Hockey with Benefits by Tijan.

Thank you for the Valentine PR and Tijan for giving me a book to read and review.

At first I want to say that I have read Tijan's books before, but this was a first book for a while.

I enjoyed the book at certain level, three stars for the book and the fourth solemnly for Cruz . Mara was the kind of a character that I don't really like. At the beginning she was pictured kind of a mean girl. She definitely had some growth during the book, but I still didn't connect with her the way I would have liked.

Cruz was a totally different story. I liked his character. I liked how he reacted and how he was over all. He had some serious depth and I felt like there really could be a Cruz out there.

This book contains some heavy issues and is not suitable for young readers. I liked the fact that this wasn't your everyday read, but had some serious stuff going on. Both of the main characters had their baggage, which helped Cruz to understand Mara and I think that was really well explained in the book.

The book had so many side characters that I got confused at the times. Few of the characters were familiar from previous books. At the beginning of the book there are a lot of steamy scenes and I was afraid that the whole book would be like that, luckily for me it wasn't. I felt like there were some loose ends, but nothing too much.

The things I liked in this book: the fact that Mara's character evolved, the hockey, Cruz, the relationship between Mara and Cruz, the double POV and I really enjoyed the epilogue. I think that it was a meaningful.

Over all this was a good read.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hockey with Benefits by Tijan

2023

The Muse by Emma Scott

Thank you for the Valentine PR and Emma Scott for giving me an ARC to me read and review.

I haven't made a habit of reading paranormal romance. Last one I read was The Sinner by Emma Scott. Now I had an amazing opportunity to read the next of book of the series, The Muse. I enjoyed reading this one as much as I enjoyed the first one. 

Emma Scott has created a world full of demons, angels and human. Her world makes sense. The demons, angels and the concept of the Other Side is, at the same time, comforting and scary. She portraits demons so well that you can almost feel the gust from their wings. 

The Muse brings us Cole and Ambri. The other one is a struggling artist and the other one is a demon, who has a task to follow. We met both characters at the previous book, but in this book they are the main characters. Cole, Lucy's best friend lives in London and is struggling with life. He is about to lose himself in the pits of depression. He has these voices in his head, that are telling him that he is worthless. 

Then comes Ambri, the one who saves him in one cold evening. Ambri seems to be everything Cole feels he is not. They form an alliance and make a deal. But it's not an easy to resist something you want. They fall in love. They both battle with feelings, demands and are afraid of consequences. 

I loved how Emma explained all the self-doubt, all the critique we have towards ourselves. I admit that this one was a hard book to read, because I have been there, at that bridge. I stood there and stared the deep down. But in this book depression is so well explained, at least parts of it. 

I loved Cole, I adored his will to protect even in situations where it seems like impossible task. I loved Ambri and the way he was able to learn to trust again. Because trust is important, is there love without trust? The characters we're over all great, the world is phenomenal, the writing stellar as usual. My feelings while reading were all over the place. My heart broke for both of these men. One of the things I loved in this book how through her writing Emma tells you that you matter and your feelings are valid, but just don't listen too much your demons who try to put you down. Fight back. 

I think it's safe to say that Emma Scott has become one of my favorite authors. She never disappoints. 

I can recommend this book to everyone who loves paranormal romance with some spicy times. And this is MM romance. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Muse by Emma Scott

2023

Personal Foul by Jerica MacMillan

Thank you for Grey's Promotions and the author for letting me to read and review this book.

Personal Foul is fake-dating, enemies-to-lovers kind of book. I usually love those, but I had some issues with this book. I truly believe it's because of me. If I would have actually read the blurb before reading the book I would have some hints that there might be something on this book I won't enjoy. 

I am not spoiling anything, because it all can be read in blurb. But I had an issue with Dylan blackmailing Charity. I kind of get the point, but these two characters are supposed to be adults. You just don't go around blackmailing people, even if it's just for the show. 

On the other hand, I liked how things turned out. Dylan did grow up after the messy start of the book and the second half of the book I actually enjoyed a lot. I think there were some character development with both characters. The whole book were kind of spinning around the main characters relationship. There were few sublplots, but nothing major. I would like to have known the end result of them, though. Not many side characters in this book. 

Over all, an okay read. Lots of spicy scenes with an HEA. I can recommend this to you, if the idea of blackmailing doesn't offend you.

⭐⭐⭐

Personal Foul by Jerica MacMillan

2022

 

A Little Too Close by Rebecca Yarros

Thank you for Candi Kane PR and Rebecca Yarros for giving me an ARC to read and review. 

Clearly this was not my first Rebecca Yarros book. I do love her books. I know that I get a good book whenever I pick up a book by her. Her writing is always solid and story always moves forward. I am guaranteed to get a great read, always. 

I have few favorites by her, you can find them in here and in here. I also love her Flight and Glory -series, those books made my cry so much. Some of her books are really emotional. However, A Little Too Close is not one of those books. Sure it has some spins and turns that can make you heart beat a bit faster (and I don't mean those spicy scenes now 😂). 

A Little Too Close is a story about two people who are forced to live together. One of those people have a kid that is important part of their love story. I do love my helicopter pilots and I really liked Weston. There was nothing wrong with Callie, either. Sutton was great, I adored her. (I actually had to read blurb right now, so I wouldn't spoil anything. That's how much I trust Rebecca Yarros, I don't read blurbs on her books.)

I think this book is solid, it gave me feels, but maybe this is not a five star book. I'll give four and half stars to this book. I liked the characters, I liked the plot, I liked the chemistry, I even liked the spicy scenes. I liked the flow of the book. The writing was flawless once again. The book made me want to learn more about the characters. I hoped for deeper connection to characters. 

This is a great book and I believe that you should give this book a shot if you like forced proximity -romances. Thank you for a yet another good read!

⭐⭐⭐⭐½

A Little Too Close by Rebecca Yarros

Unexpected by Elizabeth Aton

I received an opportunity to read and review a debut novel by Elizabeth Aton and I jumped on board. I certainly do not regret it.

(Side note: It still feels funny that people give me an ARC to read when I ask it or sometimes even offers me an ARC to read. Like why would they ask me, the not-at-all important person from different side of the world to read their book. The work that one book requires is insane and I get to read that book is a huge blessing. Most of the time I feel like I am not worth these ARC's. But I am eternally grateful for all the authors who trust me enough to let me read their books.)

But now, back to business.

Elizabeth Aton wrote her debut novel, which I find hard to believe. I've read worse books by authors who have published tons of book. And I don't mean the plot or characters. I mean the writing. Writing and the flow of the story are important to me. Sometimes you read a book with great characters, but the writing or flow isn't as great. But it wasn't a problem with Unexpected. 

Unexpected is well-written story that flows most of the time easily. Sure, for me, there were few moments that it felt like story stayed put, but those were small moments. Characters were easy to connect with. 

Unexpected is a story about a waiter and a rock star, who happens to be a single dad. This book is contemporary romance with some steam. I really can't say much more, because it really would spoil the experience for you. But I'll say that if you're a person who cries, like I am, you will cry so keep tissues nearby. The twists and turns keep coming. 

The things I liked. The cover, have you seen it? It's amazing! The characters, I liked the bandmates and Ava a lot. Whit and secondary characters were great, too. I liked the writing. I liked the flow, if you don't count few slow moments. The author, she's funny.

So, why I don't give five stars to this book? For me there were few loose ends. I would have liked to know what happened with certain things. There were few slow moments, which was sad, because other than those, the book was very capturing.  

I liked the promise that we get to see more of these characters in the next book of the series, which is about Whit's bandmate. 

Over all, this was a great debut novel and I really hope that Elizabeth Aton keeps writing!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Unexpected by Elizabeth Aton

2022

Between Hello & Goodbye by Emma Scott

Hi all. It has been a while, but I am slowly getting back there. Here's a review from, yet once again, great Emma Scott book. 

Thank you for Valentine PR and Emma Scott for giving me an ARC to read and review!

There are few things you know before you start reading a new book by Emma Scott. One, you know that the book is going to make you cry. Two, you know that when you start reading you can not stop the reading before the book ends. That's why I needed to wait for a weekend to start reading. Three, you know that you get to read a great story with great writing. 

Between Hello & Goodbye is a story about Faith. Story about Faith, the girl and faith for the new beginnings. Faith for the power inside you. Faith for the other people. Faith for that you can find the strength when it isn't anywhere to be seen. 

I loved Someday, Someday and that's a book where we first met Faith. But I didn't love Faith in that book. It would be stretch to say that I even liked her. I felt indifferent towards her. She wasn't my main focus while reading Someday, Someday. 

But this time Faith became my main focus and not just because she was supposed to come being one of the two main characters. She has many great qualities, but she doesn't have faith in herself. She sails through the life without bothering to look anything meaningful. She meets Asher, the hot fire fighter with so many people to care in his life and something starts to change in Faith. 

It's a cliche to say that love changes people, but maybe it really does or at least maybe love makes you think things differently and therefore makes you to make changes. I really don't know. But Faith certainly makes some changes in her life as does Asher. 

But love isn't easy and certainly not when you're living 2700 miles from each other. These people struggle with theirselves and their beliefs, wants and needs. They still have faith and certainty for their love. They want what's best for the other one and sometimes it means that you're losing. You are giving something great to someone, but at the same time you lose a piece of yourself. 

So, really. This book is about Faith. Faith for yourself, faith for the ones you love, faith for the future and faith for the fact that you're enough and capable. The faith in that life is not a competition. We all are here and we all are different, we all struggle and we all thrive. We are meant to be ourselves and we are meant to have faith. In this book we get to see that sometimes loving hurts, sometimes being in love is hard and still it's all worth it. 

Emma's writing was once again solid, flawless and heart breakingly beautiful. (I did cry while reading and my spouse just asked if the book was good.) The world is built beautifully, the characters are just right, they are real people with real feelings and actions. 

Can I say anything more? Not likely. Maybe I just share one of my favorite lines from the book, the one I can connect with "We all have our stuff. It's all valid."

Thank you, Emma, for once again great book. I really appreciate that I got to read this book. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Between Hello & Goodbye by Emma Scott

2022

Reason to Believe by Rebecca Yarros

Thank you for the Candi Kane PR and Rebecca Yarros for giving me an ARC to read and review! 

I have read Rebecca Yarros' books before and I have loved them. I had really high hopes for this book. Reason to Believe is the first novel of Legacy -series. I have read the two novellas, Point Of Origin and Ignite, before, but I didn't remember much from them. Luckily this didn't matter, because you can read Reason to Believe as a stand-alone. 

In this book we get to meet Harper and Knox who have loved each other for years without telling it to each other. Harper decides to foster two boys and asks help from Knox. He agrees to help and as we can predict they both fall in love with the boys. I don't want to spoil this book so I won't say much more about this book. 

I enjoy reading Mrs. Yarros' books, because I always know that she has done her research and everything in book will be correct. This book has some heavy subjects that might trigger some readers. I found this book incredibly well written. I liked a lot of the fact that there's matter of fostering and adopting brought up in this book. 

This book is full of joy and love. There's also some hard and negative feelings. Some hard stuff happens and how it's dealt in this book is amazing. I love how I could see the overflow of Harper's and Knox's feelings. I loved their relationship and how it was portrait in the book.

I am once again amazed how beautifully Mrs. Yarros writes. Her words are powerful and when you pick up one of her books you know you have a great read ahead of you. I hope she continues to write about Legacy. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐½

Reason to Believe by Rebecca Yarros

Everafter Romance

2022