Review: Scout (Chosen Champions Book 4) by Macy Blake

Rating: 4🌈

Chosen Champions exists within Macy Blake’s extended and ever expanding Chosen universe. Consisting of five book’s total when complete, Scout’s story is full of revelations about the series mysteries, the characters, and pushes everything forward towards the series finale coming in book five.

The Chosen Champions is one of my favorites among a group of connected series. The characters are strong and interesting, and come with well developed personalities and backgrounds. Scout is a wolf shifter we’ve followed from the very beginning when he and his siblings were rescued and adopted by Sam and Alpha Vaughan Jerrick (Sweet Nothings). Readers have watched through many stories, as Scout and his other 5 siblings grew up, establishing themselves as strong pack members and individually memorable characters .

Scout has achieved special status as being the only one to have become a part of two packs. One his family pack with his dads and now the Chosen Champion pack with Logan as a Alpha.

He’s so easy to connect with because if you’ve read any of the books in this universe, you’ve heard or are already aware of Scout. Maybe are very fond of him.

Coal Volsunga is a dragon and teammate of Scout’s. Both characters are connected to The Chosen by way of marriage through Henry (on Scout’s side) who is married to Draco, Coal’s cousin. It’s all very complicated and intertwined.

There’s strong repressed sexual tension happening between Coal and Scout that neither feel can be acted on, until , of course, they do.

Blake writes a terrific chemistry laden romance for Coal and Scout. It helps believe in them when they slide quickly into a new maté relationship.

There’s a overall arc mystery here that now narrows the focus on who the big mastermind is behind the attacks on the Champions and other weres.

A FYI trigger warning, there’s a torture scene and mention of previous kidnappings that happened as children.

The story is full of suspense and horror as Blake heads the series towards the final book to come.

I found this excellent and the romance engaging with all the family members and allies involved in the events and subsequent fallout.

Plus Ben. Ben is just being so extraordinary and showing off such growth in terms of personality development.

This isn’t a story to come at cold. A reader needs the knowledge of the previous storylines as well as a good understanding of The Chosen One universe to fully grasp the events that are happening here.

If you have such a background, then you will love the book. And more importantly the series. I do and I do.

And can’t wait for the final book to be released.

Chosen Champions:

✓ Logan #1

✓ Gideon #2

✓ Jamal #3

✓ Aleron #4

✓ Scout #5

◦ Oracle #6 – Feb 22, 2024

Scout: Chosen Champions Book Four

Description:

Scout

Coal Volsunga is a dragon convinced he’s better off alone…

As alone as a dragon who is part of a pack can be, that is. Although he loves the work, his feelings are starting to get involved, especially for a wolf entirely too involved with pack life for a loner like Coal.

Jack “Scout” Jerrick is a wolf with two packs, but only one heart…

Dividing his time between his father’s pack and his new one hasn’t been an issue for Scout. He’s learning to protect the secrets of the shifter world and the innocents involved in a dangerous war over magic and power. But when he develops feelings for the cantankerous dragon in his new pack, things begin to get a whole lot more complicated.

After Scout is kidnapped by the mysterious threat hunting their pack, Coal realizes being alone isn’t his life’s mission after all. If he and Scout are able to survive, they must

…put aside their preconceived notions and work together to save their pack,

…learn to love and heal when nothing is as it seems,

…and realize when it comes to being mates, there’s nothing they won’t do to save each other.

Buy or KU Scout

Review: Heart Unbroken by Casey Cox

Rating: 4.25🌈

“I didn’t want to kiss you goodbye—that was the trouble—I wanted to kiss you goodnight—and there’s a lot of difference. “ – Ernest Hemingway”

— Heart Unbroken by Casey Cox

I love a romance that is introduced with a remarkable quote that ties into the story and characters as this one does here.

Second chance at love, lovers reunited. Yes, please.

Casey Cox gives us two wonderful characters in actor Rove Sullivan, and hotelier Leo Carter, ok three with Leo ‘ best friend, Tal.

From a quick awkward meeting at Leo’s resort earlier in Rove’s career before he’s a big star, to the present where events bring them together again, Cox makes us believe that the men actually do make a deep impression on each other in the early moments. When events happen to cause each to reach out to each other, again Cox has supplied the groundwork emotionally for the reader to understand the context and connect with them.

I so enjoy Cox as a writer. The author’s romances are interesting, the characters are human beings with faults and strengths that are relatable, no matter the circumstances because they can be understood across many different levels. Job failures because of things outside of their control? Loss of dreams? Perhaps the hardest of them all. Learning when to let go of something that keeps you from moving on.

Heart Unbroken is another heartwarming contemporary romance from Casey Cox that I’m recommending. I only hope that we get a chance to see a sequel for Tal’s romance sometime soon.

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Heart-U…Heart Unbroken – Cox, Casey: Books

Description:

ROVE

Five years ago, we had a fleeting connection. Instant attraction, sizzling chemistry, and scorching-hot sex.

It was only brief, but it was…everything.

Then my career takes off. I become one of the biggest openly out Hollywood A-listers. I’m on top of the world—rich, famous, and successful.

Until a cruel red carpet gotcha stunt blows my life apart. In the blink of an eye, I lose everything I’ve spent two decades working and sacrificing for.

I’ve got no one to turn to and nowhere to go… Except back to the man I met five years ago.

LEO

Five years ago, I met someone unforgettable.

He made me feel something I thought I’d lost forever. Something that died with my beloved Dante a decade earlier.

I never expected to see Rove again. When he returns, the spark, the chemistry, the connection, is right where we left it five years ago. Actually, it’s only intensified.

The more time we spend together, the clearer it becomes—there’s no way I can let him go again. Can we find a way to make it this time?

HEART UNBROKEN is a second chance at love MM romance with two men in their 40s, a naked meet-cute, an only-one-bed situation, found family, 90s pop culture references, and a ‘sail into the sunset’ happily ever after (literally).

Review: Trick of Light (Warders Book 7) by Mary Calmes

Rating: 2.5🌈

It’s been a while since I’d read the Warder series, books about a clutch of 5 Warders or demon hunters/city protectors and their sentinel . Each novel focuses on one Warder and his path to finding his Hearth, his soulmate.

I enjoyed them , finding some couples more entertaining than others, but a wonderful series.

However, Trick of Light didn’t live up to my expectations. It starts promising, with all the Warders, their Hearths, the Sentinel and his partner gathered together when they discover ,they as a group , are under attack.

Calmes assumes the reader is familiar with the group, the couples history , and their relationships, and the series as a whole. That’s a lot of information you must have to go forward here. It makes sense as this is book 7.

I didn’t mind that so much as a series with this many novels would be cumbersome if the author had to recreate all the previous storylines as well as the current ones to bring a reader up to speed.

No this book lost me with the reveals and narrative twists into let’s say a more angelic themed story. Calmes , imo, just never laid a firm foundation in terms of her themes, her history, even character development and background, to support the events that occur in the later stages of this book.

Some are so groundless, the actions making so little sense , no matter how you might literally frame it out that I was astonished. And not in a good way.

And once written, the following consequences were, well, inevitably worse. Like storyboard cards that fell , then rearranged up on the board out of order. No one noticed.

I enjoy Calmes writing. I didn’t enjoy Trick of Light. For me, it added little to a entertaining series, and may actually have removed some of those interesting elements I liked so much.

But I found this poorly written, with the too much “as told too” narrative, a real issue with a lack of context within the series arc for the themes here, and no grounding for the events that occur during most of the story.

The whole last quarter of this book is narrative nonsense imo. Without giving away too much, if your premise is that angels don’t understand emotions including love but all they do display is emotion, jealousy, hatred, anger, etc, then as a author you haven’t understood how to express your own themes throughly yourself. Your angels should BE without emotion. They aren’t. You haven’t been able to see your way through your own characters.

Others might have different opinions.

I’ll leave it up to you whether it’s a story you want to read.

Warder series:

✓ His Hearth #1

✓ Tooth & Nail #2

✓ Heart in Hand #3

✓ Sinnerman #4

✓ Nexus #5

✓ Cherish Your Name #6

✓ Trick of Light #7

Buy Link:

Trick Of Light (Warders Book 7)

Description:

Jackson Tybalt is living his best life even though, to others, it might sound a little odd. For starters, Jackson’s a warder. Duty bound to patrol the city of San Francisco, doing battle with demons and things that go bump in the night. Second, Jackson’s married to an ex-demonic bounty hunter.

Raphael Caliva isn’t quite a man, more of a creature, with a very normal job as a general contractor, which he really loves. But what Raphael loves most, though, is Jackson. So much so that he’s sealed his fate to Jackson’s. If one dies, so does the other. No muss, no fuss.

This is the first of the surprises Jackson receives when he and his fellow warders meet one cold afternoon in February. Turns out, a blood witch they believed they’d vanquished has returned, intent on revenge. Nothing is as it seems, and now Jackson and the others have to prepare to fight not only an elusive enemy, but also the fatal curse she imparted.

But sometimes, it’s not quite as bad as it seems. More a trick of light than life and death. Or is it?

Review: Stone Skin (The Gargoyles of Arrington, #2) by Jenn Burke

Rating: 4.5 🌈

Its been a year since the first book in The Gargoyles of Arrington series by Jenn Burke so I needed to get reacquainted with the arc storylines and particulars before diving into Stone Skin, the novel that’s centered around brother Rian O’Reilly. He’s one of the three remaining O’Reilly brothers who were cursed with turning into Gargoyles and eventual stone death until a witch aunt altered the curse just enough that finding true love would break it.

There’s just two now with the curse hanging over them. The others have either died or met with their true loves.

I admit I connected with this story more fully than I did with Drew and his human mate/lover from Stone Wings. That book had to set the foundation (a lot of information), and lay out the mysteries of the curse and O’Reilly family. It then had even more important details to be worked into the narrative such as a invasion of mountain lion shifters, then a wolf shifter pack element. All that put the fake boyfriend romance under a smaller spotlight, bookwise.

But from the beginning, I was highly invested in the lives of Professor Logan Davis, a person haunted by loss, and Rian, the tattoo artist brother, who’s determined to find a way out of the curse for himself and his remaining brother before it’s too late. And hoping that the unknown professor of legend and mythology will help him to find a clue in the past to unravel their ancient mystery.

Burke shows us so clearly how Rian is desperate to find the cure. We watch as the effects of the old magic falter and he’s sure he doesn’t have much time left. It’s hits us as hard as it does him and his family.

Then we shift to the Professor and a portrait of grief that’s raw and real.As the Professor isn’t even emotionally or mentally available in this world, traumatized by recent events. The author has made us care for him, for Rian, and now the reader is committed to solving the mystery and to the couple to finding their own happiness.

There’s multiple plots also brought forward from Stone Wings that get futher development. I enjoy a found family trope and this one is coming together beautifully.

While all the side storylines are still continuing, they take a secondary role and leave the relationship between Rian and Logan as the main focus. It works perfectly to let the reader understand the overall arc theme is coming together towards a resolution and yet still gives us enough information about the third brother to make us want to continue following the story into the next book.

The drama isn’t over yet.

I’m eagerly awaiting Stone Heart , the last in this series. Love a paranormal hurt/comfort love story? Then I’m recommending Stone Skin and the beginning novel, Stone Wings. Read them in order before the final book in the trilogy comes out.

The Gargoyles of Arrington series:

✓ Stone Wings #1

✓ Stone Skin #2

◦ Stone Heart #3 – June 27, 2023

Buy Link:

Stone Skin: An M/M Paranormal Hurt/Comfort Monster Romance (The Gargoyles of Arrington Book 2)

Description:

Can he break his curse before time runs out?

Despite being cursed to sleep as a gargoyle for a hundred years, and awake for only twenty-five, Rian O’Reilly is an optimist. He knows he can find a way to break the curse through the tattooed runes he’s spent years mastering. No need to wait for this true love crap. But he hasn’t found the right combination of magic and his time is almost up. Rian isn’t ready to lose everyone and everything. Again.

Professor Logan Davis knows about loss. In the past year, he’s lost his mother, his twin, his werewolf pack, and he’s on the verge of losing his mind. So when he’s invited to Arrington to learn about a legend he’s never heard of, he jumps at the chance for a working vacation. He doesn’t expect to find a handsome gargoyle who needs his help to break a centuries-old curse—and he certainly doesn’t expect his grief to finally overwhelm him.

As Rian comforts Logan, he starts to wonder if there might be something to this true love crap after all. He’d give anything to help this gentle giant of a man, but Logan needs time to heal…and time is the one thing Rian doesn’t have.

STONE SKIN is a male/male hurt/comfort paranormal romance featuring a magical tattoo artist gargoyle who doesn’t want to go, a werewolf professor who needs time to rediscover himself beneath his grief, and a budding love that might be the answer to everything…if only it has time to bloom.

Review: Fairy Cakes in Winter by Lane Hayes

Rating: 5🌈

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”—Albert Camus Scott”

With that quote, Lane Hayes leads us into a heartwarming, absolutely engaging tale about two men who meet on a turbulent life changing airplane ride to London.

I fell so in love with this story from the moment I met them as they tried to get settled into their seats next to each other and prepared for their journey to London. Hayes effortlessly captures the essence of the intimacy of the closeness of the seats, the emotional experience it becomes as they get deeper in conversation and farther along into the flight.

There’s 39 year old Scott O’Brien, a baker originally from Seattle who now lives and works full time in the UK. Bearded, bearish, and quiet , Scott is a portrait of a man who has withdrawn into himself and intends to stay there. Too bad his seat companion is 29 year old Theodore Belden, an accountant from San Francisco on his way to visit his mother.

Theo is vibrant, a gift of verbiage and positivity. He’s also absolutely adorable in a Theo way. He’s also afraid of flying.

From this point the story flows visibly gathering layers and bits of each man’s past as they’re being pushed and pulled together into a incredible romantic journey that includes fairy cakes and side trips to Bath’s historic sites.

This was funny, sexy, romantic, and had me researching fairy cakes! It’s also now one of my favorite Lane Hayes story. Theo and Scott are such a fabulous couple.

If you are a fan of romance, grab this up! It’s a joy to read! I’m highly recommending it.

Buy link:

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Fairy-C…Fairy Cakes in Winter: An M/M Age-Gap, Grumpy/Sunshine Romance

Description:

A grumpy baker, a quirky ad man, and a recipe for forever…

Scott

So this cute guy sits next to me on the plane and proceeds to talk my ear off for hours. Not good. I don’t like talking and I don’t like strangers. But Theo’s sweet, smart, and sexy—the perfect distraction from business woes and personal worries.

Okay, things get overly friendly, but we’re adults who know the score. I’m too old, he’s too nice, and we live on different continents.

Then, out of the blue, he shows up at my bakery with that pretty smile and a list of wacky marketing ideas—like how to make fairy cakes a thing.

I don’t like fairy cakes.

But I do like Theo, so…maybe?

Theo

The new me takes risks. The new me is brave and confident. The new me flirts with hunky, imposing bears on planes while traveling to a foreign country.

It’s going well, thank you.

However, my plans to sight-see, drink tea, and eat my weight in biscuits every day are derailed when I realize there might be a way to help Scott and prove a few things to myself.

Don’t worry. I won’t fall for the grumpy baker. No way. He’s complicated and broody and—

Uh oh…it might be too late. Help!

Fairy Cakes in Winter is a bisexual, age-gap, grumpy/sunshine MM romance featuring a sexy baker, a sunny tourist, and a few dozen fairy cakes.

Review: The Claws of Winter (Arcane Hearts Book 7) by Nazri Noor

Rating: 4.25🌈

Here we are at the penultimate book in the Arcane Hearts series with the release of The Claws of Winter by Nazri Noor. It’s hard to imagine the author is going to be able to not only resolve some of the major mysteries of the series but also to explain the rationale behind some aspects of the family dynamics that undergo an enormous transformation at the end.

Personality transformations, AI intelligent beings that require whole storylines to conclude all the narrative levels it’s involved in, a romantic relationship to move to HEA, and still a deadly conflict with other realms that are in play. Seems a lot to ask of one finale novel.

Because The Claws of Winter ending finishes with all that still left hanging for the final story to deal with.

There’s a ton of elements here for the characters and plot threads to explore here. It picks up where the last book ends, with The Oberon’s Heart being returned to the King of Summer in The Verdant and releasing him from the poisonous crystal vines. But the land and the Fae need to recover, and Queen Titania is missing. More mysteries.

Jackson Pryde has started to become a character I’m not really connecting with anymore. I enjoyed watching him at the start but he’s not really growing up . At least as far as maturity or demonstrating the character growth his fiancé, Xander Wright, the former Incandescent, has shown steadily throughout the series.

It’s odd. I’m not sure if it’s intentional by the author or if Jackson is a personal “blind spot “ creatively for him. Many of the other characters or people around him have aged, acquired important positions and significant others.

Jackson, while working towards his goals of establishing the Hall of Making, has remained essentially, well the same Jackson. Yes, he rebuilt the Artificers Hall. He’s in a relationship. He’s done all these things and gone on all these adventures. However, his inner self, his emotional persona has essentially been unchanged from the beginning. He’s still showing doubts about his abilities, demonstrating jealousy as well as insecurities about Xander when it comes to the College and the Incandescent Magic. Even his exaggerated ego can feel childish when framed around the events that are happening. What was once understandable is now getting tired.

Where Jackson is still struggling and believable is when he is within the realm of his home life , present and past. Whether he’s supporting Lore in Lore’s achievements as a AI being or remembering life with his deceased parents, that’s when Noor takes Jackson and grounds him firmly in the basis for the arc themes and his character. He’s more realistic and we are more invested in him and the story.

Weak components here are to do with the Magical Incandescent young man introduced into the narrative, his interactions with the characters (although this may be a part of the overall storyline), and the ease of resolution of one issue of a major theme. It feels one dimensional.

So many narrative balls up in the air, and so many characters await to catch them.

I’m not sure it all worked here . But it’s very complicated and the world building is so well done that it’s hard not to enjoy the journey even if you’re having quibbles along the way.

Book 7 is complete. Onto the finale, The Grip of Death, Book 8 of Arcane Hearts.

I’m definitely recommending the series and this story. It’s a wild ride.

rcane Hearts series, 8 books:

✓ A Touch of Fever #1

✓ A Stroke of Brilliance #2

✓ An Iron Fist #3

✓ A Velvet Glove #4

✓ Hand of Glory #5

✓ A Clap of Thunder #6

✓ The Claws of Winter #7

◦ The Grip of Death #8 – finale /Nov 24, 2023

Buy link:

The Claws of Winter (Arcane Hearts Book 7)

Description:

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

The guild of artificers is so close to completion, Jackson Pryde can almost taste it. Befriending the Black Market’s guilds has paid off.

Everyone agrees that Jackson should become master of the artificers, even Mother Dough, the powerful guild of bakers.

But it’s not all sugar and spice. A strange sorcerer has reawakened Xander’s interest in Incandescence. The second AI has unearthed a bizarre blueprint. And not everything is as it seems in the Verdance.

Tensions mount as the fae courts question the value of human friendship – and human life. Jackson and Xander may have saved the King of Summer, but now they must face the wrath of the Queen of Winter.

Review: Cherries Worth Getting (Keith Curry’s Case Files Book 1) by Nicole Kimberling

Rating: 4.5🌈

Nicole Kimberling is such an amazing author. I adored her Bellingham Mysteries and then lost track of her writings. But happily I’ve found her again through her series about a other-realm investigator who used to be a chef. That’s Keith Curry’s Case Files.

I believe the series started in a collection called Irregulars, 4 short stories by 4 authors about NIAD. That’s NATO Irregular Affairs Division. They police other-realm traffic, beings, and artifacts that come through portals to this world. The division’s are made up of many species including Faerie lawyers, rumpled magicians, business witches and weary specialists human agents.

That’s where Keith Curry comes in.

We get Keith’s dramatic and sickening introduction to the agency and how he came to be recruited here. To be honest, parts of the book aren’t for those who have a weak stomach or are highly sensitive. We are talking about cannibalism here as part of the mystery and narrative. Just a Fyi.

There’s several elements that are raised throughout the narrative that challenge Keith’s vision of himself as a neutral investigator. Species bigotry is brought up and examined through the viewpoint of different characters, very effectively. Whether it’s goblins or vampire, it forces Keith to look at his own judgments and review them for reactions he’s thought he’d worked through.

There’s reasons for his reasons. It’s in his past. And understandable by any standards.

It’s his new teammate and former hookup , Gunther, who has been assigned to help Keith figure out where the human dead (and butchered) bodies are coming from. A fellow agent who will make Keith aware of his suppressed feelings towards other species.

Kimberling sets her story in and around Portland, Oregon and her familiarity with the city and deep roots with the place shows. From the markets to the food trucks, it’s realistic, even when run by goblins. I found the idea of a goblin race that transformed to conform in utero a thought provoking idea. I’m certain this is just the beginning of this thread.

The author crafted so many interesting elements to fold into the story and world building of the series. We got just hints here and there about a topic, enough to pique our interest and imagination, but not enough to satisfy. Hopefully we’ll get more in the coming stories.

The mystery and investigation was crisp and complicated. I loved following the clues along with Keith and Gunther, his fellow investigator and perhaps future boyfriend.

Especially as the relationship that’s just starting here between Gunther and Keith continues.

Now I really need to locate that original collection as well. I’m sure that’s Keith’s origin story. Yikes.

And I’m onto the next in his series. But do be aware, unlike the Bellingham Mysteries, Keith Curry seems to see the absolute worst and often stomach churning cases . Be forewarned.

If you’re ok with that, I’m highly recommending this!

Keith Curry’s Case Files:

✓ Cherries Worth Getting #1

◦ Magically Delicious #2

◦ Grilled Cheese and Goblins:

Adventures of a Food Inspector

◦ Irregulars -a 4 story collection

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Cherries…Cherries Worth Getting (Keith Curry’s Case Files Book 1) – Kindle edition by Kimberling …

Description:

NATO’s Irregulars Affairs Division is a secret organization operating in thousands of cities around the globe. Its agents police relations between the earthly realm and those beyond this world, protecting us from terrible dangers as well as enthralling temptations. Agent Keith Curry is a former carnivore chef turned vegetarian. Keith must navigate Portland, Oregon’s culinary underworld to catch a killer bent on harvesting human flesh. But things get complicated when he hooks up with an old flame who he’s never been able to refuse.

Review: An Embrace To Hearten Me ( The Magi Accounts #3.5) by Michele Notaro

Rating: 4.75🌈

An Embrace To Hearten Me is the novella that’s the romance/relationship story for River/Jude/Kulani the author has been working towards in the last books.

A M/M/X , the X stands for non-binary, romance that’s been slowly building between the characters of Cheetah shifter Kulani, magi Jude (half of the dyad pair with Mads), and snow leopard shifter River. To say slow is to say that molasses runs slowly in the winter. Here it’s a absolute must that we get a three person perspective but a triad that forms at a glacial rate.

The reasons why is the tormented histories the author has created for each individual here. Ones that have damaged them to the point that trust, insecurities, and trauma are the main factors in determining their relationships to date.

Jude ,a demisexual, has a unique history. Traumatized in the compound with Mads, his other dyad half (with us now finding out the exact extent of the sacrifice he’s was forced to make), Jude’s had Mad’s feelings as his own all his life. River and Kulani had no one until Cosmo found them. That doesn’t make for easy understanding when it comes to relationships between the friends. Even with the shifter extraordinary senses, actions can become misunderstood with no real foundation for understanding the actions of others.

Notaro gives us three perspectives of friends wobbling about in the fog of uncertainty and confusion. Their new feelings , fears, and ignorance keeping them from communicating while nightmares from their past’s shut them down into their own prisons.

It’s a haunting narrative and a thoroughly disturbing story at times. But one Notaro threads with hope. With the introduction of a young child, someone from the past, and a newly formed family of three that finally finds its way together.

While An Embrace To Hearten Me has a HFN element for our triad, this is a horrific and dangerous society they all live in. One in which every single one is still tagged and registered, and regarded as disposable.

We have 2 more books to go until the end. I expect it to be bloody, heartbreaking, heartfelt, and to leave me sobbing. It’s that kind of series.

So I leave Kulani, River, and Jude momentarily happy.

I’m highly recommending this series. Read them in the order they are written for character development and events. Put some tissue near by. FYI.

The Magi Accounts:

🔹The Scars That Bind Us #1

🔹The Shackles That Hold Us #2

🔹A Date To Impress Him #2.5

🔹A Purpose That Restores Us #3

🔹A Holiday to Sustain Us: A Magi Accounts Holiday

🔹An Embrace To Hearten Me: The Magic Accounts 3.5

🔹A Ruse To Unchain Us: The Magi Accounts # 4 – TBD 2023

Buy Link:

An Embrace To Hearten Me: The Magic Accounts 3.5 (The Magi Accounts Companion Stories)

Description:

I can’t seem to choose between the two shifters who mean the world to me… but what if I can have them both?

Trying to navigate my feelings has never been easy. Growing up, I had to keep my emotions locked down and hidden from the world or suffer the consequences. But now, well, now I’ve had a taste of freedom, and with it, my heart has been running wild.

Between trying to find witches—members of the Red Cloth—at work and sifting through my overwhelming emotions, I’m a mess. And two certain shifters seem happy to help sort me out, which is great, but it’s making all these feelings hit me at once.

How in the world can I tell River and Kulani that I… that I like them? Both of them. At the same time. This is going to end in disaster with one, two, or three hearts broken. But what if it doesn’t? What if there’s a way for all three of us to get what we want?

An Embrace To Hearten Me is a MMX (male/male/nonbinary) urban fantasy romance companion novel meant to be read AFTER A Purpose That Restores Us (The Magi Accounts 3). This is Jude, Kulani, and River’s story and takes place between books 3 and 4 of the main series. It’s meant to be read as part of the series, not by itself, although the love story is resolved in this book.

Review: To The Moon and Back by N.R. Walker

Rating: 4.5 🌈

To The Moon and Back is N.R. Walker ‘s latest contemporary romance and it’s a must read for everyone who’s a fan of this author and wonderful low angst relationship stories.

Located in Sydney, Australia, it brings together two men at loose tethers. One, Toby Barlow, a professional nanny, has recently returned home after a stint in the UK. His last job he cut short due to the clients/family he had contracted with. Now he’s home and looking for a new job and finds it in a single father who has been left with a baby, overwhelmed, unable to work or sleep or cope.

That’s Gideon Ellery. Who had his ex leave when Gideon adopted his son, Benson. Now Gideon is overwhelmed by his work, his life and trying to be the best father possible without knowing what he is doing. Enter Toby Barlow!

This is a slow burn, day by day, melding of a family unit. By burnt toast, by sickness, walking in the park, baby steps and food, tv shows, and everything familiar and ordinary. The things that really matters. Walker creates a warm, happy and believable atmosphere of two men and a baby falling into love and a family.

And we fall right along with them.

There’s a big Italian family on one side I wish we’d seen more of. Great friends on another and surprise visitors from a fabulous novel of Walker’s at the end every fan will adore.

The drama, such as it is, is real and low key. And the ending lovely and leaves us wanting to see a sequel or holiday story for this family in the future.

If you’re a fan of contemporary romance and N. R. Walker, grab this up. It’s just a lovely read that will make you happy and leave you wanting more!

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Moon-B…To the Moon and Back – Kindle edition by Walker, N.R.. Literature & Fiction …

Description:

Gideon Ellery had the perfect life. Nice house, great job, and a long-time boyfriend. Weeks after adopting his nephew, his boyfriend splits, leaving Gideon a single father to a newborn. Overwhelmed, sleep deprived, and unsure how to navigate fatherhood, he’s asked to return to the office. He’s overwhelmed and at his breaking point.

Toby Barlow is back in Sydney after three years of studying, travelling, and nannying in the UK. He needs work and a place to live, and the perfect solution drops in his lap. After all, caring for a sweet baby in a beautiful home owned by a gorgeous single man isn’t exactly terrible.

Gideon isn’t too keen to share his life with a stranger, but his need for help is too great. Sunshiny Toby isn’t prepared for a grumpy Gideon or his utterly adorable son, Benson. Or how easily he slots into their lives. And Gideon’s not prepared for how much he needs Toby.

Or how much he wants him.

Neither is prepared for the complications of falling in love.

Review: Demon For The Win (A Fated Mates Novella) by Meghan Maslow

Rating: 4.75🌈

Demon For The Win exists within Meghan Maslow’s Much Ado About Demons universe and it’s an extraordinary place to visit.

In fact the author is able to set up various scenarios within each major storyline for other books to come without it feeling too unwieldy.

Here we meet Nico Azertiran, the love incubus from In Fair Verona and Must Love Demons. He’s a important secondary character as he’s the best friend of Incubus Kem Balthasar. We are clued into Nico’s problems while maintaining our interest in Kem and his new found crush for the Dryad Tuli Cato.

The cast of characters are fascinating whether they be a passing reference or a strong supporting cast. I’m especially fond of Tuli’s friend, the wood elf Shrood who reminds me of a Elvish Dude and The Glen where they abide. It’s full of magical trees and shrubbery with unique personalities to match.

Tuli Cato, the sous chef who finds his hidden strengths and resolve and the incubus Kem Balthasar, who redefines his path and his identity as a incubus, are amazing beings. Apart on their personal journeys and together as a couple on a growing relationship.

The romance is strong and interesting, including a mystery about a missing spoon that concludes is a absolutely perfect way.

I love this series and this is a fabulous addition in terms of the couple and expansion of the universe. I’m highly recommending it.

Demon for the Win: A MM Fated Mates Novella (Much Ado About Demons)by Meghan Maslow

Description:

Dryad Tuli Cato has 3 rules he lives by: No relationships, no drama, no trouble.

When a gorgeous incubus offers a night of no-strings passion, Tuli readily agrees. Only that no-strings night sure feels like a lot more.

Okay, Tuli has 2 rules he lives by: No drama, no trouble.

Being the sous chef at the most exclusive restaurant in town makes no drama a challenge. Especially when the kitchen’s in an uproar after a staff member turns up dead. Murdered.

Um, Tuli has 1 rule he lives by: No trouble.

Surely, he can stick to this 1 simple rule. . . except it turns out, he might be the murderer’s next target.

Incubus Kem Balthasar has only 1 rule he lives by: Enjoy life.

It’s a lust demon’s nature, after all. Creatures either want to be him or do him. Or maybe a bit of both.

When Kem lays eyes on a slender dryad hottie across a crowded sex club, suddenly he’s thinking of another L-word and it’s not one he ever thought he’d feel.

Okay, Kem has 2 rules he lives by: Enjoy life, romance Tuli.

Convincing the skeptical dryad that Kem’s a worthy—and faithful—partner is hard enough. But it’s even harder to date a guy who might wind up dead.

Right. Kem has 3 rules he lives by: Enjoy life, romance Tuli, and keep the little dryad safe.

Easy, right?

Demon for the Win is a 40k just-one-night, fated mates, novella set in the Much Ado about Demons world. Each book stands alone. This book contains explicit scenes, a little black book with loads of secrets, jealous trees, sex club shenanigans, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after.

*Previously published in the Your Book Boyfriend’s Boyfriend giveaway.

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