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Review: Blood Series by Brea Alepoú
More Than Blood (Book 1) This paranormal romance story includes a cast of intriguing characters and plenty of sexy bits. However, is it wrong to wish that the book had included more of the worldbuilding and plot than romance-related drama? As much as I enjoyed meeting Karter and the vampire den to whom he finds…
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Review: The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings (Black & Blue #1) by Lily Morton
If I accidentally moved into a haunted house, I’d probably fall for the cute, local ghost tour guide too. Especially if his psychic gifts can help me un-haunt my house. The blue hair is probably just a bonus. Apparently, I identified a lot with Levi as a character because most of all of his decisions…
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Review: Sugar Daddies by Jade West
This book was another recommendation from a Facebook readers group. I prefer menage romances considered M/M/F rather than M/F/M, in which an equal relationship also exists between the two men rather than both focusing on the woman. In this case, two bisexual men in a gay relationship decide to invite a woman to become part…
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Review: Werewolves of Chernobyl by K.A. Merikan & L.A. Witt
I enjoy both these authors and the recent miniseries about Chernobyl on HBO, so this book pinged my interest when I stumbled across it. While I lean toward vampires rather than werewolves in my paranormal romance tastes, the premise intrigued me immediately. The human character, Quinn, annoyed me at the beginning. He starts a bit…
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Author Interview with J.K. Knauss
One of the best things about being an “indie” author is having the ability to re-brand yourself or your works whenever necessary. Check out the gorgeous new cover for J.K. Knauss’ Seven Noble Knights in celebration of her relaunch with Encircle Publications! Below, I’ve also included an interview with the author that has previously been…
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A Year in Reading: 2020
As usual, I set my Goodreads Reading Challenge for the year to 50 books. That’s about a book a week, and combined with novellas and graphic novels, I usually end up with a final tally of around 100 books. Not bad. Makes me feel like something in my life is productive, and reading will always…
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Review: Permanent Ink (Art & Soul #1) by Avon Gale & Piper Vaughn
I will admit to being tentative going into this book based on the back-cover description. An age gap between two consenting adults doesn’t bother me, but I didn’t want or need a lot of angst related to Poe being the son of Jericho’s best friend. Luckily, the perk to everyone being an adult is that…
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Review: Say You’ll Be Nine by Lucy Lennox
Like most people in the United States who don’t have a crafty bone in their body, HGTV is basically crack to me. No surprise, then, that I would dive into a contemporary romance featuring a fake relationship and a renovations YouTube channel (also, my parents are doing work on their house and I’m tired of…
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December Wrap-Up & January Goals
Hey, we did it! If you’re reading this, we survived the train wreck that was 2020. I sincerely hope that your loved ones fared as well, and that we all do much better in 2021. I’m keeping expectations low and assuming that I’m in for another year doing a lot of reading and playing video…
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Review: Wrecked Series by Kelly Fox
Sanctuary (Book 1) I’m a former military brat and current military spouse. I spent over a decade as a medical editor in rehabilitation, which included a focus on prosthetics. I hesitated over reading Sanctuary because I know I can be picky about books with either of those themes, much less combined. I’m so glad I…
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Review: Pendulum (Kingdom of Night #1) by Joel Abernathy
I made it a goal to read more M/M books written by male-presenting authors, and this trilogy looked like a great choice that featured lots of my favorite things in the paranormal romance genre. On the plus side, this book was well-written, and it was easy enough to get swept along in the plot. However,…
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Holiday Letter 2020
December 2020 Dear Family & Friends, Hanna, Erik, and the three cats have successfully managed to stay healthy throughout the shenanigans brought by 2020. We are fortunate that both of our jobs ensured continued employment, and while Erik continues to work in-person on his military base, Hanna has been working full-time from home since March.…
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Review: Reagan Through the Looking Glass (Hacking Wonderland #1) by Allyson Lindt
This is a short novel that ends in such a way that it could have easily been combined with the sequel to create a complete book. It does not end on a cliffhanger, though; I look forward to reading the conclusion, but I didn’t feel the urge to dive into it immediately. Reagan (“Alice”) immediately…
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Review: Four Ever by Sloane Kennedy
Why stop with all the drama and baggage of two characters at a tipping point in their relationship with each other when you can have double the fun? Include some healthy doses of physical, mental, or emotional trauma in every character, then sit back and wait for the fireworks. Pardon my snarkiness (which that cover…
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Review: The Experiment by Rebecca Raine
As a professional medical editor for the day job, I thought it was hilarious that the sections of this book were labeled according to the sections of a journal article, down to the “Methods” and “Limitations.” Even better, the headings accurately reported what part of the plot the section covered. This conceit was cute while…
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Review: How to Hack a Hacker (Unholy Trifecta #3) by A.J. Sherwood
Read my review of Unholy Trifecta #1, How to Shield an Assassin Read my review of Unholy Trifecta #2, How to Steal a Thief The few problems I had with the previous books in this series spilled into the conclusion of this particular found-family all getting their happily ever after. Not every author wants to…
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Review: Dedicated (Rhythm of Love #1) by Neve Wilder
This book is a friends-to-lovers romance that swerves strongly into “idiots in love” territory, which means I had a blast reading it. Individually, Les and Evan are well-written, complex characters with a strong history of friendship currently on the rocks. They both approached stardom differently, so it makes sense that this book opens with them…
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Review: Royally Screwed by Lynn Van Dorn
This novel is one of those books that would probably have better reviews if the back-cover description was a bit more comprehensive. Some aspects of this book that verge strongly into light BDSM territory are not going to be for everyone. The early chapters showing the characters as they age together place it firmly in…
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Review: Folk Lore Series by K.A. Merikan
Where the Devil Says Goodnight (Book 1) Potential readers should heed the “dark” warning in this book’s description because more than a few scenes are not for the faint of heart. Merikan dives deep into Slavic mythology to draw monsters to the surface, both paranormal and utterly human. Adam and Emil pay the price, time…
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Review: Natural Twenty (Roll for Love #1) by Charlie Novak
This book features an incredibly sweet romance between two geeky business owners, featuring delightful secondary characters and an adorable dog. Book protagonists don’t exist in a vacuum, and sometimes it’s nice to have their friends cheering along with you for that happily ever after. In this particular story, Jay and Leo face very real-world obstacles…
