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Monster Inside (Shadow Pact #1) by River Starr
Monster Inside (Shadow Pact #1) by River Starr
River Starr | 2022 | Paranormal, Romance
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Aisling has been held captive for the past 10 years of her life by a vampire community she has been fed on as well as other unmentionable torment's. She manages to escape with the help from Mrak who is living inside her helping bring and end to the vampire trafficking.


This story has been well written. I did find myself getting frustrated with the secrets being kept by Mrak against Aisling she's help him as much as he's helped her, so why keep secrets!


The description of the battles are very colourful and very heated as are the intimate scenes. I found myself getting quite angry at Mrak in some points with the secrets that were being kept but after his explanations, I could understand it, Didn't like it but understood it. It almost seemed at times that it was an abusive relationship and that there were control issues and lots of manipulation and again found myself frustrated of Aisling being made to do things she had specifically asked not to be done.


I'm intrigued on what is going to happen next with the way the story fades out but cannot wait to find where the journey takes the couple. Its a series i will be following to the end.


A Fantastic read with lots of action
  
Gilt Trip
Gilt Trip
Diane Vallere | 2025 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Samantha Must Find the Gilt-y Party
Samantha Kidd’s husband, Nick Taylor, is up for an award, and Samantha is doing all she can to support him. Unfortunately, her efforts to get a table for family and friends at the awards banquet have turned out to be filled with people who are angry with her for one reason or another. But the evening takes a horrible turn when Samantha finds the body of the toastmaster in a closet of the hotel where the event is being held. With a blizzard keeping the police from arriving, Samantha must try to solve the crime. Can she do it?

This book is fun since it all takes place in one night. In lesser hands that could have been a bad thing, but in this case, it worked well. I was engaged the entire time and kept guessing until we reached the logical climax. Yet we still got plenty of time for the subplots to play out. We still see plenty of the regulars, and I liked the growth we saw in Samantha. We also go plenty of laughs and discussion of junk food. If you want a light mystery, this series is definitely for you. And if you are a fan who hasn’t gotten to this book yet, you are in for a treat when you do.
  
Girls' Night Out
Girls' Night Out
Liz Fenton | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
5
8.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Hokey & irritating, but has its intriguing moments
Natalie, Ashley, and Lauren have been friends since college, but lately their friendship has been showing a lot of strain. In fact, the trio has been estranged from Lauren for a year. So Ashley gets the idea for a girls' trip to Tulum, Mexico to help repair their friendship and mend fences. But once there, they find that fixing things isn't so easy. Each woman brings so much baggage and anger to the friendship. Natalie is angry at Ashley regarding the beauty business, BloMe, that they founded together. Lauren holds a grudge with Ashley relating to the death of her husband, Geoff. Both Natalie and Lauren are angry at themselves for letting their worlds revolve around Ashley. And their anger simmers even more when Ashley starts spending more time with Marco, a man she meets in Mexico, then with them. Suddenly, Ashley disappears. Did she run away with Marco? Was she kidnapped? Or--Natalie and Lauren fear--did they snap in anger at Ashley and harm her?

I had never read anything by the Fenton and Steinke writing team but had heard good things, so decided to try this one out. Its format takes a little getting used to: it switches in both time and narration, so you'll get Ashley, three days before the disappearance, and then the next chapter could be Lauren, two days after the disappearance. Once you get in the groove, it works pretty well, and builds suspense fairly effectively. Pieces of the story are slowly revealed, as we both don't know what happened to divide the friends in their friendship and, of course, don't know what happened to make Ashley disappear.

Honestly, I had just enough curiosity to find out what happened to Ashley that kept me reading. This was an interesting novel and certainly tense and intriguing, but I couldn't muster much interest or sympathy in these characters. Man, these women were just awful! I would not want a single one of them as my friend, that's for sure. Their friendship problems seemed petty, overblown, and childish, and I lost patience and interest with their myriad issues. There was just so much constant bickering. Bickering, drinking, more fighting, drinking, some more fighting. Ugh. They were so overly dramatic and even worse, most of the chapters would end with a sentence that had such an overblown "dramatic flair" to it that I found myself rolling my eyes at times.

A lot of the book just felt hokey, and I found myself wanting them to just go home and get their own lives (although their husbands didn't seem much better, honestly). Still, as mentioned, the reveals are interesting, and there is enough interest in what happened to Ashley to keep you reading. If you can get past the irritating characters, you'll be intrigued, albeit potentially annoyed.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!).
  
Slow Dances Under An Orange Moon (Colors of Love #4)
Slow Dances Under An Orange Moon (Colors of Love #4)
V.L. Locey | 2020 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
10
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
my fav of the series!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

And just like that, back up to 5 full stars AND it's single point of view!

I LOVED this instalment of these hockey players, I really did.

Kye returns home after retiring from professional hockey with two things on his agenda.

Look after his grandad, Dunny.

And get his man back, David.

First one is fairly easily sorted but the second one? Not so much. David is, even after 20 years, angry with Kye. So angry for leaving him, but more so for not even coming home in all that time, not ONCE. David would have had a long distance relationship, but Kye was still in the closet and did not want to ruin his career. Leaving Davey all that time ago killed Kye, but now he is on a mission to get his man back. Will David as he likes to be called, want him, though?

Kye is very vocal about many things, but the biggest thing he has a say about is his regret for leaving David and not coming home. He needs David to understand, even after all this time, he LOVES David, deep within his soul and he just needs a chance to prove that.

There follows a delightful tale of a man on a mission, a woo-ing mission, to get his man back and Kye does it so beautifully! He can see David giving in, with the little twitches of a smile, the sparkle in his eye, the way he wants to go slow about kills Kye, but he knows he has to play David's game if he really has any sort of chance.

Only Kye has a say, yes, I know, but his voice is strong, and fills in all the gaps that David NOT having a voice leaves. David manages to get his point across, though.

I didn't find it as explicit as a couple of the others, but it's not missed. This is more about the LOVE between these two men, rather than that sex.

Some difficult reading about the poachers and what David, as a wildlife conservation officer finds, but I think that probably is needed, to explain a lot of how David feels about his job and what he has to deal with on a day to day basis.

Also, Dunny, Kye's grandfather, is ailing in body and mind, and that is also difficult reading, but extremely well written and absolutely needed.

Arn pops up, and I loved the little digs to Kye about the other couples in this series, I really did! Made me chuckle, what Arn comes out with! Kye had no clue what he was talking about, though, and it shows that there really is no link between the series bar Arn and the colour theme.

Who's next? No idea, but please, keep these guys coming!

5 full and shiny stars

**same worded review will appear elsehwere**