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.

REVIEW - Devotion (Central Cities #1) by Claire Kent

The Book

Release Date: 30 January 2025

Goodreads Link

All my life, I’ve worked to become a palace partner, so when a new administrator selects me to be his, I plan to devote myself to his happiness.

But Gabriel isn’t from the Capitol. He isn’t even from the Central Cities, which—forty-five years after a global cataclysm—is the only truly safe place in the world. He’s from the wilderness, and he doesn’t understand palace culture. He doesn’t even want a partner, but he’s stuck with me anyway.

My job is to soften his life in any way he desires, but he believes there’s something wrong with the system. He only sees complications when the truth is very simple. And entirely reciprocal.

He takes care of me, and I make him feel good.

My Review     4 STARS

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

This new series  is based in the same world as the Kindled series, so if you liked that series you may well like this one.

The book is based in a post apocolyptic world where things are so much different, and our female MMC has entered the palace to work as a Companion for life to however picks her.  She is theirs do do as they wish.

Our Male MMC has come into the walled city and the palace from the wilds and has different ideas on life.  He is disturbed with the way things are in the walled city and palace, but cannot rock the boat.  He takes on Jess because he has to pick someone.

Together they forge a relationship and both end up changing the views of the other in ways that make them grow and see the wider world.

It's a bit slow burn, but at the same time they are forging an emotional connection.  

Its certainly the beginning of an interesting series and i am wondering where it will go.

REVIEW - Blood of Hercules (Villains of Lore #1) by Jasmine Mas

The Book

Release Date: 1 August 2024

Goodreads Link

⚔️Step into the Coliseum at the Spartan War Academy where monsters are made, immortality is won, and even a god can die…⚔️Alexis Hert isn’t a hero, and she certainly isn’t a god. All she’s ever been is a survivor.

But the Fates disagree.

When a blood test leads to her admittance at the Spartan War Academy, she’ll have to do more than merely survive.

Alexis will have to claim her immortality.

But immortality is a privilege, one earned in the crucible of the academy, where the heroes are villains and classrooms battlegrounds. While gladiators Achilles and Patro, her demanding mentors, hone her into a warrior, Augustus and Kharon, her professors and the brooding heirs to the underworld, haunt her steps and her thoughts.

Because where there are gods, there are bound to be monsters, and there is more than one hunting Alexis…

You might just come across these 

🏛️ War academy

😈 Villainous love interests

⚔️ Gods, gladiators, and warriors, oh my!

🦝 Adorable animal companions

🐍 Animal companions with a lot of ~opinions~

🔮 Prophecies

🌶️ Dark romance

🤷 Why choose?

💀Touch her and die

💍 Marriage law

☣️ Post-apocalyptic world

My Review    4 STARS

This book is certainly a different way to present the gods in an almost post apocalyptic world.

Alexis starts off living in a trailer with her foster parents and another child is brought to them when she is about 11.  It's a hard life full of pain and very little food. Things get worse when the mother dies and the father is arrested.  The brother then live behind the trailer park in a cardboard box and struggle to feed themselves for years.

When Alexis is nineteen she takes the Spartan test and is taken to the gods away from her brother, whilst there with the gods she is put through more pain, hunger and has to see a lot of her fellow classmates die.

Lots happens, there is internal monologue from our MMC and we sometimes get the book from other POV's, but it's mainly through the eyes of Alexis.

She is a strong character, stronger than she thinks, but she is fairly easily manipulated, especially as she does not know many of their laws or the way things are done.

The book doesn't;t end on a cliff hanger, but there are a lot of loose ends so you know there will be another book.

I look forward to seeing what happens next.

REVIEW - Lights Out (Into Darkness #1) by Navessa Allen

The Book

Release Date: 14 February 2024

Goodreads Link

The viral TikTok stalker dark romance, burning with high heat, hilarious banter, and a love story like you've never seen before. Can you handle the ride?

I want someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it.

Trauma nurse Alyssa Cappellucci doesn't need any more kinks. She likes the one she's landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

I want things most people don't, craving darkness and depravity instead of light and love.

Joshua Hammond has an infamous father-the kind of man that true-crime podcasts love talking about. Josh has spent his life avoiding the limelight, but his online persona is another story. At night, he posts masked thirst traps for his millions of fans to drool over, but one follower has caught his Aly. After reading a comment begging him to break into her house wearing a mask, he decides to take her up on her offer.

Together, Aly and Josh live out their darkest fantasies, unaware that Aly has captured the attention of someone else. Someone with far more sinister intentions than a little light stalking. As Josh turns from predator to protector and the stakes heighten, he must ask himself how far he's willing to go for the woman he's obsessed with.

Lights Out is a fast-paced dark romance with a morally grey male lead. Some themes and scenes may be disturbing to readers. Please check the TWs at the beginning of the book.

My Review    5 STARS

Morally grey MMC’s

I really enjoyed this book.

We have trauma nurse Aly who sees a lot of the darker side of life in her ER and in recent months has found a social media page with a masked man that turns her on. She has never really gotten over the death of her mother.

Josh is a computer hacker with a traumatic past. He is overprotective of those that are close to him and tends to the more darker grey areas if needed to protect himself, his mother and his friend Tyler. He is certainly more of a reclusive type of person and has trouble sleeping.

When he finds that Aly likes his social media posts he decides to take a chance and breaks into her house to film his next media post.

From here both characters finally connect with each other and Josh tries to keep his identity a secret.

Both characters find something that they have been missing with each other. Josh always shows Aly that she can trust him with anything, including her fantasies and Josh in turn finds someone that challenges him, makes him laugh and is all in it for him.

Of course something happens to put a bit of a spanner in the works, but the fledgling relationship always stays strong as the characters actually talk to each other and do not shy away from the hard topics.

I certainly enjoyed this book and look forward to see how the rest of the series will go.

REVIEW - Lost In The Mountains (Greene Mountain Boys #1) by Olivia T. Turner

The Book

Release Date: 25 January 2023

Goodreads Link

I took one wrong turn on these crazy mountain roads in the middle of an intense rainstorm and now I'm stuck.
The road is pure mud. Or, it may even be quicksand with the way it's sucking up my tires.
I'm not going anywhere.
Which sucks because I have somewhere important to be.
I'm the maid of honor at my BFF's mountain retreat wedding and the rehearsal dinner is tomorrow.
How the heck am I going to get there in time?
There's no one around to help and if I leave, I'll probably wind up as a grizzly bear's dinner.
I need a man.
A big muscular mountain man to lift my car out of the mud.
And just when I'm at my most desperate, one arrives.
Tyler Becker.
Big muscles, slick tattoos, and a beard that could make a nun rethink her life choices.
He steps out of the truck like a dream come true.
And here I am, looking like a nightmare.
Wet, cranky, and covered in mud.
But for some crazy reason, this gorgeous mountain man is quite taken with me.
He seems a little obsessed.
For someone who was hopelessly lost a minute ago,
I'm suddenly feeling found...

Carrie might be lost, but she's exactly where she needs to be—in the big tattooed arms of a hot possessive mountain man. This obsessive alpha knows how to treat a city girl right!

My Review   3 STARS

This is a very quick little fluff piece and the perfect little read after a large gripping book that has just wreaked you.

It's an age gap with insta love on his part and the main part of it happens within two days with two epilogues that happen three months later and fourteen years later.

REVIEW - Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass #7) by Sarah J. Maas

The Book

Release Date: 23 October 2018

Goodreads Link

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion. Aelin Galathynius’s journey from slave to king’s assassin to the queen of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts across her world. . .

Aelin has risked everything to save her people―but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day…

With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they’ve gathered to battle Erawan’s hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation―and a better world.

And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen―before she is lost to him forever.

As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.

My Review    5 STARS

An epic ending!

Oh my goodness.  This book both tore apart my heart and had me smiling at the end.  The last 30% certainly had me bawling countless times as many of our characters went through extreme pain as they battled for a better world, some losing more friends than others.

I completely fell apart for Manons loss.

There was more story building, so many of the characters lives twining together and relationships going from strength to strength as they gave everything in order to help Aelin rid the world of Erawan and Maeve.

A great battle that spans much of the book with many of the characters first apart until they all congregate at the end in Orynth in Terrasen as the all make a stand beside Aelin.  

This is certainly an ending for a series.  Lots of twists and turns, some that i did not see coming and all the emotional feels for days.  This series certainly sucked me in, enthralled me and spat me back out.  I’m very much still reeling.