It’s been waaay too long since the first time I met this zany, fabulous found family of MAD monster hunters. A Mage’s Guide to Human Familiars was the beginning of the R’iyah Family Archive series. It introduces us to Bel Adams, a red-eyed R’iyah mage who’s part demon, in need of a new familiar because of a traumatically bad first bonding.
He gets a fabulous BOGO in the forms of new familiar, Nico di Rossi, Army Ranger, who gets a change of pace and a new purpose in life. Then Nico brings into their mix, Garen Dallarosa, former Secret Service. He’s part Gargoyle and soon he’s also the other familiar. And lover to them both.
It’s a great triad of a mage with his new familiars/lovers.
But it’s not ending there. We get a team comprised of a totally entertaining Wicky, bonded with Lia , along with Bel’s foster parents. And of course Grandpa!
Honestly, the sublime joy that is that story!
How I missed all of them!
The book picks up on the anniversary of Bel’s devastating breaking of his first bond. That event left Bel comatose, and afraid to summon a new familiar until the organization he works for, MAD, forced his hand.
Bel’s trauma has left him with PTSD, and he’s kept these past damaging facts from his lovers/familiars.
The sexy, loving triad is a wonderful relationship here. Supportive, well defined according to each character’s changing needs , and personality. It’s so interesting and heartwarming, especially for Bel, who’s need for such depth of love and happiness is so strong compared to his upbringing.
The entire team is back, especially Wicky, who’s dynamic with Nico, his brother from another mother, has been one of the most entertaining aspects of the books. That continues here.
There are monsters to hunt, but the serious elements here are the personal ones. Dealing really with confronting the “monster “ from the past. The real one, the enormous emotional ones that have caused the continuing trauma to Bel and threatens his bond to his familiars.
That’s handled beautifully too. Not all monsters have enormous scales , some are human , selfish, impulsive brutes.
Did I love this book? Why yes I did. Again I was so excited to see everyone, including Grandpa! And the hounds.
Plus we get the news that the next story is Wicky’s. The anticipation is off the scales.
I highly recommend both books of the R’iyah Family Archives, including this one. There’s no date for Wicky’s story. Stay posted.
Familiars of choice, healing old wounds, Australian mythology, yes Nico and Wicky are in Australia, that goes about as well as anyone expects, giant amphibians of unusual size, even the MAD research department is stumped, Wicky may have summoned Godzilla, in his defense he was left unsupervised, conversations via air guitar, the next time they have to travel to a different continent Bel is drugging Nico first
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.
Hell Breaks Loose (Hellhound Champions, #4) turns out to be my very favorite. It’s also the last of this series, setting up what I expect to be the next stage in this multi series universe, the Familiar Fated Mates series. Or whatever the author will title it.
Hell Breaks Loose takes place after Solomon has become the Alpha of the Hellhounds with Cody as the alpha mate. The Chosen One arc has been resolved with Meshaq and Drew set to a new path as Gods.
Achim’s life is a frazzled one for a Hellhound. Instead of things setting down after the Chosen One and his brother battled it out, with the Chosen One winning, the magic has gotten more unstable. More beings have come through into the human realm, keeping Hellhounds busy 24/7 . Achim and the rest of his pack are exhausted. And their situation is getting worse.
Ozias, the Prince of Hell, isn’t having a good day. Horrible in fact. His magic isn’t working and he’s being chased by his mother’s hellhounds. When a human appears before him . In Hell!
Achim goes through a portal but the colors all wrong. Not the usual red. And ends up where he lasts expects to.
This is a marvelous romance and engaging story. The characters are so amazing and have such great personalities. Watching them navigate the intricacies of their developing relationship while handling the widening magical chaos in the human realm , which is also Ozias’ first time there? It’s so deeply wonderful that you can’t turn away from it.
It’s funny, sad, horrifying, sexy , and all kinds of romantic.
This story brings us back into Nick’s family and all the kids he and his mate rescued. We see Solomon and Cody. We also see another extraordinary couple with huge news to impact the entire universe.
It’s quite the story.
I read the middle novels as part of the Chosen Ones collection. It works but I’m glad I read this here. I’m ready for whatever Blake has next for us and this amazing collection of characters.
I’m recommending you read them all to understand how they all fit together and the events and relationships as they form.
First, his mission for the fire goddess ended up with him—a hellhound who’d never actually been to hell—being sent precisely there. Worse, he found himself stuck in the strange hellscape with Ozias, a guy who’s a) hotter than the fire of both suns in the hell-realm, b) really, really likable, despite his arrogance, and c) oh yeah, the actual prince of hell.
Their connection comes in handy, though, when a demon escapes into the human realm and Ozias is sent to track it down. With magic fluctuating wildly around them, the hellhound pack is run ragged trying to keep the supernatural world a secret from the humans… especially since Achim is just a wee bit distracted keeping his mind and hands off the gorgeous-but-cocky prince.
But when the strange forces wreaking havoc on the human realm attempt to drive Achim and Ozias apart… well, that’s when things get really messed up. Because if they think they’re gonna keep a hellhound from the guy who might just be his mate…
I sometimes wonder if you can really love a story when you spend so much time cringing in anxiety over the anticipated horrors you know will be visited upon the characters you’re coming to connect with and the found family that’s being constructed. Somehow I’ve found a way. It’s just that great.
The Shackles That Hold Us is only the second book in Michele Notaro’s fantastic dark fantasy series, The Magi Accounts, but already it’s served as both a outstanding foundation for the characters but also as a warning for this horrific, grim universe where several species of beings are seen as nothing less than disposable tools, or worse.
Tagged, tortured, served up as war fodder , born in breeding camps. This is the nature and foundation of the Magi. And the Shifters have it only marginally better. Be warned. The torture scenes happen on page. And to characters we have come to care about.
And because dyad pair magi Madeo and Jude Driscoll are magically powerful, they are targets so any “misbehavior “ will see them collared and taken to a compound for punishment.
This is a utterly brutal world and Notaro makes us feel every inhuman rule, every legal enforcement that uses to pain to degrade and in some instances kill those that would fight back against humanity and those that are oppressing them.
Each story dives a little further into the heartbreaking , cruel conditions under which the humans have managed to contain and imprison all magi for decades. Compounds become breeding camps, children removed to become tools for war. All seen slowly through the tortured memories of Mads and Jude when they’re able to emotionally to look back at what they’ve endured.
This includes, and will probably continue to bring up instances of child sexual abuse.
As I said this series is a dark fantasy fiction and each book will fill the reader with dread as the stakes build higher for all the characters as the events point towards even more deaths and battles to come.
The characters here. The magi, and all the members of the pride are so perfectly layered. Each has a well developed personality and each shows growth as the Pride and the three magi, Mads, Jude, and Logan (all part of the Pride) face greater challenges to the multitude relationships forming and the ones hitting them as a team.
Notaro’s storylines continue to build a series arc that carries a potential for horrific events and further deaths to come.
I’m both highly anticipating the next book and highly afraid for all the characters.
If you love fantasy, read this. But only if you read the trigger warnings first. You decide what you’re comfortable with.
Here’s the series. They must be read in the order they were written to understand the events and relationships.
As if crushin’ on a shifter wasn’t bad enough, I had to go and date one.
A mage and a shifter walk into a bar… No, that’s the whole joke.
Magi and shifters don’t mix, and yet I find myself in a relationship with Cosmo, a lion shifter. And on top of that, Cosmo, and all his pride members, consider my brothers and me to be a part of their pride. Three magi in a shifter pride. Who would’ve ever thought?
Navigating our connection while trying to figure out what’s going on in the world isn’t easy. Trusting that Cosmo means forever when he says it? Even harder. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned since meeting the Ono-Nais, it’s that taking a risk with my heart will be worth it to be a part of their lives.
The Shackles That Hold Us is a 113K novel and the second book in the MM urban fantasy series, The Magi Accounts. It’s recommended to read the series in order because it has an ongoing storyline.
*Intended for adults only. Please read the trigger warnings at the beginning of this novel.
From the fabulously great name on, everything about The Skinny on Djinni by E.J. Russell is absolutely on point. It just makes for a outstanding entertaining read!
Part of Russell’s Mythmatched story universe, it picks up after the events of Death On Denial
(Quest Investigations #4), some of which are referenced here. You don’t have to have read that series, although if you’re a fan of this author, it’s highly likely you’re familiar with the characters, towns, and universe.
We meet Hector Gonzales, IT werewolf hacker in trouble with the Supe Council because he’s been messing around with the magic grid, and it caused huge issues, which was not his fault! So now she’s on probation until his case is heard and he’s technology free until then. Agony!
Hector, a werewolf from Jordan’s group of young were’s, is so perfectly put together that we can see his personality as he’s desperately trying not to use all the devices he has taken for granted and deal with everything going on. He’s young but responsible, intelligent and solid, focused and kind. You can’t help but feel for the position he’s in and still understand how his nature got him there.
Then, through the mechanisms of Shirl, the store owner of the local general store, who sends Hector on a errand for her, he meets Rafi.
That’s Rafi Abbas. Who’s having a very bad life.
Rafi Abbas gets fired from his job at a burger joint when he meets Hector. Then things get even stranger.
Rafi Abbas is that hundred fold object who’s waiting to have their layers peeled back . Only they didn’t know they could do it. Rafi is a sweet, sad, adorable character . His is a history that is not only complicated but expanded on the more Hector gets to know him.
No spoilers but we also find out more about characters we’ve known for many, many books, and get answers for elements that occurred in other stories. Just perfect!
Plus at the end, all the characters and the readers are given a huge thought provoking “what if” question thrown out there that could launch not just another book but maybe a whole new Mythmatched universe series. At least I certainly hope so.
Russell gives us so much here that adds to her unique universe, gives us another couple to love , and another employee for Quest Investigations.
This story makes me soooo happy!
I just need Russell to sort Jordan out now. He’s just getting more complicated and a favorite by the book!
I’m highly recommending The Skinny on Djinni by E.J. Russell . Grab it up and have a outstanding time!
Hector Gonzales knew the danger when he hacked the magic grid to marry it with human technology. He’d never imagined this system crash: A total tech suspension while the tradition-bound supe council reviews his case. He’s reduced to running errands for his friends, and seriously? How had people survived before GPS? Then several wrong turns—thank you so much, stupid paper map—lead him to a remote burger joint. And when he spots the cute guy behind the counter? His wolf wakes up and howls You have arrived at your destination.
Getting fired—again—totally sucks.
Rafi Abbas tries to give customers what they want, he really does. However, when he gets distracted by the lovely man with the gorgeous brown skin, he screws up another customer’s order and his boss fires him on the spot. With no money, no job, and soon nowhere to live, Rafi has no business saying yes when the lovely man asks him out. But something about Hector whispers home.
Obeying the Secrecy Pact totally sucks.
To keep the supe community safe, werewolves cannot partner romantically with humans. That rule has been programmed into Hector since he was a pup. But as the day slides from bad to worse to are-you-freaking-kidding-me, Hector sees the moratorium for what it is: ridiculous and outdated. For Rafi, he’s willing to challenge the status quo.
After all, things can’t very well get worse than worst. Right?
I fell in love with Crofton Hall when I started reading Rebecca Cohen’s historical romance series, The Crofton Chronicles. That featured Anthony, the 1st Earl of Crofton and the man who would forever hold his heart, the Elizabethan actor Sebastian Hewel. Those three books followed the incredible story of the twin Hewel siblings, a engagement that went weirdly, wonderfully awry, and then how two men thwarted the monarchy, the laws and the ton to stay together for their remaining days. All under disguises and slights of hand. Fantastic reading and a grand romance.
The first in the new series, Saving Crofton Hall, I read when it was written in 2014. Again. I loved being back in Crofton and watching the descendants of Anthony start to discover some of the secrets the Hall had kept hidden all these years.
Then nothing. The series was forgotten.
But now the author is writing this series once more and it’s amazing to return not only to Crofton Hall in the present but also to the fabulous love story of Anthony and Sebastian as their love letters and true romance is revealed to the present day occupants and people of Crofton Hall. And many more.
In every book we get two couples. The main couple of Ben Redbourn, 16th Earl of Crofton, and Ashley Niven, Events Manager at Crofton Hall, continues as their relationship deepens, moves past more obstacles that bring up Ashley’s sense of inferiority and inequality. How that’s worked out through their personalities and with help is real, a little painful and loving.
They are the series couple.
After them each book has its own couple to feature. Here’s its historian, Dara Callaghan, and TV producer, Nathan Lorimer. Both brought to Crofton Hall because of the TV series to be filmed there about the mystery of a extra casket in the ancient family vault and the identity of the person inside.
Dara gets hired to sort through what’s essentially rooms or buildings worth of history that Crofton Hall has stored within herself, including the letters and documents about the relationships of Anthony and Sebastian. Between Nathan and Dara, Ben and Ashley, and others the hidden story of a lifetime unfolds.
So does slowly a romance between Dara and Nathan. I have always loved Cohen’s ability to create such incredible characters that resonate so within the story. Nathan who’s grieving still the loss of his husband and trying to figure out how to move forward into another relationship. And Dara, the Irish romantic, who wants a real relationship, a man with a gentle heart, obsessed with history.
Great characters with stumbling blocks to a romance but friends all around who are there to lend a ear or bit of guidance to get both on the path to a working relationship.
It’s such a pleasure to read. It’s sexy, fun, with smart, dialogue. Everything just flies together so beautifully.
I highly recommend this series and the historical romance series that preceded it. I love the characters, the relationship dynamics, and the entwining threads of loves, lives, and families.
Read them in the order they are written for a grand and entertaining time!
Crofton Hall is buzzing with anticipation for the filming of the Secret Histories TV special about a scandalous affair that has been hidden for over four hundred years.
The hall’s new historian, Dara Callaghan, is drawn not just by the hall’s rich history but to TV producer, Nathan Lorimer. Nathan is finally ready to start dating again, several years after the death of his husband. There’s something about Dara, a quietly spoken Irishman, and the romance that surrounds Crofton Hall, that makes him want to take a chance.
Meanwhile, Ben Redbourn, 16th Earl of Crofton, is trying to persuade his boyfriend Ashley Niven that he’d like to don doublet and hose and play Sebastian to his Anthony. But Ashley’s not having any of it… until someone else agrees to the take the part of the 1st Earl of Crofton’s lover.
This is the second Modern Crofton novel, featuring Benjamin Redbourn, the 16th Earl of Crofton and descendant of Anthony Redbourn, 1st Earl of Crofton from my historical series, The Crofton Chronicles. While designed to be read as a standalone, events that lead to this novel follow chronologically from Saving Crofton Hall.
Trigger warnings: discussion of grief and dealing with bereavement
Temporary Partner by Nicky James is an excellent law enforcement mystery that’s has elements of a romance to it. It’s the first of a two part series, Valor and Doyle, featuring Ontario detectives from different departments, often units that see each other as departmental rivals.
Quaid Valor is a Detective with the MPU, that’s missing persons. He’s following the career path of his recently retired father, a decorated detective from the same unit. The tight-knit Valor family of two is a knot of familial love, ingrained police laws and regulations, and a sadness that’s explained as the storylines enlarge.
Quaid himself is full of complications, lonely, burdened, consumed by job and family. He’s undeniably an incredible character.
Aslan Doyle is his counterpart. A excellent detective but in Homicides. Both men queer and out at work but Aslan’s ,bi , very casual outlook on sexuality as opposed to Quaid’s , who’s gay, ongoing issues with his ex make them diametrically opposed. Especially when Aslan’s attitude carries over into work.
They’ve worked together before, successfully professionally. Privately? That harder.
But a shortage of personal , a heartbreaking case with a tight time frame to close it, and a order from their superiors brings them together.
James creates a truly puzzling, heartbreaking case. That of a stolen infant, then proceeds to build a huge investigation around it, with a ticking clock. There’s superb and tedious leg work, lines of questioning that appears to have no results, more data to analyze, small victories that fade, and a fantastic, mesmerizing relationship that’s trying to establish itself between two prickly, damaged men who have trust issues.
The POV alternate’s between Quaid and Aslan, often as the men despair, feel they have it, only to realize, they need another direction. It all feels raw, anxious, heartbreaking, and painful.
Even the ending, when it arrives, is not without, some realistic elements, that have you really looking at everything that’s happened here. There’s no HFN even. But there’s a solution to this case. It’s solved.
It’s up to the reader as to how you think about it.
As to Aslan and Quaid? Book 2 , Elusive Relations, is due out July 25, 2022.
I’m eagerly awaiting their return and the new case that will surely bring them back together again.
This is a wonderful story. If you love mysteries, law enforcement tales, with the promise of a romance, grab this right up.
Outstanding characters, fantastic storylines, and a realistic ending.
Love it.
Valor and Doyle:
🔹Department Rivals: A Valor and Doyle Prequel #0.5
When an infant is taken from his carriage in broad daylight, missing persons detective, Quaid Valor, must race against the clock to find the child and bring him safely home to his family. Unfortunately, Quaid’s partner isn’t available, and his team is spread thin. Begrudgingly, Quaid must accept the help from his rival, homicide detective Aslan Doyle, if he wants to get the job done.
Aslan is Quaid’s opposite in every way. He’s bold, outspoken, arrogant, and the office playboy. And much to Quaid’s chagrin, Aslan seems to have set his sights on Quaid as his next conquest.
Quaid doesn’t have time to deal with Aslan’s flirty behavior when he’s trying to solve a case and juggle his cheating ex’s incessant interruptions. It doesn’t matter how attractive Aslan is or the undeniable chemistry they seem to have. Getting involved with Aslan would be a huge mistake. But as tension with the case builds, Quaid keeps forgetting he’s supposed to hate this new partner. Maybe Aslan is exactly the kind of distraction he needs. Temporarily at least. Right?
**Temporary Partner is the first in the Valor and Doyle Mysteries. Please view any trigger warnings by using the Look Inside feature**
I love this introduction to a new author and a universe who’s fabric is exquisitely complicated, rich with the mythologies of a multitude of cultures and nations, as well as one that has the ability to expand through portals to endless worlds as the investigations require.
Jennifer Cody’s Hammer and Fist, as the Field Agent’s of the IDIA refer to themselves , is not just one series but as of now, two series. Each with a different character as a focal point.
I haven’t started on the second series, Inferno (Hammer and Fist : Geminatus #1) yet. But we meet that species here and it seems that the two intersect at a horrific mystery and investigation over the investigation into the abduction of species from their home worlds and slave trafficking.
First, Sledge and Claw. It’s fantastic. The beautifully defined characters run the gamut from human (or part human) to Fae to main one’s you need to discover in these pages.
It will start with Lextalion Farrow, FA for the IDIA, Inter-dimensional Immigration Agency. He’s the main, but not only POV. Lex is a mystery that slowly unravels . A top field agent , if not the top, for a somewhat nebulous agency. What that means exactly will be sharply defined, both by his actions and words, as he moves from one investigation to another, each pointing the way to a larger , more horrifying conspiracy of species abduction and slave trafficking.
Cody has crafted some incredibly strong, multidimensional female characters that constantly change as circumstances and relationship dynamics require. To go further would spoil a wonderful element here.
The other man, who is soon to stir things up, is such a strong personality, that you can sense that he will be a bigger player in this book as it continues. He too has secrets.
There’s Norse gods, mini gods, and a strange spelling of Nidhöggr, which I’m sure was intentional. I really liked that.
The writing was excellent, the plotting outstanding. And while I say there’s a cliffhanger, the author makes up for it by including a sneak peek at the next in the series, Brick and Brass, which lets us know exactly how that cliffhanger was resolved.
Since we don’t have a release date for book 2, that sneak peek was greatly appreciated and virtually eliminated the angst brought on by the cliffhanger.
All good.
I suspect that we are at the start of the beginning of a foundation of a found family of sorts. It has so many magnificent possibilities.
I was grateful for that sneak peek as I said for book 2. Now I need the actual release date for Brick and Brass!
If you love fantasy fiction, and the potential for new characters, new worlds, and mysteries as well as romances?
My alphabet soup agency recruited me because of my unique blend of magic and innate talent, but those come with a steep price and it’s getting harder to pay with every investigation.
I never thought Knoxville would be the place that kills me, but between someone targeting me to get me fired (or start a war; could go either way), taking on a naïve new trainee, and investigating a non-human trafficking ring, it looks like I’m about to bite off more than I can chew.
The question is, can I figure out what’s going on before it all blows up in my face?
Sledge and Claw is an MM Urban Fantasy with triggers for the horrors of slave trafficking and consent issues. There also happens to be a cliffhanger ending
Review notes: at the end of the story is a brief sneak peek at the beginning of Brick and Brass that resolves the cliffhanger. FYI for all that can’t abide cliffhangers!
The Finding Home, The Complete Series, is a splendid collection. I love being able to read one story right after the other of the men of Chi an Mor, House by the Sea.
The first novel is my favorite of the collection. That’s
🔹Oz.
It hit all my buttons, as far as a contemporary romance, and it’s everything I’ve come to expect from a Lily Morton story. It’s alternatively hilarious, so believably authentic that you feel you’re actually seeing the places and people moving through the events as they unfold, smelling the lavender, feeling the salty winds drifting through the warm fields and gardens of the golden stoned manor.
So sure everything exists because they feel so real and grounded for you.
Oz Gallagher and Silas Ashworth , the Earl of Ashworth, are absolute perfection. Oz, small, fierce Irish born Londoner, with his firsts in Art History but a common background that will always insure no reputable firm will hire him, is that quick witted, smart mouthed soul . He’s instantly someone you love. An affair that deepens, page by page.
It’s helped along by Oz’s instantaneous connection with Chewwy, a mournful Italian Spinione , who becomes his shadow, to our delight.
Silas, the Earl and local vet, is just as warm and charming as Oz, but in a totally different way. He’s, posh but without the snobbery. He’s Cornish, where the land and house have as deep a hold onto him as for it to be cellular. He loves his land, his people, and , everything about Silas telegraphs that immense connection through Morton’s wonderful descriptions and thoughtful dialogue.
Theirs is a slow paced romance, working through each other’s issues to arrive at a wonderful HEA and heartwarming epilogue.
There’s so many outstanding secondary characters, many of whom we will see again in other stories, including those in this collection.
5🌈
🔹Milo is next. This is a more somber story as it deals with issues such as domestic abuse and it’s lasting effects upon the person who suffered.
Milo Ramsey had a stutter , caused by a childhood accident, that also made him a target for bullying. This story addresses that as well. The Milo we met in Oz’s novel is one that’s had some time to recover.
This story gives us the Milo we hadn’t met yet, the trauma he endured, and the journey he took to recover and recognize the characteristics of the man he loves aren’t like the one who abused him.
It’s one of self-discovery, forgiveness, and bravery.
There’s a age difference between Milo and Niall. Milo’s romance with Niall Fawcett, estate manager to the Earl of Ashworth, that is.
But it’s a wonderful romance, and thoughtful story, working through all the serious issues that’s being discussed here, and what that means for Milo, first and their future.
Very satisfying. 4.75.
🔹Gideon is last.
Gideon Ramsey is Milo’s older brother, close friend to Niall and Silas. They grew up together at a nearby house, close to Chi an Mor. But where Milo was kept close to home, Gideon, like Silas and Niall , was shipped off to boarding school.
Gideon became a famous actor. Hiding the fact that he was “gay “ on the advice of his toxic agent. The fast lifestyle caught up with him in his late 30’s, drugs, sex, alcohol. Until it almost kills him with a bout of bronchitis.
Enter Milo and Niall, with an intervention of sorts. A cruise and a nurse to transport him to Chi an Mor where he’ll recuperate.
Eli Jones is believable as the nurse and engaging. Gideon is acerbic , dryly funny, and charming. The cruise is a great way to have them get to know each other before they land and Eli is off to another job.
I felt there could have been more in the section with Gideon’s agent. That happened abruptly. The cottage visit was lovely.
I liked this story but the other two were clear favorites. The epilogue, however, was splendid! I could picture that so easily. What a grand way to send them off.
4.5🌈
All in all just an amazing collection of stories. I wish Chi an Mor was real and I could pay to visit. I’d be on the next plane out.
One small note just because it bothers me. Of the 3 covers. The one for Oz? Has absolutely no connection to any main character . Oz? Tiny sharp faced black haired blues eyes Irish man. Silas? Tall, black haired, blade like nose Cornishman.
The bestselling Finding Home series is now available in one collection. Set in Cornwall, the series follows a group of friends as they each find love with a lot of heat and humour along the way.
Oz Gallagher does not do relationships well. Bored and jobless after another disastrous hook up, he decides to leave London for a temporary job in the wilds of Cornwall. Surely managing a stately home on a country estate will be easier than navigating the detritus of his relationships at home.
However, when he gets there, he finds a house in danger of crumbling to the ground and a man who is completely unlike anyone he’s ever met. An earl belonging to a family whose roots go back hundreds of years. Silas is the living embodiment of duty and sacrifice. Two things that Oz has never wanted. He’s also warm and funny and he draws Oz to him like a magnet.
Will falling in love be enough to make Oz stop moving at last and realise that he’s finally home?
Milo has been burying himself at Chi an Mor, hiding from the wreckage of his once promising career and running from a bad relationship that destroyed what little confidence he had. Niall, his big brother’s best friend, has been there for him that entire time. An arrogant and funny man, Niall couldn’t be any more different from the shy and occasionally stuttering Milo, which has never stopped Milo from crushing wildly on the man who saved him.
However, just as Milo makes the decision to move on from his hopeless crush, he and Niall are thrown into close contact, and for the first time ever Niall seems to be returning his interest. But it can never work. How can it when Milo always needs rescuing?
Content warning: There are descriptions of domestic abuse in this book.
Gideon has everything he should want in life. Fame, money, acting awards – he has it all. Everything but honesty. At the advice of his agent, Gideon has concealed his sexuality for years. But it’s starting to get harder to hide, and his increasingly wild behaviour is threatening to destroy his career.
Then he’s laid low by a serious illness and into his life comes Eli Jones. Eli is everything that Gideon can’t understand. He’s sunny tempered, friendly, and optimistic. Even worse, he’s unaffected by grumpiness and sarcasm, which forms ninety percent of Gideon’s body weight. As Gideon gets to know the other man, he finds himself wildly attracted to his lazy smiles and warm, scruffy charm that seem to fill a hole inside Gideon that’s been empty for a long time.
Will he give in to this incomprehensible attraction when it could mean the end of everything that he’s worked for?
Unraveling The Threads of Fate by Alice Winters is an excellently written, highly suspenseful tale that contains a lot of moments of extreme anxiety and dread. It stretches over the all events that should be happening to the people in the universe here.
I say should because a major element is that one character, Alex Coleman, school teacher, has a gift. He can see invisible threads stretching from person to person. Red threads ties a person to their soulmate. But the black threads he also sees ties them to the one who will kill them. It’s a talent he’s had his entire life and one he’s hidden.
In this universe, those with special gifts are tested and tracked, starting at a early age. But Alex’s abusive childhood with a destitute drug dealer allowed him to evade it.
Bishop King, scion to a wealthy businessman, once was the only friend Alex had growing up, until a horrific event drove them apart.
Bishop too has a special talent. He can walk in people’s dreams. But in Alex’s dreams, he’s got the power to do more, see more.
When they meet again, at Career Day at Alex’s school, they set off a set of events that have a rippling effect for a multitude of characters as Alex and Bishop fight to find and change their fates, pulled along by the threads Alex is seeing.
Winters, in her inimitable manner, with wry, sarcastic, haunting, and heartbreaking dialogue and scenes gives us a scary and thrilling tale of fate altered at breakneck pace, a murderer on the loose, and two find trying to outwit both a murderer and plot they can’t understand, and deal with a abusive past that threatens them.
With alternating flashbacks that are chilling in their cruelty and ability to deliver the blows that continues to be felt in the future, and a present where dreams are nightmares of blood, black threads, and death, that the author manages to bring romance and fun into this is amazing.
All the characters are fantastic. It includes Alex’s sister, Cali, who he raised. Her friends. Even the adults the surround them, good and bad.
It’s a vile and fascinating mixture.
But watching them trying to figure out how to change the date of each person and event, it’s thrilling and scary and heart racing.
Alex Some people are born lucky. Then there’s me, destined to be loved by the man who knows my darkest secret. My gift has followed me my entire life—the ability to see the threads of fate. I can see the red thread tying together two people destined to love one another. But my gift has another side to it. A darker side. I can also see a simple black thread tied to the fingers of those who aren’t aware of it, connecting them to the person destined to kill them. And when I look down at my own finger, I can see the red thread stretched over to Bishop King. The man who is my soul mate.
But then why is the black thread also wrapped around our fingers? Bishop is sweet and caring, and I can’t stop my heart from loving him. I just need to thwart fate before it separates us forever.
Bishop I swore to never let myself be drawn back into Alex’s world, but the man is funny and charming and the moment we’re together I fall back into the familiarity we shared as teenagers. I know this time is different; he’s hoping that I can help him walk through his dreams to figure out how an innocent girl is going to die.
While his dreams tell of the future, mine allow us to find the truth. But what happens when we save a life and change fate–will it affect our own future? I can’t keep myself from falling for Alex, but what if helping him leaves one of us dead?
Unraveling the Threads of Fate is a standalone romance with action, mystery, humor, and a happy ending.
“She couldn’t see the bigger picture. She looked at the twins and saw a problem. Thomas saw an opportunity. A divine creation. He was raising a legion of psychopaths.”
— Mad Man (Necessary Evils Book 5) by Onley James
Mad Man (Necessary Evil #5) by Onley James is Avi Mulvaney’s story, the other half of the mirror twins referenced above.
And every issue I had with Asa’s (the other twin’s book) is resolved here, the reasons for that’s story’s lack weirdly reflected in Avi’s nature and the fact he’s literally what’s missing from Asa. Asa has those qualities Avi will never have. Only together are they one person.
The prologue is the second half ( naturally) of how they were found and adopted. It adds those last minutiae to them as children.
Asa is the total aggressor, absolute control, all mind, and yes, cruelty. Loves to inflict pain. The perfect sadist. That’s his half. Avi is emotion. He enjoys being hurt. He’s the masochist to Asa’s sadist. He’s dependent on their twin connection. While Asa’s mean in his remarks, Avi’s kind, if that’s possible for a psychopath. He’s impulsive.
That Avi is “feeling “ the loss in their separation more deeply or able to express his spiraling makes sense given which half he is. It also makes him more relatable as he’s definitely more likable, even though he’s still very much a killer.
James’ mirror twins comes with built in narrative issues demonstrated by their stories. Asa’s such a undeniably alpha personality, a sadist who’s only weakness is his brother who carries those other character traits for him. Asa hunt’s everything, including the man he’s obsessive over. He’s even able to shut out or down temporarily his link with his brother when Avi questions his decision.
That’s unthinkable to Avi. A loss of link? Never. So while that stays true to Asa , by losing Avi, that story loses the reader to an extent.
Now in Avi , we’re back and we get another fabulous character as well. One we’ve been previously introduced to. Felix Navarro. Baby brother to Jericho, now husband to Atticus.
Felix is delicate,,gender bending, highly talented fashion designer , and extremely lethal in his own right.
He’s also forceful, possessive, and supremely intelligent. In a way perfect for the man he’s been crushing on. Avi Mulvaney, fashion designer and head of his own clothing empire company.
Felix is a complicated personality, with a family history of loss (Jericho’s story), his outlook and passion mask a fear of being left and insecurities over his background. Indeed, he’s strong and commanding but soft and in need of a family dynamics where he’s able to feel completely safe.
The two stories, Avi’s and Asa’s, actually fit together like the twins do, giving us a full portrait of the amazingly synergy that comes into existence between Avi&Felix&Asa&Zane. It’s not 2 + 2 but actually a whole of four. That’s the completed “one” at the end.
Avi woos Felix, and Felix (already a member of the Mulvaney family by way of Jericho) really learns who Avi is and understands his needs, with and away from Asa. It’s such a wild well written story.
We also get to know Felix intimately as well. His rages to his fears. His passions and aggressive side. He’s perfect. For Avi.
The mystery starts off in a startlingly different manner, with a nice twists. There’s several cases here that the family is involved in.
Plus the ongoing Aiden/Thomas drama.
I loved this book, and it reminded me that Asa’s was really a lead-in to this which, like the Prologue, completed the story for both men.
Except for the complications of length, it should have been one novel.
Together, it’s outstanding the more you think about all the elements, and aspects of each mirror twin and the men they’ve chosen, who are in fact, mirrors themselves.
Stunning.
There’s also the tiny fact that’s whispering along each story that all these characters and acts have been directed by the man who gathered them together as one large experiment.
Surely something has to come of that?
At any rate, I’m highly recommending this book and series. Heed the trigger warnings about violence. This is dark fiction and romance. The men are psychopaths.
Avi Mulvaney is many things. Son. Twin. Owner of the fashion label, Gemini. Murderous psychopath. Together, he and his brother, Asa, make one brutally efficient monster, ridding the world of predators who victimize the innocent. History proves Avi and Asa don’t do well apart, but their father has decided to test that theory.
Felix Navarro knows exactly who he is. Baby brother. Fashionista. Vigilante. While he’s not happy that his big brother married a Mulvaney, the union has its perks. Like a paid internship with Gemini. But all good things come with a cost and, for Felix, that’s enduring Avi Mulvaney each day, which inevitably leads to thinking about him every night.
Felix doesn’t like Avi. He’s cocky, condescending, overbearing, and inappropriate. He’s also sexy, brilliant, and twice as lethal as Felix. Still, Felix loathes him. Even if he keeps letting him kiss him. And touch him. Even if he slipped just once. It was still hate sex, and it would never happen again. Ever.
Except, Avi’s being sent to help take down a dangerous crime ring and he’s ordered Felix to come along. Felix has vowed to stay strong. To remember he hates Avi. But they’re trapped together and there’s only one bed, and it’s so hard to hate Avi in the dark when he’s whispering how Felix belongs to him. Felix belongs to no man, but Avi is determined. He has one week to prove to Felix that he’s the exception to his rule. After all, who says no to a Mulvaney?
Mad Man is a scorchingly hot, intense, enemies to lovers, psychopath romance with an HEA and no cliffhangers. It features a dirty talking, brutally vicious killer and a sharp tongued murderous fashionista who are both too stubborn for their own good. As always, there’s gratuitous violence, very dark humor, enough blood to film the final scene in the movie Carrie, and enough heat to melt your panties. This is book five in the Necessary Evils series. Each book follows a different couple.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 