Hey everyone, and welcome back to My Sister’s TBR!
We’re Stacey and Rebecca, your fav sister duo sliding into your feed with our November Wrap-Up! This month felt like someone hit fast-forward on the calendar. It flew by, but somehow we still managed to squeeze in thrillers, smutty novellas, dark romances, and one very intense featured read that we needed a full therapy session to process.
Stacey swore she had a “slow month” (five books… okay overachiever), while Rebecca devoured a cliffside murder mystery mid-flight like it was an airport snack. And then, of course, we both dove head-first into Alchemised by SenLinYu, which had us spiraling into discussions about necromancy, fanatic cults, trauma, war crimes, and the smell of resurrected bodies. You know, normal sister bonding.
Let’s break it all down:
📚 What We Read in November
Stacey’s Stack (5 Books)
🖤 We Are All Guilty Here — Karin Slaughter — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 stars)
Not normally a thriller girlie, but what the book club picks, that’s what she reads. And this one did.not.disappoint. Dark, twisty, compulsively readable, classic Karin. Highly recommended for mystery fans or anyone who wants to question everyone’s motives.
🖤 Cash — Jessica Peterson — ⭐⭐✨ (2.5 stars)
A romance with potential… but also with one fatal flaw: the word “honey.” When the MMC says it 10+ times on a single page, the ick writes itself. Emotional maturity was there; the chemistry… less so.
🖤 The Deal — Elle Kennedy — ⭐⭐⭐ (3 stars)
A collage-aged, spicy, surprisingly sweet novel that did exactly what Stacey needed: cleanse the palate. In preparation of the upcoming adaptation, a re-read was needed!
🖤 Tourist Season — Brynne Weaver — ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5 stars)
Enemies-to-lovers meets dark romance meets seaside murder-tourism. Cape Carnage is quirky, colorful, and extremely deadly. Weaver’s writing is “effortlessly funny” according to Stacey.
🖤 Alchemised — SenLinYu — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 stars)
More on this masterpiece below 👀
Rebecca’s Stack (3 Books)
🩷 The Only One Left — Riley Sager — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 stars)
Devoured. Consumed. Inhaled between airports. A gothic cliffside mansion, a decades-old massacre, unreliable narrators, and twists galore. Rebecca was obsessed and will be influencing everyone she knows until further notice.
🩷 Don’t Get Caught — Jaye Pratt — ⭐⭐⭐ (3 stars)
Masked men. Haunted house. Small town. Surprisingly emotional relationships. Rebecca gave this one a solid 3 stars and described it as “a spicy quick read with actual plot,” which is high praise from the queen of “I need a palate cleanser.”
🩷 Alchemised — SenLinYu — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 stars)
One brain cell shared between sisters, both screaming.
✨ November Featured Read: Alchemised by SenLinYu
5 stars from both sisters
(Yes we yelled. Yes we paced. Yes we compared every emotion to Manacled.)
This wasn’t just a book. This was a journey through trauma, war, fanatic religion, necromancy, forbidden love, and political rot. It’s bleak, gritty, and overflowing with tension in every corner — emotional, magical, and literal.
Where Manacled shattered us with emotional intimacy and character deaths that felt personal, Alchemised punched us in the stomach with worldbuilding density, cult dynamics, scientific-vs-spiritual warfare, and an oppressive atmosphere so vivid you could smell the necromancy.
Set the Scene:
Helena is thrust into a brutal world carved from the bones of war, working under a system designed to break her and remake her as something obedient and useful. Kaine (our broody, morally fractured, walking-red-flag-of-a-man) is equal parts protector, prisoner, and weapon.
That dynamic wrecked us.
Every interaction crackled with tension: devotion twisted through necessity, affection braided with trauma, loyalty carved out of survival. You don’t just read their relationship — you sit in it. You marinate in it. You wonder why your standards are ruined.
Meanwhile, the Order of the Eternal Flame delivers fanatic religious intensity that makes real-world cult documentaries look soft. Science and faith are pitted against each other in the background, boiling over with political manipulation and corruption.
This book said: “What if morality was a suggestion and survival was the assignment?”
And we said: “Okay, pop off.”
Why We Loved It
💀 Vivid, disgusting, unforgettable necromancy
The corpses? The smell? The descriptions? We’re changed.
🔥 Fanatic cult energy
The Order weaponizes faith in the most chilling way.
📚 Dense, rich worldbuilding
Politics, magic, trauma — you could write an academic paper.
❤️ Kaine + Helena
The yearning? The devotion? The “I LOVE THEIR LOVE” moments? Unhinged. But sidenote… don’t come to this for the romance. This is DARK FANTASY.
🧠 Manacled comparisons
We had thoughts and charts and opinions and probably a dissertation’s worth of analysis.
Final Verdict:
If you want a dark, atmospheric, morally complex story that blends trauma, alchemy, faith, war, and twisted devotion… read this immediately.
If you loved Manacled, this scratches that itch, but with its own flavor:
less “emotional apocalypse,” more “scientific horror + cult extremism.”
Come scream with us. We’ll bring snacks. And charts.
That’s a wrap on November!
Thank you for hanging out with us for this wild ride through thrillers, masked men, seaside serial killers, and necromantic warfare.
Whether you read five books or barely clawed your way out of a reading slump, we see you, we love you, and your TBR pile forgives you.
Stay tuned! We’ll announce our December Featured Read soon (once we stop changing our minds every five minutes).
Make sure to:
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🩷 Read along with us for whatever chaos December brings
Toodles! ✌️📚
