Tag Archives: romance

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Book Review: The Melier, by Poppy Rhys

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I received a copy of Poppy Rhys‘ The Melier in a recent Renegade Romance book box.
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Running for her life…

Lucia hijacks a stolen cargo ship only to find she’s not alone. A giant, beastly alien slave with no memory of his past is now her newest acquisition, and she has no idea what to do with him.

Stuck together for the foreseeable future on the journey back to her home planet, Lucia struggles with the decision to keep him close or risk letting him fall back into enemy hands.

Outrunning the pirates in pursuit, and her own desires, is shaping up to be an impossible task.

my review

Entertaining, but honestly, a structural mess in which the first third doesn’t match the last two thirds. I was frequently thrown for a loop when characters were suddenly setting off to do this or that with no explanation. Like, ‘Time to get ready for the party,’ and I, the reader, was like, ‘What party?’ The story wanders and feels plotless. At no point did I really feel Rhys had a plan for the story; everything feels random. By the end, I was still unsure if Lucia is meant to have one or two mates, for example.

the melier photoThere is an entirely pointless SA scene. It’s comparatively mild but absolutely extraneous. Leaving it out would have no effect on the outcome of the story. But even the consensual sex is disappointing. None (NONE) of the sex scenes have even a paragraph worth of foreplay. Sex is 100% just P-n-V. Boring.

I liked the characters, especially Soren and his brothers, and the family made for interesting side characters. But this was a pretty ‘meh’ read for me.

Other Reviews:

Review: The Melier & The Melier: Homeworld by Poppy Rhys

I fell through a portal and into a gargoyles arms

Book Review: I Fell Through A Portal And Into A Gargoyles Arms, by Dana Isaly

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Always on the lookout for authors whose surnames start with ‘I’ for my yearly Author Alphabet Challenge, I picked up a freebie copy of Dana Isaly‘s I Fell Through A Portal And Into A Gargoyles Arms from Amazon.

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After getting laid off from my job, all I want to do is go home, put on a Halloween movie, and take a hot bath to soak away my troubles.

But things take a turn as soon as my head sinks below the water.

When I come back up for air and open my eyes, I’m not in my bathtub anymore—I’m in the arms of a very large, very gray, very masculine man.

Turns out, he’s a gargoyle, and I’m no longer in my world.

Thoren says I’m his mate, that he’s waited for me for his entire life. And there’s no denying this pull between us. But I’m determined to figure out a way to get back home.

There’s just one problem, the bond is growing stronger every day. When he’s away, there’s a heaviness in my chest. And when he’s near, my body aches for him.

Leaving him may be harder than I originally thought.

my review

I Fell Through A Portal And Into A Gargoyles Arms Dana IsalyI have read one other book by this author, which was a dark romance that I did not like at all. I chose not to continue the series, even though I owned all of it. (That’s not an easy thing for me to do.) However, I decided to give her another try with something completely different. This is a largely plotless, fluffy fantasy romance. I thought it was sweet and entertaining. There’s not a lot to it. The title tells you all of it, really. But he is a giant cinnamon roll that falls first, and she has enough backbone not to feel limp in the circumstances. If you want to read something mildly spicy just for the feels, this one will fit the bill.

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Book Review: The Pale Court Duet, by Liv Zander

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I picked up a copy of Liv Zander’s King of Flesh & Bone as an Amazon freebie and then purchased Queen of Rot & Pain.

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Worse than a ruthless king… is a king obsessed.

Isolation, darkness, and rotting flesh,
Surrounds me, suffocates me,
But I am the vile ruler who controls it all.

I long for warmth,
Yet, all that I touch,
Is cold.

Then, she stumbles into my domain,
Lost and frightened,
Alone and confused.

And I terrify her even more.

She calls me the devil,
So I show her pleasure,
Like only the devil can.

I am the heat that stirs her flesh,
The longing that trembles her bone.

She begs her body to refuse,
To escape my embrace,
But I am her master,
The puppeteer of passion.
I am the King of Flesh and Bone.

Welcome to my court, little one.

My Reviews

King of Flesh and Bone:
I went into this one knowing it’s a dark romance, so I won’t do anything more than warn readers to check their triggers. The whole first half (more, really) is full-on non-con—not dub-con dressed up as non-con, but full-on non-consensual in every way. It’s not gratuitous, but it is what it is.

Having said all of that, once the relationship moved past that (which it does quite abruptly), I enjoyed the last half enough to purchase book two. I’ll grant that there really isn’t anything new and exciting. If you read any number of darkish romances, you’ll likely be able to predict the plot points. He’s not likable on the outside, but his internal monologue is. She has a backbone and seems bright enough, but I don’t feel like we got to really see her as much more than a victim until toward the end. Then the whole thing ended on a cliffhanger in the middle of what I would have otherwise called the third-act breakup.

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Queen of Rot & Pain:

Well, I dragged myself through to the end of the series. I accepted, during book one, that rapey is the name of the game. It’s non-con-central over there. But by the end, you get a sense of Ada as a woman, respectably clawing out some agency in a bad situation, and Enosh starts to show his soft underbelly. (He really wants to be a sweet, loving guy.) So, when the book ended on a cliffhanger, I decided to continue to the end. Unfortunately, there’s the big misunderstanding trope, and Enosh goes right back to rapey, but this time, angry rapey. I mean, it’s a dark romance. It’s not like I’m on some high horse about this. It just got redundant and harder and harder to root for the characters. By the end I was kind of just shrugging at it all. it’s an entertaining enough read, but I’m kinda happy to be done with it, too.

Other Reviews:

Recent Reads Reviews 📚 King of Flesh and Bone & Queen of Rot and Pain