Review: All in Good Time (April Series Book 11) by Mackey Chandler

All in Good Time by Mackey Chandler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Earth Just Won’t Learn!

This is the 11th book in a continuing series, if you haven’t read the preceding books you won’t understand this one. The narrative ends at a natural break but the story definitely continues in the next book. There is a series, Family Law, that is set in the future and shares some of the same characters. The timeline winds between the two series and the reading order can be found in this post.

With April, Jeff and Heather working to make their plans work, they know in order to get out into the stars on a more permanent basis they need resources. Resources that they need to keep dealing with Earth for. Sadly Earth seems to be filled with people incapable of learning a single lesson in relation to Home and Central. Despite being beaten badly by April, just recently, USNA decides to take advantage of an emergency landing in Florida of a plane that carries Irwin who is a friend and colleague of hers and take him prisoner on trumped-up charges. So what’s a girl with orbital weapons to do?

This book continues to explore the idiocy of Earthies. Though Central and Home do continue to have friends on Earth, they appear to be in the minority. I felt that this book wasn’t the most exciting in the series and it covered a lot of the same ground that previous books, namely that people from Earth just don’t learn and that April is prepared to bomb them back to medieval times if necessary.

I did enjoy the continuation of following Eileen and Vic on Earth, in Northern California. Their story is a result of April’s previous bombardment and is a dystopian tale of hardship and the bonds of a made family. Those characters are interesting because they are very very practical people who find themselves happy because of practical decisions. Vic is much older than Eileen by decades but their emotional and mental connection is very real as they look at things in the same way, as Eileen is intelligent and mature beyond her years. I imagine living through what feels like an apocalypse is very good at making you grow up fast.

Whilst I know that everything comes in time, I’m not sure that some of this book wasn’t filler until enough time has passed until something more useful occurs. I hope the next book’s narrative takes a leap forward into something new.

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Review: Outlasting After: A Strike Team Three Novel (Outlasting Series Book 1) by LK Magill

Outlasting After: A Strike Team Three Novel by L.K. Magill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Intriguing Dystopian RH Novel

I’d give this book 4.5 ⭐️ if I could.

I’ve had this book knocking around on my kindle for eons. I saw an ad for it and realised I already owned the book and thought “why didn’t I read this earlier?”. After reading the book, I had to repeat the question, because I was definitely missing out.

Hannah is on her own and has been for months. She doesn’t even have shoes or trousers on, she is starving and has no memories past a few months ago. When she finds a group of men she starts following them for the scraps of food they leave at their camps after they move on.

When the men catch her she thinks that she’s going to suffer horribly at their hands. When her body gives out on her, and she can no longer defend herself, she believes that is the end for her.

Hannah is the first woman that Cole has seen in 3 years. The world has fallen apart due to a war no one really understood. When authority was gone and the infrastructure collapsed, Cole and his team of soldiers were on their own. When Cole brings her back to his camp he doesn’t understand that he just changed their world, but his best friend and second in command, Liam, does.

This is a very carefully constructed book. It slowly and carefully builds up the tension. It’s a surprisingly calm book. It’s steady and slow as the characters are revealed and the world is built. The sociological structure of their tight-knit group is explored and we start to glimpse how they are all going to change with the introduction of someone new, someone who is desirable.

This is also quite a cerebral book. We are given clear insights into the way that the characters minds work. Hannah may not have memories past a few months but she is very canny and understands people and the way they work. Cole is very single-minded and is like a charging bull at getting things done. Liam sees everything and says nothing, torn up by his own demons.

It’s a captivating book and I can’t wait to read what happens next as this one ends on a total cliffhanger, so you have been warned. But at least the next book is already out.

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Review: When She Purrs (Risdaverse Series Book 3) by Ruby Dixon

When She Purrs by Ruby Dixon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alien Abduction With A Twist

This next book in the Risdaverse Series is a little different. Normally in alien abduction stories it’s all about the alien doing the abducting, but in this book it’s the human abducting the alien, or at least hiring someone to do the abducting, she just doesn’t realise that the alien wants to be abducted.

Kim is living on Risda, one of the female humans freed from slavery and given a farm to provide a living. She’s feeling isolated and scared after hearing one too many tales of human women being forcibly married off and killed for their land. She hires a bounty hunter to find her a kind and protective mate who will tolerate a platonic marriage. Despite the bounty hunter telling her it’s a stupid plan, she wants to go forward with it.

Kim’s neighbour is Nassakth, an ex-gladiator who is from a race of cat-like aliens and has been watching Kim for a while after seeing her and wanting her. When she finds out the bounty hunter is looking for a husband for Kim he insists on being her kidnappee.

Though this is a lighthearted and sexy story, there are also some really tender and sweet moments between Nassakth and Kim. Their two cultures and differing traumatic pasts causing conflict. Nassakth is incredibly patient and kind, just like Kim wanted, she just wasn’t expecting him to be sexy too. Their courtship took time, even though it started with a wedding. They got to know each other and learn to trust each other.

I really do like this series. It is based on ridiculous premises but the stories themselves are really enjoyable.

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

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

Sweet And Sexy Alien Marriage of Convenience Romance

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

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

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

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

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

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

Becoming an Ex-Doormat.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short and Sweet Alien Romance

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

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

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

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

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Review: Hoax Husband by Candice Wright

Hoax Husband by Candice Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well Worn Trope Done Well

The get drunk in vegas and wake up married to a stranger is a pretty common theme in modern romance literature. It’s been done many different ways but this novel was done well. It’s not surprising to me because Candice Wright is a really good writer and I’ve enjoyed all the rest of her books. This is not her strongest book, but it’s no means weak.

This book is part of the Cocky Hero Club world. I was wracking my brain for the first few chapters knowing that the characters rung a bell. It wasn’t until I did a search for the MFC’s boss that I worked out that the MMC was the boss’s best friend from Stuck-Up Suit. Once I got that settled I could relax enough to enjoy the rest of the book.

The MMC, Asher Sloan, is pretty unlikeable. In fact he’s down right skeezy and it took him longer to win me over than it did the MFC, Linda. His attitude towards women was less than pleasant and his treatment of Linda after their night together in Vegas is pretty horrible.

Linda, on the other hand, is sweet, kind, friendly and warm. She’s strong willed and creative. At the start of the book she is forcing herself into a straight laced role that ill fits her personality and when that role breaks is when she meets Asher.

When they meet again Asher’s motives are not great and I really dislike that Linda falls for his manipulations, even if the lines he uses are sort of true. Linda’s sweet naïveté is kind of endearing, kind of ‘you need a good shake girlfriend’ and it’s a very fine line to walk for the author, who just about pulls it off. The only reason it works is that Linda kind of knows she’s being naïve and Asher knows he is being an ass.

It also veers off in the last 20% in an unexpected direction, which makes up for the predictable nature of the initial plot line, though I would have appreciated that section took up a little bit more of the storyline.

All that being said, I enjoyed the book as it was well written and I know that I will automatically pick up this author’s next book, as I did this one.

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Review: The Favor by Suzanne Wright

The Favor by Suzanne Wright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Enthralling Romance

I love Suzanne Wright, she hasn't written many contemporary romances, though what she has done, I've enjoyed. I think this book was the best yet as it was superb. It had all of the world building, character development and plot construction her other works had, just no shifters, vampires or demons.

Vienna works as a PA for a demanding, cold and ruthless business man, Dane. He is successful and driven and always gets what he wants. What Dane wants is for Vienna to marry him for 12 months so he can obtain a trust fund, which includes personal items his uncle left him. He doesn’t need the money, but he wants the things that connect him to a man he cared for.

Dane never wanted to get married. He wanted to succeed at everything he set his mind to, and he did. However, his uncle wanted him to be married because he had died financially successful but lonely and he didn’t want that for his nephews.

This seems on the surface to be the usual ‘marriage of convenience’ trope, which I happen to enjoy, which is why I downloaded it, however it is much more. There are so many layers to this story it’s hard to understand until you finish reading it. Both Vienna and Dane had very difficult childhoods in different ways. They also had caring adults during their childhoods who mattered to them and helped raise them. It affected them in completely different ways.

The people around Vienna and Dane are equally complex and have their own reasons for interfering in their marriage. They also have layers of motive and behaviour that are peeled back throughout the story. It’s a difficult line to walk, balancing the need to progress the story and also dwell on the emotional aspects of the characters but this author excels at it.

This really was a superb book and I enjoyed every page. I highly recommend it. I think I'm going to have re-read some of this author's books, because I haven't done it in a while and this book reminded me just how good she is.

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Review: For Pete's Sake (Tobin Tribe Series Book 1) by Caitlyn Coakley

For Pete's Sake by Caitlyn Coakley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Captivating Marriage Of Convenience Story

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

I always enjoy a good marriage of convenience book, they are usually entertaining and a good distraction from every day living, but this one was better than most I’ve read. What it had was plot, in spades.

Stephanie is a CEO of her grandfather’s financial company. Her parents died a few months ago and now she’s burying her husband of a year, who she just found out was married to someone else and had a baby with. Her board are determined to drive her out of her own company and are driving her crazy and her life just feels like it’s been ripped apart again.

Ethan is a personal injury attorney. One of the best in the city. He serves Stephanie with law suit papers at her husband’s funeral and for once he does not relish the start of the fight, because he knows that Stephanie isn’t to blame for his sister’s loss and for his nephew being without a father.

This first meeting leads to them getting married a few days later to save Stephanie’s company from the law suit and Ethan from losing his nephew into the foster care system.

I loved both of these characters so much. They were big and bold and strong. They also had vulnerabilities that were slowly revealed during the course of the book that stopped them from being the caricatures they could have been.

There was gentle humour in the book as well as the carefully crafted plot and the conversations between the characters were entertaining and heart warming. There was some predictability in the plot but I didn’t care because it was well written and enjoyed the journey, as much as I would have done the surprise.

I’m pleased to see that there is another book in the series already out as I really enjoyed meeting the whole Tobin clan and look forward to reading about the ‘boys’.

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Review: Bird (Teas Kings MC Series Book 3) by Cee Bowerman

Bird by Cee Bowerman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet Chaos

This book was back to the usual sweet warm and fuzzy feelings. I really enjoyed how this one unfolded.

Bird is the president of the Texas Kings MC. He co-owns the family businesses and manages on the bars himself. He has watched his friends and family pair off and become happy and has found himself feeling that his huge house and his life are too empty.

Summer is a widowed mother of three boys under the age of 5. Her husband died on the day she found out she was pregnant with her third child. She words with Drea and as her kids away for the weekend with their grandmother she decides to finally take Drea up on her offer to hit the town after work.

As soon as Bird and Summer meet there are sparks and they have walked out the door together within minutes of meeting. It’s complete insta-lust, only the crazy lust filled weekend they intended to have, with no strings attached, starts to feel like it could be something more, especially when someone turns up with a baby saying she belongs to Bird.

I have always like Bird, but Summer is awesome. She’s pretty happy and laid back, until someone attacks her loved ones and then she’s a mama bear. She goes with the flow, especially with her kids, who are awesome. I love how open she is to everything and matter of fact with it, even if she has a few mental wobbles along the way, they don’t last very long.

It’s a really feel good book that I enjoyed a lot.

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Review: Lucky Forever (Texas Knights MC Series Book 3) by Cee Bowerman

Lucky Forever: Texas Knights MC, Book 3 by Cee Bowerman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet Marriage of Convenience Story

This is the third in the series but does stand alone if wanted. It’s a really sweet story about Rowdy a 25 year old single Dad with a 12 year old daughter. He pretty much raised his daughter along with himself. He’s kind, loving and gentle. He has a great relationship with his daughter.

Sierra also had her daughter young, aged 15. She’s living in Kari’s apartments for abused spouses. She’s on the run from her ex-husband.

Their daughters are in gymnastics together and are great friends and the night Sierra and Rowdy meet, Sierra has the biggest stroke of luck a broke single mother could get, only she’s scared to cash in on it because it might lead to her abusive husband finding her. This leads to some surprising suggestions from Rowdy.

This is a marriage of convenience story/insta-like turns to love story. It’s sweet and fuzzy and I enjoyed it tremendously as an escape from the real world. Sadly, once again their were character names mixed up. I hope that some of the later works have better proof readers,though I know I’ll probably read the books anyway because they make me smile.

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