During 2024 I worked on trying to write at least a sentence or two on Goodreads for each book that I finished. I definitely want to continue that into this year, and hopefully try to expand to slightly longer reviews again! In the meantime, what I have now is perfect for sharing for these Monday Minis! So for today’s Monday Mini I wanted share some thoughts on a few of my underrated reads from 2024.

Once again I have failed at doing regular Monday Minis posts haha. It seems I managed to do one in 2021, and one in 2022. So I guess this is my one for 2023!! Though I’m going to try to be better…BUT NO PROMISES. Seeing as how well it worked out last year when I said “maybe I can get myself to do this again.”

Beginning last month, I got a free trial of Kindle Unlimited, so for the past few weeks I’ve mostly been reading books from there! I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to write some reviews for what I’ve read. Today I’m just going to talk about 5 of my reads. I’ll try to do another Monday Mini next week with a few more of my favs!

As soon as I heard the announcement for this book, I knew I needed it more than anything. Necromancy!! Fighting to prove yourself after betrayal!! Hints of enemies/rivals to lovers!! By an author I love!! I mean come on, it sounds incredible just from that right? AND THEN!! The cover reveal happened and omggg it’s epic and beautiful, and by my favorite cover artist (Tommy Arnold). And the fact that he also did the covers for the Locked Tomb series? Yes. I’m 10000% in.

A friend was kind enough to send me an ARC of it, and the publisher actually sent me one as well! So thank you friend, and thank you Simon & Schuster! Now let’s get into the actual review part haha. Just so you know, this will be a lot of me gushing about all the different things I loved. This book really hit the spot for me, and it is definitely a new favorite.

POV: you’re the emperor’s justice (a detective, judge, and executioner all in one) accompanied by your clerk and protégé Helena who’s writing a book about you and your travels together (you don’t know this).

One of the things I love about fantasy is the way it can seamlessly work with other genres. The Justice of Kings is a murder mystery thriller and character memoir rolled into one with a dollop of necromancy.

Thank you so much to TorDotComPub for sending me an ARC for review. This does not affect my thoughts, all thoughts are my own honest opinions.

Before I start this review, I just want to make sure that if you are thinking of reading this you check out the trigger warnings. This book deals with some heavier subject matter than the others in the series. Some triggers include: gaslighting from a parent, grooming, death of a parent (specifically witnessing the death of a parent). Please do look up other ones if you are concerned. But as Seanan says in the forward, “Antsy runs” before anything can happen with her stepfather.