CJ's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 08 Apr 2025 13:05:52 -0700 60 CJ's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Sold to the Titan : Book 1 (High Rollers Club)]]> 228638681 Aria
All I’ve ever wanted is to walk the runway, though I’d settle for just being able to pay my rent. But when a modeling gig turns into something much worse, I find myself on a different kind of stage—and suddenly my virginity is for sale to the highest bidder.
I’m surrounded by men who would harm me, but when I spot his ocean-blue eyes through the crowd I somehow feel…calm.
And once I’m bought and paid for…I know I’m saved. It doesn’t make any sense, but I find myself wanting to be owned by this man, despite his darkness.

Cillian
My single-minded hunt for the man who killed my sister has brought me to this disgusting place, where sick men buy and sell women like objects. I try to stay focused on my goal, my revenge, but when I see her on that stage, everything changes.
Aria is a distraction, but a welcome one. I can’t let her go home with anyone but me.
Next to her sweet innocence, I’ve never felt like more of a monster. She deserves better than me, but now that I’ve bought her I don’t want to let her go�
I’ve built myself from the ground up, into the powerful man I am today. But can I make myself into the man she deserves?

public steamy scene, some violence (mostly implied), and betrayal.

Other books in this
Sold to the Titan
Sold to the Investor
Sold to the Beret
Sold to the Fighter
Sold to the Mogul
Bought by the Owner's Son]]> 97 Cassi Hart CJ 3 4.43 Sold to the Titan : Book 1 (High Rollers Club)
author: Cassi Hart
name: CJ
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:
This had the makings of a good story, but it felt too rushed and underdeveloped to reach its potential. It's hard to fit much plot in a 100-page novella, and unfortunately Hart sacrificed story for steam with this one. Some of her other books are much better.
]]> Collared (Human Pet Shop) 194044097 I saved a virgin human from being abducted.
I am a killer, a criminal, and a prison escapee.
She is the sweetest, most innocent thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of claiming.
Emily Hallow is mine.

But my enemies are not going to accept their losses.
They’re going to come for me.
They’re going to try to send me back to the dungeon I escaped, and take Emily to sell - or worse.
She and her entire village are at risk of imminent alien abduction.
I am the monster standing between them and a lifetime of brutal, cruel captivity.

I will do anything to protect my sweet human pet.
Anything.

Collared is a standalone alien romance in the Human Pet Shop series. Mature readers only, please. ]]> 193 Loki Renard CJ 4 3.5 stars 3.91 Collared (Human Pet Shop)
author: Loki Renard
name: CJ
average rating: 3.91
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Alien Huntsman (Alien Wolf Tales, #2)]]> 223783148 A beauty marked for death. An alien shifter determined to protect her.

Tessa pours her heart into her family’s bakery, despite the constant demands from her cruel stepmother, Lenora. But when Lenora’s jealousy turns deadly, Tessa finds herself at the mercy of Korrin, a terrifyingly attractive Vultor bounty hunter.

Korrin neither likes nor trusts humans, but even he has his limits. Hired to make a beautiful, curvy woman disappear, he chooses to protect her instead, hiding her in the wilds of Cresca. But Tessa’s unexpected kindness and her determination to care for seven orphaned Adyani pups begin to thaw his icy heart.

A poisoned betrayal from someone Tessa once trusted forces Korrin to confront his deepest fears—and his growing feelings for the passionate woman who’s turned his world upside down.

Can a woman with a tender heart and an alien hunter with a guarded soul find their happily ever after?

Each book in the Alien Wolf Tales series may be read as a standalone romance. These sweet and steamy tales are intended for mature readers.]]> 242 Honey Phillips CJ 4 4.34 Alien Huntsman (Alien Wolf Tales, #2)
author: Honey Phillips
name: CJ
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lost in the Wild (Huddling for Warmth, #1)]]> 211416178 I came out here to interview a cryptid.

Now he’s carrying me off to his cave.

The Wild Man of Starlight Ridge is a local legend. A man who wanders the mountains barefoot and bare-chested, with a shaggy beard and long, unkempt hair.

I’ve been sent out here to interview him, but when we finally meet� well, let’s just say he’s not my biggest fan.

He thinks I’m a spoiled, helpless city girl who’s out to ruin his peace. I think he’s a jerk who needs a shave.

But when I sprain my ankle, it’s the Wild Man who comes to my rescue, scooping me up in those big, strong arms.

And it’s cold on the mountain at night.

So we’d better huddle for warmth in his cave�

Lost in the Wild is a short and steamy instalove novella, starring a wounded wild man and the girl who heals his grumpy heart.]]> 91 Cassie Mint 1915735548 CJ 4
Story is pretty basic but the pining really does it for me. This tiny little book packs a lot of emotions and makes it well worth reading. ]]> 4.02 Lost in the Wild (Huddling for Warmth, #1)
author: Cassie Mint
name: CJ
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars

Story is pretty basic but the pining really does it for me. This tiny little book packs a lot of emotions and makes it well worth reading.
]]> Ride Or Die 61853660
It’s okay, though. I won’t let the pretty bartender out of my sight.

Shy girls like Ginger have no business in places like this. I’m so mad at my sister for hiring her, I could spit.

And I can tell from her wide eyes, from the large berth she gives the patrons–Ginger doesn’t feel safe here. Not at all.

Well, that changes tonight. Everything changes. Because I’ve found my girl, and she never needs to be scared again. She’s got me looking out for her now.

I may be a big bruiser. May be wider than a door frame.

But I’m gonna prove that I’m all my girl needs.]]> 37 Cassie Mint CJ 3 3.5 stars 3.42 Ride Or Die
author: Cassie Mint
name: CJ
average rating: 3.42
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Caged with the Beast (Dark Moon Prisoners, #1)]]> 54149415 Kidnapped from Earth and locked inside a nightmare, Marissa's only hope is a notorious killer with fangs.

Marissa

I'm in the hellhole known as Gerr' a prison moon, light years away from home. My crime? Being abducted by an alien race who then deemed me useless.

I might be small, but I am not fragile. When my cellmates threaten me, I fight back with fists blazing. But after the fight goes bad, the punishment I face is even worse... I am shackled and thrust into a cell with him � Kon, a killer given the moniker "Beast" by the other criminals. He's big and intimidating, a predator everyone fears.

I should despise him. I became a cop to put people like him away. Too bad he is also irresistibly hot and the more time I spend with him the more attached I'm becoming. Is this love?

Kon

One look at her small quivering body and I know she doesn't belong here. It's called a prison, but Gerr' a is a kill or be killed game. All for alien entertainment. The more ruthless we are, the more points we get.

She is completely at my mercy. Should I end her miserable life, or should I protect Marissa even if this means I risk everything? But as I enjoy my power over her, her power over me grows just as strong. I need to snap out of it. Now. But can I?

If you like irresistible alpha aliens and fierce heroines who fight back even in the darkest place, read this paranormal alien romance. This book is standalone, with no cheating, no cliff hanger, and a guaranteed happy ever after.]]> 194 Aline Ash CJ 3 3.5 stars 3.72 2020 Caged with the Beast (Dark Moon Prisoners, #1)
author: Aline Ash
name: CJ
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Taken by the Hunter (Xarc'n Warriors #3)]]> 57636311 CONNIE

I have a purple stalker.

I don’t know what possessed me to hit the Xarc’n warrior with my bat, but now I have a stalker—a big purple stalker with fangs and horns. And to make things worse, I can’t go back to New Franklin.

After my first night out on my own, I wake up all wrapped up and cuddly with a certain possessive hunter. He purrs like a giant cat and vows to protect me. And to top it all off, he has a pet squirrel. A freakin� pet squirrel!

The “Jerk� claims he can’t let go of me, but I don’t buy it. I’m no squirrel, and I don’t intend to be his pet. Not even when he claims I belong with him and promises to protect me forever.

’K

Killing the scourge is my calling, and I revel in every violent encounter. Hunters are created with strong instincts to protect, but mine never fully manifested. I just wanted to fight. I never understood why some hunters wanted anything more. Until now.

I can’t get the little human out of my head. She attacks me with her wooden club, and I realize she’s all I ever wanted.

My brave female watches me as I fight the deadly scourge, so I give her a show of my strength and skills. I will convince her to be my mate. I have to. The mating bond has chosen, and it is never wrong!

]]> 196 Lynnea Lee CJ 4 4.22 2021 Taken by the Hunter (Xarc'n Warriors #3)
author: Lynnea Lee
name: CJ
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Claimed by the Hunter (Xarc'n Warriors, #1)]]> 56635178 Alice

My name is Alice, and I live in the Bugpocalypse.

I survived my first post-apocalyptic winter, hiding out in an abandoned hardware store with my cousin, Natalie. But spring is here. And that’s bad news! With warm weather comes the endless swarms of deadly bugs.

Natalie is injured, and it’s up to me to forage for food. But there’s just one little problem. Okay, so “little� isn’t the best word to describe the fierce Xarc’n warrior who is obsessed with me. ’k is freakin� HUGE! And his sharp claws, pointy fangs, and massive horns are scary AF.

I reject his gift of food and flowers, but my massively muscled alien hunter doesn’t get the hint. He tosses me over his shoulders and carries me to his shuttle. I expect the worse, but all he does is purr at me.

’k

I’ve spent my entire life fighting the swarm. Genetically engineered to hunt the scourge across the galaxy, Xarc’n hunters are the ultimate predator. It takes a lot to take one of us down. Then, I meet the little human female who brings me to my knees.

My Alice is full of fire, and I have no doubt she could survive on her own. But she’s my mate, and she’s mine to protect. When cannibals and scourge threaten my female, I toss her over my shoulder and carry her to my ship.

Now that I have my mate in my arms, I’m never letting her go!

]]> 191 Lynnea Lee CJ 4 3.93 2021 Claimed by the Hunter (Xarc'n Warriors, #1)
author: Lynnea Lee
name: CJ
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Big Bratva 59938528 She’s dropped on my doorstep with a burlap sack on her head.

The diplomat’s daughter. The one they’re all looking for.

Keep her safe. That’s what my brother tells me. Not because he cares for the girl, but because she’s his leverage. His ticket to the big time.

I got myself out of this city’s underworld over a year ago, and with one knock on my door, I’m dragged right back in.

I should tell him no. Should toss her out on the street. But the second I lay eyes on her, something inside me screams that she’s mine to protect.

It’s nonsense, of course. I can’t let her get close. Sweet, innocent girls like her have no business with brutes like me.

I’ll hold her for a few days; I’ll get my brother his big break.

Then I’ll forget she was ever here.

Big Bratva is a short and steamy age gap instalove story, starring a reluctant mobster and the captive who claims his heart.

]]> 78 Cassie Mint 1914242629 CJ 4 3.73 Big Bratva
author: Cassie Mint
name: CJ
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Little Bird (Underworld Kings, #4)]]> 61121592
The first time I met Dmitry Petrov, he was making a deal for my sister’s hand in marriage with his brother.

I should have hated him for that alone, but when he stopped my father from hitting me, my young heart felt something new and wonderful for the first time.

It was this incurable sensation that consumed me at his protection.

But he was nearly fifteen years older than me, more dangerous than any man I’d ever met, and only saw me as his sister-in-law’s younger sibling.

And when he was arrested and thrown into jail, five long years passed. I refused to give up the notion that one day he’d see me as a woman—a woman he wanted. So I wrote to him daily, confided in him, told him about what was going on in my life, what I hated and loved. I did this all in the hopes he’d write back, wishing he’d want me the way I wanted him.

But year after year passed with no response. Until that changed. Until he wrote back. Dmitry was cruel and harsh, saying things that should have made me cry. Not make me want him more.

I knew I was playing with fire, sending a criminal pictures of myself after my eighteenth birthday, thinking about him as I did private things alone in my room. But he was a virus deep inside of me, and there was no cure for what I had.

And then my life completely changed when my brother tried to marry me off. I refused to be a pawn in the mafia world, and so my only option was to leave the only home I’d ever known.

But when Dmitry’s released from prison, I came face-to-face with the Russian mafia leader everyone fears. And he made one thing very clear.

I’m his. He’s taking me. And anyone who tries to stop him will die.]]> Jenika Snow CJ 4 3.5 stars 3.57 2022 Little Bird (Underworld Kings, #4)
author: Jenika Snow
name: CJ
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Reckless Heir (The Underworld Kings #2; Underworld Kings #25)]]> 59221225

My father sold me off to a ruthless killer in the Russian mafia, an alliance between the Bratva and the Cosa Nostra.

An arranged marriage where I’d be at the mercy of the man who’d no doubt see me as his property, where I was sure he’d be just as cruel and violent as every other Made Man I’d known in my life.

Nikolai Petrov, known to be a sociopath and for killing anyone for the smallest infraction. And I'd be forever tied to him, an accessory he could use or dispose of any way he saw fit.

And then I found myself painted red, my wedding dress stained in blood. A man dead by my husband's hands for simply touching my hair.

I was terrified of the lengths Nikolai would go to get what he wanted� to keep me as his, but despite all of that I felt something far stronger, far more dangerous.

Need. Want. Dark and depraved desire. And it was all for the man who said I was his.

For better or worse.]]> 378 Jenika Snow CJ 4 3.5 stars 3.33 Reckless Heir (The Underworld Kings #2; Underworld Kings #25)
author: Jenika Snow
name: CJ
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Pursued by the Hunter (Xarc’n Warriors, #0.5)]]> 184593876 Cynthia
My name is Cynthia, and I live in the Bugpocalypse. I eke out a living in a barren and hostile post-apocolyptic landscape, foraging for food, hiding from deadly bugs, and sleeping in abandoned shipping yards. You know, the whole nine yards. But I have a problem: I have a stalker.
�
And not just any stalker. He’s powerfully muscular, fiercely protective, and…purple. Yes, he’s freakin� purple. Cov’k is a Xarc’n hunter. And he claims I’m his mate.
�
There’s no way I’m going to be some ferocious warrior’s pet! I don’t care if he saved me from the swarm. And I definitely don’t care about his talented tongue. I’m getting the hell out of Dodge. If he wants me, he’s going to have to find me first!]]> Lynnea Lee CJ 4 3.5 stars 3.75 2020 Pursued by the Hunter (Xarc’n Warriors, #0.5)
author: Lynnea Lee
name: CJ
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Wanted by the Hunter (Xarc'n Warriors, #2)]]> 57339557 NATALIE

A knight in shining loincloth

That’s what I’m looking for. I’ve been lusting after the Xarc’n hunters since they landed on Earth, offering to help us fight the alien bugs. These seven feet tall, musclebound warriors are horned, clawed, and fanged—the ultimate protectors. And Rajiv’k is the perfect specimen.

Just one problem: I can’t fall in love. Nope! Not after the crappy relationships I’ve had. I refuse to deal with a broken heart during the bugpocalypse. No way! So I keep things transactional, his protection for my companionship. What can go wrong, right?


鴡’K

Hunters are supposed to revel in the physical act of fighting and killing the scourge. But not me. I kill them, they multiply, I kill them, they multiply. What’s the point? Why spend my life saving worlds I didn’t care about?

Then, she comes along. Little human Natalie fires up my need to claim and protect. And suddenly, I have a reason to fight. Natalie is mine. She just doesn’t know it yet.

]]> 201 Lynnea Lee CJ 4 4.21 2021 Wanted by the Hunter (Xarc'n Warriors, #2)
author: Lynnea Lee
name: CJ
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All the Dangerous Things (The Underworld Kings, #5)]]> 216939595 Gio, my sister-in-law's brother and the head of the West Coast Cosa Nostra, was family and off-limits.
Maybe that was why I was so drawn to him. Violence and death clung to him like he was born in the pits of hell, and he thrived on it.
Despite everything, I started a relationship with the devil himself, and I fell in love.
I had to keep it a secret, knowing my brothers would kill Gio if they found out.
But when I discovered I was pregnant, hiding it was impossible.
To make matters worse, Gio and my brothers found themselves entangled with a dangerous new syndicate.
It was a situation that threatened to ignite chaos and conflict, involving everyone I cared about.
Including my new forbidden lover and the baby we were bringing into this hell on earth.]]> 378 Jenika Snow CJ 3 3.5 stars 3.94 All the Dangerous Things (The Underworld Kings, #5)
author: Jenika Snow
name: CJ
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Corruption (Underworld Kings, #3)]]> 60480188
From USA Today bestselling author Jenika Snow comes a new full-length standalone dark mafia romance set in the Underworld Kings world.

Even the beast could get the beauty� he just had to take her.

Anastasia was a Russian mafia princess.

I was unworthy to even look at her.

But that didn’t stop a bond, a friendship to form between us. She was the only good and right thing in my painful, brutal life. She was the only one who could look at my bruises and wounds and see I wasn’t a total waste of space.

But I was ripped away from her, thrust into the underground world of violence and fighting, molded and shaped to be the ultimate killing machine for the Bratva.

And that's who I was now.

Razoreniye. Ruin.

Now, ten years later all of humanity had been stripped from me, all the emotion and empathy that I’d once felt taken away until I was nothing more than the beast who craved blood and had far too many kills tallied up.

But they could never take her away from me. And so I followed her, watched her through her bedroom window, broke into her apartment, and held her as she slept.

I wasn’t a good man. I was carved out from the very devil himself, and although I would ever be good enough for Anastasia, that didn’t mean I’d ever let anyone else have her.

So when she was forced to marry another, I did the only thing that made sense.

I took her in the middle of the night and kept her locked up until she realized she was mine and mine alone.]]> 324 Jenika Snow CJ 4 3.5 stars 3.74 Corruption (Underworld Kings, #3)
author: Jenika Snow
name: CJ
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> Making the Rent 59742590 78 Jenna Rose CJ 3 3.46 2020 Making the Rent
author: Jenna Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Protecting His Obsession 62712738
But Colt, club owner, isn’t having it. Until now, he was happy to let any girl who walked through those doors step on stage and make him money. But Tilly has changed that. In fact, Tilly has changed everything, from his outlook on women, to his outlook on life altogether.

Colt forbids her to dance, but knows he also can’t send her back out into that cold world on her own. He wants Tilly for himself, which means he has to do something he swore he would never let a woman back into his life again.]]> 75 Jenna Rose CJ 3 3.5 stars 3.63 Protecting His Obsession
author: Jenna Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.63
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> Do Me a Favor 60881369
TW: Brief, non-consensual themes.]]> 69 Jessa Kane CJ 2
Look. Did I think this book would be good based on the description? Not really. Was it? It had its moments, but overall, not really. Am I unable to stay away from a book with a ballet dancer protagonist because I’m a masochist who wants to see how badly the art form I love is misrepresented? Apparently, yes.

Most authors make several mistakes when writing about ballet, but. Jessa Kane invented a whole new level of uninformed nonsense with this book. Like, at least three errors could have been fixed if she had simply *looked at a photo* of the ballet Giselle (to see what style the tutus are, how pointe shoes are tied, and how flat-chested your average professional ballet dancer is). She wouldn’t have even had to read anything. If even Barbie knows that pointe shoes don’t lace up to the knee, there’s no excuse for her not knowing. Don’t even get me started on “leotard tank top,� whatever that is.

Beyond that, the actual plot of this book is pretty unhinged. And I mean unhinged *for Jessa Kane.* idk, maybe in an altered state of consciousness it would be a fun read. Sorry if that’s harsh; she’s got a handful of books that I love if that makes it any better. ]]> 3.46 2022 Do Me a Favor
author: Jessa Kane
name: CJ
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
2.5 stars

Look. Did I think this book would be good based on the description? Not really. Was it? It had its moments, but overall, not really. Am I unable to stay away from a book with a ballet dancer protagonist because I’m a masochist who wants to see how badly the art form I love is misrepresented? Apparently, yes.

Most authors make several mistakes when writing about ballet, but. Jessa Kane invented a whole new level of uninformed nonsense with this book. Like, at least three errors could have been fixed if she had simply *looked at a photo* of the ballet Giselle (to see what style the tutus are, how pointe shoes are tied, and how flat-chested your average professional ballet dancer is). She wouldn’t have even had to read anything. If even Barbie knows that pointe shoes don’t lace up to the knee, there’s no excuse for her not knowing. Don’t even get me started on “leotard tank top,� whatever that is.

Beyond that, the actual plot of this book is pretty unhinged. And I mean unhinged *for Jessa Kane.* idk, maybe in an altered state of consciousness it would be a fun read. Sorry if that’s harsh; she’s got a handful of books that I love if that makes it any better.
]]> Summer Camp Captive 36362117
The Butcher has watched her from a distance, but he’s a man with needs and won’t deny himself any longer.

We’ve teamed up with Jessa Kane again to bring you filthy, over-the-top hotness. It’s ridiculously fun, so don’t be shy! Grab your marshmallows and join us for this dirty treat!]]> 111 Alexa Riley CJ 3 3.57 2017 Summer Camp Captive
author: Alexa Riley
name: CJ
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
It’s an okay story - pretty typical Jessa Kane, decent quick stay read. But I’m sorry, FOUR EPILOGUES is at least three too many.
]]> <![CDATA[Alien Most Wanted: Caged Beast (Folsom Planet Blues, #1)]]> 60407943 One minute Amanda is crying over a Hallmark movie and binging chocolate. The next she is being offered as a prize to the winner of a brutal contest in an alien prison. And the biggest, scariest alien of them all just won her�

A cheating boyfriend is the least of Amanda's worries when an alien appears in her living room. Discovering she has been sold to an alien prison is terrifying. Seeing two males fight to the death for her is horrifying.

But the massive red male who looks at her with such hunger? He could destroy her.

Left to rot with the other Undesirables, Riker’s only focus is on escape. He has no intention of fighting for anyone’s entertainment. Until he sees the soft, beautiful female being offered to the victor.

A female is the last thing he needs, especially one who arouses his mating instincts, but neither can he resist her. Can he protect her from the vicious guards, the evil warden - and from himself?

Please note that Alien Most Wanted: Caged Beast is the extended version of the short story originally published as part of the Alien Embrace anthology. Intended for mature audiences!]]> 156 Honey Phillips CJ 4 3.5 stars, maybe 4 3.87 2021 Alien Most Wanted: Caged Beast (Folsom Planet Blues, #1)
author: Honey Phillips
name: CJ
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars, maybe 4
]]> <![CDATA[Prison Planet Barbarian (Risdaverse, #0.25)]]> 35017870
Being kidnapped by aliens and then sent to a prison planet is something infinitely worse.

Here in Haven's prison system, I'm stranded among strangers, enemies, and the most ruthless criminals in the galaxy. There's no safety for a human woman here, especially not one branded as a murderer. I'm doomed to a fate worse than death.

Then...he decides I should be his. His name's Jutari. He's seven feet tall, blue, and horned. He's an assassin and one of the most dangerous prisoners here. He's like no one I've ever met before...and he might be my only chance.

This story stands completely alone and is only marginally connected to the Ice Planet Barbarians or Corsairs series. You do not need to read those books in order to follow this one.
]]> 135 Ruby Dixon CJ 4 3.91 2017 Prison Planet Barbarian (Risdaverse, #0.25)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: CJ
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harbor Master (Sweet Cherry Cove, #1)]]> 173600238 He finds me curled up and shivering in a rowboat after a summer storm.

The harbor master saves me� whoever I am.

Nudged awake in a tangle of fishing nets, I have no idea how I got here. I don’t recognize this beachside town, or the soaked dress I’m wearing. I don’t remember my own freaking name.

Panic rises. It would swallow me whole, except for this stern older man with his steady gaze. As long as his eyes are on me� I can breathe. I’m okay.

And he’s protective. He says he’ll keep me safe until I remember everything.

But the longer this man takes care of me� the more I taste this sweet new life�

The more I want to stay lost.

Harbor Master is a short and steamy instalove story, starring a gruff harbor master and his beautiful, off-limits flotsam.]]> 78 Cassie Mint 1915735289 CJ 4 3.89 Harbor Master (Sweet Cherry Cove, #1)
author: Cassie Mint
name: CJ
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Guarded by a Broody Biker 213289920 I’m desperate, so I hire the meanest, most brutal-looking bodyguard I can find.

But my grumpy savior makes me tingle all over�

My ex-boyfriend has been threatening me, trying to bully me back. He even broke into my home last night and rifled through my stuff, so I’m freaked out when I scrape together my savings and hire a bodyguard to protect me.

Axel is perfect for the job. He’s big, scarred and rough, with tattoos inked on his skin and a wicked knife at his belt. The first time I see him, I flinch, and that’s exactly what I need.

But as he spends his days and nights guarding me, Axel’s not at all how I thought he’d be.

Underneath that scowl, he’s sweet. Possessive and hot.

And soon I can’t stop craving his scarred hands on me�

Need a big muscular protector? Spartan Shield Corp has got you covered. Alien, shifter, human—take your pick, we got it all. Call now to reserve your bodyguard today!

Spartan Shield Corp is not responsible if your hot alpha defender becomes overly possessive and/or becomes obsessed with you.

The Back Away From My Girl series mixes Contemporary, Paranormal, and Sci Fi Romance in six standalone stories by best-selling STEAMY authors, Olivia T. Turner, Hope Ford, Michele Mills, Ariana Hawkes, Cassie Mint, and Honey Phillips. ]]> 72 Cassie Mint 1915735572 CJ 4 4.16 Guarded by a Broody Biker
author: Cassie Mint
name: CJ
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pretty Human (Risdaverse, #0.75)]]> 50057087
So when he sees the strange, delicate human known as Milly, he decides he wants her. And he’ll do anything to have her, reputation be damned.]]> 58 Ruby Dixon CJ 4 3.76 2019 Pretty Human (Risdaverse, #0.75)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: CJ
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When She Dances (Risdaverse, #5)]]> 55561951
When I’m bought by the most intimidating alien on Three Nebulas Station, those better days are on their way. Zakoar of the Broken Back is a cyborg who deals in black market prosthetics. He’s terrifying to look at, with a metal jaw and a fearsome demeanor. He intimidates everyone in the galaxy� except me.

Zakoar doesn’t want my name. In fact, he doesn’t want anything from me� except a little bed sport. In exchange for my willingness, he’ll take me to a human-friendly planet where I can live unafraid.

Love isn’t part of the bargain, but every moment that I spend with him, I learn more about the male beneath the metal�

…and I’m suddenly dreaming of a very different happy ever after for myself…]]> 170 Ruby Dixon CJ 4 4.5 stars 4.12 2020 When She Dances (Risdaverse, #5)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: CJ
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars
]]> The Perfect Catch 59223901 98 Jenna Rose CJ 3 3.93 The Perfect Catch
author: Jenna Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> What He Wants 52711159
Aurora is struggling, working, saving her money for school, but one night she sees something she shouldn’t have and suddenly, she’s whisked away by a mysterious man who claims to be her protector. But he wants something from Aurora—something she’s never given—and she’s not sure if she can.]]> 64 Jenna Rose CJ 3 3.73 What He Wants
author: Jenna Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
The story is perfectly fine - undercover cop saved woman who accidentally witnesses a crime, they fall in love, get the bad guys, etc. good pacing and tension throughout. However, I swear Jenna Rose wrote this in one draft and didn’t give it a second glance when she finished. Evidence: in one scene, Fletcher is naked, and a page later, he starts taking off his pants. How did the pants get back on? Worse, in another scene, they finish eating and he does the dishes. Then they sit down together and finish eating, and then she does the dishes. What?? Forget proofreading, if you just reread what you had written, you would notice this.
]]> <![CDATA[Stolen by the Mafia King (London Mafia Bosses, #3)]]> 123213923 96 Evie Rose CJ 4 3.5 stars 3.64 Stolen by the Mafia King (London Mafia Bosses, #3)
author: Evie Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Alien Most Wanted: Prison Mate (Folsom Planet Blues, #2)]]> 60171047 When Lori finds herself on a dangerous prison planet, an even more dangerous alien warrior is her only hope for survival�

After a bad breakup, Lori is determined to make some changes in her life. Being transported to an alien prison isn't what she has in mind.

When the monstrous warden casually tosses her to one of the massive inmates, her fate is all too clear. She should be terrified. Instead, the big alien warrior arouses an unexpected passion.

Unlike his brothers, Altrez hasn’t always been on the right side of the law. But when he discovers that one of them has been wrongfully imprisoned, he is determined to free him. After his first attempt goes horribly wrong, he recklessly decides to have himself incarcerated as well.

He didn’t expect a luscious human female to complicate his plans, but that won’t stop him from claiming her. Now all he has to do is find his brother, free them all from the prison, and convince his mate that he’s not really a criminal after all. Simple, right?

This steamy romance is intended for mature readers.]]> 152 Honey Phillips CJ 0 4.24 2022 Alien Most Wanted: Prison Mate (Folsom Planet Blues, #2)
author: Honey Phillips
name: CJ
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Wrecked 57887014 Until she’s thrown into my arms. A princess who shouldn’t be in this violent, vicious world I inhabit. I’m supposed to wreck her, this innocent beauty who makes me feel things other than pain. Other than anger. In fact, she makes me weak, because when I look at her, I imagine a world outside my cage.
A woman like Petal was never meant to be mine. Not in this life. I was ordered to hurt her in countless ways. But once I get a taste of her, turns out I’m the one who’s wrecked. Utterly, completely destroyed by love.

MINK's Note: Get yourself a feisty kitty and a pinch of caffeine for this fight for love with an HEA.]]> 115 Mink CJ 4 4.04 2021 Wrecked
author: Mink
name: CJ
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Alien Most Wanted: Mastermind (Folsom Planet Blues, #3)]]> 60452248
Sophie’s life is a mess. She’s broke and on the verge of losing her home. Her former lover - and former boss - wants nothing to do with her or the child growing inside her.

Just when she thinks life can’t get much worse, she’s kidnapped and transported to an alien prison. When she is presented to a sternly forbidding - and disturbingly attractive - alien lord, she expects the worse. Instead, she discovers a hidden streak of tenderness beneath that icy exterior.

Leavent believes in control. Everything in his life - from his quarters to his relationships - is arranged to his exact specifications. But when his brothers need help, he has no choice except to go to their rescue.

From the moment he arrives on Folsom and discovers his brothers are missing, his restraint starts to slip. But the most unexpected challenge to his formidable control is a beautiful, forbidden, human female.

As more and more secrets are revealed, can he find a way to save Sophie, his brothers� and perhaps even himself?

Although each book in the Folsom Planet series can be read as a standalone romance, there is an underlying story arc that continues throughout the series. This sweet and steamy romance is intended for mature audiences.]]> 156 Honey Phillips CJ 4 4.36 2022 Alien Most Wanted: Mastermind (Folsom Planet Blues, #3)
author: Honey Phillips
name: CJ
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Her Prison Husband 60700887
At first I was terrified. A dangerous killer wanting to speak to me? I threw out the letters, but that didn’t stop him. He sent more. Then upped the ante and invited me to the prison for a conjugal visit, just him and me alone in a room, completely unsupervised for an hour. I may have lost my mind, because I’m actually considering it. And the worst part? I was part of the legal team that led to his conviction five years ago.]]> 78 Jenna Rose CJ 3 3.5 stars 3.59 2022 Her Prison Husband
author: Jenna Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> Taken by the Stranger 58645766 76 Jenna Rose CJ 4 3.5 stars 3.59 2021 Taken by the Stranger
author: Jenna Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Sweet Cruelty (Ruthless Obsession #1)]]> 58471362 She knocked on the wrong door.
Mine.

If I were a better man, I would've just let her go.
But I'm not.
I'm a cruel bastard.

I ruthlessly claimed her virtue for my own.
It should have been enough.
But it wasn't.
I needed more.
Craved it.

She became my obsession.
Her sweetness and purity taunted my dark soul.
The need to possess her nearly drove me mad.

A Russian arms dealer had no business pursuing a naive librarian student.
She didn't belong in my world.
I would bring her only pain.
But it was too late�
She was mine and I was keeping her.]]> 384 Zoe Blake CJ 4
The only thing I don’t like about the book is the FMC. Specifically, she keeps thinking Damien can’t possibly like her or want her long-term, despite all evidence to the contrary. It’s a bigger hang-up for her than his being a criminal, and given what a big red flag she sees that as at first, that’s just weird. Just once I’d like to see a shy, bookish FMC who isn’t incurably insecure.

Other than that, this is a decent book, much better than book 7 which was what I started with.]]> 3.86 2020 Sweet Cruelty (Ruthless Obsession #1)
author: Zoe Blake
name: CJ
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
I like a lot of things about this book. If you’re going to write Duncan, this is the way to do it right (IMO). I also love the quotes at the beginning of each chapter - very appropriate for this particular book, and the choice of authors is likewise apropos.

The only thing I don’t like about the book is the FMC. Specifically, she keeps thinking Damien can’t possibly like her or want her long-term, despite all evidence to the contrary. It’s a bigger hang-up for her than his being a criminal, and given what a big red flag she sees that as at first, that’s just weird. Just once I’d like to see a shy, bookish FMC who isn’t incurably insecure.

Other than that, this is a decent book, much better than book 7 which was what I started with.
]]> Just One Look (Forever, #1) 57696443
That’s nothing compared to the master of the estate. Especially now that he’s my husband. He’s made it clear he’ll never let me go. Till death does us part.

But Roman is nothing like the beast everyone claims he is. In fact, underneath all his gruffness, there is another side to my husband. A side I could love.

Each night he holds me close making me want so much more. Can he turn this marriage into the real thing, into the true love I’ve always dreamed of? Or will I lose the only thing that still belongs to me, my heart?]]> 101 Lucy Darling CJ 4 3.97 2021 Just One Look (Forever, #1)
author: Lucy Darling
name: CJ
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Beauty and the Outcast (Forever, #3)]]> 58514133
I’m a fighter, and I’m scared. Too scared for a girl like her. But the moment I see her, I can’t stop all the feelings that try to churn to the surface. Whitney brings them out in me so easily. I try to stay away from her, to tamp down my emotions.

But I can’t. And when I realize she may be just as broken as me � I finally see that her broken pieces and mine will make both of us whole.]]> 125 Lucy Darling CJ 4 4.5 stars 4.11 2021 Beauty and the Outcast (Forever, #3)
author: Lucy Darling
name: CJ
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Beauty and the Billionaire (Forever Book 5)]]> 61235801
What I wasn’t expecting was to meet the woman who I want to spend the rest of my life with while I’m there. And for her to be looking like she needed some saving of her own.

Remi is irresistible, and her innocence only makes her that much more appealing. She’s perfect for me. The only problem is Remi has no clue who I really am or the things I’ll do to keep her. She might not believe in happily ever after but I’m more than willing to show her otherwise.

This book includes all five stories from the Forever Series! Just One Look, You Are Mine, Beauty and the Outcast, Beauty and the Gentleman and the NEVER RELEASED BEFORE Beauty and the Billionaire.

This series is full of all the tropes you love. You’ll get happily ever afters, no cheating, and sugary-sweet alphas that love to get on their knees.
]]> 551 Lucy Darling CJ 4 4.18 Beauty and the Billionaire (Forever Book 5)
author: Lucy Darling
name: CJ
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
This is a collection of 5 novellas, of which Beauty and the Billionaire is the last. Each story can be read as a standalone, but they are interconnected and chronological, following first two couples (Roman and Fawn, Dane and Kennedy) and then their kids (Knox, Ace, Faith, and Grant). There is a bit of repetitiveness to some of the narratives when you read them all together, but each one is ridiculously sweet. (Note if you’re looking at the tags, the 4th story is the only one with BDSM elements). Great read and I would recommend reading in order.
]]> You Are Mine (Forever, #2) 58383737
From the moment I found Kennedy, she was destined to be mine. Then she was gone without a trace. I don't know what sent her running, but the one thing I did know is that I wouldn’t rest until I found her. All I cared about was getting her back. And I would do exactly that, no matter what it took.

Kennedy

Losing your memory is scary. Especially when you wake up alone and realize there’s a baby growing inside you. I have to stay strong for both of us, whoever we are. Still, in the back of my mind is a man who makes me feel so many things I don’t understand.

Then he's there standing in front of me. Some tell me I should be wary of billionaire Dane Osborne. I find it hard to believe that he’s in love with me.

But he still keeps saying those three words that have me wondering if I should be running from him or to him. "You are mine."]]> 106 Lucy Darling CJ 3 3.99 2021 You Are Mine (Forever, #2)
author: Lucy Darling
name: CJ
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Possession (Mafia Daddies, #2)]]> 198131268 Ellie
Rafael Marino is the epitome of a Mafia man.
Dark, destructive, and deadly.
Then he demands I become his nanny and tells me he owns every inch of me.
Beneath his darkness, he sees me for who I am—a broken girl.
Then he claims me as his little doll and promises to protect me.
But what happens when he’s the one I need protection from?
What happens when it’s him who becomes broken?
Rafael may call me his possession, but it’s me who holds the power.
I possess him, but this broken little doll needs fixing, and when he breaks me beyond repair, I’ve no choice but to break him too.

Rafael
I need a nanny.
My son needs a mother.
I need her, a perfect little doll to possess.
And I refuse to take no for an answer.
As the heir to a Mafia empire, there’s no place for weakness, but the girl staring back at me becomes just that—my weakness.
My broken little doll I get to destroy, then piece back together, bit by bit.
What happens when my world becomes too much for her? What happens when she’s so broken she becomes irreparable?
What happens when it’s she who breaks me?

*Please check my website for full content warnings.]]> 311 B.J. Alpha CJ 4 3.5 stars 3.77 Possession (Mafia Daddies, #2)
author: B.J. Alpha
name: CJ
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> Bren (Secrets and Lies, #4) 61671836 Be prepared to be taken on a journey of Secrets and Lies.

Age-Gap Romance
BDSM
Jealous/Possessive Hero
Surprise Baby
Praise Kink

Bren
She was in a crate.
A crate.
Ready to be trafficked on demand.
The sky blue, doe-eyed, blond girl, the epitome of innocence.
How wrong was I?
She’s been trained to please, to pleasure, and submit.
Over my dead body, will I let anyone touch her. Anyone but me.
She’s mine. Mine to protect. Mine to care for.
Mine.
But when truths come to light, they risk tearing us apart, and I’m left with the greatest decision of my life.
Do I set her free?

Sky
I grew up in a compound.
I’m known as Red Seven. Until him�
He gave me a name. A purpose. A life.
Everything I’ve ever wanted and never knew I needed.
Love.
But when secrets and lies come into play, I’m left broken. Destroyed.
I refuse to be the submissive I’ve been trained to be.
I need to find my own path and finally be free, but can we find a way for him to keep me when there’s so much at stake?

WARNING: This book contains triggers. It has sensitive and explicit storylines such as: human trafficking, strong sexual violence, sexual scenes with dubious consent, graphic violence and strong language. It is recommended for readers aged eighteen and over.]]> 390 B.J. Alpha CJ 4 4.5 stars 3.72 Bren (Secrets and Lies, #4)
author: B.J. Alpha
name: CJ
average rating: 3.72
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2017/03/08
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars
]]> Taking Meghan (Disciples #5) 45916199
And my father tried to force me to marry him.

Dragged down the aisle, I prayed to God, to anyone, to save me from a lifetime of cruelty and abuse.

Then he came... a force of nature...

Disrupting the ceremony with a storm of gunfire and death.

Massive, powerful, and handsome, the enemy of my enemy has promised me his protection if I agree to give myself to him.

But sometimes the devil you know is safer than the dark angel who wants you in his bed...

A Dark Romance.]]> 452 Izzy Sweet CJ 4 4.26 2019 Taking Meghan (Disciples #5)
author: Izzy Sweet
name: CJ
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Taken by the Bad Boy Biker 44132080
This novella stands alone and has a Happy-Ever-After ending.

Warning: 18+ Only. Triggers include dubious consent, exhibitionism, and a deaf heroine who loves every dirty thing done to her.]]> 60 Mira Stanley 1941239374 CJ 4 4.07 Taken by the Bad Boy Biker
author: Mira Stanley
name: CJ
average rating: 4.07
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Saved By The Mechanic (Men of Valor Springs, #1)]]> 219297306 Ray
As a mechanic in a family full of lawyers, I’m used to being the black sheep. All I want in life is to run my auto repair shop with my trusted employees and live my life in peace. That peace is shattered when a gorgeous girl with innocent green eyes filled with fear shows up at my shop. It’s clear she’s hiding from someone. There’s something about the girl that thaws my cold, lonely heart. It doesn’t take long for me to decide that this sweet angel is mine, and I’ll do anything to protect her and erase the haunted look in her eyes.

Penny
When my father died, I was devastated. When his business partner, Jonah, moved in to our home, I was terrified. The way he looks at me and the accidental touches make my skin crawl. It’s not long before he’s dictating my every move, and I’m forced to drop out of school. My mother is too lost in her grief to see what is happening, and I try to stay strong for her, but when Jonah crosses a line too far to ignore, I know I have to get out. Seizing the first chance I find, I flee. But escaping my new stepfather won’t be easy, and when I need a quick place to hide, I stop at an auto shop in the small town of Rosewood. There, I find far more than a temporary asylum. I find shelter, safety, and maybe even . . . love. Ray is rough around the edges, but something tells me I can believe him when he vows to protect me.
]]> 105 Cassi Hart CJ 4
Sweet instalove romance with a side of saving a damsel in distress. I’d rate this higher, but there’s a major plot point at the end that is completely dropped and you just have to infer how it resolves. ]]> 4.33 Saved By The Mechanic (Men of Valor Springs, #1)
author: Cassi Hart
name: CJ
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars

Sweet instalove romance with a side of saving a damsel in distress. I’d rate this higher, but there’s a major plot point at the end that is completely dropped and you just have to infer how it resolves.
]]> Buying Beth (Disciples, #3) 37645918
It was a girl’s night out gone wrong. Like some awful horror movie, my friends and I were grabbed in a dark parking lot and shoved into the back of a van.

Coming from powerful families, we thought we were untouchable.

We thought wrong.

Our captors trapped us, violated us, and put us up for sale on the black market.

Johnathan was sent to buy me so his boss, Lucifer, could have leverage over my father.

He was supposed to save me, protect me, and return me.

Not claim me and keep me for himself…]]> 296 Izzy Sweet CJ 4 4.24 2017 Buying Beth (Disciples, #3)
author: Izzy Sweet
name: CJ
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Devil's Angel (Someone to Fight For, #2)]]> 207667825 Katya

Life as a Bratva princess isn’t easy. All I’ve ever wanted is for my family to love me, but I might as well be invisible, that is until my father needs a bargaining chip when negotiating an alliance with a rival family. Suddenly, I find myself betrothed to man old enough to be my grandfather and with a reputation for cruelty. No amount of begging will convince him to change his mind, and I refuse to resign myself to such an awful fate. Instead, I run away, straight into the arms of the most dangerous man in the city, a man even my father fears. Luca tells me that I’m his now. His to keep. To claim. To possess. To marry. Have I simply traded one dark future for another, or could tying myself to Luca actually be my ticket to freedom?

Luca

I’ve made a career out of being feared. I’ve worked my way up from the gutters to the top of the pecking order as the underboss of the Italian Mafia. With my position comes both power and responsibility. There’s a war brewing between the families, and it’s my job to make sure the Borachios come out on top. But when a beautiful redhead with sad, lonely eyes crosses my path, everything I thought I wanted shifts. Avoiding war doesn’t seem like such a high priority if it means I have to give up my princess. Katya is mine. War and betrothals be damned. I’ll burn the entire city if that’s what it takes to keep Katya. No one else will ever have what’s mine.]]> 93 Cassi Hart CJ 4
This was sweet and I would have given it a higher rating, but the FMC’s naïveté and the lack of genuine stakes brought down the reading experience. That is, there *should* be high stakes with this book based on its premise, but all conflicts are resolved so easily and quickly that it’s hard as a reader to feel any actual suspense. ]]> 4.18 The Devil's Angel (Someone to Fight For, #2)
author: Cassi Hart
name: CJ
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars

This was sweet and I would have given it a higher rating, but the FMC’s naïveté and the lack of genuine stakes brought down the reading experience. That is, there *should* be high stakes with this book based on its premise, but all conflicts are resolved so easily and quickly that it’s hard as a reader to feel any actual suspense.
]]> <![CDATA[Taken by the Kingpin (London Mafia Bosses, #2)]]> 101935150
But I’m a normal girl, late for my first work evening-do. Sure, a mob boss is watching me. Making my tummy flutter.

Tall, dark, older and dangerous, I shouldn’t want him. When the clock ticks to midnight and I officially turn eighteen, I tell him I’m done with my family’s mafia.

But it’s not done with me.

Snatched away and trapped in Sebastian’s luxurious apartment, I have no choice but to bargain. I won’t try to escape, he’ll teach me how to defend myself.

Then our lessons escalate, and soon I’m aching and needy and� What if I could be his princess�?

Taken by the Kingpin is a short, sweet and steamy instalove story, starring a possessive billionaire who has never been able to resist his starcrossed girl.]]> 93 Evie Rose CJ 4 3.92 2023 Taken by the Kingpin (London Mafia Bosses, #2)
author: Evie Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rogue's Princess (Someone to Fight For, #3)]]> 207667643 Mila

Life after my father’s tragic death has been one disappointment after another. Things only get worse when my mother abandons me, leaving me at the mercy of my abusive stepfather. When I overhear him on the phone one night offering my virginity as payment for an outstanding debt, I know I have to get out. With nothing but the clothes on my back, I flee and run straight into the arms of a man I never thought I’d see again. Gunner promises to protect me, says it’s his duty to my late father, who’d trained him to be one of the best pro boxers our city has ever seen. But I want more than his protection. I want Gunner to claim me, love me, and never let me go.

Gunner

When a slip of girl crashes into me as I’m leaving the gym one night, the last person I expect to see is my late trainer’s daughter. It’s been seven years since I’ve seen her, and now, despite the fear in her eyes and dirt on her skin, it’s clear she is all grown up and breathtaking. I might be a former pro boxer, but even I can’t fight the temptation to claim Mila for myself. I owe it to her father to keep her safe, but I quickly realize that the best way to protect Mila is to make her mine. Anyone who wants to get to her will have to go through me, and I’ll die before I let anyone touch what’s mine.]]> 92 Cassi Hart CJ 4 4.34 The Rogue's Princess (Someone to Fight For, #3)
author: Cassi Hart
name: CJ
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[His Human to Cherish (Unit A12, #2)]]> 197514426 A12-02I have exactly one hide somewhere the aliens can't find me and hope that they send a different human in my place. Last month, they sent a single human woman to live on another planet, and she apparently wasn't murdered as soon as she got there, so now they're sending me.

My plan to hide backfires completely. Now I'm stuck on an unknown planet with a giant demon lizard man calling me a good girl and taking care of me because I can't take care of myself. I should hate it, but the only thing I hate is that I'm so willing to find happiness in this place.



Almaac

The goddess blesses us each month by sending a new human to our tribe. I hope that one of these females will want to be my mate, but I try not to get my hopes up in case the females want my brothers and not me.

When the newest female comes to our world, she is badly broken and beaten. She needs help in everything she does because she is in so much pain. I've been tasked with helping the small human, and I will make sure that she is protected and feels safe. The world has been cruel to this female, and I promise I will only cherish her.]]> 188 Morgan Robinson CJ 4 4.17 His Human to Cherish (Unit A12, #2)
author: Morgan Robinson
name: CJ
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Captured by the Mafia Boss (London Mafia Bosses, #1)]]> 75390310
I might be an innocent runaway, but I’m at my friend’s funeral to avenge her murder by the mafia boss: King.

He has other ideas.

I should have guessed he’d retaliate with kidnap. Now I'm under his control, still intent on his demise, and honestly so turned on I could cry.

When he offers me pleasure, I can't refuse.

He promises he’ll let me go, but what if I want to stay? With him.

Captured by the Mafia Boss is a short and steamy instalove story, starring a possessive billionaire and the innocent who needs his protection.]]> 78 Evie Rose CJ 4 3.48 Captured by the Mafia Boss (London Mafia Bosses, #1)
author: Evie Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.48
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[His Human to Claim (Unit A12, #1)]]> 194984776 Earth is collapsing. Crops are failing, catastrophic storms rage, and anything with a Y chromosome is dead. The only thing keeping humanity from going extinct is the visitors from space. They provide us with food, safety, and shelter for two years without asking for anything. That's all about to change. I don't have a say, none of us who are affected do. If the humans want to keep the protection of the aliens, we'll agree to their new terms.

They only ask one thing:
Allow the women of Unit A12 to be sent to another world that's in need of females.

I'm A12-01, and it looks like I'm the first to ensure the other human women keep the same life they've been living for two years.

Ralleth
Twenty-five years ago, all of the females of my tribe died of sickness. The males who were old enough to understand that our tribe would fall with no females left to find lives in other tribes. Those of us that are left pray to the goddess that one day we will not be looked down upon by other tribes, and they will allow us to find mates amongst them. Every year I ask the other tribal leaders if they will show us favor, and every year I am denied.

This year is no different until a mysterious creature appears from a strange light in my dining hall. I don't know what it is or if it's even female, but I feel drawn to claim it as my own. Surely the goddess is showing us favor by giving us this creature on my birthday of all days.]]> 188 Morgan Robinson CJ 3 3.5 stars 3.86 His Human to Claim (Unit A12, #1)
author: Morgan Robinson
name: CJ
average rating: 3.86
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Guard & Guise (Faeted Hearts, #2)]]> 223320009 Malachi
I know her. She’s beautiful and brilliant and absolutely perfect.
She’s also the only fae who has ever hated me.
My mate.
Now I have a chance to make up for my mistakes, prove to Aspen that I’m not some dumb guard who can’t string together a sentence. The more time we spend together, the more I’m falling for her, and that hope might destroy me.
The Stars showed me my mate, but she still has no idea what we are.

Aspen
The last time I saw him, I told him I never wanted to see him again.
Until a summons brings me face to face with the guard who turned the worst day of my life into a nightmare.
The new king and queen have requested my help in uncovering a witch within the library I call home, but it means I’m forced to work with him.
Except the guard isn’t as awful as I made him out to be in my head. Malachi is funny, brilliant, and redefines everything I’ve ever known and experienced in life.
This is all a guise, but I’m starting to wonder if maybe I’ve been guarding myself from the truth.]]> 200 Laura Winter CJ 4 4.5 stars 4.44 Guard & Guise (Faeted Hearts, #2)
author: Laura Winter
name: CJ
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel, #1)]]> 50702014 Stephen's god died on the longest day of the year�

Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind�

From the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of Swordheart and The Twisted Ones comes a saga of murder, magic, and love on the far side of despair.]]> 366 T. Kingfisher CJ 4 4.5 stars 4.08 2020 Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel, #1)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: CJ
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Found in the Mountains (Greene Mountain Boys, #4)]]> 124946408 We're in Greene Mountain, Montana for the wedding and it's making me realize it's time for a change.
It's time to get my stagnant life in order.
It's time to be more adventurous.
But when I get hopelessly lost in the woods after the wedding, I realize that my desire for adventure might have been a bit too ambitious.
Luckily, my own hot mountain man is on the way.
Park Ranger Noah Wright.
He finds me.
In more ways than one.
And I realize, my adventure is only beginning.


Megan arrives in Montana to celebrate her sister's new love, but her own love affair is waiting for her in a big burly tattooed package.

Insta-love at its finest with no cheating and a super sweet HEA guaranteed. Enjoy!]]> 102 Olivia T. Turner CJ 4 4.08 Found in the Mountains (Greene Mountain Boys, #4)
author: Olivia T. Turner
name: CJ
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Runaway Whirlwind (Big Boys of Berenson Trucking, #1)]]> 211652943 A woman on the run.

After my dad forgets to set the house alarm, I grab the duffel bag I’ve had packed and hidden for months and sprint into the night to the closest truck stop. My future and safety rely on finding a trucker willing to let me hitch a ride out of town before my dad discovers I’ve run away. Legally, he can’t drag me back home if he finds me now that I’m eighteen, but the law has never stopped him from doing what he wants before.

Faced with one rejection after another, I become desperate…desperate enough to throw myself in front of an 18-wheeler pulling out of the lot, forcing the driver to slam on their brakes or run me over. Heart pounding and losing hope, I drop to my knees in front of the older mountain of a man who steps out of the truck. I’m willing to do anything he wants so long as he agrees to take me with him. At least, that’s what I tell myself�

A trucker who is her last hope.

I’ve never been tempted to pick up a hitchhiker before, but when the young woman risks her life running in front of my truck, then kneels in the dirty parking lot and begs me for a ride, I give in against my better judgment. She doesn’t have to follow through on her promise to do anything I want since I won’t touch her with a ten-foot pole. At least, that’s what I tell myself�

When I find out why she’s so desperate to get out of town, I make a promise of my own. A promise to take care of her and protect her until we go our separate ways. Except, I can’t let her go.

Not now.

Not after my monumental mistake.

Not after knowing she could be pregnant with my baby.


Runaway Whirlwind is a standalone, full-length, fast-burn, spicy, age-gap romance. Please read the ܳٳǰ’s Note at the beginning of the book. Happily ever after guaranteed.]]> 299 May Alder CJ 4 3.78 Runaway Whirlwind (Big Boys of Berenson Trucking, #1)
author: May Alder
name: CJ
average rating: 3.78
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
Yeah this is pretty insane. Way more smutty than it needs to be and there is just a crap ton of somnophilia especially, but it’s also sweet and fun to read and I kind of loved it? despite not being into, like, most of the tropes (significant age gap, daddy kink, breeding kink, the aforementioned somnophilia), I still enjoyed this and read it in one day.
]]> <![CDATA[Some Like it Violent (Deranged and Obsessed Book 2)]]> 223785251
When a prison transfer put me in a position to escape, I seized the opportunity, which sparked an unyielding manhunt.

I wouldn’t be caged again, so I stalked and hunted until I found refuge in a small, secluded house on the outskirts of an isolated town.

I took that home as mine—and its owner. Evelina.

My plan was hide out, stay unseen, and slip into the unknown, where I’d never be found again.

The days stretched into weeks, and something dangerous shifted inside me. My need to just survive turned into an obsession with Evelina. That twisted desire deepened and consumed me in ways I never expected.

What was meant to be a brief captivity until I moved on spiraled into a dark and disturbing connection. It blurred the line between captor and captive.

Yet beneath Evelina’s fear lay a secret of her own—one that might prove she was far from the helpless damsel she portrayed.

It was a game of obsession and desire, and I was starting to think maybe she was just as deranged as I was.]]> 93 Jenika Snow CJ 3 3.85 Some Like it Violent (Deranged and Obsessed Book 2)
author: Jenika Snow
name: CJ
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Amusing a Demigod: Dating a Demigod #4]]> 214132055 When Logic meets his muse, even magic seems possible.

Being a demigod’s muse has landed Kristine Marshall in one bad relationship after another. She’s been held captive by men eager for inspiration and willing to do anything to keep her. When she’s rescued by other demigods and offered refuge on an island in Washington State's San Juan Islands, Kristine eagerly agrees. However, she adamantly doesn’t want them to match her up. If her abilities burn her up—so be it.

Rayden Malone has been contracted to fix up a vacation home by the same man who keeps trying to convince Rayden that he’s the demigod of logic. Hah. As if demigods exist� The cabin’s inhabitant is a beautiful wary woman who brings out a fierce protectiveness in him. When Kristine’s past threatens her, Rayden is willing to go along with the fanciful notion that they belong together—as matching demigods. If he can be with the woman he loves, well, he might believe in something as irrational and impossible as destiny.

Content Kristine Marshall has been in abusive relationships—however none of this is seen on page—only her healing. Some readers may still be sensitive and should skip this one.

Amusing a Demigod is a quirky paranormal romance novella that is perfect to read in a waiting room, during a commute, or on a lunch break. It has a HEA, no cheating, and a sexy-sweet heat level.

If you like demigods, flirty banter, ultra-logical heroes, and feisty heroines, you’ll love Amusing a Demigod. It also contains a drawing of a Corgi—in case you’re a fan of that. If you like romances that break your heart before healing it, moments that make you laugh loud enough to scare your pet, and, of course, a happily ever after, you’ll love Amusing a Demigod, a paranormal rom-com novella, and the fourth book in the Dating a Demigod series.
All books in this series can be read as standalones.]]> 85 Wendy Sparrow CJ 4
This book features some of most oddly sweet moments, from a Corgi drawn entirely by ruler to my favorite line in the book and maybe my favorite line Wendy Sparrow has ever written:

“If you need purple potatoes for your emotions, I will get them, and I will not judge you.”]]> 4.00 Amusing a Demigod: Dating a Demigod #4
author: Wendy Sparrow
name: CJ
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
So cute! This is definitely my favorite of the series so far. Kristine is a demigod of inspiration, and because of that, she’s lived as essentially a slave of different creative people since she was 15. Two of the demigods we’ve met previously help her escape a demigod of passion, and she ends up on a remote San Juan island. Meanwhile, the demigod crew are trying to convince Rayden that he’s a demigod of logic, but it’s not logical to believe in demigods so that’s a nonstarter. Obviously.

This book features some of most oddly sweet moments, from a Corgi drawn entirely by ruler to my favorite line in the book and maybe my favorite line Wendy Sparrow has ever written:

“If you need purple potatoes for your emotions, I will get them, and I will not judge you.�
]]> Guarded by an Alien Assassin 213404286
She should be terrified. Instead she wants to get closer - much closer - to the brooding warrior, and not just because of the safety he promises.

Q’tar's mission is eliminate his target and get the hell off of Earth. His bodyguard role is only temporary - until he’s ordered to protect a tiny, adorable female.

Now all he wants is Julie - in his arms and in his bed. Forever. He’s finally found the mate he never thought he’d have, but can he keep her? Or will the truth of his identity destroy their chance at happiness?

Need a big muscular protector? Spartan Shield Corp has got you covered. Alien, shifter, human—take your pick, we got it all. Call now to reserve your bodyguard today!

Spartan Shield Corp is not responsible if your hot alpha defender becomes overly possessive and/or becomes obsessed with you.

The Back Away From My Girl series mixes Contemporary, Paranormal, and Sci Fi Romance in six standalone stories by best-selling STEAMY authors, Olivia T. Turner, Hope Ford, Michele Mills, Ariana Hawkes, Cassie Mint, and Honey Phillips.]]> 92 Honey Phillips CJ 4 3.5 stars 4.23 2024 Guarded by an Alien Assassin
author: Honey Phillips
name: CJ
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Rough Deal (Coming Home to the Mountain, #2)]]> 59756451 Everyone has a secret.

Mine is ruining my life � making me bitter, callous, cold.

I’m Rye Rough -- the oldest of seven kids, with a family tree that built this town. I understand more than most that reputations matter.

Which is why I keep my mouth shut -- and that secret? I’m not telling a soul.

It’s clear it’s causing problems. Working as my dad’s right-hand man, I’m angrier than ever -- and hell, it’s messing with the family construction company.

My father forces a deal: Go to the rural family cabin and don’t come back until I get my head on straight or I lose my place in the business.

As if spending more time alone is going to solve anything.

One day into my retreat -- I find Prairie, a beautifully fragile woman who is lost, alone and in need of my tender loving care. Her life has been one of confinement and abuse.

She needs me like I’ve never been needed before.

My family doesn’t understand my love for her.

My secret keeps me up at night.

Something must give before it all breaks.

One thing is sure -- rough hands have been dealt for both Prairie and me � and for our love to survive we can’t fold.

Coming Home to the Mountain is a new filthy-sweet, high heat series by Frankie Love featuring rugged mountain men who fall hard, fast and forever. And with the women they love at their side, they choose to put family first.

In this series, Dad shows up, sisters remember to call, big brothers always look out for you, and Mom knows to keep an extra seat at the table for Sunday dinner. Not every family is perfect -- and the Rough family has its own set of problems -- but at the end of the day, they know what matters: Coming Home.]]> 168 Frankie Love CJ 4 4.12 2022 Rough Deal (Coming Home to the Mountain, #2)
author: Frankie Love
name: CJ
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
Very sweet story, maybe a bit cheesy and definitely over-the-top, but heartfelt.
]]> <![CDATA[Guarded By A Savage Shifter (Back Away From My Girl Book 1)]]> 213312960 An exclusive interview with the leader of the world's deadliest drug cartel.
The last interviewer didn't make it out alive.
My family begs me not to take it.
My friends say I'm crazy.
My boss agrees to let me go, if I take a bodyguard with me.
I'm curious to know what kind of bodyguard can protect me from a whole cartel of killers.
And I find out.
The savage kind.
He's a hot grizzly bear shifter named Ryker.
He takes me under those big protective arms and dark watchful eyes.
Ryker says I'm his and that he won't let anything bad happen to me.
But when the interview turns ugly, things get dangerous.
And it's me and my shifter bodyguard against an army of killers.
Luckily, Ryker is unstoppable when it comes to protecting his mate.



Need a big muscular protector? Spartan Shield Corp has got you covered. Alien, shifter, human—take your pick, we got it all. Call now to reserve your bodyguard today!
Disclaimer: Spartan Shield Corp is not responsible if your hot alpha defender becomes overly possessive and/or becomes obsessed with you.

The Back Away From My Girl series mixes Contemporary, Paranormal, and Sci Fi Romance in six standalone stories by best-selling STEAMY authors, Olivia T. Turner, Hope Ford, Michele Mills, Ariana Hawkes, Cassie Mint, and Honey Phillips. ]]> 90 Olivia T. Turner CJ 3 4.11 2024 Guarded By A Savage Shifter (Back Away From My Girl Book 1)
author: Olivia T. Turner
name: CJ
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Rescued By the Roughneck 123001926
Liam is smitten when he sees the beauty stranded on the side of the road in front of him. He knows immediately she’s not from around here, and that there’s little chance of a blue-collar guy like him getting an upper-class stunner like her. But what choice does she have other than take shelter with him until morning?

But Liam has no intention of letting Jess go tomorrow. He’s been waiting until just the right time to start building the perfect future for himself, and with this sweet angel in his life, that time is now.]]> 72 Jenna Rose CJ 3 3.57 Rescued By the Roughneck
author: Jenna Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.57
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
Cute story but the drama in the third act was extremely contrived. 3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[Stalking His Target (Twisted Hearts)]]> 227888945
Three weeks ago I broke the first rule of being a CIA I fell in love with my mark. My assignment was to watch, observe, and learn all about her so I could get close and discover the location of her uncle, boss of one of the most dangerous drug cartels.

But all that watching took its toll on me.

I’m in too deep and the mission itself may be compromised.

I spent my entire life serving my country, and now I’m facing the hardest choice I’ve ever follow my orders or follow my heart.

ܳٳǰ’s Like Stalking His Prey and Stalking the Bride, Stalking His Target is an instalove, over-the-top, salacious, stalker romance featuring a fiercely protective alpha stalking an innocent heroine, who is also the target of his secret mission. This is juicy escapism, packed with steam, primal love, and a wonderful HEA. If you are looking for fun and filthy, (and slightly twisted), you’ve found it!
]]> 82 Jenna Rose CJ 3 3.85 Stalking His Target (Twisted Hearts)
author: Jenna Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
Good setup with a genuine conflict, but the resolution really didn’t work for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Enticed By The Corsair (Corsairs, #3)]]> 39868949
I learned that the hard way. I’ve been abducted from earth and cruelly tormented for my fighting spirit until I learned that the only thing that would keep me safe is to be sweet and calm and agreeable. It’s what keeps me alive.

When I’m rescued by space pirates, they tell me I’m safe. I’m told I can be myself again, get as angry as I want, laugh and cry and scream all I need. I don’t believe them, of course. I certainly don’t believe Alyvos, the ‘muscle� of the pirate ship. Everyone says that he likes nothing more than a good fight, but to me, he’s kind and protective. How can I fear someone who holds me tenderly through the night and has fuzzy skin?

But my pirate wants more from me than I’m ready to give. He wants my fiery spirit…and I’m not sure it’s there anymore.]]> 188 Ruby Dixon CJ 4 4.01 2018 Enticed By The Corsair (Corsairs, #3)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: CJ
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Raff (The Vorge Crew, #4) 42765639 This is the fourth book in The Vorge Crew series.

Lilly left Earth seeking adventure, and learning about aliens sounded cool. She just didn’t expect to meet any in person -- until her ship is attacked by alien pirates.

Now she’s meeting plenty of them.
Scary ones who want to do very bad things to her.

Fighting for survival since childhood, Raff Vellar is more intimately familiar with knives and bloodshed than women. Then, during a trip to his home planet, a tiny human literally falls at his feet.

When he learns she’s been forced into slavery, a fierce need to protect the human overcomes him . . .
A feeling that quickly turns into a deep need to keep her forever.
]]> 145 Laurann Dohner CJ 4 4.05 2018 Raff (The Vorge Crew, #4)
author: Laurann Dohner
name: CJ
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. Hoping to read the other books in the series but they're not on KU or Hoopla so I have to wait for a flash sale or something.
]]> His Virgin Stripper 33002144 A virgin stripper, a playboy billionaire, and a lap dance filled with promise.

Eliot
The first time I saw men stick money into her G-string, I knew the only person I wanted sticking anything into Randi aka Rose Black was me. But the club runs a tight ship and even billionaire clients can’t break the damn rules. Luckily I wasn’t a client; I was the guest of a client and I could afford to break the rules.

I wanted her, especially after the interrupted lap dance that had left me aching for her. I need a private dance from her, away from the club and its rules. Her virginity is an added bonus.

Randi
Stripping in a upscale club isn’t an ideal job, but it pays the bills. Once I leave the club, men sticking bills down my G-string is all history. Until my next shift. This is the life I live while I put myself through school, and I was fine with it.

Until he walks into my club.

He’s nerdy but sexy, and his pal has paid a handsome sum for a lap dance. A dance I’m obliged to give. A dance that could betray my need for him.

HIS VIRGIN STRIPPER is a standalone, happily ever after romance novel with no cliffhangers.]]> 171 Bella Grant CJ 3 3.5 stars 3.65 His Virgin Stripper
author: Bella Grant
name: CJ
average rating: 3.65
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> The Pitcher's Assistant 56311808 45 Jessa Kane CJ 3 3.5 stars 3.71 2020 The Pitcher's Assistant
author: Jessa Kane
name: CJ
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> Caught by the Convicts 58542711 66 Jessa Kane CJ 3 3.5 stars 3.41 2021 Caught by the Convicts
author: Jessa Kane
name: CJ
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> The Mobster's Masseuse 52754241 71 Jessa Kane CJ 4
This book is absolute madness, completely over the top and overly dramatic, and I absolutely loved it.

It helps that Jessa Kane's books are well written and edited.

But mostly this is a whirlwind of a story that I had to read in one sitting.]]> 3.63 2019 The Mobster's Masseuse
author: Jessa Kane
name: CJ
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars

This book is absolute madness, completely over the top and overly dramatic, and I absolutely loved it.

It helps that Jessa Kane's books are well written and edited.

But mostly this is a whirlwind of a story that I had to read in one sitting.
]]> <![CDATA[Held by the Bratva (London Mafia Bosses, #8)]]> 216092476 “Who hurt you?�

For three years, I’ve been daydreaming excuses to get my gorgeous, older, mysterious neighbor into my apartment. I was thinking of a burst pipe, small cooking fire, dress that I can't zip up, or a massive sign that said “I adore you, please take my V-card�.

I didn’t think he’d invite himself in to save me.

Mafia thugs came looking for my parents, and money. Hours later, I’m cowering in my wardrobe, still shaking, covered in bruises and dried unthinkable liquids, when soft footsteps echo through my apartment.

My neighbor opens the door and stares down at me, rage curling his lip.

“Who hurt you?�

Before I know it, he’s scooped me up into his arms and taken me to his penthouse.

He won’t let me go, and smiles cynically when I protest he shouldn’t put himself at risk from the mafia.

And I’m beginning to wonder� Who is the most dangerous predator here?

Held by the Bratva is a sweet and spicy age gap instalove romance with a jealous and possessive billionaire mafia boss and the college girl he’s been stalking.]]> 130 Evie Rose CJ 4 3.97 Held by the Bratva (London Mafia Bosses, #8)
author: Evie Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Rescued by the Beast 60770363 54 Nyla Lily CJ 3 3.76 Rescued by the Beast
author: Nyla Lily
name: CJ
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bad Memory: The Complete Series, 2nd ed. (Bad Memory, a Nik/Jaimes series)]]> 195816562
Bad Memory is a queer romance thriller filled with arguments, hookups, hacking, cool crimes, and questionable meds.

Will Nik and Jaimes end up together? Will they even survive? But most importantly, what’s up with the gummy bears?

“The author’s ability to write the inner lives of mentally ill people is so accurate and evocative as to be emotionally devastating.

This is an extreme good book with fantastic characters and a great plot. �
� Jadehawk

“M. A. Melby did a great job bringing her characters to life. I love how there is geek and queer with action, frustration, love and computer hacking!

A flowing book of adventure and bad memories!�
� Shay ]]> 383 M. A. Melby CJ 4 4.00 Bad Memory: The Complete Series, 2nd ed. (Bad Memory, a Nik/Jaimes series)
author: M. A. Melby
name: CJ
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sacrificed to the Beast (Fairytale Fantasies #1)]]> 60587118 The Beast lives in the middle of the forest. It's rumored that he devours women right on the spot.

Now I've been thrown to my doom. Sacrificed by the villagers.

I'm terrified of my fate. No matter how fast I run, he'll find me. After I collapse in front of his home, my future is set in stone. He'd eat me in one bite.

I didn't expect his arms to hold me close when he carried me inside, or for his body to feel like a personal heater. Sharp claws didn't dig into my torn dress. Sharp teeth didn't ruin his smile.

The beast has a name–Abel. An actual man who surprised me with every word that left his mouth.

Originally, I wanted to run away from the beast. Now I never wanted to leave.

Sacrificed to the Beast is a 10k steamy age gap short romance between an innocent village girl who's clueless of the world outside of her home and a giant who wants to live a life of silence and solitude.]]> 43 Nyla Lily CJ 3 3.54 2022 Sacrificed to the Beast (Fairytale Fantasies #1)
author: Nyla Lily
name: CJ
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Violence & Virtues: Vol. 2: A Mafia Romance Anthology (Violence & Virtues Anthology Vol.2 Book 1)]]> 217950209
From ruthless bosses to loyal soldiers, twisted love to brutal betrayal; this collection of stories will take you on a journey through passion and peril. Whether they seek power, revenge, redemption, or justice, nothing will stop these characters from getting what they want. If you love stories of crime, passion, and intrigue, desire and danger in equal measure, then you won’t want to miss Violence and Virtues.

Enter the world of Violence & Virtues with this Morally Grey Mafia Anthology.

Our featured authors:

A. Boss, Addison Tate, Andrea Hagan, BL Jones, Brittany Wright, C.J. Willis, Effie Campbell, Elamy Pride, Faith Summers, Harley Raige, Harper Ray, Kalli Dean, Kelly Lord, Kerry Kilpatrick, Liz Highland, M.J. Herald, Molly Briar, N. Owens, Nichole Ruschelle, Rose Wulf, Tammy Bradley, Violet Knight.]]> 895 Sophie Dyer CJ 3
Lucia's Kiss by M.J. Herald - 3.5 stars, 25 pages

Meet cute and instant attraction between members of rial families who both plan to use marriage to strengthen their positions. It's a sweet story, but the reveal was a bit too obvious and the epilogue comes out of nowhere. I wouldn't be opposed to reading a longer work by this author though.

Mistaken Princess by A. Boss - 4.5 stars, 51 pages

FMC Gabby plans an "improv date" with "Tinder Greg," where they pretend to be other people and see where things lead. When Tinder Greg seems to be a no-show, a handsome guy shows up calling Gabby Isabel, and she assumes it's part of the role-play and goes with it . . . maybe a little too far. This story is brilliant. Original, funny, subversive, with some genuinely heartfelt movements too. Also includes the content warning "Inappropriate use of a church hallway."

Fatal Attendant by Elamy Pride - 3 stars, 39 pages, excerpt of upcoming longer work

A happy-go-lucky hitman receives a last-minute contract to off the party-boy son of a mafia boss as he's jetting off to Mexico. Unsurprisingly as he comes up with the worst plan ever, he gets caught. This story is really funny in parts, and Xavier's character is original (seriously, the author had me at "confident and quirky hitman"), but the story is not very well written or edited (including just so many dated references and cliches). Also, Xavier's plan is so obviously bad that I don't buy him as a successful hitman.

Oh, Alfie by Effie Campbell - 38 pages

Mafia party boy teaches a guy his daddy owes money to how to seduce a woman he likes by appealing to her kinks. This one is mostly just erotica, MMF (really MFM) menage with degradation kink is really not my thing so I don't feel like I can give it a fair rating, but I will say that the writing quality and editing are decent. If the subject matter is up your alley you'll probably enjoy it.

Unyielding Vows by Nichole Ruschelle - 21 pages, excerpt of upcoming longer work

This one is apparently a spin-off of a book in the series Twisted Grimm. Mafia guy needs a wife so he kidnaps a woman he had a one-night stand with. She's not happy about it. There's not really enough material here for a rating; I'd give it tentatively 3-3.5 stars, but this is one of those stories that could become really good or be really disappointing. Editing isn't very good.

My Legacy to Take by Harley Raige - 2.5 stars, 42 pages

Mafia princess has been ignored by her father and abused by her fiance all her life but secretly plans to dispose of them both and take over. This is an interesting and original story, but it's not very well executed as a complete work. There's WAY too much exposition all at once, which totally took me out of the story. There's barely any connection or even interaction between the FMC and her love interest, and none of the intimate scenes are between the two main characters. Most of them are with the man who has RAPED HER SINCE SHE WAS THIRTEEN. Oh sorry, did I bury the lede? That's right, part of the FMC's bacsktory is that her fiance started using her for sex when she was thirteen. I should note that this was NOT presented in the content warnings, which included "grooming" and "dub-con," but those things are not the same as child rape, and yes, that is what this is even if the FMC consciously acquiesceed to it in order to further her own plans and doesn't consider herself a rape victim. A 13-year-old cannot consent to sex with an adult. If you're going to include this as your character's backtory, maybe use a bit more delicacy in presenting it. Geez.

Retribution by Kerry Kilpatrick - 4 stars, 35 pages

Loan shark goes to collect on a debt, finds a young man who's been kept as an indentured servant by his debtor and takes him home. Wonderfully sweet insta-love romance, mafia-lite. Some obvious editing errors (missing words, misspellings) but not many, and the story more than makes up for it.

The Fall by Molly Briar - 22 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Ex-femme fatale (what was she, a secret agent?) turned rare bookseller has a run-in with a man she once worked and was involved with. Another story I can't rate because there's not enough material; the excerpt ends just as things start getting interesting. Lots of lazy editing mistakes in this one.

Darkest Desires by by N. Owens - 3.5 stars, 47 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Mafia girl has a great night with a stalker guy but now feels conflicted about it. Both characters' parents are arranging marriages for them to other people. Unlike the other stories that are excerpts, this one is actually the second in a multi-part work. The story is all right but it's not very well written or edited.

Dark Ties by Addison Tate - 4 stars, 45 pages

Mafia hitman is called to retrieve the daughter of his boss, who ran away four years previously and whom he has secretly pined after for years. Once he learns how Cami's father has abused her, he decides to protect her instead. Sweet romance and well-written prose, but the storyline is a little unbelievable at times - e.g. why does Vincenzo send additional men after Gio immediately? How do Gio and Cami SPOILER get away with killing Vincenzo when there are surely guards loyal to him in the house? END SPOILERS

Steal My Heart: NOLA Mobsters by Andrea Hagan - 4 stars, 57 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Reluctant mafia boss catches a pickpocket. He is torn between desire and distrust, then decides to use her skills to further his ends. Yet another partial story but this one at least captured my interest enough to make me want to read the rest.

Epic by BL Jones - 3.5 stars, 65 pages

A team of street kids works together to take out the local mafia for selling drugs to minors. This one feels a little out of place in this anthology because the protagonists have no direct mafia ties themselves. Not a criticism, just a note. The main characters are great together, but I'm sad that the story takes place after they're already together. I would have liked to see their relationship develop between the prologue when they meet and when they become a couple. As it is, there's no character or relationship development to speak of.

Claimed by the Capo by Kelly Lord - 3 stars, 33 pages

Sister of a capo thinks she's outwitted her brother but ends up getting outsmarted in turn by another capo who wants to claim her. This story felt incomplete; I would have preferred it as a full-length novella complete with character development and a relationship that grows and progresses. I also can't stand a would-be badass girl who is actually fooling herself and is easily outmaneuvered by the men in her life. What a disappointment.

After Hours by Liz Highland - 3.5 stars, 35 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Consigliere to the don finds himself attracted to a forbidden man - the owner of a sex club. Bi awakening, BDSM, master/slave dynamic. Not my thing, but it's well-written enough.

Flickers of Fate by Brittany Wright - 2.5 stars, 81 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Nurse falls in love with the guy who received her brother's heart. I wanted to like this, I really did. Instead, it was possibly the most frustrating read of the whole anthology. The idea of a good story is in here somewhere, but it is lost in narrative contradictions and the characters acting in ways that make absolutely no sense. Unlike the other works whose poor editing is mostly relegated to proofreading and word choice, this one needed an editor to work with the author on polishing the story itself and that doesn't seem to have happened.

His Survivor by C. J. Willis - 4 stars (maybe 3.75), 43 pages

Friend of a mafia wife gets abducted, then rescued by a man who's in love with her. She has a history of sexual abuse that she thinks precludes the possibility of a future relationship. This type of story is totally my jam, but the one thing that brought it down for me is that the MMC's dialogue was too cheesy/flowery in the context of the rest of the story. If the story itself were written by John Green, or were set in the 1800s or previously, it would work, but it comes across as unrealistic within the story. Everything else in here is fine.

Seductive Secrets by Rose Wulf - 4 stars, 46 pages

Daughter of a dying mob boss is having a secret fling with another mob boss who wants to make things permanent. Really liked this one. It's a complete story, but an extended version will be released later. I like this concept because I don't feel like I've been cheated out of a denouement, but there's still an incentive to read the full thing. Contains the frankly incomprehensible "trigger warning" "destruction of lingerie"

Vengeful Crown by Tammy Bradley - 2.5 stars, 39 pages, ends on a "to be continued"

Mafia princess becomes boss after losing her father, finds out he and her unrequited crush made some plans without telling her

This story wasn't really my thing as I didn't find the FMC sympathetic and the MMC isn't developed enough to be a real character, but mostly my rating is because this story desperately needed an editor or at least a few dozen more commas.

Made to Break by Violet Knight - 3.5 stars, 53 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

"The Prince and the Pauper" but make it mafia. This one is interesting because it includes not only the FMC and MMC's perspectives but also the antagonist's. This is another one I'd be interested in reading the full version of; it ends on a genuine cliffhanger. The author has some problems with apostrophes.

Overall, I found this anthology . . . okay. There was so much variety in writing quality between the stories that it kind of brought the whole thing down for me, even the stories I really liked. Also, I didn't know going into it that so many of the stories would be partial works. Out of the 9 stories that are excerpts (10 including the one that's complete but has an extended version on the way), I can only see myself reading the full version of two or three of them. There were some genuinely good stories in here and one absolutely brilliant one (Mistaken Princess), but if you have any interest in mafia romance you'll probably find at least something in here for you.

I received an ARC of this anthology in exchange for a fair review.]]> 4.41 Violence & Virtues: Vol. 2: A Mafia Romance Anthology (Violence & Virtues Anthology Vol.2 Book 1)
author: Sophie Dyer
name: CJ
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves:
review:
Nineteen mafia-themed novellas/short stories/novella excerpts are presented in this anthology. It's a lot of material so let's go straight in. I'm not going to present much in the way of synopsis as kymagirl did a great job already. My review is primarily my personal impression of each story.

Lucia's Kiss by M.J. Herald - 3.5 stars, 25 pages

Meet cute and instant attraction between members of rial families who both plan to use marriage to strengthen their positions. It's a sweet story, but the reveal was a bit too obvious and the epilogue comes out of nowhere. I wouldn't be opposed to reading a longer work by this author though.

Mistaken Princess by A. Boss - 4.5 stars, 51 pages

FMC Gabby plans an "improv date" with "Tinder Greg," where they pretend to be other people and see where things lead. When Tinder Greg seems to be a no-show, a handsome guy shows up calling Gabby Isabel, and she assumes it's part of the role-play and goes with it . . . maybe a little too far. This story is brilliant. Original, funny, subversive, with some genuinely heartfelt movements too. Also includes the content warning "Inappropriate use of a church hallway."

Fatal Attendant by Elamy Pride - 3 stars, 39 pages, excerpt of upcoming longer work

A happy-go-lucky hitman receives a last-minute contract to off the party-boy son of a mafia boss as he's jetting off to Mexico. Unsurprisingly as he comes up with the worst plan ever, he gets caught. This story is really funny in parts, and Xavier's character is original (seriously, the author had me at "confident and quirky hitman"), but the story is not very well written or edited (including just so many dated references and cliches). Also, Xavier's plan is so obviously bad that I don't buy him as a successful hitman.

Oh, Alfie by Effie Campbell - 38 pages

Mafia party boy teaches a guy his daddy owes money to how to seduce a woman he likes by appealing to her kinks. This one is mostly just erotica, MMF (really MFM) menage with degradation kink is really not my thing so I don't feel like I can give it a fair rating, but I will say that the writing quality and editing are decent. If the subject matter is up your alley you'll probably enjoy it.

Unyielding Vows by Nichole Ruschelle - 21 pages, excerpt of upcoming longer work

This one is apparently a spin-off of a book in the series Twisted Grimm. Mafia guy needs a wife so he kidnaps a woman he had a one-night stand with. She's not happy about it. There's not really enough material here for a rating; I'd give it tentatively 3-3.5 stars, but this is one of those stories that could become really good or be really disappointing. Editing isn't very good.

My Legacy to Take by Harley Raige - 2.5 stars, 42 pages

Mafia princess has been ignored by her father and abused by her fiance all her life but secretly plans to dispose of them both and take over. This is an interesting and original story, but it's not very well executed as a complete work. There's WAY too much exposition all at once, which totally took me out of the story. There's barely any connection or even interaction between the FMC and her love interest, and none of the intimate scenes are between the two main characters. Most of them are with the man who has RAPED HER SINCE SHE WAS THIRTEEN. Oh sorry, did I bury the lede? That's right, part of the FMC's bacsktory is that her fiance started using her for sex when she was thirteen. I should note that this was NOT presented in the content warnings, which included "grooming" and "dub-con," but those things are not the same as child rape, and yes, that is what this is even if the FMC consciously acquiesceed to it in order to further her own plans and doesn't consider herself a rape victim. A 13-year-old cannot consent to sex with an adult. If you're going to include this as your character's backtory, maybe use a bit more delicacy in presenting it. Geez.

Retribution by Kerry Kilpatrick - 4 stars, 35 pages

Loan shark goes to collect on a debt, finds a young man who's been kept as an indentured servant by his debtor and takes him home. Wonderfully sweet insta-love romance, mafia-lite. Some obvious editing errors (missing words, misspellings) but not many, and the story more than makes up for it.

The Fall by Molly Briar - 22 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Ex-femme fatale (what was she, a secret agent?) turned rare bookseller has a run-in with a man she once worked and was involved with. Another story I can't rate because there's not enough material; the excerpt ends just as things start getting interesting. Lots of lazy editing mistakes in this one.

Darkest Desires by by N. Owens - 3.5 stars, 47 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Mafia girl has a great night with a stalker guy but now feels conflicted about it. Both characters' parents are arranging marriages for them to other people. Unlike the other stories that are excerpts, this one is actually the second in a multi-part work. The story is all right but it's not very well written or edited.

Dark Ties by Addison Tate - 4 stars, 45 pages

Mafia hitman is called to retrieve the daughter of his boss, who ran away four years previously and whom he has secretly pined after for years. Once he learns how Cami's father has abused her, he decides to protect her instead. Sweet romance and well-written prose, but the storyline is a little unbelievable at times - e.g. why does Vincenzo send additional men after Gio immediately? How do Gio and Cami SPOILER get away with killing Vincenzo when there are surely guards loyal to him in the house? END SPOILERS

Steal My Heart: NOLA Mobsters by Andrea Hagan - 4 stars, 57 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Reluctant mafia boss catches a pickpocket. He is torn between desire and distrust, then decides to use her skills to further his ends. Yet another partial story but this one at least captured my interest enough to make me want to read the rest.

Epic by BL Jones - 3.5 stars, 65 pages

A team of street kids works together to take out the local mafia for selling drugs to minors. This one feels a little out of place in this anthology because the protagonists have no direct mafia ties themselves. Not a criticism, just a note. The main characters are great together, but I'm sad that the story takes place after they're already together. I would have liked to see their relationship develop between the prologue when they meet and when they become a couple. As it is, there's no character or relationship development to speak of.

Claimed by the Capo by Kelly Lord - 3 stars, 33 pages

Sister of a capo thinks she's outwitted her brother but ends up getting outsmarted in turn by another capo who wants to claim her. This story felt incomplete; I would have preferred it as a full-length novella complete with character development and a relationship that grows and progresses. I also can't stand a would-be badass girl who is actually fooling herself and is easily outmaneuvered by the men in her life. What a disappointment.

After Hours by Liz Highland - 3.5 stars, 35 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Consigliere to the don finds himself attracted to a forbidden man - the owner of a sex club. Bi awakening, BDSM, master/slave dynamic. Not my thing, but it's well-written enough.

Flickers of Fate by Brittany Wright - 2.5 stars, 81 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

Nurse falls in love with the guy who received her brother's heart. I wanted to like this, I really did. Instead, it was possibly the most frustrating read of the whole anthology. The idea of a good story is in here somewhere, but it is lost in narrative contradictions and the characters acting in ways that make absolutely no sense. Unlike the other works whose poor editing is mostly relegated to proofreading and word choice, this one needed an editor to work with the author on polishing the story itself and that doesn't seem to have happened.

His Survivor by C. J. Willis - 4 stars (maybe 3.75), 43 pages

Friend of a mafia wife gets abducted, then rescued by a man who's in love with her. She has a history of sexual abuse that she thinks precludes the possibility of a future relationship. This type of story is totally my jam, but the one thing that brought it down for me is that the MMC's dialogue was too cheesy/flowery in the context of the rest of the story. If the story itself were written by John Green, or were set in the 1800s or previously, it would work, but it comes across as unrealistic within the story. Everything else in here is fine.

Seductive Secrets by Rose Wulf - 4 stars, 46 pages

Daughter of a dying mob boss is having a secret fling with another mob boss who wants to make things permanent. Really liked this one. It's a complete story, but an extended version will be released later. I like this concept because I don't feel like I've been cheated out of a denouement, but there's still an incentive to read the full thing. Contains the frankly incomprehensible "trigger warning" "destruction of lingerie"

Vengeful Crown by Tammy Bradley - 2.5 stars, 39 pages, ends on a "to be continued"

Mafia princess becomes boss after losing her father, finds out he and her unrequited crush made some plans without telling her

This story wasn't really my thing as I didn't find the FMC sympathetic and the MMC isn't developed enough to be a real character, but mostly my rating is because this story desperately needed an editor or at least a few dozen more commas.

Made to Break by Violet Knight - 3.5 stars, 53 pages, excerpt of an upcoming longer work

"The Prince and the Pauper" but make it mafia. This one is interesting because it includes not only the FMC and MMC's perspectives but also the antagonist's. This is another one I'd be interested in reading the full version of; it ends on a genuine cliffhanger. The author has some problems with apostrophes.

Overall, I found this anthology . . . okay. There was so much variety in writing quality between the stories that it kind of brought the whole thing down for me, even the stories I really liked. Also, I didn't know going into it that so many of the stories would be partial works. Out of the 9 stories that are excerpts (10 including the one that's complete but has an extended version on the way), I can only see myself reading the full version of two or three of them. There were some genuinely good stories in here and one absolutely brilliant one (Mistaken Princess), but if you have any interest in mafia romance you'll probably find at least something in here for you.

I received an ARC of this anthology in exchange for a fair review.
]]> <![CDATA[Bound to Fall (Villains & Virtues)]]> 197793961
Cursed with dark magic, living virtuously has always eluded Celeste, but she’s determined to right the wrongs she wrought in the sleepy village of Briarwyke and maybe even find her ever after, happiness unrequired and, as she sees it, undeserved. But darkness accompanies Celeste as keenly as clumsiness and shame, and when she accidentally releases a new evil on Briarwyke, she must find a divine source of magic to destroy it.

Sir Reeve, Holy Knight of Valcord, is one such divine source—not to mention incredibly handsome—and as luck would have it, already intent on vanquishing the evil that plagues Briarwyke. Unfortunately, he believes that evil to be a noxscura-wielding witch who has desecrated his faith’s temple: Celeste herself. Abyss-bent on fulfilling his destiny, Reeve’s virtue and beliefs have never wavered because the world is simple, after all—there are those who are good, and those who are evil, and evil must be destroyed.

But what happens when a perceived evil requests assistance in defeating an even greater threat? Can Celeste and Reeve band together to save Briarwyke, or will their contempt for one another be their downfall?

***

Bound to Fall is a standalone spinoff of Villains & Virtues, a completed trilogy that follows the exploits of Damien and Amma. This book takes place in the spring, after the events of Villains & Virtues, and does contain spoilers for the series including character death. However, Bound to Fall focuses on a new couple, Celeste and Reeve, who we did not meet in the original trilogy, and can be read as a standalone story.]]> 397 A.K. Caggiano CJ 5 4.09 Bound to Fall (Villains & Virtues)
author: A.K. Caggiano
name: CJ
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Summoned to the Wilds (Villains & Virtues, #2)]]> 63852823
Lady Ammalie Avington, Baroness of Faebarrow, has discovered the truth, and it should not come as a surprise: the blood mage who threatened, spellbound, and abducted her intends to bring ruin to the realm--the very one she is sworn to serve. It's just a terribly inconvenient fact to learn because, well...he's rather cute.

But it's not safe to pine after the son of a demon, especially not whilst locked up in a tower surrounded by infernal beings and a rival for your affection, nor trapped below ground in a den of beguiling vampires, nor even in the heart of a wild jungle under the tutelage of esoteric witches. Amma just can't help herself around Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne, danger be damned, but, truly, what danger is there? Damien's heart, the one he swears to not have, has been softening right before her eyes. Nevermind the weird smoke that sometimes unwittingly emanates from his hands or that faraway look he gets to his eyes, and a voice she can't hear telling him that he's meant to be a vessel? Surely it's all just a bad dream.

After finally tasting freedom and learning that Amma may have ancient, innate magical powers of her own, why not use them to do exactly as she pleases?]]> 428 A.K. Caggiano CJ 5 favorites
Brief summary: Damien has re-abducted Amma from her hometown, except does it really count as abduction if she asked him to do it? Damien is still looking for a non-lethal way to separate Amma from the talisman, partly because he doesn't like the thought of her being dead, and partly because he's conflicted about the moral implications of the things he wants to do with someone whom he could control at will if he wanted. Amma has just learned that Damien's grand plan is to release his demon father from imprisonment so he can presumably destroy the entire realm, but despite that, she finds her feelings growing for him as she simultaneously becomes more and more convinced that he's not as evil as he keeps insisting he is. This novel has everything from vampires to witches to fae, but most importantly, it's full of the dry humor, wit, and cleverness that makes this series so endearing. (Probably my favorite example from this installment: "'The Everdark?' [said Amma.] 'No, the Everdarque,' [Damien] repeated, slowly.")

Note: this is part two of a slow-burn romance, and while the official steam rating for this book is currently "behind closed doors," there is no actual sex scene in this book, on- or off-page, although things do start to heat up. Trust the process: this is ultimately such a satisfying read that it's well worth the build up.

This novel is where the bulk of the character development happens for both Damien and Amma, from Amma confronting her feelings of powerlessness and learning to find her own strength, to Damien wrestling with his identity as "evil" and the implications of what that means for his relationship with Amma and his own destiny. Since their inner conflict is inextricably tied with both their budding relationship and the plot of the novel, it makes all three facets of the story much more compelling and it means they all have to be resolved together, meaning this book is going to leave you wanting more!]]> 4.30 Summoned to the Wilds (Villains & Virtues, #2)
author: A.K. Caggiano
name: CJ
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: favorites
review:
I loved this series so much I reread it within two weeks of initially finishing. Everything I said about book one applies to this novel as well so I'll try not to repeat myself too much here.

Brief summary: Damien has re-abducted Amma from her hometown, except does it really count as abduction if she asked him to do it? Damien is still looking for a non-lethal way to separate Amma from the talisman, partly because he doesn't like the thought of her being dead, and partly because he's conflicted about the moral implications of the things he wants to do with someone whom he could control at will if he wanted. Amma has just learned that Damien's grand plan is to release his demon father from imprisonment so he can presumably destroy the entire realm, but despite that, she finds her feelings growing for him as she simultaneously becomes more and more convinced that he's not as evil as he keeps insisting he is. This novel has everything from vampires to witches to fae, but most importantly, it's full of the dry humor, wit, and cleverness that makes this series so endearing. (Probably my favorite example from this installment: "'The Everdark?' [said Amma.] 'No, the Everdarque,' [Damien] repeated, slowly.")

Note: this is part two of a slow-burn romance, and while the official steam rating for this book is currently "behind closed doors," there is no actual sex scene in this book, on- or off-page, although things do start to heat up. Trust the process: this is ultimately such a satisfying read that it's well worth the build up.

This novel is where the bulk of the character development happens for both Damien and Amma, from Amma confronting her feelings of powerlessness and learning to find her own strength, to Damien wrestling with his identity as "evil" and the implications of what that means for his relationship with Amma and his own destiny. Since their inner conflict is inextricably tied with both their budding relationship and the plot of the novel, it makes all three facets of the story much more compelling and it means they all have to be resolved together, meaning this book is going to leave you wanting more!
]]> <![CDATA[Conquering the Alien Emperor (Pandraxians, #3)]]> 204282718
HEATHER: After being rescued from Earth, I am sent to Pandrax, where a sentinel guardian is appointed to find my mekarry match for me. Unfortunately, my guardian, Lady Natoi, turns out to be a spiteful creature, whose hate for me grows when Emperor Daryus shows an interest in me.

DARYUS: I swore I would not fall for a human merrily like my friends did, but when Heather suddenly appears in my suite, I know I need to get to know her better. She is the only person in the universe who can soothe my ever flaring temper.
When she suddenly disappears, I realize that she is my ONE, my mekarry, and I will tear this universe upside down until I find and hold her in my arms again.]]> 204 Bella Blair CJ 4 4.44 Conquering the Alien Emperor (Pandraxians, #3)
author: Bella Blair
name: CJ
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Conquering the Alien Lord Protector (Pandraxians, #1)]]> 203148204
Silla: Aliens are real and have invaded Earth. For five days I manage to hold out before I am taken prisoner by the Cryons and brought to their home planet Colynth. Where they use me to extract DNA from a Pandraxian warrior by drugging me with an aphrodisiac and tying me to his bed for his pleasure.

Garth: The last thing I expected from the Cryons is to gift me a human merrily for my pleasure. No, strike that, the last thing I expected was to find my soulmate on Colynth in form of a human merrily.
When the Cryons take her away from me without my permission, they soon find out how far a lord protector of the Pandraxian Empire will go to get his bonded mate back.]]> 314 Bella Blair CJ 4 4.11 Conquering the Alien Lord Protector (Pandraxians, #1)
author: Bella Blair
name: CJ
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Stalking the Nanny 220388173 Lust. Desire. Obsession. Jealousy.Emotions I have no right to feel. Anna Petrakova isn’t my wife. She isn’t my girlfriend. Hell, she isn’t even my mistress.

She’s my nanny.

I’ve had good reasons for keeping our relationship professional—on the surface at least. And even better reasons for tracking every movement she makes, memorizing every detail about her life, watching over her, keeping her safe.

Anna is mine. My obsession. My addiction. The love of my life.

She just doesn’t know it yet.

Does that make me sick, twisted? Definitely.

Yet my gorgeous girl has her secrets, too. Secrets she thinks she can hide from me. But when I discover her naughtiest secret, I know I have to act—even if blows our lives apart.

Publisher's Stalking the Nanny is a steamy romance novella with an obsessive hero who stalks and claims a virgin heroine. Perfect if you're craving an over-the-top alpha male, scorching-hot chemistry, and a guaranteed HEA. Please note that this is an updated, expanded, and spicier version of a novella previously released as The Jealous Boss (2022). Specific kinks are listed in the Look Inside/sample.]]> 90 Portia Lux CJ 4 3.65 Stalking the Nanny
author: Portia Lux
name: CJ
average rating: 3.65
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Caught by the Kingpin (London Mafia Bosses, #4)]]> 133917504 99 Evie Rose CJ 4 3.88 Caught by the Kingpin (London Mafia Bosses, #4)
author: Evie Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Snatched by the Bratva (London Mafia Bosses, #6)]]> 186599820 Snatched by the Bratva is a sweet and spicy age gap instalove romance, with a jealous and possessive billionaire mafia boss and an innocent girl he’s been stalking…]]> 101 Evie Rose CJ 4 3.73 Snatched by the Bratva (London Mafia Bosses, #6)
author: Evie Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Protected by the Capo (Crystal Cove Casino Book 2)]]> 208890425
When Bria Mariani is under my care, no one is allowed near her. That includes myself.

I want her, but I can’t have her. There is too much keeping us apart.

Why is this woman so persistent in pushing my buttons? She wants me to cave.

One moment alone with her changes everything.

One taste is all it takes to get me hooked.

The Crystal Cove Casino series contains dark themes mixed with instalove goodness. Read with caution and enjoy the steamy romance that comes with it. Each with a HEA, but best enjoyed read in order.]]> 81 Nyla Lily CJ 3 4.18 Protected by the Capo (Crystal Cove Casino Book 2)
author: Nyla Lily
name: CJ
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Pure Love (Priceless, #4) 60801136
But there’s a reason I found her when I did, and someone is out there looking for her. Someone who wants to hurt the precious woman who’s stolen my heart. I won’t let that happen. Bunny is mine to keep, mine to protect, and mine to love.]]> 121 Lucy Darling CJ 4 4.24 2022 Pure Love (Priceless, #4)
author: Lucy Darling
name: CJ
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Yearning in the Mountains (Greene Mountain Boys, #6)]]> 181863005 I thought this was my shower.
I thought I could walk around the place naked.
I was wrong.
This is Duncan Dove's cabin.
The mean, reclusive mountain man.
He finds me walking out of his shower in his place without a stitch of clothing on.
And then I have the balls to yell at him.
This possessive bearded alpha takes one look at me and I know that I'm not going anywhere.
Wrong rental property or not, I'm staying here.
And I'm not sure if he'll ever let me leave.



This city girl is about to have the vacation of a lifetime when she meets the only other person living on the mountain—a hot, obsessive, bearded mountain man who won't let her go!
Insta-love at its finest with no cheating and a super sweet HEA guaranteed. Enjoy!]]> 102 Olivia T. Turner CJ 3 4.09 Yearning in the Mountains (Greene Mountain Boys, #6)
author: Olivia T. Turner
name: CJ
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Alien Psycho 61346359 I'm a criminal. An outcast. A dangerous fugitive capable of anything.
They must be insane to send a female human bounty hunter after me.
At half my size, and a fraction of my strength, she's like a lamb to the slaughter.
When she tracks me down in my icy lair, I could easily leave her to the elements.
But I take pity on her.
I save her life.
I make her mine.
She becomes my sweet human pet, my companion in the wilderness.
I used to be crazy. Now I'm crazy for her.
And when my enemies try to hurt her?
That's when I show them what psycho really means.]]> 144 Loki Renard CJ 4 3.90 Alien Psycho
author: Loki Renard
name: CJ
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Untamed (Bratva Kings) 220927667 Be careful what you wish for�

I don’t just dream about possessive anti-heroes, I crave them. The dark, dangerous ones dripping with Bratva energy, the ones who claim you with a single look and make the world kneel just to keep you safe.

�Touch her and I'll unalive you��?

I live for it.

�My wife…�?

My favorite .

It’s all a harmless fantasy, right?

Until it’s not.

Rodion Kopolev, the lethal masked hero thousands of social media followers fangirl over, doesn’t just embody the dark anti-heroes I love…he is one.

And when his obsessive focus lands on me, I feel like the heroine in one of my books.

His possessive words claim me.

His dominant touch brands me.

And when I try to run, he chases�

But when the threats of my past creep closer and I need protection from a dangerous stalker, Rodion is the devil willing to give it to me� for a price.

Turns out, when the fantasy becomes reality, it’s not so harmless after all�

Please Untamed is a standalone dark romance with a strong, fierce heroine and an unapologetically obsessive, jealous, and possessive alpha anti-hero. No OW drama, no cliffhanger, always a hard-won HEA.]]> 408 Jane Henry 1961866269 CJ 3
Brief synopsis: Rodion is a mafia enforcer who's been banished to California for screwing up one too many times (presumably for something that happened in book 1, but I haven't read it yet; will update if I do). He accidentally overhears some women gushing about mafia-themed thirst traps they watch on social media and he's both intrigued and baffled that his lifestyle is basically a fetish. He joins the social media platform to see what these girls are hyping about, and then he comes across the account of Ember, a book reviewer who talks about her favorite tropes (mafia romance, BDSM, various kinks). He becomes obsessed with her pretty much immediately. Unlike the accounts that seem "fake" to him, he thinks Ember genuinely craves the fantasies she posts about. So he decides to test the waters.

So right off the bat, you may notice, this premise is a lot like Lights Out by Navessa Allen. So much so that I wonder if it's not coincidence. And there's nothing wrong with that; a lot of romance books are derivative, especially mafia ones, and there's enough original content in here that it doesn't feel like a rip-off. In fact, on paper, I might even like this better than the plot of Lights Out. Unfortunately, the execution is where the books really are not comparable.

First off, the editing leaves a lot to be desired. There aren't many obvious typos or anything like that, but the narrative is sometimes repetitive, sometimes vague, and sometimes contradictory. Scene changes are not always clear. That kind of thing.

Then there's the formatting. Text messages and social media DMs are a big part of the book's plot, and there are a LOT of mistakes here. Mostly the Kindle version shows messages in the little bubbles like you see on a phone, but sometimes the text is all bold, sometimes only the sender's name is bold, sometimes none of it is bold, and sometimes there is no bubble at all, only italicized text. One time the code is visible. I sincerely hope the paperback version turned out better than this because if I paid $16 for a book with this kind of formatting, I'd want my money back.

Then there's the more substantial problem with the book, which is the antagonist. I don't think we ever learn exactly what Shawn did to Ember; a lot is implied, and some things can be inferred, but we never get any specifics. And I guess that's fine in a sense - like, if this were real life, we wouldn't be entitled to know everything about Ember's past - but this is fiction and we're reading Ember's POV. I feel like we should know more about her past in order to understand her. Even worse, there's a point at which Rodion implies that Ember has confided in him about Shawn, but that apparently happened off-page. Why? Additionally, Shawn is just not characterized. I don't mean that he's not well-developed; he's not developed at all. We don't get any sense of him as a person beyond the fact that he's bad and dangerous and Ember is scared of him. He barely appears on the page so he's more of an antagonizing force than a character in his own right. More confusingly, SPOILERS FOR REST OF PARAGRAPH for most of the book it seems like he's fixated on Ember specifically, but after he's been dealth with, we randomly hear that he's harassed and assaulted a bunch of other women, so I guess he wasn't fixated on Ember? There were no indications that he was a serial abuser or predator or whatever it is that he is (again, we don't know; the book doesn't tell us) so this comes out of left field. END SPOILERS

Finally, I have some petty critiques. Perhaps the most important one is that I don't think the author has ever, um, recorded video before. Rodion's videos are described as involving camera movements, specifically panning and zooming, and it would be impossible for him to do that without a second person or editing, and we know that he is filming these videos by himself and uploading the raw footage online. Another camera oddity: Ember lives in a studio apartment, but at one point she starts developing a roll of film . . . in her apartment? The narrative doesn't talk about her going anywhere, but if she can't fit a full-sized fridge or a stove in her apartment she definitely doesn't have space to turn her studio into a dark room. That was weird and completely unnecessary. Lastly, everyone who has read Crime and Punishment (which is referenced directly in this book) knows that the diminutive for Rodion is Rodya, and the only time we ever see a nickname for Rodion is when one of his sisters calls him . . . Rodi. I'm just so disappointed by that.

A slightly less petty critique is that this book pokes fun at mafia romance novels for being unrealistic without actually subverting any of the tropes of the mafia romance genre. Lampooning your own genre is fantastic and hilarious, but ONLY IF you do something different with your own book, and Jane Henry does not. The only difference between the in-universe "real" mafia guys and the "fictional" ones is that the "real" guys don't wear suits all the time. And that's all. Pretty much every other trope is represented here. It would have been really great if this novel had subverted mafia romance stereotypes in some way, but alas, it did not.

Bottom line: this is an okay book that is fun to read, but it's not nearly as good as Lights Out so maybe read that instead, or at least in addition.]]> 4.07 Untamed (Bratva Kings)
author: Jane Henry
name: CJ
average rating: 4.07
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars

Brief synopsis: Rodion is a mafia enforcer who's been banished to California for screwing up one too many times (presumably for something that happened in book 1, but I haven't read it yet; will update if I do). He accidentally overhears some women gushing about mafia-themed thirst traps they watch on social media and he's both intrigued and baffled that his lifestyle is basically a fetish. He joins the social media platform to see what these girls are hyping about, and then he comes across the account of Ember, a book reviewer who talks about her favorite tropes (mafia romance, BDSM, various kinks). He becomes obsessed with her pretty much immediately. Unlike the accounts that seem "fake" to him, he thinks Ember genuinely craves the fantasies she posts about. So he decides to test the waters.

So right off the bat, you may notice, this premise is a lot like Lights Out by Navessa Allen. So much so that I wonder if it's not coincidence. And there's nothing wrong with that; a lot of romance books are derivative, especially mafia ones, and there's enough original content in here that it doesn't feel like a rip-off. In fact, on paper, I might even like this better than the plot of Lights Out. Unfortunately, the execution is where the books really are not comparable.

First off, the editing leaves a lot to be desired. There aren't many obvious typos or anything like that, but the narrative is sometimes repetitive, sometimes vague, and sometimes contradictory. Scene changes are not always clear. That kind of thing.

Then there's the formatting. Text messages and social media DMs are a big part of the book's plot, and there are a LOT of mistakes here. Mostly the Kindle version shows messages in the little bubbles like you see on a phone, but sometimes the text is all bold, sometimes only the sender's name is bold, sometimes none of it is bold, and sometimes there is no bubble at all, only italicized text. One time the code is visible. I sincerely hope the paperback version turned out better than this because if I paid $16 for a book with this kind of formatting, I'd want my money back.

Then there's the more substantial problem with the book, which is the antagonist. I don't think we ever learn exactly what Shawn did to Ember; a lot is implied, and some things can be inferred, but we never get any specifics. And I guess that's fine in a sense - like, if this were real life, we wouldn't be entitled to know everything about Ember's past - but this is fiction and we're reading Ember's POV. I feel like we should know more about her past in order to understand her. Even worse, there's a point at which Rodion implies that Ember has confided in him about Shawn, but that apparently happened off-page. Why? Additionally, Shawn is just not characterized. I don't mean that he's not well-developed; he's not developed at all. We don't get any sense of him as a person beyond the fact that he's bad and dangerous and Ember is scared of him. He barely appears on the page so he's more of an antagonizing force than a character in his own right. More confusingly, SPOILERS FOR REST OF PARAGRAPH for most of the book it seems like he's fixated on Ember specifically, but after he's been dealth with, we randomly hear that he's harassed and assaulted a bunch of other women, so I guess he wasn't fixated on Ember? There were no indications that he was a serial abuser or predator or whatever it is that he is (again, we don't know; the book doesn't tell us) so this comes out of left field. END SPOILERS

Finally, I have some petty critiques. Perhaps the most important one is that I don't think the author has ever, um, recorded video before. Rodion's videos are described as involving camera movements, specifically panning and zooming, and it would be impossible for him to do that without a second person or editing, and we know that he is filming these videos by himself and uploading the raw footage online. Another camera oddity: Ember lives in a studio apartment, but at one point she starts developing a roll of film . . . in her apartment? The narrative doesn't talk about her going anywhere, but if she can't fit a full-sized fridge or a stove in her apartment she definitely doesn't have space to turn her studio into a dark room. That was weird and completely unnecessary. Lastly, everyone who has read Crime and Punishment (which is referenced directly in this book) knows that the diminutive for Rodion is Rodya, and the only time we ever see a nickname for Rodion is when one of his sisters calls him . . . Rodi. I'm just so disappointed by that.

A slightly less petty critique is that this book pokes fun at mafia romance novels for being unrealistic without actually subverting any of the tropes of the mafia romance genre. Lampooning your own genre is fantastic and hilarious, but ONLY IF you do something different with your own book, and Jane Henry does not. The only difference between the in-universe "real" mafia guys and the "fictional" ones is that the "real" guys don't wear suits all the time. And that's all. Pretty much every other trope is represented here. It would have been really great if this novel had subverted mafia romance stereotypes in some way, but alas, it did not.

Bottom line: this is an okay book that is fun to read, but it's not nearly as good as Lights Out so maybe read that instead, or at least in addition.
]]> <![CDATA[The Guardian's Angel (Their Angels, #1)]]> 212101556 James

I’ve only had guardianship of my three-month-old nephew, Grayson, for four days, and I’m already failing miserably. I don’t know how to help him since he refuses to eat and sleep until sheer exhaustion pulls him under for an hour or two at a time. I pace by the front door, waiting for my neighbor from across the street with children of her own to come over after she offered to help when she saw how panicked I was.

Except it’s not her who appears on my front porch at midnight—it’s her daughter, Shayla…the woman I’ve been obsessed with since I moved into the neighborhood a year ago. She smiles sleepily in her pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers, haloed by the porch lights like an angel�my angel.

Shayla

My mysterious, older neighbor—the one I can’t stop ogling—offers me an afternoon babysitting job on the spot after I get Grayson to settle. I agree so long as I can bring my daughter, Lainey. James has a momentary freakout when he finds out that I’m a senior in high school, though I’m not sure why, but the stricken look is wiped from his face when I tell him I’m eighteen.

The more time Lainey and I spend with James and Grayson, the harder it is to leave them at the end of each night, especially when James starts calling me his angel. The closer we get, the more we feel like a family—four pieces of a puzzle.

But I can’t let myself continue to get lost in James, no matter how right it feels to be with him, because what we’re doing is risky. We’re playing with fire, and if we’re not careful, our four-piece puzzle will soon become five.

The Guardian’s Angel is a standalone, full-length, spicy, age-gap, single-parent romance. All characters are 18+. Please read the ܳٳǰ’s Note at the beginning of the book. Happily ever after guaranteed.]]> 270 May Alder CJ 4 3.89 The Guardian's Angel (Their Angels, #1)
author: May Alder
name: CJ
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:
May Alder has a way of writing addicting narratives even when the plot is pretty low-stakes. This one has a lot of pining so it feels like a slow burn even though technically it’s really not. James is a great character; I feel like the romance genre tends to feature heroes that are one of, like, three archetypes, so it’s always nice reading a hero who really feels like his own person. This was an enjoyable read although I kept wanting to scream at Shayla to get on birth control if she didn’t want to use a condom - apparently the risky sex/breeding kink is not something I identify with!
]]> <![CDATA[Stalking the Bride (Twisted Hearts)]]> 223504450
As an ex-Marine, I swore to protect her. So then why am I spying on her when I’m off duty? Why am I stealing mementos from her home and sneaking into her bedroom while she sleeps?

Are these the acts of a sane man? Or the acts of a stalker?

Is my addiction to Belle driving me over the edge?

Belle is engaged to the man who hired me, but I know he’s not the man for her. And if I’m to truly protect her, then I have one task ahead of stop Belle’s wedding and claim her as my own.

ܳٳǰ’s Like Stalking His Prey, this is an over-the-top, insta-love, wonderfully smutty romance featuring an irresistible ex-Marine stalking the innocent heroine he’s sworn to protect. If you want lots of steam, sweltering heat, and pure-escapism with fated romance and a fantastic HEA, this is the book for you!
]]> 94 Jenna Rose CJ 3 3.90 Stalking the Bride (Twisted Hearts)
author: Jenna Rose
name: CJ
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Marco's Girl 51626400 Evangeline is an unexpected good girl in my bad boy world. Her innocence should make me back off, but I don't. After all, I'm a Davinci -- when I see something I want -- I take it!

A chance at going to college is all I need, and this new prep school is the way to do it. Grams took a maid job at a local estate just so I could attend prestigious Brightwood Prep, and I won't let her down. I'm focused and determined -- until I meet Marco Davinci. He's got bad boy written all over him as he sits at the back of the classroom, his eyes eating me up -- and that's only the beginning. Marco isn't just bad -- he's determined to make me his -- no matter the cost...

MINK's note: "Marco's Girl" stars Marco from "His Virgin Queen". It's best enjoyed with a kitty in your lap, and a steaming cup of coffee, or tea if you're feeling fancy, beside you. All characters are 18+, and an HEA is guaranteed. Enjoy!
]]> 101 Mink CJ 4 4.09 2020 Marco's Girl
author: Mink
name: CJ
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:
Very cute and sweet romance with a side of mafia family (this is kind of a sequel to His Virgin Queen). I usually avoid YA/high school romances but at least the MCs in this book are 18. The climax is a bit over-the-top though.
]]> Hitman's Prey 49437513 162 Mink CJ 4 3.96 2019 Hitman's Prey
author: Mink
name: CJ
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> His Virgin Queen 50483710 Sophia
I knew I was going to be sold by my father.

A bride offered to forge an alliance or seal a deal. Even so, I still held onto the hope of living free of the families. But when I’m given to Antonio Tuscani, I realize my thin dreams of escaping this life were just that -- dreams.
Giving up -- I accept my fate �

Until a fierce-eyed boss, Nick DaVinci, shows up on my wedding day to exact lethal vengeance.

Nick
I came for Tuscani blood, and I took it.

The doe-eyed bride in her white dress and veil of innocence doesn’t bat an eyelash when I do what I was born to do.
I’m the head of the most powerful mafia family in the city, and I didn’t get here by sparing enemies.

But Sophia’s demeanor intrigues me, and soon I realize she is far more than a mafia princess -- she is a queen -- and I will stop at nothing to keep her by my side.
*-*

Mink's Note: Curl up with your fav feline for this safe, sweet, steamy, a 'lil dark, and a lot dreamy, HEA.
]]> 97 Mink CJ 3
IDK, it’s a fine quick read, just not very memorable or unique and maybe a little boring? I’d like to point out also that every other MINK book I’ve read heavily features a cat, and I’ve rated them all 4 stars. This one barely has a cat cameo in the epilogue and I only gave it 3. Coincidence???]]> 3.97 2020 His Virgin Queen
author: Mink
name: CJ
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:
Kind of a typical instalove arranged marriage mafia book, with the twist that the MMC murders the groom right after the wedding and claims the bride, our FMC, for himself. Except this book leaves the murder off-page for some reason. It goes from before the wedding to right after the murder and Nick’s inner monologue just reflecting on what he’s done. What? Why? Seriously, the first few chapters of this book are a structural mess. After that it gets more straightforward at least.

IDK, it’s a fine quick read, just not very memorable or unique and maybe a little boring? I’d like to point out also that every other MINK book I’ve read heavily features a cat, and I’ve rated them all 4 stars. This one barely has a cat cameo in the epilogue and I only gave it 3. Coincidence???
]]> Sacrificed to the Beast 49450553 55 Jessa Kane CJ 4 3.62 2019 Sacrificed to the Beast
author: Jessa Kane
name: CJ
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Alessandro (Valentino Heirs #2)]]> 209782773 Alessandro

Being the heir of the Don of the Valentino Crime Family comes with its perks.

Money, power, everything I’ve ever wanted I’ve gotten.

And the girl who’s currently chugging down a beer from a red solo cup isn’t going to be any different.

I want her. Which means she’s already mine. Her fate has been decided.

Her eyes hold a sadness I want to drown in. And I have an even stronger need to find out what caused that look on her face, so I can be the one to erase it completely.

Cassidy

I’m okay. I’m fine. I’m good.

All words I keep repeating to anyone who asks how I’m doing. How I’m coping.

All lies.

The truth is I’m not okay. I’m not fine and I don’t think I’ll ever be “good� again.

The only thing I feel other than grief right now is the buzz from the alcohol I continue to force down my throat.

But I know that’s going to fade too. And all that will be left is the big black hole of despair that has me in a chokehold.

Nothing can make me feel anything anymore. Not even those dark eyes glaring at me from across the room.]]> 117 Kylie Kent 1923137247 CJ 4 4.32 2024 Alessandro (Valentino Heirs #2)
author: Kylie Kent
name: CJ
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Agatha Christie Collection]]> 53030834
Featuring:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Secret Adversary
The Affair At The Victory Ball
The Adventure Of The Clapham Cook
The Cornish Mystery
The Adventure Of Johnnie Waverly
The Double Clue
The King Of Clubs
The Lemesurier Inheritance
The Lost Mine
The Plymouth Express
The Chocolate Box
The Veiled Lady
The Submarine Plans
The Market Basing Mystery
and
The Murder on the Links]]> 1075 Agatha Christie 8834182189 CJ 4 4.42 The Agatha Christie Collection
author: Agatha Christie
name: CJ
average rating: 4.42
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories]]> 538605
'My name is Hercule Poirot and I am probably the greatest detective in the world.' The dapper, moustache-twirling little Belgian with the egg-shaped head, curious mannerisms and inordinate respect for his own 'little grey cells' has solved some of the most puzzling fictional crimes of the century. Appearing in Agatha Christie's very first novel in 1920 and her very last in 1975, Hercule Poirot became the most celebrated detective since Sherlock Holmes, appearing in 33 novels, a play, and these 51 short stories.

These short stories provide a feast for hardened Agatha Christie addicts as well as those who have grown to love the detective through his many film and television appearances. This edition also includes Poirot in "The Regatta Mystery, "an early version of an Agatha Christie story not published since 1936!

Some may dispute whether "all" is the correct word. Several Poirot short stories have earlier, alternate, or expanded versions, and we shouldn't forget the dozen or so not here; they were re-purposed into the 1927 novel "The Big Four." Others appeared under different titles. Most importantly, "Hercule Poirot The Complete Short Stories" will delight newcomers to Christie's famous detective, as well as those who just want to remember how good their read was the first time around.

The stories in order are: (1) The Affair at the Victory Ball, (2) The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan, (3) The King of Clubs, (4) The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim, (5) The Plymouth Express, (6) The Adventure of The Western Star, (7) The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor, (8) The Kidnapped Prime Minister, (9) The Million Dollar Bond Robbery, (10) The Adventure of the Cheap Flat, (11) The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge, (12) The Chocolate Box, (13) The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb, (14) The Veiled Lady, (15) The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly, (16) The Market Basing Mystery, (17) The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman, (18) The Case of the Missing Will, (19) The Incredible Theft, (20) The Adventure of the Clapham Cook, (21) The Lost Mine, (22) The Cornish Mystery, (23) The Double Clue, (24) The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, (25) The Lemesurier Inheritance, (26) The Under Dog, (27) Double Sin, (28) Wasps' Nest, (29) The Third-Floor Flat, (30) The Mystery of the Spanish Chest, (31) Dead Man's Mirror, (32) How Does Your Garden Grow? (33) Problem at Sea, (34) Triangle at Rhodes, (35) Murder in the Mews, (36) Yellow Iris, (37) The Dream, (38) The Labours of Hercules, the Foreword, (39) The Nemean Lion, (40) The Lernean Hydra, (41) The Arcadian Deer, (42) The Erymanthian Boar, (43) The Augean Stables, (44) The Stymphalean Birds, (45) The Cretan Bull, (46) The Horses of Diomedes, (47) The Girdle of Hyppolita, (48) The Flock of Geryon, (49) The Apples of the Hesperides, (50) The Capture of Cerberus, and (51) Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds.

Librarian's note: this entry is for the collection, "Hercule Poirot The Complete Short Stories." Entries for each of the individual stories can be found elsewhere on ŷ.]]> 864 Agatha Christie CJ 4 4.30 1999 Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories
author: Agatha Christie
name: CJ
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1999
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[AGATHA CHRISTIE THE COMPLETE WORKS : Poirot Investigates, The Man in the Brown Suit,The Murder on the Links,The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary]]> 58753038 Agatha Christie CJ 4 4.25 AGATHA CHRISTIE THE COMPLETE WORKS : Poirot Investigates, The Man in the Brown Suit,The Murder on the Links,The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary
author: Agatha Christie
name: CJ
average rating: 4.25
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rating: 4
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date added: 2025/01/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man in the Brown Suit (Colonel Race, #1)]]> 209194 Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes looking for her—and finds her immediately at Hyde Park Corner tube station. Anne is present on the platform when a thin man, reeking of mothballs, loses his balance and is electrocuted on the rails.


The Scotland Yard verdict is accidental death. But Anne is not satisfied. After all, who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body? And why did he race off, leaving a cryptic message behind: "17-122 Kilmorden Castle"?


Twisty, clever, and intriguing, The Man in the Brown Suit showcases Agatha Christie once again at her very best.

]]> 381 Agatha Christie 0007151667 CJ 5 favorites 3.97 1924 The Man in the Brown Suit (Colonel Race, #1)
author: Agatha Christie
name: CJ
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1924
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/01/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Agatha Christie Collection: 41 Works (Revised Edition 2023 with improved Formatting)]]> 55233687 Revised Edition for 2023 includes:*Addition of a Novel, 'The Big Four'.*Completely new text formatting and page layout, there is plenty of white-space which makes reading easy on the eyes.*The single largest collection of Agatha Christie on Amazon.This edition is a collection of some of AGATHA CHRISTIE’S finest works. Detective novels have been around for decades, all beginning with Agatha Christie. She was a pioneer in this genre and made it what it is today. Detective novels centre around a murder and finding out who the culprit is and in this field Agatha Christie is at the top of the charts. She is the world’s best-selling mystery writer and often considered a master of writing suspense, of plotting and characterisation.±ᴡ’S NOVELSThe Mysterious Affair at StylesThe Secret AdversaryThe Murder on the LinksThe Man in the Brown SuitThe Secret of ChimneysThe Murder of Roger AckroydThe Big FourSHORT STORIESThe Affair at the Victory BallThe Curious Disappearance of the Opalsen PearlsThe Adventure of the King of ClubsThe Disappearance of Mr DavenheimThe Mystery of the Plymouth ExpressThe Adventure of the Western StarThe Tragedy at Marsdon ManorThe Kidnapped Prime MinisterThe Million Dollar Bond RobberyThe Adventure of the Cheap FlatThe Mystery of Hunter’s LodgeThe Clue of the Chocolate BoxThe Adventure of the Egyptian TombThe Case of the Veiled LadyThe Kidnapping of Johnnie WaverlyThe Market Basing MysteryThe Adventure of the Italian NoblemanThe Case of the Missing WillThe Submarine PlansThe Adventure of the Clapham CookThe Lost MineThe Cornish MysteryThe Double ClueThe Adventure of the Christmas PuddingThe Lemesurier InheritanceThe Red SignalThe Mystery of the Blue JarThe Mystery of the Second CucumberPhilomel CottageJane in Search of a JobThe Manhood of Edward RobinsonThe Sign in the SkyA Man of MagicThe Wife of the KeniteThis version has been optimized for readability and BEAUTIFUL FORMATTINGThere is plenty of white-space which makes reading easy on the eyes.FULLY FEATURED TABLE OF CONTENTSThe first title table of contents (at the very beginning of the eBook) lists the titles and the second table of contents lists all the titles along with chapters and sub-chapters of that specific work as well. You can access the third complete table of contents from the menu bar of your Kindle app.EPUBCHECKThe book successfully passes EpubCheck, developed by the IDPF. The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) is the global trade and standards organization dedicated to the development and promotion of electronic publishing and content consumption.]]> 3272 Agatha Christie CJ 4 4.45 The Agatha Christie Collection: 41 Works (Revised Edition 2023 with improved Formatting)
author: Agatha Christie
name: CJ
average rating: 4.45
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rating: 4
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date added: 2025/01/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right]]> 56672921
Evangelicals emerged as a political force in the 1970s after decades of retreat from secular society following the 1925 Scopes trial, according to Balmer, who details how opposition to state interference in "segregation academies" such as Jerry Falwell's Lynchburg Christian Academy and Bob Jones University (which had its tax-exempt status revoked in 1976) sparked the formation of the "religious right." Paul Weyrich and other political activists then "brilliantly shifted public perception of the movement away from racism toward a more high-minded defense of religious freedom," setting the stage for conservative Christians, further galvanized by the abortion issue and fears of "secular humanism," to turn against Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election.]]> 144 Randall Balmer 0802879349 CJ 5 4.20 2021 Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right
author: Randall Balmer
name: CJ
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/01
date added: 2025/01/27
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]]> Persuasion 2156 249 Jane Austen 0192802631 CJ 3 4.15 1817 Persuasion
author: Jane Austen
name: CJ
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1817
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/01/27
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]]> Pyramids (Discworld, #7) 64217 341 Terry Pratchett 0061020656 CJ 4 3.91 1989 Pyramids (Discworld, #7)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: CJ
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1989
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/01/27
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]]> Lady Susan 91582 180 Jane Austen 0486444074 CJ 3 3.64 1871 Lady Susan
author: Jane Austen
name: CJ
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1871
rating: 3
read at: 2022/01/01
date added: 2025/01/27
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]]>