Mx. Phoebe

Trying to hide a dead body gets Ylva trapped with an unlikely crew who might want her dead.

After battling Ryuga, a demon who tried to kill Ylva to get her powers at the end of 102, Ylva, Ryoko, Sim, Flavia, and Astrid are buried in a stone chamber. Ryoko is not talking to Ylva. Flavia feels that Ylva let her best friend die. Sim is hiding something. Astrid has always had a discordant relationship with Ylva. Then there are the demons on the outside who might try to get in to kill her.

There is no way out and everyone on the outside seems too busy to rescue them. There is plenty of booze though, and with liquor flowing secrets are revealed. One desperate act puts a life at risk and makes them join together to risk it all to be saved.

I love this series. Arizona Tape brings something exciting with each new entry into “The Afterlife Academy” series and Valkyrie 103: The Afterlife Alliance (2019) is no different. There are emotional confrontations and physical fights. Booze is involved and therefore humor. There is also love and from some surprising places.

Ylva continues to grow as a character and just as she is learning so are we. I have no clue if the decisions she is making are going to work and that is exciting to read. Tape makes you care about her characters and even root for the mean girl. I cannot wait for the next one! If you have not started this series, you need to. Catch up - I'll wait (...maybe).

Isla escapes a possible beating and rape on her wedding night only to be found lost and frozen by bears.

Isla has led an isolated life as a healer to her people. Her uncle decrees one day that she will marry a hated and brutal man. On the day of her wedding, a drunk and depressed Isla just walks away from the party and keeps walking.

She has no clue how far she has gone or for how long she has walked. She is cold and just wants to sleep. There is in the snow and ice is where some bears find her. Isla wakes up warm and cared for by 4 curiously different men. She quickly finds out that they are bears and realizes she just jumped into the cooking fire!

At this point, Skye MacKinnon brings out the humor in Rescued by Bears: A Bear Shifter Romance (2017), the first book of her “Claiming Her Bears” series. The comedy which ensues is hilarious. The obvious misunderstandings between humans and bears and men just being men are just funny. MacKinnon brings in adventure and drama.

There is also sex, but not the obvious kind with a poly-amorous book. I should write that it is not the kind I am used. MacKinnon takes the time for Ilsa to get to know the men individually and have individual relationships with them and solo sex with them. This is not a menage book, this is an actual poly romance book. Rescued is a fun read with a real look at how poly actually works. Kudos to MacKinnon.

A blind date between two lovers gives them an opportunity to take the harder road to love or to say a final goodbye.

Barb and Janet are still eating dinner when we meet them again in Healing Embrace (2017). Their blind date set up by friends gives them an opportunity to decide whether to go forward with their relationship or not. The road to happily ever after is never easy. Barb and Janet suffer continuous misunderstandings, miscommunications, and hardships. Every one of their friends and family is invested in the relationship though and does everything they can to help, but in the end it comes down to just Barb and Janet. Can they overcome the hurdles long enough to want to stay together?

Anne Hagan comes up with some interesting disasters in the second book of the “Barb and Janet” series. Holy sugar, each lady goes through some dramas. Janet has grown as a character as I have been with her since she first appeared. I really like her. Once again, I was drawn into their individual stories and even I was thinking, “Okay, that's it.” This is why Hagan writes romances and I write horror (laugh).

I think there is at least one situation in this book that almost everyone could identify with as Hagan packs in a multitude of catastrophes on both an emotional scale and life affecting ones. (I am trying not to give away too much of the stories here (laugh).) This is what is appealing about Hagan's books. She layers her stories so that her characters as individuals can stand on their own and not just as a couple or as a mother for example.

I do not think Healing Embrace could be read as a stand-alone, but who would want to? (laugh) After getting this far, do you not want to know how it ends? Hagan brings it home in her third book: Steamboat Reunion (2019).

Going back home and undercover, Conner Vega comes face to face with his past. A mate who is far more dangerous to him than his assignment.

Connor Vega and the team are hired by a mysterious benefactor to retrieve kidnapped children from a dangerous human and drug trafficker. Vega has to go undercover and seduce the leader and dangerous woman who kills and tortures her lovers for fun. There is one slight problem for Vega in the form of Isabeau Chandler. Isabeau is his mate and she lives in the rainforest. If he can just keep away from her, then the mission should be a success. The problem? She is the one who hired him.

(Sigh) Christine Feehan does it again in Wild Fire (2010). I do not know how I missed this novel the first time around. Walmart advertised this novel as an exclusive print and I bought it thinking it was new and as you can see by the copyright - it is NOT new. Yet, I had not read it before. Hmmmm.

Anyhoo, the story is action-packed and tense. I probably should add drama filled. Vega really messed up the first time around with Isabeau. (I do not want to spoil the details, but he really stepped on it. HUGE.) This is not the usual, “I am mad at you.” It is heart-wrenching, yet the mission is still prominent. Feehan gives Isabeau's pain the respect it deserves and does not rush the love story as the love is still the undercurrent of the pain. (Hopefully that makes sense to you.)

Isabeau is strong woman in her own right and is willing to become stronger to save the children. As usual there are new members of the team and old members we get to reunite with. In some ways, there are deeper levels in this novel with the other characters that correspond to Isabeau's pain and the level of the storyline. I really liked this aspect of the book.

(Laugh) The only issue I have is a sexual one - when do you hear me say that? The sex is great as usual by Feehan. EXCEPT - this one position that I just do not believe can be done. I want to see a couple do it in front of me. Seriously. You read it and tell me that you have actually done this - the whole act successfully. I want to see it. (laugh) I have tried this position - yeah not cute in any way. Totally not successful at it either I will add.

I love the “Leopard” series and Wild Fire is no different.

She woke up dead - at least that is what the doctor told her.

Josephine Clayton thought she was coming to in heaven, but instead awoke in hell. She had to put her life in the hands of everyone she trusted and did not trust for she could not move to save herself. An unlikely ally appears out of the darkness to save her from death. Only to sell her for a soul stealing task. Josephine will do anything for the only person she loves and therefore goes forward with the deal with evil.

Braham Taylor inherits his foster uncle's factory much to his cousin Gerald's consternation. Gerald will do anything to get what he believes belongs to him. Everything that his uncle left Braham. When Josie comes to the factory for work, she walks into a place of mysterious accidents. But also where she herself is supposed to perform evil.

Just in time for Halloween, I read Angie Dicken's The Yellow Lantern: True Colors (2019). Dicken grabs you within the first page and does not let go. The story is straight from the history of American crime. Josephine is a healer which makes her dilemma about her participation with criminals to ring true. Dicken provides twists in the story so that there is more than one villain in the story. Awesome to read! The writing is crisp and clean. There is a light romance, but the story mainly focuses on the dilemma and the crimes committed. A great story as you get ready for Halloween and an interesting look back in time. I cannot wait for Dicken's next mystery.

I received this book for free in a Goodreads Giveaway and give my opinion without prejudice and voluntarily.

You might have met them already in Morelville, but now they get their own story. Read where Barb and Janet came from before Morelville when love had different plans.

Barb is living her great love story with her wife. They have a thriving business and are getting ready for the next move. Life has other plans and suddenly Barb is standing alone and in massive debt.

Janet, on the other hand, is stumbling from one unhealthy relationship to another. She frequently falls for unavailable women in positions in her life that then make it intolerable. She gets a phone call one day that her mother who she is not close to needs her because she is sick.

Barb and Janet meet in Morelville and chemistry burns bright. Can broken hearts heal enough to want to feel a spark?

Anne Hagan brings us back to Morelville, but no one has been murdered in Broken Women. Women is the first book in a trilogy about “Barb and Janet”. Women is Hagan's first strictly romance novel and she packs a lot of emotions in her first outing. This is a second chance at love romance (Barb) and a first time in love story (Janet). I write “first-time” for Janet as I do not consider her previous relationships to be true relationships as they were one-sided and this is the first time she is attempting a mutual healthy relationship.

Hagan gives us a solid foundation as to who these characters are and where they are when they meet. I was not even sure how Hagan would end the book, especially as I knew that there were two more in the series. This attests to Hagan's ability to draw the reader into the characters' emotions and that is a thrill.

Women can be read as a stand-alone without having read any of the Morelville Mysteries.

I received this book for free in a Giveaway and give my opinion without prejudice and voluntarily.

Skylar thought religion was her only problem when looking for the appropriate boy to meet her mother, then she met Lo.

Skylar was just drifting along in her life. She worked at a job she did not really care for and was not respected. She was dating someone she did not really care for. Then in came Lo to photograph her and through her lens Skylar saw someone in herself she wanted to be. In Lo, she saw and felt something more. Lo is a girl. This throws Skylar into further turmoil as Lo starts to represent everything she wants to be and be with.

I do not want to go into too much detail as A Girl Like Me (2019) by J. Nichole is a small book. Nichole essentially gives us a character in a state of mid-life crisis at the beginning of her life (laugh). I think because the book is short some details are rushed or skipped. For example, Skylar and Lo's first sexual experience together. I think since Skylar is straight until Lo and has no experience, there should have been more conflict there.

There is conflict in plenty of other places (laugh). Nichole puts Skylar through her paces. Some scenes feel rushed and the ending feels rushed. As I said earlier that could be because of the shortness of the book. Nichole gives us a sweet romance. I look forward to reading a longer book where Nichole has an opportunity to fulfill her drama filled pen.

Kelly Rowan runs with her stress meter at high. When her partner suddenly ends up in the hospital at the beginning of tax season she lets her ex interfere with her business life in the form of a young hot intern.

Kelly Rowan leads a very quiet and unassuming life. No one in her life knows that she is a lesbian. She dates men occasionally and politely declines any further intimacies. Kelly focuses on work and her father who is her partner. She has chosen this life on purpose and already gave up one love, Beth, because she did not want to become a font of gossip for the town. When her father has a stroke during the beginning of tax season, she is at a loss at what to do other than keep moving forward.

Beth sees her exhausted and stressed and offers help in the form of an intern. Kelly is resistant, but finally gives into Beth. The next day young and cocky Elliot Garza is in her office and ready to work. Kelly is flummoxed and puts her on copier work. Kelly and Elliot are complete opposites in every way as Kelly is conservative and Elliot is snazzy. Can they find a way to work together at least through tax season and Elliot moves on to save the world? Or will Kelly destroy something before it even has a chance to grow?

As I was typing the blurb about the book, I was reminded of the Hepburn/Tracy movies and Rachel Spangler gives you that feeling in Close to Home (2017). Kelly and Elliot though have a mix of both actors in their characters yet still have the same back and forth chemistry. I loved being in the office with them as you never knew what Elliot was going to do. I also was in love with everything Elliot was wearing – as was Kelly.

This was a fun romance that dealt with how and when people decide to live outside of the closet. Everyone's pace is different as we saw with different characters in the book. Spangler shows respect for everyone's choices. Kelly's reason for staying hidden is real for her and Spangler shows us and Elliot this. We also see what drives Elliot to be who she is and how Kelly and her can still connect despite what would seem a huge difference of opinion. Spangler gives us romance, chemistry, and in this one some great one-liners courtesy of Elliot. I will not be looking at tax season the same again. I hope to see Spangler in Darlington again and you too.

A player meets her match in a lost soul, but are their walls too thick for them to reach each other?

Avery Bennett does not know what hit her when she lays on yoga instructor Kadence Cooper. Avery is all about the game, hit and quit it. Do not get involved. Never give out too much information. Keep everything fun and light. She knows all of the one-liners, except when she is around Kadence. She manages to flub the one-liners or trip over a rock. Kadence is smooth and is not looking for anything either, but she does not want to even “hook up” with Avery. She has her own battles to beat and Avery is just a distraction. A distraction that now shows up everywhere and she cannot get off her mind. Avery is having the same problem as Kadence is in every thought, dream, and sentence. Avery's only choice is to make a play.

Jessica Yeh brings a lot of humor to Bend For Me (2019). I found Avery and Kadence to be a really fun couple to read about and to root for a happy ending. Yeh does bring serious issues as hurdles for each individual and the couple to overcome, but it does not weigh down the story. I was surprised that the only detailed sex scene is not between the Avery and Kadence, matter of fact Avery and Kadence are pretty PG. Instead Yeh focuses on the relationship and the growth of them as individuals. The story is not as boring as that just sounded, due to the humor that Yeh interjects. Avery's character is a hoot and she goes through the biggest transformation. I am not sure she would have changed as much as she did, but it is an interesting twist. Bend was a quick read and Avery and Kadence are fun to be around. I will admit that Yeh does not make want to take up yoga, but she does make me want to read another book of her's.

Aliens are loose in the city and only the Monster Club can stop them!

Spike, Tommy, and Karim are seventh graders on a mission. They want to be adventurers! Tommy is the biggest of the group and therefore he believes he is the muscles. He eats and drinks supplements to make him bigger. Spike believes she is the brains. Karim is the quiet and serious one of the group. His father had been an adventurer until he was permanently injured. One day at school, their dreams begin to come true as a monster is on the loose in the school. The next day there is another monster next door. Suddenly they are applying to be contractors for AppVenture, a monster capturing company. What could go wrong?

Gavin Brown takes us on an adventure in Monster Club: Hunters for Hire (2019). Hunters is written for ages 8 through 12, but I had a lot of fun reading it and so will parents who read what their children are reading. Brown gives us monsters from Gremlins to Razorbacks to bigger monsters (I do not want to give everything away). There are also personal issues that the kids deal with in the book as Spike has issues with her father and Karim with his. They are the same issue, but represented in different situations. Brown is realistic in his writing in that he does not wrap up the real life problems with a bow as real life is not like that, but he does give an ending that is satisfying. The mystery of the monsters is fun and exciting, and the solution logical in today's world. Hunters gives us friendship, adventure, and fun. You cannot ask for more than that in a book.

Douglas Holgate is the illustrator for Monsters Club: Hunters for Hire.

I received this book for free in a Goodreads Giveaway and give my opinion without prejudice and freely.

Suddenly kidnapped by a serial killer a girl does what a girl has to do and turns into a jaguar. Doesn't everyone?

Kylie Moore has been keeping her secret from everyone except for her step-father. They have been trying to find out the answers as to what and who she is. Getting killed by a serial killer was not in their plans. Getting caught mid-escape by another shifter was not in their plans either. Hunter is thrilled to find a Returned One as is his clan. All Kylie wants is answers and then to escape into obscurity. Hunter and his clan have other ideas. The biggest complication Kylie has is that she has gone into heat and everyone is answering the call.

Let me begin with this is the first novella in a four part series and according to Cristina Rayne's Goodreads page, these are not standalone reads. It is a very good thing for Rayne that the first novella Transformation (2014) “Riverford Shifters” story arc in the “Tempted by the Jaguar” series is one to sink your teeth into. I did not guess the ending at all which is fabulous. Kylie's character is sympathetic and mysterious at the same time. Her chemistry with Hunter is fantastic and as they both agree untimely. The sub characters are intriguing and I hope we see more of them in the upcoming novellas. I do not want to say too much as this is a novella. I am hooked and I cannot wait to read the rest.

It is the 1960's and it is not a safe time for women to love each other. These thoughts are not on Patty's mind as she is looking around for a boy. Her parents want her to find a good Catholic boy. Every Friday she goes to the local concerts to look for him. Instead she gets trampled on by other concert goers and is bored wishing she was home. Tonight is different as she steps back to get air she sees a girl. She is dressed as a in penny pants leaning against the wall. Having no one else to talk to, she engages Frankie in conversation. She soon realizes that she has been looking for love in all the wrong places. Frankie being a girl may not be the biggest issue with her family.

This is a short story so I do not want to give too much away. This is such a cute and way too short romance. Kitty McIntosh makes you want to run up to the stage in Kilbirnie Scotland: The Night Dusty Played (2019), and then turn around and watch Patty and Frankie. Since this is the first book in the “Loving Blue in Red States” series maybe we will get to see Patty and Frankie again. The book concentrates on how religion also impacted relationships in the 1960's. It kind of overlooks Patty's own self-revelation of “OMG I'm a lesbian.”. McIntosh has Patty treat their love as just something they can deal with. The religion issue they need to fix (laugh). It is refreshing in some ways. The romance is innocent. I keep thinking of the early Harlequin Romance books, when it was just the story and the kiss at the end. This is almost like that and it is really sweet. (Well except for Patty's screaming in her bedroom, (laugh) but the sex is unseen.)

An outsider comes to the Cotswolds to make ice cream, sell chocolate, and steal the village sweetheart's hand.

Ellie Knap is suffering from a broken heart. London has failed her in love, work, and play. She is suffering from terrible migraines, her sometimes lover will not take “no” for an answer, and her job has made her sick. She takes her sister Red's advice and moves to the country and for six months her only company is sheep while a manager handles her new chocolate store in Cotswolds. When the local tailor shop goes up for sale, Ellie decides now is the time to live her dreams of making ice cream and buys the shop. First item on the list? Run over the local sweetheart Natalie Hill.

Natalie Hill has met outsiders before coming into the village, buying businesses, then leaving six months later. She had even lost her heart to one before, but never again. She is concentrating on her village and expanding her gin business, which just happens to be right next door to the new ice cream shop. Natalie cannot deny the sparks Ellie inspires within her. This does not mean she has to taste the ice cream.

A Taste of Love (2019) the second in “The Village Romance” trilogy by Clare Lydon was a joy to read. It is fun, light, and filled with romance. Natalie and Ellie are women who have been hurt before and do not want to be hurt again. Life is busy and they are both trying to succeed in business. They make a conscious choice whether to get involved and take a chance and get hurt. Lydon treats this relationship as all relationships should be treated: as two adult women making a decision to get involved.

This does not take anything away from the romance. I was thinking about their first kiss as much as they were. I have to say that I have never in all of my years of reading had a first kiss like Lydon wrote in my life and there is nothing like it. (laugh) Thank you Ms. Lydon, you never forget your first real kiss and Ms. Lydon gave it to me on a bridge in the moonlight. As much as their minds are involved, so are Natalie and Ellie's hearts. This is a romance that makes you wish that you had a bridge in your town to wait for your Ellie to come knock you off.

Two boys chase a fox trying to help it unknown to the fox.

Vincent and Theo spot a fox trying to eat a farmer's lunch and to save him from being shot by the farmer try to catch him. The fox sees them and runs. The chase is on! The chase takes them through farm lands, villages, restaurants, across the water, and into the city. The sights they saw!

Vincent, Theo and the Fox: A Mischievous Adventure through the Paintings of Vincent van Gogh (2018) is a great way to introduce children to the art of Vincent Van Gogh. Ted Macaluso writes an entertaining story of two brothers, Vincent and Theo Van Gogh, who were brothers in real life. They see a fox and chase him through the art that Vincent later draws. Macaluso gives the point of view of all parties so that it fun for a child and they do not worry about the fox. Macaluso originally came up with the idea when his five-year-old son wanted a bedtime story and picked up an art book of Vincent Van Gogh's work. Now we all get to enjoy this romp at bedtime.

I received this book for free in a Goodreads Giveaway and give my opinion without prejudice and freely.

Lesbians, literature, mysteries, and secrets bring a doctorate student and a professor together, but will it end up splitting them apart?

Victoria “Rory” Carlisle of the posh Cotswolds Carlisle family requests Oxford Professor Helen Swift to be her Doctorate adviser on lesbians in literature. Helen decides to accept Rory as her last doctoral candidate to Rory's delight as no one but Helen would do as Rory has a serious crush on the much older professor. Unbeknownst to anyone though, Helen is keeping a secret and is deciding whether to semi-retire. Spending time together on Rory's thesis and impromptu get-togethers, Helen starts to have feelings for Rory that are inappropriate for a professor to have for a student and soon that boundary does not matter. Sooner rather than later, secrets start to come out and feelings can not be denied as everyone from Helen's ex-girlfriend, to her best-friend, and Rory herself start to push Helen to make a decision which will decide who gets a “happily ever after”.

Reading can be funny sometimes. This is the last book in “The Village Romance” trilogy and I ended up reading it first. I had clicked on a book on my Kindle thinking it was a different book entirely and by a different author! Reading this book, I thought, “Wow this writer has really changed her style and I like it!”

I loved this story even though I am not a huge fan of May/December romances (for those who may not know what that is: It is when there is an age gap between the two parties). I really liked the secondary characters, except for the ex-girlfriend (laugh). The sex is okay and once I realized the author is Harper Bliss – it is really tame. I find Rory's thesis really interesting too. I got to the end of A Lesson in Love (2019) and noticed the references to the author's other books and said, “Hey...wait a minute....” (laugh)

Sometimes it is really nice to read an author you have visited with many times with fresh eyes. It reminds you why started crushing on them in the first place. It gives you back that feeling of, “Oh yeah that's why I like them so much.” Bliss gives you the romance you need and you never want to throw her out of bed even if she is eating cookies.

A partner's secret wish comes true on her birthday makes everyone happy.

Sometimes partners do not say all of their wishes out loud and we have to guess. Radclyffe tackles those secret wishes in Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby (2019). A partner gifts her lover with a strap-on as they have never have performed this type of sex which has been a secret wish of her lover's. Radclyffe takes us on a short joy ride with their new toy as wishes come true. The story is too short in my opinion, but I always think the sex is not long enough in any story. There is a funny part of the story when the partner goes in to buy the strap-on as she has never purchased one before and her straight friend goes with her for support. I found it to be hysterical.

Note: Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby was previously published in Change of Pace: Erotic Interludes (Bold Strokes Books, 2004).

A gorgeous femme proves to other femmes that getting down on your knees does not mean giving up control.

Radclyffe lets a femme show how her mouth can control her partner in a room full of other femmes in Blessed Benediction (2019). If you have never given a blow job, read this short story and you will have a detailed description on how to turn on your partner, yourself, and a room full of people (laugh). This story is meant to turn you on and it does exactly that with an added twist of people watching your partner getting turned on by what you are doing to her because you are doing it to her. Now that is a turn on and Radclyffe once again proves she knows what she is writing about.

Note: Blessed Benediction was previously published in Tasting Him, ed. Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cleis Press, 2008); republished in Radical Encounters (Bold Strokes Books, 2009).

A princess on the verge of accepting a proposal of marriage has her family threatened by more than a secret. She races against time to save them.

Princess Helena has finally decides who she is going to marry when she notices that her parents are sick. The King and Queen are fading to black and white as someone is draining the color out of them. The Princess leaves, with her trusty Royal Guard Dresden, in search of who is using magic to kill her parents. Dresden has been in love with the Princess for years, but has never told her. As they travel across a kingdom, they face danger and wonder allowing Helena to view Dresden and magic in a different light.

The Color Thief (2018) was a surprise for me. I very rarely read blurbs of books anymore unless I am in a bookstore. Therefore, I had no clue what this book was about. When I started the story, I thought it was going in one direction, but Emily Poirier took me in a completely different direction. I love it. There is mystery mixed in with young romance and fantasy. Love blooms amidst the hazards of magic and truth. Poirier takes her time with it. She lets Helena explore these new feelings of love for a woman slowly and the love making is the same. I would actually recommend this to someone just starting out in the sexual exploration. Poirier is very realistic and sensitive to someone who has not done this before which I have not read yet.

The story concentrates more on the journey to the answers than the bigger problem – not that your parents dying is not a big problem. I have to assume that Poirier is going to have a second book to answer this question, because if you got as invested in the story as I did, you are going to have questions and want to know the details of the bigger story. (Notice I am trying not to give away the big reveal (laugh), it is harder than you might think (laugh).) Do not let the cover fool you, this is an adult book. It is a fantasy romance that will fill your time with color instead of taking it away.

I received this book for free in a Goodreads Giveaway and give my opinion without prejudice and freely.

She's a daredevil with everything but her heart until she is sent on a dangerous solo mission and gets caught by five men who are more than just “male”.

Lillian jumps out of airplanes, races motorcycles, and bungee jumps for fun. When she is given a solo mission to spy on another confederation across the country, she balks at the task. She is a sparrow shape-shifter and she is asked to fly across the country in one flight on her own with no back-up, get the information, and to fly directly back. It is a daunting mission even for a daredevil like her, but she leaves as her Alpha demands. Unfortunately for Lillian she is captured as a spy almost immediately upon arrival by five different Alpha male shape-shifters. After many attempted escapes and re-captures, it is decided that all five will return her to her clan, but will she survive the nights and will her clan survive her return?

When I saw the title, Filled by Five Alphas

Two women meet on a bridge in the lives trying to decide in which direction they want to travel when their eyes meet and another choice appears.

Josie has come back home to the Cotswolds after her American presidential candidate goes off the rails instead of following her written speech and then blames her for the fallout. Now she has come home to her mother's bar to decide whether to continue her speech-writing career or move on, but she does not really have any ideas. Reading the local paper does not help as the stories are beautifully written by Harry, but the ad about the “missing ginger” seems vague and to aggravate her mother immensely. Her mother volunteers Josie to help out at the bar where she meets Harriet aka “Harry” and sparks fly for both of them much to her mother's consternation. Harry is also trying to decide whether she wants to stay in the newspaper business or move on to something different. This small town has secrets though and everyone thinks that in small town everyone knows everyone's business, but as Josie and Harry learn some are very good at keeping theirs' until it breaks people's hearts.

T.B. Markinson kicks of “The Village Romance” trilogy with A Shot At Love (2019) and sets the scene of Cotswolds for us. It is a quaint small town very much like the one I live in here in America. Everyone is in everyone's business, but no one knows anything except just enough to run their mouths (laugh). Markinson has Josie and Harry have that “instant connection” that cannot be explained which allows for a lot of chuckles and smiles as we have the inside line to Harry's personality and others do not. There is a lot of humor and lightness in this book and more than one romantic storyline. The sex is about average for lesbian romance (RatedR). I have to say the best part of the book is the humor and comic misunderstandings, it is as if you are watching a British comedy. The humor is not outlandish, but understated and the romance is the side dish.

One moment she was a human slave and the next she was bonded to three aliens and expected to be pregnant for the price to live freely.

Riya is a human slave when the Zandian warriors are given their choice in mates to celebrate winning back their planet. Tarren, Roman, and Jax set eyes on Riya and choose her. Unfortunately for them, Riya does not want to be chosen for she has secrets of her own and fears that she cannot meet the needs of the men or of the committee ruling the Zandian planet. The main needs are to create a survivable planet and to procreate. Riya is smart and figures she can help the men create a livable environment. She is extremely attracted to all three of the men so bedding them will not be a problem. There are one or two other “minor” issues and she worries that she will not make herself invaluable enough to her new mates before they discover the truth or she loses her heart.

Renee Rose and Rebel West infuse plenty of heart and sex into Night of the Zandians (2018) the first in the “Zandian Brides” series and A Reverse Harem Romance. I was expecting a different type of book when I read the blurb and I was pleasantly surprised to find a completely enjoyable book. The tag has BDSM, but it is very light BDSM. There are three men involved in the sex, but it is still not hardcore sex or even extremely detailed sex scenes as I have read in other erotic novels. Rose and West concentrate on the story and the romance of this poly group and they make it work. There was some science that had me scratching my head, but I did not really need it to understand boy, boy, boy, and girl get to kiss and make up (laugh). If the #MFMM tag scares you, do not let it as this is your typical romance and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Cassandra hunts her vampire maker and Nature Mate, Killian, hoping to find him before her allies who are now her enemies kill him first.

Cassandra Montclaire is a 360-year-old vampire who has been living underground in America under an alias and as a human helping humans and their babies survive difficult pregnancies when she feels the pull to go back home to London. Forrest, one of the negotiators, and a human she is Guardian of, comes to her having just survived an attack on a compound he was at by a vampire she has thought lost for over 200 years: her maker and Nature Mate Killian. Now not only are her allies after Killian to kill him, but she must find him to bring him home and to find the answers that Killian and Cassandra's True Mate, Alastair, need to hear. On the path to find and save Killian, Cassandra dives into the past with Forrest to find the answers herself to answer Forrest's questions of how they got here.

Grey Francis brings history and love to life in the first of the “Into the Dark Woods” series Bound To A Vampire (2015). Francis starts when Annwyn is a small child just discovering her healing abilities to when she is turned by Killian as a young woman and becomes Cassandra. We explore, as Annwyn and Cassandra, the love between Alastair and Killian and BDSM. Then the inclusion of Cassandra into this couple where love blooms and BDSM is initiated and explored on different levels between the three of them. Francis takes us through the changing roles of the relationships and the changing and deepening levels of love. The book is longer than usual for a paranormal romance, but I think to fully explain the dynamics of a polyamorous relationship and how one gets from where Annwyn starts from in the 1600s to the present, you need to go through the process of change in history and in relationships and that takes time. I was not bored in the slightest as I was reading as Francis keeps you hooked either with the drama or the sex. I had originally been intrigued with Grey Francis through the social media postings on Instagram and once I really started paying attention I realized that these books fit right into the LGBTQ+ community as they promote pansexuality. I should have highlighted the line, but sadly I did not, but Killian tells Cassandra when she questions him about homosexuality that vampires do not think of sex or love that way – it is just about the person. Next book please!

A lawyer defends a woman she knows is innocent from one murder and then the woman is charged with another murder she is innocent of.

Rochelle “Ro” Rabinowitz, attorney-at-law, gets assigned a pro bono case for the defense of a woman who is charged with murdering a professor of her pregnant daughter. Pam Wilson, a 62-year-old woman, claims she is innocent and she has an alibi. Pam is a hard-working cashier during the day and she cleans bathrooms at a bar under the table at night to help pay for her dying wife's, Charlotte, chemo treatments, and her daughter's medical bills while Maddie goes to graduate school. Ro and her team quickly find out that not everything is as simple as it seems as another murder occurs which is linked to Pam. A secret comes out about the professor and his activities with Maddie and other students. He had more than one visitor the night he was killed. Maddie finds her biological father and opens up yet another box of buried secrets and yet another murdered body. As the charges pile up and Pam stops talking other than to say she is innocent, Ro and her team race against time as Charlotte's time is running out, Maddie is about to go into labor, and Pam is facing the death sentence.

Attention: spoilers ahead!!!!

I do not usually write reviews with spoilers in them, but in this case it is a little hard not to as this book asks you to suspend an important belief if you are a movie fan. Anne Hagan was challenged to write this book and someone suggested that she take a famous movie and change the ending and she did. She took one of my all time favorite movies of which I have had many discussions about and even had a class on where we debated the movie and the themes in it. Needless to say in Steel City Confidential (2019), Hagan's first book in the “Steel City Series” it is pretty obvious from the get-go which movie and if you are a huge fan you might shake your head through those parts and have to really suspend your belief and ideas to accept her story-line.

How did I do? Did I give too much away? The mix of mysteries, legalese, and drama is handled with finesse by Hagan. I do find the relationship between Ro and her wife to be a complete mystery because so far they seem to have nothing in common nor do they spend any time doing anything that Ro wants to do. It does not seem as if there is even any chemistry between them. Ro's relationship with her team is explained better than with her wife and one can feel the dynamics between all of them. There are some open story-lines which I assume will either be in Steel City 2 or 3 and I hope to see the mysteries solved as this is where Hagan excelled. The lesbian relationships were paper relationships. As for the ending, once again, I really do not want to give anything away, but it contradicts what Hagan has set up in the book by going back to the movie. I want to read the next book because the legal thriller was really good and that is what I would concentrate on in this series. See you at the next bang of the gavel....

Jess and Laila take their relationship to an intimate sexual level that Jess has never done before.

Let me preface this by saying I love this cover, I already know which social media outlet is going to block it and I am looking forward to arguing with them about it. (sigh – I love butts.)

Harper Bliss does anal sex well and makes a girl look forward to it which is how it should be. This novella, All of Me (2012), is about taking that next intimate sexual step which can be psychological too for some women such as Jess. The scenes and the story are about getting to that step and what that step feels like. I personally like all of the steps so I really liked this novella, if you are not into anal sex or stories focused on mainly erotica this might not be for you. If you are looking for a quickie with Bliss this is definitely for you and me, because I know I was in bed when I read this (maybe a few times...sssshhh do not tell Harper). I am not one who usually likes emotion in bed which is probably odd to hear from a bio-female writer, but Bliss writes emotions and sex as if they go hand in hand and I have gotten used to it because she does it so well. This is a novella you do not want to read in public, but you definitely want to read so find a private place and have a quickie with Bliss.

Imagine looking up at your son's college graduation stage waiting for him to cross, feeling the excitement, squeezing your ex-husband's hand because you both made it, and looking across the aisle and their is your ex-girlfriend looking back at you. Ugh!

Harper Bliss can pack a lifetime in a novella and she does in As Years Go By (2014) as Jodie looks up into the one who did not want a family and walked a way's eyes, Leigh. The feelings that course through Jodie in that moment: loneliness, longing, anger, tiredness, melancholy, and emptiness. What Jodie does not know is that her son has set up this moment and Leigh has hoped for a conversation for a long time. Bliss takes these simple yet complex ideas and weaves a years of pain and joy into a short novella of romance and life. Sometimes we think we want one road and then we get on that road and realize we were on the right road all along. Bliss makes that realization and the journey one worth reading.