Winner Take All by Ellie Roth (Longview Book #2)

TITLE: ⟫ Winner Take All

AUTHOR: ⟫ Ellie Roth

SERIES: ⟫ Longview Book #2

RATING: ⟫ 4/5

BLURB: ⟫ “You cannot just send me a text with the words ‘I think he’s in love with me’ and expect me not to come over.”

When the most powerful magic user in the tristate area loses his powers, Shiki Gonzalez’s ranking goes from third place to second place overnight. Unfortunately, the one thing holding him back from finally claiming the title of grand champion is taking down his old enemy Michael Vernon, and despite eight years of trying, that’s the one feat Shiki has never been able to accomplish. This time, though, Shiki has a plan.

Mehmet Argitakos is thrown for a loop when his longtime crush Shiki approaches him with a Shiki will help Mehmet climb his way up the ranks of the advanced Blizzard tournament if Mehmet teaches Shiki how to fight like the former titleholder, Mehmet’s best friend Chris. But taking down Vernon is a cause Mehmet can definitely get behind—and Shiki’s notorious penchant for casual intimacy doesn’t hurt, either.

As the cold days of training blur into long winter nights, Shiki’s and Mehmet’s worlds slowly start intertwining. But guarded Shiki doesn’t let down the walls around his heart for anyone, and Mehmet wants to be something more than just the next warm body in Shiki’s bed. With the Blizzard on the horizon, will their partnership crack under the strain or evolve into something more?

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Winner Take All is a contemporary LGBTQ+ romantic fantasy that features a modern world imbued with magic, a slow-burn friends-with-benefits romance, found family vibes, tragic backstories, mild to moderate steaminess, major angst, and a happy ending for our protagonists (with a few plot threads left open for later books). Can technically be read as a standalone, but is best enjoyed after Just Like Magic.

REVIEW: ⟫ I actually struggled with reading this up until about 56%. I was enjoying it but because it was heavy on the training aspect of things and only alluding to the tragic backstory that would make sense of things, I felt that something was missing. I couldn’t connect well with either Mehmet or Shiki and was struggling. Miscommunication isn’t one of my favourite tropes and there was miscommunication aplenty in this story.

However, after 56%, this story flew by! The actual magical tournament, the relationship difficulties between Shiki and Mehmet, Vernon and the consequences of his actions – all of it flowed quickly and efficiently, with some hard-hitting emotional impacts that took me off guard. I remember reading the first Longview book and being a little disappointed in the romantic storyline – this time, I took notice of the ‘mild steam’ warning and wasn’t expecting more. However, the emotional aspect of things was really beautifully handled.

Seeing Mehmet come into himself – truly blossom into the competitor that he should always have been was so satisfying, as was the support from his friends. I enjoyed this story overall more than the first Longview book, with prickly, grumpy Shiki turning into my favourite character! The series seems to be getting better as it goes along, so if you enjoyed the first book then I heartily recommend reading this one.

I received an ARC from GRR.

Captured: A Dark Romance by R.A. Frick

TITLE: ⟫ Captured: A Dark Romance

AUTHOR: ⟫ R.A. Frick

RATING: ⟫ 1/5

BLURB: ⟫ Running away from small-town Montana to Los Angeles, and meeting the handsome Jayantha, Cal thinks his luck is getting better. The man with Jay is looking for models, but Cal gets kidnapped and brought far away from his American life and innocent world view.

Jay learns his family has secrets of their their matchmaking is a front for kidnapping people to sell. He's not sure how to save himself, let alone the innocents they have imprisoned...

Can Cal trust anyone, or will he have to save himself?

*

Content Warning: If you like your stories dark and twisty before the romance happens, this book has that in spades. If you like your romance fluffy with insta-love, this is not the book for you! Third person, past tense, dual POV. Full content warning inside.

REVIEW: ⟫ I love a dark and twisty romance so this sounded like it would be well up my street. Judging by the other reviews this has received, this hit the mark for a LOT of people. Unfortunately, not for me.

None of the characters were built into someone to care/root for; lots of the story seemed to make little to no sense, with villains that were worse than caricatures; I seriously do not understand how any of this made it past beta readers because it was just all so off. It had the bones of a really good, interesting story but unfortunately it was never truly fleshed out.

The relationship between Jay and Cal could barely be called a relationship – in fact, the blurb says if you like insta-love, this is not for you but there is no other way to describe the situation-ship between the two men. There was no reason for Cal to trust Jay, and certainly no reason for Jay to want to save Cal and the others. Even the ‘intimacy’ between Cal and Jay was transactional at best and the fact that Cal was a virgin before anything happened between them actually makes things feel so much worse.

There felt like there was a lot of MF content, albeit non-consensual, and just overall I don’t think this was the book for me at all. I’m not going to get into the whole editing, spelling thing because I know that isn’t the substance of the book, but there were errors in who was speaking, etc that didn’t help.

I received an ARC from GRR.

The Rationale of Leander Wells by Ashlyn Drewek

Title: ⟫ The Rationale of Leander Welles 

Author: ⟫ Ashlyn Drewek 

Blurb: ⟫ Murderer. 

Madman. 

That’s what the newspapers call wealthy recluse Leander Welles after he is accused of killing four people in his picturesque hometown. Little do they know they’re half-right. 

Sent to Parkview Psychiatric for an assessment before the trial can begin, Leander falls under the care of Dr. Lorelei Clayton, an up-and-coming criminal psychiatrist. She is the one unknown element of his elaborate plot, the one game piece he has no control over. 

 Believing he’s innocent, Lorelei works tirelessly toward his freedom. But there’s just one problem — he’s not innocent. The harder she tries to prove it, the harder he falls for the one person he never expected to. 

Haunted by his past, Leander tries to envision a future with Lorelei, but the truth keeps getting in the way. If she ever learns his secret, not only could she destroy everything he spent years planning — she could destroy him. 

This is a companion/alternate point-of-view book to THE MYSTERY OF LEANDER WELLES, featuring Leander Welles' perspective instead of Lorelei's. Each book can be read as a standalone, or together. If you're a MM fan, I suggest skipping MYSTERY and starting here. There's FTB/vague MF sex scenes, but the MM angst starts in this book before continuing into DAMNATION. 

* A warning to the reader. This book contains references to abuse, self-harm, and suicide. 

Review: ⟫ I skipped the first book in this series because I seriously wasn’t interested in reading the M/F aspect of things – I’ve read three MF books recently that reminded me quite strongly of why I prefer MM. And it clearly states in the blurb that you should start here if you are an MM fan. But this book was full of Leander’s relationships (or rather relations) with women and I felt duped. 

Yes, we meet Bennett and there are delicious indications of what he and Leander could/will be to each other. But that is the extent of it and I thought that there would be more. I didn’t feel any chemistry between Leander and Lorelei, even less between him and Gracie. I have awarded the two stars for the look into Leander’s inner psyche, as well as the machinations/planning of the group to handle the whole thing about Leander being on trial for four murders. 

The twists, turns and background stories were very interesting, but the overlay of Lorelei and Gracie made this book a bitter experience for me, especially coming straight from Roan Sinclair to this. 

 I do have the next book in the series lined up on my kindle because I want to know about Leander and Bennett after meeting them in the Roan Sinclair duology, but I can’t in all honesty recommend this to fans of MM because although there are hints of it, this didn’t strike me as a MM book. Disappointed and wary going into the next one. 

2/5 from me.