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.

REVIEW - Full Contact (Redemption, #3) by Sarah Castille

The Book

Release Date: 7 April 2015

Goodreads Link

"Fifty Shades of Grey meets Fight Club."-RT Book Reviews on Against the Ropes

Ray wraps his arms around me and holds me tight as if something terrible has happened and he doesn't want to let me go. 

Full Contact. This is how Ray speaks when his emotions overwhelm him. I melt into his stillness. His body is hot and hard, his breath warm on my neck. He smells of leather and sweat, sex and sin. Nothing can tear me away.

When you can't resist the one person who could destroy you...
Sia O'Donnell can't help but push the limits. She secretly attends every underground MMA fight featuring The Predator, the undisputed champion. When he stalks his prey in the ring, Sia is mesmerized. He is dominant and dangerous and every instinct tells her to run.

Every beautiful thing Ray "The Predator" touches he knows he'll eventually destroy. Soft, sweet and innocent, Sia is the light to Ray's darkness-and completely irresistible. From the moment he lays eyes on her, he knows he's going to have to put his dark past behind him to win her body and soul.

Redemption Series
Against the Ropes 
In Your Corner 
Full Contact 
Fighting Attraction (coming Spring 2017)

Praise for Sarah Castille's Redemption 
"Smart, sharp, sizzling and deliciously sexy."-Alison Kent, bestselling author of Unbreakable
"Powerful. Gritty. And sexy beyond belief. Sarah is a true master!"-Opal Carew, New York Timesbestselling author of His to Claim

My Review     4 STARS

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

So this is the third book in the series and although it can be read as a stand alone, really is better if you have read the previous books.

We have seen Ray in the previous books as a bit of a secretive character as he works for Amanda as a PI, but he has other secretive work that takes him away.

Sia is Tag (Fuzzy's) little sister and together they are hiding a secret that happened to Sia and changed their outlooks on the world. Sia got PTSD and Tag ended up becoming a cap to help others like her.

Sia has always had a thing for The Predator (Ray) and has gone to all of his underground fights, but when he finally speaks to her and they get to gather their chemistry is explosive. He helps her with her panic attacks and she becomes a stronger person.

I loved how the traumatised person got the strength to fight back and live her life the way she wanted with a man that supported and helped her.

I can't wait for Rampages book, he has been in all the other books and he is such a lovely character.