Court of Tricksters (Fae Tricksters #1)

Just gazing at her was risk and reward.

Available at Amazon.com

Court of Tricksters
S. L. Prater
Fae Tricksters, book one
Audiobook, ~8 hours
ebook, 254 pages
Published January 20, 2023
ASIN B0BN96R1M5


The fae Duke of Night doesn't believe in love—but he'll claim his mate nonetheless.

Mating is a matter of politics for Night, not the heart. To prevent a forced union that will plunge the Lunar Court into war, he must find and bond his true mate.

When he lays eyes on Rain, he knows the shy forest witch is the bond mate he's been searching for. Unprepared for the intensity of his attraction, Night makes an offer that would keep his priorities straight and his court safe: a marriage of convenience. Any eligible woman—mortal and immortal alike—would leap at the chance to become the powerful duke's bride. But Rain isn't interested.

She's lived outside of society too long to ever fit into Night's world of shapeshifting tricksters and back-stabbing politicians. And Rain demands more than the trappings of marriage. She wants a match with heart.

Night doesn't have the luxury of time to change his mate's mind. War looms closer and the Lunar Court is caught in the middle. Out of options, the fae duke sees only one choice.

Kidnap his bride.

Contains mature themes.

They met in the woods.

Rain lived in the trees and forgot to ask the oak to conceal her.

But their eyes met and Night knew instantly.

Mate.

His mate was a witch with a demon familiar.

He says nothing of their bond but continues to meet with her. Brings her books and tells her stories. She mostly listens. She loves his voice.

She brings him gifts of soaps and oils

She does not tell him her name.

He does not speak of his titles and duties.

Until...

Until.

It's always the best of surprises when a book surpasses your expectations.

This was fun and adorable and sweet and charming. The cast is incredible. Bernard! A familiar that takes the shape of many things but most often a cat. Night's brother, Erikson. The brothel ladies: Margot, Penny, and Susan.

Night.

Love a mate bond that triggers a possessive MMC. The don't touch her, don't look at her, don't breathe in her direction type of possessiveness. And there might be a bit of gentle kidnapping... and using his magic to lull her to sleep so that he might strip her of the small arsenal of blades she's equipped to herself.

But he takes her for duty.

And she longs for love.

So she rejects him. And he departs from her.

But when their paths cross again, he kidnaps her for a second time.

Only for the author to end this book by completing a chapter, closing her laptop, and walking away.

Gah! That cliffhanger ending!

3 out of 5 stars.

Available in ebook | hardcover | paperback | audiobook

2026/21

Mountains Made of Glass (Fairy Tale Retelling #1)

So long as I know her, I will know myself.

Available at Amazon.com

Mountains Made of Glass
Scarlett St. Clair
Fairy Tale Retelling, book one
audiobook, ~6 hours
ebook, 219 pages
Published March 7, 2023
ISBN 9781728290836
ASIN B0BT68PFXG


An unbreakable curse. An impossible wager.
One chance at freedom—if love can break the spell.

A cursed fate haunts the village of Elk, and when Gesela is chosen to face the monstrous toad at the bottom of the well, she expects a fight for her life. Instead, she uncovers an Elven prince beneath the curse, and killing him draws the wrath of his immortal brothers. Banished to a mysterious glass mountain, Gesela meets the Beast—exquisite, dangerous, and nothing like she imagined. He offers her a deal: if she can guess his true name in seven days, she'll win her freedom. The catch? She must speak it with genuine love, or risk being lost to the curse forever.

Mountains Made of Glass is a dark, seductive fairy tale retelling perfect for adult romantasy fans who crave enemies-to-lovers tension and high-stakes desire. Drawing on classic fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin, Scarlett St. Clair delivers a fast-paced, atmospheric romance filled with poetic writing and emotional vulnerability.

Casamir is cursed. He must have a woman fall in love with him and guess his true name, or he will forget his name and cease to exist.

When Gesela is thrown down a well and instructed to kill the toad inside so that the water will return, she does not hesitate.

Much.

But that toad was a prince under his own curse and his five brothers capture Gesela and send her to their seventh brother, Casamir, so that she might break his curse as penance.

This book is far more erotic and less of a love story than the second in the series. Although the latter of that statement may be subjective and left to interpretation.

Casamir though... This guy who needs a woman to love him faces the struggle of a lifetime to convince a woman to even tolerate him. A complete buffoon. Crude. Ignorant.

I get it. I get it. He's never known love so how would he know where to even begin. That's his excuse. But she's just as disturbing as he is and she has no such explanation.

Great for a laugh though. The things that leapt from this man's lips.

But hey, we found Henry's brother so there's that. Another one that left me flabbergasted Honorable, indeed. ::snort::

The ending though. He lied? I beg your finest pardon. He lied?

3 out of 5 stars.

Available in ebook | paperback | audiobook| hardcover

Next in the series:

2026/20

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Scarlett St. Clair (@authorscarlettstclair)

Once Upon a Demon's Heart (Cruel Fates #1)

Do. Not. Fuck. The. Godling.

Available at Amazon.com

Once Upon a Demon's Heart
K.M. Moronova
Cruel Fates, book one
Audiobook, ~8 hours
ebook, 251 pages
Published July 31, 2025
ASIN B0FB9QBY7K


This is no fairytale—It’s yearning and guilt of two burdened hearts that will leave readers breathless.

Alira, a devoted demigod knight, has found herself trapped in the throes of a brutal curse. A time loop in which the demon kingdom’s Blood Knight kills her every time. She is haunted by the attack she led on the innocent village of Thornhall, and her guilt consumes her from the inside out. After the twentieth time loop, she has finally had enough. Something has to change, lest she die at the Blood Knight’s hand for the rest of time. A choice she hopes she won’t regret—one to end the war between demigods and demons. Alira is shocked when she realizes that she’s marrying the very knight who has slain her so many times.

A daughter of Venus and a duke of demons. Their love is both cursed and destined—a marriage to save the fragility of their kingdoms.

Kalel is as cruel as they come. A devourer who survives on the gilded blood of demigods. He wants to hate her as much as he did when Thornhall fell, but he finds himself warring with his heart over his emotions for her. Together, they unravel the truths of Faultore, that perhaps not everything is as it seems. The gods may be pulling more strings than they should.

It’s not a question of what love can conquer; it is a matter of what they are prepared to demolish in the path of it.

I began the audiobook of this tale while out suffering manual labor in the garden, quite unfamiliar with the work of Theodore Zephyr.

Unfamiliar, yes, and also ill prepared for that perfectly pitched demon growl of a voice.

Breathless. Speechless. Both narrators were excellent.

Alira is a demigod knight that is caught in a time loop where she is fated to die at the sword of the demon Blood Knight. Eventually, she makes the decision to abandon her people. There's no future for her anyway.

And so, she returns to a grove where, years ago, she met a demon child. She did not know him long. He seemed to die that very day.

There she again meets a demon. Kalel. An apothecary.

And she comes away with a new plan. To assauge her guilt. To end the unceasing wars. To hopefully break the loop. She offers herself as a sacrifice in a treaty that would see her wed to a demon. As a daughter of Venus, she would be coveted by her enemy. To kill her. To torture her. To breed her.

The offer is accepted and her would-be husband comes to collect.

And what he finds is a knight in ebony armor. The same knight responsible for his mother's death, and the deaths of so many more of his kind.

He hates her.

But what they come to discover is that he was the boy. And she was that half-god girl.

The only one he would spare in his quest for vengeance.

The same one he would see cursed to repetitiously kill.

4.5 out of 5 stars. I need another hundred pages!

Available in ebook | hardcover | paperback | audiobook

Next in the series:

2026/19

Apples Dipped in Gold (Fairy Tale Retelling #2)

You do not get to determine your worth to me.

Available at Amazon.com

Apples Dipped in Gold
Scarlet St. Clair
Fairy Tale Retelling, book two
audiobook, ~6 hours
ebook, 240 pages
Published October 29, 2024
ASIN B0CT4RB99N
ISBN 9781464216886


He was her curse―and her only salvation.

Samara has spent years enduring cruelty at the hands of her brothers, surviving on nothing but hope and the fierce belief that she deserves more. When a royal engagement promises her freedom, her fate changes in a single night when she is intercepted by Lore, the enigmatic Prince of Nightshade.

Feared for his poisonous touch and shrouded in secrets, Lore is haunted by seven years of longing for Samara, the one mortal who makes him vulnerable.

Thrust together by fate and old wounds, their slow-burning desire threatens to unravel everything in a kingdom where magic is a weapon and trust can mean ruin.

Apples Dipped in Gold is a dark fairytale retelling and enemies-to-lovers romance, weaving a gothic Cinderella story with intoxicating tension, forbidden passion, and immersive world-building. Scarlett St. Clair delivers a tale of heartbreak, healing, and love against all odds. Step into the shadows and discover a romance that will haunt you long after the last page.

My, oh my, what did I stumble upon here.

A fairy tale retelling of... Cinderella meets Snow White with a blend of other tales from Brothers Grimm? I couldn't exactly say, but it's so good I didn't care to further analyze it, and the author does explain the sources of her inspiration at the end of the book.

Samara is an orphan left to the abuse of her three brothers who keep her "protected" so long as she toils away with the cooking and the cleaning. Until the day comes when she's had enough and climbs to the cliffs with a mind to throw herself off.

Enter a handsome prince. One whom is on a quest to find his brother who has entered the forests in search of a golden apple in order to win his lover's hand in marriage. So handsome prince (Henry) becomes quite taken by Samara and her verbally combative beautiful self and offers to take her away and show her a life of kindness and care with hope that one day she would agree to become his wife. He pays her brothers a dowry (after trying to bargain her for a ring, rose, and a lark) and off they go.

Only for thieves to attack their carriage and plant an arrow straight into the handsome prince's eye socket.

And yet, oh yes, she's saved once more. On this occasion by a fox and a fae. A fae prince to be exact. A fae prince named Lore.

It's a story of whimsy and twirls as we go this way, then that way. A talking fox. Singing flowers. A besotted prince. A goblin king. Dryads. Pixies. Ballroom dances. A magic mirror. A terrible witch. And brothers galore.

This fantastical tale of love-this right here-is what makes me kick my feet. In the middle of the book, in the middle of my happy place, where I can't wait to turn the next page but equally can't bear to have it end. ::sigh::

“Would I have been such a terrible choice?”

Oof, my heart. But the way he pines for her.

I had tried to think of anything else. I’d gone to the very edge of the world and sat with the sun, moon, and stars and still thought of nothing but her. She was unmatched—brighter than the sun, more beautiful than the moon, sweeter than the stars. I loved her more than anything in this terrible world, and I hated it.

The banter hit a sweet spot. Banter with each other. With Fox. With Cardic. Brotherly love expressed with harsh tongues and physical blows just does it for me. Although the nun thing was quite odd.

5 out of 5 stars. Immediately ordered a hardcopy for the shelves.

Available in ebook | paperback | audiobook

Art by Lauren Boyle.


Also in the series:

2026/18