Bibliophile Amber's Book Reviews

Title: They Went Another Way Author: Bruce Eric Kaplan Published: October 22,2024 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Genre: Memoir/Nonfiction/Comedy Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: Diving into this book without any prior knowledge turned out to be my best choice, as it allowed me to appreciate the writing without any preconceived notions. Kaplan writes this memoir as he would a diary and his thoughts and feelings are unfiltered and straightforward, with much of his writing relatable and solid. I enjoyed the moments when his emotions and the situations of his life were starting to affect him. "I spent a lot of time screaming in my car today". He writes about his career and house struggles with things breaking down in his home and he is living the never-ending hamster wheel of things breaking down and hiring different contractors to fix something in the house then those contractors couldn't fix the different appliances and things without someone doing something else to fix someth...

Title: We Were Warned Author: Chelsea Ichaso Expected Publication: March 3, 2025 Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire Genre: Horror/YA/Ghost Story/ Suspense/ Thriller/Mystery Pages: 368 pages Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: In Fairport, there was a murder 20 years ago, a shocking murder where a mother stabbed her teenage son to death, while her daughter was hiding in another room and heard the yelling and screaming.  20 years later the ruins will be bulldozed to create something new, so some seniors decided to complete a documentary and sneak in one night. There is an Urban Legend that says that anyone who steps on the property is cursed to die. In the past other students have died. Eden is kind of the pariah of the area because her father left the community after he had swindled many off of money and left people in a bad place. So she does not have a good reputation even though she has done nothing wrong but some of the students and their parents hold Eden responsible for her father's actions....

Title: A Patriot’s Promise Author: Israel “dt” Del Toro Jr Published: July 4,2024 Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin Genre: Biography/Nonfiction/Memior/Military Pages: 276 pages Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: "There are parts of this story I would have chosen, and there are parts that I wouldn't have. But they all belong to me now. And I don't regret any of my choices." This is an empowering story, one that has me awestruck for several moments. Del Toro writes his story, and he claims it. Even when he spoke to his father shortly before he passed away, he took taking care of his family seriously. He did everything he could, and despite his efforts, he lost his mother while he was in his teens as well. He was fighting from the get-go, and he still worked hard for everything!  In his military career in the beginning he sacrificed many things including time with his wife and child, he was at the point where his wife wanted him out of the military to be with them or she was done...

Title: The Serpent & The Wings of Night Author: Carissa Broadbent Published: August 30,2022 Publisher: Bramble/Tor Publishing Group Genre: Romance/Paranormal/Fiction/Vampire Pages: 504 pages Review: Oh Hell!  I can't even.....like I feel like this is insane! I'm not so sure I can adequately describe my thoughts on this book but I will try! Oraya is the human pet of the vampire King Vincent, and Vincent is known for being a ruthless killer and feared for his murderous demeanor. He has a tender spot for Oraya and she loves him as her father, he has raised her and taught her so much. However, there are things that she doesn't know about herself and she wants closure and to find out what happened to the rest of her family if any are still alive.  She joins a vampire hunger game type of quest called the Kejari to get a wish granted by the goddess, and she gives it her all. All while Vincent watches on the sidelines, and she eventually teams up with Raihn a vampire whom she w...

Title: Rejected and Pregnant by the Alpha King Author: Via Thorn Published: September 26,2024 Publisher: Amazon Publisher Genre: Romance/Shape Shifter/ Paranormal/ Fiction Pages: 552 pages Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: Raine was hated by almost everyone in the pack, not for anything that she did but for what her father did. He was the beta in the pack, he cheated his pack members out of money, and with that, he took off never to return leaving Raine to the mercy of the pack.  Raine was then sent to the Alpha King's ball where Aiden was supposed to meet all the different girls to see if one was his mate. At an encounter in the garden, Aiden and Raine meet and they discover they are fated mates. So for the rest of the time she is there, they are having steamy moments together, and Aiden is giving Raine hot and cold vibes because she caught him with another female and she eventually went home. At first, they were writing letters back and forward then she realized she was pregnant and she a...

Title: Forbidden Honor Author: May Dawson Published: October 22,2021 Publisher: Amazon Digital Genre: Fantasy/Reverse Harem/Dragons/Romance Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: "Only males shifted into dragons, the highest of creatures, but their royal sisters tended to shift into lions or wolves"  Well, TikTok did it to me! I saw a couple of TikTok talking about this book and it was enough to spike my interest and then it happened! I loved it and Now I am ready to read the next one!  Honor is an orphaned servant at the Academy and usually the animals that you shift into are passed down genetically. However, since she's an orphan and no one knew who her parents were they really all assumed Honor would shift into a mouse or squirrel.  On the day she is supposed to have her first shift no one is more surprised than Honor when she turns into a Dragon. The elder dragons decided to glamor her as a male, a male with a bad reputation for dishonoring a sister of one of the dragons. So s...