Tag: Dark

Amo Jones-Antichrist

OK, if you’ve read the blog for a bit, you know that I like dark and mindfucks. So when I say that this book fucked my mind over but good, trust me. And, boy howdy, is my brain still all in a tizzy over Antichrist. I often joke that I curse the name of the author when I get to the end of a book that just left me wow, but I really did say “WTF, Amo Jones, just fucking fuck you” when I read the last words in this book. My husband just looked at me with his eyebrows raised, since it seemed to come out of nowhere. But yeah.

This book does jump around in time a bit. It starts out 2 years in the future, then jumps back a few years in the past, then we get to the present time. We get flashbacks to the past throughout.

I’m going to start in the past. We start out with Meraki. She is hanging out with the guy she’s kind of dating, Luca, and her best friends, Niko, Cece, who is dating Niko, Ari, Niko’s twin brother, Jer, and Mira. They are all tight, but Meraki and Niko have a special connection. They can’t seem to stay away from each other, even as they are tied to other people. But something terrible happens, and Niko leaves.

Meraki ends up in an open relationship with Luca. We get the idea that it isn’t a perfect relationship, but she says she loves him and he says that he loves her. Meraki has no idea where Niko is. Jer moved away years ago. Ari is gone. She still has her good friends Cece and Mira. She also has her dream dance academy, and she uses it to help underprivileged kids to dance and to go somewhere with their life. Everything seems to be going OK, until all of a sudden it stops. She hears the roar of a motorcycle, and it’s Niko.

Niko, AKA Antichrist, has patched into the Seven Knights MC. He’s been in a different chapter for the last several years, but things have happened that means he has to come, and it’s an open secret that he is going to be the pres of the home chapter. He sees Meraki, and he’s as drawn to her as ever.

There is a lot that happens in this book. And there is a lot that is dark, and some that is very dark. There are some very not nice people in this, and Meraki and Niko both find themselves wrapped up in all kinds of things.

I like Meraki, overall. I think that she is very strong. She has had to be. She is also devious and secretive. I don’t think that she’s a good person or a bad person. She is just a person who is filled with flaws and foibles. It is hard to like or dislike her all the time, especially as the story unfolds and we learn more about her, her past, and her future.

You remember how I said Meraki is devious and secretive? Well, she looks like a neophyte when it comes to Niko. He holds all the secrets in the world and he will weaponize them, if necessary. He is tough to like, but I think that he likes it that way, and purposely makes himself unlikable. He is really interesting though. There is a lot going on in his head most of the time, and you can just see his brain working all the time.

Like I said. I cursed Amo’s name at the end, and if you read it, you will likely curse her too. The book is still in my head, and that ending was just… I still can’t completely define it.

OK, that’s all for this one. If you like dark and twisty, definitely go check this one out. Happy reading!

Dani Rene-A Death to Seek

It’s been a minute since I’ve had a Dani Rene book on my blog, so I think it’s time to fix that. A Death to Seek is the 3rd book in the Thornes & Roses series, and it’s the last one in this series. You could probably read this as a standalone, if you wanted. There are mentions of Finn’s brothers and their wives, which are the subjects of the first two books, but nothing that is really going to make it hard for you to get caught up in this book. Mostly any mentions of the prior couples have a small explanation around it for people who haven’t read the other two. You will, of course, enjoy this story more if you have read the other two.

I’m going to do something that I very rarely do. I’m going to give you a trigger warning about this series. Each book deals with a difficult subject, and they can be hard for people to read. The first book deals with self-injury, the second with addiction, and this one deals with suicide. Dani doesn’t glorify the subjects, but they are talked about, and they can be triggering for some people. Please be careful of yourself and read responsibly.

Finn is the youngest of the 3 Thorne brothers, but he is as broken as his other two brothers. The fact that his mother walked away from the family when he was young, which really hurt him since they were close. Then, he lost his first love in a terrible way. He was almost frozen until he met Jarred. Meeting Jarred was an amazing thing for him, because Finn woke up and realized that Jarred was everything for him.

Jarred had run away from home years before, and drifted around the country until he ended up in Thorne Haven, and was hired as a gardener by Finn’s dad. He saw all the very attractive Thorne boys, but it was Finn that caught his attention, and that was all she wrote.

Several years after Jarred and Finn started their relationship, it’s still going, but in secret. They are relatively happy in their relationship, but things are about to change. Finn’s dad has just told him that he’s about to get married. It’s an arranged marriage to a young woman named Zaria.

Zaria is just 18. Her father has just committed suicide, her mother isn’t emotionally available, and Zaria is expected to portray the perfect princess. She’s an influencer on social media, but she gets all kinds of horrible comments, and they are so hard on her. But, she just puts that all inside a little box, and tries to repress it, but it never works.

Jarred, Finn, and Zaria are all broken in different ways. They have each been abandoned in one way or another, and they are all afraid of that happening again. They all have walls, although Jarred and Finn have been together long enough that they have broken down some of those walls. Zaria is willing to work on breaking down her walls as long as they are going to work on breaking down their walls too.

There is some drama, because there is always some drama. But, there is also a lot of love, some really hot sexy times, and a lot of people growing up and figuring out who they are.

This was a great book, and it is was the perfect end to the series. It is a good series, and I do recommend it, just be careful of yourself if you might be triggered by the things that I mentioned. I’m not too proud to admit that while I read some dark, dark, dark stuff, there are things that trigger me, and I have to be careful sometimes.

OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

K. Webster-Triple Threat

K is back with the start of an interesting duet. Triple Threat features the identical triplets from the Cinderella books. You remember, the assholes who terrorized Ash? Yeah, that’s them. And I’m not gonna say that they aren’t still assholes.

So, after the events of last books, Scout, Sparrow, and Sully are living with their uncle and are now part of the Morelli crime family. They have to do whatever their uncle tells them to do, and some of them like that and some of them hate it. The latest thing that they have to do is to try and seduce a young woman named Landry. The catch is that the S boys have to do it as the same person. Scout, Sparrow, and Sully will all pretend to be Ford Mann, and see Landry at different places. Their goal is to make her fall in love with Ford.

Landry is the isolated princess in the tower. Her father has kept her isolated from everything. Even now, as a young adult, she doesn’t have the ability to do anything. Landry has no friends, doesn’t date, doesn’t go to college, doesn’t work, does nothing. All she really does is stay home and be perfect for her father, and try to stand in between him and her younger sister. Landry is counting down the days until Della is old enough that they can get away from their father, but she still has 12 years to wait. Their father hates Della because his wife died in childbirth with her. Della is Deaf and uses ASL to communicate, but daddy dearest isn’t happy about that.

Anyway, the books starts with dear old dad coming home from Tokyo. His company has just made a huge merger with a company in Tokyo. Now he wants to make some connections in town. He’s going to use Landry and marry her off to a scion of the family he wants to connect to. That’s what the S’s uncle hopes to derail.

Daddy dear has decided that Landry can go to college, and loosens up his control just enough to send her to college, which gives the first opening for Ford to contact her. The next Ford comes to the house to teach Della how to speech read. The 3rd Ford is actually working directly for daddy darling, and is going to try to derail things that way.

OK, remember how I said that Sparrow, Sully, and Scout were assholes before and I wasn’t going to say that they weren’t? Well, they both are and aren’t. Scout is a huge asshole, most of the time. Sparrow and Sully can kind of be assholes sometimes. They are all still tight, and they support their brothers no matter what, but they bicker and poke at each other. They are possessive and competitive with each other. But, you also get the real sense that is the 3 of them against the world, even if their uncle is right there.

Each of the guys has his own way of interacting with Landry. Even Scout, who isn’t ever supposed to really see her, does see her and interacts with her. It’s confusing to Landry, and I’m not surprised, because the silly boys don’t really talk to each other and tell each other everything about their interactions with Landry.

Landry is in a helluva spot. There is so much more going on with her dad than we know. We get some hints of stuff that is happening or that has happened. And really, I just want to do horrible things to the man. Landry has a really loving heart, especially towards her sister. She is really protective. She’s also a consummate actress, which she has had to become, and that really sucks. She walks on tiptoes around just so that she can be seen as perfect all the time. I really like her, and I’m really pulling for her.

I like all the boys too, even Scout. There is a lot going on behind his eyes, and I can’t wait to find out more about him.

I really am dying for the next part of this duet, because the way that this one ended left me screaming.

OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

Cari Silverwood-His Keepsake

Cari is back with a very edgy book. His Keepsake is all about consensual non-consent. Now, Cari’s books often walk the edge, but this one comes up to the line, jumps up and down over it, delicately crosses it, and then turns around to snort it. There are times when this book could be upsetting for people who have issues with nonconsensual sex scenes, so do be aware of it.

We start with Emme, who is kinky AF, but for whom most D/s and kink just doesn’t work. She is really into CNC, with it leaning a little more into the NC aspect than the C aspect. She wants to feel forced, to have that decision taken from her, and to have her power taken from her. So, she talks to her friend Charity and arranges for a Dom that Charity knows to abduct her for the week. Emme doesn’t know who the man is, but they have been texting back and forth so that they can set things up, including a code word he is supposed to give her when he first grabs her, so that she knows it’s him. The book opens on the night it’s supposed to happen. Charity and Emme are talking about it in a restaurant, but they don’t realize that Mr. Scott is behind them, listening to every word out of their mouth.

You see, Mr. Scott and Emme have something in common. They are both kinky AF and they both like CNC, with the emphasis on nonconsensual. He decided that he was going to follow Emme, just to make sure that some weirdo doesn’t grab her. Not because he’s interested in her, because no, that would be illegal. And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you in the Atacama Desert.

So, Mr. Scott decides that he’s going to grab Emme. She doesn’t know if it’s the guy who is supposed to grab her or not. He tells her he isn’t, but the mindfuck is part of what Emme wants, so surely he’s just playing into that, and he’s the guy Charity arranged. At least, that’s what Emme keeps telling herself. She’s not 100% sure that she believes it though. She really wants to, because that means that she’s going to be safe, but she just can’t be sure. And if she isn’t safe, that means that this is real and not some kind of super edgy role play.

I love that good mindfuck. A good mindfuck always makes for a good read for me. It is edgy, it is dark, and while we might know what is happening because Cari is telling us, it’s easy to put ourselves into Emme’s head and see everything through her eyes and see why she feels the way that she feels. I love her struggle to understand and to try and make things fit with the facts that she may or may not have.

There are places in this book that really skirt the edges and are very twisted. I’m not kinkshaming our characters or anyone, since CNC fantasies are really prevalent, especially among women, but there are a couple of places where it feels less fantasy and more real, if you can get the difference.

This was a really great story, and there really is a lot in there to dig into. Sadly for you, I won’t go any further into any of it because I don’t want to ruin anything. And I’ve already deleted a couple of paragraphs because I think they went a little close to the line. But, if you want a kinky good time, then go check this one out. Happy reading!

Hailey Turner-A Veiled & Hallowed Eve

This is the 7th book in Hailey’s Soulbound series, and it is absolutely, positively NOT a standalone. You 110% have to have read the other 6 books in the series before you read A Veiled & Hallowed Eve. I highly recommend this series, I mean, very highly. It’s an MM series that has shifters, dragons, mages, and gods who walk among us. The world that Hailey created is beautiful, deadly, and feels oh so very real.

OK, so we have Patrick. He’s a combat mage who survived a previous god war. Because of damage taken in that war, he is no longer in the military, but works for a branch of the government now. It’s like the FBI, but for supernatural things. He’s based in NYC, with his boyfriend, wolf shifter Jono.

The past 6 books have been one battle after another. Each book has had its own unique battle, but they are all tied together in one overall storyline. And now, we have come to the end. I am going to be very careful with spoilers here, because pretty much everything I say could be a spoiler, so the synopsis is going to be really broad. Go read the books, trust me, all the ins and outs are worth it.

It’s nearly Samhain, the day that the veil between this world and all others is thinnest. It’s also the time that the Dominion Sect is going to make their big move. It has to be Samhain when it happens, because the bad guy wants to turn himself into a god and bring all the hells to Earth, and the hell dimensions will be closer that day.

Jono and Patrick are both exhausted. They’ve been fighting for such a long time, and right now they are fighting a war of attrition against hunters and demons. And it’s still weeks until the big day.

I really like Patrick and Jono, together and apart. Patrick is a very good man who has had a bunch of shit handed to him in his relatively short life. He’s been taught and trained as a weapon, and been used as that for the majority of his life. He’s self-sacrificing and the majority of the higher powers and authorities in his life have taken advantage of that fact. People have lied to and for him for most of his life. There are reasons why many of those lies have been told, but that doesn’t mean that the truth isn’t going to hurt him when if/when he finds out about it. I understand the reasoning behind why they have done what they have done, but it doesn’t mean that they ever had Patrick’s best interests at heart. Frankly, I think that there is only one adult in Patrick’s younger life who had his interests at heart, and I think that person kept him centered as much as they were able to.

Then there’s Jono. Jono will always make sure that he has Patrick’s best interests first. He will make sure that Patrick will take care of himself even if he doesn’t want to. Jono makes Patrick a better person, in all the best ways. Jono’s life hasn’t been perfect, but he had a better start than Patrick, and he’s determined to make sure that Patrick knows how valued and valuable he is and how much he is loved. Jono is a loving, caring person, who is very loyal to his friends. He will make decisions based on that loyalty so that he can protect those who are important to him. I think that he and Patrick really complement each other quite well.

I have loved every book in this series. They have all kept me right on the edge of my seat, and I gobbled them up. I was really sad to see this series end, because of just how good it was. Because we follow one main couple and their friends and family through the whole series, we really get to know Patrick, Jono, and all their associates.

This one has a lot going on. But it’s not an overwhelming, even though there is a lot of action. It does nicely tie everything up in a very satisfying way. When I was done reading it, I just sighed a very happy sigh, because I was really happy with what happened.

Kay Elle Parker-Walk For Me

This is the 4th book in Kay’s Club Avalon series. It’s also her very first Daddy book. And if anything, I think that Walk For Me shows that Kay should just write some more Daddy books, because this one was really good. So, let’s talk about Alicia and Atticus. This can be read as a standalone, there’s no real big overall storyline like in some series, but there is stuff discussed in this book that happens in previous books.

After the events in the last book, Alicia has been put into a residential facility because her mental health ain’t great, Connie has melted down and is putting herself back together, and Bodie has a high risk pregnancy that means she can’t give Lisha the care that she needs. All the Masters get together and find this facility that’s supposed to be top of the line, and Alicia will be getting all kinds of help. It’s only supposed be temporary, but events happen that made that temporary time a little longer. Now it’s been months, and no one has talked to or seen Alicia in quite some time. Atticus is done with it. He’s going to go in and talk to Alicia and tell her that she needs to at least talk to Connie.

When Atticus gets into the facility, he finds out that it isn’t anywhere near what his investigator said it was like. In fact, it is so far away from what they thought it was that it might as well be on a different planet. Alicia is laying in her own filth, has had her head shaved, can’t get to her wheelchair, and is starving. Worse, she’s accepted that she’s going to die soon, and has stopped fighting. Then in comes Atticus. He sees her, grabs her out of her bed, and puts her into her wheelchair. Then he gets mean, not to Alicia, but to everyone else. He calls the cops, the state, everyone he can call, because she isn’t the only patient there in shit shape.

Atticus takes her to his house, where he already has a space that he has remodeled for her and her needs. Then he calls everyone to let them know what has happened and starts taking care Alicia.

OK, I really didn’t like Alicia in the last book. But, that’s more about all the circumstances surrounding what was going on with Connie and how Connie’s and Lisha’s issues were feeding into each other. I know that Connie thinks that she’s Wonder Woman, but I don’t think that she had enough bandwidth to handle Lisha’s stuff then. She tried though. And she really bonded with Alicia, so that’s all good. As we learn more about Alicia in this book, I really liked her more. Frankly, I’m glad that she killed her parents, because they really, really needed to die. And for more than what we already knew. My youngest brother was a wheelchair user, and some of what we learn about Alicia’s past made me really angry, because I know how vulnerable people with disabilities can be.

I really do like her a lot more now. I do think that she really grew a lot during this book, and a lot of that is down to Atticus, but she learned her own strength in this and in her own value. I think that she might still need to have some growth, but she done good.

Atticus is such a Daddy. He wants to Daddy everyone, up to and including all the other Masters. He’s a merc in his real life, but frankly, even that could be seen as result of his Daddy-ness. I mean, seriously, he’s a Daddy. He really is a good man, even if he has to do someone bad things on occasion, and yup, he does that. I pretty much fell right in love with Atticus when we first met him.

This book really did break me at times. There are some places where it is really hard to read, and it did make me cry. But, the thing is, it put me back together too. Yeah, I cried, but then I would read how much Atticus loved Alicia and what he would say to her, and then I felt like I was all wrapped up in that love too.

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

Eris Adderly-The Mortal Coil

Before I start this review, I have 3 facts to tell you. 1) I love, love, love Greek mythology. 2) I’ve been playing a lot of Hades, so I knew who Asterion was before he explained himself in the book. 3) I had to live with The Mortal Coil for a couple of days before I could talk about it. I had feelings and thoughts to process about it.

So, this is the story of Perseus and Medousa. (Note, if you see familiar names spelled oddly, I’m spelling them the way that Eris did, and since she’s the Greek goddess of strife and discord, let’s go with it.) Now, in the myth, Perseus slew Medousa, and used her head to petrify the Kraken, and save Andromeda. But, that would probably be a short book if that’s what happened here.

We open with Medousa laying broken on the stairs to one of Grey Eyed Athena’s temples. She’s just been raped by Poseidon Pelagaios. She tells Poseidon that she was never his prize and she told him to stop. But, yeah, he doesn’t go for that. He did the whole you were gagging for it thing. When he leaves, Medousa curses him, whereupon Athena appears. Medousa appeals to Athena and says look what happened to me on your stairs. She wants vengeance. Medousa asks the goddess to let her turn men into stone, and the goddess agrees, but exacts a price, Medousa’s wings and immortality. (Note the second, the Gorgon sisters had wings, snake bodies from the waist down, and snakes for hair, and they can turn into a woman.)

Fast forward many years, we have Perseus, Son of Olympos. His father is Zeus, his mother is Danae of Argos. Zeus appeared as a shower of gold, knocked up Danae, whose father locked her in a chest with her baby, and then threw them in the sea. We meet Perseus when he is fighting the Kêtos, so that he can rescue Andromeda. He can’t take her to her home, since her father is the one who had her pinned out for the Kêtos to eat. Perseus was going to take her to a friend, but the friend can’t take her. While they are the friend’s location, a man tries to rape Andromeda, but is turned to stone by the Bane of Men. Then Andromeda is invited to an island where there are no men, where she can be safe. She chooses to go to with Perseus, who decides that he’s going to take her to his mom and to the man he considers his father, Diktys.

When they get to Perseus’ home, it turns out that the king, Polydektes, has taken Danae and has held her for weeks. Perseus goes to the palace to get it, but then he finds out that Polydeketes, who probably should be named Poly-dick, isn’t going to give her up, and he’s planning on marrying her. He tells Perseus that the only way to get her back is to bring him the head of the Bane of Men, Medousa the Gorgon. As he’s walking out, Asterion runs after him. Polydektes sent Asterion to go with Perseus, so he can bring back Perseus’ dead body. We also find out that these two guys are cousins, and Asterion wants to help Perseus.

There is a lot that goes into this book, a lot that happens, and there are a lot of things that were really painful to read sometimes. While we don’t see all of Medousa’s rape, we see the end of it, and we also get to see the fall out from it, and really experience the raw emotions of Medousa afterwards. We also get to see her emotions, thoughts, and actions over the years after the rape.

Perseus is neither a bad man or a good man. He has a lot of good and some bad in him, which makes him very much just a man. I think that he’s honorable, at least by his standards of honor. I also think that in a lot of places, he’s very much a man of his times, and he doesn’t get all that introspective all that often. He’s a mercenary, he’s relatively good at it, and he wants to be seen as Perseus, not Son of Olympos, or Golden Son, or Destroyer.

I like the way that Perseus changes over the story. I think that he truly becomes a better person through his journey. He grows, a lot, and thinks about a lot of things that he experiences during the story and looks at his past through new eyes.

Medousa has a very similar journey, I think. She is extremely honorable. She has developed rules that she follows scrupulously, even when her sister Sthenno, who is more than a little bloodthirsty, urges Medousa to break all her rules. But, she won’t, because while Athena told her to rule herself after the curse was placed upon her, the only person holding Medousa to that is herself. I liked watching her questioning her mind, her actions, and her behaviors.

Like I said, I love Greek mythology, and I love how Eris handles the mythology in this book. I think that she is pretty close to the myth, but in another way, she’s really far away from it. Which sounds really weird, but it really does work. She also really makes the myths human and accessible, and gives them a real explanation vs. what the myth says, if that makes sense. For example, we get Asterion’s story. He’s the Minotaur, and we find out what really happened when he was conceived. The myth is that his mother was so enamored of a sacred bull of Poseidon that had been given to her husband, King Minos, that she gets Daedalus to make a hollow cow for her to hide in, and she entices the bull. Of course, the story is different when Asterion tells it.

I’ve always kind of had a soft spot for Medousa. I think that she got a raw deal from history. I honestly cannot tell you how much I love Eris’ take on the Medousa and Perseus story, because I think that she finally gets what she deserves. It also kind of just turns the whole myth on its head, which is always good.

If you like Greek mythology, or just love an incredibly strong female character, you need to read this book. I can’t do it justice in my review. There is just so much in the book that it would take me days and days and days to talk about it. I can say that Perseus and Medousa are going to live in my head for a good long time, and that’s a good thing.

So, go check it out! Happy reading!

This is my favorite statue of Medousa. She’s supposed to be holding Perseus’ head, as a reversal of the famous statue of Perseus holding her head. Instead, I prefer to think that she’s holding Poseidon’s head, and has gotten her vengeance against him.

Medusa With the Head of Perseus

Felicity Brandon-Doctored

This is the 3rd book in Felicity’s Men of Honor series. The series, or at least the ones with Alice, have a very heavy Alice in Wonderland vibe. Doctored is an Alice book, and her partner is Dr. Oscar Hatton, who has a hat habit, and is also known as the Mad Hatter.

Here is a quick history of the story. The Men of Honor aren’t actually all that honorable. They are a huge crime network. Oscar is the doctor of the bunch, and he makes sure that everyone is as healthy as possible. Alice is an MI5 agent who was sent in to shut him down. Only Oscar and his buddy, the head of his group knew who she was when she came in, and they took her. And she became Oscar’s.

So, this one starts off some time after the first book, in which Alice was captured. She’s been the Mad Hatter’s captive, and he has kept her tied up, bound, gagged, and done all kinds of deliciously dirty things to her. She likes it, but she tries really hard not to, because she’s supposed to fight to get free of him, and she’s still trying to keep her eyes open for ways to escape, because as an MI5 agent, that’s what she’s supposed to do.

Oscar leaves her tied up, but she manages to get out, and is waiting for him when he comes back. She kicks the fuck out of him, and escapes his room, stark ass naked, whereupon the Cheshire cat helps her escape and she makes it back to MI5.

I like Alice. I do think that she has a real stubborn streak, and I think that is a good thing, at least part of the time. It has served her well in the past, and helped her get to where she is in MI5. But, I think that there are times that she isn’t helped much by the stubborn streak, but it is hard to turn that off. I do think that she also has a bit of a blind spot, at least when it comes to MI5. I want to say that she’s naïve, but I’m really not sure that naïve is the right word for it. But the flavor is there, at least.

Oscar doesn’t have the same issue, but I think that he has some blindness of his own. Or maybe some obliviousness. I think that it is going to be interesting to see what happens with him and Alice. I think there are going to be some really interesting things happening.

OK, that’s all for this one. Happy reading!

Skye Warren-Strict Confidence

Strict Confidence is the 2nd book in Skye’s Rochester trilogy. This is a modern day retelling of Jane Eyre, with suspense, twists, and a whole lot more sex. Plus a cute Kitten. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite classic novels, so I was really excited to get into this series. And at the end of book two, I’m still really excited.

Warning, there will likely be spoilers from the first book in this review. The first book was a cliffhanger, so we’re picking up right where we were left. If you haven’t read the first one, and you want to avoid spoilers, this is the time to jump.

So, the house has burned down, Jane and Paige is in the hospital, and Beau is grumpy. Well, grumpier. He’s upset about the fire. He’s upset that Jane was hurt. He’s upset that Paige is hurt. Basically he’s just upset. It doesn’t help that the cop in charge of investigating the fire was a bully to Beau when he was a kid. And, oh, he’s also Paige’s uncle, and he fought Beau for custody of Paige. I mean, obviously he lost, but Joe isn’t a nice guy.

Joe sneaks in and tries to interview Jane, and he says some horrible things. He only stops when Beau walks in and chases him out. Turns out that he had tried to sneak in to question Paige too, but Beau’s friend Mateo was there protecting her. Beau decides that they are all leaving the hospital and takes them to the inn that he has rented. Beau is going to do everything he can to keep them safe.

I think that Beau is really hurting. I mean, he’s been hurt by pretty much everyone close to him in his whole life. His brother bullied him and competed with him, and even stole the woman he was in love with. The woman that Beau loved left him without saying anything. Now, he’s hurting, he’s positive that he’s poison, and he does what he can to protect himself by being this gruff, grumpy asshole. He tells Jane that his love is dangerous, and I can see where he thinks that’s true. I don’t necessarily think that, but I can understand why he does.

I think that Jane is really smart, incredibly compassionate, and very wise. She’s done wonders with Paige, who really needs someone who can take care of her and help her break through her trauma. I think that Jane can do that because of her experiences and just from her innate compassion. I really like Jane. I do wish that she protected her heart a little more, but I think part of that is just because she’s young.

I really can’t wait to see what happens next, because the end of this one? Oh yeah.

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

Nia Farrell & Claire Marta-Rory

So, hey! I’m back! I had a nice break, watched a lot of TV, read a lot of books, played some games, and got high. Living in the land of legal weed and medical weed delivery is nice. I feel more like myself, and I have more energy than I’ve had in a couple of months. My husband has gotten both his shots, my son and I have both gotten our first shots. I’ve sprinkled wildflower seeds over part of my backyard, outside my kitchen, so I can stare at them while I’m working. And I can order Vanilla Coke from the grocery store again. Now that all that’s been said, let’s talk about today’s book, shall we?

Rory is the first book, sort of, in the 2nd season of Guarded Hearts. We first meet them in the Twisted Steel MC anthology. I haven’t read that story yet, but I just bought it, so I’ll be reading their story sometime today. I think that I was fine without having the backstory, but I think that it will just make things better to have read that.

So, Quake is a member of the Hell’s Fury MC. They are The Order of the Dragon, another cadre of gargoyles. Instead of being artisans and cloistered the way that the last set of gargoyles are, these guys are a motorcycle club. That comes along with a lot of drinking and fucking. The boys visit a strip club/brothel that is full of shifters, so they have a group of women who they aren’t keeping in the dark. One of those women is called Magenta, because of her hair color. She and Quake really hit it off well, and eventually they have some kind of relationship. But, some evil jackal shifters kidnap her and do terrible things. After that, she runs away, while Quake is away. She spent some time in rehab because she couldn’t control her shifting, and she met Sydney there. Sydney became her best friend and together they started a lingerie and sex toy business called Lady Chatterly’s Lover.

It’s now been a year. Rory, AKA Magenta, is living her best life, mostly. She is living with Syd, and her baby Quinn. She still has flashbacks to things that happened, and she still does have security on call, headed up by Guy. She is planning on living for Quinn, and to hell with everything and everyone else. Then Quake shows up. And all of a sudden, her best life ain’t all that great any more. She immediately tells him to leave her alone and calls her security so that she can be protected.

Quake is in New York with some of his brother, visiting the Order of the Phoenix when all hell breaks loose. In the wake of that, he discovers where Rory is working and goes to see her. He’s shocked to find out that she wants to have nothing to do with him. He follows her to her house and finds out that there is a man and another woman there, along with a baby. He figures that the kid is the child of the woman holding him, which would be Sydney, and that the man is the baby daddy, that would be Guy. With that “evidence” in front of his face, he decides that Rory is in some kind of triad with those two.

They manage to stay apart for a while, right up until Quinn gets kidnapped by the trusted nanny. Quake steps in with his brothers to help find Quinn.

I like Quake, but sometimes I want to just knock his head into a wall because he’s being a stupid asshole. I know that he’s trying to do his best, and he’s trying to be a good man, which he is, I think, but he just lets his assumptions get the better of him. Because he lets that happen, he sometimes makes some really huge mistakes, which is when I want to just smack him and tell him to stop, look, and use his brain. He really is a good guy. He has such a good heart, and we get to see it over and over in this. He is really loyal to his friends and his family. He’s also really strong and is willing to stand up for a lot of people.

Rory is remarkable. She has overcome a whole lot and has managed to put herself back together and build herself up. She is really strong, she’s a loving mother, and she’s a good friend. I really like her. I really admire her and think that she deserves all the good things.

I am seriously mad at Sydney and Guy. They can just fix themselves.

OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out!

%d bloggers like this: