Unsalvageable by J Hali Steele

May 16, 2022 By 1 Comment


Unsalvageable by J Hali Steele
Sanguine Blood Seekers Book 1
Publisher: Changeling Press/Razor’s Edge
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, LGBTQ
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Vampires are real! Sten Majkovic has lived longer than he ever dreamed possible. Among his kind it isn’t easy having a slim, lithe build, but it does have advantages in the human world. He welcomes attention of men who appreciate his appearance. Their mistake is expecting to hold the upper hand. None ever do. And not a single one of them realizes his rabid need for blood — until it’s too late…

Drew Riles’ life is shitty. Mid-fifties, passed over for promotion, he struggles to stay afloat until, nearly beaten to death, he’s rescued by a monster. Unsure how to survive, he flounders in unfamiliar territory. Anger soon replaces what little fear the beast allows as Drew comprehends the fiend has no intention of releasing him. Both emotions quickly evaporate as he watches the bloodthirsty creature use men in a way… God, I want to be those men!

Hot, hot, hot.

I love a good J Hali Steele book and this one didn’t disappoint. It’s hot. It’s right there in the blurb and the book delivers. The writing in this story flowed well and I read it in a matter of an afternoon.

Drew and Sten aren’t men that would normally be put together, but they work together well. Drew is cranky and older, but Sten is much older and not as cranky, but he’s a vampire. I liked that they danced around each other throughout the story and the slow burn quality was good. But this is a hot book and there is plenty of steam, too. I hope to see more of the other vampires in this story. They really captivated me, and I want to see them happy or at least sated.

If you’re looking for something quick, hot and guaranteed to singe the screen, then this might be the one for you.

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

Blood Will Tell by Heather Chavez

May 13, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Blood Will Tell by Heather Chavez
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Ginger

Schoolteacher and single mom Frankie Barrera has always been fiercely protective of her younger sister Izzy—whether Izzy wants her to be or not. But over the years, Izzy’s risky choices have tested Frankie’s loyalty. Never so much as on a night five years ago, when a frantic phone call led Frankie to the scene of a car accident—and a drunk and disoriented Izzy who couldn’t remember a thing.

Though six friends partied on the outskirts of town that night, one girl was never seen again . . .

Now, an AMBER alert puts Frankie in the sights of the local police. Her truck has been described as the one used in the abduction of a girl from a neighboring town. And the only other person with access to Frankie’s truck is Izzy.

This time around, Frankie will have to decide what lengths she’s willing to go to in order to protect Izzy—what lies she’s willing to tell, and what secrets she’s willing to keep—because the dangerous game that six friends once played on a warm summer night isn’t over yet . . .

I liked this book, I really did.

The short chapters are mainly told from Frankie (Francisca) Barrera’s point of view. There’s suspense and secrets. When drugs and alcohol are involved, it’s bound to impair one’s memory, right? There’s a very strong family support system. I enjoyed the author’s writing style which made for an easy read. There were several plot twists that I didn’t see coming. The dual timeline that explained just enough of what happened the night Rachel went missing to keep me interested. The story had a good ending that explained everything.

I can say that Frankie is a compassionate, and unselfish woman with more than expected mechanical skills. I’d say she’s also courageous, but I don’t necessarily see her as a strong woman that I can relate to. Frankie and her younger sister Izzy come from a two-parent home that seemingly had a happy environment, conducive to a favorable upbringing. I truly understand the need for Frankie to help her younger sister and the desire to protect her. However, Frankie’s overbearing investigative sister skills overshadow Izzy and enables her.

An AMBER alert puts Frankie in a questionable position with the local police. Her truck has been described as the one used in the abduction of Marina Wagner, and the only other person with access to Frankie’s truck is her sister, Izzy. Frankie is a middle school teacher, and since it’s summer I guess she has time to clear her and her sister’s name. As Frankie investigates Marina’s kidnapping, she also gets closer to finding out what happened five years ago when Rachel disappeared. Parts of the story were bogged down and almost made it difficult to stick with. Izzy seemed to be a spoiled woman child who was confident in her sister’s loyalty to her. Maybe I overlooked it, but I don’t recall what Izzy did for a living.

There are several things that I didn’t like about the story–things that I noticed and tried to tune out so that I could focus on the main parts. Marina went to grief camp at the age of 12, when her sister went missing. Her sister was recently found, Marina is now 17. I found the relationship between Marina and her mother strange, and to send her daughter to grief camp when there was no proof her older daughter was deceased. Lastly, the local police or FBI did little investigating into Marina’s kidnapping, but Frankie found two people and solved the case in a week.

Three hundred pages in Izzy finds her voice and tells Frankie that she’s been taking responsibility by volunteering, getting a job, her own place and she even went to talk to the police and yet Frankie still treats her as a child. In my opinion, this sister duo definitely is dysfunctional and should seek counseling. Frankie needs to get a life and apply with the local police force as a detective. As the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, I think after the heart pounding action scene and big reveal at the end, the sisters may have stumbled their way towards an evolving adult relationship.

Even though I had some minor issues with the story, overall it was a good and entertaining read for me. I would definitely read more from this author because I do like her talent for telling a story and not only that, this was a creative plot with many unforeseen twists.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Rose from the Moon by Ilda Kunic

May 13, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Rose from the Moon by Ilda Kunic
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Maybe this reality is only an illusion.

Maybe beyond the dream, life begins where we live love for real.

Rose From the Moon is a beautifully illustrated debut collection of poetry, the first part of the trilogy series, transcendent, authentic, and eclectic journey about soulful growth and development through love, the awakening of the cosmic soul, remembering who you are and who you were before, remembering yourself. The poems are going to take you on a journey beyond the three-dimensional spaces, stepping outside of that illusionary world and sailing into higher states of consciousness, a state of eternal love. The flow of this cosmic love story is divided and immersed into two chapters: You and Waiting. Each chapter presents words intertwined in poems and poems as picturesque illustrations and visionary imagination.

In this illustrative poetic style, Ilda takes readers on an adventurous journey filled with unique, colorfully dreamy imagery and raw, deep emotions , reminding us that love is eternal and immortal, the only true bliss of our souls. “Rose from the Moon” will leave readers curious and inspired to explore this mysterious world filled with love.

Love is a double-edged sword.

The metaphors in this poetry collection were lovely. Many of them included references to things found in nature like shadows and the stars to show how love can affect every aspect of someone’s life. My favorite metaphor was the one that compared falling in love to pieces of an iceberg slowly falling off as the iceberg melted. It was such a vivid description of a natural phenomenon that forever changes the landscape when it occurs.

I would have liked to see a wider variety of words used in this collection as many of them were used repeatedly. While that worked well for the poems that were using similar metaphors, it made other poems blur together in my mind because of how alike they were. With another round of editing to tighten up those lines and add more variety to them, I would have been happy to give this a much higher rating.

Romantic love is capable of bringing great joy as well as unfathomable pain to our lives. Not every relationship lasts an entire lifetime, and even the ones that do must end eventually. I appreciated seeing how much effort the author put into reminding the audience of the dual nature of love. There was often a little pain to be found in the poems extolling the feeling of falling in love as well as some beauty to be found in the poems that discussed what happens when a relationship doesn’t work out.

Rose from the Moon was filled with all of the raw tangle of emotions one can find when they fall in love with someone again or for the first time. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves romantic poetry.

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

A Mad Awakening by Sasha Hibbs

May 12, 2022 By Leave a Comment


A Mad Awakening by Sasha Hibbs
Publisher: Evernight Teen
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The dead are meant to stay dead. Eighteen-year-old Albert Frank Young knows because he’s one of them. He had his life planned out with intentions of attending college in the fall with his brilliant girlfriend, Mary Shelley. What he didn’t plan for? Dying before his dreams were realized.

Over the course of one night, his life, and Mary’s, change forever. Mary’s brilliance quickly turns into a maddening obsession fueled by the death of Albert. Death took her mother away. She’ll be damned if death takes her boyfriend away too. In crossing the line between life and death, Mary damns them both before she realizes the realm of the living and land of the dead is an arena she has no right to meddle in.

A story of young love, the depths grieving drives the heart to, and the consequences that follow. This gothic tale proves love lives beyond the grave.

Love never dies.

The author did a good job of mixing the science fiction and romance genres, and I’m saying this as a reader who generally prefers to read books that focus on one or the other. I appreciated the hard work Ms. Hibbs put into ensuring that they were both given plenty of time to shine. Some scenes nudged a little further into one direction due to what the plot needed in that moment, but overall everything balanced out nicely.

It was confusing for me to hop between the perspectives of multiple narrators. As much as I enjoyed getting to know them, there simply wasn’t enough time to dig deeply into anyone’s personality or character growth due to how often readers needed to shift from one narrator to a different one. This technique would have worked better for a full-length novel, but eighty-nine pages simply weren’t enough for it to be effective here in my opinion.

I liked the way this novella jumped around in the timeline. There were some incredibly exciting scenes shared in the beginning that made me yearn to find out how they were connected to the quiet life Mary had when the audience first met her. Having that information so early on also made the foreshadowing pop out to me when it showed up. While I didn’t have the full story by any means, I knew enough to start putting the pieces together as soon as they arrived. That was a fantastic choice.

A Mad Awakening was a fun homage to Frankenstein.

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

Oona by Kelly DiPucchio

May 6, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Oona by Kelly DiPucchio
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: Children’s (0 – 6 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Oona and her best friend Otto love to search for treasure…and often find trouble instead.

Messy trouble.

Tricky trouble.

Even shark-related trouble.

That’s never stopped them before, though!

After all, no proper treasure hunt is without some adventure. But when the grandest treasure yet is stuck in a deep, dark rift, Oona’s not sure if she can dive right in. What might be waiting for her in those unknown waters?

Who wouldn’t want to explore the secret corners of the ocean?

Oona was a brave and persistent little mermaid. I loved the fact that she was so determined to complete her collection, if only for now, and to gather up everything she thought a mermaid needed to be happy. She knew exactly what she wanted out of life even if she wasn’t always sure how to get it. That made her the sort of character I like to get to know better.

I would have liked to see more attention paid to developing the plot. For example, it was never clear to me why Oona wanted to collect so much treasure or what she planned to do with it if she found it. When the storyline did move forward, I was also confused by how slowly certain details were released and why they were sometimes interrupted by other information that seemed unrelated to her quest. Was that supposed to be a hint about how differently mermaids think when compared to land dwellers, or was I misinterpreting it? These were only two of the questions I had about this world that were never answered. I wish they had been because what the narrator did share was fascinating.

Some of the best scenes were the ones that showed what happened after Oona had already tried a few times to reach her goals without success. Failure can be hard for adults to accept, and it’s even harder for little ones who don’t have as much experience with disappointment and frustration yet. The messages this picture book sent about how to cope with those feelings and what to do if one feels like they’ll never reach their goals was perfectly phrased.

Oona made me smile.

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

The Last Hard Boy by Sam Crescent

May 6, 2022 By Leave a Comment


The Last Hard Boy by Sam Crescent
The Hard Boys, Book 3
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Rome Hard is in love with his ex-teacher, Andy Evergreen. She entered his life ten years ago, and he’s tried to deny his feelings for her, but they won’t disappear.

There’s only one way to solve this: get her to fall in love with him.

She’s never fallen for a student, but Rome isn’t a student anymore. He’s a full-grown man, and he’s intent on making her realize it.

One date, that’s all it’s supposed to be. She never expected what could come next. One look, one touch, and it all leads to more. She should resist him, but how can she turn away from him? He’s everything, and no other man has made her heart race.

Rome’s all in, knowing this woman will be his wife and the mother of his children. But how far is he willing to go?

Will Andy fall for the last Hard boy, or will her fears keep her locked up in her cage?

He’s been waiting for her and she’s been looking for a man like him. Should be an easy pairing, right?

Wrong?

I like the work of Sam Crescent. I know I’ll get a hot story with plenty of interesting characters and will be transported to their world for a while when I read one of her books. This one was no different. It’s quick, hot and full of passion.

I’m a sucker for teacher/student stories. These can be tricky because it can be taboo, but not in this sense. They’re both old enough that the taboo isn’t so bad. I liked that she’s the older character and he’s the younger one, too. The author writes them with an authenticity that’s hard to find and they’re both relatable. She wants to be loved, but she’s afraid and he’s ready to go all in, but he doesn’t want to push her. It’s a well-used trope, but still nicely done in this book. I haven’t read the others in the Hard series, but that isn’t so bad. This book stands alone well, but I do want to go back and read them. I mean, how can you say no to a hot guy–in a book? I can’t.

If you’re looking for something hot, romantic and great for a chilly afternoon, then this is the one for you.

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

Chopped by Peri Elizabeth Scott

May 5, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Chopped by Peri Elizabeth Scott
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Regan Braxton is a prep cook at The Salt Cellar, an up-and-coming restaurant in Las Vegas. She has aspirations to make line cook and actually thought it was a done deal—before Chef Malachi Abrams took over the kitchen.

He’s gorgeous, arrogant, and infuriating and seems to take a singular interest in criticizing her—with scant approval and encouragement. Regan has a second job that she loves equally, working as a flash dancer in a nearby club, but she needs both incomes. So she won’t let him chop her.

Chef Malachi is determined to make The Salt Cellar Vegas’s best restaurant. All is going according to plan despite the attitude of his feisty prep cook. He might be inexplicitly drawn to her, but that won’t get in the way of his work ethic. They have chemistry, but is it palatable, or, like revenge, a dish better served cold?

Malachi and Regan had butted heads ever since Malachi had very suddenly taken over as Chef. While they each maintained a purely professional persona, the conflict was nevertheless heated and ran deeply on both sides. When Regan discovers someone has been hired to fill the role she had hoped to be promoted to, she gives her two week resignation notice. Will Malachi and Regan be able to find common ground in the short time they have left working together?

I found this to be a conflict heavy short story. Readers who like a bunch of tension and head-butting between the two main characters should enjoy this story. Personally I found much of the logic and sense in Regan’s problems with Malachi were lacking, and I didn’t enjoy the jealous assumptions she made about some of Malachi’s professional decisions. Regan admitted she didn’t react well to authority – and this was given as being the root of some of her issues with Malachi as Chef and her boss. I didn’t find that very solid as a reason, especially when Regan tended to convince herself he was being arrogant or purposefully rude when I just personally didn’t see it from their interactions.

I absolutely found Malachi and some of his comments blunt – but not once did I see his actions or words as being purposely needling or meant to give offense. This made it pretty hard for me to empathize with Regan in the beginning, particularly when I felt she over-reacted (like when she gave her verbal notice) to mostly justified comments and constructive criticism made by Malachi when he was honest in his opinions. I enjoy conflict and tension in a story – but I strongly feel there needs to be not enough clashing to make me question whether the pairing is possible at all. I felt this story walked a fine line between these two positions.

In the second half of the story much of the conflict eases and this led the way quite smoothly for the sexual chemistry between Regan and Malachi to bubble over. Readers who enjoy a lot of steamy sexiness to their stories should find this really satisfies. With modern and strong willed characters along with a bunch of chemistry and tons of conflict and tension between the hero and heroine, this short story is a decent, quick read.

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

Knock Her Up by Sam Crescent

May 3, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Knock Her Up by Sam Crescent
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Finding out that Noah wants her is a dream come true. At thirty years old, Sage is ready to take that next step.

Noah wants Sage, and he intends to have it all with her. The only way to get her is to knock her up. That’s his plan. Sage is fire and passion—everything Noah loves and craves in his woman. He wants to share the rest of his life with her, but when Sage tells him she loves him, he freezes. Even though Sage is the only woman he wants, he cannot bring himself to say the words.

When one of his old clients threatens to take Sage away from him forever, will he have the strength to finally tell Sage how he feels, or will his fear of losing everything hold him back?

Noah had known even before Sage began to work for him that she was his in every way. He’d struggled to give the beautiful, curvy, innocent woman time to get to know him and grow used to his ways, but now Noah was finished with waiting. He was going to make Sage his and he knew the quickest and easiest way to do that was to get her pregnant. Can Noah and Sage find their happiness together?

This short and sexy “boss/secretary” style story was an enjoyable and quick read. I liked how Noah’s character was pretty clear from the first page about his intentions to Sage. While he’d given Sage about a year to get comfortable with him and his style, he was done being patient. This helped make the quickness with which Noah and Sage became intimate make a lot of sense to me and so this spicy story moved to the bedroom very early on, which I feel will please fans of this author and also readers who want an explicit, faster paced style of story.

I was also delighted with the small twist and how Sage was a strong, modern and competent woman. Noah had a strong personality and while it might have been easy for Sage to just go along with everything I enjoyed how in her own way she did her bit and had an equal part to play in their blossoming relationship. It helped me feel she was more involved and a stronger character than I often find in these sorts of stories.

With interesting and modern characters, a spicy, explicit storyline and plenty of fun I found this to be a great, quick read.

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

Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

May 2, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Publisher: Candlewick
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Romance, Historical
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Set in an incarceration camp where the United States cruelly detained Japanese Americans during WWII and based on true events, this moving love story finds hope in heartbreak.

To fall in love is already a gift. But to fall in love in a place like Minidoka, a place built to make people feel like they weren’t human—that was miraculous.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tama is sent to live in a War Relocation Center in the desert. All Japanese Americans from the West Coast—elderly people, children, babies—now live in prison camps like Minidoka. To be who she is has become a crime, it seems, and Tama doesn’t know when or if she will ever leave. Trying not to think of the life she once had, she works in the camp’s tiny library, taking solace in pages bursting with color and light, love and fairness. And she isn’t the only one. George waits each morning by the door, his arms piled with books checked out the day before. As their friendship grows, Tama wonders: Can anyone possibly read so much? Is she the reason George comes to the library every day? Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s beautifully illustrated, elegant love story features a photo of the real Tama and George—the author’s grandparents—along with an afterword and other back matter for readers to learn more about a time in our history that continues to resonate.

Hope can sprout anywhere.

One of the most valuable portions of this story for me was how it gave concrete examples of how racism affected the daily lives of the two main characters and the other people they lived with. For example, the living conditions of the camp they stayed in were poor, and the narrator went into detail about how uncomfortable everyone was who lived there. These moments drove their points home in both subtle and overt ways.

I found myself wishing that the author had provided more details about why Japanese people were sent to incarceration camps in the United States during World War II and what their lives were like there. These are things that most adults are probably already aware of but that middle grade readers may not have been taught yet. I yearned to give it a higher rating as the subject matter is such an important one, but I wasn’t sure how interested kids would be in this tale if they didn’t already know the historical context of it.

I was delightfully surprised by how much hope the characters had for the future. The circumstances they were living under were incredibly difficult, and yet both Tama and George held onto the belief that better days could be on the way. That isn’t something that’s always easy to do, but it was the perfect addition to the other themes of the storyline as well. After all, life is often filled with mixtures of emotions like these.

Love in the Library was a thought-provoking read.

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

Beautiful Sight by Cooper McKenzie

April 27, 2022 By Leave a Comment


Beautiful Sight by Cooper McKenzie
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance, Paranormal
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Mystic’s All Night Café—where the city’s supernatural world meet for the best coffee, tea, and pastries.

Blind for the past five years, Tessa Dubois has become a recluse, comfortable only in the home she shares with her son. When he gives her to a slave trader to pay a debt she had no idea about, she finds herself in a dark, menacing world with no one to ground her.

Jefferson Carstairs had just about given up finding his destined mate. Then he joins the council in raiding an abandoned airport warehouse where a solitary figure on the makeshift stage calls to both his man and wolf.

Will Tessa be able to survive outside the comfortable environment of her own home? Will Jefferson and his army of shifters be able to find Sonny and the rest of the traffickers? Can Tessa allow herself to love after so many years alone?

Tessa had been shocked when she accidently overheard her son, Theo, selling her to a stranger to help cover the debt he owed. Tessa was blind, but determined to not let her new situation break her down. When the auction of kidnapped women had ended in bloodshed, Tessa is surprised when she meets Jefferson. There is an instant calm and sexual chemistry between them. Will they each be able to fit comfortably into the new life they’ve discovered?

Grab a lovely large drink, settle down somewhere comfortable and disconnect your brain. I found this to be a deliciously sexy paranormal story with a very fast-moving pace and a fairly light hand to the story telling. Readers looking for a convoluted plot or a whole bunch of realism probably won’t find this fun story quite to their tastes, but rather this is a steamy “insta-lust” sort of quick read that is an enjoyable way to pass a lazy weekend.

While this is the third book in the “Mystic’s All Night Café” series it can absolutely be read as a stand alone. Tessa’s character and situation is explained right off at the start, and after the trafficking auction goes pear shaped Jefferson’s character is also introduced. Indeed the Café itself doesn’t appear until properly within the story – so readers who haven’t read the previous two installments don’t have to worry at all. I really feel they’ll be able to grasp the story from the first page.

There were a number of sub-plots swirling around this short story and I enjoyed some of the interesting developments shown about how the supernatural world works. There was also some fairly standard conflict between Tessa and another shifter who felt she was better suited to Jackson, as well as the original plotline about Tessa and her son – so I felt there was plenty going on in the story, especially when you added all the chemistry and sexy shenanigans between Tessa and Jefferson.

Fun, sexy and quick paced, this was a lovely short story and I found it an enjoyable read.

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