Tag: Spicy Romance

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 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.