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The Nephilim's Fate (War of the Nephilim #1)
The Nephilim's Fate (War of the Nephilim #1)
Eliza Hampstead | 2022 | Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
There is much misinformation passed down!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book .

This is, according to some sites, the author's FIRST book. And OOOOEEEE, did she NAIL it!!

BUT! Cliffhanger, people, of the most EPIC proportions, and I did not see it coming, and I am NOT happy!!

She’s a witch, he’s a Nephilim – and a simple kiss could kill them both. That is the tag line for this book, and it is perfect!

Nate is Nephilim, and all he knows is that witches would kill him, if they got intimate. Alissia thinks she is human, but actually, she's one of those deadly witches. But she's also a scientist, and after research by them both, she comes to the conclusion: it's a load of hooohaa, and then gets down and dirty with Nate! But there are forces trying to keep them apart, and Alissia will have a difficult decision to make.

I really REALLY liked this, not quite loving it, but mostly cos of that cliffhanger! Both Alissia and Nate get a say, so that made me happy, cos I do like to hear from the important people in a story.

It's dark and deadly: there is violence here, and it is graphic, but I think it's needed, to get the point across. It's steamy and smexy: explicit scenes from that very first page! If you follow my reviews, you'll know I do prefer my books on the smexy side, but I don't think I've read another book, where it starts right on the first page! I loved that, while it is explicit, that first scene is actually a dream and neither Nate nor Alissia knew the face of the person they were dreaming about!

There is much misinformation passed down, from both the witches and the Nephilim. Getting to the bottom of it took some time, and I do think that I might have got a *bit* lost with it, somewhere, but it all came to make sense.

I loved that Nate wanted to question his superior when it came to the child they rescued, a Nephilim child. I do hope he gets his way on that one!

So, the cliffhanger came out of nowhere, mostly because I wasn't paying attention to the time left in the book and I am NOT happy about it!!

I have just ONE burning question: when can I get my hand on book 2??

4 very VERY good stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
Sleigh Bells and Second Chances (Love in Mission City #3)
Sleigh Bells and Second Chances (Love in Mission City #3)
Gabbi Grey | 2024 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Ryan's trauma is front and centre, Simeon's is not.
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 3 in the Mission City series. I have not read all of book 1 and book 2 not at all, YET. They can all be read as stand alone, and will only really give you spoilers for the previous book. I WILL get to them, I really enjoyed this one.

Ryan is at The Healing Horses Ranch for some major healing, both physically and mentally. Being in a war zone will do that to a man, add in all his team NOT coming home, and Ryan is a mess. Simeon is the handy man at the ranch and after a fraught first meeting, they begin as friends and develop into more. But Ryan will be leaving soon. Can Simeon give his heart only for Ryan to take it with him?

What I loved MOST about this book, was that while Ryan's trauma was front and centre, Simeon's was not. There were hints and clues dropped along the way but it wasn't til Simeon admitted it, even if to himself, what his trauma was. I wasn't able to put the clues together fast enough. My book brain was whirring, but not in the right direction.

I loved that Simeon felt comfortable around Ryan, right from the start. His stutter was not really a thing for Ryan. Simeon was just Simeon and very quickly Ryan found a safe place with Simeon.

It's fairly midrange angst, and is a SUPER slow burn, but I LOVED that it took til near the very end of the book, for Ryan and Simeon to get to the main event. Oh, its steamy and smexy but the smxey times are not what this book is about. It's super gentle, and sweet and almost warm and fuzzies but due to the emotional aspect.

It's about finding your forever person, when you least expect to, and being accepted into an extended family in a way your own family didn't really did.

Oh, I loved that Ryan's dad came good. Ryan had a complicated relationship with him before he left for the Ukraine, and it took time to repair that. I wasn't sure he would, to be honest.

As I said, not really necessary to read the other books first, but I will go back and read them.

5 full and shiny stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
Booker's Bliss (Divergent Omegaverse #3)
Booker's Bliss (Divergent Omegaverse #3)
JP Sayle | 2025 | LGBTQ+, Romance
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Booker is a freaking bear, but his heart?? Mush, absolute mush when it comes to Frey.
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 3 in the Divergent Omegaverse series. It's not strictly necessary to have read the other books, but I do recommend that you do. It will give you a better picture of this world, and what it means to be Divergent: that is, you have an inner animal, but you cannot shift.

Booker is a bear, and Frey a fox, both of these men can shift, and Booker is a member of the Starling family, after he stood up for Silas, who cannot shift. Frey is Booker's PA, after a shake up within the company. Frey flirts a lot with everyone and it makes Booker grumpy! But hearing Frey ask another omega to help with an upcoming heat, and Booker's grumpiness goes up a notch or two. When Booker finds out the reasons Frey needs an omega rather than an alpha to help him, the grumpiness turns to concern and protectiveness. No one hurts his fox. He just needs to go at the pace Frey sets, even if it might kill him!

What I loved most about this, was once Booker was aware of Frey's past, he is all in, but only as and when Frey wants him to. He will go at his fox' pace, because Frey is his, he just needs Frey to fully commit. Frey wants Booker, deep in his heart but his head is messed up, along with his heat cycle because of the blockers he has been taking for so long. He needs a gentle soul, a kind soul, to help him through his trauma. Booker is a freaking bear, but his heart?? Mush, absolute mush when it comes to Frey.

Due to Frey's trauma, we have to wait for the main event. And I LOVED that we did. Once Frey's heat hits properly, in full force, he knows he can rely on Booker to stop if he needs him to. He doesn't necessarily want him to, but he might NEED Booker to be the gentle soul he knows him to be.

There is some overlap with Taylin's Temptation, regarding the factory, and what happens there. Book 4 is laid out for you, and I look forward to reading it. I have a feeling that it might well be a bit more of an emotional read.

Steamy and emotional, and a lot of fun, reading the group texts!

I look forward to watching the other brothers fall!

5 full and shiny stars!
  
Secretary's Obsession (Obssessions #4)
Secretary's Obsession (Obssessions #4)
JP Sayle, Lisa Oliver | 2025 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Loving these!!
I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 4 in the Obsessions series, and I STRONGLY recommend that you read the previous 3 books, or the very least, book 1, Demon's Obsession. Scott is Dakata's assistant in that book.

Scott is a demon, a small blue one at that. His family thought him lacking in all things. So Scott makes up for that by being the BEST assistant he can, by being in control of every little detail. George is a bear shifter of the highest lineage. But he choose to walk away from his nutty father and drives a taxi near the forest. When he gets sideswiped and ends up in hospital, George meets his blissful one, but the pair are mismatched in many ways. Then George goes missing and Scott's demon loses it.

What I especially loved about this one, was the complete opposites that Scott and George are, but George is so flipping patient with Scott and his OCD about everything, once he understands WHY Scott is this way. It takes time for them to actually talk about things, and I liked that they were both willing to make this work. Even if the talking thing takes some time!

I disliked both sets of parental units. Scott's especially was a nasty piece of work towards Scott and George. George's male unit was just a freaking power tripping nutter who wanted George's *insert correct word so it gets approved* to continue on the lineage that the nutter could not do himself, since ALL his other children were girls and George the only male. (did you get my meaning?? :-p) Loved that Scott, and indeed George, stood up to said male units and both male units gets their comeuppence!

There is some overlapping with Christa's Obsession, since Christa disappears for a time but no one is worried. We know where she was ;-p if you read that book.

While steamy and smexy, this one concentrates more on the emotions between these two, rather than the physical. And I loved that.

But what I'm loving the most about these books, is this: at the end of each one, we get a snippet of Asmodeous, the demon king and what's going on with him and his blissful one, even if, at this point, he's denying the connection. I just cannot wait for him to be pulled down a peg or two by said blissful one, and you know it's gonna be glorious!

5 wonderful stars and I can't wait for the next one!

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
Tales of Bryant
Tales of Bryant
V.L. Locey | 2019 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
so bllody sweet, but so SO good!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Jumping straight in here, cos let me tell ya! This book landed on my kindle at silly o’clock on a Monday morning. I did not have to be at work for a couple of hours, so I jumped into read a few pages before I must move. And boom! Book finished before 930!

I loved this book! Bar one thing, but I will come back to that.

This is actually billed as four shorts, across the four seasons around Bryant Park in New York. It is, though, the story of a relationship that starts in Byrant Park, between Isamu and Brian, which spans the year.

And it is so bloody sweet! I mean, any sweeter, and it would be pure sugar!

Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s steamy, and sexy. It’s emotional and dreamy. It made me choke up in places and laugh in others. But my underlying feeling (ya’ll know I’m ALL about the book feelings!) was that this book was SWEET.

And I LOVED it!

Isamu is young, a student of film, delivering sweet treats to the park. Brian is an executive (not really clear of what, but hey, who cares!) He’s been oogling Isamu for months, and the feeling is entirely mutual. Isamu makes sure to be the one to deliver Brian’s treats to the park, just to get his own sweet fix. When Brian eventually plucks up courage to ask Isamu on a date, he jumps at the chance. The rest, they say, is history. Until that is, Brian says something that makes Isamu run.

My only niggle, the thing that stopped it getting the full 5 stars? Only Isamu has a say. And I really NEEDED Brian to have a voice! Isamu makes Brian think, challenge his own rules, makes him WANT to have that relationship he swore off so long ago, and I needed to hear him say WHY Isamu does these things. And he doesn’t. I’m all for saying if a single point of view book carries the full 5 stars, but here, I really needed Brian and I don’t get him.

Isamu though, is lovely! A sweet young man, trying to find his muse for his final assessment, his camera going everywhere with him. And I do mean EVERYWHERE! Loved that Brian was not at all phased by the camera in his face a huge amount of the time!

This author is fast becoming a favourite of mine, and I look forward to reading more!

4 very sweet, but very good stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
Take The Shot (Philadelphia Bulldogs #1)
Take The Shot (Philadelphia Bulldogs #1)
Danica Flynn | 2020 | Contemporary, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
really good read x
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Sometimes, you just need a book that you just fall into, losing all around you, and reading about 2 people falling in love. And this is such a book.

Dinah lost her husband 2 years ago. Moving on seemed like a good idea, and a bad one, all at the same time. Her neighbour provides some eye candy, but he is so much younger than she is and she doesn't think he would want anything other than friendship. Noah lives in the next door apartment. Noah has lusted over Dinah for ages, but she was married, then widowed. He wasn't gonna make a move til she was ready. If she never did, he would be heartbroken, but he would rather have Dinah as a friend, than not at all.

This is a delightful read! I'm not the greatest fan of first person books, I make no secret of that, but I really rather loved this one!

Noah, bless him, 22 years old, lusts after Dinah, has done since he met her. But he kept it to himself, she was married. And after he died, he found himself helping her in more ways than he ever expected. But he waited, he WAS waiting for Dinah. Waiting for her to let him know she was ready to move on. He would wait, however long it took. Til his housemates gave him an ultimatum: Ask her out, or one of them would. They could see what Noah could not, that Dinah was lusting after Noah as much as Noah lusted after her. They just had to act on it.

And it is wonderful when they do! Yes, the attraction is powerful and hot, but there is much emotion here, not just steamy sex. There is much between these two, BEFORE they get to the bedroom, which would be spoilers to explain. And I really found those bits far better than the sexy bits, but thats not to say the sexy bits aren't good :-p

There is a supporting cast who have their own problems, and I hope they all get their story in this series.

The hockey bits, I will admit, I tended to flip over, but then something happened in one and I had to go back, so, yeah, I actually read the hockey bits after that!

There are a couple of lines that are repeated, more times than was really necessary. BUT! I've seen that this is the author's first book, so I'm not really complaining, I'm just saying!

A thoroughly enjoyable read, so for a first time author? Well done, Ms Flynn, very well done.

4 good solid stars

**same worded revivew will appear elsewhere**
  
Thicker Than Water (Redwater Demons #1)
Thicker Than Water (Redwater Demons #1)
Ellie Roth | 2024 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
freaking loved this book!
Independent reviewer for GRR, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This book, right here, is what I love MOST about reviewing. I come across a blurb that I love the sound of, by an author that is new to me, and the book blows me away! I freaking LOVED this book!

Julian is a demon hunter. His latest job finds himself adopted by the demon he was sent to kill. But she's just a little girl, and he cannot. He then finds said toddler kidnapped from him, and a demon contacts him, to share custody! (I'm sorry, but that really did make me chuckle!) But as Cassius and JJ bond over Desi, pieces are being moved on the cheesboard, and it's not very clear who will come out on top.

Like I said, freaking loved this book!

I loved the jump straight in for JJ and Desi. I loved the gentle way we are told about this world and the people and demons in it. The world building is excellent, and I could keep up and follow what was being thrown at me at all times. Cass and JJ have redefined the SLOW BUILD! I love the gradual way the attraction builds between these two. It's slow and subtle, and one of them thinks/says something and its "say what now??" SOme funny moments, too.

It's violent in places. JJ bears the brunt of that but not all is on page. MUCH is implied. I liked that we don't get it all, but we get some clues as to how bad it really was.

While JJ and Cass have a slow build, when we get to the main event?? Totally fade to grey and I freaking LOVED THAT TOO!! I'm big enough to admit, I like my books on the steamy side, and I'm also big enough to admit that not all books nned to be explicit. I loved that this one was not.

Betrayal of the highest order is painful for JJ, but Cass comes to the rescue, in his true form. And I loved that there was no indication that demons in this world had another form! There is some indication who might be next, at the end of this one with a bit of the next book. Actually, it gives you the next TWO books, I hope!

This is a new to me author, at the start of a new series. Two questions I ask myself when I read new authors and starts of series: will I read more by this author?? And will I continue the series. My answers to both questions is a HELL FREAKING YES!!

I can't fault this, I really cannot.

5 full and oh-so shiny stars!

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
Sticky For You (The Rhubarb Effect #1)
Sticky For You (The Rhubarb Effect #1)
JP Sayle, Sue Brown | 2024 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Tim is a live wire and he likes to sing!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Did you ever read a book, and think "What the ever loving heck did I just read??" (only, you know, more sweary words than some review sites will allow!) Well, this is such a book!

Max moves to Valentine Growville with his odd little pride and immediately feels at home. Meeting Tim, his mate, knocked him for six. I mean, Max is an Alpha lion and Tim is. . .well . .Tim is rhubarb. A rhubarb omega. Can they make this work?

It's so much fun, it really is and I laughed a lot, A LOT reading this book and I rarely react out loud when reading, (listening is a whole 'nother matter, though!)

Max is an Alpha of a pride of lions, bulls, llamas and other things that I forget already but they all have a love of rhubarb. Moving to Growville was a necessity, since they got hounded out their last pride. Tim is.. . . excitable! He really is a bit of a live-wire and he likes to sing. Especially once he realises he is Max' mate and Max can hear him in his head. Singing becomes the easiest way to woo Max and I have to admit, I found myself singing along with those songs that Tim sang, but changed some words for to make it fit better for him and Max.

It's steamy . . but in a kinda weird way. The way rhubarb mate is a little offputting, I will admit, but now I know what to expect, I'll be better prepared.

It is a lot of fun, it really is, right up to the point where things go wrong for Tim, but if he had just talked to Max, it could all have been avoided.

And also the point where the real monsters come to town. But that was not explained, and you have to piece the clues already thrown at you to figure out who they are. I'm fairly certain, but with Sayle at the helm, one can never be too sure!

I loved the references to fingerlings!

I love Sayle, you know I do, and I've read some Brown before, with 4 and 5 star reads from her on my shelves. How they came up with this idea, I have no clue, but it really was a fun read! The setting is set nicely for book two, and I see now whay the whole of Max' pride love rhubarb!

Will it win any literary awards? Nope, but I don't care cos I thoruoghly enjoyed it!

4 very funny stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere