Review: Protecting What's Mine (Benevolence Series Book 3) by Lucy Score

Protecting What's Mine by Lucy Score
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Linc Meets His Match

This is the third book in a series of connected standalone books. You don’t need to read the first two books, but doing so will give you a better understanding of the characters, their history and the world in which they live.

Linc is well-loved despite his dating activities. His ex-girlfriends nearly all universally speak his praises. He never makes promises he doesn’t intend to keep, is gorgeous, charming, thoughtful and a very fun date. As a result, he’s never taken seriously romantically by any of the inhabitants of Benevolence despite being very well-liked and his position of Fire Chief being very well respected. His nephews and nieces adore him, and he’s great with other people’s kids. Despite covering up his fear of being hurt by his flirty banter, he sees his friends and family leading the life he wants to, but doesn’t know how to get.

Mack, aka Doc Dreamy, first appeared in Aldo’s book, Finally Mine. She was the medic who saved him in Afghanistan on the evac helicopter flight, five years earlier. They stayed in touch and when she decided that she was on the verge of burnout and got out of the National Guard she took a 6-month contract in Benevolence at his suggestion. Mack is mainly in town to work 4 days a week at the local practice, doing family medicine, but one day a week she’ll carry on working on helicopter medical rescues. On her first flight she meets Linc, who others label ‘Chief Sexy Pants’ and they recognise a kindred spirit in each other. However, Mack is determined to stop her casual attitude to relationships and shies away from getting involved with Linc. Linc, however, finds that he wants more from Mack than he’s wanted for a very long time.

Mack and Linc are a very likeable pair. Both are heroic in nature, wanting to help others and are willing to risk themselves to do so. Both are wary about getting too deeply into a romantic relationship, though Linc is capable of connecting with people easily on a friendship level. Mack is less able to trust others and connect with them socially due to her past. Mack is determined to get better at the social connections a small town GP needs in order to do their job properly and works hard at improving herself, and at the same finds herself accidentally learning how to connect with people away from work.

The town of Benevolence is very appealing. Everyone knows each other’s business but are kind and generous in their support. Its filled with interesting characters who all know each other and their history. Mack is as seduced by the town’s inhabitants as she is by Linc.

This book is filled with clever observances about the nature of people and the damage that they can sustain that can continue inflicting pain long after the initial injury is supposed to be healed over. The author peels back layer after layer of the main characters’ histories and personalities as their story progresses. With each layer you become more involved with the characters and invested in their happiness.

I’m going to miss this little town, but I’m definitely going to read some more books by this author.

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Review: Watching Trin (On Call Series Book 7, Police and Fire: Operation Alpha) by Freya Barker

Watching Trin by Freya Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Single Mum and The Firefighter

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

This is part of a continuing series with characters that appear across all the books, however, the book can be read as a standalone and the experience won’t be lessened. There is no cliffhanger.

Katrina, aka Trin, has just moved back to Durango after more than 20 years away from home. She went away to college and became a journalist and travelled all around the world with work, until she settled in Houston after having a baby. Her baby is now nearly 15-years-old and beginning to enter his snarly teen years. The main reason she’s returned home is to help her sister look after her father who is suffering from dementia.

Bohdi, aka Roadkill, is a firefighter and his new colleague is Vic, Trin’s sister. He loves his job and his family. He has good friends and is pretty content with life. When he meets Trin, he is struck by her in a way he wasn’t expecting and finds himself really drawn to her. Though Trin’s life is currently a train wreck when Bohdi asks her out eventually she accepts because he slips his way into her life being helpful and supportive with a side order of flirting thrown in.

When Trin’s son gets into trouble and Bohdi saves his life their relationship steps up a gear. As Trin gets onto the path of a story about a cold case Bohdi offers her help when he can, support when he can’t and a strong body to cuddle up to.

This is such an enjoyable story, with engaging characters. I really like Bohdi’s relationship with his family and how his family wrapped up Trin’s family so quickly and warmly into their warm embrace. Bohdi’s relationship with Trin’s son was also endearing.

One of the things I really like about this author is her characters feel real. They have all the excitement of a new relationship, the passion and the heady emotions of finding someone you care about, but she also shows what happens when two mature people who are set in their ways try to merge their lives and fireworks happen. It’s not all plain sailing, but they work out their differences like the adults they are.

On top of all this good relationship stuff and believable characters, the plot is interesting and gets the brain working as you try to solve the whodunnit. There is suspense and danger alongside research and determination.

I devoured this book in one sitting and I’m sad I didn’t eke it out a bit more. Now I’ll just have to wait for the next one in this very enjoyable series.

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Review: Absolving Blue (Police and Fire: Operation Alpha) (On Call Series Book 4) by Freya Barker

Absolving Blue (Police and Fire: Operation Alpha) by Freya Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Breaking Blue’s Shell

This is story is part of a series, however, it can be read by itself. The series is about a group of police and firefighters so reading the other books gives you a stronger idea of the background characters, but if you haven’t read them it doesn’t prevent you from enjoying this book.

Blue is the only woman on her fire crew. She’s an EMT and loves her job with a passion. She sees her crew as the family she never really had, but she doesn’t show much of herself to them. She keeps herself locked down tight and at 40 years old she has never let anyone close. She basically works, hangs out with work buddies and volunteers at the animal rescue. Her nickname comes from her personality rather than her eye colour.

Tony is a police detective and has worked for years with Blue. He’s always been attracted to her but she seemed so unapproachable he never did. He is handsome and charming and enjoys the company of different women too much to settle down, plus his job is very demanding. He has a loving family with his father, brother, sister-in-law and niece and spends time with them as well as his friends and colleagues.

When Blue has a series of patient’s die over a short period of time when she thought they would be ok, Tony sees her tough shell crack a little and he sees the real Blue. When she adopts a dog on a whim he suggests they look after him together as they both have demanding jobs but between the two of them, they should be able to look after Arthur. This impulse finally lets him into Blue’s life and he begins to see the real woman at a time when her world comes crumbling down.

I enjoyed Blue and Tony’s developing relationship a lot. Blue had been alone for so long that it took Tony time to work his way into her life and her heart. He was supportive and loving as well as being protective at a time when she desperately needed it. He also came into her life at a time when she was vulnerable enough to seek help for her mental health. Having a professional guide her through the relationship minefield helped a lot.

All the little details in this author’s books really help to shape her characters. Things like Tony being colourblind or Blue being scared of heights show us real people that we can connect with. Being over 40 means that they have some baggage and are set in their ways which give us a chance to see them work through their differences to create a new life together.

The suspense part of this book was tough on Blue. She was really put through the wringer and the support of her crew and Tony and his family made all the difference to her making it to the other side. The plot was intricate and interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat as it wove in between the romance and the character development. This author is really good at finding the balance between all aspects of a strong Suspense Romance novel. This series as a whole has provided excellent entertainment and I can’t wait to read the next book.

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Review: Tracking Tahlula (On Call Series Book 3) by Freya Barker

Tracking Tahlula by Freya Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Writer and The Firefighter

This is the third book of a continuing series, however, the book works on its own without reading the previous books. The series contains the same group of characters based around a group of firefighters/EMTs.

Tahlula is a writer who has had moderate success until recently when her book blew up the best seller’s lists. All of a sudden her publisher required her to do interviews and appearances, something she hadn’t done before as she wrote under a pseudonym. When she started appearing in public she received threatening messages and someone broke into her house. In the end, she decided to move away from where she felt threatened to Durango where her big brother Trunk lives. She bought a house high up in the mountains, miles from town and loves her solitude.

Evan is a firefighter and paramedic. He works long and often dangerous hours. He is a good man, who loves his widowed mother, and helps her as much as she will let him. He has good friends and when he’s not working ridiculous hours enjoys spending time with them. However, he’s single and has spent most of his adult life in that state and now he’s over 40 he’s not expecting to meet anyone to alter that.

Evan has got a slow period at work and his boss has sent his staff out into the mountains to check on the houses up within reach of forest fires to make sure they are set up as safely as possible. When Evan meets Tahlula he is smitten straight away, as she likes him too, that’s fine. When external pressures push their relationship onto the fast track, neither of them objects too much, except when Evan gets bossy!

I really enjoyed this book. Lula and Evan were great characters and I loved how they were two lifelong single people trying to fit their lives together because they couldn’t imagine being apart once they met. They rub each other the wrong way sometimes because they are both strong personalities but they work their way through it.

The suspense part of the story is good, though the romance is more of the focus of the story. This story also brings characters from different series written by the same author together. In particular, Lula’s brother Trunk is from the Arrow’s Edge MC series and is a huge character and is immensely important to Lula in this book. Having all these crossover characters is great fun, but does take away time from the suspense plot, which means it isn’t as full and rich as other suspense plots written by this author. It’s still very interesting and intriguing though.

Once again Freya Barker writes a great story about people in their forties, still having time to have their dreams come true.

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Review: Day (The Brothers Series Book 4) by Mia Malone

Day by Mia Malone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Day and The Author

This was another great book in this series about a group of friends who live in a small mountain town.

Damien (Day) was an Olympic gold medal winning skier. He knew Sissy before her attack over 30 years before. He’s lead a very interesting life travelling all over the world and making time to visit with his 5 children that he had with three different women that he’s still on good terms with. He’s a very likeable man, but he’s been unhappy since he was a young man, when he lost his entire family within a few years of each other.

Bebe is an author of erotica. She’s been doing it for 10 years and been very successful at it. Before she was an author she was successful in corporate America, with a VP job by the age of 40. She also has 5 sons. On the day that her life was transformed, she met Day and his role in that transformation was fairly key.

Years later she is friends with Beth, Lee’s ex-cousin-in-law, and Beth asks Lee if she can arrange somewhere for Bebe to work as she needs to finish writing her current book in peace. She ends up staying in Day’s guest house and their meeting for the second time is not smooth.

This book is actually quite poignant with the focus being on Day’s family and their loss, and helping him to move on from that loss. Once more the friends all bond together to help him get through the tough stuff, with love, support and ridiculous amounts of teasing. Once again, this book is a wonderful example of romance for people who have lived a little.

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Review: Consumed (Firefighters Series Book 1) by J R Ward

Consumed by J.R. Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really Good Firefighter Romance

This book was about the relationship between two firefighters, and the relationships that surround them. Anne is the daughter and sister of a firefighter. Her father died in the line of duty when she was a teenager and her brother is in charge of all the firefighters in the city. Anne couldn’t imagine ever being anything else.

Danny has no family left, both his parents and his twin brother are deceased. His brother was also killed in the line of duty as a firefighter.

Anne and Danny have worked together for several years and had a one night stand at a friend’s wedding, but they have never discussed it since. Then, during a big fire, they are both injured very badly, both blaming themselves for the other’s injuries and they avoid each other for months.

Anne is unable to return to the job she loves, so she retrains as a Fire Investigator. This leads Anne into a big investigation that uncovers a lot of connections with big names in the city, which brings danger calling.

I really enjoyed this book. There was a lot of really interesting content about the life of firefighters and especially the physical and mental toll it can take on both them and their loved ones. There is a lot about Anne’s relationship with her mother and her brother, neither relationship is particularly positive and there is lot about why that is.

Anne is a really independent and strong woman. I like that she has emotional issues, and though she’s not really had any professional support she has worked her way through a lot of them by herself.

Danny was a bit of a mess emotionally. He drank too much, smoked and slept around. Through it all, he cared about Anne and was unhappy they weren’t together. He didn’t have any family left, so he made the guys at his station his family. He was also still good friends with guys from college. He was flawed, but he was a good guy and he supported Anne in her chosen job(s). He has a temper, but he’s not an alpha male who is always in full on ‘protect his woman’ mode.

I liked that though this was a romance, it was only a part of the book. There was a big chunk of the book about how they felt about themselves as well as each other. There was also the content about the investigation.

I felt that the investigation was the one area that let the book down. There were several leaps of intuition that could sort of be explained logically, but not fully. The investigation also seemed to fizzle out towards the end, and did not get completely resolved to my satisfaction. It may be that this is the first in a series, which, given the (Firefighters) tag in the name of the book, is probable. If this is the case then maybe future books deal with the ramifications of this element of the investigation.

I really hope there are other books in the series, because so many of the supporting characters are really interesting, and I would really enjoy reading about them as main characters.

All in all this was a well thought out and entertaining read, that makes you think a bit, but not too much.

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Review: Suffer Less By KB Everly

Suffer Less by K.B. Everly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Contemporary Reverse Harem

I’ve not read anything by this author before, but someone on one of my Facebook groups asked for recommendations of books with a disabled protagonist. As I’m disabled myself, reading about characters who face similar struggles to my own is always interesting to me. One of the things about books is it enables the reader to feel the same things the character feels, because you see inside their mind. It opens your eyes to their reality in a different way to watching them on tv or film. I don’t believe there are enough disabled characters in the media but wish even more that there were more in books.

When this book was listed in the recommendations, I decided to read it, especially as it’s a Reverse Harem book (always a winner for me) AND it’s on Kindle Unlimited. Basically I HAD to read it and I’m really glad I did, especially as the book was written by an amputee, so it was someone who really knew what they were talking about when writing about the reality of dealing with the loss of a limb.

The book is about Alessa, a 22 year old woman who has had a very hard life. Her parents were killed in the same accident that took her leg when she was a teenager and she had lived with her drug addicted aunt ever since. Alessa worked two jobs trying to save up money to leave her small town, where she’d been so miserable but her aunt made it difficult for her. It was at one of her jobs that she met three gorgeous men on motorcycles, Grey, Nash and Jude. Three friends who were touring around on their annual break visiting unusual pubs.

The three guys are not the usual motorcycle club members with being a therapist, paediatrician and a firefighter, but their club is just a riding club. This is not really an MC romance, though there is an issue with another club.

I really liked Alessa, she’s feisty even when she’s not feeling particularly brave. She picks herself up every day and does her best to get things done and she is compassionate even when some people would be bitter with the way life had turned out.

I liked the way the relationship was handled. There were open communications between them all, everyone was pretty honest and straightforward and despite this being a romance it wasn’t overly emotional. There were some sex scenes but there weren’t too many and they weren’t long and explicitly detailed either.

I really enjoyed this book. I will definitely be keeping a look out for others written by the same author.

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Review: First Moon (Lovin’ The Coven: Book 1)

First Moon by Jacquelyn Faye
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fun and Feisty Witch Shenanigans

I haven’t read anything by this author before but this series was recommended on one of my Facebook groups so I thought I’d give it a whirl. I have to say I was not disappointed. This book was exactly what I was in the mood for. It was funny and sexy with plenty of whodunnit to satisfy a hardened Miss Marple fan.

Dot is a 99 year old witch, who’s mother is the head of her coven. The coven is well established and the humans in the small town know about the witches in their midst. However, Dot’s mother is probably going to be around for centuries and she wants to get out from under her mother’s wing. She feels a magical ‘pull’ towards somewhere else so she and her best friend Josie pack up their bags and head off North to find out where their destiny lies.

They end up in the small town of Cedar Falls where the economy has tanked and all the youngsters are leaving town as soon as possible, heading for a larger city to settle down in. Dot and Josie like the place and start settling in quickly, just as someone is magically murdered. Much magical mayhem ensues. In addition there are some very handsome and ‘friendly’ men in the coven that seem to like Dot as much as she likes them. They also don’t seem to object to the competition.

I loved this book. It was filled with witty banter and easy going relationships. As this is the first in the series it was nice to see there was no diving head first into insta-love territory. There was attraction and dating. There was also lots of fooling around and I have to say it was probably more erotic than full on sex scenes would have been. There was genuine affection between most of the characters, even when things started out rocky, things were hashed out. It was all very adult, which isn’t surprising when the main character is 99 years old!

I really can’t wait to read the next in the series.

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