Divine River by Marina Vivancos

Title: ⟫ Divine River

Author: ⟫ Marina Vivancos

Rating: ⟫ 4/5

Blurb: ⟫ Mike is just fine being the grumpy wood-worker in town. Sure, maybe he’s not the epitome of happiness, but he doesn’t need some lively city boy coming onto his turf and turning his world upside down.

Mike has learnt to conform to the small-town expectations placed on him. He keeps who he loves—who he is—to himself. Turns out, it’s a lot tougher to stay in the shadows when city-slicker Jason’s sunshine personality beams straight at him.

Jason makes Mike feel seen. Makes him feel like it might just be okay to be himself.

The questions remain—is Mike brave enough to show the rest of the world?

Is he brave enough to let go…and fall in love?

Review: ⟫ This could have been a simple grumpy guy/little mr sunshine story but it was so much more than that. At the beginning of the story, Mike is essentially hiding away from life – he has limited relationships where he never relaxes, and he spends most of his time with his dog. His only outlet/opportunity to be himself is when he speaks to his sister on the phone.

All of this changes when Jason moves in next door, and a gentle friendship grows between the two of them. But Mike is still hiding aspects of himself – scared of rejection or misunderstanding – and it takes some real bravery to show Jason who Mike really is inside.

I liked the way that Jason didn’t push Mike beyond his comfort-zone too much, and when it came to the sides of Mike’s character that he had hidden from everyone, Jason was gentle and kind. Even when he didn’t completely understand, he didn’t push or try to make Mike explain something that simply was, and that was a major part of why I enjoyed his character.

This was a nice, simple read but at the same time, it made me think a lot about the masks we wear in front of people and the importance of having someone in your life that you can let everything out in front of. A beautiful read.

Unbreak Me by Jesse H. Reign

Title: ⟫ Unbreak Me

Author: ⟫ Jesse H. Reign

Rating: ⟫ 4.5/5

Blurb: ⟫ Young Englishman, David Hammond, discovers life on a remote farm in South Africa isn’t at all what he was expecting. He expected the change in climate to do him good. To lift his mood. He certainly didn’t expect farmer, Jonathan Rosseau, to be so rugged or handsome. It turns out, it’s more than the warm weather that gets David hot under the collar.

David deals with his emotions the only way he knows how. By keeping a diary. A very detailed diary. A diary you get to read.

Unbreak Me is a story about first love and coming out. It contains a dollop of angst, smatterings of self-deprecating humour, and enough steam to make your hair frizz.

Depression and self-harm are mentioned.

Review: ⟫ Oh, this book! Because I was on a Jesse H. Reign kick, I didn’t read the blurb – I just downloaded it and dived straight in. So I was a little confused with the format it took as the story is told in the form of David’s diary entries. Initially, I wasn’t sure where things were going, but slowly you get an idea of what has been going on and just why David is in South Africa.

Because you are reading diary entries, a lot of the extraneous details were removed – it was literally how David felt and experienced everything that was happening, and as such it was an intimate, sometimes heart-wrenching, always touching read. We can feel his lack of self-esteem and insecurities, his inner voice making it utterly clear why he was struggling as much as he was. And I fell a little in love with him reading his words – self deprecating but revealing a caring, sensitive young man, unsure of who he truly was but learning to accept everything that is within him as part of himself. It was beautiful.

Of course you fall in love with Jonathan as well – just the descriptions of him from David’s perspective were enough to make you need to fan yourself, let alone when he and David become lovers.

The book does cover aspects of self-harm and depression, and obviously everyone’s experience of this differs. I found it realistic and true to life, which is probably why David’s dilemma affected me so much – to find such happiness after experiencing such sorrow only to face the choices needed was heart-breaking.

The sex between David and Jonathan was steamy, sultry and absolutely downright filthy on occasion, and I loved it. It took me back to the days when I was first really discovering sex and they were excellent memories. This book cemented for me that the author is on my auto-buy pile as everything I’ve read has moved me – sometimes infuriated, sometimes made me cry – but always made me feel, and that is special.

Claiming Rys by Annabelle Jacobs

Title: ⟫ Claiming Rys

Author: ⟫ Annabelle Jacobs

Rating: ⟫ 3.5/5

Blurb: ⟫ All that time apart and yet the pull between them is as strong as ever…

Rys

Ten years ago Gabriel Mason betrayed me in the worst way. He made me question my instincts because I’d trusted him with a bone-deep certainty, and for that I will never forgive him.

Seeing him again after all this time sparks memories I thought I’d buried so far down they’d never surface. He’s as beautiful as I remember, but I’m older and wiser now, and I refuse to make the same mistakes again.

Gabriel

Rys Calder, wolf shifter and the biggest regret of my life. I loved him, and yet I didn’t share with him the one thing that eventually became our undoing. I broke his trust and I’ve carried that guilt for years. I knew seeing him again would hurt, but no matter how many times I’d imagined it, being on the receiving end of his cold stares and indifference hurt more than I’d anticipated.

Thrown together again with a killer on the loose, will the past continue to haunt them, or can they move past it and claim the future that fate always had in store for them?

Claiming Rys is an MM paranormal romance with second chances, fated mates, pining, angry alphas, and feisty ex-hunters.

Review: ⟫ This was a pretty straight-forward story of second chances, but with the added benefit of the Fae and fated mates and werewolves. Rys and Gabriel were young and in love and thought they had nothing but time – time to explain who they were and what they meant to each other.

Unfortunately, things caught up with them and because of a misunderstanding they were separated. Each suffered in their own way – Rys distrusted himself and his instincts, convinced that he had fallen for a hunter’s lies. And Gabriel paid the price for going against ‘his’ people in the worst way.

The situation they find themselves in is bigger than their misunderstanding, and although there is bad feeling they have to work together to try to save supernaturals from a dangerous poison that is causing them to go feral and be put down.

I really loved the plot idea and also the way that this was written, but something didn’t gel for me. I don’t know if it was because I was looking at the side characters and wondering which of them would be getting their own storyline, or because the culprit was too obvious.

It was a nice, easy, enjoyable read and I will probably keep an eye out for follow-up stories. I received an ARC from GRR.

Requited by Jesse H. Reign

Title: ⟫ Requited

Author: ⟫ Jesse H. Reign

Rating: ⟫ 4/5

Blurb: ⟫ If you've read Unrequited, and have been left longing for more of Andy and West's story - you are in luck.

Requited tells the story of roommates and best friends Andy Montgomery and West Baxter from West's perspective. It is a sweeping story of friendship that turns into longing that can't be ignored.

Be warned, this isn't a retelling of the same story, rather, it's an exploration of what would have been if West or Andy had had the courage to do one teeny, tiny thing differently.

Review: ⟫ I did read Unrequited and reviewed it here and finally got over my anger at the wasted TEN YEARS in that book to read the alternate version.

I think I’m glad I read it, although I’m still not sure. Wes is pretty much obsessed with Andy but hides it because he doesn’t want to lose the friendship that they have. Some of his actions are extremely dubious whilst dealing with this obsession and it was fascinating seeing this different side to him – in Unrequited, he seemed more together, confident and sure of himself. In Requited, we see his thought processes and feelings and it quickly becomes obvious that he hasn’t dealt with being bisexual and his attraction to other men during different periods of his life.

I did enjoy the opportunity to see Andy through outside eyes – strangely enough, in Unrequited he was the one who seemed to be lacking in confidence and self-assurance, whereas through Wes’s eyes, Andy truly has got it all together.

Overall, this book had a lot of sex scenes in it, but it also had a lot of talking – the talking that should have taken place in Unrequited to be honest – and I enjoyed that aspect of it. I also enjoyed the two of them realising all of the ways in which they have revealed that they cared but were too blind to see.

The relationship with Ashleigh was also explored through new eyes, and it became obvious a lot sooner that she and Wes were not suited to each other. I think, generally speaking, I enjoyed this chance to see the other side of things and it was worth the money I paid for it.

There was a lot more sex in this section of the books, which isn’t always a bad thing. Overall, I enjoyed this alternative look at what could have been if Wes and Andy had shown some gumption and spoken up and it was different enough to make it worth reading.

Follow the River by CE Ricci (River of Rain #1)

Title: ⟫ Follow the River (River of Rain #1)

Author: ⟫ CE Ricci

Rating: ⟫ 3.5/5

Blurb: ⟫ Follow the River is a full-length, mature, new adult bully/enemies-to-lovers MM (male/male) romance with dark themes. There will be triggering content for some readers. SPECIFIC TRIGGERS WILL NOT BE LISTED at the beginning of the book as they will be spoilers, so please be advised that if you have triggers, any at all, this book might not be for you.

I've never been one to back down from a challenge.

Rather than shy away, I grit my teeth and use it as an opportunity to prove myself.

Not just in football, but also in life.

Even when I was thrown through a loop in discovering I was bisexual, I embraced it. Owning it so no one can use it as ammunition against me.

But when Ciaráin Grady comes barreling into my life with his venomous tongue and amber eyes brimming with disdain, I realize every test of my character and strength could never have prepared me for the trial he holds.

One that toes the line of love and hate.

It's all-consuming and toxic.

Yet under the layers of revulsion he masks his face with, I see it. A glimmer of lust from deep within his secretive, broken soul.

And when we're thrown together under heinous circumstances, the distinction between enemy and lover begins to blur.

So...what is Ciaráin Grady to me?

I'm only certain that he is the greatest challenge of my life.

Review: ⟫ Firstly, I think I need to say that I am one of those people who feels that the author should have listed some of the triggers, simply because the warnings given were too vague. That’s my personal opinion and I know that others will disagree and that’s cool – that’s the point of opinions, right?

Some of this book really did shock me. I expected some of it – it’s enemies to lovers and listed as dark, so I wasn’t expecting sunshine and roses. However, I really wasn’t expecting what I would describe as outright sexual assault between the two main characters. I thought that River’s excusing of Rain’s actions by saying that he didn’t say no or fight him off were a dangerous thought process to have and more than potentially triggering for people.

The relationship between the leads was difficult and verging on toxic. There was more than one occasion when I found myself thinking that they should just leave each other alone because they were so bad for each other. However, the chemistry between the two of them was obvious and there was an almost morbid fascination in seeing just what they would do to each other.

When they were at the cabin and had begun to admit that this wasn’t simply a FWB situation – or more like enemies with benefits – I thought that some of their interactions were incredibly sweet. They were both such damaged creatures, with a skewed view of each other that a straightforward conversation might have aided, although probably not fixed.

I did sometimes find myself getting confused between Rain and River as in who was saying what, and their voices were occasionally too similar for me to differentiate between them. The sex between them was scorching – almost obviously with the chemistry between them – and there was no denying that there was something powerful there.

I feel that there should also have been a warning that this ends on a cliffhanger. This didn’t affect me as such because the following book was available immediately, but I think it would have irritated me a lot if that hadn’t been the case.

The writing was solid, the ‘mystery’ intriguing, and the chemistry between our two leads was strong, but overall I’m not sure I’m pleased to have read this story, not like I felt after reading Iced Out by the same author. If you do decide to read, do so with caution – the content is darker than you might expect, with explicit descriptions of child abuse that I’m still not sure were absolutely necessary.

Iced Out by CE Ricci (Leighton U Book #1)

Title: ⟫ Iced Out (Leighton U Book #1)

Author: ⟫ CE Ricci

Rating: ⟫ 4/5

Blurb: ⟫ All's fair in hate and hockey.

My path to success never included an enemy as a teammate, especially one as infuriating as Quinton de Haas.

Clawing under my skin is his favorite pastime, only feeding the animosity between us as the years pass.

We’re as completely opposite as two people can be: the golden boy and the black sheep.

Constantly at odds or at each other’s throats.

The only thing we can agree on is hockey is our true love, and we’ll do whatever it takes to come out on top.

I never imagined that drive would lead me to do the unthinkable: falling into bed with my not-so-straight rival.

But athletes are a superstitious bunch, and when our hook-ups lead to victories, we tell ourselves we can’t stop.

Besides, it’s all for the sake of the team, right?

*Iced Out is the first in a five book stand-alone college sports romance series featuring two misunderstood rival teammates, pages of snarky banter, and more secret spicy times than any book should be filled with. Not suitable for anyone under 18 years of age.*

Review: ⟫ The trash talk between these two was epic! I love a good hockey story (even though I’ve never seen a hockey game in my life) and this one reminded me of the series by Saxon James and Eden Finley.

Are hockey players really as superstitious as this? I hope so – some of the things that they apparently do are hilarious, and the manner in which the author managed to bring that superstition into the story and make it work was brilliant. The socks – the socks, I need them!

Sorry, a teeny bit incoherent with this review because most of this book put me into such a good mood. The relationship that grew between Oak and Quinn was really sweet beneath all of the chirping and digging at each other, and I loved the way they slowly grew to accept each other – all of the bits that they kept hidden from other people slowly being revealed.

I didn’t like the little subplot with Braxton – for me, I think the way that Oak was written, he would have admitted it as soon as it became clear that the two of them had caught feelings for each other and not waited to be called out. I did like the fact that Quinn didn’t automatically forgive Oak, and that Oak had to actually accept responsibility for what he did and didn’t do, rather than it just being wiped clean.

This had a bit more hockey in than I am used to but I wasn’t opposed to it, and I think it definitely added to the story in terms of how it showed how in sync the boys were.

A fun, entertaining read with some very nice sexy times included!

The First and The Last by Jesse H. Reign

Title: ⟫ The First and the Last

Author: ⟫ Jesse H. Reign

Rating: ⟫ 5/5

Blurb: ⟫ “Why would I choose, when anyone can see the two of you come as part of a package?”

That’s what she said. Those were the words that changed my life.

Until then Jules and I were friends. Best friends only. Best friends since before we could remember. We had to be. We were the last two wolves born into an ageing pack. Our pack was secretive and a little backward, but we had a great life. Sure, our alpha was a bit of a douche, but all alphas are douches. Everyone knows that. Thank God, Jules and I were both going to be betas.

The night new-girl Storm refused to choose between Jules and I, changed everything. The way I looked at him changed forever. He went from my goof-ball best friend, to being the hottest creature I’d ever seen. At the time I thought it was the end of the world.

It wasn’t the end of the world...It was just the beginning.

Then our first shift happened, and confusion hit harder.

Why was one of us acting distinctly douche-y? And why was the other running a fever and pleading for things only an omega would want?

The First and The Last is a paranormal omegaverse MM romance. It features a bi-awakening that happens during a shared experience with a woman. It contains a dash of knotting, a pinch of gratuitous violence, and a heat that’s hot enough to put your eReader at risk of melting. This story does not contain MPREG.

Review: ⟫ This book was the one that sent me down a Jesse H. Reign rabbit-hole, so I was surprised to find that it was the first foray into PNR.

Sully and Jules were absolutely awesome – they fit together so incredibly well from the beginning and the awful summer that Sully spent without Jules really brought that home almost immediately. The interactions were so honest, so real, that I wondered when the penny was going to drop about their feelings for each other. The introduction of Storm, a female werewolf, could well have led to an epic falling out. Instead, it led to the two of them discovering a whole new dynamic. I was surprised – I didn’t expect things to be quite so explicit between the three of them, but it didn’t take away from the book, or make me feel like it should have been labelled MFM like some other stories have.

Once the two of them were sent away, things got even hotter. And I admit it, I was expecting the dynamics to be the other way around – I don’t know why, I just did. However, I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest – this book got ALL of that right and then some. I loved how the omega/alpha dynamic was explored, with the power shifting between them so that the balance was maintained.

I really enjoyed how things were built up between Jules and Sully – you could almost feel their skin itching as changes began, and then the way they dealt with things afterwards was incredibly hot. I was concerned about how things would go once they went home, but even then I was pretty well satisfied. I’m not quite sure how I feel about Sully’s mother – there is a part of me that feels like she could have been clearer with the boys about what was going on, and sending them away with no information or instruction felt a bit ‘Dumbledore-esque’.

As a final aside, I loved Mrs O’Malley and would have loved to see her fly!