by Penny Angeles-Tan | Aug 9, 2023 | Book Reviews
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.
If you think this is a story you could get into or would like to try, The Alpha’s Human Surrogate by Nina GoGo is available on the Goodnovel app.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Aug 3, 2023 | Book Reviews
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!
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jul 27, 2023 | Book Reviews
Raise your hand if you love freebies! If you are one of those people that just raised your hand then you will like this news. Author Stu B has a FREE STORY on Dreame! Yes, you read that correctly. It is 100% free!
Alpha’s Ex-Mate by Stu B is the aforementioned free story. It is about a wolfless girl named Serena, the daughter of an Alpha, who finds herself married off to the Alpha King, Xander.
While their start was rocky, their marriage was passionate and they were happy. Despite many attempts at having a child, Serena kept miscarrying, which cast a shadow on Xander and Serena’s relationship.
Finally, Serena confirms that she is pregnant and can possibly keep this baby, and she rushes to find Xander to tell him the good news. When she found him he was talking to his best friend Hailey. and she overheard them say that he had her family and pack killed.
Devastated she decides to reject him and then flee without letting him know that she was carrying his child.
Years later she returns to the pack on a secret mission and finds herself working for Hailey, who is soon to marry Xander. If she is caught, she will most likely be killed. But if she is successful, her future and that of her son’s will be secure.
What she didn’t count on was the attraction between her and Xander, which only seemed to be getting stronger.
And then there is the interest of the Vampire Prince.
Alpha’s Ex-Mate by Stu B is a slow burn. It is hot and steamy and I’ve already caught up to the latest chapters and still have no idea of where it will go and how it will end. I have some theories, though.
- Despite the mutual rejection, Xander and Serena are actually still mates.
- The Vampire Prince is a second chance mate.
- Hailey is the mastermind of it all.
Did that whet your curiousity? Go to Dreame, click on Alpha’s Ex-Mate by Stu B, and find out for yourself. Once again, it is absolutely FREE!
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jul 21, 2023 | Book Reviews
I am in love with the Screaming Eagles! There must be something in the beer these guys are drinking because all the guys (so far) just seem so fantastic! In threes or fours, it doesn’t matter, bagging a Screaming Eagle sounds like heaven, and Crash, Preacher, and Devil are no exception. I realize this isn’t the norm for MCs but … oh my!
Good Girl for the Bikers by Stephanie Brother tells the story of Summer, a sheltered girl, the daughter of a pastor, and the Fallen Angels crew of the Screaming Eagles MC, namely Crash, Preacher, and Devil.
Summer and Crash are step-siblings but have not seen each other Since Crash (formerly Jacob) left the mansion they were living in when he was 16 to escape the beatings he received from his stepfather. Summer got left behind and was molded into being the timid, submissive girl, the epitome of good.
Many years later (to the present) Summer found Crash’s number and calls him to let him know that his mother has passed away. Like a boulder rolling off a cliff, this led to a series of events that prompted Summer to reach out to Crash once again and ask to be rescued … except it was Devil who picked up the call, not Crash.
Good Girl for the Bikers by Stephanie Brother does have a hurdle for Summer and Crash to overcome but this story doesn’t have too much external angst and that it gave us a chance to savor their growing relationship. Even knowing that she would eventually end up with all three of them, I was still excited to go through the journey.
A marvelous story, as always, Stephanie! As always, I look forward to your books. Will the rest of the Screaming Eagles, like Wraith, get into reverse harems, too? I can’t wait to find out!
If anyone out there wants to check out Good Girl for the Bikers by Stephanie Brother you can find it on Amazon for 2.99 and free with a Kindle Unlimited account. Don’t forget to check out the bonus chapter after you are done reading the book … exclusively on stephaniebrotherbooks.com.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jul 14, 2023 | Book Reviews
The Arena by Cooper was a change of pace for me. For the longest time, I have been reading shifter stories with werewolves and lycans as the main characters. The Arena brings into play many different types of shifters such as lions, a Bengal tiger, a polar bear, and kestrels. The main characters, however, are Cedric (the last Lycan) and Tana (the last Elemental Fire Dragon).
The last of their kind
For many years, humans have hunted and killed supernaturals (or supes) out of fear. But something changed recently. For the past year )at least), supes have been hunted and captured. Why? For entertainment! They were imprisoned, starved, and then forced to fight to the death against other supes gladiator-style in the Arena. This is while being in their human form and unable to shift.
In the world, only 4 dragons remain, one for each element – earth, air, water, and fire. Tana is the last fire dragon. Her family chose to kill themselves rather than be captured by humans.
His pack was attacked on the day of Cedric’s ascension to Alpha of Alphas. His parents were killed while he and many of his pack members were captured and sent to the arena.
The Arena is where Tana and Cedric meet. They have been fighting in the Arena for about a year … which proves that they are very good fighters as they have not lost once. The hunters think Cedric is an Alpha werewolf. Cedric thinks Tana is an Alpha werewolf as well, and she has not taken the time to enlighten him otherwise. Cedric also thinks that Tana might be his mate but can’t be sure because of the suppressants the hunters have been given them to prevent them from shifting.
Mate!
I thought that seeing how the mate bond manifests for different kinds of shifters is interesting and it made sense that it wasn’t quite the same thing for dragons. A major difference is that simply biting or getting bitten is not enough. Dragons need to be claimed.
When Cedric and Tana finally get together and he bites her, he finally realizes that she isn’t an Alpha werewolf but something else altogether that is probably even more powerful. In his confusion he leaves her, presumably to work things out in his head. Unfortunately, Tana took this as a rejection and left with a broken heart.
This becomes the turning point for everything that happens in the rest of the story.
The Review
I have what I like to call a “cinematic brain”. It means that when I read I can picture what is happening in my head and, often, the words actually disappear and I am reading the book as if I were watching a movie. This translates to if the movie in my head is bad or subpar I figuratively walk out of the theater.
Cooper describes scenes in The Arena so vividly I find myself living in the story. I would put her in the same league as Chris Columbus and Peter Jackson if she were a film director. Yes, that is how gorgeous the scenes play in my head. While prone to not using the Oxford comma (hyuk!), Cooper skillfully manages to keep me so engaged that I find myself savoring all the pages, rather than flying through the book as I usually do. I spent more time reading, not because it was a struggle, but because I would rewind to see a scene more clearly.
I would classify The Arena by Cooper as a fantasy/adventure/romance and at that, I would say it is more fantasy than romance. Yes, steamy scenes can get pretty steamy, but possibly 90% of the story has nothing to do with sex … which I thought was masterful! This opens up the audience of this book to more than just thirsty women.
If a fantasy story with dragons, lycans, werewolves, etc. is something you are interested in, you may want to check out The Arena by Cooper on the Goodnovel app. This is a story I highly recommend and eagerly await on Amazon.
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!
Alpha’s Ex-Mate by Stu B is the aforementioned free story. It is about a wolfless girl named Serena, the daughter of an Alpha, who finds herself married off to the Alpha King, Xander.
Good Girl for the Bikers by Stephanie Brother tells the story of Summer, a sheltered girl, the daughter of a pastor, and the Fallen Angels crew of the Screaming Eagles MC, namely Crash, Preacher, and Devil.
For many years, humans have hunted and killed supernaturals (or supes) out of fear. But something changed recently. For the past year )at least), supes have been hunted and captured. Why? For entertainment! They were imprisoned, starved, and then forced to fight to the death against other supes gladiator-style in the Arena. This is while being in their human form and unable to shift.
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