Tag Archives: self published

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Book Review: Moon Scorned, by Marty Mayberry

Moon Scorned, by Marty Mayberry was featured over and Sadie’s Spotlight and I was so taken with the cover that I picked it up for review from R&R Tours.

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I fell hard and fast for the alpha of an elite pack.

Then he rejected me.

Everly

Asher took off when I needed him most, rejecting me and my inner wolf. Then my half-sister is murdered at an exclusive college that’s enshrouded in magic and secrets. When the school offers me a scholarship, I accept and move onto campus. I’m going to find out who killed her, then rip them apart. And if I run into Asher while I’m there? He’ll learn I’m no longer his sweet little thing. He’s about to taste the fury of a wolf shifter scorned.

Asher

Everly’s everything to me, but to protect her, I had to shove her away. If I go near her, the Drudge Pack will discover who she truly is. My father—their enforcer—will kill her. But when she shows up at Ravenmire College, my inner wolf hungers. I’ll do anything to keep her safe—even if that means sacrificing myself and betraying my dangerous family.

my review

I think that this book will appeal to a lot of readers. It’s not a bad book at all. Everly is admirably willing to stand up for herself and shrug off mean-girl BS. Asher is sweet in his desperate desire to do the right thing, even as it hurts and he’s scorned for it. There’s an interesting world here and the writing is quite readable.

However, the book also starts out feeling as if there must be a previous book and then ends on a cliffhanger with absolutely nothing concluded. Here’s my feeling on cliffies. It’s one thing to wrap-up part of a story and leave some threads open for continuation of a story. The reader finishs the book with at least some sense of completion. It’s another to publish part of a story, ending it with nothing concluded. Those are not the same thing. I have no interest in further committing myself to series that do the latter, because I just assume the next book and then the next book and the next will end the same and I have no faith in ever actually getting an ending.

However, none of this is uncommon and I doubt everyone is as annoyed by this as I am (since it’s become a pet peeve of mine). If this doesn’t bother you and you’re looking for a familiar feeling academy(ish) YA/NA paranormal read this one is probably worth your time to pick up.

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Giveaway:

Win a copy of the prequel novella, Moon Hunted.

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Book Review: Fighting For Us, by Bella Emy

Bella Emy’s Fighting For Us was featured on Sadie’s Spotlight last Christmas season. The promo material included a free copy of the book. But I didn’t get around to reading it until this year’s Christmas Reading Challenge.
fighting for us cover

LORENZO
I had it all.
A wonderful family with a loving wife who was my world and a beautiful baby girl.
I didn’t need anything more to be rich in my eyes.
Then one day, everything changed and my world was ripped apart.
My wife, my everything, was taken from me, and I was left alone to raise our baby girl.
I was forced from late night sessions at the gym to changing diapers all by myself.
Thank God for the help I received from my parents and siblings or I would have been lost.
I accepted my fate of being alone with my baby girl and living life with just us two…
Until the day I met her, and she became everything worth fighting for.

CARISSA
Life was so perfect.
A loving fiancé, wonderful friends and family, and a job I adored.
Until one day, my world was turned upside down and the man I loved threw the promise of forever down the drain and walked out of my life.
The day he walked out of my door, I knew that everything I had ever grown up to believe in was a lie.
Love is unconditional but love sure as hell doesn’t last forever.
The vow to love me for the rest of our lives ended quickly as he pulled away from me, and buried himself in the arms of his ex.
I was left alone, cursing the male species and everyone who had found their happily ever after.
My sister and my best friend were the only ones there for me…
Until the day I met him, and he became everything worth fighting for.

my review

This was a sweet, easily readable contemporary romance. It was also SUPER predictable. I read a couple chapters and then went to take a shower. While showering I thought about how the book might progress and now know that I anticipated almost all of the major plot points correctly.

[Spoiler warning]
That someone would try and sexually assault her? Check. That he’d step in and save her with all his tough, UFC menace? Check. That they’d fall hard and fast? Check. That there would be some sort of needless friction that tore them temporarily apart? Check. That it would involve his wife? Check. I hit every single one of them. And I don’t say that to be like, “Oh, look how smart I am,” but rather as “Oh, look how predictable it all was.”

The thing is, a lot of people appreciate the predictability. It makes it a safe read. That’s especially appealing in a Christmas read, apparently. So I’m not necessarily saying it’s a bad thing. Just know what you’re signing up for…that and the fact that it’s first person, present tense.

Outside of the likeable characters and predictability, my only comment is that the attempted rapist is treated as a douche, but no one ever even alludes to the fact that he literally tried to rape Carissa. That left a bad taste in my mouth. But, all in all, it wasn’t a bad read.

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Other Reviews:

https://tgtrnbookreviews.com/2020/10/04/r-e-v-i-e-w-%E2%9E%A0-fighting-for-us-by-bella-emy/

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Book Review: Charley’s Christmas Wolf, by C.D. Gorri

I picked up a copy of C.D. Gorri‘s Charley’s Christmas Wolf as an Amazon freebie, in order to add a little paranormal to my otherwise Contemporary Romance heavy Christmas Reading Challenge.

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Rafe Maccon is the Alpha of the Macconwood Pack, for now. His rule is being questioned by a rogue Wolf who wants him ousted for breaking an ancient law that states the Alpha must be mated!

He must find a mate in order to keep his position. Seeing their Alpha in trouble, Rafe’s Wolf Guard take it upon themselves to find one for him.

Charley Palmieri works a dead end job and lives alone with her cat until one night when her world is changed forever.

Instant attraction sparks between them. Can Rafe convince Charley to be his before the meeting of Pack elders on Christmas Eve? Will she be his one true mate, for life?

my review

I’ve mentioned before that years ago, before we had kids and evening responsibilities, my husband and I used to indulge in something we called Good Wine, Bad Movie Night. The idea was that there is a certain brand of cheesily bad movie, that when watched just a little drunk turns marvelously horrid. So, one of us would pick up a Good Wine (or what passed for good for a broke couple) and the other would pick a Bad Movie. Then we’d drink and be merry. We watched a lot of B-grade sci-fi and questionable anime. But it was fun.

I mention this memory because Charley’s Christmas Wolf has many of the same qualities as the bad movies of Good Wine, Bad Movie Night. It is bad. There is no getting around that fact. We’re talking the heyday of Ellora’s Cave bad. But there is also something gloriously indulgent in accepting it for what it is. You have to laugh at it, but stop short of doing so mockingly, because it knows what it is. It’s not trying to be something else and you have to respect that.

The whole thing is super rushed. The love is instant. There is no character or plot development. The sex is questionable. The book tries to be both a dub-con and a hot romance and fails at both. The dialogue is atrocious, etc. But throughout it all, if you take another sip of wine and relax into it, it’s worth the good-natured laugh.

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