Review: Axel (The Devil's Angels MC Series Book 2) by Lola Wright

Axel by Lola Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More Sweet Bikers

I enjoyed the first book in this series, Gunner, and I can say that I enjoyed this more because I knew the characters already. In particular this story is about Axel and Bailey. We met Axel in the first book as he is the VP for The Devil’s Angels MC. His Dad is Petey and he and his Dad adopted Ava from the last book.

Axel is a full-on goofball. He’s funny and silly and likes to joke and tease. He doesn’t take much seriously except looking after people he loves. So when meets Bailey and she is running away from some guys he is very surprised when he feels more than lust for her.

Bailey is an organised and sensible woman. She has a stable job as an accountant and works hard to cover her student loans, pay her bills and help her mother out financially. She has to help her mother out because she is incapable of holding a full time job due to being lazy and enjoying more wine and weed than is good for her.

Bailey is running away from the bad guys because they are trying to beat her up as a reminder to keep her mouth shut about seeing something at work she shouldn’t. Of course, the MC leap to the rescue and Bailey is swept up by the manly arms of Axel and he club brothers.

Once again I love how important the supporting characters are in this series. Bailey not only falls for Axel but she cares about Pooh and Chubs a lot, and even grumpy Trigger finds his way into her heart, and vice versa.

As with the previous book, the plot is pretty predictable but the characters make this really enjoyable. It’s fun to sit awhile and listen to Axel whining about having his butt waxed and the silly t-shirts Gee the mini pig wears. It’s full of love, loyalty and laughter, as well as bullets and mayhem.

I will definitely be continuing to enjoy this series, as I believe there are a few more books to come.

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Review: At Blade's Edge (Goddess With A Blade Series Book 4) by Lauren Dane

At Blade's Edge by Lauren Dane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Marriage

This book is about the marriage of two people but also about marrying the cultures of two peoples. Clive is a 500-year-old born vampire, a Scion of the Vampire Nation, ruler of North America and Rowan is a 30-year-old human, a Vessel to a goddess, foster daughter of the First vampire, and Hunter of rogue vampires. They are two very different people, he is uptight and proper, she is vulgar and abrasive, and they shouldn’t work as a couple, but they do and it’s really lovely to watch that happening slowly through this book.

Defeating Enyo does not appear to have solved the problems of the Vampire Nation and Hunter Corp. Enyo was just part of the problem. Hunter Corp and the Vampire Nation both have bad seeds buried deep inside, feeding vital information to an unseen enemy that has got their own people killed.

This book follows Rowan seeking out the culprits from inside Hunter Corp and trying to decide if she can stomach continuing to work for an organisation that does not value her safety. At the same time, she has to settle into becoming a wife. She is marrying someone who has an extensive family and a history in London, where they are currently visiting. Meeting the family, trying to investigate and learning how to be a wife of a Scion is a difficult time even for the Vessel of a goddess.

The thing I really loved about this book was the subtle building of a connection between Clive and Rowan. The steps they take in order to fulfil their own needs and at the same time leave the soul of their partner intact. Clive in particular is driven to protect and shelter what is his and Rowan is never one for allowing to be hidden away and cosseted, but she learns to accept some of Clive’s needs to protect and treasure her at the same time he allows her to stand on her own and face her own battles without interfering. This is a very cleverly written romantic relationship. The romance isn’t effusive, not is it sweet, but it is real and deep and beautiful. The subtlety with which Lauren Dane writes about the love between these two people is superb and a joy to read.

The relationship aspects of this book rather dominate, but the plot moves on and the reader is once again left wanting to know what happens next.

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Review: Gunner (The Devil's Angels MC Series Book 1) by Lola Wright

Gunner by Lola Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Baker and the MC Prez

Someone in the Cee Bowerman Facebook Group recommended this series and I can definitely see the similarities between the two authors’ works. I will say I’m not usually a fan of cutesy anthropomorphised pets, but these aren’t too bad, even if the mini pig has a skateboard and insists on wearing pyjamas. To be honest that’s pretty much it for the cutesy part of this book.

Ava is a 28-year-old woman, who has her own bakery. She was abandoned at birth and spent her early years in the foster system. She’s been through some pretty awful stuff but she’s still upbeat, friendly and strong. She has problems letting people into her heart and she always maintains a certain distance from people but she is still a good person. She also has a bit of a pet menagerie, with a large dog, huge cat, macaw (who is ridiculously chatty in a way that is quite unbelievable) and a mini pig.

She has a neighbour, Petey, who is part of an MC, but she hadn’t spoken to him until another neighbour gets a bit crazy and she ends up chatting with Petey's friend. His friend is a very gorgeous Gunner who is the president of Petey’s MC and he asks her to keep an eye out for Petey because he's broken his leg and she kindly agrees to look in on him and feed him.

Ava’s introduction to the MC lifestyle is sort of sideways, with meeting Petey and becoming friends with him and his son Axel, the VP of the MC, and other members of the MC at the same time as slowly starting something with Gunner.

Gunner is in his early 30s and never wanted to settle down. He loves the freedom that being single gives, especially when he’s a gorgeous specimen of manhood who can get a woman without any hassle. Then he meets the strong and beautiful Ava who looks after his friend Petey and slips into his MC family so easily.

I like how Gunner is trying to get the MC into legitimate businesses at around the same time he meets Ava and starts reevaluating his life choices. He wasn’t magically turned into boyfriend material by meeting Ava, she just nudged him over a line he was already standing on, even if he didn’t know it.

I also like how Ava makes friends with the other members of the MC, so her only role isn’t as Gunner’s woman. She stands up for herself but doesn’t automatically hate all the club girls. She’s basically someone I’d like to have as a friend. She’s not great at everything, just the things she’s passionate about and has invested time and energy into.

The plot was interesting, but basically, it was the same old rival MC, kidnapping, shootings etc. you see in most MC books. Though the plot was predictable it was pretty well done.

The stand out for me in this book was the character creation and their relationships with each other. Not just the main characters, but all the supporting characters seemed to have distinct and interesting personalities. You can see the next books in the series hovering over their names by the way the author writes them. I’ll look forward to reading about future adventures, as this was a pretty easy-going MC without too much violence, or at least it wasn’t explicit and gory!

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Review: Blade on the Hunt (Goddess With A Blade Series Book 3) by Lauren Dane

Blade on the Hunt by Lauren Dane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

These are such enjoyable books. They are filled with sarcasm, wit and bloody violence, followed by sex in the shower. What more could a girl want from her vampire books?

After being nearly killed by Enyo, Rowan has had to spend weeks getting back to full strength. During the process she has grown stronger through all the ancient vampire blood she was given to keep her alive. She’s also gained a much closer bond with her goddess.

When Rowan is finally prepared to take on Enyo, she returns to The Keep and finds an unhinged Theo and she once more stands between the First vampire and the rest of the world, calming his troubled mind. When she finally gets to go looking for Enyo she discovers that Hunter Corp may not have her best interests at heart, at a time when she is most vulnerable.

One of the things I really enjoy about this series is the incredibly complicated feelings that Rowan has towards her foster father. She has nearly died at his hands countless times, even as a child in his care. However, she knows that Theo loves her and that he tries to do his best to protect her, even if that means forging her into a lethal weapon rather than giving her a childhood. As much as Theo has hurt her, she can’t stop loving him. This is a complex and nuanced relationship that is conveyed with a delicate hand by both acknowledging that what Theo did was wrong and that he isn’t completely in his right mind either.

On one hand, this book is filled with witty one-liners and blood and gore, and on the other hand, it has moments of real tenderness and affection between friends, loved ones and family. It’s deftly done and it’s unusual to see it in this type of book. I know I’ll be diving right into the next book in the series because I really want to know what happens next.

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Review: The Crown of Fools (Underestimated Series Book 5) by Candice M Wright

The Crown of Fools by Candice M. Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

SOOOOO Much Information

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

For most of this book, it seemed to be going in one direction, then it took a swerve around 75% in, then, at around 90% in it did another even bigger swerve. I’m sitting here with my head in my hands, moaning with brain whiplash. I’m not even sure I can give a coherent review because my brain is still stuttering with ‘WTF just happened????’

This book covers Kat, or Sunshine as she is known by Carnage. Her soulmate got killed in the last book, just after she found out she was pregnant. Raised in foster care she has no one, not even Carnage really because Pike, her man, was a prospect and as such she couldn’t be an Old Lady. Plus there was the whole ‘you need to have an extra partner in the relationship to be part of Carnage’ thing. Sunshine was grieving and trying to keep going for the sake of her baby and Inigo and Conan are trying to look after her as best they can, as they are both smitten with the young woman.

Sunshine has more bad luck than anyone should rightly have, but she is tough and she always keeps managing to stay afloat by the skin of her teeth. Sunshine is made much darker by the death of Pike and the instances that seem to be following her around, but underneath it all she is still the same warm and loving woman that brought light to the darkness for Pike. As always in this series, she is seriously underestimated and is much stronger than even she suspects she is.

Both Conan and Inigo are in their 40s and Sunshine is much younger, in her 20s. This age difference doesn’t seem insurmountable because Sunshine has had a lot of life experience especially whilst growing up in foster care. Both men are dominant in the bedroom and think they are going to be the same way in Sunshine’s life. She’s not keen on that! Her fighting for her right to be treated as an independent entity isn’t as large a part of the book as it could have been.

I really enjoyed the majority of this book. It has everything going for it, older men, pregnant younger woman, mysterious stalker, bad guy landlord and big strapping bad*ss MC members. I even took the first swerve in the plot in my stride, thinking ‘well that’s interesting, I didn’t see that coming'. I think I just became overwhelmed with the information dump that was thrown at me in the very latter stages of the book. That sense of being overwhelmed definitely reduced my enjoyment of the book. I don’t know if I’ve been left reeling because of the book and the great writing or because I’ve not had enough sleep lately. I think I’ll have to do a re-read before the next book comes out because I think it’s the only way my brain will be able to parse all the information dumped in the last couple of chapters.

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Review: Taut Strings (River Valley Rebels Series Book 1) by Gabrielle Sands

Taut Strings by Gabrielle Sands
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Taut Strings, Tight Plot

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

I’ve had this in my mental TBR list for a while as even before it was published the blurb interested me. I wish I’d read it as soon as it came out because it’s a fantastic book. You would never think it was a debut novel as it’s so well written.

Adeline is 21 and the guardian of her 17-year-old sister as they were orphaned 2 years previously. Adeline gave up her dreams of a music career several years before she lost her parents, but becoming the sole guardian of a teenage girl probably didn’t help any. Still, she had a hobby band where she played rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals, but it was mainly a covers band.

One night she was playing at one of their biggest gigs when they realised that Bleeding Moonlight, the local boys who hit the big time, were in the audience listening to her play one of their songs. The band had come back to the small town where they grew up to bury their lead guitarist and to record what they decided was to be their last album, their tribute to their deceased bandmate and the last material he wrote. The only thing they were missing was a lead guitarist and Adeline looked like she could be the session musician of their dreams.

This feels like it should be a predictable rock romance/RH book, but it’s anything but predictable. I really wasn’t sure how it was all going to get resolved at several points in the course of the narrative. This was a beautifully paced book, with layers of emotion and plot being carefully unveiled with each turn of the page.

The author takes a seemingly simple idea and breathes life into it by making her characters believable. The real strength and beauty in this book is the character creation and development. Each character has a fully realised personality and history and though we don’t get to see all of that history, you feel like it’s there. The characters don’t just start when you begin chapter one. Each character has strengths and flaws in a way that feels real. With such strong characters, the carefully subtle plot works really well.

This isn’t a book filled with big explosive reveals and denouncements. It has a few charged emotional moments but they aren’t things that make you drop your jaw in shock. Everything builds on what has gone before in a way that makes the next moment inevitable rather than surprising.

This isn’t a big showy book, but I like it more because of that. There is passion and heat which are explicitly articulated but it isn’t the focus of the book, which is always the emotion. The emotions aren’t all about the romance either. The individuals in the band and Adeline all have their own issues surrounding their work and where they are going from that point forward. That future and their friendships are as important as the romantic feelings they might have.

I am definitely interested in the next book in the series, which covers Cole’s little sister and it appears to be set before this book takes place. This author has tonnes of promise and I can’t wait to watch her develop.

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Review: Siren's Song (Wyrd Love Series Book 1) by Cynthia Diamond

Siren's Song by Cynthia Diamond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Intriguing New World

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

Once Upon a Time there were three sisters, adopted by an ex-nun who wanted to keep the humans safe from the Wyrd world. So she adopted three half-blood girls and set about training them for when their powers manifested. The eldest daughter was named Valerie and was half-valkyrie, the second daughter, named Adelle was a half-siren, and the youngest, Phoebe, who had not yet manifested her powers was a half-dryad. Then their adopted mother was killed and they had to do it alone.

Adelle is terrified of her powers because she doesn’t know how to control them except to remain utterly calm. When she’s emotional all she knows to do is suppress every sound because when she doesn’t she can level buildings. When she’s kidnapped and held for 5 days by an ex-boyfriend and his fellow vampires because siren blood is addictive she doesn’t use her powers to free herself. When Val finds her she sends her away because she won’t protect herself because she’s scared of hurting innocents.

Adelle goes to a small town in Washington State where her mind-mage cousin lives. Within a short period of time the cousin she's staying with has fobbed her off onto her ex-boyfriend, Jack the old and grumpy dragon and Jack and Adelle try to make the most of it.

One of the things I liked about this book was that things were spread out. Time passed and things didn’t happen right on top of each other. Adelle needs that time to transform herself and for her relationship with Jack to develop slowly. Both those things take a good deal of time because both Adelle and Jack are stubborn.

I also like how it’s not just meeting Jack that makes Adelle want to change, it’s how she’s been sent away for her own safety and having to rely on her sister all the time to get her out of trouble. She knows what she is doing isn’t working and that it certainly isn’t healthy to suppress her feelings for so long, but she just can’t see another way, until Jack tries something different.

Jack is a great character. He’s 900 years old and very set in his ways. He’s supportive, funny and grumpy all rolled into one. He’s also apparently big and gorgeous. I like how their relationship started out being pretty annoyed at being stuck with each other and evolved slowly over time. So often we get insta-lust/love in these kinds of books and sometimes you just want to watch something transform.

I liked this story because it’s not often we see a magical character being terrified of their powers, nor one that has had to suppress themselves so completely to stop themselves from harming others. Unreeling all that damage was interesting to read about, especially as we learn about the Wyrd world in which all the characters live.

I also like the relationship between the three sisters, which involves bickering, love and shoving each other into doing the right thing.

The plot is interesting, with an old friend becoming an arch-nemesis and threatening their home town. This is a plot that will evolve over the series, rather than getting resolved in this one book, but it gives the book direction and gives it structure. This book is mainly about Adelle coming into her own and finding Jack, but it’s really well done.

I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, which I believe is more about Val.

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Review: Gilded Mess (Three Bears Series Book 1) by Colette Rhodes

Gilded Mess by Colette Rhodes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Messy World of Shifters in Alaska

I am ashamed to say that I wanted to read this book because it has such a beautiful cover. I’m glad it did because I probably wouldn’t have read it otherwise as 'retelling of fairy tales' isn’t exactly my favourite trope. I’m also not keen on MFC’s who are ‘a bit of a mess’. Whilst I know characters who are flawed are interesting and more fun to write about, I like to read about characters that are competent and together and just make reasonable mistakes. Ria, is definitely a bit of a mess. She’s nearly 30, never had a career, dropped out of college twice and is constantly needing to be bailed out of trouble by her older brothers.

Ria’s latest catastrophe is getting lured into a relationship with the promise of a great cabin in the woods of Alaska, a caring partner who wants to have children together and the opportunity to start a small business from home, rather than working in a diner. Only it turns out the caring partner is pretty much a sham and Ria runs away into the fading light out into the woods, with no idea where she is going. I pretty much wanted to smack some sense into the woman during the first couple of chapters but I stuck it out.

Ria started to grow on me when she met the bears. She stole into their fantastic cabin, made herself at home and wasn’t really embarrassed about being caught. Once she settled into staying with the bears she started to show more of her less ‘messy’ side. She chipped in around the house with chores without being asked. She had a go at things even when she didn’t know if she was capable or not and she stood up for herself against her ex. Some of her more messy personality traits turned into more admirable ones when taken with a more positive spin.

To be honest she wasn’t the messiest character. The three bear brothers were quite a bit unusual. They have lived together in the woods since the eldest twins were 15 and the youngest was 10 after their parents were killed in a house fire. They lived in their grandparents’ cottage and then built their own home by hand. They mainly live off the land with occasional trips into town to sell things they make. Living mainly in isolation from an early age and never really venturing out to face getting hurt again lead to isolationist tendencies. Putting the three messy bears together with the messy non-shifter leads to a much more balanced situation if only they can get out of their own way.

I ended up quite liking Ria and the bears, despite myself. Ria has a good sense of humour, a good heart and tries hard. I also quite liked the plot which was secondary to the relationship aspect, but it definitely adds some interest to the book. I will definitely be reading the second part of the duet, because I want to know what happens next, after the cliffhanger. Apparently, the second book comes out within a month, so fingers crossed the release date isn’t too far off.

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Review: Droscal (Ka'atari Warriors Series Book 3) by Kenzie Kelly

Droscal by Kenzie Kelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Politician and The Smuggler

This is the third book in the series and though it deals with a specific couple, there is a story arc that makes sense only if the books are read in order.

We met Droscal in the previous book in the series. He is the ruler of a smuggler’s haven, outside Alliance territory. For a smuggler, he’s an OK guy. He’s a big scary warrior alien, but instead of ruling by blood, which is what everyone expects, he’s excellent at negotiation.

Zoranna is a politician. She was an aide on the UN Space Station when it was attacked and when the human women were rescued she opted to stay on the planet which housed the ruling body of the Alliance. She has been working as an aide to the Warrior Chief, who really doesn’t want to be a politician but is kind of stuck with the role. Zoranna is his perfect assistant because she loves the politics side of things and covers for him a LOT.

When the Alliance needs something from Droscal, his payment is to meet the non-mated human women to find out if any of them are his rhun, or a woman he can mate with. They send Zoranna to be his ‘liaison’ and of course they are rhun, even if Droscal is the very thing Zoranna abhors the most, a criminal.

I really enjoyed this book. The storyline fits nicely as a follow on from the previous two and it makes you want to find out what happens next, which was a problem because book 4 isn’t out yet, but it is obviously set up for that book to follow. There is, however, a HEA for this couple.

On the face of it, this couple shouldn’t work because Zoranna really is quite vehement about being mated to someone like Droscal and how it will affect her career, something very important to her. However, they have more in common than she thinks.

As in previous books, the warrior is sweetly protective and there is a cute pet alert. There is heat between the two and though Zoranna overcame her initial reluctance a little too quickly for my liking, the book is only novella length, so it’s understandable.

This is an enjoyable bite-sized book, with an interesting and entertaining plot and an amount of chemistry that isn’t the only thing that’s important but is still central to the book.

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Review: Nickel's Story (Steel Bones MC Series Book 2) by Cate C Wells

Nickel's Story by Cate C. Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet Stripper and The Angry Biker

Story is 21 years old and works as a stripper at The White Van, the strip club owned by the Steel Bones MC. Her mother worked there before she met her rich dentist boyfriend and she gave up stripping. Story's mother is only 37 and been more like a sister than a mother to Story.

Story is sweet, with a sunny disposition and she loves to dance so much that she doesn’t care if she does it in front of a crowd of drunk men in her underwear. She also loves Nickel and has done since she was rescued by him aged 15 from a group of horny football players.

Nickel thinks Story is the most beautiful person he’s ever seen. Not just because she looks stunning but because her personality is pure sunshine and she brightens up every room she enters. He knows he’s no good for her. He’s much older, more angry and out of control than is good for a sweet girl like Story.

This book is about Story and Nickel finally trying to make a go of it and failing miserably, the first time round. It’s also about Nickel learning to fight the demons of his horrific childhood, which isn’t helped when one of his older brothers gets out of prison and stirs up old memories.

We also learn a little bit more about the Rebel Raiders and why they hate the Steel Demons. This overarching plotline is slow-moving and mostly background to the main romance plot.

This is a sweet and yet tough book. There are difficult subject matters raised but through it all sweet Story’s voice reminds us of what Nickel is fighting for. I love that Story isn’t academic, but she’s trying really hard to better herself. I love that she is filled with joy when she slaps on her pasties and dances to Elvis songs. She’s just a really wonderfully happy character that gets up to fight another day no matter what slaps her down. She’s exactly the sort of person that would make a hard, bitter and angry man try to fight his way out of the darkness.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the rest of the series.

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Review: Brak (Ka'atari Warriors Series Book 2) by Kenzie Kelly

Brak by Kenzie Kelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Much More Action

As this is the second book in the series a lot of the world-building had already been done. This meant that the characters could get straight into the action, which was accomplished by Anela, the marine from UN Space Station that was destroyed, carefully sneaking aboard the spaceship of the race that killed her fellow humans.

Trying to find data about the location of Earth, she also finds one of the warriors sent before her, that didn’t return, Brak. He has been tortured and is severely injured and she manages to get him free.

Brak is one of the warriors who helped save Anela and her fellow humans, so Anela already likes and respects him. He feels the same way about her, as he knew she managed to save one of the women, who would have otherwise died. Brak is strong and loyal, but his torture has badly affected him.

This story has the couple meeting several different races and also has a cute alien pet that is incredibly deadly, except to it’s friends. I can sense a series theme going on here! The increased action and plot made a much more interesting book than the first in the series. I definitely want to know what happens next, in particular, because the title of the next one is Droscal and he was a really interesting character we met briefly in this book.

This is becoming a really interesting series, as well as a fun one.

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Review: Viper : The Prophecy (Odin's Wolves MC Series Book 2) by Candi Fox and Linny Lawless

Viper : The Prophecy by Candi Fox and Linny Lawless
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mythology in Modern Times

I'd probably give this book 3.5 ⭐ if I could

This is the second book in a continuing spin-off series. It's not really a standalone. Viper is a demigod, the son of Odin and Gaia. He is an immortal werewolf dedicated to the fight for justice alongside his immortal brothers, the Odin’s Wolves MC. Moving from Dallas where he was a police officer to White Horse, OK to join his brothers. He meets Billie on his way to White Horse, seeing her fight for a Dark Fae she is desperate to escape from. Billie has been trapped by a contract to a Dark Fae since she was a teenager. She has been forced to kill in a fight ring in a way that hurts her soul.

Billie has no memories of before she was a child wandering the streets, starving and hiding in dumpsters. That is how she got trapped by the Dark Fae when he offered her food and safety.

Drawn to one another immediately when Billie finally escapes, Viper helps her and they are led to search for the answer to a prophecy.

There is a great deal of hot and heavy action in this book. Not just between Viper and Billie but between side characters too, that may have felt a little gratuitous with very little impact on the plot, though I may be wrong and find it’s helpful in future books. Despite the gratuitous sex, there was also some sweet and tender moments and not just romantically but also between friends.

The plot was interesting and we got to meet a vast array of different characters of different races and in different locations, some helpful, others not so much. There is a definite nod to the future but the ending was kind of confusing. I’m not really sure where it was going.

On the whole, it was an enjoyable book.

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Review: Kiran (Ka'atari Warriors Series Book 1) by Kenzie Kelly

Kiran by Kenzie Kelly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Enjoyable Accidental Alien Abduction Story

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

This was a very enjoyable book. It was light-hearted, funny in places and had some hot scenes too.

Cora is a lab technician on a space station orbiting Earth when it’s smashed into by an alien vessel. She gets trapped on board along with another 8 women and they hide in the lab whilst the attacking aliens are taken out by handsome sexy aliens who rescue them.

It’s all very improbable but as we are talking about aliens and space stations, you can't worry too much about that. They get accidentally taken into alien territory with no way home. Of course, the handsome sexy aliens are the good guys...... add sexy times, adventure times and a lethal telepathic purring animal that befriends her.

It’s all good fun and with more to come in the series, I should be entertained without being emotionally overwhelmed for a while!

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Review: His Human Nanny (Monsters Love Curvy Girls Series Book 1) by Michele Mills

His Human Nanny by Michele Mills
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sweet and Silly Alien Romance

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

I’ve found in the last year I’ve been reading more and more of these sweet and silly alien romances. They are cheesy, comforting and excellent at diverting from the mess of the world. With this one it was purely the series title that sucked me in. The beauty of Kindle Unlimited is you can borrow books on a complete whim and it doesn’t matter if you waste a few hours on something that you didn’t absolutely love. You can either finish it, shrug your shoulders and think, ‘well at least that didn’t cost me anything’ or even just return it when you aren’t enjoying it.

I actually finished this book and did enjoy it. I probably wouldn’t have bought it, but borrowing it was fine. Riley is a human on a contract with an employment agency. She’s one day shy of finishing her fifth year of her ‘one year contract’. She was young and signed a very dodgy contract. Just as she thinks she’s gained her freedom she’s whisked away to another part of the galaxy to be a nanny for an alien because humans are the latest trend for the uber-wealthy who need caregivers.

When Riley comes face to horned face with her new employer, Aegir, she faints from the shock of coming face to face with a being who appears to be the devil himself. Aegir kindly catches Riley and carries her to his car. His appearance isn’t the last shock of the day. Instead of the married couple she’s expecting, she’s got single father Aegir and fire breathing twin babies instead of a single flame-less baby.

In some respects this book has a fairly predictable plot, on the other hand the niceness of most of the aliens Riley comes into contact with on this planet is surprising. Everyone is nice with a single exception, the obvious causer of dramatic tension. This niceness is what helps make this kind of fiction the perfect escapism.

There is quite a lot of sexual tension, which when resolved is explosive and the loving and sweet HEA epilogue has it’s own kind of passion.

It’s a sweet book, with very little drama, and some sexy times with a big, loyal, home-loving, red-hot demon look alike. What more could a curvy girl ask for?

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Review: Erratic (Arcane Mage Series Book 3) by TS Snow

Erratic by T.S. Snow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Plot Thickens

This book is mainly about Char, her relationships, the men who surround her and their feelings towards her. We also get to learn a bit more about Bastille and the Necromancers, though there is still tonnes of information about them and their abilities still to be uncovered. Whilst finding out about the necromancers Char finds out there is an awful lot about her world that she didn’t really understand because of the stranglehold the houses have over information.

Whilst Char’s magic has gone on the fritz, she has to remain in hiding. She’s also trying to keep her head down at work because she broke protocol to rescue one of the house heirs, without backup, from a murderous relative whilst having erratic magic.

I really enjoyed the way that this book contributed to the layers of information and character building that has gone on in the series so far. The plot, world-building and character development are woven together cleverly. Whilst I’m enjoying the slow build, the plot was a little slow in this book, which often happens even in the best series because other stuff needs to be focused on, in this case, the relationships and world-building.

I have to say that I really like Bastille. I think he’s a fantastic character and a great bedrock for Char, who to be honest needs someone to bring her down to earth. Bastille seems to be the mage for the job as he’s endlessly patient with her. To be honest, as much as I love Char as a character I think I’d want to bash my head against a brick wall if I spent too much time with her in real life because focusing seems to be a skill she is lacking unless she’s sat in front of a computer.

I’m looking forward to the next book because we still have much to learn about the problems in the Arcane world. We don’t know who is running the Rebellion, who has been targeting Char and who killed Annie. So much information, so little time!

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Review: Atlas & Addie (Rojo, TX Series Book 2) by Cee Bowerman

Atlas & Addie: Rojo, TX Book 2 by Cee Bowerman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Nerd and The Social Worker

It probably helps understand this story if you’ve read the Texas Knights MC and Texas Kings MC books. There is also a cross over character from Conner Brothers Construction so essentially this is a book you will understand more of if you have read all of the author’s previous works.

Atlas is the stepson of Grunt, the brother in law of Lout and Summer and Willow’s brother. He is referred to in other books but was more of a background character. He is a nerd, he writes and sells computer programs, loves playing online games throughout the night and doesn’t really socialise much outside of his family (which admittedly is large).

Addie is a social worker. She’s also the sister of Lisa who stayed behind in Utah when Lisa left. Her father was a polygamist and she was one of 11 children. Her mother got her out when she was still quite young and it’s what led her into social work. After problems back home, she and her brother Warren, Lisa’s twin brother, have decided to join Lisa in Rojo to start afresh. They move into a house near Atlas and he and Addie are immediately attracted.

It’s a typical Cee Bowerman story filled with sweet chaos, a little bit of danger and some passion. There is also a man being dumb 🤦‍♀️ However, there is the usual HEA and a really sweet epilogue.

I really enjoyed getting to see more about Warren and his relationship with his biological daughter, and how people interacted with him when his behaviour was atypical. I really liked seeing him interact with Atlas’ genius siblings.

I did feel at times that this book was just one huge intersection of books because of the storylines that were discussed during the course of the book, from previous books/series. It did detract a little from the pace of the narrative, but it will appeal to the fans who get to nerd out over all the other people they’ve already read about.

I did enjoy the book, maybe slightly less than others by this author, but it was still entertaining enough to give it 4 ⭐️ and know I’ll get the next book in the series.

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Review: The Sheriff's Mail-Order Bride (The Watson Brother's Series Book 2) by Ann B Harrison

The Sheriff's Mail-Order Bride by Ann B. Harrison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Marriage of Convenience Romance

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

This is a pretty sugary romance. Gina is a single mother who is down to her last few dollars. She takes a chance on the man she has been talking to on the phone when she answered his ad for a wife. She drives for 18 hours from San Francisco to Marietta, Montana to hopefully marry the deputy sheriff, Rory.

Rory’s wife died 3 years ago, whilst pregnant with their first child. He was desperately in love with his wife but is lonely and is happy to settle for companionship, which is why he posted the ad, rather than trying to navigate the local dating scene.

When Gina arrives four days early with her toddler in tow, Rory is angry that she never mentioned the baby and she is angry that Rory never mentioned the state of the house that was supposed to be their family home.

There are a few hiccups in the relationship, but everything ends up being great, with very few complications and everyone is happy. If you need a pick me up after drowning in the muck of the world, this is probably a great book to read.

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Review: Holding On (Cascadia MC Series Book 1) by Mia Malone

Holding On by Mia Malone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Middle Aged MC Romance

I love how Mia Malone writes beautiful, sexy romances about powerful and interesting people in their middle years. This book is set within the Cascadia MC, dealing with Finn, the Sargent At Arms, a man in his 50s who still works out and is a force to be reckoned with. This MC is tied to Thor MC, which was the last set of books written by this author, and there are some cross overs with characters.

Addie is in her early 50s and over the last couple of years has lost everyone she ever loved. She’s also running hard from some very unpleasant people. She ends up in Alaska where she meets Milo, a old grizzled mountain man, who decides he is going to teach her how to stay safe in the wilderness.

When the people Addie is running from catch up with her again, months later, Milo makes her run until he can find her again. Addie finds her way to Cascadia MC, just as she starts to run low on cash, so when a cook’s job opens up at the MC’s roadhouse she jumps on it.

This is a really great story. Both Addie and Finn are very interesting characters who have lived fully before meeting. They both have rich pasts that give them real depth. Though they are instantly attracted to each other they don’t act on it immediately, there is some dancing around whilst Addie learns to trust Finn and the MC.

As with all Mia Malone stories, the supporting characters are really strong and fascinating. They provide a rich backdrop on which the story is laid. This author understands that romantic love isn’t the only thing that drives a person, they need friendship and family too.

What I particularly love about this story is that Addie isn’t a traditional damsel in distress. She’s strong, intelligent and skilful. She is capable of mostly keeping herself safe, except in the situation she’s in, where there are overwhelming odds set against her.

Though the plot is fairly straightforward, this story is captivating because of the characters and the world in which they live. Though predictable, there is nothing wrong with the plot, which is still interesting, despite it’s direct route from start to finish. There weren’t any real surprises to me, but sometimes I enjoy the sense of restfulness a straightforward plot can bring, so you can relax into the people and the world they inhabit. Mia Malone excels at this.

I can’t wait for the next book in this series, as the teaser at the end of this book looks great. I’m so glad we get to hang out with this interesting group of people for a while longer.

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Review: Not Quite Free (Not Quite Series Book 5) by Kaye Draper

Not Quite Free by Kaye Draper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So Much Emotion

I left a big gap between reading Book 4 of this series and reading this book, and I can’t think why, because it’s a wonderful series. I think I got distracted with a big series re-read because I was feeling depressed (it always cheers me up to read something familiar) and when I finished the big series this book had moved down my kindle somewhat and it got hidden. I’m so glad I dug it out today and dove back into Sam’s world.

Sam has been named Viceroy of his town by the Sovereign, the phoenix, Theo. Sam is still trying to keep their mates safe by staying away from them, but they are slowly unravelling towards becoming feral, like all mated shifters who stay away from their mates. Sam believe that as they are a cur, only half a shifter, they won’t be as severely affected but everyone else is not so sure.

Angel decides to save Sam from themself, by interfering in the estrangement, and as always he pays the price for his devotion to Sam.

This book in the series is full of revelations about people’s feelings. Sam isn’t the only one hiding their feelings and scared to admit what’s going on, mainly because of Sam’s reactions, because they are so broken by the way they were raised and society hasn’t helped since leaving the shifter community behind, in order to protect themself.

Though there is still quite a lot of action in this book, there is even more emotion and there was a definite lump in my throat in several sections. Sam and their mates are so badly hurt by society and I just want to give them all a big hug. They are all so unsure of their own worth.

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Review: King’s Crown (Oil Kings Series Book 1) by Marie Johnston

King’s Crown by Marie Johnston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not Your Typical Age Gap Romance

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

I was really pleasantly surprised by this book. I thought I was getting a run-of-the-mill age gap billionaire romance and what I actually got was a well thought out and sensitive romance.

Kendell is 28, divorced and living with her ex-husband to avoid having to move back home and end up having her entire life taken up with caring for her younger siblings. On the day she loses her job her husband tells her that his new college-aged girlfriend is moving in instead of letting her sign the new lease. So she is jobless and homeless when her ex-colleague tells her about a job his friend told him about that pays lots of money.

She goes on the interview that requires she take her potential employers company jet, that also has a wealthy business exec on board. They get halfway to their destination when a big snowstorm hits and they end up having to share the last hotel in Douglas, Montana for four days.

Gentry King is the CEO of King Oil. He is 49 years old and has four grown sons. He’s worked for his deceased wife’s family oil company since he was 19 and they had their first child. His mother in law has the company in a death grip and treats her family like pawns she can move around a board. Stuck in a hotel room with the gorgeous and more importantly, young, Kendell is a kind of torture because not only is she gorgeous but she’s funny, kind, bright and approachable. They spend four days playing board games and talking.

The reason I say this is a different kind of age-gap romance is that though there is a 20 year age difference, they are actually at similar stages in their lives. Kendell started raising her siblings from the age of 5 when she changed her first diaper. She takes her siblings to baseball games, to the library and pays for their school trips. She helps with homework and talks them through panic attacks. She may be 29 but she’s already lived a lifetime.

Kendell and Gentry can really talk to each other and they respect each other and the hold their respective families have on them. They fight their attraction, though not for long, not because of their ages, but because of what other people might think or do about it.

I love how real this relationship felt. Talking over the kitchen table about work and eating lunch together, holding hands on long walks and having sex in the back of a pickup truck. There was passion, but it wasn’t the glue that held the relationship together, that was their respect for each other and the fact they genuinely liked each other.

I also liked that though Gentry was ridiculously wealthy he didn’t hold the purse strings on the family coffers. He also only helped Kendell out a little bit and she wanted to find work more than anything, whether that was with him or anywhere else, preferably one that used her brain.

There was a lot to this book, from the way the family members interacted, to the business that Gentry and his sons were involved in. I loved how the two families were equally important and the way they wove together was interesting to say the least.

This was a really good book and had a nice HEA, but also left me really wanting to know about the rest of the King family and how their immediate future was going to look. I will definitely be reading the next book.

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Review: When He's an Alpha (The Olympus Pride Series Book 2) by Suzanne Wright

When He's an Alpha by Suzanne Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Entertaining Paranormal Romance

One of the things I like about this world of shifters, that Suzanne Wright has created, is that just because there are fated mates, that doesn’t mean that is all there is. Just because you are fated does not mean you will want to be with that person, even if the animals belong together. There is another option to being a fated mate and that is imprinting, which gives a similar result, being mates, but a different process. This makes romances much more interesting in this world than in many other ‘fated mates’ type books. We are kept guessing about the nature of the relationships.

In this book, Tate has become the Alpha for the Olympus Pride, with his father Vinnie, the old Alpha, staying on as an advisor. Tate had partial imprinting bonds broken three years ago and since then he keeps all relationships casual. His hookups last a couple of months and then the women are out the door. His latest hook up is Havana, a lone Devil shifter. She works at the rec centre, which is a place for lone shifters to hang out and feel safe. She was lucky enough to get an apartment in the Olympus Pride’s apartment block for lone shifters, as normally they are not welcome around prides, packs and flocks etc. Havana and her friends have been together a long time and as a natural-born alpha, Havana is in charge of their little clan.

Four months after starting her fling with Tate, Havana has decided to end things because she has started to have feelings for Tate and that goes against their agreement. She knows that Tate is never going to have a serious relationship with her and Havana doesn’t want to put herself through that. Though Tate initially lets her go, he’s reluctant and when she has a kidnapping attempt made on her he can’t help his possessive reaction to her.

This book is full of interesting relationships, information about lone shifters and how they fit in the world, and intrigue as they try to track down the bad guys.

As usual, there is plenty of passion in this book and this author writes very hot scenes that you probably don’t want to read in public.

There is plenty of humour and I love the banter between all the characters, not only the main ones. This is part of what makes these books so entertaining. I love the world-building and having characters from other series pop up in this series, as it creates links between what has been written previously and current events.

Overall, you can’t go wrong with one of these shifter books. They are entertaining, filled with passion, have oodles of interesting world-building and plot aplenty. A perfect escapist novel.

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Review: Boys and Burlesque by Ripley Proserpina

Boys and Burlesque by Ripley Proserpina
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What Happens After Small Town High School Reverse Harems Form

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

One of the most interesting things about this book is that it is set mainly 8 years after high school graduation. It’s the story of what happens to high school loves when they are a reverse harem in a small town. It’s about what happens when small-minded town folk get involved in shutting down something that could be rather beautiful.

Betsy was raised by her grandmother and had four best friends from kindergarten who all happened to be boys. They grew up together and all fell in love. In a small-minded town they tried to hide their love for each other but they loved each other too much to hide it properly and when two of the boys' fathers got involved the relationship crumbled under the pressure. Sadly it left Betsy alone and with nothing. She had no family who cared for her and no financial support, so instead of getting to go to Juilliard and learning to be a ballet dancer, she ended up a stripper.

Betsy didn’t stay just a stripper though, she used her dancing skills and transformed into Betty Belle a renowned burlesque dancer. 8 years after losing her loves and her future, they choose to come back into her life.

This is a well-constructed book, written from multiple POV. Though it is well structured I believe that if a few honest conversations were had during the course of this book then there would have been a lot less heartache and a lot fewer chapters. I know it makes for drama and intrigue, but sometimes I just want to smack these characters around for being so self-important they can’t see any view, other than their own, as being valid. At least one of the characters acknowledges this in the later stages of the book.

The book is entertaining, and as well as the romantic aspects of the book there is a certain amount of peril that the guys must protect Betsy from, just to add to the intrigue. There are also several sex scenes, however, they were a little bit pedestrian and didn’t exactly have me fanning my face with the heat they generated.

More than anything this is a romantic second chance book, where the male main characters have a shot at redemption and the female main character gives in far too easily, which is par for the course with this type of book. However, much kudos to the author for taking a different approach to the NA RH genre.

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Review: Collide (Shades of Trouble Series Book 1) by Kitty Cox

Collide by Kitty Cox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Beautiful Hopeful Messy Romance

Warning: This book contains references to self-harm, eating disorders, grooming for child abuse and violence. If any of these subjects cause painful emotions, you may want to avoid the book, though all subjects are handled with tact and understanding.

I knew I was going to like this book because I like the way Kitty Cox looks at the world. She’s optimistic with a side order of realism and a hint of despair. This is the first in a four-book series and I devoured it in one chunk, staying awake until 6 am because I couldn’t stop reading it. It was all the things I hoped it would be, beautiful, hopeful, messy, real and painful. It’s a wonderful start to the series and I can only hope that the rest of the series lives up to it’s introduction.

Violet’s beloved grandmother has died, leaving her legacy to her brilliant and determined granddaughter. Violet was raised from the age of 12/13 by her grandmother when her mother just left her there. It could have gone horribly wrong, but Violet’s grandmother was gifted with wayward teens and ran a centre for convicted teenagers, who committed crimes that could be seen as justified, such as stealing to feed a younger sibling, or defending someone physically which lead to assault charges. The centre did equine therapy, lead by Bea, Violet’s grandmother’s girlfriend.

Despite the love and care that Violet received she was still a troubled teen, but when she left the area she took with her friends that would last forever. She went into modelling with her best friend Ashton and they started a lingerie business together, with Ash designing and Violet modelling. When Violet and Ashton return to the the small community they are met with distaste and threats when they start to work towards opening the centre again. However, these two bright and strong personalities don’t care what people think of them and they have the support of their friends who were helped by the centre. They also get the help of Luke who has a 12-year-old daughter. He has a very low paid job and lives hand to mouth so his daughter doesn’t go without.

When Cy joins the staff as a psychiatrist for the young people who will hopefully be coming through the centre the four people connect in a way that they never saw coming.

This book may be considered part of the reverse harem genre but in reality it is a book about a polyamorous group of people. These four are strong, but flawed people, who have experience of life and think they know who they are, but are still accepting of their ability to change.

I love the way the group relate to Luke’s daughter, Faith. They all see her beauty and want her to flourish and do their utmost to make it happen. I love no matter what, Faith came first with all of them. Faith was written in a believable and relatable way and she had an important role in the book. She was the girl that Violet could have been if she had a parent who cared about her. She was the reason that Luke was stuck in a dead-end job supporting a woman he never loved, but she was also the reason he didn’t care. Through Cy’s eyes we see her beautiful spirit, intelligence and compassion and she gives Ash someone to protect.

All together they make up a crazy and unacceptable family, in small-town America. They are distrusted and verbally abused by the community in which they live and they fight because they know that what they have could be amazing, if only they can work through all the messy and painful problems that being in a polyamorous relationship can bring.

I can’t wait to see what the next book brings because as well as the relationship aspect of this book, there is a deeper and more sinister story being told. We leave this book on a bit of a cliffhanger and we have to wait until June for the next book in the series. I can’t wait and know I’ll re-read this book before starting the next one, because it’s such a fantastic and emotional rollercoaster of a story, with so many layers I know I’ll be unpicking them even after several read-throughs.

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Review: Woman In Demand (Seraphine Thomas Series Book 13) by Erin R Flynn

Woman In Demand by Erin R. Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Christmas and New Year in Chicago

This is a bit of a different book for this series. It’s meant to be a ‘half’ book, sort of between 12 and 13 in the series, it follows on from book 12 but without any of the FBI cases, you would normally find in one of these books. This book focuses solely on Sera’s life and Alpha duties as opposed to working with her FBI team. That does not mean she isn’t dealing with the politics of the supernatural world and the human government, but she isn’t working cases.

This book only covers a short period of time, but a lot gets fitted in. It deals with several problems that Sera has to deal with including her issues with the Director of the FBI and her arch-nemesis Murray, and dominance fights in the casino.

I liked how we are out of sync with the timelines a bit as Sera is coming up to a new president being elected and just about to take office in the new year. The president is not a Democrat and not from Chicago, unlike the president they have been dealing with up to this point. Names are not used, but the allusions are made to whom Sera has been/will be dealing with. Having the timelines out of sync, with this alternate reality means that anything crazy she has the new regime getting up to with the supernatural community will be nothing compared to the reality of the last four years in the US!

It was good to get another Sera book, after a bit of a hiatus. I hope that this means a new one won’t be left quite as long next time, though I am enjoying the Artemis University books a lot too, so I can’t complain too much about the books actually being published!

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Review: Secrets Worth Keeping (Finding My Home Series Book 2) by Nikita Parmenter

Secrets Worth Keeping by Nikita Parmenter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fabulously Mystery Laden Dark NA RH

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

I really love this book, in fact, I love the whole series. I feel like I shouldn’t because it has lots of flaws, but it’s just fabulously dark and sweet at the same time.

This second book in the series starts with Ever’s kidnapping and continues through the rest of the winter break from school. The kidnapping is handled with aplomb and the slimy stalker gets taken away in handcuffs. The rest of the book revolves around going away to the boys’ cabin in the mountains. Of course, it turns out to be more like a mansion! We also meet the mysterious Atlas, who is exactly as you would expect, and of course, he and Ever click instantly.

There are lots of unknowns about this series that are very very gradually being revealed. We don’t really know all that Ever got up to before she came back to live in Serendipity and we certainly don’t know all that the guys got up to before she got there as well. No one knows what Atlas gets up to and where he really came from but we get a few tantalising hints.

We get lots of dark and joyful violence from all of them, including Ever. We get lots of passionate sex, and lots of cute loving cuddles and snowball fights. It’s a book of dichotomies, which is actually pretty enjoyable. I love how we are getting to know the individual characters much more with this book and how they interact with one another.

Now onto the things I find flawed about the books. They are all in their late teens but behave like they are in their mid-twenties. They certainly have sex like they have a decade of experience under their belts, which is one of my pet hates even whilst knowing the internet has set standards for sexual experience in a very different place than when I was that age. I have to mentally wipe their ages out of my mind for big chunks of these books because their whole dark leaders of the school thing is also pretty unbelievable, but then I know there are tonnes of books out there that deal with this kind of thing, so I’m probably pretty much alone on this particular pet hate. Again, I think it’s my age showing

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Review: Returning to Everton (Everton Ever After Series Book 1) by Scarlett Philips

Returning to Everton by Scarlett Philips
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet Second Chance Reverse Harem

First off, beware the cliffhanger, it’s a doozy. I knew there was one coming when we got to around 90% and were nowhere near done with the story. It seems the author agreed with me and decided the story needed another book.

This book is about Rowen. She’s a 30-year-old widowed mother who also happens to be a magic-user, who lives amongst ‘norms’. Her husband was not a magic user and didn’t like that Rowen and her daughter were, and demanded that they didn’t practice magic. Rowen’s husband has been dead for 6 months and she has decided it’s time to return to her home town where she and her daughter can practice magic openly. In a town of magic users, her family and best friend will be around and her best male friends might let her apologise for dropping off the face of the Earth when she met her husband.

Rowen always loved her male friends, Kayden and Auden, the twins, Hudson, the leader, and Nate, the bad boy. Magic users sometimes have multiple partner relationships so it’s not that out there that she could be with all four guys, but she didn’t think they felt that way for her. She met her husband when she went away to college and she never really went back, especially as her husband disapproved of her guys.

When Rowen comes back home, she meets up with her guys again, and their friend Declan and Declan’s young son, who the guys helped raise alongside Declan when his wife died in childbirth. None of the guys had it easy when Rowen left, because they loved her and couldn’t understand how she could walk away and not look back.

This is actually a pretty sweet book. I love all the little magic touches, such as making a dream playhouse for Rowen’s daughter that magically alters depending on what the child wants to play with, and telekinesis being used for baking. Rowen’s daughter, Violet, is really sweet and the character interacts as a unique personality, which sometimes doesn’t happen in books, where young children are part of the plot.

The plot is interesting, and in some places quite disturbing. There was also some heat in the bedroom, though I felt the BDSM scene was a little shaky. Mainly the romance part of this book is sweet, and that is sometimes exactly what you want in a romance.

Like I said the cliffhanger is a bit of a doozy, so be prepared to be annoyed if the next book isn’t out (I’m not sure when it comes out, or if it’s out already) because it is a bit emotional. I really hope the book comes out soon!

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Review: Veiled (Concealed in Myths Series Book 1) by Ruby Smoke

Veiled by Ruby Smoke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Filthy Fae Fun

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

I’m pretty sure this is the first book I’ve read by this author, and I chose it because a couple of people recommended the book in my Facebook groups. I’m so glad I decided to follow up the recommendations because this was a great book. I’d also like to say, what an amazing cover, because that thing is creepy and beautiful all at the same time, a little like the book.

Hudson is a magic user, whose father is a member of the council that rules over magic users. She has been schooled in the proprieties of her father’s position and forced into a neat little box all her life. But she doesn’t really fit into that box very well. She’s a little too loud, a little too brash and strong and she really hates her father’s choices on what she has to wear. She is now 20 and set to go off to university where she can finally make her own choices on what to wear and who to be. She gets sent to a magical college rather than the mortal one she wants to go to, but at least she is free of her father’s influence.

When Hudson arrives she finds her the man her father adopted when he was 15 years old and she was 10. He and his three best friends are now instructors at the college and she has to live in a house with them, and the sexual tension is supercharged, a bit like her powers seem to be. She doesn’t seem to be a usual magic-user and maybe her white hair isn’t just a sign of stress, but of something else, that SHE is something else.

This is a complex book with many moving parts. There are plots and conspiracies, with many people not being who you think they are.

There is lots of violence, snark and pop culture references, with many nods to the RH writing community. There is also a LOT of sex. The scenes are hot and spicy, with enough filth to make anyone blush, whilst turning the pages faster to keep up with the imagery. I will say that in case you really don’t enjoy it, there are some FF, MFM and MFMM scenes but no MM ones. All are equally hot.

Apart from snappy retorts and too cool for school MFC, there is actually a lot of substance to the book. The characters are all clearly delineated and distinct from one another, with enough to differentiate them in your head as you read (something that some RH authors seem to struggle with). However, you are aware that there is plenty of room for growth of each character and to expand on their histories, as they are clouded apart from in relation to Hudson’s shared past.

The world-building was interesting but a little fuzzy in places. There was plenty of mythology chucked at us, but in some places it didn’t make a great deal of sense. I feel that there will be a lot more world-building in the rest of the series. There was a lot crammed into this first book, and as is often the case with a first book, some things by necessity got left out. I’ll be interesting in reading the bits that fill in those gaps.

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me entertained on a day where I just couldn’t find ANYTHING that I wanted to read. It was a minor miracle I found this book in my saved samples on my Kindle and it jumped out of me because of that wonderful cover. As soon as I read the sample I was hooked, though the prologue was a bit wordy and ‘mysterious prophecy-tastic’. Once the book proper got started I was hooked.

I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.

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Review: Blade to the Keep (Goddess With A Blade Series Book 2) by Lauren Dane

Blade to the Keep by Lauren Dane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Goddess, Vampires and Magic

At the end of the last book, Rowan was appointed as the Liaison between the Vampire Nation and Hunter Corp. In the few months since then, she has been working tirelessly to get an amendment to the Treaty made that will ensure that Hunters can get access to vital information before humans start dropping like flies and risk exposing the supernatural world.

At the Keep where she grew up, for the first time since she was 16, Rowan is working hard to push through the amendment, make peace with the vampire that raised her, the oldest vampire in existence, and reunite with the people of the Keep who she cared for.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book is the understanding that Rowan has gained about her foster father. She is now 30 and has worked with Hunter Corp for over a decade. She has faced down strong and dangerous vampires and survived. She has gained distance from the hurt young woman who fled after finding out how utterly ruthless her foster father, Theo, truly was.

As Rowan has come to accept the actions of her foster father, she does not condone them, but she does understand him a little better with her own increased experience and wisdom. Part of that understanding is coming to see, no matter his actions, Theo, really loves her, even if the way he expresses that love is completely alien to her own human understanding. There are few frames of reference between a human child and a 3000-year-old born vampire. There aren’t many vampire books that really capture this disparity of thought processes between species and cultures as well as this book does.

This book was mainly about politics and violence, which also encompasses Rowan and Theo’s relationship. On opposing sides in name, but really fighting towards the same end of maintaining the treaty that protects both humanity and the Vampire Nation, leads to some delicate dancing, which is interesting to read about.

I also enjoyed the developing feelings between Clive, the Scion for North America and Rowan. It started in the first book as pure lust between them, but there is a definite softening in feelings in this book.

It’s an entertaining and satisfying read and I’m looking forward to reading the next in the series.

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Review: Handfuls of Shattered Pieces (Pieces of Us Series Book 1) by Kerry Taylor

Handfuls of Shattered Pieces by Kerry Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Angsty Slow Burn NA RH

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

Olivia Byrd was taken from her family aged 8 years old and held for 9 years by a monster. She was tortured and lived in the dark and silence until one day she was running away through the woods unable to remember how she got there.

A young doctor, Xander, was working in the ER when she was brought in and he connected with the traumatised victim when no one else could. Hoping to return to her family, Olivia was further devastated to learn that her family was gone and she was alone.

Xander was adopted by wonderful people who also fostered others. He reached out and managed to get her placed with his adopted parents because he knew that if anyone could reach Olivia it was Keira and Grant and their family.

I felt wrung out by the end of this book. Olivia goes through so much before we even meet her in this book and then she goes through more stuff. I just want to wrap her up in cotton wool and give her armed guards, her foster parents felt the same, unsurprisingly.

I think my main problem with this book is that this incredibly traumatised young woman refuses to speak to a psychologist because of unreasonable fears and they don’t push her to reconsider. They also do really dumb things like taking her to the mall and a party, both of which go wrong, unsurprisingly. For experienced foster parents of traumatised young people, Keira and Grant don’t seem very sensible.

There are lots of really unrealistic parts of this story, but it doesn’t really detract from the narrative. The author is able to get the reader to skim over why a part is a bit unfeasible quite well, by wrapping them up in the story.

We don’t get much information about the guys in this situation. We know they have experienced their own trauma, but we don’t know what or why. As this is a series I imagine more information about the other characters may be forthcoming.

If you want to feel a lump in your throat and gasp in sympathy for how awful Olivia’s life is, then this is the book for you. If you want something cheerful, this is NOT the book for you.

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Review: Destiny Realised (Destiny Series Book 3) by CJ Cooke

Destiny Realised by C.J. Cooke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An End To This Chapter

This is the final book in this series, but there are more books set in this world involving other characters. There is a HEA for these characters, but maybe not for all the characters involved in the series.

This book is by far the longest in the series and it has a lot of meat to it. This story covers Aria’s trek through Asgard to force Odin to open the gates so the Valkyrie army can take on the demons that are threatening the magical realm. This is not an easy task because Odin seems to have lost touch with reality since he closed the gates.

I love this part of the story as we find out all about Aria’s parentage and her magic. I must admit I never saw it coming about who her father is! We also see her mates become stronger and more tightly bound with her and each other.

There were some mighty plot twists in this book, that kept me guessing which only made me want to keep reading. There are battles, large and small, and Aria and her mates grow in strength as they overcome each obstacle.

Despite all the battles and the tearing around all over the place, there is still time for passion, love and affection. There are some pretty spicy scenes in this book, which includes some MM and MMFMM action.

I’m glad that this world will continue because so many of the supporting characters are really interesting and seem to have really fascinating stories to tell of their own. There are also some plot holes that need to be filled with future books. ***Where DID the angels all go?***

I will definitely be reading the next book about this world.

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