REVIEW: Bite Me (Pride, #9) By Shelly Laurenston

Genre: Urban Fantasy| Paranormal Romance

Buy The Book: B & N AMAZON

Connect With The Autor: Goodreads / Blog 

Synopsis on GR:

Livy Kowalski has no time for idiots. When you shapeshift into a honey badger, getting through life’s irritants is a finely honed skill. Until she gets stuck housing her nutso cousin and dealing with her dad’s untimely and unexplained demise.

That’s where Vic Barinov comes in—or his house does. Vic can’t step outside without coming back to find Livy devouring his honey stash and getting the TV remote sticky. It gets his animal instincts all riled up. But he’ll have to woo her at high speed: all hell is breaking loose, and Livy is leading the charge…

REVIEW

“I’m a honey badger. I’m fearless.”
 

Why did it take me so long to pick this book up from my shelf- I'll never understand. Maybe because I wasn't this much blown away by the previous installment, but this one was way, way better.

Honey badgers, the race of con shifters, are one fierce and bad-ass force to be reckoned in the shifter world of the Pride series. And probably the meanest. *Added to my favorite shifter group* Pair them up with grizzly-tiger hybrids they are pretty much unstoppable. Livy Kowalski, a honey badger and professional photographer, & Vic Barinov, the sexy hybrid detective, were fun, cute and pretty awkward, but totally in endearing way unlike the previous book couple. The focus of the story was on their slow-building, but steamy romance and the action-packed, supenseful honey badgers' revenge quest against the murders of Lily's father. As always what you can expect of Laurenston's Pride series is a lot of  humor and snark, plus many of our dear Pride characters make cameo apperance.

4 super-fun stars! Definitely one of the best book in the series. Highly recommended to every paranormal romance/ urban fantasy fan who wants a fun and steamy pnr romance/uf series set in the modern world!

* More reviews of the Pride series: 
- Wolf With Benefits (Pride, #8)

RATING: 4/ 5 stars

xoxo,

Purple

REVIEW: Lush In Lace By A. J. Ridges

Genre: MM Contemporary Romance

Pages: 123
Buy The Book:

http://www.mmromancegroup.com/?p=277949

(Free for MM Romance Group memebers! All you need is to sign up!) 

 

Connect With The Author:
Goodreads / Website / Twitter

Synopsis On Goodreads:
My brother, Jamie, finally got to marry his lifelong best friend, BJ, this weekend. I was Jamie’s best man, and Scott was BJ’s best man. Not an ideal situation for either of us, since Scott and I have been enemies since high school. Somehow we managed to get through the weeks before the wedding without killing each other (barely), but then the bachelor party incident occurred and added fuel to the fire.

Now we argue even more, and the sexual tension between us is unbearable, at least for me. Unfortunately, I have things I like— kinky things— that Scott would never be able to handle, probably because he’s not even gay. Or at least that’s what I always thought, but now I’m not so sure and apparently neither is he…

Lush in Lace is a complete contemporary story written as part of the Goodreads MM Romance Group's Don't Read in the Closet - Love is an Open Road event.

Tags: enemies to lovers, gay for you, out for you, funny/humorous, snarky, bickering best men, lingerie (maties/stockings), fetish/toys, nerd/jock, panty-scorcher, porngasmic fluff, family

 

RATING: 3.5 stars/ 5 stars

 

*** REVIEW ***

 

Having read 3-4 f/m reads in a row my inner mm fangirl was demanding that she had it enough and was in need of some mm love, so I decided that it was high time to give her her special treat in a form of this mm enemies-to-lovers novella.

 

Rylan & Scott, the gay nerd and the popular jock and ladiesman, have been arch enemies all their life despite their brothers being in a relationship and their families close friends. There was just something about Rylan and the other way around that provoke the other to mess with him on a regular basis. Their snarky "fights", emotional moments and steamy scenes were the best parts of the story.

 

I must admit that I was a bit skeptic at first after I had read that one of the guy is into lingeries (manties/stockings), but now, after I had read it, all I can say that the manties only added to the hotness department and I wouldn't mind reading more mm romances with heroes with this type of fetish.

 

Recommended to mm fans with preferance for fast-paced, sweet, fun and a little kinky mm enemies-lovers contemporary romances!

 

Make mm fangirl happy: Misson Completed!

 

xoxo,

 

Purple

Pre-Release ARC REVIEW: Hidden Bodies (You #2) by Caroline Kepnes

Kindle Edition, 448 pages 

Expected publication: February 23rd 2016 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books 

Genre: Psychological Thriller/ Suspense 

Buy The Book: Book Depository / Amazon / Kobo / B & N

Connect With The Author:

Goodreads * FB * Twitter

Synopsis On GR: 

Charmingly murderous antihero Joe continues his twisted quest for the perfect love in this thrilling follow-up to the “deeply dark yet mesmerizing” You (Booklist). When Joe follows the woman he wants to marry to the West Coast, he never imagines that his obsession will lead him to such tragedy...

After the heartbreak of losing his girlfriend, Beck, Joe Goldberg thought he’d never love again. But when mysterious Amy Adam begins working for Joe at Mooney Books, he finds himself obsessed with his new employee. Amy is Beck’s opposite—she hates Twitter, she doesn’t even have an email address, she's completely unsearchable online—and she quickly captures Joe’s heart. But just before Joe can ask Amy to marry him, she disappears, leaving a trail of clues in her wake.

Joe is then forced to do something so vile, so awful that he nearly loses his mind: he moves to Los Angeles to find Amy. He is tortured by a series of aspiring Angelenos—an insufferable stand-up comedian, philistine booksellers, a money-hungry nanny, and a slutty ghostwriter—before meeting his ticket to a more luxurious world: a surgically enhanced, social media–savvy heiress named Love Quinn. But Joe can’t stop stalking Amy, despite the world opening up to him with Love on his arm. Will Joe finally escape his sordid past? Or is Love just the latest casualty in Joe’s unrelenting search for the perfect match? 

RATING: 4. 5 stars /5 stars

*** Spoiler-free REVIEW ***

People are most of the time oblivious to the power of the written word. They tend to forget that words are used to create, but also to destroy. They can be means to deeply hurt someone's feelings or make them smile. They have the power to virtually take us to places we have never been and make us kings, queens, models, rock stars, vampires, fairies etc. at least for a day. Or in this case they can take us in the head of a stalker, compulsive liar,  a true psycho and a killer- the MC of this book, Joe Goldberg and make us even like him, cheer for him or sympathaize with him, while in real life we would have never done that. That strong is the power of words. This story reminds us that some of the darkest and flawest minds hide behind pretty words and we aren't even aware of them until it's too late.

Dark, gripping, raw, suspenseful, entertaining and thoughtprovoking psychological thriller.

Anyone looking for a well-written, complex, but fascinating story from a pov of the villain, search no more and give a shot to this series. I liked the first book, BUT I loved this one. After the gory ending of You (You, #1) Joe's unfortunate and deadly search for love continues. Will he finally meet his true match this time or will his darkest secrets come to the surface and be his downfall? Buy the book and find out! I'm not going to talk about the plot, because, unlike some people, I don't want to spoil it for other readers who won't get to read it before February. All I'm going to say is that, despite his dark side, Joe is truely one of the most intriguing and comlex characters I've come across.

Caroline Kepnes, you got me both awed and a little scared by your devious way of story-telling. This is the third book I've added to my top-read-of-2015 GR shelf and it more than desreves it. Read it!

*** Check out Beatrix' and Purple's thoughts on You (You, #1) By Caroline Kepnes!

xoxo,

Purple

REVIEW: Vision in Silver (The Others, #3) By Anne Bishop

Genre:

Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal

Buy The Book:

AMAZON / B & N / BOOK DEPOSITORY / KOBO

Connect With The Author:

Goodreads / Website / Facebook

Synopsis On Goodreads:

The Others freed the cassandra sangue to protect the blood prophets from exploitation, not realizing their actions would have dire consequences. Now the fragile seers are in greater danger than ever before—both from their own weaknesses and from those who seek to control their divinations for wicked purposes. In desperate need of answers, Simon Wolfgard, a shape-shifter leader among the Others, has no choice but to enlist blood prophet Meg Corbyn’s help, regardless of the risks she faces by aiding him.

Meg is still deep in the throes of her addiction to the euphoria she feels when she cuts and speaks prophecy. She knows each slice of her blade tempts death. But Others and humans alike need answers, and her visions may be Simon’s only hope of ending the conflict.

For the shadows of war are deepening across the Atlantik, and the prejudice of a fanatic faction is threatening to bring the battle right to Meg and Simon’s doorstep…

RATING: 4/5 stars

***REVIEW***

What to do when you are in need of a fun, action-packed, suspenseful and sex-free fantasy read with awesome characters after some disappointing adult contemporary romances? Read The Other series by Anne Bishop of course!

"We will fight for what is ours. In the end, your young will have enough to eat because there will be fewer humans wanting a share. And our young will grow strong on all the meat harvested from the fight."

DANGER ALERT! Meg Corbyn and a couple of other "Wolf lovers" are the only things keeping the human race from the sharp claws of The Others right now. Whatever you do, DO NOT, I repeat- do not provoke or mess with The Others if you want to live to see the light of the following day. 

What I loved about this book:

~ The playful side of the otherwise serious and grumpy wolf leader-Simon. He even blushed for G's sake. O.O

~ Simon & Meg getting closer and closer.

~ The mystery behind the cassandra sangue race a.k.a the blood prophets.

~ The once fragile and insecure Meg becoming stronger and confident and adopting more and more behavior of the wolf clan, like growling and "arrooing", LOL.

~ The bad guys getting what they deserved.

This book is around 400 pages long. It consists of multiple povs from different characters and the story-telling is very detailed, which honestly did become a bit exhausting for me from time to time, but the world-building and the characters were so good and compelling that it was mostly a positive thing. After the last page I felt as if I had watched a 24 episodes long season of some urban fantasy/pnr TV show in 2 days, but it was totally worth it. 

"He wasn't human. Would never be human. And Meg didn't expect him to be. But feeling her hand in his, Simon thought maybe he could learn to be human enough."

Arrrooo, bring on the next one! 

xoxo,

Purple, The Wolf Lover

REVIEW : Eight Grave After Dark (Charley Davidson, #8) By Darynda Jones

Genre:

Paranormal Romance/ Urban Fantasy

Buy The Book:
AMAZON / B & N / BOOK DEPOSITORY / KOBO

Connect With the Author:

Blog / Goodreads / Twitter

Synopsis On Goodreads:

With twelve hellhounds after her, pregnant Charley Davidson takes refuge at the only place she thinks they can’t get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. But after months of being cooped up there, Charley is ready to pop. Both metaphorically and literally since she is now roughly the size of a beached whale. Fortunately, a new case has captured her attention, one that involves a murder on the very grounds the team has taken shelter upon. A decades-old murder of the newly-vowed nun she keeps seeing in the shadows is almost enough to pull her out of her doldrums.

Charley’s been forbidden to step foot off the sacred grounds. While the angry hellhounds can’t traverse the consecrated soil, they can lurk just beyond its borders. They have the entire team on edge, especially Reyes. And if Charley didn’t know better, she would swear Reyes is getting sick. He grows hotter with every moment that passes, his heat scorching across her skin every time he’s near, but naturally he swears he’s fine.

While the team searches for clues on the Twelve, Charley just wants answers and is powerless to get them. But the mass of friends they’ve accrued helps. They convince her even more that everyone in her recent life has somehow been drawn to her, as though they were a part of a bigger picture all along. But the good feelings don’t last for long because Charley is about to get the surprise of her crazy, mixed-up, supernatural life….

RATING: 3/5 STARS

*** REVIEW ***

My expectations before reading the newest installment in Charley Davidson series were:

a) Epic battle between Good vs. Evil

b) Charley, Reyes and the rest of the gang on the winning side

c) Arrival of Beep

Now, after I've read the book, I must admit that even though I did like the story despite some "issues", I also can understand the more critical/negative reviews and even side with some of the issues the other fans of this series pointed out and which I'll list now in short in my review too.

But before the negative stuff, I have to say that these characters are still dear to my heart. There were some parts of the story that I loved and I'm definitely going to continue with the series. It's just that I don't think that the story is on the same level yet as my favorite series of this genre (Fever series by K. M. Moning, Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews, Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh.)

The reasons for 3 stars rating (NO SPOILERS):

~ The main reason for my 3 stars rating is the ending where the epic battle or rather epic failure of the battle between the good guys vs. the bad guys took place. Why failure? Well, it had all the elements to be epic, but in my opinion it was poorly developed and concluded. No offense, but it was rushed and kind of sloppy. How come the best and the most expected part of the story happened in less than 20 pages? And what about the poor portrayal of the new, important characters who instead of scary, bad-ass and ruthless turned out weak and boring? You all know whom I mean.

~ Charley's constant reckless and naive behavior. When are we finally see some character growth ???

~ Confusing theory about Charley's origin. This constant re-adjusting of her origin theory is only confusing me more and more and resulting in loopholes. First she is this, then she is that and now she is smth else etc.

~ Charley & Reyes being secretive with each other even now. Trust issues, trust issues everywhere.

All in all, I liked the book, but I didn't love it. I'm sure the majority of the Charley fandom will love it though. Considering all the amazing books I've read so far, this is a 3 stars read for me.

xoxo,

Purple