by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 19, 2022 | Book Reviews
When I started reading Billionaire Revenge by Lacey Nash I found the pacing slow. I had to force myself to keep reading because there really wasn’t much happening. I said to myself that perhaps it is a case of a slow burn. Chapter 5 is when they first interact face to face and it isn’t until another 5 chapters before they agree to meet to “make a deal”.
This book is only 25 chapters (plus an epilogue) long so it is kind of like saying that it took half the story to establish that Scarlett is destitute, Xavier will get his pound of flesh, and they will somehow end up together.
From the title, we already know that Xavier will seek revenge. The thing is, though, as I read the story it wasn’t really “revengy” at all. It is as if from the moment they were intimate with each other he forgot all about his agenda.
This story is also supposed to be steamy and there are some love scenes but there weren’t enough descriptions of what was happening or the foreplay didn’t really last long enough to fog up my glasses.
If this book has a pulse it would more or less be steady. Despite the emotional roller coaster Scarlett is supposedly going through, the story is written pretty much one note with a possible minor movement up or down without much to really spike. I almost got excited at that critical scene toward the end but it lacked punch because she just keeps crying. Sigh.
I wish Scarlett was a stronger person. I also wish we could have sometimes seen the POV of Xavier. That would have elevated the story, I think.
Billionaire Revenge by Lacey Nash is not for me but it might just be right up your alley. For the beginner or intermediate romance readers, this may be good enough. It is available on Amazon for 0.99 but you can also read it for free with Kindle Unlimited.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 18, 2022 | Book Reviews
Non-linear storytelling is fun, and I thought that was what was happening with Alpha Wolf’s Secret Nanny by Anika Skye. The way the story began was a fumbling attempt at a flashback. As the story progressed, I had hoped to get more information about why Griffin, her ex who happened to be a werewolf and an Alpha, was hunting her down and killing anyone and everyone who protected her.
She shows us a glimpse of her past when Griffin singled her out from all the girls in school to go to the prom with him. After that nothing else was said except that he wanted her and would stop at nothing to get her back. For years she has been trying to hide from him and this last time is when she took a job as a nanny to the newborn child of Winston. Unbeknownst to her, he is an Alpha wolf, too.
Winston is drawn towards her but fights it. It is obvious that Charlotte knows a few things about wolves but not about mates. In this story a human-werewolf relationship is taboo and yet Griffin was still hellbent on having her despite her “rejection”. It is just too confusing!
The story feels incomplete and needs fleshing out and could be longer and better if the author takes the time to do it. You can read Alpha Wolf’s Secret Nanny by Anika Skye by downloading it from Amazon. You can buy it for 0.99 or read it with a Kindle Unlimited account.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 18, 2022 | Book Reviews
I downloaded Beauty and her Beasts by Lisa Cullen with Kindle Unlimited a couple of months ago more out of curiosity than anything else. First, I’ve never read anything from Lisa Cullen before, and second, I was curious if she would successfully execute the anticipated menage scene.
I don’t hate this story, but I don’t love it either. There are just too many inconsistencies that make my teeth hurt. The story tells us that Allana is a college graduate of a business course. She goes to a bar later for drinks with a couple of professors she had in college whom she became friends with. This tells me that the setting is the present day. However, she gets picked up by a CARRIAGE and their source of light is CANDLES. So this puts the setting in the past, pre-electricity.
Her three men are King, the one-armed lion shifter who owns the castle-turned-hotel, Gunnar the bear shifter who runs the kitchen, and Declan the half-wolf shifter who is the groundskeeper.
Upon meeting each one she gets instantly aroused and her first thought is to jump their bones. This is very forward-thinking and puts the timeline to the present … again. She was hired to be the hotel’s manager, which was considered a man’s job … present day, yet again.
Add to that all the incorrect word usage … surmised instead of summarized, flench instead flinch, smitten instead of smited … and those are just 3 words. Believe me, there are more.
And can I also say, how irresponsible for all three men to each just come inside her with no protection? Is pregnancy not something they have to worry about?
This could qualify as a reverse harem in that she finds herself involved with three men but never at the same time with more than one until the last chapter of the story where she finally gets to be with all three. A few seconds of foreplay is, apparently all they need before each man finds a hole and fills it to the sound of her moans and groans.
Beauty and her Beasts by Lisa Cullen is available on Amazon with KU but if you want to buy it, it costs 2.99. I’d recommend reading it on KU.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 16, 2022 | Book Reviews
Most romance novels start from the POV of the female. Two Sugar Daddies’ Virgin by Nicole Casey steps out of that box and instead starts from the POV of Matt who is in a committed relationship with Leandro. Matt and Leandro are in an exclusive relationship and yet from the start the author makes it clear that they are bisexual, not gay. I would suppose that this is to allow us to accept their later relationship with a woman.
Leandro is a self-made billionaire and often travels, leaving Matt at home. He is not out of the closet so he does not feel that he could bring Matt and introduce him to other people as his boyfriend without ruining his reputation. Matt loves Leandro very much but resents being hidden away like a guilty secret.
In his guilt, and perhaps as a way to ensure Matt isn’t lonely all the time, Leandro decided that Matt should get a sugar baby.
Jourdanne is a hardworking young woman who is trying to raise enough money to go to Yale. First, the many repairs to her father’s inn inadvertently meant she wasn’t going to receive a salary for a while then her second job was razed by a fire. Since her best friend showed her an app where she could apply as a sugar baby, she saw this as her only hope of making a lot of money quickly.
Luckily, the first sugar daddy she meets on the app and chats with is Matt and they click. She reveals to him that she is a virgin. If he still wanted a physical relationship that would increase her price but if not then they would just be companions. Unplanned, things heat up between the two later and Leandro walks in on them. While nothing much happened, this was even before the contract was signed so an amendment was made and this time she ended up with TWO sugar daddies!
With a reverse harem people mostly assume that it is all about steamy sex but while there are scenes here that would make you fan yourself, it is mostly about the developing relationship between Jourdanne, Matt, and Leandro together. This is a heartwarming story with very few lows and a guaranteed HEA.
You can find Two Sugar Daddies’ Virgin by Nicole Casey on Amazon for only 0.99 or free with Kindle Unlimited. Enjoy!
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 14, 2022 | Book Reviews
I have mixed feelings about Dibs on the Bartender by Giselle Harper partly because I am struggling with the switching tenses and wrong terminology that occasionally appears. Quite a few authors nowadays seem to do this … POV is in the present and the inner monologue switches from present to past to present tense.
The story has a tendency to drone. Three chapters in and I kept losing my place, I wasn’t getting engaged. Part of it, I think, was the fact that Niki, the main character kept going on and on about how she is still a virgin. Okay, we get it! She is saving herself. I commend it, I have no issues with it, but I think it was mentioned more times than it needed to be. It almost felt like every few sentences she would say, “by the way, did I already mention I am a virgin?” Yup. Too many mentions.
I kept reading to give it a chance and it does get better but it is slow going. Maybe it’s me, not the story, I don’t know, but I had higher expectations. It isn’t bad but it could be better.
Dibs on the Bartender by Giselle Harper is book 2 of the Vacation Yacht Romance series and is available starting December 16, 2022, on Amazon for 0.99 or free with a Kindle Unlimited account.
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