It’s been a busy 2025, but luckily I have still had plenty of time to read and slowly conquer my TBR. Well, not exactly conquer, but make a slight, almost imperceptible dent in it. When the dang thing grows by 10+ books a month, it’s tough, people, okay?
Anyway, here’s some of my reads since April. Let me know what you’ve been reading and if any of these are on your list!
Lightfall by Ed Crocker
I’m not usually a big Vampire guy. #TeamJacob and never making it through Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But this book changed that mindset for me. It is set in a post-war-ravaged land where vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers have all been forced into their own separate areas of the world by the threat of mysterious Grays who appeared out of nowhere.
The vampires are divided into castes and your caste determines which kind of animal blood you are allowed to drink. The different bloods can give the user different powers, with wolfblood being by far the best. But something stirs in the night. A princeling killed under mysterious circumstances. A maid thrust into the action by her refusal to sit on the sidelines.
It’s got ruthlessness and love. It’s got downtrodden and righteous. It’s got secrets that only come out during the day. And it’s got nights that are to die for.
9/10 A refreshing bite in the Vampire story.
Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown
Epic Sci-Fi in its entirety. Class systems built on lies. Our young hero, Darrow, is forced to abandon his home and everyone he knows and loves to fight for a dream that isn’t even his. Utterly changed in the process, Darrow must become what he hates in order to bring down the society that has lied to him and his people for ages.
A brutal clash of Hunger Games and Harry Potter sees kids vying for supremacy in the first book’s self-contained reality. But by book 2, everything goes out the window and it’s all about who you can trust, truly. Who has earned that trust and who did we only think had won that trust fairly. Book 3 is an incredible finale filled with cross-solar system war and intrigue.
Someone you meet and love as a character throughout this trilogy is going to die. And it’s going to be heartbreaking. But, that’s life.
And that’s truly the only way you upend society.
30/10 There’s nothing quite like your first Howl.
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
Brutal, gritty, rugged epic fantasy. The first book drives you into a world on the brink of multiple calamities and a cast full of characters you’re not entirely certain about. There’s little good in the world and there’s plenty of intrigue and conspiracies.
Secondly, a wizard who doesn’t have all the answers, leads a group consisting of a wayfarer, a brutish barbarian, a useless nobleman, and a skittish urchin on a quest to the ends of the world. There’s also a war brewing down south while the war in the North just gets going. Too many wolves at too few gates.
The conclusion of the trio comes with two wars and little hope. And even by the end, you’ll likely be left unsatisfied that the “good guys” won.
8/10 Would not recommend a duel against Ninefingers
A Man at Arms by Steven Pressfield
Enter a former legionary. On his way towards Jerusalem, he is thrust into a chase that will have implications across the known world and the future of it. Telamon of Arcadia has little faith in faith and even less in people. However, when he is sent to intercept and return a letter that could bring down the Roman Empire, he encounters more than he could have dreamed.
Though not an easy path, and who has one of those anyway, Telamon’s leads him to a deeper connection with some extremely influential people you may have heard about on Sundays. It’s a faith journey that, while fiction, mirrors the reality of early persecuted Christians trying to spread the Word.
10/10 Faith and Acts above all
The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich
If you’re looking for Indiana Jones meets Jessica Jones while on a plane with Ben Gates and they all hang out with Nathan Drake and Lara Croft in a Peruvian drug cartel’s hideout, you’d miss this book by a mile. However, if you wanted some far fetched treasure hunting (bye bye Jessica) that involves snakes (there goes Indy), nothing in American history (see ya Ben), and a villainous madman who thinks he’s a god (oh, Indy might be back), then this is for you.
Gabriela Rose is not a treasure hunter. She’s a recovery agent. Usually she works for big billionaires who “misplaced” jewelry or “lost” a piece of art. This time, though, she’s after a treasure. But not as a hunter. As a recoverer.
This will take her through the jungles of Peru, to the wilds of California, and island hopping off Central America before she’s all said and done. It’s got a dopey sidekick and some miracles of the “how the heck does a normal person get all this stuff” variety, but overall it’s a rough start to Gabriela’s treasure hunting career. Maybe the next one will be better?
5/10 Don’t believe everything on the internet about lost treasures.
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