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A Year in Reading: 2022
Every year, Goodreads invites me to its annual reading challenge with a helpfully suggested goal of 12 books. Every year, I bump that goal up to 50, because I figure that’s always doable unless the apocalypse occurs. In the last few years, I’ve more than blown that number out of the water. Here’s my final…
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December Wrap-Up & January Goals
Happy New Year! Let’s approach 2023 with caution, offer it treats, and hope only good things come of it. I’m home from my fantastic holiday vacation, both wishing I was back at the beach and looking forward to everything I get to do in the months to come. Lots of authors have shared some truly…
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Book Review: Distraction (Mobsters + Billionaires #4) by Kelly Fox
Read my reviews of the previous books in the Mobsters + Billionaires series: Extradition (#1) | Protection (#2) | Attraction (#3) The relationship between enforcer Hopper and Liam, his RICO agent, has been teased from the beginning of this fantastic series, and the final reveal of the full arc did not disappoint. A lot of the set-up for…
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Book Review: Crimson Halo by Daniel May
It’s hard to do something “new” with vampire romance, but sometimes authors forget that they can lean into existing tropes and find ways to make them original. May does an amazing job with this book in portraying the inherent inhumanity of immortality while still making Seth a compelling and very human character. After all, a…
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Book Review: Ignite (Ignite #1) by Nora Phoenix
Despite my love of this author’s works, I delayed reading this series because I burned out on dystopian/post-apocalyptic stories a few years ago. But I’m still a science-fiction geek at heart, bonus points if it involves aliens and alternate history, so I knew these books would eventually make it to the top of the queue.…
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Book Review: Malicious Compliance & Instant Regret by E.M. Lindsey
This post includes reviews of the books in the Loose Lips Sink Ships duet: Malicious Compliance (#1) | Instant Regret (#2) Malicious Compliance (Loose Lips Sink Ships #1) Any book by this author is going to be packed with emotion, and this one hits us with it right away. Jules is coming out of a…
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Book Review: Weavers Circle Series by Jocelynn Drake & Rinda Elliott
This post includes reviews of the books in the Weavers Circle series: Broken Warrior (#1) | Wild Warrior (#2) | Blind Warrior (#3) | Tangled Warriors (#4) | Storm Warrior (#5) Broken Warrior (Weavers Circle #1) This series contains many urban fantasy concepts that I love, and the authors are two I have read and…
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Book Review: A Purpose That Restores Us (Magi Accounts #3) by Michele Notaro
Read my reviews of previous books in the Magi Accounts series: Our Hearts That Tie Us (#0.5) | The Scars That Bind Us (#1) | A Kiss to Revive Me (#1.5) | The Shackles That Hold Us (#2) | A Date to Impress Him (#2.5) This fascinating urban fantasy world Notaro has created is an interesting dichotomy of how things…
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Book Review: Catalyst (Chain Reaction #1) by Aurora Crane
I read another recently published book by this author and immediately sought out more. Though I was bummed that more wasn’t currently available, I was thrilled to find that this book is the beginning of a longer series. I stayed up way too late the night I started and even managed to keep reading while…
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Book Review: Raiden (Sons of the Fallen #6) by Jaclyn Osborn
Read my reviews of the previous books in the Sons of the Fallen series: Galen (#1) | Castor (#2) | Daman (#3) | Gray (#4) | Bellamy (#5) Authors and readers like to describe characters as golden retrievers in human form, but I’ve found the definitive version. Raiden might not be 100 percent human, but he definitely has that wholesome…
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November Wrap-Up & December Goals
You know how time seems to speed up the older you get? It’s a combination of math and perspective. You’ve lived longer, so a month is a smaller proportion of your life than when you were 8 years old and enjoying endless summer break. Between recovering from my epic adventure in Israel, friends visiting from…
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Book Review: Heart2Heart Vol. 6 (multiple authors)
I was honored to be asked to review an advanced digital copy of the 2022 Heart2Heart collection, featuring many of my favorite authors. Since I’m reading this charity anthology for free, I’ve made a separate donation to a local LGBTQ+ organization. This book is only available for a limited time, so don’t wait to grab…
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Book Review: All for the Game Series by Nora Sakavic
This post includes reviews of the books in the All for the Game series: The Foxhole Court (#1) | The Raven King (#2) | The King’s Men (#3) The Foxhole Court (All for the Game #1) Multiple writers that I admire and whose work I love highly recommend this trilogy, so I figured I should…
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Book Review: Notorious (Shifter Scoundrels #1) by Charlie Cochet & Macy Blake
I’m always willing to give weird genre mash-ups a shot, so this book ending up on my TBR isn’t a surprise. It features a shockingly unexpected opening that sets up the main conflict while also doing a decent bit of worldbuilding, which hooked me pretty much instantly. I also thoroughly enjoyed main characters Caspian and…
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Book Review: Unwrapping Christmas (Rebel Sky Ranch #4.5) by Kelly Fox
Read my reviews of previous books in the Rebel Sky Ranch series: Goodnight (#1) | Sparrow (#2) | Navarro (#3) | Warwick (#4) There seems to be a default assumption that holiday-themed romances have to be sweet, but Fox sees this assumption, packs a ton of sweetness into this novella, and then raises the spice level off the charts…
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Book Review: Up to Snow Good by Charlie Novak
This book is a follow-up and features some of the same characters as an earlier winter story by Novak, but it easily works as a stand-alone novel. The brief backstory did make me curious about the previous romance, but I was quickly swept up in the events of this one. Max and Luca don’t have…
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Book Review: Shadow Elite Series by Jocelynn Drake
This post includes reviews of the current books available in the Shadow Elite series: Stephen’s Translator (#0.5)Charlie’s Doctor (#1) Stephen’s Translator (Shadow Elite #0.5) This novella is available as a free download via Prolific Works as part of the Your Book Boyfriend’s Boyfriend M/M Romance Group Giveaway 2022. The “meet cute” between Stephen and Ehren in this…
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Book Review: Shah Mat (Shattered Pawns #4) by Jennifer Cody
Read my reviews of the previous books set in this series/world: Diviner’s Game series | Shattered Pawns series Some books are easy to review, no matter the genre. These things happened, the characters were like this, and this is how I felt about it. Some books, on the other hand, are the culmination of half…
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Book Review: How to Plot Romance Fiction by Nina Harrington
This book did not come recommended to me, but it showed up in the Amazon algorithm and the price for a hardcopy version was more than reasonable. After reading it, I’m glad that I did not spend more than I did. Overall, the text could have benefited from an editorial review by someone experienced in…
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Book Review: The Secret Plan (The Game #10) by Cara Dee
Read my reviews of the previous books in The Game series: Top Priority (#1) | Their Boy (#2) | Breathless (#3) | Doll Parts (#4) | Out of the Ashes (#5) | The Shepherd (#6) | Adrift in the Embers (#7) | Hostile Takeover (#8) | Senseless (#9) One of the things I love best about this series is how it explores the intersection…
