Review: When She's Married (Risdaverse Series Book 2) by Ruby Dixon

When She's Married by Ruby Dixon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet And Sexy Alien Marriage of Convenience Romance

I know that Ruby Dixon is known for her Ice Planet Barbarians, but I’ve never read those books. I came across this series last week and I find myself just a little bit in love with these characters. They are all a little damaged and brave and trying to fight for themselves in a really big and scary universe.

Piper is a human abductee, who was freed from slavery and placed on Risa III and given a farm to live off. She’s fighting for her freedom and her life as there are many unscrupulous aliens trying to get the farm for themselves. In order to protect herself from forced marriage, swiftly followed by death, she wants to get married.

Vordigar is hiding after escaping a prison planet and has been arrested for the bounty placed on his head. When Piper approached him about marriage, he just wanted out of the prison and off the planet to join his friends on a bounty hunting scheme, but then she asked for his help.

I love that Piper is tough, determined and very scared. She’s been badly hurt through the things that happened since she left Earth, but she keeps getting up in the morning. Vordigar is big and tough but he’s got really low self-esteem. They are a really sweet match and this short bite of romance is a perfect pick me up. I’ll definitely be reading more books in this series.

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Review: Built to Fall by Julia Wolf

Built to Fall by Julia Wolf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fantastic Rock Romance

This is not your typical rock romance, not that Julia Wolf writes ‘typical’ rock romances, so that shouldn’t be a surprise, but this was a little bit more different than most.

Claire is 26, and she’s been married since she was 22 to the only man she’s ever slept with. One day she wakes up and realises that he’s been cheating on her and decides to leave.

Whilst working as an unpaid intern, her boss gives her an opportunity to go on tour with a rock star she admired when she was in middle school, as a paid PR assistant. He also happens to be her boss’s ex-husband and she chooses Claire because she doesn’t think she’ll be a temptation for Dominic.

Dominic is 42 and been a successful artist for 20 years. He’s also withdrawn, grumpy and damaged. He’s a bit of a recluse with only Marta, his PA as his friend. He likes the look of Claire straight away but knows to stay away from the pretty sweet and innocent young woman.

I love how these two are with each other. They allow themselves to jump full-on into a relationship because there is a time limit on it, with the end of the tour. I like how Claire stands up for herself but also has compassion. I also like how Claire slowly grows into herself as she makes friends, enjoys her job and falls for Dominic. I like how Dominic is affectionate, and lets Claire into his heart, venturing out into the world a bit more.

I also enjoyed that these two don’t do irreparable damage to each other whilst they are working out what they want. They hurt each other, but they aren’t cruel.

This is about a man not in the first flush of his career. He’s done the crazy living and doesn’t need to do it anymore. He’s not a happy man, but he still loves his work, so he continues to do it. Claire is someone just starting her career and she enjoys it and wants to succeed as someone independent from a relationship. She doesn’t want Dominic to sweep her off her feet and take her away from it all.

I think this story would work whether it was set in the music industry or not. This is a story about two people who each have their own problems but really like each other too. I enjoyed this book so much because I really liked all the characters, and loved spending time with them. They felt real and I was very invested in their happiness.

Julia Wolf writes great characters and great stories. She just always seems to hit the mark for me and I love her work.

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Review: Pirate Nemesis (Telepathic Space Pirates Series Book 1) by Carysa Locke

Pirate Nemesis by Carysa Locke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listened to this as an audio book, and therefore the narrator’s performance may have coloured my experience of the book.

Mercy Kincaid was born a pirate. Her mother ran from their family when Mercy was 3 years old, after the death of her father. Mercy’s mother kept her safe until she was 13 when she didn’t come home. Mercy did as she was trained from infancy to do, she ran and kept running until she found a safe place with a grizzled ex-naval smuggler and his daughter, who became her best friend.

Many years pass and Mercy and her best friend are still searching for Mercy’s mother. It leads them into a trap, where Mercy is tortured, with her friend held as collateral damage.

Reaper is a psychic Killer, one of the most feared people in the universe. He’s able to see how to kill everyone he meets and executes it flawlessly. He has been sent by his King to find and rescue the daughter of an ally and when he does, he finds more than he bargains for which is the lost grandchild of the previous Pirate Queen.

I loved this story. How could I not love a story about psychic space pirates??? Apart from loving the premise, I really enjoyed the story. The world building was really interesting with great explanations about how the pirate society got started and why.

I liked both Mercy and Reaper both as individuals and as a couple. They had an instant spark but still needed to build on it. Reaper is cold and unemotional, as are all Killers. However, he was raised by an empathic mother and this has made him a little bit more accessible than most Killers.

The plot was complex and interesting. It interwove the Pirate society, the threat from the authority of the allied planets and all the threats from the hidden psychics within that society. There was a lot that Mercy had to deal with and she handled it pretty well considering.

I liked the narrator on this audio book, Carly Robins, and have listened to books she’s read before. She’s matter of fact with her delivery and doesn’t go over the top with acting the parts. She differentiates between voices, though in a few parts that differentiation went a little bit wobbly and it was hard to tell who was talking. But on the whole her delivery was engaging and enjoyable.

This is a good first book to a series as it gives a good background for any future work, lures you into getting the next book, but doesn’t drive you too nuts with a cliffhanger. I’d happily read/listen to the next book.

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Review: First Flyght (The Flyght Series Book 1) by SJ Pajonas

First Flyght by S.J. Pajonas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Becoming an Ex-Doormat.

I’d probably give this book 3.75 ⭐️ if I could.

I’m not quite sure whether I like the people in this book, or not. The MFC starts out as a complete doormat and only very slowly starts to get out from underneath everyone else’s boot.

Vivian has just handed in the last paper of her graduate degree in business and high tech agriculture. When she goes to treat herself to something in celebration she finds her accounts have been emptied by her resentful brother.

In a culture where only women are allowed to own land on the colony worlds, Vivian was groomed to inherit the family farm. She worked round the clock for years, barely allowing herself anything, including the man she loved, all for her family. Then her mother allows her brother access to the family accounts. This is the same brother that has crazy business plans and gambling debts and resents that his sister will inherit everything. Then after that same brother mortgages the family land and absconds with the proceeds it’s up to Vivian to earn enough to buy back the land at the end of 12 months, by flying an old cargo ship with her cousin and finding a few consorts to help with business connections and funds towards buying the farm.

No one questions whether Vivian will do what everyone tells her to. No one asks if she minds selling herself for the family that made such bad decisions. No asks how she’s doing, and she expects it. Personally, I wanted Vivian to put her foot down and tell everyone to get lost. I want her to shout at people and demand things for herself, and towards the end of the book she starts to do that. I’m hoping that Vivian is headed in the right direction but there are few things that don’t point towards her making good choices.

I’m not overly keen on her cousin who seems to be pretty self-centred and dictatorial until it comes time to actually put the plans into practice and then she runs off to play. The youngsters she hires seem pretty sweet and smart and the relationship broker also seems like a pretty nice guy.

I’m not sure where this series is going, but I have my fingers crossed that Vivian gets a little more feisty, because when she showed that part of her character I liked her a lot.

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Review: When She's Ready (Risdaverse Series Book 1) by Ruby Dixon

When She's Ready by Ruby Dixon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Short and Sweet Alien Romance

This short and sweet novella is a lovely bite-sized morsel created to lift your spirits by being devoured in one sitting. Leilani is a human who was abducted from her home in Hawaii and when she was given her freedom was placed on a farming planet on the edge of nowhere. Given a farm as a place to live and earn wages in a safe way she is on her own in the middle of the countryside.

As tales of the women given land and left alone spread, the women suddenly become vulnerable, so Leilani listens to the suggestion she marries someone in need of somewhere safe to stay in order to fight off the neighbours.

Tassar, is a very tall, broad alien with horns and tail, who needs somewhere safe to stay after escaping from a prison planet. He was imprisoned during a war that is over and never released. His friend suggests a marriage of convenience to Leilani.

The plot to this is ridiculously predictable but it’s still really sweet and leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy. It’s even got a bit of heat in it’s few short pages. This is a good pick me up book.

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Review: Bloody Union (Made Series Book 1) by Brooke Summers

Bloody Union by Brooke Summers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Arranged Marriage Can Be Fun

I’d probably give this book 3.5 ⭐️ if I could.

The heads of the Irish and Italian Mafia in New York decide to end their war by marrying off the Irish Head’s daughter and the eldest son of the Italian Head. The daughter, Makenna, is 14 when the arrangement is made and the wedding is held when she is 19. It’s five years since Dante has seen his fiancée and when he last saw her she was a quiet and obedient girl. Now she’s a woman, strong and beautiful and he hasn’t a clue who she really is.

When their wedding turns into a blood bath, it’s Makenna who protects and saves his brother, taking charge without blinking. Stunned by the woman he’s married to, Dante is determined to find out who she really is.

There’s a reason I don’t normally read mafia books. It’s because women are usually treated like objects, and this starts out exactly the same way. The reason I wanted to actually read this one is the blurb implied that Makenna was a different kind of mafia princess, and she is definitely that. The other reason I don’t normally like this kind of book is that the mob persona doesn’t really do it for me, it’s the same reason I don’t like some of the 1%er MC books. I prefer my characters to put their loved ones first, not profit at all costs, those costs being outsiders and their lives. So whilst this book has Makenna being treated differently from most women, the whole thing about outsiders being disregarded is definitely there.

I had a couple of problems with this book, the first being Makenna’s age. She acts like and is treated like she’s 10 years older than she actually is. Even if she was male she wouldn’t have been given the responsibilities she was at that age.

The second thing I have an issue with is the whole insta-lust/love thing that happened as soon as they laid eyes on each other as adults. That whole WHAM “wow she is my soul mate I am transformed into the perfect man for this goddess I’ve been waiting all my life for” thing drives me nuts.

If you can disregard these two items it’s not a bad book. It’s entertaining and the characters are interesting. It’s pretty violent, but in a casual way that doesn’t come across as particularly dark because it’s not dwelled upon.

Despite myself, I sort of liked this book, but probably not enough to read the next in the series. I just can’t seem to get over that mafia hurdle.

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Review: Damaged Dreams (The Council Series Book 1) by Kris Butler

Damaged Dreams by Kris Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emotions Based New Adult Reverse Harem

I’d probably give this book 4.5 ⭐️ if I could.

Sariah has been in hiding for the last 5 years. When she was 15 she was on the cusp of great success, heading for the Olympics, at a rapid pace with her next-door neighbour, Henry, as her Pairs Ice Dancing partner and and who she hoped was about to become her boyfriend. Then everything changed in the space of 24 hours. She was suddenly on the run with her parents after hearing she was adopted and her parents weren’t who she thought they were. When deciding to run for it they were forced off the road into an accident in which she barely escaped with her life and lost both parents.

Now known as Sawyer Sullivan, she is ready to follow up on finding out who she really is and she is heading for a new job as an Instructor at TAS, the Elite Winter Sports Academy where her parents told her it all began. Due to her new name she was placed in a shared house with male instructors and decides to stay after being told there were very limited options for alternative housing. This is the set up for meeting all the men.

This is a good-sized book and the author spends a lot of time building up the characters. We get to know Sawyer quite well through her own and other’s eyes. There are multiple POV in this book, which helps us get to know the other characters, and not just from Sawyer’s point of view, but from others in the house.

At the end of the book, in the ‘About The Author’ section Kris Butler confirms that she has worked in the mental health field and this book definitely shows that background. The characters are well rounded, with many hidden depths. I like that the male characters have a well developed history with each other and their interactions are as important as those with Sawyer. There are quite a few heated scenes which include MM as well as MFM interactions. The MM interactions are not just physical but also romantic.

Because of the slow build-up of the characters, the creation of the RH situation is believable and sweet as well as hot. I also like that not everyone is automatically included in the RH. The relationships that Sawyer has with each man in the house is very different and they build at different rates. The mystery aspect of the story is put on hold in the middle of the book as we get to know all the characters. There is also some bullying, but it isn’t a focus of the story, and it doesn’t seem to bother Sawyer that much.

I like that though this is set at an academy, the characters are instructors rather than students. I have grown a bit weary of 17 year olds having the sex life of a very adventurous and experienced 30 year old. I know that academies are convenient for placing a group of disparate people together in an enclosed environment but I’ve read sooooo many of these stories that I’ve grown bored of the trope. This twist somehow magically makes it all a bit better. I think because they are adults and are free to do what they want without being bound by ‘academy rules’.

Some people might find this a little slow in places, but for people who enjoy the psychological aspect of the building of a harem, this is a great read and I can’t wait to read the next book when it comes out.

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Review: The Rowan (Killian Blade Series Book 1) by Stella Brie

The Rowan by Stella Brie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Promising Start To A New World

I’ve never read anything by this author, so I was going into it blind pulled by the blurb that kept drawing me back. As it was a KU book it was a no brainer about taking a risk on a new author with a new series.

The book starts with the MFC, Arden, arriving at The Abbey, a sanctuary run by five very powerful members of the supernatural community, the Imperium Cadre. In her pocket she contains a letter from her guardian asking for them to look after her ward, educating and protecting her, in return for discharging a life debt. Arden has been in hiding since her birth over 300 years ago because of her mother’s prophesies and now the final sign has come to step out into the light and find her place in the world, only she’ll need help to do it.

The world-building in this book is fascinating. I love the idea of the different factions and how they interact in mixed cities with humans, which includes the witches. The immortal races normally live in their own places but they all come together at places like The Abbey to interact in safety, which is ensured by the Cadre.

The author has obviously put a lot of time and planning into creating the races and the magical systems they use and the societies in which they live. It feels seamless and complete. I really enjoyed how the author revealed the world-building slowly and as that is revealed we also get to know all the characters better, in particular Arden.

Arden is strong physically as well as magically and emotionally. She is self-reliant but is also excited to be making friends and allies after being stuck in a pocket realm for 300 years. She also is excited to be finally starting to unravel the secrets of her existence.

I like that the men involved are hesitant to get emotionally involved with this strange woman who has been foisted on them. They are all well over 1000 years old and have been hurt by people in the past, which is going to make them hesitant. I liked that they all got to know her at their own rates and in their own ways.

I really enjoyed reading this book and diving into Arden’s world. I can’t wait to read the next one.

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Review: Long Live the Queen (The Husbands Search Series Book 1) by Cady Austin

Long Live the Queen: The Husbands Search by Cady Austin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting Start

This book is set in the same universe as Diamond Girl: A Sci Fi Reverse Harem Romance, by the same author. It has a similar enjoyable tone as this other book and it was a very easy read, with the pages flying by.

Veronica was abducted from Earth and trained as a nurse to cover the costs of her medical care when she was first found. She seemed pretty happy with her lot if a little lonely away from Earth and other humans. After qualifying, she left the planet where she had trained and became a travelling nurse.

Her job as a nurse to the King of Eralis, takes her to a polluted, dusty planet, with scarce water resources, more men than women and a terrible attitude towards women, despite their rarity. She is surprisingly fond of the curmudgeonly old King. They have a strange friendship, with her showing her patient no fear, unlike most of the rest of the planet.

This is quite a short book and is the first of four books in the series. There is a cliffhanger and a lot of the plot of this first book is given away in the blurb, however, I still really enjoyed reading it.

The author does a good job of describing the society in which Veronica finds herself and her unique place in it, as both female and human. The writing has a nice light touch, with gentle humour and steamy sex scenes. It’s entertaining and pure escapism, however, it has more weight to it than a lot of alien romance fiction. I think this promises to be a good series, I just hope I don’t have to wait long before the next book comes out.

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Review: Wolf Girl (Wolf Girl Series Book 1) by Leia Stone

Wolf Girl by Leia Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

NA Paranormal Romance

Demi is a female wolf who has never been allowed to shift. Her parents were banished from the wolf community and before her first birthday, she was bound with magic cuffs to prevent her from shifting. She attends a college with other misfits of the magic world and as the only wolf is tormented regularly. On the heels of one such occasion, she runs outside to prevent the partial shift that she can manage even whilst cuffed, which gets her in trouble, when she runs into a gorgeous male wolf, Sawyer.

When she is invited by Sawyer who is the wolf Alpha’s son to attend the wolf university and have her education and living costs covered by him and to have her cuffs removed, she jumps at the opportunity. Only once her cuffs are removed, she finds that her wolf isn’t quite as expected.

Sawyer invites Demi to attend the university because he has to find a mate before the end of his final year at university and all female wolves between the ages of 18 and 22 have to attend the university in order to see if they could be his mate.

There is quite a lot of angst in this book. Demi’s life has not been easy and that echoes throughout the book. There is a trigger warning at the front of the book, which I recommend you read before decided whether you want to go further.

Whilst I really liked both Demi and Sawyer I felt the world-building was a bit skimmed over. The main focus of the author is on Demi and her feelings for Sawyer and how she sees his feelings for her as there is a single POV. That focus doesn’t allow the author much space to discuss the society in which they live, which is disappointing. I also wish we got to know the supporting characters a little better. Sage, in particular, is an intriguing character as Sawyer’s cousin and Demi’s newest friend, and I want to know about her rather than just as a foil for the MFC and MMC.

There is a major cliffhanger but I believe the next book comes out 26th February 2021, so you won’t have long to wait to read what comes next.

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Review: Managing Expectations (Artemis University Series Book 9) by Erin R Flynn

Managing Expectations by Erin R. Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Darker Forms of Justice

This book is an ongoing series and you have to read the earlier books in order to understand what is going on. There is no way you can just drop into things with this as the first book.

Too many people died when Alpha Geoff’s pack was attacked for Tamsin to let it go, especially when the attack was a set up to try and bring her down causing the death of not only adults but children. Determined to get justice, Tamsin will try anything to balance the books for those that died.

Whilst trying to deal with the injustices in the Supernatural world, Tamsin is also trying to find ways to bring the Light and the Dark Fairies together. She is determined to stop the warring by creating one unified race, especially as there is no Dark Fairy heir. With more and more fairies being freed from the Dark Fairy Queen’s spell this is not an easy task, especially when the Dark Fairy Prince is being an ass.

Tamsin is also trying to work her way through her relationships with the men in her life. This is not simple, but she loves her men and is determined to find a path that will work for everyone.

As always there is a lot going on in this book. The author doesn’t give the reader much time to think because it is filled with action and emotions. As always my one annoyance with this author’s writing is her inability to differentiate speech patterns between her characters. When a centuries-old being who has been trapped for 20 years uses words like ‘triggered’ it’s jarring. When a refined and educated woman uses the words ‘whatever’ instead of a noun, it’s jarring. These are speech patterns that belong to the main character who dropped out of mainstream education when she was 14 and had to live on the streets. However, this annoyance does not stop my enjoyment of the books because I love the story and can’t stop reading it!

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Review: Ronan (Conner Brothers Construction Series Book 4) by Cee Bowerman

Ronan by Cee Bowerman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An Unusual Situation

I love all the stories by Cee Bowerman about Rojo, Texas, but especially the Conner Brothers Construction ones. This big loving hilarious family just warms my heart.

This book is all about Ronan. He’s an identical twin and he and his brother Royal have always been treated in much the same way by everyone, in fact, his parents even had trouble telling them apart. They are incredibly close and live next door to one another, and are in and out of each other’s houses all the time. Ronan is also a large part of the babysitting roster for his deceased sister’s twins.

Thea is a successful businesswoman, running her own events company bought from her mother. She loves her job and the people she works with. She’s happy with her life and is pregnant with her ex-husband’s baby. Her ex-husband is her best friend and she spends a lot of time with him and his boyfriend who has also become a good friend. They have chosen to have a child to raise between the three of them even though she and her husband are no longer romantically involved.

When Ronan and Thea meet there are fireworks. There is a major case of insta-love/lust going on with these two and it’s really sweet. They are smitten from the outset. They each take the other’s unusual circumstances in their stride. I love this author for creating such an unconventional set of relationships and making it work. Their HEA might not be everyone’s cup of tea but for these people, it works. I always like it when everyone gets the HEA they want rather than what society thinks they should want.

The humour is gentle and the characters are ordinary people who might have had some sadness and pain in their past like everyone does, but they have dealt with it so it hasn’t left them too damaged. They can both go into a relationship with open hearts and it’s nice to see that in a novel. I might not always want this kind of sweetness in my reading material, but I do enjoy it every now and then and this author always delivers.

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Review: Smoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson Series Book 12) by Patricia Briggs

Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This Series Is Still Fantastic

I bought the first book in this series in 2006 when it first came out, when I still bought paperbacks. Therefore, I have a great deal of loyalty towards Patricia Briggs and Mercy Thompson Hauptmann. This loyalty does not alter the reality of how good this book is. It keeps up the standard of the series as a whole and holds it own in terms of quality even if you disregard the previous books. You do really need to read the previous books to enjoy this book though, as there is so much history before this book starts, and the history is not necessarily explained.

Mercy and Adam are having troubles that they are studiously avoiding talking about. They have a deadly fae wandering around the Tri-Cities that escaped from Underhill and on top of that, there appears to be a strange group of werewolves trying to take over the pack.

As always the story has many layers and poor Mercy and Adam never seem to get a breath to take a moment for themselves. They are so constantly running around protecting other people that they sometimes forget to fix their own problems in a timely manner. One of the things I like about this series is that Mercy and Adam have a very real relationship, considering he’s an alpha werewolf and she is the daughter of Chaos. They both work really hard to make things work and show appreciation for the other. But even when you work hard at your relationship, life sometimes gets in the way and things can slip a bit, especially if you are dealing with life and death situations on a daily basis.

The plot is incredibly tight, everything hangs together perfectly and takes you on an emotional journey from start to finish that ends with a smile on your face. The characters are always fascinating and the supporting characters often change in importance from one story to the next, as friends and allies do in real life.

I feel like Mercy still has lots to tell us and I hope that the author agrees because I could read about her and Adam for years to come.

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Review: Edge of Eon (Eon Warriors Series Book 1) by Anna Hackett

Edge of Eon by Anna Hackett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun and Feisty Main Female Character

Eve is in a prison orbiting Earth, after being falsely imprisoned due to a well-connected captain covering his own backside after causing the deaths of innocent civilians. When she’s blackmailed into taking an impossible mission she thinks she is probably going to her death but needs to go in order to keep her sisters safe.

Setting off to kidnap Eon Warrior Commander Davion seems a futile activity, especially as it requires taking him off his own space ship and getting past the alien symbiotic life form that helps keep him healthy and provides armour and weapons at the speed of thought. I should be impossible, except it isn’t and they wind up in a ship she can’t steer, heading towards a hostile artificial planet that’s set up to test the Eon Warriors.

This was a really fun and easy to read book. It was uncomplicated and it got devoured in a few hours. The plot was very straight forward but the world-building is pretty interesting and I liked both the main characters a lot. Eve is strong, fierce and loyal. She’s got a good sense of humour and laughs even when it’s not appropriate to the situation. There’s also plenty of sexy encounters and romance too.

It’s a fun easy read and I’ll probably read more books in the series.

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Review: Alpha & Omega (Alpha & Omega Series Book 0.5) by Patricia Briggs

Alpha & Omega by Patricia Briggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The version I read was in On the Prowl and I decided to read this again before re-reading the whole Alpha and Omega series, which I like to do periodically. This book helps makes sense of the start of the first book in the series Cry Wolf, so it's good to start here first. This story tells us about how Charles and Anna met in Chicago when Charles was sent there by his father, The Marrok, the leader of all the American werewolves.

Anna believes she is a submissive wolf, at the bottom of the pack and has to obey everyone else above her level of dominance. She has lived a truly horrible life for the last three years, and the only thing that broke her free was witnessing someone else’s suffering and getting the strength of will to call The Marrok and tell him about it.

Charles has always been known as the bogeyman of the werewolf world. He is his father’s executioner and performs the role exceptionally well because he’s incredibly dominant as well as lethal. Charles had already been sent to Chicago to sort out another problem and he is redirected by his father to protect Anna whilst investigating what is actually going on in the city. Stunned to find the beautiful and rare Omega, a rank that is described as a zen alpha werewolf, hidden away in Chicago his wolf is instantly smitten and he’s not far behind. Together they work to solve the mess of the Chicago pack that made Anna.

This is a wonderful short story, that sets up the new series beautifully. It helps us understand Anna and how she became a wolf and gives a brief insight into the mysterious and stoic Charles. It’s a brief story, but it covers important character information and sets up the larger world of the werewolves that don’t get looked at much in the Mercy Thompson series, of which this is a spin-off. That world focuses on all the races of the supernatural because Mercy isn’t a werewolf. This story allows the focus to be more fully on a very different pack to the one Mercy was raised in and the one she eventually joined.

You could probably get away with not reading this novella before starting the series, but I knew I had it so decided to read it to get the complete experience!

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Review: Flame Kissed (Phoenix Rising Series Book 1) by Annie Anderson

Flame Kissed by Annie Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Complex and Intriguing World

This is actually the second time I tried to read this book. I think the first time I wasn’t really in the right frame of mind to read it and enjoy it because there are some quite complicated plot ideas and world building that aren’t quite always explained in a way that makes it easy to comprehend. However, second time around, after reading a few other books by this author I was able to work around my lack of comprehension because the world was explained in those later books differently. At the end of the book is a comprehensive glossary, if I had known it was there when I got confused I could have saved my brain too much work.

Aurelia is a phoenix, and a seer. As a young woman she was told that she wasn’t going to be given a choice, as should have been the case, to either become an oracle and lose her sight or to choose exile. Aurelia didn’t want to become an oracle and chose to rebel, and married her lover in secret. When the leader of their people found out her wishes were ignored she forced the man who loved Aurelia in secret, Rhys, to kill Aurelia’s husband and this lead to Aurelia losing her baby.

160 years later she is living as an artist, hidden from the world, mentally and emotionally fragile, her only real friend a wraith and protected from the shadows by the man who killed her husband, who was bonded to her by force by the leader of her people. When she is found by her people, she and Rhys escape with their lives but others do not.

This book has violence and heartache, but it also has friendship and love. The world of phoenix and wraiths is fascinating and complex, I just wish I’d known about the glossary before I started reading because some concepts are not explained clearly in the actual body of the book.

Aurelia is a strange mixture of fragile and tough. She has been pounded with visions of death that don’t stop for 160 years, whilst being largely alone to deal with her personal losses and trauma. She suffers from PTSD and all of the hideousness that entails. However, she has made herself physically strong, unlike most seers, who rely on their Soldiers to protect them. She trains in martial arts every day and has exceptional weaponry skills. She uses this to balance out feeling mentally or emotionally weak and burns through her anguish physically.

Rhys is a man who has been loyal and determined in his long-distance protection of the woman he is bound to. He is strong physically and mentally, despite his personal losses. He has been slightly less isolated than Aurelia, but still has few friends considering his age.

These two characters make for intriguing chemistry and it is enjoyable watching them spark and flare. I also liked some of the supporting characters and look forward to seeing them develop later in the series.

Now I’ve got over my initial resistance to this book, I know I’ll read the rest of the series because each book will make things clearer so my confusion, the thing that annoyed me the most about this book, will become less.

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Review: Woman of Blood & Bone (Rogue Ethereal Series Book 1) by Annie Anderson

Woman of Blood & Bone by Annie Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Immortal Witch

Max is over 400 years old. She was cast out of her coven at age 14 by her mother for something beyond her control and was never trained in her witchcraft. She cannot die. She has died in many horrible, traumatising and painful ways, but she always wakes up again, and she doesn’t know why.

She now lives in Denver and works with her best friend Striker in their tattoo shop. Striker is also long-lived and is empathic, which is obviously quite a stressful state to be in all the time.

One day a man comes in to be tattooed and his very pregnant girlfriend is left outside with Striker who realises that she is in trouble. Max puts the guy to sleep and they set about trying to help the young woman. Except, the man isn’t exactly a man.....

I haven’t read the series before this one and feel there are gaps in my knowledge about these characters, which I find annoying. It’s frustrating to have snippets thrown at me that I feel that the author expected me to know, except I don’t. I wish authors would write in their blurbs that there is a series before the one you are about to start, so you at least have a heads up.

Apart from the missing information, the plot was really interesting. The characters are fascinating, especially Max. She has had some truly horrible stuff happen to her, mostly as a result of showing her magic to help others and she still keeps trying to help.

Striker is more of an enigma. He seems a little weaker emotionally because of enduring the never-ending battering of other people’s emotions. It seems to me that the relationship is a little bit skewed because of this.

I liked the world-building and plot was good but I feel that there is a lot more that needs to be shared before I can form a proper opinion of the whole series.

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Review: Wolf Shunned (The Alpha Queen Legacy Series Book 1) by Laurel Night

Wolf Shunned by Laurel Night
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Strong Alpha Female

I’d probably give this book 4.5 ⭐️ if I could.

Kaliya is a warrior. She’s faced down more wraiths than she can count. She is a captain for her Alpha and is more dominant than all the females and probably all of the males in her clan. Clan rules dictate that all wolves must be mated by age 20 or they are thrown out of the clan. Their species is endangered by the constant threat of the wraiths and shifters don’t live long healthy lives unless they are very lucky, which is why they are forced to find a mate so young. Kaliya only has a few months left to find a mate or find herself without the resources and support of the clan.

Kaliya has only one friend, Emory, a very submissive male, who is nonetheless intelligent and creative, a very strategic thinker and valued for his knowledge of the ancients. He adores Kaliya and she feels the same, but he isn’t dominant enough to make her wolf submit so they can’t mate.

Going to the Clan meeting, that happens every 5 years, is Kaliya’s last chance to find a male who is dominant enough to force her wolf to submit and allow the mating. She hopes she can tolerate the man who makes her wolf submit, but she has little choice if she wants to stay in the clan.

This is a multiple POV novel. I liked the way it was written allowing us to see into the minds of all the main people involved. Kaliya doesn’t really know anything about the alphas from the other clans but we get to find out how they see her and little about their clans from their POV.

I really enjoyed the world-building in this book. The author has very carefully built a world in which everything hangs together well. The history, culture and society of the shifters are constructed in an interesting and believable way.

What I especially enjoyed was that Kaliya is a very dominant female, who fights her own battles. She is competent, fierce and self-contained. She takes her responsibilities very seriously but still has a loving and tender side. I like that she’s not angry and in your face, snarky or volatile, which is often the case with these sorts of characters. I like how practical she is, whilst at the same time hoping she can find something to care about in the mate that she will be forced to accept if her wolf tells her to.

This book is a great set up for the rest of the series and I can’t wait to see what the author does with it next.

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Review: Night Watch (Soul Reader Series Book 1) by Annie Anderson

Night Watch by Annie Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting Urban Fantasy

I'd probably give this book 3.75 ⭐ if I could.

Sloane Cabot went to bed human and woke up next to a grave, anything but. Next to her grave was her parents’ graves. Alone and scared she kills a creature that attacks her, finding out that she can consume the blood, memories and soul of those she bites. Terrified of what she has become she spends the next year killing to feed and to protect humans from the evildoers she has discovered. A year after starting her killing spree she is taken in by the Night Watch, a group of Arcane bounty hunters and a new phase of her existence begins.

As I was reading this book I felt that there were a few areas that were thin on explanation and it wasn’t until towards the end of the book that I realised that though this was a new series, it was set in a world that had already been long established. These abbreviated descriptions may have been because the author didn’t think anyone would jump into reading this book first, either that or she didn’t want to hammer things home too hard when other readers would be annoyed by repetitive explanations.

I liked Sloane, what I could see of her personality anyway. A lot of what is shown of Sloane is based on her immediate reactions. There is little history, so her personality doesn’t feel fully formed to me. People are not comprised of the events of a single year, they are based on a lifetime of memories and emotions. We are shown very little of Sloane’s past with the exception of a few paragraphs scattered here and there throughout the book. However, this treatment is not applied to just Sloane but to all the characters. We just get a thumbnail sketch of everyone. This means that the book is essentially plot-driven and fast-moving. This makes for a fast and exciting read, but it didn’t leave me particularly emotionally satisfied.

I feel that this author probably writes her books as part of a series and therefore each book is part of a greater whole. However, whilst I can assume that this is the case, I can’t say definitively that it is. I can only hope that the series as a whole is more emotionally satisfying as we get to know the characters involved. Aside from this, it was a straight forward and interesting plot, based in a fascinating world that I would like to get to know better.

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Review: Emerald Blaze (Hidden Legacy Series Book 5) by Ilona Andrews

Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Intrigue and Magical Mayhem

I’d probably give this book 4.5 ⭐️ if I could.

This book continues 6 months after the last one in the series. In order to save Alessandro in the last book, Catalina made a deal with her grandmother, Victoria. She was to remain head of her house and not marry a prime and leave for their house the way her elder sister, Nevada, did. She was also expected to visit Victoria to be ‘educated’ on how to lead her house.

In the last six months, Catalina has learnt a lot from her grandmother, and from having her heart broken by Alessandro’s leaving. She’s also been drop-kicked into being a Deputy Warden and having to learn on the job. However, the money from being a Deputy Warden comes in very handy as she tries to keep her family business afloat.

When Catalina is informed she has to take on a murder case, as Deputy Warden, she comes into contact with Alessandro who has been contracted to kill the person who murdered the victim. Linus, the Warden forces Catalina to work with Alessandro and she has to face the fact that she can’t have him because of her grandmother. In his time away Alessandro seems to have changed too and his priorities seem to be to protect her rather than the vengeance that took him away from her previously.

This is quite an intense book. A lot happens plot-wise. We have the murder investigation, the relationship issue and dealing with Victoria and her machinations. Poor Catalina has the weight of the House on her shoulders, along with needing to protect Texas and it’s inhabitants.

I really enjoyed the book and some of the fight scenes were really impressive. I loved the descriptions of the magic and how it is accessed and used by different individuals. This book continues the world-building that has gone before in the series and it makes the world more complete and interesting.

Catalina is a serious young woman who is always putting other people first. She’s highly intelligent but still retains her compassion despite learning to be ruthless when necessary. Every action seems to be about looking after someone else. The rest of the family have all seemed to grow and change, which I like. There isn’t much focus on the family in this book but we still see their development in their interactions with Catalina.

The plot was fast-moving and complex. I dove into the story and didn’t really come up for air very often. There was so much going on that I was always wanting to know what happened next with each strand of the plot, trying to see how it all connected.

I really enjoyed how the story wound up and then was walloped with a hideous cliffhanger in the last few pages of the epilogue. That was not a nice thing to do! I’m really looking forward to the next book in the series.

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Review: Broken Girl (Neighpalm Industries Collective Series Book 2) by Lexie Winston

Broken Girl by Lexie Winston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cliffhanger Alert!

This book continues smoothly from the first in the series and I have to say it just gets better. Reading this is like hearing the best kind of juicy gossip and being desperate to know what happens next.

After the awful ‘prank’ played on Harlow by her new family, she retreats to her new friends Alex and Shane for comfort and spends time plotting Jacinta’s demise. I love Alex and Shane. They are such lovely supporting characters. They are fun, warm and welcoming. They are really caring and supportive of Harlow, despite having feelings of their own for Jacinta.

Harlow decides that she won’t run away, back to the East Coast because of having to look after her foster father’s horses whilst on loan to a movie. She also loves her grandparents and newly found father. She agrees to return back to the family home provided she doesn’t have to put up with any nonsense. She returns and is thrown headfirst into learning about the family companies.

There are so many moving parts to this story. There are multiple POV and some of those overlap a little, which helps work out what’s really going on. I like that the book not only focuses on the main family but also their friends and staff. I can almost see the author’s thought processes about a future spin-off series though!

Harlow’s Nana rocks. She is a force to be reckoned with in this book. She’s a stalwart defender of her new granddaughter and her foul mouth has me in fits when she rants about the behaviour of her other grandchildren.

This is not a clean romance by any means, but there isn’t any actual sex, just plenty of groping and kissing. It actually ratchets up the tension between Harlow and the guys, as we see things slowly change in how they perceive her.

I could probably re-read the book all over again to try and get my head completely around everything that happened. I really want the next book to come out soon because the cliffhanger is brutal. I also want to see if all the hints I picked up about what’s going on made me believe the right thing.

A really, really good read.

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Review: Finding Lara (Distant Worlds Series Book 3) by Kelly Lucille

Finding Lara by Kelly Lucille
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An FMC Who Is All Brains And No Brawn

This third book in the series can be read as a standalone but you will get more out of it if you’ve read the previous two books, as a lot of world-building gets done in the earlier books. We also meet both characters in previous books.

Lara is the daughter of the Heti Ambassador to the Alliance. His job is very important and as a result, she is also pretty important. She’s also an incurably curious adventurer. She’s gifted at picking up languages, has an incredible memory for information about the various races she’s heard about or met over the years and she’s got this nifty talent that projects serenity to those around her. This all makes her the perfect person to meet new people, something she loves doing. All of this also makes her incredibly sensitive to other people’s feelings.

Barnos is a pirate. He lies, cheat and steals and is unashamed about it. However, he doesn’t harm the innocent, hurt women and children, or take part in the slave trade. He’s on a mission with Tolan to find the Death Games, which are exactly what they sound like, so they can shut them down. When Lara is kidnapped her father and adopted sister approach Tolan and Barnos to try and get them to rescue her.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that Lara isn’t physically brave. She’s not a fighter even though she knows how to use a gun and dish out some self-defence moves. She is, however, incredibly bright and charming. Her utter faith in other beings being reasonable if she can just understand their point of view is quite endearing, if a bit reckless. Up until recently, she has always had her adopted sister to help keep her safe but now she’s without that kind of personal attention to her safety.

When Lara and Barnos meet, sparks fly because they are both very attracted to the other, however, they also irritate each other a great deal. Barnos is the opposite of Lara, he is roughly spoken and as blunt as a rock. He is very physical and laughs in the face of imminent death.

I really liked how there wasn’t insta-love between these two characters and that their feelings towards each changed slowly through the book as they each started to show more and more of their personality to the other.

I really enjoyed that this was a bit different from the rest of the series, with the physically awkward and sweet Lara. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

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Review: Basic B*tch: A Reverse Harem Rejected Mates Romance (In Love and War Series Book 1) by Katelyn Beckett

Basic B*tch: A Reverse Harem Rejected Mates Romance by Katelyn Beckett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting Start To A Series

I’d probably give this book 3.5 ⭐️ if I could.

Riley has a wonderful future mapped out for her. She’s going to be turned into a werewolf by her lover, become an omega for his pack, then get married and have pups after she finishes her nursing degree. Except the ranking test is wrong and when she turns into an alpha wolf her new pack turns on her.

After being hunted by the pack after they fail to kill her, being shunned by her human parents, and finding danger at every turn she tried to find a way out and ends up enlisting. In Basic, she has to learn how to be a soldier at the same time she learns to be a werewolf in a hostile environment.

This book is quite intense and people who have emotional difficulties that can be triggered by reading scenes of violent assault and attempted sexual assault should approach this book with care.

There’s a lot to enjoy about this book. Riley is a strong character dealing with an exceptionally difficult set of circumstances. She tries to do her best but keeps getting punished for her existence. She fights with heart and strength and keeps getting back up again and faces her opponents with dignity.

I really liked Shawn, the omega drill Sargent with a prosthetic limb, who battles for his recruits with all the strength and determination of an alpha, despite his pack ranking. I respect that he fights his attraction to his recruit and continues to do his best to train his recruits to keep safe when they are posted to their new units.

Hunter annoyed me, as he was a cocky mischief-maker, who kept dragging Riley into trouble. However, he did try to look out for Riley in his own way.

What I had a problem with was the hostile environment the shifters within the army were subject to. The way they were treated as second class citizens. It grated on me and infuriated me, as I’m sure it was supposed to. It just made me tense throughout reading the entire book and it meant I couldn’t relax into it enough to really enjoy reading it.

This book very much felt like an introduction to a series. Nothing really got resolved, it all felt like a set up for something to come in the future. It probably would annoy me less if the next book was already out.

I feel like I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I was reading it at any other time than at this moment in history. There is so much tension and darkness in the world that I’m looking for relaxing reading matter, and this just wasn’t. It was well written and the characters were engaging. The world-building was well thought out and I’m sure the plot is going somewhere interesting. However, I just couldn’t relax enough to really enjoy it. When the next book comes out, I’ll probably re-read it and enjoy it a lot more.

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Review: Diamond Girl: A Sci Fi Reverse Harem Romance by Cady Austin

Diamond Girl: A Sci Fi Reverse Harem Romance by Cady Austin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun Alien Sci Fi Reverse Harem

Beth was stolen by slavers from Earth when she was 8 years old. She’s spent the last 15 years held captive by a King who wanted a bestiary, that she was to be part of. As a daughter of zoologists, her love for animals shone through and she became a trusted member of his staff as she created a happy and safe environment for the alien beasts that she raised and cared for. She hated being a slave and it wasn’t happy for her but her animals gave her sense of belonging.

After the death of her master and his family she was sent for auction where she was bought by a ruthless general and before she could be taken was stolen by a group of thieves who wanted to blackmail the general. Given her first small taste of freedom since she was 8 years old, Beth launched herself into her new life with love and happiness, even knowing it was going to be short-lived.

I really love alien romance when the aliens actually look like aliens rather than just big humans with different coloured skin. The men in this book are very definitely aliens and the author has thought very carefully about their physical differences and how that makes a difference in how they approach relationships. These differences are very evident in the pretty steamy sex scenes.

I’m glad that this the first book in the series because there were lots of breadcrumbs, dropped in this book that I hope are picked up in future books. The breadcrumbs are enough to be very intriguing about the history of the universe in which they live and the cultures on the different worlds. There are also the drips of information about the big bad enemy lurking out on the fringes of civilised space to stir the imagination.

I enjoyed this book and the way the relationships built up gradually over the course of the book. I liked that it wasn’t all plain sailing and that there were difficulties in the harem, including jealousy which isn’t often shown in these books. I liked that it was included because unless a culture expects an RH situation, there are going to be jealousies and unsettled feelings until everything becomes normal.

This wasn’t a very emotionally taxing book. There isn’t really any angst, which for a book about a slave is unusual, but I enjoyed reading something relaxing. There was plenty of steam, sweet exchanges and enough plot to keep me happy, but there was also some good world-building that I hope to see expanded in a future book. As the first book in a series, it has a lot of promise.

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Review: Striker (Lords of Carnage MC Series Book 11) by Daphne Loveling

Striker by Daphne Loveling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Biker And The Lawyer

This is an ongoing series and this book in particular ties into the previous one, so reading this as a standalone is probably not the best way to enjoy the story.

In the previous book, Tank, Tank and Cady got together after Tank had a little girl, Wren, dropped on his doorstep with a note telling him that she was his daughter. To try and do all the paperwork to keep his new daughter and for Cady to get her divorce they approach a family lawyer, Ember.

Cady’s ex is a bad guy and they are worried that he might object to the divorce so they want to put protection on Ember until they find out what his reaction will be. Tank asks his best friend Striker to guard Ember.

Striker is going through a bit of a rough patch. He misses his best friend, he feels guilty for indirectly enabling the kidnap of Cady and Wren and he’s disappearing into a bottle of booze. Putting him on Ember’s protection is the first step in pulling him back to normality.

Ember objects to the protection but Striker is a determined man and she finally gives in. That he’s very attractive doesn’t hurt. Ember is separated from her husband, but no one knows about it except for Ember’s best friend, receptionist and ex-husband’s cousin, Margot. That Margot is on Ember’s side despite not knowing the full story tells you everything you need to know about her ex.

I like that this isn’t just a romance. It’s also about both Ember and Striker deciding what they want from life and how to set about getting it. Striker doesn’t pull his act together just for the sake of romance but for other reasons too. I hate romances that have the messed up person being magically fixed by their new partner, and this isn’t quite at that level.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the last book in this series next.

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Review: Rita's Redemption (Nesting Instinct Series Book 2 ) by Clairissa Sinclair

Nesting Instinct: Book 2 Rita's Redemption by Clairissa SinClair
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Vivienne’s Home For Waifs and Strays

This book follows on directly from Book 1 in the series, however, the main focus of the book is on Kian, Vivi’s older (and newfound) brother and Rita. A bit of a heads up as this book is a bit darker than the first one, and there should really be a trigger warning because the difficult action takes place quite near the start of the book.

Rita is a design student who has been swept off her feet by a rich and powerful older vampire. She’s head over heels and when he suggests taking her to Paris for a holiday she immediately ditches college to go with him, not realising that the vampire she’s in love with doesn’t exist, it’s all an act.

In Paris, alone, with no money or support, her boyfriend becomes a monster. After escaping barely clinging on to her life she is helped by Vivi and Declan, who are there for their honeymoon. Obviously, they take her under their wings and sweep her back to the US to safety, where she gets a chance to recover and meets Kian.

There is a lot more violence and darkness in this book, as should be obvious from the subject matter. Some of it is explicit, some of it is fade to black. It’s not visceral, however, it could still cause some people to trigger if they aren’t prepared.

I really enjoyed the book, even though it wasn’t as easy a read as the first in the series. In fact, I think that made it better as we got to see the dark side of the Vampire race. I will almost definitely read the next book.

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Review: Lotus Empowered by Clairissa Sinclair

Lotus Empowered by Clairissa SinClair
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Weirdly Soothing

This book seems like it should be filled with energy and high emotions because it’s about The End of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI), it’s also a Reverse Harem. Instead, it’s strangely soothing. The narrative is filled with gentle observation, even when there is peril and violence, or sex. I might have been disappointed if I’d wanted something different from what I got, but I was actually in the mood for it, even if I didn’t realise it when I started the book.

The book is set in an isolated motel, on the side of a mountain, which is where Lotus, the MFC is staying when TEOTWAWKI happens. Basically, all the computers stop working, which leads to everything else not working. Lotus is a city girl now, working as a Marketing Director for an outward bound equipment company, but she used to live off the grid in a free-love hippy commune, until the age of 16 when her commune was dismantled.

So, when TEOTWAWKI happens she is out in the middle of nowhere, with a truck full of survival equipment and the training and mentality to help her stay alive when the rest of the world stops working. The story is how Lotus not only survives but gets back to a kind of living that makes her happy, making a different kind of family along the way.

As I said, it’s got a very gentle observational style of writing. This puts a small barrier between the reader and the characters which help reduce the amount of angst and darker emotions that people going through TEOTWAWKI experience. However, that also mutes their happiness and joy. It has a kind of a pioneer spirit feel to it, with learning how to manage finite resources and finding ways to better their lives without electricity and easy access to modern medicines.

The characters are pretty interesting, and there are multiple POVs though the main POV is Lotus. We have an insight into some of the character’s journey to the mountain hideaway, but that insight isn’t uniform. This allows the history of the characters to slowly unfold. I really liked Lotus. She has a very conflicted attitude to her childhood which she loved but felt that she shouldn’t because it isn’t generally accepted to practice free love as an underage girl. Her background meant that she never really achieved happiness in the outside world. It did make her strong and educated in the way that really matters when it comes to surviving in the wilderness.

The men were all interesting and captivating in different ways and all of them had things they had to recover from, either from before TEOTWAKI or their journey after it happened. They all had very different circumstances but had complementary personalities as they learned to live with themselves and others.

I really enjoyed this book and will probably investigate reading others by the author, because she has an unusual way of looking at things and people, and that’s something I always enjoy.

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Review: Vivienne's Vamp (Nesting Instinct Series Book 1) by Clairissa Sinclair

Nesting Instinct: Book I-Vivienne's Vamp-Paranormal Romance by Clairissa SinClair
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun Paranormal Romance

This was a very laid back and fun read. It’s a straight up paranormal romance, with very little drama and no peril. It’s an easy read, perfect for relaxing with.

Vivi is a southern girl, who loves fast cars, whisky, dancing and art, with a little male attention thrown in. She lives in a shack in a swamp, working as a mechanic for her father and uncle’s garage, and doing the custom paintwork when necessary.

When Declan MacLeod and his younger brother Alec turn up in South Carolina to track down a vampire for their father, they come across the lovely woman and Declan knows he’s found his destined mate. Declan is the first born son and heir to The MacLeod Nest in Scotland, where he is expected to marry a nice respectable woman who will look after the castle and entertain as decorously as possible. He is not expected to marry a mechanic who has a filthy mouth and a long list of one night stands behind her.

This is the ultimate meeting of two people from different worlds trying to find a way to live together and keep their hearts intact in the process.

I loved Vivi. She was fun, outspoken, rides horses like a demon, dances like no one’s watching and swears enough to shock Quentin Tarantino. She adores her family and is passionate about her work. She is filled with mischief and kindness in equal measures and is a great MFC. This book is really all about Vivi and Declan is an adjunct to her personality and the plot. He does have his moments in the sun, but he also has some moments of great disappointments in the behaviour stakes.

I will definitely keep my eye out for other books by this author.

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