Acceptance – A Self-Guided Approach to Trauma Recovery by Tiberius Ryuu

December 12, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Acceptance – A Self-Guided Approach to Trauma Recovery by Tiberius Ryuu
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Non-Fiction, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

What if healing didn’t mean forgetting what happened, but learning how to live freely with it?

In Acceptance, former addictions counselor and trauma recovery guide Tiberius Ryuu invites readers on a deeply personal and practical journey toward reclaiming their lives after trauma. This book isn’t about quick fixes or spiritual bypassing—it’s about learning to meet yourself honestly, with courage, compassion, and integrity.

Through grounded self-reflection and gentle structure, Acceptance helps readers navigate the inner terrain of trauma with clarity and self-trust. Each chapter blends education, storytelling, and guided exercises designed to nurture awareness, rebuild safety, and cultivate the capacity to live with greater peace and authenticity.

This self-guided approach offers:

Foundational understanding of trauma’s psychological and physiological impact.
Tools for self-evaluation that foster awareness without judgment or blame.
Reflective exercises and prompts to help process emotions and patterns.
Encouragement for personal responsibility and rebuilding self-reliance.
Pathways toward forgiveness, meaning, and growth.
Written in a warm, conversational tone, Acceptance speaks to survivors who are ready to stop identifying solely with their pain and begin living from a place of strength and choice. It also serves as a compassionate companion for counselors, healers, and loved ones supporting others on their path to wholeness.

At its core, Acceptance is not a manual for “fixing” yourself—it’s an invitation to come home to yourself. To face the truth of what’s been, to grieve what was lost, and to recognize that healing is not the end of the story, but the beginning of belonging to your life again.

Whether you’re taking your first steps toward recovery or continuing a lifelong journey of self-discovery, this book offers a steady hand and a sacred reminder: you are not broken—you are becoming.

Healing is a journey.

Many self-help books seem to assume that their readers already have some basic knowledge of the topic they’re about to explore, so I was intrigued to find out how Mr. Ryuu was going to explain trauma recovery without doing this. I thought he did a nice job of starting at the beginning and making sure that everyone had the same basic understanding of what the plan was. It was a unique spin on this genre that made me curious to read more from him in the future.

I would have liked to see more time spent explaining the various techniques that people can use to heal from trauma, however. Yes, this was intended to be a brief overview of a wide variety of options as I mentioned earlier, but readers who aren’t already familiar with some of them might not be aware of what terms to search for or what to expect while doing a deeper dive into those topics. Just because I was familiar with all of them already doesn’t mean that everyone who picks up this book will have that same advantage, and I think it would have been stronger if it had given readers some of those context clues for further study.

One of the things I did like about all of the coping mechanisms mentioned was how varied they were. Everything from dietary changes to exercise to thought experiments were included. This meant that there were multiple opportunities for readers to notice something that appealed to them immediately which can be really helpful when one is experiencing this sort of mental health challenge and might not have the time or energy to leap into a treatment they’re unsure about at the moment. Making that first step as easy as possible is so important in order to encourage people who have experienced trauma to eventually consider branching out to other options as they continue to improve.

Acceptance – A Self-Guided Approach to Trauma Recovery was a thought-provoking introduction to some tools that can help one heal.

Filed Under: Non-Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

A Darkly Shining Star by MS Morris

December 11, 2025 By Leave a Comment


A Darkly Shining Star by MS Morris
Publisher: Landmark Media
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

It’s nearly Christmas in Oxford and Detective Inspector Bridget Hart is enjoying a rare day off at Oxford’s Christmas Market. A ghost tour seems like a fun way to round off the day. Until, that is, a brutal murder brings the evening to a tragic close.

Torn between work and family commitments over the festive season, Bridget soon discovers that the ghost of Christmas past is reaching out to the present with fatal consequences.

Not everyone believes in the season of goodwill to all men, and with a real-life, flesh-and-blood killer at large in Oxford, Bridget races to solve the case in time to prevent yet more murders.

With only a few days remaining until Christmas DI Bridget hart is enjoying a rare day off and spending time with her partner at the local Christmas market. They decide on a whim to enjoy the ghost tour before heading home only the group leader is stabbed to death as the group enjoys a quick drink after the tour ends. Shocked and curious who in earth could want to kill the kind and pleasant man, Bridget and her team investigate the murder, quickly finding that it’s strongly linked to a strange disappearance decades ago.

I have been enjoying this British police procedural series and found this to be a well plotted and enjoyable addition. While I am pleased the other team members have different personalities and stand well alone, I must admit some of the personal drama between Ffion and Jake was starting to drag a little for me. I was pleased that the authors seem to have wrapped it up – at least for now – but I really hope they both move on swiftly from this and some of that angst and drama really settles down.

Oddly enough I find the family drama surrounding Bridget and her family – especially that of her daughter and sister – much more palatable and even though this a drama is even more lingering than that of Bridget’s colleagues, I think I find regular family conflict – a new boyfriend, feelings of not measuring up – a lot less grating and far more relatable. I also enjoy how the regular personal conflicts make a good contrast to the police work and murder plot line.

Readers looking for a well-balanced, police procedural style of murder mystery should find this book really suits that niche.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Sweet Obsession by Katee Robert

December 10, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Sweet Obsession by Katee Robert
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Erotic Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, LGBTQ
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Dicentra

Icarus may not have flown particularly close to the sun, but he has fallen…right into the rough hands of Olympus’s own Poseidon. Being held captive by the gentle giant wouldn’t be so bad if Olympus wasn’t on the eve of destruction…or if Poseidon stopped looking at him with those irresistibly stormy eyes.

Poseidon doesn’t have time to babysit his increasingly bratty prisoner, but he has no choice: Olympus is officially at war, and someone has to keep their best bargaining chip out of harm’s way. The thing is, the longer Poseidon is with Icarus, the more he starts to care for his sworn enemy…and the more he realizes that Icarus isn’t the villain he’s been made out to be. There’s a warmth to him, a vulnerability, that Poseidon finds difficult to ignore or deny.

Now with Circe and the Aeaens at the gate and Olympus a hair’s breadth away from falling, Poseidon will have to make a difficult choice: about himself, about his allegiances, and about the man who woke his heart from its long slumber only to threaten to break it for good…

Sweet Obsession by Katee Robert is the first M/M romance of her Dark Olympus series, and it has both a scorchingly hot romance and lots of action to set up the ending of the series.

Poseidon is one of the three legacy titles of Olympus but he has a very different energy than Hades or Zeus. First of all, this Poseidon was never meant to be Poseidon. He inherited the title when his cousins passed (along with all the responsibilities that come along with it). While he can be assertive and dominant when the situation calls for it, he really doesn’t want to be. Enter Icarus. As the child of Minos, Icarus has spent a lot of time learning to survive in cut-throat environments. With the threat of Circe’s invasion looming (and Icarus being a political prisoner of the Thirteen), they end up leaning on each other for support. And it leads to a lot of spicy scenes (which Katee Robert is known for), but also a surprising amount of emotional depth. Poseidon is a massive dude, but it was palpable to see how much relief he got from surrendering control to Icarus, even if only for the night. And for Icarus, Poseidon helped him see his worth beyond that of a tool for his father and that relationships (both romantic and otherwise) don’t have to be so transactional.

We’re creeping towards the final confrontation, and I am so ready for it. Both Zeus and Hera show their true stripes in this book, and it makes me that much more eager for their story to be told in the next book (even in the original myth their relationship was messy and there’s no doubt in my mind the author will turn that up to 11). I will say being at book 8 of a 10 book series can make things feel a bit draggy at times (especially when Hermes’ book has me even more excited/borderline bouncing out of my seat), but for those who are interested in romance and reimagined Greek mythology I think it’s worth the time investment.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Miller and Kelby Major Case Squad Files A Collection of Short Stories by Maxine Flam

December 9, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Miller and Kelby Major Case Squad Files A Collection of Short Stories by Maxine Flam
Publisher: Chapeltown Books
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Historical
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Two Detectives, One City

The time: the late 1970sThe place: Los Angeles, California

Joseph (Joe) Miller and William (Bill) Kelby are detectives with the Major Case Squad. They get the hard-to-solve cases. And they solve them the old fashioned way with grit and determination, forensics, and help from the department psychologist.

Miller and Kelby are a dedicated detective team that Los Angeles turns to when there are unsolved murders in the city. And solving murders is their speciality. They put their lives on the line every day for the citizens of Los Angeles, a city that rarely sleeps.

Intuition is an underrated skill.

This was a varied look at life before the Internet existed. Everyone from nuns to serial killers to prostitutes were included, although the emphasis was on people on the margins of society for a variety of reasons. Joe and Bill needed to rely on their training and gut feelings about cases as doing any sort of research on the victims or suspects could be tedious and might not turn up anything new about them at all. Hunches aren’t proof, of course, but it was interesting to see how these characters found themselves proven right – or sometimes maybe not so right – once they’d gathered more facts.

While genre fiction is bound to have a certain amount of repetition of themes and plot twists, I did find myself wishing that this collection had branched out a little more from what typically happens in historical mysteries. The short lengths of these tales only highlighted those moments even more. This is something I’m saying as a reader who enjoys mysteries quite a bit and really wanted to choose a higher rating.

With that being said, the way these cases tended to blur into each other did mean that I was able to spend more time exploring Joe and Bill’s personalities as well as their relationship with one another as colleagues. They shared so much in common that it was refreshing to take note of the differences that existed between them and what each officer thought of their partner.

Miller and Kelby Major Case Squad Files A Collection of Short Stories made me feel as though I’d travelled back in time fifty years or so.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

December 8, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Publisher: Grove Press
Genre: Holiday, Historical, Fiction
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Snowdrop

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

Sweet and yet thoughtful or short and sweet. That would be my description of this little book. Not much needs to be said about this delightful book. It’s a perfect read for the Christmas holidays. It needs to be shared with all of your loved ones.

Small Things Like These was chosen as an Oprah’s Book Club Pick in 2024. It’s a novella, only 114 pages. It’s based in Ireland. A story composed of hardworking, faith-following religious folk and a man who sees he must do what has to be done. But even though he can “see the right-thing” that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to consider all the consequences to his loved ones and those around him.

A deep and yet poignant story. A beautiful tale to read. What a wonderful Christmas gift this would be.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Vanished Trails by LT Ryan

December 5, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Vanished Trails by LT Ryan
Publisher: Liquid Mind Media
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Amidst Shadows and Secrets, a Deadly Hunt Begins.
Six kids walked into the woods, but only five walked out…

18-year-old Liz Turner’s vanishing act sets off a relentless storm of secrets and suspicions. Her tight-knit group of friends, on the verge of starting their college journey, becomes fractured as they grapple with the puzzling nature of her disappearance. Without a body to be found, the police investigation stalls, leaving the case enshrouded in uncertainty.

Maddie Castle, tormented by personal tragedy. In the depth of her despair, the vanishing of Daisy Miller, her boyfriend’s sister-in-law, stirs old wounds and ignites a flicker of hope. Desperate for answers and redemption, Maddie seeks alliance with Detective Ashley Harper, the relentless investigator assigned to the Liz Turner case.

But their partnership comes at a cost. Maddie, once a respected law enforcement officer, must now rely on her instincts and her loyal K9 partner, Tempest, to navigate the treacherous terrain of this perplexing enigma. Harper’s bargain is simple: unravel the threads of Liz Turner’s life in exchange for assistance in solving Daisy’s disappearance.

As they plunge deeper into the heart of darkness, Maddie and Harper find themselves entangled in a web of danger, deceit, and deadly adversaries. From the eerie depths of the Pennsylvania wilderness to the clandestine world of hidden foes, they discover that every step taken toward the truth could also lead them closer to their own demise.

PI Maddie Castle is still recovering from her previous case. Struggling with her grief and despair she’s finally ready to help her childhood friend Bentley discover what happened to his sister in law Daisy. Yet when Maddie reaches out to try and find details of that case, another vanishing falls into her lap. The parents of a recently missing teenager – presumably lost in the woods – hire Maddie and her K9, Tempest, to search for their wayward daughter. Only Maddie quickly finds that case is far more complicated, and volatile, than she expected.

I have been really enjoying this series and found this to be an interesting and well paced book. There is quite a lot of personal growth and character movement – both for Maddie and the other secondary characters directly around her. While I thoroughly enjoyed the progress on a number of the longer running story arcs I can’t help but feel that maybe readers new to this series might feel all the character growth and development might be slowing the pace of the mystery plot. I enjoyed the – long time coming – developments, but I am also heavily emotionally invested in a number of these character arcs. Readers who are fresh to this book and series, or readers more interested in the mystery, might not feel the same.

That said, I did feel the two main mysteries here – one longer running and one well encapsulated in this book – were well written and intriguing enough to hold the readers attention. While I admit this is not a highly complex, deeply plotted storyline I found it fresh and not too cliched. I also appreciated that the missing teenager was not the usual sort of “innocent missing kid” that is usually in this scenario. That definitely gave the plot a realistic and more modern feel to me and had me interested on what had actually occurred that weekend. Watching that puzzle get solved was fun and kept me turning the pages.

Readers should definitely be aware that one of the sub-plots and quite a few of the character story arcs are ongoing throughout the series, and while the main mystery plot gets very well wrapped up – the sub-plot is a longer running line and is left with quite a few important questions still hanging at the end of this book. While I found this incentive to hurry into the next in the series – I could understand if readers who hate any kind of cliff hanger might not be as thrilled by this style of book ending.  This was a good book with plenty of character movement.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

We Will Speak Again of the Red Tower by Author Joelle Killian, Carson Winter, Jack Klausner, Joe Koch, Rhiannon Rasmussen, C.J. Subko, TJ Price, and RSL

December 4, 2025 By Leave a Comment


We Will Speak Again of the Red Tower by Joelle Killian, Carson Winter, Jack Klausner, Joe Koch, Rhiannon Rasmussen, C.J. Subko, TJ Price, and RSL
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“The ruined factory stood three stories high in an otherwise featureless landscape…”

With these words, Thomas Ligotti begins one of the most influential short stories in the canon of horror and weird fiction. “The Red Tower” is a singular work, extraordinary even within Ligotti’s exemplary oeuvre, and has long been admired by scholars and enthusiasts alike. It is unlike any other story you’ve ever read.

“We are all talking and thinking about the Red Tower in our own degenerate way…”

The eight artists of these pages have come together, if not as representatives of the Tower itself, as adherents of its twisted, creative force. Each of them have seen the blasted factory, been touched by its encrimsoning, and have produced for your consideration these novelties from its ruddy depths. Perhaps once you have read them, you too

“…will be able to speak again of The Red Tower.”

Few things are scarier than not having any idea what’s happening in a strange situation.

The plot twists in “Jar of Arms” kept me guessing. I never would have thought that glass jars could be so scary or be used in such interesting ways. I also enjoyed the different reactions that children had to what was happening in this tale as compared to the adults around them. Various age groups can experience the same phenomenon in discordant ways in real life, too, so of course the same can be true in fiction.

As much as I appreciated the scary vibes of this universe, there were times when I wished more attention had been paid to plot development and explaining what was going on with the Red Tower. “[_]he [__]a[__]r[_] of th[_] [_]e[_] [___]r [__] [__]o[___] [_____]t[_]”, the second to last instalment, was a good example of this. The main character found an abandoned child and only then realized that he or she had never met a child before and, what’s more, couldn’t even remember that portion of their own life. This was the sort of detail that I would have loved to see expanded upon as it’s not something I’ve seen before in the speculative fiction genre from what I can recall and there were so many possibilities that could have been explored after that revelation.

All of the tales in this collection had dreamlike qualities about them, and this was especially noticeable in “Tolerance” which began with a nightmarish description of how the Red Tower mysteriously changed shape, color, and size so regularly that no map or chart of it could ever be accurate. It reminded me of nightmares I’ve had about trying to escape buildings that never seem to have any way to exit them even if they do appear to have windows or doors at first glance. Focusing on the logistical problems related to not knowing how this tower works was a smart way to not only describe it in more detail but to also help the rest of this book make more sense.

We Will Speak Again of the Red Tower was a wild ride.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Like The Stars by Jonathan Wright

December 3, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Like The Stars by Jonathan Wright
Jack-O-Lanterns, 9
Publisher: Changeling Press
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance, Holiday, Paranormal
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

If a Lycan loves you he will take you and ravage you with intense passion, make you come all night, and leave you exhausted and satisfied. In return for your love and your unquestioning obedience he will protect you, cherish you, and love you forever. He will fight to the death to keep you.

A vampire will seduce you with detached casualness and make you come until you scream. He will not stay with you, but will depart smiling, uncaring, having satisfied his own selfish desires and leaving you never wholly satisfied. You will beg to be his slave. He may accept you as such, but will feel no responsibility for you. He will use other women and you will not care as long as he uses you. If you disobey him the punishment will be harsh and painful. If you die he will feel nothing but a vague sense of what-might-have-been.

Lycans and vampires do not mix well.

Denise loved Halloween and particularly enjoyed the fantasy of vampires. Dressed for a party in the French Quarter as a succubus, she was determined to nab a vampire-costumed hottie. What she ended up with was Razul – an actual (not wannabe) vampire. Can one smoking hot night lead to something more?

I thoroughly enjoyed this super short Halloween themed spicy story. While I feel the story is somewhat unconventional, I do think other open minded erotica readers should enjoy this as thoroughly as I did. Readers needing a one-man, one-woman style of sexy story might not enjoy this quick read, but I do think if you keep an open mind this interesting and slightly different Halloween read could be something fresh and different.

I enjoyed how the author led us along and felt the story and changes to Denise were well explained. This is a new-to-me author, and I’d definitely be intrigued and interested to read more of his work. With a surprisingly robust plot for such a short story, I enjoyed both the twist (which I absolutely didn’t see coming) and the world building.

Equal parts sexy and intriguing, I found this to be a really well written, slightly darker spicy romance. Recommended.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Wrapped in Tinsel by Sarah Stein

December 2, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Wrapped in Tinsel by Sarah Stein
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Romance, Holiday, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

IVY CANE TINSEL
He’s bad news.
But I can’t help staring.
His eyes pick me apart every time we’re in the same room together.
He’s drop-dead gorgeous, and my body reacts in a way that surprises me.
I thought his job was complete, but it was just the beginning.
He’s taken residence in my mind and refuses to leave.

ASHER BOYD
I was hired to do one job, and that was it.
Unfortunately, things never happen as expected.
It takes longer than expected, only because of her.
Just as I finish, another request pops up.
I’ve never played Santa before.
My only thought is whether Ivy will take the opportunity to sit on my lap and reveal her Christmas wishes.

The holidays are the perfect time for a little romance, whether for a few nights or maybe for much longer than that.

Ivy and Asher were a good match for each other. Not only did they have similar personalities and interests, they had nice chemistry as well. All of these things were important to establish early on in order to help explain why their relationship heated up rapidly, so I was glad to see so much proof that these two were compatible right away.

I did find myself wishing that a few plot holes involving the protagonists’ places of employment had been filled in better. Given how busy both of their jobs seemed to be, especially in a store during the holiday season, I would have loved to have a more thorough explanation as to why they seemed to have so much free time to do things other than work. There were hints that Ivy had some truly caring and fantastic bosses and Asher was the boss at his workplace, so this could have been easily explained with a few more details added to show why there were so many lulls in activity.

There was a fun Christmas-themed plot twist involving Bells & Whistles, the store Ivy worked at, that made me smile. Obviously, I can’t go into detail about what it was without sharing spoilers, but I appreciated the humor it injected into the storyline and thought it fit the mood of this piece nicely.

Wrapped in Tinsel was playful and festive.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , ,

Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher

December 1, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher
Publisher: 47 North
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt’s house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. The scorpions and spiders are better than what she left behind.

Because in Quartz Creek, there’s a strange beauty to everything, from the landscape to new friends, and more blue sky than Selena’s ever seen. But something lurks beneath the surface. Like the desert gods and spirits lingering outside Selena’s house at night, keeping watch. Mostly benevolent, says her neighbor Grandma Billy. That doesn’t ease the prickly sense that one of them watches too closely and wants something from Selena she can’t begin to imagine. And when Selena’s search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, she discovers a sinister truth about her new home: It’s the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as “Snake-Eater,” who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled.

Snake-Eater has taken a liking to Selena, an obsession of sorts that turns sinister. And now that Selena is the new owner of his home, he’s hell-bent on collecting everything he’s owed.

Selena has nothing to lose. Ditching her partner and taking nothing but the clothes on her back and her ever-faithful dog, Copper, she chooses to start a new life and find whatever it is that she’s been missing. But when she arrives in Quartz Creek, she discovers her only connection to the town has died. Does she stay and try to make it work? Or does she go back to Walter and admit defeat?

Since this was my first T. Kingfisher novel, I honestly had no idea what to expect. What I got, however, was a dark fantasy bordering on horror at times, with more humor than you would imagine. Copper, the black lab, is the source of most of this humor, as labs often are. Grandma Billy, also, is good for a chuckle just when things start to get intense. Thankfully, we had the calming presence of Father Aguirre for when things got truly crazy.

Selena was one of the more interesting characters, in my opinion. Her ex, Walter, was controlling and constantly made her doubt herself. Watching her deconstruct and discover the truth was something special. That moment when she began to realize that Walter’s reality and hers were two different things really stood out.

As someone who has spent most of her life in the desert, everything about this book appealed to me. The bleakness and beauty of the southwest, the native beliefs, and of course, that a road runner was at the forefront of the story. These little birds have fascinated me since I was a child, and it makes me sad that I rarely see them these days. Quartz Creek might seem like a dying town, but there is absolutely more to this sleepy little village than meets the eye. I look forward to reading more of T. Kingfisher’s books in the future. This one certainly lived up to the hype for me.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,
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