Sarnai Briar (Author of Mind of a Pirate)

Sarnai Briar rated a book really liked it The Detective Therapy by Chisonari (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I got this as an ARC thanks to the author! This review was made completely by choice. First off, the little warning at the start of the book was adorable. Honestly, I think that's the main word I'd use to describe this. It's a very cute/sweet story. A ...more
Oct 31, 2026 12:05PM · 1 like · like · see review
Sarnai Briar rated a book it was amazing Finding Balance by Steph Manser (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
(Amazon tried to keep this review from ever seeing the light of day, but it can't be stopped!!) This book was so much fun! I already adored the characters (Kamatari especially. Tari deserves the world) from Residual Hate, so getting to see them again ...more
Oct 13, 2026 07:57AM · 1 like · like · see review
Sarnai Briar rated a book really liked it Black Falls (The Fallen Series Book 1) by A.C. Young (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Thank you to the author for this ARC copy! I enjoyed this story a lot! Jordan, our main character, is so incredibly endearing. This is a first-person story and with those, I really think it’s important to feel a connection to the character. Thankfull ...more
Sep 07, 2026 10:50AM · like · see review
Sarnai Briar is now following A.C. Young Author of Black Falls (The Fallen Series Book 1)
Sep 07, 2026 10:49AM · like
Sarnai Briar is currently reading Black Falls (The Fallen Series Book 1) by A.C. Young (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 25, 2026 10:49AM · like
Sarnai Briar and 2 other people liked Peyton Stich's review of The Halls of the Dead: "(3.5 stars) When this book is advertised as a gothic fantasy horror romance... they aren't kidding. S.M. Hallow has a unique ability to make disgusting things elegant and beautiful things terrifying. I wasn't able to stop reading because I was comple" Read more of this review »
Aug 20, 2026 03:10PM · see review
Sarnai Briar rated a book really liked it This Body, This Blood by Daphne A Vermeer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I got this as an ARC! I enjoyed this a lot! This is described as a literary novel and it absolutely is. The focus here is on the characters, their internal struggles, and how they make do with their “lives.” I thought that the cast was great. Everyon ...more
Aug 20, 2026 07:57AM · like · see review
Sarnai Briar rated a book it was amazing Daughters, Demons & Doors by Willow Blacque	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this! The collection almost feels like poetry sometimes, but that doesn't quite describe it. The main thing that stood out to me is the prose. It's very eloquent. Of course, with there being short stories, there isn't a whole lot of time to ...more
Aug 11, 2026 12:01PM · like · see review
Sarnai Briar is now following Sinclair Sting Author of Goblin Stepsister Obsession
Aug 08, 2026 11:44AM · like
Sarnai Briar wants to read Goblin Stepsister Obsession by Sinclair Sting	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 08, 2026 11:43AM · like

Sarnai Briar rated a book really liked it

The Detective Therapy
by Chisonari (Goodreads Author)

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I got this as an ARC thanks to the author! This review was made completely by choice.

First off, the little warning at the start of the book was adorable. Honestly, I think that's the main word I'd use to describe this. It's a very cute/sweet story. A ...more

Sarnai Briar rated a book it was amazing

Finding Balance
by Steph Manser (Goodreads Author)

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(Amazon tried to keep this review from ever seeing the light of day, but it can't be stopped!!)

This book was so much fun! I already adored the characters (Kamatari especially. Tari deserves the world) from Residual Hate, so getting to see them again ...more

Sarnai Briar rated a book really liked it

Black Falls (The Fallen Series Book 1)
by A.C. Young (Goodreads Author)

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Thank you to the author for this ARC copy! I enjoyed this story a lot! Jordan, our main character, is so incredibly endearing. This is a first-person story and with those, I really think it’s important to feel a connection to the character. Thankfull Thank you to the author for this ARC copy! I enjoyed this story a lot! Jordan, our main character, is so incredibly endearing. This is a first-person story and with those, I really think it’s important to feel a connection to the character. Thankfully, I instantly liked her. She’s funny, a great researcher, protective, and everything else you would want from a main character whose story you’re going to be following. The other characters are very fun as well, particularly those who show up later in the book. I also love her dads, Yuto in particular! He’s not the stepdad. He’s the dad who stepped up! Narratively-speaking, there are a lot of questions and there’s a lot of intrigue to match, making you wonder who all is trustworthy and if so, how much.

The story itself is also very interesting to me. Its world is fascinating and feels rich in its details. For me, it’s obvious that a lot of care and thought was put into building the setting from the ground up. It’s not merely a situation where “all myths are real.” Some are, some aren’t quite what we’ve heard, and there are others that are completely unique to this story, which makes for an extremely fun experience.

Unfortunately, one of my critiques does relate to the lore. Although it is really interesting, in my opinion, too much of the story is spent revealing this. With Jordan being a researcher, there are chapters dedicated to her reading and learning. It’s good to know and I applaud certain chapters on having her be told. (In too many stories, information is shared amongst characters who already know it, so having someone who is totally unaware of the answer is refreshing.) However, when there’s a POV switch, it does turn into someone who already knows something just providing the information for readers. I hope that future information can be broken up a bit, mixing in more emotional and action scenes in between (because the action is written beautifully here! I could imagine so many of these scenes happening right in front of me). My only other critique is that there’s a big emotional moment that didn’t land as hard as it could have for me because it happened so soon. I won’t go into details with it, but I do wish that was handled a bit differently, letting the characters have more “on-screen” time, so we could feel the full brunt of that moment with them.

Overall, I think this is a fun start to a very neat new series! I’ll be happy to check out more when it’s available and I hope that more readers do too. I’d certainly recommend it for fantasy readers. ...more

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A.C. Young

Author of Black Falls (The Fallen Series Book 1)

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Black Falls (The Fallen Series Book 1)
by A.C. Young (Goodreads Author)

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Sarnai Briar and 2 other people liked Peyton Stich's review of The Halls of the Dead:

"(3.5 stars) When this book is advertised as a gothic fantasy horror romance... they aren't kidding. S.M. Hallow has a unique ability to make disgusting things elegant and beautiful things terrifying. I wasn't able to stop reading because I was comple" Read more of this review »

Sarnai Briar rated a book really liked it

This Body, This Blood
by Daphne A Vermeer

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I got this as an ARC! I enjoyed this a lot! This is described as a literary novel and it absolutely is. The focus here is on the characters, their internal struggles, and how they make do with their “lives.” I thought that the cast was great. Everyon I got this as an ARC! I enjoyed this a lot! This is described as a literary novel and it absolutely is. The focus here is on the characters, their internal struggles, and how they make do with their “lives.” I thought that the cast was great. Everyone had their own type of charm. Anna is a good vessel for readers since so much of this is new to her. She wasn’t turned recently, but she hasn’t truly been out in the world as a vampire. Additionally, there are elements of her past that she can’t recall, so as she learns, we do too. More often than not, I felt bad for her. She’s never getting her life back, so this is as good as it’s going to get. Aloïsius, the eldest vampire here, is a fun blend of terrifying and sweet. The more you learn about him, the more complex he becomes. Like the official blurb says, he’s a serial killer. He’s not the type of vampire who tries to avoid killing people. You only get to look young by regularly draining humans dry and he is looking like quite the spring chicken. At the same time, he’s very religious. Martijn has a smaller role here since he isn’t living with the vampires, but the snippets we get of him through his text messages with Anna and flashbacks show how much of a selfless and considerate person he is.

Then we have Henk! My personal favorite, so he gets his own paragraph. Oh, Henk. He is a cross between somebody who would probably be so much fun to be around and someone who is so horribly codependent on their partner that you genuinely want to shake them sometimes. While I’m saying this, the circumstances make sense. He was a young man when he got turned and since then, he’s only been around Aloïsius. There are moments when their relationship feels horrific and times when it does seem like they really care about one another. I can’t confidently say it’s healthy or toxic. There are moments of both (I will definitely repeat the part about codependency, though, so in that regard, I guess “toxic” gets a slight edge.) That said, just as Anna is the vessel for readers to learn about the vampire world, Henk is the vessel to introduce us to it. He’s warm (as warm as possible for somebody who’s been dead for so long), friendly, and so much more. It’s hard to wrestle with the fact that he’s also been a vampire who has killed…and not just a couple times.
The religious aspect is also nicely handled here in my opinion. Neither side is villainized or made to seem perfect. Aloïsius is a devout Catholic, Anna is an atheist, and Henk is sort of in the middle, believing but not being as religious as Aloïsius. It was nice seeing them have respectful conversations about this without it becoming a situation where one side tried to prove to the other that their way was the only solution.

I do have two critiques. One is pretty quick. Sometimes with the dialogue, it breaks off into new paragraphs with quotation marks framing them even though the same person is still talking, so it can be a little tricky to follow along with who is saying what. The other one was the first thing I noticed in the story. There are no chapters. It starts with a given date, but that doesn’t come back until the end. Initially, I didn’t mind, however, with this being literary fiction, I do think chapters would have helped. Not much happens plot-wise. This is a slice-of-life story about vampires. I think some of the rise and fall in emotional moments could have been used, ending chapters with high points or calming readers down. Without having any clear idea of where to stop for the day, pacing can be impacted. It starts to feel like one long day for the characters, which might have been the intention, but it can make it harder to pick back up an otherwise really good story.

Overall, I would recommend this to readers. Especially for those who like literary fiction, this is ideal. Even for someone who doesn’t typically read that (like myself), I think it could win you over. So, if you’re a fan of vampires and want something a bit different, you should check it out! ...more

Sarnai Briar rated a book it was amazing

Daughters, Demons & Doors
by Willow Blacque

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I enjoyed this! The collection almost feels like poetry sometimes, but that doesn't quite describe it. The main thing that stood out to me is the prose. It's very eloquent. Of course, with there being short stories, there isn't a whole lot of time to ...more

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Sinclair Sting

Author of Goblin Stepsister Obsession

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Goblin Stepsister Obsession
by Sinclair Sting

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	Mind of a Pirate 4.56 avg rating — 9 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Changing Waters: Jiol really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Changing Waters: War 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Changing Waters: Jiol 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Greek Skits-ology 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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	Changing Waters: Ashes 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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	Twisted Pulp Magazine: Issue #43: Irreverent Neo Noir Pulp Fiction and Articles by Screaming Eye Press, Lothar Tuppan (Editor), Mark Slade 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars