REVIEW - In the Company of Wolves (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #3) by Paige Tyler

The Book

Release Date: 1 December 2015

Goodreads Link

He opened his mouth to order her to drop the MP5 she had aimed at him, but nothing would come out. It was like she’d robbed him of the ability to speak. Shooting her wasn’t an option, though. And the idea of arresting her didn’t make him feel any better.

There's a new gang of criminals in town who are organized and ruthless in the extreme. When Eric Becker, along with the rest of the Dallas SWAT team, ends up in the middle of a shootout, he immediately senses werewolves — a lot of them. Turns out, the new bad guys are a pack of wolf shifters.

In a spray of gunfire, Becker comes face-to-face with the most gorgeous woman he's ever seen. Becker does the logical thing. He hides her and leaves the scene with the rest of his team.

Jayna Winston has no idea why that SWAT guy helped her, but she's glad he did. Ever since she and her pack mates got mixed up with those Eastern European mobsters, everything had pretty much fallen apart.

So what's a street-savvy thief like Jayna going to do with a hot alpha-male wolf who's a police officer?

My Review    4 STARS

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

In this third book of the series, which can be read as a stand alone we have young Eric Becker finding his soul mate in Jayna Winston.  They meet when he is on a job and she is there on charge of Omegas.

It turns out that both packs have a lot to learn about each other, however things will never be that simple.  Jayna is in league with the Albanians thanks to her current pack leader and Eric decides to go undercover to help get her and her packmates out.

Jaynas pack trust her to make the right decisions and look up to her to steer them to safety, while Eric shows them how a true alpha cares for his pack mates.

They have a good group of friends around them and neither are afraid to get hurt if they can help each other.

Each book does seem to be getting better and better.

REVIEW - Wolf Trouble (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #2) by Paige Tyler

The Book

Release Date: 4 August 2015

Goodreads Link

He's in trouble with a capital T...

There's never been a female on the Dallas SWAT team and Senior Corporal Xander Riggs prefers it that way. The elite pack of alpha male wolfshifters is no place for a woman. But Khaki Blake is no ordinary woman.

When Khaki walks through the door attractive as hell and smelling like heaven, Xander doesn't know what the heck to do. Worse, she's put under his command and Xander's protective instincts go on high alert. When things start heating up both on and off the clock, it's almost impossible to keep their heads in the game and their hands off each other...

My Review    4 STARS

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

This is the second book in the series and could well be read as a stand alone.  This book is also much better than the previous book.

We have Khaki, a police office with a problem ex who makes her job so much harder when she breaks up with him.

Xander we met in the previous book and he is one of the SWAT team leaders led under Gage Dixon.  

A soon as Khaki is pulled into the SWAT team, both are drawn to each other, but Xander does not handle it as well as his female counterpart.

The pair traverse getting to know each other, hiding the relationship from their teammates along with Khaki learning the SWAT rules and techniques and growing in a part of her new team.  We also get problems with her ex thrown in too.

A much better book than book one and I look forward to book three.

REVIEW - Baby I'm Yours: An Age Gap Romance (Forbidden Billionaires #4) by Lili Valente

The Book

Release Date: 17 March 2025

Goodreads Link

What to do when a bossy billionaire makes an aggressive bid to get you knocked up with his baby?
Say no, and return to your perfectly normal, baby-free life.

Or you could do what I did, sign the Bossy Jerk's illicit contract, and sell yourself into sexy servitude.

Clearly, mistakes were made...

Now I'm tangled up in a dizzying mixture of business and pleasure with Hunter Mendelssohn, the sexiest man to ever pull my hair while delivering multiple Os. This is supposed to be simple—He wants a very devoted, very pregnant fake fiancee to convince his dying mother their family line will live on. I want a baby with no baby-daddy in the picture, and Hunter has promised to vanish once his mother passes. If we abide by the contract, we both get what we want, no harm, no foul.

But nothing about being with Hunter is simple. Not our explosive chemistry. Not the irreplaceable way he makes me feel. And certainly not the way my heart melts every time I wake up cradled in his arms.

I’m falling hard for this damaged man, but when wounds from his past tear us apart, I’m sent running back to my small town with a secret.

A shocking secret that will change both our lives forever...

THE FORBIDDEN BILLIONAIRES series is 
Take Me I'm Yours
Make Me Yours
Pretending I'm Yours
Baby I'm Yours

My Review    5 STARS

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

This is the fourth book in the series and it can totally be read as a stand alone story.

26 year old Elaine is a great friend, but has had her trouble with men.  She is now all by herself after the death of her father, having never known her father.  She owns a bakery where she helps reheome cats and is a generous loving soul with her own sense of vintage style.

Hunter is in his early forties and has not been able to stop thinking about Elaine since they hooked up for a week a year ago.  But now, with his mother on her last legs, he needs someone for a contract where they have a child that he does not want a part of.  Elaine just so happens to want a child.

Toether the pair forge ahead, but its very quick to see that not only is the chemistry really hot between them, but that the also very quickly get the feels for each other.

But true love never does run smooth and with an obstacle in the way to test them, they falter and both end up unhappy and the pair collapse to their own worlds again.  that is until forces have them together again and realising how much they missed each other.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next.

REVIEW - Hungry Like the Wolf (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #1) by Paige Tyler

The Book

Release Date: 6 January 2015

Goodreads Link

The Dallas SWAT team is hiding one helluva secret... they're a pack of wolf shifters.

The team of elite sharpshooters is ultra-secretive — and also the darlings of Dallas. This doesn't sit well with investigative journalist Mackenzie Stone. They must be hiding something... and she's determined to find out what.

Keeping Mac at a distance proves impossible for SWAT team commander Gage Dixon. She's smart, sexy, and makes him feel alive for the first time in years. But she's getting dangerously close to the truth — and perilously close to his heart...

My Review    3 STARS

This is a decent enough space filler when you need a book to read, but this wont change your world like some.

Its a good fantasy romance with some drama that of course involves our MFC getting abducted and he has to rescue her.

There is spice, talk of feeling really fast and an established male pack who have to hide themselves from a nosey journalist.

REVIEW - House of Blight (The Threadmender Chronicles #1) by Maxym M. Martineau

The Book

Release Date: 8 April 2025

Goodreads Link

The first novel in an eerie, darkly creative, and romantic new gothic fantasy duology from Maxym M. Martineau, for readers of Sarah J. Maas and Rachel Gillig.

Edira Brillwyn is a threadmender. She holds a rare, lifesaving power that can cure disease and heal injuries in the blink of an eye. But magic always comes with a cost, and saving anyone sacrifices a sliver of her own life. She’s always kept her abilities hidden…until the powerful Fernglove family discovers her secret.

The Ferngloves are charming and beautiful, possess powerful magic, and don’t take no for an answer—especially Orin, the head of these ruling elites. When Edira’s brothers unexpectedly contract blight—an incurable virus killing people throughout the town, and an illness too strong for her to heal them both—Orin offers to help. Together at his estate they’ll research a cure while Orin slows their sickness and Edira hones her magic. His kindness and honesty surprises Edira, as does her undeniable attraction to him.

But the other Ferngloves are suspicious of her power and may be more dangerous than the ever-present disease. The longer Edira stays within the confines of the Manor, the more the family’s pristine exterior begins to crack—until Edira discovers a terrifying secret and must choose who she can save and at what cost…

My Review    5 STARS

**My thanks to NetGalley and Avon & Haper Voyager and The Nerd Fam, for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

This is the first book that I have read by this author and the description of the book had me hooked from the moment I read it.

We have Edira, a young woman looking after her younger brothers after the death of her parents and the disappearance of her aunt prior to that.  Things are hard for them as the mines do not pay her brothers well and she only makes small amounts of money with her tonics.

But Edira has a special talent that is soon spotted by a family that wants her thgreadmending talents to cure the blight.  But is all as it seems?

What are the family hiding and who can she really trust? Altough the book does not end in a cliff hanger it does end with us knowing that there is more to be explored with her talent and that we know that she and one of the family will get together again.

I really enjoyed the book and liked the twist at the end as who to trust finally is revealed.

I would certainly recommend this book for those that like Romantasy with a little Dark Romance sprinkled in.

REVIEW - Royally Wed (The Royals #3) by Teri Wilson

The Book

Release Date: 17 November 2017

Goodreads Link

Teri Wilson’s Royals series returns with this charming and witty retelling of the timeless classic MGM film Royal Wedding starring Fred Astaire.

When Asher Reed, an American classical musician, is hired as a last minute replacement to perform at the royal wedding of Princess Amelia in Great Britain, he’s hoping he can shake his recent bout with performance anxiety long enough to get through the festivities and get his career back on track. Little does he know that his life is about to change forever.

As a guest of Buckingham Palace, he knows he has no business even speaking to the princess, but he’s completely awed by her beauty and more than a little intrigued by her rebellious spirit. Still, he definitely knows he has no business kissing her silly at the fitting of her wedding gown. He’s there to perform, not cause a royal scandal. But when he stumbles upon her groom’s appalling secret, the fate of the princess and the British Crown suddenly rest squarely in his cello-playing hands....

With Teri Wilson’s signature “endearingly charming and delightfully sizzling” (USA TODAYbestselling author Nina Bocci) prose, Royally Wed is a delightful whirlwind romance that will leave you breathless and have you out of your seat for a standing ovation.

My Review    4 STARS

**My thanks to NetGalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books, for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

This is book three of the series and can totally be read as a stand alone as none of the books relate to each other.

In this book American Asher Reed has been brought over to the UK as the Royal family want him to perform at Prnicess Ameilia's wedding as Yo-Yo-Ma has been taken ill.  Due to everything already being booked he is staying at the palace, but is still receiving after his fiancé left him for his mentor.

Neither Amelia or Asher count on the attraction and feelings that they both catch off of each other and the realness of just being themselves with someone and not pretending for the first time in a long time.

But how do the pair get to a HEA when Amelia is going to be married in just over a week?  

Eventually the pair both stand up for themselves and things sort themselves out, but their is a fair amount of feeling sorry for themselves, but also two characters who finally find the one person who just accepts them for who they are.

REVIEW - The Elf Witch (Plot of the Six Saints #1). by Jacquelyn Gilmore

The Book

Release Date: 11 March 2025

Goodreads Link

For fans of One Dark Window and From Blood and Ash comes a haunting, slow-burn fantasy romance about villains. It follows a formerly magicless elf as she suddenly comes into powers that her kingdom has never seen and the duplicitous prince she must bargain with to save them at whatever cost—even her soul.

After her grandmother's execution, a formerly magicless elf is suddenly the most powerful witch in her village. Magic is disappearing, though, and Imani is thrust into the treacherous court of her kingdom, forced into trials against the most lethal witches in the world.

As she unravels the perilous plan her grandmother plotted before her death to save magic, Imani unwittingly dives deeper into a web of magical and political intrigue that puts her on a collision course with dangers beyond anything she imagined.

But Imani is harboring illicit knowledge of her own—a forbidden dark magic that’s getting more difficult to hide by the day. Now, she must decide whether to make herself a threat and an enemy to her country or risk becoming a pawn and the realm losing magic forever.

Stuck in this predicament, Imani sees only one path forward: a dangerous deal with the duplicitous prince—one she might be falling for.

Readers Beware: This book is for adult readers and contains mature and explicit content (see the author’s website for a complete list of trigger warnings). It’s a villain romance with morally black antihero characters that ends on a cliffhanger.

My Review   4 STARS

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

This is the first book that I have read by this author and it did start off a little slow.  I also started to the book in audio format via my kindle, but was getting confused so had to read it properly to digest what information was being supplied to us.

We get quite a lot of information given to us about the magic in the world, the way the magic works and all of our characters are on the more morally grey to black list.  Each character seems to hide behind their own mask, each hiding their true intentions with no-one really trusting another and all playing each other for what they can get out of each other.

There is very little character growth, but at least our FMC seems to realise near the end of the book that she has been played and that things need to change.

I am excited to see what happens next with this series and look forward to see if Imani's journey get any easier or if it stays as dangerous.

REVIEW - Dragon in Boots (Immortal Tailor #3) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

The Book

Release Date: 25 February 2025

Goodreads Link

From New York Times bestseller Mimi Jean Pamfiloff comes Dragon in Boots, a Paranormal Rom-Com with way too much baby oil, awkward dirty dancing, and a scorching hot love. 

MEET MALE STRIPPER, ANIMAL LOVER, AND…DRAGON?

JACQUELIN
Jacquelin would do anything to save her struggling animal sanctuary—including bartending at a strip club, enduring drunken bachelorette parties, and putting up with her weirdo boss, who’s obsessed with all things pink.

But nothing could prepare her for the club’s star performer with abs you could grate cheese on and an ego bigger than his, ahem, moves.

From the moment Dash struts onto the stage, Jacquelin can’t decide if she wants to throw her drink at him or pour it over her head. “Is it just me, or is it scorching hot in here?”

When the women in the audience start acting like wild animals, Jacquelin knows something strange is going on.
Is Dash’s off-the-charts charisma driving her mad, or is there more to him than meets the abs?

DAMIEN
Damien, the immortal tailor, has tackled demonic fashion emergencies, violent vampires, and unhinged deities. But convincing Dash—a male stripper and, oh yeah, the last male dragon on Earth—to embrace his scaly destiny? That’s next-level absurd.

But Damien would do anything to win back Sky, the love of his life, who is, well, dead and needs a new body—something only a deranged goddess can arrange. A goddess who wants an army of dragons for her war.

Can Damien nudge the reluctant dragon into the mating game? Or will Damien lose the ghostly love of his life forever?

DASH
I’m the world’s greatest stripper. Not a dragon. Pass the baby oil.

My Review    5 STARS

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

O.M.G!!  This book had me snorting out my drink and giggling so hard that my husband started looking at me funny.

This book has no shortage of Mimi's genius nature with so many twists and turns you never see coming along with naughty gods and other supernatural beings.

Mimi certainly has a way of writing witty quips and a story that brings you in and leaves you feeling good.

This book certainly delivers what I have come to expect from the author and I am never sorry to pick up another book of hers, but sad when it seems to end so fast. (Only because I could not put it down!)

Certainly a book and series I would pick up again!

REVIEW - Royally Romanov (The Royals #2) by Teri Wilson

The Book

Release Date: 17 July 2017

Goodreads Link

In this charming modern day retelling of the 1956 classic Anastasia, a museum curator falls for a mysterious man who may or may not be a long lost heir to Russia’s imperial Romanov dynasty.

Finley Abbot is organizing the most prestigious art exhibit of her career at the Louvre museum—a retrospective of art from the House of Romanov. But the sudden appearance of Maxim Romanov threatens to turn her into the biggest laughingstock of the art world. When she finds herself falling in love, she realizes there’s even more at stake than her career. How can she trust a man with her whole world when he can’t remember a thing about his past?

After suffering a violent blow to the head, Maxim’s only clue to his identity is a notebook containing carefully researched documentation in his own handwriting indicating that he is the sole surviving descendant of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, previously thought dead in the murder of her family during Russia’s Bolshevik revolution. His struggle to put the mysterious pieces of his past back together leads him to Finley. At first, she’s convinced Maxim is nothing but a con artist. But there’s something undeniably captivating about the beautiful, brooding man who claims to be searching for his identity—something Finley can’t quite bring herself to resist. When he reveals a secret about one of the imperial Fabergé eggs in the collection, she accepts he may actually be telling the truth. But as soon as Finley and Maxim act on their feelings for one another, Maxim is confronted with evidence that calls into question everything he’s begun to believe about himself.

My Review    4 STARS

**My thanks to NetGalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books, for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

This is the second time recently that I have had deja-vu whilst reading a book.  My records show that I have not read this book before, yet I had the feeling that I have read this book before and almost remembered parts which is just strange.

I enjoyed this book anyway.  We have Maxim, waking up in the hospital with amnesia.  It is a detective that gives him his first name and a notebook that makes no sense to him.

A week later we have Finley an American who is living in France and working at the Louvre.  She has just published her book about the Romanov family and it is at her first book showing that she first meets Maxine.

As the book untangles the web around them both the characters have hurdles to get over, suspicion and a mystery to overcome.

There was a good story and a good romance and I would certainly recommend this book to others.

REVIEW - Her Hometown Hero (Unexpected Heroes #2) by Melody Anne

The Book

Release Date: 30 June 2015

Goodreads Link

Dr. Spence is searching for the perfect woman…but how will he know when he’s found her? From New York Times bestselling author Melody Anne, the second steamy romance in a new breakout series based on her beloved and bestselling Billionaire novels.

In the bestselling books Billionaire Wins the Game, Hidden Treasure, and The Billionaire’s Marriage Proposal, among others, we met the Andersons. Matchmaking patriarchs Joseph and George took matters into their own hands to get their sons to marry and settle down. But now that Dr. Spence Whitman sees how happy his Anderson friends are in married life, he’s itching to get hitched too! But how will he find The One?

After his wealthy dad adopted him and his two brothers at a young age, Spence grew up learning there are more important things in life than money. He wants to find a girl who shares that philosophy, and it wouldn’t hurt to have some similar interests too. Now if he could just stop getting distracted by his gorgeous surgical resident, he could start looking for the perfect wife…

My Review    4 STARS

**My thanks to NetGalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books, for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

Why is it that i always forget that I really like the books by this author and leave them for ages before i read them?

It this book with Dr Sage Banks and Dr Spence Whitman we get a couple brought together by meddling family, hoping that the pair will hit it off, and boy do they!

The pair have brilliant chemistry, there is some angst, the older generation giving advice and solid family units and friends being there when you need them.

Spence finally finds a woman that makes him work for what he wants and Sage finds someone that she is finally ready to get rid of her v-card with.

I really enjoyed this book and will certainly get to the other books that i have on my kindle for this author a little faster.

REVIEW - Who I Am with You (Unexpected Heroes #1.5) by Melody Anne

The Book

Release Date: 27 April 2015

Goodreads Link

A spinoff of Melody Anne’s New York Times bestselling Billionaire Bachelors series, this entrancing e-novella features motocross racer Taylor Winchester and little sister to Hawk, the hero of “Safe in His Arms” from the romance anthology Baby, It’s Cold Outside.

As a motocross rider, Taylor Winchester has made a career out of throwing herself headfirst into danger, as fiercely as any of the guys racing against her. But after a brutal crash, she takes a little forced R&R while her injuries heal. Her mom wishes she’d settle down, find love, maybe have a baby or two…but all Taylor wants is to get back on her bike. 

She heads to her brother Hawk’s cabin to get a little peace and quiet—but is shocked to discover she’s not the only inhabitant. Ex-military man Travis, her high school crush, has also borrowed the cabin, and the two of them are each too stubborn to let the other one win. Nothing left to do but share the cabin…which quickly leads to sharing a bed! As Taylor and Travis discover that the heat between them is far more than a fling, they both struggle with letting go of control. But if they learn to give a little, what they could win is worth more than any prize…

My Review   3 STARS

**My thanks to NetGalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books, for providing me with a free copy for an honest review**

It would appear that I have read this book before, it is in a compilation book called Baby, It's Cold Outside.

It's a good novella that focuses onTaylor who is recovering from a bad motocross accident.  Fed up of being cooped up with her parents she goes to her brothers cabin, only to find that her brothers friend Travis is living there.

Having had a crush in the man when growing up and a one night stand when she was twenty and now she is hesitant to start anything, however, Travis now knows what he wants, and he wants Taylor.

Its a sweet book as the pair connect and rediscover each other and Taylor finds out what she really wants out of life.

REVIEW - The Reign of Olympus: An epic romantic fantasy by Maya Griffin

The Book

Release Date: 31 Jan 2025

Goodreads Link

Fleeing the horrors of Atlantis, Psyche and her lover, the fallen god Eros, have made a new home for themselves far from the watchful eyes of the gods… or so they think. But when a group of raiders attacks the peaceful valley, it’s clear that they’ve been discovered. When they learn that Eros’s blood-hungry brother, Deimos, has disappeared from Olympus, it’s not hard to connect the dots.

Meanwhile Olympus is in uproar over Deimos’s he has stolen the First-Forged Blade, the adamantine knife that Zeus uses to maintain his power. With a god-killing blade in his hands, Deimos is more dangerous than ever, and Psyche knows she and Eros will be among his first targets.

She’s appalled when Eros vows to join his father, the war-god Ares, to bring Deimos to justice. Worse still, he wants Psyche to stay on Olympus under the guardianship of the goddess Athena. He thinks she’ll be safer there. But Olympus is no safe haven, and as new secrets explode, Psyche plans a risky escape.

Escaping Olympus, though, is only the first hurdle. As their game of cat and mouse intensifies, Psyche and Eros will find they have more enemies besides Deimos to fear. A plot is afoot among the Olympians, and soon, Psyche will find herself playing a role in this battle of the gods - one she could never have imagined. The choices have never been so hard. The stakes have never been so high.

The Reign of Olympus is Book 3 in the Shadows of Olympus series.

My Review.  3 STARS

Unfortunately a brilliant series ends with a whimper.

We do not get the ending we deserve, in fact it ends leaving you feeling that it is not quite finished and we don't get the HEA that I think we were all waiting for.

We get more gods involved this time, fate being involved, but not answered.  A possible father, but she is not claimed and Eros and Psyche riding off  to their future, but meh.

Past loves are also brought into the story for an extra trial and cause for pain on both halves, and although Psyche is obviously bright, she can be stupid at times.

Don't get me wrong, I did really enjoy this book and this series.  I did think the gods were played right and we had a lot of angst, I'm just upset at the ending. 

REVIEW - Pretending I'm Yours: An Age Gap Romance by Lili Valente

The Book

Release Date: 17 February 2025

Goodreads Link

What to do when the male "escort" you hired to take your virginity turns out to be a jaded billionaire playing games with your body...and your heart?

As a card-carrying Good Girl, I'm the last person anyone would expect to end up in a "Reverse Pretty Woman" situation...

I'm the sweet, shy one, not the type to hire an escort to show her the ropes in the bedroom. I'm also not the type to lie to my family, sneak away to New York City for a week of no-holds-barred pleasure, or enjoy being told what a "good girl" I am when I get down on my knees for a gorgeous, commanding older man.

All I know for certain is that every night with Anthony, the man I hired to be my first everything, is better than the last. He isn't just a sex god who brings my every fantasy wildly to life, he's smart, romantic, protective, and seemingly as affected by the chemistry between us as I am.

In just a few days, I'm falling hard for my fake boyfriend.
Even crazier? Anthony says he wants more, too.
More of my time, more of my body--and he's willing to quit the escort business to give the connection growing between us a real shot.

Soon, we're making plans for a future beyond our steamy week between the sheets.

But what happens when I realize the man I've been falling for isn't a sex worker, at all, but a jaded billionaire who's been lying to me from the start? 

Can our love survive learning our time together truly has been one giant game of pretend?

My Review     5 STARS

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

This is the third book in a series and can totally be read as a stand alone book.

Maya is our third girl from Sea Breeze, Maine, but here she has made her way to New York.  Not only is she hoping to close on a property she wants to develop, but she goes to a club recommended by Weaver in order to finally lose her virginity and learn some sex lessons.

It is here at the club that Maya meets Anthony, a man that has just quit his high powered job and, although he knows quitting his job is the best thing for him, is also adrift in his life, not knowing what it is he wants.

The connect from the first moment that they lay eyes on each other.  A small prod of the owner to Anthony and she has him acting as an escort to help Maya with her plan.

With just a few adjustments Anthony hides a few key pieces of himself from Maya as the pair then have a week together for both of them to learn more about each other and themselves.

Maya is certainly an old soul, but she knows when she needs to listen and when she needs to act.

I love that the pair both talked to each other when the shit hit the fan and we had a proper adult relationship.

I really enjoyed this book and now really look forward to reading Elaine's story with Hunter.