Undercover Duke (Duke Dynasty #4)

Oh, this was wonderful conclusion to this series. There is action, and love (maybe?) wishes and family history and drama that will satisfy the romantic in all of us. Ms. Jefferies had created another family you want to make your own.

Sebastian Wolfe, the Duke of Armitage is still looking for the person that killed his father, and talking with his brothers, they know think the same person has killed all their mother’s husbands. Focusing on the three women, who are know their mothers-in-law, that were all at the same house parties as their mother when her first two husbands were killed.

Sebastian is supposed to be talking to Lady Eustance, since Grey’s wife is in confinment awaiting the birth of their child, Grey can’t do so. The problem for Sebastian lays in the fact that Lady Eustance comes with Grey’s younger cousin, Vanessa Pryde. While he is too poor to entice Lady Eustance, Vanessa is a woman he can’t help but want. Event though his past has taught him that he should not, it hurts too much when they go away.

Vanessa Pryde has put it out in the family that she is in love with a poet and playwright, too keep Sebastian from looking too closely at her. She loves him and knows that is his not looking to marry, but wants to get him to like her for her, not Grey’s little cousin who he feels obligated to look after.

Sebastian Wolfe, Saint Sebastian as he is known, Duke of Armitage looses his cool when he catches Vanessa kissing her poet, and gets caught by her mother and uncle kissing her like only a husband should in a park. He offers for her, as he should, and secretly wants too.

Vanessa is elated and depressed by the fact they are to be married. Was it jealously that made Sebastian kiss her like that? Did he really want her as a wife? Their wedding night put part of those questions to rest, but not all. And she learned how many other secrets and history this family hides from the tonn.

Will they figure out who has been stalking the former Duchess? Will Sebastian be able to find the monies to save his estate? Will Vanessa get her heart broken by her new husband’s dead fiancee? You must pick up this five star read and find out. Ms. Jefferies had created another world within the Regency area that brings into a family and their loves and history. Thank you so much.

Princess of Belaria

This is the first book by a new author, Taisha Speters. I had the privilege of listening to the first part of this in our critique group, and it was delightful. As soon as it came out I rushed to get it, and finally got a chance to read it.

Marsais Corbin is 17, a normal high school senior, except all of sudden her best friend – and secret crush – suddenly asks her to be his girlfriend. Oh, wow, that is great! But before she can enjoy it, she gets ill and ends up in a hospital for months in a coma. She can hear everything perfectly, just can feel or see or communicate. But a woman keeps coming to her dreams, not the same one in her dreams she has been having since she was six, but she looks like her.

Now, Marsais knows she is adopted, knows her mother is most likely dead, but now the doctors are saying she is dying too, then it all changes.

Going back to school seems the thing to do, to try to catch up on 4 months of missed assignments to keep her scholarship to her dream collage, and stay with her friends she’s had most of her life. But a new girl joins the school, and makes fast friends with her, and seems to pull her away from her old friends. Is she friend or foe? All of sudden her old nemesis keeps trying to close to her, telling her this new girl is bad news. Does she mean her ill or is something changing there as well?

And her boyfriend? Well, he seems to know this new girl quiet well, and Marsais finds them kissing…. opps, not good things happen when she loses her temper.

She is told she is a witch, not just any witch, a princess with a kingdom to rule, if she can defeat her grandfather the king.

Adventure, romance, unexpected allies and new friends mix and mingle with the old to craft a fun, exciting and well written book that you will lose yourself in happily and not emerge from until the last page which leaves you wanting more. Taisha Speters, thank you for sharing your world with us.

The Handler (The Bratva Romance #2)

This book is a Stand alone novel in Vi Carters Dark Mafia Romances. I picked it up and literally could not put it down. I read it straight through. Five starts all the way the the steam that rises off the pages is hot enough to burn.

Lucca is a man with a past, he is a dark hero that will burn the world down to keep his girl safe, and though Evie wasn’t his to keep, he decided he was going to keep her. And turned the Bratva Mafia on it’s ear to do so.

Evie was a child that loved the water. Once might have called her a selki, had this been a paranormal romance. She was playing one night in the water, and found a girl that needed her help, she tried to help but the that night the water stole her away and turned her over to human traffickers, she was ten. She was cossetted and trained to be the perfect bride for some wealthy buyer. She was kept pure and innocent.

Lucca is called in by his boss, to investigate a ship load of the women Evie lived with that had been kidnapped away. Evie was the only one that had survived. Now Lucca had to cut through her lies and find out the truth and the other 6 women. But once he had Evie under his control his darker nature came out. Lucca feared no one, he worked for his boss because it was convenient, and he needed people like Igor to keep him in check. Now he was didn’t want those checks and balances, he wanted Evie, and he would kill his own men to keep her.

Evie knew things, she was well trained for which ever man bought her. But she had experienced nothing. For eight years she had been groomed to be a bought bride. Now she was in the hands of Lucca, a man that didn’t play by any rules she knew, and saw through her lies. Now he was too close to figuring out who her parents were, and she had to keep them safe at all costs. But she also had to help get back her sisters that had tried to abandon the night they had been taken.

Can Lucca and Evie find happiness in this dark world they inhabit? Can Lucca let himself feel, just for one person, something that was trained out of him? You have pick up this book and find out. You will not be able to put down this excellently crafted story until the end and then you might take a breath again.

Thank you, Ms. Carter, for sharing your stories and worlds with us.

Above and Beyond: Bronco Boys #6 by Andrew Gray

Above and Beyond is the last book in the Bronco Boys series.  I put off reading it because this has to be one of my favorite series, from the first time Zach giggled every time Bull touch him to search him before he and his friends got into the club.  But I found it on my Kindle and decided to open it. 

It was everything that Andrew Gray writes, all the feels were in this book.  Salvador Adruccio is every man’s dream, built like a brick ship, ex black ops, and focused on Elliot Hastings who is running. Elliot’s stepfather is crime boss in Pittsburg, PA, and has to control everything and everyone around him.  Elliot knows he has to get out.  He copies some paperwork, and runs, right to Harrisburg, PA and Bronco’s. 

In the course of this book, as they look for ways to bring Elliot’s stepfather down and keep Elliot safe, (Bull and Spook are in their element of course) Elliot is trying to come to terms with his new life, separating from his old and learn how to live with the fact his mom isn’t the same woman she was before she got married. Salvador and he are in the car, on the way to see Salvador’s mom, whom he has a great relationship with, that Elliot realizes that if he and his mom weren’t related, he wouldn’t even like her. They never would have been in the same circles, wouldn’t even have been friends. I had to stop reading at this point, tears, somehow, someway, Mr. Gray had put into words my exact thoughts and feelings I had fought with about my own mother. 

The story ends the next year at Thanksgiving.  Everybody is there, at Sal and El’s house getting ready to celebrate. Bull and Zack are running late, when Elliot opens the door Bull is holding a car seat with a little baby. Oh, what a way to end the series! I had to stop for a few more tears here. Five stars all the way.  This book is a must have if you have been reading the series. You have to finish it with this one.  And if you haven’t been reading the series, why not? Start NOW! You can’t wait one more minute to meet these guys.

Bad to be Worthy by Andrew Grey

With a name like this I knew I was in for some fun.

Gerome Meadows is a former Detroit Mobster in Witness Protection down Longboat Key, Florida. He is missing his former exciting life of clubs, men, and money, at least it wasn’t cold Iowa. He and his two best friends were here now, they had broke out of the program to say good bye to Terrance’s mother who died a little bit later, that is how they ended up here, warm, sunny, boring Longboat, Florida. Where they were the top predators in town and nobody knew it.

He used to run the hottest gay nightclubs in Detroit, Richard the man behind the money, he created – as Gerome would later put it – “books that were works of art, and fake as hell.” and Terrence was the muscle that kept everybody else in line. Now he managed a small gift shop, he had never skimmed off the top of anything from that shop. The owner, Betty, had taken a chance on hiring him, and he would never forget that. She was his to protect now. They all kept to the straight and narrow now, Richard was even married with a son. The one thing I would liked to have known was Gerome’s birth name, because that is the name the Marshall’s gave him, though I can understand why it was never mentioned, It was a part of his life that was no more, and Mr. Grey most likely didn’t feel it was relevant to the story (just my curiosity).

Tucker Wells was desperate, when asked to look for a package on the beach by a guy who said he would be paid $300 when he found it, he said yes. But he didn’t find the package, and the guy didn’t believe him. Tucker is living a tent village, homeless, no job, his only friends are Cheryl and her son, Joshie. When the guy from the job comes after him, thinking he is hiding the package, and intending to violence, Gerome is there to stop him. He gets them an apartment across from his (Richard had just moved out and was waiting on the lease to expire) and helps them get jobs. Tucker isn’t sure what to think, but with no where to else to go, they move in.

Paraphrasing from a TV show, “sometimes the best good guys are the bad guys.” A villain can be the best love interest, because a villain will burn down the word to save his love, a hero is bound by ethics. While Gerome is not really a villain, or even a anti-hero, he is a lover who will cross the line to save and protect the ones he loves. And when these men fall in love, oh, they burn up the pages! I loved this book, was hooked from the first sentence, like normal for an Andrew Grey novel. I had a hard time putting it down to get my work down. It is five star read, from beginning to end. I am loving this series, you really need to pick up this book and let the bad boy be worthy of your love.

Johnny Lycan & The Anubis Disk by Wayne Turmel

For Wayne Turmel’s foray in this new genre he hits it out of the park with a five start read!

Johnny Lycan is a born werewolf, nobody knows his secret except his best friend, Bill. (But that secret was about to go out the window.) It starts with his rescuing the head bookie of Chicago’s daughter, the new Russian Mafia in town had kidnapped her and tried getting a ransom from her dad. Johnny used to do strong arm work for him, so Mr. O’Rourke had called on his former employee to get his daughter back. It was the full moon, so yeah Shaggy (as Johnny calls his other half) was there to help. But that means two people saw him.

Now he has come to the attention of a very rich eccentric old man, Mr. Cromwell. And he collects all kinds of very old very expressive occult items, and he has decided that Johnny is the man he needs to collect these things for him. With a retainer he could only dream of, plus extra if here is more than one retrieval a month, Johnny is not sure what he is going to do.

This is a must read, action, adventure, old grumpy people, young grumpy people, laughter, and a few tense moments, this book has it all. You will not be disappointed. 

Kiss me, Lady, One More Time

The newest book by Deb Marlowe in her A Series of Unconventional Courtships. and I totally enjoyed it! Danger, hard headed men, determined women, London (not at full Season) and wonderful friends making their own families.

We met Barrett Sterne and Penelope Munroe in the previous books, and this time, Penelope is determined to get her man. But, of course, Sterne has something to say about it, mainly…. no. Not right now, I can’t provide… I have to find this fossil that got stolen while I was on watch.

You must follow these two on their adventure that takes to London and the intriguing underbelly of the fossil collecting word of the 1817s. (Not really that bad because there weren’t that many people interested in the sciences at the time.) A fast paced, daring story with places to make you gasp (with passion and fear) and giggle with delight at in antics our characters get up too.

Pick up this five start read and follow these characters that have fast become our friends, and giggle as Hestia Wright and the beneficiaries of the Half Moon House show up to help them work through this.

Alpha Night by Nalini Singh

They might have bonded at first meeting but it was almost 48 hours before they got to enjoy skin privileges … almost half the book later!

Alpha Selenka Dever, of the Moscow BlackEdge Wolf pack and Arrow Ethan Night met at a symposium for Empaths to meet and get to know each other. They had just met when her wolf  lunged for him inside her. The wolf knew this was her mate but she had never met him before, she did not know him. Meeting someone, bonding with them at first sight only happened in the soap operas, not real life. But it happened with them, her wolf knew he needed her.

Ethan’s original reason to be there were being challenged and changed, as he was being changed, after he had saved Selenka’s life, she in turn saved his. This action ripped away the gray fog he had lived with since he was 8 years old separating him from the world and plunging him into vivid color and raging emotions. No one had ever thought of Ethan first and tried to save him, his life was hers. She owned him heart body and soul and there was nothing he not do for her.

Selenka had left the den that morning not looking for a mate she was there to protect the Empaths (Empaths they were like a pup, they had no sense of self-preservation) they definitely had to be taken care of, thank goodness the arrows had taken that job. But then she met Ethan Night – Arrow, broken, gorgeous and he fit her. Inside her he filled that empty spot. They’re bonding might not have happened normally, traditionally, but it happened and she trusted her wolf inside. Now she had to find a way to save Ethan, because Ethan was now hers and she was not giving him up. She was an alpha wolf and always did things her way, and she quite possessive of her Arrow.

Lots of things happen in this book but the main thing was the Love Story between these two how she fought for him and how he learned to fight for himself. Then he learned the what was fighting to get it out of him wasn’t trying to kill him, it was the most wonderous gift. And she walk that dark path with him, she would not leave him in the dark alone. Never again would he be alone in the dark.

This is a great addition to the Psy/Changeling series. It’s action, adventure romance, the continuation of the breaking of the Psy net it has everything and it is five stars. You have to pick this book up and read it.

Wish Upon a wWitch a Good Witch Mystery by Lucy May

This was a wonderful sweet romantic mystery. I loved it I’ll be reading more of this author she has a whole back list for this series.

Juliet Good is of the Good witch Clan she is funny young vivacious and controls electricity. She’s in Boston at school but decided now that she’s graduated to come back to Charm Cove to her family. First night there she makes a wish at the local fountain and runs into the very thing she wished for.

Devon Wick has come home to Charm Grove and is looking to settle into his grandparents old house. He slids on a patch of ice and hits the curb. He gets out to check his tire. He’s standing there when he sees Juliet and they start talking in the cold Main snowfall.

The local Balsam tree, centurie old, catches fire. Now they have to find out who set the fire and who’s trying to attack Juliet and why. Amid all this the streets aren’t getting taken care of and it’s winter in Maine.

For a light romance, sweet as can be – and fun fun Witchery- pick up Wish Upon a Witch by Lucy May five stars you will not regret it.

Nothing But a Rakehell by Deb Marlow

Lord Keswick goes to the country estate of his friend early, abandoning London and all it’s pleasures because of a persistent debutante who is trying to trap him into marriage. Once on his friend’s land, Tenford, he ended up stuck in a mucky swamp. Lady Glory Brightly happened along on her ride, and saved him, and his boots, with the help of her well trained horse, Poppy. It was the start of an unusual friendship.

As people start to arrive from London later that week, and the houseparty starts to gain momentum several ladies try for Keswick, who is at odds with his father and has vowed never to marry while he is alive. Glory was in a horrible accident when a child and has a painful limp when walking. Most people comment on it, tease her about it, or other wise make her feel inferior because of it. But Keswick sees the intelligent, funny, beautiful woman behind the limp and sets out to help build her self confidence.

The debutante ferrets out where Keswick is and claims a family close by, showing up at the houseparty, bringing his father along a day later. Keswick finally tells Glory all his painful secrets so that she understands why he must distance himself from her while his father is near. Glory agrees but also sets other plans in motion to rid him of his father and this young miss.

I loved this book. The passion built beautifully between the our hero and heroine, their friendship was first and slowly deeper feelings layered itself over that. The snarkiness and viciousness of the some of the other ladies made you laugh as they each easily over come usually by their own folly. The turn around in one character that started out vying for Viscount Keswick, to being the first to congratulate them when they come together made tears come to my eyes.

This is must buy and add to your library if you like regencies at all. Come to Greyhouse and enjoy the houseparty of the Season.