Temple of Ice

3 Stars

I started this book thinking I'd really be into it. Definitely one of the stronger openings I've read. The action was great, the world was interesting. The characters were okay. It was looking like an easy 4.5 stars. Unfortunately, the deeper I got into it, the more sighs and headshakes occurred. For a book with decent flow and even a decent plot, the characters didn't match up and kinda left an underdeveloped feeling. That and technically some choices just didn't make sense.

Katana of Trust: A Samurai Fantasy (The Kami Prophecy Book 1)

3stars

This was a fun read. I honestly almost enjoyed it. It seemed like, after the prologue, that it was going somewhere but then it sorta didn't. I kept waiting for the story to move somewhere but didn't get that feeling of actually learning something or that 'take away from reading this' feeling.

The Gatekeeper of Pericael

5stars

This one was a tough review. Mostly because I had a lot of negative reactions to it. But I'm giving it five stars all the same. I toyed with two stars but this one gets a pass even with my negative reaction to it.

Once Upon A Witch

3stars

This was a fun story. I did enjoy it but and as far as humour goes, I laughed. A lot. But it was the mystery angle. Something about the clues that weren't really clues. Like every time information was supposed to be received nothing knew was actually garnered. The only real clue was the tea thing. Most times, if you have read enough mysteries you will know who the killer is. I usually ignore this depending on how fast I figure it out. The problem here was I still don't really know anything about the killer per se except that he was the killer. They weren't followed around much. No real background data was dug up about them.

Her Last Winter

3stars

This was an interesting story. I read the preview of the first chapter and decided this would be a story I could dig into. For the most part, this proved to be true. For a short story, it flowed pretty well. It didn't try to give up too much information knowing the pages weren't there to dig into that. A story about a woman dealing with a missing husband and how this has come to affect her life. It was believable, for the most part. It was the ending that undid it.

Study Me

2 Stars

Let's start off by saying that the jock and nerd trope is one of my favourites. That being said, I couldn't really dig into this one. The relationship didn't progress but seemed more to just suddenly happen. And the writing style was a bit confusing. The author kept switching between, the blonde, the characters name, and the Jock, for the same character; sometimes even in the same paragraph. A few times I thought there was a new character in the room and had to reread some parts more than once to notice it was the same person talked about in three different ways. This held true not just for Justin, the jock, but also for Eric, the brunette. The inconsistency made it hard to read. Features and titles are usually used to talk about nameless characters, however, once you know their name the name is used. So it was just odd.

Caught Looking

2 Stars

This was an okay read. Not bad not good. I did enjoy it, but I felt like it could've been more. There was something about the dynamic between the two main characters where the tension just seemed off in places. And some decisions made weren't what I was expecting. Overall though, the story was a decent tale.

Lured By The Alien

4 Stars

This was so much fun to read. For the most part, the pacing was on point. The characters were a delight to read. I laughed so much reading this. It's definitely my type of funny. I had a few issues with it. They were only annoying enough to lose one star. As a whole, this book wins.

Work Trip

4 Stars

I really enjoyed this novel. It was short fun steamy. I mean what more do you need really. What I liked the most about it is how it flowed. It wasn't full of all the angst of getting into a relationship. Didn't have all that breakup drama that irrational and unbelievable misunderstandings create. Two people end up sharing a room by a slight mishap and the two of them gradually fall into a fun exciting relationship without any of the distracting cliches/hiccups.

Accidentally Yours: Six Degrees of Love book 1

2 stars

This one started off well for me but I couldn't really stick with it. A wrong number that turns into an angsty romance was a good idea in theory but didn't quite work. One thing that bugged me is when Josh first calls 'Ian' he spells his name E A N. I'm assuming this is because this is how the name is spelt. It doesn't stop there. When they first meet he also says 'Ian with an E', thus confirming that this is how 'Ian' spells his name. If this is a thing why through the entire book is his name spelt the way it is normally spelt which wouldn't have caused Josh's confusion to begin with. Unless the author had intentions of spelling Ian, Ean, I honestly don't see the point in this. It genuinely confused me.

His Wedding Love: A Contemporary MM Romance Bundle

2 stars

This review will be long as I will try to briefly explain each of the three books. Also, there's a high chance of spoilers.

I went into this with high hopes since the first book I read by this author I loved. These three, however. Didn't give me the same impression. Again what I like about this author is the lack of 'this can't work out cause' and the 'they don't really like me cause' and so on and so forth. That whole level of naivete and irrational relationship blocking is overused. Beyond that, the three stories kind of meandered into other things that just didn't work for me.

Snowed In In Key West

4 stars

I enjoyed reading this novel. It did a lot of the things that I'm not a fan of in romance genres but this author didn't really dwell on any of them so they didn't stick in an annoying 'not this again' kind of way.

Firstly Adler was not naked nearly enough. My best visual of him was chopping wood because who wouldn't want a hunky man chopping firewood in their yard, covered in snow?

Kissing A Fool

3stars

Two guys stuck in an awesome cabin for the weekend, this story had all the makings of awesome but it somehow didn't connect. Something about the premise of two grown adults who can't have a fling together and still maintain a working relationship didn't sit well in this book. There are people out there having affairs on their husbands and wives, men and women still concealing their sexuality, and the list goes on of adults secretly having sex and doing it well. It was hard, in this story, to connect with the idea that they couldn't as responsible adults enjoy each other's company without having to continuously mention nothing can happen between them. I guess for me it's odd that the only thing one can think of when finding someone attractive is it must turn into something serious. There are loads of people with mutual attraction and most of them are not compatible beyond physical attraction and that's perfectly okay.

All That Divides

4stars

I enjoyed this book. It's the first normal or just beyond normal length book that I haven't given up on in a while so that's a good sign. The plot flowed well, the characters, most of them, were easy to understand. All in all, it was a fairly good read. There were, however, a lot of typos. More than I could just ignore for review purposes. This was an ARC so I'm hoping it wasn't the final published draft.

Rock This Wolf

3stars

I had to really think about this one. At times it seemed amazing but it was difficult for me to read for a few reasons. The main reason that I wanted to love this was because of the heroine. One of my biggest gripes about women leads is when they ultimately end up needing the man to save them and they're pretty much useless but I'm supposed to follow them along like some great hero. Gina is anything but this. Basically, she rocks. She was a fighter without all the whiny nonsense involved stereotypically with female leads.

Protecting The Prince

2stars

Spoilers will more than likely happen and this will be long.

This book had its good points but overall I just couldn't really sink into it. The first fight in the book was just a little bit too stereotypical. Instead of me rooting for the girl I was just annoyed that out of all the fights they could be having it actually had poetry was gay. Seriously all, literally, all of the first spoken word artists I met were definitely not gay and that was over a decade ago. No one says this anymore. I've been breathing for four decades and I can not remember the last time someone actually said this. And if you get a gift card to a bookstore and you don't read why do you even care. Just let her get whatever book she wants you aren't going to read it anyway.

The Omega's Third Whish

3stars

This was a tough review. I didn't love this book but I didn't exactly hate it either. For the most part, it was a sweet story about a single dad finding love. What I did love about it though was that the main characters shift. I've read my share of Mpreg alpha omega stories with omegas being in heat and all of that and no one shifts. This always leaves me confused like are they wolves/shifters or not and if they aren't what's with all the Alpha and Omega talk. Now onto the more important stuff.

Dead on Arrival: Paranormal Cozy Mystery

 

4stars

This story was enjoyable. I like magic and a good mystery and this one had a nice balance to it. I dropped into this story not realising it was the third in a series. It does say so in the book as well as on the cover so if you're more observant than me you'll know. However, as I expect from a good mystery series, even with all the connecting previous backstories you did not need any of it for this story to work. It's its own separate entity and just the right amount of the characters' descriptions and what they bring from the previous books is hinted at for it to make sense, piece together some things and even be intrigued about the things you couldn't figure out but didn't need for this instalment.

Mark: Firefighter Curvy Woman Romance (Grover Fire Dept. Book 2)

3 Stars
 

This was a quick read. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into it.

Spoilers:

It started off well. With a steamy closet encounter. I was definitely into it. But then it fell into the cliche's way to quickly. It wasn't adult enough for me other than the erotic bit. The guy not calling is kind of overused. The girl getting mad about it is overused as well. In the interest of women not allowing the guy to dictate, have power over their emotions, her getting mad and throwing attituded when she finally met up with him again felt forced. Like was making a scene in a grocery store really that necessary. It screamed drama just because she could. And you could tell as the book went on they had history. Like they didn't just meet on the night and end up naked together. So with all that possibly lead to this he just decided, nah, I'm not gonna call which he knew was a bad idea, and she of course couldn't just be like whatever at least the sex was good and go about her business thus leading to the grocery encounter.

The Long Night: Blood Will Be Served

3stars

This review might contain spoilers.

I almost liked this book. It started of engaging, as I went through there were interesting bits about how the werewolf vampier folklore worked for this particular story and it did hit most of the points this fantasy genre hits with the extras designed to set it apart. The problem was the further I got into it the less I wanted to read it. The prologue didn't add anything to the book. Literally everything that was in it I figured out in the reading of the following pages. The typos were small at first so I basically ignored them cause editing is a tough process but as I kept reading they kept recurring. Usually it was a wrong-word-typo or an extra word or two that didn't get deleted from a fixed/changed sentence.

My Bosses Christmas Package

3stars

This was a light read. I knew it was short but that being said I still finished it faster than expected. The story was okay, not bad but not great either. It didn't grab me really. I had a few issues with it. My main one was that it read like it wanted to be a longer story instead of a short instalment in a series. Like the whole thing with the mother was a good character bit but ultimately this story was about Laura giving in to her feelings about her boss so there was zero page time to develop the mother-daughter connection. That page time could've been better spent drumming up the tension between Laura and her boss. It's a short story so every page counts in getting the readers to connect with the characters and this story read like it needed at least ten more pages to delve into the mind of the protagonist.

Total Knockout

 

3stars

This one was short and fun. I enjoyed reading it but I guess I was expecting more. More steamy monologues of Michaela watching him in the ring. More of him not being able to keep his eyes off of her. It was just that the blurb lead me to believe that there'd be some sexual tension building with her watching him in the ring but one fight does not an 'I can't focus on my job situation' make. Also, my other issue is I get that people are insecure but it just seemed like an aside versus an actual feeling she would have. He legit asked her out. He didn't skirt it, he didn't word it in some vague way. He very specifically said after the fight they should hang together. It was just frustrating to hear her continuously talking about how he doesn't really want her. I would've been way more onboard if she just said she would take it how she got it and if it was a one-nighter so be it and just lived her best life. I dunno. Maybe I've just read so many of these I'm over this plot direction mostly because it be so much more fun if they went out on faith that it was for real and if it wasn't well at least they got a really good date and some good sex out of it. No harm no foul. Just think about it once, then commit to the night without letting the impending doom everyone knows who's a fan of this trope, is not going to happen. That's part of why I can't get into it as well, I already know they're going to have a HEA so why not allow her to enjoy it to the fullest?

Three Sweets To The Wind

2stars

I didn't really love this book. I went into it thinking it's part of a mystery series. I've read my share of these and always by accidentally not knowing I was in a series. This is almost never a problem. It was here though. There was so much lingering information expected of me that I spent a good chunk of the book, before the murder happened, trying to figure out. How long she had been in West End, who was who to who and it was just a big ball of confusion really. My experience with mysteries series is each murder is a stand-alone case so it was odd to come into this as it was written like it was part of a previous novel and not its own separate case. Even television crime series, Closer, Criminal Minds, CSI, Law and order and the like, are all chuck full of back story that connects it's cast together but you can literally pop in anywhere and not need to know this stuff for the present case unless it's a two-part/rollover episode.

The following may contain spoilers.

Temple of the Inner Flame

4stars

I loved this story. Like really loved it. Non-review related but the cover is all sorts of awesome. I admit I skirted by this book a few times cause I've travelled down this road before but every time I came past this cover I reread the blurb again and finally said yeah I'll give it a try. Glad I did.

Kezia is a necromancer who hasn't quite received all her gifts so can't make the money she could if she had. She mostly works as a nurse for those who are moving on in life and a bartender at her brother's bar. What I loved about this story was the way it unfolds. The plot had a very nice rhythm to it for the most part, especially after she begins her quest to solve the death problem at the Temple of the Inner Flame. The secrets she discovers all unfold at just the right moments. The relationship with her ex doesn't have much of the annoying sassy avoidance drama that tends to permeate through novels of this kind. In fact, it was written well enough that I was secretly hoping something of that subplot would evolve but the author does an exceptional job of stating it's there but let's not lose focus it is not what this story is about and as a reader that was a smart choice.

Treasured

3stars

As far as insta-love goes, I rather enjoyed this one. It actually travels from meeting, to attempted murder, to connection, then the insta-love finally happens. It was the fact that there were other things going on that stopped the insta-love from being it's typical boring eye-rolling nonsense. That being said it's not fleshed out enough for a short story. Like it's trying to be more than what it is, although that helps balance out the insta-love it ultimately takes away from the plot because there isn't enough of it.

Theory Unproven

2stars

I went into this one with high hopes. The premise of it was interesting but it just didn't live up to my expectations. As far as slow burns go this was agonisingly slow. There was talk of clever flirtatious banter in the first half of the book but I never got that with Tyann's more than obvious rebuffs to Eric's advances. Also, the idea of the strong silent type being compared to rude bugged me. Almost like Eric had zero concept of personal space, this whole dynamic of him talking too much versus the other guy not really responding didn't come off as clever and witty flirtations. He seemed a bit pushy. However once we got passed this and there was some real evidence of flirtation, it was fun. Entertaining, engaging, basically it was just good. That was when I started to enjoy the novel, once the main characters really began to be fleshed out I guess. Unfortunately, I was thirty percent or so into the novel when this happened. But it was definitely good enough to get me more than invested in the novel. Steamy flirtation awesome, that lead up to a delightfully fun steamy scene. Unfortunately, this was also shortlived.

The Ranger's Boyfriend

2stars

This book was supposed to have that lonely older ranger meets younger guy feel. I didn't get much of that though. For an adult book, something about the writing style felt juvenile. Like the story is written in the first person but instead of it feeling like that the first time the characters are introduced it attempts to break the third wall by directly addressing the reader. It doesn't quite work. It should've just stuck in normal first person because it almost reads like it will happen again. Much like how the Lemony Snicket stories work where the narrator addresses the reader throughout the story and not just as an introduction. Since it's only an introduction just going with the flow like every other first-person story reveals backstory would've fit better and not seemed as if it wasn't an attempt at something.

His Christmas Crush

3stars

This book was okay. Nothing great but nothing so glaring it earns a bad review. It's you're typical first-time romance. Boy meets boy everything's happy. Fluffy kind of tale. It's a bit of a slow burn but it unveils fast enough for me to not be completely annoyed by it. It just didn't lift from the page. Even the adult scene didn't scream steam. It felt very niche and the only niche I came into this expecting was the age gap. I'm not sure it hit twenty years either so it wasn't age gapy enough. Maybe I"m weird but if you're still young enough for people not to be surprised you have a much younger sibling you're still not quite old enough to be age gape worthy. I honestly start at eighteen. You have to be out of high school before I start elementary for me to take an age gap seriously. Also, I found it odd for a college-age boy like Carter to say someone is grown and living on his own. Living on his own maybe but Grown? He's college age. Surely he's at a maturity level enough to consider himself at least New Adult if not a fully-fledged one.