Isaiah Roby's Blog: MI Book Reviews, page 3

To Clutch a Razor

I greatly enjoyed When Among Crows, and To Clutch a Razor was even more fun.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth pulls from Slavic folklore to explore family, duty, and what it means to be a monster in this sequel to the USA Today bestselling novella When Among Crows.

A funeral. A heist. A desperate mission.
When Dymitr is called back to the old country for the empty night, a funeral rite intended to keep evil at bay, it’s the perfect opportunity for him to get his hands on his ...

When Among Crows

Interesting take on urban fantasy inspired by Slavic folklore.
I am definitely gonna look up some of the peoples and creatures mentioned in this, some of them I have never heard of before.

When Among Crows is swift and striking, drawing from the deep well of Slavic folklore and asking if redemption and atonement can be found in embracing what we most fear.

We bear the sword, and we bear the pain of the sword.
On Kupala Night, Dymitr arrives in Chicago’s monstrous, magical underworld with a peri...

Spread Me

One of my most anticipated releases of 2025 – SciFi horror about something looking for a host, with the tagline “Man is the wettest place to hide“, written by Sarah Gailey? I was incredibly excited. I also saw some other reviewers say this is “The Thing but hornier” and I was even more hooked.

Kinsey has the perfect job as the team lead in a remote research outpost. She loves the solitude, and the way the desert keeps her far away from the temptations teeming out in the civilian world.
When h...

Cleaning Spells before Courtship

Absolutely adorable end (?) to the Fae & Human Relations series, pairing up Sage Ravenwing who was so antagonistically spurned in Breeze Spells and Bridegrooms.

To look at someone and to truly see them were entirely different.

Summer 1814: Moody fae Sage Ravenwing is on his way to the country estate of Wyndham and Roger Wrenwhistle – and very confused as to why he was even invited.
Still pining after Wyndham and nursing a grudge against Roger, Sage reluctantly joins the raucous house party, wh...

Shade Spells with Strangers

I found the Fae & Human Relations series earlier this year, and I absolutely fell in love with this queernorm historical romantasy setting, not least because it’s much more diverse than most romantasy or historical books I’ve come across.

I don’t think I’ll ever find a light that shines as bright as you.

London, 1814: hopelessly romantic fae Keelan Cricket has grown listless since returning to town. He agrees to help the Council study fae-human magic, eager to erase the memory of his passiona...

Try Your Worst

“Sadie Katz and Cleo Chapman have been rivals since birth. Literally. They entered the world competing to be the first baby born in the new year, a title Cleo ultimately won. And she’s been nonchalantly winning at just about everything since—much to Sadie’s chagrin. Now in the fall of their senior year, Sadie and Cleo are neck-and-neck for valedictorian. But when a string of increasingly serious pranks take over their school, the perpetrator deliberately sets up Sadie and Cleo to take the fall.

...

The Drowners

“For Aaron, this world is an unfathomable puzzle. Haunted by disturbing dreams, he drifts through empty days, shielding himself behind sarcasm and cynical wit. After being expelled, he sees an opportunity to rewrite his future at a new school. Connecting over a shared love for De Niro films with Robbie, an aspiring actor of Jamaican descent, he unexpectedly finds his companion piece, one person who truly understands him. Together, they navigate the chaotic waters of adolescence, from dramatic fi...

Recommended Reading

“In this opposites-attract YA rom-com inspired by Emma, a failed romantic gesture puts a damper on a queer teen bookseller’s summer of book matching and matchmaking until a handsome lifeguard and romance skeptic waltzes into his bookstore. Sometimes you get a second chance at happily ever after when you least expect it…

Curvaceous, clever, and an avid reader, seventeen-year-old Bobby Ashton never misses a main character moment. So when it comes to asking out his crush, he plans a romantic ges...

The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy

DNF @ 19%
This did not work at all for me. I’ve read and liked my fair share of snarky, unserious stories, particularly romances, but this felt bizarre and lacked believability from the very first page.

The first in a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy duology featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world, perfect for fans of The Love Hypothesis and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, is ...

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear

I love this series, but I admittedly always have to steel myself before reading any book in them – especially the ones about childrens’ individual fates with their doors and the worlds they find through them.

Nadya had three mothers: the one who bore her, the country that poisoned her, and the one who adopted her.
Nadya never considered herself less than whole, not until her adoptive parents fitted her with a prosthetic arm against her will, seeking to replace the one she’d been missing from ...