Category: Contemporary Fiction

Book Review Alert: The Mom Group by Jennifer A. Jones

Reviewed: June 11th, 2023
Released: September 15th, 2022
Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction

Loneliness can motivate a woman to put herself out there, to meet new friends. But when it doesn’t go as planned, what’s next? Perhaps a little revenge…

Erika Thompson is a lonely housewife. With her kids recently off to college and her husband working long hours, she spends much of her time reading, hanging out with her dog, and trying to figure out what her next steps should be.

But an invitation to join a local mom group is about to change everything. After numerous attempts to fit in and make new friends, Erika is all but shunned. Her sorrow over this unexpected outcome quickly turns to anger, and she retaliates against the moms who’ve done her wrong. But things don’t go as planned for Erika, and she’s in for some surprises of her own.

Erika’s journey includes a trek through childhood friendships, narcissistic family, an obsession with 80s rock music, and the trials and joys of being a wife and mother. With relationships tested and secrets revealed, can she face the stakes of her quest and become who she needs to be?

Read My Thoughts...

Book Review Alert: Wicked Hunt by SK Alexander

Reviewed: April 10th 2023
Released: January 24th, 2022
Genre: Crime Thriller

A vicious sniper on the loose in Los Angeles. A grief-stricken empath. A ticking clock…


For Nathaniel Colt, Los Angeles is not the City of Angels. For the empath, LA is hell. A quick visit turns into a nightmare when the former special agent becomes embroiled in the hunt for a ruthless sniper terrorizing the city.

When the lurking evil puts the profiler and those closest to him in his crosshairs, a race against time begins and the consultant must rely on his psychic abilities before their time runs out.

Can Nathaniel save those close to him or will LA, once again, prove that it is hell on Earth for the empath?

Read My Thoughts...

Book Review Alert: The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

Reviewed: April 7th 2023
Released: January 24th, 2022
Genre: Crime Thriller

It’s time to solve the murder of the century….

Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. Wanting to know more, he took it to his English teacher Miss Iles, not realising the chain of events that he was setting in motion. Miss Iles became convinced that the book was the key to solving a puzzle and that a message in secret code ran through all Twyford’s novels. Then Miss Iles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven has no memory of what happened to her.

Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Iles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code? And is it still in use today?

Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened to Miss Iles, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code has great power, and he isn’t the only one trying to solve it….

Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Beyond the Sea by Keira Andrews

Reviewed: January 30th, 2023
Released: March 9th, 2016
Genre: Contemporary MM Romance

Two hot guys. One desert island.

Troy Tanner walks out on his boy band’s world tour rather than watching his little brother snort his life away. Screw it. He’ll take a private jet home and figure out his life away from the spotlight.

But Troy doesn’t make it home.

The plane crashes on a jungle island in the South Pacific. Forget dodging the paparazzi—now Troy’s desperate for food and water. The turquoise ocean and white sand beach looks like paradise, but danger lurks everywhere. Thank God the pilot survived too. At least Troy’s not alone. He has Brian.

Brian’s smart and brave and strong. He doesn’t care that Troy’s famous. Brian’s real. As days turn into weeks with no sign of rescue, Troy and Brian rely on each other. They make each other laugh despite being stranded. They go from strangers to friends.

What happens when they want more?

Although he and Brian both identify as straight, their growing desire burns hotter than the tropical sun. If they explore their sexuality a thousand miles from anything or anyone, can their newfound love survive in the real world when they’re finally rescued?

Read my thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Winter Spirit by Indra Vaughn

Reviewed: December 19th, 2022
Released: November 16th, 2015
Genre: MM Romance

Nathaniel O’Donnelly likes his life quiet, his guests happy, and his ghosts well-behaved.

Although a boyfriend wouldn’t go amiss. Someone to share his beautiful B&B with, even if it is in the middle of nowhere and he’s long past the wrong side of thirty. Problem is, Nathaniel’s living with a ghost who thinks he’s cupid, and whose arrows fly a little too straight.

Gabriel Wickfield had the unfortunate luck of dying before his time, and now he’s stuck trying to make romance happen to earn his right to move along. Not that he’s bored in the meantime—Nathaniel is just too easy to tease. And also a little bit scrumptious… 

With the curse reaching its expiration date, Gabriel needs to make a final match this Christmas. Without it, nothing but darkness awaits. 

Love can conquer all, but can it beat death?

Read my thoughts….

Book Review Alert: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Reviewed: November 3rd, 2022
Releases: September 15th, 2022
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy

Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has.

In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.

Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?

Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.

The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite. Read my Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: When We Were Sea and Stars by Elen Chase

Reviewed: May 18th, 2022
Released: August 7th, 2020
Genre: MM Contemporary Romance

Under the summer sun, in a small seaside town in South Italy, nineteen-year-old James meets the man of his dreams. Roberto is gorgeous, fun, sweet… and very taken. James has no delusions about their friendship; he knows love couldn’t possibly happen to him.

Roberto is full of doubts about his relationship. He knows something is missing in his life and he’s not expecting to find that something in James, his new American neighbor.

But if something were to happen, only the sea, the sand and the stars can know. Read my thoughts …

Book Review Alert: Dark Empathy by Katy Morgan

Reviewed: April 3rd, 2022
Released: October 26th, 2018
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy

For an empath, “How do you feel?” is never just a question.
Not when it can kill you.

These are the rules:

1. Rare and powerful empaths never escape the compound.
(Bastian Lucas escaped a year ago, and just because he’s been dragged back doesn’t mean he won’t escape again.)

2. Compound officers don’t ask questions.
(Captain Henry Mortimer has always followed orders, but Bastian’s arrival—and the disappearance of one of Henry’s team—have him wondering things he probably shouldn’t be wondering.)

When Major Valentine orders Bastian and Henry to investigate a series of murders committed by an asset with powers similar to Bastian’s, it brings to light more than just a cover up. Things like why an empath who shouldn’t exist is killing senators, what’s really behind the compound’s sinister asset program, and whether Bastian and Henry will live to see the end of this case.

Because they’re in danger of breaking rule number three as well:

3. Don’t fall in love. Read My thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

Reviewed: March 28th, 2022
Released: March 17th, 2022
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

There are some maps you can lose yourself in…

Nell Young has lived her life in and around maps. Her father, Dr. David Young, was one of the most respected cartographers in the world. But this morning he was found dead – or murdered? – in his office at the New York Public Library.

Nell hadn’t spoken to her father in years, ever since he fired her after an argument over a seemingly worthless highway roadside map. A map which was mass-produced – and every copy of which is now being found and destroyed. But why?

To answer that question, Nell will embark on a dangerous journey into the heart of a conspiracy beyond belief, the secrets behind her family, and the true power that lies in maps . . . Read My thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Renegade Angel by KC Freeman

Reviewed: March 27th, 2022 (ARC)
Released: October 4th, 2022
Genre: Paranormal Fantsay

Exclusively available in the Realm of Darkness Anthology.

A warrior for good. A soldier for Heaven. A heart of gold. A body of sin.
Jasper Moreau has served as a guardian angel for centuries. He battles the demons and monsters in the dark so humanity can pretend they don’t exist. But being a guardian angel isn’t all divine love and light. Sometimes the human side of his nature needs to feed his own lustful appetites.

Savannah only wants to ride horses and be part of a family-her rodeo family. The rodeo was the one place she was finally able to escape her dark past and hide from supernatural abilities. She seems destined to remain the comical rodeo clown, but Fate has a mind of its own. And Fate means to stir up trouble. Read My thoughts…