Category: Reviews

Royally Mine Review

I’ve talked about Royally Mine off and on for the past few weeks. It’s an awesome anthology by 22 great authors. How can I know this for sure? Well, for one thing, I’ve read ARCs from several of the authors. I haven’t read the entire book as of yet, since my TBR is currently stacked up sky high, but I can tell you about the ones that I’ve gotten to read. There are a whole bunch of stories in the book that I’m really looking forward to, including ones by Annabel Joseph, Jenika Snow, and Sue Lyndon. Without any further ado, let’s get to the reviews for the ones I’ve read.

Decadence by Jennifer Bene

Normally, my girl Jennifer writes some dark shit. I love her dark stuff. The darker the better. I’ve reviewed her Thalia series here, which starts out pretty dark. Decadence is not dark. It is, however, one of the most joyously filthy things I’ve read in a while.

What do two sex addicts say to each other? My current answer is “Thank you, come again.” Finn and Aubrey are those sex addicts. The story starts out with Aubrey talking to her therapist and Finn being forced to go to a therapist. However, he sees Aubrey and ditches his therapist to follow her to a bar, where they have a close encounter of the 69th kind in the bathroom. Neither one of them knows the other is a sex addict, which leads to some great banter between the two of them.

These two characters are totally fun. Finn swears that Aubrey is perfect just the way that she is, and sets out to show her that she is. The bacchanal scene? Yeah. It’s hot. Like, Death Valley hot.

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This story is great, and the happily-ever-after is fantastic. It works well for Finn and Aubrey, even if it’s not a typical HEA. I liked it. I really enjoyed this story, can you tell?

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Consumed by Addison Cain

Now Addison, she writes dark too. And this one is dark. She takes us back to an Omegaverse. This is NOT the Omegaverse from Alpha’s Claim, but a brand new world. It still follows the same rules though.

Morgaine is an Omega who has no clue who or what she is. All she knows is that when the Alphas come to her village, she gets sick and she hides. That works well until one day when it doesn’t and the Alphas take her away. She still has no clue what an Omega really is, and the Alphas who originally take her do nothing to help her, they just traumatize her. They keep telling her how they love and protect Omegas, but if you ask me, there is no love and protection there, just cruelty. Simin comes to her rescue. He’s a former enemy of her people, and he looks like a barbarian. But, he saves her.

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Yeah, I know Simin isn’t Conan, but you get the whole idea.

I had never read any Omegaverse stories before I read Addison’s stories for the first time. I really enjoy the dynamic. Addison left this one on a bit of a cliffhanger (I think she’s a closet sadist), but the story is to be continued. She’ll be picking it up and publishing the rest of the story. I can’t wait.

Royalty, American Style by Livia Grant

Livia has an interesting take on royalty. Instead of going with some blue blood, she goes with baseball royalty. Colton King (I see what you did there) is at the top of his game when it comes go baseball. He’s also a bad, bad boy. He’s a lover, and he loves a whole lot of women. Unfortunately for him, he got conned into doing a Bachelor style reality show. He’s going to be in a house with 6 beautiful women who are all competing to be his special someone. Enter Harper Gardener, unemployed chef-extraordinaire, who got the temporary job of cooking for the show.

With just one taste of Harper’s cooking and one glimpse of her, Colton is attracted to her. Harper, on the other hand, is just out of a bad relationship and her life plan doesn’t include falling in love with Colton King. When that’s what happens, everything turns upside down.

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I loved this story. Colton really goes out of his way to do everything he can to protect Harper. It’s really sweet. Their HEA is well deserved.

Bad Boys and Bourbon by Alta Hensley

When they were children, Cheri and Roman were promised to each other. They were each other’s first loves, first kiss, and first time. Then Cheri, the daughter of a count and countess, decided that she couldn’t handle all the circus that royal life would entail, so she left Roman, a prince and ran away. Years later, she gets dragged to Monaco where she is presented to Roman so that they can get married.

When they get back together, sparks fly and the action turns very, very steamy. Alta writes steamy really well, and this story is definitely that.

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This is the start of a new series by Alta. The new books are all going to be themed around alcohol. The bad boys are also going to be part of an exclusive club called Spiked Roses. As this series is an Alta Hensley series, expect to see spanking and sex. And some more spanking. And some more sex.

Mafia Princess by Natasha Knight

Gregorio Santa Maria is the head of his Family, along with his brother. When the Antonino Family call him up because Allegra has run away from Florida, he has to go find her. He doesn’t want to do babysitting duty, but since the Families are associated, then he has to do it. So he and Enzo, one of his men, go and find Allegra at a bar.

When he takes her to his house, she does everything she can to escape. Allegra makes it very clear that she doesn’t want to go back to her half-brother. He’s not a very nice guy, and their father is in a coma, so her half-brother is the one in charge. Of course, since this story is included in a romance anthology, you can guess what happens, they get their HEA.

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One of the things I really enjoyed about this particular story is that it is entirely written from Gregorio’s point of view. That’s not something you normally find in a romance story. You may get a dual point of view that goes back and forth between the Hero and Heroine, or one entirely from her POV, but very, very rarely one that is solely from his point of view. It was a nice twist to the traditional romance story, so great job Natasha!

Her Royal Master by Renee Rose

Renee Rose writes great spanking stories that just happen to have a great love story that goes with them. Or may those are great love stories that have great spanking stories that go with them. Whichever way you choose to look at it, Her Royal Master fits right into her wheelhouse.

Chelsea is a journalist who happens to be rooming with an Italian model. On the day of the model’s big job, she gets sick and talks Chelsea into going to the job for her. The job? To be a sub on Prince Kaspar’s yacht for a few days. Now, Chelsea doesn’t know that until she gets there, and then it’s too late to do anything about it. When one of the prince’s friends does something that freaks her out, Darius, Kaspar’s black sheep cousin comes to her rescue and saves her from the wanna-be Doms.

After spending a hot weekend together, Chelsea runs off the yacht, and straight to Los Angeles, and promptly becomes miserable.

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I really enjoy reading Renee’s books. She twists sweet and spice together really well and brings it all home really well. She also creates wonderful worlds and I can easily see them. If you read The Russian in Heroes Undercover, then you may recognize the DJ from this story.

Royally Fucked by Lee Savino

With a title like this, you pretty much know what you are going to get, from the get go. Lots of fucking and lots of royalty. Theo, the son of a Greek hotelier and a disinherited Swedish princess, is the epitome of bad boy. He has had several sex tapes show up and the public is familiar with the dimensions of his cock, thanks to interviews with former sex partners. He’s also got the reputation of a sex god. His grandmother, the Queen of Sweden, has all of a sudden decided that she wants to meet him for the first time ever, and the board of his father’s hotel business wants to vote him off the board. In walks Vesper.

Vesper is a fixer. If you have a PR problem, you call Vesper. She can make it go away and rehabilitate your image. When she starts her job, she lays out a long-term plan, only to find out that she has one week to update Theo’s image and make him look good.

Of course, when you put a sex god in a room with an attractive woman and it’s a Lee Savino story, sparks are going to fly, and you are going to get lots of sex and an HEA. Of course, it’s never that easy, is it?

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This was a nice story. One reason that I liked it was because Vesper was a strong woman who took no shit from anyone. She managed to stand up to Theo, even when he tried really hard to fire her, and to get him to consider doing what she told him. But, she didn’t run him over and roll him down either. That’s a very fine line to walk, but Lee made it work well. By the way, when you try to review something named Royally Fucked on Amazon, you have to write it as Royally F***ed, or you don’t get your review approved.

Well, that’s what I’ve got. I received ARCs of all these stories, and you have now received my honest reviews, you lucky people.

Coming up this week, the spoiler post for Kate Daniels 1-3, a review of a new-to-me author, and a review of B. B. Blaque’s Beautiful Insanity: Twisted, and let me tell you what, it lives up to its name. Stay tuned, and happy reading!

Kate Daniels Reread pt. 2

My next-to-last post was all about the world of Kate Daniels and such. Today we’re actually going to get into the books. I’ve read the first three, but this review may or may not talk about all three. From now on, the reviews will just be about one book at a time. I just got ahead in my reading. So, without further ado, let’s start reviewing!

Magic Bites

Magic Bites is the first book in the series. In it, we are introduced to Kate, a merc. She’s sitting in her house in Savannah, GA, drinking when a vampire shows up to ask if she’s talked to her guardian lately. Ghastek was the one who was navigating the vampire. He and Kate are going to have an interesting relationship over the series, so remember his name.

She rushes to Atlanta to find that Greg Feldman, the man who was her guardian after her father died, has been gruesomely murdered. He was the resident Knight-Diviner for the local chapter of The Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid. The Order is kind of like modern day Templars, only slightly less merciful. They will provide mercy, but sometimes that mercy is provided at the edge of a sword. The Order was founded right after the tech fell and the shift started. It is very regimented. Greg did get Kate into the Order’s Academy, and she tested out at electrum level, which is the highest you can go, and there have only ever been like 8. However, she walked out and became a merc, which drove a wedge in between her and Greg. There will be more about the Order in reviews to come. Anyway, she goes to the head of the local chapter of the Order to get help and ends up with permission to work with them to find Greg’s killer.

On the way to the solution, she goes to the morgue and meets Crest. She goes to Unicorn Lane and meets Curran, greeting him by saying “Here, kitty, kitty.” She goes to the Keep and meets Derek Gaunt, faithful, teenage, werewolf sidekick. And she goes to the Casino and has to talk to Nataraja. More to come in the spoiler section.

Magic Burns

In Magic Burns, a seven-year flare is coming. A flare is several days when the magic is extremely high. It’s a high peak of magic that plateaus during that time. Saiman, Kate’s magical expert, metamorph, and deviant extraordinaire, calls it the time of the gods. And he’s not wrong. During the flare, shifters have a hard time controlling themselves, Navigators have a harder time controlling their vampires, and magic users and magical people, like Kate, get a huge power boost.

This book starts out with Kate doing a merc job partnering Jim, a were-jaguar and the chief of security for the Pack. They are trying to track down a madman with a salamander. A salamander is a magical creature that starts fire. Just as Jim and Kate catch their firebug, he gets shot with a mysterious black arrow. Then Jim gets paged by someone in the Pack and has to leave. Remember, with the Pack, it’s us against them, and for Jim, he will drop everything when the Pack calls. He’s the Alpha cat and the security chief, so he’s super-duper responsible.

Later, Derek comes to ask Kate for help because someone has stolen maps from the Pack. Their maps are uber-accurate, and highly sought after. This person poofed in, grabbed the maps, and poofed out. While she was trying to figure out how to help with the maps, she runs across a street shaman named Red who had helped her a little bit in the last book, and his girlfriend, Julie. Julie’s mom is missing and Red tells Kate to take care of her. More in the spoiler section.

Magic Strikes

Magic Strikes starts out a few months after the flare. Kate is headed home from her job at the Order. She runs across Jim and some other shifters picking up a dead body. She offers them help, Jim turns her down. When she gets home, she gets a call from Saiman, telling her to come pick up something of hers. It turns out it’s Derek, who has snuck into his apartment to steal some tickets to the Midnight Games. The Games are an underground fighting tournament. In it, teams go into the Pit and fight each other. Derek has been working undercover in the Games and has found a young woman he’s trying to help, Livvie. That’s why he wants the tickets. Saiman extorts Kate into going to the Games with him, and Derek asks her to give Livvie a note from him. While this sounds like a minor little thing, it turns out to be pretty important.

So, we’ll leave it here until the spoiler section, which, as this is getting long, is going to actually show up tomorrow, I think. I don’t like to read long blog posts, so I don’t want to write them for people.

There is romance in the series, but there isn’t really any in the first books. Kate and Curran get a little kissy face going on, but nothing else really. It’s not until the fourth book that their romance really gets going. In these books they are still dancing around each other and kind of confrontational. Really, I think foreplay for them involves arguing and physically fighting with each other, in a sparring way, not in a bad way.

It’s a good series, well-written and enjoyable. The way the books work, they build on each other. Each book adds more to the characters and to the world, so there is always something new to find out. I really love that.

So, here is where this quick overview of books 1-3 ends, and we get ready for tomorrow’s post, which is going to be spoiler-iffic. And I’m going to leave you with this beautiful picture of a Barbary lion, just because.

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Kate Daniels Reread

0So, I mentioned that I love Ilona Andrews and the Kate Daniels series and that I read it often. Well, I’m rereading it now, in between ARCs and other books. I thought that I would do a review of the books as I reread them and my thoughts on them, as I find new things in the older books and reread the newer ones again. See, I’m just positive that all y’all want to know what I’m reading and what I think. I’ll reread all the novellas that go along with the series too, but I rarely read them in the place where they fit into the books’ timeline, I just read them all when I’m done, generally because I still can’t get my head out of Kate’s world.

I sort of consider Kate Daniels to be in the post-apocalyptic category as well as being in the UF category. While there hasn’t been a huge apocalypse like one may think, the fact that tech and magic are at war with each and there are times that magic rules the world and time when tech rules the world and so many things just don’t work anymore is apocalyptic to me.

I’ve already read the first two, Magic Bites and Magic Burns, and I’ll be getting into the third one, Magic Strikes, in a couple of days since I have some ARCs to read and review, as well as a couple of other books I need to get read and reviewed. I’d complain about having so many things on my To Be Read pile, but I really can’t. I just have to complain that there aren’t enough hours in my day or days in my week to get it all read. But, it’s better than not having enough to read.

The main character in this series is Kate Daniels. She starts out as a merc with a mouth and a big secret. Her secret could mean that everyone she knows dies, if it gets found out. She is much more powerful than people think she is, and she does everything she can to keep that power hidden. She was trained by her father, Voron, to be an awesome swordswoman and fighter. He also taught her to hold vengeance near and dear to her heart. He tried his best to turn her into the perfect sociopath, though it didn’t quite take.

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There are a lot of other characters that show up, and I’ll talk about them as they pop up, but the big one I’m going to mention right now is Curran. Curran is the Beast Lord, the Alpha of the Pack, which includes all shifters in Atlanta and surrounding areas. He’s a HUGE lion. Kate describes him as a paranoid psychopath. He is very controlling and holds to his rules very tightly. In this world, that’s important for shifters. They can either go Code or go loup. The Code is a set of rules that each shapeshifter needs to follow to help keep their animal side under control. Going loup means that the animal has overtaken the human side and the shifter runs around going crazy, attacking people, causing general chaos and mayhem. But that’s not the only reason that Curran is a control freak, it’s also the fact that he is an Alpha. Alphas are controlling and dominant, it’s part of their make up. And since he’s the Alpha of Alphas, he’s even worse.

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I’ll talk about more characters as they come up when I’m reviewing the books. But, I do want to mention two groups, the Pack and the People.

I’ve already said that the Pack is led by Curran. It’s made up of six clans into which all shifters fall into. Each clan is ruled by their Alpha, which is usually, but not always, a mated Alpha couple. They have the highest say in their clan, but Curran can override them. Each Alpha couple has a seat on the Pack Council, which is the ruling body, headed by guess who. The clans are Boudas, who are were-hyenas; Wolves; Clan Nimble, made up of animals like mink, foxes, etc,; Clan Rat, who are generally the scouts of the Pack; Cats; and Clan Heavy, which are the big shifters, like bears, buffalo, and such-like. The Pack is based in the Keep, a huge fortress that they have built, and are continuing to build. Membership of the pack is somewhere around 1,500.

The People are the Navigators of the Dead. Vampires are created by a virus, and are turned into mindless killing machines. Navigators are people who have the power to take over the minds of the vampires and control them. They can see and hear everything the vampire can see and hear, and can converse through the vampire. The People are based in the Casino, a huge Taj Mahal inspired building that is part casino, part stable for vamps, and part office building. In the early books, the head of the People in Atlanta is Nataraja. Unlike the Pack, which has no higher structure, the People do have a much larger structure, which is headed by Roland (remember that name).

This post is getting long enough, so I’m going to split it off here. Tomorrow will begin the actual reviews of books 1 and 2.

As always, if you have suggestions, questions, whatever, let me know. If you have a book that you are gagging for me to read and review or you just think that I would love to read it, let me know. I’m always up for more books to read. And I generallay think everyone is entitled to my opinion, LOL. No really, I just like sharing my opinions and viewpoints.

Renee Rose-Her Mate and Master

And now we’re on to the second review of the week. Aren’t you excited? Well, I am. This one is a review of Her Mate and Master by Renee Rose. This is the 6th book in the Zandian Masters series. In this series, humans have been scattered through the galaxy and are slaves.

The current living Zandians are remnants of the Zandian people who had to leave their planet when the Finn invaded it. Zandia is home to some powerful crystal. The Zandian people primarily use them as a power source for their bodies. They don’t need to eat very often, the crystals give the Zandians most of their energy. Male Zandians use small bits of crystal to mark their mates. The females have piercings that the crystals are set into. How many piercings depends on how many crystals the male can afford and where they are placed. Generally, some are placed in somewhat intimate areas. The point of the crystals used this way is that they can be used to sustain a mate and children. These crystals can also be used to power spaceships. Understandably, the Zandians don’t really want to sell a whole lot of them, so in swoop the Finn to invade Zandia, eradicate the Zandians, and mine all the crystals possible.

At the end of the last book, we met Talia, Master Seke’s long lost, thought dead daughter. She was being hostage by the Finn, on Zandia. The Finn say that they’ll let her go if Prince Zander gives himself up. Tomis, a warrior, sees Talia on the screen, and he knows that he has to be the one to go rescue her. So off he goes.

Meanwhile, Talia, who didn’t know that she was even Zandian until a few days ago and spent most of her life thinking she was a lavender skinned human slave named Ray, is hanging naked chained to the wall in the throne room on Zandia, all day long. Each night she gets marched past all the cells filled with prisoners, still naked, until she gets to her own cell. When Tomis gets to Zandia, he’s thrown into a cell and talks to his cellmates about her. They tell him that they have seen ALLL of Talia, just wait until she walks by again. When she does, Tomis sees what they mean, but he’s careful to try to keep himself out her sight. A power outage that he arranged happens, and he goes to get Talia and rescue her.

Tomis tells her that she is the last living Zandian female of childbearing age, and as such, she belongs to the prince, and he’ll decide what happens to her. Meaning who will father her children or whatever. What Talia hears is that she is going to be going from one set of slavery to another, only this time as a brood mare. So, she runs away from Tomis. When she gets caught, Tomis punishes her, which he enjoys, and it turns out, so does she.

So, here is where we break off before I get into spoilers. Being a Renee Rose book, there is sex, and lots of it. There is also spanking, and lots of that. If either of those things offend you, then this isn’t the book for you. However, those things don’t bother me, obviously, and I really enjoyed this book. It’s a good love story, with a HEA. There’s also a hook for the rest of the series, which I enjoy. You really can’t read this as a stand-alone, just because you really need to have the backstory from the other books to understand where this book is.

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OK, so now we can get into the nitty-gritty, or at least the spoilers. We find out that, no, Talia isn’t the only living Zandian female of childbearing years. Talia and Tomis find another female, living with 3 men, who attempt to kill Tomis and rape Talia. That woman has 3 children, so there is a new generation of full-blooded Zandians already started.

Tomis has a hard time, because he really wants to mate (and mate with) Talia, but he’s standing in his own way. He doesn’t see himself as good enough, and he feels like it’s his duty to deliver Talia to the Prince and her father, so they can make the decision as to what will happen to her. However, his actions really hurt Talia. She knows what she wants, which is him, but when they get close, he always says something that makes it sound like whatever happens is temporary. Even when they do end up fucking, she has to remind herself that it’s only temporary because Tomis has made it clear that she’s nothing but a brood mare. She does get him to promise that she will be able to make her own decisions about her life after they get off Zandia, but she still doesn’t want to have her decisions taken away from her.

Let’s talk about the Zandian breeding cycle, for a minute. Zandians have a breeding season, which just happens to be when they are on the planet. It’s not something that Talia has ever had to deal with before, because she wasn’t exposed to the crystals. But, when she is on Zandia and exposed to the crystals, it triggers her. And it triggers Tomis. Nowhere is this more evident than in the sacred waterfall. That scene is hotter than hot. It’s my favorite for the whole series, I think.

Tomis finally gets his head out of his ass and realizes what he’s been doing to Talia, who managed to leave the Prince’s pod to go back to the tavern where she had been a slave. She wanted to go knock around her old slave owner, which she did. Tomis came to find her and told her that he was a big old idiot, and that he was wrong. She was the most important thing, and he would sacrifice it all for her.

I love everything of Renee’s that I’ve ever read. She’s one of the authors that I automatically read, no matter what. I own a good chunk of her books, and the ones I don’t own yet are on my to be bought list. If you want more Renee Rose, check out the other Zandian Master books. You won’t be sorry.

Standard ARC disclaimer: Yup, I got one. Yup, this is voluntary and honest.

Hannah Davenport-Kavvan

Kavvan is the 7th book of Hannah Davenport’s Azziarin series. In this series, the Earth has been invaded by an alien species called the Tureis. They take humans and sell them for slaves. The Tureis have attacked other planets, including the Azziarin planet. Because of that, the Azziarin all hate the Tureis. When they find out that the Tureis have invaded Earth, the Azziarin go and start attacking the Tureis. Along the way, they find that the human women can trigger the mating instinct in Azziarin men.

By the time Kavvan comes around, most of the royal family has been mated to human women, and there are Azziarin men who are asking to go serve on ships near Earth so that they have the chance to meet their mates.

However, that’s not where Kavvan is going. He and his ship are off to another planet so that they can see if there are human women who are being sold off as slaves.

Mandy and Susan have been friends for years. They have both come from not great families, especially Mandy. They have survived the invasion and have been hiding in a book store, until the day that Susan gets bored. Mandy tries to keep her from leaving, but she leaves anyway and gets captured by the Turies. Mandy sneaks aboard the ship to save her, and ends up going to the planet where the auction is, along with Susan. Since she snuck on board, when they get to the planet, Mandy hides again. When Susan goes off to be auctioned off, Mandy gets left behind.

Enter the Azziarin. They save Susan from the auction and take her away on their ship, and leave to go home. Susan is hysterical because they are leaving Mandy behind, so she ends up being sedated, and eventually tells Kavvan what happened and about Mandy. When he’s around Susan, his mating instincts are triggered, but he knows that Susan isn’t his mate, but they become friends.

Mandy has managed to find an enclave of escaped and rescued slaves, where she meets some other humans. That’s where she is when Nikkul, Kavvan’s second, and Kavvan show up.

Ok, That’s the basic set up, you know the deal, after this comes spoilers. If you want to avoid them, go over to Amazon and check out this book. I really enjoyed it. I think it’s a little darker than some of the other books in this series, but it’s handled well.

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While Mandy is in the enclave, one of the humans she meets is a woman named Jane. Jane has already had some tragic events happen in her life. She lost her husband and child before she even got captured by aliens and sold as a slave. When she meets Nikkul, he recognizes her as his mate. They mate quickly and are happy together. On the way home, the Turies attack the ship and Nikkul gets hurt. When they get planet side, he gets taken to the med ward. When he wakes up, he has no memory of Jane, but sees his beloved consort. That devastates Jane, especially since he hasn’t told her about his consort, and the new human women don’t know anything about the Azziarin tradition of having consorts on top of wives or mates. She and all the other humans leave and go to a cabin. Jane ends up killing herself that night, leaving a note to Nikkul that she’s sorry for everything. This is one of the darker elements. This side plot made me really sad, for both Jane and Nikkul. At least Nikkul has his consort by his side to help him through.

Mandy and Kavvan have a lot of their own problems. An enforcer takes her away from the enclave when she runs after seeing Nikkul’s fangs. The enforcer hurts her, drags her away, and almost rapes her. Kavvan shows up right before that happens, but because of that, he tiptoes around her. She is worried that he and Susan are more friendly than they really are, and because of that, she is worried about getting into a relationship with him. However, being a good HEA romance, they eventually work it out and get their happily ever after on.

I enjoy this series. For me, it’s a fairly light, easy read. When I’m looking for something that I know I’ll enjoy, I revisit these books. While there is sex, it’s generally less graphic than some of the other books I like to read, and there isn’t any kink. I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

I received an ARC for my voluntary and honest review of this book, so that’s what you got.

Tears of Surrender

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post about Sophie Kisker’s Midrosian Chronicles. Well, today her latest book came out, Tears of Surrender. It’s the final book of this series and it’s the most intense book of the series, IMO. The story winds through both Memories and Longings and gives us some peeks into those stories. Then it nicely winds up the whole story of the women of Midros.

When I say intense, I mean it. There was a point in time when I had to walk away from the book for a couple of hours to process how I felt about it and deal with my feelings. There have been very few books that I’ve had to do that with. To me, that is a great thing and means that the book is pretty awesome. I still have Parin and Mercer living in my head a couple of days after I read it, which is also a pretty awesome thing if you ask me. And so, on to the review.

Tears is the story of Parin Denos. It opens up 3 years prior to Memories. Parin was raised on Prima, with her parents, who died when she was 7. She vaguely remembers her mother telling her to never go to Midros. When she’s adult, her company is contacted by the Midrosian government to see if a product they sell would work for them. On Midros, when women come onto the planet, they have to wear a temporary collar and their DNA is routinely run through databases.

Parin’s company declines the offer to sell their product to the Midrosian government. In walks government officials from the slavery board. They tell Parin that she is a runaway slave. To her knowledge, she has never been on Midros before. However, it comes out that her parents were Midrosian, with her father owning her mother, before they escaped when Parin was two. With the Midrosian law, as held up by the galaxy wide authorities, once a Midrosian slave, always a Midrosian slave. Women who escape, and their female children who escape with them, are still slaves. Thus, Parin is an escaped slave.

The authorities drag Parin away to get her ready for her auction. She’s locked in a cell, has to endure a humiliating and punishing exam by a doctor to assess her health and her sexual capabilities, and is bathed, where she’s taught another brutal lesson by guards. Then she’s chained up and gagged so that the men who will be at the auction can inspect her, along with all the other slaves for sale.

The man who buys her, Edar Pennis, is a horrible, brutal, sadistic man, and on a planet of men who are sadistic, that is saying something. He swears to break her, but he really has no idea of what he’s doing. He has her shoved into a cage, covered up and transported. When they get to his house, he has his guards dump her out onto the driveway, and attaches a collar to her which will put poison in her system whenever it’s triggered. And being the terrible man he is, I bet you can figure out what happens with that.

Edar does lots of horrible things to her, including locking her in a hole in the dark. The final straw for Parin is that he takes her out to the garden, has her put in a hole where she has to stand on a small block which isn’t anchored on anything, and then puts two boards around her neck, so that only her head is above ground, and leaves her there. If she falls, then she hangs by her neck. Which she consciously decides to do, Edar has driven her to suicide.

In walks Mercer. And from here, there are going to be spoilers and commentary. I loved this book, I identified so much with Parin and I felt her distress and stress so much. I know I say this for a lot of books, but I really recommend this. I can’t tell you how much I recommend this. I want to give this like 11/10 stars. It is just that amazing.

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OK, a note before we get into the spoilers. In Midros, there is no legal way to rape a woman. If she is your slave, she can’t tell you no. She’s property, and property can’t say no, I mean, it’s not like a chair can tell you no that it doesn’t want you to sit on it. It’s the chair’s job to have someone sit on it. If someone else has sex with your slave without your permission, it’s theft of services, not rape. A woman who grew up on Midros would understand this concept, since it was what she grew up with and had been trained to expect and to do. Parin, however, doesn’t have that same understanding. She grew up as a free woman, with the expectation of bodily autonomy. She is upset that she’s going to be raped but Edar explains to her that no, it’s not rape, it can’t be rape. I think that’s one of the things that is the hardest for Parin to get used to in her slavery. And Edar, well, he’s an asshole, and he doesn’t do anything to make it easier on her.

Mercer Pennis is Edar’s son. He wants to be a lawyer, his father wants him to take over the mining business. There is a younger son, Jacen, but he makes his father look tame. At one point, he has his slave Dara’s vagina and vulva sewed almost all the way shut, because he prefers anal sex and wants her to be an anal only slave. However, because he’s messy, he still manages to get her pregnant, with a girl. He was going to sell her off, but Parin convinces Mercer to get her instead. Dara eventually runs away, and ends up in the same escaped slave enclave as Enna from Longings, and is able to be with her daughter, off planet.

Mercer starts out as a prat and I really don’t like him all of the time. He sees Parin as 3 holes and 2 tits to be used when he wants. Now, I have to give him some leeway, since he’s never dealt with a free woman before, but I think he doesn’t always take that into consideration with Parin. Yeah, he’s trying to teach her how to be a slave and how to survive the world she’s living in, but, still.

However, as they are together, he does start to change and realizes he loves Parin and she is more than a collection of body parts. He even lets her help him out at his business, since he has problems with math and Parin is an accountant. Without her help, he wouldn’t have been able to clean up his business as well.

To me, one of the more horrific scenes with Mercer is the scene where he decides to breed her. The way that it is done is that they go to a clinic, Mercer provides sperm and a doctor harvests an egg from Parin. Then the doctor fertilizes the egg, makes sure it’s a boy, and implants the embryo into Parin. The doctor jams a needle into Parin’s abdomen and ovary to harvest an egg without any kind of numbing or pain medication. Parin screams because it’s painful. The doctor says that they don’t waste pain meds on slaves. Parin was already not wanting to bring a child into this world, but Mercer wanted one and told her that she would accept it. That whole section just really got to me, and I had to take a little break there for a few minutes.

Anyway, Edar does try to take Parin away from Mercer, after already signing a contract with him, and lies to her and tells her that he left it in the contract that he could reclaim her at any point. We also find out that Edar used to own her mother, and that’s what he bought Parin.

We also find out the true reason why Midros started taking other women and that the galaxy wide authorities not only knew about it, but they also helped out. The paeloate mining caused infertility problems for native-born Midrosians. So, a woman who wasn’t born on Midros was much more likely to have a child. When Parin and Mercer get this information out to the galaxy, the authorities come and take over Midros and set all the women free, unless they choose to stay as slaves.

Parin makes that choice and stays with Mercer. They have a history of edging and orgasm denial. It’s how he helps her in her submission. When he lets her have an orgasm, it’s amazing because she has to wait and wait and wait for it. When Parin tells Mercer that she wants to stay his slave, she asks to never have an orgasm again, since it helps her stay focused on him and his needs, and that his pleasure his all that’s necessary. However, he says that if he denies her permanently, he doesn’t get to listen to her beg and see her disappointment when he says no. However, he tells her that he will make her edge a certain amount of times, and then he will let her come, and keep her coming until she can’t come anymore. Then he will put her back in her cage until she has him back as her focus.

I mention this particularly for a reason. That’s because Sophie made a change right before she submitted it for publishing. I’m in her ARC group and she asked for feedback on the original ending as opposed to this new part. I fully, truly, deeply support and love this. It’s devious and evil and I think it really suits the relationship well. And the cage has a special meaning for Parin and Mercer. It’s her safe place when she needs a break, and a place he can send her when he’s unhappy with her.

Anyway, I love these characters and this world so much. Parin and Mercer won’t leave my head at all, which is a sign of a good book. I will have this series, and especially this book on reread, frequently, I think. In places, it will probably be a one-handed reread.

This book is intense, but the payoff at the end, not just for Parin and Mercer, but for the entire series and all the women of Midros, is worth all the intensity. Do read this.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest and voluntary review, so that’s what you got.

2 Draekons, No Waiting

Draekon Fire is the second book of Dragon’s in Exile series by Lili Zander and Lee Savino. Lili Zander is Tara Crescent’s Sci-fi pen name. Check out her books, especially if you like menages. Lee also writes several other series, including her Berserker series, hot Viking and Celtic werewolves. Most of those books are also MFM menages. MFM means no guys getting friendly, whereas MMF does mean the guys are more than happy to jump each other as well as their lady.

A little history on this series. In Draekon Mate, several Earth women are headed to Zoraht, as the first humans headed there. The Zorahn had showed up on Earth and handed out cures for cancer, among other things. The Earth women are going back with the Zorahn as part of an agreement for more medical technology. After takeoff, the women are put into stasis for the long journey.

Fast forward, and some of the Zorahn aboard caused the shuttle to crash on the planet where the Zorahn had exiled the males who tested positive for the Draekon gene. The women wake up from stasis as the ship is crashing on the planet. Some of the women decide to go out and look for food and water. One, Viola, runs into two hot alien guys, Arax and Nyx, who turn into dragons as soon as they see her. When they turn back, they tell her she’s their mate.

Now to Draekon Fire. Another of the women, Harper, brushed against an orange fungus and fell into a coma in the first book. When all the women were rescued from the crashed shuttle and brought up to the plateau where the Draekon live during the rainy season, the Draekon who was the medic looked at her and realized that she was his mate.

Vulrux, the medic, and Dennox, a former elite warrior, had found a mate before. They changed to their dragon form and then watched their mate be gunned down in front of them.

When Arax and Nyx found their mate, everyone thought that they were the first Draekon to find a mate, and Vulrux and Dennox didn’t disabuse them of that idea, or tell anyone that Harper was their mate.

When Harper wakes up from her coma, she wakes up to find out that there are two hot aliens who say that she is their mate. She wants nothing to do with them because she wants to go back to Earth. The other women have had time to come to grips with being trapped on the prison planet, but for Harper, it is really day one.

Arax, the leader of their group, tells Harper, Vulrux, and Dennox that they have to spend time together so that they can get to know each other. If, by the end of the rainy season, she doesn’t want them, then they don’t have to bond.

Warning, after this is my opinion, and spoilers may happen. If you don’t want to risk it, then just be aware that I love this book and I recommend it heartily. Both this book and the first one are on Kindle Unlimited.

You have been warned.

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Since we got a lot of exposition in the first book, in DF, we don’t have to get a lot of the backstory in this book, but we do see Dennox and his mate, who he doesn’t know is his mate, being tested on, like lab rats. We also see the order given to kill the un-named woman. We find out that it was Raiht’vi, the Highborn scientist who had been on the shuttle with the women. She was young at the time, only 15, and an apprentice. Her father was the high muckety-muck when it came to science, so he wanted her to be doing the illegal experiments. Vulrux is the Third Born, the third most powerful person on Zoraht, and he broke into the secret lab where the experimentation was going on, saw Dennox and the female and promptly turned into a dragon, along with Dennox.

Raiht’vi’s father helped cover up all the experimentation by making sure that D & V are sent to the prison planet, since they were Draekon. He also made sure that no one knew his daughter was involved, which let her go on to become a highly ranked scientist.

Poor Dennox and Vulrux have been stuck for 60 years having the only memory of the mate they have is her being killed right in front of them. Harper is a breath of fresh air and a second chance for them. However, they may be shit out of luck, because Harper doesn’t care if their dragon dicks are magical, she’s not interested.

So, of course, the question is going to be how long can she hold out? I mean, I’m not sure I would be able to. Yeah, I would be upset and scared when I woke up on a strange planet after being in a crash and a coma, but I would have a hard time fighting off the biological draw and the attention of two males who want me to be the center of their universe.

I’ve read just about everything that Lee has written, and she’s one of the authors I 1-click. Tara/Lili is pretty new to me, but what I’ve read of her stuff is pretty good. I have a set of books from Lili on my Kindle right now. They look good, hot, and funny. I like that combination.

If you like reading about menages, dragons, alien worlds, hot sex, romances, or any combination thereof, I definitely suggest that you check out these books on Amazon.

I received an ARC so that I could share my honest review, and that’s what you got.

 

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