Ouch! My Vampire Doms Keep Biting Me (Vampire Doms, #1) by Calista Jayne Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Thank you to the author for providing me with an advanced copy for review! You can also read my reviews of Falling for Them and Playing by Their Rules.

Jayne introduces Autumn, Xander, and Will in this first installment -- a quick read for anyone looking for something to introduce themselves to her writing or to the genres in general. If memory serves, this is one of the first -- if not the first -- vampire romance books I have read, and I very much had a fun time reading it. This book certainly was filled with both plot and spice, and starting out hot with Autumn bearing witness to a crime that causes her to go on the run.

The pacing of the book definitely keeps the reader interested, so much so that you could finish this in one sitting in just about an hour if you have the chance to do so. I enjoyed that we were given perspectives from Autumn, Xander, and Will -- it really allows the reader to get into the headspace of all of the characters, which is a commonality in Jayne's writing that I definitely appreciate.

Xander and Will are similar, but both have very distinct characteristics when it comes to what they want from Autumn, which takes a toll on their relationship as they both get to know her on their own terms. The reader is able to see Will and Xander's internal struggles with Autumn coming into their lives, especially with their conflicting views on what they should do with her now that they know her and she has become a presence in their lives.

Autumn is really just trying to get by while on the run and starting over when she has a chance encounter with Will and Xander, which certainly takes her life for a turn in more ways than one. She becomes introduced to a whole new world while trying to rebuild her own, and she just happens to have two vampires to show her the ropes. I did find it hilarious that she did not even seem fazed by the fact that vampires were real and that she was in the presence of two of them -- she really rolls with the punches when it comes to obstacles in her life.

The spicier scenes are more mild compared to Jayne's other novels I have read, but still tasteful and enjoyable nonetheless. Jayne does a great job in making them move at an entertaining pace and places them into the story at opportune moments rather than just throwing them in for shock factor.

I do wish that we were given a bit more background on Will and Xander in regards to their relationship and how they came to live their lives together. It felt a little rushed when it came to introducing them into Autumn's life and then glossed over their actual presence in town. Autumn's choices while on the run also had me just a touched confused, because as a person on the run, I personally would not be stopping to read books at a library, but hey, a girl does what she wants.

With this book ending on a cliffhanger, I may find myself gravitating towards the series later on to see what exactly is in store for Autumn, Xander, and Will. For readers looking to get into paranormal romance, this is a great book to get yourself off the ground and into the genre.

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His to Keep (Club Wyld Doms, #1) by Violet James Review

This is a spoiler-free review! His to Keep is currently available for free on iBooks and Kindle.

Once again the free book section on iBooks has roped me in and I just had to see what this book had in store. Clocking in at under 200 pages, His to Keep is a quick read that gets right to the point with Luke and Rebecca, who have a chance encounter that is the catalyst for their relationship. 

Much like the coincidence we see in Fifty Shades of Grey, Rebecca and Luke find themselves drawn to each other right off the bat and have an immediate connection. With Luke being extremely protective of Rebecca from the start, we can all imagine how their relationship plays out the more they become involved with one another. There is a hint of will-they-won't-they in the beginning of their story, but as it plays out you can tell just how much they cannot stay away from one another.

Now when I say we jump right into the story, I really mean it -- within the first twenty pages we see Luke and Rebecca already enamored with one another in a less than conventional way of meeting. With two perspectives, we see how both characters are feeling during this very intense first meeting, especially when it comes to Luke trying to understand what Rebecca is going through. The author spends a lot of time making sure the reader -- and Rebecca -- understand the lifestyle that Luke participates in and the dynamic they need to have in order to make sure that they are both being taken care of.

Even though this is a quick read, it does not feel too insta-lovey, which is a pleasant surprise considering I half expected Luke and Rebecca to start declaring their love for each other three chapters in based off the page length alone. It was refreshing to see how concerned Luke was for Rebecca, and his constant reassurance to her when she was in a vulnerable position really stood out as a great characteristic.

The more spicier scenes were pretty good, but definitely on the shorter side for the sake of the plot -- which we do get a decent amount of and led to a pretty good plot in this story that had me intrigued. So much so that I would have loved for the book to be a touch longer so we could have gotten some more angst and action regarding the situation that Rebecca was in. To avoid any spoilers, the book's plot point keeps a pretty strong focus on Rebecca's struggles, and that includes a not so great partner, Aden, that continues to wreck havoc on her life.

This was a quick and fun read that made for a good palate cleanser in between books. To those who enjoyed His to Keep, I would recommend Praise by Sara Cate, one of my top recommendations to give for fans of this genre.

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Playing by Their Rules by Calista Jayne Review

This is a spoiler-free review! The version I am reading is an ARC -- any changes made for the final publication are not reflected in this review. Thank you to the author for providing me with an advanced copy for review! Playing by Their Rules will be available on September 12, 2023. You can also read my review of Falling for Them (Cinderella's Daddies, #1) on my blog, here.

Calista Jayne does not disappoint in this fun new standalone -- when Maisie gets a second chance to win Chance and Ethan over for a very special relationship, she goes in with a clear mindset and a plan that would put war battles to shame. Maisie is such a great character when it comes to understanding her own feelings as well as when it comes to experiencing so many new things as once. I really enjoyed her characterization, and it reminded me a lot of Ella from Jayne's Cinderella's Daddies series.

I loved that we had perspectives from Maisie, Chance, and Ethan -- it made the story become cohesive and the reader does not feel as though they are missing out on certain characters and their thoughts. Jayne really allows readers to understand exactly what is going through everyone's minds as the relationship begins to develop, which makes it all the more entertaining to read. 

Once I started reading, I could barely put it down and nearly flew threw the book in one sitting. The pacing of the plot works in the reader's favor, as it makes you feel as if you are going through these new and exciting decisions and moments with Maisie at the same rate as her thought process.

Bradley and Mina made interesting supporting characters, and I loved the relationship that Maisie had with Bradley -- it is a rare find in romance books to have a female lead with a male best friend that does not try to get into a relationship with her, and I found it very refreshing to see such a great dynamic between the two of them. Mina is an entire beast on her own, and low-key felt like a bit of a stage five clinger when it came to doing anything with Maisie -- she really was basically trying to become another version of Maisie and her character definitely added some tension to Maisie's life.

Ethan and Chance were overall great characters that really had maturity behind them when it came to doing anything with Maisie, which once again was refreshing to see in a more taboo romance novel. I love a good age gap romance, and their age difference with Maisie was just the right amount where it was an age difference and not a power difference in the sense that everyone was in control of what was going on in their relationship.

I absolutely loved the thriller element to this book -- much like Falling for Them, Jayne is able to expertly incorporate thrilling, interesting plot twists that compliment the story's relationship without overshadowing the main theme. This was such a fun read, and easily one of my new favorite erotic thrillers. I really enjoyed the pacing of the story and plot development, and the relationship between Ethan, Chance, and Maisie was well-established and overall a great pairing.

This was a super fun read and I will definitely be reading more by the author. If you are a fan of Praise by Sara Cate or Credence by Penelope Douglas, this book will certainly become one of your new favorites. I would definitely recommend Forever Only Once by Carrie Ann Ryan once you read this book, especially if you are looking for a romance book with a touch of thriller to it.

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Recreated (Reawakened, #2) by Colleen Houck Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

It had been seven years since I read the first installment, Reawakened, and as I make my way through my physical TBR pile, I thought it was finally time to get the ball rolling on finishing this series. Should I have refreshed my memory on the events of the first book before diving right back in? Probably. Did I? Absolutely not. Yet here we are, and I made it through in one piece and just a touch of confusion during the beginning of the book.

Gosh, I could not get into the Tia storyline to save my life. I understand that it added a different dynamic to Lily's character development, but it felt like my eyes were glazing over every single time I had to read those italic remarks. If this plot line did not exist, I honestly do not think it would have drastically changed the story -- maybe a little bit regarding the journey Lily was taking, but it surely could have been resolved eventually.

Lily is running around all over the place and not listening to anyone's advice, and making decisions quite literally based off of vibes. Solving riddles? She is starting to sound like first graders trying to solve a multiplication problem for the first time. Absolutely just throwing guesses out there that somehow are always correct. And when it comes to battling random creatures or traveling through dangerous areas? She always manages to come out with barely a scratch on her. For a journey that is supposed to be one of the most deadly to go on, this seventeen-year-old girl seems to have it in the bag.

I did enjoy the new dynamic that Lily gains with two characters in particular, and for the sake of spoilers, when you get to that part in the book, you will absolutely know who I am talking about. The way that her influence on others starts to really shape the progress of her journey was interesting, but as the story went on, it started to feel like a constant back and forth with Lily as the culprit when it came to creating unnecessary obstacles for herself.

Amon and Lily's relationship -- I wish I was more invested than I was, because from what I remember about their relationship in the first book, I really enjoyed it. Obviously, circumstances are much different in this installment, and while there were some moments that were heartfelt, I was just not loving it as much as I thought I was going to. There was a lot going on with Lily internally, and it really put a strain on their relationship, as well as introduced a bunch of new conflicts with her other relationships with characters.

This is a quick read clocking in at under 450 pages, and the plot eventually picks up enough in the second half that you will fly right through it -- I will say that the beginning of the book certainly is something you have to work through, but once the pacing gets going, you will be fine. There were moments that could have been scrapped from the story and the plot would have moved on just the same -- a decent amount of chapters were heavily leaning towards being filler rather than actually helping the plot. Towards the end of the book is really where the action picks up and the plot is finally moving forward, but that is essentially in the last few chapters and then the book is over.

I will definitely be seeing this series through and am determined to finish the final book (and maybe the prequel, only time will tell). Fans of Rick Riordan's The Kane Chronicles will get a slight kick out of this series, but I would say to not get your hopes up regarding the depth the author went into her research. It covers the basics, but does not dive too far into as much detail about Egyptian mythology as I wish it did.

 

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Midnight with the Devil (Unlikely Heroes, #1) by Emma Castle Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

Diana makes a deal with the Devil -- literally. In order to give her father a second chance at life, she agrees to a three month contract with Lucien Star, the Devil himself, in order to save his fate. And the price? Spend every Friday night with Lucien doing whatever he asks from her -- in my opinion, a pretty sweet deal.

This is a relatively quick read, and I managed to read the entire book in just under an hour and a half. The pacing is maintained throughout the story and the author does not linger on trivial plot points but rather cuts right to the chase in order to develop the story. That being said, I do think there was room for some more character development for Diana and Lucien -- we flew through the story so quickly, it felt as though that we as readers were just getting to know them when the story ends.

The book was giving major Lucifer television show vibes, and I am still up in the air if I actually enjoyed the similarities -- he owns a nightclub and is ridiculously handsome and suave. I am not a super fan of insta-love stories (I am an enemies to lovers girl at heart), so the extremely quick progression of their relationship was not really my cup of tea. Diana's characterization was a little two-dimensional in the sense that she just really did not experience any type of development besides wanting to be with Lucien, which is not exactly a personality trait.

I wish the author spent more time actually exploring angels and the paranormal aspect of the story. It had the basic backbone of Lucifer being a fallen angel and a few well-known angels making their appearance throughout the book, but other than the occasional mention from a side character, the paranormal focus was left in the dust in order to make room for Diana and Lucien's romance. I expected the book to be a lot darker based off of its summary, and it just was not giving what it should have been -- I would go far enough to say that this was tamer than some new adult novels that I have read.

Diana and Lucien have this instant attraction towards one another, and I was having a pretty fun time reading about their growing relationship and both of their internal struggles of coming to terms with what they were feeling. The further the story went on, the more it read as their relationship really only developing in order to further a particular plot point that I will not spoil, which made the relationship cheapen in my eyes. 

For someone who is literally supposed to be the devil, Lucien was a pretty chill guy and did not give off scary or powerful vibes -- he felt more like a PG-13 version of the devil that for some reason had a solid moral compass. I expected a lot more debauchery than what we were given in the story and the lack of it made me start to lose interest about halfway through.

Honestly, I did not love the ending of this book. I was really hoping that it would go in a certain direction, and in the last pages it really took a turn that I personally felt undid a lot of what the story was working towards. Maybe I expected too much from this book, but I genuinely thought it was working towards a decent ending (at least my version of a decent ending) and ended up pretty disappointed.

If you are looking for a slightly spicy quick read with a touch of fantasy, Midnight with the Devil may be the perfect read for you, especially if you are looking for an arrangement romance.

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A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2) by Sabaa Tahir Review

This is a spoiler-free review! The version I am reading is an ARC -- any changes made for the final publication are not reflected in this review.

I read An Ember in the Ashes eight years ago, and to say that I remember about four main plot points from that book is giving myself the benefit of the doubt. From what I did recall from the first book, I was able to piece together what the characters were dealing with and what was in store for them after the ending. 

To be completely honest, this book has been haunting my book shelf since 2016 and I finally caved in to read it because I could not take it any longer. I cannot for the life of me remember why I gave the first book five stars, because from what I do remember, I did not have an attachment to any particular character, but hey, I was in high school at the time, and any young adult fantasy was right up my alley back then.

I will say that I did really enjoy the world that this series is set in, and as someone who finds the Roman Empire fascinating, the author does an excellent job incorporating this fantasy and dystopia together in an ancient setting. Tahir really builds into the status of the world's citizens and Empire, and the dynamic between each class of people is heavily implicated in the way that their society operates. From a young adult book perspective, it is one of the more advanced societies in the sense that the balance between ruling and controlling continues to titer a fine line while the characters definitely go through more mature themes compared to other young adult series. The politics really stood out to me and were probably the most interesting part of the book, as we were constantly in a state of development and potential war throughout the book.

Helene was really grinding my gears for nearly the entire book -- we slowly see her decent from friend to foe as the story goes on, and with the added bonus of having her perspective, the reader has a front row seat to every moral dilemma that plagues her decision-making at every turn. She is certainly a complex character that severely needed some development, but boy oh boy was she taking agitation to a completely new level for me. For someone who is supposed to be an excellent strategist and intelligent, her common sense flew out the window and never came back.

Laia and Elias... now I know they had a little something-something going on, but to be completely honest, the majority of the book had their relationship screaming platonic to me, or even just a whisper of romantic tension between the two. Perhaps it was due to the romance being more of a subplot rather than a focal point, but there were moments where it felt as though their romance was being forced in one chapter and then completely overlooked the next. 

Laia has some big dumb moments that made me want to shove my hands into the pages and give her a good shake. She seems to believe that people can change way too easily, and is the reason for a number of things to go wrong in her plans because of her easily trusting others. Same thing goes for our leading man Elias, who seems to throw logic out the door in exchange for a plan that has no backup about 90% of the time in an effort to woo Laia by doing the bare minimum or straight up disappearing without telling anyone what he is up to.

The twists and turns were to be as expected, and there were maybe two instances that I was actually surprised that something happened to some of the characters. Take that with a grain of salt, as it was easy to piece together the next plot device if you were really cataloguing every move the characters made. That being said, the villains lowkey slayed in this book -- they are nasty and ruthless, and just a tiny bit hilarious in the sense that it basically felt as though they were putting on performances the entire book. 

I am still up in the air on whether or not I will continue on with this series -- the world-building is honestly the best part, so I may have to carry on and see it through to the end. If you are looking for fantasy with romance as a subplot, this is definitely your speed.

 

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It's Our Secret by Willow Winters Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of A Single Glance on my blog, here.

I had such a great time reading Winters's first installment of the Irresistible Attraction series, so when I saw that It's Our Secret was available for free on iBooks, I knew I had to read it, especially since I was in the mood to read a stand alone. The bickering between Dean and Allie was *chef's kiss* and very much appropriate for college students, it did not seem overly childish or too mature for their age. And with the knowledge that they were once involved with one another, it definitely adds on to the complexity of their characters as we try to figure both of them out as the story goes on.

Compared to the only other book by Willow Winters I have read, I would say that It's Our Secret is definitely on the spicier side of her work. This is new adult, but it really does read more so like an adult novel in the sense that I think the dynamic between Dean and Allie would have worked better if they had already graduated college, rather than still be students.

I do have to say that Dean and Allie's relationship definitely went from 0 to 100 very quick, so much so that I felt as if it was done over the course of a nine page chapter, and then all of a sudden they were fooling around with one another. Since the book is on the shorter side, I should have expected some quick revelations, but it just was not having the pace that I expected. 

There is a ton of mystery surrounding Allie and her past, especially when it comes to her self confidence and the way that she chooses to present herself to people. Dean's backstory is more fleshed out from the beginning and it makes the reader more interested in his character than in Allie, at least in my opinion. We really dive deep into Allie's past as the story approaches the third act, and it definitely adds much needed insight on her character and on the choices she makes.

The chapters are super short, which makes the story fly by so fast that at some points I was not even sure if I was processing what was on the page before the point of view changed or we were somewhere else in the story. Allie's emotions are all over the place and I felt like I was going to get whiplash from the amount of times she would change her mind about Dean or about the way she felt about anything that became an obstacle for their forming relationship.

Allie has a death wish like girl what in the world where you thinking??? She really saw a potentially dangerous situation and said yes, this is exactly the plan I need to finally get closure. Girl be so serious for two seconds and think about the hundreds of ways things could go wrong before just walking in blind and hoping for the best, because that clearly worked the last time. I was truly perplexed on how she thought what she was doing was going to end up going the way that she wanted it to, without any repercussions. 

I am still confused on what exactly the genre for this book was supposed to be -- romantic thriller? Romance with a hint of suspense? Contemporary? Honestly even after finishing the book I am a loss for how to categorize it without leaving out some of the aspects of the story. It had a strong beginning but then slowly became a touch choppy as we approached the third act, which felt as if it flew by, and then we were at the end.

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