Review: Confetti Hearts (Confetti Hitched, #1) by Lily Morton

Rating:3🌈

I have been anticipating this book since I encountered Joe Bagshaw in Vow Maker, where he acted as the wedding planner to Gabe and Dylan. It was a hilarious and memorable introduction. And made all the readers want more, especially his painful romantic history.

Morton reveals Joe’s love life and tale of marriage woe between scenes of weddings that Joe’s firm is handling, past and present. This format works in some respects to help the story and not in others.

By breaking down the story into different timelines, a wedding here that begins the relationship, a wedding that sees the men meet up again, and so on to weddings three and four, the reader gets a wonderful feel for the strong amazing personality that is Joe Bagshaw. Quick witted, kind, thoughtful, well organized, and extremely intelligent. He’s exactly who you’d want to plan your wedding. Or anything else for that matter. We connect with Joe immediately.

The other man in this unusual relationship that they aren’t calling a relationship? That would be forensic accountant Lachlan Moore. Older, self possessed, and assured of himself and his status quo, personally and professionally , he’s not the immediate choice we’d expect for Joe. He’s not a bad person but from the early stages, Morton doesn’t give the reader (or Joe) enough reason to believe he is the best person for that amazing being we love.

In my opinion, this is where the issues with the format overlap into character and relationship development. And not for the first time in a Lily Morton story.

Lachlan falls into that category of main protagonists that are emotionally unavailable to the other more engaging and lovable men in their lives. For the majority of the story, it’s Joe who’s the narrator. Through Joe’s thoughts and feelings, we watch as Lachlan creates a “on my terms only “ scenario for them where not even the term date can be used. When they marry, he then leaves Joe to be abused by a housekeeper, his friends, and his PA. Even a house. We, Joe’s audience , along with Joe’s friends , find this situation naturally appalling.

Morton has created a one-sided emotional connection with the couple through Joe with her readers. Only later does Lachlan get his perspective voiced. By then it’s almost too late.

The author’s plan to right this one sidedness starts at a wedding in Scotland. There it’s a strictly 2 person POV. So Lachlan becomes the fully fleshed out character he should have been all along. However, I’m not sure he’s still a great person.

Communication, or it’s lack of, is key here between the two people. Neither was able to talk to the other person about their feelings or the fact they were upset until now. That’s not addressed either. A secret from Lachlan’s end doesn’t help on the open communication front.

There’s another smaller issue for me. I don’t know why but it’s stuck with me because it held such promise for being such a tiny narrative gem.

Frances is the mother of Erica, the bride whose wedding is being held in Scotland. Frances is a veritable harridan. Nasty, demanding, arrogant, Frances has made Joe’s job difficult and her name is synonymous with the worst that bridezilla mothers can deliver. But just when she’s fallen into a stereotype, Morton elevates this controlling one dimensional woman into someone human. It happens during a snowed in game night.

“ I’d thought Frances would steer the ship, but unexpectedly she defers to her husband, and there’s even a smile on her lips as they look at each other. I narrow my eyes.”

It goes further with Frances emerging as a defender of another member of her family. And Frances goes from harridan to family matriarch with a inner life of her own. What a transformation in a few sentences!

But such a subtle , and appreciated detail wasn’t to last. Morton throws away this lovely narrative gem by reducing Frances once more to a comic flat horror of a woman because Joe needed a one-liner towards the end of the romance.

It’s choices like those, where the easy narrative path was taken, rather than the one where the author must build up the storyline further with heft and a sense of fullness, that leaves this lacking.

Morton’s booklist has so many novels where such care was taken. It pains me to say that Joe Bagshaw – Moore’s isn’t one of them. I so hoped it was.

So read this because we fell in love with Joe and want to know what happened to him. Because Lily Morton is a must read for you. For all the others, you decide if it’s the age gap, second chance at love story next on your TBR pile.

First in a new series.

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Confetti…Confetti Hearts – Kindle edition by Morton, Lily. Romance Kindle eBooks …

Description:

Joe Bagshaw doesn’t believe in love or marriage anymore, which is rather a hindrance for a wedding planner.

His own marriage was a whirlwind affair that ended before the ink could dry on the wedding certificate. Nevertheless, even with his divorce pending, he’s getting by. Or at least he was until he finds himself snowed in at a remote Scottish hotel with the wedding party from hell, a terrible ABBA tribute band, and his soon-to-be ex-husband.

Lachlan has missed Joe from the second his husband walked away. He wants Joe back and is prepared to do anything to get him. Being snowed in together seems to offer the chance Lachlan needs, but does he have what it takes to get Joe to trust in love and their marriage again?

From bestselling author Lily Morton, comes a romantic comedy about love, matrimony, and the best of second chances.

This is the first book in the Confetti Hitched series.

Review: Midwinter Firelight by K.L. Noone

Rating: 4.5🌈

Midwinter Firelight, a sequel to the inestimable Snowed In, takes place 2 months after the events of that story that introduced us to Constable Kit Thompson, empath and Bow Street Preternatural Division, and his now lover, the Honorable Harry Alden, younger brother to the Earl of Fairleigh.

This is a case where the bar was set so high narratively speaking by the origin story, that anything that followed would have a difficult time getting close to the magic that first one captured.

And Midwinter Firelight doesn’t. It doesn’t have the setting. It doesn’t have the sense of isolation or otherness that allowed Noone’s prose to soar into episodes of poetry alongside scenes of beautiful imagery.

No, here in a London setting, Kit and Harry are firmly attached to more a emotionally busy and physically demanding time of it. They are still so new in their relationship but London is full of challenges and promises., as well as hidden obstacles.

Whereas Fairleigh was magical and sparse of people, London is the exact opposite. It’s the copious amounts of mundane , the demands of society, and more mysteries. It’s a more interesting and realistic grounding of this couple in their everyday realities and the rigidity with which society regards them.

Noone weaves both mens insecurities, which is interesting given that they are empaths, into the internal conversations each is conducting about their future. It shows the some of the limitations of that empathy bestows.

The mystery itself is the weakest part of the story. I found myself thinking about the participants for just a moment, then they were forgotten.

No, it could have been any problem to solve. The focus and power belongs on Kit and Harry. They are made of magic, both in the city and out in the countryside, as long as they are together.

I’m recommending Midwinter Firelight by K.L. Noone. It’s a lovely follow up to the sublime Snowed In.

Midwinter Firelightby K.L. Noone

Description:

Kit Thompson, empath and Bow Street Preternatural Division constable, is looking forward to Midwinter. His lover Harry, Viscount Sommersby, is visiting, and Kit has plans to show Harry his London … and plans for Harry in his bedroom.

But Kit’s Chief Magistrate needs him. And the case is important. Personal. Taking up Kit’s time.

Even worse, Harry wants to help. And Kit could use Harry’s magical talents. But that means endangering Harry … something Kit’s sworn never to do.

Review: Snowed In: Kit and Harry by K.L. Noone

Rating: 5🌈

It’s rare that short stories earn high ratings from me but Noone’s rich descriptive passages and gorgeous imagery won me over from the start.

There’s an immediate impression when Constable Kit Thompson meets Harry, younger son of Fairleigh Hall , of hair of “wayward sunshine “ , combined with boundless enthusiasm that the author perfectly projects a image of Harry that’s indelible and warm almost to the touch. Even as the brutal cold of winter encapsulates them.

That’s why Kit is there. To investigate why winter, the cold has fallen out of season on Fairleigh Hall. He’s a constable in Bow Street’s Preternatural Division where he can use his magical gifts to solve crimes and apprehend criminals.

The time and setting is Fairleigh Hall, Yorkshire, 1802. Regency. Same sex relationships and marriages are now acceptable for the younger non inheriting sons and daughters.

There’s an astonishing mystery and equally compelling resolution. The relationship between Kit and Harry is unexpectedly strong, complex, and kinky. Rope play, D/s, all so well done and beautifully written.

These are nuanced characters which is hard to do in short stories but the author achieves it. Kit has a complicated history. Son of a courtesan and bastard of a nobleman, he skirts the edges of society. Harry, the younger brother has the most complex background but it’s one that’s slowly revealed throughout the story.

While winter swirls around the hall, there’s still a tiny but very strong support cast to deepen the sense of family and friendship within relationships that are developing. That’s Ned Arden, the Earl of Fairleigh, Harry’s older brother and Lizzie, his betrothed. And Grayson, the butler. All so beautifully portrayed and realistic that you feel like you have met them.

The storylines move briskly along, but with a poetic tone to the imagery and a sense of otherness when it comes to the characters themselves and their magic.

I was so in love with everyone here. So sorry to be finished with the story.

But what a delight to read and reread. A new favorite of mine. And hopefully yours. I’m highly recommending this!

And I just found out that it has a sequel. Onto that next.

✓ Snowed In: Kit and Harry (part of The Demon Universe of 9 books)

◦ Midwinter Firelight (it’s sequel)

Buy Link:

Snowed In: Kit and Harry

Description:

Someone — or something — is causing magical blizzards at Fairleigh Hall. The estate is suffering, and the Earl has requested assistance.

Constable Kit Thompson, of Bow Street’s Preternatural Division, isn’t especially thrilled to be sent out to the country. At least the assignment gets him away from fashionable London society and his own unwanted celebrity after successfully solving a notorious case. Of course, he’s now trapped at a country estate due to closed roads, snowstorms, and magic, but Kit’s always liked solving puzzles. He’s good at using empathic skills for investigations, and this is definitely a challenge. Besides, the Earl’s younger brother is an irritating and delicious temptation, all blue eyes and muscles and boundless enthusiastic optimism. Kit wants to either shake sense into him or kiss him senseless — and can’t trust him, either, because if someone’s genuinely sabotaging the weather, everyone’s a suspect.

Harry Arden, younger brother of the Earl of Fairleigh, has never met a Preternatural Division constable before, much less a famous and celebrated one. He wants to help. And he wants to make that attractive but cynical constable smile, at least once. But the estate hides a family secret, and Harry knows perfectly well Kit doesn’t trust him … and for good reason. Still, Harry offers to do what he can to assist with the investigation, and if that means spending more time with Kit, that’s a bonus.

When Harry and Kit end up caught by those magical storms, snowed in together at the old hunting lodge, they’ll have to trust each other with their secrets … and their hearts.

Review : Stitched Under Fire (Paranormal Investigative Service Book 2) by Cassidy K. O’Connor and Sheri Lyn

Rating: 4.5🌈

Stitched Under Fire takes place relatively close to the ending timeline of the first book, Faeted Under Fire. That’s where the formerly human Det. Tristan James died, becoming reborn as a phoenix shifter and federal agent in the Paranormal Investigative Service, aka P.I.S. Yes, the series has a sense of humor.

He also gained a new perspective on paranormal beings he’d been phobic about, gained a partner and boyfriend in fellow Agent Maddox Smith, half orc/half Fae.

We dive back into their world where Tris has become acclimated enough to consider his new Agent Pod/group friends and he’s moved into a house with Maddox, getting ready to met the parents.

The authors do such a great job in creating the paranormal experience for Tristan James. He’s new to everything so we get to see and learn about it along with him. Honestly, the human side pales a bit by comparison.

Tristan is thriving even if he’s at level one with regard to his shifter abilities and new identity as a phoenix shifter. The fact that phoenix shifters are rare means that even his own teammates and boyfriend aren’t exactly positive about what Tristan can do , other than the vaguest ideas.

O’Conner and Lyn are on a slow path here with Tristan’s shifter transition. I’m not sure how many books they have planned for the series, but at this point, for Tristan to gain full access to his phoenix abilities, it will be at book 10. But oddly, the cases become so big and the victims so important, that Tristan’s shifter journey can safely be relegated to a lower storyline status without hurting the character or the book.

It becomes all about the characters, the relationships, the realness of their lives and the pain of their loss. That’s what we feel as does those investigating the cases.

The side storyline about , Tallie,the young teenage prostitute who’s basically family, Maddox’s mom, and Silas, the Fae father , is heartwarming and a wonderful element that helps ground Tristan in this new world and relationship.

This book and series is one I’m enjoying so much for its well developed characters, well plotted storylines, rich world building, and expanding new information into the exploration between human and paranormal phenomena and physicality.

Bring on book 3. I’m highly recommending this and the series. Read them in the order they are written to understand the events and character development.

Paranormal Investigative Service series:

✓ Faeted Under Fire #1

✓ Stitched Under Fire #2

◦ Taken Under Fire #3 – June 8, 2023

Buy Link:

Stitched Under Fire (Paranormal Investigative Service Book 2)

Description:

Paranormals left for dead, parts of them missing. When bodies start piling up, the agents of Paranormal Investigative Service quickly realize the killings aren’t random and they are escalating.

Life is never dull as an agent of P.I.S. but Tristan James didn’t expect his fourth week as a newly turned phoenix shifter and federal agent to be spent hunting for the person who was dissecting paranormals. If that weren’t enough, he was also moving in with Maddox, his partner at P.I.S. and he had it bad for him.

Maddox Smith was going monogamous. If that weren’t shocking enough, Tristan was also moving in with him. Add to that the man of his dreams was still getting used to being a shifter and getting over old prejudices about their kind. Taking it slow was never in Maddox’s vocabulary before, but Tristan was worth the wait. A new case was exactly the distraction he needed.

They have to work quickly to stitch the pieces together if they want to stop the madman hurting their kind.

Book 3 ‘Taken Under Fire’ releases June 8th, 2023 and continues Maddox and Tristan’s story.

Review: Fool Me Once (Court of Pain Book 1) by Ariana Nash

Rating: 4.5 🌈

Fool Me Once is Ariana Nash’s opening act in her new dark fantasy series. This is a story and series that comes with a author’s note about triggers in the themes. However, it sends the reader to the author’s website to read them so they aren’t readily accessible.

They should be. While everything that happens and is brought up fits in with character development and the universe that’s being created by Nash , it’s disturbing enough to warrant the trigger warnings.

They include off page forced incest, off page rape, attempted suicide, dubious consent, knife play, revenge sex, torture , and enforced confinement/imprisonment by means of a collar. So yes, plenty of triggers.

Now that’s dealt with, Nash is also creating a darkly fascinating world of shattered lands, a missing god, and warring crowns that should be helping each other to safeguard and protect the world the god left for them. Instead they are creating chaos by attacking each other.

Dallin, God of Order divided the Shattered lands into 4 crowns for 4 courts. Love, Justice, Pain, and War.

What a grand concept and Nash starts the arc and journey into the mystery of the missing god with the horrific events and violence that is the world currently.

There’s Lark, one of the darkest, most traumatized, and multi-layered individuals here. He’s the Court of Love’s Jester , a master manipulator of people, a collector and distributor of lies and illusions. He’s both the agony of heartbreak , he’s deceit, and potentially the weak hope for love to revive and survive all the worst this world has to throw at it and him.

This is such a carefully written character that his depths are only gradually revealed through the storytelling. And I expect to see more as the series progresses. I think he’s going to break our hearts. Again and again.

There’s more important characters, each with startling strengths, worse frailties, and appalling histories. One is the mysterious Prince of Love. To reveal anything about this astonishing character is to spoil some of the best narrative elements Nash has in store for the reader.

Psychologically, emotionally, the Prince is impressive because, like Lark, he’s nothing like what he appears on the surface. Everyone here operates on hidden agendas, deep secrets, and years of planning for revenge/ulterior motives. It’s a narrative chess game but done with extreme violence and long range tactical aggression.

Much like her last series, the deck of cards and card tricks are woven into the story and strategy of Lark’s character. I found that a interesting element. And want to see how it’s used going forward.

Also like Nash’s Shadows of London series, this ends in a cliffhanger. So I expect the rest of the books to follow that format too.

I was enthralled by Nash’s dark new world and traumatized characters. I was so connected to Lark, and all the events as they were occurring. It’s a bleak place, Lark and the rest are indeed in a chaotic world. Read the trigger warnings and take them to heart.

Then decide if adult dark fiction with amazing characters and a well written harrowing story to follow is for you.

I’m recommending it under those guidelines.

Court of Pain :

✓ Fool Me Once #1

◦ Fool Me Twice #2 – TBD

Description:

The king of the Court of Love wants me dead, the queen wants me in her bed, and the prince… He wants the only piece of me I will never surrender.

They call me jester, dancer, trickster, lover.

I exist to entertain.

But behind my sideways smiles, my quick hands and magician’s tricks, I trade in their lies, their secrets. I know their deepest desires, their wicked schemes. Their sins are my currency.

Their reign is a card castle, and I hold the card that’s about to bring it all down.

And they say I’m the fool…

Amazon buy link:

Buy or borrow here.

Fool Me Once is a dark MM fantasy brimming with courtly spice, morally ambiguous anti-heroes, and a fool who plays them all.

This is a dark world with adult MM content.

Potentially triggering content includes but is not limited to: attempted suicide (main character), incest (non-consensual, off-page, not between main characters), dubious consent (main characters), knife play (main characters), revenge sex (main character, off-page).

Assume triggers are on-page, unless off-page is specified above.

Review: Dangerous (Shifter Scoundrels #2) by Charlie Cochet and Macy Blake

Rating: 4.5🌈

Shifter Scoundrels is a wildly imaginative , heave everything the multi era/trope sink has to offer into the adventure/romance world as conjured up by Charlie Cochet and Macy Blake. Part paranormal universe, it also includes such features as a Regency era monarchy, a royal society with the accompanying aristocracy events. To say nothing of the Regency societal laws such as rigid dress codes to go with the peerage rankings. All of these adopted by the Dragon Shifter King and the rest of the shifter world that lives invisibly along side the human one. It’s so marvelously descriptive and realized.

All of that serves as a foundation for mystery, murder, and magical mayhem as well as romance from book to book, with each novel featuring one couple involved in and investigating the overall series arc mystery. That being the murder of Prince Brandr, the son of the King.

I enjoyed the Regency relationship , romantic gameplay and subterfuge of the first story. It was all very in keeping with the theme and types of storytelling that the genre does so well.

But Dangerous goes in a different direction, romantically speaking, with its couple. And while it kept some of the Regency parameters intact, it also borrowed from the contemporary genre too. The combination is one is I found engaging and wonderfully entertaining. Because this other main character is oh so human, and comes with a very serious heart condition.

Jason Reaves is a surprise in every way. Jason has POTS, Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. He also has a wonderfully realized service dog, a German shepherd, Mouse, who’s a great character. The authors, both of whom own GSDs, show us exactly how Mouse helps Jason with his disability and their partnership in letting Jason lead a wider life. This is such a superb element of this book and it’s worked so perfectly to elevate Jason as a multi-dimensional character including great backstory. As is Mouse who’s so much a part of him.

Cormac Donegan, Duke of Everard, is bringing heavyweight Regency energy here to his part of the relationship. Cormac is in recovery from a traumatic event, the losses which still haunt him. We’ve seen this event and connected events in the first book (which is running concurrently in terms of timeframe). So we have some knowledge about what’s happening and the details around the events.

Cormac and his team of valets/soldiers are absolutely fantastic characters. Cormac as he starts to understand Jason’s predicament and fall for the human he’s bound to protect. Vega and Sillian ,the manservants , who are fabulous in their roles as foils for each other and for Jason as he becomes part of the household and their world.

The mystery and fast paced action is fantastic. The narrative runs along at near breakneck speed to match the scenes unfolding on the pages.

There’s humor, some pathos, passion, and action, along with great support cast and main characters.

I honestly couldn’t put this down.

The setup for Scandalous, the third installment and romance is smoothly executed. Now to wait until next year.

I’m highly recommending this story but read the series in order first so you understand the events and backgrounds as it all comes together.

What a wild whacky mashup! I love it.

Shifter Scoundrels series:

✓ Notorious #1

✓ Dangerous #2

◦ Scandalous #3 – Feb 29,2024

Buy Link:

Dangerous (Shifter Scoundrels Book 2)

Description:

New Paranormal Romance from Bestselling MM Authors Charlie Cochet and Macy Blake.

A grumpy lion shifter duke with secrets, a sassy human who knows nothing of the shifter world, and a fiery arrangement neither of them expected.

Cormac Donegan, Duke of Everard, is all too familiar with the perils of his shifter world, especially as a Dahlia, one of the dragon king’s elite spies. After a mission nearly costs him his life, Cormac is sidelined, healing and grieving his heavy losses. Then a different kind of trouble shows up on his doorstep, a human claiming to be his fiancé.

When Jason Reaves is nearly killed in a house fire, it becomes clear that someone is trying to murder him. With his already fragile health deteriorating, Jason’s only hope is to call in the debt a stranger owes his father– a favor that promises safety, protection… and marriage.

Jason’s escape leads him and his service dog, Mouse, to an impressive country estate. He’s expecting the older man who’d made the promise, not his ruggedly handsome son–who happens to be a Duke, as in rich and royal.

Will this Cinderfella find his happily ever after in the arms of a dashing–if somewhat irritable–duke? Or will Cormac’s secrets prove to be more dangerous than the shifters hunting him?

Review: Deal With The Devil (The Reckless Damned Book 3) by Lark Taylor

Rating: 4.5🌈

Deal With The Devil is the third novel in Lark Taylor’s The Reckless Damned series about the rebellious sons of the Devil who left Hell (and servitude under Father) behind for life on earth.

Each book concentrates on a brother as he finds his fated mate , and along with his brothers, helps investigate a rebellion against their father (understandable) and thwart any possible apocalypse (also clear).

I may have enjoyed this book the most, probably because as it’s the third story it now has a solid family cast to act as a foundation/sounding board/support system for whatever Mori, this brother, needs. Whether it’s backup in an attack or advice about a relationship, the brothers and their mates, who’ve formed their own smaller group, are there for each other. Taylor has created a entertaining and interesting family dynamic here. Each is so different, some with traumatic histories , others with flamboyant personalities, differences that make for lively conversations and fast paced scenes.

River is the first non-human main character that plays up against a brother in a story to date. I liked the twists Taylor works into her narrative here. Including the several at the end. It’s a aspect of these stories I’m expecting when I pick them up and the author hasn’t let me down yet.

The relationship between Mori and River is full of obstacles for them to overcome. Mori’s human ex Eric left an indelible mark on Mori, one he needs to relinquish before he can move forward. This is a believable development in anyone’s life and it works here too in a paranormal environment.

There is also the element of the relationship between River and his brother, one that’s explored emotionally through past and present events and actions. It feels realistic as well.

Overall, this is my favorite story to date in the series. I’m only frustrated that I didn’t have the fourth book to read straight on through.

If you like paranormal fiction, romance, and mystery, here’s a series for you. Read them in the order they are written to understand the events and character relationships.

I’m definitely recommending them.

The Reckless Damned series:

✓ Devil’s Mark #1

✓ Devil May Care #2

✓ Deal With The Devil #3

◦ Luck Of The Devil #4 – May 11,2023

Buy Link:

Deal With the Devil (The Reckless Damned Book 3)

Description:

When you make a deal with a devil, you must prepare to face the consequences…

Mori

I’ve loved and lost once before, and it nearly destroyed me.

One might think I’d be scared to try again, but since discovering the existence of fated mates, I’ve waited on tenterhooks for mine to appear.

Fate, apparently, is content to keep me in suspense.

When a nervous human brokers a deal to find his brother, I can’t refuse. My tracking days are over, but there’s something about River that makes me want to get back in the game. Besides, it’ll be a good distraction from waiting for my dream guy.

It quickly becomes clear that River isn’t all he seems. And even worse…I can’t deny the attraction between us. But can I go there when I can’t promise River forever?

River

I’ve always been a liar…but this might be the most dangerous lie I’ve ever told.

Making a deal with a son of Lucifer to track my brother is a bad idea. Especially since he currently holds the number one spot on Mori’s hit list.

I’m asking for trouble.

But I’m out of options. Blaise’s death creeps closer every day, and despite his past misdeeds, I have to save him. Even if it means pretending to be a human, when I’m anything but.

The more time Mori and I spend together, the harder it is to hide my true identity. How can I when he’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner?

There’s no point dreaming of a future with Mori. Even if he forgives my deception, he has a fated mate out there somewhere.

And it isn’t me.

Deal With the Devil is an exhilarating, forced-proximity M/M paranormal romance with a HEA and no cliff-hanger. It is the third book in The Reckless Damned series, which is best enjoyed in order due to the overarching plot. Each book focuses on a different couple and will have a HEA.

CW: references to off page domestic abuse and anxiety attacks. Includes references to torture and murder. One scene of homophbia, including the use of a homophobic slur.

Review : Faeted Under Fire (Paranormal Investigative Service Book 1) by Cassidy K. O’Connor and Sheri Lyn

Rating: 4.25🌈

Faeted Under Fire was a wonderful find. The vibrant cover caught my attention and the imaginative storytelling is just so well done. Both authors are new to me, so I was excited to see what they brought to paranormal fiction.

The universe building is sparse as far as how human beings and the paranormal realm came to exist together. The authors deal with this question in smattering of sentences that raise more questions than answers. Where they spend their narrative energy and enthusiasm is in the creation of the paranormal “section’ of the city much like we have a Chinatown or Little Italy. Only more as in the past when the cities were more racially segregated.

It’s a lively, culturally diverse community, with food trucks and bars owned, and run by the various paranormal species. It feels alive. Sometimes grungy and a perfect fit for the pod or group of paranormal investigators to run through or hang at .

O’Connor and Lyn spent considerable time as well as in creating engaging personalities for their main characters. One is Tristan James, a human cop, who’s prejudiced towards paranormals, and then has to undergo a psychological and physical traumatic change when he’s attacked. Tristan is an amazing perspective for the reader into paranormal life as he’s a fresh viewpoint. I adore him. He’s a good cop and someone trying to be a good person, whoever they may be.

His partner, half orc/half Fae, with prejudices of his own, is Maddox Smith. This character has layers, which continue to get peeled back throughout the story and into the next. He’s one whose character consistently deepens and matures to accommodate changes in the relationships around him.

This is the first story so everyone is still learning about each other and getting settled into their new roles.

O’Connor and Lyn kept me involved in the paranormal and human investigations and emotional stories playing out throughout the novel. If I had a bit of a quibble it was that I recognized the villain early on. Not the motivation for all the events, but who it must be at least behind one attack.

However, I do admit that mysteries and crime investigations have been my jam since early childhood. So take that for whatever it may be worth.

In total, Faeted Under Fire (Paranormal Investigative Service Book 1) by Cassidy K. O’Connor and Sheri Lyn is a exciting, immersive journey into a new partnership and journey towards a romantic relationship for two memorable people . I’m absolutely thrilled with my find and recommending it to others.

Paranormal Investigative Service series:

✓ Faeted Under Fire #1

✓ Stitched Under Fire #2

◦ Taken Under Fire #3 – June 8, 2023

Buy Link:

Book 1 of 3: Paranormal Investigative Service

Description:

A human cop, a paranormal agent, and nine missing kids. Prejudice aside, they have to work together if they want to stop number ten.

Tristan James didn’t know he had a latent paranormal gene in his body until he was attacked on the job as an officer with Tampa PD and killed. As a phoenix shifter, he rose from the ashes and came back stronger than ever. Unfortunately, he was no longer human, this meant no job, no home, no friends. New purpose finds him with the help of a paranormal federal agency offering him a job. He has to put his own learned hatreds aside and accept the paranormals he was now one of.

Maddox Smith loved his job with the Paranormal Investigative Services. He knew what it was like to have no one looking out for you and that’s what made him a good agent. Someone is taking paranormal kids and he has no leads. When a recently turned human is booted from the police and brought to P.I.S. and partnered with him, Maddox wants nothing to do with him. What had the humans ever done for their kind?

Can they forget their biases and solve the case before there’s a tenth?

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).

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