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Askew Ever After: A Limited Edition Romance Collection (Paper Love by Aubrey Wynne) – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Askew Ever AfterAskew Ever After by Aubrey Wynne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an anthology of romance, from historical to contemporary, from rock stars to cowboys, office romances and fated love, as well as a forbidden love and men showing their alpha and softer sides.

First, a rockstar made a choice which could have landed either him or the woman he loved in jail, he chose her and has to live with it until a chance meeting with her where he has to make another hard choice.

Second, a woman makes a decision which could either be the worst thing she could have done or the best thing that could happen to her, but which is it?

Third, next a big city girl has a thing for cowboys and when her best friend gets engaged to one, she decides a fling of her own is needed, but will she be able to leave him behind to go back to her big city life afterwards?

Fourth down the line is someone who wants to rewrite their life to make it something better as it falls apart around them, but what kind of life will it be and will it be any better than their current one?

Fifth one along is a second chance romance between past loves, when one is brought back to his hometown under sad circumstances and runs into an old flame in a flower shop, will their pasts be too much to overcome, or will they be able to give each other that second chance after all?

The sixth is a friendship to love story, but can the friendship remain while the love is there, or will tomorrow be too late to find out?

Number seven is a story where a single night will change a woman forever, but is the mysterious businessman she has connected with going to make her life better or worse once it ends?

Eighth on the list is my personal favourite, a tale of a man trying to win over his sister’s best friend, but she isn’t someone to open her heart after grief seals it away. She is not the normal girl he would go for and he is intrigued by her wild and exotic nature and the chase is something he cannot resist, but she is wary that he is a player and only after one thing, can he prove to her that she is everything he wants and needs, or will she run a mile? This is a slow burn romance with a playful and charming pigeon as a bonus.

Ninth in the series is a tale of murder, after ten years away from her hometown and a dead ex-colleague in her shop, a woman must work with a ghost from her past to solve the mystery and find a murderer, but will they do it before someone else gets hurt?

Tenth is a god who has observed the creation of the universe and held it in his hands, observed the wonders within it, but can one small and delicate thing, love, derail the Godcode and destroy everything he has seen?

Second to last is set in a summer camp where an assistant is hired and their boss is preparing for a civil, but uncomfortable few months with them, however, when revelations begin, will it stay that way, or will things work out in the end?

Finally, a coffee shop waitress catches the eye of a billionaire CEO and he will stop at nothing to make her his, but will she fall for his money and charm, or after a night of conversation, food and passion, will she still refuse to be bought?

A collection of romances with something for everyone inside it, if you are looking for a book with happily ever after’s, then this could be the one for you.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Athalie (Sacrificial Chronicles Book 1) by Jordan Elizabeth – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Athalie (Sacrificial Chronicles Book 1)Athalie by Jordan Elizabeth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Athalie is a fantasy novel which tells the story of a sacrifice and what came afterwards, it starts in the capital of the Sapphire Empire on the planet Neoma, when Athalie is 6 years old and watching the annual sacrifice for the first time, she is in awe of the dancers spinning to the drum beat, the priestesses composure and the priests voices which are lifted in song, as well as everyone else being in their finery, but the most beautiful of all is the girl chosen to be the sacrifice for that year. As the young woman reaches her destination, she stops walking and desperately tries to escape her fate, Athalie is terrified and willing someone to help her, but realises that her death is more important to the people, even the girls family, than her life is and when she is tied up and still sent to her death, Athalie is changed forever.

Eleven years later, we rejoin Athalie in the Sun Chamber for the annual choosing of the sacrifice, all girls between the ages of thirteen and seventeen are gathered together for the gods to observe and choose the one whose soul would be reborn, as the priests passed between the girls and the High Priest used his god given staff to test each of them, Athalie is planning her wedding and imagining how the ceremony and whatever happened afterwards would be, but this is all for naught as she is chosen to be the sacrifice for that year, she is sure that they are wrong and that she should not have been chosen, but when she is taken away to the chambers assigned to the sacrifice, she maintains that the choice was wrong, but the High Priest will hear nothing of it and walks out of the room, leaving soldiers to guard her and one night Athalies fiancé helps her to escape where she is being held so that she can say goodbye to her family, however, she is caught.

Over the next three days, she is made beautiful by the slaves for the events leading up to her sacrifice, she feasts, drinks too much, meets the emperor and walks through the villages so the people can see her, she still maintains that she isn’t meant to be sacrificed, however, the High Priest threatens that he will hurt her family if she doesn’t go along with everything and become the sacrifice, but when she is being bathed on that fateful day, she overhears a conversation about a weapon which the High Priest has found and is going to use on their enemies. When the day comes, she goes to the designated place and her life ends, but it is not the end of Athalie, after the pain has subsided, she finds herself in a field of wildflowers with animals around her and feels at peace, but she suddenly goes elsewhere and finds herself in front of one of the gods who answers her questions, but with only vague answers, but when the weapon comes into the conversation he explains what the weapon is and what it will do, Athalie is shocked by this information and begs to go back to make sure that they won’t use it, he refuses, but Athalie is adamant that she needs to go back, so he takes her to see other gods. When there, she manages to find out how the weapon can be stopped, but they do not want her to do it, so they agree to point her in the right direction, but that she has to find and then work out how to use this other weapon herself, but if she fails, she will not be reborn.

When Athalie is sent back to Neoma to find what she needs to stop the deadly weapon, she gives herself another name and declares that she is a prophet, she tries to talk to the High Priest, but he doesn’t believe her declares that he will use the weapon anyway on the next full moon, which is only a few days away and locks her in a room, however, she manages to find a way out and while doing this, she finds an unusual ally who helps her on her mission, but will Athalie be able to find and work out this weapon in time, or will she perish along with the rest of her planet? This is a whirlwind mission across countries fraught with danger and obstacles which keeps you hooked right until the end and well worth a read.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Matching Miriam by Mya O’Malley – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Matching MiriamMatching Miriam by Mya O’Malley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Miriam is a badass police officer who lives in New York and has built walls around her heart, she doesn’t want it broken again, but she is wondering whether it might be worth starting to let her guard down and look at finding love again, but she doesn’t open up easily apart from with her best friend, although even she doesn’t know everything. As Miriam leaves for a run, her best friend drives past and invites her for coffee with another friend, but Miriam declines it as she knows that she isn’t needed and she wants to run, but as she is running, she is bombarded by memories of her childhood and things she has kept locked away for a long time, including her first love Jesse, normally she can banish them, but today is different and she cannot escape them. When her boyfriend asks her if she is now bringing her work home, she is not happy about it and when he tries to talk about where their relationship is going, she pulls down the shutters, she has dating demons and is scared of them rearing their heads again with him and when he goes to kiss her, she freezes and takes a step back.

Jesse is a man who needs a change of scenery, he is trying to get away from his most recent relationship after it ended and when the job opportunity in New York for a fireman he jumps at the chance, but the main reason is Miriam, he first love and someone who cannot forget no matter how he tries, he thinks about what her life is like now and whether he may be able to be a part of it again and he is damn well going to try his hardest to make that either a reality or finally get the closure he would need to move on. The next day Miriam is thinking about the kiss the night before as well as how her best friend is acting strangely, when she comes round to talk to her and what she has to say unnerves Miriam to the extreme.

Miriam is called into work when a homicide is reported and she and her partner are assigned the case, but the details of the murder are really unusual and they end up chasing their tales when they can’t put things together as they would like to be able to. As the day progresses and her boyfriend keeps calling and texting, it is starting to irritate Miriam and this makes her think about Jesse even more. Meanwhile, Jesse is struggling to get Miriam out of his head, so when he decides to go for a run, he is shocked to run into Miriam who is also out for one, but when she trips and falls, Jesse insists on seeing her home to make sure that she is ok, the emotions which swirl around them are more than they can handle, so she makes Jesse leave.

As the case develops and things do start falling into place, things are strained for Miriam, between Jesse reappearing, the things her best friend has been telling her and the situation with her boyfriend and the fact that there is a murderer on the loose, she doesn’t know if she is coming or going and things just keep getting stranger, but will they solve the case, or will the things that have been foretold come to pass? Can Miriam solve all the problems in her life, or will they all coalesce to bring her down?

If you like trying to solve a crime with a dash of romance and a bit of the supernatural sprinkled in for good measure, this is the book for you and it will suck you in.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Happily Ever After: Don’t Worry, I Still Hate You by Marie Skye – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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Happily Ever AfterHappily Ever After by Piper Rayne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a box set of romances with feisty women and handsome men, there are flings, forbidden romances, enemies turning to friends, second chances and comedy galore, but the one I enjoyed most was “Don’t Worry, I Still Hate You” by Marie Skye where Perrie is looking for a way out of a hen weekend in Las Vegas, but to no avail and she ends up going, even though it is someone she isn’t really that fond of, so to distract herself she is writing the advert for the roommate she is in need of, but she is getting distracted by her friend talking about a new app she has downloaded and signed her up for too, safe to say that she is not impressed! All the talk about sex is embarassing her, but only because she isn’t getting any and has managed to kind of organise it with someone she isn’t keen on, but after 3 years, anything is better than nothing and when she gets a match on her app later on, it happens to be someone she knows, Ash and someone who knows how good they look and that most women would fall over themselves to get it on with a guy like him.

When he comes over to talk to her later, Perrie does her best to avoid conversation, even though he is trying so she makes up her mind and walks away. Later on, Perries leaves the party and goes back to her room, but cannot sleep, she keeps on thinking about how good Ash looked and when she matches with someone who sent a video too, she decides it is only sex and to go for it. Ash is in the middle of a business video call when there is a knock at his door and he sees Perrie but he has no idea why and when she mentions a dance party, he is even more confused, but when she says she was glad it was him, he decides to play along and that is where the night gets passionate. Perrie leaves his room and sneaks back to her own room while trying not to wake the others, but her friend is awake and she wants the gossip, , but PErrie is being tight lipped because everyone knows what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Almost a year later, Perrie has been through two roommates and is rejigging the advert for a third, but she is only getting weirdo’s and addicts until she gets a message from Ashley who seems to be everything she wanted in the advert and so agrees to send over the lease and that the keys will be waiting as she won’t be there that weekend, but two weeks later, she arrives home late and goes straight to her room to crash out, but a few hours later, she is woken up by really loud music and so goes into the kitchen to prepare a pot of coffee and say hi to her new roommate, but when they come out of their room, Perrie is in for a shock when she realises that it is the man from Vegas, but this is going to be the least of her worries.

The other tales cover everything a die hard romance reader would love to read and I would definitely recommend them, so go fill your boots with this compendium of stories and let the hopeless romantic in you out.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Havall 16 by A.J. Ullman – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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Havall 16Havall 16 by A. J. Ullman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a story of a future which only the rich will enjoy and the lengths that people will go to stop it, it starts quoting an experiment by a russion scientist where a pair of rats are let loose in a labyrinth, followed by a cat, the results of which are the most robust rat sacrifices the weaker one so the cat will go for it first and then make it’s escape, however, the cat kills the robust one nad then proceeds to eat both, therefore, only the cat is the winner and in this future there are two factions, the Havall’s (the cats) and the Havenot’s (the rats), one side has everything and one side has almost nothing, but someone has gone back to change this and so the chase begins, but Tommy Canada and Havall 16 are the rats and someone else is the ca.

Tommy and his partner and best friend Win Gault own a company which they are about to take public and tell the world about their discoveries and what it could mean for them, but on April first, he does a wonderful thing for a coworker and treats himself to clocking out early and a stop off at a favourite watering hole. While he is there he and another friend have a discussion about a scientific breakthrough in health care involving nanobots, his friends response is that “We’re not made to live forever” and provokes an interesting train of thought in Tommy, but when he has to swerve to avoid a collision which nearly kills him and he faces the choice of whether to help, leave or kill a mortally injured racoon, he decides to leave it, but this is just the foreshadowing of a future choice.

The next morning, he is back at the helical shaped office and about to have a meeting with Win about the IPO when his chief of security informs him that there is a virus in the computing system and seeing as it isn’t connected to the internet, she has no idea where it has come from or what it will do, so Tommy asks her to find out and report her findings to him, there is no need to worry Win until there is more information. When he gets to Win’s office, they talk about the upcoming IPO and the party that will go along with it, then they talk about the budget and how one area in particular was using ten times more resources than allocated, but his worry was blown off as a typo, the kind of which never happens, so he heads home after a full day of meetings, where his girlfriend is waiting for him, they talk all the time, but don’t see each other in person as much, so after a bit of wine and some food, for them and his two cats, they reminisce and then have a night of passion.

When he goes for a shower the next morning, he finds some writing on the mirror, but when he asks her if she did it, the answer is no and so it is a mystery, a frustrating one, but one that has to be put on the backburner for now. At work, he has another meeting about the virus, another of the tech team has been drafted in to help, but there is nothing else further to report and the rest of the day involved the usual day to day running of the business and this is the same routine, except everyday the message on the mirror changed until on the eighth day someone came through it, a woman and the news she was bringing was one which would change his life forever. She tells him of the future in which his company becomes the most successful in the world, but that it has come at the cost of those who cannot afford it and she has come back to stop this from happening and convince Tommy to help her persuade Win that it is the right thing to do, but that does not go as planned because they find out that the Havalls have a plan to stop them.

Will they be able to stop the future from happening, or will their plans be terminated before they can even start? Will there be fatal consequences to their actions, or will everyone live happily ever after? The only way to find out is to read along their adventure and find out what the future has in store.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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THE GRACEFUL GHOST: A story for girls rich with authentic ballet school detail and sparkling with ghostly mischief by Eleanor Dixon – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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THE GRACEFUL GHOST: A story for girls rich with authentic ballet school detail and sparkling with ghostly mischiefTHE GRACEFUL GHOST: A story for girls rich with authentic ballet school detail and sparkling with ghostly mischief by Eleanor Dixon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the story of Grace, the ghost of a little girl who is bound to Amberwood Hall, the place she was born and died in, she wants to be able to leave, but can’t and Lauren, a young girl who wants to dance but cannot let herself do it with the addition of fun loving Rodney, a fellow ghost of a stable boy and friend of Grace’s. It starts with Grace and Rodney sat in a tree watching the new arrivals to the school pull up in their fancy cars ready for the days auditions, they are talking about who Grace might be able to help to realise their dream so she can realise hers, but none of the girls are standing out as yet, Grace is getting a little frustrated but can still laugh at Rodney when he tries to do ballet as he leaps out of the tree and straight into the path of a car, this is where Grace has a feeling she may have found her girl. Next she goes into the changing rooms to see if she was right, as she listens to the conversations, she hears the same old things and moves further in, then she finds her, Lauren, as she gets her number, her mum suggests she warms up, Grace notices how flexible and soft she is and begins to think that she might be mistaken, that is until the actual audition starts and Lauren transforms into someone completely different, she is stiff, has no balance and is surrounded by a wall of negative energy, but Grace needed Lauren at the school so she could help her, so she made the decision to sing into her ear and help her to release the negativity and dance to her full potential and she ends up doing just that and winning the scholarship, so believing she had done her bit, Grace tries to leave, but is unable to, much to her disappointment and unfortunately Lauren had already left by then.

When the new term arrived and all the girls came back to the boarding school, so did Lauren, but she didn’t seem as happy as Grace thought she should be, but when she tried to speak to her, Lauren just could not see or hear her, this was extremely frustrating for Grace, but she was determined to get to the bottom of Lauren’s issue with dancing and so decided to be patient after talking it over with Rodney. As Lauren settles in to her new dormitory, she feels really cold and all of a sudden a picture falls off the wall and smashes, this startles her from feeling so annoyed at herself for passing the audition, it was her mum’s dream and not hers and she was determined not to enjoy it after everything that had happened, she was also disappointed in herself for passing the audition and getting the scholarship, while also realising how different she was to the other girls and when two walk into the dormitory, one seems nice, but the other one is snarky and acted as though they might catch something off her, so when they leave to go and get supper. As Lauren goes to report the broken picture to Matron, she is waylaid by the sound of her favourite opera music coming from the top of some stairs, when she goes to investigate she finds that it is an old rehearsal studio and feeling the sudden need to dance, she does, until the supper bell sounds and she rushes so she isn’t late.

At supper, all the new girls are asked to stand up when their names are called so that nobody feels like they don’t know anyone, the nice girl from earlier sits with Lauren and starts talking with her, Grace follows her the whole time to try and get to know her a bit better, but when classes start and Lauren goes back to how she danced during the start of her audition, Grace tries even harder to get her attention. The term progresses and Lauren becomes more friendly with one girl, but the others aren’t nice to her at all, but talking to her mum helps her realise that maybe her being there is a good thing after all, she sounds better than she did a couple of months ago, but Lauren still feels the negativity whenever she goes to dance. Can Lauren, Grace work together, or will they both be trapped by their pasts and unable to move on and where does Rodney fit into all of this? This is a heartwarming tale with some fun, competition and a lot of ballet, a great novel for children and adults to escape into alike.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Twisted Secrets (Deadly Isles Special Ops Book 1) by Amy McKinley – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Twisted SecretsTwisted Secrets by Amy McKinley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the story of Riley Evans and Xander Hale, she is a grad student and works in a coffee shop, he is a SEAL who is on leave after a medical procedure to remove shrapnel from his shoulder after his latest mission took a turn for the worse and a last minute change of plan meant that one of his brothers in arms was killed. He is not happy and when he finds out that he guy who was leading the team has also stolen his girlfriend, he is in no shape to go on missions, so he is made to go on a further few weeks of leave and he decides to make the most of it and do some renovations on his families homes on a nearby island.

Next Riley is at the coffee shop and about to start her shift, she greets a customer, a customer who has become a friend over the time she has been frequenting her coffee shop while she writes her books and complains that the other servers get her order wrong, unlike Riley. She chats with a coworker as she finishes her shift about the pizza get together she missed because of her homework and about a customer, she also hints that she has had some books published herself under a pen name. As she delivers the customer’s order, Riley is intrigued by the book she is reading and asks about it, it turns out that her coworker recommended it and that it is a really good one, Riley considers getting a copy for herself, just as a customer is putting it away, the book, a pair of designer sunglasses fall out of her bag, Riley picks them up for her, compliments her on them and then gets back to serving coffee until a new customer peaks her interest.

As Xander is heading to the local hardware store to buy what he needs for the renovations, while he thinks about how it would be nice if he could find someone to have a relationship with like the one his parents have, but he doesn’t think that it is something which will happen, he also thinks about his friend who was killed, that is until he hears a voice which calls to him from inside the coffee shop he is passing, this is where he sees a woman who looks like his type and he feels a connection to her which he cannot explain, so he goes inside and when he locks eyes with her, he knows she is something special. Riley has no idea how to react when she is face to face with this gorgeous man who has just walked in, so she serves him and when he starts to flirt with her, she has to put some distance between them or she would lose her mind, so when she serves him his black coffee and when her boss shouts that it is on the house, she asks him who it was, little does she know that this isn’t going to be the last time that they bump into each other.

A few days later, Riley is exhausted after working a double shift and exercising to chase away her demons in her nightmares, she is heading to the hardware store and when she steps through the doorway, she slams straight into the guy from the coffee shop, she apologises and then has the most awkward conversation with him, until he asks her to lunch, she tells him she has a boyfriend, but he counters with he would just like her company, so she agrees to go. This time the conversion isn’t as awkward and they have a good time and as they say goodbye, her mind wanders to her boyfriend and how they were arguing more and he seemed distant and when he cancels on her by text, she is even less impressed. When he calls her up demanding to know where she is her hackles raise and she tells him that she didn’t agree to go see him, he makes his excuses for not spending time with her and blames it on her as usual, but when she gets home and sees that her front door is open, she has something else to worry about, but she is late for a shopping trip with her friend and so she tries not to think about it while they have a girls afternoon together.

As the days pass, Riley begins to wonder why she is even with her boyfriend, how everything is on his terms and how he seems to act like she is just a warm body and nothing else, she is also thinking about Xander and how it is so easy and different while she is spending time with him and eventually makes the decision to break up with him, but when he refuses to give up on her and someone breaks into her apartment again, she has to get the police involved and things start to take a more sinister turn, including her night terrors and the past memories they bring with them. Can her and Xander’s budding relationship develop while her past is threatening to tear them apart and who is breaking into her apartment, is it her ex, or someone else? The only way to find out the answers is to read along with this thrilling adventure which twists and turns so much, you won’t know until the very end what will happen.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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The Singer and Her Song (Empire at Twilight Book 2) by N.L. Holmes – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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The Singer and Her SongThe Singer and Her Song by N.L. Holmes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the story of Uqnitum, she is the daughter of a musician and has a family with her husband who plays the lyre, she lives with her son and pregnant daughter in Kahat, a city in the Mitannian Empire and they are under siege from the Assyrians and have been for months, they are running out of food and water and the relentless pounding of the battering ram against the city gates has become the norm, they toil away in the daytime moving rocks to the gate, everyone plays their part, the women and children moving the rocks and the men breaking the buildings down and piling the rocks behind the gate. At night, she thinks about the past, how she met her husband, defied her father and ran away to start a family, also the differences in their personalities and how they can sometimes work against the other and resentment creeps in, but she knows she has to be string in the circumstances for them all regardless of whether they can be strong in return.

The daily routine has been the same until one night when the gate is breached and all hell breaks loose in the small city, it turns out that the Assyrians have been undermining the city walls and now they are collapsing along with their houses, as Uqnitum wakes in the middle of the night, she realises what is happening and herds her family out of the house in an attempt to escape the soldiers, they however become surrounded by the soldiers as well as the fires their arrows have ignited in their neighbours homes and after declaring that they are musicians and singers, hoping for leniency, they are moved and grouped with the other residents of the city, where they are all bound together and led through the city gates, all the while stepping on the bodies of their neighbours and outside to the army camp where they are separated from her husband.

A water flask is passed round, she manages to get her son to drink despite his fear, they then begin to march in a long line as the day heats up, they are exhausted, thirsty and hungry, but they have to keep moving onwards, the soldiers seeing that they do by hitting them with their swords flat edge if they fall behind and those who do fall are left where they fall for the vultures. Eventually they come to a river and are forced to cross, Uqnitum and her daughter carry her son across, he can’t swim and has a fear of water, fortunately, he keeps his eyes shut and they make it across, but as he becomes more tired, she is worried that he may start to cry and scream, he prays that he won’t. Later on they all stop marching and the men are brought back, only for them to be blinded by the soldiers using hot pokers,Uqnitum’s husband is spared when she repeats that he is a musician, but nobody else is as lucky, after this horrendous event, they are allowed to rest, the water flask is passed round again, as is some dry bread, her sons still struggles understanding what is going on and this all comes to a head when the worst happens and he attacks one of the soldiers for taking the water away, all too quickly it is over, her son is dead and Uqnitum flies into a rage over it and because of this her husband is blinded, as the march continues, he loses hope and as the pain and despair overtake him, he goes mad and shouts at a soldier with all the insults and curses he can think of, the soldiers retaliate, he is beaten to death and left at the side of the road as well.

This is just the beginning of their journey when an escape is made and another long journey begins when the rains arrive and a deluge starts, they manage to avoid soldiers, hunters and dogs by crossing rivers, bridges and rolling hills, but they are weak from lack of food, water, shelter and are thankful, but wary when they find the Hittite army and are taken in and taken to the court of Ugarit, however safety is not yet theirs as Uqnitum feels the guilt in her part in the deaths of her family and is struggling to come to terms with it, but will her mind shatter from the grief, or will it make her a stronger person who is able to deal with whatever the future holds? This is a story of tragedy, determination, grief and love, it will leave you heartbroken and yet hopeful at the same time and you will want to read until the end to see what happens to the family on this hard road they take.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Isle of Wings: A Silverglen Companion Novel by E.A. Burnett – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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Isle of Wings: A Silverglen Companion NovelIsle of Wings: A Silverglen Companion Novel by E.A. Burnett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the story of Roana and Iniko, Roana is nineteen and is desperate to leave the Isle of Wings, since the death of her family which she has been blamed for and the taunts, songs, physical abuse and near drowning by the local children, she has formulated a plan to leave. Iniko is a young man who is working on a ship with aspirations to one day have one of his own, complete with a crew and goods to sell across Skye Lake, he also has a troubled past and secrets of his own to keep.

We start with Roana and her sister sitting with their Grandpa as he sings, tells stories and exchanges riddles with them, a memory of happier times when they were still alive, she then moves to thinking about her Nan and how she has had to leave her and her dog behind on this venture, but also regretting not leaving a note when she left to say goodbye, she only thought of getting herself into the box of baskets and onto the ship. As she is being lifted o the boat, she hears snippets of conversations until her dog makes her way onto the boat and starts sniffing around her crate and the sailors see her in there and decide to open it up, so Roana grabs her knife and as soon as it is, she leaps out preparing to defend herself, as she does, they discuss who they think she is and doesn’t notice the other porters coming up behind her, but as she prepares herself to fight, so as not to be taken to the merchant who she tried to avoid paying fees to, a fearsome woman who is rumoured to be a sorceress as well, she feels a pulling sensation and her panic begin to ebb away from her. When she has been apprehended, she is sent to the sorceress, all the while thinking about how Iniko had managed to control her, but Iniko is wondering whether she is stupid or brave, realising that she is neither and just desperate, he is also trying to place where he has seen her before, he also notices that the dog isn’t all it seems either.

As they are walking, Iniko is trying to figure things out, he realises that although Roana didn’t want to be found, she needed to be and that his intuition was something he followed trusted, he explains why Roana is being brought and much to Roana’s consternation agrees to wait with her dog as it is not allowed in the building they are walking to. As Iniko’s friend leaves him to wait with Roana’s dog he reminisces about the last year which he has spent on the Isle and what his father taught him about being a shipmaster, as well as his dream about the ship he one day wants to own. Meanwhile, Roana is escorted to a room full of hundreds of snakes to wait for the sorceress, as she is marched there, she sees things in the rooms she passes which are mysterious and disturbing at the same time, but this is nothing compared to her meeting with the sorceress herself and the conversation they have about her past, present and possible future, as well as a glimpse into the sorceresses at the same time. Roana has no idea what just occurred when she is taken away from the room of snakes and led towards the outside, but when the guard is distracted by a serving woman, she is admiring the items she can see and considers stealing something to pay for her way off the island with her dog and grandmother, however as she is trying to find her way back she hears someone approaching and goes into a room to hide, but she finds an egg of a powerful and large species of bird and on a spur of the moment impulse, she decides to take that instead. When she leaves and goes to find Iniko, she declares that he is her husband and so embroils him in her scheme, Iniko is shocked to say the least and despite worrying about the consequences, he goes along with this strange womans plans and pretends that she is with child and stubborn with it, this being sorted out, they leave and make their way through the town and end up running away from a merchant whose property they broke, but Roana is determined to see the egg back to its rightful home, but this plan does not go smoothly either and they are attacked by the birds, so in the end Roana decides to take the egg home and raise it.

This is where Roana and Iniko’s lives meld together and as their situations become more precarious and the dangers they have brought upon themselves increase and things happen beyond their control, can they work together and use their combined skills to overcome their barriers, or will the sorceress find them and bend them to he will? The only way to find out is to travel along the path with the two and discover everything at the same times as they do, prepare yourself for a story full of magic, danger and love which keeps you guessing until the end and leaves you wanting more.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Hell Hath No Fury (Life Is Hell Book 2) by Naomi Valkyrie – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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Hell Hath No Fury (Life is Hell #2)Hell Hath No Fury by Naomi Valkyrie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Millicent is a Deputy Sheriff in Juniper lake and she is about to find out some information which is going to make her head spin. Sheridan is a hedonism demon and has decided to stick around in Juniper lake with her friend Delilah, but she has had her head turned by a certain Deputy Sheriff and can’t get her out of her mind, despite efforts to the contrary.

Millicent has been wondering why things seem different in the town, it isn’t the two dead bodies and a missing person, the FEDs were called in to deal with that one, but still something is off, the other Deputy and Sheriff have been avoiding the station and asked Millicent to pull doubles, but she isn’t happy and knows that there is something they aren’t telling her. She finally has a day off and all she wants to do is sleep and eat, but when she hears someone whispering her name when nobody is there, she gets a weird feeling which she can’t shake, so she gets a shower, gets dressed, feeds and waters her cat and heads to the station anyway, she doesn’t feel safe at home anymore. She is prepared for a scolding when she gets there, but she is not prepared for what she is told, she is not prepared for the supernatural and finding out what happened to the cold cases she is looking over again. Once Millicent is told about what really happened, she refuses to believe it and storms out of the station, but when she gets home, things start to get weird again, when a gift turns up in her car and pretty soon after disappears again, then the same thing happens when she sees a face in front of her and finally her cat careers into the open door of the car and starts yowling at the top of her lungs.

After a sleepless night filled with dreams of corpses and demons, Millicent prepares coffee and something to eat, meanwhile her cat is hissing at an envelope which has just appeared out of nowhere, there is no address or stamp on it, just her name and one line of writing inside, but it is so vague she has no idea what it means, then as soon as it appeared, it disappears and her cat flies out of the cat door and feeling that there is nothing else she can do, Millicent heads to the station to start work for the day. At lunch time, she heads to the general store for groceries and takes it straight home to put away, she notices some fuschia roses on the porch with another vague note, as she goes to pick it up, the roses die and disappear, again there is no clue who sent them, so when she gets back to the station and sees a tray of cookies, she starts to panic until she finds out that they are from Sheridan, a friend of Delilah’s who she has a crush on and has had since she first met her.

When the next disappearing gift arrives, but when she tries to get rid of it, it just keeps on coming back and the creepy thing is that it looks like her, so finally she gives in and talks to DDelilah and Sheridan, but when things escalate, the rest of the others are brought in to help. Will they be able to find out who is stalking Millicent before it is too late and will Sheridan be able to protect her as much as she wants to or will Millicent be lost to the supernatural world before she can understand it? The only way is to follow along the adventure with them.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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No Rest for the Wicked (Life Is Hell Book 1) by Naomi Valkyrie – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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No Rest for the Wicked (Life is Hell #1)No Rest for the Wicked by Naomi Valkyrie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Delilah is a demon, a demon who deals in lust and vengeance, but she is also burnt out and needs a break, so as she leaves the site of her last kill and while smoking a cigarette, she decides that she is going to leave the bar in the capable hands of a fellow demon and best friend and drive to the first quiet place she spots, a break is just what she needs, she’ll rent somewhere and not murder anyone, not be in a city and just be able to relax. After three days of driving, she enters Juniper Lake, it is a small town and looks to be the perfect place, as she goes to get some gas, she finds that there is a cabin that she might be able to rent, so after filling up, she goes to the General Store and asks to speak to the realtor, who agrees to rent it to her, so Delilah picks up some groceries and then heads to the cabin, all while thinking that she probably hasn’t laid as low as she expected, given that the town is so small, she will already be the latest gossip.

On arrival at the cabin, it is cosy and just the right size for her, so Delilah unpacks the groceries and goes to light a cigarette and realising that she will have to smoke outside, which isn’t much of a hardship when she sees the view of the lake and dockside out back. She decides to curl up with a book and as she is about to fall asleep she feels the tug of a summoning spell, she manages to ignore it, but is annoyed that even on vacation, she can’t rest. The next morning, Delilah realises that she forgot to get milk and as she can only eat so much dry cereal for breakfast, she decides to go into town, but on the way there senses the magic of the circle and decides to go and investigate it, not noticing a specific demon’s energy, she prepares to remove the circle when the town’s Sheriff surprises her, he asks her what she is doing there and as she gives her reasons, realises that it isn’t what humans would normally do and that the Sheriff isn’t buying any of it, so she leaves the circle and heads back to the car, thinking about the eye candy she has just met and hoping that she doesn’t run into him or another summoning spell again.

Malakhi watches Delilah leave and wonders what she is hiding, followed by photographing and destroying the circle and wondering who cast it and why, so he heads back to the station and continues to go through the motions of his day to day work, but cannot get Delilah or the circle out of his head. He decides to do some research into the town’s background to see if he can spot something suspicious, but most of the records aren’t electronic yet. It is three nights later and three more summoning spells later that Delilah gives in and goes to give the summoner a piece of her mind, but when she gets there it turns out that there are three girls at the site and she is less than impressed that they bind her to them so that she has to do their bidding. She is trying to figure out whose bloodline around there has enough power to bind her and also thinking that she has made a mistake coming to this sleepy town in the first place, when the witches dismiss her, she is still mad, so she has a smoke and when she has calmed down, she decides to do some research on the town and see if she can figure out their plan.

Malakhi goes to work, but is tired after spending most of his free time looking through the old files from the courthouse, but after he has made an appearance at the station so as not to arouse suspicions he heads back there and runs into Delilah, he wonders what she is doing there and is forced to engage in more awkward conversation with her. Eventually he leaves and Delilah starts reading the towns donated journals under the guise of writing a book about them, when after several hours, she returns the finished books to the shelves she finds one last one, but this one is different, she feels the residual magic and decides to glamour it take it to the diner to read while she has something to eat, what she doesn’t expect is the Sheriff to join her and ask why she took it, she responds as her usual sarcastic self and proceeds to pay the bill and leave. As she is summoned again, she is told the reason that she has been summoned and bound, the witches want her to kill someone, but she doesn’t want to commit murder on vacation, but it looks like she hasn’t got a choice, but when her best friend turns up a couple of days later and she is still bound and not being released any time soon, she realises that she has to do something about it, but will she be able to stay hidden in plain sight, or will the Sheriff realise what she is and what she has been doing? This is a magic filled adventure with a drizzle of romance and plenty of action, but you have to read to the end to find out how the adventure ends.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Wildfire (The Broken Bow Book 2) by Ashley A. Quinn – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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Wildfire (The Broken Bow Book #2)Wildfire by Ashley A Quinn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tara Miller is a woman with a lot on her plate, she has her own restaurant in the town of and when she isn’t there, she is working on the family ranch, the Broken Bow, or her truck and it is in the middle of doing this when she sees the new deputy sheriff moving into her brother’s place next door, as he distracts her with his good looks and a body to match, but she doesn’t want to think about that, she doesn’t want to think about him and how her body reacts to him, instead when he comes over to lend a hand, she blows him off. After she finishes, showers and gets ready, she heads to her best friend’s coffee shop before heading to the restaurant to prepare for the evening’s service, some caffeine and Macy’s crazy attitude is just what she needs to take her mind off of a certain man, because of the feelings his type bring back up, she doesn’t want to think of the past and how it can’t let it repeat itself. She gets what she needs as well as a grilling over said certain man and couple of unwanted messages, one from her past job and one from her current one, she ignores the first and stresses about the current one, so she is inspired to go and get some local produce when her ordered ones don’t arrive, so she goes to get the produce and is grilled about Jace again while collecting it all, as soon as she has everything she needs, she heads over to her restaurant.

Meanwhile, Jace is unpacking the boxes of stuff from his old apartment, there isn’t much, but it is enough, he is thinking about the circumstances around his move, but it is the woman next door who his thoughts eventually turn to, he can’t understand why she doesn’t ;ole him, but he is determined to change her mind. He decides to go and visit the rest of the family who live on the ranch and let them know that he has moved in, over tea, they talk about the reason he moved there, as well as talking about both his and Tara’s past and he can’t really believe how similar their stories are, but he doesn’t want to think about that, so he decides to go and explore the ranch some more, so he borrows a horse and goes for a ride to clear his head. When he gets back to the barn and settles the horse back down, he senses that he is someone is in the barn with him, however, when he goes to look, there is nobody there, but he can’t shake the feeling that he is being watched.

Later on in the evening as Tara gets home from work, she is about to run herself a bath and put some oil in it, but as she reaches for the bath oil, she notices that it is in the wrong place and that on closer inspection, there are a lot of other things which are only just out of place, in fact, it is in every room of her house, she is very disturbed by this and so calls Jace to come over to her house and check it over, when she does, she is not expecting him to answer in just his joggers and that makes him even harder to resist, but she is too worried to dwell on it and it turns out that there has been a break in and the back door has been tampered with, so Jace insists on staying overnight on the couch to keep her company so she feels more secure. The next day a family meeting is called to discuss what has happened and to see whether it has happened anywhere else on the ranch, when a plan is formulated and everyone knows what they need to do, things go back to normal, that is until it happens again, but this time Tara is home.

As things escalate and become more dangerous, things also escalate between Jace and Tara, but can either of them let the other in and share the secrets of their past, or will they let those secrets come between them? This is a romance which is peppered with familial love, mysteries and danger, it is as unpredictable as its namesake and will keep you guessing right up until the end, but will those doing the hunting stop at nothing to get what they are after, or will the mystery be solved before anyone gets hurt?

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Evil’s Whisper (Evil Saga Book 1) by Jordan Elizabeth – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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Evil's Whisper (Evil Saga Book 1)Evil’s Whisper by Jordan Elizabeth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the combined story of Sefina, Uthias, Sabiya and other characters who are trying to hold their own with the resources and attitudes they have in order to survive and avoid the perils of being who they are in the land which used to belong to the Kadians, a race of ancients who destroyed themselves through misuse of power and with their wickedness created a sword and who are nearly all extinct, but whose lineage has split the land between three queens were born of the last of the Kadians, Ucenoia, a bullheaded yet stable neutral woman, Sia who is beautiful and selfish and the graceful and righteous Amalita. The Kadians became spirits of the dead who roam the deserts still searching for the sword and help and hinder those who travel within the desert itself and who have prophesied the birth of two daughters, one of Darkness and one of Light, there are those who seek to control the Darkness, but the spirits wish her destroyed instead.

Sabiya is a girl who lives in Juniper and has a life of hardship, but remains the daughter of rich parents, however, when she escapes into the desert to deliver a message, she is found by outlaws who kidnap her and take her to their camps, they want to do awful things to her and she should just keep her mouth shut and let them, but she tries to reason with them and pleads for her release, when she sees a young man brought into the camp, she sees an opportunity for an ally, especially when he states that his brother will come and rescue him. Meanwhile, Uthias is heading towards the outlaw camp to save his brother and so leaving his horse behind, he quietly heads towards the camp, when he gets there, he is thankful.that the night is clear and he passes through lines of tents with ease, he can hear the cries of a girl, but puts her out of his head, he cannot save her as well, he hears a boy scream and knows it is his destination and as he enters the tent, he sees his brother being whipped by one of the outlaws. He makes his presence known and takes down the outlaws holding his brother with ease, saying that the Killer doesn’t show mercy to those who harm his family and after he has untied him, his brother demands that he goes back for the other girl in the tent whom he has promised his brother will rescue as well, much to Uthias’s annoyance, he goes back and releases her from her ties and tells them both to run towards the exit. Uthias then orders his brother to steal a horse and as a distraction, he sets fire to the tents in the camp and on reaching the exit, summons his horse and pulls the girl into the saddle with him and sets off to return her to her home.

The next morning, Sabiya goes to work, she is a maid to the Seeir of Juniper City and has served her for years, she considers her as a friend and confidant, as well as her employer, she is treated fairly, more so than at home where she is beaten by her father, hated by her brother and is treated indifferently by the rest of them. She has no future there and when another chance comes for her to go to Uthias with a message from the Seeir, she jumps at the chance. It is there that she meets the rest of his family, including his sister Sefina and this is where their paths intertwine with the fate of the country they live in, but what that fate has in store for them is unclear, but what is clear are the tasks they must complete, even if the reasons for this are not.

This is a tale of good versus evil in a country of split loyalties, there is magic and there are spirits, untold hardship and danger along the way, but also love and belief, but will the good hold up against those who want to use it for ill, or will the darkness spread across the land as foretold?

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Finders Reapers: A Paranormal Romantic Comedy (New Orleans Nocturnes Book 5) by Carrie Pulkinen – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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Finders Reapers (New Orleans Nocturnes, #4)Finders Reapers by Carrie Pulkinen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the story of Asher and Jasmine, one a reaper and the other a necromancer, they both deal with the dead, but they do get in each other’s way, but when Asher takes a vacation and leaves his door unattended, the ghosts know of only one other person who can help and much to her annoyance, it is Jasmine.

Jasmine opens the story at the morgue she works in, she is helping a couple of werewolves find out if someone died after being attacked by one of their kind, or whether it was just a normal dog, so she calls the spirit back from the other side to briefly reinhabit his body and give them the answers they are looking for, it is not the most pleasant of things to do, but as a necromancer, Jasmine is used to it, even if her clients normally end up throwing up in the bin. She asks if they want to go for drinks after the soul has been returned to the aether, but after what they just saw, it’s a resounding no, infact, it’s more often than not a no, people don’t like to associate with people who are around the dead a lot, this train of thought reminds her about Asher and how he ran a mile when she kissed him and asked him out, but when she goes to leave the morgue, she finds that the spirit she was talking to earlier is still waiting around by stepping through the poor guy and feeling like he sucked the energy right out of her, it turns out, that;s exactly what he was doing, a fun little weakness necromancers have. He starts talking to Jasmine and saying that he can’t find the light and neither can some other ghosts, but when they do find their way to it, the door is locked, Jasmine says that she will talk to the reaper for him, but has to go to a bachelorette party first.

Meanwhile, Asher is swimming in the sea and trying to get back to shore, he now knows why the no swimming sign was there, even being an immortal, he had struggled against the riptide, but now he is back safely on the beach, he thinks about why he made this impromptu trip to off season Aruba, it is to get his mind away from his emotions and a certain necromancer who he is trying to avoid and not think about how she makes him feel, reapers don’t usually have emotions and he always tried to play by the rules, but sometimes he just needed a break from reaping souls. So, drink in hand, he sat on his lounge chair and soaked up the sun, that us until another reaper materialises and questions him about his motives for being there, this led to more thoughts about how he is different from the other reapers and how he was scared that he may be falling for a necromancer and that would mean their fates would end up tied and he would become mortal and die, but was that something he wanted? It is during the conversation about how he had left his door unlocked with a fairy light on it that the consequences of that light attracting a spirit to cross back over from the other side, it is at this point that Asher rushes to check his phone and when that fries with all the notifications, he hopes that it doesn’t mean that his home is overrun as well.

It is when he gets back and realises that his door is locked that he calls in a favour to check what has happened in hell and indeed finds out that a ghost has escaped from his door and that it is the one who will cause the most problems for him, so when he asks Jasmine for help, she initially refuses him because of their past, however, when the ghosts keep coming to her for answers, she realises that helping Asher will be the only way that she can get some peace and quiet while also keeping her energy. Can this unlikely pairing work together to help the souls move on, or will the one who escaped keep causing more trouble than they bargained for? This is a romantic comedy with a whole slew of ghostly happenings and unusual elements added into the mix, but the end is only found by following along with their spiritual capers.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Flipping the Bird: A Paranormal Chick Lit Novel (Shift Creek Book 1) by Carrie Pulkinen – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Flipping the Bird (Shift Creek, #1)Flipping the Bird by Carrie Pulkinen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Alice Crawford is a crow shifter who enjoys dumpster diving for people’s trash which she can turn into someone else’s treasure through her art and Donovan Drake is a warlock who has just inherited the deed to a mansion, but when both of them meet, it is not what they expected in the slightest.

The story starts with Alice stuck in a hunters trap she has unwittingly been caught in thanks to her crow’s inability to ignore something shiny! As her best friend comes to her rescue, although she is giggling as much as a racoon can, she shifts and helps her out of the trap and to the creek where she can heal in its magical waters, it does take longer to heal than it used to and this worries the two friends even more than the trap did, it seems to be that the creek is getting worse, it slowly had been for the last few months and it had not been shifting its direction like it should either. The town is known for this shift in direction and it is also its namesake, but now that it is getting smaller and less powerful, the tourism they rely on is stopping and it is making it difficult for the town to survive and no matter who has tried to reinvigorate it, nobody has been able to help, it turns out that only a member of the towns founding family and unfortunately they can’t be contacted.

As she returns home from the creek, she is distracted by a light on in that family’s mansion and she decides to go and investigate, but when she gets there, she sees that it isn’t who she was expecting, but he is a bit of eye candy nonetheless, but when she sees the talking mongoose who is with him, she is even more confused, especially when said mongoose attacks her and tries to eat her, lets just say she is not happy and attacks him in a way only a bird can. She decides to leave after that, but is distracted by something shiny in the bin and as that is something she can take, she does.

The nest day, she goes into work and talks to her best friend about the information she had gleaned about the new arrival which she found out that morning, but it not what either of them were hoping for, he isn’t a member of the family and that puts them back to square one, but when the bell goes to say someone has come into the shop, they hide that disappointment. Donovan decides to go into town with his mongoose and familiar Marty and have a coffee while he thinks about his situation and how the town’s magical creek might be able to help, but is distracted by the cloud of noxious gas his familiar has released, he decides that to find the amulet he has lost and when he spots the salvage art shop across the road, he decides to go and ask them and ask for some advice. This is where the story takes and unusual turn as a magical accident occurs during the conversation and Alice’s crow transfers to Donovan and he shifts into the form, this is as surprising as it gets and as they try to catch him, Marty escapes and causes more chaos, when things return to something like normal, then Donovan asks Alice to go to dinner with him to try and figure out what happened.

Will this be the beginning of a beautiful romance, or will secrets and their pasts come back to haunt them and will Shift Creek lose it’s namesake or can a solution be found? This is a heartwarming tale of mishaps, discovery, romance and revelations which will have you laughing along the way.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Faida (Heartstrings Book 2) by Brooke May – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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FaidaFaida by Brooke May
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is Faida’s story, she is a cupid and is responsible for helping people to find their true love, but she is disillusioned with the whole thing after a few disasters and infidelities and has developed an closed off heart as the product of this and when we join her, she is at a celebration for her sister Aiko’s latest return to success, but she is happy to get her next assignment and leave the celebrations. When she goes to introduce herself to her next assignment, she arrives at an intimidating high rise building and as she makes her way inside, she is rushed upstairs in a cloud of confusion as she is mistaken for someone else who should be there and when it is for a party, she is eleven more confused. When she sees that it is a princess themed tea party, she is even more confused, kids parties aren’t normally this calm, but when she demands an explanation, the lady who dragged her up there is embarrassed at her mistake and apologises profusely, but when Robert emerges to find out what is going on, but when she sees that he only has one heartstring, it is a shock, she knew he had cut him off from the world, but she didn’t realise by quite how much.

When he goes back into the little girl’s party his icy demeanor is in place while talking to the girls, that is until he goes to another little girl and he warms up and transforms completely and Faida is taken aback when she sees it, as if this assignment wasn’t strange enough, that just puts the icing on the cake. She then confronts Robert and tells him why she is there and that he will not be able to get rid of her easily, at first he doesn’t believe that she is cupid, but when his daughter comes in and asks if Faida is going to be her new nanny, she says yes and confirmed that it will be the perfect cover for her mission to find his true love, what she doesn’t realise is that she will have a little helper with her own idea of who she wants her dad to fall for and when she goes with Robert to his place of work, she thinks that she has found the answer she is looking for.

This is the start of the most frustrating and yet joyful assignment Faida has had, but can she help Robert to lower the walls around his heart, or will they be stuck with each other for a long time? The only way to find out is to read along and find out.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Moonlit Whisper : An Irish Romance (Moonlit Destination Series) by Amy McKinley – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Moonlit Whisper (An Irish Romance)Moonlit Whisper by Amy McKinley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the story of Fiona and Connor, Fiona is A girl who loves football and is dating her best friend and player on the football squad Lachlan, he asks her to go for a coffee, but she can’t because she has to meet her dad and find out about the new transfer student she will be helping with their assignments. Next, Fiona is in the library with the transfer student and it is none other than the boy next door who left six years ago, she is still annoyed by that and is trying to understand why he did it, but she is also trying not to notice how much more handsome he has become over the years. It turns out that he left to support his mum and to escape from his dad, Fiona knows what that past entailed and how he used to come to and stay with her every night, but she still finds it hard to accept.

The next day Connor goes to a rocky cliff where people go to jump into the sea and hangout together, but what he doesn’t expect to see is Lachlan and Fiona there together, he likes it even less when he throws her off the cliff when he sees Connor, as Connor dives off and finds Fiona, she explains her and Lachlans engagement, this is where Connor becomes more determined to set the wrongs right and get Fiona back, but will he succeed, or will the past be something they can’t overcome? This is a short story which will suck you in and keep you guessing until the end.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Echoes: Lucifer and the Dark Goddess by Nikki Broadwell – Reviewed by Roxsanne Lesieur.

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Echoes--(Lucifer and the dark goddess book 1)Echoes– by Nikki Broadwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Feirin is a woman who knows nothing apart from her name and when she wakes up one day she has no idea who she is, where she is from, or how she got to, or where she currently is, the only clue is a black stone necklace she is wearing and an indigo tattoo of a crescent moon on her forehead. She is taken in by a group of people and becomes friends with a brother and sister who live with them, they shared their lives, food, drink, beliefs and experiences with her and she learned everything that they had to offer, she also learned a lot from the people who moved through the area as well, but after six months, she knew she had to leave and learn more about herself.

Several years later, Feirin is living the best life she can in the large city she is in, but she is dreaming of things she feels she should remember, memories which are no stronger than echoes in her mind and the frustration she feels trying to remember them. She goes to see her friend with benefits and release some of the tension and some of the boredom of a life subsisting of hard work, eating and sleeping and the non-stop rolling adverts on the IRIS technology implanted in her body. When she wakes up in his bed after another night of passion, he says she is magic, or a witch and that he is under her spell, but what he says disturbs her and so she leaves and tries not to think about it anymore as she heads to work on her Harley Davidson bike. As she is riding, a vision of a beautiful woman and a handsome tattooed man comes to her and hits her and makes her late for work at the building site. It was hard work, but it made her stronger and distracted her from everything else while she was doing it and on her way home she thought about all the homeless she passed on the streets, addled by drink and drugs, as well as the automatons who were a sad blend of diluted humanity and machines, used until spent and then thrown away like garbage. When she gets home she feeds the stray black cat she adopted, poured herself a glass of wine and collapsed on the sofa, until Peyton calls and she goes for another night of passion and while she is there, she has another vision and as she is trying to explain it, she has another one, both vivid but in completely different ways and it scared her, so she opens up to Peyton about it all.

As time passes she has more visions and more unexplainable echoes in her mind, but when she sees Jeremy again and finds out that he might be deported, she heads home and falls asleep only to be woken by Peyton hammering on her door and telling her about the lack of jobs, deportations and blatant racism happening on the streets, she is worries and feels like she is losing control of her life, she doesn’t like it and decides to do something about it, so she goes to the police station to look at her file, from there, she finds out nothing new, but that she doesn’t have a last name, no ID and no license for her bike, things go downhill from there when she is arrested and even though Peyton tries to help her, she is deported from the city and left for dead in the desert surrounding it.

When she bands together with the other deportees and learns from them, she discovers a strength she didn’t know she possessed, but this is only the beginning of her journey, can she survive the unsurvivable desert, find the answers which have been missing from her life and discover her path, or will she die a horrible death, unable to save those she is travelling with? This is a story of discovery, love, passion, heartbreak and danger which grabs you from the start and doesn’t let you go even at the end, it just leaves you wanting more.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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The Kissing Bough (Forbidden Loves) by Madelynne Ellis – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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The Kissing Bough (Forbidden Loves, #1)The Kissing Bough by Madelynne Ellis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is the year 1816 in Rutland at Knasebrook Hall where Viola Marsh is a young lady with little freedom and even less prospects to change that, she is kept inside her nursery after an incident and can only leave on christmas eve to go wassailing and then to the ball later that evening, but only with her brothers escorting her. Lord Ricborough and his cousin Percy Gilling are two men looking for a specific woman to cement their very specific bond.

Viola is looking out of the window at the snow falling to the ground on Christmas Eve as her aunt helps her get ready to go out into it, it is the one night she is allowed out and she is not going to miss out, whether it is in a blizzard or otherwise, it might be the one night where people might not look at her like they usually do and she may be able to experience the normality of the festivities. She intends to sing, dance, be merry, stand beneath the mistletoe on the boughs of the old oak tree and then go to the family’s annual Christmas Ball with the rest of the invited, dance with her brothers and show off her new dress, it will be a change from eating with her aunt in the nursery, that is for sure.

As she leaves with her brother to go to the village, he is having to be courteous to her due to the weather, even though he does not want to, he assumes her intention is to go to the kissing bough as usual, although he feels there is no need as nobody would come up and will want to kiss her after the scandal and she responds that it is not likely that it would happen any other way either, so she will do it again this year as it is a tradition now and that the incident was not what it looked like or here fault in the first place.

Later on, after Viola’s brother has joined his friends, two of whom are Lord Ricborough and Percy Gilling, he sees her standing under the tree and is immediately taken in by her beauty, she is perfect and just what they are looking for, but finding the kind of woman they needed was something both thought impossible until Viola. As they separate from the others, they go and approach Viola under the bough and she is surprised to be kissed on the cheek by both of them at the same time and further by their proposition to her.

Will their proposition be accepted and will this trio be the pairing they all hope for, or will the innocence of one of them be the end of something which hasn’t even begun? The only way to find out is to read along and follow the path with the three of them.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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I Once Was Lost, But Now I’m Found: Daisy and the Olympic Animal Sanctuary Rescue by Laura Koerber – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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I Once Was Lost, But Now I'm Found: Daisy and the Olympic Animal Sanctuary RescueI Once Was Lost, But Now I’m Found: Daisy and the Olympic Animal Sanctuary Rescue by Laura Koerber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Olympic Animal Sanctuary (OAS) was a rescue for dogs who couldn’t be looked after where they were because of being labelled as unadoptable, it was in a small town in the middle of Washington State, it looked like an old dilapidated warehouse, but what lay inside was beyond anyone’s imagination, the conditions were cramped and deplorable, but it still functioned and people believed the owner was doing his best. This book focuses on one of the dogs there, Daisy and her story, but the stories of the other animals are interwoven into the narrative too, it is a story of hardship and hard work, blockades and is not the only story of its kind, there are still many places out there which are the same as the OAS was, but on a smaller scale and this book highlights what happens to the animals involved and what needs changing to help them all.

Daisy is a short, stocky balck dog who is hesitant and nervous in nature, she looks like most rescue dogs you would find in shelters around the world, but Daisy was not the first dog seen from the OAS, the main picture associated with it is a dog called Max who is desperately trying to get out of his cage. The story of Daisy and the OAS started with a volunteer whistleblowing and noting down her experience at the sanctuary in the hopes that someone would come to the rescue of the dogs within, thus creating a Facebook page and sharing the information with the police, however, the laws around animal protection and welfare are not as strong as you would hope them to be and that is why it was so difficult for local government to help when lawyers and the law get involved as well.

To get back to Daisy, she was originally brought to another rescue from a reservation where she had been removed because people were sick of seeing her being beaten and abused everyday, she had an embedded collar and after this was removed and she started to heal on the outside, but the emotional and psychological scars would take a lot longer to heal. The rescue decided that she needed some extra help and so asked a couple to foster her, to which they agreed and this started Daisy on her road to recovery and it went well and she was put up as available for adoption. This first adoption was unsuccessful and she returned to her foster home, until she was left with another dog unsupervised and unfortunately attacked it, this led to her reverting when she went back to the rescue and being labelled as a “potentially dangerous dog” and the rule was to euthanize dogs with this label, however, another option was found which was the OAS and this is how Daisy ended up there.

As Daisy’s story continues, this is where the descriptions of the OAS and life within it start, this is the true story of Daisy, the Olympic Animal Sanctuary and the other 124 dogs and one snake who ended up there, their experiences while there, as well as how they left, the book is as full of heartbreak as it is full of love, so prepare some tissues because this is a hard going emotional rollercoaster from start to finish.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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The Last Christmas by Seelie Kay – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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The Last ChristmasThe Last Christmas by Seelie Kay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Joan Wright is a woman on the edge, on the edge of grief, loss and heartbreak, her husband David is in St Malcolm’s hospital in an induced coma and at death’s door, but she cannot bear to think about the fact that this will be his last Christmas with her, the cancer has eaten away at him until only morphine and machines are keeping him there with her. She is reminiscing with a nurse about how in love she has been with David, from the age of sixteen when they met until now and that love has only grown stronger, she says that they have celebrated the good and weathered the bad, as well as having three children together and that she is angry because they are not dying together and that it is a cruel thing to be in her situation, the nurse tells her to have faith and that Christmas miracles do happen when there is hope and love in the mix and that her job in the ICU has proven that many times over. As she thinks about what the nurse said, she slips around the wires and machines keeping him alive and into bed with David, there she has a dream that he is alive and well and wanting his Christmas miracle, he hasn’t finished what he needs to do and he hasn’t finished loving her, both emotionally and physically, when she is woken up by the doctor who wants to examine David, but adds that his heart was beating the strongest it has been while she was sleeping next to him, this is too much for Joan to hear and makes excuses for it and blames the cancer for giving her false hope, but he says the same thing as the nurse did earlier that David isn’t the type for giving up and when there is hope and love, that miracles can indeed happen.

As Joan is walking in the open air and surrounded by Christmas spirit, carollers and Santa’s, when she is suddenly being spoken to by someone and it is none other than Santa himself, a centuries old spirit who works with God to dispense advice and bring the Christmas spirit and love to those who need it, although she doesn’t believe it at first, when he invites her to sit down and talk to her, he reveals that it is not David’s time to die yet and even if it was, Heaven is full, St Peter is at his wit’s and and that there is a 5 year waiting list to get in, so unless she wants David to be stuck in a 5 year queue, she has to keep him alive. Joan finds it unbelievable that she is expected to keep him alive when that there isn’t even anything more that the medical staff can do, so he tells her that she needs to give him a reason to live, a reason to keep going as his work is not yet done and that he needs to know that she is on his side.

When she returns home and sees all their memories together and starts to remember them all, she knows what she has to do, she needs to remind David of all that they have shared together and what he has to live for, she needs to get her kids, their grandkids, their friends and even their church on their side and fight for his survival, so she arranges a family meeting and they devise a plan of action, but can Team Wright get their Christmas miracle and love save the day, or will everything fall through in the end? A gripping read which enthralls you as a reader right up to the end.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Corporate Christmas by Bernadette Marie – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Corporate ChristmasCorporate Christmas by Bernadette Marie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Chloe Richardson is a lady with ambition and puts the work in to get what she wants, she has just missed thanksgiving so that she could finalise the contract of her biggest client to date and hopefully land the promotion she has been working towards, plus she has the mother of all headaches, she has been out of the office briefly to look at the window decorations and festivities, including something she has on top of her Christmas list, she is now preparing the last bits of the contract, two of her bosses come into her office, one to ask how she is and how her thanksgiving was, the other to badger her about the contract. All of a sudden, another voice interrupts her, it is an attractive man with dark hair and blue eyes which make her choke on her painkiller, after he offers her his bottle of water, he introduces himself as Jason Mitchel and asks to see her boss, l and so she takes him to see the second one, however, when he says what he is there for, she is reeling, it is the job she was angling for, he then gets hurried out of the door to go to dinner with the boss, this is the last straw for Chloe, she rips up the contract, leaves the office, packs a bag and heads straight to her mums in the most festive town she knows, Aubrey Heights.

Jason is wondering why his reception at his new job was frosty at best and why he had been hired, he is also thinking about Chloe, why she may have passed up the opportunity he now has, but also in a non-work related capacity as well, this is something he doesn’t want to happen after last time. Meanwhile, as Chloe arrives at her mum’s house, she is waiting with a cup of tea and ready to listen to all that has happened, Chloe tells her everything and listens to her advice in return, after that, she goes to bed and decides to enjoy her Saturday with her family.

Jason wakes the next day and goes for a run before choosing how he would spend his Saturday, he receives a call from his mother and after talking to her about arrangements for christmas, decides to go through the stuff he brought from his old office and decide what he was going to keep, mainly to keep his mind off of the other person who keeps calling him. After a good night’s sleep, she wakes up to family, waffles and being questioned as to why she hasn’t settled down.

After heading home early on Sunday morning due to realising that she made a mistake shredding the contract and after a phone call from the woman in charge of the company this contract is dealing with, she goes back to the office on Sunday to reprint it, finish up the corrections and personally hand it in on Monday. While she is there Jason happens to be setting up his desk and hearing someone else there goes to investigate, but startles Chloe and she ends up throwing a stapler at his head and taking him to the emergency room for stitches, this takes hours and is where they start to talk properly to each other and get to know the other a bit more, they discuss the contract then end up working together to repitch it the next day, but Chloe is still annoyed that she has been passed up, so goes to the client without him, much to Jason’s annoyance.

This is just the beginning of the trouble which Chloe and Jason find themselves in on the run up to Christmas, one thing after another happens and nothing is what it originally seemed, but can Christmas bring the miracle that they both want, or will the water flowing under the bridge break it down before they have the chance? The only way to find out is to read their story and experience it with them.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Five-Alarm Christmas: A Novella by Melinda Valentine – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Five-Alarm Christmas : A NovellaFive-Alarm Christmas : A Novella by Melinda Valentine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finley Jones is a lady who wants to escape her family on Christmas Eve and avoid them questioning her about why she hasn’t settled down or given them grandchildren yet, but her brothers aren’t put under the same scrutiny, so she decides to go to a local bar and have a few drinks instead. As she starts on her first beer, she sees a handsome man at the other end of the bar and then she decides that maybe she wouldn’t mind a bit of good looking company after all and it seems that he is in the same mindset as she is.

Garret Scott just wants to relax and unwind after four days on shift at the fire station, that is until he sees an attractive woman at the other end of the bar and maybe being alone isn’t on the cards after all, one thing leads to the other and it turns into a night of passion, but will happen when the next morning dawns, will Santa make their Christmas wishes come true, or will things go the opposite way? This novella is full of naughty and nice, but the only way to find out how much of each is to read on.

Reviewed bt @roxsannel

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Fighting for Us (Love is Worth Fighting For Book 1) by Bella Emy – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Fighting for Us (Love is Worth Fighting For #1)Fighting for Us by Bella Emy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This story starts with Lorenzo by his wife’s bedside, she is in hospital and very sick, she is suffering and is in pain, but when she dies, Lorenzo is distraught, he couldn’t save her, he couldn’t protect her from the headaches and he now cannot fathom life without her and being left with his daughter and having to bring her up as a single parent is more than he can bear to think about, he cries for hours and eventually goes home to his daughter.

We next see Lorenzo five years late and he is training for his upcoming MMA title match, he has been training for this for months and is determined to win, it is a good way to channel his energy and anger over his wife’s death, he is finishing up and about to head home to relieve his brother from looking after his daughter while he was at the gym, his daughter is the light of his life and always makes him smile, no matter how his day is going, it is the same for his family as well. He is still reeling from the loss of his wife and he tears up at anything which brings him memories of her, her favourite film or song gets him everytime, remembering the way she looked, the way she smelled and the way she loved life and he struggles to see how his future will play out without her.

Next we see Carissa, she is trying not to be goaded into talking with her sister and best friend about hot men and that she should be looking for one to occupy her bed, even though she doesn’t want anything to do with men after what her ex did to her, but they won’t stop. They are looking at a flyer or an upcoming MMA match and trying to persuade Carissa to go with them, even if it is just to gawk over the hot men, especially the guy with the big muscular arms out front, whom they have nicknamed Guns! They are also trying to take her mind off her ex, so they eventually persuade her to come out with them as it is Friday night and they haven’t been out in a while, so they get ready to go to their local bar and have a few drinks together.

Unbeknownst to both Lorenzo and Carissa, they are both going to be at the same bar, Lorenzo with his brother and sister, it is where they go every other weekend when their parents look after Lorenzo’s daughter so he can have some time as a normal adult. Lorenzo’s siblings are worried about the upcoming match and the day that it is being held, it is the fifth anniversary of his wife’s death and they are also worried that he will hurt someone more than he intends to. When Carissa enters the bar with her sister and best friend, Lorenzo can’t stop glancing her way, unfortunately, his brother notices too and it starts an argument, so instead of it escalating, he decides to leave and this is when he catches Carissa’s eye and again, it is also noticed by the others she is with.

This is not going to be the last time that Lorenzo and Carissa run into each other, nor will it be the last time that they catch each other’s eyes, but because this is a romantic tale of love, heartbreak and fate, which of these things will be on the cards in the future for the pair? The only way to find out is to read along with them.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Becoming Human by Amy Michelle Carpenter – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Becoming HumanBecoming Human by Amy Michelle Carpenter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a story of three teenagers working towards a common goal, even if it is something which nobody else will believe, they are a human and two aliens, they are from different planets and have very different ideals, Carter is a human boy who refuses to believe in aliens, even though his dad has met one before and announced it on national television, Kokab is an alien who is robotic in nature and only wants to belong on her home planet, but her emotions are getting in the way and now her planet is about to be destroyed and she is the only one who can go to Earth as an ambassador so that she can get the humans to agree to take her race in and Ags is another alien who is in love with Earth, even though she has only studied it from afar with her mother, but when she learns of the invasion, she wants to stop it in any way she can.

The story starts with Carter, he is at a pool party with his swimming team and is being needled by them about aliens and whether his father still believes in them, it bothers him so much that he struggles to enjoy himself and leaves the party in the end and goes for a walk in the woods with his cousin and dog, this is when he sees the UFO, or at least it would be if aliens were real.

Kokab has been summoned to the offices where she was tested as a Youngling and designated as an almost, but not a perfect, it is because she can feel emotions, even though she shouldn’t do and as she enters the office of the Eldest One, he doesn’t look like any of the other perfects, but she shouldn’t even be thinking these thoughts in the first place. As the meeting progresses, some information is loaded up to the chip implanted in her brain which she will need for the mission she has been chosen for, including the reason why it needs to happen and she can do nothing but obey the demands which are to go to Earth, learn how to experience and understand the emotions the people exhibit and and prepare them for her people’s arrival. When she arrives and meets Carter and his dad, none of them know how important it will be for Kokab to learn about the emotions she is feeling.

Ags is learning how to drive the family ship and decides to go and get ready for the ceremony to graduate and become a guardian of Earth, the dress is uncomfortable as she prefers her Earth clothing instead, but she will put up with it for this one time. Ags meets up with her friend Yas and they go inside the building where the ceremony is held, she can;t help admiring the view, even though it is her home planet, she feels like she is more of a visitor and after the ceremony is finished, she has shaken the hand of the elder giving her her certificate as she becomes an official guardian of Earth, she takes part in the celebrations until she finds out about the invasion that puts a damper on her evening.

When the worlds of these three young people collide, it is a tough call to know what decisions are the right ones and they are all still too young really for the responsibilities they hold, but when they do collide, what will happen and will they be able to pull together to keep Earth safe? The only way to find out is to read away and follow the adventure.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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The Nearness of You: A British celebrity, standalone love-at-first-sight romance by K.G. Fletcher – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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The Nearness of YouThe Nearness of You by K.G. Fletcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lauren Rose is a lounge singer by night and a teacher of theatre students by day, she is a woman with a beautiful voice and a personality to match, she sings in the lounge of the St Regis hotel with her friend Miles on the baby grand and has people who regularly go to hear her and she sings the song that they request and it always turns her mood to the positive and this friday night is no different, that is until she bumps into David Randle on the way back from the bathroom and becomes completely star struck, after all, he is a male model and has the most gorgeous face she has ever seen, as they have a drink during Lauren’s break, she manages to form words and converse with him, but still remains utterly star struck until her break is over and she and Miles head back to the stage for the end of their set for the night, including the request from her regular and a special song for David. Afterwards, he asks if he can but her a proper drink and she agrees, they end up drinking and talking into the early hours of the morning about everything, including why he is in Atlanta in the first place and when he asks to see her again for breakfast, she cannot believe her luck and agrees to meet him.

That night, she cannot sleep from thinking about the night and the breakfast date to come, so she gives up and gets some coffee on the go, picking out an outfit, she gets ready and is at the hotel a few minutes earlier than planned, this impresses David and they walk to a local diner which serves the breakfast that David wants to try, it is a lot different to where he normally goes, but is more than happy to give it a try. Like the night before, the conversation flows and they talk more about their travels, plus more about his family and his sisters wedding and as they walk back to the hotel and she feels like their time together is coming to an end, he surprises her by asking for a kiss and wanting to see her again.

This is a continuing theme when he asks her to attend his sister’s wedding and be his date and as they spend more time together and Lauren meets his sister and her now husband, they all get on like a house on fire and when David’s sister asks her to sing a song for her with the wedding band, she agrees, this is when she really shows off her voice and gets an offer for a job from the band leader at the same time. As the rest of the evening passes and they talk more in David’s hotel suite, including about the upcoming campaign and release of his own cologne, Drive, they can’t keep their hands off each other and they feel like they are meant for each other, but when a trip to New York to see David at work happens, his assistant starts to become a problem and tries to keep them apart, so when things go wrong and it is a choice between their happiness and David’s career, it is a decision neither of them want to make, but have to.

This is a whirlwind romance with a dash of celebrity while also talking about the differences between fame and obscurity, but will this tear the two apart or make them stronger? The only way to find out is to read the book.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Antipodes by T.S. Simons – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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AntipodesAntipodes by T.S. Simons
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Campbell Mackintosh starts his day with a hangover, he had been out drinking with his friends to celebrate his birthday and now the sun is streaming in, he has a headache and a distinct reluctance to getting up, all he wants is some more sleep, but his mum is vacuuming right outside his bedroom door as punishment. She doesn’t want him to sleep, he probably woke her up when he thought he was being quiet, so instead of sleeping longer, he resigns himself to the fact that he has to get up and face the music. He reminisces about his mum’s wild scottish ways and how living in Australia for many years hadn’t dulled her fiery temper, staunch stubbornness or sense of adventure, she also hadn’t lost her wit, sense of humour or inability to help anyone or anything in need. As he slowly made his way from the bathroom to the kitchen, his extra chirpy interrogation started, so painkillers in hand, he managed to get himself some water, coffee and toast and faced his family. His sister was reading the weekend paper as usual and his dad was up at “The Block” a piece of land where they went to escape the world and be surrounded by nature, a place where they learned as children to live off the land and all the survival techniques they may need out there.

He reminisces some more about his parents, their lives, their knowledge which had been passed on to him, his life so far and what he wanted to do when he finished his degree, that is as well as considering the merits of another cup of coffee until he is interrupted by his sister who asks him if he has seen the news. She goes on to tell him about a virus which has started to infect and kill hundreds of people, plants, animals and aquatic life in europe, how it is transmitted through water and seems to be nothing which can stop it, it is spreading like wildfire and if it continues on its current path, then it will eventually reach the sea and nobody and nothing survive once infected. Cam’s mum decides at that moment to vacuum in the kitchen and until she is finished, he decides to make himself that second cup and also to make one for his sister at the same time, he hands it over to her as soon as his mum goes into the living room and he shuts the door behind her. His sister then asks him if he is going to apply and she tells him in no uncertain terms to check his email and see for himself, it turns out that everyone who is able to apply has already had the link sent to them so that they can fill in the online registration, the government is looking for people to go to a meeting in Melbourne and Cam fills the requirements, he fills out the forms and get’s a message to say he has been booked on a but at 08:30 monday morning, plenty of time for him to go there, come back and get to his afternoon classes.

When Cam gets to the facility, he is surrounded by hundreds of other confused applicants, in long queues to get onto the bus in the first place and as he sees the guarded facility and yet more people and more queues, he decides that he made the right decision going for the early slot, he sees that it looks like a military base and that everyone had a role to play, they are told to report for registration and yet again, join another queue, this one is to get to a computer screen and fill out pages and pages of information from medical history to education, religion and everything in between, next he hands in his phone and watch and he is told he will get them back when he leaves. To pass the time Cam watches the other people and tries not to get fried by the midday sun, his name is eventually called to go to the next stage which is in a room where he has to fill in a psychometric assessment and answer as many questions as he can in a set amount of hours. As he is told to finish, stand up and leave the room, he feels like he hasn’t answered enough questions, but that stops when he goes to wait in the next room until he hears his name being called, he is then ushered into another room in smaller groups and just left there. Eventually, they follow someone out sluggishly to a room where blood and cheek swabs are taken before being led into a dining hall and thankful for finally getting something to eat and drink, he strikes up his first conversation since he has been there. Cam is then led for more tests and finally into an amphitheatre where the reason for all the secrecy and the tests is revealed, the people in the room had all been chosen to take part in an experiment where they will be isolated on islands and covered with a dome before living on the islands for the foreseeable future in order to continue the human race. It turns out that they have been selected to live these sustainable and isolated lives while the rest of the world succumbs to the virus within the waterways, they now have the choice of whether to accept the invitation or not. When Cam returns home with this information, it turns out that he has been gone for three days and only has two to reach a decision, he discusses it with his family and decides to accept and this is where the adventure of a lifetime begins for him.

A couple of years have passed and the community he is now living in has succeeded in surviving and starting to grow, he has a steady job and on the anniversary of the founding of their community finds a partner in Freja, they have a loving relationship and a bright future, this is until Freja disappears and Cam is lost without her, until he follows her without realising it and discovers he has travelled to a new community on Lewis in Scotland and that way in which he got there is a portal and also that there are more of these Antipodes throughout the world, he makes the decision to leave the safety of the dome to find Freja after he discovers that she has done the same.

This is a dystopian adventure set in the present, but with a twist on the usual themes with the Antipodes, but what will Cam find when he sets off on his travels and will he be able to unravel the feelings he has to find out where his future lies?

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Bake Believe by Cori Cooper – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Bake BelieveBake Believe by Cori Cooper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is the last day of summer vacation and Cat Anderson is determined to enjoy every minute, she wakes up early and plans out her day in her head, go to the pool, use hair lightener, sunbathe, try a new snack, meet cute boys and swap phone numbers as well as the other things a fourteen year old girl can want. She creeps out of bed to the living room to get her phone from the living room to text her best friend and see if she is up and ready for the day yet, she is super excited and cannot wait any longer to ask her parents if she can go to the pool, the only snag in her plan. She goes to wake her parents up; and ask to go to the pool and she is not above begging this time, she really really wants to go, she eventually convinces them to do it, but with some conditions attached, to which she agrees and flies out of the room to get ready and throw some frozen waffles into the toaster and cover them in butter and syrup, but her mum is in the kitchen and just staring at the fridge, which is not normal, especially when she says she wants to bake something, Cat’s mum never bakes!

After she has eaten her waffles and her cousin Robyn has arrived in a burst of smiles and sunshine and announces that he mum has been baking all morning and that she has asked Robyn and cat to deliver them to the neighbours later on, all this talk of baking is making Cat’s mum on edge again, so she decides that this would be a good time for them to leave and head to the pool, but Robyn isn’t going to let it go and demands that they find out, as she is trying to figure it out, she remembers that it is more than strange that Cat’s mum is thinking about baking when she never even cooks anything, she only just manages to use her microwave and order takeout, but Cat is having none of it and eventually manages to change the subject to boys and distracts her.

When the girls get to the pool and realise that it is empty, they begin to regret their decision to go as early as possible, but they pick their spots and decide to do a bit of a sunbathing while they wait for their friends, this is after they have a race to the diving board, which Robyn wins as usual and to get down, Robyn dives and Cat cannonballs. When Cat surfaces, she is shocked to see that someone has arrived, Liam, they have a laugh and a joke about Cat’s dive, that is until she sees a gorgeous boy beside Robyn and she becomes speechless at the sight of him. Eventually she manages to get her words out to talk to him and finds out that if she doesn’t look at his eyes, she can actually talk to him, but that is easier said than done when all she wants to do is look at him. When Robyn and Liam go to get snacks, she is left with Tobey and continues their conversation, but agrees to go with him to join them shortly after, however, what Liam is eating puts her off food for a while, so she goes to top up her tan.

When Cat is woken up, she is embarrassed to know that she fell asleep, never mind that it was for a couple of hours, so after confirming that nobody had seen her snore or drool, agrees to go and join in the pool games with their friends for the next couple of hours. After she gets out, she sees someone eating a pretzel and sudden;y cannot get the idea out of her head that she has to try one of those bagels and after Tobey finds out where they are from, they go to get one from a newly opened bakery down the road from the pool, it is the most delicious thing she has ever eaten and unbeknownst to Cat, this pretzel is about to change her life.

When Cat gets home, she realises that the tv dinner she is eating is not appetising in the slightest and that she cannot eat it, so she asks to go to Robin’s house and the same thing happens the next morning at breakfast, her mum is also acting really strangely still. When she gets to school, she goes to her last class of the day and finds that there is no class, she goes to see the guidance counsellor and find out what happened, but has to wait until the next day to change it, her only choice now is to go to Culinary class, this is where things start to get strange.

Why has everything been turned upside down by that pretzel and why did what happened at school actually happen and what is going on with her mum? Cat has no idea what she has gotten herself into and what the consequences of this will be, but is it all tru, or is it all bake believe, the only way to figure out what happens is to read on and discover the secrets at the same time as Cat, with a few enticing recipes thrown in for good measure on the way.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Eye of Death: A paranormal romance (Vampire State Book 3) by Alexander Charalambides – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Eye of Death (Vampire State, #3)Eye of Death by Alexander Charalambides
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rowena is back and she is making a go of being an independent journalist with the help of Quintus, but on this day when she wakes up thinking she is late for work, she realises that she is on her own time and couldn’t be late but still getting up early is not easy for her, as she stumbles into the kitchen to find a note from Vincenzo, he is trying with these notes and today’s is no different with a joke and breakfast in the fridge. As she heads out to do an interview with Prince Antet with her sandwich in tow, she is thinking about the statement she released the day before and what the reactions to it have been, but she hasn’t got time to check them. As she pulls into a parking space near where the hotel is and checks in with Quintus, it is busy in the lobby and there are other news anchors making their own preparations, so she walks to the hotel and goes in via the back entrance and passed the Prince’s security, she pretty much walks into Quintus at the top of the stairs.

They head up to the Prince’s suite and she waves to an ex-colleague on the way, enjoying the look of surprise when he sees her, when she and Quintus arrive there, the Prince welcomes them with open arms, he is not quite ready to start the interview, but they talk and joke a little before talking about the format of the interview and how it is going to work without any camera’s present. They decide to record the audio only and then over coffee, they start the interview. They cover topics about both Rowena and the Prince and Rowena realises that she is getting from the Prince what she wanted from Vincenzo, it is a surprise and sets the tone for the rest of the interview, after it is all checked and completed and everyone is happy with the content and the agreement to allow more interviews in the future, Rowena and Quintus get ready to leave the hotel, this is when the Prince pulls Rowena to the side and asks her out on a date, Rowena says she will think about it and leaves.

As Vincenzo and Rowena prepare to leave for an event, they detour to see a friend on the way, but nothing new can be gleaned about the ULA political party through this source, so they head on to the event and meet Quintus there. The conversations on the boat aren’t wholly desirable to the humans on board and the news that one of the higher profile politicians has defected to the ULA, meaning that their hard work is about to become even harder is when Vincenzo confronts the party members at the same event, but it doesn’t end well and there is an argument between himself and Rowena, he leaves her standing in the cold and to fend for herself to get home again, alone. It is a few weeks later on that Rowena prepares for another interview with the Prince and this time, she is taking a camera with her as it is about the trade deal between Sanguinia and Kemet she will be reporting on, but when she gets to the Senatorio, things do not go quite to plan and it is only later on back at the hotel she finds out why and as things become heated, she takes the camera and shows the reality of the current situation and who is responsible for it/

This is the third installment of the Vampire State series and what a continuation it is, but can Rowena, Vincenzo and Quintus pull together or will this latest battle rip them all apart? Whose side is anyone on and will they stay that way, or will the lines blur? The only way to find out what the future holds is to read the book and find out.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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Moonlit Mirage: A Cook Islands Romance (Moonlit Destination Series) by Amy McKinley – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

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Moonlit Mirage - A Cook Islands Romance (Moonlit Destination Series)Moonlit Mirage – A Cook Islands Romance by Amy McKinley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cade Malone and Nadia Bennet are two people from completely different worlds, but who shared an unexpected connection in one fleeting moment in time, when one of them rescued the other from certain death. We start with Cade as he is driving home at night when a car swerves in front of him and into his lane just as they are about to cross a bridge, there is a loud crack, but nothing to worry about, it was just a rock thrown up by the car, so he opens the car windows to get a breeze in to help him keep awake after the long day he has had. He is nearly across the bridge and nearly home and safe, until another car comes up behind him and speeds up, the car is straddling both the lanes on the bridge and although he has sped up, the car is still gaining on him and as they are starting to pass him, this one actually hits him and sends him careening off he bridge and into the freezing cold river below.

As Cade is sinking and the water is pouring in through the open window, he realises that the seatbelt is stuck and he can’t get free, as he takes his last breath and hopes that someone has seen and is going to rescue him, someone does, he sees a young woman swimming towards him, she is small, but she is about to help him, she smashes the window and on being unable to open the door, she disappears. Just as Cade is thinking that she has left, she reappears and moves to kiss him, when she does, that is when the connection is made and he goes with it, when he realises that it is more than a kiss and that she breathes into his mouth when he eventually opens it, she keeps doing this until help arrives and she leaves him.

As she leaves the Cade in the water, Nadia gets out and meets with another person waiting at the water’s edge, she hands over the keys which were her objective in getting to the car, but she also cut the seatbelt to free Cade at the same time, all because she has been thrown by the connection she felt with Cade while underwater. She hands over the keys and then her mission is completed and she could get on with her life as far away from Cade as possible. That is until one night years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again on one of the Cook Islands at a resort party, they are both as surprised as the other, but that connection they felt is still as strong as ever, but was this a planned meeting, will their pasts return to haunt them, or will they be able to make the most of that connection and strengthen it?

This is a romance with a twist of danger and an emotional ride with twists and turns throughout, but the ending is well worth the ride.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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