I am under the weather, so I passed on my Sunday post. Good think I had these fun book reviews for just this occasion.
I picked up Stiletto Safari on an Amazon free day and after I read it, I found she had another book, Stiletto Sunset on Kindle Unlimited, so I had to grab that one too. These covers are so fun and I thought the stories inside would be too.
I loved this fabulous romantic adventure with laughs, tears, and all the feel goods I look for and more because we are in the wilds of Africa with some fantastic Sex in the City type characters that quickly drew me into Kate Metz’s debut novel and left me wanting to read Book II, Stiletto Sunset.
This Sex in the City friendship keeps the girls going no matter what continent they are on. These BFFS are at each other’s side through laughter and tears in the fun romp around the world, with a special girl, Gabi, and a wild life and ecological taste that made me grab this after reading Stiletto Safari, Book I in the series.
It has been many, many years since I read the first book of the Earth’s Children series, Clan Of The Cave Bear my Jean M Auel. The story stuck with me so much that here I am, decades later getting lost in Ayla’s story and prehistoic adventures. All her previous world came back easily, and that is so unusual for me, that I am sure I will read it to the very end.
We flip back and forth, between Ayla and Jondalar. It’s obvious to me they will end up together, but Ayla’s struggles after being kicked out of the Clan are fascinating. She learns to survive by doing, picking up skills on her own. She was seeking one of her own, but she makes friends with a horse and an even more unlikely companion, so her search is delayed and she spends years alone.
A scream changes her world forever when she saves Jondalar from Baby.
That’s all I’m saying, because Ayla’s story is sooooo worth experiencing for yourself, that I want you to discover it by becoming as immersed in the journey as I did.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
This odyssey into the distant past carries us back to the awesome mysteries of the exotic, primeval world of The Clan of the Cave Bear, and to Ayla, now grown into a beautiful and courageous young woman.Cruelly cast out by the new leader of the ancient Clan that adopted her as a child, Ayla leaves those she loves behind and travels alone through a stark, open land filled with dangerous animals but few people, searching for the Others, tall and fair like herself. Living with the Clan has taught Ayla many skills but not real hunting. She finally knows she can survive when she traps a horse, which gives her meat and a warm pelt for the winter, but fate has bestowed a greater gift, an orphaned foal with whom she develops a unique kinship.One winter extends to more; she discovers a way to make fire more quickly and a wounded cave lion cub joins her unusual family, but her beloved animals don’t fulfill her restless need for human companionship. Then she hears the sound of a man screaming in pain. She saves tall, handsome Jondalar, who brings her a language to speak and an awakening of love and desire, but Ayla is torn between her fear of leaving her valley and her hope of living with her own kind.This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional • An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series• A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® series
Jean M. Auel, née Jean Marie Untinen is an American author best known for her Earth’s Children books, a series of historical fiction novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals. As of 2010 her books have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide, in many translations.
Auel attended University of Portland, and earned an MBA in 1976. She received honorary degrees from her alma mater, as well as the University of Maine and the Mount Vernon College for Women. She and her husband, Ray Bernard Auel, have five children and live in Portland, Oregon.
“You will never have him,” she says. “Die a bride, and know he’ll come to me. He will come to me, or by your blood on my tongue, bride after bride will join you in death.”
And the curse begins. It will be up to Sonya MacTavish, a graphic designer who inherited the manor from her unknown uncle, Collin Poole, to solve the mystery and lift the curse.
Sonya had a bad breakup with a huge douche bag, and I love what her best friend, Cleo had to say:
“What do you want me to do?…Tell me what you want, and it’s done. Murder? Decapitation? Castration?”
I think we could all use a best friend like that. LOL
Sonya had been thinking about branching out on her own and now was the time. Would the ghosts of the manor be a help or a hindrance. Most of them are on her side, but there is always one, isn’t there? I would love to have some help around the house, and Sonya has her very own ghostly maid. She leaves her bedroom and comes back, the bed is made. She leaves the kitchen a mess, comes back and it is cleaned up. Forget to charge your phone, they have you covered. Even ghosts want a purpose.
Those around Sonya accept the ghosts, but Sonya hesitates.
The point of view flashes past to present and back again. We get all of their histories, ghosts and humans, and Sonya will need all the help she can get to break the curse. We have a combination of modern and gothic.
This light and fun mystery is full of surprises and I loved each and every one. The characters quickly won me over, ghosts and human alike…even the dogs have a place of honor. Cold pizza, I love it too, even for breakfast. Little things that I can relate to on a personal level add that little bit extra that I love so much. I had plenty of smiles to go along with the creepy.
The mirror…made me think of Charmed and Grimm. TV shows make it easy for me to visualize the action as it is happening.
NO NO NO a cliffhanger. So wrong!!!!! But I couldn’t put it down and I HAVE TO HAVE the next one, and the next one. I knew it was a trilogy going in and the story would not be told in one book, but when I came to the end, I wasn’t expecting it. That is how involved I was in the story. I foresee good things for the next two books and I can hardly wait to visit the manor again.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Inheritance is the first in The Lost Bride Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts―a tale of tragedies, loves found and lost, and a family haunted for generations.
1806: Astrid Poole sits in her bridal clothes, overwhelmed with happiness. But before her marriage can be consummated, she is murdered, and the circle of gold torn from her finger. Her last words are a promise to Collin never to leave him…
Graphic designer Sonya MacTavish is stunned to learn that her late father had a twin he never knew about―and that her newly discovered uncle, Collin Poole, has left her almost everything he owned, including a majestic Victorian house on the Maine coast, which the will stipulates she must live in it for at least three years. Her engagement recently broken, she sets off to find out why the boys were separated at birth―and why it was all kept secret until a genealogy website brought it to light.
Trey, the young lawyer who greets her at the sprawling clifftop manor, notes Sonya’s unease―and acknowledges that yes, the place is haunted…but just a little. Sure enough, Sonya finds objects moved and music playing out of nowhere. She sees a painting by her father inexplicably hanging in her deceased uncle’s office, and a portrait of a woman named Astrid, whom the lawyer refers to as “the first lost bride.” It’s becoming clear that Sonya has inherited far more than a house. She has inherited a centuries-old curse, and a puzzle to be solved if there is any hope of breaking it…
Expected publication: November 21, 2023 by St. Martin’s Press
Series: The Lost Bride Trilogy, Book I
ABOUT NORA ROBERTS
Nora Roberts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels, including Hideaway, Under Currents, Come Sundown, The Awakening, Legacy, and coming in November 2021 — The Becoming — the second book in The Dragon Heart Legacy. She is also the author of the futuristic suspense In Death series written under the pen name J.D. Robb. There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print.
The Cruel Dark Bea Northwick Publication date: October 31st 2023 Genres: Adult, Gothic, Romance
Millicent Foxboro is haunted.
Not by ghosts, but by the anguish of her past and the uncertainty of her future. After all, even in the progressive year of 1928, most people would balk at hiring a woman who’d spent two months in a mental ward for traumatic amnesia. So when an uncommon assistantship to a reclusive Professor of mythology falls into her lap with an ungodly salary attached, her desperation for stability overrides her cautious nature.
To Millie’s dismay, the widowed Professor Callum Hughes and his estate, Willowfield, are more than she bargained for. The once magnificent home, known for its sprawling gardens and dazzling parties, is falling to pieces after the death of the professor’s fragile wife. What’s more, the staff has been reduced to the only three people not frightened away by rumors of ghosts, leaving the halls empty and languishing in bitter memories.
The professor himself is a grim, intense man with unclear expectations, unpredictable moods, and hungry eyes that ignite Millie’s own dormant passions. The closer she finds herself drawn to Professor Hughes and his strange world of flowers and folklore, the more the house closes in, threatening to reveal her secrets. But the professor is keeping secrets of his own, and the most dangerous of all is hers to discover.
I’d never questioned the presence of my wits more than the moment I stood in the frigid morning air and watched the hired car arrive. The vehicle, sleek and ostentatious, was said to be capable of going fifty miles an hour, and I pretended it was the prospect of that speed making my stomach do somersaults.
The car pulled to a smooth stop, and a tall, ruddy driver unfolded himself from the front seat, introduced himself briefly as Joseph Dempsey, and went to collect my bags. It was short work; I had only one. I wasn’t a woman of means. As the gentleman loaded my valise into the trunk, I ran my bare fingers along the smooth deep sea blue of the wheel hull. This was, undoubtedly, the worst decision I’d ever made, but there were few options, and this was by far the least evil of them.
I glanced over my shoulder to the doorway of the little bookshop I’d come to know as home, where the stooped owner, Mr. Helm, had appeared, his blue eyes uncharacteristically red-rimmed. I’d never seen him on the verge of tears, and my heart constricted painfully. I rushed to him, pulling a thin cotton handkerchief from my pocket. It wasn’t in his character to embrace, so he enveloped both of my hands in his. They were large hands, covered in the ink stains of his trade as an antique book restorer, a business he had been teaching me for the past year despite his once firmly held belief that restoration was not for women.
Mr. Helm had been a tall man in his youth, but the war and many years hunched over a workman’s table had scuttled his stature. I didn’t need to lift my chin to look at his face, which was working to arrange itself into something less aggrieved. I was glad for his trying, because I would call off everything if even one tear rolled down his cheek.
Author Bio:
Bea Northwick is a lover of magical, spooky, and romantic things. She owns too much perfume, can’t pick an aesthetic, and loves 80s movies. She lives with her husband, children, dogs, and a black cat in the sunny American South where she dreams daily of Irish cottages and rain swept Scottish castles.
Feisty and passionate. He’ll enjoy making her fall in love with him…or die trying.
In the shadowy depths of London, Lady Euphemia Brandt, a renowned concert pianist, is mistaken by an English nobleman for his intended rendezvous. She defends herself, losing her reticule in the process. Reluctantly, she takes coins from her attacker and secures a carriage home. Their eyes lock, and they share a searing kiss, altering their lives forever.
At an affair honoring the Prime Minister, Euphemia discovers that the rogue who accosted her is a much sought-after, wealthy member of society. Struggling to resist his attraction, she battles memories of their kiss.
Cayden Whitford, the Duke of Thornton, seeking a woman with vital information, mistakes Euphemia for his contact and is surprised by her swift blow and the ensuing kiss. Intrigued, he vows to find her. At a dinner party, Thornton leans she is the daughter of a trusted advisor and masquerades as a suitor to discover her allegiance.
As Thornton unravels Euphemia’s wit, logic, and passion, his initial mission falters. He’s fallen in love with her.
About the Author
RUTH A. CASIE is a USA Today bestselling author of historical swashbuckling action-adventures and contemporary romance with enough action to keep you turning pages. Her stories feature strong women and the men who deserve them, endearing flaws and all. She lives in New Jersey with her hero, three empty bedrooms and a growing number of incomplete counted cross-stitch projects. Before she found her voice, she was a speech therapist (pun intended), client liaison for a corrugated manufacturer, and vice president at an international bank where she was a product/marketing manager, but her favorite job is the one she’s doing now-writing romance. She hopes her stories become your favorite adventures.
We’re so excited to share that Ivy Love’s Vanished, the fourth in her Quinn Winters series, is now available! Check it out and be sure to get your copy today!
Title: Vanished
Author: Ivy Love
Genre: Romantic Suspense
About Vanished:
Agent Quinn Winters and her team are moving forward and putting the past behind them.Relationships are being repaired.Trust is being regained.The team is finally starting to feel cohesive again and the addition of Agent Carter has a lot to do with it.One year has passed since Carter Hayes has become an Agent. He completed his training and immediately started working with the team. During this time, the team has only been called into the field once, to assist with the recovery of a missing child. It doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy, the amount of cases the team has been handling from their homebase grows every day.To add to their workload, once Agent Carter became a full-fledged member, he filled them in on what brought him to the team in the first place. Once the team heard his story, they knew they had to help. In addition to their regular workload, the team began searching for clues and monitoring patterns, while Agent Carter continued to perfect his craft.It hasn’t been easy and they’re nowhere close to unraveling the network of killers, but Agent Quinn Winters and her team aren’t giving up.When two children disappear without a trace, within days of each other, they know they need to act quickly.What they find… will change everything they thought they knew.
I’m a lover of reading, writing, high heels and animals.When I’m not writing, I’m working in the legal field or playing with my five, yes, five rescue dogs. When I was in grade school, I was your classic nerd. I spent more time reading books “above my grade level” and getting lost in them, instead of paying attention to the people around me. I loved the journey each book would take me on. I still do. When I was thirteen I picked up a pencil and wrote my first hundred page story. It was the moment I realized I could not only lose myself in books, but in my own words. That was the moment I fell in love with writing.I write because I have to. I have stories to tell and want to share them with all of you.
Faeted Mates: A Paranormal Romance Boxset Publication date: December 13th 2022 Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
They aren’t nice, and they aren’t trying to get along.
The fae, shifters, and humans of this world are not one big happy family, and in this massive collection of new fantasy romance tales from 19 authors, their worlds are about to collide. There won’t just be danger; there will be an all out war.
Whether meeting shifters, witches, engaging in duels, stolen brides and arranged marriages, or navigating the worlds of magic that are at war with worlds of man, these books from today’s New York Times, USA Today, and new and upcoming authors are sure to blur the lines between the seelie and unseelie.
Now only one question remains: Can our heroes and heroines prove that love knows no difference between the winter and summer courts before they tear each other apart?
Join the Wyld Hunt and explore the mystic forces of Faery as fate calls unlikely lovers to each other with primal magnetism. This collection includes academy romance, enemies to lovers, urban fantasy, retold classics, friends to lovers, and all new fare.
One thing is certain: these are not your childhood fairy tales.
Scroll up and one-click to secure your copy of Faeted Mates right now.
This fantasy series is perfect for fans of Sarah J Maas, Holly Black, and K.F. Breene and features full-length fantasy romance stories of various heat levels.
Authors included in this set are: Celia Kyle & Marina Maddix, Reina Torres, Rianne Thaxton, Cassidy K. O’Connor, Gracen Miller, Terri A. Wilson, Riley Hunt & Amelia Grey, Jamie Dalton, Christopher D. Schmitz, Channie Cocker, Breezy Jones, Elle J Rossi, Adalynd Grayves, A.M. Mason, Brenda Lore, Tori Kellett
Pets in Space 7: A Science Fiction Romance Anthology Publication date: October 4th 2022 Genres: Adult, Romance, Science Fiction
Pets in Space® is back for a new year of adventures!
Pets in Space is back and better than ever! Featuring 13 original, never-before-released stories from some of today’s bestselling science fiction romance authors, starring your favorite sci-fi pets. These furry, feathered, and slightly alien friends are always ready for a new adventure with their two-legged human and alien companions. From dogs to cats to sea creatures and unicorns, these romantic tales show that pets are more than just animals – they’re family.
This limited-edition anthology includes novellas by some of the biggest names in science fiction romance. New York Times Bestseller S.E. Smith and USA Today Bestsellers R.J. Blain, Grace Goodwin, Skye MacKinnon, Carol Van Natta, Honey Phillips, Carysa Locke, S.J. Pajonas, JC Hay, and Kyndra Hatch, plus Leslie Chase, Winnie Winkle, and Candace Colt.
The Pets in Space 7 authors continue their vital support of Hero-Dogs.org, the non-profit charity that improves quality of life for veterans of the U.S. military and first-responders with disabilities.
Don’t miss out — grab this limited-edition anthology before it’s too late!
What was the human doing here? No sane female would seek out these bastards.
Until she appeared, everything had been going to plan. Humans in a black vehicle had arrived to pick up some Quell at the odd window on the side of the building. I’d marked their vehicle so I could track them once I was done here.
Then? Chaos. Human weapons firing. The female was injured, severely.
The Siren operatives didn’t know I was here. Not yet. But I would take pleasure in ending their lives. Males of worth did not harm females of any species.
“Let her bleed out. Kill the animal. We can dump the bodies later.”
I moved closer without making a sound.
“No!” The female’s voice rang out.
I watched the Rogue 5 hybrid lift his ion blaster and point it toward the animal. I could not afford to intervene. Rokor, their leader, was dangerous. Deadly. I could not lose foc—
I felt the blast to my hip as if I were the one shot. The barrier in my mind shattered like broken glass and suddenly I was seeing through two sets of eyes.
She held up her small, blood-stained hand and begged for her pet’s life. “Don’t hurt her. Don’t. Please.”
I saw myself through her eyes, a shadow moving closer, Death himself. She was not afraid of dying, nor of me. She wanted—me. My cock twitched. Hard. Hot. My hand burned. She wanted to be in my arms. She ached for me.
She was mine.
The connection faded yet I clung to the fleeting warmth in my mind, desperate to feel it again. It had only been a few seconds, but I was out of time.
Her beast must have sensed the danger as well. The golden animal charged the male who held the ion blaster.
I grabbed Long Flight Home by Cassandra Cripps on a free day. It is available on Kindle Unlimited and it was a very pleasant surprise, and I highly recommend it.
Long Flight Home by Cassandra Cripps is sooo much more than I had hoped for.
I’m sure I grabbed Long Flight Home by Cassandra Cripps because of the location, Alaska, the wild frontier. I have watched several TV shows located in Alaska, even a couple shows about the charter business in Alaska.
Their past is tragic, but their love is forever. How they find themselves and the suffering they go through to get to the place they feel they belong is wonderful. The vivid, detailed description of the location, Alaska, made me feel the wind and the cold, and revel in the beauty. It is rare when I get lost in a romance novel that doesn’t include murder and mayhem, so this was a wonderful surprise that I highly recommend to all readers.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
TK
I live my life by rules – too many fucking rules. But, it’s the only way. I messed up once. I slept with the wrong girl. Never again. The rules are my life, my guide. Until she walks in, and one by one, they all crumble. She doesn’t creep her way in like a worm. No, she soars in, like an eagle, refusing to be ignored and digging her claws into my heart. Leaving me vulnerable, wanting more. Wanting her.
Gracie
Home. Happiness. The words used to mean something. Until that night – over a decade ago. When they were stolen from me and my parents forced us to move. Now, I’m back in Alaska, flying bush planes for Homer Air. And, I’ll fight every step I take until those words are real again. The only problem is the reclusive fisherman whom I can’t stop thinking about, despite us fighting every time I see him.
ABOUT CASSANDRA CRIPPS
We all live in the illusions of our own realities. Cassandra’s reality lies between the quiet bridge of complex and chaotic. A single mother to two amazing boys, graphic artist, industrial sewer, author, avid home gardener, baker, reader, and introvert, her hats are many. A refined goth, she’s obsessed with tattoos, shoes, hair dye, chocolate, metal and hip-hop music, and all things dark and creepy except bugs, those are too creepy. Each of her books contains a piece of her reality. Tiny fragments laced with forbidden romance, defining miniature slices of her truths.
New York Times Bestselling Author Sandra Brown has been a must read author for me since I can’t remember when. I want to thank Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Overill.
Buckhead. Atlanta. I know the area and love when a book takes place in a location I am familiar with. And football? Are you ready for some football, because I am.
Zach was an MVP Super Bowl quarterback, emphasis on was. He had been booted from a sport he loved and he had no one to blame but himself. Rebecca was a party girl. Again, emphasis on was. He hadn’t seen Rebecca since their divorce.
Zach made a quick exit from the Cayman Islands to her hospital room. He felt her need to control his life, when he was told that he had power of attorney over her medical decisions if there was ever a time she couldn’t make the decision for herself. I can’t imagine having to make that call. I guess I would ask myself, ” What would ? want?”
State Prosecutor Kate Lennon arrives at his secluded cabin to let him know that the man responsible for Rebecca’s vegetative state is being released from prison. She wants to put him back where she thinks he belongs, but she needs his help to do it.
Richy Rich Eban, the man who, along with his three friends, had nearly killed her. He had served two years for what he had done to her. It ticked me off when I read two years (way to tick me off, Sandra), then I almost saw red when I ‘saw’ what his father gave him as a get out of jail ‘gift’. Despicable people and it is his father’s fault for the way he is, though Eban made his own choices, and continues to do so after his release.
I would be so angry….Who do they think they are? Eban, is he a sociopath? Psychopath? Or just a rich ‘kid’ that feels entitled, because he never had to be accountable for his actions. I say through the BOOK at them all. I would feel the same if it was a poor person that had committed the act. I love when I see them knocked down and watch them plead for mercy.
I love books like Overkill by Sandra Brown. The characters came across as authentic, faulty, arrogant. I was empathetic with Zach, not wanting to be the one to make the decision. Would I have been more angry than he was? You bet. But, then I wonder if it was because she was his ex and they had no connection any more. It is so real. I feel the vulnerability. I even discussed with Mr Wonderful about getting video cameras for the house right after finishing it. LOL
Very well done, Sandra. I read it in one day. I love romantic suspense and Overkill hit all the buttons. AND I loved the epilogue, a little something extra is always appreciated.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Overkill by Sandra Brown.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
#1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown delivers a riveting thriller in
which a conflict of conscience for a former football star and an
ambitious state prosecutor swiftly intensifies into a fight for their
lives.
Former Super Bowl MVP quarterback Zach Bridger
hasn’t seen his ex-wife, Rebecca Pratt, for some time—not since their
volatile marriage imploded—so he’s shocked to receive a life-altering
call about her. Rebecca has been placed on life support after a violent
assault, and he—despite their divorce—has medical power-of-attorney.
Zach is asked to make an impossible choice: keep her on life support or
take her off of it. Buckling under the weight of the responsibility and
the glare of public scrutiny, Zach ultimately walks away, letting
Rebecca’s parents have the final say.
Four years later,
Rebecca’s attacker, Eban—the scion of a wealthy family in Atlanta—gets
an early release from prison. The ludicrous miscarriage of justice reeks
of favoritism, and Kate Lennon, a brilliant state prosecutor, is
determined to put him back behind bars. Rebecca’s parents have kept her
alive all these years, but if her condition were to change—if she were
to die—Eban could be retried on a new charge: murder.
It isn’t
lost on Zach that in order for Eban to be charged with Rebecca’s
murder, Zach must actually be the one to kill her. He rejects Kate’s
legal standpoint but can’t resist their ill-timed attraction to each
other. Eban, having realized the jeopardy he’s in, plots to make certain
that neither Zach nor Kate lives to see the death of Rebecca—and the
end of his freedom.
ABOUT SANDRA BROWN
Sandra
Brown is the author of more than sixty New York Times bestsellers,
including STING (2016), FRICTION (2015), MEAN STREAK (2014),
DEADLINE(2013), & LOW PRESSURE (2012), LETHAL (2011).
Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published
over seventy novels, bringing the number of copies of her books in print
worldwide to upwards of eighty million. Her work has been translated
into over thirty languages.
In 2009 Brown detoured from romantic suspense to write, Rainwater, a
much acclaimed, powerfully moving historical fiction story about honor
and sacrifice during the Great Depression.
Brown was given an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas
Christian University. She was named Thriller Master for 2008, the top
award given by the International Thriller Writer’s Association. Other
awards and commendations include the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Award for
Literature and the Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement
Award.
I loved this fabulous romantic adventure with laughs, tears, and all the feel goods I look for and more because we are in the wilds of Africa with some fantastic Sex in the City type characters that quickly drew me into Kate Metz’s debut novel and left me wanting to read Book II, Stiletto Sunset.
4 Stars
This Sex in the City friendship keeps the girls going no matter what continent they are on. These BFFS are at each other’s side through laughter and tears in the fun romp around the world, with a special girl, Gabi, and a wild life and ecological taste that made me grab this after reading Stiletto Safari, Book I in the series.
