Anti-boyfriend by Penelope Ward

 

3.5 Stars

Having very thin walls makes life interesting for Carys and her manwhore next door neighbor.  When she finally tells him she can hear him through the wall instead of brushing it off Deacon takes steps to make Carys more comfortable.  When her daughter Sunny wouldn’t stop crying one night he came over and got her to settle and go to sleep.  As time passes Carys falls a little bit more in love with him but they are strictly friends…or are they?

I wanted to like this book more than I did.  It was enjoyable and I liked the couple for the most part.  I liked that it wasn’t insta relationship that it was a slow build into a relationship.  What I didn’t like was when Deacon walked away.  It seemed very abrupt in the story.  I actually had to go back and reread because we literally had him saying he loves Carys and Sunny and then we jump ahead 2 months and he’s gone.  It wasn’t that he left because I get where he why and it made the story better.  However, the author could have put in the scene between Carys and Deacon where he leaves instead of telling me it by a conversation between her and her friend.  That bit of the book really confused me and I had to reread to see if I missed something.  The author handled the making up really well.  There wasn’t an insta forgiven.  He had to work to prove he wasn’t going to leave her again.  I also really liked how the Charles situation was handled.  I was not expecting that arc to work out the way it did and it was a very nice surprise.  Overall, check out the book as it was a really good friends to lovers story just with a minor hiccup.

Oracle's Moon by Thea Harrison

 

5 Stars

Grace Andrea’s sister and brother-in-law were killed in a car crash that damaged her knee.  She inherited her niece and nephew.  As well as the powers and responsibility of the Oracle of Louisville.  When she helped Carling and Rune in the last book, she also acquired the interest of Khalil, Demonkind and Djinn prince of House Marid.  Khalil judges Grace on every decision she makes without understanding what is going on until she tears into him about, he choices.  The more they interact the more he understands and the angrier he gets at the Elder community for not doing what they are supposed to do.  He is determined to help Grace with her niece and nephew have the best life ever.  Grace is struggling with all her responsibilities and doesn’t understand why Khalil is so interested in their lives and weary about is interested but when weird things keep happening she will take all the help keeping her niece and nephew safe.

I loved this story so much.  It was heartbreaking what Grace and the kids had gone through and continued to go through for part of the book.  I loved see Khalil go from a cold Djinn to more personable with more time he spent with the family.  My all-time favorite scene was when he tore into Carling and Rune for not paying Grace for the services that she provided.  The anger he felt over the family struggling to make ends meet because people aren’t paying her, and Grace can’t get another job because of her duties.    I also loved that Grace would call him on all BS.  For their first date he got in a fight with a vampire who was being inappropriate with her.  She just noped out and left him to fighting because she was too tired and hungry to deal with that.  Behind Dragon Bound this was by far my favorite book in the series so far.

 

Audiobook

Sophie Eastlake narrated this story.  I really enjoyed her take on the voices of each of the characters.  As always it is interested to see how some names are pronounced differently then what I thought it was when I read the book. 

Book 4 Elder Races

Shadows in Death by J.D. Robb

 

3.5 Stars

Eve and Roarke are back for another murder.  When they arrive at a murder scene Roarke sees a man from his pasted and knows he is the one who killed the woman Eve is standing for.  Eve knows the husband hired someone to kill his wife and she needs to be careful tracking him down as the Lorcan Cobbe has a grudge against her husband.  With the help of their friends and associates they will get Cobbe before he hurts anyone they love.

This was a weird one for me to review.  I’ve read this series for years and so there are certain behaviors I expect from the characters and when those behaviors change it is a bit jarring.  In this book there is some character behaviors that changed and without explanation.  I also felt the original murder took a back seat to the search for Cobbe.  He was the story and not the murdered woman.  Overall, it was a good story but as a long time reader of the series parts were a bit jarring.

Book 51 In Death

Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen

 

2.5 Stars

Lara is on the run from her father when she hears her husband has been taken prisoner.  She knows this is a trap to get her and she doesn’t care.  She will do anything to get her husband back and free their kingdom, even go to people who hate her for help.  She will need the people who think she’s a traitor to help get her into her father’s castle to rescue the King.

I very much wanted to like this book.  I loved the first book.  It was new and different.  For me this book was a lot of action and not a lot of substance.  What I mean by this is there are skirmish upon skirmish but nothing personal ends up being resolved.  Lara is still a traitor to the kingdom and she risked everything to save them all.  It didn’t matter she was still hated.  Aren does something that to me was unforgivable towards the end of the book and it is swept under the rug to give them a happy for now.  There are no long term solutions in the book for their relationship.  Lara had planned on going to her sisters but Aren doesn’t want that.  They will figure it out.  Your people hate her.  That will totally be resolved…right.  Danielle L Jensen did set up the series to include 2 more books with Lara’s brother.  The next one will coincide with this book and I hope it will show some better conclusion for Lara and Aren.

Audio Book

Lauren Fortgang did a pretty good job bring the characters to life in this book.  The one BIG HUGE negative for me was at the beginning of every freaking chapter they had music for about 10 seconds.  This pulled me out of the story and I hated it so much.  This contributed to the 2.5 stars.  It was hard to get into the story when every chapter was interrupted.  I vaguely remember them doing something similar with the first book but it was thunder sounds and not music. 

Book 2 Bridge Kingdom

Bunny and Bear by Eve Langlais

 

3 Stars

Bears and bunnies don’t mix but when you throw in shifters anything can happen.  Miranda, bunny shifter, is assigned to watch to watch cranky bear Chase.  What she doesn’t expect is to be drawn to him.  He doesn’t think bunnies and bears should mix so tries to do everything he can to stay away from her.  It would help if every time he turned around she wasn’t there smelling so good.  When evil comes for him she will do everything in her power to save him and claim him.

 

To start with this book was so very funny.  I loved the humor in it a lot. What I got tired of was the innuendoes all the time.  Overall the humor is what made the book.  Not the sex scenes or necessarily the plot which it was lite on it was the humor.  If you aren’t offended by a lot and I mean a lot of graphic sex check this book out for the humor because the rest of the series is even better.

 

Audio Book

Abby Craden did a really good job narrating the book.  She gave each character a distinct voice.  I loved her voice for the bad guy.

Book 1 Furry United Coalition

What a Dragon Should Know by G.A. Aiken

 

5 Stars

Gwenvael the Handsome irritated Annwyl and is sent off to the north to try and broker an alliance with the Beast.  He is shocked when he finds out the Beast is Dagmar Reinholdt the only daughter to the Reinholdt.  Gwenvael does what he does best and annoys all of them until he can get the information from Dagmar.  However, the only way she will give him the information is if he helps her first.  This starts them on a journey to the south where their lives will be changed forever.

I loved this story so much.  Gwenvael is so cocky but he finds out the information they need in his own way.  I love how he freaked out Dagmar’s family to get her to do what he wanted too.  But the main reason this book was a 5 star read/listen for me was Dagmar herself.  She was just awesome.  She ignored and challenged Gwenvael throughout the book.  I also loved how she saved the day in the end.  There were so many emotional bits in this book that had me laughing and crying it just made the book that much more enjoyable.  Definitely one of the better books by G.A. Aiken.

Audio Book:

Hollie Jackson does an amazing job bring the new voices out and staying true to characters from past books.

Book 3 Dragon Kin

Dragon Fated by Kara Lockharte and Cassie Alexander

3 Stars 

We pick up where the last book ends with Andi and Damian together.  Damian gets a visit from his injured sister while Andi is visited by her brother.  Both get life altering news from their siblings.  The question is will it break them up?

This book should have been a 4 star like the other two books.  However, there was a massive cliff hanger at the end.  I HATE cliffhanger endings.  I feel it is laziness on the authors part to continually leave books open ended.  It diminishes my enjoyment of the story to have it end middle of the story so instead of preordering the next book I will pause until the last book in the series is released.  The book itself was really good.  It moved the overall story along nicely.  It was interesting to see the backstory of Damian and Andi.  If it weren’t for the cliff hanger ending.

Book 3 Prince of the Other Worlds