REVIEW - Bite of Passage by Zoe Forward

The Book

Release Date: 3 November 2025

Goodreads Link

What happens when fake turns dangerously real― and the line between forbidden and forever vanishes?.

Gemma
Ruthless, hedonistic, mercenary, Skarde Blackmann is unattainable.
He’s fictional. He’s an on-screen TV assassin-for-hire vampire who can’t be her ticket out of a lonely existence as a barely-making-ends-meet ER nurse, no matter how much she wishes it.
Until…he speaks directly to her. And sucks her into his world.

She shouldn’t be in this medieval dark fantasy where she’s hunted by a merciless ruling vampire society. They want to end her before she’s bitten by her sexy vampire protector. But he’s become her wildest, most dangerous dream.


Skarde
Her untimely entrance into his life is a complication; she’s quirky, eccentric, infuriating…
Much to his chagrin, she’s hotter than the sun that will burn him to ash.
Her arrival in his life was foretold to trigger the downfall of his kind…and him.
One bite will make her his queen of the night. That one taste of her blood will turn him into a monster with no hope for redemption.

He’s not sure how long he can resist.

My Review    4 STARS 

**My thanks to the Hidden Gems and author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

The description of this pulled me in before the book cover.  I really liked the description and thought that the book was worth the chance.  I was not disappointed.

The author does throw a lot into the book, but I liked how different it was than some of the other books that i have read recently and that in a lot of ways she was actually a lot stronger than he was.

There are some good supporting characters and i would be interested to see what happens with Val and Cade for sure.

REVIEW - The Queen's Card: A Sleeping Beauty Retelling by Erin Archer

The Book

Release Date: 24 February 2025

Goodreads Link

Sleeping Beauty meets Once Upon A Broken Heart in this fairytale retelling about love and finding yourself. But the heroine isn’t the princess, it’s one of her royal guards.

He hates mortals.

She defends them.

Twenty-year-old Mira is training to be a Keeper of the Wards, a secret society within the mortal guard. With it comes magic, but she has to earn it first. She's on a quest to prove herself when the powerful enemy queen—with a penchant for tarot—threatens the princess and the alliance her kingdom so desperately needs. Powerless against the magic and running out of time, Mira's only hope is to deal with the threat head-on.

When Mira confronts an enemy breaching the kingdom’s wards, she’s captured by the Raven—the ruthless and enigmatic second-in-command to the enemy queen. When secrets unravel, loyalty will be tested, and enemies will become unlikely allies. Together, they must stop the enemy queen’s twisted arcana magic from destroying the realms, but it will force Mira to face her deepest fears.

Will Mira accept who she truly is or will the realms fall to darkness?

If you want an enemies-to-lovers slow burn romance with a raven-shifting love interest, then this fairytale fantasy romance is for you.

This book is upper YA/new adult featuring some mature situations and adult language. The romance is slow burn with some steam.

The Queen’s Card is the first book in the Fairytale Tarot series, perfect for fans of Once Upon a Broken Heart and A Curse so Dark and Lonely who crave a little steam.

My Review     4 STARS

**My thanks to NetGalley, for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

It's taken me a little while to get through this book.  That's no fault of the book, book slumps suck, but this was a really good book when I got back into reading.

Mira is wanting to be a Keeper like her older sister and her mother before her.  But she doesn't realise is that fate is going to put her on another path when she first encounters Bael.

Bael is in service and does not like it, he has his secrets, but as Mira and he spend time together feelings develop between them,  They both work toward a common goal, but when Mira discovers secrets that have been kept from her the world she knew changes and so does what she wants.

Is a lovely read, the world building and description is great, you can really see yourself there.

REVIEW - The No Touch Roommate Rule (That Steamy Hockey Romance #2) by Lili Valente

The Book

Release Date: 26 September 2025

Goodreads Link

What to do when the sexy hockey player you've been avoiding suddenly becomes your roommate? Make "no touch" rules. Obviously.

I've spent months dodging Leo Parker's attempts to score a second date. Yes, he's gorgeous. Yes, he plays for the Louisiana Voodoo. Yes, he kisses like it's an Olympic sport. But he's also six years younger than I am and—plot twist—I used to babysit him when he was twelve.

But when a hurricane destroys my restaurant (and the storage closet I've been sleeping in), Parker swoops in with the perfect solution. Move in with him. Temporarily. With RULES:

• No sex
• Clothes stay ON in common areas
• Hugging, but only before 5pm

But living with Parker means watching him do everything without a shirt on. Hearing him moan over my cooking like it's foreplay. And discovering he's not just a pretty face—he's funny, generous, and seems to like me...just the way I am.

Soon we're roadtripping to food festivals, winning crawfish mating-call contests (don't ask), and breaking every rule. Repeatedly. I'm starting to think this sweet, sexy man might be My One.

There's just one problem: When it comes to men, I'm cursed. And a blast from the past is about to remind us why falling for each other might be the worst rule we've broken yet.

My Review     5 STARS

**My thanks to the author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

This is the second book in the series and we were introduced to Makena and Leo in book one and i really couldn't wait for their story.

With Makena being 6 years older than Leo she certainly had issues with the age gap at first.  Especially as she has not had the best luck with the men in her life.

Leo has had a crush on Makena since he was 13 and the crush is more now he is an adult.  However he knows that she has had some bad luck with the men in her life and is not scared of putting in the hard work to get what he wants, and he wants her bad!

I loved Leo's Nana, I would have loved a Nana like her for sure.

Both Leo and Makena manage to work through their issues and have a good amount of supportive friends and family between them, and with the introduction more of Charlotte and Nix we know who book three is going to be about and how they start their relationship.

Another great book in another great series.

REVIEW - Tower (Post-Apocalyptic Fairy Tales #1) by Claire Kent

The Book

Release Date: 26 September 2025

Goodreads Link

She needs a man to keep her alive in a world full of monsters.

He'll do.

Ever since the world fell apart, I've been like a princess trapped in a tower, looking down at our chaotic new reality from an upstairs window and never allowed to risk the dangers outside. Then my father dies, and there's no one left to keep me safe from selfish, violent men no longer restrained by social boundaries.

I need someone, and the leader of the local gang is my best choice.

Rough and intimidating, he's no prince. But Levi agrees to keep me safe, and I do my best to keep him happy. Maybe I want more than a transactional relationship, but the world after Impact doesn't allow for romantic daydreams.

Life is now a gritty fairy tale without a happily ever after.

My Review   4 STARS

**My thanks to the author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review****My thanks to the author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

This novella takes place within the Kindled series and is a fairy tale retelling of Repunsel in a post apocaliptic era.

Bailey's dad died last night and she knows that without him her chances of survival are low without a protector and she has seen Levi washing at the lake for ages and knows that deep down he is a good guy and that he is her best bet.  Taking a leap of faith she approaches him the next morning with her proposal and a way of it making him look better with his gang.

Levi accepts and her world instantly changes.  But what they don't expect are the feelings that grow between them and that ultimately make the pair stronger together.

I really enjoyed this retelling and wonder which fairy tale will be next on the agenda.

REVIEW - Poisoned Kingdom (Secrets of Dagome #1) by Olena Nikitin

The Book

Release Date: 9 September 2025

Goodreads Link

When the magic that creates life is a death sentence, her only chance to live is taming it… and the man it tried to claim.

As a poisoner, Roksana knows how to keep a secret—until the power she wields and the secrets she hides begin unravelling, forcing her to flee to the dwarven kingdom.

But the assassin’s mark on her skin isn’t easy to erase.

When she’s discovered by her former master, the price for his silence is brutally simple: kill the notorious War King.

Except… she already did.

Her target, however, refuses to die. Surviving by sheer tenacity—and the darkness her poison awakened—he sets out to hunt down the woman who dared to destroy him.

When his hands finally close around his assassin’s throat, the War King does the unthinkable—he lets her live… and makes her pay.

Thrusted into a world where loyalty is carved in blood and love is the deadliest illusion, two unwilling allies must join forces for a chance to survive—all while trying to ignore the treacherous fire threatening to undo them with every forbidden touch.

As more secrets come to light, Roksana faces an impossible choice.

Trust the man she tried to kill… or hide her power and let his kingdom burn.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Perfect for fans of high-stakes fantasy with morally grey fmc, enemies-to-lovers romance and rich, Slavic-inspired world-building. This adult high fantasy delivers slow-burn tension, dark intrigue, and a hero torn between power and love.

For readers who crave the grit of The Witcher and the allure of Bardugo’s Six of Crows, reimagined for a mature audience.

Check content warnings in the “Look Inside” section.

My Review    5 STARS

**My thanks to the The Nerd Fam and author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

This is the first time that I have read by this writing duo and I was certainly impressed with the world building and the plot that the story had.

Roksana is a. poisoner and a mage, but a mage with talents that are dangerous as a vivimancer, they have been killed off in the past they are so dangerous.

Escaping from one of her former masters she finds herself fighting for survival and ends up poisoning the wrong man, only she doesn't know it at the time.

There are strong friendships, a romance between her and Rey where he wants her more first and will do what he can to have her.

I really enjoyed the flow of the story the building up of the relationship between Sana and Rey and the use of magic.  Sana certainly goes through her own trial and is a very strong character with a life that has anything but easy.

We are given some of the answers to questions that come up, but as with all good stories there enough crumbs outstanding that we find we want to read the next book to see what happens next.

REVIEW - Pawning Pandora by Willow B. Dawes

The Book

Release Date: 26 August 2025

Goodreads Link

Pandora has lived her entire life among the gods and goddesses at the base of Mount Olympus, the first mortal woman to exist. For twenty years, she’s wondered what she was created for, what her purpose is, and why Zeus has always treated her as such an object of importance. She’s never fought the Olympians’ control, fearing exile outside the borders, which would surely result in her death. But as the Centennial Celebration of Man approaches, Zeus demands Pandora trade the one thing she always swore she’d never give her heart.

Epimetheus never expected to return to Olympus, but when he and his twin brother, Prometheus, are invited to a celebration held in their honor, the Titan twins have no choice but to return to the realm that was once their home. As an unknown poison plagues their people in the Realm of Man, and with whispers of a rebellion outside the walls of Olympus, the last thing Epimetheus wants is to fall for the raven-haired beauty Zeus has promised to his brother. But it seems this celebration is about to challenge everything.

In a world where friends are family and family are foe, who’s to say the rebellion has not already arrived? It’s a war of hearts and hate—who will rise and who will fall?

My Review    4 STARS

**My thanks to the The Nerd Fam and author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

Pandora has known all her life that she was created as the only mortal woman, and that she has yet to find out her purpose.

Living her life in Olympus she has lessons with those that Zeus  thinks will be useful for her with Dementer showing weaving, Athena used to show her fighting and normally history lessons.  She has many friends within the Olympians including Persephone and Hermes.

Pandora has her own little cottage in the fields of Demeter and when she finally finds out what Zeus wants from her it is with a not so veiled threat.  But after this her world changes very quickly especially with the arrival of Prometheus and his twin brother Epimetheus.

Athena eventually opens her eyes to the truth of a few things which does shatter her a little especially about the nature of one of her friendships.

She is a strong female character and the ending is left on a bit of a cliff hanger and i cannot wait to see what happens next.

REVIEW - Unseen Eye (Aetherian Chronicles Book 1) by Nikole Sekula

The Book

Release Date: 19 August 2025

Goodreads Link

Prophecy haunts her. Power hunts her. Fate won’t let her run. 

Eva has a storyteller’s heart, spinning her dreams into tales that weave together her boundless imagination and the legends of the Aetherian gods. However, when a captivating stranger rescues her from creatures born of hell itself, those dreams become a terrifying reality.

Drawn into a realm where five gates tether the world to different levels of the abyss, Eva soon realizes she’s being hunted. On the verge of death, a chilling prophecy sets her on a perilous path—one where every step uncovers flames of truth and shadows of darkness, twisting her journey in ways she never imagined.

Thrust into a dangerous new reality, she learns the answers to her powers may lie within long-buried secrets about her past, and the mother she never knew. To wield her newfound gift, she’ll have to explore the mysterious connection she feels with Callon, the dangerously handsome savior whose intentions she questions as much as her growing feelings for him.

With betrayal lurking in every shadow, and time running out, Eva must master the power hidden within her or risk everything she loves—including her heart.

My Review    4 STARS

**My thanks to the The Nerd Fam and author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

I really enjoyed the world building and suspense that was written into this book.  Eva is a strong female character and she copes really well when she finds out that her life is not as simple as she thought it was and that her best friend may not be who she thought he was.

Soon she finds out that her stories and dreams and actually real, but when did they happen and why does she see them and who are her parents.

Lots of questions get raised and most are answered, however the book does and with questions left unanswered leaving you something to look forward to as our FMC navigates her new world and sense of self.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing what happens next.

REVIEW - The Fake Husband Play (That Steamy Hockey Romance #1) by Lili Valente

The Book

Release Date: 25 July 2025

Goodreads Link

What’s a girl to do when her longtime hockey crush offers her a marriage of convenience?
Say YES. Obviously.

I’ve spent three years lusting after Grammercy Graves on my (supposedly anonymous) hockey romance podcast—breaking down his stats, his plays, that panty-melting Cajun accent...

The entire internet knows he’s my dream guy. What they don’t know? I’m a broke single mom who just lost her job—and the health insurance my daughter needs.

When Grammercy finds me crying in a supply closet at a team party, he offers the wildest 
Fake marriage. Real benefits. One year.
No strings. No S-E-X. Just shared coverage and a room with my name on it.

But he’s so good with my daughter. So generous, so funny, so kind.
And when it’s just the two of us? He treats me like I’m someone special.

Like I’m his.

Soon, every kiss for the cameras turns into a kiss we can’t stop, and it’s getting harder and harder to remember this is all pretend.

There’s just one secret that could ruin it all—my podcast, the one that proves I wasn’t telling the whole story when we first “met.”

When he finds out, will he walk away…
Or make my wildest fangirl fantasies come true?

My Review    5 STARS

**My thanks to the author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

The author has done it again.  Bringing a book that has the feels, the laughs and certainly wanting to turn page after page to see what happens next.

Grammercy first sees Elly when she is walking out of her office after having just been fired and there is something about her that just captivates him.  After that he finds himself driving along the same street trying to find her until he finds the single mum at a fundraiser he has to appear at as one of the scantily clad waitresses.

Finding her later crying in a closet, her finds himself having fun with her until a phone call from her nanny  has them both racing to the ER.

Grammercy shows that he still has the background roots that he was raised with along with a large heart and Elly shows us how single mums cope when everything seems to be against them.

I really did enjoy this book and cannot wait to read the books for the other team members.

REVIEW - Daughter of No Worlds (The War of Lost Hearts #1) by Carissa Broadbent - Narrated by Dan Calley & Esther Wane

The Book

Release Date: 7 January 2020

Goodreads Link

15 hours and 32 minutes

A former slave fighting for justice. A reclusive warrior who no longer believes it exists. And a dark magic that will entangle their fates.

Ripped from a forgotten homeland as a child, Tisaanah learned how to survive with nothing but a sharp wit and a touch of magic. But the night she tries to buy her freedom, she barely escapes with her life.

Desperate to save the best friend she left behind, Tisaanah journeys to the Orders, the most powerful organizations of magic Wielders in the world. But to join their ranks, she must complete an apprenticeship with Maxantarius Farlione, a handsome and reclusive fire wielder who despises the Orders.

The Orders's intentions are cryptic, and Tisaanah must prove herself under the threat of looming war. But even more dangerous are her growing feelings for Maxantarius. The bloody past he wants to forget may be the key to her future . . . or the downfall of them both.

But Tisaanah will stop at nothing to save those she abandoned. Even if it means gambling in the Orders's deadly games. Even if it means sacrificing her heart.

Even if it means wielding death itself.

Contains mature themes.

My Review    4 STARS

This was a TikTok/facebook recommendation and I liked this book better than I thought i would but it was a bit on the slow side and is very much a slow burn romance.

Our FMC is a very strong character with good morals and will do what she has to do to help the slaves back home and is not afraid of getting hurt.

Our MMC has been hurt in the past and has hidden himself away until our FMC is brought to him. It takes him weeks to warm up to here, but when he does he sees her determination and force of character and he can't help fall for her well before either of them know its happening. It startles both characters to realise they have feelings for each other and then they tiptoe around it for quite a while.

The ending left questions and I will at some point pick up the rest of the series, but i'm in no hurry.

REVIEW - Fighting Attraction (Redemption #4) by Sarah Castille

The Book

Release Date: 4 April 2017

Goodreads Link

My sweet, sexy Penny has a dark side. Just like me.
I will have her. And then I will lose her, and suffer a lifetime of regret.

Rampage. Everyone loves him. He is Redemption's top heavyweight fighter and the biggest gossip in the gym. But he isn't the teddy bear everyone thinks he is. He's hiding a dark secret-and he hates himself for it.

Twice a week, Rampage transforms into Master Jack, a notorious dom only the most hard-core submissives will play with. How can he-a Southern gentleman, bred to respect and protect women-want to dominate them?

But Penny Worthington wants him. Beneath her pearls, kitten heels, and prim British exterior beats a tortured heart...Master Jack is the only one who can set her free.

My Review    4 STARS

**My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca, for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**. 

So all round nice guy and joker Rampage is hiding a secret, a secret that has caused him hurt in the past, because he like to hurt others.  He’s a sadist.

Penny we have also seen in the other books.  Sweet dressing english Penny also holds a secret.  Her release of her pain is to cut herself.  She needs it for release.

When Penny accidentally find out his secret, he finds out her secret.  He makes her promise  to call him if she needs tge oain. But she doesnt so Rampage does what he needs to do to teach her a lesson.

As the pair get closer and spill their secrets the world intervenes and they have to make their choice.

I loved the sweet times, the punishing times and the big group of friendship each of the characters have and that we get to carry on seeing more of our former book lovers.

REVIEW - Bound in Violet Ink: Forbidden, Fated Mates Dark Romantasy by Charlotte Mallory

The Book

Release Date: 1 August 2025

Goodreads Link

Crave obsessive, fated love where he knows before she does? He's an Unseelie High Lord, chained in a Seelie prison, and she's the adopted daughter of the very court that locked him away. She writes to him out of boredom, rebellion, a hunger for more, and he answers because his mate has found him, even if she doesn't yet understand what she’s done.

Now nothing—not walls, not politics, not the fragile peace between courts—will stop him from claiming what's his. Even if it means tearing her world apart to reach her.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Do you feel lost? Is that why you write to me?"

His words are forbidden, and yet I crave them.

Locked in a golden cage, I’m the adopted daughter of a High Lord—a pawn dressed in silk and promises, meant to smile, marry, and obey. But I’m not sweet. Not docile. And certainly not interested in the polished men lining up to claim me. Well beyond my years for marriage, I don’t care for decorum anymore.

So, I write to a prisoner. Kane, the infamous Unseelie High Lord held in the depths of my father’s dungeons, is my absolute obsession and it’s driving me mad. It starts as a game. A risk. A breath of rebellion in my suffocating world.

But Kane writes back.

I’m no longer just playing with fire, I’m falling into it.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...GAURUNTEED HEA

A novella PERFECT to read for a single night. Excellent cure for book hangovers!

CONTENT 18+ minor adoption trauma, intimate scenes, prison setting, some graphic violence, murder, death, references to assault, revenge

My Review     4 STARS

**My thanks to the The Nerd Fam and author for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

This is a short little novella that brings you into the dark world of the Fae between the Seelie and the Unseelie courts and two characters that come together against all the odds.

I really enjoyed this short for the author which promises so much, even though everything happens so fast.

I will certainly be looking out for more from this author.

REVIEW - Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy #1) by Callie Hart - Narrated by Stella Bloom & Anthony Palmini

The Book

Release Date: 4 June 2024

Goodreads Link

Do not touch the sword. Do not turn the key. Do not open the gate.

In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water.

Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs for as long as she can remember.

But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.

When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently reopens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares… but it turns out they're real, and Saeris has landed herself right in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.

The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him… or her.

Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate.

His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it home.

Be careful of the deals you make, dear child. The devil is in the details...

From USA Today bestselling author Callie Hart comes a brand new, highly addicting enemies-to-lovers romantasy with razor-sharp banter, heart-stopping action, and blistering hot romance that you won't be able to stop listening to! For mature listeners.

Narrated in duet style.

My Review     5 STARS

I may have gotten to this book a little late, but at least i have read it before the second book in the series have been released.  I have seen this book talked about all over TikTok and Facebook so I thought that I should give it a try.  I was NOT disappointed.

Saeris lives in a poverty stricken district where even water is rationed so badly that the water they get is filter from others waste and they only get a small amount of ounces a week.  She looks after her younger brother and works part time in the forge with a man that'd the best he could for her and her brother.

But Saeris has a secret, metal talks to her and with her light fingers to get them by, finds herself in trouble and taken to the palace where her whole world suddenly changes.

Kingfisher has his own demons and Saeris is through into his world when she goes through the Quicksilver, however not only is she a very strong character, she is not afraid of hard work and does her best for those around her.

I loved the strength of this character, the world building and the relationships between all of the characters, especially between Saeris and Kingfisher.

There are a few twists and turns that I did not see coming and I really cannot wait to see what happens in book two and if it can top this first book.

A book that I would certainly recommend.