Month: January 2024

Posted in Spicy Romance

Guarded by the Spider (Monster Security Agency)

Posted on by Little Bee

By Cassie Alexander

Rating 5 out of 5 Stars

Audiobook Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

I received a copy of this ARC to read and listen, I am leaving this review voluntarily.

First, let me preface with saying, I do not like spiders. At all. They make me pukey and give me the heebie jeebies. HOWEVER. I LOVED this book. “Nine” and Sloane are honestly perfect for each other and I could not get enough.

“Nine” is what most of the characters in the book call Nia’n’an throughout the book, he is the spider type humanoid-ish monster. He is dying because he has not found his mate. So he is sent on a mission to rescue a billionaire’s daughter who has been kidnapped. He is sent by himself, since he is dying, so as to not put any of the other team at risk for an impossible mission. They are unsure if they are bringing out Sloane alive, or as a corpse.

Sloane is probably one of my favorite FMC’s to date. She is such a strong character. She was kidnapped at her concert after it was shot up and people died. She was underground for over a month, caged like an animal, by her captors. She is taken by Nine who she can’t communicate effectively with because his translator broke. She falls in love with him quickly and does not understand its because they are fated mates. She is terrified of him, and then turned on by him. She is incredibly funny with her comments she makes, often thinking he does not understand her.

The majority of the story goes back and forth between the two of them and their self monologue. Nine definitely has those touch her and d!e vibes. I also like that he has his own organic, all natural, self made shibari rope because he just trusses Sloane right on up wherever he can make her stick. He also uses it to hold her in place during the few spicy scenes they have. There are only a couple of spicy scenes, but boy are they spicy. They each have their own self spicy scenes, Sloane can’t stop with the self pleasure because she does not know or understand it is her body’s reaction to being by her mate.

I do wish the book went on a little bit longer. Towards the end they are trying to conceive a baby and it would just be nice to know if the vial provided by Sloane’s father actually helped them produce a child, and what that child might be like. Nine is really great with other people’s kids, and I love the way he responded to her when she was upset thinking she was infertile. That entire scene had me cracking up, he was very nonchalant with his “sacs” of his baby making juice and hiding them LOL.

The narrators were *chef’s kiss*. They were very EXPRESSIVE in their scenes. The spicy scenes made you feel like you were a fly on the wall or apart of it. The duet worked really well together. I will be looking for more of their works in the future. It is Avery Caris and Jonathan Lake.

Posted in Romance

Back to You…: The Astonishing fate of John Fisher

Posted on by Little Bee

Richard Plourde

Rating 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the author, I am voluntarily leaving a review.

This book follows a jerk of a guy named John Fisher. He is one of those people that feels he is entitled and everyone owes him, he never has to take responsibility for his actions/words/thoughts, it is always someone else’s fault. It is told entirely from the POV of John Fisher. We meet John after his successful chemo treatments for leukemia and his break up with his girlfriend. He then is forced off work for a month because he becomes erratic and not the same guy he was several years ago.

During his time off, he goes home because his father reaches out that he was dying (he is not). From there, John goes on a journey with his best friend and a former fling he has been madly in love with his whole life to find the donor who saved his life. He feels in his heart that he and his donor were meant to be together forever. That she was his destiny.

I loved all of the characters in this story. They each brought value and entertainment. John is not really the kind of friend I would have kept along. He often seemed ungrateful and that entitled behavior comes out a lot. It was not until the true end that we see some kind of change in John to make him more likeable. In my opinion, John is not very relatable, but it did not take away from enjoying the overall story. He is the type of person that I do not like to be around. I don’t think I would have helped him the way his friends did. Emma and Daniel were gems of the story! And sweet little Mary really was adorable and I liked how she really impacted John and his changes.

This book made me feel a wide range of emotions. It is beautifully written, though sometimes I got lost in the fluffiness of the words. I am not sure if this was a translation issue or the actual wording chosen. By the end I was crying my eyes out. Overall, it was a sweet story of love, growth, and self-discovery. This story has no spice, if that is something you are looking for. There are no romantic scenes, though there are jokes about it and discussions. This is considered a contemporary romance, romantic fiction. Happy reading!

Posted in Romance

The Angel and the Devil

Posted on by Little Bee

By Zwahk Muchoney

Rating 3.5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Angel and the Devil follow an angel of wrath, Tzyeriel, and Satan through multiple spicy escapades during Tzyeriel’s time in Hell for a torture assignment. The book makes a point multiple times that the love between Tzyeriel and Satan is incredibly forbidden. Angels are not supposed to “fornicate” at all in general, but especially not with beings of Hell. This does not stop either of them, as they continue to travel all over Hell together. Abaddon, Satan’s former lover, finds about this love affair and notifies Heaven. After some Angels complete an inquiry, it is decided that Satan is cast out of Hell to walk on earth, and Tzyeriel is found guilty and cast out of Heaven. This was not the first time Tzyeriel had a situationship with someone. During that process, the Angels and Archangels learned that Tzyeriel had “free will” like Lucifer did, which is not allowed, and ultimately why he was cast out of Heaven.

Over all, the story was decent enough. Most of my rating is more due to the structure of the book more than anything else. I often got confused with who was saying what and would need to re-read the sections to follow along with the conversation. The spicy scenes are very much fade to black, none of them explicit other than odd phrasings. For instance, “Tzyeriel pushed Satan up against a cold rock wall and had him in a most animalistic fashion.” There are other phrases used to indicate that spicy time was about to happen, but we are not a part of it in any way, shape, or form.

One of the things I also like about this book is that even though it is a short story, it is still packed with a plot. Sometimes short stories lose out on plot because so much gets skipped over. This whole story is really the span of a day or two, but has an overall plot.

Posted in Book Reviews

Highly Flawed Individual

Posted on by Little Bee

By T.C. Roberts

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.

I would like to point out that I am not really the target audience for this book, with that said, once I started reading it, I often found myself sucked into wondering what next could possibly happen to Archie Flynn.

This book is considered a “lad-lit” in that it is quite literally written for lads. It incorporates all the things: women, fighting, self-loathing, etc. It follows Archie Flynn, a 30 year old single male who LOVES the ladies. He is certifiably an Fboi. He can’t even ballpark his body count. One day after a series of escapades with multiple women, he finds a “pimple” on his “member.” The rest of the story really centers around this and the stages of grief at the loss of his manhood. During this time, he meets a woman, named Jezebel, who is a MMA fighter. Because of this bump, he has to actually take the time to get to know her as a person and not just jump in bed with her as soon as he can…though that is what he wants to do though. During this time, he often lies to her to try to put himself in a better light, and she always figures it out. Archie really does give me the ick though, but he was perfectly written for the reasons of this story.

I really feel like this whole story from beginning to end is a comedy of errors. Archie can’t really catch a break. The book was slightly chaotic for me, and I would have to take breaks. Archie sometimes mumbles on and on, and my ADHD just could not with it. The book also starts at the end. I know that does not make sense, but it starts with him fleeing the country, and then it goes through the story of how he ended up there where he had to flee the country, and ends at the incident that causes him to flee the country. I wish I had a bit more information about what happened after he got on that plane and left.

I feel like this book has it all. I also feel like Archie can be incredibly relatable. I think, at some point, all of us has been at a point where something happened in our lives that we decided to bargain with God. Watching Archie go through every stage of grief was also relatable. Some people experience these stages in the extreme, and Archie sure was dramatic about it. I also liked Jezebel. Though, in my opinion, she was definitely too good for Archie.

Posted in Spicy Romance

In the Care of Magic

Posted on by Little Bee

By Robin Jo Margaret

Rated 4 out of 5 Stars

I received a copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a short story, 111 pages. It is a no angst, easy read, with lots of spice. It follows a witch named Jillian. She lives with humans and they often take advantage of her. One day she breaks down and runs off for a period of time to get away and refresh herself. While at her childhood home, she summoned a sex demon, named Lyle. At first, it was to help her relax and fulfill needs she has not fulfilled in a while. Over time, Lyle came back to Jillian each night, and eventually Lyle started coming during the day as well. They began spending more and more time. Eventually, Jillian offered Lyle to be in her life however Lyle saw fit. Sex demons are aromantic, so Lyle could not give Jillian a relationship, but they could enjoy each other’s company.

This really is the whole story. There is a lot of banter between Jillian and Lyle. I do like that Lyle got to stick around and even went to work with Jillian once she went back to her little human town and her shop. Lyle is gender neutral, and can form his body to meet the needs of the summoner. Throughout the book, the pronouns xe/xem/xyrs was used for Lyle. These pronouns are newer for me, so I had a hard time with their pronunciation and it took me a little longer to read the story.

Overall, it was a sweet book. It was really just spicy times, while they got to know each other and developed a friendship as well. I wouldn’t say there is an HEA, just that Lyle got to stick around in Jillian’s life to provide that need for each other. I would say there is a lot of growth individually for the two as well. Again, there is no angst. Just a nice spicy read. I also wish the type of “toy” Jillian spelled together for Lyle was real and we could all have one as well LOL.

Posted in Spicy Romance

The Spellbroken King

Posted on by Little Bee

By J.A. Keeton

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 

This book is about a human who believes she is magicless, living in a world filled with magic and magical beings. While it is somewhat unclear truly of the nature of her arrest and blame when she is innocent, it starts with her being on the run from this demon bounty hunter (named Ominous). She is trying to get to this town that no magical creature or being can get to. Obviously she has no such luck, and the demon bounty hunter catches her and hauls her off to a cave before their eventual trip back to the governor who had her imprisoned and is OBSESSED with her. It was there, she learned his true identity and he learned she was his fated mate. From there it is a whirlwind of denial, coming together, spicy times, and a bunch of other spoilers.

This is a dark romantic fantasy. It is an ARC, so there were a few typos, but overall it is well written. There were some things that left me a little confused, and more clarity would be nice, but overall, I read it fast and enjoyed it. The book starts right out at her being hunted, and it really wasn’t until the end that everything gets pieced together, so sometimes that was a bit off-putting, or could be for readers.

It was interesting watching how Ominous reacts after becoming fated mates. He was absolutely appalled because she was a human and was planning on bringing her back anyways and forgetting all about her. As time went on, he could no longer even stand to be away from her and felt very protective of her. He definitely started having the “she’s mine,” and “touch her and d!e” vibes.

This book definitely has some nice twists and turns, even though it kind of has a slow buildup. I look forward to reading more in this world. There were some side characters who I think could do with getting their own fun fated mate as well 😉