10th Book of the Year

 Wolf from the Past by N.J. Walters

Spoiler Version. 

Finally my man Gator gets his book! Sylvie, Armand's dead sister isn't quite so dead. She was attacked and left for dead by her mate Andre (who Jacques killed in a previous book) and she used that to her advantage and ran away. She lived among the humans for years. But, when she heard Andre was dead she reached out to an underground network in her old pack and Cole's mom told her where to go. So, she drives out to Salvation to find her brother, and she also finds Gator. He has known that she was his true mate for forever. So he was surprised when she showed up alive. And while she was terrified of everyone and everything he was the first to notice and give her space and go at her pace. Armand was happy and confused that she was alive. She and Gator become a thing. We learn that his real name is Etienne and the story of how he came to be called Gator. Sylvie is easing into pack life when Andre's brother, Travis, shows up and tries to take her. It doesn't end well for him when Gator kills him. Once Sylvie is healed from the attack she and Gator perform the mating ceremony. Armand is not happy when he first finds out they have been together, but by the mating he is happy. Sylvie decides she's going to learn how to quilt. And Louis is sad because he's the only unmated one now. Also, Pierre, the alpha of their former pack is realizing that he's losing quite a few men, but he's not willing to give up his fight with his sons for leaving and forming their own pack. I was convinced that Louis was going to be book 2, but he's actually last. I liked that this showed Sylvie how a pack could be, and that everyone was so understanding on her touch aversion. I really enjoyed this one. 

9th Book of the Year

 Icebreaker by Hannah Grace 

Spoilers!!!

I read this book in a day. This is one of those books that has a deceiving cover; it was much deeper and much spicier than the cover lets on. I have never met another person or character who vomits when under stress; most people look at me with concern when they hear vomiting is my go to stress response, so to have Stas have the same issue was mind blowing. I loved Anastasia. She was strong, determined, hopeful, and trusting. But she also faced her fears, grew, and learned how to stand up for herself. Nate was everything you hope for in a modern (non-fantasy) man. He was strong, protective, understanding, open, and communicative. He knew not only when to apologize, but how. That their relationship started with animosity was adorable; fighting the attraction, at least on her side. He was all in from the start. I loved Lo and his teammates. Aaron was so obviously a narcissist and Nate hated him from the jump. He was so manipulative and refused to own up to anything. And he was intentionally starving her, and making comments about her weight. Nate showed great restraint by waiting to punch him until Aaron forcibly kissed Stas at the end of their competition. I am so happy that not only was Nate able to get there, but he was able to be her support after the forced kiss. When she quit pairs and Aaron told he she wasn't good enough to make it on her own, he should have gotten punched again. I'm so glad that Stas told the dean the truth about what really caused Aaron's injury, but I'm not sure how she found out since only Nate was told. Still, having her win an Olympic singles medal was amazing. And Nate getting not only a Stanley Cup, but traded to her hometown was cute. I normally hate an accidental pregnancy, but since this was at the end of the book and they were well and truly established as a couple it was fine. I did not realize this was going to be part of a series until I was writing this review. But, I am very much looking forward to more books in this series, and more books by this author.

2nd Five Star Read of the Year

 These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan 

Spoiler Version 

Oh. My. Gosh. This book had everything. Fantasy. Romance. Vengeance. Lies. Deception. Everything! I am obsessed. Brie only wants to protect her sister, so when Jas is sold to the Unseelie King she goes to the fairy world to try to get her back, and she is pretending to be interested in marrying the Seelie Prince. But, turns out the guy she has been crushing on for the past two years is really the Prince! So, it's not hard to pretend to want him, except for the fact that he lied to her about who he was. Then she meets Finn, the rightful heir to the Unseelie throne (his uncle is the current king, but he doesn't have the crown so he can't sit in the throne). He and Brie become friends and his people help her learn to control her powers, becoming shadow and controlling darkness. She has to find and retrieve three objects for the Unseelie King, and they are in the possession of the Seelie so she is lying to Sebastian to try to get back her sister. Sebastian, meanwhile, has to play bachelor and date the other candidates to be his bride which makes Brie jealous. But he only wants her. They sleep together (fade to black). And she finds out that she already has the crown, so she sits on the throne and kills the Unseelie King. She finds out that original king, Finn's dad, loved her mom and when she was in the fire as a child he gave his life to save her. She also finds out that Finn was only using her, trying to make her fall in love with him so she would bond with him thereby giving him her crown. But instead she bonds with Sebastian, who she has been in love with for two years. But, she has lots of pain during the bond. Whelp, she's dying. Again. He gives her the elixir of life and she lives and wakes up to find out that he is being crowned king. She assumes that his mother died. Nope. The man that raised him wasn't actually his father. He and Finn are half-brothers. The man that loved her mother and gave his life to save her, that Unseelie King was Sebastian's father. With their bonding he now has her crown. But, she still has her powers and is immortal. She blankets everything in darkness and leaves. She can feel Sebastian, his fear and anxiety, and see him but he can't see her. The book ends with him telling her "we need to talk" and her leaving. I cannot. DECEPTION!!! Deception all around. And this is a duology, which is great because I can't handle a really long series if I'm not going to get answers, immediately.

7th Book of the Year

 The Gift of Battle  by Morgan Rice

Spoiler Version 

I am so glad this series is finally finished. Reese didn't actually die; Thor brought him back to life. They escape the land of blood and Thor goes on a quest by himself; to find the sorcerer's ring where he battles himself and finally becomes the king of the druids. Gwen leads the people of the Ridge out and back to the Ring. They are joined by Eric and the people of the Southern Isles. Reese's girlfriend dies a final time and just as she dies his cousin that he also loves shows up so now Reese is with his cousin. Alistair finally tells Eric that she's pregnant. She uses her magic to help in the fights. The baby dragon helps Thor in the fights. Darius helps destroy the Empire ship that is holding him captive and re-joins Gwen and company. Gwen and Eric and Reese get back to the Ring but Thor isn't in sight. Gwen leads the battle and then Thor finally shows up and basically single-handedly defeats the Empire. Then the Blood Lord shows up and surprise: it's his dead father reincarnated. So he has to defeat him. Argon retrieves the destiny sword and sacrifices himself to do it. Thor almost dies but sees his mother in a vision and she tells him that love is the only thing that can defeat darkness. And then he wins. Fast forward 12 moons; so he is finally 16 and finally getting married. As are all of the couples that have been established. Everyone is happy. Nobody of importance to the story died. And they are back where they started.

6th Book of the Year

A Touch of Ruin by Scarlett St. Clair

Spoiler Version 

This was enjoyable, but it didn't have the choke hold on me that the first book did. Persephone is trying to date Hades, keep her divinity a secret, and live a mortal life. It's not going well. She is being punished by her boss for writing about Apollo and getting backlash. She and Hades have communication issues. Demeter is now a full on villain desperately trying to break them up. That is not a scared mother trying to protect her kid, now she just wants to exert control over her child in any way possible. Lexa is hit by a car and Hades can't help her so she turns to Apollo, but Lexa's soul was already fractured so she returns to living, but ends up killing herself because she can't do life anymore. Persephone at least gets to meet her at the Styxx and say her goodbyes, and now they get to meet in Elysium while Lexa heals. Meanwhile, there's Lucee, one of Hades' former lovers. Demeter is using her as a pawn, while Persephone has been just trying to help her. Persephone quits her job and starts an online paper, a blog. She also has a stalker who is a demigod. His torture in Tartarus is going to be fantastic since he kidnapped Persephone and was going to rape her. Hades proposes multiple times and she finally says yes. And the book ends with snow in August, it' means war is coming. They are obviously setting up Demeter for even more horrible actions just because she is mad Persephone is with Hades.While this wasn't as strong as the first book I still enjoyed it and I will be continuing with the series.

5th Book of the Year

Wolf on the Run by N.J. Walters

Spoiler Version

This book focused on Cole, not Gator like I was hoping. However, it was nice to see Cole as more than just the strong silent type. He had actual dialogue in this one! Cherise gets home from work to find her mother murdered. She gets all of the money she can find, takes the new fake ID, and heads to the bus station where she starts criss-crossing the country trying to stay away from her former pack. She and her mom ran when she was a teenager because Cherise got really sick as a child and her wolf died so she can't shift. She falls asleep in a bus station and has a dream about Salvation so she gets a ticket for as close to the town as she can get. Cole is on patrol when he hears movement and scents new wolves. The three members of her pack who killed her mom found her; they plan to rape her before they kill her. Cole is not okay with that and he kills them and takes her back to the house. He realizes almost immediately that she is special to him; real special. She is scared, but the pack is welcoming. She and Cole get cozy, then she tries to sneak out. Gator catches her. She spends more time there, tells them about her issue with her former pack, and makes friends. Then Cole decides to deal with it so he sneaks out when she is asleep and heads to Kentucky. She has the same idea, but Gator catches her at the cars. He realizes Cole's truck is missing and they go to the main house. The entire pack decides they are making the trip because literally nobody listens to the alpha. Jacques had one of the funniest lines of the entire series (so far) in this book. Cole shows up to a pack meeting and boldly announces who he is, what he did, and why he's there. He kills 2 of the 3 family members of the 3 that he already killed. The alpha of the Pike County pack is getting ready to deal with Cole, with words, when Cherise and everyone else show up. Her former alpha tells her that he told her dad to leave, but he was afraid they wouldn't be safe so he challenged for alpha and that's how he died. He didn't send anyone after them. He tells the pack she is banished and that's the end of it. She and Cole head home with the rest of his (now her) pack. Her former alpha has to deal with some challenges but he wins and retains control. We also hear from Jacques's dad; he is going to start causing problems again, probably in the next book. It was nice to have a female main character who already knew about pack dynamics in this one. And to have the previous characters play such a big role in this was good. This is a solid series that I am enjoying.

4th Book of the Year

 A Joust of Knights by Morgan Rice. 

Spoiler Version. 

This series is so redundant. Every few chapters Thor looks to his Legion brothers and realizes they are true brothers. He has been having this realization for 16 books, you would think he would know that by now. Oh, and every army they face is a professional army. And they all assess that with their professional warrior's eye. I wish this series was this horrible from the jump so that I wouldn't have had to listen to the entire thing, because spite and rage are the only things keeping me going at this point. Thankfully, there is only one book left in this horrible series. Gwen has been asked by the King of the Ridge to be the leader if something happens to his children and they all die. Gwen has made friends with his youngest daughter, who can read at super speed, and remember all of it. Kendrick and bros went out with some of the knights of the Ridge to cover their tracks, one of them Nate, hates Kendrick, even after Kendrick saves his life. The kings youngest son goes with them and gets captured during his patrol. Thor and co. catch up to the gargoyles, but aren't fast enough, and the baby dragon can't cross the waterfall of blood to enter the land of blood, so he has to go on the ship. They arrive on the straight of madness and everyone, surprise surprise, goes mad. O'Conner (O'Connell, whatever his name is, the archer) jumps into the water and dies. Thor tries to kill himself but the sword of the dead instead kills Reese, right as they near the end of the madness. So, with one book left, it's time to start killing off characters. Darius is in the capitol arena and of course, he is the only one who survives and just before he's about to get killed his trainer saves him because Darius is is son. So obvious. Godfrey is hiding in a bunker. Eric is going to save a city of slaves instead of sailing for the first Empire city Gwen landed in. Alistair finally told Eric that she's pregnant. Argan woke up and he told Gwen that Thor and Gwaine are lost to her as she has known them, so obviously they will all be reunited in the last book, but Thor will be greatly changes since he killed his best friend and her brother. I hate this book. I hate this series. I can't wait for it to be over and to never read another Morgan Rice book again.

1st Five Star Read of the Year!!!

Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Peterson *SPOILER VERSION*

This book has a bit of everything: action, adventure, enemies to lovers, backstabbing, secrets, intrigue, confessions. I was giggling and smiling pretty much the entire time. They are chained together and the only way they will survive is if they work together. Then they kiss to "make the best of it" after telling each other riddles and stories to help them sleep. And then they start to learn about each other and suddenly they might not be enemies. Normally I hate secret keeping as a plot device, but it worked because of Kazi's job. And then Jace kept secrets too, but he was keeping them until he gained more information. But, when it was time for the big escape it was foiled, and for a while it was made to seem like Kazi got the sleeping medicine before Jace noticed and it would work, but she didn't. Then Jace got himself captured, and one of Kazi's friends thinks he did it on purpose to protect her *swoon*. She finally told him the truth about why she was there, and about the person she was sent to capture, as well as the others that she captured, and he didn't believe her at first. Then, he was their actions for himself and suddenly he did. Kazi gets her captives to the queen and the queen asks to hear about all of them; she spends quite a bit of time talking about Jace and his family. So much so that the queen summons him from his cell. The queen ships them!!! She acknowledged him and his right to rule, then she made it so that Kazi had to go back with him as an ambassador, because she heard how Kazi talked about him and noticed how they looked at each other. The queen is doing some real wing woman work. At the end of the book we find out that while they were traveling his home was attacked and we have no idea who is alive, who is dead, who is friend, and who is foe.The ending set up book 2 beautifully. I am obsessed and can't wait to listen to the next one!

2nd Book of the Year

Scottish Brides Spoiler version 

 

This book has four novellas so I will review one separately.

Under the Kilt by Christina Dodd: 3.5* Hadden finally gets his story, and frankly it was not enough for me. He needed an entire full length novel. I wanted to know so much more about Andra, their initial meeting and courtship, and I wanted this story to last longer. The marriage kilt was a nice touch, and her using it as a blanket after their *activities* was cute. As was them being awakened by all of the characters from the previous books. But, they deserved more.

Rose in Bloom by Stephanie Laurens: 4* I did not recognize any of the characters from previous books, but they may be minor characters in books that I haven't read yet. Duncan and Rose have known each other since they were children; she was the annoying tag-along who followed him everywhere. Now, they are both at his mother's house for her Midsummer activities. Both have also brought prospective suitors. It is ridiculously obvious that neither suitor is going to be enough. In fact, they should end up with each other, except for the fact that Clarissa is 19 and the age gap with her and Jeremy would be yucky (it's certainly yucky with her and Duncan but he's not really interested in her so it's fine). Clarissa shows herself to not only be the wrong one, but a heartless one when while out for a ride they all hear the cries of a child and she wants to leave the kid (kids as it turns out) and just worry about herself and the ball. Jeremy reluctantly takes her back to the house while Duncan and Rose search the caves and find two brothers who they save. The boys end up being fine and they try to return to the ball, but miss the last dance. Everyone that sees them together says it's about time and then that night he seduces her. She tells Jeremy no the next day but he's not having it so Duncan shows up and calls Rose his countess to be, cutting off any protestations from Jeremy. This was longer than the first novella in the book and the characters felt more fleshed out, their relationship didn't feel rushed. I liked how this played out.

Gretna Greene by Julia Quinn: 4.5* I did not recognize any of these characters, but I loved every second of it. I adore Julia Quinn. Her books are full of humor and this was no exception. Margaret and Angus were hilarious together. Margaret runs off to Gretna Greene by herself to stop her brother from eloping. Angus is trying to catch up to his sister who has decided to run away to her great-aunt in London because she wants a season. Margaret ends up in some trouble and Angus saves her. He then makes her pretend to be his wife so they can get rooms, turns out there's only one room left, with only one bed. Unfortunately they do not make use of it. She thinks she sees her brother and goes running out after him, but it's not him. The innkeeper hears him call her by her "maiden" name and says there's a messenger looking for her so Angus goes to get the message. Turns out her brother lied, he's really off joining the army. The next morning Angus is out looking for the perfect breakfast for Margaret and he finds his sister. He goes storming off after her and Margaret see, so she goes after him and she ends up acting as the intermediary between the two. The Angus proposes and she accepts. They elope and have a fade to black wedding day, while sister goes to London.Even though this was a novella the characters felt complete and the story didn't seem rushed. Very enjoyable.

The Glenlyon Bride by Karen Ranney: 2.5* I do not like secret keeping as a trope, and mistaken identity falls into the same category. If Lachlan had ever actually communicated with Janet instead of just assuming she was his betrothed, then they wouldn't have had this problem. Janet was great and I really felt for her and understood her. Jeremy was such a good person and if I read Karen Ranney I would desperately hope that he got a book of his own, because if there's ever a character that deserved a happy ending it's him. Overall, this was fine but not as strong as the other three books. I wouldn't have ended the book with this novella since it was the weakest of them all.
 

1st Book of the Year

A Dream of Mortals by Morgan Rice. *SPOILERS* I am so close to finishing this horrid series. It is most definitely a hate read/listen. But things are still so up in the air that I'm not sure how it's all going to be fixed in the final two books because everyone is still in danger. Gwen and co. made it to the new ring, which is called the Ridge. But, it and its king, are dying. Also, the ruling family of the ridge just so happen to be McGills, that's right they are long lost relatives. Thor was attacked by pirates, but with the help of his new daughter they won and now have a nice ship. They found Eric and helped them defeat the Empire ships that had them surrounded with the power of family. *eye roll* Then the baby dragon showed up again and led Thor away from Eric and the Empire and back to the land with his uncle and son. But, uncle was using is seeing stalagmites and saw that the island would be covered in black, Gwain would be taken, and he (uncle) would die. So he goes to the spot of the island and watches as the demon hoard flies toward him. Meanwhile, Godfrey and co. get out of jail and get revenge on the guy who betrayed them. They then make friends with that guys cousin who hated him and they form an alliance. Lastly, Darius and his friends that survived are sent to fight in the arena, gladiator style. Darius is the only one of his friends that survives. But, at the end he got help from somewhere, probably Godfrey and his new allies. This series should be good, but it's like every bad thing that can happen is happening and has been happening for 15 straight books. Also, the author is very repetitive with the phrases they use which is annoying. When I am done with this series I will not read any more works by this author.

It's Been a While

I finished grad school and thought I was never going to need or want to use this blog again. And here I am, 3.5 years later turning it into a book review forum. The first reviews will be fast and furious as it's already 2 weeks into the year and I'm trying to get caught up on the books I have already read. But, like on goodreads and storygraph, I don't really expect anyone to pay attention to my reviews. This is just to give me something to do. So, here comes the rebrand!