Tag: enemies to lovers

Review:  His Mate By Resistance: MM Mafia Shifter PNR (Lunetti Pack Book 2) by Mel Aitchess

Rating: 4.75🌈

There’s certain books and series that just so grab your attention that they make you think why haven’t you been reading this author all along? Especially when it’s a trope that’s a common must have for you.

That’s what comes to mind when reading Mel Aitchess’ Lunetti Pack series, a paranormal fated mate crime family romance series. That’s a bunch of elements and tropes that just ticks all my boxes, narratively speaking.   And the author does it outstandingly.

Now on book two and Aitchess’ series gives us the hugely broken brother of the criminal Lunetti pack, brother to the Alpha and its IT hacker. 

There’s basically three crime families that run the city. One’s a vampire clan, one’s all witches, and lastly, there’s the Wolf pack, the Lunettis. The author gives the reader a beautiful map in the beginning to help establish the territories and city’s layout in our minds.   It’s needed because one of the series storylines is a murderous mystery and suspense driven plot of an anonymous character/group trying to drive a wedge between the three factions.  That’s a great story as a foundation for all the other plotting and elements to overlay.

Because prior we’ve known that Luca has a tragic, traumatic past that has made the pack overly protective and turned him into an angry, solitary being. Scenes from the first book are now seen from his perspective and with more knowledge than we had previously. It builds a compelling narrative and complicated character.

Adding to this is another great character, that of the previously neutral water witch, Cal, who owns the hot night club, Hex Rated, we saw too in His Mate By Vengeance #1 .  Cal and his club get fully fleshed out into his amazing water witch personality, complete with his water powers explored. Then it’s taken up a notch.  

Aitchess is weaving a brutal tale about two men with damaged pasts, in terrifying situations, under horrific strain and they still build a relationship, while not wanting to immediately accept what’s apparent.There’s rightfully trigger warnings for violence among other things. 

There’s magic, brutality, crime, family, betrayal, fated mates, everything you would expect from a paranormal mafia romance, but more, complex, and the situation is ongoing into the future stories.  I’m beyond frustrated I have to wait because I’m so addicted to this universe and characters. 

The next book promises to be even more epic and dangerously exciting. Looks like several rereads in my future before then.

Both books, to be read in order, are highly recommended.  A must read each. 

Cover by Camberion

Lunetti Pack:

  • His Mate By Vengeance #1
  • His Mate By Resistance #2 
  • His Mate By Allegiance #3 – October 12,2025

Buy link

        His Mate By Resistance: MM Mafia Shifter PNR (Lunetti Pack Book 2)

    

Blurb 

His boy deserved better. He deserved to be the centre of someone’s world.

Luca stumbled on something he shouldn’t have and now someone’s trying to kill him. If only he knew what and who. He hates that he has to use his hacking skills against his own pack as he hunts down the traitor. He hates it even more when his Alpha sends him away for his safety. Hex-Rated—the hottest gay nightclub in New Trinity—is the last place he expected to be hiding out. The water witch who owns it better keep his damn hands to himself.

Cal has no time for the three crime families that run the city. He’s worked hard to keep his club on the right side of the law. That’s all put at risk when a favour for a friend has him faking a relationship with a Mafia wolf shifter. Luca’s a criminal and there’s no way Cal would go there for real. Even if the shifter brings out every protective instinct in him. Even if Luca is so good for him despite himself.

His Mate By Resistance is an enemies to lovers MM Paranormal Romance. It’s book two in the Lunetti Pack series, but can be read as a standalone. It features forced proximity, a fake relationship, knotting, a water witch Daddy, and magic sensory play. There is no mpreg in this world.

— His Mate By Resistance: MM Mafia Shifter PNR (Lunetti Pack Book 2) by Mel Aitchess

  • Publisher: Mel Aitchess (November 19, 2024)
  • Publication date: November 19, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 260 pages

Review: Dallas: MM Mafia Romance (Light & Shadow Book 2) by N. N. Britt

Rating: 3.75🌈

Is it so incredibly contradictory to say i enjoyed this despite myself? There were so many aspects to this storyline that vexed me because they and the characters actions felt illogical or clueless.  And that doesn’t address the plot holes left dangling at the end of the story never to have resolution if this is a duology. 

But I did end up getting snared in the messy, enemies to lovers relationship between the mob boss son trying to hold his territory and the undercover agent sent in to neutralize him and his criminal element. Britt’s intention isn’t to write a realistic law enforcement thriller that mirrors current real life scenarios or even alphabet agency procedures, but in her words “to tell a love story “.  Which she does.

This second book contains the most detailed aspects about the characters, the horrific abuses in Isaac’s background and family history, including vague references to his prison life. 

It’s also where we see a more rounded version of Agent Dallas Bradley, aka Hawk, now a man so conflicted about his duty and where his loyalty is based that he’s hesitant about his own personal feelings and future.  This is where a two person POV really excels in getting a reader into the mindset of the main characters, especially in situations where they are so diametrically opposed.

The relationship between Dallas/Hawk and Isaac has a vivid raw realistic connection.  Britt has done a great job in making this a passionate, love hate romance that’s so overwhelming that some of the plot’s underwhelming elements get overlooked. 

This includes the resolutions to the storylines left dangling at the end of the book.  These plot holes relate only to this couple and these two books, at least from what I understand, ties up their relationship and storylines.  Not totally satisfying but they do get a HFN. 

The third book has a completely different story and couple. And, I expect, follows the same unconventional narrative concerning law enforcement code and policing. 

I enjoyed this duo, found it entertaining and the pair dramatic and interesting.  Is it in the top of my mafia romance list? No. But if this is a trope that you enjoy, pick it up and see what you think.  Read them in the order they are written.

Great cover.

Cover Design by Sarah Kil

Light & Shadow series:

Isaac #1

Dallas #2

Forbidden #3 – different set of characters 

Buy link

        Dallas: MM Mafia Romance (Light & Shadow Book 2)

    

Blurb

Prepare for Betrayal and Redemption in Sin City.

As the leader of the Hellhounds and a valued member of the notorious Thoreau crime syndicate, Isaac has it all: power, money, fear. Falling for someone has never been on his radar. But for the first time in his life, Isaac thinks he’s found someone he can truly trust—the mysterious security guard who shattered through his icy defenses and became the one person Isaac could be himself with.

Until everything goes up in flames.

Dallas Bradley has been treading an unstable line of deceit between righteousness and criminality. Isaac Thoreau’s world is slowly turning him into Hawk, the man who doesn’t exist, the man who’s ready to do bad things to survive and remain close to Isaac. But when a dangerous deal goes south, in order to save Isaac’s life, Dallas is forced to reveal the devastating truth—he’s a Special Agent sent to infiltrate the Hellhounds and bring down Isaac.

Heartbroken and enraged, Isaac can’t stand the man who betrayed him so deeply. However, when it’s clear Isaac’s fate is prison, Dallas strikes a bargain with his boss: help save Isaac from life behind bars and keep Dallas undercover to clean up the mess.

Isaac hates Dallas more than ever, but to escape the crosshairs they must work together once more. As tempers and stakes flare in the streets of Sin City, Dallas will risk everything to redeem himself in Isaac’s eyes. But can their undeniable connection survive when trust has turned to ash?

***

Dallas is the second installment of Light & Shadow Duet. It should be read after Isaac. This is a dark MM mafia romance that explores various sensitive subjects like violence, abuse, PTSD, etc. Length: 65,000 words. Alternating POV.

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:  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:  Signed, I’m Yours! (Subpar Superhero story) By Rhys Lawless

Rating: 4.5🌈

Well, this was simply adorable.  I absolutely adored Signed, I’m Yours! (Subpar Superhero story) By Rhys Lawless.  One of the most enjoyable in this series.

The journey of Seojun, Mr Sinister, a not so very super villain, who wants to find the family he left behind in South Korea turns into a funny, heartfelt story about a man who instead finds love, respect, and a new found family when he never expected it.

Seojun, fabulous in Pink, meet the SPAM agent Jack “Happy” Lewis, signs Jack up for some internal secret investigation, that goes immediately rightfully wrong. 

This wonderful story is so well written. The beautifully crafted characters have so much heart, including the many fabulous side characters, that it’s hard not to wish for more from this universe and gang of heroes.

Even the main villain of this piece is a man isn’t what you expect.  Instead he’s poignant, the crimes also contain an unexpected twist.

Honestly, the story and characters were a total joy that it was an absolute pleasure reading this.

A winner for the series and as a whole for the author to the readers. 

Subpar Heroes series- 15 books:

🔷The Accidental Necromancer by Liv Rancourt 

🔷Behind the 8-Ball by A. E. Wasp

🔷Transparent Is a Color by Kaje Harper❤️

🔷Impossible Things by Alexa Land 

🔷My Not-So-Super Blind Date by Allison Temple ❤️❤️

🔷An Ex-Hero’s Guide to Axe Handling by Jenn Burke ❤️❤️

🔷In The Nick of Time by Elle Keaton 

🔷Static/Cling by Jaimie Samms

🔷Spiritual Guidance Not Required by Jacy Braegan   

🔷What Could Go Wrong? By Toshi Drake 

🔷License to Chill by Chantal Mer 

🔷Code Name Dolittle by Lynn Michaels

🔷Signed, I’m Yours! By Rhys Lawless❤️

🔷A Taste of Danger by Morgan Brice. 9/5/2024

Buy link:

        Signed, I’m Yours!: A supervillainous romcom

    

Blurb

I’m The Sinister Signature. New York City’s biggest supervillain. And anything I sign is mine!

Including the hunky, happy-go-lucky SPAM agent with the bear-bod who catches me red-handed.

Jack “Happy” Lewis.

The man who can never turn his smile into a frown and who’s way too excited to be tied to me for the foreseeable future.

He drives me up the wall, but at least I’ve got a guy on the inside who can help me with my mission.

In my search for my missing family, SPAM, the mysterious agency that handles super-powered individuals, and Happy are my only recourse.

There is one problem however.

With Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes stuck by my side, I’m starting to feel…things and I don’t like it.

It gets worse when we have to pretend we’re engaged.

The last thing I need right now is to fall head over heels and quit my search. Or give up my criminal empire and go over to the good side.

Ew. That’s not me.

I’m a supervillain, damn it. I won’t fall victim to Jack’s charms.

No, I won’t.

Signed, I’m Yours is a standalone paranormal romcom with a grumpy supervillain, an always-happy good guy literally stuck together on a case, a fake instant engagement, a very convenient bi-awakening, and only one bed.

Part of the multi-author Subparheroes MM romance series.

  • Publisher: Rhys Writes Romance (August 29, 2024)
  • Publication date: August 29, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 284 pages

Review:  Riddles & Rivals (The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club Book 5) by K. Sterling

Rating: 5🌈

Riddles & Rivals, an enemies to lovers story, was everything I anticipated it to be and more.  Involving two of the most compelling and layered individuals in this series, Sterling delves deeply into the men’s heavily woven lives that includes their families connected thru their often dark histories. As the last of the original mine owning founding families of Bisbee, Mercer and Baxter’s animosity started in their adolescence.  Fueled by the difference in their backgrounds, the deep religious beliefs, and the disparity climate of the household in which each man was raised.  

Riddles & Rivals sees Mayor Mercer Hathaway asking his longtime enemy Baxter Dawson for help. Mercer is tearing down the ominous Hathaway House and wants an answer to the famous old unsolved crime of what really happened to Julia Lowell.  A crime that has long been thought to have been committed by a Hathaway.  The answers might be in Hathaway House and they have a weekend to find out before it’s torn down.

That’s the bare minimum of this complex, character driven, beautifully crafted mystery. It’s got ghosts determined by their own agendas, ancient passions and two men who find themselves in a strange place where they unravel long held secrets and their own destiny.

Sterling’s forward asks reviewers not to divulge the spoilers of the story and I won’t. They are far too fantastic. 

I thought the men, their strengths and struggles with their pasts, especially Mercer’s inner voice as he wrestles with the events and his emotions, are so vivid and powerful.

Riddles & Rivals (The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club Book 5) by K. Sterling is a highlight of the series and a fabulous read.  A must in itself and in the series.

Loving the covers.

The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club :

  • Haunted Hearts #1
  • Moonlight & Madness #2
  • Unhappy Medium #3
  • Grave Expectations #4
  • Riddles & Rivals #5
  • Shadows & Reservations #6
  • Heart & Soulless #7
  • Specters & Sparks # 8

Buy link

        Riddles & Rivals (The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club Book 5)

    

Blurb

One haunted mansion. Two lifelong enemies. Three days to solve one of Bisbee’s most notorious mysteries.It’s nearly Valentine’s Day but it might as well be Christmas for Baxter Dawson when Bisbee’s mayor, Mercer Hathaway, knocks on his door with an irresistible proposition for the town’s favorite crime solver. Mercer’s planning to tear down The Hathaway House and burn everything inside it to free himself of his family’s dark legacy. But first, Mercer wants to find the answer to a riddle that’s plagued him for decades: who killed Julia Lowell and why does she haunt him every time he’s a guest at The Copper Queen Hotel? The answer is somewhere inside The Hathaway House but the real mystery is: can these two bitter rivals survive a weekend together in a mansion full of ghosts and Hathaway Family skeletons without killing each other?

  • Publisher: Bawdy Books (June 30, 2021)
  • Publication date: June 30, 2021
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 178 pages

Review: Malum Discordiae:(Tennebrose Book 1) by Ashlyn Drewek

Rating: 4.5🌈

“Put the skull down and let’s go already!”

The person holding a yellowed human skull in his hands is Cassius. Recently returned home from his six long years of boarding school confinement in England, Cassius Corbin, has an important magical mission in mind. His arrival sets off an array of explosive events and a Capulets/Montague romance that’s the dramatic storyline and serves to launch all the other knowledge to vividly capture this incredible world.

I had only read one other book by Drewek but this just cemented the author as a must read. The incredible characters of Cassius, the necromancer of the fallen Corbin family, and that of Graeme Hewitt, of the highly successful and politically placed Hewitt family, draw the reader into their feud and romance immediately. It’s a tale fraught with emotional pain, old wounds that date back to 1667, hidden secrets, and murderous mysteries. Absolutely compelling, especially when combined with growing magic and Tennebrose University that’s as divided as the two families.

Drewek’s done a fantastic job in introducing this universe, balancing the torn lovers, the mysteries, and the ancient secrets. And this time, we get a happy ending for our couple.

But before Drewek lets the reader in on exactly what this magical hunt is about, we get a glimpse and first look at the world of the paranormal that’s the town of Winslow. A old place where, living hidden among the normals, are every type of witchcraft, represented by old dynastic families , lineages complete with complex political dynamics and tortured historical backgrounds.

Did I feel it got tied up a lot quickly at the end? Yes. That feels rushed. But everything else is so well written that I’m hoping that future stories sort that element out.

In the meantime, there’s other aspects of this book I feel that need highlighting.

Drewek has created a highly detailed and informative Preface + Glossary as well as a short list of Latin terms that are used here. For those readers who love extra visual content, don’t miss out on the stunning handwriting family trees, Winslow Founding families list, charts, and other excellent pieces of narrative detailing.

Malum Discordiae:(Tennebrose Book 1) by Ashlyn Drewek was a terrific read and now I’m hooked. Headed to the next story! This is a definite recommendation!

Tennebrose series (a note indicated they are standalone books but the universe building is complex as is the events and relationships so I don’t agree with that):

🔹CALIGO—a short MM story about an eager grad student, his “crazy” history professor, and a trip to the woods in search of the infamous Winslow Witch. This is a newsletter exclusive.

🔹MALUM DISCORDIAE—a dark academia MM enemies-to-lovers paranormal romance about witches, Necromancers, and a blood feud that has lasted centuries.

🔹IGNI FERROQUE—a dark MM paranormal romance about a pious Necromancer and an incorrigible demon and what happens when their paths intersect.

🔹MORTEM OBIRE—a best-friends-to-lovers MM paranormal romance novella

Buy link

Malum Discordiae: An MM Enemies-to-Lovers Paranormal Romance (Tennebrose Book 1)

Blurb

After Cassius Corbin’s mother was murdered by fellow witches, he learned an invaluable lesson: death comes for us all—even Necromancers. Six years later, enrolling at Tennebrose University with vengeance on his mind, the last thing he expects is to come face to face with Graeme Hewitt, the son of his mother’s killer. As much as Cassius tries to avoid the naive weather witch, fate has other plans.

In spite of their families’ ongoing feud, they’re forced to work together if they have any hope of passing their required class. But as late nights and stolen moments turn to something more, a rash of demonic murders plagues the university. If they don’t get to the bottom of it, they could both be next.

MALUM DISCORDIAE is a dark academia, paranormal MM romance about witches, Necromancers, and a blood feud that has lasted centuries. It features plenty of steam, a lot of snark, and the pile of bodies you’d expect in a magical Romeo + Juliet retelling—except this one has a happy ending. It is intended for a mature audience and reader discretion is advised. A full list of triggers can be found in the front matter of the book and at my website under Tropes & Triggers.

• Publisher: Fox Hollow Books (March 28, 2022)

• Publication date: March 28, 2022

• Language: English

• Print length: 394 pages

Review: Grave Misfortune (Fortune Favors the Fae Book 8) by Nazri Noor

Rating: 4.5🌈

Grave Misfortune is Nazri Noor’s novel in the fantastic fantasy series, Fortune Favors the Fae. This is a multi-author series about a mysterious ancient Fae coin that travels from world to world, interfering with the lives and destinies of those it encounters. It’s a fascinating theme and Noor puts it and the coin to rigorous use in his highly entertaining novel.

In Noor’s storyline, there’s a small town called Barrowdeep that is besieged by ghouls. Its the perfect setting for this enemies to lovers romance. And the author has created a number of memorable characters that inhabit it to make this place real, its horrors to the remaining citizens haunting and scary, and the heartfelt rawness of those who have survived believable.

Already there is Leoric, a battle hardened, war weary soldier whose laid down his weapons for a new job as the town’s grave keeper in return for a new home. Leoric is an impressive man, a powerful character on the town’s side, whose history is as slowly revealed as is his match here.

That would be the traveling lone elf, Orphium of the Dawning Court. With his magical wagon that needs no animal to pull it, he careens from town to village, where aided by his charm and magical tricks, he wagers its people out of trinkets that also carry their precious memories, unknowingly won by him without their consent.

That’s the Orphium we meet as his wagon wheels itself into Barrowdeep. Self centered, self serving is perhaps a better term, and not prepared for the reception he receives.

Noor does an excellent job of transitioning the character of Orphium from a dislikable being to someone the reader understands and invests in emotionally. Orphium’s an isolated desperate elf constantly trying to deny the consequences of his actions, stealing precious memories from those who unknowingly surrendered them to him over a game of chance. Through the events, the escalating violence of the ghoulish invasion, and yes, that Fae coin, the relationship between Leoric and Orphium, and Orphium and the townsfolk starts to evolve.

I love all the many elements that Noor creates in this world and story and felt some didn’t get the development they deserved. But the author notes that this is the first book in a new series, so I imagine that those things will get better explanations further down the road.

I’m absolutely looking forward to seeing where this goes. Grave Misfortune (Fortune Favors the Fae Book 8) by Nazri Noor is another must read book in this fantastic collection. It’s a definite recommendation!

Cover art by Natasha Snow. I love the covers. Fabulous.

Fortune Favors the Fae – 15 books:

✓ A Fae Coin Transported Me Into Another World and Now I’m the Gay Holy Maiden by AJ Sherwood #1❤️

✓ The Wolf’s (Un)Lucky Fae by Michele Notaro #2 ❤️

✓ Bound to the Wild Fae by Tavia Lark #3 June 13❤️

✓ The Sorcerer’s Thief by Lee Colgin #4 ❤️🔷

✓ The Fae Menagerie by Edie Montreaux #5

✓ Never Darling by Sam Burns #6

✓ Prince of Poison by Alice Winters #7 ❤️

✓ Grave Misfortune by Nazri Noor #8 ❤️

◦ Fae for Pay by Meaghan Maslow #9 – July 23,2024

◦ Kisses at the Crossroad by Morgan Lysand #10 – August 1,2024

◦ Smoke and Mirrors by Kai Butler #11 – August 8, 2024

◦ Siren in the Rain by Chloe Archer #12 – Aug 15,2024

◦ I Destroyed the Elf Prince’s Harem by Jocelynn Drake #13 – Aug 22,2024

◦ A Fae Called Wylder by Michelle Frost #14 – Aug 29,2024

◦ Lucky or Knot by Eliot Grayson #15 – September 5,2024

Buy link

Grave Misfortune

Blurb

Darkness sleeps beneath Barrowdeep.

War-weary mercenary Leoric has traded his sword for a shovel, burying the undead blight that plagues the little town of Barrowdeep. Now he fights for the living instead of against them.

Fae trickster Orphium travels from town to town, stealing human trinkets and memories through games of chance. He’s desperate to fill the hollow in his heart, but the hunger never goes away.

Barrowdeep is ripe for the picking, except the nosy local gravedigger keeps interfering. But when Leoric unearths an ancient fae artifact, Orphium knows he’ll stop at nothing to possess the powerful coin.

And the undead will stop at nothing to possess him.

Orphium and Leoric must fight the undead together before tensions and their shadowy pasts rise to the surface — and before an even darker evil awakens beneath Barrowdeep.

Grave Misfortune is a part of the multi-author series, Fortune Favors the Fae. From spicy to sweet, zany romps to epic adventures, there’s something for everyone in this mystical series. Discover destiny and true love and follow the coin on its fickle journey to the next world and a new magical adventure.

• Publication date: July 18, 2024

• Language: English

• Print length: 218 pages

Review: Broken (Erebus Assassins Book 1) by Reese Knightley

Rating: 3.25🌈

Broken is the first book in a new connected series, Erebus Assassins, by Reese Knightly. If you’re familiar with other series and characters as well as the types of themes and storylines that come with them, you know exactly what to expect from Broken.

There will be damaged characters with intense relationship dynamics, shady or situational morality, and often painful, violent backgrounds.

And flowing through each other’s stories are the characters and couples from all the other series. Sometimes this works. Other times, as I feel it happens here, it doesn’t.

Broken opens as Ice unknowingly stumbles upon an assignment already in progress. An assassination is going down and the agent is Echo from another team. That Agency is one Ice used to work for . This violent brief interaction sets off a chain of chaotic events that include Ice stalking Echo, to the extent he’s quitting his job at work and rejoining another agency.

This is one example of the issues I see with the story. Knightley spends little time on developing any relationship between Ice and Echo to warrant this depth of obsessive interest or behavior. Ice just decides Echo is it for him and hunts him, whether Echo wants him to or not. In Echo’s case, it’s decidedly not.

Another is with all the various characters themselves. Some are carryovers and some are new. But the reader must be able to recognize them and remember who they are, how they fit into the different couples dynamics/agency structure and even current tortuous situations. Otherwise, it’s a constant struggle to understand who all these people are and how they fit together.

It’s all very unsupported and unsustainable for the book to have this many characters and their own narratives dropped in (and out) behind it.

Echo has a horrific history but it’s buried under everything else so the reader, at least I did, finds it hard to connect with. Which brings us back to the villain of the story.

That entire element, including his identity, just never felt plausible. From the size of the operation , and the fact that he had been able to run it as long as he had, given the facts, doesn’t seem believable framed out by all the other characters in the book. It seems more a dramatic needs element than a naturally occurring part of the story.

But so much of Broken feels unexplored or incomplete, a jumble of characters and plot lines. A new series should focus on new starts.

Why did this feel like Knightley took odds and ends from all her previous series and just dump them here?

Read this because you’re a fan of the author or like the other series. All those series listed below.

Erebus Assassins:

✓ Broken #1

◦ Agony #2 – July 31,2024

Related series with crossover characters and agencies :

Cobalt Security – 6 books

Code of Honor – 8 books

Out for Justice -7 books

Buy link

Broken (Erebus Assassins Book 1)

Blurb

He craved him like he’d never craved anyone before.

-Ice

They’d kissed. And spent a brief and wild time together.

He fell.

But Echo disappeared on him.

And now the chase was on.

He was going to find Echo, catch him, and make him his.

Even if it killed him.

-Echo

He should have never screwed the blue-eyed blond…

But he had.

He couldn’t say why, but Ice got on his last nerve.

So he wounded the guy a couple of times.

Since then, Ice seemed to be in his way every time he turned around.

Assassin vs assassin

Blind to love

Unrequited love

Emotional Scars

A traitor

**Please note 18+ content. See inside for trigger warnings.

• Publication date: April 4, 2024

• Language: English

• Print length: 244 pages