Review: Sins of A King (SINS Series Book 1) by Emma Slate

Sins of a King by Emma Slate
My rating: 3 of 5 stars 

Uncomfortable Reading For A Brit

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

It’s well written but I have reasons for my lower score and the reasons are given below as.........


*********SPOILERS*********





















Be warned that this about a woman who falls in love with a man who runs a criminal organisation in the US in order to funnel guns to the Scottish equivalent of the IRA. Now someone doesn’t have a problem with really dark romance will probably laugh at my discomfort around this subject matter but I don’t like my MMC to be really really awful. I like them to have some redeeming qualities before the MFC falls for them. I thought this was the case with this character because he seems kind for a ‘bad boy’. He runs a brothel and casino but his brothel workers are dubbed courtesans and have a choice about their clients who are very carefully vetted and monitored. Both these things are illegal but it isn’t like he’s selling drugs to kids or taking part in human trafficking.

However, as you get pulled into the story you become aware that essentially the MMC is a terrorist. In the US the IRA might be considered a group of freedom fighters, who have fought for peace. However in the UK if you are over a certain age the initials IRA conjures up a chill. The IRA were at war with the rest of the UK and they had no qualms about killing men, woman and children indiscriminately. Anyone who travelled through London in the 1980s and early 1990s (as I did as a teenager) will remember the low-level fear of not making it to your destination. No bins in train stations, signs about unidentified packages, does this sound familiar? It’s because in the UK we dealt with terror threats before the USA even knew what one was and it came from the IRA.

To have an author choose to make their MMC the member of an organisation like that for a country that has been part of the UK since 1707, nearly 70 years before the Declaration of Independence was written may seem like a good idea because of course, Scotland would never try to seek independence from Great Britain using violent means, but for a Brit who lived under the threat of the IRA, this does not make for a comfortable read. I don’t find terrorists heroic, no matter how much of a freedom fighter they are meant to be.

However, if you can distance yourself from that it’s a pretty well-written book. The characters are engaging, provided you ignore the fact they are terrorists. The characters are interesting and you can enjoy watching the way a fairly normal woman becomes the head of a crime syndicate as she tries to reconcile the actions she must take in order to stay alive and free.

It’s not incredibly violent, or it doesn’t dwell with glee on the violent incidents that occur. It’s still pretty dark in places though, even if it doesn’t start off that way. It’s a cleverly constructed descent into a murky world.

You may have guessed though that I won’t be reading the rest of this series. 

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Review: Peasants and Kings by Emma Slate

Peasants and Kings by Emma Slate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Dark And Dangerous Man

I don’t know what it is about this book that appealed so much to me. It’s not my current usual fair, but it does remind me of the kind of books I read a few years ago, so maybe it’s nostalgia!

Sterling’s mother has just died and left her with a letter telling her the kinds of secrets that sound unbelievable if it weren’t for the fact her mother took her own life to protect them. Estranged from her mother for years, Sterling obeys her mother’s wishes and disappears from her life, until she makes a mistake and needs to find a new way to hide and quickly.

Along her new path to secrecy, she meets Hadrian, a dark and compelling man, who wants to wrest all of Sterling’s secrets from her and keep them for himself. The only problem is that Sterling isn’t ready to give her secrets up to a man who has many of his own that he wants to keep hidden.

I liked Sterling and Hadrian, despite their many character flaws, because I liked them for each other. Their flaws meshed. However, some of their choices seemed to jar me out of my engagement with the book, which spoilt my enjoyment somewhat. I felt that some of the decisions made were shoehorned into the plot in order to make it work, but they weren’t necessarily things that meshed with the character’s personalities. There were also a few things that were kind of glossed over in order to move the plot along, which is fine, but they were things that were important to my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, the plot was fast-paced and interesting. There was plenty of heat and some violence, but not at the same time. As this was the first book I’ve read by this author, I may explore some others written by her, as this one was quite fun.

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Review: Edge of Tomorrow (Arrow's Edge MC Series Book 3) by Freya Barker

Edge of Tomorrow by Freya Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Making a Truly Blended Family

Lisa is raising two children that are not her own. They are her grandchildren. Her daughter abandoned her kids when the youngest was just a baby and died a couple of years later, leaving them completely reliant on her. She got a job working for a rich family and ended up in a horrific situation, as a black woman trapped and enslaved by white supremacists. The MC helped Lisa and the kids get free and have helped Lisa by giving her a job and a home on the compound.

Brick is a member of the MC that helped free Lisa and her grandchildren. When they first met he was immediately drawn to her but has spent the last two years waiting for a sign that she might be ready for a relationship, especially with a white man, after her experiences. He has cared for and supported her and the kids ever since they arrived. He has only just started making his move and realising Lisa might be willing when the earth drops out from under his feet.

Lisa and Brick are thrown together by circumstances when a baby needs their care. Their relationship is stepped up quickly by the needs of that baby but as they have spent the last 2 years getting to know each other, it goes a lot more smoothly than it might have.

So we end up with a truly blended family of a man and woman raising three kids that are not their own and it’s a lovely family, only it’s not that easy. Life becomes very dangerous and the MC steps into the fray to protect what’s theirs.

I loved this story, I particularly loved Brick and Lisa together. Lisa is a proud and determined woman who bends for no one, including herself. Her kids come first before anything else. Brick is a grizzled biker who lost his family when he went into prison and has been alone ever since. He is a bit brusque, stubborn and above all, kind. He adores Lisa and is determined to protect her, even from herself.

I love how this author creates families. They are filled with unique personalities and the characters of the kids also shine. The children are not cookie-cutter cute and precocious. Some are sweet, others are withdrawn and their personalities are dependent on many things. I love that the author pays as much attention to those details as she does the adult personalities.

The other thing I love about this author is that she writes hot bedroom scenes that are believable. These people are both well past their twenties and their knees are starting to go and that doesn’t stop them having sex, it just determines their positions! They don’t throw each other around the bedroom, but that does not reduce their passion for each other.

Once again this author writes an enjoyable and engaging book, that makes you fall for the characters just a little bit.

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Review: Covering Ollie (On Call Series Book 2) by Freya Barker

Covering Ollie by Freya Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hiding From The Mob

Ollie is 40 and for 18 years she’s been hiding from her deceased boyfriend’s family. She lost her lower leg to a car bomb and found out that the reason was that her boyfriend was a very bad man and part of a criminal organisation. When she lost her limb she found out she was pregnant and immediately took steps to run away to protect her child from becoming embroiled in that world.

Joe is 45 and has been a widower for the last year and a half. He has two sons, aged 8 and 12 and he recently moved to Durango to take over as Chief of Police as living in Denver as a homicide detective wasn’t a good way to raise two young motherless boys. Joe moved in across the road from Ollie a few months earlier and got to know her daughter Trinny well as she babysat for the boys most days, after school.

When Joe and Ollie finally meet there is a definite attraction there as they become involved in each other’s lives because of circumstances. There is pushing and pulling between them as they try and work out whether they are willing to risk being hurt in order to have something fulfilling.

I loved the way the children were involved in the relationship and they were front and centre for both Joe and Ollie. Their relationship was important, but nothing was as important as their children’s happiness and safety.

I liked the way they took their time getting to the physical part of their relationship. They were incredibly attracted to each other but waited until the right time and knowing how they felt about each other before jumping into bed. I think this is the difference between characters in their twenties and those in their forties. Fewer hormones running rampant and having different priorities.

The mystery aspect of the story was well done. No one behaved idiotically trying to get themselves killed by being stupid. Precautions were taken and stuck to. I love it when adults behave like adults! The mystery wasn’t the main focus of the story, but simply a vehicle for the romance, but it was still done well and there were a couple of surprises along the way, which is always good.

I will definitely be downloading the next story, as I like the way this author writes about people, in an engaging way with an eye to reality.

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Review: Don't Play with a Player: A Sweet Office Romance (Laws Of Love Series Book 2) by Agnes Canestri

Law #2: Don't Play with a Player: A Sweet Office Romance by Agnes Canestri
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet Romance

First I need to warn people who normally read my reviews that this is a little different to what I normally read and is actually a clean romance. I know it’s a bit shocking for you that I would read something without heat, but it’s a really sweet romance and I really enjoyed it. It reminded me a little of Mariana Zapata’s writing in style, just without the bedroom scene at the end.

This is a very slow-build romance with two people who seem so different but actually have quite a lot in common. Laia is a sweet, clever and pretty Hispanic woman, who has just finished her master's program and is desperate for a job. She’s creative and romantic but constantly underestimates herself and other people’s opinions of her.

Devon owns a very successful marketing company and is known as a bit of a playboy around town. He doesn’t believe in love and soul mates and would rather have a meaningless fling than a proper relationship. What he does need though is a PA.

Laia’s best friend puts her name forward for an intern position at Devon’s company. Devon ends up hiring Laia as his PA because he believes she is serious about her job and her terrible taste in clothes leaves her hidden away and not particularly attractive to him, so she isn’t too distracting.

These two people are very different but at the same time, they discover the things that they have in common are more than they thought. Laia discovers that she enjoys working with Devon and he enjoys having someone incredibly efficient and talented working as his PA, even if after her best friend’s makeover she actually now looks very attractive indeed.

There is a psychological element to this romance with the two of them starting to understand their behaviour and mindset. It’s a very gradual unveiling of secrets and histories, that reveals the motivations for their actions. The plot is quite predictable, but it’s still an enjoyable ride.

My one complaint is the use of the verbal tic of ending sentences with the word “......, no?”. I can understand it being the tic of one of the people in the story, but it was used by so many of them that it became very annoying. I don’t know if it’s because of the region the author comes from, or her heritage, but it just isn’t something I’m used to and it felt forced, even though it may not have been. It made the conversation more stylised and less natural. Other than that and the plot predictability, which sometimes is enjoyable in its own way, the book was a nice, sweet and fun romance.

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