Tag: Paranormal Romance

Posted in Spicy Romance

We’re All Mad Here

Posted on by Little Bee

By Leann Belle

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

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

Let me start off by saying, I love a good Alice in Wonderland retelling. I love retellings in general. I like that an author can really do what they want with it and transform it and it still be respectful to the original classic. I also enjoy a good reverse harem. We’re All Mad Here brings these two things together in a twisted, dark, psychotic, steamy romance.

Alices are stolen by the White Rabbit, drugged, and brought to Wonderland, where they go through a series of trials in hopes to get rid of the Red Queen, who is the original Alice. Each time an Alice dies, the world resets. Everyone who died comes back, and they start over. Typically they have gone for young Alices, 18 or 19 years old. But this time, they went for 30 something Alice who is in a rut in her life. She is strong, confident, and smart. Her goal is to just live, to get through the trials. Along the way, she learns a lot more about herself and becomes stronger.

There is a lot of steamy romance in this book and it starts off pretty quickly. I like not having to wait around and watch all the characters awkwardly beat around the bush, so to speak. After each successful trial, each character falls in love with Alice. They want to see her succeed. I really loved Mau, the Cheshire Cat. All of the characters are so twisted, it is nice to see them change and transform because of Alice’s will to live.

This book includes primal kink, CNC, death, and some other potentially triggering topics.

I only gave it 4 stars because something wasn’t connecting for me. I can’t really place it. I felt like I was missing something. A bonus epilogue might be nice, to kind of see what happens after everything is over and through. It is good, I really enjoyed it and I liked the writing style. I am definitely interested in reading more by this author. I am not huge on dark romance, but I feel that what I normally find lacking in dark romances, this one does not lack. The FMC is not wishy washy. This book is quite unique and I do recommend it!

Posted in Spicy Romance

Beauty’s Beasts

Posted on by Little Bee

By Amy Pennza

5 out of 5 stars

This is a short read, of about 60 pages maybe. It follows Cordelia, Cade, and Levi. Cordelia is a rare female werewolf who is betrothed to an alpha who is totally disgusted by her. She overhears the fowl conversation between her father and him the night before she is supposed to get married. She decides that life is not for her and flees to the Free Zone, where there are not any packs. There she meets Cade and Levi. Levi is an alpha heir for the Mississippi Pack and Cade is his enforcer lover. They are bisexual, which is why they were kicked out of the pack by Levi’s father.

This book is definitely spicy!! It has so much spice from the very beginning. It has MM scenes and MMF scenes. After they have sex with Cordelia, an enforcer form the Mississippi pack begs Levi to come back because his father was killed and the next two in line after Levi. The enforcer indicated they were okay with his relationship with Cade. Cordelia and Cade convinced Levi to be the change werewolves needed and Cordelia agreed to mate Levi as required to be alpha. The three of them fall in love and care for each other. I wont give away all the juicy secrets 🙂

I really want more in this story, but I do not think there is another book. I am definitely going to read other works by this author. I got this book for free on booksprout and it is my first 5 star read this month (that I can rate, I did read one other book this month that was 5 star but I did not do a review on it…though I should go back and do it…). I would definitely assign this as 5 out of 5 peppers for spice! I liked the story as well. Even though it was short, I did not feel like it left anything out and was very clear from start to finish. Sometimes short stories can lose information along the way. I enjoyed the ending and definitely need and want more! The cover models are also sexy, so I can only imagine the sexiness of the characters. I am glad all three of them found what they were looking for in life 🙂

Posted in Spicy Romance

The Grim Reaper’s Lawyer

Posted on by Little Bee

by Mea Monique

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

The Grim Reaper’s Lawyer was the book of the month read for The Spicy Book Club. This review may contain spoilers, but also not really. It focuses on Joyce, who is a defense attorney, which she hates. She is falling out of love with her career, and decides to say fuck it all the way off, and quits. She finishes up her last case, which she lost, and her client promptly killed her. She was collected by a Grim Reaper named Aiden and taken to Eden. Aiden is being charged with violating 3 rules from the Reapers’ Code of Conduct, which she rejects doing and spends several days in “hell”, which is really only a few minutes.

This story follows their love/hate, grumpy/sunshine, story. Aiden is kind of a jerk, but also a total daddy…I mean baddie. I mean baddie. When he finally says “to hell with it” (quite literally) and allows them to purse the steam that has been building, it is hot. The story is a slow burn up until they decide to pursue a sexual relationship with each other. The agreement provided to Joyce is, she wins Aiden’s case, she goes to Heaven, instead of Hell (which she was slated for).

Joyce meets a variety of characters that become great friends. Each character brings out a fun side of Joyce that really makes you fall in love with her. The book is hilarious from start to finish. It does end on a cliffhanger and I have no idea when book 2 comes out as this book did not release until December 2022. The book is easy to figure out and ends how you want it to, but the journey was still fun!!

I tell you what, the book had an opening quote that I am STILL thinking about and had to share— “For those who feel that you must water yourself down for others- Let them choke.” Man, what words to live by!! I needed this when I was younger.

Overall, I would say the spice level is around a 3.5-4. I felt it took a bit too long to get to anything sexy, but when it did, it was quite a bit. Those two were like rabbits…but I guess it is the year of the rabbit isn’t it LOL. They could not keep their paws off of each other and Aiden is a total Dom. So we ship and approve.

Having said all of this, it was enjoyable. I laughed so much during the story. It was a very light read and I am looking forward to more in this series and from this author!

Posted in Romance

Death’s Fate

Posted on by Little Bee

By G.K. DeRosa

4 out of 5 stars

I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I was not paid for my review.

Death’s Fate is book 2 following, Death’s Captive. This book picks up at the cliff hanger. I will say, this book was much easier to read, and went much faster. At first it felt like it was going to be much of the same, but I liked seeing Astra and Thane come together in their own way and in their own time. All odds are against them. Fate truly is a cruel mistress. In Death’s Fate the two are on the search for Luna and Hecate to break the curse so that Thane and Astra can truly be allowed to love and be together. You learn more about their relationship from each new regeneration, and it appears in this one, it is the furthest they have gotten to the truth. Without giving spoilers, it appears a “fail safe” if you will is put into place in order to ensure it is the last go around for these two.

This book had more spicier scenes, but they are mostly almost fade to black. You get some snippets and then they are waking up. At least this time, they eventually allow themselves to love each other. I liked that the story came along better. We even get to see one of my favorite bachelors from the Kindle Vella series “Hitched Live” that is now it’s own book called Sweet Revenge (I really liked reading this one), so this made me very happy. I will forever be #TeamSlade all the way.

Once again, we see the same damn descriptive words CONSTANTLY- azure orbs, lupine, and coalescence. I mean it felt like every page. It becomes all I can focus on. I will continue on with this series. After getting past the first book, I enjoyed book 2 much better and felt like I was starting to finally connect with the different characters. Once they start putting the pieces of their history together, it takes off for me. In this story, it really does feel like they are going to make it….or are they? Get your copy of Death’s Fate on February 1st! As a warning, book 2 absolutely also ends on a cliffhanger, so be prepared for that! Per Amazon, it looks like the third book may release April 25, 2023.

Posted in Romance

Shattered Vow

Posted on by Little Bee

By Eva Chase

5 out of 5 stars

Shattered Vow is the first book in the Shadowblood Souls series by Eva Chase. This book follows a group of captives who are forced to train together, caged, and not allowed to live a “normal” life. The story follows a female character (Riva) and five males. After a tragic incident, they get separated. Four years later, Riva makes her way back her men, but do they accept her back?

This is the first in a series, with book 3 coming out in February 2023. While it is a romance read, it is not spicy. It is very slow burn and the only sexy scene occurs much later towards the end of the book. I am not usually a bully romance reader. I tend to stay away from them as much as possible, because I am just not a fan. I will say, I did still enjoy this book. I had hoped for something a little more grander than the incident that kind of set everyone straight again. I thought Jacob’s treatment of Riva for majority of the book was too much and felt forced. Even with this, I still enjoyed the book. I really liked Riva’s character. She was very strong and put up with a lot of shit from these guys without ever faltering. The one sex scene that occurs was okay, I wouldn’t say it was the spiciest I have ever read, but was written well. I wish there was a little more information on the “marking” that happened, but maybe it comes in a later book, since at that point in the story, the characters still did not know what they truly were.

The characters are all part human and part monster. They are trained very hard to highlight and strengthen their gifts. They eventually break out of captivity and set across country to try and find the former head of the program to get answers. All they all want is answers and to be free. Along the way, each person has their own growth development. The story is told from multiple POVs, however, the main POV is usually Riva.

This book does end on a cliffhanger, and boy is it a doozie. The book starts out when they are about 16 years old when they are separated and picks up around 20 years old. During that time, each character had new “powers” show through that were further developed. Riva keeps hers pretty close to her chest as she does not know much about it or how to control it, so when she finally does show it off…..it is very intense. I could not help but smile and laugh all the way through the scene. I really wish I could have seen those guys’ faces afterwards. I am looking forward to reading book 2 to see how they felt about it!

Posted in Romance

Kick The Candle

Posted on by Little Bee

Kick The Candle

Kick The Candle by Genevieve Jack

Narrated by Brittany Pressley

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars

Narration Ration: 5 Stars

Kick the Candle  is the second installment of the Knight Games series by Genevieve Jack. Kick the Candle  was a great follow up to the first book The Ghost and the Graveyard in that a lot of issues were resolved, and new issues presented itself.

This riveting follow up had the right amount of every element needed to make a successful paranormal romance: steamy sex scenes; horrible scary monsters; the friendly big bad wolf; a lot of asskicking action, and a whole lot of suspense. Listening to the book had me intrigued throughout the book, though I will admit, the beginning started too slow for me. I listened to the last 3 hours of the book on a work trip, in which I was driving, and let me say, if you plan on listening to this book, do not drive a vehicle!!! I kept gasping and clenching my steering wheel trying to maintain control over the car!

I gave it 4 stars because I did feel that some concepts were over sold or dragged out. There were times I felt Grateful was too whiny. This is not a YA, and not NA either. It is a woman who has made some bad love decisions, discovering she is a witch reborn over centuries, and trying to come to terms with her Caretaker. I understand that is a lot to hold on her shoulders, but no need to beat a dead horse.

My favorite character in this book is Poe, her Raven familiar. I thought he was fantastic. His wit and charm is catchy, while also maintaining his heroic ferocity! I also enjoyed the newer characters that were “hidden” in the first book. I found the Leprechaun very entertaining, even if he was the bad guy.

I do not want to give away the end, but I am happy with how it ended. I am curious and excited for the next installment and what the next adventure will be with Grateful and her delicious Caretaker, Rick.

I highly recommend the series, and if you like Audiobooks, I equally suggest listening. Pressley is a great narrator. She strives to create a voice profile for each character that is enamoring and charming, striving to match the character’s personality.

Posted in Romance

Mermen

Posted on by Little Bee

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Mermen by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Goodreads Rating: 4 stars

Mermen, a paranormal romance, is about two individuals (unknown to each other) who get lost at sea in various accidents and show up on an island that NO ONE knows about. The island is alive, has magical healing powers, and the men that live on the island are descendants of the first beings that came out of the ocean and turned into humans. Liv, the leading lady, is found drifting just off the island by one of the resident mermen. Liv is saved by Roen, who was stranded on the island from a helicopter crash, who happened upon the strong man dunking Liv’s face in the ocean water. The two become inseparable and Roen starts wanting to stake his own claim on her.

The rest of the story is basically Roen trying to find a way to get Liv off the Island and save her life. The story ends on a cliffhanger…one bad enough that I had to get book 2…I will probably start it soon.

The romance is there, but it is more like a day dream or thought, and not an actuality. There was only 1 scene where there was some kind of contact. I do like Roen, and I really hope Roen and Liv make it through the end. (This is not a spoiler FYI).

This book is a quick, short, read and flowed pretty smoothly, even if some parts were repeated over and over again.  It was pretty good, my first book from this author. I bought one of her books in 2014 when I first got to Texas, and now I am intrigued at reading it and other works of hers.

Posted in Book Reviews

Of Ocean and Ash Blog Tour

Posted on by Little Bee

 

 

Of Ocean and Ash

 

by A.R. Draeger

 

Series: Falling In Deep, #3

 

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Cover Designer: Quirky-Bird

 

Release Date: June 9, 2015

 

 

Of Ocean…

Cast into the sea at birth, human-born Ia found her adoptive family among the merfolk. While her underwater upbringing was peaceful, Ia’s blood-heritage and the strict societal rules of the merpeople lead her to wonder of the world above the waves.

And Ash…

When a storm lands Ia ashore, she discovers her body has transformed into the human she would have been. Taken in as property by a callous plantation owner, Ia works alongside the slaves until she can make her way back to the water. There is nothing Ia wants more than to go home, that is, until she meets a handsome, troubled man named Matthias, who has a touch that can be as kind as his tongue is harsh.

Torn between two very different lives, Ia must choose – stay in his world and risk her life for a love untested, or return to the familiar arms of the underwater world that raised her and risk losing what may be the greatest love she will ever know.

Will Ia’s choice lead to happiness or her destruction?

 

 

 

Goodreads rating: 5 stars

I was given a copy of this book for my honest review, I was not paid for my review or my thoughts. These are my own.

I have to admit, I have been excited and nervous to review a book of someone I know, someone I communicate with. Granted, we are not best friends, we do not hang out on weekends or go have coffee and talk about recent trips and adventures, we do talk. Her and my mom talk. However, even though I know her, my rating still stands at 5 stars because I am here to rate her book and not her as a person (and she is pretty damn cool in my opinion 😉 ).

First, the writing is amazing and very fluid, the story has moved a long very quickly. Every aspect of this story flows together in one smooth motion, like spreading rich, creamy peanut butter on a piece of freshly baked bread. You become enamoured with Ia from the very beginning. You want her to succeed at becoming a Caller, but at the same time, you don’t want her to succeed because you want her to have the freedom to escape the likes of Ro. It is a historical romance piece, set during 1736 in the Caribbean. I believe the amount of research needed had to be immense to get the amount of detail for the different types of servitude (slavery, indentured etc). Reminds me of the picture Amber actually posted on her page, but I have seen other writers on my news feed posting lately:

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I like history, I like how it is explained in the context of the story, how it is explained to Ia, who does not understand or know the differences, because it shows that a lot of research was done to get it correct. I do not read a lot of historical romance often, and I like the paranormal and historical romance combination to create this piece.

My least favorite character is Ro. I would not want to be forced into Ia’s position where I would either have be Ro’s bride or have Ro force himself upon me and there be nothing anyone could do about it due to being a Lesser. The scene that Ia had witnessed at the beginning where Ro raped another Lesser was sad, and when Ro discovered that she did in fact see, he didn’t care and informed Ia that one way or another, she would be his.

One qualm I do have with the story, some terms I had to just kind of figure out. The mer-society Ia is a part of is interesting, and though some terms I could figure out on my own, such as Lesser, it would be nice for a small dictionary somewhere (maybe there is and I just didn’t know) where other terms would be. I gathered that a Caller would be similar to a Siren, maybe, because of my work and how much of it I have been doing on little food and sleep the past few days, I didn’t connect the dots right off on my own, but some of the roles in the mer-society, would be nice to be listed out.

I have been trying to decide my feelings on Mathias. He warns Ia of the dangers of Lord Malcom and other Overseers, but something inside me kept telling me to be mindful of him. Him being in a position of power is just as capable of hurting Ia. I feel too often, his moods are bipolar. I do like that he does care, and I can appreciate the risks he puts himself in by some of his actions. In the same respect, Ia does not fully comprehend the exact risk because she is not of land. He did grow on me, but even by the end, I still have mixed feelings with him. Men. Should have listened!

I wanted to cut Lord Malcolm. He was well written. If you want to hate a bad guy, he is written to be hated! As a reader, you wanted to kick him, cut him, punch him and come to Ia’s rescue every chance you get! (I won’t go into more because I do not want to give spoilers, but brace yourself, poor girl).

I have to admit, as I was reading, I often kept thinking of the Little Mermaid. Maybe, this is because it was my first mermaid story I read, but Ia reminded me of Ariel so often!! The first time she saw her legs after she was washed up on the shore after the storm, when she first saw a spoon to use for her soup before chores, and pretty much any other time she had any experience with a human object. I found myself hoping the entire story she would return to the ocean, even if there were aspects she did not like in being a mermaid. I know that is selfish of me. Ia was born crippled, and tossed into the ocean at birth by her father who would rather her die than try to raise her in this world as a cripple. When she was washed up on the shore, she lost her fins and gained her legs back, but they were crippled like she was at birth. Ia had to learn how to be human when she has never been human other than the few minutes when she came into existence.

In true form to my book reviews, I didn’t want to give away any spoilers, read the book. It is sooooo goood!!!! And it gets even better, like OMG amazing once it hits the climax!!! DO IT!

 

 

Click here to see all the stops on the Of Ocean and Ash Review Tour!

 

 

 

 Amazon US

 Amazon UK

Amazon CA

 Amazon AU

 

 

 

A.R. (Amber) Draeger resides in rural Texas with her husband, Josh, and son, Logan. When not writing or reading, she is watching reality TV shows or tromping through the nearby woods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in YA Book Reviews

To infinity…and Beyond?

Posted on by Little Bee

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I was given this book for an honest review.  I give this book 3 stars.

There is a lot of hit and miss with this book for me. I think that the concept is fascinating and original. One thing that really bothers me about the YA or New Adult genre is that many times, the main female character is so whiny with that “woe is me” attitude. You know the one right? Where only her issues are the most important? Where if any other person in her life has any similar issues, she mistreats them, or gets angry or just flat out whines? Well, Raven Stone is just like that. The entire book I felt Raven was constantly nagging or whining because she “just didn’t understand…” and “why aren’t these pills helping the hallucinations?” etc. For the first third of this book, I was genuinely confused. I felt that some concepts could have been explained a bit more, rather than Raven and the reader figure it out together. Even at the end, I was left with a “wtf” look on my face….because, seriously, WTF?

I don’t want to give a book report. Anyone can read a book and give a synopsis. I think the synopsis given with the book, suits it well enough. What I will give you is this:

Damian is WOW….I would take some of that any day of the week! The tension written into the book between Raven and Damian is spot on if you love romance in your reading. It was that hot tension that you feel when you watch Bones, between Bones and Booth…or Dr. House and Dr. Cuddy…you know the tension right? Where you are ready for them to just give into their primal urges and knock boots already? (Yeah, yeah…I know…this is a 16 yr old girl and a 17 yr old boy…but let’s face it, we have all been there at that age…it doesn’t make it any less real!). The entire time I read Beyond, I was waiting patiently to see what would happen between these two. I was so caught up in them, that my confusion didn’t matter. I read this book rather quickly, simply because I HAD TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. I didn’t necessarily love the book enough to give it a 4th star, but I believe that a lot of YA/Paranormal Romance readers will enjoy this book.

I enjoyed this book, but I have a hard time with Raven’s character type. I just wish, for once, that the female characters would be stronger, and more take charge, and not this damsel in distress. I would devour any book that gave me that (Like the Graceling Realm series…). I think too many books these days are writing weak female leads, it is atrocious! Girls that age should be reading about strong female characters, that yeah life might suck sometimes and ‘shit might get real,’ but we can do this! That age is confusing for girls, it is difficult…so why not have a character faced with the same adversity, that has a stronger character structure? That is why I gave it 3 stars.

I also feel that the story line itself could use just a bit more fine tuning. It is a little rough around the edges, but it was still enjoyable, and as I said before, I think that a lot of readers of this genre will enjoy it. It was nice to read a different kind of YA/Paranormal romance other than wolves, vamps, and even though I love me a good fallen angel read, it is nice to implement something that is more real, like ghosts (I live in Ghost Capital…so yeah, I believe…). It makes you think, can these ghosts really hurt us?

Happy reading! And based on that ending, I will be moving on in the series because I want to know what happens between Damian and Raven! (yum!)