Jordyn

look this is literally just monster smut with the barest, tiniest, little hint of a plot somewhere in the background if you squint.

four stars.

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS ONE. It took forever (about a week) due to children, work, chores, and being flat out exhausted. BUT IT'S DONE, AND WHAT A BOOK IT WAS.

We saw Carl, Donut, Katia, and even Samantha grow so much. We're introduced to former crawlers, we see some horrifying things happen, along with some really nice things, too. Donut grows up quite a bit, and you all know how I feel about her. I want to give her a big hug and cuddle. Poor girl needs some snuggle time, I think. Carl needs a year-long vacation, an open bar, and a full body massage.

Anyways, I enjoyed this one so much – probably about as much as I enjoyed the first one. There's a lot going on in this (rather long) book, but it's all worth it for how this wraps up. This is the Faction Wars, people, and we meet so many cool people. SO MUCH HAPPENS. I know I said that already, but oh my god I MEAN IT. So much. So much happens. I literally cannot wait to find out what's gonna go on next. WHEN IS THE NEXT ONE COMING OUT, I NEED TO KNOW!!!!!

Side note – anyone know how many of these Dinniman is going to write??

In a word: fun. This is not high-brow, need-to-think-on-it-awhile literature, people. But who needs that all the time? No one. This was just fun, a classic sword-and-spell kind of adventure with a lot of longing and hot steamy bits. And the most important bit? It's well-written, which means you can dive right in without having to justify your interest in the story. You wanna read fantasy romance that doesn't take too long to get to the good bits? Here you go, pick this one up right off of Kindle Unlimited.

The main male character, Kael, is a barbarian/warrior/conqueror who has a secret soft heart for his people. The main female character, Anja, is a warrior-ish princess who at first absolutely does not like our conqueror, but then (of course) grows to love him as she learns more about who he actually is.

Four absolutely fun stars. I think I'll read the rest of these when I get the chance!

I finally picked this one up, and finished it! Uprooted has been recommended to me about a million times over, and for some reason or another, I never actually dived in. (I think I might be the last person on here to read this book?) I'm glad I did. This wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, but I still enjoyed it. I think I was looking for more romance, but there just wasn't a whole lot of it in here. My fault for thinking it would be – this one is NOT listed as a fantasy romance. It's a retelling of Polish myths. It's exceedingly well done, just not quite what I was expecting.

I did love Agnieszka very much. She's stubborn, but airy. She's of the earth, and absolutely not bound to any rigid rules about magic. She baffles The Dragon very much, and I loved watching that dynamic play back and forth between them. I loved that her magic flowed, and wasn't really forced in any way whatsoever. The Dragon is very much a mimic (not copy) of Howl Pendragon, and I did like him but I really, really wanted to see more of a softer side of him. At least in a more obvious way than what we are given.

Kasia, I adored. She spent her whole life thinking one thing was going to happen to her, and when that didn't happen she didn't just wilt and give up. She kept going, kept searching for her freedom. I loved that Agnieszka was able to save her, that they both were able to get what they wanted at the end.

Four stars, and I do recommend it if you haven't read this one yet!

I am on a never-ending quest to find more well-written werewolf romance books. They are surprisingly hard to find, especially when you're extremely picky about how werewolves work.

The Wolf King hit almost all of my favorite werewolf tropes in such excellent ways that I'm honestly wondering if the author can read my mind. This was so much fun to read. The Wolf King takes place in a fictional UK (I think it's fictional? I can't remember if they say any real places, but I'm fairly certain the author used mostly vague terms.) The werewolves are seemingly Scottish (which I looooove), while the “bad guys” are mostly English. I think. So yeah, just picture a bunch of werewolves running around in kilts and saying things like ‘wee lass'. [shrug]

Completely unashamedly, it does it for me.

ANYWAY, I absolutely adored Callum, our MMC. He hit all the high points – alpha, big and scary looking but with a soft gooey center. He rescues our FMC, Aurora from what would have been an absolutely horrible abusive marriage. Aurora is kind of a wimpy damsel in distress until she finally gathers herself together and becomes BOLD. They run away up to quasi-Scotland and there she learns what it's like to live around a bunch of wolves who hate humans. It's great. They slowly fall in love, and then things get steamy and yada yada yada. The usual romance stuff.

The characters are just perfect. I would read about a thousand different versions of this same type of story. Please just inject this into my veins. Five stars.