day, are you in school, was today better than last time. Each appointment, one more layer peeled back. There's a moment midway through where a misunderstanding almost derails everything — she assumes the worst about his situation, he has no idea she's spiraling — and the relief when it clears is the kind of tension that works because it grows from real psychology, not manufactured drama. Neither of them is ready to say what they feel, so they trip over their own assumptions instead.

The slow burn here is inverted from anything I've read before. They start at physical contact and build backward toward emotional intimacy. She's already touched him in the most explicit way possible before she's ever seen his full body. That's a fascinating structure, and I respect the craft behind it. But the clinical framing — the scrubs, the latex gloves, the partition wall, the professional distance — kept the heat from reaching me as a reader. I understood that both of them were affected. I just couldn't feel it with them through all that medical staging.

Their dating era was sweet. Almost high school sweet. Botanical gardens, restaurants, a kiss on the cheek at the door. Rourke is a gentleman through and through — he asks for words, he waits, he preps. He's considerate and careful and genuinely good. And I appreciate that. But I read for edge, and this didn't have enough of it for me. His dirty talk gave flashes of something darker underneath, but it stayed surface-level. More bark than bite.

What I didn't expect to love as much as I did was the community Nascosta built around Violet. Her vampire friend who introduced her to the paranormal world, the elf neighbor, the sense that Cambric Creek became home before Rourke became hers. That's good storytelling. The friendships felt earned, and Violet never lost herself in the romance.

Monster romance isn't my usual territory, and this confirmed it. I saw the fuss. I respect the fuss. The fuss just isn't mine.

Tropes: slow burn · human/monster romance · size difference · workplace romance (sort of) · grumpy/sweet MMC · found community

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by Tynga at Thursday, July 23, 2026

 age gap, C.M. Nascosta, Cambric Creek, he falls first, Minotaur, Monster Romance, Review, small town, Workplace Romance  Leave your mark

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Review: Sweetly Unhinged (Devoted In Darkness #1) by Kira Cole

Sweetly Unhinged (Devoted In Darkness #1) by Kira Cole ★★★★★ Read: June 28, 2026 418 pages

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I went into this expecting a dark rom-com. It's not. The cover is sweet and the premise sounds playful — golden retriever IT guy, anonymous hacker alter ego, his brother's ex-girlfriend accidentally sending him her darkest fantasies. Cute setup, right? It's not cute. It's a full-throttle dark romance wearing a flirty jacket, and honestly, I wasn't mad about it.

Violet is stuck. A boyfriend who games all the time and tells her she was asking for it when her boss tries to put his hands on her. A political internship that's slowly becoming a nightmare. Three years of burying the parts of herself that want more, want darker, want anything other than the nothing she's been living in. So when she drunkenly emails a mysterious hacker vigilante and pours out every fantasy she's been sitting on — it doesn't feel reckless. It feels inevitable. She was always going to reach for something. The question was just who would be on the other end.

Cade is the kind of hero I will follow into moral grey areas all day long. He's protective in the way that actually costs something — not grand gestures for show, but the quiet, immediate kind. Someone threatens her? He doesn't talk about it. He handles it. Before she asks, before she knows, sometimes before she wakes up. He's a man of action first and words second, and every single time he showed up for her, I felt it.

But here's where it gets complicated. He knows who she is. She doesn't know who he is. And every layer of deception he builds — and he builds many — is another brick between her and the one thing she actually deserves: the choice. He gives her full control inside the fantasy and none over the emotional reality she's living in. I wasn't angry at him. I understood every reason he had. I just wished he'd trusted her enough to play it differently.

The spice is dark, deliberate, and well-built. The tension between what she wants and who she thinks she's getting it from does a lot of the heavy lifting. Without spoiling anything, this book goes places. The villain escalation is real and genuinely unsettling — not cartoonish, not over-the-top, but the kind that makes your stomach drop because you recognize how it works.

My one complaint: when the truth finally lands, and it lands hard, the emotional fallout doesn't get enough room. I wanted the mess. I wanted her fury to breathe. The reconciliation earns itself in its own way, but the book rushes past the ugly middle to get there, and that middle is where the real trust gets rebuilt. I needed more of it.

That cliffhanger, though. I physically cannot talk about it without spoiling everything, but I'll say this — I picked up book two immediately, and I never do that. Never. That should tell you everything.

Tropes: stalker romance · secret identity · obsessive MMC · forbidden (brother's ex) · age gap · CNC · he fell first · dual POV · protective hero

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by Tynga at Thursday, July 16, 2026

 Dark Romance, Devoted In Darkness, Hacker, kinky spice, Kira Cole, Review, stalker  1 Person left their mark

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Review: Tourist Season (The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy, #1) by Brynne Weaver

Tourist Season (The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy, #1) by Brynne Weaver ★★★★★ Read: January 21, 2026 400 pages

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I went into Tourist Season completely blind and ended up with my heart in my throat, laughing at wildly inappropriate moments, and falling hard for a gardener-serial-killer in flip-flops.

This is a serial killer x serial killer romance set in a small coastal town that leans all the way into the spooky-tourist-trap vibe. Harper is the town gardener, the soft, quirky girl who talks to her plants and feeds snacks to her pet crow, and also quietly disposes of “bad people” in a wood chipper and uses them as fertilizer. Nolan is the man who comes to town with a very personal grudge and a meticulous revenge plan, fully convinced he knows exactly who she is and what she did to him. I adored Harper. She looks like sunshine and pastel cottagecore, but her moral compass is sharp, and the way she protects her town and her old man, Arthur, is so fiercely tender. Nolan took me longer, but watching this very rigid, trauma-locked man slowly unravel around her, get possessive in completely wrong but delicious ways, and then have his entire worldview shattered was extremely satisfying.

The tone is my favorite kind of dark. The deaths are grisly, there is a lot of on-page violence and past trauma, but Brynne Weaver balances it with genuinely funny dark humor and a cast of weirdos that feel alive. There is a crow who eats human bits and says “pretty murder bird,” a murder-grandpa with Alzheimer’s who still has fangs, and a small town full of oblivious locals and true-crime “investigators” who are much more dangerous than they think. The romance slides from enemies and wrong-person revenge into obsessive partnership, with plenty of banter, consent woven into the dirty talk, some intense pain-and-pleasure play, and a couple of scenes that absolutely wrecked me emotionally without ever feeling gratuitous.

Plot-wise, it’s very engaged with identity, survivor’s guilt, and what you become when the world has already tried to consume your trauma once. I loved the way secrets are layered: everyone is lying about something, but not always for the reasons you expect. My favorite parts were the high-stakes scenes where that glossy, jokey tone falls away and you see how far Nolan will go to save Harper and how far she will go to protect the people she loves, even when she believes she’s already lost him. There is a near-death sequence that had my eyes swimming and a quieter hospital stretch that made me fall for them as a couple, not just as chaos gremlins with murder kits.

Important to mention: this is very much book one of a trilogy. You get a full, intense arc between Harper and Nolan, but the larger mystery and some pieces of their relationship are left unresolved on purpose. You are not walking away with a neat bow or a completely safe feeling; you are walking out knowing the real monster is still out there and that their story is far from over. Personally, I liked that. It felt like the right place to pause, even if it left my stomach a little twisted. If you need a perfectly wrapped HEA in one volume, you might want to wait until the series is complete. If you’re happy to dive into a sharp, bloody, darkly funny serial killer romance with a crow, corpse compost, and a heroine who refuses to be a perfect victim, Tourist Season is absolutely worth the ride.

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by Tynga at Monday, July 13, 2026

 Brynne Weaver, dark comedy, Dark Rom Com, Review, secret identity, serial killer, small town  Leave your mark

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Review: Psycho Pack (Ghost Alpha Unit, #3) by Lenore Rosewood

Psycho Pack (Ghost Alpha Unit, #3) by Lenore Rosewood ★★★★☆ Read: February 27, 2026 616 pages

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This one clawed in deep and refused to let go. Psycho Pack is the brutal, breathless payoff I didn’t know I was starving for—darker, messier, more tangled than the first two combined. The stakes aren’t just higher; they’re personal, vicious, and every single bond is stretched until it either snaps or finally holds.

At its core, this book is about choice—who gets to make it, who gets to take it away, and what happens when a pack of broken alphas finally has to decide if they’re willing to bleed (or kill) to keep the one person who sees them whole. Ivy’s not just surviving anymore; she’s claiming, commanding, setting rules in the middle of chaos, and every time she does it lands like a fist to the chest. The ghosts? They’re not clean heroes. They’re fire and loyalty and jagged edges—Plague unraveling from stoic control to raw, crying vulnerability; Whiskey loud and jealous and stupidly tender when it counts; Wraith refusing to become the monster he was made to be; Valek earning forgiveness one painful inch at a time; Thane carrying the weight of every failure and still choosing to pull the trigger when it matters.

The intimacy here is feral and healing in the same breath. Every touch, every knot, every quiet moment in a cave or a garden rewritten with love instead of blood—it peels back layers without ever feeling gratuitous. The power shifts are delicious: Ivy turning the tables, setting challenges, deciding who gets marked and when. The relational tangles are thick—brothers fighting, betrayals that cut to the bone, redemption that hurts more than rage. And the sex? Hot, but it’s the emotion underneath that wrecks you: claiming, trusting, choosing again and again even when the world keeps trying to rip it apart.

The final act moves fast—almost too fast after all the slow-burn tension—and the big victory lands cleaner than I expected from a story this bloody. I wanted more teeth, more cost, more pages of them clawing through hell. But the epilogue gives them the soft landing they fought for: a cliffside house, a clinic, jealous bullshit, laser treatments, white veils, and marks that bind them forever. It’s completion. It’s peace. And after everything they bled for, it’s earned—even if part of me still craved one more feral fight.

4 stars. This pack has me by the throat and I’m not mad about it. I’ll miss them, and I’m already thinking about the next group picking up the war they left behind.

Tropes you’ll find: why choose, masked men, non-verbal MMC, heavily scarred MMC, found family forged in trauma, broken alphas learning softness, power dynamics that flip hard, touch-her-and-die turned touch-him-and-die too, Burn the world down for her, medical + lab trauma, caretaking, sword-crossing, feral protectiveness, redemption arcs that hurt, quiet claiming after chaos.

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by Tynga at Thursday, July 09, 2026

 found family, Ghost Alpha Unit, Lenore Rosewood, masked MMC, MM, non-verbal MMC, Omegaverse, Review, touch her and die, why choose  Leave your mark

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Review: Unhinged Alphas (Ghost Alpha Unit, #2) by Lenore Rosewood

Unhinged Alphas (Ghost Alpha Unit, #2) by Lenore Rosewood ★★★★☆ Read: January 25, 2026 572 pages

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Unhinged Alphas picks up right where Feral Omega left off and then cranks everything darker. We are still in omegaverse territory with one feral omega, her pack of lethal alphas and a corrupt system that sees them all as tools. This book leans much more into the dystopian side of the world, with labs, experiments and government games, so it feels heavier and grittier than book one.

My heart completely belongs to Plague and Wraith in this one. Plague is still the calm in the storm, the medic who pretends he does not care but absolutely does. Every time he drops that controlled exterior and turns into a filthy, focused alpha, I melt. Wraith’s arc just wrecked me. He is nonverbal, scarred and treated like an object by the people who created him, but he will literally endure anything if it means getting one more chance to protect Ivy. There is so much devotion and heartbreak in the way he moves through this book and I loved him even more for it. Ivy herself grows a lot. She is still prickly, stubborn and desperate for freedom, but she starts fighting back harder and showing real compassion toward the other “monsters” around her. She feels less like a victim and more like someone actively choosing who she is going to be.

Valek is where my feelings get complicated. I loved him in book one, but here he makes some choices that rubbed hard against my personal lines around consent and control. It is clear he believes he is doing the right thing and the author keeps him in that morally gray space rather than turning him into a pure villain, but I am not rooting for him romantically the way I was. I am still fascinated by him as a character, just wary now.

The worldbuilding takes a big step forward with more of the lab program revealed, more players introduced and the sense that this conflict is much larger than one pack and one omega. The downside is that the ending is very much “middle of the arc.” Nothing is neatly resolved, the pack is scattered and Ivy is not safely home when the book stops, so you close it feeling wrung out and very ready for the next installment.

If you like dark omegaverse with found family packs, traumatised lab rats, a feral omega who refuses to be tamed and alphas who are as broken as they are devoted, this is an intense and addictive read. Just be aware of heavy themes like captivity, medical experimentation and non consensual drugging and go in knowing you are signing up for a multi book journey, not a tidy ending here.

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by Tynga at Thursday, July 02, 2026

 found family, Lenore Rosewood, masked MMC, military, MM, non-verbal MMC, Omegaverse, Post-Apocalypse, Review, why choose  Leave your mark

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Review: Feral Omega (Ghost Alpha Unit, #1) by Lenore Rosewood

Feral Omega (Ghost Alpha Unit, #1) by Lenore Rosewood ★★★★☆ Read: January 16, 2026 382 pages

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Feral Omega drops you into a brutal post-apocalyptic omegaverse where betas run the show, alphas are weaponised, and omegas are treated like property. Ivy is a feral, deeply traumatised omega who has survived a “correction” centre that is anything but corrective, and she’s handed over to a misfit alpha strike team called the Ghosts as a last resort. From there the book becomes a mix of dark, violent worldbuilding and very intense hurt/comfort, as this pack of broken men slowly re-orient their lives around the one girl they were never supposed to care about.

Tropes wise, this is why-choose omegaverse with found family, damaged antiheroes, feral heroine, forced proximity, and heavy trauma recovery baked into the romance. The Ghosts are essentially a suicide squad: a haunted leader who is trying very hard to do the right thing, a masked medic with ice in his veins and way too much control, a pretty boy with a big mouth and a bigger heart, a charming little psycho with a violent streak, and one hulking “monster” everyone is half afraid of. Watching each of them soften, in their own reluctant way, as Ivy claws her way back from survival mode was my favourite part of the book. My top moments were almost all built around Plague and the boys, especially when their hostility or banter cracked open into something a lot more charged.

Ivy herself is easy to root for. She is stubborn, feral, and understandably wary of every alpha in a world that has only ever used her. This is not a sunshine heroine. She bites first, she runs when she can, and every scrap of trust she gives the Ghosts feels earned. The story never forgets what she has been through, and when things finally turn from survival to pleasure, it feels like a reclaiming rather than a gloss over.

I landed at four stars. I loved the pack, I loved Ivy’s spine, and I loved the way some of the intimate moments were used to rewrite her history with touch and heat, but a few emotional beats felt a little rushed for me, like the trauma curve and the sexual escalation were not always perfectly aligned. That said, the character dynamics completely hooked me, especially the tension between certain alphas, and the quiet ache wrapped around the one everyone treats like a monster. I closed the book feeling satisfied with the arc we got and very curious to see how their bond and the wider conspiracy evolve in book two.

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by Tynga at Monday, June 29, 2026

 found family, Ghost Alpha Unit, Lenore Rosewood, military, MM, Omegaverse, Post-Apocalypse, Review, why choose  Leave your mark

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You Don’t Have to Be Artistic to Keep a Beautiful Reading Journal 📚

    You are green with envy over the beautiful handmade reading journals you've seen on social media, but you don't feel artistic enough to create your own? Let me hold your hand while I say this — and not in a sarcastic way — you can do it. And I'm gonna help you!

What does your reading journal actually need?

That one is fairly easy, and it depends entirely on your own interests. The possibilities are endless, and Pinterest is full of inspirational spreads you can borrow ideas from. Don’t let all those options cause decision paralysis though, start with one or two and add them as you go.

Some of my favorite features include:

• A colorable reading log (very easy to draw! We can all draw rectangles 🙂‍↕️)
• Reading Challenges (Read the Rainbow, A to Z, Favorite Tropes, and so many more options!)
• Bookish Bingos (You don't even have to come up with your own ideas, there are premade ones available online, you can even get a free one from me when you subscribe to my newsletter)
• Yearly favorite book brackets (Once again, you only need to draw rectangle, and you can draw inspiration for layout on Pinterest)
• A DNF log 

But Tynga, what about the review page itself? 

You only need to ask yourself, "which information would I like to know — at a glance — when revisiting the books I've immortalized in my journal?"

I would say the basics are:

• Space for the book cover image if you want to print them
• Title and author name
• Series title and number
• Page count / listening time (for audiobooks)
• Format — Print? E-book? Audiobook?
• Dates read — I like to include both the start and finish dates.

As for the more interesting bits?

• Genre
• POV — Single? Duo? Multi?
• Favorite Character
• Tropes — This helps me soooo much when creating content! 
• Favorite moment
• Favorite Quote
• Ratings, of course! Stars is the go-to, but I also include tears and spice in mine 🤭
• Audiobook narration—solo, dual, or duet?

I have a confession for you... The task of hand-drawing a journal from a bullet journal seemed daunting to me. I'm good at graphic design, but not so good at free drawing. So I started looking at pre-made reading journals, but there was one feature I absolutely wanted and couldn’t find anywhere: a checkbox for audiobook narration type.

I have a very active lifestyle and I read a lot of audiobooks. To me, the narration style is super important, it influences my decision to read the sequel in audio or not, and it's important when I create content. I couldn't find a reading journal with that feature on the market though, so I created my own. 😅

But what if you have limited time on your hands?

Journal keeping doesn't need to consume your time and become your entire personality. You don't need to spend hours scrapbooking and decorating spreads to keep a record of your reading history. If you love art & crafts and it's your vibe, more power to you, but if you're a busy gremlin, a pre-made journal might be just the thing you need. 

A tip I can give you is to keep your reading journal near you while reading. You can fill in the basic book info when you start it and write down anything you want to remember while reading. I note things like tropes and micro-tropes as soon as I encounter them (otherwise I forget! 🤣), a quote that I need to keep, a moment that made me swoon... That way, when I finish reading my book, my review page is basically already filled in. 

Your Reading Journal Only Has to Work for You

Start small. Choose the information you genuinely want to remember, add one or two trackers that make you excited, and let your journal grow alongside your reading life. Your first pages do not need to look like the elaborate handmade spreads you see online — and they certainly do not need to be perfect.

If drawing, decorating, and scrapbooking are part of the fun for you, browse Pinterest shamelessly and make the ideas your own. If designing every page sounds like one more task your busy life does not need, a pre-made reading journal can give you the structure and aesthetic without all the setup.

The point is not to prove that you’re artistic. It is to preserve the books that made you laugh, cry, swoon, rage, or stare silently at the wall for several minutes after finishing them, and remember those feelings when you flip through the pages 5 years from now.

So grab a notebook, open a printable, or choose a journal that already feels like you — and begin with your next book.

Need a place to begin?

Browse my guided reading journals, or join the newsletter to get the free printables to get you started!

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by Tynga at Thursday, June 25, 2026

 For Beginners, Journaling Tips, Printables, Reading Challenges, Reading Journals, Reading Life  Leave your mark

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Review: Sinners Retreat (Slaycation #1) by Lauren Biel

Sinners Retreat (Slaycation #1) by Lauren Biel ★★★★☆ Read: April 19, 2026 366 pages

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I went into this knowing absolutely nothing except "serial killers on a tropical island" and honestly? That's the only context you need.

Sinner's Retreat is the most unhinged premise executed with complete, deadpan commitment — and that commitment is everything. This isn't a book that winks at the camera. The murder resort activities are treated with the same logistical seriousness as any luxury retreat itinerary, and somehow that makes it funnier and darker simultaneously. Lauren Biel built a world with its own internal logic and never once apologized for it.

Kendra is a protagonist I didn't know I needed — sharp, competent, perpetually exasperated, and carrying a grief she doesn't know is built on a lie. Her dynamic with Cat is worth the price of admission alone. Cat is an absolute disaster of a human being and I would die for her. The way these two women orbit each other — Kendra's eye-rolls audible from space, Cat blissfully unaware — is comedic gold that somehow also builds into something genuinely warm by the end.

Ezra though. Ezra. The Abattoir Adonis who has been obsessing over a serial killer he's never met, who ends up sitting next to her on a plane without knowing it's her, who falls completely apart the moment she enters his orbit — he's exactly the kind of morally grey MMC I will follow into any disaster. And this is a disaster of his own making, sustained over an entire island vacation, held together by stubbornness and oxytocin and increasingly poor decision-making. The dramatic irony is merciless in the best way.

The spice is filthy and earned. The banter is sharp. The tonal balance between dark comedy and genuine romantic tension holds remarkably well throughout. And the ending — I was not expecting to feel things at a pumpkin carving scene but here we are.

If you're looking for a perfectly normal romance novel, keep walking. If you want something that makes you laugh out loud at things you probably shouldn't be laughing at while also being genuinely invested in whether two serial killers will figure their situation out — this is your book.

If you loved the Ruinous Love trilogy by Brynne Weaver, you will love this one!

Tropes: enemies-to-lovers · secret identity (double) · obsessive MMC · he fell first · found family · kinky spice · accidental (and not-so-accidental) cannibalism · forced proximity · touch-her-and-die · morally grey everything · dark comedy

Side note: Audiobook is duet narration with a full cast!

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by Tynga at Sunday, June 21, 2026

 cannibalism, dark comedy, Dark Rom Com, enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, found family, he fell first, kinky spice, Lauren Biel, morally grey, Review, secret identity, serial killer  Leave your mark

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Back to Where It All Began...

Well… hello again. 🖤

It's been a while, right?

Tynga’s Reviews began in 2009, back when book blogging was the center of my reading world. For years, this little corner of the internet was where I shared reviews, discovered new authors, talked endlessly about fictional characters, connected with readers who understood exactly why finishing a good book could ruin an entire day, and I hosted bookish events so big I still don't know how I managed it. 😅

Life and parenting got in the way (I now have two teenage daughters, can you believe it?!), the blog eventually grew quiet, but I never stopped reading.

The way I shared my reading life simply changed.

Over the last few years, I’ve been talking about books primarily through BookTok, with a side of Bookstagram. My reading tastes have also wandered deeper into romance, dark romance, romantasy, why-choose stories, morally grey characters, and the occasional book that leaves me emotionally compromised for several business days.

I'd like to honor my first love once again though...

What You’ll Find Here Now

The blog will once again feature regular book reviews, including reviews I wrote on Goodreads in the past months. 

Alongside those reviews, I’ll occasionally share other bookish content, including:

• Reading journal ideas and tips

• Book recommendations (Dark Rom Com, Dark Romance, Romantasy, and the occasional sports romance)

• Audiobook discussions

• Reading challenges and printables

• Thoughts about tropes, ratings, fictional obsessions, and the beautifully chaotic life of a reader

I’m not trying to turn this into a rigid posting machine. I honestly can't go back to the frenetic rhythm I used to maintain here, but I simply want Tynga’s Reviews to become a useful, welcoming place for readers again — a space to share longer thoughts that do not always fit into a TikTok caption.

From Book Reviews to Reading Journals

My reading life also led me somewhere I never expected: creating my own reading journals.

After decades of reviewing books, I knew exactly what I wanted to remember about them — and I couldn't find an existing journal that captured it all.

I wanted space for tropes, favorite moments, spice, romance and tears ratings, a checkbox for audiobook narration type (!!!), fictional crushes, and all the little details that make each bookish journey a unique one.

That eventually became Tynga Publishing, where I create guided reading journals designed especially for dark romance, romantasy, and my latest baby is for the cozy readers. 🤍

You’ll see the journals around the blog, but reviews will remain the main engine. This is still a place to talk honestly about books—what worked, what did not, and which fictional characters deserve permanent residency in my thoughts.

Whether You’re Returning or New Here…

Thank you for finding your way to this little corner of the bookish internet.

Perhaps you followed Tynga’s Reviews years ago. Perhaps you know me from TikTok or Instagram. Or perhaps you arrived here because you searched for a book review at two in the morning after finishing something devastating and needed someone else to understand.

However you got here, welcome.

Tynga’s Reviews is alive again.

And this time, it has quite a few more morally grey men, a great deal more spice, and three reading journals waiting nearby to document the damage.

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by Tynga at Saturday, June 20, 2026

 Blog Update, Pinned, Reading Journal  Leave your mark

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Review: X's and O's (Saint View Murder Squad, #1) by Elle Thorpe

X's and O's (Saint View Murder Squad, #1) by Elle Thorpe ★★★★★ Read: August 10, 2025 428 pages

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This book was pure Saint View chaos in all the best ways. It picks up right before that unforgettable epilogue in Three of Fall—you know, when X and my forever Saint View favorite, Scythe, take out a serial rapist while posing as pizza delivery. Only this time, we see it all from the perspective of Violet, the gorgeous, plus-size virgin who’s been fighting her own self-esteem battles and just happened to witness the whole bloody scene.

Violet never stood a chance once these three men locked on to her. Levi—aka Reaper—the ex–gang member she’s been writing love letters to during his six-year prison stint, 

now free and ready to make good on every word he wrote.  Wyatt—aka Whip—the silver fox with a filthy mind and Daddy energy so potent it should come with a warning label. And X…oh, X. My unhinged king. He’s wild, he’s hilarious, he’s dangerous, and his obsession with Violet is instant and absolute.

The banter? Perfection. The tension? Off the charts. I laughed out loud more times than I could count—mostly because of X’s insane antics—and I melted at the way these men each came at Violet with their own brand of intensity. And because this is Saint View, the whole crew from past series makes their appearance, which made my fangirl heart ridiculously happy.

Of course, Elle Thorpe doesn’t believe in mercy, so the ending is cruel enough to leave you staring at the wall, wondering how you’re supposed to function until the next book drops. This is obsession, danger, found family, and heat wrapped in one wickedly addictive package.

Thank you, Elle, for the audiobook review copy—and for ripping my heart out with that cliffhanger. Keep me on the roster for the second one yeah? lol

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by Tynga at Friday, June 19, 2026

 bi-awakening, dark comedy, Dark Rom Com, Elle Thorpe, MM, Plus Size FMC, psychopath, Review, Saint View Murder Squad, Silver Fox, Virgin FMC, why choose  Leave your mark

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Review: A Deal with the Shadow King (Curse of the Fae, #1) by Anya J. Cosgrove

A Deal with the Shadow King (Curse of the Fae, #1) by Anya J. Cosgrove ★★★★★ Read: May 10, 2026 358 pages

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I did not expect this book to grab me this hard, but here we are. I went in for a fae bargain, a shadow king, a princess promised to a dangerous court, and maybe a little morally grey nonsense. I got all of that. I also got a story that kept unfolding in ways I genuinely did not see coming, even when I was convinced I had figured things out.

Nell is exactly the kind of heroine I love in a dark romantasy—not because she walks in already powerful and untouchable, but because she keeps becoming. She starts as a princess raised in a world where women are meant to be obedient, covered, quiet, useful. And then she gets thrown into Faerie, where the rules are crueler but somehow the cage has more space. Watching her realize she wants strength, knowledge, choice, and freedom was so satisfying. She’s compassionate without being weak, brave without being reckless in that hollow “because plot” way, and when she loves, she loves with her whole chest.

And One. God. He is exactly the kind of complicated, dangerous, lonely MMC that ruins me. He is not soft, not safe, not easy. He makes terrible choices. He withholds too much. He tries to protect by controlling the board, and sometimes I wanted to shake him by the shoulders. But there is such a weight to him, such a sense of exhaustion and duty and hunger underneath the mask, that I couldn’t look away. The romance works because it isn’t clean. It’s tense and tangled and full of secrets, and every time Nell gets closer, the story makes you feel how much is being held back.

The world-building surprised me in the best way. There are dreams, nightmares, fantasies, mirror travel, shadow magic, fae courts, blood bargains, and enough layered mystery to keep me feral. I loved that the magic felt strange and dangerous rather than overly explained from the start. The book lets you be disoriented with Nell, and for me, that worked. I was theorizing constantly, and the best part is that some things clicked early while others still managed to slap me across the face later. That balance is so satisfying.

The spice and tension are also woven into the plot instead of feeling tacked on. Desire matters here. Power matters. Consent matters. Secrets matter. The intimacy is charged because it is never just physical—there is always something emotional, magical, or dangerous moving underneath it.

I listened to the audiobook thanks to Podium Audio, and I really enjoyed the narration. It is dual narration, though I admit I would have loved duet for this one because the dynamic practically begs for it. Lilly Drake brought Nell’s vulnerability and growing steel beautifully (and her male voice is truly good!), and Anthoni Palmini was such a good fit for the darker, controlled intensity of the male POV.

This was messy, addictive, twisty, romantic, and far more emotionally satisfying than I expected. I love when a book lets me be right about some things and still manages to surprise me where it counts.

I need the next book immediately.

Tropes: fae bargain · shadow king · promised bride · masked MMC · morally grey love interest · court intrigue · touch-her-and-die vibes · hidden identity · forced proximity · training scenes · dream/nightmare magic · protective sister bond · dark romantasy · “he’s dangerous but exhausted and I’m obsessed”

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by Tynga at Wednesday, June 17, 2026

 Anya J. Cosgrove, dark romantasy, fae, forced proximity, masked MMC, morally grey love interest, Review, Romantasy, shadow daddy, touch her and die  Leave your mark

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Review: Along for the Ride (Ride or Die Romances) by Lauren Biel

Along for the Ride (Ride or Die Romances) by Lauren Biel ★★★★☆ Read: June 12, 2026 286 pages

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I went into this one already trusting Lauren Biel after Hitched & Sinner's Retreat, and she didn't let me down — but she didn't wreck me either, and with this author, I know she's capable of it.

The setup is strong. Leana is running from a man who got her hooked on drugs at seventeen and kept her caged for seven years. She steals a car, picks up two hitchhiking brothers because she felt bad for them, and promptly gets kidnapped by a pair of contract killers who can't agree on whether to f*ck her or bury her. Gentry is the older brother — forty-six, controlled, dominant, soft underneath in ways he doesn't want to examine. Karson is the younger — unhinged, violent, the kind of man who threatens necr*philia over hotel room territory and means it. Between them sits six years of silence, a murdered wife, and a betrayal neither of them has processed.

Biel handles the brothers well. Gentry's dominance isn't performed — it's structural. He controls because that's how he protects, and the line between the two is so thin that even he can't always find it. Karson is consistent from page one to the last — a genuine psychopath who never softens, never becomes safe, but bends for Leana in ways that surprise even him. The moment he chooses not to kill for her is more powerful than any love confession he could have given, because it costs him the only thing he actually enjoys.

The darkness is real. This isn't dark rom-com territory — it's dark romance with teeth, the content warnings exist for a reason, and the list is long. Biel earns most of it. The characters don't betray their own logic, and Leana's survival instincts feels built from genuine trauma rather than plot convenience. The scene where both brothers hold space for her revenge against her abuser is the emotional core of the entire book, and it lands.

Where it lost me is structure. The book is episodic — kill, hotel, sex, road, kill, hotel, sex — and while the individual scenes work, there's no larger engine underneath pulling everything toward something inevitable. I never felt like the story was building to a destination. Things happened, and they were dark, and they were hot, and the characters stayed true to themselves, but when I got to the end I found myself asking what the actual plot was beyond survival and road trip chaos.

Still a solid read. Biel knows how to write morally bankrupt men you have no business rooting for and an FMC who can, mostly, hold her own between them. But it's a 3.5 — respected, not remembered.

Tropes: MFM · hitmen blood brothers · forced proximity · kidnapping · captor/captive · primal play · knife play · breeding kink · dark road trip · dubcon/noncon · SA · age gap · death play · blood play · knife play · touch her and die · drug abuse

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by Tynga at Friday, June 12, 2026

 Dark Romance, Lauren Biel, Review  Leave your mark

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Review: Fear The Reapers (Lovesick Villains #1) by Jessa Halliwell

Fear The Reapers (Lovesick Villains #1) by Jessa Halliwell ★★☆☆☆ Read: June 1, 2026 382 pages

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I wanted to like this book. The setup had everything I usually fall for — morally grey men, a captive dynamic, a why-choose with brothers who run an empire, and an FMC who's been through enough to justify every sharp edge she has. On paper, this should have been a ride. In practice, it was a series of decisions that didn't survive contact with logic, held together by tropes that never earned their place in the story.

Stevie has a brutal backstory. Childhood abuse, a mother who never wanted her, a stepfather who sold her sister to pay a drug debt, and scars — literal ones — carved into her skin. The bones of her character are devastating. But the book doesn't trust that foundation enough to let it breathe. Instead of building Stevie as someone shaped by her trauma in ways that feel psychologically real, it uses her pain as set dressing and then asks her to make baffling choices so the plot can keep moving. She's almost an adult when her mother dies, but never pursues custody of her sister when she turns 18. She walks toward the Reapers when she could run — and they don't even know she exists. She has four dangerous men who literally hunt down the men who hurt her, and when her sister is in danger, she sneaks out alone to handle it. Every time the story needed tension, it got it by making Stevie stupid, and that's a choice I can't forgive in a character who's supposed to be a survivor.

The men fall too fast and confess too freely. Trauma dumps on day two don't build intimacy — they skip it. I needed to feel these men earn her trust and I needed to watch her earn theirs, and instead I got backstory exchanges that read like everyone arrived with their wounds pre-packaged and ready for bonding. Atlas had two years of silent obsession from a café counter, which is a gorgeous setup, and the book rushes past it the moment it could have become something.

The pacing is relentless in the wrong way — everything moves so fast that nothing has weight. The captive dynamic, the escape attempts, the loyalty tests, the revenge scene — any one of these could have been the emotional spine of an act. Instead they pile up like a trope checklist, each one landing before the last one finished resonating.

And the ending. Jessie's betrayal felt manufactured, the rescue was predictable, and the love confession came in the middle of an assault scene, which is a tonal choice I didn't love. But the part that genuinely frustrated me was Alex. Stevie's entire motivation — every sacrifice, every terrible decision, every scar she accepted — was to protect her sister. And by the final page, we don't know where Alex is. The thread that held everything together just... disappears. That's not a cliffhanger. That's an oversight.

One spice scene. One. In a why-choose dark romance with four love interests. I'm not someone who needs wall-to-wall heat, but if you're going to build a dark captive dynamic with this many men, the tension needs to go somewhere. It didn't.

If you love the dark captive why-choose subgenre, you've probably read Den of Vipers. This book felt like the TEMU version. The foundation was there. The execution wasn't.

Tropes: why-choose · captive/captor · dark romance · morally grey MMCs · obsessive love interest · brother dynamic · trauma bonding · revenge

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by Tynga at Monday, June 01, 2026

 Dark Romance, Jessa Halliwell, Review  Leave your mark

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