Wicked Seas by C Tyler

June 9, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Wicked Seas by C Tyler
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Historical, Erotic Romance
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Trust amongst pirates was a delicate, tenuous thing.

Aadhya had dedicated her life to the sea, a pirate queen in her own right. When Charles returns, Addy must do her best to keep from being swept up by his seductive aura until he proves himself worthy of her affections again.

Aadhya and Charles had always been passionate and volatile, the perfect duo that thrived on the chaos they left in their wake, but after Charles betrayed her, he must work hard to regain her trust.

Will she be able to forgive him so they can share in hidden treasure and revenge, or will Charles stick to his selfish ways?

These opposites should attract, but will they?

I’ve never read anything by C Tyler, but I’m glad I gave this one a try. The writing is crisp and kept my attention. The characters were interesting and certainly opposite, despite being a lot alike. It’s a quick read, but there are bursts of fire in the pages.

Addy has seen a lot in her life. She’s a pirate, so she’s going to see things. She’s going to have done things. She’s a bad girl. That’s what I liked about her. She’s cagey and savvy while being wily. I liked the explosivity when she gets with Charles. I rooted for them and their happy ending.

Charles has done Addy wrong, and I liked seeing them work through the trust issues. It’s very relatable, despite being a historical and most people not being pirates.

If you’re looking for something different and hot, then this might be the one for you.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Wish List by Amanda Pampuro

June 6, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Wish List by Amanda Pampuro
Publisher: Alien Buddha Press
Genre: Contemporary, Science Fiction, Horror
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

You’re talking with a friend, face to face, smartphone stashed safely in a pocket. You mention a trendy restaurant, a dream vacation, some hot piece of new tech. The next time you go online, you’re hit with ads for all three of those things. You’re amused, bemused, unsettled all at once. Amanda Pampuro taps into that feeling in Wish List, narrated by an earnest, efficient AI hive mind striving to bring happiness to account holder ARgurl16 – one “Complete My Purchase” click at a time. It’s a sweet and creepy little tale – sweet because Pampuro deftly sketches ARgurl16’s ups, downs, loves and hopes through the lens of her buying history, creepy because Wish List makes it clear that computers aren’t the only things being programmed.

For a disturbing little read, Wish List meets expectations. The book is clever and fast-paced. It tells the story from the point-of-view of technology tracking the life story of a woman from her childhood to her death.

The technological protagonist is so honest, and this comes across as so authentic that readers are likely to watch what they do online more carefully. The reader learns about the human protagonist through her online purchases. Assumptions are made as “the next good buy” is constantly pushed on her.

The suspense is well-done, too, because there are hints of the young lady’s death throughout, but mostly right after she makes a specific purchase. What is going to happen to her? Why does she die after buying the specific item?

It’s also clever that her husband and child are brought into the scene based on more online purchases.

This book will make you think. It’s a quick and easy read worth a look.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Not Yeti by Kelly DiPucchio

June 3, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Not Yeti by Kelly DiPucchio
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Genre: Children’s (0 – 6 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Monsters are loud. And rude. They like to smash things and they always need to be right. But not Yeti. Yeti bakes banana bread and sings to whales and always has a nice word to say. But sometimes you find yourself alone when you’re different. And Yeti doesn’t know there’s a special surprise in store for him.

Anyone can change if they really want to.

It was refreshing to read about a monster who was gentle and loving instead of scary. Yeti spent his days making the world a better place for others, from crocheting sweaters for penguins to protecting baby turtles right after they hatched. I adored this character as soon as I met him and looked forward to seeing if his dreams would come true for him.

The ending felt abrupt and confusing to me, especially since this tale was written for such a young audience. While I soon understood the point the author was attempting to make, it was vague enough that I would have felt compelled to explain it if I’d been reading this to a small child. I found myself wishing that the narrator had been more forthright about the benefits of being different and choosing to be kind even if others don’t make the same choice.

Yeti’s character development was handled beautifully. The reader soon learned that he hadn’t always been a nice monster, and the explanation for how and why he’d changed was well worth reading. What made this even more interesting to me were the unpleasant interactions he had with a couple of other monsters. He could have so easily slipped back into old habits, and yet he stuck to his principles no matter how others tried to provoke him. What a great role model he was for anyone who is trying to fix a bad habit or personality flaw.

Not Yeti was a thought-provoking read.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , ,

Claiming Macie by Sam Crescent

June 2, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Claiming Macie by Sam Crescent
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Wilson Fritz knows the cruelty of the world, and he doesn’t believe in love. Meeting Macie Green changes everything. One chance encounter, and he knows she’ll belong to him forever. He should just walk away, but every time he tries to leave, he goes back for more. Each day that passes, Wilson craves her a little more, and he won’t risk anyone else taking her.

Macie has never been in love, but she realizes Wilson is different. It doesn’t matter that he’s eighteen years older than her. Whenever he’s near, he makes her heart sing.

When an enemy from his past threatens his woman, he has no choice but to seek him out in order to protect Macie. He would do anything for her.

But when he finds out she’s pregnant, will he leave her to fend for herself, or is this the start of their own fairytale?

An adventurous and hot story of two people who need to be together finding their way.

I like the books of Sam Crescent and couldn’t wait to get a hold of this one. I’m glad I did. The writing was up to the author’s usual standard and kept my attention fully. I needed to know what would happen next.

Macie isn’t the average romance heroine. She’s curvy, has some issues and a learning disability, but she’s a happy girl. I liked that. I liked the inclusivity. I rooted for her.

Wilson is a grizzled character. He’s seen stuff and it’s made him hard, but he’s not totally lost. I liked that he wasn’t lost. I liked that he had things about him that drew Macie in. It was cute to see them together.

There’s some adventure and a bit of mystery to this story. It’s well-rounded and worth the read.

If you’re looking for something different, but hot, then this might be the read for you.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Death at Dusbar College by Laura DiNovis Berry

June 1, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Death at Dusbar College by Laura DiNovis Berry
Publisher: Indies United Publishing House
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Welcome to the world of Antyfas where invisible monkeys play and dragons fly! Cristiano has just turned eleven, and his aunt has invited him to visit her at the magical Dusbar College. Wondrous acts of magic and fantastical beasts await him, but can he solve the Grand Magician’s riddle?

What could be better than visiting a magical college?

Some of the best scenes were the ones that showed how Cristiano tried to figure out the mystery that everyone else was also trying to solve. There was a riddle attached to it that was the key to everything. I grinned as he worked through the possible answers to the riddle and hoped he’d be the one to come up with the right answer and win the prize at the end.

I would have liked to see more conflict included in this novella. As fascinated as I was by the world building, there wasn’t much going on with the storyline itself other than the mystery that was soon cleared up. There was so much more the author could have done with these characters and this setting. If she writes a sequel, I hope she’ll give her characters more complex problems to solve as the writing itself was wonderful.

The magic in this universe was delightful. My favorite examples of it were the ones that explained how to do ordinary things like summon a fresh glass of apple juice or tailor a shirt to fit perfectly onto the person wearing it. They weren’t the sort of experiences that I’d ever think of trying to make interesting if I had magical powers, so I was thrilled by how the narrator turned those moments into something unforgettable.

Death at Dusbar College was a playful middle grade mystery that I’d recommend to anyone who also loves modern fantasy.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Amethyst by Rebecca Henry

May 31, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Amethyst by Rebecca Henry
Publisher: Finch Books
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, LGBTQ, Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

She was sent away because of her feelings for another girl. But what she discovered at her aunts’ lake house was a birthright of magic.

Thirteen-year-old Zinnia is about to turn fourteen when her life is flipped upside down. With her parents on the brink of a divorce, Zinnia is sent to spend the summer with her eccentric great-aunts at their lake house away from her home in Manhattan. Zinnia arrives at her aunts’ massive Victorian house with a heavy heart after a recent falling out with her best friend Charlotte, who betrayed her trust by showing the meanest and most popular girl in school a letter Zinnia wrote confessing her feelings for Charlotte. The aunts rely on practical magic, acceptance and old family friends to help heal their great-niece in more ways than one.

What Zinnia discovers on Ambrosia Hill is more than just her birthright to magic—she meets Billie, a girl who conjures feelings inside Zinnia that she can no longer deny.

What’s better than a summer in the countryside?

It can be hard for kids to understand topics like divorce and marital conflict. Zinnia was a smart teenager, but even she struggled with the idea that her parents were fighting and might not stay together. Some of the most memorable scenes in this novella were the ones that explored her feelings on this topic and tried to explain her parents’ anger with each other in ways that were appropriate for a fourteen-year-old to hear. These aren’t easy things to discuss by any means, but they are quite important. The author did a great job of giving Zinnia a chance to understand her parents a little better than she had before and to learn about how adult relationships sometimes work.

I would have loved to see more character development in this piece. As intrigued as I was by the setting and plot, it was disappointing to meet characters whose personalities weren’t well defined and who didn’t seem to grow very much as a result of their experiences even when they were the main focus of the storyline. There seemed to be plenty of opportunities for them to do so. I simply needed more examples of them reacting to those moments, sharing their personalities in more complex ways, and showing the audience how they’d changed.

The world building was delightful. I loved the way magic was woven into every facet of the characters’ daily lives, from the messages that were left in the arrangements of soggy tea leaves in the bottom of a teacup to the spells the aunts cast to help their visitors reach any number of personal goals. It wasn’t always clear to me where the magic ended and ordinary explanations for certain events began. I reveled in how beautifully ordinary the author made certain scenes feel even if they included moments that can’t be explained with modern science or physics. There is something special about visiting a world that accepts these shades of grey and invites the reader to come up with their own explanations for them.

Amethyst was a playful read.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy – A Modern Graphic Retelling of Little Women by Rey Terciero

May 27, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy – A Modern Graphic Retelling of Little Women by Rey Terciero
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), LGBTQ, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Little Women with a twist: four sisters from a blended family experience the challenges and triumphs of life in NYC in this beautiful full-color graphic novel perfect for fans of Roller Girl and Smile.

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are having a really tough year: with their father serving in the military overseas, they must work overtime to make ends meet…and each girl is struggling in her own way. Whether it’s school woes, health issues, boy troubles, or simply feeling lost, the March sisters all need the same thing: support from each other. Only by coming together–and sharing lots of laughs and tears–will these four young women find the courage to discover who they truly are as individuals…and as a family.

Meg is the eldest March, and she has a taste for the finer things in life. She dreams of marrying rich, enjoying fabulous clothes and parties, and leaving her five-floor walk-up apartment behind.

Jo pushes her siblings to be true to themselves, yet feels like no one will accept her for who she truly is. Her passion for writing gives her an outlet to feel worthy in the eyes of her friends and family.

Beth is the shy sister with a voice begging to be heard. But with a guitar in hand, she finds a courage that inspires her siblings to seize the day and not take life for granted.

Amy may be the baby of the family, but she has the biggest personality. Though she loves to fight with her sisters, her tough exterior protects a vulnerable heart that worries about her family’s future.

There is nothing this family can’t handle if they stick together.

Mr. Terciero did an excellent job of updating this classic tale for the twenty-first century. He struck the perfect balance between satisfying the expectations of readers like me who are lifelong fans of the original while also keeping the storyline accessible to people who may know nothing at all about these characters yet. I was especially impressed with how he handled issues like Robert March being away at war and the serious health problem that one of the characters was diagnosed with. He made these plot twists feel modern and fresh while still remaining loyal to L.M. Montgomery’s storytelling.

I wish this graphic novel had spent more time on character development. In the first Little Women, all four sisters had clear character arcs that gave them ample opportunities to show how they slowly changed for the better. While there were signs of similar personal growth in this retelling, it was sometimes hard to follow those plotlines because of how much less space they had to work with. For example, Meg made a major revision to her life goals that was announced so suddenly to the audience I briefly wondered if I’d missed something earlier. These sorts of things happened often enough that they did negatively affect the rating even though I wanted to choose a higher one.

Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that explored the relationships between Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. The story eventually explained the origins of their multiracial family for anyone who might be curious about that, but the opening scene was all I needed to know that these four sisters were as loving, playful, accepting, and occasionally irritated with each other as ever. It was delightful to see how they handled the ordinary disagreements that all siblings have as well as to get a peek at how they made up after an argument. This was exactly the sort of wholesome content I was hoping for.

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy – A Modern Graphic Retelling of Little Women made me smile.

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , ,

His Pleasure Contract by Helen Walton

May 25, 2022 By Leave a Comment


His Pleasure Contract by Helen Walton
Billionaires’ Reluctant Brides Book 2
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Prue’s husband Will has ticked off most of her fantasies, all except one. When he draws up a contract to fulfill her fantasy of a threesome, she’s unsure what to do.

Billionaire William Burberry, the fourth, has everything he ever wanted in his wife Prue. She may be a mouthy ex-waitress with a terrible upbringing, but she fits him perfectly in bed and out. But he sees the way she looks at her best friend with her two boyfriends.

Will would do anything for her, even if it means sharing her with another man for a night. One night meant to fulfill Prue’s fantasy for her birthday present.

Can she ignore her worries and go for her fantasy?

Seriously hot story with plenty of heat for a chilly night.

I picked up this book because I wanted something hot. It delivered. The characters have great interplay, and the writing is tight. I felt like I’d been dropped right into the world of these characters and not at all like I’d missed something, even though this is book 2. I can’t wait to read more.

Prue and Will have a great relationship and she’s pampered but she wants something more–sort of. She’s always wanted another man in the bedroom with them. Honestly, I liked how they characters went about this and it’s truly hot. The pages singed. I liked Marco and was glad to meet his character.

If you’re looking for something hot and with a twist, then this is the one for you. I couldn’t put it down.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

May 19, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Publisher: Mariner Books
Genre: Historical, Fiction
Rating: 3 stars
Review by Snowdrop

With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man—also named Jonathan Safran Foer—sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis.

Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war, an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.

As their adventure unfolds, Jonathan imagines the history of his grandfather’s village, conjuring a magical fable of startling symmetries that unite generations across time. As his search moves back in time, the fantastical history moves forward, until reality collides with fiction in a heart-stopping scene of extraordinary power.

This is a book about a young boy who finds an old, yellowed photo and is determined to find a lady in it who possibly saved his grandfather. It’s a look back upon a time of war and of the Nazis obliterating everything. It leads to many old memories, good, funny, and sad.

Everything is Illuminated has won many awards. It’s praised by the NY Times, Library Journal, the Washington Post, and many more. The author, Jonathan Safran Foer, was only 21 when he wrote it. In that view, it is amazing that such a work was written and published. It was even made into a movie. I found it difficult to read. Not because of its vulgarisms although there are many, but more so due to the broken English spoken by their translator who travels with them to the place where his grandfather lived. There are times it is hard to read because of the Holocaust and the treatment of the Jews, but that is not badly written, only hard to read because of the subject.

The author named the main character after himself. It caused me to wonder if the story was in its own way autobiographical as well as fictitious? There are some very poignant moments in Jonathan Safran’s journey. I wonder if the author has experienced the same feelings, the same sadness? It may be why although somewhat difficult to read, there can be no question the book is well-written. There are moments that come together and make you feel ashamed that you did not have to share the horror the Jews did during the war. Moments so well-written that you feel that you understand and yet know that you can never understand what the Jewish people experienced.

Is this a book you should read? I think it’s an experience many would gain from. It might be a story you shouldn’t pass by.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Other, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Caj’s Angel by Nikki Prince

May 19, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Caj’s Angel by Nikki Prince
Eternal Lovers Book 1
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Erotic Romance, Paranormal
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Caj was once human and in love with an angel named Mercy. Having committed an unforgiveable sin, Caj is punished by The Maker to take on the sins of others so that those souls can be ushered into heaven by an angel. Caj is finding it hard to reconcile who he used to be with what he has become and feels he should let Mercy go.

But can he?

Mercy sees Caj as she remembered him. She knows that he beats himself up daily for his own sins, let alone having to take on others’ sins as a penance. The only way for them to be together is for him to go before The Maker and make amends or their love will be lost forever.

Will The Maker allow them their happiness or are Caj and Mercy forever doomed to have loved and lost?

Short, but packs a punch.

I picked up this book because I hadn’t read one by Nikki Prince yet. I’m glad I rectified that situation. This one is short, but as I said above, it packs a punch. The writing is good and the idea fantastic. This took me a lunch hour to read, but it was time well used.

Mercy and Caj have so much potential and should be together. I loved the almost fated romance of this story. They have history and they have problems, but it’s relatable. We all have things we wish we could change and end up taking on more strife or stress to make up for that–like Caj. I felt for them both and wanted to see them have a happy ending. That’s how much I got involved in this short story.

If you’re looking for something hot, but sweet and good for a quick read, then this is the one for you.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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