This review is #SFW but the book contains mature themes.

Spoiler Free Review

Medium Used: 75% hardcover, 25% audiobook.

Ratings out of 5

Sweetness Level:
🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫 (5/5)

Steam Level:¹
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (5/5)

Spice Quality:¹
🔥🔥🔥🔥 (4/5)

Spice Quantity:¹
🔥🔥🔥 (3/5)

MMC (Warrior) Likability:
🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️ (5/5)

FMC (Princess) Likability:
👸🏻👸🏻👸🏻👸🏻👸🏻 (5/5)

MMC (Assasin) Likability:
🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷 (5/5)

Plot Engagement:
💥💥💥💥 (4/5)

Overall Rating:
💜💜💜💜💜 (5/5)

^{1 I use Steam to refer to the tension, yearning, and/or build up to the Spice i.e. sexual intimacy}

Warrior Princess Assassin is a high fantasy polyamorous romance that tells the story of Princess Marjoriana (Jory) of Astranza, her betrothed King Kyronan (Ky) of Incendar, and her childhood friend turned Assassin of the Astranzanian Hunter’s Guild (Asher) as Astranza and Incendar attempt to cement an alliance through marriage against their common enemy Draegonis.

An exquisite blend of slow-burn romance, political intrigue, and sword-clashing action every page left me wanting more. Cover to cover this book took me under 60 hours to finish. Every time I had to put it down for work, sleep, or parenting I could not wait to pick it back up. It rotates perspective between the three titular characters and had me equally invested in each of them – something that many romances with only two main characters struggle to accomplish.

The best thing about Warrior Princess Assassin is its conviction. It is proud to be a capital R romance that does not shy away from classic tropes (e.g. marriage of convenience) while simultaneously subverting the mainstream of the genre with its base premise (i.e. bisexual polyamory). It is by far my favorite of the eight books I have read so far in 2026 and comes in as number eight on my top ten list of favorite romance books of all time.^{sorry Headliners by Lucy Parker which now falls off my top 10 list}

What I liked about this book
* A real slow-burn. With yearning and tension that goes in all directions.
* Asher and Ky are both masculine, emotionally intelligent, caring, and unapologetic bisexual. Their bisexuality is not fetishized and their emotional relationship has its own stakes and journey separate from their relationships with Jory.
* It’s less than 400 pages (sometimes I feel like the fantasy genre has abandoned brevity).

What I did not like about this book
* I found myself left with a fair amount of questions about the world (in particular about its history). Perhaps this is the trade-off with brevity.

This Book Reminded Me of:

• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, for being a capital R Romance in a fantasy setting.
  
• Mindf*ck by S.T. Abby for being a book I read in the beginning of the year that had no business being as good as it was based on the premise.
  
  

Who should read this book?

Everyone this book fucking slaps.

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Content Warning:
At First Spite deals with depression and past trauma directly on the page. I discuss these topics vaguely in the spoiler free section and in more specificity in the spoiler section. It also includes a scene with one of the MCs administering vaccines as part of their job as a physician. As a Trypanophobe myself, I was able to listen to that scene but it did make me anxious. There's enough warning to skip it. The foreword of the book includes a more detailed CW warning.

Medium Used: 100% audiobook via Hoopla

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating:
💜💜 (2/5)

Sweetness Level:
🍫🍫 (2/5)

Steam Quality Level:
🔥🔥🔥 (3/5)

Spice Quantity Level:
🌶️🌶️🌶️ (3/5)

FMC Likability:
👻👻👻 (3/5)

MMC Likability:
🩺🩺🩺🩺 (4/5)

Plot Engagement:
🪜🪜 (2/5)

At least 1 bad dad:
💯 (pass)

BONUS audiobook narration by Joy Nash: 🔉🔈🔉 (3/5)

Spoiler Free Review

At First Spite does what it is trying to do well; but, what it is trying to do is not what I want from my Romcoms. Some of my favorite romcoms have dealt with aspects of mental health but I really felt the tone of the book was to sporadic given the level of detail the mental health challenges appear on the page. I do not enjoy moving from light humor about monster fucking book clubs to somber life like depictions of clinical depression to explicit steam at the drop of a pin. I think I struggled even more given the absurdity of the comedic premise juxtaposed against such a realistic depiction of mental health.¹

On the topic of absurd comedic premises. Our main character are mid 30 somethings Athena and Matthew. Athena was betrothed to Matthew's younger brother, Jonathan, however; Matthew convinced Jonathan to break it off 1 month before the wedding. Athena (with the help of her parents) had purchased Jonathan (as a wedding gift) the “spite house” that sits between Matthew and Jonathan's small town homes.

Athena decides to move in to the house anyway. On move in day Jonathan leaves for the month long vacation that was going to be their honeymoon leaving Matthew as Athena's only neighbor in her new house. Athena decides to intact her revenge on Matthew.

^{1 Wasn't my taste but appreciate the way the emotional see-saw of the book may reflect some people's experience with mental health}

What I liked about this book
* Even though it wasn't the book I wanted to see it in I have to admire the realistic portrayal of depression as well as what it is like to love somebody with depression.
* The sassy pranks Athena plays on Matthew in the 1st act as punishment for his involvement in her engagement falling apart.
* Time spent on side characters and relationships with those side characters mattering for both plot and character development.

What I did not like about this book
* Much of the humor didn't really land for me.
* I am normally a sucker for the corny gushy parts of romcoms but it was not landing for me in this book. It felt too framed in codependency.

Spoilers Review

Who should read this book?

If you like sweet MMCs taking care of FMCs, or stories about finding love while struggling with depression then At First Spite may be worth putting on your TBR.

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Medium Used: 100% ebook via Hoopla

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating:
💜💜💜💜 (4/5)

Sweetness Level:
🍪🍪🍪 (3/5)

Steam quality Level:
🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵 (5/5)

Steam quantity Level:
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (5/5)

FMC Likability:
🖤🖤🖤🖤 (4/5)

MMC Likability:
👓👓👓👓 (4/5)

Plot Engagement:
📚📚📚 (3/5)

At least 1 bad dad:
💯 (yes)
#NSFW

Content warnings for this book

Spoiler Free Review

Unexpectedly Bookish is a contemporary romantic comedy that tells the falling in love story between Pearl¹, a self-described “fuck-up”, and Reed, a successful architect who is leaving his career to open a bookshop. Reed finds the perfect building for his bookshop in the fictional small town of Fairwick Falls, Pennsylvania where his best friend Luca loves with his 6 year old daughter, Annabelle (AB), and sister, Pearl. The story is dual POV and set in the fictional small town of Fairwick Falls, Pennsylvania. It is the fourth book in Elise Kennedy's Fairwick Falls series but can be read as a stand alone (I have not read books 1-3).

I found the way the story paces the relationship development between the main characters to be novel². As Pearl and Reed's “IRL” romance blossoms gradually, IMPOSSIBLYBOOKISH (Pearl) and HEMINGWAY_CANSUCKIT (Reed) are engaged in an anonymous digital romance that began a few months before the start of the story. The first half of the book has “fast-burn” spice and affection via Bookish and Hemingways anonymous messaging. I found the spice in Unexpectedly Bookish to be better than most romantic comedies and the quality of the characters and plot were merely at par so the early spice was a positive despite my preference for slow burns.

The book is on the longer end for the romcom genre (406 page kindle edition). I'll note much of that additional length is due to the quantity and length of the spicy scenes. Another reason though may be that the plot was trying to do a bit too much. Everything it does I welcome, if not actively seek, in my romcoms but it felt like too much was put into the “romance trope salad” instead of the “plot main course”.

^{1 The relationship in this book is hetero and monogamous but Pearl is bisexual
2 dad joke intended}

What I liked about this book

• Both Pearl and Reed are shown having positive relationships with AB.
  
• Pearl is a plus sized grumpy bad bitch goth. Reed is a glasses and sweater vest wearing neurodivergent-divergent friendly to all nerd.
  
• The main characters both have relationships with side characters that matter to their character arcs and the overall plot.
  
• MCs are in their late 20s, acting like it, and facing struggles related to being in their late 20s.
  
• A townie in a townie bar says 'Yinz' 🖤💛.
  
  

What I did not like about this book

• Aspects of the writing were a bit jarring to me, for example multiple times Pearl's thinks something like “I have such a praise kink”.
• Reed has the body of a typical MMC. It is not dwelled on but in a book that otherwise really tries to break the mold of the typical romcom MCs making Rees a normal height felt like a missed opportunity.
  
  

Spoilers Review

This Book Reminded Me of

• The C*ck Down the Block by Amy Award in the way it is a light cozy read.
• The FMC and MMC dynamic in Maneater by Emily Antoinette.
  

Who should read this book?

1. People seeking cozy romcoms with plenty of spice.
2. People who enjoy the grumpy goth FMC with a soft heart paired with a the nerdy cinnamon roll MMC.
   

Elise Kennedy's Website

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