Category: M/M Romance

Review: The Mercenary’s Guide to Mishaps and Romance (The Hitman’s Guide 7) by Alice Winters 

Rating: 5🌈

I was so excited to see another book in Alice Winters’ The Hitman’s Guide universe.  It’s one of my favorite series from an auto read author and this new release is another confirmation of both.

The Mercenary’s Guide to Mishaps and Romance brings back Scottish assassin Tavish from a previous book and gives him a well deserved romantic journey to a loving relationship and a new home, complete with our usual gang of ex hitmen twisted heroes, partners and friends.

Tavish takes a deal that has huge implications for our gang when he inadvertently kidnaps an innocent man.  That’s Ellis, an utterly charming guy, a vet tech with an unusual past and, as created by Winters, a personality so winning that we can’t help but fall in love with him. 

We aren’t the only ones.

But there’s a bunch of saving to do, mysteries to solve, revelations to surface, and snappy dialogue that occurs while things go boom and crashes happen.  Yes, and the Fence is mentioned often!

I was absolutely entertained by Ellis and Tavish as they fought, survived , all while developing a strong relationship. Then finally getting a well written resolution to a multi-level mystery and HFN they deserve that’s totally satisfying. 

The Mercenary’s Guide to Mishaps and Romance (The Hitman’s Guide 7) by Alice Winters was a great read and had all of my favorite characters. I can’t wait to see more in this universe.

Highly recommended.

The Hitman’s Guide:

  • The Hitman’s Guide to Making Friends and Finding Love #1
  • The Hitman’s Guide to Staying Alive Despite Past Mistakes #2
  • The Hitman’s Guide to Tying the Knot Without Getting Shot #3
  • The Former Assassin’s Guide to Snagging a Reluctant Boyfriend #4
  • The Hitman’s Guide to Righting Wrongs While Causing Mayhem #5
  • The Hitman’s Guide to Codenames and Ill-Gotten Gains #6
  • The Mercenary’s Guide to Mishaps and Romance #7

Buy link

        The Mercenary’s Guide to Mishaps and Romance (The Hitman’s Guide Book 7)

    

Blurb

Ellis

Why is it that the first attractive man to look my way mistakes me for a bad guy, stuffs me in the trunk of his car, and ships me off to an island where I’m positive the only thing waiting for me is my own murder?

I mean… yeah, Tavish is charismatic and fun, but did I mention the whole trunk thing? Oh, maybe I forgot to mention his peculiar group of friends who keep promising to “help” me, but why are they running around with masks and weapons while praising fences?

Tavish and his friends are actually the bad guys, aren’t they?

If I (somehow) look past all of that… Tavish really does seem like a nice guy. He’s caring, funny, and willing to risk his life to protect me. It’s become quite clear that if I’m going to get out of this alive, I’m not going to be able to do it without him.

Tavish

So maybe I mixed things up a wee bit and took Ellis on a tiny road trip that he might not have been privy to. Ellis doesn’t seem to overly mind. I mean, yeah, maybe he tried blinding me with aerosol spray… or maybe I was just blinded by his handsome smile.

The problem is that Ellis is in danger, but he knows nothing about this world he’s been thrown into. He’s sweet, kind, and has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. And I’m prepared to protect it at all costs.

Contains a charming man who lays on a Scottish accent to get his way, a bewildered vet tech who’s wondering why everyone around him is so strange, a parrot who may or may not want to steal Tavish’s man, and the Hitman’s Guide crew up to their usual hijinks.

  • Publication date: October 3, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 379 pages

Review:  Grayscale: An MM Shifter Romantic Suspense Novel (ORCA Book 2) by Vinni George

Rating: 4.25🌈

Grayscale is the second book in Vinni George’s action adventure fated mate shifter series, ORCA.  That’s both a family of orca shifters and an agency that they’ve formed to work together, Organization for the Return of Criminals and Assets (ORCA).

Each novel is working on an overall series mystery involving a family painting and matriarch while the brothers investigate and find their fated mates. 

 I believe I enjoyed Grayscale even more than Black & White, the first book in the series.  Grayscale, which picks up right after the conclusion of Black & White, starts right in on enlarging the characters of orca shifter, Cal Hunter and his sometimes lover/competitive enemy, great white shark shifter, Jack Grayson.  They’ve been in and out of each other’s missions and beds for 2 years, but Cal has been hiding from Jack and his family the fact that Jack is his fated mate.

This is one of those pull me/pull you relationships, where neither person is exactly communicating but their reasons makes sense actually.  Their chemistry is hot, the fact they are fated mates totally believable as is the dynamic between them. Jack Grayson, confident of Rueben the enigmatic shifter who has been directing the team, has his own secrets too. 

The characters are engaging, their personalities perfectly made for each other, and the story pulls in all the different characters as well as continuing the overall theme of the mysterious paintings and the grandmother’s connection.

I really got into this one. Loved the romance and characters and it really set up the next book to come.

Was it perfect? No. There’s a tremendous amount of subplots and history that was relayed in the first novel that was missing from this book, but the dynamic couple and adventure are still powerful enough to keep me connected from beginning to end.

Highly recommended.  And loving the covers.

ORCA:

  • Black & White #1
  • Grayscale #2
  • Full Color #3 – TBR early 2025
  • Outside the Lines (short story)

Cover Design: Alison Millsaps, Ozark Witch Cover Design

Buy link

        Grayscale: An MM Shifter Romantic Suspense Novel (ORCA Book 2)

    

Blurb

Cal Hunter didn’t hate Jack Grayson the moment he met him. He actually kind of liked the arrogant great white shark shifter… until Jack left Cal zip-tied to a bed and stole Cal’s job. Now, every time their paths cross, things get heated, and they both have the scars to prove it.

Jack has always worked better alone, but there is something about Cal he can’t get out of his system. So it shouldn’t be a problem when they are forced to work together to figure out who is after one of the most famous pieces of stolen art in the world.

But both men are keeping secrets that compromise their mission, and when Jack’s life is threatened, Cal has to decide if holding on to his own secrets is worth it. Turns out fate has one hell of a sense of humor.

Grayscale is book two in the Organization for the Return of Criminals and Assets (ORCA) series, featuring an orca shifter former mercenary who hates taking orders, a great white shark shifter who’d rather work solo, and a worldwide chase to track down a missing painting that ultimately forces them to cooperate in more ways than one!

  • Publisher: (October 3, 2024)
  • Publication date: October 3, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 215 pages

Review:  His Mate By Vengeance (Lunetti Pack, #1) by Mel Aitchess

Rating: 4.5🌈

Mel Aitchess isn’t an author I’ve read often, if ever before, but based on how much I enjoyed His Mate By Vengeance, I’m adding Aitchess to my list of musts.

This is the first book in a new paranormal fated mate crime family romance series (that’s a mouthful), and I loved it.

His Mate By Vengeance (Lunetti Pack, #1) by Mel Aitchess has individual mobs/packs of werewolves, vampires, witches, each with their own crime bosses, etc, all living their best criminal lives alongside an oblivious human society.  There’s a very cool map included of the City and distinct territories.

Aitchess does an excellent job of laying out the disputes that are occurring, internally whether from political or power struggles , or from outside factors that are affecting the various criminal families. The author does this, through the well written characters and their interactions, but also with revelations about their history through dialogue with others.

It’s a multi dimensional narrative that gives the reader beautifully balanced characters that inhabit a developing universe along with a growing mystery.

The main characters? Hot, so so hot. Equally emotionally damaged, murderously skilled, insanely sexy, with horrendous past histories that make them a perfect fit.  Assassin Vampire to guardian werewolf. That’s both Vin, the vampire assassin, and Angelo, the adopted werewolf protector of the Lunetti pack. Theirs is a fated mate enemy to lover romance that’s one I easily engaged with and found that I not only enjoyed the relationship but the storylines being built up around them. 

That includes Marco, the Alpha’s,  and the next book to be released, His Mate By Resistance, which is Luca’s story .

I’m absolutely looking forward to reading this. 

Final notes. These are crime families so expect certain events or elements to happen.  See warnings.  No mpreg. 

A definite recommend.

Lunetti Pack:

  • His Mate By Vengeance #1
  • His Mate By Resistance #2 – Nov 19,2024

Buy link

        His Mate By Vengeance: MM Mafia Shifter PNR (Lunetti Pack Book 1)

    

Blurb

I have lived for centuries. I have used and been used. Had countless lovers. And I have never wanted more. Not once. Not until today. Not until you.

Angelo is a protector—head of the Lunetti Pack’s security. He walks a delicate line avoiding the darker side of his mafia shifter pack’s business, but there’s no grey area in his hatred of vampires. Not after what they did to his family. When his Alpha orders him to keep one safe, it takes everything in him to obey. So, why is his wolf so intoxicated by the sassy vampire assassin’s scent permeating the safe house? And did there have to be only one damn bed?

Vin doesn’t know who’s trying to frame him for the bombing targeting the head of the local vampire coven, but he’s got the skills and ruthlessness to figure it out. When he called in a favour for somewhere to lay low, he hadn’t intended it to come equipped with a wolf shifter bodyguard, but he isn’t complaining. Angelo is as easy on the eyes as he is to rile up. Seduction is a game and Vin’s always loved a challenge. Until Angelo does something no one ever has before. He cares.

Now, all bets are off. Angelo is his.

His Mate By Vengeance is a steamy enemies to lovers, fated mates, MM paranormal romance between a grumpy wolf shifter and a murder sunshine vampire assassin. It features forced proximity, only one bed, and knotting. There is no mpreg in this world.

  • Publisher: Mel Aitchess (September 19, 2024)
  • Publication date: September 19, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 156 pages

Review:  Conflicted (Hopeless Blessed Book 1) by Lark Taylor 

Rating: 4.75🌈

Conflicted might turn out to be one of my favorites in this multi-series universe about demons, angels and various supernatural beings getting their soulmates and HEA.  It’s a heavily interconnected, richly layered universe where the storylines and well written characters keep weaving together throughout each other’s lives and series arcs. 

Those are precisely the superbly crafted elements Lark gives us where Conflicted excels here. Several of the important characters, Micah and Dimitri, archangels who were a part of a longstanding ancient angel brotherhood, have had a ongoing storyline that stretches from Luck of the Devil (The Reckless Damned Book 4, through the Damned Connections series up to Conflicted.

It’s been a tortured dynamic as Dimitri found his soulmates (Lucky, a human and Dagon, one of the sons of Lucifer) while Micah mourned the loss of Dimitri, the love that was never his.  Each angel has, through the course of the many series, done or asked of the other, some truly questionable acts.  Micah to get Dimitri, Dimitri to save his soulmates. 

Now Lark, in some gorgeous plotting and character development, gives each of them the redemption arc that they deserve (Micah) and,frankly, have been needing (Dimitri). 

That it arrives via the figure of a demon that had helped to save the other soulmates is perfect. That’s Nox, one of a group that is brought topside after that last battle.

Nox is both unexpected and an amazingly powerful character.  Again, Lark had some great surprises and twists in store for the universe, characters and plot lines when she brought in this character. 

The battle scenes are vibrant with action and emotional moments.  The characters have the depth to go with the dramatic climaxes and plot lines that Lark has created for them. And the potential for the series and characters that’s been laid out is intriguing and anticipatory.

I’m waiting happily for the next one to be released.

Put this series on your list,it’s incredible. And include the previous series too. But read them in the order they are written. That’s a must.

Reckless Damn Series – first series 

  • Devil’s Mark #1
  • Devil May Care #2
  • Deal with the Devil #3
  • Luck of the Devil #4

 

Damned Connections – sequel 

  • Patience #1
  • Justice #2
  • Temperance #3
  • Humility #4 – finale

Hopeless Blessed – Seraphim sequel series 

  • Conflicted #1
  • Devoted #2 – September 9,2025

The Wild Edges (wolf shifters sequel series)

  • Finlay #1 – July 10, 2025

Buy link

        Conflicted: MM PNR Enemies to Lovers (Hopeless Blessed Book 1)

    

Blurb:

Heaven has many rules for angels to follow, but one comes above all others.

Angels and demons cannot fall in love.

Micah

I’ve been alive for millennia and have yet to meet my fated mate. It’s not something I’ve ever cared about; my heart already belongs to another. Someone I can’t have. Someone who doesn’t want me.

Now I know we’ll never be together. Unlike me, he’s found his fated mates. Two of them.

That’s fine. As leader of the Seraphim, Heaven’s most elite unit of angels, I don’t have time for love.

Apparently fate has other ideas.

Meeting my mate on a battlefield outside Hell is surprising, to say the least. When you add in his uncanny resemblance to the man who broke my heart, it’s safe to say I’m far from pleased.

The fact that he’s a demon, my natural born enemy, is just icing on the cake of this is never going to happen. It’s a good thing I haven’t been banking on meeting my mate and living happily ever after, because there’s no way it’s happening with Nox.

It’s not like Nox wants me either. He hates me with a ferocity I’ve come to expect from his kind. The two of us never being together is the only thing we can agree on.

Still, there’s a pull between us that neither of us can ignore, no matter how much I wish we could. What starts out as hate sex, a way to try and burn off the intensity between us, quickly blossoms into something more. Something dangerous.

Something forbidden.

Conflicted is an exciting enemies to lovers, angel x demon, MM PNR romance. The first in the Hopeless Blessed series, each book will follow a different couple. All can be read as standalone titles.

Review: Cheap Heat (Goliaths of Wrestling book 3) by Lily Mayne

Rating:4.5🌈

Cheap Heat continues Lily Mayne’s unique paranormal romance series set in an otherworldly underground wrestling world, Goliaths of Wrestling. 

It’s a real departure from the author’s other dark fiction. Those still has a romantic theme, but are often raw, futuristic, and dystopian.  Here, we get a bit of paranormal romcom, wild otherworldly sexual imagery and practices (especially in this case), and a company of found family wrestlers that’s evolving alongside each other’s romantic journeys. 

Cheap Heat is notable in that’s its couple is markedly different from the other two relationships Mayne has created for this series.  In the previous books, the types of beings involved with each other were, probably, recognizable to the reader.  Human, werewolf, Fae, and a type of paranormal, a Empyn, that reads as a  type of succubus, even as each had a great, layered personality and background.  That vague sense of connection extends to most (although not all) the rest of the Goliaths.  Some truly bizarre and unique beings are part of this wrestling world. 

Rafe Hare, a ghoul, is the new IT guy hired to bring the company and the Goliaths online and streaming worldwide.  He’s a prickly, socially awkward introvert, who has no idea of the world he’s about to enter. 

Dan Ewen is one of the most popular of the wrestlers at the Goliaths of Wrestling.  What specifically makes Dan so popular also makes him unique.  He’s a dullahan.  His head comes off, and his body operates separately from his head. A wildly different situation no matter how you slice it. Or view it.

These two are “opposite attracts” in every sense. And while the other books were downright giggle fests as well as wonderful love stories, this has a different, albeit well written, feel to it.  The characters have been through some very different obstacles, including their own struggles towards understanding each other , and their reliance on their assumptions about each other has to be addressed as well.  

All of which is done while some pretty imaginative sex is occurring, alone and together. And with a pumpkin. Ok, that last is snort funny. 

 I absolutely enjoyed Cheap Heat, loved the journey Rafe and Dan had to take to arrive at their own HEA.  Rafe’s friends are amazing and I hope they figure into future books.  

What a fantastic series and story. The author has such an incredible voice and imagination that I never know what will happen or which way a narrative will go.

Read the warnings. Sexy, kinky, otherworldly, hilariously spew worthy, and a definite recommendation.

Cover illustration: Vic Gray/Bloodwrit

Goliaths of Wrestling: 

🔷Impromptu Match #1

🔷Clean Finish #2

🔷Cheap Heat #3

🔷False Comeback #4-tbd

Buy link

        Cheap Heat (Goliaths of Wrestling Book 3)

    

Blurb

Rafe

I really, really don’t like my neighbour.

We’ve lived next door to each other for three years, and we couldn’t be more opposite. I’m a quiet, introverted ghoul with a small friend group and a love of true crime podcasts and tabletop role-playing games. Dan Ewen a party boy with an endless string of ‘guests’ who likes to blare country music all night. He’s loud, inconsiderate, messy, loud, a total dudebro… did I mention loud?

And when I start my new job as IT manager at Goliaths of Wrestling, an underground supernatural wrestling organisation, I quickly discover that my terrible dullahan neighbour is now my new colleague. Great.

I still don’t like him. It doesn’t change anything. I can avoid him at work. But when I spot him one night through his living room window doing something that is utterly shocking, obscene, really weird… I find myself thinking about my annoying neighbour. A lot.

All the time, actually.

Oh no.

Dan

That neighbour of mine is a cute, surly ghoul whose pretty green eyes and angry scowl just make me want to rile him up even more.

We’ve never really been buddies, despite living side by side for three years. But when he starts working at Goliaths as our IT manager, helping to bring us into a new digital age, our lives begin to become a bit more entangled.

Mainly because he starts watching me each night while I… relax. So I make sure to give him a good show through my living room window.

I’ve always assumed Rafe Hare is straight, but it quickly becomes clear that I might be wrong. And when I propose a fantastic new way for us to get… ahem… friendlier, he’s as all-in as I am.

Which means I get to show him just how weird it can get with a dullahan. And I can’t wait.

  • Publication date: September 27, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 505 pages

Review: The Witch’s Grumpy Dragon (Brinnswick: Tales From Gauhala Book 1) by Michele Notaro

Rating: 4.5🌈

The Witch’s Grumpy Dragon is the sequel we’ve been waiting for since Notaro introduced the new location and it’s characters to us in the wonderful book, The Wolf’s (Un) Lucky Fae from the Fortune Favors The Fae series.

There those side characters cried out for their own stories and romances amidst a magical world that was in a societal crisis of class and speciesism. 

That lead in book showed us the perspective of those, the Fae, who are a distinct lower class and Remi who is among those who try to help them.

Here the view of society is flipped, we’re seeing it from the top of the government and society. Or rather as it’s been viewed by its ruler, Dragon king shifter Garrick Von Stein, his friend/right hand Roman, and then by the one they hire to help them.

That’s Remi Ellwood’s best friend, Tanyl “Tan” Helegolor, a  powerful witch with death magic.  Along with his fabulous familiar, Orangelica, his bonded one, Notaro sets the reader up for a fantastic mated relationship and high new fantasy adventure.

There’s a heartbreaking story behind the King, a fated mate romance, some real magical battles that are just amazing, and a great cast of characters, past, present, and new to keep the reader totally engaged with the many storylines and relationships as they develop.

There’s a critical,  very emotional divide within the society here, and the turnaround that needs to happen, by the King and in the current administration to effect change, that’s addressed in the book. Notaro is realistic in acknowledging that believable change is slow moving however forward everything else is occurring. I love it when an author keeps all the threads complete and throughly explored in the narrative. So well written.

I can’t wait for the next book to come out.  That’s an intriguing pair , Anton the vampire and Keryth, a fae related to Bel, that was actually set up in Bel and Remi’s book and has a mystery about them that’s been following them throughout the series.  Need it now.

 I highly recommend reading this and the books I have listed below as leads to the universe.  And the author, who is an auto read for me. 

Happy reading!

Brinnswick: Tales From Gauhala:

  • The Witch’s Grumpy Dragon #1
  • The Vampire’s Delicious Fae #2 – Sept 9,2025

Connected series and stories:

🔷The Wolf’s (Un) Lucky Fae (Fortune Favors The Fae) – Remi and Bel’s story ❤️

🔷The Enchanter’s Flame (The Ellwood Chronicles I) – Ailin and Seb’s story❤️

Buy Link

        The Witch’s Grumpy Dragon (Brinnswick: Tales From Gauhala Book 1)

    

Blurb

I have never in my life met anyone as infuriating as that dragon. So then why do I keep wanting to spend time with him?

Step One: Find a gorgeous guy. Check.

Step Two: Talk to said gorgeous guy. Check. 

Step Three: Try not to strangle him. Uh… do I really have to check this one? Because I really want to wrap my fingers around his—ugh. 

Garrick Von Stein is the most frustrating person I’ve ever met, and yet, as soon as he calls me for help, I jump right in. Every single time. Why? I have no idea. I mean, I really do like to look at the dragon shifter king, but that doesn’t explain this strange pull, this need, I feel to be near him.

He doesn’t even like me—believe me, I’d know—but for some reason he trusts me. And the weirdest thing of all? I trust him too.

Now if only we could find a way to work together to keep him and everyone else safe.

The Witch’s Grumpy Dragon is Book 1 of the new MM urban fantasy series, Brinnswick: Tales From Gauhala. It follows a new couple in each book with a guaranteed HEA. It takes place in the Brinnswick world in the far away country of Gauhala and brings a whole new cast of characters. But don’t worry, there will be some cameos along the way.

  • Publisher: (September 26, 2024)
  • Publication date: September 26, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 386 pages

Review: SOS HOTEL: Luxury To Die For #6 by Adam Vex (& Zodiac)  ( Ariana Nash)

Rating: 5🌈

As expected from the penultimate book in this wildly imaginative series, 

SOS HOTEL: Luxury To Die is an extraordinary paranormal Mr Toad’s Wild Ride of emotions and events from beginning to end.

As Adam’s identity has finally been revealed to his inner circle, and he’s slowly readjusting the way he views himself and the Prophecy, the authors, Adam Vex (& Zodiac) via Ariana Nash, proceeds to start bombarding him and us with a ton of events and elements that sends us off on a giant narrative roller coaster that’s a white knuckle ride. 

It’s a continuous beautifully crafted journey of “that’s fabulous, that’s horrifying, I’m so happy, I’m terrified, I’m thrilled, I’m petrified” and put that on repeat. 

And no one is villaining like this villain, I’m telling you.  He so needs a comeuppance. 

It ends in a sort of cliffhanger and we are getting set up for the finale, the ultimate showdown.  I can’t wait.

One more note.  None of these are standalone novels. Read them in order and pay attention to the author’s notes about the trigger warnings.  

And don’t miss out on the funny texts after the story ends. 

Cover design by Ariana Nash 

SOS Hotel:

  • For a Supernaturally Safe Stay #1
  • Friendly Sanctuary for the Fiendishly Fabulous #2
  • Sleep with Us #3 
  • Great Service from Top to Bottom #4
  • No Rest for the Wicked #5 
  • Luxury To Die For #6
  • Your Final Resting Place #7 – tbd

Buy link

        SOS HOTEL: Luxury to Die For

    

Blurb

My big secret is out. Adam Vex may be a tiny bit nothuman. But it’s not so bad. Just so long as Gideon Cain doesn’t find out.

It’s probably best if I keep my head down and stay out of trouble, especially after our ‘accident’ at the vampire chapel.

But one little date won’t hurt. We deserve some time off. And what can go wrong at a fancy dinner? It’s not as though we’ll become tangled in a corporate plot to exploit Lost Ones in brutal fights to the death for entertainment, during which we attempt to free the fighters, only for the evening to end with me riding an enraged werewolf through the restaurant, and have the entire escapade viewed millions of times online resulting in all of San Francisco asking:

“What is Adam Vex?”

Why would any of that happen?!

My name is Adam Vex and I’m your host at the SOS HOTEL, where we offer luxury to die for (Luxury not guaranteed).

*

Warning: SOS Hotel contains explicit language, situations, and content that some readers may find kinda unsettling. The books also contain the BEST F*CKING DEMON there ever was, the worlds most useless vampire who has a weird-ass thing for Swedish furniture, and a 100% human (not sus) who is super nice and deserves to have nice things.

  • Publisher: Crazy Ace Publishing (September 27, 2024)
  • Publication date: September 27, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 220 pages

Review:  Why Did The Alien Cross The Galaxy? To Find a Fake Boyfriend and Befriend a Vacuum Cleaner by A. M. Rose

Rating:  4.75🌈

When you are wheezing at a book so hard that your dog is looking at you with concern you know you have a fabulous story in your hands!  

So it is with A. M. Rose’s amazing holiday science fiction novel “Why Did The Alien Cross The Galaxy? To Find a Fake Boyfriend and Befriend a Vacuum Cleaner.”  If I hadn’t already found it by the great recommendations, that bright, goofy, and absolutely glorious cover would have done its job and pulled me immediately in. Which it also did.

The authors delivered on every single detail and element they put together for the story, and then topped it off with tons more glitter,  then backed a semi full of glowy holiday hearts and bows , dumping it too into this fabulous, hilariously heartwarming novel.

Vix, a large eyed, white haired alien Observer from Lumia, has been fixated on Earth since adolescence. Vix has learned much about Earth’s culture , languages, educational institutions from such shows as the revered “Saved By the Bell” as Vix had done by ancient historical texts.

You can imagine , snorts and ugly crying incoming, exactly what this might mean for the dialogue and you’d be right.  Combine that with Vix’s own culture that uses its hair braids to communicate and boom, narrative heartwarming romantic alien madcap comedy ensues. 

We get to hear/watch Travis, newly made partner, navigate the wildly different, always wonderful quirky relationship he starts to develop with Vix when Travis needs a plus one to a company holiday retreat. 

Travis is the fantastic Earth yin to Vix’s Lumia Yang and everything is magical. That includes character Henry and a vacuum cleaner as Vix’s bestie.

That’s PH-1L , Travis’s vacuum cleaner, whose most important job to clean vacuums make it the best vacuum cleaner friend any alien could ever have. Still laughing about this, the authors absolutely sell it. 

Then there’s the Observation Logs, carefully constructed with both printed and hand drawn illustrations from Vix about some important things from his trip.  Just as perfectly crafted and as much a part of Vix’s personality as anything else in the story.  Also equally giggle producing. 

Could I have done with less Lex, the ex? And more Henry? You bet.  And I’m hoping that maybe Henry will get his own HEA this coming holiday season.  

Why Did The Alien Cross The Galaxy? To Find a Fake Boyfriend and Befriend a Vacuum Cleaner. by A. M. Rose will be on holiday repeat reading or just reading because it’s a heartwarming, hilarious , must have experience. 

I’m always so excited to recommend those. And this.

Really, look at this cover!

Cover designed by BCJ Art & Design © “This work by BCJ Art & Design is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Buy link 

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Galaxy…Why Did The Alien Cross The Galaxy? To Find a Fake Boyfriend and Befriend a Vacuum …

Blurb

Observer log 1: what I learned on my first day on Earth

1. A coffee shop is a hub of human social interaction.

2. Cookies and hot chocolate can end interplanetary disputes.

3. High fives solidify relations between humans.

4. Vacuum cleaners make incredible companions.

5. You can help humans keep their former mates away by agreeing to pretend to be their fake new mate.

6. If there is only one bed at a hotel, it is customary to share it with your human fake mate.

  • Publisher: (December 20, 2023)
  • Publication date: December 20, 2023
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 280 pages

Review:  Beautifully Savage Butterfly (Mafia Bound #2) by K. M. Neuhold 

Rating: 4.5🌈

I had no idea that K. M. Neuhold’s dark crime romance series, Mafia Bound, would climb to the top of my list of favorites from this author.  But it certainly has just based on the two fantastic books Neuhold has released in this addictive series.

Violent, dangerously sexual, full of men ready for kinky sex and dark unmistakable attraction amidst Mafia family drama and power struggles within the criminal territories of their city.  Yes, please!

Mafia Bound has its center in the powerful crime family, the Morettis, run by big brother, Lorenzo Moretti.  The first story, which I loved, featured his enforcer, the Ice Man, Xaviaro Saviano, and his romance with Sparrow, an assassin with an agenda. They are seen again here in all their loving psychotic glory. Perfection.

The hints of this relationship we saw in that novel come out swinging here, literally as Elio’s obsession with MMA/ underground boxing champion  Orion is on full display during a courtside match.  It’s a match where anything goes, and the fury, the sheer intensity and physicality just powers off the page.

Neuhold sets the tone and themes here for the characters, the settings, and their dynamic, all right there at the beginning.  It’s violent, bloody, powerful, intense, gripping, and magnetic.  Each character is so well executed and beautifully defined that we understand them even though they have more layers to be revealed as the story progresses.  

Each man is set both within their own family and history, and then within their developing world where their universe will eventually overlap.  It’s fascinating to watch/read about because we feel a part of this couple’s journey. That Orion makes a credible reversal in his view of the Moretti family is due to how Neuhold handled this aspect of his journey in the storyline.  Well done. 

This is how the reader makes such an intimate connection with them , the understanding we reach with each of them, one that’s potentially very dark as well given the violent nature of the situations. 

This is a BDSM D/s relationship, with someone who craves certain elements within their sexual play. Read the notes.  This will go for the series as well, per the characters. 

The plot lines, the characters and their interactions were so great.  I loved the elements with Jack. That’s Orion’s brother whose disability plays a huge part of the story.  And as the two novels have hinted at, Dante,the intriguing dancer,  has a relationship of his own with Sal coming. 

I can’t wait for this one. 

So, more please.  I’m so hooked.  The Moretti family has me in their clutches.  I’m highly recommending Beautifully Savage Butterfly but start with Deadly Little Sparrow, then head here. 

Great covers.

Mafia Bound:

  • Deadly Little Sparrow #1
  • Beautifully Savage Butterfly #2

Buy link 

        Beautifully Savage Butterfly (Mafia Bound Book 2)

    

Blurb

Being savage in the ring is one thing. The way Elio Moretti craves my violence outside the ring is another.

I feel like I’ve been fighting my whole life, and tapping out has never been an option.

I can live with owing money to the Morettis. I can even live with the constant guilt that my brother is the one paralyzed in a hospital bed while I live his dream. What I can’t live with is Elio Moretti, second in command to the infamous crime family, showing up to all my fights, sitting in the front row, watching me like he can’t look away, and barging into the locker room to patch up my wounds and invade my space.

The Morettis are monsters. Vicious, brutal sociopaths. So, why is Elio so eager to get on his knees for me?

He’s as desperate to give up control as I am to take it, but is giving in to these primal urges enough of a reason to sell my soul?

He claims there are worse people in this city than his family, and the deeper I get dragged into his world, the more true that’s starting to seem. Can I really fall in love with a Mafia underboss? Is it even possible to walk away?

  • Publication date: September 6, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 280 pages

Review:  Found in Obscurity (Tales from the Tarot story) by A. M. Rose

Rating: 4.5🌈

Tales from the Tarot is an amazing paranormal series, serving up such a wide selection of 22 stories and authors that’s it’s impossible not to find a great book to read, and share.

I’m including in that tally the quite marvelous Found in Obscurity by A. M. Rose, a tale about a young man, a witch, who has to make a decision to embrace his true nature before he can find his roots, his destiny, and his future happiness. 

Rose has done an excellent job in creating multiple elements of this story, ones guaranteed to fully pull the reader into the universe and narrative.

It begins with the young man,Lorin, who’s spent 12 years evading his destiny, his history, his town, and the powerful grandmother who had raised him.  But as the story opens, the marks of his heritage have appeared on clawed hands, and Rose details, with incredible emotion and intensity, the changes that are coming to him.

It’s a two person point of view storyline, so we alternate between Lorin as he reluctantly returns to home to Oak’s Hollow and his waiting grandmother. The other voice belongs to Kit, Kit, a artic fox familiar and shifter, who’s arrived because of the impending town wide bonding ritual. 

The author weaves a haunting magical mystery through a growing renewal of his relationship between Lorin, his grandmother and the magical nature that is his birthright, that of being a witch. But Lorin must also face his past, accept Kit , and the town where he was born.  It’s a town that Rose has vividly imagined and feels every bit as real as the beautifully imagined characters we grow so close to.

I couldn’t put the book down, and when the story was over, all I could think about was how many more stories of the universe Rose had created I wanted told.

What a pleasure to read.  Highly recommended.

A final note.  Rose took the central theme of the tarot, in this case The Hermit, upright position, as well as The Owner and The Magic Shop as part of the narrative in an extremely effective manner.  Just excellent!

Another fantastic cover, art: Fae Quin 

Cover design: Amanda Meuwissen

Tales from the Tarot- 22 books 

🔷 Where Fools Have Tread by Jennifer Cody❤️

🔷The Magician’s Heart by J.P. Jackson

🔷Cleric of Desire by Amanda Meuwissen❤️

🔷The Nephilim’s Touch by Morgan Lysand

🔷King of Hollywood by Fae Quin

🔷My Minotaur Daddy: An MM Romantasy by Laura Lascarso

🔷Across Space and Time by Kit Barrie

🔷Chariot of Souls by Morgan Mason

🔷By Rude Strength by K.L. Hiers❤️

🔷Found in Obscurity by A. M. Rose❤️

🔷Twisted Fates by Adam J. Ridley

🔷No Justice for the Damned by Hellie Heat

🔷The Angel’s Kiss by Nicholas Bella

🔷Death Song by B. Ripley 

🔷Arcanum by Ashlyn Drewek

🔷The Devil’s Dilemma by Alex J. Adams

🔷Camelot’s Tower by Brooke Matthews

🔷A Highland Gargoyle’s Lucky Star

by Chloe Archer

🔷Trust in the Moon by Delaney Rain

🔷Raising the Sun by Eryn Hawk

🔷Zero Judgment by Kota Quinn

🔷The End of the World by Drake LaMarque

Buy link

        Found in Obscurity

    

Blurb

Being a born witch doesn’t mean you actually want to be a witch. At least not in Lorin’s case. He made the decision to run from it over a decade ago, sequestering himself away from his coven and the idea of magic.

Magic isn’t so easy to hide away from, however.

Drawn back to his hometown, Lorin finds himself tangled up with the one thing he was trying to avoid above all else. A familiar. And this familiar proves to be so much more than he could ever expect.

Kit’s humanity had been taken from him. Locked away and kept out of reach. Trapped in his fox form, he’s spent years wandering around from one bonding ceremony to the next, looking for a witch to break the spell. Not just any witch. His mate.

It was never going to be as simple as that, however.

Not only does his mate not seem to want him around, there’s a far more sinister plot to grapple with as Kit tries desperately to woo his mate and make him understand he’s more than he appears.

Found in Obscurity is a standalone MM romance novel as part of the multi-author collaboration Tales from the Tarot. This book is based on the major arcana card The Hermit.

  • Publication date: September 19, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 441 pages