Author: Little Bee

Come join the fun! I review books :D
Posted in Spicy Romance

The Enforcer

Posted on by Little Bee

By Delta James

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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

When I selected to read this book off of BookSirens, it indicates that it can be read as a standalone. This is book 6 in the series, and I felt like there were things I was missing throughout the book, so I am not sure that is wise if you have not read the others.

I will start more with the things I did not like, and end on the things I did. There were moments in this story where I really did enjoy the book, but mostly overall, a lot of parts felt forced and underwhelming. Please keep in mind, I may feel this way because I have not read any other story in this series.

Alicia’s bratitude is a bit on the extreme end. When she is in her feelings and getting ready to make a run for it, she is incredibly rude to her other coworkers/friends, who are showing her a kindness they don’t have to. I did like that you saw her grow and come into herself as she dealt with her trauma and everything happening in the story. I do think her and Brock go well together, but again, parts felt forced, meaning a lot of the conversations felt choppy. A lot of this story is super fast paced and it was hard to really establish a timeline of events in the story. I felt because it was a shorter book, scenes had to be rushed through and I had to go back and re-read pages because I was confused by the conversations as they did not seem to match up with what was happening in the story.

I have mentioned in past that I have issues with repetitive things in stories, such as repetitive descriptors. I became hyper fixated on the the amount of times the story mentions something about “being family” that it almost felt the like the Fast and Furious franchise. It felt like almost every single chapter, someone mentioned being family and Alicia being family.

I did like the uniqueness to the story. I do not want to give away spoilers, but I did like the premise. I wish there were more to it, it just kind of felt like it ended after Ewan was taken into custody. I pegged who the mole was at the beginning, not sure if that was intentional or not. It was interesting to see how certain characters in the story got linked together. This book has DD/lg elements to it. I do wish it had more of that d/s element, such as playing in the club. The book kind of just ended after coming back from a restful vacation. There seems to be a bonus chapter, but it blends in with the last chapter of the book and it threw me off a little bit at first. I do feel if I had read some of the other books and learned more of the dynamics of the characters and Cerberus, that I would have liked everything more.

When there are spicy scenes, they are pretty decent. I like the elements of consent, and enthusiastic consent. I liked that Brock stopped when he thought Alicia was unable to consent after they had gone out and had some adult beverages. Definitely check your trigger warnings, as there are some heavy things happening in the story.

Posted in Spicy Romance

Bad Nanny

Posted on by Little Bee

By Maya Nicole

Rating: 5 Stars

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

The Nanny Trope is normally not my style, but I really enjoyed other books I have read by Maya Nicole so I was excited to get the opportunity to read this one.

First, let me start out that I LOVE Josie. She is such a breath of fresh air as an FMC. I also love that she is into puppetry. That whole element really made the story that much more enjoyable if I am honest. Seeing Delaney grow and how Gabriel changed over time was also nice. I do enjoy a good grumpy/sunshine in a contemporary romance.

I don’t really have anything negative to say about this book. It is very well written. There is not really a third act break up, but definitely a third act kerfuffle, but it works itself out incredibly quickly. Due to Gabriel’s anxiety, he is quick to react without thinking, and that does not really get better until the end of the book. I wont go into why he has anxiety, as it will discuss it throughout the book, but there is a lot of trauma him and Delaney have to overcome. I think that is why I like Josie even more. I am a social worker in my career, and I have worked in and with the foster care system, Josie is a gem of a human in this story to not have given up and ran. Part of trauma and felt safety is that push to see if you will leave them too, and she stuck around. I really enjoyed just watching everyone grow and come together.

There are also a lot of funny moments, and stolen sweet moments. If you want something that will hit all the feels, and includes some spicy scenes, this is a great book to pick up! I can’t wait to read the other brothers’ stories!! They were great side characters and this book makes you want to know them more also.

Posted in Spicy Romance

Zodiac Hybrids

Posted on by Little Bee

By Leann Belle

Rating 5 Stars

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

I have read Leann Belle before and I really enjoyed her writing. I was happy to read this mix of paranormal/shifters/zodiac/astrology story and I look forward to reading the other books as they come out. For the record, this is supposed to be a dark academy romance, but I missed some of the darkness I guess LOL. I am sure it will come. I liked each of the dynamics and I enjoyed seeing the first two men get kind of sucked in to Lila’s orbit.

I can’t wait to find out what Lila is and for her to find out also. I like her naivety in this sense and I will enjoy watching her become stronger, because I know she will. These characters are older even though it is an academy story. Lila is 22, Marcus is 26, and Adrian is 34. I am not sure how old Ceto is, but we only got a small introduction to him and I look forward to seeing him more.

Definitely check your triggers, as there are elements that people may not enjoy. This story ends on a cliffhanger, and definitely leaves you wanting for more. There were only a couple of spicy scenes in this story, but they were nice and spicy so they were not out of place. There was good world building and setting the lines of the story.

My only real confusion is the nature of Marcus and Adrian’s feud. I wont give any spoilers away, but it seems trivial, and I didn’t quite understand why Marcus is intent on Adrian losing control. I know Lila is supposed to be a pawn, but with the way it is shaping up, it looks like the guys are the ones in trouble here.

Posted in Spicy Romance

In Love With the Leshy

Posted on by Little Bee

By Danielle Sibarium

Rating 3.5 Stars, Goodreads/Amazon Rating 4 Stars

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

I have read one other book involving a Leshy so I was really excited to have the opportunity to read another. Leshy make great romance reads, but I feel they are lesser known and used in books. If you do not know what a Leshy is, it is a pagan Slavic deity that rules over the forest, hunting, etc. They are essentially a type of forest spirit, can play tricks on others, shapeshift, etc. The story itself gives a little about the lore, such as one of the characters being a Druid and creating the Leshy in the story.

I feel like what a Leshy is comes off kind of easily to understand. It is very subtle. I, for the most part, really loved Em (the Leshy). The third act break up was a little intense. There are triggers in this book, though they are not listed in my ARC copy, unknown if they will be there listed in the book, but I do see one on the goodreads page.

I have two main issues with this book and why I feel it is more 3.5 stars if I could give it that. The first would be the flow of the book itself. Again, I have an ARC, so it very well can be cleaned up and read better in the official copy, so please take this for what it is worth. During the first couple of chapters, I was getting very confused because it would switch back and forth between a memory she had with her neighbor and back to her being chased in the forest by some bad guys. It would do this every few paragraphs, and wouldn’t use any kind of indication, like italics, that it was a memory. My other issue is with Erin, the FMC. I get that coming into contact with a Leshy or some other being you never knew existed can be a bit much, I just felt like Erin was incredibly wishywashy and overall unpleasant. She offended the few people around her and most of the animals she came across on a regular basis and was never really apologetic. Just snappy and like “well I never knew this existed give me a break,” without really making the effort to try.

If you are looking for a spicy book, this is not. There are some tense scenes during the story where there is some heavy petting and Erin trying to get Em to have some spicy times, but the actual spice is in the last 10ish% of the book. Again, their are some mild scenes, but its mostly Erin being thirsty, and understandably so LOL.

I rounded this book up because even with the reasons I disliked it, I still did enjoy the story. It has some dark themes, so be on the lookout for that. I still didn’t like Erin by the end, but it was good. I did read it in one sitting.

Posted in Spicy Romance

Merry Little Misery

Posted on by Little Bee

By Melody Rush

Rating 4 out of 5 Stars

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

Merry Little Misery is a cute grumpy/sunshine romcom that is literally between a billionaire misery consultant and a broke happiness coach. The setting is around Christmas time.

Annabelle believes joy can get anyone through anything. She often has blinders on for what is really happening underneath and Grayson doesn’t think that is how to get through life. During the story, they are forced to work together with a mutual client. As time goes on, Annabelle grows on Grayson, and he hates it. He is set on trying to sabotage Annabelle’s plans to bring back the Joy Festival.

The two eventually start gravitating towards each other, they start making out and a few spicy scenes of fooling around. There is one actual spicy scene, the rest are more behind closed doors/talk about it/mention it later kind of scenes.

This story would make a cute movie and it offers what a sweet, holiday, romcom should feel like. I do think that the billionaire was a weird add on. It never really had a purpose until towards the end of the book. I will say both characters had a lot of growth by the end. Annabelle’s family dynamic was sad, especially how they treated her. I felt that Annabelle could be snarky with other people, but when her family would say anything or make comments, she would kind of just shut down. This is how it is for a lot of people, but would have been good to happen more often and not just one major outburst.

Other than that, overall the story was a cute one. I read it very quickly. Definitely makes for a fun holiday read. I definitely recommend.

Posted in Spicy Romance

The Ties That Bind

Posted on by Little Bee

By Piper Rhodes

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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

This is a dark romance novelette, roughly 75 pages. Short stories are often hit or miss for me because I feel there are too many plot holes. I did enjoy this dark little story, though I do feel it would have been 5 stars for me if it had a little more. Because it is so short, parts of it felt a little rushed or forced to fit together, when another paragraph might have helped bridge that connection a little more clearly. I feel this would be especially true with the relationship that formed between Elle and Alec. For me, I have a hard time believing in instalove or zappy connections between people in nonparanormal/nonfantasy books so some extra time on them would have helped.

The spice was good, quick lol. This is just another pitfall sometimes with novellas, a little more depth to the spice scenes would have made it feel less rushed. Overall though, I did enjoy the book and would still recommend, just wish there was a little more 🙂

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.