The Art of Fire by Kirby Crow

4 Stars

I always enjoy a Kirby Crow story and this was no different.  The story of  Marik, the disgraced soldier and Grey, the much younger recruit sent to second him in his lonely outpost is short - novella length - never my favourite, but I loved it anyway.  It's Kirby's writing!

Both men have secrets.  There are some magical powers.  There is a lovely sex scene and a few expressions of affection.  There is danger, a bit of intrigue and a tease of things going on in the wider world. There's even some fun banter.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable read that while being complete in and of itself, left me wanting to know more about these two characters and the wider world in which they live.  And, oh, I did love Marik very much.  :)

Tutus and Tinsel by Rhys Ford

4 Stars

Half Moon Bay 2.5

Great holiday read with much-loved characters. Rhys never disappoints.

Highly recommended!

Once Upon a Winter's Eve by Tessa Dare

3.5 Stars

Spindle Cove - Book 1.5

Another charming holiday read that was also a lot of fun.  Set during the Napoleonic wars, the story takes place in the space of one evening into the next dawn and is a delightful romantic and sexy tale.  

Novella in length, you don't get much time to get to know the characters and grow to like them, but the author does a lovely job of bringing them to life. I liked the both of them and honestly, wished we could follow them after the end of the tale.  

You don't need to know anything about the Spindle Cove series really, to enjoy this, so if you're in the mood for some festive sexy times, love and smidge of danger, head towards this one. 

A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant

3.5 Stars

Blackshear Family - Book 0.5

The first of my Christmas reads and it was charming.  I found myself smiling much of the way through the story, even when I wanted to pinch the hero, the so very bound-by-duty Andrew Blackshear, who is the eldest of the family and so very, very, very proper.  *LOL*

Our heroine, Lucy Sharp was born to get under Andrew's skin and drive him to total distraction.  And that's exactly what she does with her impulsive and adventurous ways.  Propriety?  Not something she adheres to for the most part.  Brought up by an unconventional widower after the way-too-early death of her mother.

It was cute, it was heart-warming, it was filled with love and surprises.  I'm not fond of the cover (it's just too modern-looking for me), but the novella is a very pleasing read for the holiday season.  Check it out!

Homecoming by Beverly Jenkins

3 Stars

This is the first novel by beloved doyenne of the historical romance genre, Beverly Jenkins, that I have read.  I was concerned.  Everyone loves her so much and my track record with hugely loved and highly touted works is iffy at best.

Well, I liked the premise.  A second chance at love type of thing, with a school teacher, headmistress, and a buffalo soldier.  Mature characters both.  Lydia comes back to her childhood home from Chicago and crosses paths with Gray Dane, her first love.  Turns out that his love for her as well as hers for him hasn't dimmed, but most probably grown.  So we have some angst, some winsomeness, sexiness, and some humour.  It should all work.  Yet...

I wish I could say I adored the book, but colour me not overly impressed. Mostly with the style of writing.  Very flowery, especially in the love scenes.  For instance, I don't think I'd ever heard/read about one's nipples being dazzled by a lover's fingers, but now I can say that I have.   Also, some of the dialogue didn't work for me, at times I found it stilted and at times it just sounded a wee bit too modern.  And I don't know, there was just something about the writing that felt dated and unrefined (?) to me.  (And not because it's a historical, sillies!)  So I checked.  This novella was published in 2007 according to the author's website, as part of the Gettin' Merry anthology.  Okay, 10 years ago.   Maybe that's why.

Anyway, I have another Beverly Jenkins in my TBR, a more recent one - Forbidden - from 2016.  Hopefully I'll enjoy it more.  :)

Taste of Marrow by Sarah Gailey

3.5 Stars

River of Teeth #2

I pre-ordered this book (something I very very seldom do) because I enjoyed the first, River of Teeth, so much.  It was fresh it, it was different, it was intriguing and it was well written and peopled with lovely characters.  This book, Taste of Marrow, was still all that, but at a lower level, I'm afraid.

Now, both books are novellas and I honestly think the story suffered from that in two ways.  First off, I felt that the story over both needed more fleshing out.  I wanted more... depth?  No, because what's there is plenty deep enough, but it just seemed that I wasn't getting the whole story as I should be.  I wanted more meat.

And secondly, I don't know why it had to be split over two novellas.  The first half of this one, I didn't really understand why one of the main characters was so manically obsessed with finding one of the others - big love notwithstanding.  I still don't get why it was so manic and I suppose I'd have to go back and read the first one again to see.  And I only read that one in May!  Anyway, put them both together in one normal sized novel - it would only be 75K words or 260 some odd pages.  Not even CLOSE to epic.  *LOL*   I also had trouble remembering why one of the bad characters was so important to the whole story.  So yeah... a single novel please?

The other thing that I found bothered me again was the gender-neutral use of the pronoun 'they'. It's bloody confusing, I'm sorry.  I apologise if that sounds insulting in anyway.  I have absolutely NO problem with gender-neutral/fluid people.  It's just that the word, after 55+ years of reading and 60 years of talking indicates more than one person to me.  I was confused so many times looking for the second or other people in the scene.  It brought me up short and took me right out of the story.  Which saddens me because I had to take off a .5 star for that because it did impact my enjoyment of the book.

So yeah, I was somewhat disappointed by Taste of Marrow.  I do hope the author continues to write in this universe however, and maybe even with some of the same characters.

The World of Cherry by Kay Brandt

3 Stars

World of Cherry - Book 1

Not much thinking here! *LOL* It's erotica. Explicit f/f erotica and there's a bit of a plot and a bit of characters to be found.

It is what it is and that's okay.

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

4.5 Stars

River of Teeth - Book 1

I first heard about River of Teeth through one of the reading blogs I follow and I bought the novella for the simple reason that the blurb got me.  Especially this part:

Contained within this volume is an 1890s America that might have been: a bayou overrun by feral hippos and mercenary hippo wranglers from around the globe. It is the story of Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. It is the story of their fortunes. It is the story of his revenge.

Feral hippos and hippo wranglers??  What?  Talk about an original idea!  I was sold.  I pre-ordered the book right away - a couple of months ago - and I hardly ever pre-order books.

It was not a wrong decision - I loved it!  The characters were original and interesting and bound together in interesting ways.  They kept me wanting to read page after page, fascinated and dying to see what they were going to get up to.  And the hippos... the HIPPOS!  I loved all of them. 

The world-building in this tale is intriguing even if it's a bit ... out of whack as per the author's note at the beginning of the book.  Who cares... IT WORKS!  And the story itself is a rollicking, fun, banter-filled adventure.  

And back to the characters.  They are a really diverse bunch.  Race, colour, creed, sexuality... hell, it's all diverse and not made a big deal of really which works just fine for me.  I like when the diversity is just a given in a story and not a plot point.  My only real problem was ... well, mechanical?  There is a character who is ... gender non-conforming?  I think that's the label.  Anyway, the character uses the 'they' pronoun.  Which is totally fine, but I've discovered that at the age of 60 and having 55 years of reading under my belt, when I read the words 'they' or 'them' or 'their' ... my brain looks for/understands multiple people and a couple if times I had to go back and see if the character was alone or had someone tagged along in the scene.  I suppose with more of these types of characters my brain will get used to it, but it was something that impacted me as I read. BTW, I adored the character in question!  :)  

My only real complaint is that it was too damned short!  I wanted a novel, not a novella.  Yes, it ended with a cliffhanger of sorts, but not one that made me want to send the ereader for a sail across the room.  Still, the characters were so good, the alternate reality so interesting that I wanted a lot more of it.  :)

Oh, and look at that lovely cover!  

The second book in the duology just went up for preorder today.  It's called Taste of Marrow.  And yes, I have pre-ordered it.  

The Builders by Daniel Polansky

3.5 Stars

The Builders was another of my guts buys.  It came up in my Kobo recs, I think and I was intrigued by the blurb and the price was right, so... I bought it.  :)  It's a novella and it's basically Brian Jacques Redwallesque except it's not suitable for youngsters.  *LOL*  Lots of violence and mayhem.

Now, one of my all-time favourite movies is The Magnificent Seven - the Yul Brynner version, of course - and as such, I'm drawn to books that feature a motley band of characters heading off on some kind of adventure or crusade or mission or whatever.  And that's what we have here.  It's a quick tale about a crew of not-so-noble animals heading off for what might be their final adventure.

And I liked it!

I liked Polansky's writing style and I enjoyed his character creations, even if I had to write down their names and what animals they were to keep them straight.  Once I wrote them down, though, it fixed in my mind, so I'll just blame by advancing years for that.  :)

Anyway, fun read and I'll be keeping Polansky's name in mind.

A Little Bit Naughty by Farrah Rochon

3.5 STARS

Moments in Maplesville - Book 2

This is the second novella in the Moments in Maplesville series and it was as entertaining as the first. Now, I know I'm supposed to be reading my holiday stories, but I got fooled into thinking this was another Christmas story. Well, fooled... I didn't pay enough attention. *LOL*

Anyway, we meet another pair of charming main characters, Jada (a bestie of the heroine of the 1st book) and Mason, a couple who have known each other since high school and disliked each other since high school.

While it might seem that the enemies to lovers happens awfully quick, I'm reminded of the day way back in time, that John Goldie (who was just a guy in my class) said something innocuous to me and I was instantly in love. *LOL* So I'm willing to give Jada and Mason a pass.

The author seems to have cut down on the fanatical use of descriptors in this book - YAY! But I realised that whatever happened to Jada to 'pique her interest' went directly to her nipples. SO many nipples. Nipples galore. Too many effing nipples. *LOL* Honestly, there are other ways/responses that women feel when they get turned on.

So yes, this was an entertaining read and I'll probably read more in the series should the chance arise. And once again, this is a story about POC written by a WOC.

A Perfect Holiday Fling by Farrah Rochon

3.5 STARS

Moments in Maplesville - Book 1

Farrah Rochon is an author I see mentioned many times in my Twitter feed by the romance authors I follow, so I figured it was about time I checked her out.

A Perfect Holiday Fling is the first of the Moments in Maplesville novellas which seem to all circle around holidays, and I found it quite enjoyable and perfect for the Christmas season.

I liked the characters, but as always, I bemoan the fact that there just isn't enough time in a novella to really get to know them, but what we do g

et is pretty good. I enjoyed the instant chemistry between the two MCs as well as the fact that Stefan's young 5 year old nephew wasn't perfectly precocious as so many kids in romances tend to be.

My one problem with this book was that the author likes her descriptors a little too much for my taste. Adjectives abound all over the place. Now I'm all for giving the reader a picture, God knows, but I often felt as if I was being inundated with colours and textures and brand names and all kinds of other stuff.

But I did like the book. :) Perfect read for the holiday season.

And for those that search them out, this is a book written by a WOC and about POC.

Mackenzie Family Christmas: The Perfect Gift by Jennifer Ashley

4 STARS

Mackenzies & McBrides - Book 4.5

This was a very enjoyable, sexy, holiday novella that had SO much crammed into its 165+ pages that it fairly made my head swim!  But in a good way.  :)

All the Mackenzies are here with their wives and their children and the place is rollicking.  There are so many instances of sexytimes, all of them lovely and steamy.  We have babies being born and kisses being stolen.  And we have the lovely Lord Ian, who is such a wonderful character, seeming to be the one holding it all together.

Great fun read and a good reminder to me that I have to find the others!  *whispers*  I've only read the first one, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, and it was really, really good.

The Serpent by Claire North

4.5 STARS

The Gameshouse - Book 1

This was one of the oddest things I've read in a long time. Deliciously odd. Fantastically odd. Gorgeously odd.

I'm sure there's a term for the way in which this novella was written. Second person POV? Not really. Actually, what it felt like was a storyteller escorting me, the reader, around the story chatting with me while telling the story. It was so very different and a little off-putting for the first ten or twenty pages. The chapters too - the shortest one was a single line, I think and the longest 25+ pages. But it all worked!

And the prose was so beautiful!

I'll tell you what. I am not into audiobooks at all. I lose concentration and just don't enjoy the process, but this book... OMG, THIS BOOK, in the hands of a voice like, ohh....Patrick Stewart? Ooh... Eoin Macken (you remember him, he played Gwaine in the TV show Merlin), he has a lovely storytelling voice. Anyway, in the hands of someone like them, this book would SHINE! Absolutely shine! I don't know who actually DID the audiobook, but it is out there.

It's a fantasy novella? Author KJ Charles called it spec fic. It's set in Venice during the 17th century and while there is no actual magic, there's a very mysterious place called The Gameshouse.

In the end, this was a beautiful, delicious, couldn't-put-it-down read that I enjoyed a whole helluva lot and I will be reading the other two, for sure!

The Serpent

Point of Knives by Melissa Scott

4 STARS

Astreiant Series - Book 2

I love this series!

This novella continues the adventures with Nico and Philip from Point of Hopes. A few months have passed since the events of that first novel.

I would have liked Point of Knives to be longer, it's only a novella, but I'm greedy that way. *LOL*

I still love both Nico and Philip and enjoyed the glimpses we got of their extended entourage of friends and co-workers.

So this was a nice snack that I totally enjoyed in a series that I'm pretty sure will become one of my favourites. :)

Stranded by HelenKay Dimon

3.5 STARS

So, I had just finished a terrific swashbuckling fantasy novel and was suffering from a bit of book hangover and I find that in that situation, the best thing I can do for my reading self is to completely switch genres - one of the reasons I read many genres. So I went for a sexy m/m romance starring a couple of hot tough guys.

It worked!

One thing that did sort of annoy me was the author's constant use of the word 'guy' in the narrative for first half of the book. That might just be me though, feeling that it's more of a slang word and should not be interchangeable with the word 'man'. Sometimes I'm old. *LOL*

But at any rate...

Stranded is a very enjoyable, hot and sexy m/m romance novella.

The Pinch of the Game by Charley Descoteaux

3 STARS

So I was looking for a quick read and this light-hearted novella seemed to be just the thing. And it was... I enjoyed it... I think. But I'm still so confused. I feel as if I was missing many different parts of the story for it to make sense. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm not up on the conventions of paranormal type stories, but I sincerely found myself left with more questions at the end of the story than at the beginning!

I liked the characters, the main characters and the secondary ones, but it being a novella, I felt as if some of them were given short shrift, sadly. We only got to see the surface of many of them. And I know that too much 'backstory' is considered anathema in a lot of romances, but I think this tale could have profited from a little more than I got. I would also have liked a little more explanation of the magic and how it works in this reality.

It's a shame, really, because I enjoy Charley's writing and I think this story was filled with great ideas and the glimmers of fun characters but... I shouldn't be left thinking I've missed reading half the book. :( I was disappointed.

But I must add... I love the cover art! It's gorgeous!

Craving Flight by Tamsen Parker

4 STARS

A terrific off the beaten path novella that was recced last weekend by Bree of Kit Rocha fame. This was a freebie on both Kobo and Amazon, so I urge you, if you like BDSM erotica, go and download it!

Our heroine is a Jewish University professor who has decided to embrace the more Orthodox lifestyle of her religion. The hero is a kosher butcher in the Orthodox community from a very orthodox family. Both have been previously married, he's a widower and she's divorced. I liked both of them and totally believed their love story. And the D/s elements were very well done. I think the story could have been expanded and the developing relationships explored a little more, but all in all, it was a really enjoyable and interesting read. I learned stuff about the Orthodox Jewish community too. :)

The Mercenary by Cornelia Grey

3.5 STARS

My first thought is that I would have read more of the story of these two men. In fact, I just wish there was more all around. More of the desert settlement, more of the Technicians, more of little Athena, more of London, just MORE. *LOL*

I enjoyed the two main characters, Asher and Gabriel. I liked what I perceived to be their age difference and I believed the chemistry between them, even though I would have liked more about how that developed. :)

I've now read two of Cornelia Grey's novels and this novella and I can honestly say that I really enjoy her writing. One thing to mention is that there's always a little bit of humour no matter how dire the situation and I totally appreciate that.

I would have given this 4 stars except that I found in the couple of scenes prior to the climax of the story were given a bit of short shrift. I needed more fleshing out of the motivations of both Asher and Gabriel leading to the climax of the story.

All in all, a good, fun read. :)

Among the Living by Jordan Castillo Price

4 STARS

Psycop - Book 1

I had heard many good things about JCP's PsyCop series, so I was really hoping I'd like it after the disappointment that was Magic Mansion. Luckily, I really, really enjoyed it! It was a good, fun read.

I'm not a huge fan of paranormals, but I do love a good cop story and this was a good cop story. The world-building is good and it works. Police detective psychics partnered up with non-psychics or "stiffs" is a simple premise but can give rise to all kinds of wonderful situations.

This book is written in a 1st person POV, that of one of the PsyCops, Victor Bayne and his voice is very real. He's not a hero type, just a cop that wants to do his job and not bring undue attention onto himself. I liked him. I liked his quirks and flaws and uncertainties. And I liked his humour and his caring and his honesty. For me, he's an easy guy to want to follow through his adventures.

The secondary characters, Jacob, Lisa, Warwick, Carol... they're all separate and distinct and while they are the types you see in a lot of detective type books, they are also original and interesting. I really liked Lisa and hope to see more of her in further books.

This was a novella and was over far too soon - but the story had been told and well told, so I shouldn't complain. The mystery made sense, the clues where there and the characters discovered things at the times they should have been discovered. There was no heroic flash of brilliance, no obvious deus ex machina, the characters solved the case when they should have.

I will definitely be reading more of this series.

Three the Hard Way by Sydney Croft

3.5 STARS

An ACRO Novella

Okay, it barely makes it as a Christmas story. This novella is set at Christmastime and it refers back to a major backstory plot point that takes place on Christmas, but other than that, it's not really a holiday type read. *LOL* And that's okay!

The story makes up a small part of the Acro World, adventure/thriller romances and what we have here is an adventure/thriller peopled by gorgeous men who have all kinds of super type powers. :) There are a pair of opposing organisations (ACRO and ITOR) that make use of people like these guys. And there's lots of gunfire and lots of sexytimes. :) And it was FUN!

As this is a novella that focusses on three main characters, there's not a lot of room for character depth and growth, but that's not a problem in my eyes. I like to look at it as watching a James Bond movieor an X-Men or Avengers movie.

This is the first thing I've read by Sydney Croft (Stephanie Tyler and Larissa Ione) and as I understand it, the rest of the novels and stories in this universe are m/f. I feel fully confident in saying that if you enjoy some paranormal adventure with plenty of steamy sex and hot romance, Sydney Croft is certainly worth your time. :)