Title: Catch Lili Too (Gamin Immortals#1) Author: Sophie Whittemore Genre: Paranormal, LGBTQ+ Release Date: 16 November 2020
Lili is a Mesopotamian siren, and life as an immortal being is hard enough as it is. She’s asexual (which is incredibly difficult to reconcile if your entire point as a mythical being is to seduce people to death). She’s also struggling with depression from being alive for so long.
Lili is an absolutely shoddy improv-detective trying to track down a serial killer so ruthless that it makes even her murderous soul uneasy. However, there’s something larger at work than just one serial killer. A small town is hiding an even deadlier, global-scale secret. Forget Area 51 conspiracies. This one beats them all. With magic.
So, what better way to spice up her eternal life than being hired as a vigilante detective to stop a serial killer? Anything, literally anything. She’d trade her left lung to get out of this. Or, perhaps, somebody else’s.
Brielle Bishop is supposed to be a pawn in Royce Brayshaw’s plans for payback. That would work if she didn’t shake his world up five minutes after meeting him.
Okay, peeps, this book put me through the wringer. I laughed. I got pissed off. I cried my ever-loving eyes out. Royce has always been a mess, and his book could not be anything other than a love story of epic messy proportions. You love him, and you know he is going to eff it up from the start.
I didn’t understand the animosity between Royce and Bishop that sets up the plot, but you need to have some crisis to have a story. Still, I loved Brielle, and she is a unique character to this series, very different from the earlier heroines. It’s nice not having an in your face female. Something softer for the most in your face Brayshaw is a plus. But watching Royce fight himself while all the previous MCs pulled for him and tried to get him to disengage his head from his bottom was ironic.
Earth is the first in the Elemental Reverse Harem Quartet, which promises to be a titillating new series by Helen J. Perry.
Malka Selby doesn’t know she’s a witch. The joke is more or less on her because all the men she encounters seems to know who and what she is. And the kinky menagé contest she’s having with her best friend to see who can have the most, the best, is getting lots of fodder as these men seem to make all her dreams come true.
Title: Submission (Fated Souls #2) Author: Elle Lincoln Genre: Paranormal Romance, Reverse Harem My rating: 5 of 5 stars
ARGH! And not in a pirate way. I’m so frustrated. What I thought would happen when I read the cliffhanger of Surrender occurred, and I’m not happy about it. I hate delayed gratification. I’m basically a human-cat –we human-cats don’t do that.
Submission introduces mate número cinco. Kade isn’t a full dozen doughnuts, and since Bean can’t help but devour all the doughnuts she sees, she’s a-okay with the whacked-out lycan. But with Kade comes a lesson in how the lycan world really works. That might be more than she is ready for, considering Bean becomes a vampire juice box on the first go. Kade might be crazy, but Sabina must be losing her mind. The Stockholm Syndrome she suffers has her wanting more of the danger that comes with the secrets of her new life.
The Reaper is a collection of short stories meant to tickle your senses. Whether it’s to avenge a betrayal, confront cruelty, punish hypocrisy, or revenge for murder, these gritty stories have one thing in common, and that is the dark, creepy feel of a thriller.
Jade Royal has a unique writing style that is straightforward and leaves a bit of a dirty taste in your mouth. She writes about straight-up ugly things and the payback for those sins. I had to take a break. I couldn’t read this short compendium all the way through in one sitting.
One of the things I could appreciate is the sense of doom she infuses in all her work. She never promised any silver linings in any of these stories, and you knew upfront what you were reading. I liked that.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys horror-thriller.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary advance copy of this book.
I have read that you have received a good deal of negative feedback because you named a female main character after yourself. I think it’s brilliant, and haters gonna hate. What was your thinking there? Why did you want to name her after you? And how much of Janie, the character, is you? Ooh, those are loaded questions. This is going to be a lengthy response! To properly explain, I have to give a lot of background. I originally drafted this story on Wattpad a few years ago. I had no idea it would become so successful—it had over 24 million reads before I pulled the incomplete draft. So I was not prepared for the attacks that came from the instant Team Kylie readers. They didn’t care about the fact that Jane, Janie’s G&M form, was named after me because I was trying to heal myself. When I decided to write G&M, I was grieving my best friend’s death, my marriage was falling apart, and I was suffering from severe depression, anxiety, PTSD from sexual abuse and other traumatic stuff, and learning to cope with a Bipolar Disorder diagnosis. All they cared about was “this is Kylie’s story… get over yourself.” They didn’t care about anything I was actually doing—only that they wanted Kylie and Logan, and it was wrong of me to shove myself down their throats. Or to give myself the hottest guy. Lol.
Anyway, it was my late friend, Tifani, who told me on the day we found out she wasn’t going to survive that I needed to share my story. After writing the first chapter as a sort of memoir/horror story, I chickened out. Then I saw Jane in my mind. She was me, but also not. I gave her part of my soul, my name(Janie is a diminutive of Jane), and I gave her every bit of sorrow, fear, pain, but also happiness, my hopes, and my heart. I still almost changed her name, but it felt wrong to ask another to suffer what she would. Together, we pulled each other through the journeys we were on. She gave me strength and I made her fight harder to show me I could survive. When it came time to writing WAotBBW, she was meant to be there for reasons readers will find out. And on her first appearance in the book, I wrote Janie instead of Jane. I hit backspace, but she appeared in my mind, shaking her head at me. Her boys did the same, and I realized she was telling me to be braver, be greater. To truly not hide anymore and embrace myself. After all, the story I was telling with WAotBBW is my way of speaking to my daughter and the continued path of healing I was undertaking for myself. So even with the insults, the threats, and plagiarism I held strong. I couldn’t turn my back on my girl. So Janie is my acceptance that I’m a very flawed girl. I’m one that can be hated and admired. I can be broken and healed. I can be brave and I am always loved. Never forgotten.
Wicked Wolves and Tangled Truths
by Danielle Annett
Title: Wicked Wolves and Tangled Truths (Blood and Magic: Hellbound #1) Author: Danielle Annett Genre: Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy Release Date: 25 September 2020
Summary:
Welcome to Hellbound High, where the students carry weapons and the bullies bite … hard.
I never wanted to go to this stupid school. I had a life before coming here. A Pack. People who cared about me. But all of that is torn away when my mother dies, my boyfriend cheats on me, and my very human father rips me away from the only life I’ve ever known.
I thought my life couldn’t get much worse, but Hellbound High is about to prove me wrong. Just by showing up, I’ve caught the attention of the local Alpha’s son. Goody.
He’s arrogant, stubborn, and used to getting what he wants. Sometimes that’s to get into my pants. Sometimes it’s to make my life hell. He runs hot one minute and cold the next, leaving my head spinning.
But I have bigger problems than the school’s resident hot werewolf. I’m a lone wolf in a new town, which means I have a big red target on my back.
With no Pack, no friends, and no protection, I’m about to find out just how bad things can really get …
For people who aren’t familiar with your book, what genre is Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Lol it’s all over the place. I mainly consider it A Coming of Age Fairy Tale Adaptation. But it has just about everything besides SciFi.
WAoTBBW is a spin-off from your previous series, Gods & Monsters. Could you explain where the characters of Kylie Hood and Logan Grimm come from and who they are? Ooh, you have to keep reading to find out. The big reveal comes in book 3 of the Big Bad Wolf Trilogy. It’s a huge twist when you read all of my books.
I have not read Gods & Monsters yet, but could you tell me what cross-over characters appear in WAoTBBW, and why should we know them? Gosh, there are too many to name. I’ll say every “soul” WAotBBW comes from G&M. Readers love finding out as they read. Some know right away who is who and others are stumped, but I do clarify in WAotBBW.
I am so pleased to have Fir’s story! What a story he has to tell!
Robin Kirk’s second book in The Bond Series, The Hive Queen, picks up with the Living Wood’s escape from Bounty. Fir and his nineteen brothers are heading east to the Master’s land. They’ve heard from the wildmen that he has a cure for the virus and that it’s a place for males–where men aren’t in the service of mothers.
Fir is against unbeatable odds from the start. He is full of self-doubt while trying to lead, and it tears him apart when anything goes sideways. And everything is going sideways. I liked that Robin Kirk builds Fir with such vivid internal struggle. It makes you understand his motivations and his actions better for it. It also helps that she highlights some of the Living Wood so you can see that his brothers pull him in all directions and muddle the pot often when he’s trying to do the right thing.
Title: The Bond (The Bond Trilogy #1) Author: Robin Kirk Genre: Dystopian Young Adult My rating:5 of 5 stars
I love these Dystopian/Sci-fi stories where I’m in a world where women control EVERYTHING. This sounds like it would be all good or super bad.
The Bond by Robin Kirk isn’t questionable at all; it’s all good.
Dinitra 584 KxA is a student struggling to pass her courses at the Collegium. It’s graduation day, and she has a dismal compendium with one weak merit. Truth be told, she spends most of the time she should be working on her studies drawing or painting. As she has to make and mix her paints–that takes up a lot of time. That’s how she finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, with two Legion’s Commanders questioning her for her artwork.
Oh, this book is sheer brilliance and so twisty-turny. I had no idea where we were going. Robin Kirk lead me around by the proverbial ear, and I read like an addict because the story is pure joy. Well, not joy like it makes you happy because much of it makes your heart a little sore but joy in that it’s a damn good book.
