This month’s book review is Murderous Love, edited by Laura Eliabeth.

It’s a dark and violent anthology of tales by eight different authors: Piper CJ, Nenia Campbell, Kristen Coar, Maggie Hoopis, Lauren Cate Leake, Rachel Pendley, E.V. Sauvage, and Ava Smiddy. I read it as I was on vacation, so it got to sit out with me by a nice pool and keep people from bothering me by sporting a cover that clearly said “No, not this time.”

I initially read it because I loved the hook: eight stories by eight women, of viscous revenge. That enough piqued my interest. As I read through the stories, I agree, they are damn ferocious. But I don’t want to miss the mark on this – in all the stories, the villains 100% get their comeuppance in ways that feel completely justified and appropriate.

So that’s awesome.

The thing that caught me by surprise, however, was just how spicy some of the stories were. Okay, in my defense, I probably could have looked up the authors to get a better sense of what they wrote. But, to be honest, it still felt fine. I mean, this isn’t a book I’ll be asking my mother if she wants to read after me, but (shrug) as long as you are aware that the chili has hot spots, you won’t be shocked.

There are content warnings inside the front of it. Depending on how you might feel about content warnings, I could say read them or ignore them, but I might suggest keeping an eye on them if you have sore spots, because when I say some of these stories are ferocious, I am not kidding. Best be prepared.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!