Tag: review

Posted in Spicy Romance

The Orc and the Innkeeper

Posted on by Little Bee

By Cora Crane

Rating 5 out of 5 Stars

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

The Orc and the Innkeeper was one of those books that I could not put down. I found myself gasping and kicking my feet giggling throughout the story. It follows two characters who start out as “enemies”. Thorak traumatically teased Mariah growing up. It was so bad, that all these years later, she is still suffering the effects. Situations occur and they pretend to be fake engaged in order to get a human investor to work with Thorak.

The story follows the standard framework for a typical romance novel: the background information on both characters, the eventual coming together, the romance, the third act breakup/blowout, followed by the reconnection, HEA. This story also relies heavily, I mean HEAVILY, on the miscommunication trope. I mean like, the whole story. I would normally mark down in ranking for that, but the whole story was still just so fun and so cute. It is a great little cozy, spicy, monster romance, and I was here for it the whole time.

I really enjoyed all of the side characters. I think each one enhanced the story to help further it along. The characters all had things going on in their lives, but all still were brought together. There were several points of high drama, I will let you read those for yourself, and they definitely amped up the miscommunication tropes.

I liked that the internal “racism” wasn’t just one sided. There were humans who did not want to do business with Orcs (which is the whole purpose of this story) and even Orcs who were very anti human (such as Thorak’s parents, and Thorak’s bullying of Mariah when they were younger). I like how it showed the progression of these characters to adopt new mindsets, and how it is not always easy to do so.

The spice was nice, but it is not SUPER spicy. It has enough, but comes a bit later in the book.

Overall, the story was well written. I read it so fast, it is not a terribly long book. I am definitely looking forward to Ecco’s story in book 2. I think Elderberry Falls needs to have a vacant house so I can just move right in 🙂

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

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 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 😉