Review: Hollow by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

Hollow by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

Series: Crown of Hearts and Chaos #1

Publication date: November 25th, 2025

Pages: 560

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Don't listen to the whispers of the woods.

Don't trust the man cloaked in shadow.

Don't earn the wrath of the scattered spirits.

Don't go out after dark.

The Great Hunt begins once every fifty years and only the Champions willing to face death to shatter the curse dare to enter.

The Champions... and me.

I'm no warrior, no swordsmith, and certainly no Fae, but the forest is my only hope. To enter those trees is to walk willingly to my demise. But I need the boon the forest will grant the winner and I'm willing to risk it all for a chance at claiming it.

I just never expected to face him beneath those trees. The beast who strikes fear into the desperate people of all lands. The monster who commands the legion of Hollows and made our plight a thousand times worse.

The Hollows are empty of all things but none are so heartless as him.

Prince Bane intends to be the death of me. But I have an oath to fulfill before I'll let him have me. And I'll do whatever it takes to achieve it.

I am Ferris Creed and I'm going to unite the lost spirits who once bound the wandering trees in place, return the scattered amulets to the core of its corruption, and use the winner's boon to change my fate. Come wretchedness or torment, through trickery and deception, I will get what I came here for. And no one will stand in my way. Not even Prince Bane.

*** Hollow is a dark Romantasy from the bestselling authors of Zodiac Academy, Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. It is a heady cocktail of Summoners, seduction and spirits, set to get your heart racing and feet kicking. There will be a ruinous, black hearted love interest, a rebellious, ruthless FMC, plot twists, cliff hangers, dark humor and a healthy seasoning of make-you-blush spice. It is not for the faint of heart. All those who enter the forest are bound by its terms--will you walk willingly into the dark? ***

Available at:

Story:

We all loved the Hunger Games movies/books to some degree. It was completely original to think of a dystopian world where citizens had to fight to entertain the rich in order to have a better life for their families. This book reminded me a lot of that series. While it is not a televised reality show it was a hunt to try to win the boon from the forest to better the lives of the champions who entered or the overall populace at large. I would have liked if some of the other characters outside of the main duo would have shared what they wanted their boon to be. If that comparison was made it would have maybe had people joining forces a lot more readily. Also would have opened the door to more betrayal and evil plotting which I don't feel a book can ever have too much of. I liked the fact that in the case of Ferris and Hendrix their desires were equal parts selfish and unselfish in what they wanted. I liked the hunt for the amulets, the danger each of them encounter either with others like themselves or the forest beasts at large. I wanted to see just what each of the spirits could do when tamed and hope to see more of them in the subsequent books. I like how the story is plotted out and how the second book was teased to be an entirely different adventure the two are forced into encountering together.

Characters:

• Ferris - I loved Ferris so much. She was not just some clueless girl who went into the forest during The Great Hunt to try to free her sister, but a well read and smart female. She studied things she knew the other champions never would so that she could survive longer and with the lack of help of the others. She knew that eventually everyone would be out for themselves to collect the amulets and be given the boon for whatever selfish reason they held for needing it. When she ran into Hendrix she was determined to show that she was worth more than what he accused her of being. She was a character that demanded respect and I loved that she would accept nothing less. She was the strong female main character that a lot of books lack and the fact that the authors were also able to make her hold onto a dash of innocence in all of it was... chef's kiss. I was rooting for Ferris every step of the way. She approached things by using her brain and her kindness rather than the domineering attitude of the rest of the champions. In short, there wasn't a lot I would have changed about Ferris.

• Hendrix - Hendrix on the other hand... I found myself so absolutely frustrated by him. He would get angry at Ferris and treat her badly every step of the way. The way he just assumed that Ferris would give up her hope of freeing her sister for his own sad story of redemption made him seem like such a self-centered asshole. Granted, that was exactly what his character was supposed to be like. However, I thought that eventually he would put his own selfish needs aside for the woman he was falling for. Henny don't play that way unfortunately. He is every bit the selfish Fae that Ferris always described his people as being. I was disappointed in him over and over again. I hope that the next book in the series we are able to see Hendrix and Ferris form a more cohesive pairing than how they seemed towards the end of the book. I would love if Hendrix would try his hand at being honest for once.

Writing:

I will never had a bad word to say about Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti's writing styles. They have a way of weaving this tapestry of description that puts you firmly in the world they are referencing. I could see every leaf, every horrifically detailed horror within the trees, and every spirit in my mind with pristine accuracy. Granted the map in the front of the book also helped visualize where everyone was and how they were navigating the forest. There were even some words used that I had to look up and that hasn't happened for me in years. Any books written by these two authors will be like a fever dream of imagery with characters you either love or love to hate.

Overall:

I really liked the book overall but I am unsurprised by that. Anything Peckham & Valenti is guaranteed to be a win for me. I really can't wait until the next book comes out so I can see what the future holds for two characters I am interested in seeing grow even more. However, maybe give the book a little more heat to cement the characters together in the face of even more obstacles they may have awaiting them.

Review: Groupies by Sarah Priscus

Groupies by Sarah Priscus

Publication date: July 12th, 2022

Pages: 368

Spice: 🌶️

Synopsis:

In a debut perfect for fans of Daisy Jones & The Six, Mary Jane, and The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, Sarah Priscus shines a bright light on the grungy yet glittery world of 1970s rock 'n' roll and the women--the groupies--who unapologetically love too much in a world that doesn't love them back.

It's 1977, and Faun Novak is in love with rock 'n' roll.

After her mother's death, Faun, a naive college dropout, grabs her Polaroid and hops a Greyhound to Los Angeles. In the City of Angels, she reconnects with her charismatic childhood friend Josie, now an up-and-coming model and muse. To make their reunion even sweeter, Josie is now dating Cal Holiday, the frontman of the superstar rock band Holiday Sun, and Faun is positively mesmerized.

Except it's not just the band she can't get enough of. It's also the proud groupies who support them in myriad ways. Among the groupies are: a doting high school girl at war with her mother; a drug-dealing wife and new mom who longs to be a star herself; and a cynical mover-and-shaker with a soft spot for Holiday Sun's bassist.

Faun obsessively photographs every aspect of this dazzling new world, struggling to balance her artistic ambitions with the band's expectations. As her confidence grows for the first time in her life, her priorities shift. She becomes reckless with friendship, romance, her ethics, and her bank account.

But just as everything is going great and her boring, old life is falling away, Faun realizes just how blind she has been to the darkest corners of this glamorous musical dreamland as the summer heats up and everything spirals out of control

Equal parts an evocative coming-of-age and a cutting look at fame, desire, and the media, Groupies is a novel that will have you turning the pages until the music and drug-fueled end.

Available at:

Story:

Within "Groupies" we follow the story of a character named Faun who has moved to Los Angeles to move in with her childhood best friend after her mother has died. Josie has engrained herself in the rock and roll world of the 1970s and is beloved by most if not all. We, the readers, follow Faun as she tries to navigate her new world. She tries to walk, talk, and love the way Josie and the rest of Holiday Sun's groupies while also coming to terms with who she really is and where her passion lies when the music stops. I think the premise of the story was very well done and made me curious. However, the characters and the author's lack of understanding of what that era was like left the story falling flat for me. It had a good foundation, but the execution did not follow through on its promise. It was a bold choice for the author to choose to make all the characters flawed and unbearably broken to the point none of them appealed to their audience. There were no protagonists in this story as even those meant for the role found themselves the antagonist for others or even themselves. 

Characters:

• Faun - I have never met a character that I have disliked as much as I disliked Faun. She was such a complete and utter pushover and follower that I had no idea why she was even the main character. If anything I would have wanted to see the world through Josie's eyes. Faun would put up with abuse on a near constant level. She was seen as the mousey friend of Josie's who made people feel seen through the lens of her camera and nothing more. To say that this book had any relationship with romance was laughable. Faun never connected with anyone and her open obsession with Josie had very strong underlying homosexuality vibes. I almost wish she had openly admitted to being attracted to Josie rather than becoming her borderline stalker. Faun had zero loyalty to anyone unless it suited her needs and I simply found her detestable.

• Josie - Josie felt complicated to me. She was bright and effervescent on the outside but there was definitely some damage lurking underneath. I wanted to see how complicated her relationship was with Cal. The story didn't delve too far into what was behind their issues that lead to the catalyst of her doing what she did in the end. I think the character had layers that the author didn't fully explore because she was too focused on needy, demanding, pouty Faun. I wasn't a huge fan of Josie's either, but at least she seemed to have a backbone and some sort of loyalty to speak of unlike her "best friend".  

• Kitty - Why is nobody willing to speak up for this child that is involved in a life of rock and roll and drugs? Faun clocks it and also feels uneasy about it but does nothing. Kitty shouldn't be with the band member she tied herself to and it was very clear why he was into her by the end of the book. This poor kid was so misguided and troubled. But she is another character I would love to see find herself.

• Yvonne - The bitch character that prides herself on feeling superior to everyone around her but she is just as fucked up as everyone else. I had ZERO love for Yvonne. She seemed like she just wanted to cause problems and slap people with digs that made her seem like she had more worth than the next person. Anytime she entered a scene I wanted to skip over the entire chapter to escape the eye rolls I can't help but display when reading her stance on things.

• Darlene - A drug dealing/addict new mother... do we really even need to say more? I hope not because there really isn't much more to her than that.

Writing:

There were moments when I felt like the writing waxed on poetically about the scene or Faun's internal dialogue to the point that I was falling asleep face first between the pages. The author tried to harness that 1970s dream-like state of the time but it was very clear that the author had zero experience in the era. Sometimes historical fiction is not as authentic if the person writing about it didn't have a span of their lives within that time frame. It was clear that the author did a lot of research into bands and the activities of some of them but the characters didn't feel real. They felt like paper thin representations of people that actually lived such experiences. I was intrigued by the world of the 1970s rock and roll lifestyle but I feel like this was not as good a demonstration of it as some others.

Overall:

I was hopeful for this book to be good. I wanted a front row seat to what it was like to live alongside some of the greats of rock and roll and what that life looked like. I wanted to see the grit and depravity. I wanted to see the philosophic thoughts of great minds or at least the destruction of them through the heightened times of drug and alcohol use. I was not expecting the murder and mayhem but it would have been a welcome addiction of the execution had been better, if even one of the characters had been likeable, or if the band that was featured was one actually recognized to the readers. I was curious enough to consume this book quickly but it lacked all the assets that would have made me more apt to attach the title of "great read".

Book Blitz with Excerpt + Teaser + Giveaway: Bad Decisions & Back Roads by Zoe Forward @XpressoTours

Bad Decisions & Back Roads by Zoe Forward

Series: Southern Veterinary #2

Publication date: August 3rd, 2026

Synopsis:

The problem with bad decisions is you never stop wanting them.

I used to be the rebellious girl from the wrong side of the fenceline. He was the local hellraiser nobody could tame. While our families carried on a feud older than indoor plumbing, we fell for each other.

Then my vicious father found out. To save Timothy's life, I broke his heart and disappeared.

Now over a decade later, I'm back as a large-animal veterinarian, working at his brother's clinic and treating everything from prize dairy cows to Timothy's homicidal llama. Avoiding him should be easy.

It isn't.

He's a single dad running two businesses, still infuriatingly irresistible, and determined to make me pay for every year he spent hating me.

The problem? I never stopped loving him. But if he learns why I really left, I could lose him forever.

Available at:

A small helpless laugh escaped me. "Do you know where I can find spray whipped cream?"

His eyebrows lifted beneath the bit of hair hanging over his forehead.

I narrowed my eyes. "Please tell me that your brain did not just put whipped cream on my body."

He looked almost offended. "Well," he drawled, "it hadn't..."

His slow grin spread. "But now that you mention it..." His gaze dipped, wicked amusement flashing in his eyes. "Question is, was your brain generous enough to imagine some on me too, or am I doing all the work here?"

A startled choke-laugh burst out of me as I dragged my eyes down his body, taking in the dark t-shirt tucked into jeans that hung a little low. I'd already checked out the backside and confirmed it still looked just as good as when he walked away the other day after agreeing to buy a tractor.

He leaned casually on his cart. "For the record," he added, "I'm picturing collarbone Maybe wrist. Then I'd go... lower... to areas that might enjoy some attention." His gaze dropped to my chest. "Then it depends on how wild we're getting."

That sent me over the edge laughing. The image of him standing in a grocery aisle naked and covered in whipped cream looing deeply inconvenienced by it was the funniest thing I'd thought all week.

"So, what do you really need whipped cream for?" he asked.

I swallowed my last snort of laughter. "Obviously, I need to keep my fridge stocked in case you randomly swing by. You'll have to bring your own sprinkles, if you can get them away from your dad."

His mouth twitched. His eyes went bright with trouble.

USA Today bestselling author ZOE FORWARD is a parent, wife, veterinarian, and unapologetic chocolate lover. She writes spicy paranormal and contemporary romances that blend action, adventure, humor and a touch of magic.

Zoe lives in the South with a lively menagerie of four-legged beasts and two slightly wild kids.

WEBSITE | EMAIL | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM

Bad Decisions & Back Roads Blitz

Hosted by:

Book Blitz with Excerpt + Giveaway: The Case of the Red Flame by Lila Fogle @XpressoTours

The Case of the Red Flame by Lila Fogle

Series: Tristan Beaufort Humorous Mysteries #1

Publication date: August 1st, 2026

Synopsis:

Lucy is an apathetic young woman who is hired to assist eccentric private detective Tristan Beaufort, a man whose wildness, endless optimism, and occasional naivete seem at odds with his chosen career. Her job is to keep a written account of his cases, to play the Watson to his Holmes.

They are hired by a woman who suspects her wife, Professor Jennifer Darvis, is having an affair. What begins as a simple investigation of adultery soon spirals into a case of conspiracy, arson, and murder.

Professor Darvis is a delusionally self-assured academic whose writings regarding the existence of a shadowy organization known only as The Quadrette have failed to find an audience outside of her students, for whom she has made her book assigned reading. However, an FBI agent shows up on her doorstep, insisting that her theories have spawned a series of murders, and requesting her help in preventing further deaths.

Soon, Tristan and Lucy find themselves unravelling a plot surrounding Darvis which seems as though it could not exist, despite the evidence they encounter at every turn. Their adventures will bring them up against the police, the enigmatic FBI Agent, and the leader of The Quadrette herself.

Available at:

Darvis was never one to be ordered around. If she wasn't thirsty before, she sure as hell was now. It was the kind of all-consuming thirst that only room temperature grapefruit flavored vodka could satisfy, with its sharp, acidic, yet pleasing palette, made all the more accessible by its warm temperature. Darvis would be damned if she let Agent Cooking Wine tell her what she could and couldn't do.

"Agent Cooking Wine," Darvis said, as she poured herself a highball full of vodka. "That's quite a mouthful, we'll need to think of a way to shorten it."

"Agent Mirin is short enough."

"C. Dub." Darvis gulped from the glass. "I think that's what I'll call you from now on. Agent C. Dub."

"That's the same number of syllables."

"It's much shorter." Darvis looked on the fool with pity. "But then I suppose that's why I'm a tenured professor, and you're a step up from mall cop."

"Please, professor, this is very serious business," Agent Mirin pleaded. "I am begging you to treat it as such."

Darvis sighed. "Very well, what is all this ruckus about?"

Agent Mirin was visibly relieved at Darvis' attempt to take the case seriously.

"You wrote a book a few years ago--"

"Ah yes!" Darvis exclaimed, kicking back in her chair. "My award-winning expose on the mathematical webwork which holds us in the spider's clutch." She furrowed her brow, and looked at Agent Mirin with concern. "I suppose I've made the higher-ups at the FBI nervous."

"No, ma'am." Agent Mirin grew ever more frustrated. "We are here because someone has taken your book too seriously, and is on a crime spree inspired by your writing. We've had two bodies turn up already, each linked undeniably to your book. The madman shows no sign of stopping, and the direction would like your help in catching him. Otherwise, I'm afraid the carnage will continue."

LILA FOGLE lives in Connecticut where she writes humour.

WEBSITE | MAILING LIST | BOOKBUB

The Case of the Red Flame Blitz

Hosted by: