Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Flight of Magpies

SERIES: A Charm of Magpies #3

AUTHOR: KJ Charles

NARRATOR: Cornell Collins

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 6 hours, 24 minutes

RELEASE DATE: January 26, 2018

BLURB:

Danger in the air. Lovers on the brink.

With the justiciary understaffed, a series of horrifying occult murders to be investigated, and a young student flying off the rails, magical law enforcer Stephen Day is under increasing stress. And the strain is starting to show in his relationship with his aristocratic lover, Lord Crane.

Crane chafes at the restrictions of England’s laws, and there’s a worrying development in the blood-and-sex bond he shares with Stephen. A development that makes a sensible man question if they should be together at all.

Then a devastating loss brings the people he most loves into bitter conflict. Old enemies, new enemies, and unexpected enemies are painting Stephen and Crane into a corner, and the pressure threatens to tear them apart…

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Secret Admirer

AUTHOR: DJ Jamison

NARRATOR: Darcy Stark

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

RELEASE DATE: September 11, 2020

LENGTH:  6 hrs and 49 mins

BLURB:

You deserve all the kisses you want….

Benji,

I want you to know how amazing you are. You won’t believe me, because I’m just your brother’s best friend, but it’s true. Each day my feelings for you grow, confusing but undeniable.

With a few anonymous love tokens, I finally have an outlet for all the things I can’t say. And with each gift and note, you smile. For me. Not your brother’s straight friend, but something new. Something more. Something that will change everything if we can both find the courage to believe.

All I have to do is confess who I really am:

Your Secret Admirer.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: A Case of Possession

SERIES: A Charm of Magpies #2

AUTHOR: KJ Charles

NARRATOR: Cornell Collins

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 6 hours, 2 minutes

RELEASE DATE: January 16, 2018

BLURB:

Magic in the blood. Danger in the streets.

Lord Crane has never had a lover quite as elusive as Stephen Day. He knows Stephen’s job as justiciar requires secrecy, but the magician is doing his disappearing act more than seems reasonable—especially since Crane will soon return to his home in China. When a blackmailer threatens to expose their illicit relationship, there’s only one thing stopping Crane from leaving the country he loathes: Stephen.

Stephen has problems of his own. As he investigates a plague of giant rats sweeping London, his sudden increase in power, boosted by his blood-and-sex bond with Crane, is rousing suspicion that he’s turned warlock. With all eyes on him, the threat of exposure grows. Stephen could lose his friends, his job and his liberty over his relationship with Crane. He’s not sure if he can take that risk much longer. Crane isn’t sure if he can ask him to.

The rats are closing in, and something has to give…

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Patchwork Paradise

AUTHOR: Indra Vaughn

NARRATOR: Craig Beck

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 6 hours, 42 minutes

RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2016

BLURB:

Oliver and Samuel’s relationship is fairy-tale perfect. They share a gorgeous house in Antwerp, go out with their friends every weekend, and count down the days to their dream wedding. But their happy ending is shattered one late night, and just like that, Ollie is left bereft and alone.

The months that follow are long and dark, but slowly Ollie emerges from his grief. He even braves the waters of online dating, though deep down he doesn’t believe he can find that connection again. He doesn’t think to look for love right in front of him: his bisexual friend Thomas, the gentle giant with a kind heart and sad eyes who’s wanted him all along.

When Thomas suddenly discovers he has a son who needs him, he’s ill prepared. Ollie opens up his house – Sam’s house – and lets them in. Ollie doesn’t know what scares him more: the responsibility of caring for a baby, or the way Thomas is steadily winning his heart. It will take all the courage he has to discover whether or not fairy tales can happen for real.

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Never Say Never

SERIES:  Lost in New York #3

AUTHOR:  Felice Stevens

NARRATOR:  Kale Williams

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  10 hours and 16 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  October 9, 2020

BLURB:  

One taste leaves them wanting more….

Ingredients:

Francisco “Frisco” Martinelli. Hot and spicy. Beautiful on the outside, dark and damaged on the inside. Handle with extreme caution.

Salvatore “Torre” Rossi. Sweet with a kick of spice. Gentle at first, can become swiftly and irrevocably addictive to the heart.

A recipe for romance:

One snobby food critic who doesn’t believe in love.

One down-to-earth food blogger who does.

Add a touch of suspicious brother.

A heaping serving of a best friend who’s been waiting for this to happen.

Blend with secret identities, past hurts, and judgments.

Stir in equal portions of desperate longing, desire, fear, and snarky humor.

Set over open flame, step back, and wait for sparks to fly.

Serve as is for an explosive love story that will leave you with a full heart and a ridiculously happy smile at the end.

This is the third book in the Lost in New York series but can be listened to as a stand-alone.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: The Magpie Lord

SERIES: A Charm of Magpies #1

AUTHOR: KJ Charles

NARRATOR: Cornell Collins

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 6 hours 25 minutes

RELEASE DATE: January 26, 2018

BLURB:

A lord in danger. A magician in turmoil. A snowball in hell.

Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn’t expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude… and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’s definitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn’t the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die.

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE: Mate

SERIES: Forbidden Desires #3

AUTHORS: Piper Scott & Virginia Kelly

NARRATOR:  Michael Ferraiuolo

LENGTH: 11 hours and 35 minutes

RELEASE DATE: August 31, 2019

BLURB:

Spitfire disgrace Matthieu Boudreaux has one wish: to age out of the Pedigree he despises, then destroy it. With one year left before he achieves the first step of his goal, Matthieu finally has some hope for an independent future. That is, until a surly Amethyst dragon by the name of Geoffrey Drake and his entourage show up at Matthieu’s cloister and inform him he’s been selected to be part of an “experiment”.

Geoffrey Drake, proud and stuffy legal counsel for the Amethyst clan, has been charged with ruining his own life. His mission? Deliver a potential mate to the son of the Amethyst clan’s most despised enemy – and the man he’s loved in secret for the last hundred years – Topaz dragon Ian Brand. Refusal is impossible. Dragons don’t consort with dragons, and should Geoffrey decline, he risks exposing them both.

Ian Brand, charming black sheep of the Topaz clan, is trapped between his forbidden love for an Amethyst dragon centuries his senior and his duty to his family. Chosen by his unhinged father to be the Topaz candidate for the mating experiment, Ian is faced with a terrible choice: run away with the man he loves and face the deadly consequences or accept his fate with a broken heart.

But dragon magic – as Matthieu, Geoffrey, and Ian soon discover – works in mysterious ways. When an unforeseeable circumstance draws them all together and puts their futures at risk, they have no choice but to set their differences aside and work together to prove a new, startling truth….

What the dragon world knows about mates has been wrong all along, and it will be up to the three of them to prove it.

Please note: Mate is a steamy omegaverse romance involving male pregnancy that will leave you in stitches. It contains an experiment gone awry, five eccentric peacocks, an unusually large number of whelps, an ancient Viking Daddy dragon, and science! For maximum enjoyment, Mate is best listened to following the events of Clutch and Bond.

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE: Bond

SERIES: Forbidden Desires #2

AUTHORS: Piper Scott & Virginia Kelly

NARRATOR:  Michael Ferraiuolo

LENGTH: 8 hours and 58 minutes

RELEASE DATE: July 29, 2019

BLURB:

Adorably naive and shockingly brilliant Harrison Lessardi only needs two things in life: his pet iguana, Steve, and his undying love of science. That is until he witnesses his best friend lay eggs, and a third must-have strolls into his apartment – the sardonic and mischievous Everard Drake.

Everard Drake, celebrated doctor of the tremendously wealthy Drake family, has one goal in mind when he arrives at the scene of his youngest brother’s latest disaster: incinerate Harrison Lessardi. Unfortunately for Everard, the moment he spots Harry, incineration becomes an impossibility – he must have the gorgeous beta as his own, even if it means holding him captive on his estate.

But something else lurks behind Everard’s interest in Harry – something that tugs at Everard’s soul in impossible ways, and that will send Everard and Harry down a rabbit hole of discovery that will change the world as they know it.

An alpha and a beta can’t share a bond.

Can they?

Bond is a 78,000 word steamy omegaverse mpreg-ish romance that will leave you in stitches. It contains an unexpectedly consensual kidnapping, giant magical lizards, an iguana with a full wardrobe named Steve, never-ending nicknames, and a HEA that may, or may not involve mosquito nets. For maximum enjoyment, Bond is best heard following the events of Clutch.

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE: Clutch

SERIES: Forbidden Desires #1

AUTHORS: Piper Scott & Virginia Kelly

NARRATOR:  Michael Ferraiuolo

LENGTH: 7 hours and 8 minutes

RELEASE DATE: July 04, 2019

BLURB:

Bookish, snarky, and fiercely independent Nate Boudreaux leads a solitary life. Between teaching classes at the university and working toward his PhD, he doesn’t need a partner to occupy his time, and he certainly doesn’t need a man like Alistair Drake complicating his future.
Alistair Drake, black sheep of the tremendously wealthy Drake family, is more interested in adding another notch to his bedpost than another zero to his bank account. When a Grindr message brings him to Nate’s doorstep, then straight to his bed, he has no reason to believe that what they share will be more than a simple hookup, until, three months later, a tug on his soul informs him otherwise.
For the Drake family has a secret – one that will force Nate and Alistair together as much as it will demand that they be torn apart. One that Alistair and his brothers have carried all their lives…and one that Alistair and Nate’s future children will carry, too.
Bound to each other by the three precious impossibilities, Nate and Alistair have no choice – no matter the consequence, they will fight for their forbidden clutch.
Clutch is a 64,000 word steamy omegaverse mpreg-ish romance that will leave you in stitches. It contains a Grindr hook-up gone very wrong (or very right), giant magical lizards, a pig named Olive, a wank throne, and a HEA, right down to the white picket fence.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Hidden Treasures

SERIES: Pinx Video Mysteries #2

AUTHOR: Marshall Thornton

NARRATOR: Jack Meloche

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 5 hours, 30 minutes

RELEASE DATE: September 10, 2020

BLURB:

It’s about a dress. A valuable blue sequined dress worn by a famed actress in a film from the 1940s. For some reason everyone thinks video storeowner Noah Valentine has it. Which might not be a big deal except that it’s connected to the murder of a prominent Hollywood costumer.

In the second of the Pinx Video Mysteries, Noah attempts to solve the mystery of the dress. To do so, he must confront a legendary film icon Wilma Wanderly, hunky police Detective Javier O’Shea, the dowager Queen of Watts and a couple of bitter ex-friends.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Sixty Five Hours

AUTHOR: N.R. Walker

NARRATOR: Nick J. Russo

PUBLISHER: Blueheart Press

LENGTH: 5 hours, 27 minutes

RELEASE DATE: August 6, 2020

BLURB:

Cameron Fletcher and Lucas Hensley are advertising executives who have Sixty Five Hours to pull together the campaign of their careers.

Sixty Five Hours to get along. Sixty Five Hours to not kill each other. Sixty Five Hours to fall in love.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Pressure Head

SERIES: The Plumber’s Mate Mysteries #1

AUTHOR: JL Merrow

NARRATOR: Phillip Humphries

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 7 hours, 4 minutes

RELEASE DATE: September 15, 2020

BLURB:

Some secrets are better left hidden.

To most of the world, Tom Paretski is just a plumber with a cheeky attitude and a dodgy hip, souvenir of a schoolboy accident. The local police keep his number on file for a different reason—his sixth sense for finding hidden things.

When he’s called in to help locate the body of a missing woman up on Nomansland Common, he unexpectedly encounters someone who resurrects a host of complicated emotions. Phil Morrison, Tom’s old school crush, now a private investigator working the same case. And the former bully partly responsible for Tom’s injury.

The shocks keep coming. Phil is now openly gay, and shows unmistakable signs of interest. Tom’s attraction to the big, blond investigator hasn’t changed—in fact, he’s even more desirable all grown up. But is Phil’s interest genuine, or does he only want to use Tom’s talent?

As the pile of complicated evidence surrounding the woman’s murder grows higher, so does the heat between Tom and Phil. But opening himself to this degree exposes Tom’s heart in a way he’s not sure he’s ready for…while the murderer’s trigger finger is getting increasingly twitchy.