Tuesday Reviews: Rook and Rebel by Kate Crew

A dark revenge romance with tattooed bikers, hilarious banter, high speeds, and high heat. Hold on tight for a hell of a ride!

Regan Fletcher

I used to have big dreams: finish college, make beautiful art, all while taking over my dad’s business. He wanted a legacy, and I wanted to give it to him. But his illness wasn’t part of the plan. Neither was his sudden need to keep me locked up in our mansion, safe and isolated. I want more from life, but could only spend my days waiting. Until one night, I came face-to-face with a street biker from a world far different from mine. What starts as him stalking me quickly spirals into something deeper, and more deadly. I’m falling for a man who’s everything I should fear, yet he’s the only one who’s ever made me feel truly alive. But loving him means risking everything—my heart, my future, and my father.

Rook Emberson

Revenge has been my driving force for as long as I can remember. Cameron Fletcher stole everything from me, and I’ve spent years plotting the perfect way to take it all back. When fate puts his daughter in my sights, I know I’ve found the key to his destruction. But from the moment I meet her, my plans begin to unravel. Regan is everything I didn’t expect, and I can’t help but be drawn to her. What starts as a twisted game of vengeance turns into an obsession. I need her, but I also need to destroy her father.

The lines between love and vengeance blur, and I’m not sure where one ends and the other begins.

Rook and Rebel was such a fun surprise. It’s wild, fast-paced, a little chaotic, and honestly really hard to put down once it gets going. The stalker-meets-motorcycle-club energy was definitely a 10/10. Rook and Rebel (Regan) have that instant chemistry that somehow works even when it shouldn’t, and their whole push-pull dynamic kept me hooked the entire time.

The plot’s packed with revenge, dark secrets, and some serious family drama. Watching Rebel grow from the sheltered daughter of a corrupt businessman to someone who starts taking control of her own life was super satisfying. And Rook? Total bad boy with a soft spot. The “touch her and die” energy is strong with this one.

Now, full disclosure: I actually ride with an MC in real life, and some of the biker stuff here definitely isn’t how it goes down in the real world. It’s more “romance fantasy” biker life than true-to-culture. If you’re looking for gritty MC realism, this isn’t that—but if you’re here for the drama, chaos, and spicy revenge vibes, it totally delivers.

The ending felt a bit rushed and some of the dialogue could’ve used smoothing out, but I can’t lie—I had a blast reading this. It’s over the top, a little messy, and full of attitude in the best way.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

Hey everyone,

As the year comes to an end, I wanted to take a moment to check in and share what’s next. Bad Boy Bookworm is officially taking a short holiday break. We’ll be stepping away for the next two weeks to rest, reset, and spend time offline before diving into a new year of reading, reviewing, and connecting with all of you.

Looking back, 2025 was a tough one. It was a year full of struggles, both mental and physical. There were health scares, burnout, book slumps, and moments where it felt impossible to keep up. But through it all, this community and the love of books kept me grounded. Every message, every comment, every conversation reminded me that it’s okay to take breaks, to heal, and to come back when you’re ready.

So that’s exactly what this break is for. A chance to breathe, to rest, and to start 2026 with new energy and excitement.

Thank you for sticking around, for being patient, and for supporting Bad Boy Bookworm through all the highs and lows of this year. Your kindness and encouragement mean more than you know.

We’ll be back in the new year with new reviews, new reads, and hopefully a little more light. Until then, I hope you all have a warm, peaceful holiday season filled with good books, good food, and good company.

See you in 2026. 💛

— Bad Boy Bookworm

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Tuesday Review: Little Stranger and Little Liar by Leigh Rivers

Little Stranger:

OWNING HER IS ALL HE EVER WANTED

She betrayed him, and now he wants revenge against the foster sister who became his forbidden obsession the second he laid eyes on her. After she sends him to prison for years, he’s free and ready to haunt her.

Everything about Olivia belongs to Malachi Vize.

Her mind

Her body

Her soul

Her fear

Her pain

On Halloween night, he can no longer lurk in the shadows. All he has left to own is her heart, even if he needs to take it.

Little Liar:

Malachi Vize has always had one desire in life.

One goal. One deep obsession he could never give up on.

His foster sister Olivia.

For the first time, she’s chosen him over the entire world, and he intends to keep her in his firm grasp forever – but his happiness is soon shattered by powerful enemies who want to claim Olivia for themselves.

He had her.

But then he lost her.

Wounded and still wrestling with his own demons, Malachi is forced into unexpected alliances to hunt them down, but he won’t stop fighting until he gets her back.

No matter what it takes.

I don’t even know how to rate this one. The Web of Silence Duet is twisted, unholy, chaotic, and somehow still completely addictive. I was confused half the time, disturbed the other half, and yet I couldn’t stop reading. It’s the kind of book that makes you want to schedule a therapy appointment when you’re done.

The story kept me engaged, but the writing was all over the place. The pacing swung wildly, the tone shifted constantly, and there were definitely more plot holes than plotlines. Still, for all its chaos, it hooked me enough to see it through. Leigh Rivers knows how to create atmosphere and tension, even when the story makes zero sense.

The first half was fine, nothing special, but it set the tone. I really could have done without an entire recap of book one from Malachi’s POV though. It felt repetitive and dragged on way too long. The second half, though, that’s where things picked up. It was sick, twisted, and completely taboo, but also weirdly entertaining. I’m not proud to admit it, but I did have fun. I’m going to hell, and that’s fine.

Malachi, as always, is an absolute menace. Psychotic, obsessive, and yet somehow soft and broken in a way that makes you ache for him. I fear he has me in a chokehold. He’s one of those characters who should be irredeemable, but you can’t help rooting for anyway. My heart hurt for him, even when I was screaming “what are you doing?” every few pages.

Honestly, the best part of this duet was the Tobias and Base crumbs from The Edge of Darkness trilogy. Every time they showed up, I was giggling and kicking my feet. They completely stole the spotlight and made me a million times more feral for their upcoming books.

I will say that most people I know who loved this duet listened to the audiobook version. I read the ebook, and I think that’s where I went wrong. Had I gone the audio route, with all the intensity and atmosphere that brings, I probably would have enjoyed it more.

In the end, this series is nothing if not memorable. It’s messy, dark, and unhinged, but it owns every bit of that chaos.

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Tuesday Reviews: The Good Girl Effect by Sara Cate

Jack St. Claire is desperate. A grieving single father, he buries himself in his work—running a brand-new kink club in Paris. Instead of handling his grief, he’s built a fortress around his heart, and it’s time he hired someone to help him take care of his daughter before things get worse.

Camille Aubert wasn’t looking for a new job. She just wanted to return a lost love letter she’d found within the pages of a book. But when she’s mistaken for a job candidate and hired as Jack’s live-in nanny, something tells her this is exactly where she needs to be.

Shortly after arriving, Camille discovers a strange room in the apartment that sparks her curiosity—and hints at a dark, mysterious side to Jack that she’s desperate to uncover. The lines between professional and personal blur dangerously as the heat between them becomes impossible to ignore. She’s drawn to the broken man who hides his grief in ropes and bondage, and she challenges him in ways he never thought possible.

Caught between her growing feelings for Jack and the ghosts of his past, Camille must can love heal a heart still grieving, or will their passion destroy them both?

This one was rough for me. I’ve loved a lot of Sara Cate’s books before, but The Good Girl Effect didn’t quite land the way I hoped it would. It’s emotional, spicy, and well written as always, but some parts just didn’t sit right with me—especially when it came to Jack as a father.

Jack St. Clair is a widowed single dad trying to rebuild his life after losing his wife. He runs a kink club and hires Camille, a young woman who accidentally shows up for a nanny interview, to help with his daughter. What follows is a forbidden, slow-burn connection between two people who are both hurting and looking for something real.

The spice absolutely delivers—Sara Cate always knows how to write tension and intimacy that feels raw and consuming. The bondage and kink elements were written tastefully, and the chemistry between Jack and Camille was undeniable. Every scene between them had that signature Sara Cate spark.

But what really got to me was how Jack handled his grief. Ignoring his daughter after the death of his wife really rubbed me the wrong way. He spent more time opening up to Camille than he did trying to comfort his own child, who was also grieving and clearly needed him. I get that his pain was overwhelming, but as a parent, that emotional distance was hard to read.

Camille was sweet, impulsive, and sometimes reckless, but she had good intentions. I liked how she brought warmth and life back into their home, even when Jack resisted it. Their romance had some great moments, but the emotional side of the story felt uneven at times. I wanted more genuine healing and less avoidance.

Still, there were things I really appreciated—the letters between them were beautiful, the emotional vulnerability felt real, and the theme of learning to move forward after loss had so much potential. It just didn’t fully connect for me the way I wanted it to

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Tuesday Reviews: Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver

Welcome to Cape Carnage! Visit Once, Stay Forever.

Cape Carnage is a seaside town of colorful houses, quirky shops, and an unusually high body count. But with tourists comes trouble, and Harper Starling won’t let anyone ruin her picture-perfect home. A skilled gardener with killer instincts, Harper protects her sanctuary at any cost—especially for her aging mentor with a fading memory.

Troublesome tourists don’t check out of Carnage. They compost beneath Harper’s award-winning flowerbeds. But Nolan Rhodes isn’t your average tourist. Devilishly handsome, disarmingly charming, and skilled with a blade, Nolan is relentless in the pursuit of revenge. On every anniversary of the hit-and-run accident that fractured his life, Nolan slays another target. And he’s saved the best for last: the undeniably beautiful Harper Starling.

The problem? Harper isn’t the monster he expected. And she won’t go down without a fight. When an amateur true crime investigator comes to Cape Carnage on the trail of a long-lost serial killer, Harper and Nolan strike an uneasy truce. If Nolan helps Harper protect her town, she’ll keep quiet about his hunting habits . . . for now. But their alliance soon spirals into obsession, one that threatens to shatter every secret in Carnage—including their fragile love.

Tourist Season is a darkly funny, slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance where destruction and desire are balanced on the edge of a blade—and where love is the most dangerous battleground of all.

I am completely feral for this book. Tourist Season is bloody, clever, hilarious, and addictive from start to finish. It’s one of the most entertaining and chaotic stories I’ve read all year. Think Dexter meets Twin Peaks with a splash of Butcher and the Blackbird thrown in.

First off, this is not a standalone, so prepare your heart before diving in. It ends on a massive cliffhanger that will leave you pacing the room and cursing the calendar until book two arrives.

Cape Carnage is the weirdest, bloodiest, most delightful town imaginable. It’s coastal Halloween-core, full of vigilantes, retired killers, and locals who definitely know more than they let on. It’s gory, ridiculous, and somehow still heartwarming.

Harper Starling is the town’s unhinged protector. She’s got a woodchipper named Cookie Monster, a garden full of secrets, and the kind of sarcastic, no-nonsense personality that makes her instantly lovable. She’s also caretaker to Arthur, a retired serial killer battling dementia, and their relationship adds surprising depth and warmth to all the chaos.

Then there’s Nolan Rhodes, a dark, damaged man on a mission of revenge. He shows up ready to kill Harper, but ends up tangled in her world instead. Their enemies-to-lovers chemistry is unreal. They banter, they threaten, they save each other, and they definitely steam up the page. Nolan’s obsessive streak and Harper’s razor-edged humor make them an absolute power couple.

The plot moves fast and doesn’t let up. There’s mystery, gore, dark comedy, and a steady stream of twists that somehow all work. The writing is sharp, cinematic, and laugh-out-loud funny even in the bloodiest scenes. And beneath all the mayhem is a surprisingly emotional story about grief, identity, and what it means to protect the people you love.

This book is a perfect storm of murder, mayhem, and romance. It’s outrageous, clever, and weirdly touching. I devoured it in a single sitting and immediately wanted to reread it.

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Tuesday Reviews: Tender Cruelty by Katee Robert

I was his wife. His lover. His sworn enemy. The ice queen to Olympus's most hated king.

*A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Hera and Zeus.*

The barrier that's protected Olympus for generations has fallen. The enemy's breached the gates and the Thirteen are scrambling to protect themselves, their loved ones, and the city they've sworn to protect. At least they would be if they weren't at each others' throats instead.

Hera has no intention of letting her husband, Zeus, survive the oncoming storm. But despite the white-hot hatred burning between them, when Hera and Zeus are forced to work together, enmity crystalizes into something brighter. Hotter. Too powerful to deny or destroy.

Hera never bartered on falling in love with the man she married—the man she once swore to kill. But now, standing back-to-back in the ruins of Olympus, she may be forced to admit that she's been wrong about Zeus all these years…and there may be something about their marriage worth saving if they can survive long enough to turn sworn enemies into something more.

Tender Cruelty is the explosive ninth installment in Katee Robert’s Dark Olympus series, and it absolutely delivers on the long-awaited enemies-to-lovers tension between Zeus and Hera. After years of anticipation, their story finally takes center stage, and it is full of fire, sharp dialogue, and slow-burn emotion.

This is true enemies to lovers—there are assassination attempts, deep-seated grudges, and undeniable attraction simmering just beneath the surface. Hera is fierce, proud, and unyielding, while Zeus is powerful, controlled, and surprisingly vulnerable when it comes to her. Watching them clash and slowly begin to trust each other again is one of the most satisfying arcs in the entire series.

The pacing is quick and intense, focusing on power struggles, emotional tension, and the unraveling of long-held secrets. The world of Olympus feels richer and more layered here, as all the political machinations and alliances from previous books finally start to converge. The plot is packed with intrigue, revenge, and a surprising amount of tenderness amid the chaos.

My only real wish was for the story to be longer. After so much buildup over the series, Zeus and Hera deserved just a bit more space to explore their relationship beyond the constant turmoil. Still, their connection feels earned and incredibly human beneath all the power and danger.

Tender Cruelty is sharp, sexy, and full of heart. It bridges the gap to the series finale beautifully while giving fans the enemies-to-lovers payoff they’ve been waiting for.

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