Reviewed by Kimberley

TITLE: Convincing Conrad

SERIES: The Bodyguard Pack # 1

AUTHOR(S): Casey Drake

PUBLISHER: Self Published

RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2020

LENGTH:  248 pages

BLURB:

Conrad Stokes knows he’s in trouble when he uncovers an embezzlement scheme and watches as his boss’s office is ransacked… by glowing-eyed shadows. Now his boss is dead, and Conrad is understandably freaked out and doesn’t want to go home alone. Enter Ryder, the gorgeous security specialist sent by his sister.

Ryder Weller didn’t know what to expect when he answered Connie’s call to escort her twin brother home from a seedy bar across town. A trashed apartment, the scent of dangerous wolves, and the overwhelming need to protect the human in his care at all costs wasn’t it. He sure wasn’t dreaming of forever… or finding a true mate. But it might all be within his grasp—after he breaks the news that “werewolves are real and hey, I’m one of them,” that is.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Clashing With a Titan

SERIES: Hart Medical Center #6

AUTHOR: Shea Balik

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 87 pages

RELEASE DATE: July 4, 2020

BLURB:

Dr. Oliver Pierce always thought Omegas weren’t worth his time. He’d even fought hospital management to keep Omegas from working there. But what if he was wrong? It was something he’d never imagined possible. That was, until he met Anson.

Anson Shaw had barely managed to get free from his ex-husband alive. After months of therapy he’d decided it wasn’t worth being under the thumb of an Alpha. But then he met Oliver. Everyone told Anson to stay away from him, yet despite their warnings he found himself being drawn to the Alpha.

Can an Alpha really change? Is it possible for an Omega to stand up to an Alpha and demand respect? When the Hart’s Medical Center stalker comes after Anson, both men search their hearts to find if love is worth the risk.

Warning: Triggers possible for shooting as well as gruesome notes left for the stalker’s victims.

Reviewed by Taylin

TITLE: A Model Escort

SERIES: Dreamspun Desires #77

AUTHOR: Amanda Meuwissen

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

LENGTH: 230 Pages

BLURB:

Shy data scientist Owen Quinn is brilliant at predictive models but clueless at romance. Fortunately, a new career allows him to start over hundreds of miles from the ex he would rather forget. But the opportunity might go to waste since this isn’t the kind of problem he knows how to solve. The truth is, he’s terrible at making the first move and wishes a connection didn’t have to revolve around sex.

Cal Mercer works for the Nick of Time Escort Service. He’s picky about his clients and has never accepted a regular who is looking for companionship over sex—but can the right client change his mind? And can real feelings develop while money is changing hands? Owen and Cal might get to the root of their true feelings… if their pasts don’t interfere.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Falling Awake III: Requiem

SERIES: Falling Awake #3

AUTHOR: Kristoffer Gair

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 476 pages

RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2020

BLURB:

They targeted him before he was ever born. They will hunt him. They will execute anyone around him. They will rip his innocence away, corrupt him, and twist him into an instrument of terror. He will give the world reason to fear, fear the unknown, and he will do this lifetime after lifetime after lifetime.

Except this time, Daniel Davis hasn’t come back alone.

Four souls have returned with him, would-be protectors who’ve vowed to shield him from this fate. If they succeed, Daniel will turn what is into what can be. And if they fail, his light will dim and fade…forever

Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE:  Powder and Pavlova

SERIES: Southern Lights #1

AUTHOR:  Jay Hogan

PUBLISHER:  Southern Lights Publishing

RELEASE DATE:  January 23, 2020

LENGTH:  294 pages

BLURB:

ETHAN SHARPE is living every young Kiwi’s dream—seeing the world for a couple of years while deciding what to do with his life. Then he gets a call. Two days later he’s back in New Zealand. Six months later his mother is dead, his fifteen-year-old brother is going off the rails and the café he’s inherited is failing. His life is a hot mess and the last thing he needs is another complication—like the man who just walked into his café,

a much older…

sinfully hot…

EPIC complication.

TANNER CARPENTER’s time in Queenstown has an expiration date. He has a new branch of his business to get up and running, exorcise a few personal demons while he’s at it, and then head back to Auckland to get on with his life. He isn’t looking for a relationship especially with someone fifteen years his junior, but Ethan is gorgeous, troubled and in need of a friend. Tanner could be that for Ethan, right? He could brighten Ethan’s day for a while, help him out, maybe even offer some… stress relief, no strings attached. It was a good plan, until it wasn’t.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Falling Awake II: Revenant

SERIES: Falling Awake #2

AUTHOR: Kristoffer Gair

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 388 pages

RELEASE DATE: June 19, 2018

BLURB:

Andrew O’Donnell’s childhood friend, Thomas, was murdered when they were ten years old. Nightmares and guilt have plagued Andrew ever since. And he believes himself responsible for delivering Thomas into the very hands of the men who committed the atrocity.

Now, fourteen years later, Andrew is driven to uncover the mystery of what really happened to Thomas, the reason behind the brutal abduction, and whether the assailants—who were never caught—have set their sights on someone else.

Even the help of an unlikely ally may not be enough to stop the darkness, the threat of what it will do to them in this life…or the next.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Blood Sport

SERIES: Serial Investigations #5

AUTHOR: Rhiannon D’Averc

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 162 pages

RELEASE DATE: June 30, 2020

BLURB:

A copycat killer who knows every detail.

A locked room with no escape.

Serial Investigations London is officially closed for business – with private detectives Will and Ram still not talking to one another after an explosive argument. Even when a copycat killer springs up, seemingly targeting only their own cases, they can’t see eye to eye.

Little wonder, given that they both have something more important on their minds. Someone knows about San Francisco – about the man who died on a rooftop at their feet. Who has discovered their deepest secret? And what will they do to keep it buried?

That’s when another mystery piles up on top of the rest: a traditional trope that every seasoned detective must face, the locked room. But this one has a deadly twist, and if they don’t come to terms with their differences and work together, one of them might not live to regret it.

Will and Ram face the most pressing and personal danger yet – but the question is, who’s behind it? And will they realise they’ve been set against one another before it’s too late?

The story continues with Blood Sport, a nail-biting series of twists and turns that will have you questioning how they’ll ever survive.

Enter the minds of troubled yet brilliant detectives as they struggle inside an interconnected web of lies – and the spider is getting hungry…

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Clean Up on Aisle Mine

SERIES: A Spy Like Me #1

AUTHOR: Patricia Logan

PUBLISHER: Westburg Publishing

LENGTH: 290 pages

RELEASE DATE: July 5, 2020

BLURB:

Former CIA operative, Damon Thorne, is a fixer. He cleans up messes other people make of their lives to forget the wreckage his own has become. Whether it means retrieving a drug addict whose family is being blackmailed or rescuing a furball who’s the subject of a custody dispute, Damon just gets things done.

When the job means kidnapping the wild son of a prominent Senator in an election year, it should come with hazard pay.

From the day Jude Chenoweth was born into wealth and position, his father has groomed him to follow in his footsteps. Jude has other plans. Openly gay and infamous, all he wants to do is live his life, create his art, and never settle down.

Life has a way of kicking butts, even the sexy ones. Thrown together in a situation neither wanted, Damon and Jude must now decide how to move forward. Jude knows something is wrong when he gazes into Damon’s haunted brown eyes and Damon recognizes there’s much more to Jude than the caricature he shows the world.

This might be the beginning of a journey… or an incredibly stupid mistake. Perhaps working together will help them process their own demons. Whatever happens, neither of them believes Damon’s assignments will always come with a heaping helping of bad guys.

Not always… right?

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Strays

SERIES: Urban Soul #2

AUTHOR: Garrett Leigh

PUBLISHER: Fox Love Press

RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2018

LENGTH: 268 pages

BLURB:

Work, sleep, work, repeat. Nero’s lonely life suits him just fine until his best friend, Cass, asks him to take on a new apprentice—a beautiful young man who’s never set foot in a professional kitchen. Despite his irritation and his lifelong ability to shut the world out, Nero is mesmerised by the vibrant stray, especially when he learns what drove him to seek sanctuary on Nero’s battered old couch.

Lenny Mitchell is living under a cloud of fear. Pursued by a stalker, he has nowhere left to run until Nero offers him a port in a storm—a job at the hottest restaurant in Shepherd’s Bush. Kitchen life proves heady and addictive, and it’s not long before he finds himself falling hard and fast for the man who has taken him in.

Fast-forward a month and a neither man can imagine life without the other, but one thing stands in their way: a lifetime of horrors Nero can’t bring himself to share with Lenny. Or can he? For the first time ever, happiness is there for the taking, and Nero must learn to embrace it before fate steps in and rips it away.