She came to sell a cottage left by a father she never knew. He came to make sure she couldn't.
Jade
Ellis doesn't do grief. She does plans. And her plan is simple — fix
the crumbling cottage she's inherited from a father she never knew, list
it, and go back to her real life.
Sawyer Kane has other ideas.
He's
been keeping that cottage alive for eight months. He knows every secret
it holds. And there's one buried under the floorboards that her father
left specifically for her — one Sawyer has been guarding since the day
she arrived.
He tells himself he's waiting for the right moment.
He's lying.
The
longer Jade stays — learning her father through a town that loved him,
falling for a man who shows up at nine o'clock at night to fix a
flickering light because it was flickering and that was reason enough —
the harder it gets to remember why leaving ever made sense.
He has loved her for eight years without saying a word.
Pelican Harbor has placed its bets.
And this town is never wrong.
Mature
200 pages
English
Contemporary Romance
Young Adult / New Adult Romance
Small Town Romance
Small town
Age Gap
Forbidden Desire
Off limits
Best friends brother
One bed only
Second chance
Forced proxmity
grumpy/sunshine
Spicy
My 5 Star Review TITLED: The Mother kept them apart for Years!
Jade Ellis only met her father, Frank once in her life. It was brief and it was painful. She never went back until she got the notice from his attorney. On the outside, the cottage looks like a wreck. But when she goes inside she makes plans on how to better it so that she can sell it quickly. Her nearest neighbor of 22 years, greeted her and said that Frank talked about her. Odd. Much later, we learn that here cruel mother ASKED Frank to stay away, so he loved Jade from afar. I hated that her mother did that. She stole years from Jade and Frank.
Sawyer wasn't cruel; he was patient, quiet and a man who greeted her gruffly with few words for a long time. Jade didn't know that Sawyer had been left by so many people. That is until he showed up at 19 years old and Frank "quietly" drew him in. She also didn't know that for 8 years Sawyer had quietly loved her from a far as well. He had never left there because he hoped that she would return and they might have a chance together. Frank's love for the both of them was so special !!
I loved the quiet friendships that developed for Jade and the special one between Tessa, who became her trusted sounding board. Later Tessa and her husband Reid come to dinner together, making it even more special.
A HUGE business opportunity comes up for Jade and now she has a very serious decision to make. I loved the sweet ending of this story as well.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Harper
Sullivan thought Havenwood’s Renaissance Faire would mean harmless
medieval fun, turkey legs, and jousting matches. Instead, the newly
crowned Faire queen collapses after a single sip of mead and the town
festival suddenly becomes the scene of a deadly mystery.
With the
queen’s life hanging by a thread—and a rogue spell cutting Harper off
from the friends she usually relies on—she must untangle a web of
secrets hiding behind colorful tents, costumed performers, and
suspicious merchants before time runs out.
Can Harper unmask the culprit before the Faire’s grand finale turns fatal?
My 4 Star Review: It couldn't have been wilder !
Harper Sullivan is human but not totally. She has a connection to the trees in the area and a not often used magic of being able to connect with anything metal. She thinks she's not good enough for this magical community. But she really has quite a few people who love her. Even Nathaniel Silverthorne, who is a well liked lawyer, is her boyfriend and finds her extraordinary ! Interesting because "Nate" is a vampire ! This Connecticut community is wild and usually pulls together to help each other. His family is also his mother, a brother and a sister who also work the faire. Harper has only been there for a year but finds she loves it and the Spellbooks shop that she now owns. Cassandra is her only employee . Harper's best friend is Bella who is quite a support for her.
It's Harper's idea to include humans and to invite other magical people from outside their community. There's a bit of a pushback about that but she wins. She knows what it feels like to not feel like she fits in anywhere and doesn't want for anyone else to feel that!
Luna, the moon rabbit from an earlier book and spreads her own brand of chaos and helps unwittingly. There are plenty of interesting "people" in this story as well.
The story is fun, charming, intense at times and a really surprising, whirlwind of an ending.
I received this story free from the author and I enjoyed it.
-------
HOWEVER I DON'T WANT TO READ ANY MORE OF THIS SERIES.
The Knight made his move. Romeo Rivas
married in secret, defied a dead king's blood pact, and set the dynasty ablaze.
But the war he ignited didn't strike the Knight—it struck the youngest son.
Dante Rivas. Taken. Chained. Held by a ghost the family doesn't know exists. A
dead king's system still executing from the grave, and a Mole rotting inside
the empire's walls.
The weapon sent to break Dante is the
woman who will either deliver him home—or destroy everything the Rivas name was
built to protect.
----------
Usually, the mafia
prince takes the captive. Not this time. I hold the chains.
ISADORA
I was hired to execute the youngest Rivas heir. Instead, I chained him to a
chair.
Twenty years ago, his father punished
me with annihilation. Giovanni Rivas erased my identity, relocated me, and
rebuilt me into a lethal, unfeeling weapon. I have spent two decades surviving
among mafia men who used the weapon and never cared if the woman beneath it
existed.
My instructions were simple: end
Giovanni’s bloodline. Revenge was supposed to be clean.
But Dante Rivas isn't a terrified boy.
He is a nineteen-year-old lethal instrument who wears the same brutal training
I do. He doesn't flinch. He watches me. He reads the twenty years of trauma
hiding beneath my armor.
When I examine his bruised ribs, the
tension in the room snaps. His green eyes burn through my defenses, and he
hardens against my touch. When he pulls me in, he doesn't feel like a captive.
He feels like a master. His mouth devours me, his hands finding places I’ve
kept numb for two decades. I shatter against the concrete, making sounds I
haven’t made in years.
I was the weapon. Dante made me the
woman again.
But the man stripping me bare is the
son of the king who destroyed my life. If I let him live, I betray my
employers. If I let him touch me again, I betray myself.
Every king falls. Every
bishop bleeds. Every knight wages war. Now the Rook moves—and the board will
never be the same.
(ROOK is a dark, gritty,
high-heat mafia romance featuring forced proximity, an older female captor, a
lethal younger male captive, and a devastating enemies-to-lovers forbidden
romance. It is the next installment in the Shattered Pieces series.)
Across this six-book saga, the Rivas
family is torn apart by power, secrets, and betrayal—but also remade through
the dangerous bonds of love. Here, dominance and rebellion collide, surrender
burns into obsession, and the heat is scorching, raw, and unforgettable. And
yes—through every shadow and every betrayal, an undeniable happily-ever-after
waits.
**WHO’S IT FOR
For readers craving a dark, high‑stakes
romance that blends forbidden desire with a moody, thriller‑infused atmosphere,
where obsession and betrayal pulse through every sinful confession.
Explicit
310 pages
English
Contemporary Romance
Romantic Suspense
Dark Romance
dark mafia romance
spicy
forced proximity
age gap
enemies to lovers
forbidden love
crime fiction
organized crime
revenge romance
action thriller
My Review 5 Star Notes TITLED: He's the Brilliant Brain
Interesting Prologue ! Isadora hates Giovanni Rivas with an icy passion. All she did was say, No, to him using her and then he did what he said he would. He erased her ! Not dead but now she was a ghost who killed for others; not him ! Dante was the Trained Brain cruelly trained from young to notice things and he does. He hardly never really notices that though. Isadora was trained to notice things also because she HAD to in order to survive ! No one has every rattled to her before Dante. And she's got job to do and she's studied her prey for quite a while. A man, outside her assignment has been watching her and helping her at time. He said to watch the young man. He was an interesting addition to the story, Anyway, when Isadora and Dante first meet, he's bolted in a chair with injuries. He's only 19 years old and she's 40 years old but when he looks at her? He sees her. No man as ever seen her as a person; just a weapon or being the one who killed them. He sees another person like him; another brain, someone like him. Never happened before ! He begins to see just how cruel his father was to him and his other 3 brothers.
He was also more dangerous when hurt. I liked that thought. Look out Isadora ! I loved the reverse age difference in this dark romance with her being the older one.
In the beginning I did have one problem having never read any other other books. It took me a while to find the rhythm to know who was speaking. However, I fell in love with Isadora and Dante. In fact, the whole family was awesome ! Romeo, Nora and her 13 year old sister, Marisol and 10 year old Tomas were especially interesting in their interactions and their expressions of love ! Now, I wish I had read her story; sounds interesting as well. The rest of the brothers, have their own skills and their own stories.
There are many levels of dangers and a very BIG Mole. It gets really intense !
I love the fact that it is said by several from time to time that although the men are dangerous? The women in this family are more so. And that is proved time and again in the story. Isadora is no different. She's really different but also very dangerous too !
There are many levels of betrayal and most get destroyed. But there are several circles of hell that haven't been destroyed. Yet ! That battle continues in the next story of another brother, called The Pawn and I know that's going to be VERY interesting as well.
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
In this richly layered debut thriller reminiscent of the real issue
of missing and murdered Indigenous people, a badass Choctaw detective
discovers an insidious plot against her reservation while investigating
the disappearance of a beloved champion athlete.
Choctaw
Detective Perry Antelope has been with her partner, Sophia Burns, for
only six months. Perry is a seasoned investigator while the ex-Olympian
shot putter Sophia is a former street-smart police officer. Together,
they are an intrepid pair with an established record of success. But
when Perry and Sophia are called to investigate the disappearance of
Dels Billy, a beloved women’s Indian Horse Relay rider, they quickly
realize that it’s not as cut-and-dry as anything they’ve faced before.
Piece
by piece, they uncover unsettling connections between Dels’s
disappearance and a series of unsolved abductions of women from Oklahoma
reservations. But the perpetrator always seems to be one step ahead,
and Perry soon finds herself—and her family—in the crosshairs of a
ruthless killer. Despite her husband’s pleas for her to drop the case,
Perry is determined to prevent Dels from becoming another statistic.
As
the investigation deepens, Perry and Sophia follow a tangled web of
clues that point to a close-to-home plot more chilling than they could
have imagined. Torn between her family’s safety and her duty to her
community, Perry must race against the clock, and across tribal Nations,
to find Dels before her murderous abductor can carry out their sinister
plan.
My 5 Star Review TITLED: Filled with mysteries, and Histories and Love
The Prologue was stunning !!! I just had to keep reading ! I adored Perry Antelope and her stubborn, relentless to find Dels, rescue her and get the answers for her and everyone else ! She'll fight to the end and she does. I didn't like her Comanche husband, Troy at first. He was a nag. They do have two children together a 16 year old daughter, Olyve and a younger son, Nico. Her partner, Sophia Barnes is excellent at her job but also knows when to push Perry and when to just shut up and let it go. She knows Perry takes meds for migraines when she pushes for too long and too hard. But there is just no stopping her. Sophia is married to linebacker named Mike. We don't get real deep into her marriage but they seem to be a pretty good fit. Turns out Troy and Perry loved each other deeply but she had a hard time expressing it. Their "language" was different. I ended up no longer disliking Troy. The kids were great !
This is a REALLY intense story, with plenty of dangers, twists and surprises that kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved that a lot of Native American history was included some of it I knew about and some I didn't!
Great ending; intense to the end. And at the end, the author's blog was included as was the link to Facebook for the real "Fort Hall Relay Association". It had more information about the relays. I found both interesting.
The author's blog can be found here: https://devonmihesuah.ku.edu/
She has a lot more books that I want to explore now.
I received a complimentary ebook ARC from publisher Bantam and NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview this book. By the way, a great cover for this eBook. It really caught my attention !
I spent three years undercover inside his empire. Then he blew my cover and made me his wife.
I poured yearsof my life into one cover identity, one empire, one target.
Damiano Vescari was supposed to stay a name in a case file.
Untouchable. Off-limits.
Until he crossed a room full of Chicago's most dangerous men and laid every one of my secrets bare.
Then he found out who I really am. Instead of handing me over to his men, he put a ring on my finger.
A fake marriage. Four walls I can't escape and a man who fills every inch of his suit pants like a felony I can't afford.
One moment he's Chicago's most feared Don. The next he's wiping his son's tears and looking at me like I'm the missing piece.
Somewhere between the lies I told and the truth he showed me, I fall. Hard.
One night the walls I built come down and I give him every part of me.
Now there's a baby growing inside me that he doesn't know about.
Then the truth surfaces. My father wasn't killed by the mob. He was killed by my own bureau. And now they're coming for me.
If they get to me before Damiano does, it won't just be my secret they bury... but our child too.
Explicit
294 pages
English
Contemporary Romance
Romantic Suspense
Dark Romance
secret pregnancy
fake marriage
enemies to lovers
forced proximity
off-limits/forbidden love
office/boss romance
mistaken identity
single dad
oil tycoon
protector
Please read, enjoy, and review Savage Don's Undercover Wife.
And don't forget to leave your review on launch day Saturday, September 5th. Thank you! :)
Must review on:
Amazon
My 5 star review TITLED: He surprised me !
The opener was a great shock and a wonderful start to the story ! Orina Sinclair is the undercover FBI agent that has been the accountant embedded in Damiano Vescari's financial department. And she's good at what she does. She's sharp, beautiful and thinks that she's been unnoticed. Nope. Other than Damiano's man, Corrado who is built suspicious. She knows he's been watching her every move. Orina's last name is really, Belucci and her dead father, Daniel worked as an FBI agent before he was murdered. Her FBI handler is, Cruz and he is a good man. I never dou
bted it for a minute ! He's just doing his job not knowing the full picture..yet !Damiano is more hip to what is going on with her than she ever had imagined. He could have killed her for what he knows. But he doesn't. Surprise for me #1. He has a changing 7 year old son, Elio. She tries so hard to not be captivated by him but she softens a bit when she sees his innocent, welcoming face in dinosaur pajamas. Damiano notices. He notices a lot but gives her space which was another surprise for me. He knows things about her father and will know even more as time goes on. He truly can be that Savage Don when people he cares about are targeted. And people do get hurt. There isn't any grotesque violence, which I liked. Orina begins to see how tender Damiano is with people especially his son.
There is a quiet intensity about this story, along with some heated moments between the MC's. But it's time to catch the true culprits behind her father's murder and other "hidden" felonies on the part of the FBI. It's going to be a long battle with everyone caught. But there is one string out there that will probably need another book. But I don't consider it a cliffhanger because the parts I cared about come to a great end with a wonderful Epilogue.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
He makes plans. Long, patient, devastatingly precise plans.
For years, he has prepared for one thing: revenge against the Caine family.
Now he is walking straight into their world with a peace offering in
one hand and their destruction already mapped out in the other.
Get close.
Earn their trust.
Tear apart everything they built.
Then he meets Celia Caine.
Celia has spent her life surrounded by secrets no one will explain
and a family that expects loyalty without ever giving her the truth.
Adriano should be another man she knows better than to trust.
Controlled. Watchful. Dangerous.
Instead, he becomes the one person who seems to see her clearly.
She doesn't know that every step he takes toward her family is part of a plan.
He doesn't know that every step he takes toward her is pulling him away from it.
He came to destroy the Caines.
Falling for Celia was never supposed to be part of the revenge.
And by the time she begins uncovering the truth, Adriano is already facing the one choice he never planned for:
Finish the vengeance that has shaped his entire life...
or protect the woman standing in the middle of everything he came to burn.
Some things are built to last.
Some things are built to destroy.
Adriano built his life to burn the Caine family to the ground.
He never expected Celia to be the one thing he couldn't watch burn.
Explicit
400 pages
English
Contemporary Romance
Young Adult / New Adult Romance
Dark Romance
Mafia Romance
Age gap
Dark mafia
Enemies-to-Lovers
Betrayal & Angst
Morally Gray Hero
Hidden Identity
He Falls First
Forbidden Love
Mafia Boss x Innocent Heroine
Please enjoy and leave your honest review when the book go live. Thank you.
Must review on:
Amazon
My 5 Star Review TITLED: Everyone watches !
Adriano Vale seeks vengeance on Gerald Caine and he's waited for years after finding his eighteen year old brother, Enzo left dead on a dark highway. Enzo was full of life, joy and laughter! He cared about people and it was real; people felt it. The Vale family was meant to find Enzo's body and it almost destroyed his family. But Reid is not only Adriano's right hand man, but also loved Enzo like a brother. Reid and Adriano were step in step when it came to bringing the Caine family down !
Adriano knows just about everything about the Caine family. Thinking he knows everything that he needs to know to bring them down. Gerald has a loud, proud, 31 year old son, named Theo. He is proud, eager and wants to be seen. He still doesn't know how to read a room. Nora is 28 years olds and Adriano knows she's going to be a problem. She does know how to read a room and he knows quickly that she is already reading him !She's sharp and calculating. What he hadn't counted on was the youngest daughter Celia being a problem. She knows how to read a room and people and although being quieter, she's not stupid! Gerald is a cold,domineering bully ! Charming on the surface but cold underneath.
Nora loved Celia in her own kind of hard way, barely showing it at times but they have both been trying to survive that house ! They love each other and know each other's tells. Their dead mother is the only one that truly understood and loved Celia unconditionally. They were a lot a like.
Such an emotional, intense story with plenty of surprises and a few "happy times" between Adriano and Celia before it looks like it's all going to fall apart.
Perfect ending and even better Epilogue ! P.S. I loved the eBook cover !
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Apparently,
my life choices now include a fake marriage, billionaire roommate, and
falling for the man my father wants destroyed.
My father gave me two choices — lose my nonprofit or marry Boston’s coldest billionaire CEO.
I picked the one that ruined my life in the best possible way.
Jonathan Atwell is arrogant, controlling, and so gorgeous it should be illegal in a boardroom.
One signature, one cohabitation clause, and suddenly I’m living with a man who makes my pulse do things I did not authorize.
Then he kisses me like the paperwork never existed.
I start wanting the version of him who only softens for me.
Somewhere between our fake vows and his bed, I stop pretending my heart isn't involved.
I fall for my husband. Hard. Inconveniently. Completely.
Then I find the paper trail proving my own father is the one trying to destroy him.
If I can’t stop this, I won’t just lose the only man I’ve ever trusted.
I’ll become the reason his entire world unravels.
My 5 Star Review TITLED: The Battles hit fast and hard
Jessica Shaw goes to galas, she hates going to them but when her controlling father Gerald practically demands she go, she does. After all he has some serious strings over her non-profit. I hated him on sight! He had that false charm of warmth but always with a greedy motive underneath. Gerald is the one who introduces Jessica to Jonathan. I loved how when they first saw each other before that, they both were stunned, unable to move at first. Gerald watched it all with hidden glee. He knows a lot of things that he shouldn't be able to access. I really liked hardworking Jessica Shaw. Her passion for her work and her integrity. She's been lied to by men in her life before. Given all and found herself them being coldly shut out at the end. She's no pushover. We find out that Jonathan has had a similar experience, so he is wary also. But they can't stop thinking of each other. So when the clause comes up about marriage that his grandfather Henry set up years ago to protect him comes up? The trustees give him a list of candidates to consider to marry. Woah and behold, her name is on it. She's a tough negotiator and along with her lawyer's help drafts her conditions. Jonathan feels it's all fair and they sign and marry.
I really liked Jonathan Atwell, his love for the work he is doing with his company that no one except his grandfather wanted him to start. He had a tough woman Elizabeth who rarely smiled but was passionate about the job as well. No romantic interest in Jonathan but knows that he wants her to take over the business when he steps down. His grandfather Henry is a doll who loves Jonathan fiercely. Jonathan's father does show up towards the end of the story and he's no bundle of joy either ! Another controlling man with no frill at all. Direct and demanding with no charm over all of it.
Then the PRESSURES on this newlywed couple start almost immediately. they had just started into a comfortable living together rhythm along with some "just spicy times" . That's when the dangerous hits start coming. It just wasn't fair !!!
I loved the intensity but also the sweet moments in the story and also the over throwing of all the nasty plans. So worth the read. And the Epilogue that follows? The best.
I really liked the eBook cover and it really fit the story so well. I like when that happens.
I received an ARC from the author and these are my honest thoughts.
