geekygraceelyse's reviews
1112 reviews

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“When I’m with you, I forget about everything else. You make me feel like myself again.”

Running Wild is entertaining newest edition to K.A Tucker’s Wild series. It spins off from Calla and Jonah’s story to focus on Jonah’s best friend, Marie and can be read as a standalone.

After pining for her best friend for years, only to watch him marry another woman, veterinarian Marie Lehr knows unrequited love all too well and it’s a mistake she’s sworn she’ll never make again.

The trouble is, she can’t seem to find anyone who appeals to her even a fraction as much as the burly bush pilot did. Certainly not the handsome but arrogant competitive musher, Tyler Brady.

While volunteering at the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, Marie discovers that her first impressions may have been wrong and her attraction to Tyler is very real, if only his hear didn’t belong to someone else.

While Tyler is keen on staying friends, Marie’s been down that road before and knows how it ends. But no matter how hard she worked to keep her distance, it seems like she’s doomed to repeat her past mistakes.

Tyler settles an arm on my door where the window is rolled down. It’s a strategic move. I can’t pull away without possibly injuring him. “Why do I feel like you’re trying to scare me away?”
“Maybe I am.”
“I don’t scare easily.”

I will say, as much as I enjoyed Running Wild and highly recommend it, it didn’t seem to grab my attention and draw me in as much as most of K.A Tuckers books normally do. I can’t quite describe it or really identify why that was, I loved the characters & the plot but I just didn’t feel that same level of engagement as I normally would.

I really liked how K.A Tucker handled addressing Marie’s feelings towards Jonah in Running Wild. That- at the time Running Wild takes place - it wasn’t so much that she was still in love with him but more that she’s longing for what could have been and what he & a relationship symbolised, more so than still having romantic feelings for Jonah himself.

I was expecting Running Wild to be more enemies to lovers, and when Marie & Tyler first meet, they definitely don’t like one another, there’s a lot of animosity between them, but they resolve those issues & end up on good terms with one another fairly early on in the book – too early for me to really consider it as falling into the enemies to lover’s trope.

But despite it not quite being the enemies to lovers’ story I had expected, I really did enjoy Marie & Tyler’s relationship. It did have a perfect amount of angst, which combined with the ease of their friendship, their intense chemistry, and Marie’s apprehension about repeating her past mistakes, made for some epic tension throughout the book.

“It’s not going to work.” I can’t go down this road again. “And this friendship of yours, Tyler? I don’t want it, either.”

I would have loved to have seen more of Marie & Tyler as a couple. Most of the book they spend as friends dancing around their attraction to one another, and the book ends rather soon after everything is resolved. But maybe someday down the track we might get a sort of slice of life novella where we’ll get to see that side of them a bit more.

I knew Tyler was still very much in love with someone else. A woman he still reaches for in the night, who he races a thousand miles across the Alaskan tundra for while wearing her name on his sleeve.
I knew all this, and still I let myself fall for him.

As someone who isn’t at all familiar with sled dog racing, let alone the Iditarod specifically, I really appreciated how much for the book was focused on it & how K.A Tucker explained and described the sport, making it easy to understand without getting bogged down in the explanation or throwing off the pacing of the book with any info dumping.

The Simple Wild is one of my all-time favourite books and while they didn’t have a big part in Running Wild, I loved getting to see a little more of Jonah and Calla. I also loved getting to see them through someone else’s point of view.

Running Wild was a fun and compelling novel and I hope we get to see more of these loveable characters.

Content Warnings

Playing Dirty in Alaska by Samanthe Beck

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emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"Let go of me.”
“Is that any way to thank a guy for saving you from a face-plant?”
“Thank you. Now, are we done here?”
He loosened his hold, then felt and heard her shaky exhale and smiled. Into her ear, he said, “We’ve never been done, Bridge. We’ll never be done.”

Playing Dirty in Alaska is the second book in Samanthe Beck’s Captivity, Alaska series and can be read as a standalone.

Filled with playful humour and fiery chemistry, Playing Dirty in Alaska was a delightful & captivating second chance romance and I loved every moment of it.

When Bridget Shanahan’s brother leaves the family’s airfield in her hand’s while he goes on his honeymoon, she knows it’s time to step up and behave like a responsible adult. So of course, that’s when her old collage boyfriend & the man who shattered her heart, Archer Ellison III shows up in her small town of Captivity, Alaska.

Archer is just as hot and just as compelling as Bridget remembers & he’s intent on winning back her trust and her heart. He knows it won’t be easy, but after an impulsive bet that would have sent Archer packing goes awry, Bridget has no choice but to rely on him for help.

“The attachment you feel? It isn’t physical. It’s something deeper. I’m not even going to need four weeks to prove it to you.”

I adored the humour in this book. Beyond being entertaining, the witty camaraderie between the characters was an excellent way of illustrating the friendships & bonds between the characters, particularly between Bridget and Archer. The easy way they fell back into their friendship and old rhythms despite Bridget’s reluctance to risk letting him back into her life was a great way to give readers a quick glimpse at what their relationship was like while they were in college, as well as capture the intensity of the lingering chemistry between them even after four years apart.

It also helped put the reader into Bridget’s shoes & imagine, if not experience, the full force of emotions she would have felt when Archer broke her heart & why she would be so reluctant to let him back into her life.

“Five years, four weeks—doesn’t matter, either way.” Using the cold metal stair rail for help, she pulled herself to her feet. “I’m not ready. I’m never going to be ready. Walk away, Archer. You know how. Find someone else.”

I loved Archer so much. There’s nothing better than a romance hero who is completely, utterly, and unapologetically besotted with the heroine, and Archer more than fulfilled that role.

“My heart breaks every day just looking at you.”
Her breath faltered. “Then don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t look at me.”
Yep. That would be her answer. As much as it killed him, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling.
“It’s no good. My heart broke worse all those days I couldn’t look at you.”

The chemistry between Bridget and Archer was off the charts. Their history added so much depth to the tension and anticipation between them & made for more than a few explosive interactions between them.

The evil smile she wore when she tipped her face to the camera again said it all. “What next?”
It took two swallows to find his voice. “I want you to touch yourself the way I tell you to—the way I would touch you if I was there to do it.”

While there was a lot of charm & humour throughout the book, there were also some sombre moments as Bridget deals with the guilt she feels around the death of her twin brother, Shay. Shay died in a plane crash prior to the start of the first book in the series, Wild in Captivity, which focuses on Bridget’s older brother, Trace. But I found that these more sombre moments didn’t take away from the overall light-hearted mood of the book.

Playing Dirty in Alaska was a wonderfully fun novel with loveable characters and an engaging plot, and I can’t wait to revisit Captivity, Alaska and all its charismatic residents when the next book comes out.

Content Warnings

Bright Familiar by Jeffe Kennedy

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5.0

“He made you cry, then and just now. You’re a fierce, proud woman, Lady Veronica Phel. Anyone who hurts you enough to draw tears deserves to die.”

Bright Familiar is the spellbinding second addition to Jeffe Kennedy’s captivating Bonds of Magic Series.

Lady Veronica Elal has been freed from her tower – and entered a life of servitude. It doesn’t matter that her wizard Master wishes to circumvent Convocation tradition and make their relationship equal, Nic prides herself on her practicality and that means not pretending her marriage is full of hearts and flowers.

Lord Gabriel Phel has come far again impossible odds and has managed to begin the process of reinstating his fallen house. He rescued Nic in a distant land, successfully bringing her home to House Phel, and despite her cynical stance on their chance of success, he’s certain they can defy their enemies and flourish together.

But the more Gabriel learns about the bonds between wizard and familiar and the finer points of wizardry, the more illicit fantasies plague him.

Although Nic has accepted her future as Gabriels wife and familiar, adjusting to her new life isn’t easy, particularly when Gabriel is determined to subvert the foundation of her world- starting with her father.

“Isn’t that how these things begin, though? You abandon a bit of integrity to survive the moment, exchange what’s right for another day, another hour of security, telling yourself you’ll make it up later, but by then you’re midway down a slippery slope, gaining momentum for the chasm below.”

Picking up where Dark Wizard left off, Bright Familiar was a delightfully entertaining novel and I loved getting to revisit the rich world that Kennedy has created and spend more time with these vivid and loveable characters.

Bright Familiar is a largely character driven story and focusses on Gabriel and Nic adjusting to each other and finding their feet within their relationship as both husband and wife, and wizard and familiar while they work to rebuild the once great House Phel.

Since this is the second book in the series, I was expecting there to be a bit more of a focus on the overarching series plot and to see them start actively going up against the Convocation. That did seem to happen gradually throughout the book and most definitely started to get underway within the last couple of chapters but I was surprised there wasn’t more of a focus on it. Not that I’m complaining, I loved the time I was able to spend with Gabriel and Nic and found that the pacing of the story was extremely well done.

I’m honestly so fascinated by the development of Gabriel and Nic’s relationship during this book as they both try to find a middle ground with each other as well as balancing the expectations that come with their roles as wizard and familiar.

Nic has been raised within the Convocation and struggles to overturn a lifetime of those teachings and I’ve found her arc through the series so far, and this book in particular, to be so intriguing and well written. Throughout the book we get glimpses of Nic’s uncertainty and see that she finds Gabriel’s wish for them to be equal, despite what the Convocation believe, to be quite unsettling. Gabriel makes Nic question the very foundation of the world she lives in, and Jeffe Kennedy captures Nic’s unease and the emotional rollercoaster she experiences when faced with questioning everything she’s known so perfectly.

“You don’t mean that.”
She lifted her chin defiantly, eyes glittering with unshed tears. “I do mean it.”
“You’d rather be cruelly used than treated with respect and kindness,” he ground out.
Opening her mouth, she closed it again, but not before her lips wobbled. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “Maybe it’s that I’d know how to do that. I think that… if I were only a pet to you, then maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much when you despise me.”

I did find that the frequent arguments between Nic and Gabriel did get a bit frustrating. It seemed like a lot of the book was them having the same argument about Gabriel not wanting to use Nic’s magic or cross her boundaries & her explaining why he should or had to. Those things are of course a big part of the book & it’s necessary for Gabriel and Nic to work through and address those issues, but it did feel rather redundant and repetitive when they’d have the argument repeatedly throughout the book, but never really came to a resolution or seemed to make any headway most of the time.

I absolutely adore everything about Gabriel. How he’s not afraid to ask for help when he needs it and how completely dedicated he is to Nic and wants to ensure her happiness and safety.

“I am not fond of the Convocation’s way of reducing people to their useful roles. Our child will be important to me as more than an heir, and my concerns are for Nic, a person who already exists. How is she, how is my ignorance endangering her, and what is it that I need to know?”

Gabriel and Nic had fantastic chemistry in Dark Wizard, but this seems to be taken to the next level in Bright Familiar.

I loved getting to meet new characters and see Nic and Gabriel slowly start to gain some support and allies and I’m so excited get to know the new characters more and to find out what will happen next.

Content Warnings

Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

“We’re all ugly, Ryen. The only difference is, some hide it and some wear it.”

Punk 57 is a dark romance that I’ve seen frequently recommended and praised but unfortunately, for me, didn’t live up to the hype and I ended up DNF-ing it at around 85%.

When Misha and Ryen were in fifth grade their teachers set them up as pen pals and triggered a seven-year long friendship. They’ve never met in person and have agreed never to share their social media, phone numbers or any pictures with each other.

That is until Misha comes across a photo of a girl online whose name is Ryen. After realising that the Ryen who writes him letters, who accepts him for everything he is, and offers unconditional support is nothing like the Ryen in real life, Misha stops writing back.

Ryen is left confused, hurt and worried when Misha suddenly stops replying to her letters., but suddenly there’s a new guy in school who is a welcome distraction from Misha’s radio silence, even if Masen doesn’t hesitate to point out just how much he hates her.

Please don’t let it be. Please just be sweet, socially awkward, shy, and everything I’ve loved for seven years. Don’t complicate it by being hot.

So, I had seen this book recommended multiple times across multiple platforms and the blurb did intrigue me. While I had seen it discussed as a dark romance, it isn’t actually shelved that way on Goodreads or – from what I’ve been able to find – advertised that way by the author and there’s no indication in the blurb about it either. I read a fair amount of dark romance, and it’s generally not something that bothers me (unless its super dark), but Punk 57 seemed more like a Bully Romance (it’s not shelved as Bully Romance or advertised as one either) and I do not like Bully Romances which certainly didn’t help my overall dislike for this book.

Right off the bat, Misha’s reaction to seeing a photo of Ryen seemed a bit ridiculous. Getting annoyed with her because she looked attractive and not a geek in glasses seemed like quite the overreaction. He then has an extremely short conversation with her and doesn’t like that she seems confident and not the shy, socially awkward girl she describes in her letters. As if such a short interaction was enough to get a true sense of what she was like. As someone who struggles immensely with social anxiety who’s frequently told I don’t come across as awkward or anxious I thought this was a ridiculous and superficial reaction for Misha to have.

She lied to me. Well, she didn’t lie exactly, but I damn well got the impression from her letters she didn’t look like that. I’d pictured a geek in glasses with purple streaks in her hair dressed in a Star Wars T-shirt.

Now as someone who loves a good enemies-to-lovers story and isn’t bothered by dark romance, I found the way Misha treated Ryen when he was ‘Masen’ (not a spoiler- we know Misha is Masen almost immediately from his POV chapters) was too far.

I found Ryen to be an incredibly unlikeable character. The way she treated other people and was so willing to throw others under the bus to stop herself from being on the receiving end of the same behaviour she was actively participating in was terrible.

At times when Misha and Ryen were together they did have some sweet moments, but these seemed to be few and far between and the extreme hatred Misha seemed to direct at Ryen was just too much, even if Ryen was acting like an awful person.

“You called me a cunt and cut my hair. You think I’d actually trust you to protect me? Don’t blink too hard, Shit-for-Brains. You might lose your last few brain cells.”

There was not a lot in this book that was likeable. Beyond how unlikeable all the characters were, and how disgusted I was with the way Misha treated Ryen, and how Ryen treated everyone else, the overall plot wasn’t all that interesting either.

So much of the book focused on Misha and Ryen being horrible, and I felt like the reason for Misha being at the school in the first place was just left to the wayside for most of the book. It’s not even really addressed in the chapters from his POV. Yes, we know he’s suffered a horrible loss with the death of his sister (also not a spoiler since it happens in the first chapter) and doesn’t have a good relationship with his father but none of that really explains why he starts going to Ryens school using a fake ID, until all of a sudden he’s trying to get a family heirloom back despite it never being mentioned (except for a slight reference made to it a chapter or two prior).

Honestly, one of the only reasons I read as much as I did was because I wanted to see the reveal- how Ryen would react when she realised Mason was Misha, and honestly after that I just got bored and getting answers to the other questions I had just wasn’t enough to keep me reading. I didn’t make a conscious decision to DNF it, I just put it down one day and then ended up losing any interest in finishing it.

Was it spicy? There were very explicit scenes, but I wouldn't call them 'spicy'. The characters are eighteen, but the fact that the book was set in high school and they were all so immature & childish that having such explicit sex scenes just made it incredibly uncomfortable. Obviously high school students aren't going to act like adults which is why the choice to have such explicit sex scenes in a book set in high school, with characters who acted like jealous & petty children, was so odd when it really wouldn't have much – if any – difference to the plot if it had been set in college.

Did I want Misha and Ryen to have a HEA? No, I honestly don’t know how anyone could want to be with someone who treated them the way Misha treated Ryen.

Were any of the characters likeable or have any redeeming qualities? No.

I honestly felt like so much of this book could have been resolved if Misha had just been truthful with Ryen when he met her at the party. If he’d sat down and had a proper conversation then the issue of Ryen not being like her letters made her out to be could have been easily resolved.

The one thing I did like was this quote from Manny, it was such a relatable moment and also had the added benefit of making Ryen realise how terrible she’d been and the impact her actions and inactions had.

“When everything is painful…” He drops the backpack and sprays the inhalant on the rag. “You start to ask yourself ‘what’s the point?’ No one cares, and you start to care even less. You just want the pain to stop.”

I think Punk 57 is a perfect example of why it’s important for authors and publishers to correctly advertise or highlight topics/tropes that are going to be in their books. As someone who doesn’t like bully romance, I am clearly not the target audience for this book and had I know it was a bully romance beforehand, I never would have picked it up.

Content Warnings

Dark Wizard by Jeffe Kennedy

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dark emotional medium-paced

4.5

“You don’t understand, Gabriel. I can never be free of you. It’s too late. Even if you sent me to the other side of the world, I’d find a way back to you.”

Dark Wizard is the compelling first book in Jeffe Kennedy’s Bonds of Magic Series.

Lord Gabriel Phel is the first person in his family in generations to be born with magic and he wants one thing: to restore his shattered house to its former station in the Convocation’s complex and arcane society. To do this he needs to obtain a familiar to supplement his skills, preferably one who is a highborn daughter who can also become his wife.

Lady Veronica Elal doesn’t have many choices. To her - and her fathers - bitter disappointment, she will never be the powerful wizard she had hoped to become. Instead Nic is relegated to becoming a familiar like her mother, a second-class citizen in the Convocation. Destined to bond with a wizard, her only hope lies in choosing a candidate who she’ll be able to manipulate, but to do that she must take part in the Betrothal Trials. Whichever one of her suitors impregnates her will claim her as a familiar and wife.

But it’s clear to Nic within moments of meeting, that Gabriel isn’t going to be easy to manipulate, and her carefully laid plan is derailed when she discovers she’s pregnant with Gabriel’s child.

Driven by panic and the urge to take control of her life she does the unthinkable: she runs… But she can’t escape her heart.

“You felt something, too,” he murmured. “I think that’s part of why you ran. You were afraid of this powerful thing between us.”

I really liked this book. The blurb didn’t really give much away & I didn’t really know what I was get into, and it make me think that there was going to have a fair bit of heavy up-front world building which made me a little hesitant to read it (my brain doesn’t function so well after doing ECT a few years ago and I struggle with some memory issues which can cause some problems). To be completely honest, if I was going off the blurb alone I don’t know if I would have actually picked this one up, but Jeffe Kennedy is one of my favourite authors and I absolutely adore her Twelve Kingdoms Universe books, so I decided to give Dark Wizard a go and I’m very glad I did.

Despite my concerns, Jeffe Kennedy’s world building is incredibly vivid and compelling, yet easy to understand. By the end of the book I did still have quite a few questions about the Convocation but I think questions I had were to be expected since as a reader, I was discovering a lot of the information about the Convocation at the same time Gabriel was and he still doesn’t have all the answers either.

I found that Dark Wizard seemed to be more of a character driven novel, which isn’t a bad thing as I love character driven books, and the main focus was on Gabriel & Nic and their relationship, and I’m very eager to see how their arc progresses over the series.

I loved Gabriel so much. The blurb makes he seem quite callous, cold, and ruthless but he comes across quite differently in the book itself. He really does wish for a genuine connection with Nic and makes it abundantly clear that he wants her to be happy and retain her freedom. At times he’s darker side comes out, mainly when he’s having to deal with the Convocation, but when it comes to Nic he treats her with a reverence and infatuation that was incredibly endearing.

“It’s just that…” He trailed off, seeing something in her face. “I won’t use you, Nic. Not for sex, not for magic, not for anything. I do want you. Even if you put on those cosmetics and a pretty dress, I couldn’t want you more than I already do… It was foolish of me to try to hide that from you. But wanting you isn’t enough.”

Although in the eyes of the Convocation, and to Nic herself, the power balance between them tips in Gabriel’s favour as the wizard. But Gabriel is almost completely ignorant when it comes to the Convocation, while Nic has been raised & educated within it her entire life, and I found that within their relationship, this evened their dynamic to an extent, maybe even tilting it in Nic’s favour.

I loved Gabriel’s vulnerability throughout the book, not just with Nic but his overall ignorance with how the Convocation works and his unease at what his roll of wizard seemingly requires him to do. It added so much depth to his character and was refreshing to read.

“I am not so comfortable in my skin as you are,” he observed wryly, bending to shuck his pants.

“You’ve clearly had lovers,” she noted, rather touched by his shyness. Or was it another gambit to soften her? “Surely you’ve been naked in front of women before.”

“Yes.” He joined her on the bed before she got a good look at the rest of him. “But I’m chagrined to note that your good opinion seems to matter.”

The Bonds of Magic series is advertised as a Dark Fantasy Romance, and I can see why that’s the case as the way familiar’s are treated within the Convocation is quite dark, and Betrothal Trials are seedy and hardly ensures enthusiastic consent, and while it doesn’t occur on the page, reading Nic’s thoughts about the first few wizard’s she was paired with for the trials was fairly uncomfortable, but the relationship between Gabriel and Nic wasn’t all that dark at all.

I loved the dynamic between them so much that my favourite parts of the book were when they were together, and that Nic – despite her concerns about the Fascination stealing her free will – really didn’t hold back from telling Gabriel exactly what she thought & pushing for what needed to be done when he held back.

Her lips parted, only breath hissing out. “I take it back. You are a fool.”

He grinned at her. “I prefer ‘confident risk-taker.’”

“You seem more like a lazy procrastinator to me,” she taunted. “All talk and no action.”

And in equal measure, I liked that Gabriel was intent on pushing back on the archaic and at times abhorrent way Wizards are expected to use their familiars, despite Nic’s continuous resignation to the ‘status quo’. I also loved how he saw through Nic’s deflection and defences to who she really was.

“You like to pretend that you’re so practical and hard-hearted, but you have a depth of compassion in you, Nic. You feel everything so deeply—probably that’s why you developed such a hard shell. But that shell is a construct, not who you truly are.”

I found Nic to be a very intriguing character and loved getting to unearth more of her personality and strength throughout the novel, and I’m looking forward to getting to read more about her as the series progresses.

She struck him as both sad and angry. Frustrated, perhaps, almost to the point of despair. That, more than anything else, appealed to him about her. He understood frustrated ambition, and the despair that followed close behind.

The world of Dark Wizard was so engaging, and while I felt like a lot of the book focused on Gabriel and Nic’s relationship arc- which isn’t a bad thing at all as I love character driven stories- I’m really looking forward to getting to see how Gabriel and Nic will shake things up within the Convocation and to be able to explore more of this enthralling world and it’s compelling characters in the next book, Bright Familiar which is available now.

Content Warnings

There With You by Samantha Young

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medium-paced

4.5

“…I already regret you. I regret every kiss I ever gave you, every piece of my heart … because as precious as every kiss and every piece of me is … you threw them away like I was nothing.”

There With You is the delightful and steamy second book in the Adair Family series by Samantha Young.

When Regan Penhaligon’s impulsive behaviour finally catches up to her there’s no better place for her to run to than her sister at the exclusive Ardnoch Estate in the remote Scottish Highlands.

Determined to make amends for her mistakes, Regan plans to repair her relationship with Robyn, while also hiding out from someone who has grown dangerously obsessed with her.

Widower Thane Adair needs to new nanny housekeeper for his two young children and after seeing how quickly they bond with his soon to be sister in law, he offers Regan the job. But as time passes Thane and Regan struggle with their growing attraction neither of them can deny their attraction.

But things soon take a turn for the worst when someone from Thane’s past threatens his family, and his inability to trust Regan threatens to destroy their future… and the person who made Regan run away to Ardnoch threatens the chance for her to have any future at all.

“But we agree it’s just sex... We’ll go on as before, friendly in front of the kids, so Lewis knows everything’s okay, but nothing more. And then at night I’ll sneak in here so we can have more of the best sex of our lives … and that’s it. Agreed?”

While it is the second book in the series, There With You can be read as a stand-alone although I do recommend checking out the first book Here With Me that tells the story of Regan’s sister Robyn, and Thane’s brother, Lachlan.

I really, really enjoyed There With You and absolutely adored Regan and Thane’s journey so much that I stayed up till 4am reading it in one sitting.

I will say that I did struggle a little bit to get into it at the beginning. I found the writing seemed to be a little clunky, but as the book progressed and things really started to get underway I really started enjoying it.

If you’ve read Here With Me, you know that by the end of the book you know there is a bit of a divide between the sisters and it was great to get to see them work through that and get some closure in There With You.

I love angst in books – when its’ done well – and this book had the perfect level of angst for me. The tension between Thane and Regan was spellbinding and their relationship was unexpectedly steamy. I was honestly not expecting Thane Adair to bring the level of heat that he did.

“Go wait for me in the annex,” he demanded. Her eyes widened slightly. “Clothes off. Keep your underwear on because I want to take it off. And lights on so I can see you. When I get there, I expect you on the bed with your legs spread… Don’t touch yourself until I get there. Your orgasms are mine now.”

I loved getting to see Thane and Lachlan interact with each other. Samantha Young really captured that good-natured badgering between siblings, and I loved that Lachlan didn’t hesitate to tell Thane to pull his head out of his ass when he was being stubborn & obtuse about his feelings for Regan.

“You’re angry with yourself, you hardheaded prick.” Lachlan cut him a dark look. “A decade of happiness is better than a lifetime of emptiness.”

Thane tensed, remembering those words.

“That’s what you said to me,” Lachlan pushed. “Not even eight months ago. When I came to you about Robyn... Not very good at following your own advice, are you?”

There With You was a charmingly enjoyable novel and I highly recommend giving it a read.

Content Warnings: This book contains mentions of an attempted sexual assault and shows a PTSD flashback.

Content Warnings

Claimed by J.R. Ward

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“I’m not scared”
“Maybe you should be. Wolves are wild animals. Their rules are their own.”

Set in the same world as The Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Claimed is the first book in J.R Ward’s new series, The Lair of the Wolven.

Lydia Susi is passionate about protecting wolves in their natural habitat. When a hotel chain develops a tract of land next to the preserve, Lydia is one of the most vocal opponents of the project – and becomes a target.

The new hire at Wolf Study Project, Daniel Joseph, is both mysterious and someone she intrinsically wants to trust, but is he hiding something?

As the stakes get higher and one of Lydia’s colleagues is murdered, she must decide how far she will go to protect the wolves.

Some fates demand courage, others require even more, with no guarantees. Is she destined to have true love… or will a soul shattering loss ruin her forever?

“Unless you tell me to go,” he said in a husky voice, “I’m going to kiss you.”
As Lydia stared up into his face, they both knew what she wanted. What she needed. Still, she kept them on the edge for a heartbeat or two.
“I don’t want you to leave.”

Claimed started out strong and I really fell into the first half to three quarters of the novel but there were a number of things that disappointed me about the book as a whole to the point that I was honestly unsure whether I actually enjoyed the book or not. After having time to process the novel, I’ve come to the conclusion that I did enjoy it but there were quite a few things that did inhibit my overall enjoyment of it and a lot of those came down to the expectations I had for it based on both the genre & my past experience reading J.R Ward’s books & the way her books/series are written.

On one hand, I really did enjoy it. I liked the characters and I’m keen to find out what happens next, but on the other, this was not at all what I expected. The paranormal aspect seemed almost non-existent for a lot of the novel, and I ended up finishing the book with more questions than when I started it – and not necessarily in a good way.

I think what threw me off the most and stopped me from enjoying it as much as I could have been that I was not expecting these characters arcs to be continued across more than one book. I was expecting The Lair of the Wolven series to follow the same format as JR Ward’s other series and be more interconnected stand-alone than a full series, with each book featuring two central characters whose arcs would be wrapped up and plot are resolved by the end of the novel, while the central plot for the series would be left open enough to continue in the future books. Claimed, however, was not written this way & it appears that the series is going to follow Lydia & Daniel throughout the books.

This is not a bad thing, but had I known this going into the book I would have been more prepared for the number of unanswered questions I had – not to mention the cliff hanger – & would have expected the level of confusion I was left with. Instead, I was caught off guard, tracking the number of pages I had left of the book as I tried to reconcile how close to the end it was with the abundance of unanswered questions that seemed to be growing by the page. Trying to figure out how Ward could possibly wrap the story up in such a short amount of time while providing satisfying answers ended up souring my enjoyment of the book itself because so many twists were being dropped, leaving me with more and more questions and very little clarification, right when – if it had been an interconnected stand alone as I was expecting – I was anticipating getting some answers & resolutions.

Claimed is definitely an enjoyable and gripping novel but don’t go into it expecting the arc/progression of an interconnected stand-alone.

“The pair of them had hopeful expressions on their faces, as if they were trying to appeal to her better nature—which was a joke because she didn’t really have one.
Well, except when it came to . . . well, the two fighters who stood in front of her.”

I loved the Black Dagger Brotherhood and loved getting to see a bit more of them during Xhex’s chapters. I particularly loved getting to see some more of John Matthew and Xhex as well as Xhex and Blays friendship. Although as much as I enjoyed that, I did find that her chapters didn’t really seem to fit with the rest of the book and because I would get so engrossed in Lydia & Daniel’s chapters and plot, I found myself wanting to skim read them in a similar fashion to how I skim read the Lesser chapters when I reread the BDB books, so I could get back to Lydia and Daniel.

It wasn’t until towards the end of the novel that inclusion of these chapters started making sense and I could understand why Ward included them, but unfortunately by that point they had already detracted from the pacing of the novel and my overall enjoyment.

“I wonder if there’s a plumbing deity somewhere out there I can pray to.”
“You want me to build you a shrine to Drano?”
“Will you?”

There was a moment towards the start where I thought Claimed was going to mirror Dark Lover (sort of like how the Star Wars movies mirror the episodes from the original trilogy) & I got really excited because I LOVE Dark Lover. It always has such a fresh vibe every time I reread it & I can’t put it into words but it’s always just stood out to me in a way a lot of other books, even other BDB books, haven’t (no matter how much I’ve loved them). But Claimed ended up being quite different, which is also great.

As I mentioned above, the paranormal aspect of this book was not at all prominent. Apart from Xhex’s chapters and the occasional line or paragraph during Lydia and Daniels chapters that alluded to something paranormal occurring, the vast majority of the book felt more like a contemporary crime novel.

I really enjoyed getting to know these new characters and am really excited to see where Lydia’s arc – in particular – goes from here and see her grow as the series progresses, and also to get some answers for the copious amount of questions I still have.

Claimed is packed with Ward’s signature dry witty humour and I loved the chemistry between Lydia and Daniel and I’m looking forward to getting to see more of them in the other books.

“I understand. We do work together—”

“That’s not why I’m leaving.”

“So why are you?”

He traced her cheek. Then her jawline. “If I stay, I’m not going to let you get any sleep at all.” He stepped back.

If you love a good plot twist then Claimed is for you. I was honestly not expecting any of the plot twists that got dropped in this book, to the point where my jaw dropped on multiple occasions. I loved how it flipped a lot of the expectations I had on their heads & subverted some of the common Paranormal Romance tropes.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book and I wish I had gone into it knowing that these characters would be the focus of the series as a whole and not have their individual arcs wrapped up at the end, but I am really excited to read the future books and get some more information on the Wolven.

I have an excerpt from the book up on my blog as part of the Social Butterfly PR Blog Tour, you can check it out here: https://wordsarelifereviews.wixsite.com/mysite/post/review-excerpt-claimed-by-j-r-ward

Content Warnings

Here With Me by Samantha Young

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

'So what’s worse? he wondered, agonized. Throwing her away before they could build a life together? Or risking the chance of building that life only to lose it? Was a limited amount of time with the woman he loved better than no time at all?'

Here With Me is the captivating first book in Samantha Young’s new Adair Family Series.

Settled in the tranquil remoteness of the Scottish Highlands, Ardnoch Estate caters to the rich and famous. It is as unattainable and as mysterious as its owner —ex-Hollywood leading man Lachlan Adair—and it's poised on the edge of a dark scandal.

After narrowly escaping death, police officer Robyn Penhaligon leaves behind her life in Boston in search of some answers. Starting with Mac Galbraith, the Scottish father who abandoned her to pursue his career in private security. To re-connect with Mac, Robyn will finally meet a man she’s long resented. Lachlan Adair. Hostility instantly brews between Robyn and Lachlan. She thinks the head of the Adair family is high-handed and self-important. And finding closure with Mac is proving more difficult than she ever imagined. Robyn would sooner leave Ardnoch, but when she discovers Mac is embroiled in a threat against the Adairs and the exclusive members of the estate, she finds she’s not yet ready to give up on her father.

Determined to ensure Mac’s safety, Robyn investigates the disturbing crimes at Ardnoch, forcing her and Lachlan to spend time together. Soon it becomes clear a searing attraction exists beneath their animosity, and temptation leads them down a perilous path.

While they discover they are connected by something far more addictive than passion, Lachlan cannot let go of his grip on a painful past: a past that will destroy his future … if the insidious presence of an enemy lurking in the shadows of Ardnoch doesn’t do the job first.

“Oh, give me a break, Adair. I’m investigating a stalker, not compiling gossip to sell to a tabloid.”

“That doesn’t mean I trust you.”

“Considering you’re the most uptight, mistrustful son of a bitch I’ve ever encountered, I’m not going to take that personally. But Mac trusts me, so you’re going to have to unshrivel your balls and share.”

He spluttered comically. “Unshrivel my what?”

I was so happy when I found out Samantha Young was working on a new series and was so excited to meet the Adair family. Here With Me was a great novel packed with charming characters and just the right amount of suspense to keep things interesting.

I loved getting to see Robyn reconnect with her father and watch their relationship grow throughout the novel.

“I can’t undo the damage I’ve done, as much as I wish I could. You have no idea how much I wish I could. My only excuse is that I truly believed you were better off without me. And I’m so sorry for how wrong I was.”

I didn’t think I had any tears left, but they slipped down my cheeks now. “I want to move on. I do. I just don’t know how to let go of the past.”

“Then read the letters. If, after that, you can’t, I won’t hold it against you, Robyn. No matter what you decide to do, I will love you. I will always love you, wee birdie.”

Robyn and Lachlan’s relationship had a great progression from rivals to lovers and was full with chemistry, I loved the tense antagonistic moments between the two of them and how they made the sweet moments that much sweeter.

“I didn’t even like you… You were everything I thought I didn’t want or need, no matter how physically attracted to you I was. But I came to see something in you… I saw how much you cared. About your family, about Mac, about Lucy and Eredine, and the people who work for you. I saw the weight of responsibility you carry on your shoulders, responsibility men like you don’t need to feel.”

I loved getting to see Lachlan interact with his siblings and I’m really excited for the second book to release and spend more time with the Adair family.

I know this review has been quite brief but unfortunately, I’ve been quite sick recently & this is all I’ve been able to write, but I did really enjoy Here With Me and recommend you check it out.

Content Warnings

The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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adventurous emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

“You will bow before your Queen… Or you will bleed before her. It is your choice.”

The Crown of Gilded Bones is the highly anticipated third novel in Jennifer L Armentrout’s epic high fantasy series, From Blood and Ash.

Poppy never dreamed she would find the love she’s found with Prince Casteel. All she wants is to revel in her happiness but first they must free his brother and find hers. It’s a dangerous mission and one with far-reaching consequences neither dreamed of. Because Poppy carries the blood of the King of Gods within her. She is the Chosen, the Blessed, and the true ruler of Atlantia.

However, Poppy has only ever wanted to control her own life, not the lives of others, but now she must choose to either forsake her birthright or seize the gilded crown and become Queen of Flesh and Fire. But as the kingdoms’ dark sins and blood-drenched secrets begin to unravel, a long-forgotten power rises to pose a genuine threat, and they will stop at nothing to ensure the crown never sits upon Poppy’s head.

But the greatest threat is what awaits in the far west, where the Queen of Blood and Ash has her own plans, ones she has waited hundreds of years to carry out. Poppy and Casteel are now faced with the seemingly impossible task of traveling to the Lands of the Gods to wake the King himself.

As shocking secrets and the harshest betrayals come to light, and enemies emerge to threaten everything Poppy and Casteel have fought for, they will discover just how far they’re willing to go for their people – and each other.

A man who bared his soul and stripped open his heart to me—and only me.

My first. My guard. My friend. My betrayer. My partner.

My husband. My heartmate.

My everything.

I have spent the past four days trying to write this review and just failing to find a way of putting into words just how much I love it that will do it justice.

But I am so pleased to say that the fans of this series are not going to be disappointed in this next instalment in the From Blood and Ash series.

The Crown of Gilded Bones is an action packed, fast paced novel that left me completely speechless. It was everything I could have hoped it would be and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to handle the wait for the fourth book to be released, especially with that ending.

I loved getting to see Poppy and Casteel be so at ease around one another now that they had come to terms with how their relationship started & the betrayal Poppy felt after discovering who Hawke was. It was a nice change of pace from A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire where Poppy spent a lot of the book trying to fight her attraction to Casteel, and process & move beyond his deception. I loved reading that in AKOFAF, but I also really loved seeing them fall into their roles as husband and wife and their dedication & passion for one another without either of them holding back over their feelings of guilt or betrayal.

“I do not want to be party to forcing you into yet another role you did not ask for nor desire. I will not replace the veil you loathed with a crown you hate. If you do not want to take the Crown, I will support you.”

They had such an easy & comfortable emotional intimacy between the two of them, and I just adored that aspect of their relationship.

“Gods, I hope you truly understand how strong you are. I’m constantly in awe of you. I’ve been in awe of you since the night in the Red Pearl.”

I loved that Casteel had moments of vulnerability, where he freely showed his emotions & also opened up to Poppy about the trauma he experienced & still struggles with from being held captive by the Blood Crown.

But I focused on Casteel. His eyes were glossy, and his lashes were wet.

He was crying.

Casteel was crying.

After spending so much of her life in isolation, I loved seeing Poppy form friendships, particularly the friendships she formed with Keiran and Delano, while also coming into her own power and sense of self after having her entire world view shattered in From Blood and Ash, and A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire.

“Okay. Just give me a second to concentrate.”

“You sure you only need a second?” he quipped.

“You sure you don’t want to find yourself staring down at the hilt of a dagger protruding from your chest?”

The wolven grinned at me. “That would make it hard to test out whether you can do this on purpose or not.”

Poppy has always been a fiercely strong and resilient character but she reaches new heights and uncovers a new level of strength & assertiveness as The Crown of Gilded Bones progressed.

“…she thinks she can stay my hand. But, sometimes, war cannot be prevented,”

…There would be no more talks or ultimatums. What was to come couldn’t be stopped.

It never could be.

Jennifer L Armentrout has such vivid world building in this series and I loved getting to learn more about Atlantia and the world in general during The Crown of Gilded Bones. It was such a vivid novel and I getting a lot of questions answered, but also being left with quite a few more.

Due for release April 20th, The Crown of Gilded Bones is a riveting novel packed with explosive chemistry, delightful humour, and thrilling action that will have you utterly enthralled until the very last word and leave you begging for the next book.

The Sorceress Queen and the Pirate Rogue by Jeffe Kennedy

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

4.5

“Love and companionship were not in her destiny. She’d seen her fate, and her life path ended always at the same place…”

The Sorceress Queen and the Pirate Rogue is the electrifying second novel in Jeffe Kennedy’s Heirs of Magic series.

Stella has always been one to count her blessings. Empath, sorceress, shapeshifter, and healer, she’s grateful for the gifts the goddess of shadows has bestowed upon her even if they’ve left her sensitive to emotions, or stand physical contact with anyone but her twin brother. But now that her brother has found his true love, Stella feels more alone than ever before.

But nothing haunts her like the vision of the lonely tower where her life path ends.

Jakral Konyngrr is a man of simple taste: good whiskey, some coin in his pocket, and a fine blade in his hand. Though he’s no prince, not a shapeshifter, and not blessed with any magic, he’s happy in his skin. And yet he seems doomed to live the life of a hero from a tragic ballad because the only woman he’s ever wanted barely knows he’s alive.

As much as Jak longs for Stella, he’s resigned himself to being in the background forever – but at least he can guard her back.

But now Jak and Stella have been thrown together – along with a mismatched group of shifters, warriors and sorceress friends – attempting to avert magic rifts that release monsters into their world. The strange Intelligence behind the bizarre and deadly attacks seems to have developed a fascination for Stella.

“Jak…” She sounded so sad, turning away to look out over the glassy lake. “You’re such a good person. A fearless fighter. A loyal friend, handsome, fun. You make everyone laugh.”

Each word flayed him open more surely than Rhy’s wolf teeth had.

“Please don’t say any more,” he whispered soundlessly, mostly a prayer to his merciless goddess, but Stella’s keen shapeshifter ears heard him anyway.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, pity in her gaze. “I mean it, Jak. You really are the finest of men.”

I have been a massive fan of Jeffe Kennedy’s work for a long time and her Twelve Kingdom Universe books are some of my absolute favourite books of all time. I was so excited when I found out she was writing another series set in this vibrant and enthralling world. I absolutely adored The Golden Gryphon and the Bear Prince, the first book in the Heirs of Magic Series, and think The Sorceress Queen and the Pirate Rogue was a fantastic addition.

I loved getting to see more about this charismatic group of friends, and I really enjoyed getting to see them from a different point of view and all the new insights that came with that. The book is split between Stella & Jak’s POV and I liked seeing the different ways the characters interacted with one another, along with the dynamic between the individual members of the group from their perspective and be able to compare that to how they were portrayed when we saw them from Astar and Zephyr’s perspectives in the first book. It also meant we got to explore more of the characters personalities & get to know them even better.

This created an engaging and insightful depth to not just individual character’s development, but the overarching plot and dynamic between the characters.

I laughed quite a lot throughout this book. I loved the chemistry and witty repartee & ribbing between the characters and that, along with their camaraderie, meant there was never a dull moment.

“I wasn’t behaving badly,” he complained.

“You’re being an ass,” Gen hissed at him under her breath, as if there were any way in the world Stella wouldn’t hear that.

…

“It might be. And I do know what I’m doing,” she said to Jak. “So stop acting like a mother hen.”

“Am I an ass or am I a hen?” he asked philosophically.

“It’s entirely possible to be both,” Gen shot at him…

This light-hearted humour is well balanced with the more serious & suspenseful action scenes, along with romance between Jak and Stella.

I am a reader who tends to prefer books that skew slightly towards being more character-oriented and I did find that The Sorceress Queen and the Pirate Rogue seemed to be more plot oriented than the first book in the series. I feel like The Golden Gryphon and The Bear Prince focused a bit more on Astar & Zephyr’s relationship and while there were still great moments between Jak and Stella during this book, I would have liked some more.

I did find that the plot was incredibly engaging and had me hooked right till the end, and while the shift between character/plot orientation between the two books wasn’t a big one, it was one that made sense considering the book is only about 280 pages on kindle – which is around the same as The Golden Gryphon and the Bear Prince – but the stakes are higher and the threat is escalating. I think if there had been more Jak and Stella moments, with a book this length it probably would have meant having to sacrifice important aspects of the plot or pacing.

I loved getting to see Jak and Stella’s relationship develop, it was so well written and very well paced for the length of the novel. I found the balance between the heart-warming emotional intimacy they shared & the steamier and more sexual moments was perfectly done.

“If I could touch you, my star, I would tease you past endurance,” he said, his voice as caressing as if he’d touched her indeed. “I’d start seducing you with occasional touches. Nothing too intimate. All publicly polite. My hand on the small of your back. A brush of my fingers against yours as I handed you something. And you’d wonder if they were accidents, but they wouldn’t be. I’d go slow, so I wouldn’t frighten you. Just little caresses, until you began to look forward to the next one, began to yearn for the feel of my hand against yours…”

I also loved how much focus was put on consent, which was something that stood out to me during The Golden Gryphon and the Bear Prince as well. The consistent & continuous seeking of consent is something that doesn’t seem to come up in a lot of books very often. I’ve found that more often than not there will generally be a single conversation about consent and that’s it. It’s really refreshing to read books that have such a consistent focus on consent, not just throughout the entire novel but during intimate or sexual scenes as well.

“It means that telling Stella of my strong feelings might create a sense of responsibility on her part,” he explained. “Especially for Stella, who feels everyone else’s pain so keenly. If she decides to be with me, it will be on her terms, because that’s what she wants, not because she feels the burden of making me happy.”

The third book, The Dragons Daughter and the Winter Mage (releasing September 2021) looks to be Gendra’s book and I can’t wait to read it. I really like Gen and I’m excited to read her point of view, as well as the fact that it looks like her love interest will be someone we haven’t met yet. I’m really looking forward to getting to see the point of view of someone who isn’t familiar with – or grown up with – any of them, and see how the group interacts with them.

I’m particularly interested in seeing how they’ll all react considering Gen’s last attempt at love – which also happened to be with someone they hadn’t known before – unfortunately, didn’t end so well.

The Sorceress Queen and the Pirate Rogue is a fantastic & heart-warming friends to lovers, high fantasy romance, packed with charismatic characters and a gripping plot, that perfectly balances action with humour and romance.

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geekygraceelyse's reviews 1112 reviews

geekygraceelyse's reviews
1112 reviews