Review: A Match Made in Slumber (Marriage Market Misadventures) by Kasia Bacon

Rating: 4🌈

Part of a mult-author fantasy series centered around a Marriage Market and “forced marriage” trope, I picked up A Match Made in Slumber because of the author and the description, which seems to have found a good way around the forced proximity aspect in the series that’s just not my thing.

Bacon doesn’t disappoint here with a charming tale of two totally different men who have been haunting each other’s dreams each night. Each man from a different world or realm, although they’re both Elves. And each one differs in their lifestyle and personality. Except for the fact they appear to be fated for each other.

Commander Keălhem Reñyés is about to storm the castle with his men, a bloody battle sure to ensue. He’s been in a war for a long time and only his nightly dreams have kept him sane.

Elian Fountenblym, is an imaginative genius who creates wondrous things with his magical matchsticks. But his nightly fantasies and the dream man who haunts them are keeping him up and from being productive. And when his magic goes wrong, it’s Keălhem who suddenly appears before him.

Bacon does a terrific job of characterizing the various backgrounds of each man while making the chemistry between them feel absolutely believable.

And being able to see Keălhem find his own way into Elian’s life and the marketplace, using his own strengths and skills is such a great pleasure and part of the relationship and storyline.

Even the “forced proximity/marriage” aspect loses the “ick” factor for me when the author builds such a strong case for them being fated partners being pulled together.

There is a happily ever after for the couple and the ending is very satisfying.

For those readers like me who are a fan of the author, this Shared world universe stands outside of Bacon’s Order Universe. FYI.

Highly recommended.

Cover Art: Cormar Covers

Logo Design: Marek Frankowski

Map Design: JS Harker & Katey Hawthorne

Marriage Market Misadventures – 8 books

Romancing the Throne by Lisa Henry and Sara Honey

Berries and Blades by Katherine McIntyre

Quills and Starlight by Kota Quinn

The Rake and the Cake by Katey Hawthorne

Love and Clockwork by Essie Sloane

The Love Schematic by JS Harker

Tossing the Caber by jem zero

A Match Made in Slumber by Kasia Bacon

“Each book explores queer pairings across the gender spectrum (M/M, F/F, F/X) through light-hearted mishaps and shenanigans. Romance tropes include fake engagements, forced proximity, opposites attract, marriage of convenience, and grumpy/sunshine dynamics.”

Buy link

A Match Made in Slumber

Blurb

Kidnapping an interdimensional warlord is a crime. Marrying him is a get–out–of–dungeon–free card

Commander Keălhem Reñyés is mid-swing—about to storm a fortress—when the battlefield dissolves into the scent of candyfloss. Instead of headbutting an enemy, he crash-lands face-first into a heap of silk ribbon talismans, yanked across dimensions to Everend by an alchemist desperate for some shut-eye.

Elian Fountenblym, a genius matchstick maker with a cataclysmic track record of magical mishaps, is plagued by sensual dreams of a mysterious soldier. Every night, they leave him randy, pining and knackered—all in the run-up to the Great Midsummer Market—the busiest event of the year. To kill the longing once and for all, he invents the Match of Tranquillity, only to unwittingly trigger a forbidden summoning enchantment that delivers his dream man straight into his waking world. That’s one more whoopsie he could’ve done without.

With High Arbiter Cholerius—Elian’s former Academy rival—sniffing around for unauthorised magic, the stakes are high. Bound by the volatile constraints of the spell and forced to share a bed to keep Keălhem from flickering out of existence, the pair must turn to an ancient legal loophole to save Elian from a one-way trip to the dungeons on interdimensional kidnapping charges.

Navigating a fake marriage that begins to feel dangerously real, they have until the Midsummer Moon wanes to decide: part ways or let the flame of their accidental match burn forever?

A Match Made in Slumber is a low-angst, marriage-of-necessity, forced-proximity story featuring fated mates, accidental kidnapping and a stoic/chaotic dynamic. It is part of the Marriage Market Misadventures.

Marriage Market Misadventures is a light-hearted series of standalone queer romances where elves from all over the realm gather at the Everend Midsummer Markets to meet, match, and marry—with plenty of shenanigans along the way.

August 14, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

224 pages

Part of series

Marriage Market Misadventures

Shared world universes

Review: Wolf Blood (At First Bite #2) by Lola Glass

Rating: 4⭐️

Wolf Blood, the second book in this series, is one I feel is the better story here.

It’s still an interesting take on the vampire species although I’m not entirely sold on the idea that vampires are a weaker species than werewolves which they are here.

Walk about in daylight? Check. Drink blood from bags, but not often? Check. Move swiftly and gracefully? Check. But strength? That’s not really certain what it is. So they’re very pretty, model like species who drink blood and are reviled by everyone else for their actions in the previous war.

Here it’s Harper, Bloom’s best friend, who’s bitten and turned against her will (from the first book). She also in her violent feeding frenzy, attacks a coworker that launched a main plot of that story.

Wolf Blood deals with the ramifications of her becoming a made vampire, and her new quasi relationship with Rhône, the beta of the wolf pack that Bloom is now a member of.

The issues raised of her even wanting to be a vampire, if she can remain stable, and the struggle for herself to separate herself from Bloom’s future and find a new life for herself. All good elements.

And the relationship dynamics that she has with Rhône are far stronger and more complex than the one that Bloom had with the Alpha.

That said, this is another tiny woman/ huge man storyline that I could have done without. I do like that she created a new persona for her new role and lifestyle.

The issues she had with her mother and vampire Council were resolved with a sentence. After a lifetime of abuse, that was not enough explanation for this situation.

I liked the couple and characters much better than the first two. But I really never bought into the species interpretation of the author’s here. It just didn’t work for me and that maybe because it needed more explanation.

It was an entertaining read and I recommend it if you’re looking for something different.

Cover by Francesca Michelon

At First Bite (2 book series):

Sweet Blood #1

Wolf Blood #2

Same universe:

Wildwood (3 book series)

Buy link

Wolf Blood (At First Bite Book 2)

Blurb

The werewolf who’s been keeping me alive with his blood for the last few months just declared me his.

He also says he isn’t mine, so that’s fantastic.

At least we’re not soulmates. Yet.

Being a turned vampire has been rough for me, but I’m determined to survive long enough to make sure that my best friend has a support system of some kind when I’m gone.

It doesn’t help that my mother is somehow behind the murders that nearly took her out, though.

Or that the wolf who’s claimed me isn’t willing to let me go.

Somehow, I have to keep myself sane just long enough for everything to fall into place… and I have to do it without falling for a werewolf.

*This is a spicy enemies to lovers romance with a happily ever after

August 5, 2026

Accessibility

Learn more

Language

‎English

Print length

399 pages

Book 2 of 2

At First Bite

Review: Dark Matter (Class 5 Book 4) by Michelle Diener

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Dark Matter is fantastic. The Class 5 series is just getting better and better with each new book.

Bane, the AI who decided to remain independent and has been on the periphery of the storylines as a enigmatic character is front and center here. And I’m so excited for this.

Each newly freed AI Class 5 battleship will be eventually associated with a human woman (or more accurately several in its history). Here, Bane was given information by the AI Paxe before Paxe sacrificed himself (yes each “thinking machine” decides to gender identity) that there’s yet another human female being held by the Tehrans. And she needs to be rescued at all costs.

That’s Lucy Harris, who harrowingly escapes from the Tecran science lab where she’s been a prisoner and is on the run for her life on the Tecran planet.

Grih Commander Dray Helvan is traveling to carry out the Council’s mission of punishments for breaking the UC law when Bane informs him of Lucy’s presence on the planet. And the race is on to rescue her before she’s recaptured.

It’s thrilling, suspense filled and action packed with battle scenes and moments of drama and heart-stopping sequences when the reader is right there with Lucy on the run.

Bane is as terrifying as you might imagine and Dray Helvin the next soldier and commander who realistically wants the Tecran to pay for the atrocities that they’ve committed.

Diener expands on her overall universe, answering questions that I had about why only women, and other elements while still exploring the galactic conspiracy and ongoing conflicts involving the women and the Council.

Just a great series and group of characters.

A another winner from an author who’s become an auto read.

Class 5 Series (7 book series)

Dark Horse #1

Dark Deeds #2

Dark Minds #3

Dark Matters #4

Dark Class #5

Collision Course #6

Crash Course #7

Buy link

Dark Matters (Class 5 Series Book 4)

Blurb

DARK MATTERS . . . taking matters into her own hands

A time bomb, waiting to go off . . . Lucy Harris is on the run, not sure where she can turn to for help, or if help is even available. But even as her abductors chase her down, she realizes they don’t just want to recapture her, they want to erase her. When your very existence puts a planet at risk of war, there’s no choice but to do everything in your power to stay out of your enemies hands.

A predator . . . waiting for the chance to pounce The powerful AI battleship, Bane, is accompanying the United Council envoy to Tecra to mete out the punishment the Tecrans have earned for breaking UC law. He revels in the power he’s about to have over his old masters. But his mission isn’t only to rain down retribution on the people who kept him chained for years, he’s also looking for a human woman one of his fellow Class 5s mentioned in the final seconds of his life. Paxe admitted to taking Lucy Harris from Earth, and Bane has been looking for her ever since.

A warrior conflicted . . . Commander Dray Helvan thinks the Grih made a mistake in not pushing for war with the Tecran, but he’s had to accept the compromise, that he and the other envoys from the United Council will go to Tecra and dismantle its military from the top down. His mission is not one of his choosing, but when he and his team arrive, he’s handed a very different job. While he distrusts Bane on principle, when the Class 5 tells him there’s a woman running for her life on the planet below, he will do whatever he has to to see her safe. And if that means war for Tecra, well, then it means war.

Note: Dark Matters is book 4 in the Class 5 series.

Eclipse

Publication date

October 15, 2019

Language

‎English

Print length

320 pages

Book 4 of 7

Class 5 Series

Review: Dreams and Reptiles (Foggy Basin Season 3) by R L Merrill

Rating: 3.75🌈

Dreams and Reptiles (Foggy Basin Season 3) by R L Merrill is a sweet contemporary small town romance. It’s one of a multi-author series now in its third called Foggy Basin, set in a California small town.

Dreams and Reptiles is an age gap, hurt/comfort, multicultural romance that includes characters who have been through many traumatizing experiences, including work place assault.

There’s a lot to like about this story. The characters are engaging. Francis, who has been through a traumatic experience with his work and his father, has bought a new home that will allow him to live his dream of a having artists retreat.

Next door is an older firefighter, Kendall, who runs a reptile sanctuary. Kendall’s a divorced father, who is trying to deal with his own family issues of a daughter in college, a demanding job and a sanctuary full of animals needing him.

I really enjoyed the secondary characters of Francis’s mother and aunt, and his cousin, Derek, the real estate agent who is soon to be involved in a throuple storyline in the next book.

Things that I would have liked to have seen more exploration here was the traumatic event that sent Francis to Foggy Basin and the aftermath with his father. That resolution was over in a couple of sentences. Plus the fact that the father continued to call Francis’ mother “his wife “ despite being divorced, that was a big flag here. Nothing about that aspect of the story felt particularly satisfying.

And to be honest, the entire relationship felt rushed between Francis, who was trying to set boundaries because of his trauma, and Kendall, who didn’t really deal well with his daughter’s return from college.

So, while the animals were adorable. The relationship between them sweet, I was left with a HFN and a timeline that sped forward without answering questions.

It’s was good reading. But not anything I’d revisit.

Foggy Basin Season Three (11 book series)

Keystrokes and Kittens by Gabbi Grey

Boss and Brat by Brina Brady

Silk and Honey by Kota Quinn

Fruit and Flash by R.A Frick

Dreams and Reptiles by R L Merrill

Flights and Sights by Riley Long

Bales and Brawn by Jem Wendal

Fibre and Ink by Jamie Sands

Herds and Hooves by B L Maxwell

Hammer and Hops by Lynn Michaels

Nicks and Cuts by TJ Nichols

Buy link

Part of: Foggy Basin Season Three (11 books)

Dreams and Reptiles: A Small Town MM Romance

Blurb

From the award-winning author of Under His Sheets and Once Upon a Goth Dog Solstice comes an age-gap, hurt/comfort romance between two men with bruised and battered hearts ready for a second chance at happiness in small-town California.

Francis

I refer to the events of the past year as My Demise, and now that I’ve received a significant settlement, I’m ready to move on with my life. While visiting the town of Foggy Basin for their Pride Festival, I fell in love with the vibe. Lots of folks move there to start over, so why shouldn’t I? My cousin Derek shows me a quirky property for sale just outside of town, and once I see it, inspiration hits. Why not create a retreat where folks can make their dreams a reality? I ignored mine for way too long, but not anymore, and if I happen to run into the hot firefighter I shared a kiss with at Pride, well, I’ll take it as a sign.

Kendall

My entire adult life, I’ve taken care of others, and now I’m ready to start the next phase of my journey in California. I’ve spent years learning about various species of reptiles, and it just so happens that Grandma left me the perfect place to build a sanctuary. Only, I soon discover that my passion project is a bit trickier than I thought it would be. My spirits lift, however, when the saucy young guy I met at Pride moves in next door to me. At first, I worry perhaps he’s one of those wealthy people who come to town and throw their money around, but when I learn the truth about his past, I’m determined to make him see just how deserving of love he is.

For Mature Readers due to sexual content, frisky aunties, reptilian escape artists, and meddling polyamorous firefighters.

Welcome to Foggy Basin. Nestled at the base of the foothills in Northern California, this small town is full of characters just waiting to tell you their story. Whether you’re just passing through or you decide to stay a while longer, you’ll always find a warm welcome from the townsfolk. From farmers and animal rescues to artists and small business owners. Foggy Basin has it all.

Celie Bay Publications LLC

Publication date

August 13, 2026

Accessibility

Learn more

Language

‎English

File size

4.8 MB

Screen Reader

Supported

Enhanced typesetting

Enabled

X-Ray

Not Enabled

Word Wise

Enabled

Print length

290 pages

Page Flip

Enabled

Part of series

Foggy Basin Season Three

Review: Glyphs & Merit: The Glyphwright Chronicles Book 5 by Jeremy Fabiano

Rating: 4⭐️

Glyphs & Merit shows definitive maturity and character growth in the the small group and couples that have formed over five novels in The Glyphwright Chronicles.

Marcus and Felix are now in established relationships, with Felix and Katherine soon to return home from their honeymoon. Rose Fairwind, Marcus’ sister, an artificer works alongside them and others now in their own home and shop.

This story is about Marcus and Felix working through individual issues, both personal and professional. They obtain a brother and sister as interns which affects their group dynamics and business model.

And they also have to deal with their future work in the Guild and other partnerships.

It’s a lot. Plus there is an overall plot that involves an old enemy who is undermining their work in an “invisible” manner.

Sometimes it seems as though it takes forever for various characters and storylines to get the heft and information they need to feel interesting and relevant. Not just laid down and left behind in the narrative.

It all eventually comes together. And there’s an engagement as well.

Does this feel as satisfying or as well put together as the books that came before? No, but Jeremy Fabiano has under a health crisis while he was at a conference, and makes (in his own notes) an apology for the errors found in the book because it was rushed to release.

Swift hopes to the author and I’m looking forward to reading his next book in the series.

A great series and I’m in love with the characters, including the new additions.

Cover design by Jacqueline Sweet Design

Glyphwright Chronicles (5 book series to date):

Ashes & Anchors #0.5 (Erasmus’s backstory)

Ink & Intent #1
Wards & Measures #2
Trades & Treaties #3
Vision & Venture #4
Glyphs & Merit #5
Legacy & Succession #6

Buy link

Glyphs & Merit: The Glyphwright Chronicles – Book 5

Blurb

Six weeks without Felix was supposed to be the hardest part of the season. Then the mayor walked into the shop with a problem the town had already failed to solve four times.

With Felix away and Erasmus at the capital, Marcus Fairwind is running the shop alone. He expected a quiet stretch of routine commissions and a partner home by month’s end. Instead, Mayor Weatherby arrives with a district that has gone twelve years without hot water and a budget smaller than the boiler it can’t afford.

The town has voted the replacement down four times. Marcus thinks Millbrook has been solving the wrong problem. The right one is a utility that serves every house on the line at once, and nobody in the region has ever built one.

Then a Senior Inspector asks him to take two apprentices on trial, and the Guild sends a board inspector to decide whether a shop this young has any business teaching anyone. Marcus has spent two years learning the craft. Now he has sixty days to prove he can explain it — while a quiet campaign against the mayor gathers somewhere he can’t see.

The Glyphwright Chronicles continues with civic infrastructure, first apprentices, small-town politics, one long-postponed question, and the lesson that the hardest part of mastering a craft is teaching it to someone else.

Pour yourself something warm, settle into your favorite reading spot, and discover that the work nobody sees is the work holding the whole town up.

op this young has any business teaching anyone.

Marcus has spent two years learning the craft. Now he has sixty days to prove he can explain it — while a quiet campaign against the mayor gathers somewhere he can’t see.

Unbounded Creation

Publication date

August 11, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

511 pages

Book 5 of 5

The Glyphwright Chronicles

Review: Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk (Magic & Mystery story) by Travis Baldree

Rating: 4.5⭐️

I’m just on my second short story in this amazing collection and already I’m sold. Every author is a new discovery and so far each tale is engaging, well written, and full of twists and surprising characters.

Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk by Travis Baldree, the first book of the Magic & Mystery collection, starts off with the murder of the unlikable Brother Gorm at the Order of Venerous the Petulant.

Yes, Baldree had me right there.

Then the desperate bishop has a friend call in a detective to help solve the mystery. And Miss Gentle arrives!

I will not spoil her unsettling and perfectly incredible appearance she makes at the monastery. She’s a mysterious figure herself and adds to the mystical aspect of the story.

It’s funny, sharply crafted. And has one last punch waiting for the reader at the end.

Perfect.

Highly recommended.

Cover illustration by Danny Schlitz

Magic & Mystery collection – 7 books (ebook & audio):

Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk by Travis Baldree

The Wednesday Witches Book Club by Sarah Beth Durst

The Lion’s Tusk by Robert Jackson Bennett

A Labyrinth of Honeybees by Heather Fawcett

The Wizard Who Kept Himself Suspicious by Scott Lynch

Battle of the Round House by Tananarive Due

The Cairndale Orphan by J. M. Miro

Buy link

Book 1 of 7: Magic & Mystery

Blurb

A peculiar detective takes on a monastic murder mystery in a darkly funny fantasy short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Legends & Lattes series.

Nobody really liked Brother Gorm, but his untimely and abrupt descent from the abbey’s bell tower has the Order of Venerous the Petulant on edge. Desperate to settle the case before the bishop returns, the abbot enlists the highly unorthodox investigator Miss Gentle. As she clanks through the abbey in a full suit of armor, the cantankerous detective has no problem asking awkward questions—but will she get any answers?

Travis Baldree’s Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting

Amazon Original Stories

Publication date

July 28, 2026

Language

‎English

Print lengths

33 pages

Book 1 of 7

Magic & Mystery

Review: Twice Bitten (Fangs and Fur Book 1) by S.E. Babin

Rating : 4⭐️

I’m a fan of this author so I immediately picked up Twice Bitten, the beginning of S.E. Babin’s Fangs and Fur series. A paranormal tale about a hedge witch who gets mixed up with the politics of the vampire/werewolf conference by way of a traumatic encounter is off to a good start here.

Babin is excellent at establishing a complex plot that will keep expanding into ever greater detail and often wilder realms and storylines. I can definitely see this happening with Fangs and Fur and the main group of characters Babin is starting out with.

Hint. Thankfully, this author can take the main female character on quite the twisted path with regard to her final romantic partner, so just know it might not be one of the top two atm.

First there’s Alex, a hedge witch working as a barista with a black market apothecary business on the side. She’s an orphan with a “missing” mother and a father of unknown origin.

Alex becomes the object of an obsessive vampire, Beckett, and ends up in the middle of a mysterious species turf battle between vampire and wolf shifter. That brings in the next major characters and conflicts.

Alric, the Vampire Prime and Silas is the Wolf King, both working on an inter species conference. Until a traumatic event with Alex upsets everything.

I’m not a fan of Alric. He’s got major non consent issues, and frankly red flags plastered around him everywhere. And smacks heavily of another MMC in another series I despised.

Silas is running a close second.

Like Leo the chauffeur/bodyguard for Alric. He’s got great potential going forward.

And Babin, if she’s going to be as consistent as she has in her previous series, will make this an elaborate and exciting journey for Alex, magically and romantically.

So I’m not going to assume who it might be from the characters at the first story.

Very entertaining and a great start to this series.

Fangs and Fur:

Twice Bitten #1

Bite Club #2 – Jan 11,2027

Buy link

Book 1 of 2: Fangs and Fur

Blurb

I was bitten by a vampire AND a werewolf. Now everyone wants a piece of me.

I never wanted to be a powerful witch. I’m happiest pulling espresso shots at the Three Beans café and keeping my magic secret.

But trouble is brewing…

When a turf war between vampires and shifters erupts outside the café, I get caught between the irresistibly charming Vampire Prime and the ruggedly handsome Shifter King. As these two apex predators blindly tear into each other, I am bitten, clawed, and left for dead.

My magic flares just in time to save my life, but there are… side effects. Suddenly, I find myself staring at customers’ necks. And feeling suspiciously twitchy before the full moon.

It’s impossible but… am I transforming into a vampire and a werewolf?

The Vampire Prime finds me immediately. Captivated by my scent, he tempts me with danger and luxury. The Shifter King is equally obsessed, and determined to claim me for his pack.

I am caught between them once more—but this time it’s me that they’re fighting over. And since my new blood brings strange new powers, it won’t be long before I’m the most wanted prey in town…

Second Sky

Publication date

August 10, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

326 pages

Book 1 of 2

Fangs and Fur

Review: A Labyrinth of Honeybees (Magic & Mystery collection) by Heather Fawcett

Rating: 4.5⭐️

A Labyrinth of Honeybees (Magic & Mystery collection) by Heather Fawcett is a fabulous short fantasy story and audiobook book, one of seven in the Magic & Mystery collection being offered by a selection of authors.

Heather Fawcett is another new discovery for me and this story delivers a richly crafted tale of hidden identities, a King whose throne is in peril, feuding gods and a beautifully executed universe. And the priestess who waits at the gates for the King’s Inquisitor to arrive.

It’s 44 pages of amazing characters, mysterious magical mazes, old and new gods, and a fabulous twist at the end. So so great and satisfying.

That you get both the ebooks and audio at the same time is a real bonus.

I grabbed this one first because of its description and that marvelous cover. Now I’m going back for the rest of this collection.

You’re going to want to as well. Highly recommended.

Cover illustration by Danny Schlitz

Magic & Mystery collection – 7 books (ebook & audio):

Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk by Travis Baldree

The Wednesday Witches Book Club by Sarah Beth Durst

The Lion’s Tusk by Robert Jackson Bennett

A Labyrinth of Honeybees by Heather Fawcett

The Wizard Who Kept Himself Suspicious by Scott Lynch

Battle of the Round House by Tananarive Due

The Cairndale Orphan by J. M. Miro

Buy link

Book 4 of 7: Magic & Mystery

Blurb

New rulers meddle with the whims of the old gods in a lush and twisty short story of devotion, intrigue, and murder by the New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series.

At a remote mountain temple, an inquisitor arrives to question a priestess about a pair of murders. The keeper of the sacred garden, its bees, and its ever-changing hedge maze does have her secrets. But what will protecting them cost her as she uncovers layers of conspiracy on both sides?

Heather Fawcett’s A Labyrinth of Honeybees is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting.

Amazon Original Stories

Publication date

July 28, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

44 pages

Book 4 of 7

Magic & Mystery

Review: Found Objects by Mary Calmes

Rating: 4.5🌈

Found Objects is the latest urban fantasy romance by Mary Calmes and it’s exactly what we expect from this author. The old,settled rich location of a small town high in the mountains of West Virginia, an intriguing group of found family of town, and a great setup for a slow paced romantic journey.

Calmes’ plot lines includes a newly arrived werewolf pack that has brought with them to the town, pack dysfunction, mystery and loads of action packed moments.

I love Merritt Baker and the mystery that Calmes builds around his character. Merritt is the owner of the town’s restaurant, and a central figure in the community. A friend and someone who acts as a shield or protector when needed.

When a new shifter pack arrives in Coille, West Virginia to establish themselves in a new territory , they bring with them old problems along with a dysfunctional pack and history. And Cole Swann and his younger brother, Evan, nephews of the Alpha of the Swann pack.

The way this author blends the well known Appalachian mythology with other lore is intriguing and well done. It works well for the many other characters here and for adding some really great layers to this story.

It ends with a HFN, given the specific species of each character. And known life spans.

I will admit to hoping that Calme revisits this town and special community as I really enjoyed them and didn’t get enough of several of their storylines.

A definite winner and one I’m happy to recommend.

Cover art: Reese Dante

Buy link

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.comFound Objects – Kindle edition by Calmes, Mary. Romance Kindle eBooks …

Blurb

Merritt Baker is older than he looks. Quite a bit older, in fact. He knows all about the woods and where one should never wander at night, but the fact of the matter is, sometimes men are the scariest creatures of all, and Merritt makes it his business to protect the innocents caught in their wake. In the small town of Coille, West Virginia, where he makes his home, he takes care of quite a few people, and that’s always been enough. Or has been. Lately though, he’s felt a bit lost, as though he’s forgotten what it means to really live rather than simply exist.

Change arrives when a pack of shifters buys the land that borders his. He doesn’t think twice about them until his simple rules are ignored, and suddenly there’s conflict. One of the wolves, Cole Swann, is very interested in him, and surprisingly, Merritt can’t seem to get the man out of his head. But things aren’t what they seem, and between other packs, ghosts, and worst of all, love, Merritt might be in over his head. That’s the thing about being lost—it can be wonderful when you’re finally found, but is it worth the risk of losing yourself?

Mary Calmes Books, LLC.

Publication date

July 30, 2026

Edition

1st

Language

‎English

Print length

268 pages

Review: Nemesis, Inc: Alpha Team Collection 2: by Bella Stone

Rating: 4 ⭐️

This is Arabella Stone writing as Bella Stone, who is so prolific in military and action romances. I honestly don’t have the space to list all her many series and related excellent books here.

But collections like these are wonderful ways to get acquainted with her work and characters if you’re unfamiliar with them or to get caught up on her series that you are reading.

I enjoyed this three books collection and read right through them easily. There was an author’s note about the Christmas story being a present and sort of final kiss to the end of that couple’s story. And that perhaps you should read their journey first.

I hadn’t and I still loved it. I’ll read about them eventually. And then hit it again.

Stone can write battles, and weapons and action filled scenarios. Along with terrific characters.

Read and enjoy.

Just some of her related series:

Stronghold (3 book series)

The Four X’s Group: La Spezia (6 book series)

The Four X’s Group: Morocco (1 book series)

Nemesis Inc. Alpha Team (6 book series)

Nemesis Inc. Bravo Team (4 book series)

Buy link

Collects books from: Nemesis Inc. Alpha Team

Blurb

Rory: Taking his mandated leave was supposed to be a fun trip for Nemesis Inc.’s Alpha Team, recon expert Rory *Mokaccino* Costa. Leave which lasts all of five minutes when a phone call from a teammate sends him to Paris to rescue Adalyn Cassidy and her son, Sam. Changing things up on the fly and living life at a hundred miles an hour is typically his jam. He’ll rescue the divorced author and her kid, send them home, and get back to his vacation. A couple of days in the French capital could be fun… right?

Stay Frosty: Dalton and Lina Knight have fought terrorists, governments, the Organization, and themselves for the chance to have a happy ever after with the family they both crave. With the birth of their first child just days away and Christmas on the horizon, fate throws them a curveball, and one of their people goes missing in Syria.

Aria: Aria doesn’t do attachments, and Jasper’s not the kind of man who believes in hopes and dreams. When the final pieces of the Organization surface and King makes his last move, all bets are off—because Aria survived hell once, and she refuses to lose the man who snuck in under her defenses, got on her last nerve, and claimed her heart… Jasper.

Embers Romance LLC

Publication date

April 24, 2026

Language

‎English

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