Adam L.V. Ellis’s The Girl Who Sucks At Being A Succubus is a wildly imaginative urban fantasy that flips traditional mythological tropes into something unexpectedly tender: a coming-of-age story about belonging.
Tag Archives: Book Review
Flame of Almandraaz: Timothy Robare’s Cinematic Epic Chooses Vengeance Over Easy Triumph
Timothy Robare’s Flame of Almandraaz follows a shepherd-turned-hero across a vividly realized continent of dragons, kings, and ancient conspiracy, anchored by rich world-building and a cast of unforgettable non-human companions. It’s a fresh, morally complex take on the “chosen one” story, one that trades an easy triumph for vengeance and hard-won justice.
Patron Games by Ian Page: A Hilarious Tale of Money, Mayhem, and Misfit Actors
Patron Games, a field manual novel by Ian Page.
Machiavellian buffoonery, unrequited love, and everything that can go wrong going wrong at the worst possible time.
Relentless Blades Delivers Visceral Dark Fantasy Grounded in Real Stakes: Russell Carroll’s Volume I
Russell Carroll’s Relentless Blades is a visceral, well-crafted entry into dark fantasy, following a knight, a disgraced thief, and a conflicted half-skron guide as they race an empire to stop the awakening of world-dominating dragon hatchlings. Its greatest strength is character work, particularly the empathetic handling of Vigilanton’s near-illiteracy and Grimlock’s identity struggle, backed by cinematic combat and immersive world-building.
Unmasking the Heartbreaking Comedy: A Feature on Gary Got Goosed
Before the week from hell starts, Montarbo makes sure you know who Gary is, and that context sticks with you later. Gary’s spent twenty-five years delivering pizzas for Benwardo’s. He finds comfort in his “mountain of blankets,” his cat Seamus, and a cushioned toilet seat he calls his “porcelain altar.” He plays high-level online games as EtherealOG. For Gary, life is okay. Not exciting, not impressive by anyone else’s standards, but enough. That’s the whole point. This isn’t a guy chasing something bigger. He’s just trying to get through his shifts and go home to his cat. Which makes it all the more brutal when fate decides that’s not allowed this week.
What’s New This Week at #JustReadingNook?
Here’s what’s new for the week of August 6, 2026 at #JustReadingNook
Funny, Tender, Unflinching. Gary Got Goosed by J.R. Montarbo
J.R. Montarbo’s Gary Got Goosed follows Gary Gander through one relentless week, structured day by day, Sunday to Sunday, as an ordinary guy’s life buckles under a pileup of bad luck, embarrassment, and grief. It’s a small, internal story in scope, following one deeply flawed, deeply likable man through the worst seven days of his life, and it’s exactly that closeness that makes it work.
Unsettling, Grief-soaked, Restrained. Holes In The Somewhere by Richard Brown
Holes in the Somewhere by Richard R. Brown is speculative fiction in form — weird, unsettling, occasionally cosmic — but reads less like a genre exercise than grief given permission to take unusual shapes. Brown uses the uncanny as pressure rather than decoration, and the result is horror that bruises rather than shocks.
What’s New This Week at #JustReadingNook?
Here’s what’s new for the week of August 6, 2026 at #JustReadingNook
Finding Yourself in Two Cities: A Deeper Look at “Gnight, Sara / ‘Night, Heck”
There’s a particular kind of book that doesn’t just tell a story — it holds up a mirror to a whole generation trying to figure out who they’re supposed to become. Justine Castellon and Mike Dee’s co-written novel, Gnight, Sara / ‘Night, Heck, is one of those books. On the surface, it’s a story about two people who meet in a coffee shop. Underneath, it’s a study of everything that happens in your twenties when the plans you made at eighteen collide with the person you’re actually turning into.