Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston

 

3 Star

Finn and his brothers rescue the Honey badger team from a bad situation.  When they try to make nice and are rebuffed Finn knows he needs to get back in their good graces.  Mads likes Finn and understands where he’s coming from with wanting vengeance for his father’s murder so she will help him get his revenge.  This is twofold it helps him and keeps her out of her own family drama.  Plus getting hot and heavy with him isn’t bad.

I wanted to like this more than I did.  It suffers from trying to be too much and not quite enough.  There are some incredibly funny parts of the book that I loved but it got very wordy and had too many plots going on at one time.

Book 4 Honey Badger Chronicles

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The Assassin’s Salvation by Ruby Lionsdrake

 

5 Star

Sergei Zharkov is an assassin by trade and when he hears there is a bounty out against Mandrake, he rushes to let him know.  What he wasn’t expecting was Jamie Flipkens.  She is young and wanting a change from being pilot and engineer.  She is attracted to Sergei and wants to believe he wouldn’t hurt Captain Mandrake.  She is willing to go undercover with him to find out who has it out for Mandrake.  Will they be able to find out who wants the Mandrake Captain dead?

I felt so bad for Sergei in this book.  Everyone else sucked.  Sergei works his ass off for the Mandrake Company even though it causes problems for him, and he isn’t trusted by the crew.  They would rather believe the worst in him.  I loved that he was willing to let Jamie spread her wings and fly where others in the book kind of put her into a box of what they expected of her. Overall, it was by far my favorite book in the series.  I loved Sergei and Jamie.  

Book 3 Mandrake Company

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Trial and Temptation by Ruby Lionsdrake

 

4 Star

Val Calendula is looking for steady work with the Mandrake Company to save her brother.  She wasn’t planning on running into her former instructor Commander Thatcher.  He always had something to say to her about how she did things.  What she thought was criticism was just Gregor Thatcher’s was just the way he acted.  Gregor was always a bit awkward and never knew what to say to anyone.  He had all the skills to do the job but not the personality.  He always wanted Val but knew it would be wrong since he oversaw her.  He’s still in charge of her but he wants her.  Is he willing to take a risk to find his happy ending?

The give and take in this book was fun to read.  I really enjoyed the struggle both Gregor and Val had.  Val had to come to terms with her misconceptions of Gregor.  He had to come to terms with Val being a subordinate and finding away around that.  They both struggled and that led to a very good read.  It fit with the first book, and you do need to read the first book to get all the nuances of series to understand this one.  I think you could read this without reading the first one but meh, read the first one.

Book 2 Mandrake Company 

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Mercenary Instinct by Ruby Lionsdrake

 

4 Star

Ankari Markovich’s company is on the search for ancient alien poop to help aid her partner’s research into gut health.  The women are used to dodging treasure hunters, slavers, and bounty hunters until Captain Viktor Mandrake company.  They decide to take a bounty hunt for the women because of how high it is but the more he spends time with Ankari the less he believes the warrant out for them.  Will he be able to keep his crew from mutiny when he decides not to turn Ankari and her crew in?

This book is an older book that’s been out for a while.  I remember reading it when it first came out and loving it.  I don’t believe I read the rest of the series at the time.  This is the spicy side of Lindsey Buroker.  It is a fantasy story like all of her other books but this one is very spicy.  I loved seeing all the shenanigans Ankari got into.  She and her team would try and escape from the Mandrake Company and would get into even more trouble.  When they have a chance to get away, they end up helping the Mandrake Company.  She had way too many morals for this book.  She also never lets Viktor forget that he blew up her ship.  Overall, it is a really good story that starts a new series that is worth your time.

Book 1 Mandrake Company

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Bond of Destiny by Larissa lone

 

5 Star

Tracker has never known freedom. The day he was born he was a slave. When Harvester, a fallen angel transferred his ownership to a human woman he gained his first bit of freedom. He's not sure if he can trust her with how traumatic his life has been. Something he's never had is love. He doesn't want it to be taken away from him when he eventually moves to a new owner. The one woman who makes him yearn is Stacey.  He is tempted when she shows up during a blizzard. When the pack he was born into comes and makes demands of him she's used against him. Will he be able to save her and himself?

I loved this book. It also made want to go and reread the whole series. It has been a while since I've read all of them. This is also means you don't have to have had all of the books in the series. I vaguely remember Tracker from a different book and he definitely deserves his happy ending. I loved how he got Stacey to realize the reality of his situation. The best part for me was the end. I loved seeing everyone get their comeuppance. 

Book 11.8 of Demonica

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Clusterf*@K by Elise Faber

4 Star

Misty is incredibly happy for her brother, but she is a bit sad that she hasn’t found a partner yet.  When she accidentally backs her car into Chance and then forgets to put it into park and damages her brother’s house she is mortified.  Chance is intrigued by Misty and wants to find out more about her.  He thinks he might have found his forever if only he can talk Misty into it. 

I loved how these two came together.  You can understand why Misty is hesitant on hooking up with Chance as they share family.  I accidentally read this one before I read Book 3 and you can read them out of order and still understand the series.  It helps but isn’t necessary.  It fit within the series and was a good addition.

Book 4 Life Sucks

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Dumpster Fire by Elise Faber

 

4 Star

Rob was single and he didn’t want to keep living.  Losing the love of his life made it hard for him to live.  On his birthday and the anniversary of his wife’s death he’s nearly run over by Sophie when he stumbles in front of her car.  For the first time in years he is interest in things around him. 

You really feel bad for Rob.  He was given a crap hand and was trying to deal with it.  I felt his character was fully developed and I did want to see him find his happy ending.  Sophie wasn't as developed as Rob was but I did like her.  It was a bit of a rush from Rob going from depressed to all in for a new relationship so I can see why Sophie didn't trust him to be her forever.  I did love the ending and cried so many times reading this book.  It was a really good addition to the series.

Book 3 Life Sucks

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Scrapbooking the Supernatural by Keira Blackwood

 

3 Star

Jen helped her friend Remi learn all about her fire magic now she needs to learn about her dream magic to keep them safe from the big bad.  She will do anything to protect her friends and her son.  When her son is threatened, she will need to look for allies in strange places and just maybe find love again.

Where I loved the first book, I only like the second one.  Jen just kind of irritated me in this book.  Not to mention Molly kept pivotal information from them.  These women are supposed to be working together.  Jen and Remi are working together but Molly is off doing her own thing since she knows what needs to happen.  It got very frustrating.  In addition to this issue because Jen is a dream witch everything was just a bit outlandish for me and I had trouble enjoying the story because of the crazy going on.  It was a bad crazy and not a good crazy.  Overall, the book just disappointed me.

I am adding this here since I don’t know if/when I will review the third book Wrinkles and Runes is out.  I did start it as soon as I finished book two, but I could not get into it at all.  Book two had a repeat of the same problems as this one where Molly continued keeping secrets.  I just couldn’t read it.  I will attempt to read it later, but prospects are not promising.

Book 2 Midlife Magic in Marshmallow

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Hot Mess by Elise Faber

 

4 Star

Shannon thought she had it all until her husband cheated on her and divorced her.  The best thing out of the relationship was her daughter.  She thought she could make it work since she was supposed to get the house, but her ex screwed her over again.  Not sure what she was going to do when she meets Finn, the number one hottest movie star in the world.  Is she ready to love again?

You will want to kill Shannon’s ex.  He is the biggest douche canoe, and he deserves whatever bad karma is coming his way.  I loved seeing Shannon come into her own and finding love again.  Writing this review makes me want to go and read the story again. It was an excellent addition to the series.

Book 2 Life Sucks

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Train Wreck by Elise Faber

 

4 Star

Pepper O’Brien may be Hollywood royalty, but her life is a mess.  All the money in the world can’t buy her any amount of grace and poise.  If something can go wrong, it does.  After her most recent disaster she decides to move across the country to start over away from everyone who saw her humiliation.  Where she runs into her older brother’s best friend and her high school crush Derek Cashette.  She is determined to fix her life without any help from anyone even Derek’s help.  However, Derek will be helping her whether she likes it or not.  When she finds out why he’s helping will she be able to forgive him.

I can relate to Pepper.  I am the world’s biggest clutz.  Lucky for me no one sees my goofs.  Pepper is very relatable and when she finds out about Derek you want to smack him upside his head.  I enjoyed reading the story.  It flowed nicely and had an interesting romance.  I did like how Derek makes it up to Pepper.  Good first book to a series.

Book 1 Life Sucks

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Sweatpants and Spells by Keira Blackwood

 

4 Star

Remi’s life is changing drastically.  She was at her ex-stepdaughter’s wedding when her ex-husband kidnaps her and bites her.  What she doesn’t realize is she’s the reason he started on fire.  Now that she has magic she needs to learn all about what that means and how to use her powers.  She will have to work with new people to

I loved this story.  It was incredibly funny.  I loved Remi and her best friend Jen.  It was fun seeing her come into her own and finding her forever man who supported her.  The book is part of a larger series, and it looks like it builds on each other for an overarching bad guy who wasn’t really taken out in this book but one bad guy was taken out.  It was nice to see an older woman find her happy ending.

Book 1 Midlife Magic in Marshmallow

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Trusting Molly by Susan Stoker

4 Star

Molly has always had bad luck.  When she’s in Nigeria she’s kidnapped with a hundred schoolgirls.  Shoved into a hole and left to rut she doesn’t expect to get out alive.  When Mark “Smoke” Chamberlin and his team go into Nigeria to rescue the schoolgirls he literally falls into the hole with Molly.  Once they had rescued everyone Molly finds out her only family had died while she was being held hostage so she opts to go home with Mark to figure out what she should do with her life.  As they get closer there’s someone else out to get her.  Will Mark be able to keep her safe?

I really enjoyed this book.  I enjoyed Molly’s inner dialogue and how she does pick herself up to keep moving.  It was interesting to see how Molly and Mark would work out with her stalker.  One of the best parts of the book is that Molly saves herself.  Overall, it fits well within the series and I enjoyed it a lot.

Book 3 Silverstone

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Cliff’s Descent by Dianne Duvall

 

3.5 Star

Cliff has been working with the Immortal Guardians for years and he is slowly succumbing to the vampire’s insanity.  Everyone is working hard to find a solution to save him, but nothing is working.  When he saves Emma from mercenaries, she is enthralled with him.  She helps keep the voices at bay and gives him more happy days until it’s not helping anymore.  He is ready to ask Sebastian to end it all when some immortals are kidnapped, and he volunteers to go in and do whatever he can to save them.  Will they be abled to save him?

I’ve been waiting for this book for years and was incredible excited when I saw it was going to be coming out.  The writing for this book was like all the other books.  I think my biggest issue with the book was it reused parts of previous books without really expanding on things I’ve already read.  It did make me cry through several parts.  I also had issue with the side stepping of how to help the vampires.  The way Cliff was saved is a one off and I still want some of the other vampires to be saved and we are still waiting on that solution.  Overall, it is a good book.  It builds on all the other books in the series though you can read this one without reading all the other books. 

Book 11 Immortal Guardians

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Crashed by Elise Faber

 

4 Star

Fanny thought she had it all until she didn’t.  She was engaged to the love of her life and then he is diagnosed with a brain tumor.  The first time it took him a week to remember her.  When it came back and months later, he still didn’t remember her and was falling for someone at the hospital she walked away.  Now years later he remembers everything and wants her back.  She is gun-shy to believe it will work out this time.  Will she be able to get past their history and fine their happy?

This one was just heartbreaking.  The book fit within the series, and I loved both Fanny and Brandon.  I felt for both of them.  They were dealt a crappy hand and it tore them apart just to come back together later.  I loved the whole story.  I also liked that Fanny is the one who screwed up and she does make it right with Brandon.  Definitely a good addition to the series.

Book 12 Gold Hockey

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Love Next Door by Helena Hunting

 

4 Star

Dillion left town to go to college and thought she would never come back other than to visit.  But when her brother gets into an accident, she loses her job, and her boyfriend now is the perfect time to go home and regroup.  She is hoping it will be a quick visit and then back to Chicago what she isn’t planning on is getting an eye full of her neighbor Donovan.  They got off to a rocky start but soon can’t live without each other.  But they are both dealing with their own drama in their personal life.  Will they be able to get passed the problems to find their happy ending?

This was a very fast read for me and I enjoyed the light romance.  I liked the give and take in the relationship between Donovan and Dillion.  The fights between them were very amusing.  Another part of the book I liked was when he fucked up, he does make it up to her.  Overall, it was a quick lighthearted read with parts of hot and funny bits.

Book 1 Lakeside

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Dude in Distress by Helena Hunting

 

4 Star

Nevah is on the way to see her sister when she sees a car broken down on the side of the road.  Thinking it's a woman she pulls over to help. Instead of a woman in need she finds Lawson. He wasn't planning on having his car die on him

This was a short and sweet story with some super-hot moments between Nevah and Lawson.  The connection to the shacking up series is there but is so small you don't need to have read the series to understand what's happening in this book.

Audio Book:

 Rose Dioro and Jacob Morgan did an awesome job narrating this book.  I really enjoyed both of their voices.  Even at a faster speed there wasn't any issues.  Super fast listen since it was a short story.

Short Story in the Shacking up series

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