Ali: Raylene I love your blog and the gallery element is fantastic. Tell me a little about Booknook Reviews. Raylene: Thank you, Ali. That means a lot! Booknook Reviews features reviews on some of the sexiest books found in the romance genre. My aim is to unite bookworms while supporting new a d established authors.
Ali: Bloggers have such a difficult job managing and gathering content. What do you most love to post on your blog? Raylene: I love posting trigger warnings so I can give other readers a heads up.
Ali: My guy suggested earlier that I am in book blogging because I’m a shameless hussy for free books. What inspired you to have a review blog? Raylene: 1) It was the draw of free books for me too. Hands down. Netgalley’s support articles suggested having a blog as a means to receive free books. 2) I needed something that was just mine. Not my husband’s or my son’s or my employer’s. Just mine.
Title: Dreams of Fire Author: Christian Cura Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, LGBTQ My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Good vs. Evil.
Witches, demon slayers, spells, family loyalty, love, heartache, rivalry, friendship, and betrayal are the core of Christian Cura’s Dreams of Fire plot. If you enjoy Lev Grossman’s Magicians or the tv adaptation of L.J. Smith’s Secret Circle, Dreams of Fire is something that could appeal to you.
Dedication to protecting non-mystics from magic-users with ill intent is what drives the Hartman Family. But the world of magic isn’t easily policed. The inciting incident of this story lies in temptation. All people can act in a good or evil fashion, or both at the same time. True good is the ability to make the difficult choice, a selfless act when confronted with the temptation to work outside of the mystic world rules.
Kara Hartman fell prey to the slippery slope of mischief run amok and fell into the clutches of lawlessness while studying magic at the prestigious Academy of Mystic Arts. The line she didn’t draw soon enough is now a death shroud marked by betrayal. She survived the unhappy end of a losing battle but with blood on her hands. Now the reluctant mystic is a scarred artist starting over in a more comfortable setting. But her escape is hindered by the mere fact that a blind eye isn’t a way out.
This novel is an excellent start to the series but is fraught with red ink mistakes.
Title: Viper (Bones MC #4) Author: Marteeka Karland Genre: MC Romance Release Date: December 13, 2019
Summary:
Darcy: I didn’t run away from a sadistic stepfather and a mother who wouldn’t protect me from him to be carted off by a strange man. I fought the son of a bitch. Woulda won, too, except the bastard had help. He was rough around the edges and some kind of bad-ass biker so there was no way this was going to work out well. Unfortunately, he called to me on a purely sexual level. Made my heart race and my body melt just by looking at me. It didn’t help that he was actually nice to me. He claimed to know my dad. My real dad. Said he’d been sent to bring me back. I had no idea if I believed him or not. Just didn’t really have a choice but to go along with him. At least for now.
Viper: I tracked the cunning little wench for three fuckin’ days. In the fuckin’ snow. Little wench was good, too. She survived on her own in a hostile environment with only a little trouble. That alone would have given me respect for her, but then she had to go and kick me in the balls. Had I not been on the ground in agony, I’d have been turned on beyond belief. Now, with her safely under my protection, I’ve got to figure out how to keep my hands off her so her father won’t kill my sorry ass. He’s our intel man and one of my best friends, so I don’t want to cause him grief. But I want Darcy. Badly.
As Christmas nears, an enemy approaches us with a unique gift. One that will leave all of us with hard choices. Darcy especially. What unfolded next was never somethin’ any of us planned for.
Title: Behind Friendly Lines: Memoirs of a US Marine in Chile Author: Mark McGraw Genre: Travel, Military, Religion, Personal Memoir Release Date: November 04, 2019
Summary:
Behind Friendly Lines is the story of a US Marine officer serving as the only foreigner in the Chilean Marine Corps’ most important combat unit. Lieutenant Colonel Mark McGraw arrives with his young family to Chile full of optimism and certainty about his ability to navigate the obstacles of language, customs, and security, but quickly runs headlong into difficulties presented by a tragedy in the home, a commander initially hostile to Americans, and the isolation of his family’s inability to speak and understand Spanish. The author takes the reader far off the tourist’s beaten path on dangerous missions from the far-flung arid northern deserts to the frigid Straits of Magellan where he lived, trained, and suffered alongside the Chilean Marines. Behind Friendly Lines explores the challenge of recalibrating nearly every facet of a family’s existence while forging lifelong friendships and learning irreplaceable lessons.
What does it mean to serve your country while learning to love another one on the other side of the world? How does a family adjust to life in a new place and then find that they must adjust again to the place they always considered home? This memoir raises questions about the nature of nation, service, and belonging, while providing an honest view of American foreign policy decisions from a retired military officer.
Title: The Enigma Dragon (Enigma Series #9) Author: Breakfield & Burkey Genre: Technothriller Release Date:September 2017
Summary:
Mike and Marge control ePETRO, an oil shipping business with offices in London and New York, but they don’t have the same business goals in mind. Marge intends to sell the North Koreans uranium in addition to oil obtained illegally from the government sanctioned Middle East. But Mike may have other plans, mainly, keeping the profits of these sales for himself.
Then there is the shadowy Steven Christopher, who oversees the information runners who are charged with staying off the grid, is working several angles behind the scenes. Steven is the only one trusted by both Marge and Mike, but why?
Do the vast amounts of information and technology available hold humans’ hostage? Do analog communications sidestep your vulnerability in a digital world?
As Juan and Julie Rodríguez send their operatives, Ernesto, Tyler, Summit, Mercedes, Brayson, and George out across the globe to track down these foot soldiers also known as Analog Information Mules, they’ll discover the horrible potential treats, and learn about each other along the way.
Julie heads to London to fill the gap undercover inside ePetro, when she finds herself in the center of all the trouble. When Julie disappears, Juan drops everything to find her.
Even with all their information gathering sources and machinery, the R-Group fears she is lost.
Award winning authors, Breakfield and Burkey, take readers on a new techno thriller adventure with their 9th book in The Enigma Series. The Enigma Dragon is chilling journey across four continents, and twelve cities that uncovers terrifying possibilities of what is to become of our world if the CATS team cannot defeat our enemies.
What are Readers saying
Kirkus “Astute prose and an unwavering pace energized by first-rate characters and subplots.”
“The action could be considered exciting and visceral, but the antagonists are the selling points for this book, lifting the plot out of multiple perspectives and scene-shifting (the action takes place across four continents).”
“Any lover of thrillers or techno-thrillers will enjoy this book a lot.”
“The clever ingenuity in this book astounds me (the holy man… so quickly creative!)”
Title: Lost Boy (The Neverland Transmissions #2) Author: J.M. Sullivan Genre: Sci-fi, Retelling, YA Release Date: December 17, 2019
Summary:
Wendy swore she would return . . .
But Peter isn’t willing to wait. After marooning himself on Neverland to ensure his crew’s return home, Peter is determined to find a way off the ageless planet and back to the Jolly Roger and Wendy’s arms. Looking to the future, he presses on, until someone from his past reveals the dark secrets hidden in Neverland’s depths.
Meanwhile, traveling across distant galaxies, Wendy’s ship is failing. With systems malfunctions increasing and supplies running low, Wendy and her crew must find a way to keep the antiquated vessel afloat. But creaks and groans on an aging vessel aren’t the Captain’s only concern–there are whispers onboard, quiet voices skittering through the shadows that warn of something much more sinister.
Amy Summers: Everything that is Right in a RomCom.
I don’t read many books where the hero feels like a secondary character, but Asking for a Friend seems like that. Amy is EPIC in a mega galactic fashion, which means that Superman becomes an afterthought. This cake obsessed Betty Boop is all Linc Silvers thinks about, and this chick should take up real estate in everyone’s mind. It certainly doesn’t hurt those things she loves, the obsessions she has, and her random outbursts run along similar tracks as mine.
Vote for Amy! Pajamas do need advocacy, and I believe Amy will fight for justice and appreciation for the fantabulousness of super casualwear.
I’ve always loved a good gothic mystery, and countless novels have inspired me. Everything from Jane Eyre to The Hound of the Baskervilles to Rebecca. Then there are the more horror-heavy gothic masterpieces including The Woman in Black, The Haunting of Hill House, The Turn of the Screw, and the sinister short stories of MR James (such as The Ash Tree). More recently I’ve been inspired by novels such as The Corset and The Silent Companions.
If you like any of these, then my novel Phantom Audition will be right up your street. It concerns widowed actress Mia Yardley, who investigates the mysterious suicide of her famous actor husband, Steven. Before his death, Steven took a film role playing famous abstract painter Edward Bingley, who also committed suicide in mysterious circumstances. When Mia discovers her husband only took roles based on consultations with a medium, she comes to suspect her husband may have buried himself in the role a little too much – to the point where supernatural forces could be involved.
Title: Steel Princess (Royal Elite Book #2) Author: Rina Kent Genre: Dark Bully High School Romance Release Date:December 12, 2019
I hate everything and everyone now.
Rina broke me again, and I want nothing more now than my cat, Xanax, and a panic room.
Deviant King is a mind screw of grand proportion full of little hints and easter eggs enough to make one bedlamite. The story is chockablock of broken characters who are far beyond repair; every damn one of them has more baggage than the Louis Vuitton outlet store. All the females are needy for love and affection but trade any hope for good things so they can live off the interest of the lies they tell themselves about the great future the could have if only they spring there trap. —Note to Elsa, Kim, Silvers, and Blair: You ARE your cage.
The only character that isn’t an A-hole of monstrous proportions is Uncle Jaxon. But don’t worry because in Steel Princess Rina breaks him too.
Both books have Elsa and Aiden considering the concepts of intuition and inevitability as their opening chapter. We return to philosophy, and Sartre: Elsa and Aiden both struggles with the ultimate existential crisis: are they the player or the game? In Steel Princess, there are references throughout Aiden’s POVs of his worldview; he’s the player; manipulation won’t work on him anymore. He mastered himself in the darkness of his childhood, nursing himself upon the suffering and pain forced upon him to create a self-possessed demon without weakness — a villain entirely in control of his victim.
But regardless of all Aiden’s encouragement, he hasn’t been able to get Elsa to stop being the game and to embrace her power. Elsa spent all of Deviant King saying bullies shouldn’t be understood. Rina has created her character with enough subconscious awareness to know that her amnesia, her scar, and her submissiveness are the seal on her Pandora’s box, and the key to it is to look into the abyss.
So in book two, our Steel Princess is born upon the sacrificial stone of Deviant King’s poolside cliffhanger; the revelation has finally come to Elsa that she needs to remover herself from the Kings’ gameboard. But it hasn’t occurred to her that all her research on strategy and attack is absurd in the light that she refuses to recognize what she controls. She is focused on the smallest most inconsequential parts of the larger picture and settles for crumbs when she owns the bakery.
This book is a rabbit hole of epiphany and discovery; admissions, confessions, and betrayals unloaded automatic assault weapon style and land like bombs. But the more you learn, the more you realize that you know nothing at all. For all of Rina Kent’s unbundling of backstory explaining what ingredients went into creating present-day Elsa and Aiden, we can’t begin to guess how two monsters will build their twisted kingdom. The last few pages only murky the waters further. I hate it. I hate how badly I want more. I want a nap.
