Category: M/M Romance

Review:  Just Bromantically Invested (Accidental Love, #4) by Saxon James 

Rating: 3.5🌈

Saxon James Accidental Love series is drawing to an end, with the penultimate book, Just Bromantically Invested.  As one by one the “lost boys” of Big Bertha are finding their partners and HEA, it’s time for Madden and Penn to get their own story.

Madden, with his free wheeling approach to life, aversion to clothes, and large heart, has been a challenging character for me to connect with.  For some reason I just haven’t found him as interesting as the others. This book does help give Madden the depth of character and background into why the nudity is so important to him that’s been lacking. 

James’ narrative has a number of other elements to bring to the table. It’s got a best friends to lovers relationship with one of them discovering that he’s not exactly straight but bisexual. I’m not sure the author makes the full  argument for this quick turnaround on Penn’s behalf. They may have been friends but based on the behavior seen Penn’s clueless mostly so it feels more importantly based on the needs of the plot line.  They work together fluidly as friends, lovers not so much. 

But probably because the romance needs more exploration as the other aspects of their lives and struggles that need so much clarification. That house dynamics is a mess, Madden’s inability to separate himself from the others to see a separate role for others is an issue that continues past that ending.  And has an impact on the rest of the characters, especially Penn.

I do love the support and communication that finally comes when Madden is able to convey what he needs going forward, including explaining why being naked is so important as a major part of that.  

Penn , anxiety prone and introvert that he is, however, is the one that is repeatedly given the reduced role here.  In Madden’s head, Penn comes in after his relationships with his found brothers/family members of Big Bertha.  Even at the end, that feeling that Penn is not as much of an embedded player in Madden’s life as he is in Penn’s seems clear.

So it left me tentatively connected to both and actually feeling irritated by the continuing drama with Xander, who’s still refusing help.   Xander has the last book and that’s the wrap.  Should be interesting.  

I enjoyed the earlier stories better than I have the recent ones . I look forward to seeing how James closes out the series.

Accidental Love:

  • The Husband Hoax #1
  • Not Dating Material #2
  • The Revenge Agenda #3
  • Just Bromantically Invested #4
  • Not Catching Love #5 – Jan 30,2025

Buy link

        Just Bromantically Invested (Accidental Love Book 4)

    

Blurb

Madden

My best friend is uptight, gorgeous, the greatest person I know … and I might be a smidge in love with him. Just a small amount. Barely worth the mention. 

Which is a stupid choice on my part when the guy is straight. 

Starting a landscaping company with him was the perfect mix of doing what I love and an excuse to spend time with him, only it hasn’t completely taken off yet and now he’s telling me he’s lonely. 

Lonely. 

Apparently having one friend in your life isn’t enough.

So I’m determined to help him find love. With someone other than me. Maybe if I can pull that off, it’ll mean my heart will finally get the message and move on. 

Or finish breaking into a hundred pieces. 

Same thing, right?

Penn

Being besties with an overenthusiastic, gold-hearted, nudist of a man is a challenge sometimes. Madden makes everything sunshine when he’s around. 

The problem is that he hasn’t been around as much lately. We work together, sure, but he’s got his roommates and I have … no one. Just him. So I feel the distance acutely. 

My one reassurance is that we have work tying us together, but when an old client calls with a proposition for us, it feels like our once solid friendship is unraveling fast. 

He wants Madden to help him open a nudist resort, and if Madden’s doing that, he won’t be working with me. 

I’m trying not to panic over the thought of losing him, which is a typical, common best friend reaction. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

And neither is the way my body has been reacting to him lately. 

Everything is totally, completely normal between us. 

While there’s still an us at all.

  • Publisher: May Books (October 17, 2024)
  • Publication date: October 17, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 268 pages

Review:  Burned (Drake Security Book 5) by Mika Nix

Rating: 4.25🌈

Burned is a fitting way to end the Drake Security series, with Lord’s story and his tortured enemies to lovers, fated mates romance. 

Lord’s been that character with the older brother syndrome. Stolid, serious, constantly in control and ever watchful over the family business as well as all over the family, including his brothers, their mates, and younger clutchings. 

So it makes sense that his story is the very antithesis of his life and nature. It’s dramatic, compulsive, and absolutely terrifying, the opposite of how he’s been living and taught.   

Mika Nix , aka authors K.M. Neuhold and Mia Monroe, mirrored his impulsive acts toward a specific target, his fated mate who happens to be his worst enemy, a dragon hunter. That’s a fatally wounded Alrick Havaror, a young Viking from a notorious dragon hunter family.

Lord and Alrick have matching angst filled emotions towards each other as they fight their own battles with the bond and their backgrounds.  I really enjoyed this element of the story. They were well suited and their journey was full of chemistry and communication.

While we are very familiar with the Drake family and their mates, Alrick’s history and family background could have used more development, especially given that ending.  Considering the foul deeds his father, older brother, grandfather etc have committed, that end wasn’t exactly satisfying, even with the overlaying factor of kinship.

New wonderful characters included Viggo (middle brother of Alrick’s), and Xanthis, a powerful Scottish dragon mage who promptly flirts with Dahlia. And while the authors let us know what happened with the two women, Viggo, who had an important role and his own journey here, oddly vanished from the story. After being told he was from now on a permanent member of the Drake family. SMH

If they say he went home with good old dad and brother. No. That doesn’t track as both authors had him say he wanted to remember the events and what they had done and everything that had occurred. So no.

Big narrative hole here and missing character. 

So Burned ends up a good story but not a great one. I enjoyed the couple but there’s quite a few stumbles narratively speaking that keeps this shy of 5 stars. Still a lovely series and one I’m recommending.

Drake Security series:

  • Hot Head #1
  • Smoulder #2
  • Wild Fire #3
  • Inferno #4
  • Burned #5 – series finale 

Buy link

        Burned (Drake Security Book 5)

    

Blurb

Of all the creatures I could have accidentally mate bonded with, did it have to be a dragon slayer?

I never let my dragon take control. Never. Distraught after the death of a friend, I made a mistake…

Finding a beautiful, broken viking on the verge of death in the middle of a forest, all of my instincts screamed at me to save him. My dragon wouldn’t have it any other way. For two-thousand years I’ve saved my mating fire, waiting for fate to bring me true, binding love. But with this stranger only a breath away from the afterlife, I didn’t have a choice.

I can’t really be mated to a dragon slayer, can I? There has to be a way to break this bond before his brothers come looking for him or mine realize what I’ve done.

The only problem is, the more time I spend with the captivating, big hearted man, the more I think that fate might have had a hand in things after all…

Is he feeling it too, or am I about to get burned?

  • Publication date: October 16, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 254 pages

Review:  Passing Through Purgatory: Passing Through Cafe #1 by Nik Knight 

Rating: 5🌈

Nik Knight’s new rom-com urban fantasy new novel and the first installment in her new series is utterly stunning.  Passing Through Purgatory: Passing Through Cafe #1 by Nik Knight caught my eye by that cover and then by the description.

But the actual story surpassed all my expectations by being not just a great story, but one that brought such immensely diverse, believable cast of characters, human and otherworldly. Each with their own unique and fully defined sense of being.  Complete physical elements, emotional and spiritual elements, and often, as I think Knight will explore further, some hurtful, damaging aspects to their background and histories in the Hell Universe (just another world where trains run late and bigotry exists that feels very familiar).

The universe and characters are ones I connected with immediately. It starts with human Oliver Barnes, living in Chicago with friends (love Jude). He goes for a job interview in Greed district of Hell’s Pentagram but    in one realistic scenario (even if it’s in Purgatory), he misses his train. 

And in doing so, finds something else that is, everything he could possibly want.  But first he needs to go through the doors of the Passing Through Cafe. 

There Knight gives us the most chaotic place, a cafe of owners and employees who will become Oliver’s found family. Each one such a distinctive being who quickly find a place in our hearts. I found myself forgetting that the lovable Gem, is an Araknis (think spider with a great butt) as well as many eyes and arms. After a while, it was Gem, who actually had a fragility about him that endeared him even more. Same thing with Rusty the Pyclon, a pink walking Care Bear with a snarky attitude that hides a damaged past. I mean there’s 

Tad the Anura,  a tough dishwasher,

Willow the empath dyad who’s a baker assistant to the fabulously gorgeous Glyma the succubus baker.

And Zef the asexual winged Mantodea , who is sometimes a drag Queen and cafe greeter, along with the handful, handsome demon Toni the Elas. 

Quinn, owner and  partner to Glyma, along with Bob, a question mark of a species who lives in the office and resembles a bug, complete the cafe found family.

It seems like a lot, but how Knight introduces them to Oliver (and the reader) folds them beautifully into his new dynamic and the world view we are seeing.  Their lives and respective personalities as well as personal backgrounds will start to be revealed the more Oliver becomes a deeply entrenched part of their lives. 

Because the Hell world has its intricacies as far as status, bigotry, speciesism, and it’s divided along racial or specific lines and into territories.  This element is still being explored. But the basic concept is laid down and it’s ugly in its reality. And how it impacts our little group. 

I look forward to seeing what happens next.  Because while there are scenes of absolute hilarity here, there’s some of moments of such pain, of past history that’s so bad that it’s unmentionable.  Both hit hard because we’ve come to care so much about our group of characters.

And that includes the final one I haven’t mentioned yet. Liel Karakis  the Gymnot lawyer from the Greed district. He’s the one that Oliver falls for. A fantastic relationship and romance, but albeit not human in its sexual scenes. As it should be because Liel isn’t human.  But for Oliver, it’s the person who matters, not the body. And Knight has been as imaginative in this element as she is in every other aspect of the story.

Beautifully executed and well done. 

I’ll end this saying I was so excited to see the narrative flow to the ranch, every part of that storyline, and the family. A glimpse into the Christmas visit would be amazing, because you know the gang is going to have to go too.  Just saying, pretty please?

I honestly need Gratification in Gluttony now.  I highly recommend this and the author. Just fabulous.

Cover Design © 2024 Priska Mills

The Passing Through Cafe 

  • Passing Through Purgatory #1
  • Gratification in Gluttony #2  (Coming winter 2024

Buy link:

        Passing Through Purgatory: Passing Through Cafe #1

    

Blurb

When Oliver applied for a job in the Hell dimension on a whim, he didn’t expect it to turn his whole world—or his heart—entirely upside down.

Recently graduated at twenty-six, and two months behind on rent, Oliver Barnes is desperate. So desperate, in fact, that he applies for a job in the Greed district of Hell’s Pentagram. But when he misses his train and, subsequently, his job interview, he stumbles, instead, upon a strange little coffee shop in the middle of Purgatory’s barren desert—and into an unexpected opportunity.

It isn’t the job he came to Hell for, but maybe it’s exactly the job he needs.

As he navigates the demon dimension and tries to survive the ridiculous shenanigans of his unholy co-workers, Oliver soon falls head-over-ass for a tentacled lawyer with electric fingers and a deadly-sharp grin. Together, they discover that, sometimes, love and happiness can be just a train ride away.

Join Oliver and the rest of the eccentric staff of The Passing Through Cafe in Nik Knight’s new rom-com urban fantasy series, full of found family, embarrassing encounters, spicy situations, and love that crosses dimensions.

  • Publication date: September 13, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 395 pages

Review:  Bold As Brass (Elementally Yours Book 3)  by FN Manning 

Review:  4🌈

Bold As Brass (Elementally Yours Book 3)  by FN Manning is a well written, well executed paranormal romance.  I thought Manning did a good job of explaining why Oliver Brass, brother and son to the Brasses held responsible for the crimes in book 1, makes the decisions he does here with regard to his magic and the use of a D/s relationship with respect to his control.

There’s a very good author’s note about this element. Read it carefully. This story incorporates a realistic D/s relationship between two people, one of which is older than the other. If this isn’t an element that you enjoy reading about, you might want to skip the book.

For me, I found I didn’t connect with these characters as I had with the other couples in the preceding novels. I’m not sure why, because a D/s relationship isn’t an issue for me.  Nor the difference in ages. Although the fact that (but not truly ) they almost rode the line between student and professional life is slightly troubling.  It was addressed by the author. 

I think that I felt that there wasn’t enough of a real connection between them to account for the sudden admission of deep love that happens. 

That could be a difference of perspective. Another reader might think it’s fine. 

I do wish there was more information about what exactly went on towards the end. A resolution about what happened to fix everything . Instead we get a dinner and a HFN. It didn’t feel entirely satisfactory. 

All in all, Bold As Brass (Elementally Yours Book 3)  by FN Manning  was well written but needed a better wrap up. 

Elementally Yours:

Frost or The Bite #1

Strikes Twice #2

Bold As Brass #3

Buy link

        Bold As Brass: M/M Paranormal Romance (Elementally Yours Book 3)

    

Blurb

Control is everything… until you find someone worth surrendering to.

Oliver Brass is beyond prim and proper. He’s practically English after spending years studying metal magic in posh British schools. But when a family scandal turns his world upside down and his powers stop obeying, a stiff upper lip isn’t helping him regain control. Instead, an alluring professor shows the metal mage how to surrender.

A charming educator by day and a dirty dom by night, Liam Monroe has the unique ability to control a person’s body and magic. Liam demands obedience, and even though Oliver may never stop blushing, he and his magic are eager to comply.

Everything is going well until dragons drop in with a score to settle, determined to make the wizard pay for the sins of his family. Oliver will need to rely on his powers if he has any hope of stopping the vengeful dragons… or keeping Liam. Can Oliver be bold enough to fight for the man he loves, or will it all go up in flames?

Bold as Brass features an innocent wizard being ‘corrupted’ and an intelligent literature professor who also happens to be a wicked dominant. There’s also shamelessly perverted moon rituals, literal and magical power exchange, BDSM, finding strength in unexpected places, dangerous dragons, and romantic moonlit confessions. This is the third book in the Elementally Yours series of magical gay romances. Each book features different characters and can be read alone

Review: Dragon’s Folly (Wings Over Albion Book 3) by Joy Lynn Fielding 

Rating: 4.5🌈

Dragons, mysteries, romance and multiple ongoing storylines. Yes please. I’m just loving this series by Joy Lynn Fielding.  Her Wings Over Albion just got more intriguing while expanding the series foundation knowledge and known dragon families previously laid out. 

Now , as the book begins ,the fearsome, totally powerful head of dragons, Abimelech Mortimer, has call a moot, a gathering of the heads of the dragon families in a neutral location, for a major announcement. As well as other purposes on his agenda. 

As the dragons rarely leave their own territories, this is an exceptional event, fraught with challenges and potential undertones.  A fabulous way to introduce the characters and the stakes involved with the players and challenges faced. 

We see briefly, some of the characters of the other novels. But our immediate attention will fall on the newest characters and dragons. As it should because they are remarkable. 

Especially Ollie Shaw. Ollie is that character who shows astonishing growth from the awkward, somewhat disrespected lesser member of his family to dragon who lives and loves largely. His journey, which encompasses that of Archer Talbot, and his siblings Tim and Mia, is revelatory.  We rejoice with him and Archer, along with Mia and Tim, as they shift in their thinking, struggling with their own personal pasts, and restructure into a believable, magnificent warm-hearted family. One we dearly want more of in the end. 

Fielding adds to the dragon mythology and knowledge she’s building as well as bringing more dragons of color into the series.  Everything is weaving together into a fabulous series tapestry that melds King Arthur, mystery, dragon politics, and love.  I can’t help to see what happens next.

This is beautifully written, fantastic characters and gorgeous plots.  Highly recommended!

Cover art

Wings Over Albion:

  • The Red Dragon of Oxford #1
  • In the Dragon’s Lair #2
  • Dragon’s Folly #3

Buy link

        Dragon’s Folly: MM paranormal romance, Wings over Albion, Book 3

    

Blurb

Falling for him would be pure folly. I know that. Now all I have to do is convince my heart…

Allowing a strange dragon into my home was not my idea.

The Assembly assured me it was necessary, though. And that’s how I ended up with him.

Ollie Shaw is clumsy. Unfairly hot. He stumbles through my life leaving a trail of chaos and sunny charm in his wake.

And I hoard every moment with him like he’s my greatest treasure.

But with an entire dragon territory to rule, bills to pay, and treachery brewing in my family, I can’t afford to be distracted by Ollie’s copper-gilded beauty and boundless enthusiasm.

I especially can’t give in to my dragon’s primal urge to claim him.

Because loving him could cost me everything I’ve fought so hard to protect. And that would eventually come back to bite us both—with dragon’s teeth…

Dragon’s Folly, Book 3 in the Wings over Albion series, is a sweet and spicy, grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity paranormal m/m romance.

  • Publisher: Independently published (October 9, 2024)
  • Publication date: October 9, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 287 pages

Review:  How To Summon A Memory (a Cauldrons and Kisses story) by Morgan Lysand

Rating: 3🌈

I had started into this universe and the various characters stories with Lysand’s first book, Kisses at the Crossroads (Fortune Favors the Fae series).  That was Lark, an imprisoned fae and a crossroads demon’s love story. It introduced the town of Hex, Indiana and Lysand’s intention of expanding into various other relationships of the side characters in future series and stories.

This approach, as I noted earlier, left the original plot a bit unsatisfying as it appeared that Lysand was concentrating on setting up the foundation for other plots to come.

They ended up across several different multi-author, various themed series. I have listed them below as has the author under the title Hex, Indiana. Does this make for a comprehensive or complete sense of the universe or greater understanding of the characters represented? Not really. But I’ll let you be the judge.

The concept behind this story is a good one. The idea of two best friends/potential lovers, in this case a summoned crossroads demon and a young witch separated from each other . By loss of memory, an inability to find their person, a mystery , combined with an unknown determined enemy, is a terrific one.  It catches your attention and engages your imagination.  Especially the characters here, one Prof. Ethan Speller who’s engaged to his best friend, the nonbinary Florence, an engagement and marriage neither wants but can seem to stop because of their powerful families. Add to that an unhappy crossroads demon, Warwick, who doesn’t know what happened to the young witch who was his best friend? Amazing plot.

However, How To Summon A Memory just doesn’t have enough depth or page length to really capture the potential of the story the author has set out to create.  There’s so much that gets lost here.  

Florence, the best friend? Terrific character. Their familiars , chubby squirrel (Florence) and hummingbird (Ethan) are important but not well introduced.  Other parts of this story, like the school, or subplots like the ones involving the students and chemistry classes, aren’t either necessary but overly dramatic or needed and not well executed. Much of the story goes along these lines. 

The narrative doesn’t flow smoothly or in an evenly balanced/paced way that makes the book feel cohesive.  Which is a shame because a really good idea and couple gets lost along the way. 

The person responsible for all the woe gets off with a “do better “, the explanation for the magic doesn’t really work, and I’m left wondering why it wasn’t combined into one series to begin with. 

This was interesting . If you are a fan of the series and author, that’s who I’m going to recommend it as a read.

Cauldrons and Kisses (8 books)

🔹Love Potions and Moonlight by Kota Quinn

🔹Charmed by Rainbow by Jax Stuart

🔹Enchanted Hearts by Jacey Davis

🔹Oral Hex: An MM Omegaverse Romance by Salem Jack

🔹How To Summon A Memory by Morgan Lysand

🔹Half Past Hex by Toby Wise

🔹Prince, Charmed by Ducky Mack

🔹The Trouble With Spells by Raiven Mathews 

——

Connected universe books:

Welcome to Hex, Indiana : 

🔷Kisses at the Crossroads (Fortune Favors the Fae series)

🔷The Nephilim’s Touch (Tales from the Tarot series)

🔷How To Summon A Memory (Cauldrons and Kisses)

Buy link

        How To Summon A Memory

    

Blurb

Ethan

Who is the beautiful demonic stranger in my dreams? That’s what I want to know. But between teaching at Hex University and preparing for my unfortunate nuptials to a fellow witch, I don’t have time to explore why the demon seems so familiar. I just know the demon is important, but why?

Warwick

I’ve been searching for my best friend, Ethan, for six years. One minute he stood in front of me, finally ready to make his crossroads deal to free him of his arranged marriage, the next he’s gone and he took my heart with him. I’ll do anything to find him, if only to tell him off for leaving me right when we could finally be together. Color me surprised when one night Ethan walks through the door of the bar I’m moping in. But he’s not the same sweet, goofy boy I fell in love with. No, this is a man who has forgotten me and his true self. Will my crossroads magic be enough to bring back his memories? It better, I won’t be forgotten.

How To Summon A Memory is a fluffy and spicy paranormal romance featuring a witch missing his memories and a possessive crossroads demon determined to get back to the man he loves. 

Cauldrons and Kisses is a multi-author series of MM magical standalone stories. 

  • Publication date: October 11, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 146 pages

Review:  Composed at Randy’s (a Diner Days story) by Zile Elliven 

Rating:4.5🌈

Zile Elliven is one of those terrific authors who I so admire their writing. I was really happy to see a new release from Elliven that also came with a new multi-author series to explore as well. 

Composed at Randy’s by Zile Elliven is among the eleven books of the new Diner Days series, centered around a LGBTQIA friendly diner.  The covers are colorful and an absolute delight as are the stories and characters if this one is an indication of what I’ll find here.

I’ve read other reviews where these wonderfully crafted, so engaging characters were called “himbos” and the reviewers meant that in the best sense. But, imo, Wren, an artist, and Bael, the rock singer, come across as having brain synapses that just fire differently than any one else’s.  Wren is unlike any other character I’ve read recently. He understands that he’s unable to self care and needs the support system that’s been established for him (Marty, Shelly and Kai).  We get glimpses of Wren’s past, the journey taken to become his true self, and his understanding that being trans is a situation that requires extra awareness.  Wren feels so real in depth of personality that reducing him to a “himbo” seems unfair.  To Wren , the author’s work, and this book.

Same goes for Bael.  His glimmering of deeper awareness of what might be possible in various situations is a developing element.  Part of revealing more about him, their journey, and the formation of a larger group of found family and friends.

Bael, his friends (and band members) which are the equal counterparts to Wren’s support group, are marvelous. Big in personality, interesting in a multitude of ways, they cry out for their own stories.  How I love Mel!

In fact, my biggest issue is that there’s so much great work here, fabulous characters with backgrounds we need, additional stories going forward, just more, that it’s almost more than this book can convey or indeed cover.

I’m highly recommending Composed at Randy’s (a Diner Days story) by Zile Elliven and looking forward to seeing what the rest of the series brings.

Cover Art by Cormar Covers. Love it!

Diner Days series -11 books:

🔷Written at Randy’s by Katherine McIntyre

🔷Final Boy at Randy’s by Loren Leigh

🔷Cramming at Randy’s by Alex Silver 

🔷Temptation at Randy’s by Emily Alter

🔷Hitched at Randy’s by A. E. Madsen 11/14

🔷Gaming at Randy’s by Duckie Mack

🔷Striking a Chord at Randy’s by K. C. Carmine 

🔷Composed at Randy’s by Zile Elliven❤️ 

🔷Roleplay at Randy’s by Rikki Leighton 11/7

🔷Finding Home at Randy’s by Abrianna Denae 10/24

🔷Aftercare at Randy’s by R.A. Frick 10/31

Buy link

        Composed at Randy’s

    

Blurb

How do I tell the guy I like that I’m not homeless, just a dumbass?

Wren:

Help! I accidentally got kidnapped by a hot rock star who thinks he’s doing the right thing by housing and feeding me. He thinks I’m homeless because my absent manager is the one who remembers petty details like my home address, and my broken phone is the one who knows the numbers of anyone who can prove I am who I say I am. What do I do?


Bael:

Help! My impulse control issues made me kidnap an adorable homeless guy who’s too proud to accept my help. He keeps trying to get away, but I’m pretty sure he’ll starve to death if I let him go. He’s tiny, so I don’t think he’ll take up too much space on the tour bus. I just need to convince him to stay. What do I do?



Love beyond the binary, serving up low angst trans romances at Randy’s Diner.

Composed at Randy’s is a ‘dumbasses in love’, cis male/trans male pairing with a smooth-brained (not remotely smart) genius, a goth himbo, and all the help they can get to achieve their happily ever after.

  • Publication date: October 10, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 179 pages

Review:  Back In The Hunt: A Nelson & MacIlwraith Mystery (Moon Murder Mysteries) by K. Sterling

Rating: 4🌈

Back In The Hunt both continues the overall themes and universe started with the Moon Murder Mysteries (3 book series) that introduces the characters, locations and incredible complex mythologies and cultural linguistic concepts/elements that are at the heart of everything here.

That each book needs at the beginning of the story its own introduction to the various aspects of the mythologies in use, the translations of the old Gaelic terms in casual usage, witch lore is testament to Sterling’s dedication to a well crafted universe and the depth of detail and development that’s being explored here.

This achievement of increasingly complex concepts and character dimensions does several things to this story and new series.  It makes it necessary for a reader to have read the preceding Moon Murder Mysteries before arriving here so they have the right background information and understanding of the circle of characters that is the basis for this book and group of people.  

The other aspect of this densely packed narrative is that you must be able to carry that knowledge with you throughout the story, so even that minutiae from a prior book is available to pull out when a character, say Merlin, mentions it in a throw away bit of conversation here. 

For me, it engages my brain in absolute appreciation even if I’m not completely emotionally attached to the characters.  Odd how that has worked out, at least for me.  I’m so fascinated by the conceptual context and issues that it’s removed me from the emotional connection. 

Did I enjoy reading this? Absolutely. Thought the entire aspect of the changeling and how Sterling saw them was imaginative and well constructed.  

I did find that it was resolved too quickly and in a way we didn’t quite find out what happened to the two “troublesome “ beings. That felt unsatisfying to me.  Perhaps in the future stories we will find some further resolution.

Until the next book, which I’m really anticipating, I am content to leave the group of Prof Lennox ‘Nox’ MacIlwraith ,FBI Agent Grady Nelson,

Merlin Oglethorpe ,Prof Darrach Clancy , Bryn Cadwallader and Everly Wells, Bryn’s twin brother, Arawn, surgeon, married to

Dr Fletcher Bixby, gathered together as yet another personal case is ready for their attention. 

I’m definitely recommending this but please ignore that sentence in the description that states it can be read as a standalone. No. Why do they keep putting those things on books that absolutely aren’t standalone stories. SMH. 

Cover Art isn’t credited but I love it.

Moon Murder Mysteries (3 book series):

  • Nelson & MacIlwraith #1, 2, and 3

A Nelson & MacIlwraith Mystery (Moon Murder Mysteries related)

  • Back In The Hunt #1
  • The Tides of March #2 – March 15,2025

Buy link:

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Back-…Back In The Hunt: A Nelson & MacIlwraith Mystery (Moon Murder Mysteries)

Your soul is his to take. And he takes that very seriously.

After a string of gutting losses, Everly Wells has given up on life. But a near-death experience and an encounter with a cocky paramedic with glowing green eyes, gives Everly a new reason to live…and powerful allies fighting to keep him out of danger.

Bryn Cadwallader and his twin brother might be descended from the hounds of the Wild Hunt, but there are limits to their powers. When Bryn saves Everly’s life, refusing to take the lost mortal’s soul onwards, he realises darker, stranger forces are at work. Rattled but determined to save Everly’s life, Bryn looks to a very different, but uniquely qualified pair of investigators.

FBI Agent Grady Nelson and Professor Nox MacIlwraith.

To track a foe who uses both modern and ancient means, Nelson and Nox must use their knowledge of the occult and experience fighting crime and evil to help Bryn thwart this new, mystical threat. Can they save Everly, or will Bryn be cursed to an eternity hunting for his lost love?

Formerly listed as The Case of the Curious Cadwallader, Back In The Hunt is a hurt-comfort, paranormal mystery romance. It overlaps with the epilogue of Nelson & MacIlwraith: Moon Murder Mysteries #3, and references some events from the Moon Murder Mysteries trilogy, but can be read as a stand alone.

*From me: no, just no. They absolutely can’t be read as a standalone. Why do they insist on putting this in? SMH

Review: Ghostly Dilemma (Ghostly Book 8) by E M Leya

Rating:  4.5🌈

The Ghostly series by EM Leya is going strong as demonstrated by Ghostly Dilemma, the eighth book in this excellent paranormal law enforcement series.  With the romantic relationship between ME Lance and Det. Angus is happy and they’ve moved in together, along with their dog Haunt.  Frank, Angus’ partner has recently bought a home, and Lance’s older brother is leaving the military and coming back home. They’ve even gotten back Carrie (recovering from the hostage situation) and acquired a new receptionist. Things are going well. 

So it’s time to get back to work, small caseloads, different jobs, various storylines.  And by switching it up from a singular dramatic plot line to an almost typical workload for both the police department and medical examiner staff, Leya gives the readers a diverse range of cases and people’s stories and experiences that the characters and departments deal with.  

And the author is able to demonstrate once again how well it’s not the high drama that can make a heartbreaking impact but sometimes it’s life’s smallest and most quiet stories that hit the hardest.  Here not all the ghosts are victims, some are those who left life behind in natural causes or silent, peaceful moments. But, of course, not all.   Leya makes each ghost a vibrant personality, no matter how they left their lives behind.  We also see what happens to the people and lives they have lost.  That’s reality too. 

Each one a case of different lengths but each fascinating and of importance to the lives of those around Lance and Angus, a found family that continues to grow in numbers, both living and ghostly. 

I adore this series because it’s so different in its approach to the ghostly world, and the way the author tells the stories associated with the people around the main characters as well as the characters themselves.  

I’m highly excited to see what the next book will bring.  And definitely recommending this series and story.  Read these in the order they are written. 

What a treat they are!

Ghostly series:

  • Ghostly Awakening #1
  • Ghostly Findings #2
  • Ghostly Envy #3
  • Ghostly Claus #4 
  • Ghostly Target #5 
  • Ghostly Hostage #6
  • Ghostly Death #7
  • Ghostly Dilemma #8 
  • Ghostly Bother #9 (coming soon)

Buy Link:

        Ghostly Dilemma

    

Blurb

Sometimes it’s the little cases.

Not every minute of being a detective is spent solving huge murder cases. Sometimes it’s the little ones that take up Detective Young’s life, like the seventy-year-old cold case that suddenly fell into his lap or figuring out if a death was suicide or murder.

Lance spends most of his time working cases that no one hears about. The unattended deaths of those not under a doctor’s care take up most of his time. Now that he can speak to ghosts, some of those cases are the most interesting. Work isn’t all that is keeping him busy—his brother’s girlfriend has shown up in need of his help, and he can’t refuse when she’d helped him so much in the past.

Life is never boring for Lance and Angus, and though work pulls them both in different directions, they always seem to meet up somewhere in the middle of things. Sometimes it feels like if murder and death didn’t bring them together, they’d never get time together at all.

  • Publisher: E.L. Publishing (October 6, 2024)
  • Publication date: October 6, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 234 pages

Review:  Dawnchaser (The Summertide Chronicles Book 2) by Sam Burns 

Rating: 5🌈

The Summertide Chronicles is such an excellent , imaginative series.  One of the best by Sam Burns, who’s given the readers many incredible worlds and characters to explore and fall into love with. 

Dawnchaser is the second in the series, and the author is still exploring the world, the magic, and the threat that’s making it imperative that the four main powerful ruling families come together to find a solution before it’s too late.  

For what exactly isn’t exactly clear yet. But that is has to do with changing natural conditions and a rumbling Mount Slate, well it’s sounds ominous enough.

Burns gave us an initial glimpse into the four families as that fiasco of a gathering in Gloombringer.  There we met various individuals from the white-haired, imposing Moonstrikers, the dour Gloombringer, the power-mad Dawnchasers, and the wild Sunrunners. Each family able to use their gifts/talents by way of bonding with both an individual sentient crystal and then the head of the House with its most powerful House crystal. 

It’s a fascinating, compelling element as the sentient crystals have their own charm and personalities. And, depending upon the person that they are bonded with, a complex relationship between them. 

That dynamic is seen here in multiple threads, letting Burns go deeper into the concept of what the crystals might actually be. 

Dawnchaser follows up on the traumatic events from Gloombringer, that brings the Moonstriker, Cove, to the Dawnchaser family territory and estates on the mission to hunt and eliminate Huxley Dawnchaser.

Instead,Burns gives us Cove , as well as other members of the Moonstriker family, revisiting an older personal nightmare and understanding that the Dawnchaser’s have been yielding a legacy of even deeper family abuse.  

Florian Dawnchaser and his younger sister, Fawn, who’s sensitively portrayed as person with Down syndrome, are beautifully crafted characters, vividly realistic and engaging in every aspect of their storylines.  From the beginning of this book, where we and the Moonstrikers see them in a very different way and situation to the development of their personalities and the family dynamics as Cove helps them and himself deal with the trauma that Huxley and the Dawnchaser legacy has created.

It’s just a tremendous novel.  There’s so many layers here to appreciate and to feel connected to as multiple characters work together to forge new futures, right the some of the devastating crimes done in the past, and help create hope for the next generation. 

I love this series and characters. And can’t wait to see what the next book will bring. 

Highly recommended as well as the author.

Love these covers too. 

The Summertide Chronicles:

  • Gloombringer #1
  • Dawnchaser #2 
  • Sunrunner #3 – Jan 2, 2025

Buy Link

        Dawnchaser (The Summertide Chronicles Book 2)

    

Blurb

I came here to kill Huxley Dawnchaser.

I expected the ridiculous extravagance of his estate, his home, his life. What I didn’t expect was the trail of broken people he left in his wake long before he murdered Oberon Gloombringer. I certainly didn’t expect to be put in the position of helping Huxley’s children pick up the pieces of their own shattered lives.

There must be some way I can kill him twice.

Dawnchaser is the second in a series of four books, starring one exhausted family lord, one terrified bunny who needs to discover his inner predator, and one princess who just wants everyone but her friends to go away so she can have her tea party. It contains Cove and Florian’s HFN, and continues the overall story arc of the series.

  • Publication date: October 3, 2024
  • Language: English
  • File size: 1384 KB
  • Print length: 294 pages