#BookReview: Blood of Desiderium (The Divide, #1) by Ali Stuebbe

Synopsis: In the lands of Deyadrum, where every Fae possesses power, Princess Emma is the only one forced without. Confined in the walls of her palace by her father, she’s desperate for a taste of freedom.

That is, until she discovers the truth: everything she thought she knew was a lie, for something evil plagues her lands - promising death and darkness.

A betrothal that tests her.
A mysterious vigilante who teases her.
A Dark Prince who doesn’t trust her.
And a phantom that invades her dreams.

Emma must try to escape her father’s torturous grip as she journeys to find a way to save her people…and herself.

But Emma has dark secrets of her own. And a game she has to play.

Can she overcome her grief and fears to save her people before the darkness that lurks within consumes her?

Just remember, even that which appears true may be deceiving.

Trigger Warnings:
-Violence/Gore/Death
-Grief
-Profanity
-Mental health themes
-Mention of suicidal intent
-Torture
-Overall dark themes

*This book is a NA Dark Fantasy Romance that is 18+ with explicit language and sexual scenes. BoD is the first book in 'The Divide' series and ends on a cliffhanger.*

#BookReview: Holiday Star by Melissa Dymond @GreysPromo

Synopsis: 10% of proceeds donated to fund colon cancer research. 

Please note-this novel comes in TWO different versions:

1) A spicy/open-door version (explicit language and sex scenes)
2) A clean/sweet/closed-door version (no language and kissing only)
I want ALL my readers to feel comfortable, so choose the best version for you. 

One doctor. One movie star. 
One house.
One month until Christmas.

What could go wrong? Dr. Gwen Wright is having a not-so-merry Christmas.
For the month of December, she’s alone, house-sitting for her mother and new stepfather. Her surgically precise world gets a plot twist when Caleb Lawson—world-famous movie star on the run from the paparazzi and his secrets—crash lands in her kitchen. 

Besides being a Hollywood heartthrob, Caleb is also her stepdad’s nephew. He thinks he has as much right to stay in the house as she does, but as far as Gwen’s concerned, she’s the landlord and he’s the squatter. 

Forced to share the small space, Gwen is drawn to the moody celebrity.
Sure, sometimes he can be a Grinch, but when Caleb finally touches Gwen, it makes her jingle bells ring. 

But the future looms like a foggy Christmas Eve. With no red-nosed reindeer to guide them, can Gwen and Caleb overcome their differences? After all, she’s ordinary, and he’s a star.

Falling in love is going to take a Christmas miracle. 

Holiday Star is a swoon-inducing, page-turning, celebrity romance novel with the perfect blend of angst and tension. Read if you like enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, tons of chemistry, a touch of groveling, and happily ever after.
Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Lucy Score, Tessa Bailey, and Sophie Lark.

#BookTour: After the Fall by @authordmsimmons @RRBookTours1

After the Fall: The Duet of Dante & Diablo Genre: Spicy Fantasy Romance ❤️‍🔥Spicy Fantasy Romance ❤️‍🔥Fallen Angels ❤️‍🔥Enemies to Lovers ❤️‍🔥Found Family ❤️‍🔥Soul Mates Dante 

 What courses through me, if not the need for desire and corruption? It is after all, what I am. Daemon. The worst of The Fallen. And my job is clear. Secure fealty from the Undecided to whom we are bound. Diablo has not wavered in five thousand years. And I not only wanted her on our side. I will stop at nothing to make it happen. Diablo What will I become if I swear my fealty and surrender to the dark? It is not who I once was. I may no longer be an angel, but I will be Undecided until the end of time. Dante doesn’t intimidate me. Not anymore. The fire that drives him, is now alive in me. I’ve been paying since The Fall. And I’m done paying in blood and tears. I will break myself from our bond. And will stop at nothing to make it happen. 

  Get it on Amazon or Order the Special Gift After the Fall Gift Box

#BookReview: Happy AF by @BethRomeroBooks @shewritespress

Synopsis: Feeling crappy? Wanna be happier? Wanna up your game? 
Happy AF  is your comprehensive roadmap for happiness. Drawing heavily from neuroscience, positive psychology, and behavioral science, the straightforward strategies and exercises in this how-to guide will teach you how to strengthen your happiness muscle and live up to your greatest potential. Happiness junky Beth Romero serves up a life-affirming parable laced with contextual how-tos—all backed by clinical research—in fresh, insightful, and accessible language you can relate to. Kinda like your best friend giving it to you straight (with love) over cocktails. In this book, you will 
* the art of letting go 
* proven ways to jiu-jitsu your negative thoughts to transform your life
* how goals, vision, purpose are the stepping-stones to greatness
* the importance of gratitude and grace in your happiness journey
* the scientific link between sleep, morning routines, diet, and exercise on your mental well-being
* and much, much more!

Happiness  is  a choice—and it’s within your reach.  If you do the work . If you believe. Much like Dorothy with her ruby slippers, the power is always within you . . . just waiting for you to access it. So get ready to click your Manolos, Dr. Martens, or Adidas and find your happy place.

Qty

#BookReview: The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy @freethy @StMartinsPress

Synopsis: Two lovers caught at the crossroads of history.
A daughter's search for the truth.

Germany, 1929: Under the dazzling lights of Berlin, two people are drawn together: Max, a Jewish architect, and Bettina, a beautiful and celebrated German avant-garde artist. But their bright beginning is soon dimmed by the rising threat of Nazism. In time, Max is arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau where only his talent at making exquisite porcelain figures stands between him and death. Everything Bettina has done up until now has been meticulously planned to try to save Max. She would rather die than live another moment without him—but can one moment last a lifetime?

America, 1993. Bettina’s daughter Clara embarks on a journey to trace her roots and discover the identity of her father, a secret her mother has kept from her for reasons she’s never understood. As Clara starts piecing the puzzle together, we are transported back in time, where life is lived on a razor’s edge, and deception and death lurk around every corner.

#BookReview: Fair Rosaline by @natashasolomons

Synopsis: Was the greatest ever love story a lie?

The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo's attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life.

Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo's gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realizes that it is not only Juliet's reputation at stake, but her life .With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way?

Shattering everything we thought we knew about Romeo and Juliet, Fair Rosaline is the spellbinding prequel to Shakespeare's best known tale, which exposes Romeo as a predator with a long history of pursuing much younger girls. Bold, lyrical, and chillingly relevant, Fair Rosaline reveals the dark subtext of the timeless story of star-crossed lovers: it's a feminist revision that will enthrall readers of bestselling literary retellings such as Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell and Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

#BookReview: Witches get stuff done (Starfall Point #1) by @mollyharperauth

Synopsis: Juggling newfound witchy powers, a house full of ghosts, and verbal battles with the handsome local librarian is almost too much for a new witch to manage. A new witch with a coven, however, can get so much more done...

From the moment Riley Everett set foot in Starfall Point, magic bubbled inside of her. But with only her late aunt's journals and a cantankerous live-in ghost butler to instruct her on all things witchy—including her newly inherited Victorian haunted house—Riley seeks out a coven for sisterhood and support. The last person she expects to be drawn to is the town's frustrating, yet ridiculously attractive head librarian.

Edison Held knows almost everything there is to know about Starfall Point, but Shaddow House was always off-limits, thanks to its elusive owner. If he can convince the new owner, Riley, to let him take a peek inside, there's so much he could learn. But as he gets closer to Riley, he's fascinated by her dazzling wit and fiery spirit. Edison will do whatever he can to help Riley keep her family legacy alive, especially if it means spending more time with the captivating new witch in town.

Bestselling author Molly Harper wields a magical pen in this hilarious, delightful witchy romcom perfect for readers of The Ex Hex and Payback's a Witch.

#BookReview: Her Radiant Curse (Six Crimson Cranes #0.5) by @LizLim

Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling author of SIX CRIMSON CRANES comes a tale of two sisters—one as beautiful as the other is monstrous—who must fight to save each other when a betrothal contest gone wrong unleashes an evil that could sever their bond forever.

One sister must fall for the other to rise.

Channi was not born a monster. But when her own father offers her in sacrifice to the Demon Witch, she is forever changed. Cursed with a serpent’s face, Channi is the exact opposite of her beautiful sister, Vanna—the only person in the village who looks at Channi and doesn’t see a monster. The only person she loves and trusts.

Now seventeen, Vanna is to be married off in a vulgar contest that will enrich the coffers of the village leaders. Only Channi, who’s had to rely on her strength and cunning all these years, can defend her sister against the cruelest of the suitors. But in doing so, she becomes the target of his wrath—launching a grisly battle royale, a quest over land and sea, a romance between sworn enemies, and a choice that will strain Channi’s heart to its breaking point.

Weaving together elements of The Selection and Ember in the Ashes with classic tales like Beauty and the Beast, Helen of Troy, and Asian folklore, Elizabeth Lim is at the absolute top of her game in this thrilling yet heart-wrenching fantasy that explores the dark side of beauty and the deepest bonds of sisterhood.

#BookReview: A Glamour of Blood by L.E. Sterling

Synopsis: Blade Runner meets Divergent in this gritty, high-energy, and noir-inspired dystopian read...where what you see isn’t always what is.

Bounty hunter Serena Rogue has survived almost everything. The plague. A brutal battle that touched—in eerie and wondrous ways—every citizen. Now the breathtaking towers of Dominion City are smoldering ruins, the citizens are dying of hunger…and someone has been snatching the children left to the streets.

Serena was once one of those kids, and she won’t stop until she finds whoever is behind this. Even if it means having to strike some kind of peace treaty with the one man who wants her dead. Because Nolan Storm isn’t one to cooperate when he can kill—especially if it’s someone who betrayed him.

Now an evil is rising from the ashes of Dominion City—shrouded in power, mystery, and a history almost as long as civilization itself—and Serena and Nolan don’t have a choice. The only way they’ll survive the Order is by working on the same side.

But enmity and attraction are a lethal combination. One that can make Serena and Nolan the most dangerous people in Dominion City…if they don’t kill each other first.

#BookReview: A Divided Heart by Alessandra Torre

Synopsis: Can you love two men at once? Is there any future in that?

Brant loves me fiercely. 
A brilliant tech billionaire who has owned my heart for four years, he keeps proposing, and I keep turning him down. 
I can’t marry him, not with all of the secrets between us.

Lee uses me wildly.
As grouchy as he is cocky, he's interested in getting me into his bed and little more.
There’s no reason for us to work, but I can't stay away from him.

I have to make Lee mine. If I don't, all of this will be for nothing.

Go ahead, judge me. You have no idea of the agony my heart is in.

If you think you’ve heard this story before, trust me - you haven’t.

#BookReview: The Eternal Trade by Leigh Walker

Synopsis: I knew his true nature, but little did I know that my own feelings for him would prove even more dangerous.

The deal is simple. Enter the Trade. Save the prince. But can I truly reclaim what I have lost? 

Devastated by the loss of her mother and sister, eighteen-year-old Victoria sees little purpose in life. But when she discovers a mysterious letter among her belongings, she is transported through a time portal to the Kingdom, a dangerous land cloaked in darkness.

Forced into an engagement with Dominic, a prince whose alluring looks and unwavering loyalty belie his vampiric nature, Victoria must learn to navigate a world of blood and deceit.

As she delves deeper into the Kingdom's mysteries, Victoria realizes that her arrival may not have been by chance. Despite having no memory of it, she has visited the Kingdom many times before.

Victoria knows that the prince and his family pose a threat. But Dominic also holds the key to her secret past and, more importantly, her future...if only she can survive long enough to uncover it.

Book 1 of 3 in the completed Kingdom of Eternal Night trilogy.

#BookReview: Knock Knock, Open Wide by @UnshavedMouse

Synopsis: Knock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.

Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse. So begins a night of unspeakable horror that will take her to the very brink of sanity.

She will never speak of it again.

Two decades later, Betty Fitzpatrick, newly arrived at college in Dublin, has already fallen in love with the drama society, and the beautiful but troubled Ashling Mallen. As their relationship blossoms, Ashling goes to great lengths to keep Betty away from her family, especially her alcoholic mother, Etain.

As their relationship blossoms, Betty learns her lover's terrifying family history, and Ashling's secret obsession. Ashling has become convinced that the horrors inflicted on her family are connected to a seemingly innocent children's TV show. Everyone in Ireland watched this show in their youth, but Ash soon discovers that no one remembers it quite the same way. And only Ashling seems to remember its a small black goat puppet who lives in a box and only comes out if you don’t behave. They say he’s never come out.

Almost never.

When the door between the known and unknown opens, it can never close again.

#BookReview: Things We Hide from the Light (Knockemout #2) by Lucy Score @Read_Bloom

Synopsis: Nash Morgan was always known as the good Morgan brother, with a smile and a wink for everyone. But now, this chief of police is recovering from being shot and his Southern charm has been overshadowed by panic attacks and nightmares. He feels like a broody shell of the man he once was. Nash isn’t about to let anyone in his life know he’s struggling. But his new next-door neighbor, smart and sexy Lina, sees his shadows. As a rule, she’s not a fan of physical contact unless she initiates it, but for some reason Nash’s touch is different. He feels it too. The physical connection between them is incendiary, grounding him and making her wonder if exploring it is worth the risk.

Too bad Lina’s got secrets of her own, and if Nash finds out the real reason she’s in town, he’ll never forgive her. Besides, she doesn’t do relationships. Ever. A hot, short-term fling with a local cop? Absolutely. Sign her up. A relationship with a man who expects her to plant roots? No freaking way. Once she gets what she’s after, she has no intention of sticking around. But Knockemout has a way of getting under people’s skin. And once Nash decides to make Lina his, he’s not about to be dissuaded…even if it means facing the danger that nearly killed him.

#BookReview: The Raven Key (The Famirian Chronicles #1) by Harper L. Carnes

Synopsis: Possessed. Dangerous. Monster. Seth Cunningham is haunted by the words his mother yelled after she tried to drown him in the pond behind their house, when he was six.

It’s been almost twelve years since that night, but Seth is still struggling to live a normal life alongside his horrific nightmares and sense of loss. He finds some comfort when a romance sparks with Gabriel, a kindhearted college senior that isn’t scared off so easily by Seth’s past, or his pain.

But something inside him is awakening. It speaks to him in a voice only he and the ravens that serve it can hear. A presence that carries with it a terrible hunger that becomes hard to resist.

To save himself and those he loves, Seth will have to search out the truth of who he was meant to be, and the dark past his mother fled.

#BookReview: Her Dark Love (Dark Spell, #1) by Isra Sravenheart

Synopsis: Those drawn to the dark side don't always start out that way. There is always a trigger that sends them into that vile world. It turns out that Lady Isra of the Dark didn't always reside in the shadows. She too, had a light side as you will soon discover.

Isra has come a long way to the prestigious Wingdom's Academy to learn the art of magic. The classes are dull but Isra quickly finds a companion in Everilda. They click instantly striking up a rapport.

Isra finds Everilda to be rebellious towards the craft whereas Everilda finds Isra too innocent especially when it comes to romance. Imagine Everilda's shock when she discovers her part-time plaything Jonathan has taken a liking to Isra. Isra is naïve and inexperienced in love but she sees Jonathan as quite charming and instantly takes a shine to him.

“Everilda went out so I was alone, I ran into this handsome stranger named Jonathan. He's kind and gentle. I've never known love before, never mind a love so enchanting as this.”

Little does Isra know that she, Everilda and Jonathan are in an intense love triangle but she is sure to find out as Everilda grows tired of Jonathan's insolence

“Now on a cold, dark night. I witness none other than Jonathan and Everilda together. Oh, how could she do this to me? They've been carrying on behind my back all this time! How can I ever trust either one of them again?”

Amidst all of this, the light bringer Samuel has learned of Isra's tragic plight and sends in his loyal servant Astrid the raven to keep an eye on Isra since Samuel believes Isra's heartbreak is just the ticket to send her tumbling into obscurity. Samuel also brings in in another light being, James, to attempt to keep Isra on the light path. Astrid takes an instant dislike to James. However, James and Astrid's conflict quickly turns into a rivalry.

But with Astrid watching Isra can the light get to her in time to stop her from becoming the ultimate dark foe that everyone has proclaimed her to be?

USA Today Best-Selling Author Isra Sravenheart takes us back in time to when Isra and Everilda are at the tender age of seventeen. Enter in the tall, dark, brooding Jonathan into their world and both witches falling for him? Hell is going to break loose. Darkness is calling. You can't resist it.

#BookReview: Reckless Bonds by Karah Mina @booksprout

Synopsis: Bonding four guys, each a shard of my fated mate’s fractured soul? Yes, please ! I never pictured my thirties would be so dreary. A hermit, workaholic fresh out of a messy divorce. But when a long-haired stranger with storms for eyes reveals a hidden world beneath my nose, my life is forever changed. Sunder, the first shard, treats me like I’m a punishment from the Gods. An inferior human unworthy of a Prince of the Fae. And yet… When he touches me, the power flowing between us leaves us both breathless. There’s something changing behind that broody glare. My skin burns white hot when he wraps his arms around me, and it’s more than the magic we share. Now he wants me to give up everything and travel to some magical world. To find and bond my other mates. But the second may be even closer than I realize... The first in a duet, this slow burn, why choose, MMFM portal fantasy romance, explores themes suitable for mature audiences. This book adds two men to the harem with two more in the next book. Featuring a possessive hero, strong female, and a cinnamon roll shifter. The streams don’t cross yet , but everything else is on the table. There is no cliffhanger and has a HFN ending.

#BookReview: Lost in the Broken Woods (Claimed by the Wolf, #1) by @lolaglassauthor @Booksprout

Synopsis: I helped an injured woman… and in return got pulled through a portal to a magical world and set in the path of a pack of wolf shifters searching for their mates. 

When they find me, one will claim me.

I probably should've asked the woman what it means to be claimed. I definitely should've asked her what mating entails, and if there's a way to get back to Earth.

But I didn't, she disappeared, and frankly, I'd rather not make it back home.

When the gorgeous pack leader finally catches me, he tells me I'm never going to leave his side… then bites me.

And suddenly, I'm lost in a forest called the Broken Woods, being dragged into a violent society of which I know nothing about.

I'm starting to feel like Little Red Riding Hood; but my big, bad wolf?

He's determined to win my heart.

Send help, because I'm going to need it.


*Each book in this steamy new adult fantasy romance series follows a different couple. They all have their own happily ever after, and can be read in any order.

Releasing November 1, 2023.