Book Review Alert: Shards of Hope by BL Jones

Reviewed: September 22nd, 2024
Released: January 19th, 2023
Genre: Superhero Fantasy

Hope can be a prism of scars from which light shines.

Twenty years ago, an infamous scientist created Liquid Onyx, a world-changing chemical which led to the rise of superheroes and supervillains.

Jack Roth is not a superhero. He’s an assassin, a killer, a lethal weapon forged and controlled by the evil organisation Obsidian Inc.

Leo Snow isn’t a superhero either. He’s a British secret agent who spends his life protecting the world and saving everyone he can.

When these two men’s lives collide on the streets of Danger City just as Obsidian Inc is gearing up for another cataclysmic scientific discovery, they’ll both need to reckon with their dark past, messy present and potentially hopeful future. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Others by Evette Davis

Reviewed: September 15th, 2024
Released: September 17th, 2024
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy

True Blood meets Supernatural in the kickoff of this urban paranormal fantasy series from an acclaimed author. Readers enter a dystopian San Francisco filled with empaths and vampires embroiled in political unrest—and Book 1 is just the beginning.

Much as she wishes otherwise, superstar political consultant Olivia Shepherd was born a powerful empath. It’s a legacy she walked away from long ago—but when she wakes up one morning to find Elsa, a tenacious time-walker, standing in her kitchen, she realizes she can no longer ignore her gifts. She is quickly plunged into the hidden world of powerful “Others” and drafted to work for the Council, a shadowy organization that summons the fog to San Francisco to obscure their involvement in human affairs.

Complicating matters further is Olivia’s new love interest, William. A centuries-old vampire, William is far too jaded to take an interest in human affairs—but Olivia no longer has the luxury of remaining impartial. As shocking details from Olivia’s own past emerge and her role in the Council begins to take shape, will she rise to the challenge of her destiny? Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Haunted Hotel by Vawn Cassidy

Reviewed: September 10th, 2024
Released: August 24th, 2024
Genre: Contemporary Paranormal Fantasy

Have a frightfully good stay…Morgan Ashton-Drake hasn’t given his ancestral home in Yorkshire a second thought in decades. He has a great life in the States, running his stepfathers hotel empire with his brother. So what if he’s all work and no play. He’s not missing out on anything important.

But when a suspicious death and rather public scandal at his childhood home forces Morgan to return to England for the first time in years, he’s not keen to confront his past. What he didn’t count on was the seriously cute little blonde disaster who seems to be single-handedly running his eccentric grandfather’s hotel.

Ellis Sparks has worked at the Ashton-Drake Manor House Hotel since he was sixteen and he loves it from the bottom of his soul. Always the eternal optimist, he’s never met a frown he can’t turn upside down; that is, until he meets Morgan Ashton-Drake, the grumpy grandson of his employer.

With the hotel in danger of closing, and convinced Morgan is the only one who can help to save it, the resident ghosts decide to try their ghostly hand at a little matchmaking as an incentive to get him to stay. After all, how hard can it be to get a grumpy workaholic to fall in love with a twinky ray of sunshine? Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The First Ethereal by E.L. Williams

Reviewed: September 7th, 2024
Released: October 29th, 2020
Genre: Contemporaray Fantasy

Lost magic, buried secrets, love, and found family. Can Lilly and Storm find the First Ethereal before all is lost?

Super empath Lilly is almost relieved to be living her last human life. With only her spirit guide, Jack, for company and the world unravelling around them, she longs for the peace of the Eternal Forest.
When catastrophic floods force Lilly from her home, fate intervenes, and she finds refuge with Storm, a widowed ex-witch who has mysteriously lost her magic.

As Lilly falls in love with life and finally finds the family and community she has always dreamed of, the two become entwined in a desperate mission to find the First Ethereal – the one being prophesied to save the world from imminent destruction.

But they’re not the only ones seeking this mythical being. Dark forces, driven by fear and greed, are closing in, determined to seize the Ethereal’s power at any cost – and they’ll destroy anyone who stands in their way.

As the clock ticks down, Storm must unlock the secret of her missing magic, while Lilly confronts the devastating truth about who Jack really is. Are some truths better left buried?Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Bookworm and the Cat’s Meow by Jeanine Lauren

Reviewed: September 5th, 2024
Released: Septeembr 10th, 2024
Genre: Romance
eARC: Hidden Gems

When life gives you a second chance, sometimes it comes with claws.

Recently divorced and looking for a fresh start, Lance Reed swaps his business in the city for the cozy charm of a bookstore in the heart of Sunshine Bay. What he doesn’t expect is the slew of community commitments that come with it—especially the agreement to display cats from the local pet shelter in his store.

There’s just one problem: Lance hates cats.

Enter Raven Johnson, the spirited, cat-loving woman behind the pet shelter. Also, in her mid-fifties and divorced, Raven has dedicated her life to her daughter and her feline friends, leaving little room for romance or other personal ambitions.

To her chagrin, her cat sanctuary is now linked to the bookstore, where her cats, the cat-hating Lance, and his books must somehow coexist.

Will Lance learn to open his heart to the furry friends he never wanted, and can Raven find room for a new chapter in her own story? Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Apprentice’s Luck by K.L Noone

Reviewed: August 25th, 2024
Released: July 22nd, 2023
Genre: MM Fantasy Romance

Apprentice magician Talisman Morning has always been lucky. It’s a problem.

Talis knows his luck is a magical talent — but he can’t control it. And good luck for him can mean bad luck for other people, and a lot of trouble. He’s beginning to wonder whether he belongs with the magicians at all, or whether he should give up and run away … until he meets a royal guard who asks for his help.

King’s guard Jeryn de Machaut could use a magician. He thinks he’s overheard a plot against the king, but he has no evidence and no support. But a wayward apprentice with a knack for being in the right place — and stumbling over hidden objects — might be exactly the luck Jer needs.

Together, Jer and Talis will uncover a palace conspiracy, save a king, and find their own best chance at love. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Reviewed: August 15th, 2024
Released: September 3rd, 2009
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. These words are spoken by Iris Chase Griffen, married at eighteen to a wealthy industrialist but now poor and eighty-two. Iris recalls her far from exemplary life, and the events leading up to her sisters death, gradually revealing the carefully guarded Chase family secrets. Among these is The Blind Assassin, a novel that earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following. Sexually explicit for its time, it was a pulp fantasy improvised by two unnamed lovers who meet secretly in rented rooms and seedy cafés. As this novel-within-a-novel twists and turns through love and jealousy, self-sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real narrative, as both move closer to war and catastrophe. Margaret Atwoods Booker Prize-winning sensation combines elements of gothic drama, romantic suspense, and science fiction fantasy in a spellbinding tale. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Scarlett Legacy by Shelli Rosewarne

Reviewed: July 26th, 2024
Released: April 4th, 2024
Genre: Fairytale Retelling

Natalia doesn’t believe in fairytales. Until she’s thrown headfirst into one. Now she has to trust a big bad wolf with both her life and her heart.

Natalia is done with men. Her cheating scumbag of an ex-boyfriend just the latest in a line of disappointments. She’s definitely not going to be taken in by a sexy Scotsman with an honest-to-God castle, a disturbing affect on her libido, and a shit-ton of secrets.

Damian knows she’s his fated mate. He’s waited his whole life for her after all. But Natalia doesn’t believe in destiny, or wolf shifters, and she sure as hell won’t trust him to keep her safe. But if she doesn’t then her life and his whole pack are in danger.

Scarlett Legacy is the first in the Highland Wolves series, a set of stand-alone but interconnected paranormal romance stories. If you like fairytale retellings and sexy Scotsmen in kilts, then you’ll love this fast-paced shifter romance. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Solomon’s Compass by Carol Kilgore

Reviewed: July 23rd, 2024
Released: March 23rd, 2013
Genre: Contemporary fiction

One USCG Commander + One Veteran Navy SEAL = Fireworks from Stem to Stern

When Coast Guard Commander Taylor Campbell returns to Rock Harbor, Texas, to tend to her uncle’s estate, she meets a veteran Navy SEAL, Jake Solomon, and learns her uncle didn’t drown accidentally. His murder was one in a string of murders of a group of Vietnam veterans who called themselves the Compass Points.

Before her uncle died, he sent Taylor a message with the location of his buried treasure. Unearthing it will place her squarely in the killer’s crosshairs, but she’s determined to fulfill her uncle’s last wish.

Jake, sent to protect her and find the killer, has other plans. Despite the fact she’s a feisty dynamo in a pint-sized package, his mission would be much easier to accomplish if he could forget how good she’d tasted when he kissed her. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Unexpected Witness by MJ Blehart

Reviewed: July 18th, 2024
Released: February 28th, 2021
Genre: Science Fiction

When a high-ranking businessman and two clones are murdered, Marshal Onima Gwok of the Confederation Bureau of Investigation (CBI) gets assigned the case. But nothing quite adds up. Is there something more insidious going on? There is just one witness – a clone. When the war ended ten years ago, the clones who had fought it were discarded, forgotten, and became second-class citizens of the new confederation. Jace Rojas, designated AC J7-2247, is an infantry clone. When he proves to be more helpful than just being a witness to a murder, Onima decides to bring Jace along to join her team as they look for answers across multiple solar systems. But every question seems to produce no answers – only more questions. Will this be the start of a new war – or something worse? Read My Thoughts…