Pretty Girls Make Graves by Steffanie Holmes

“At Blackfriars University, there’s one whispered rule: Stay inside the night before Halloween. Hide under your blankets and hope the Orpheus Society isn’t the monster outside your window.

If they get you, you won’t just be humiliated. They’ll put you six feet under.

I found bones in a shallow grave. Another good girl, just like me.

Now I’ll do whatever it takes to get to the truth.
I’ll catch the eye of the cruel aristocrat with a haunted gaze.
I’ll tempt the dark priest with forbidden tastes.
I’ll be their shameful little secret. Their plaything. Their sacrifice.

Maybe I don’t want to be a good girl anymore.

Maybe it’s time to break all the rules.” -Blurb from Goodreads

Pretty Girls Make Graves is the first book in a dark duology featuring an intelligent and strong heroine who finds herself at the center of a murder mystery at her posh new school in England. George not only makes it her personal mission to solve this murder and in doing so uncover the secrets of a highly seclusive club on campus, she also finds herself caught between the attention of two equally charming and forbidden men.

I have always loved dark academia aesthetics, but this book blew everything I’ve ever read out of the park. This story is beautiful, dark, twisted, and full of so much amazing ambience. The historical aspects of the plot made me giddy to read. And the way the characters spoke about various religions and beliefs, each with a level of reverence or fascination that just gave it all this romantic pallor. As someone who grew up Catholic and has very mixed feelings regarding religions in general, I honestly found this so refreshing. It was just beautiful, plain and simple.

Now, onto that DOOZY of an ending. I feel like I should have seen it coming, but I’m not mad that I didn’t. I loved the gut punch of angst and fear and just FEEEEEEELS that I got smacked with. And now I am frothing for book 2.

Trigger warnings: This book does contain mentions of sexual assault, drugs, violence, and includes depictions of dead bodies.

Pretty Girls Make Graves releases on November 10, 2021.

Beyond Vengeance by R.A. Smyth

Finding my family was supposed to be a dream come true, but it’s only brought more questions, more secrets and forced family responsibilities. Surprisingly, Hawk is by my side while dealing with the utter ridiculousness our parents keep pushing on me. I’m learning how to have a brother and I think we might actually like each other?

Mason, West, and Beck have been my saving grace, patient and kind. Still distant, Cam and I are trying to navigate a way to be around each other.

But just when I start to feel like I have a life worth living with my guys and my new friends, my deepest fear comes back to haunt me. -Blurb from Goodreads

My walls are coming down and I’m learning to love, but my past may ruin it all.

My review of book two of this series, Brutal Lies, can be found here. I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

OOF. This one was wild. R.A. Smyth continues to cement herself as one of my absolute favorite authors with the way she writes not only these amazing relationships and deep characters, but how she writes the trauma and the struggles these characters go through. I had so many conflicting emotions reading this. It was amazing.

To keep this spoiler free, all I will say plot wise is that shit happens. A lot of it. And it’s quite dark. Like, way darker than the last two books. And this ending was gut wrenching. Hadley remains one of the most badass and multi-faceted heroines I’ve encountered in a long time and I love her.

I think my favorite part of Beyond Vengeance was the introduction of a new character. It took about 2 seconds for him to be my new favorite and I love him so much already. I’m slightly wary as his loyalties have not been proven one way or another quite yet, but that just makes the whole thing even better.

Beyond Vengeance released on October 11th, 2021.