Book Report: Everything I Read This Spring
Two five-star reads, a couple bummers, and lots of romance and gothic horror (sometimes at the same time).
It’s been a real mixed bag of a reading season for me lately! While I was on vacation earlier this month, I read a whopping total of six books in a week, which is just wild to me.
Though for the first time in quite a while, I went through a spate of books that, while not wholly unenjoyable, didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
I did, however, discover two new five-star reads (in wildly different categories) and altogether it was a pretty good spring, book-wise. Let’s get into it!
Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams
★★★★☆ | Really liked it
Synopsis
Emily Walker and Jack Bennett have a lot in common—both are second-grade teachers in Rome, KY, both have secret side hustles writing books, and both absolutely can’t stand the other. Emily was thrilled when Jack left mid-school year, but now he’s back, and what’s worse—he’s now her next door neighbor.
With their animosity at an all-time high, Emily accidentally sends an email to their school’s principal with her very steamy romance-novel-in-progress attached. She needs to steal back her manuscript, and Jack—much as she hates to admit—is just the man to help her.
Review
This book was on my list for ages! Overall, I really liked it. It was sweet, had some depth, and the main characters were fun. It got a bit trope-y, but that also might be me burning myself out on one too many rom-coms. Also I think I was a liiiiiittle biased because the book Emily is writing is like, the exact opposite of any book I’d ever want to read (no judgement, I just know my own interests). I am, however, a huge sucker for enemies to lovers, it’s just so delicious. And Jack seemed like a certified cutie-patootie. Guys he was willing to get rid of his motorcycle because it freaked Emily out. 😭
You might also like…
When in Rome, Sarah Adams
An Academic Affair, Jodi McAllister
Hot Desk, Laura Dickerman
Ready or Not by Cara Bastone
★★★★★ | Loved it
Synopsis
Eve Hatch winds up pregnant following a very out-of-character one night stand. Her best friend Willa starts being distant right when Eve needs her most, and the baby’s father is complicated to say the least. Oddly enough, it’s Shep, Eve’s childhood friend and Willa’s brother, that ends up lending a hand more often than not. And suddently starts looking very attractive…
Review
I finished this book and immediately purchased Cara Bastone’s other two novels. It was SO CUTE. I loved the writing style, loved the main character’s POV, and loved that the love interest was a huge sweetie but also REALISTIC!!!! Sometimes these “book boyfriends” are a little too perfect for me and it makes me cringe. I just really liked the dynamic with the baby daddy who, while not exactly a stand-up guy throughout it, clearly had his own stuff going on and managed to work it out without being a total jerk. Also this book was laugh-out-loud funny more than a few times too. I just loved it.
You might also like…
It’s Different This Time, Joss Richard
Slow Dance, Rainbow Rowell
Friends With Benefits, Marisa Kanter
Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran
★★★★☆ | Really liked it
Synopsis
Everything goes off the rails following the sudden death of a popular student at an all girls school in 1930s England. Demonic forces are at work as time ripples and contracts, and the bodies pile up.
Review
I really enjoyed this gothic horror, which is arguably my favorite genre at this point. Add in sapphic entanglements, demonic energy, an unspoken eldritch horror, and the spiritualism craze and it might as well have been written specifically for me.
This book is told from the hindsight POV of a much older main character, so it’s rife with sentiments like “if only we’d known” and “I didn’t know then how wrong we were” which to be honest got a bit old after a while. I also sort of wished the overall evil had been explained a bit better but I suppose that’s sort of the point—maybe there isn’t a reason for evil to occur.
You might also like…
Grey Dog, Elliot Gish
The Hounding, Xenobe Purvis
Odessa, Gabrielle Sher
Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the eARC!
Demons and Diplomacy by Megan Frampton
★★☆☆☆ | Cute but not for me
Synopsis
In Victorian London, Cora Hastings, a regular human girl, has been appointed as a species ombudsman following the Great Revelation—namely, that other species are real (vampires, werewolves, demons and more), and humans are at the bottom of the pecking order.
Now it’s the Great Exhibition and the Devil wants to visit London. Cora is tasked with keeping him happy and preventing any incidents between the denizens of hell and the human residents of London. And that means dealing primarily with Marcellus, the devilishly handsome Devil’s son. (See what I did there?)
Review
This book was cute enough overall and I liked the interesting world building with the various species. Cora as a character felt a bit bland to me—another classic “brunette girl with pale skin who doesn’t know how beautiful and smart she is until a handsome man tells her.” Parts of it reminded me of Twilight (in a bad way), with Cora constantly remarking about how dangerous Marcellus could be and how easily he could kill her. We get it girl! You’re kinda into that! Overall it didn’t really work for me. The premise had a lot of potential but I just didn’t like it as much as I wanted to.
You might also like…
Books & Bewitchment, Isla Jewell
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, Heather Fawcett
How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days, Jessie Sylva
This book releases on August 25, 2026. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the eARC!
You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom by Vincent Tirado
★★★☆☆ | Liked it, wanted to like it more
Synopsis
In the midst of a raging storm, Xiomara is forced to convene with her dysfunctional, estranged family members for the reading of her grandfather’s will. Instead of inheritance, however, it states that one of the people in the house is the demon that he made a deal with in his youth. The family must find the demon and kill it within 12 hours lest they all be damned.
Review
I wanted to like this more than I did—overall it was very suspenseful and I liked how it played with memory and time. The last quarter of the book felt a bit rushed to me, however. The big reveals left me feeling a bit underwhelmed in a way I wasn’t expecting. Overall a fun modern gothic, but I was hoping for a more satisfying ending? I’m not really sure what I was looking for, but it left me wanting a bit more.
You might also like…
Starling House, Alix E. Harrow
Fiend, Alma Katsu
The Manor of Dreams, Christina Li
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC!
Turn Off the Light by Jacquie Walters
★★★★★ | Loved it
Synopsis
Edith is a healer, a woman of knowledge—and a woman watched. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Whispers creep through the dark. Terrified she has opened her home to the Devil, Edith makes a desperate choice.
Claire doesn’t believe in ghosts—until she returns home to care for her dying father and finds her childhood house... listening. As one sleepless night bleeds into the next, she becomes convinced something is stirring beneath the floorboards. Something that has waited a long time to rise.
As the danger mounts, Edith and Claire will discover they’ll need each other to survive. But they are separated by four hundred years. And time is running out for them both.
Review
Without giving too much away at all, this is exactly what I wanted from a gothic haunted house story. It had messy, interwoven timelines, family trauma, shocking revelations, strong female characters (unironically), and a house that might as well have been its own character.
I loved it. I gasped out loud a couple times. It was heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful and downright terrifying a few times. If you like ghost stories, I guarantee you’ll like this one.
You might also like…
Accumulation, Aimee Pokwatka
Play Nice, Rachel Harrison
Weyward, Emilia Hart
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown, and Co. for the eARC!
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
★★★☆☆ | Liked it
Synopsis
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honor an ancient contract to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…
Review
I grabbed this in the Seattle airport because I was tired of holding my iPad and wanted a short book to read on the plane, and boy this was indeed short. 100-something pages, half of them illustrated which I wasn’t expecting. But it was very pretty and a really interesting concept.
It was very dreamy and prose-y. Maybe I’m biased against short stories or novellas, but I would almost have loved to have an entire fleshed out story in this universe. I realize that was not the author’s intent, and perhaps it’s a mark of it’s success that I’m craving more, but the characters and folklore was so fascinating that I just want to know everything I can about them.
You might also like…
The Summer War, Naomi Novik
Cinder House, Freya Marske
The Everlasting, Alix E. Harrow
In the Woods They Wait by Carrie Lee South
★★★★☆ | Really liked it
Synopsis
When Audrey was a teenager, her 13-year-old brother Benny went missing in the Ozark National Forest—and it's all her fault. Held in place by guilt, Audrey became a search and rescue officer in the very forest that ruined her life.
Now, fifteen years later, another little girl has vanished without a trace, bringing back all the unburied feelings from Benny's disappearance—along with some very strange and unexplainable events in the forest. Audrey has to brave the unknown entities that lurk in the woods if she's going to find six-year-old Ivy. And she just might uncover the truth of what happened to Benny all those years ago...
Review
This book was definitely based on an r/nosleep series that I loved like a decade ago about search and rescue officers in national parks. But just when I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, the story diverged in an unexpected twist that worked quite well for me. I felt bad for most of the side characters, but the trauma of Audrey's past and how it's kept her stuck into the present day was fleshed out well, and I really enjoyed the book. It had plenty of creepy, and honestly a bit nauseating scenes so maybe proceed with caution if you're squeamish.
You might also like…
Wolf Worm, T. Kingfisher
Morsel, Carter Keane
What Feeds Below, Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
This book releases on Sep 22, 2026. Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown, and Co. for the eARC!
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added so many books to my tbr from this post! thank you!
Added “Ready or Not” to my Libby hold list! Thanks for these thoughtful recommendations!