Sunday 22 January 2023
The Isle of ... Where? by Sue Brown (An Isle Story - Book #1)
Unrequited by Jesse H. Reign
Friday 20 January 2023
Sainted by Jesse H. Reign
Jon and Mack's Terrifying Tree Problems by A.J. Sherwood
A Hellhound Called Derek by Michelle Frost (Mated to the Human #1)
Thursday 12 January 2023
Only One Coffin by A.J. Truman
Thursday 15 December 2022
Trouble by Roe Horvat (Winter Sun #3)
Tuesday 6 December 2022
The Bedroom Coach Agreement by Hayden Hall
Malum Discordiae by Ashlyn Drewek
Wednesday 30 November 2022
Per Sangiuinem by Ashlyn Drewek
Sunday 27 November 2022
Vow Maker by Lily Morton (Mixed Messages #4)
Budding Attraction by Saxon James (Divorced Men's Club #3)
The Big Fix by Mary Calmes (Torus Intercession #5)
Friday 18 November 2022
Moth by Lily Mayne (Monstrous #5)
Cross by S.E. Harmon (The Formicary #2)
Friday 4 November 2022
Blitzed by S.E. Harmon (Rules of Possession #3)
Title: ⟫ Blitzed (Rules of Possession #3)
Author: ⟫ S.E. Harmon
Rating: ⟫ 4.5/5
Blurb:
⟫ NFL tight
end Andrew McAdams isn’t thrilled to be sidelined with an injury.
He’s even less thrilled about his legal troubles. Community service
is the only thing standing between him and jail so...yeah. That’s a
no-brainer. It's not all bad news, though. He gets to work with Jesse
Fox, who is as gorgeous as he is guarded. And there's no rule saying
he can't do his hours and have a little fun. Right?
Wrong.
Jesse may have to put up an athlete using his center as a "get
out of jail free" card, but that's where he draws the line. And
who cares if Andrew is unexpectedly sweet and thoughtful? The people
in Jesse’s life think he should get a life outside of charity work
and find love. And maybe he will. But it won't be with a playboy NFL
player wearing an ankle monitor as an accessory. Besides, anyone who
dated someone like that would be thrust into the public eye. Jesse
has worked hard to become someone else—someone better—and he's
not about to dig up the past.
That's just not a game he's
willing to play.
Too bad it’s not in Andrew’s nature
to give up on something he wants. It may have started as simple
attraction, but now it’s much more than that. He doesn’t just
want Jesse for now…he wants Jesse for always.
And that's
not a game he's willing to lose.
Review: ⟫ I kinda went into this expecting a relatively shallow book about two guys falling in love, with the NFL and a community centre in the background. But this book was so much more than that.
Jesse has had a tough life and is doing everything he can to pay it forward and ensure that others don’t have to struggle the way that he did. In doing so, he’s protecting his heart – especially after his last relationship with a closeted NFL player and how that turned out. That doesn’t mean he’s blind – he can see that Andrew McAdams is a fine looking man and is attracted to him, but that doesn’t mean he has to make the same mistake again.
I really liked Jesse – I liked how aware he was of his flaws and weaknesses; how he could look at his past and the people who let them down and acknowledge that loving them might be something he couldn’t stop but that didn’t mean he had to let them in. I especially liked how he was at the Centre – it shone out of him how much the place, the people and the kids meant to him and he sounded like an exceptional person.
Andrew McAdams took me by surprise. It would have been so easy for him to be some dumb jock trying to get into Jesse’s pants, with no appreciation for what he had and no understanding of why Jesse was the way he was. Instead, he proved himself to be sensitive, caring and just an outright good person who it was practically impossible not to love.
They made a lovely couple, even if they spent almost 75% of the book trying to deny that that’s what they were. Both of these characters were so well written, with a brilliant supporting cast including Blue and Kelly from the previous Rules of Possession books, and an underlying plot that was enthralling, amusing and touching in so many ways.
I motored through this book even though I was completely exhausted and wanted to sleep because I needed to see Andrew and Jesse get their HEA. I have enjoyed every book I have read by S.E. Harmon and this was no exception – well worthy of a read and unputdownable in the best way.
Tuesday 25 October 2022
Berserk by Romilly King (The Teams Book #5)
Title: ⟫ Berserk: A Hurt Comfort Gay Romance (The Teams Book 5)
Author: ⟫ Romilly King
Blurb: ⟫ Come along with Berk and Snipe on a road trip to inner peace.I’m a vegan rage machine who will try any alternative therapy to calm the beast inside me. He’s a gun crazy sniper who until now looked at the whole world through his scope.
We aren’t a match made in heaven. We argue constantly. We like to pretend we are barely friends but he’s the only person I can tolerate when the anger gets out of control.
There is a resonance between me and Snipe and I’m going to help him get over the life changing injuries he got while on a mission with me.
I’m calling it duty.
He’s calling it pointless.
I’m not stopping until we’re both in a better place. Whatever it takes - sweat lodges, crystals, howling at the moon. We’re going on a road trip together and we’re gonna get healed.
Berserk is the fifth book in The Teams Series. It’s a hurt comfort story of the complicated relationship between a man with anger management problems and an ice cold killer who needs to find a new way of being. Expect weird therapies, much banter, and a strangely sweet love story.
Review: ⟫ If I had paid to read this book, I would be steaming angry.
This was – it wasn’t even hurt/comfort so much as just – I cannot even express what this book is. Actually, I can. It’s an insult.
The Teams has always been about what happened to the handlers and witnesses after the programme closed down. And I was really looking forward to finding out how a man who defines himself by his ability to be an amazing sniper would deal with losing half of his sight and his manual dexterity. This book was full of alternative healing methods – sometimes feeling like it was taking the mickey out of them – and the relationship between the two male leads was just not explored at all. I was expecting hot alpha males and got limp lettuce. I kept reading expecting things to get hot, to get interesting, but by the time I got to the end I was just raging with disappointment. This book was a shambles and I hate that I spent the time looking forward to it and reading it.
I give it 1/5 and only because it means I can stop waiting for the series to end and know that this is the final nail in the coffin.
Friday 21 October 2022
War Games by Daniel May (The Hanged Men #2)
Title: ⟫ War Games (The Hanged Men #2)
Author: ⟫ Daniel May
Blurb: ⟫ Sons of opposing mob bosses, secretly married when they were seventeen, Nerva Alms and Joseph Pascal were doomed from the start.
After his father's gruesome murder, Pascal was mutilated and banished, and Nerva grew to replace his own father as head of the Hanged Men. Now, ten years later, Pascal has returned.
War Games is book two in the Hanged Men series, following Blood Sports. While War Games is standalone, the story is best understood in the context of the first book.
Reviews: ⟫ I discovered that this had come out from a post on Reddit and you better believe I switched to my Amazon tab so fast I gave myself whiplash!
If book one was a laugh alongside the horror, book two is a different beast. It comes after the events of the first book, but Daniel has provided a handy recap at the beginning and it can be read as a stand-alone.
The beginning of this book was torturous – my heart broke in several places for both Nerva and Pascal. Imagine finding your person at such a young, impressionable age and then losing them – completely devastating. Which explained why Nerva appeared so cold and unfeeling to everyone. And then we met Pascal.
When people talk about a roller-coaster of emotions, this book encompasses that feeling. Sorrow, fear, confusion, hysterical laughter – all in a matter of chapters and sometimes within just one of them. There are flashbacks – some of them sweet, some painful – with an underlying story/mystery slowly unravelling for Nerva and Pascal that made me feel sick at the world they live in whilst completely enthralled.
There’s no real way to talk about this book without spoilers, but Mars is my second favourite character if only for the attitude. Hadrian remains my favourite and I need a story with him because I think it would be amazingly chaotic and astounding! The special horses make another appearance – in the background and then more and more integral to the storyline – and I still can’t decide how I feel about them. I think I’ll settle for terror and stick around Nerva’s level when it comes to the horses.
This was a fantastic read and more than satisfied my itch for the Hanged Man – for a short time anyway. A hearty 5/5 from me.
Married to the Mobster by Leighton Greene (Morelli Family #1)
Title: ⟫ Married to the Mobster: Morelli Family (M/M Mafia Romantic Suspense Book 1)
Author: ⟫ Leighton Greene
Blurb: ⟫ The Mob sent him to kill me, but he owed me a debt...
Years ago I saved his life, and we spent one hot night together before he disappeared. Now this bad boy's all grown up, and living a dangerous life. But when his Family decides to send a message to my father, it's my life on the line.
Only he can't bring himself to do it when he realizes who I am.
He bargains for my life.
He argues to keep me as a hostage instead of killing me.
He even agrees to marry me, but not for love.
Marrying me is the only way he can repay his debt to me.
He tells me he'll keep me alive only as long as his Boss allows it.
What he doesn't know is that I've loved him since the first moment I laid eyes on him. I'll take him any way I can get him. Sleeping with the enemy never felt so good...
But is there someone else who wants me dead?
Review: ⟫ My kind of mobsters!! There is absolutely no way to pretend that Luca isn’t in the mob – it’s written all over him, with every move he makes and every word he speaks. And he doesn’t try to pretend that he isn’t in the Mob. Which means that this book has some violence, blood and death and I’m absolutely fine with that!
Finch was absolutely brilliant! He didn’t have a thought in his head that he didn’t voice which was perfect since Luca seemed struck dumb and didn’t seem to know what to do with him. The attraction between these two is off the charts from the first time they meet, and that heat permeates the entire book. You can well believe that Luca would kill for Finch – call it chemistry, attraction, heat – whatever it is, he is head over heels for Luca, and even though he tries to hide it from people who would take advantage, it’s pretty damned obvious!
I loved this entire book and devoured it in one night – the machinations behind the scenes, the Donovan Family, the Morrellis – the entire cast are entertaining, fully fleshed and the book was riveting. Really pleased I found this series and can’t wait to get to book 2!
Beloved by the Boss by Leighton Greene (Morelli Family #2)
Author: ⟫ Leighton Greene
Blurb: ⟫ It’s good to be the Boss. That’s what I thought my whole life.
Now I am the Boss. I’ll shoulder that responsibility with my beloved husband beside me. As long as I have Finch, I can handle whatever life throws at me.
But what they say is true: Be careful what you wish for.
My Family has been decimated. My allies are few. I’m holding onto power by a thread.
And the truth is, my husband is more vulnerable than ever. He’s always been a lost soul, and now he’s suffered yet another crushing loss.
I can’t protect him from Fate’s cruel blows. But I’m determined to protect him from our enemies, no matter what it takes—as soon as I get my own house in order.
Because I’m starting to wonder if there’s a traitor in the Morelli Family…
If I can't even trust my own men, how can I keep my beloved safe?
Beloved by the Boss is the sequel to Married to the Mobster, and is the second book in the Morelli Family Mafia Romance series.
Review: ⟫ This second book in the series was fascinating for so many different reasons. We see Luca and Finch growing into their new position, as well as struggling with the realities of it – being the Boss isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!
Finch goes through a lot in this book – he loses people he cares about, people who should have cared for him – and it’s sometimes hard to see how much he’s suffering. But Luca is always by his side, putting Finch first regardless of the consequences to himself. There were a lot more Mafia machinations in this book and it was really intriguing to see how it all worked in the inner sanctum, and how the men in the Commission were not as altruistic as they might originally have seemed.
I enjoyed reading this – I didn’t devour it at the same rate as I did the first one, possibly because I had to concentrate more to catch the names of the players involved. I was intrigued by the Connie/Celia situation, especially when Connie’s brother arrived on the scene. I must admit, I was very disappointed in Frank although by the end of the book I had more sympathy/understanding for him.
This was an enjoyable read and definitely not something I would consider filler, which I think a lot of second books can come across as. On to book three!
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Title: ⟫ Headcase Author: ⟫ Onley James Blurb: ⟫ Asa Mulvaney is half of a psychopathic whole. He and his twin brother live together, ...