Cipher by Larissa IoneMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
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Thursday, February 27, 2020
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Dragon Lost: Release Day!
We are beyond excited to be sharing this release from Donna Grant with you today! DRAGON LOST is part of her Dark Kings series and it is releasing as part of 1001 Dark Nights. It just went live today! Check out an excerpt and book trailer from the title below. Click here to grab your copy now.
Purchase your copy of DRAGON LOST today!
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About DRAGON LOST:
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Donna Grant comes a new story in her Dark Kings series… Destinies can’t be ignored. No one knows that better than Annita. For as long as she can remember, it's been foretold she would find a dragon. A real-life dragon. She’s beginning to think it was all some kind of mistake until she’s swimming in one of the many caves around the island and discovers none other than a dragon. There is no fear as she approaches, utterly transfixed at the sight of the creature. Then he shifts into the shape of a thoroughly gorgeous man who spears her with bright blue eyes. In that instant, she knows her destiny has arrived. And the dragon holds the key to everything. All Royden wanted was to find an item his brother buried when they were children. It was supposed to be a quick and simple trip, but he should’ve known nothing would be easy with enemies like the Dragon Kings have. Royden has no choice but to trust the beguiling woman who tempts him like no other. And in doing so, they unleash a love so strong, so pure that nothing can hold it back. **Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you'll enjoy each one as much as we do.**Add DRAGON LOST to your Goodreads TBR here!
Purchase your copy of DRAGON LOST today!
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Excerpt:
The warm water slid over Annita’s body as she dove into the crystal blue sea. It was a ritual she did every day without fail. The waters had called to her for as long as she could remember. Her parents hadn’t been able to keep her out of the sea.
There were as many theories surrounding the waters around Crete as there were myths and legends about the ancient gods and goddesses. In fact, it was said that Zeus had been born in one of the caves on Crete. Annita didn’t care about that, but she couldn’t deny that without her daily swim, she didn’t feel right.
Her strokes were strong as she glided through the water. Thankfully, she didn’t have to fight the tourists for the beach since it was her family’s land. Holdings that had been handed down for generations—and would pass to Annita’s sister, Louiza, eventually. Annita wasn’t upset about that. She had grown up in the house overlooking the Sea of Crete and its sparkling blue waters. Life had been idyllic, if not a little…odd.
In general, Greeks were a superstitious lot. How could they not be with all the tales of gods, goddesses, monsters, and heroes? Then there was the Seer in the family. Annita’s great-aunt, Chara, had pointed to her and said, “She’s the one.”
For the longest time, Annita hadn’t a clue as to what Chara had been talking about, and she hadn’t asked her parents either. Until, one day when she was thirteen, she’d overheard their conversation and learned that she had a destiny of great importance—with a dragon.
BOOK TRAILER
REVIEW QUOTES FOR DONNA'S NOVELS:
“The central romance, fueled by a hostage drama, plays out in glorious detail against a backdrop of multiple ongoing issues in the “Dark Kings” books. This seemingly penultimate installment creates a nice segue to a climactic end.” ~Library Journal – for BLAZE
“…intense romance amid the growing war between the Dragons and the Dark Fae is scorching hot.” ~Booklist for BLAZE
“This rousing tale of adventure, thousand-year-old secrets, lust and love is vivid and intense. This is another excellent installment in this fan-favorite series.” ~BookPage for FIRESTORM
“Donna Grant has given the paranormal genre a burst of fresh air…” ~San Francisco Book Review for DARKEST FLAME
“…will leave fans eager for the next volume in the series.” ~Publisher’s Weekly for FIRE RISING
...
AUTHOR INFORMATION:
Donna Grant is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the sizzling Dark King series featuring dragons, immortal Highlanders, and the Fae.
She was born and raised in Texas but loves to travel. Her adventures have taken her throughout the United States as well as to Jamaica, Mexico, and Scotland. Growing up on the Texas/Louisiana border, Donna’s Cajun side of the family taught her the “spicy” side of life while her Texas roots gave her two-steppin’ and bareback riding.
Despite deadlines and voracious reading, Donna still manages to keep up with her two children, four cats, and one long haired Chihuahua.
AUTHOR LINKS:
Website | Facebook | Bookbub | Goodreads | Instagram | Newsletter
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Review: Her Demigod Complex
Her Demigod Complex by Abigail OwenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a short, sweet, smutty good read where gods are real and the bad guys get what they deserve.
Lyleia and Castor are employee and employer. Castor is a demi-god, so he has somewhat of an issue with his personal assistants falling in love with him (it's a demi-god thing). Lyleia, being a nymph (who lost her spring), is immune to him, but is somehow still drawn to him. After both of them ignoring their feelings, the issue is finally forced when he discovers her letter of resignation. Castor strong arms her into coming as his non-date to a wolf shifter wedding, guaranteed to either force them to admit their feelings or move on.
Lyleia lost her spring in a dramatic display by the gods and one particular werewolf. This had, obviously, led to her avoiding most wolf-related events. She makes an exception, however, and all good things come from it. She gets some true closure in a pretty gruesome awesome way, with the help of her new friends and her superhero boss. These two were great and I look forward to more quick books in this series!
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Review: Tricked
Tricked by Rebecca ZanettiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
OK, this is my favorite of the 3 stories (I read them out of order). Ronni is *the best* and I wish all the mates were like her. Also, Jared is the most sizzling of the brothers.
Ronni, who we met in the first of this mini-trilogy, is dying. Jared "took one for the team" by offering to mate her and save her life. She is stubborn, determined, and eventually decides she wants to live more than she wants to "mate" for love. These two, however, get there soon enough. They nearly light the pages on fire with the bedroom scenes (or wall scenes?) in this book. This is also the book where we meet the jerk-face that is Ginny. Boy, that made me love Ronni even more.
The mystery of this book is oddly not related to the shifters from the first of the trilogy. Instead, it's all about Ronni, her work for the police department, and the cause of her heart issues. It was great watching these two become true "mates" and generally showing up all the other pairs.
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Review: Tangled
Tangled by Rebecca ZanettiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Oops, I am reading these in the wrong order. Luckily, these short stories read like mostly standalones with some minor spoilers between the three. That'll show me to just choose the next audiobook I downloaded!
In this story we get to see the stoic Theo meet his match in the form of the very punchable Ginny. Boy, I had a real problem with her in this book and then when I went back to the previous short story. She is very unlikeable, but somewhat more bearable here than in the other one. She's a thief and is reluctantly selling out the brothers to free herself and her family. Remember the shifters? They're back here, and playing the long game.
Theo and Ginny are a good match, but not my favorite. For completeness, I will read all these short stories until I run out, but skipping this set would have been possible. The insight into Benny helped set up things to come, though.
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Review: Wolf's Bane
Wolf's Bane by Kelley ArmstrongMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's been a while since I visited with the Otherworld characters. This world is comfortable and familiar, but this book left me wanting more (I guess that's what's supposed to happen?)
We join Kate and Logan in full teenager mode. They are no longer the little kids we knew and are going through some growing pains. Kate recently went through something traumatic, which somehow escaped Logan's notice. Enter mom and dad, with a plan to send them off to supernatural summer camp, also known as a leadership conference. This has bad idea written all over it, but they go, determined to represent the werewolf contingent as something more than murderous animals.
Things go downhill quickly. While it was nice to introduce some new supernatural friends, the horror movie plot here became the real focus of the story. There is a big build up to the reveal of how truly terrible the camp has become and then... it ends. Really abruptly. We are talking "monsters attacking, how are we going to survive" abruptly. This may have overshadowed how much I enjoyed seeing Kate and Logan again because it is pretty hard to accept. I can't believe I have to wait until the next book to get any true resolution here. Sigh.
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Monday, February 17, 2020
Review: Dragan
Dragan by D.B. ReynoldsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This series is a welcome addition to the world already built by this author and I will eagerly read everything that comes out!
Dragan continues with the stone warriors, who are slowly being released from their prisons by very specific and awesome women. This time the heroine is Mae. She's taken a somewhat strange job dealing with antiquities for none other than the big bad himself. Since she's healing some relationship wounds, the solitary work suits her needs. A year in, however, and she begins to poke around out of boredom and curiosity. Her latest discover was a statue that she was warned away from, which only drew her attention further. All hell breaks loose when a kind touch frees him and sets them on an epic quest.
These two SIZZLE off the page. Their road trip has a bit of excitement, a lot of trust building, and some sexy times. All of this builds up to a big showdown, which, of course, does not bring a conclusion to the series, but gave me so many more questions! I love that each book seems to build on the last and can't wait to see what 4 warriors, their mates, the mysterious Lilli, and Nico (and his mate?) do in the final battle.
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Sunday, February 16, 2020
Review: Teased
Teased by Rebecca ZanettiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Admittedly, I've gotten way farther in the series than this, but I'm going back to fill in the holes/gaps in this world. I'm sure you can read this at any time, but it's nice to feel like I completed everything - call me crazy.
This story is about Chalton, the assassin turned computer master. He's on the hunt for Olivia, a woman who has been writing some stories that come very close to outing vampires to the public. It seems innocent enough, his assignment, until he discovers that Olivia is enhanced. Oh, and somehow all his brothers are involved. There's a lot of action, sizzling romance, smutty goodness, and a good story.
As a beginning, this gets a nice story arc started for the Reese boys, which I'm sure will pair everyone up with their mates. These mates, just like Olivia, will be sure to challenge this bunch of bad boys.
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Review: Bad Blood
Bad Blood by Robyn BacharMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Is this my new favorite of the series? I think so!
While this book says it is book #5 in the series, you can really easily read this as a standalone book. In face, the only connections to the larger storyline and familiar characters felt a little forced. I'm eager to see how all this rolls up into the bigger happenings of their world, in the US, at least.
This book is about Nati, a researcher for a paranormal TV show (but not the same ghost hunters we already know). She's in Spain scouting locations, but also trying to learn more about some genealogy. This ends up taking her, on a roundabout way, into a cemetary and smack into the chest of a beautiful man. There's some twists and turns to get there (again) but ultimately we end up with her performing some filmed paranormal investigation on the house that the mysterious Spanish guy lives in.
The Spanish guy, Cris, is obviously hiding all sorts of stuff. Throughout Nati's reluctant investigating, they end up being more than friends and she gets exposed to all sorts of strangeness. We do see a pair of familiar faces, but briefly. This is all on Cris and Nati to solve mostly on their own. We get there, but it takes some doing! Like I said, this book was one of my favorites. You'd especially like it if you like some smutty goodness with your paranormal romance.
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Thursday, February 6, 2020
Review: Fire in the Blood
Fire in the Blood by Robyn BacharMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Woah, that was a super quick read! Having slogged through the previous 3 books, I was ready for a bit of a ride here, but it was actually a lot more straightforward than the previous installments.
This book is about Patience, who we met in the previous books. She's one of the only summoners left in the world that is being inundated with demons. If that wasn't bad enough, then there's also the shadowy government agents trying to take out supernaturals, and a very unstable vampire who is throwing a hissy fit. When we had little hints of Patience in a relationship-ish with Faust, I was hoping we would see that grow in this book. Boy, does it ever!
We go right from "are they a couple," to hearts and love and all that cupid stuff. This read like a sudden fated mates story, which was a little weird because they had been hooking up for a while before now. There's even some sudden reveals about family and lineage thrown in (not in an incesty way), just to keep things shocking. As an overall storyline, I'm not sure a lot happened, other than the seemingly docile bad guy from the start of the previous book being suddenly out for revenge. The pacing was better here, so I'm down for more at this point.
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Review: A Few Pecans Short of a Pie
A Few Pecans Short of a Pie by Molly HarperMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a short but adorably sweet novella that comes back around to Margot and Kyle.
In the previous book, we learned that Margot was pregnant (surprise!) and she is still adapting to life as an unmarried pregnant lady in a town that knows no personal barriers. On top of the usual pregnancy dramas, she's also dealing with planning a wedding. For a trained event planner, this should be no big deal, right? Well, all bets are off when the entire town wants you to wear their dresses and cater from their restaurants.
The one bright spot in Margot's life (other than Kyle, the girls, and her family, mostly) is the new bakery which makes the only food she can be sure to make her day - pecan pie. The descriptions alone make my mouth water. An unfortunate side effect to this book is the burning desire to eat an entire pecan pie on your own. That aside, it was super sweet to read about how Kyle and Margot and the girls all find their happy ending here.
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Review: Ain't She a Peach?
Ain't She a Peach? by Molly HarperMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love this quirky, southern series, and will eagerly read (or listen to) all they have to offer! While you can probably start here, I'd recommend going back to book #1 to get the full effect.
We join the Frankie/Eric drama already in progress if you read the novella previous to this book. I did, so I was ready to get some resolution to the sexual tension (is it still tension if they already slept together) between Frankie and Eric, and to watch that stupid teenager get punished. Yes, it takes a while to get the latter, but we get to go through all sorts of both good and bad stuff with Eric and Frankie along the way.
This world is so fun and fresh that I am completely invested in what happens to all the side characters, too. Especially the dogs. Don't worry, though, dogs get some good book time here. There's also our favorites from previous books, still with their own drama (Duffy, when will you make better decisions?!?). Ultimately, we get a good, solid HEA for these two oddballs. The only downside to these books is the yummy food descriptions end up leaving me hungry and, in this case, craving burgers, shakes, and pop tarts.
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Sunday, February 2, 2020
Review: Peachy Flippin' Keen
Peachy Flippin' Keen by Molly HarperMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
First, to set expectations appropriately, this is not so much a standalone novella, and instead more of lead in to the next full length book. Do you absolutely need to read this before the next one? No, you'll get most of this information in summary eventually. But I like seeing inside Frankie's head, so I'm all in!
Frankie is one of the most interesting characters we met in the first book of this series, so I was excited to see we were headed into her story next. This sets the stage for the two big stories in the next book - the annoying punk kid who is Frankie's boss's son who absolutely cannot stop trying to break into the funeral home, and the new sheriff in town.
The new sheriff, because that is the more fun of the two stories, turns out to be a guy Frankie hooked up with and snuck out on a little while ago. He ended up taking that personally, which makes their professional working relationship a bit tense at first. Frankie is also trying to find her own way to become independent, which means this is one more pile of drama she doesn't need right now.
The annoying punk kid storyline is... annoying. So much so, that I wanted to reach through my iphone and throttle him. Ugh, I can't wait for that to be resolved, but I'll have to go into the full length book to get there, undoubtedly.
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Review: Wolf Gone Wild
Wolf Gone Wild by Juliette CrossMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was a nice setup of what could be a significantly larger world, complete with all our favorites - vampires, witches, and shifters. I can't wait to see where it goes next!
Evie is one of several sisters who are pretty big deals in New Orleans. They owns and run a few businesses, represent the local enforcers, and generally try to help others. Except shifters, which is tested when Mateo wanders into Evie's job. He has been cursed and was told to look for Evie, the biggest baddest (and nicest) curse breaker around. Surprisingly, her family is somewhat open to helping the clearly suffering shifter.
This ends up shifting to a romance for a little bit, watching the adorable-ness that is Evie and Mateo's budding relationship. The dorkiness is nice, the way he supports her is even better, and ultimately we get a really great HEA. There's some mystery, a big bad, and lots of magic thrown around to get us there, but it was a great ride.
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Review: Hero's Haven
Hero's Haven by Rebecca ZanettiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm obsessed with this series and am eagerly gobbling up each installment. With each book we get closer to a big battle, but, don't worry, we're not there yet, so we get more!
This book revolves around Quade and his super duper reluctant mate, Haven. We met both these characters before, when things were looking dire and unsolvable. Things have only gotten worse from there and Haven's "insanity" has manifested in some pretty real ways. The most recent of which involves her pulling Quade into her world. The action just doesn't stop at all after that. There's just about every good guy and bad guy chasing these two while they somehow find a way to develop a relationship.
So, yeah, there is that whole fated mates business, but I enjoyed watching the tough warrior and the artsy painter find common ground and super duper sexy times. As far as larger storyline, we get more from the big bad, more from Hope, a quick check in with all our favorites in the Realm, and lots of Seven business. I wouldn't say this is the best place to join this series, but I'm sure these could survive as standalones (but why? This series is the best!). I'm looking forward to all the future installments and generations we get as we move along this large storyline.
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