Review: Illusions of Grandeur by Kathryn Ann Kinglsey

It isn't like I read this book 5 times or anything. Because I totally at least skipped around one of those times, so only the first four count, right?

Okay, this bookk is the first in a lovely pair of exceedingly dark romance novels. Did I say dark? I mean Vanta Black dark. I loved it.

Like the setting, the architecture of the story is delightfully detailed and not quite as linear as you'd expect. It's perfectly delightful. Between ghosts, rumors of murder, a young woman starting over, a house full of old fashioned automatons, a charismatic magician, and a the true hero of the story, a little plastic octopus, it's a delightful story. Once you start following Alice down this rabbit hole, you won't want to stop.

Of course, this isn't for the prude out there. The story gets not only steamy, but explicitly steamy. But full props to Kathryn Ann Kingsley, when it gets super steamy, it's at least plot furthering. 

Beyond the delightful layers of dark paranormal mischief and even darker lusty goings on, I loved the world building that Kingsley did in this book. While the paranormal aspects are exceedingly far from normal, her careful world building gives it the uncanny magical realism feel that makes it seem like something that just possibly could happen, and I like that.

I recommend checking it out. I read Illusions of Grandeur free on Kindle Unlimited, but I liked it so much that after my third read through I bought it.