Another installment in the Love by Numbers 2 series, Seven Tattoo Artists and a Single Mom by Nicole Casey, connects to the previous story in the series, Six Hockey Players’ Rival. The female lead character, Madison, is the older sister of Leah from the previous book.
The story is certainly steamy, but I thought that things happened so fast. Even though it took at least a month for Madison to get into anything intimate with anyone, it was also at least a month of not talking to any of them.
All she knew about them were their names and what they looked like. The only ones she got to spend meaningful time with at the beginning were Taj (who drew her tattoo), Bryce (who inked her), and Marcus (who drove her to fetch a sick Chloe from school). I can’t recall who held her hand while she was being inked if it was Baker.
My point is … where was the courtship?
That’s just my take. I think there should be a little more romance before intimacy. I love the romance (ish) feels after, although it kind of went from them being strangers to suddenly taking on the role of lover to Madison and father figure to Chloe.
She also didn’t ease her way into an RH situation. She went from having no sex life to being with three men after one kinky conversation with Ti. Literal conversation, btw, as in they talked about kinks.
Is it hot? Yes. Is it enjoyable to read? Yes. Do I have questions? Yes. Would I recommend it? Sure! I say enjoy it for what it is and keep an open mind. And, most importantly … have fun!
You can find Love by Numbers 2 series, Seven Tattoo Artists and a Single Mom by Nicole Casey on Amazon, free with Kindle Unlimited.
Crush On My Best Friend’s Alpha Dad by Luxie landed in my inbox as a recommendation, and I decided to try it. The author has just started writing it, showing great potential so far. I get the age gap romance; it happens a lot, especially when we talk about a man who was widowered early and looks like Patrick Dempsey in Grey’s Anatomy, aka McDreamy.
Her characters, CJ and Lenora, make decisions that I find questionable but, at the same time, make delicious drama that moves the story forward.
CJ finds himself attracted to Lenora, so why in the world would he kiss her sister, Esme?
Esme knew about how Lenora felt about CJ, so why would she kiss CJ in the first place? Is this a reflection of how much she doesn’t care for CJ or how much she wants him for herself?
After catching them in the kiss and being hurt by their betrayal, why would Lenora decide to agree to become a girlfriend to someone she wasn’t even a little attracted to or, at least, could relate to?
So far, in the story (I am 41/45 chapters in) CJ’s being an Alpha wolf has no bearing. At the moment, it is all about Lenora’s unresolved feelings. I’m really curious to see where this story will go.
There are some grammatical issues that are forgivable (for now) that I hope the author will go back to fix, but overall, this has been engaging. If there is anything major I would ask the author to change, it would probably be the title. Not only is it a mouthful and unnecessarily confusing, it is also “spoilerish” because without even opening the book we know the dad’s a werewolf.
But see, here is where it gets confusing. CJ is the dad of Lenora’s best friend, Mariselle. At the same time, CJ is also friends with Lenora’s dad. So, would it be better to say “Crush on my Dad’s Best Friend” or stay with “Crush on my Best Friend’s Dad”?
I still think “Alpha” could be removed from the title. Without it, learning he is an Alpha becomes a gem we discover in the story. This, by the way, raises the question … where is his pack and why aren’t he and Mariselle in it?
Now that I’ve whet your curiosity, you can find Crush On My Best Friend’s Alpha Dad by Luxie on the Goodnovel app and read it for yourself.
When I started to read My Dreams, His Reality by Shanika Rana after my sister started talking to me about it. It’s a young adult/teen romance, and, from the way my sister was talking about it, it seemed like a fairly innocent high school romance between the most popular guy in school who has possibly slept with every other female in school, and the quiet, reserved girl who hates him for being a man-whore.
While chatting, I picked up my phone, looked it up on Goodnovel, and added it to my library to check it out myself.
I can tell you this much right now, while it needs some editing, it is well-written enough that I can be forgiving. I confess that a big pull for me is the fact that Zara, the female lead, is snarky and independent. On the other hand, Harper is highly sexed and is dealt a mighty blow on his 18th birthday.
There is more than meets the eye with My Dreams, His Reality by Shanika Rana, and so far, I am enjoying the process. This is supposed to be a trilogy and is 254 chapters. I am on chapter 44 and still having fun reading as of this posting. This book has become part of my Goodnovel reading cycle.
I can only hope the good narrative is sustained until the end. Also, author, not too long, please.
Important update:
One of my readers gave me some good news that I just have to share with all of you. My Dreams, His Reality by Shanika Rana is on Amazon! And the best news yet … IT IS ON KINDLE UNLIMITED!!!
Talk about bang for your buck!
The three books in the trilogy are:
My Dreams, His Reality
Dreams Fade Away
Reality Sets In
If you have a Kindle Unlimited account, reading these books is free! If you choose to buy the books, they cost $4, $5, and $6 respectively.
I discovered The Alpha’s Human Surrogate by Nina GoGo on the Goodnovel app when I was offered some books to read for free within 24 hours. Of all the stories I was offered, I chose this one because the blurb was the one written in the best English … which should tell you something about the rest, lol!
The blurb says this:
“Now, let’s discuss sexual experience,” he says, his tone matter-of-fact. “It’s essential for me to understand your level of comfort and any potential concerns in that aspect.”
I feel my cheeks flush, the topic leaving me feeling exposed and vulnerable. I take a moment to gather my thoughts before responding honestly, “I… I have not had previous experiences, but I am willing to learn. And… and I can assure you that I am absolutely clean.”
Alexander’s gaze softens, and he almost seems surprised. But he eventually gives a soft laugh as he says, “I understand. Moreover, you still need to go through some tests to ensure that it is a smooth process.”
***********************
Hi, I’m Sophia, an ordinary college student. I have a happy family and two handsome roommates, but because of an accident, I had to secretly become a surrogate mother in order to pay for my father’s enormous medical expenses. What I don’t know is that the intended father, a polite and distinguished 34-year-old man, is the most influential and mysterious figure in the city. And what is beyond my control is when I give birth, I’m shocked to discover that my twin babies have wolf ears!
Note: I formatted it for readability. The original blurb is just one loooooong paragraph.
As the story begins I marvel at how little I would have to edit if I was her copy editor. There were still hiccups, but I anticipated that and could forgive it so long as the author does not make huge, repetitive errors like mixing up genders, tenses, figures of speech. It was going fine until I saw BIG holes in her writing that are usually an indication of inattention …
She does not keep track of her characters!
I’ve mentioned this before, I have a cinematic brain. This means that when I read I see the scene unfold in my head. So you can imagine my confusion when characters seemingly teleport from one location to the next and back. She also seems to take for granted how time works. In addition, she forgets what she said before about her characters.
It takes several weeks for her to manifest pregnancy symptoms.
A few weeks into gestation she can feel the baby kick.
Alexander never enlightened Sophia that he was a werewolf and didn’t prepare her for giving birth 4 months from conception.
The children are 1 year old and are already bigger than toddlers as they are walking and talking like 5 year olds.
Alexander starts off a rich man in a luxury sedan who lives in a mansion to being some rich guy living in a corporate estate to again living in a mansion.
Jake and Tyler are described as platonic guy friends who occasionally bring home their dates (and are at it all night) to suddenly having feelings for Sophia.
Author, make up your mind! And keep track of your story!
As an editor, let me tell you, those holes are difficult to plug as it means a rewrite. But as a reader, if I am in a forgiving mood, I can still enjoy it and just laugh at the author’s faux pas. I just pretend to myself that Alexander is actually Nightcrawler or maybe knows astral projection. 😛
I’ve read around 27 chapters already and I don’t even know if I want to call this book a romance, although it is. The romance aspect is very subtle but is implied. I have yet to encounter any steam but, who knows, maybe there will be some later in the book.
His parents killed before his eyes, Orion’s pack was taken from him when he was a child. Now that he is an adult, he has been plotting how to get his pack back for many years.
All witches in the pack are enslaved. Diana is reluctantly the favorite witch of the current Alpha of the pack. She dreams of only one thing … freedom from the pack and living a life as a regular human being away from it.
Orion and Diana decide to become pretend-fated mates to achieve their goals. Little did they know that the Moon Goddess had other plans for them.
I think that Rejected Alpha’s Return by Waverly Sage is currently my favorite of Waverly Sage’s books. It is so hot, but much of it (especially at the beginning) is all in their head! When they finally become intimate in real life, it is tempestuous and electric!
With a title like Rejected Alpha’s Return most people that it was Diana who rejected Orion. But that isn’t the case at all. It is more convoluted than that and you will have to read it yourself to find out. 🙂
So many things happen in the chapters of this book that I’ve found myself reading it slower than normal simply because I am savoring the scenes. If you are still wishy-washy about whether to read this book or not, I’d say go for it! I certainly enjoyed it.
I would classify Rejected Alpha’s Return by Waverly Sage as a slow burn. Sometimes so slow that I wanted to reach into the pages of the book to shout into the characters’ ears to get a clue, lol! It was worth the journey, though. This is a book to be savored; and as I like to say, “trust in the process”. In the end, it all works out for the characters.
As a note, while their love scenes are not very graphic, they manage to be super hot. I don’t know if that is because of the way Waverly wrote the scenes or if I just have an overactive imagination, tee hee.
If this looks like something you would want to read, you can find it on Amazon as a Kindle version for the very reasonable price of $1.50. If you have a Kindle Unlimited account, though, you can read it for free!
If I had one word to describe Claimed by the Hunter by Lila Fox it would be “rompfest”. The characters of this book, Hunter and Nicole, are just at it like bunnies a lot! But that seems to be the norm for this series.
Nicole opened a bakery there with two human friends who are mated to wolf shifters. While she loves living in the town and being with her friends, she can’t understand why they are having so much sex!
That is until she meets Hunter, the town sheriff, who turns out to be her mate. He also happens to be the brother of Roman who is mated to one of her friends, Brenna.
As the heat overwhelms her the time to get to know each other is set aside for later so that Hunter can “take care of her needs”.
Some things in Lila Fox’s shifter-verse differ from what I’ve read in other shifter stories.
While not all humans know that shifters are real, those aware and can accept them are welcome to co-exist with them and live within their towns.
The Alpha does not (seem to) live in the packhouse and rank does not seem to matter as much although it is acknowledged.
Once mates find each other, they have to jump their bones as soon as possible or both will suffer tremendous pain that builds up if not sated.
When the mate bond is triggered the urge to have sex all the time is not just out of desire but is also a necessity. In other words, it is “for health reasons”. In the beginning, it is every few minutes, then every hour, then every four hours, until it settles to once a day (at least)
They have to have unprotected sex all the time when mating to assuage the apparently non-stop heat BUT they don’t get pregnant. It isn’t clear how they get pregnant without reading the previous 2 books but I am assuming that it (probably) has something to do with knotting. Although, there wasn’t any mention of knotting in the book so I am just spitballing.
This is a quick read and despite having only 97 pages, other things happen in it aside from sex.
I enjoy sex as much as the next person but if this book were a movie it would probably be entry-level porn. I say entry-level because it is not as graphic as it could be, most is left to the reader’s imagination. That being said, it feels like all they do is turn around and they are at it again. There are a few of non-sexual tension-filled chapters in the book but shortly after, they are back in bed.
It isn’t among my favorite stories but it was okay for what it was. I enjoyed Nicole’s snarkiness and Hunter’s attentiveness and teasing.
Claimed by the Hunter by Lila Fox is the third book of the Carnal Lust series and can be found on Amazon in Kindle format for $3.99.
The story is certainly steamy, but I thought that things happened so fast. Even though it took at least a month for Madison to get into anything intimate with anyone, it was also at least a month of not talking to any of them.
Her characters, CJ and Lenora, make decisions that I find questionable but, at the same time, make delicious drama that moves the story forward.
While chatting, I picked up my phone, 
The blurb says this:
I think that Rejected Alpha’s Return by Waverly Sage is currently my favorite of Waverly Sage’s books. It is so hot, but much of it (especially at the beginning) is all in their head! When they finally become intimate in real life, it is tempestuous and electric!
Nicole opened a bakery there with two human friends who are mated to wolf shifters. While she loves living in the town and being with her friends, she can’t understand why they are having so much sex!
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