Tag: Book Review

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 😉

Posted in Spicy Romance

Punished by the Prince

Posted on by Little Bee

By Elle Lacerta

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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

This review is kind of a tough one for me. I really want to rate this book higher, but there is so much about the book that makes me go back and forth between 3 and 4 stars.

I really like the premise of this book. It is a good idea, and if you just take the story for what it is, it is exciting and makes you want to keep reading the series to find out what happens. The end of book one left you on a cliffhanger making you want to read the next one, and that happens again with book two. I do like Iris and Rowan, and I like seeing the relationship develop. I am itching to see what Alex and Naomi are up to, because we know they are up to no good. I am excited to see what happens in the next installment.

There are different BDSM elements in the book, this book focused mostly on the punishment aspect. I felt for Iris’ first punishment, it was a bit intense.

Ultimately, my biggest issue with the book is the overall editing. It doesn’t have grammatical/spelling errors and such, but it is the actual content itself. It is hard to tell how much time actually passes because the narrative jumps around. For instance, she is in class at the Academy for magic learning, and it talks about a class she is in. It goes on for a bit with her learning, and then it says “The day went on, and Iris managed to make it through her classes,” and then it immediately goes back to the class she was in and the class finishes. After an incident when the class finished, it then jumps back to talking about the rest of her day. It does this a lot, there are several scenes where I felt confused, this is just one example. The library scene was another example of being all over the place. I know the author is working on editing some of the books, but this is really my only and biggest critique of the stories so far. It just really needs cleaned up and fine tuned.

Posted in Spicy Romance

Petals & Promises

Posted on by Little Bee

by Elizabeth Knight

Rated 4 out of 5 Stars

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

This book is the second part following up from Clouds and Daydreams. The first book ends on a cliffhanger, and this book picks up right where it was left off.

I want to start with my negative feelings first. I thought the whole Randall situation was handled too quickly. So much of the book focused on fixing two of the alphas and their relationship with their families or bringing closure etc, that the entire end and finale to the Randall situation happened way too fast. I feel this way because so much of the story and Bailey-Rose’s trauma and fears stem from the abuse and situation from book 1. I can’t believe I am about to say this, but I wish there were more non-spicy intimate scenes. There are so many spicy scenes, some of them almost feel kind of forced and I just quickly read through them. There were some great non-physical intimacy scenes, and I just wish there was more of that as well in there. Because they all deserve that for sure.

I really love Bailey Rose. I love her child like energy and her view of the world. I love that she has overcome so much, and she just keeps trucking along. It was fun watching her experience new firsts that she has never been able to do because of her heart condition. I also like how each of the alphas meet a specific need and compliment each other, making it cohesive. This book truly was meant to heal and grow for everyone.

Finally, I am looking forward to reading Eli’s book!! I want him and Crew to have their own HEA now that Bailey Rose doesn’t have to be so sheltered.

Posted in Spicy Romance

Prince of the Undying

Posted on by Little Bee

By Karen Kincy

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

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

Let me start out with saying, I was really looking forward to reading this book. I liked the idea of a dark, fantasy romance, around a mercenary and a necromancer. And while that is what you get with Prince of the Undying, it falls really short of the mark. This story was previously released under the name Shadows of Asphodel, and was revised and rewritten with a professional editor. Throughout this book, I felt like there were so many gaps, like something was missing. There would be bits of conversations that went from point A to Point C and skipped over Point B altogether.

I felt Ardis fell flat. There were so many missed opportunities to build upon her character. More history regarding her sword would have been nice. Especially why everyone was so afraid of it, surely it had to be more than just blood magic? Why did her mom need a sword like that? Does this information come in later books since this is book 1? Wendel was nice. Fell flat at times. His erratic decisions seemed to sometimes come out of nowhere. I found myself confused about the bulk of the story. The Archmages seem like the bad guys as much as the Order of Asphodel. Why did everything start to begin with? What era in time is this? It has steampunk vibes, but leaves me confused because it feels like multiple points in time in world history.

The book has a good amount of spice in it. Once they start with the spicy times, it happens quite often. The ending definitely made me feel things and it ends abruptly but not really cliffhangerish, more of a to be continued. Definitely check your triggers, because there are a lot of dark elements. After all this, you are probably wondering why I gave it three stars instead of lower? This is a fairly quick read, at least it feels like it. The story stays fast paced the whole way through. I like when stories are like that sometimes, especially fantasy books. Aside from the parts that seemed to end quickly and like I missed things, the story idea is a good one. It is unique. I know it was revised once, but I think just a little more expansion on some of the things that happen and the characters, and I think it could be a really great book. It holds a lot of promise.

Posted in Spicy Romance

Beastly and Bookish

Posted on by Little Bee

By Catrina Bell

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars.

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

Beastly & Bookish is one of the three books in the Horned Up for the Holidays series. You can find the other reviews Holidays Ablaze and Holly’s Unjolly Christmas here. It does not matter in the order that you read them, none of them spoil any parts of the stories for the other.

This book has a Beauty and the Beast feel. “Ugly” beastly demon and nerdy, fiery, librarian. They were best friends when they were younger, and then Rom’s family moved away for a business venture. Eventually it brings him back to Winter Bliss. It is a second chance romance for Rom and Noelle. It includes tropes such as forced proximity and one bed. It is a paranormal, Christmas, fantasy romance.

The story was good, it took me a little longer to get through than the other two books. I liked the story fine, and I found myself smiling and feeling genuinely happy for the characters, but something in the book just didn’t connect with me. I still gave it high stars because I want to point out that sometimes I have outside influences that affect my mood when reading, and I feel like this kind of happened here. Their story is really cute, and extremely spicey. My one real irk with it, and I only say this because I point it out every time it happens, is the lack of communication is so frustrating, but I know if they did communicate how they felt, I would probably find it boring. LOL. So just ignore me please. I don’t read a lot of second chance romances, but this one is a spicy hallmark second chance romance you should add to your list.

Posted in Spicy Romance

Contract of the Crown

Posted on by Little Bee

Elle Lacerta

Rating 4 out of 5 stars

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

This book is the first in a 5 book series that is dark/fantasy romance. For the quick and short of it, Iris is sold off to the Caed kingdom, specifically Roman. In order for her to gain access to the Academy, she has to serve him, in all the ways you can think of. She has daily chores and then “nightly” chores. She is given over to this ruling family to help pay off her father’s gambling debts.

First, I want to start out on the things I was not a fan of. While I get this was a short story, sometimes it was hard to keep up with how much time had passed, or did not pass. There seemed to be a massive jump between the time she is plotting their demise and her in bed with Rowan and the two falling in love with each other. I thought maybe something had gotten cut out or I missed it, but I felt lost during those parts. This is also true in the scene with Alex, and the level of anger Rowan had felt. I was a little confused there to, everything happens so fast. Also, the language used at first was incredibly flowery. I have ADHD and I found myself really struggling to get through the sentences, especially with words that are not entirely common ways to describe things. However, with that said, given the type of fantasy setting this book is referring to, the over descriptive words seems appropriate. It changes a bit throughout the book and is not a problem after that.

I like Iris, though I am a bit confused by her. She is a spitfire, a little bratty, but also really confusing. I am hoping as the story continues through, we will get more backstory on her and Rowan to understand them better. There is plenty of spice, some was fade to black (which is why I thought I missed something, because it is not clearcut fade to black). The scenes are not very long, but still spicy. I like how the BDSM elements are not overbearing. Sometimes the “Doms” in the book are incredibly toxic all around, and even though these Vampires are incredibly toxic, I feel like this is acceptable in fantasy romance novels that include the paranormal.

The book ends on a cliffhanger, but the books are set to release weekly, so if you pick it up, you should not have to wait long 🙂 I look forward to seeing the trajectory of the overall story. At this point, I am not sure where it is going…but I definitely know who the bad guys are!

Posted in Spicy Romance

Holidays Ablaze

Posted on by Little Bee

By Lucy Limon

Rating 5 out of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the author, but my review is entirely voluntary and honest.

Holidays Ablaze is another book that can be found in the Horned Up for the Holidays set. It is a complete standalone, though certain scenes do tend to cross over while you read each book, introducing you to different characters that are a part of a different story. All of the stories take place in Winter Bliss.

The FMC, Sofia, is a sassy, spicy Latina chef. She has an obsession with fire, which she ended up getting out of control when she was younger and it scared quite a bit of her body. She was supposed to open a restaurant in the quaint little community, but her business partner pulled out of the deal when he saw parts of her burns and high tailed it out like only a jerk will do. She was out collecting logs when she saw a demon get dropped out of a helicopter on a lake on her property. From there, we get to see the steamy tension spark to life between them. Samite is red hot, and the kind of flame she might be tempted to let burn her up.

The spice is HOT in this one. WHEW. I needed a fan for these scenes. The story was not entirely spice, in fact, I wouldn’t say there are a LOT of spice scenes, but the ones that we get, are so sizzling, it does not even matter.

I do not believe there are any TWs to look out for. Its a cozy, holiday romance, with a HEA. Samite is a bit grumpy and untrusting, but the relationship that builds between him and Sofia (who is not a pushover and holds her own against the Demon) is so fun to read as it unfolds. This book does contain a third act break up, but the MCs use the time to really determine what is important to them in life.

Posted in Spicy Romance

Holly’s Unjolly Christmas

Posted on by Little Bee

By Lark Green

Rating 5 out of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the author, but my review is entirely voluntary and honest.

Holly’s Unjolly Christmas is a part of the Horned Up For the Holidays anthology, which follows 3 different couples. This book follows Holly and Az. It is a Demon/human romance, standalone, HEA. It involves tropes like grumpy/sunshine and forced proximity. It is a contemporary, cozy, Holiday romance. It includes a lot of spice, special appendages ;). There is a third act break up, but no cliffhanger. I need to get my hands on the bonus epilogue because I am just not done with these two yet.

This book was an easy and quick read. I really enjoyed Holly and Az. Holly is too good for this earth, that is for sure. She is always seen as a pushover, and after a divorce and losing everyone she had, she had to learn who she was all over again. I like that Az and Holly are both broken, and they both find happiness and peace with each other and can mend themselves together.

The story follows Holly going on a vacation for Christmas following her divorce. She thinks she is going to this luxury cabin, but turns out she is catfished and has to stay and share the cabin with the demon groundskeeper. He tries to make her miserable to leave a 1 star review because he does not want tourists in the area taking it over and ruining the hidden secrets of the mountains. It was fun watching them come together and learn to open and trust each other. The trust does not come easy, and takes a lot of work, but they end up in an HEA.

I really liked Lark’s writing style. I look forward to reading more books. I do recommend this book! It does not matter what order you read any of the Horned Up for the Holidays books, but I do recommend this one first as you meet all the characters from the other books. I haven’t read those yet, so it is entirely possible that you get cross over of the main characters in each book.

Posted in Spicy Romance

Silver Bells and Serendipity

Posted on by Little Bee

By Marie Landry

Rating 4 stars out of 5

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

Silver Bells and Serendipity falls in 3.5 in a series, however, you do not need to read any of the other books to know what is going on. Some of the FMCs from the first books become friends with the FMC later in this book, but not reading the other books is not detrimental to the story.

This story follows Christmas over 3 years, where FMC and MMC meet the first time, and each subsequent time after. They only ever spend a day with each other, or an evening, and hope to chance an encounter the next year. During the first two encounters, neither character are really at a place in life where a relationship or something more is an option. Book ends in a HEA.

Overall, the story is cute and you root for the MCs the whole way through. I feel that you get to learn more about Sylvie’s year each time then you do Cole, though the POV of the story is through Sylvie. I don’t feel like Mindy’s reasons were good enough for just bolting on their friendship, so I wish there was a bit more to it, especially if it was going to be made a point throughout the story. There is some spice starting in their second meet up. It is not overly spicy, but enough that is enjoyable and it is not fade to black. The story is creative and well written. It is unique, at least to me. I have not read too many books similar along these lines.