by Penny Angeles-Tan | May 5, 2023 | Book Reviews
If you are looking for a story with a unique perspective, you should check out The Alpha’s Pen Pal by Allie Carstens, which tells the story of Wesley and Haven, who first meet via correspondence.
Wesley is 12 years old and his teacher tasked the class to write a letter to a pen pal (who is initially unassigned) in a class taught by her sister in a different state. He is the Alpha’s son and has 3 best friends, which includes his younger brother. Haven is 9 years old and an orphan.
Unlike Wesley, she has no friends and no stable home life as she has been moved from foster home to foster home since she was a baby. Despite their rocky start, over the next several months their friendship grew to the point where they both awaited each other’s reply letter with anticipation. And just as everything seems to be working out perfectly, something terrible happens that quickly changes the tenor of their lives.
Just my personal opinion … this story is SOOOOO GOOOOD! I’m on an emotional roller coaster and hanging on to the bars tightly! It starts off with me going “Aww, how cute!” then segues to me crying buckets. I’ve caught up to the latest chapter and now I’m in the giddy and kicking up my heels phase, or as we say in Filipino … nakakakilig!
I don’t want to give away too many details about the story but trust me, you won’t regret reading The Alpha’s Pen Pal by Allie Carstens. I am reading this on Goodnovel while my sister is reading it on Dreame. Both reading apps have free chapters for you to read so that you can decide for yourself if you want to keep on reading. Personally, I think you would want to keep reading.
I’m hoping that someday soon this beautiful story makes it to Kindle and paperback.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | May 2, 2023 | Book Reviews
Twin Alpha Kings Pup Mate by Platinumstar is a wonderful “coming of age” shifter romance story between a young girl who loves all things Disney and who grows up to become the mate of the twin Alpha Kings.
Jayden and Kayden are in their late 20s when they meet Kiara “aka Kiki” Middleton, their mate. Unfortunately, she is only 9 years old and is, therefore, too young to feel the mate bond. Nevertheless, she feels strongly drawn to the twin kings who decide to find a way to keep her close so that they could be with her as she grows up. This paved the way for a wonderful friendship that will later segue into all parties realizing they are mates when Kiara turns 18.
I loved how the author did not rush through Kiara’s childhood. We, the readers, get to watch/read her grow up before our eyes and it is wonderful! It is organic and doing it this way eliminates possible questions that may have arisen about her relationship with her best friend and other people around her.
It is not until Chapter 44 that the author makes her 17, 2 weeks before her 18th birthday, so we know we are THIS CLOSE to seeing her recognize the mate bond and I have been on tenterhooks!
Pro: This story is really, really, really good! Con: The author has not updated this story for quite some time. Admittedly, it only really bothers me because I zoomed through the chapters in less than 2 days … that’s how good the story is! I understand, though, that aside from having several books to update, Author Platinumstar does have a life outside of writing. Whether we like it or not, we just need to accept our beloved author is human, as are we, and can only do so much while maintaining her health and relationships with people outside of the literary world.
I am truly lovin’ Twin Alpha Kings Pup Mate by Platinumstar and I look forward to receiving an alert on a story update on Goodnovel. If you guys are looking for something different and refreshing, do check this story out! I highly recommend it. The innocence of the story is so wonderfully refreshing.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | May 1, 2023 | Book Reviews
Alpha Swap by Cooper is an amazing story. Think of it as Freaky Friday meets Groundhog Day. Your childhood is seriously deprived if you don’t get those pop culture references.
Tereshan is the Alpha of the pack and Claire is an Omega of the same pack. Tereshan is a douchebag (to put it mildly) and hardly anyone in his pack is happy. Claire is one of those people that is just greatly loved by all she encounters … she is a loving soul. They share a birthday and on their 18th birthday, they discover that they are mates. Tereshan decides to have sex with Claire and then immediately after he rejects her. His reason … he does not want a weak Omega for a mate … and things decline from there.
A year later something happens and Tereshan and Claire wake up in each other’s body and it is their 18th birthday once again. What?!? What a twist! Things should be very different with Claire in charge now, right? And it does!
I don’t want to give away too much as it would be better if you read it yourself. Alpha Swap by Cooper is available on iReader (not Goodnovel, huhu) which makes me sad because it is hella expensive at iReader! Each chapter is 180 coins. This book is so good that before I knew it I already spent more than $50 on it … it’s that good! That is my budget for Goodnovel for 1 to 2 months!
If you are NOT a voracious reader, as I am, you may not have to spend so much … just use the daily vouchers and the reading and ad vouchers. Sadly, for me, I just HAVE to know what happens next so … spend, spend, spend. Sigh! Thankfully, the story is really good, so I don’t regret the purchase as much … until I think about how many books I could have bought on Kindle with that amount.
This story deserves to be translated into film, I swear! Read Alpha Swap by Cooper on iReader today! You won’t regret it!
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Apr 3, 2023 | Book Reviews
I have not given up hope on The Revenge of a Rejected Mate by Pure Ink because the story has a lot of potential. However, 48 chapters in, and, as a copy editor, I am getting more and more frustrated as I read on because it does not seem as though the author is keeping track of what he/she/they have previously said. At times, in the middle of the chapter, character names change or the story goes in a different direction.
Sometimes it takes too long to get to a critical point and other times it feels like we are suddenly just there and the journey was skipped and the characters moved forward several chapters without letting us know. In addition, there are just too many antagonists and the characters are weak.
Kaden, the Lycan King, is indecisive when it comes to Audrey and he seems to have difficulty compartmentalizing. Despite being supposedly mated and in love with Audrey, he still has a mistress, Shantel, who he supposedly got pregnant with. He is also constantly seeking advice from his Beta, Adler, about all things, including his love life.
Audrey is an Alpha’s daughter and an Omega who became a slave. For most of the book starting from chapter 1, she has suffered many hardships, both physical and emotional. As we progress we see her manifesting un-wolflike abilities such as telekinesis, prophetic dreams, and her hands glow. Every time something unusual happens to her she runs to Kaden to tell him about it and something unforeseen always happens.
The Revenge of a Rejected Mate by Pure Ink is on Goodnovel so it is pay-per-chapter. I have to ask myself, if I am wasting my money or if I should read on and give this a chance since, with editing, it has the potential to be really good. If the author gets a chance to read this review, I hope they consider asking me to be their copy editor. Together we can make this better.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Mar 23, 2023 | Book Reviews
I opened Me, My Mate, and His Human Girlfriend by Annietroup1 on Goodnovel despite heavy reservations just to give the author a chance. From the title, I was assuming this is either a rejection story or a menage. Early heads up, it is (apparently) neither.
I like giving new stories and authors I encounter a chance. I actually recall adding this book to my library a while back but never got around to properly reading it because the first chapter did not engage me. To be honest, usually if the first chapter bombs, there is very little hope for me to like the succeeding chapters any better. To give the author the benefit of the doubt I decided to revisit it and read on.
First, the premise … Amanda (Mandy) is 19 and this is her 3rd year looking for her mate so she was not optimistic. At the party, she discovers that her mate is Alpha Mason and she immediately “nods her head no” (this tells me the author is Asian because in other cultures a nod means yes). It is common knowledge that Mason has a human girlfriend of long-standing (10 years) and has openly stated that he would not be leaving her for his mate.
Despite that, he still insists on taking her back to his pack. She rejects him but he does not reject her back saying that doing so will make him weak. In addition, he hides her away in the east wing of his house, isolated from everyone, and goes on with his life as if she was not there. The only change being he visits her every night to talk to her since his wolf insists.
In the meantime, he still maintains a physical relationship with his girlfriend every night which causes Mandy excruciating pain, needing the intervention of the pack doctor every night. Mandy is angry, infuriated even. After a bout of violence (against any object in her sight) she slowly degenerates. it takes her FIVE YEARS OF SUFFERING to finally decide to just end her life.
FIVE FUCKING YEARS!!! She allowed Mason to hurt her intentionally every day and it took her FIVE YEARS to realize that killing herself was the best thing to do since she can’t get help from anyone else. And when she does and is spotted by the doctor who then rushes to the hospital bleeding that is the only time that Mason realizes what a dickhead he is … after he intentionally (and I mean, told her to her face that was exactly what he was going to do) hurt her by having sex with his human girlfriend that entire time.
It takes Mandy almost dying for him to decide to dump his girlfriend of 15 years now to be with his mate. WHERE IS HIS BACKBONE?!? If he truly loved his girlfriend that much he should have rejected Mandy from the start and marked the human, not made Mandy suffer for FIVE FUCKING YEARS! If he believed that the Moon Goddess knew best then he should have done that mind wipe thing to the human and be with Mandy from day 1 of finding her.
So far, I have read all the free chapters and bought a few (I am now on chapter 9) and I am most definitely NOT liking this story. Both male and female lead characters are idiots and their story should not be told. Also, I am unhappy with the author’s grammar. Girl, hire a copy editor, PLEASE! Stat!
If despite my thumbs-down review you are still curious and want to get tortured for yourself (hyuk!) you can find Me, My Mate, and His Human Girlfriend by Annietroup1 on Wattpad and Goodnovel. Fyi, I rarely give an outright thumbs down so this should tell you how much this book angered me.
Twin Alpha Kings Pup Mate by Platinumstar is a wonderful “coming of age” shifter romance story between a young girl who loves all things Disney and who grows up to become the mate of the twin Alpha Kings.
Alpha Swap by Cooper is an amazing story. Think of it as Freaky Friday meets Groundhog Day. Your childhood is seriously deprived if you don’t get those pop culture references.
Sometimes it takes too long to get to a critical point and other times it feels like we are suddenly just there and the journey was skipped and the characters moved forward several chapters without letting us know. In addition, there are just too many antagonists and the characters are weak.
I opened Me, My Mate, and His Human Girlfriend by Annietroup1 on Goodnovel despite heavy reservations just to give the author a chance. From the title, I was assuming this is either a rejection story or a menage. Early heads up, it is (apparently) neither.
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