Month: April 2020

Anthology-The Institute

Welcome to the Serenity Institute. Dr. Ansel Sterling started The Institute after seeing his mother suffer with her own mental illness. Now, he has created a safe place for other people to come and get treated. So, we have 6 stories written by 6 fantastic authors, 2 of whom are new to me. Without any further ado, let’s get into the stories, shall we?

Dani Rene-Echo

Dani gets the book started for us. She introduces us to Dr. Sterling and his special patient, Katya. Katya suffered a traumatic event and she broke into pieces, including one named Rose. Now Dr. Sterling is trying to treat her. So, the whole time I read this, I wondered if Katya or Rose was the real one, and what Ansel was going to do with them. Excellent. I mean, damn. This was definitely a great Dani story.

Anna Edwards-Marbh

Anna gives us Marbh, whose name means Death, and is a 500 year old assassin. She is currently locked up at Serenity because people are sure that she’s delusional. She just wants to get back to her Laird. The ending of this was spectacular. It is one of those that left me wanting and made me happy all at the same time. I often say that I would like to see more of a particular couple, but I think that this was perfectly perfect.

India R. Adams-Hostile Illusions

Vera has amnesia. She is covered with scars, but only on her left hand side. This story. OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD. That is all.

Jennifer Bene-Mr. Cat Is Not Real

Nina is at the institute because she has hallucinations, and dangerous things have happened around her. But she’s not the one who does them, it’s always Mr. Cat. I thought that the treatments that Dr. Nickelsen gave Nina were… interesting. I do kinda think that Mr. Cat is real, though.

Murphy Wallace-Release Me

Brynn has a thing when it comes to sex. She’s what they call hypersexual. That means she likes it. A LOT. But she also blacks out sometimes, which causes her to end up at the institute, with Dr. Dick. I like Brynn, and I kind of agree with her about a doctor.

Sian B. Claven-Sanitorium

Molly’s identical twin sister, Lizzie, is a nurse at the institute, so they have permission for Molly to be treated there, since Lizzie has been taking care of Molly because of her illnesses over the years. Molly is so very sweet, and I just want her to be all kinds of happy. Sian was another new author to me, so I’ll be looking for more. The whole time I was reading this story, Metallica’s Sanitarium kept running through my head.

So, there are our 6 stories. They are all disturbing to some extent, some more than others. Some of them left me nearly destroyed. They were all fantastic though.

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Anthology-The Institute

 
Title: The Institute
Authors: Dani René, Anna Edwards, Murphy Wallace, India R. Adams, Jennifer Bene, Sian Claven
Genre: Dark Romance
Release Date: April 30, 2020
Serenity is an illusion
 
Dear Reader, 
 
I trust this letter finds you well. 
 
It is with the utmost concern that we invite you to join us at the infamous Serenity Institute. You’ll be able to observe the goings on of the asylum, meet the patients and the doctors. We do however ask that you please be quiet. Do not interact with the patients, and respect the special treatments our doctors administer. 
 
This is where nightmares come alive.
A home for the shattered psyche of its patients. 
Hope is lost when they cross the threshold. 
 
The deranged. The demented. The unstable. 
Six stories, six authors, non-stop madness. 
 
Kind regards,

The Authors
Dani René, Anna Edwards, Murphy Wallace, India R. Adams, Jennifer Bene, Sian Claven

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Dani Rene-While She Sleeps

While She Sleeps is Dani’s addition to the Dirty Heroes Collection. These stories are all re-envisioning of various fairy tales. There are several books in this collection, and Dani’s is the 3rd one. And as you can tell from the title, this is all about Hansel and Gretel Sleeping Beauty.

So, here we are. We have Vera Rose and Logan. They have both run away from their families and are in hiding. When Vera turned 18, she discovered that her father had basically sold her off to be married to a terrible man, and she doesn’t want to marry him, and frankly, I don’t blame her. I sure as fuck wouldn’t want to marry him. So, she ran, and now she’s got to stay hidden. But she wants to have some connection, so she’s joined a messaging service, where she names herself Sleeping Beauty and starts connecting with a guy named Broken Prince. They share a lot of things about each other, including things that turn them on.

Logan ran because of things that his father wanted him to do and because of his own desires. He’s pretty sure that he’s completely broken, and will never be able to really connect with someone because he thinks what he wants is so extreme that no one will ever want to be around him. But then there’s Sleeping Beauty and what she wants.

I think that Logan is not anywhere near as broken as he thinks that he is. I think that his father has really pushed him into that broken feeling, and he heard something that kind of reinforced that feeling, and then it just stewed and stewed and solidified. I think that he’s really a good man. He has a good heart and wants to make sure that Vera is protected. He is incredibly protective of her. I mean, I wouldn’t want to cross him when it comes to Vera, because I’m pretty sure he will cut a bitch.

I think, overall, Vera is a lot wiser than her years. I mean, yeah, she makes a couple of stupid mistakes, but not even the wisest person in the world is wise 100% of the time. But, I think that overall she is pretty wise, and when she tells Logan certain things, he should really listen, because she’s making some damn good sense.

I really enjoyed the story. There is so much going on here, and it was a total roller coaster. There were a couple of times that I was like WTActualF just happened?!?!? But it was totally worth it.

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That contract? I mean, honestly, WTF?

OK, that’s all I have to say about this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

Erin Bradford-Death in Her Eyes Available Now!

Title: Death In Her Eyes
Series: Children of the Fallen Book 1
Author: Erin Bedford
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: April 28, 2020

Since she was four, Elle’s life has been nothing but pain and death, so it’s not surprising she ended up jaded.
When Elle’s absentee father kidnaps her from her own mother’s funeral, Elle is forcefully enrolled into Fallen Academy, a school for nephilim like herself.
Mind readers, seers, and elementals? Finally, Elle is with other freaks like herself.
Except, Elle soon finds that even surrounded by her own kind, she might just be too different to fit in.

Will Elle find her place among the other children of the fallen? Or does her father have plans of his 
own?

Erin Bedford is an otaku, recovering coffee addict, and Legend of Zelda fanatic. Her brain is so full of stories that need to be told that she must get them out or explode into a million screaming chibis. Obsessed with fairy tales and bad boys, she hasn’t found a story she can’t twist to match her deviant mind full of innuendos, snarky humor, and dream guys.
On the outside, she’s a work from home mom and bookbinger. One the inside, she’s a thirteen-year-old boy screaming to get out and tell you the pervy joke they found online. As an ex-computer programmer, she dreams of one day combining her love for writing and college credits to make the ultimate video game!
Until then, when she’s not writing, Erin is devouring as many books as possible on her quest to have the biggest book gut of all time. She’s written over thirty books, ranging from paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and even scifi romance.

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Dani Rene-While She Sleeps Available Now!

Title: While She Sleeps
Series: Dirty Heroes Collection
Author: Dani René
Genre: Dark Taboo Romance
Release Date: April 27, 2020

Dangerous. Unstable. Obsessive. 

She believes in fairytales and awaits her prince. 
But I arrive at her doorstep and I’m far from royalty. 

The shiver down my back tells me he’s there. As if he were touching me. 
Cold, angry, aloof—he’s everything I don’t need. But I can’t turn off my attraction when he’s near.

My sleeping beauty doesn’t realize just how dangerous I am. 
She trusts so easily, smiles so beautifully. And while she sleeps, I watch. 
With each passing night, I become more addicted. 
Until I’m a man obsessed. 

I feel his gaze on me, watching while I sleep. 
He pushes me away in the light, but in the dark, he comes to me like a moth to a flame. 
I crave it. He doesn’t know just how broken I am.

I believed she was the light to my darkness. 
But it turns out my sleeping beauty likes to dive into the shadows alongside me. 
She’s mine, but that decision could kill us both.

Dani is a USA Today Bestselling Author of a variety of genres, from romantic suspense to dark erotic romance and even BDSM romance. She loves to delve into the raw, emotional journeys her characters venture on, and enjoys the dark, edgy, and sensual scenes that fill the pages of her books. Dani’s stories are seductive with a deviant edge with feisty heroines and dominant alphas.

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Natalie Bennett-Periculum

Periculum is Natalie Bennett’s newest book. It’s the first book in a new series, and the first two books of the new series, called Devil’s Playground, are a duet, so you have a bit of a cliff at the end of this one.

So, Liliana, usually called Lana, is on a vacation with her two best friends, Gracelyn and Melantha. At the end of their trip, they hop on the shuttle with a bunch of other people so that they can go to the airport to get home. Four guys get on the shuttle too. One of them really catches Lana’s attention, and she is somehow really drawn to him.

But then, instead of ending up at the airport, the shuttle gets rerouted, and then crashes. That’s when the group gets a spooky message, and they have to try and figure out what’s going on. That’s when we actually meet the guys. The leader is Ciaran, there are twins Charon and Kyrous, and the 4th guy is Maverick. The guys kind of take over the lead, and they seem like they might maybe know a little something. I mean, there isn’t any point in time when they say they know what’s happening, it’s just a kind of air that I got from them.

Anyway, Ciaran and Lana have some chemistry, but it feels like that chemistry may be nitro and glycerin, and they butt heads a lot while they are trying to figure out what’s going on.

I’m not entirely sure that I totally like either Ciaran or Lana. I don’t dislike them, really, and I can’t really come up with any reason why I don’t particularly like them. They are both pretty sociopathic, although I think Lana has at least tried to pretend to be “normal” or have socially acceptable emotions or reactions. I’m pretty sure that Ciaran doesn’t give a flying fuck about anything acceptable or “normal”.

There is definitely something devious, evil, dark, and dangerous going on. I can’t wait to find out more about that.

There aren’t any spoilers down below, because I don’t have anything I want to put under there. So, go check it out!

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Natalie Bennet-Periculum Available Now!

Title: Periculum: Unus
Series: Devil’s Playground #1
Author: Natalie Bennett
Genre: Dark New Adult Romance
Release Date: April 23, 2020
Tragic and twisted fell in love…

Ave Satanas, something wicked this way comes.
It’s time for the reckoning to begin.

Enter the Devil’s Playground wary where you tread, for demons are lurking with trickery up their sleeves.
Here good and bad cease to exist, and not all will make it to the end.
The price of freedom will be revealed only after bloodshed and rapture. A claiming of one and purging of others.

That audio recording played exactly three minutes before the crash.

It was a riddle, a warning, and a promise. But they didn’t know that until it was too late.

Now stranded with two friends and a group of apprehensive strangers, Liliana Serpine must decide who and who not to trust as they navigate their way through hell in the form of an opulent city.

There’s one person who stands out among the others. He’s got a gorgeous face and darkly enigmatic aura. Being drawn to him is inevitable but staying by his side becomes necessary to survive.

When secrets start being revealed in blood, everything changes. From dabbling in the taboo, being tempted by the forbidden, and falling in lust with the carnage.

For those that make it out of this alive, they’ll never be the same people they once were.


With a penchant for (writing) villainous immoral men, and a tendency to deviate away from traditional happily ever afters, Natalie Bennett is an international bestselling author of twisted and unconventional love stories.

When she’s not slaying words she’s somewhere in the sunshine state, happily taking life one curve-ball at a time.

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Measha Stone-Finding His Strength

So, there are a lot of authors who have gotten together and written hero retellings. Measha has taken on the Hercules myth in Finding His Strength. Some of her characters are directly named their mythological names, like Megara or Hera, others have their mythological names as part of the name, like Henrik Hercules. Then you get Jackson Olympus. He’s the Zeus figure, but doesn’t really carry the mythological name.

So, we start out with a murder. Henrik basically fucks a woman to death. Well, more accurately, he kills her at the end, but you know, whatever. Turns out that the woman is named Henrietta and she’s the niece of the Creon family, another member in the Network that Henrik’s father is the head of. Mr. Creon asked Henrik and his father to do something about some traitors, and it turns out that Henrietta was feeding into them, so she had to go. But, it wasn’t necessarily the best choice. It caused some issues, and it was decided that the best way to make sure that there was still peace in the Network was for Henrik to marry Megara, Creon’s only daughter. No one is 100% happy with this. Or, more like Megara and her cousins aren’t happy. Her parents are fine with it. Henrik’s father Jackson, and his step-mother, Hera, are fine with it. In fact, Jackson told him that if he got married and had an heir, he would legitimize Henrik, instead of Henrik remaining his bastard.

Megara just finished college with her culinary degree. Her father has always told her that she could do whatever she wanted. What she really wanted to do was to have her own restaurant. Not necessarily cook in it, but to own it, create the menu, all that kind of stuff. She interned with one of the most prestigious chefs in the town so that she’d be ready. But, that dream was suddenly smashed when it was announced that she was going to be marrying Henrik in two weeks. And oh yeah, not only that, but her cousins are now going to be opening the restaurants of her dreams. She’s now nothing but a pawn in the hands of the Network, and not even her own person.

Because of actions, her marriage suddenly gets moved up, and she’s dragged to Henrik’s house the day before, and kept there until the wedding can happen.

OK, first off, Hera can go choke on a dick. And not a pretty one either. She can just go choke on a giant diseased donkey dick. And then just keep choking. I think that Jackson can join her in chocking on a dick too. He wasn’t as terrible to Henrik as Hera was, but he obviously did nothing to protect him, and he used Henrik terribly. I almost prefer the outright abuse and hostility of Hera over how Jackson acted.

Henrik was all twisted up inside and had all kinds of issues. Mostly they were installed by his father and Hera. They kept telling him that he would get this great reward, if only he met X, Y, and Z. But then when he got there, they would move the goal posts on him. Doing that does one of two things. It makes you walk away altogether, or it makes you work even harder to gain the approval of that person. Guess which one it did to Henrik.

Megara. Hmmmm… I don’t know what to say about Megara. I like her, and I think that she’s good for Henrik. I think that she makes an alternative viewpoint available to Henrik. I think that sometimes she’s a little overshadowed by Henrik’s large personality. The thing is, I think that if she had a larger personality, there would’ve been too many clashes. I mean, it’s not like she was invisible or anything, she was just calmer, most of the time.

This was a great story. I would love to see more of this world.

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Those damn rooms in the basement. Ugh.

OK, that’s all for today! Go check it out! Happy reading!

Jennifer Bene-Black Light: Charmed

Today we get a twofer. We get a new Jennifer Bene and a new Black Light, all at once! Yay! We all know that I’m always down for both of those things, so combining them makes me a happy reader! So, let’s talk about Charmed.

This is the story of Logan and Cassandra. She’s a model, he’s the president of a big family company. They met at a Roulette event at Black Light West, and had a beautiful time. Then, they never saw each other again. They tried, but Cassandra is a model in high demand, and she’s working really hard to build her brand, so she takes every job she can. She’s rarely, if ever, in LA right now. She and Logan tried to get together, but they couldn’t make it work, so finally, they just fell out of contact with each other. However, Logan couldn’t get her out of his mind, so when he found out that she was doing a show at Runway West, he arranged to be there. He wanted to meet with her, and try to get her to date him.

Cassandra has thought about him, and then there he was. He asked her on a date and she turned him down. She’s pretty sure that they can’t have any kind of relationship because of her schedule and the fact that he’s tied to LA. If she’s going to be as successful as she wants, she can’t stay tied to LA, and she will have to travel all over the place. That doesn’t work well for a relationship. But, it’s December, and she’s going to be in LA for a few weeks, so maybe they can get at least get together for playdates or coffee, or you know, hot monkey sex.

I loved Cassandra. She just has this awesome free spirit, and is open to the universe and welcoming to what will come. She makes friends easily, and wants to have fun with her life, not just work hard. I mean, she will work hard too, she wants to, and she likes what she does, and she is serious about her craft and her brand. I think that she would definitely be a great person to know and to spend a lot of time with. I think that everyone who does spend time with her thinks that.

I had some problems with Logan. I liked him, but he had some daddy subscriptions issues. He really had some voices in his head that wouldn’t let him go. He doesn’t necessarily treat most people well. One of my favorite scenes with Cassandra is when she goes after Logan for the way that he is treating someone. She goes after him and makes him apologize. I was impressed by that, so much.

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I think that Logan would really benefit from the help of a good therapist.

OK, that’s all I have to say about this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

 

Nicole Blanchard & K Webster-The Determined Hero

Determined Hero is the 7th book in the Lost Planet series by these talented ladies. And the books just keep getting better and better. I think that part of that is that we already know the world, what’s happening, and have had time to learn more about the characters. Each book is a complete story for the couple, but they have a cumulative storyline, so you really have to read them all, and read them in order.

This is the story of Oz and his Whisper, otherwise known as Quinn. Quinn has stayed unconscious after being taken out of stasis. Oz goes in and talks to her daily. Since he doesn’t know her name, nor does anyone else, he calls her Whisper. Right now, he’s working on his weapon to fight the Kevins coming from Earth II. When he has issues, he goes to talk to his Whisper, and it helps him. He also talks to her about everything under the sun. What he doesn’t know is that Quinn has been awake for the last couple of days and is listening to him. She’s pretending to still be unconscious so that she can learn about the people who are around her and the situation she has found herself in. Then one day, she answers him.

Quinn was a librarian who made a choice that ended her up in stasis on the way to the prison. I would’ve made the same choice she did, in her place, and would definitely have been sitting there just like her, but the powers that be on Earth II were less than happy, and since she was nothing but a lowly librarian, she ended up headed to prison. But now she’s ready to talk to the people around her. She’s also not quite sure what these guys look like, because without her glasses, she can’t make much out. So, she decides that they are spidery aliens. (spoiler: they aren’t)

I really like Quinn. I think that Oz really needed her. She is really strong and protective. There are times when you really see it coming out. I think that she’s also a really calming presence and is willing to make people stop and make some good choices. I think that she’s in my top 3 favorites of the mates.

Oz is a pretty good guy, and I do like him, but I think that he definitely gets to a point where he’s more than a little manic, and I get why he was driving himself to that point, but the problem is when you get to that point, you can’t keep going, and you start to make stupid mistakes. Luckily, for him, Quinn was there, and she made sure that he rested.

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I understand why Breccan did what he did. I also completely understand why Galen was so mad at him about it. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s happening with Galen.

OK. That’s all for today. Go check out the whole series. Happy reading!

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