The End of Sleep by Vyvyan Evans

 

What connects a new highly addictive gaming app, viral conspiracy theories by the mysterious Dark Court, and a fatal insomnia pandemic? Enter Lilith King, the world’s most famous cybercrime detective.

 

Lilith had always known she was different. Attitude to burn, for one thing. The strange chanting in her head since she was seven, for another. And then, the Aura, the sensory disturbance that makes her sick to the pit of her stomach, seemingly coinciding with the new, strange apparition that’s haunting her. She also has the ability to solve crime through touch alone. Together with Dr. Kace Westwood, a sleep specialist genius and a freak like her, Lilith must figure out whether the deadly insomnia pandemic is linked to the vagus chip implants being offered to all qualifying Unskills. Or are people’s language chips being hacked? And why is only the lowest soc-ed class being targeted?

 

The End of Sleep (Songs of the Sage, book one) by Vyvyan Evans

Start date: May 9, 2022

End date: May 12, 2022

Rating: ½ out of 5 stars

Content warning: rape, sexism, classism, transphobia

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Hold onto your hat because there’s a lot to unpack.

The End of Sleep takes place about 110 years in the future. None of our current countries exist, but there’s still a United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), and North American Treaty Organization (NATO). There used to be an international law mandating that all newborns be surgically implanted with language chips (in addition to the various other cybernetic parts that everyone has), but following the Great Language Outage, that law was repealed. People still install the chips in infants, though, because they don’t want their children to be “left behind” in this modern world. Countries are labeled by tiers (Tier One, Tier Two, Tier Three) that relate to how much the country depends on technology with Tier One (cough, first world, cough) being the highest.

Thunderstruck by Wren Michaels

Reseda Juarez is dead.

Though she functions as a human, inside she's an emotionless weapon, trapped between the living and the undead. Cold and unrelenting, she's used as a super-soldier by the government in a special task force to hunt preternatural beings to the brink of extinction.

One night, five years ago, Kane killed an innocent and his brother lost the love of his life. The aftermath forces Kane to become the alpha of the legendary Thunderbirds. He now must protect what's left of his family from the tribe of wolf shifters who ripped them apart.

When Reseda's mother is bitten by a wolf, she and Kane are forced to work together to find the Mayan Pul Yah stone to heal her—the same stone that gifted Reseda to the life she now lives. But the journey is riddled with more than the wolves, also searching for the stone.

Something strange happens to their powers when they're together, and they struggle to fight the intense attraction between them. The deeper they go, the more secrets unravel, until love is the only thing that can defeat an enemy no one saw coming.

 

Thunderstruck (Thunderbird Brotherhood, book one) by Wren Michaels

Start date: March 15, 2022

End date: March 21, 2022

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5 stars

Content warning: brainwashing, racism

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

There’s obviously a large amount of suspension of disbelief in stories involving paranormal and supernatural creatures. I’m used to starting a story by assuming magic is real and that supernatural beings live alongside humans. In Thunderstruck, I kept finding myself taken out of the story.

Demon Hunting with a Southern Sheriff by Lexi George

Rowdy rednecks. Shifty shapeshifters. Deadly demon hunters.

THIS TOWN'S GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL.

With its cross-cultural mix of good ol' boys, big bad wolves, and otherworldly beings, Behr County is the last place you'd want to be a cop. But for Sheriff Dev Whitsun, it's Sweet Home Alabama—and he plans to keep it that way. Famous last words. When a gruesome shifter massacre rocks the community, the sexy sheriff needs more than a badge and a few silver bullets. He needs the help of an immortal demon hunter. Her name is Arta, High Huntress of the Kirvahni. Whatever that means. Dev is no position to be picky about partners right now. But when Arta turns out to be the one female he could really fall for, Dev knows he's in for one hell of a ride. God help them all . . .

 

Demon Hunting with a Southern Sheriff (Demon Hunting, book six) by Lexi George

Start date: April 10, 2022

End date: April 16, 2022

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Content warning: child abuse, pregnancy

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I requested a copy of this book from NetGalley before realizing it was part of a series, let alone the sixth (and maybe final?) book in the series. After they approved me, I realized my error. Despite never having heard of the Demon Hunting series or Lexi George, I pressed on because the book summary really had me wanting to read it.

Sleeping With the Entity by Cat Devon

She has a sweet tooth and a dream.

Meet Daniella Delaney. She’s all ready to open her shop, Heavenly Cupcakes, in one of Chicago’s sleepier districts. But she’s having a hard time convincing the local business association—namely Nick St. George—that she’s a good addition to the neighborhood. Daniella hopes that her famous red velvet cupcakes will be enough to melt any man’s heart. But Nick is no ordinary man. He’s got fangs.

He has a constant craving…

As leader of the Vamptown clan, Nick has no intention of letting Daniella breathe new life into his old haunts. But something about her leaves Nick hungry…for more. He can’t control her mind like other humans, a treat that makes Daniella irresistible. Could it be that, for the first time in centuries, Nick has met his match? Love is always a force to be reckoned with. But can this vampire have his cake and eat it too?

 

Sleeping With the Entity (The Entity, book one) by Cat Devon

Start date: January 17, 2022

End date: January 21, 2022

Rating: 1 ½ out of 5 stars

Trigger warnings: adoption, offensive language, gambling addiction

Daniella Delaney is opening a cupcake shop in a suburb of Chicago that unbeknownst to her is unironically called Vamptown by the local vampire clan. If that bit of on-the-nose writing bothers you, you’ll like this book as much as I did. Before I proceed, I feel like I should explain my rating process. I start every book off with five out of five stars. As I read, I deduct half stars or whole stars depending on how severe I judge something to be. I was ready to give this book two stars until the very end when it fully earned the rating that I gave it.