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3⭐️

I seem to be making a habit of reading books out of order. This is a spin off/continuation of The Chosen One series by Macy Blake. I have read a couple of books that are chronologically before this book last year. I quite enjoyed them and it was the same with this one too. It was not as difficult to follow along without knowing the specifics of what occurred in the previous books.

This was a cute fluffy book on its own. I loved Gus-Gus in this and how he had Victor and Riggs wrapped around his little finger from the start. My only gripe is the way we did not get to see the relationship develop with a certain someone that was introduced at the end of the story. i will not elaborate as it is a spoiler. But I think we were shortchanged.

I think I am going to continue on with this spin off and maybe look into reading the other books in the series. Maybe not the Chosen one part as I am not sure I am up to the MC having more than 2 other partners as it is indicated in the blurb of those books. Maybe I will continue on with the Hellhound series after this.

3.75⭐️ - 4 ⭐️

This was a fun romp of a book. I partly read it and partly listened to the audiobook and I have to say I quite enjoyed listening to the narrator. I think it lent a lot to my enjoyment of the book. This is a book that does a fluffy, snarky romance right. And though I am not a purveyor of all things tentacles like the protagonist, I can appreciate that the author made it an integral part of the story by making it part of something more than an appendage and a little more cultural on behalf of the aliens.

And my inner Sci-Fi nerd was very happy with all of the Star Trek, Star Wars, MCU, X-Files and other nerdy interests being represented. This was play on the Sunshine/Grump trope and sometimes the Sunshiny MC is a little too much but River was over the top in all of the right ways. He was written well enough that he wasn't just someone who looked at the bright side, he had a bit of depth and he chose to look at the bright side, the quirky side of life. And Kai wasn't really a grump as we see as we get partway through the book, he too has the capacity to feel joy and to express it.

I found this book to be quite funny and most of the comedy landed for me. I know this might not be the case for everyone though. And I am looking forward to reading excerpts from River's web series in the next book.

2⭐️-2.5⭐️

I like fluffy romances. I like low to very low angst books. This is one of those books. But even to me it was a bit too saccharine. I mean the couple didn't have even one argument. I love the concept of fated mates and insta love bit even in those cases you would expect some conflicts in character no matter how well your other half was crafted for you. I know there are other books in this series and I assume they will be of similar sweetness. I think I will save them for after I read a book that makes me bawl my eyes out.

I think among the 4 books I have read in this series this is my favourite with Hunting Grounds being a very close second. As that book came out right before this one I guess I could day this series is getting better as the writer gets more into the story.

I know this is a spin off of the Mercy Thompson series and that it takes place in a timeline that is interspersed within that world. But I had tried to read that series before this and it was not what I was craving at the time and when I picked up the Alpha and Omega series it just clicked for me. I fell in love with the stoic Charles who is scary to everyone but Anna, his mate. I also fell in love with Anna, who was abused relentlessly in the past but is a survivor. But mostly love how they both mesh and support each other.

This book seemed to start abruptly. In the previous books the stories were set a few weeks apart. Here it is a significant time jump ( at least a year) and though jarring it wasn't off putting. I think if I had read the Mercy Thompson series it wouldn't be so but it did not hinder me from following the story. Charles is on edge after having to constantly take on the role of executioner on the Marrok's behalf and Anna is worried for him. The way to distract him from that Bran decides to send him to help with an FBI investigation in to a serial killer where the recent victims were werewolves. I quite liked the progression of their investigation and though it was slightly obvious who the UNSUB might be there was still enough of a plot twist for it to be interesting. Also that ending was both rage inducing and satisfying at the same time.

I don't think anyone is reading these reviews and it seems stupid to put in a warning here but this book does have mention of Sexual abuse though mostly off screen and in conversations. I am not a fan of reading gratuitous violence, especially that done against women and more so SA/rape. But Briggs has a way of writing it that doesn't trigger me. At least so far. And the way she writes Anna helps too. She isn't someone who walks away from her past unscathed. It has left its marks on her. Though she is still scared she is learning to face it down and slowly move on. Like she says, Charles rescued her once. But he also taught her to rescue herself, and that more than anything makes her a hero I love.

I am quite looking forward to reading more about Charles and Anna and I am mostly also going to give the Mercy Thompson series another try.

I discovered Patricia Logan last year and this book is different from her other books in the sense that it has a paranormal bent to it. Most of her books seem to be centered around Law Enforcement and while this is too, the characters in this are paranormal.

There is a lot of potential for world building in this book and since this is the 1st in a series, I can't say if this will be a great series or not. What I can say with conviction is that I am looking forward to reading the next book in the installment and see how Vincent and Romeo get along. I feel that the 2 MC's got together a little too quickly, which would not be a problem if this world had a concept of true mates or the like in it. But that has not been made clear as of yet. But along the same vein I like that Vincent wishes for it to be true as he sees Romeo in that capacity.

I am looking forward to see how they solve the mystery that was teased at the end of this book as throughout most of this book the mystery part was a bit weak and did not have a satisfying ending.

4⭐️ - 4.25⭐️

I did not think this would be a 4 star read while I was reading this book. I of course go into books thinking I will like them and that was the case after reading the blurb and a couple of reviews from reviewers I liked. But for maybe a 100 pages I thought it was just meh. I think I got bogged down by my own personal feelings while I was reading and was annoyed at the book instead. But I read on. And I realized I was being brought out of my shitty mood while reading this book. Which is weird as this is not a light hearted book. But maybe all of the anger in Wylham and the guilt and self doubt in Lysander and all of the pining and angst in the book just put my particular feelings in perspective and I started paying attention to the story and the characters and of course the writing.

I have to admit once I got my head in the story I loved the writing and the story building. I am a little over the miscommunication trope usually but it works in this story as neither of the characters speak each others languages and they are from such different climes and cultures. All in all this book brought out complex feelings in me that I am still sifting through and I look forward to see what else Rose Maefair has to offer her readers.

3⭐️- 3.5⭐️

This book hit me in the feels. I felt bad for both Theo and Zeki for having lost out on being together because both of them were young and neither understood what was happening. I seem to be reading book with the miscommunication trope today and unlike Desert Ice by Rose Maefair there was no language barrier, just a cultural one. One which everyone assumed everyone knew while in fact no one knew the specifics. What this book did wrong for me was the fact it took Zeki that long to realize who had "Rejected" Theo.

But apart form that the interactions between the 2 MC's was great, and their courting once they both realized they were already doing it was cute.

I think I will read another book in this series.

I did not expect for this book to me first full 5⭐️ read. I mean I liked the premise and knew I would enjoy it but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It made me laugh, a lot. Not a lot of books make me smile through most of the reading and very few make me laugh out loud instead of just in my head and this accomplished it.

The premise is not that complex. The FMC Riley has psychic powers that she does not want and the MMC Nick is a PI who is investigating someone Riley knows. She predicts their murder and her and her the set of eccentric family and other house members get tangled in it and the plot/mystery flows from there. It would have been very easy for the author to make the characters in the book too eccentric or over the top. They are but just the right amount for me. I did not expect this story to be sombre or like a Scandinavian thriller, this was supposed to be lighthearted and more of a cozy mystery with slight steam and a dash of paranormal involved. It actually reminded me of Donna Andrews Meg Langslow series with its own cast of eccentric characters.

There are 2 more books in this series with a possibility of a few more and I am very happy about that. I am hoping the books in the series are as good as the first and will soon tackle them.

2.5⭐️

This was a fairly OK read. I haven't read a lot of Mafia romances, if any and the one thing going for it is that it was not as dark as I thought it would be. Conner could have been a lot more vicious from what I have seen on all of the blurbs of other mafia books. He was a milder version of those other mafia enforcers.

This book tried to bring in a lot of angst what with Noemi being mute since her mom was killed by her dad and her having to marry a stranger and the side plot about Conner's family but it just fell a little flat for me. For me personally it was just missing something for the story to resonate with me, through no fault of the author. I actually had fun reading the book so my basic need on that end was met but it didn't wow me.

4.25⭐️

I was only last month that I discovered the genre Cozy fantasy. And I think this is another smashing addition to the list of books I have read that fall under this category. I love romance and historical romance has always been more of a favourite than contemporary (probably because I like that it is even more of an escapism when based in a different timeline to my own) and this particular book was a warm addition. Like the MC says, this book was like a lantern warmth.

For a book that is supposedly a cozy fantasy it sure hit a few heavy emotions and topics. This book is an example of what good writing can do - make you feel. Not just the emotions that the characters are feeling but also leave you with lingering emotions. I think emotions play a big role in this book as part of Dora's soul that was taken from her was the part of her that felt all of the emotions keenly and the author was able to make us feel them through Dora's inability to do so.

There are so many messages that can be attributed to this tale. One of romance plain and simple between Elias and Dora. Another of the unfairness that plagues life and the class divide. One can say that the Faerie represent the rich of this world and the way they make arbitrary rules that don't always follow logic and are there only for the sake of the rich to feel like they are moral and right for following them.

One of the big things addressed here is the rage both Elias and Dora feel towards the world at large for its treatment of the poor and weak, in the form of workhouses and the worlds willful ignorance of the effects of war. Though it is easy to write a happily ever after or come up with a solution on paper for all that ails the world, I loved that the author came up with a more reasonable solution - to tackle the small evils of the world around you. Though it might not save all of the people it does impact a few who might in turn impact others positively.

I absolutely adored this book. I feared I was going into a book slump so early in the year after picking up and discarding a few books post my last full read. Which is why I went back to a fave book to reread. But something pushed me to pick this book up and I just couldn't put it down. I am quite looking forward to reading the other books in this series, though I am given to understand they are not necessarily connected.

3.25⭐️

This book was OK. I read this book on both my Kindle and as an Audiobook. I think the narrator made me like the story more than I would've if I just read it on my Kindle. Though if I have one complaint about the narration it would be that he was not that great when it came to depicting Ricardo's accent. It came off more as an amateurish Russian accent than anything Hispanic. But it wasn't bad enough to take me out of the story.

Coming to the plot, this book was more plot driven than character driven. We did get glimpses of both Ricardo and August's pasts and what made them them but this story focussed more on the action than their characters as such. I enjoyed the pace of the book, though the mystery of who wanted them dead was obvious I enjoyed the journey the 2 MC's took to get to that answer.

Though this is a MM thriller romance there wasn't a lot of that in this book. The 2 MC's got together towards the last quarter of the book and not much happens on that end. And their banter and back and forth bickering is disguised as Unresolved Sexual Tension. I can see the UST from August's end but not so from Ricardo. It is a very thin line that is tread while writing a character with a snarky sarcastic personality as they could easily come off as being a**holeish and annoying but with August the authors just came on the right side of that line for me at least.

I am hoping to see more of how the MC's build their relationship as both of them are required to lie as a result of their profession. But as both of them know what the other does that obstacle is gone but it is not easy for Hitmen to trust. So seeing how the two of them come to trust each other in this book would have been nice but the foundation has been laid in this book and hopefully will be expanded on in the next one.

3.25⭐️

This book seemed like a particularly long epilogue, to the first book, of sorts. Though getting a glimpse of Arthur and Martin post His Quiet Agent was great I would still have been happy with the pieces of info we got from that book. That is not to say I do not appreciate this look into their present together.

I liked that this time I got to see how Arthur is coping in the present with his grief over his fathers death, his relationship with his mother, half sisters, Hanh and even his life with Martin (and potentially what their future looks like) while we get a glimpse into Martin's childhood/past and how he is currently coping with the trauma suffered on his last assignment and what he wants from the future. It feels like him thinking of his future at all is a pretty big step for Martin, especially one that includes Arthur.

Seeing the little ways that Arthur and Martin show their love, support and care towards one another was entrancing to see. I was gladdened by the fact that this book represents a type of romance where love between people does not always have to include sexual intimacy. Intimacy between romantic partners could also mean emotional intimacy and physical intimacy could also be just hand holding and hugs. Along my queer reading journey there has not been a lot of Asexual or demisexual representation (other than Criminal Intentions by Cole McCade) so I was happy to see this identity explored.

Though it is not necessary to read this book if you are happy with how the 1st book ended, it is a pretty good addition to the story of Arthur and Martin.

3⭐️

This is a good start to my reading. Not great, but good. I got the warm fuzzies reading about Ranger and Julian. There was low angst, in the form of Ranger's PTSD but nothing with the relationship between the MC's which I appreciated. I get the need for conflict to drive the plot/narrative in books but sometimes I just want something sweet and not so complicated in my stories and this was it.

The con in this book was that Julian seemed like an embodiment of the Sunshine in the Sunshine/Grumpy trope. I understand that Ranger's PTSD was the main focus of this book but it was like the authors made that the only focus. I would've liked to have seen how this PTSD affected their relationship and Julian in particular. It was addressed a little in the beginning alone.

The pros of the book were the animals of course but also the fact that there wasn't a miraculous cure for Ranger's PTSD and the acknowledgement that he would always have it, though the episodes might be far and few between as time goes by.

All in all this was a good book. I am not sure it will stick in my mind as the year goes on but it made me happy and that is what I wanted from this book.