Review: The Bones in the Yard (Beyond the Veil Book 5) by KM Avery

Rating: 4.75🌈

Beyond The Veil series continues it’s excellent journey into the macabre and magical with The Bones in The Yard. KM Avery’s series is slightly divided into sections of three, each focusing on a specific main character and couple.

The Bones in The Yard is the second of the group of stories about the elf detective, Valentine “Val” Hart. Val, now private investigator with Beyond the Veil , a firm owned by Mason and Ward , a orc witch and human warlock who deal in all things magical, arcane and the dead.

Avery’s book picks up after the events in The Dog In The Alley, the story that introduces Val to Taavi Camal, Xoloitzcuintli shifter who is a rare born Arcanid. Taavi, in a fascinating twist, spent much of that story and their time together in his dog form (through trauma) , which prompts a lot of mixed emotions and deep questioning from Val over how to deal with Taavi on different levels. It’s a great element and one whose impact continues through to this story.

Avery has ,through five books, demonstrated an exemplary ability to craft believable traumatized characters, ones so complex and compelling that we can understand all the layers of denial they are putting between them and the reality of their existence. These are brutal books, dealing with death through evil, horrific acts. Some from past history that Avery brings tragically, furiously to life through the ghosts Ward talks to. Others through the vicious, ruthless events of modern life, from the magical world or against it.

The Bones In The Yard attacks the seemingly unflappable elf on every level. Avery uses this book to narratively open up Val emotionally, flay him for his own introspection about his life, and the shifter he’s not sure how to love. The same shifter who’s trying to get Val to see that Val is showing all the signs of some who has PTSD. Which Val does. Most of the beings here are under constant threat of violence or have been physically / mentally/ magically assaulted. Or been somehow effected by it. It’s a very harsh reality.

The shifter, Taavi Camal, a Xoloitzcuintli dog (among those commonly known as Mexican hairless) , has been recently injured and Arcanids are being ritually murdered, another scary fact for him and Val.

Avery layers on fascinating Maya and Incan mythology to go with terrifying discoveries and murders. All the marvelous found family of the Beyond the Veil is highly visible and involved as well as Val’s best friend from Wisconsin.

Elliot is important because a huge

part of Val’s identity is his Wisconsin family and heritage. He’s still that nondescript , 5’7” brown haired boy that no one wanted to date. The one that likes his baked goods and family before the Arcanavirus changed him into a 6’2”, gorgeous elf with long silver hair that continues to grow. There’s a constant struggle between the being he’s become , how he’s now perceived as this luminous beauty and the real person he’s inside. Again, a great element of this story and series. The new beings created , the ones that survived, by the Arcanavirus and society’s response to them.

Avery is constantly expanding this universe, coming back to the original threads which made it so imaginative. Here Taavi is a rare born Arcanid, instead of someone changed. He’s never been anything else, with implications for that. He doesn’t understand what it’s like to be human.

I’ve been distressed, constantly amazed, frustrated, appreciative, totally invested and always looking forward to the next chapter in the lives of the beings here.

I’m highly recommending this book but this is a series that must be read in order for the reader to understand the characters, the events that happened to them.

Beyond The Veil :

The Ghost In The Hall #1

The Boy In The Locked Room #2*

The Skeleton Under The Stairs #3

The Dog In The Alley #4

The Bones In The Yard #5

• Pls read reviews and trigger warnings about book 2 and Chapter 19, a chapter which deals in a sexual assault.

Buy Link:

The Bones in the Yard (Beyond the Veil Book 5)

Description:

I… have issues.

I know. Who’d have thought that a jaded ex-cop elf would have problems with emotional commitment and self-esteem?

Yeah, me, too.

I’m trying to work on that. I’ve also got a new job, new boss, and a pile of bones I’m trying to identify while not stepping on too many official police-business toes. To top things off, it looks like the Antiquus Ordo Arcanum aren’t the only murdering cult making my life a living hell.

I’m in the middle of a battleground between not one, but two cults and a group of people who think that witches, warlocks, and people like Ward and me shouldn’t exist. And as if that weren’t enough, I’m struggling to find time to work on self-improvement and maybe manage to go on a date or two in the mean time with a certain shifter who is just way too adorable for words.

I’m pretty sure he’s going to dump my ass. But I really, really, really hope he doesn’t. At least not before I can solve these murders and get my life a little more together than it currently isn’t.

Beyond the Veil Book 5

Part two of Hart’s story

Beyond the Veil 1-3: Ward & Mason’s story

Review: The Black King by Sam Burns and W.M. Fawkes

Rating: 3.5🌈

There’s much to admire and really enjoy in fantasy adventure story, The Black King by Sam Burns and W.E. Fawkes . A good royal family slaughtered, a tiny prince saved and secreted away by a family warrior who raises him.

A dying poor boy given a chance to live if he will find a king and place him back onto a stolen throne.

Be still my heart. Those are some fabulous narrative bones here. And the authors create some equally compelling characters and elements to further flesh out their impact and potential.

It starts with the fact that unlike most other books, the knight saving the child prince from his family’s slaughter isn’t a man, but an extremely strong and capable woman. I loved this aspect of the story. Greer is a formidable figure, a fighter, a protector, a goat herder. But like others I related to, I felt that she and others never fully realized their future, being sort of shunted away at the end by a sentence or two.

Leon, the hidden prince who hears the bells of royalty in his head, has the ability to grow and grab at the reader’s heart but he continues to make the same mistakes throughout the book. Any growth is left right up to the very end when there’s no way else to go. That’s a shame because I’d have preferred a slower change in his personality to a forced transition.

Quentin is really the hero here. The sickly boy destined to die until a witch sets him upon a quest. He’s a wonderful example of this type of fantasy archetype. Perseverance is his name, so handsome he shines (thank you, witchcraft), humble of nature and endearing. Oddly, I kept thinking he’d end up in a different role. However, he’s in a great position when he gets his HEA. Hard not to immediately connect and invest in his life struggles.

Along the way, Leon, Quentin, Queer, will meet up with others, including an important character, Errol. He comes into the book, grabs at our hearts, and then goes away until a sentence at the end. It’s a choice made with the knight Greer too.

While she starts out as a powerful part of the narrative, as the drama continues, the rush towards the conclusion is so swift that many of the characters are left behind in the pages. And what should be a climatic battle, turns into a shout, a rout, then the finale.

I couldn’t figure out why a book that had such a strong plot outline and potentially great characters didn’t have the book that was up to polishing it all off in a fully realized way. Where all the characters showed realistic growth, the denouement at the end was satisfying, and all the people we kept company with along the journey were there at the end to celebrate the emotional finale of a great quest.

I believe one reason for the rushed, incomplete nature of this story rests at the end of the description. This wasn’t written as a book but rather as a serialized story for the authors Patreon group. That makes sense. The repetitive pattern in Leon’s behavior, the lack of build up and foundation work for the Kingdom, and lack of depth and development in the witch’s storyline. Expectations are high for a book to see that depth of plotting and multidimensional characters.

Serialized stories? Maybe not so much because of a different style and format.

Either way, it shows here.

Imo, if you’re going to release a serialized story as a book, the authors might want to consider rewriting before publishing it first. Especially one that’s has such great bones!

Buy Link:

The Black Kingby Sam Burns

Description:

Prince Revelin was slaughtered beside his family. Now, his cousin King Verlyn holds the throne, and peace reigns in Nenyth.

That is the story peasants tell, huddling before their hearths while the kingdom falls into ruin, afraid to speak the truth even in whispers. There is no peace, only the brutality of the beasts and bandits that roam the countryside while the usurper king sits his throne, blind to our suffering. I’ve felt it every second of my life, held back by illness that’s gripped me since childhood. But a wish and a promise brings me the health and strength I need to set things right—find the rightful king and restore Nenyth.

If I fail, my promise will be broken, my life lost alongside it, but word of a rogue knight reaches our hamlet—a warrior skilled enough to teach me the ways of the blade. In my father’s footsteps, I’ll become a knight and restore justice.

My name is Quentin, and if it takes all that I have and all I’ve ever hoped for, I will save my kingdom, my people, and my prince.

The Black King is an MM epic fantasy serial novel. Join Quentin and our knight errant as they fight back the dark. Full of violence, hope, and more than a little swordplay.

The Black King was originally published on Sam Burns & W.M. Fawkes’s Patreon page as our 2022 Epic Fantasy Romance serial.

Review: The Elemental Keyes (Circle the Square Book 1) by Sam Burns

Rating: 5🌈

“I was about to die.

Even worse, maybe the world was better off for it.”

So begins our journey into The Elemental Keyes , the first of Sam Burns the absolutely outstanding, and emotionally gripping new two book series, Circle the Square.

A two person POV, which starts from one world, then begins a journey that the author will take her characters and readers on that just shy of brilliant.

There’s no way to go about describing the storylines except what relayed in the description. The world is about to end. We know because one of our narrator’s a seer, Blaze Keyes and he’s seen the world will end on his birthday.

Well, that of his and his twin brother, River’s. They are elemental mages as well as seers. River a fire mage and Blaze ironically a water mage. And it’s because of mages the world once succeeded, and it’s because of mages it’s now going to die.

The other wildly different perspective comes from a elf, Elethen Voransa, aka The Crow. A well known thief among his people, his entrance into the lives of the Keyes brothers is spectacular and shattering for all.

Burns does amazing things in bringing all the characters to life, along with the dire circumstances under which they are living and maneuvering through the obstacles that keep rising up around them.

There’s no way to prepare someone for the neat twists and surprises Burns has laid down for the readers here. Like silken traps threaded through the narrative, they snap shut with a well plotted zest, making this reader anticipate with great excitement and glee what the next and final book holds.

I’m highly impressed with The Elemental Keyes, it’s so imaginative, with great twists, wonderful characters, and a fantastic storyline.

April 13th, the date The Elemental Ruin is released, can’t get here soon enough.

Circle the Square- 2 books

✓ The Elemental Keyes Book 1

◦ The Elemental Ruin Book 2 – April 13, 2023

Buy Link:

The Elemental Keyes (Circle the Square Book 1)

Today is the day the world ends.

Fine, tomorrow is the day the world ends, but is that actually better? My name is Blaze Keyes, and I’m a seer. Since I was a kid, I’ve known that the world was going to end on my twenty-fifth birthday.

But the day before the apocalypse, the most unexpected guy falls into my lap—or maybe I’d like to fall into his. Elethen is tall, handsome, a type of mage that disappeared from earth a century ago . . . and an elf. Also, he says he fell through a portal from another world, and I sort of believe him.

If I can’t save earth, maybe I can at least get Elethen home safe. Or if we can get my infuriating brother to work with us, maybe we can save everyone on both of our worlds. Maybe the world dies tomorrow, but damn it, I’m not going out without a fight.

The Elemental Keyes is the first of two books featuring a deadly portal between two very different worlds, a confused elven Robin Hood, an unemployed mage trying to deal with the end of everything he knows, his snarky criminal brother, and a few surprises along the way. It will conclude on April 13th with book two, The Elemental Ruins

Review: Demon Inside by H. L. Day

Rating: 4🌈

Demon Inside is a new action/adventure paranormal story by H.L. Day, a author whose fantasy fiction I’m enormous fan of. Day’s ability to create the kind of interesting, damaged characters that appeal to readers is exactly why I find Day’s stories so intriguing.

Jude Campbell is a perfect example. Haunted by visions of demons no one else can see since birth, he’s been in and out of psychiatric hospitals and doctors care for most of his life. Placed there for his “own good” by his parents, and even himself.

Jude is an emotional wreck of a man when Day dumps us into his life.

Dante Moretti enters into Jude’s messy life when he needs help the most and least expects it. Dante is a being that shouldn’t exist, a half demon. How he came to be is slowly revealed, along with the other parts of Dante’s life. That’s a priest, Father Rory, who assists him in his mission. A mission which isn’t terribly clear to the reader or Jude for that matter.

That’s one of my issues with the story. There’s a lack of framework for all the demonic creatures and activities that are occurring. Yes , we get Asmodeus, and the neat element of dream creation/talking, but real depth about the structure and behaviors? No. I felt something was missing.

I enjoyed the fast paced narrative, the idea of the characters made to fit together (although that wasn’t as fully developed as it could have been). Jude and Dante were a sexy, enjoyable duo who had a short time to pull together and learned to care about each other. Day did a great job in getting that accomplished.

The ending was swiftly built up and action packed. It was left open just enough for Day to write a sequel if it was ever desired.

Until then, I’m recommending Demon Inside by H. L. Day as a fun, fast paced paranormal adventure!

Buy Link:

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Demon-…Demon Inside – Kindle edition by Day, H.L. Literature & Fiction …

Description:

The forces of darkness are gathering, and only two men can stand in their way.

Jude Campbell can see demons. His psychiatric history says it’s all in his head, but he knows they’re out there. Watching. Waiting. Biding their time.

Dante Moretti is the half demon child that should never have been born. He might exorcize demons, but the dark urges from his demon side are growing stronger, and he knows the day will come when he’ll lose himself to them completely.

When Jude’s time runs out, Dante is tasked with keeping him alive. Jude might be temptation personified, but for Jude’s sake, Dante won’t give in. Only, being together is changing them, in ways neither could possibly hope to understand, and it’s no longer clear who is saving who.

Destiny has come calling. And love could be its prize.

Demon Inside is a 94k action/adventure paranormal MM novel. It features a demon king who can enter dreams, two flawed main characters who don’t have the happiest of backgrounds, a priest sidekick, secrets that go way back, and plenty of steam.

Content warnings: violence and murder, past mentions of sexual assault (not of the main characters), and mentions of psychiatric difficulties and medication use.

Review: Trouble in Taco Town (The ABC’s of Spellcraft Book 2) by Jordan Castillo Price

Rating: 4.5🌈

Trouble in Taco Town proved to be an even more enjoyable romp than the first episode into The ABC’s of Spellcraft!

After the shutting down the nefarious greeting shop and dealing with its despicable owner, Dixon and Yuri are sent off on another adventure when a postcard is received from the missing Uncle Fonzo.

Soon they are off to Taco Town, Minnesota , a place where everywhere you look something is going wrong and a certain missing Uncle seems to be at the heart of it.

I really found myself getting into this story and the relationship of this couple a lot more than I did in the first book. Yuri, for one, is more accessible with his thoughts and feelings, which lets the reader connect with him. And Dixon has grown in his abilities without losing his sense of joy and enthusiasm in obtaining his magic.

Price does an excellent job with these characters, and others, in such a short amount of narrative space. I can say the same with the excellent work done with the complex storyline.

Simple on the surface, less so underneath. I started out on Yuri’s side, getting frustrated with Dixon’s inability to accept the facts before him. I do love it when things surprise me.

Does this leave you with questions, yes. But it does so with Dixon and Yuri too. Perhaps that part of the overall arc thread.

It’s a quick, imaginative, wonderful read. Now I’m onto the next.

Definitely recommending this!

The ABC’s of Spellcraft series:

✓ Quill Me Now #1

✓ Trouble in Taco Town #2

◦ Something Stinks at the Spa #3

◦ Dead Man’s Quill #4

◦ Last But Not Lease #5

◦ Don’t Rock The Boardwalk #6

◦ What The Frack? #7

◦ Present Tense: A Spellcraft Christmas short #8

◦ Brownie Points #9

◦ Forging Ahead #10

◦ Mayor May Not #11

◦ Bucket List #12

◦ Comic Sans #13

◦ It’s All Relative #14

Buy Link:

Trouble in Taco Town (The ABCs of Spellcraft Book 2)

Description:

Road trip!

When Dixon and Yuri head for Taco Town, they’re hoping to track down Uncle Fonzo. What they find instead is a fiasco. Is it sabotage? A curse? Or is it just a bunch of badly worded Spellcraft?

The small Minnesota berg is a tourist destination featuring a memorable roadside attraction: The Big Taco. It’s not actually edible, but there’s a flock of birds passing through that never got the memo.

One thing’s for sure, Fonzo has been there. Not only do plenty of folks recognize his photo, but they paid him to solve certain problems…all of which are now exponentially worse. Dixon wants to chalk it up to a run of bad luck. Yuri knows a con man when he sees one, and while he doesn’t relish the thought of destroying Dixon’s hero, he wouldn’t mind knocking the guy down a few pegs.

But there’s definitely something screwy about the Spellcraft they uncover. And they’d better figure out how to repair it before the Big Taco is reduced to crumbs—and with it, the livelihood of all their new friends.

The ABCs of Spellcraft is a series filled with bad jokes and good magic, where MM Romance meets Paranormal Cozy. A perky hero, a brooding love interest, and delightfully twisty-turny stories that never end up quite where you’d expect. The books are best read in order, so be sure to start at the beginning with Quill Me Now.

Review: Hudson’s Luck (a Forever Wilde novel) by Lucy Lennox

Rating: 4🌈

I didn’t realize until later that this was a part of a much larger universe, with a preceding series (Made Marian) and connected family history to accompany it.

Lennox does give the reader a family tree with all the information and couple names at the beginning of each story to help sort out the “who’s this “ relations but sometimes it’s easier to just go through the whole story with a easy ignorance. Then if you want to learn more, chase down the other books.

All that said, Hudson’s Luck is my first book in this universe. I liked the description and the Irish setting sealed it.

Lennox does a wonderful job with her characters and setting. From the moment we met Hudson Wilde, a financial analyst for the beer business , on a plane to Ireland, we soon get a intimate glimpse into a man who has accidentally overturned his calm life. And will soon be thrust into a unknown one.

Hudson is a very well conceptualized character. From the oldest in a large family, highly responsible, the one that the younger ones could count on, Lennox brings us a man who’s life needs a lot of work and growth. And then proceeds to slowly give him the new experiences and one man who can make him change.

That’s Charlie Murray. A Irish publican, gorgeous with a bad dating history. And a uncle who’s endangered the family’s business. The entire storyline that’s set in Ireland is wonderful, sexy, funny and not nearly long enough.

But Lennox needs to switch locations again back to Hobie, Texas and Hudson’s family’s ranch. That’s where the entire Wilde family resides and the remainder of the story takes place. The Wilde siblings, Grampa and Gramps, exes, even dogs come looping into the story.

The family elements are heartwarming and believable. I felt at home with the grandparents and their dogs, and chaos on the ranch. It’s welcoming and real.

The same for the sheepdog aspect, trials , Charlie and his dog, Mama.

The romance between Charlie and Hudson? That was a bit more frustrating. Hudson though he was straight until Charlie when it became obvious he wasn’t. But the denial at home and the pain he inflicted didn’t seem true after a while. At first yes, the conflict to acknowledge something new or true and then tell family? Yes, that’s takes time and effort. But his family is primarily LGBTGIA, and the choices he made contributed greatly to hurting the people he loved.

So it felt more a narrative choice than an emotionally driven one.

The ending was a wonderful one and I think the couple, dogs and all, were off on a HEA.

I’m recommending it. And I’ll check out others in the series to see what the other siblings are doing.

Forever Wilde series:

◦ Facing West #1

◦ Felix and the Prince #2

◦ Wilde Fire #3

✓ Hudson’s Luck #4

◦ His Saint #5

◦ Wilde Love #6

◦ King Me #7

◦ NautiCal #8

◦ Forever Wilde in Aster Valley #9

Buy Link:

Hudson’s Luck: A Forever Wilde Novel

Description:

Hudson:

Don’t ever accidentally propose to your girlfriend. In front of her family. Especially if her dad is your boss. Because when you make it clear you’ve made a mistake, he’s likely to send you out of the country to get you as far away from his broken-hearted daughter as possible. It happened to me. Now I’m stuck in Ireland trying to redeem myself so I can get promoted and have the life I’ve planned for: successful career, loving wife and kids, a comfortable, financially-secure home life in Texas.

But all of that seems to evaporate the moment I walk into the historic pub and see the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Only, he’s not a woman.

Charlie Murray is most definitely a man—the kind of man who causes me to take a second look for the first time in my life. And a third look, and fourth. I can’t help but want to get to know him better… to get close to him, touch him, maybe even kiss him. But I’m straight. Or so I’ve always thought. Even if I’m not, how in the world could a feisty Irishman ever fit into the safe, predictable life I’ve always planned for?

Charlie:

Don’t ever accidentally fall for the straight guy. Especially when he’s trying to pry your family’s business right out from under you. I should know. Because when Hudson Wilde walks into my family’s pub and begins babbling so adorably, I can’t help but fall just a little bit in love. But I’m looking for Forever Man, and the sexy American is certainly not him. He’s so confused about what he wants, even choosing something from the dinner menu throws him into a fuddle. But those eyes… how can I resist?

So maybe I’ll give in. One steamy night before he heads home and I go back to life at the pub. We’ll never see each other again.

Until, of course, his business deal sends me to Hobie, Texas, right into the middle of Hudson’s steady life, more gay Wildes than can fit on a dance floor, and an ex-girlfriend who may or may not be content remaining an ex. But the more time I spend with Hudson, the more I think he might be my Forever Man after all. And I may be his. Is it possible we could both be so lucky?

Hudson’s Luck is the fourth book in the Forever Wilde series but can be read on its own. Beware it includes 93k words of delicious man parts touching, grandfathers meddling, neighbors nosy-ing, dogs fornicating, cats being cats, horses… ah, crunching apples? or something… and one very flirty Stevie.

Review: Quill Me Now (The ABC’s of Spellcraft Book 1) by Jordan Castillo Price

Rating: 4🌈

Quill Me Now is a short first story that introduces the reader to a new world and series by Jordan Castillo Price. Urban fantasy that immediately lets us into the urban setting we’re familiar with, given a magical twist. Late food and bad service due not to service gone wrong but because of a magical signage done poorly.

That seems legit somehow. And twin brother and sister trying to hold onto a magical family business but grappling with debt.

The magic is divided into two groups. Scriveners and Seers. Scriveners create spells with words, and the skill is genetic. The other side is the Seer, they paint a magical picture. Non magical people are called Handless.

Into this world, there’s Dixon Penn, of the well known Penn Scriveners family only he failed his test.

The story is about Dixon’s plight to be a Scriveners, the job he finds, the mysterious Russian Yuri he meets, and the trouble they get into.

It’s fun, with some magic, mystery, and the beginnings of romance. It could use some more world building and magical information but it’s a fairly long series now so I expect to see more of it as I get into the books.

But definitely a cute, quirky paranormal read and one I’m recommending.

The ABC’s of Spellcraft series:

✓ Quill Me Now #1

◦ Trouble in Taco Town #2

◦ Something Stinks at the Spa #3

◦ Dead Man’s Quill #4

◦ Last But Not Lease #5

◦ Don’t Rock The Boardwalk #6

◦ What The Frack? #7

◦ Present Tense: A Spellcraft Christmas short #8

◦ Brownie Points #9

◦ Forging Ahead #10

◦ Mayor May Not #11

◦ Bucket List #12

◦ Comic Sans #13

◦ It’s All Relative #14

Buy Link:

Quill Me Now (The ABCs of Spellcraft Book 1)

Description:

What if the words you wrote came true?

Spellcraft isn’t exactly a respectable business, but it does pay the bills. At least, it should. Unfortunately, Dixon Penn failed his Spellcraft initiation. Instead of working in his family’s shop, he’s stuck delivering takeout orders in his uncle’s beat-up Buick.

Winning a Valentine’s Day contest at the largest greeting card company in the tri-state area would be just the thing to get his life back on track—but something at Precious Greetings just doesn’t add up. And despite numerous warnings to quit pestering them about his contest entry, he simply can’t stop himself from coming back again and again.

It doesn’t hurt that the head of security is such a hottie. If Dixon had any common sense, he’d be scared of the big, mysterious, tattooed Russian.

To be fair, no one ever accused him of being too smart….

Quill Me Now originally debuted in the Bad Valentine collection, along with Love Magic by Jesi Lea Ryan, Hidden Hearts by Clare London, and Temporary Dad by Dev Bentham.

Review : Keep It Together (The Undead Detective Agency Book 2) by Shelby Rhodes

Rating: 4.75🌈

“I, Detective Octavius Evander, continues! To start off on a positive note, prepare to be amazed my precious human, Turney,”

The adventures and romantic journey of the ancient vampire Octavius Evander and his human companion, the wonderfully named Turney Pimms, continues in Keep It Together.

This series starts with Octavius deciding to open a paranormal detective agency, with nothing but money, whimsy and time behind it. As the first book progresses past a strangely endearing flyer, The Undead Detective Agency begins to accumulate its unique employees and accept cases. Among its employees are Turney Pimms, Cormac the werewolf ,Scarlett the zombie , and Min-ji the powerful witch. Each finds their way to working for Octavius in an most unlikely scenario.

But it’s Octavius himself who’s the paranormal puzzle at the heart here. He’s ancient, incredibly intelligent, lost more knowledge than anyone around while accumulating more powers, and yet he’s still not the figure you’d expect.

And this is where Shelby Rhodes does the hardest work narratively and the best that’s threaded through out the series to date. It’s in creating a character so lovable and endearing that we pay little attention to the darker aspects of his story the author’s hinting at.

Honestly I’d pay just for the fabulous sketches of the character of Octavius at the beginning of each chapter. He’s just that winning a personality, especially in his costumed fruit bat form.

So as Octavius runs around chasing his favorite types of glitter, or between cases, has sexy romps with his Turney, the author starts to smack the reader with a clue. Then it’s back to silliness. Then a harder smack to make us pay attention, then notice something about Octavius, then everything isn’t quite so simple or silly anymore.

That perhaps it’s deep trauma and a shattering experience that’s brought about a need to shy away from looking at things too hard and instead concentrate on glitter and scrapbooking. Suddenly the character of Octavius takes on another troubling aspect and damaged perspective of someone who’s been abused.

The ending is both something the author is preparing the reader for and is still unexpected. It’s a cliffhanger.

I have such a deeper appreciation for the layers the author is writing into the story and characters here that I wasn’t aware of in the first book. I’ll be rereading it again soon to see what I missed.

I’m highly impressed by the story and plots . I’m recommending it. There’s a character death. That’s not a spoiler as it’s mentioned in the description.

Part of me thinks that there should be a trigger warning for trauma but I can’t think of how I’d word it at the moment. It’s that sort of story.

The Undead Detective Agency:

✓ Get It Together #1

✓ Keep It Together #2

◦ In Death Together #3 TBD 2023

◦ Forever Together #4 TBD 2024

Buy Link:

Keep It Together (The Undead Detective Agency Book 2)

Description:

Back again, I see. Well, you are in luck, for the story of, I, Detective Octavius Evander, continues! To start off on a positive note, prepare to be amazed as my precious human, Turney, falls into my hands!

Okay, technically, I already had my hands on him—all of him—but that didn’t make him mine, mine. But now it is time to show how I captured his heart with my lovable personality! No doubt my adorable and sparkly new hobby had something to do with it as well!

But enough about the gooey emotions. On to the cases! There will be a new adventure or two with my team to entertain. Though the adventures this time, well, not all end as pleasantly as one might hope. While I would say to prepare for the return of old faces, none of you have seen them before. Just know that their reappearance in my life leads to an unfortunate event. But in the paranormal world, fun and death go hand and hand, does it not?

CONTENT WARNING: This is a M/M paranormal romance book that ends on a cliffhanger. There will be violence and a main character death—a temporary death.

Review: The Financier and the Sweetheart (Campo Royale #4) by V.L. Locey

Rating: 5🌈

It’s going to break my heart to say goodbye to the Campo Royale series. It’s turned out to be a moving and entertaining series based around a Wilmington, Delaware hard working drag establishment. We’ve had all types of Queens and romances, from tiny Gigi and her NHL player to aging drag Queen Mother Sitka Patel and young Yampier.

Now at the penultimate story, we have Clarice Patel Coco, manager and performer at the Campo Royale. At the end of the last novel, a long lost and bitterly regretted love had resurfaced from Clarice’s past.

Nathan Abrams met young Leroy Marx on a college summer trip in France. It was incredibly beautiful and intense time when the young men fell deeply in love. But Nathan left, tragedy struck at home and Leroy returned to deal with it.

Locey gives us the innocence of Paris, the brutality of its loss and its significance to make Leroy’s current bitterness and solid stance against Nathan seem rational instead of extreme. When paired with their current monetary circumstances, Leroy scrambling to pay off the debts versus Nathan being wealthy to the point of private planes, the past seems a bigger barrier to overcome.

The realness and depth of energy that Locey has brought to the Campo Royale in every aspect makes it such a compelling stage for the series and romances. With Mother Sitka reigning over the chaos, the Queens backstage fondly quarreling and delivering shade with lines worthy of the best of RuPaul’s Untucked , this is a place you believe in. And love.

So it’s tough that most of the story is necessarily removed from here. It’s as though the author is preparing us to say goodbye .

Leroy, Nathan, and Leroy’s ebullient young sister, Laila (a great character), go on a journey of forgiveness, discovery, and love is so well done. I was deeply impressed with the details of pageantry, the city trips, the raw emotion, and how emotionally committed I was to the project and outcome.

Locey’s story has so many elements and all are fully explored and made real to the extent the reader will believe we’ve traveled around with the people, engaging in conversations, sharing experiences, and growing up with the newly created family.

Honestly, The Financier and the Sweetheart is my favorite of the series. It’s a deeply felt story and beautifully written journey about second chances and personal growth.

Then the letting go and moving forward to a new chapter in life.

There’s one last book to come . That will be a sorrowful read. Until then, I’m highly recommending The Financier and the Sweetheart (Campo Royale #4) by V.L. Locey, a beautiful way to start our goodbyes.

Campo Royale series:

✓ The Viking and the Drag Queen #1

✓ The Batchelor and The Cherry #2

✓ The Barkeep and The Bookseller #3

✓ The Financier and the Sweetheart #4

◦ The Chanteuse and the Bodyguard #5 – TBD release

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Financie…The Financier and the Sweetheart (Campo Royale #4) – Kindle edition by Locey, V.L.. …

Description:

Will the love they once shared reignite or will this goodbye truly be the last?

Leroy Marx has been performing as Clarice Patel Coco for years. Ever since that fateful summer when he was a young and foolish man touring Europe before heading to a religious college in the Deep South. That trip proved to be a time of great joy as well as crushing sorrow. He found love on that grand tour in the arms of an arrogant, beautiful young man who was sowing his wild oats amid the lavender fields of France. That great passion was not to last for many reasons, one being the untimely death of Leroy’s parents in a car crash. The same crash that put his twin sister in a wheelchair for life. Leaving that young lover behind, he divided his time between his job and caring for his sibling. Leroy never dreamed that he’d be face-to-face with the man who had won, then trampled his heart all those years ago. The years have been incredibly kind to Nate Abrams but no matter how sweet that voice or how alluring those eyes are, Leroy is not about to offer up his heart again.

Nathan Abrams has it all, or so people say. Nate himself would say that as well and has numerous times. He’s a proud and out gay man who has an uncanny knack for knowing when to buy and when to sell. Anything. Stocks, houses, artwork, bonds. Nate has a keen sense of when to walk and when to hold tight. The only time he’d ever been wrong about his instincts was that glorious summer when he’d been eighteen and had met a reserved sweetheart of a man named Leroy Marx. He’d fallen hard for Leroy, the wild and impetuous headiness of first love overwhelming him. To the point that he’d feared the deep emotions ablaze in his chest. He’d run from that romance and into the arms of countless lovers, but he’d never been able to purge the tender memories of that love from his heart. Now here he was fifteen years older, and it seems none the wiser because he cannot seem to win back the man who has haunted his dreams no matter what he tries. He’s at his wit’s end but is too stubborn to give up and lose Leroy for a second time. Nate is ready to do whatever it takes to fix the biggest mistake of his life if he could just figure out what exactly he has to do and how to go about doing it…

The Financier and the Sweetheart is a second chance romance with a rich banker, a proud and independent queen, a past that both prayed would never be seen or heard from again, go-go boots, world travel, loving sisters, bell bottom love, and a glitteringly gorgeous happy ending.

Review: Givers (Upper Echelons Book One) by Casey Cox

Rating: 3.5🌈

Casey Cox is diving further into the billionaire romance trope with the first in Cox’s new Upper Eschelons series, Givers.

I’m a fan of this author from the Vet Shop Boys and thought I’d see what sort of perspective they’d bring to this popular contemporary romance trope.

There’s some good elements here with respect to the characters and their personalities that made for some interesting moments. I also enjoyed the You’ve Got Mail approach the author took with the dating app, something Cox admits to. It’s a charming ploy , and works here as well as it does on screen.

However, my thoughts after finishing the story is that every element, each neat aspect of the narrative I thought special or outside the usual plot line never got the attention of detail or was carried to its fullest potential that the author was capable of achieving.

Robbie Small (he’s also short in stature) is involved in the Wellness business (his company) , working out, and extremely conscious about diet. It relates back to a painful family history and his mother. This is an important part of his life and personality. It’s made him what he is today. Yet once it’s out in the story, it’s over. And this topic disappears completely.

This is a trend within the narrative. A storyline or aspect of one that may strike a reader as a compelling element is only partially put into use, and then discarded.

When both Dunlop and Robbie Small are matched up by the dating service we get an enjoyable, engaging conversation that adds to the anticipation for these men to share more of themselves and gain a deeper understanding. But that doesn’t happen. Spoiler alert. This element is stopped short.

The book actually contains a scene where Dunlop and Robbie go to meet a couple from another book (Heart Unbroken). It makes no sense if you haven’t read that story. And really, except for the author’s own need to include it so a brother can be yelled at twice, it’s hard to understand why it’s included here. The argument that the company and brother are “cold hearted” has been made satisfactorily.

It’s choices like that, extra page time that makes the book dense, less interesting, less focused on the characters and central themes of this story.

Dunlop wasn’t a character I was immediately drawn to. It took time to find any type of connection with him, unlike Robbie Smalls who was engaging and likable from the start.

The billionaire trope is , imo, a type of contemporary romance that’s harder to find a realistic connection with , so the author has to look deeper into the characters themselves for elements for readers to understand and be drawn to. I’m not sure Cox was able to find those elements and make us or at least me, care about the billionaires here. That’s a hard sell any day, but more so now.

So it’s a good romance. If you’re a fan of Cox or this trope, give it a try. Otherwise, check out the Vet Shop Boys! There’s a series I can recommend.

Upper Eschelons:

✓ Givers #1

◦ Takers #2 – Aug 7, 2023

Buy link:

Givers: MM Billionaire Romance (Upper Echelons Book 1)

Description:

I’m so bad at love, I’ve resorted to outsourcing it.

ALGRL is a next-level, algorithmic-based online dating service with a 97% guaranteed success rate! With odds like that, even I can’t mess it up. Right?

One thing I’m sure of—Dunlop Palmer is not the Mr. Forever I’m looking for.

He’s a billionaire alpha playboy. Filthy rich, criminally attractive, and 100% not settle-down material.

He irritates me from the moment we meet. He gets under my skin once we start working together. And he totally catches me off guard when I start catching glimpses of the real him.

Turns out, my first impressions of him were way off-base. There’s a lot more to Dunlop than meets the eye. And see? This is why I can’t be trusted when it comes to men.

I should be focused on the perfect guy I’ve been matched with online—hello, 97% success rate—and not the walking, talking, sex god of a disaster that is Dunlop.

Am I about to make another huge mistake?…

GIVERS is an opposites-attract billionaire MM romance with You’ve Got Mail rom-com vibes. It features an alpha billionaire who’s guarding his heart, online dating, a ginormous size difference, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: