Our Book Thoughts 💭 Reviews and Recommendations June 28th

💖 THIS WEEKS SPOTLIGHT READS 💖
📚 06/28/20 📚

🧚 Midnight Fae Academy by Lexi C. Foss
♕ Waiting for my Queen by Georgia Cates
💧  Stolen Soulmate by Mary Catherine Gebhard
🐉  Bond by Piper Scott
🎭 In Fury Lies Mischief by Amo Jones
🐺 Fawn by Elaina Jadin

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Midnight Fae Academy: Book One by Lexi C. Foss
Description:
Welcome to Midnight Fae Academy.
Home of the Dark Arts.
Vampires.
And cruelly handsome fae.
A forbidden bite led to my capture and recruitment.
There are no flowers here.
No life.
Only death.

My Thoughts 💭:
Holy hotness
This is the first episode in the trilogy and it starts by dumping the reader right into the chaos.
No slow introduction -
Just reading along flipping the pages then
💥BAM!💥
All he 'll breaks loose
This is a slow build romance, the attraction is there from the opening scene.
The untapped desire alone is enough to ignite the local fauna (So not telling you will need to read that) but the taboo that lies on the other side?
No one is touching that.
It was a while before I connected with the guys at a personal level, other than the need to stomp on their manly bits that is. As the foundation for the series is laid and we are taken deeper into the darkness that is Midnight Academy things begin to unravel.
A lot is going on behind the scenes and as I expected not everything is black and white. (*throat clears* Zeph)
My feelings towards some of the cast changed drastically - I used to like Kol.
Shade... I may have been a bit harsh when I first wanted to stomp his manly bits. Sorry about that Shade.
The world-building is a bit creepy 😳 Not in a bad way Midnight fae prefer the darker delights and the images that are presented?
A bit like Dracula's castle and Dante's 7 levels combined.
The factions or bloodlines - we get a bit of everything here which only drove my curiosity
This ends on a bit of a cliffy that left me mad 😠 as he ll and feeling a bit betrayed 😞
Aflora our sweet little earth fae - watch your back boys you crossed the wrong little queen
Kol - I used to find his character endearing now I hope he trips on a vine and ...
Shade I think I like him 😏 he grows on you
Zeph is an uptight arse
#darkparanormal #romance #fantasy #reverseharem #lexicfoss #kindleunlimited
Amazon

Waiting for my Queen by Georgia Cates
Description:
Emilia—
All I’ve ever wanted was to marry for love.
But girls like me don’t have that luxury.
We are used as pawns in a game we can’t control.
The game? It’s called Mafia.

My Thoughts 💭:
An arranged marriage gone wrong - A retaliation that would span two generations.
She only wanted to be with the man she loved.
To live her life outside the violence.
She never meant to be the catalyst for a war
Emilia only wanted the happily ever after every little girl dreams of. Her papa loved her enough to try and make that possible.
Silly girl dreams are for the regular folk.
Emilia was a bit of an enigma for me. She was so innocent in so many ways. She believed in happily ever after. She believed people were inherently good. She hoped. She loved.
She started out innocent emotionally but events quickly hardened her and removed those rose-colored glasses.
Luca is a mix of hard and soft. IMO it was his "crutches" that made him emotionally empty. I may have been able to forgive his murdering addictive self-indulgent behavior. Might have been able to look past his transgressions find it in me to forgive him for the pain he caused Emilia.
But that...
I knew I was never going to be able to forgive Luca as soon as he folded down the corner of a book to mark his page 😱. (you think I jest but I can still picture the scene)
I read a bit of "dark" romance and this is more of a grayish read IMO.
Plenty of suspense and some very steamy moments between our couple to keep the reader engaged.
Watching Luca come to terms with his own demons was just an added bonus IMO.
Really didn't like Em's mom though.
The story flows pretty well. There are some lulls as well as some scenes that for me felt a bit rushed to conclusion, or they were missing the "meat" that would allow me a deeper connection.
I also would have enjoyed more time watching our couple develop.
I do know I want to see how our next couple fares.
#mafiaromance #contemporary #georgiacates #kindleunlimited
Amazon

Stolen Soulmate by Mary Catherine Gebhard
Description:
There’s a rule in Crowne Hall: never look a Crowne in the eyes.
It protects us more than them.
I broke it once, the night Grayson Crowne mistook me for his true love and stole my first kiss. I’ve regretted it every day since.
He hates me.
He torments me.
He won’t let me go, because that night he whispered a secret against my lips not meant for me. Grayson Crowne, heir to the Crowne empire and notorious playboy prince is… a virgin.
I signed a contract in my heart’s blood as much as ink: help him get back his love, repair what I broke. Give him my body, my soul, my heart, let him use all of me, so when the time comes to marry her, he won’t need me.
I shouldn’t need him.
But he’s my stolen soulmate, and I’m at his mercy.

My Thoughts 💭:
"If you don't dream you can't fail, if you don't love your heart can't break. "
I'm sooooo broken!
In book one Gray was, for me, a dark enigma.
I really wasn't sure if I liked or loathed him.
Nothing he did was ever as I expected.
He seemed so heartless. But there was something that had me take pause and look a bit deeper. I felt I was missing something.
When he takes center stage in SS I was torn between wanting to shove him into a fountain to cool his heels and hug him to let him know I saw him.
In the end, he broke my heart.
Oh, Story, you lost delusional snitch. If only you had chosen fairy tales over words maybe you could have salvaged your heart
You would have known how the story ends
I need more...
I need to know
How...
Why...
Be prepared to scream
To feel like you are being toyed with
To suffocate under the gloom of never knowing when the clouds will part
This takes place in the same timeline as book one which I found absolutely delightful! It gave the story a different depth to it - If you haven't read book one may I suggest you read it first and if you have read it may I suggest you read it again right before this one. I am serious it will change how you see the events in this book.
This is such a twisted tale. Even as the story came to a close I still felt off? Lost? I am not even sure how to word it.
I know I need my answers this is going to haunt me until I have them.
"Miss me one place? Find me another..."
Gray, what are you up too?
Lottie, I'm not sure about you something feels off
Mom? Still hoping you choke on your venomous words
#bullyromance #multiracial #marycatherinegebhard #kindleunlimited
Amazon  Kobo  Nook 

Bond by Piper Scott
Description:
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?

My Thoughts 💭:
Don't pass this up
One of my absolute favorite series -
Everything I enjoy when it comes to reading
I laughed so darn hard - Loud, scare everyone in the room full belly laughs
I loved the cast - Scott's characters are so real -
Yes I know they are dragons, I also know it's mpreg -
I was there -
I experienced every single moment and it felt real!
The tender exchanges of emotions, the one-track 👣 mind of our little beta, the food obsession of our overly arrogant Alpha - what was with that anyway 😂
Heck even the silent vigilance of brother iguana
This is one of those books that you will read over and over again
It's just that good
#MMRomance #paranormal #dragons #gay #humorous #piperscott #kindleunlimited
Amazon

In Fury Lies Mischief by Amo Jones
Description:
She was everything that I wanted.
He was everything that I despised.
Until she wasn’t.
Until he wasn’t.
Killian Cornelii was a walking calamity. He reached inside of me and touched every single inch of my ruined soul, but he didn’t just touch it. He caressed, petted, and captivated it. He tailored me to fit into the palm of his hands. The same hands that possess so much cruelty, were the very same that comforted me.
I thought I knew him.
He thought he knew me.
This isn’t a fairy tale, or some achingly beautiful story about two soul mates who instantly fall irrevocably in love with each other.
This is a story about a love so painful, so rich, that it destroys everything and everyone around it.
Including ourselves.
Midnight Mayhem is the platform to which Killian performs his tricks on, but the greatest trick wouldn’t come from him.
It would come from me.
Tricksters don’t have hearts.
They just pretend that they do.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

My Thoughts 💭:
"Words can be a powerful weapon, lethal enough to strip anyone of their composure while leaving their confidence bleeding out over the floor."
This is - IMO - Amo's best work to date.
I read this from cover to cover in one sitting
It was Intense - Raw
I couldn't walk away I had to know
The chemistry between Killian and Saskia -
It had its own rhythm -
Its own pulse.
"Beauty only neutralizes the evil in a person. It blinds people with its surface to conceal the darkness that swims beneath it. "
I'm not going to repeat the blurb or fill this space with pretty words. Let go of your reservations, your judgments, your expectations - Enjoy the journey as it was meant to be.
Let the darkness that is Kill and Sass envelop you.
I promise you will love every wicked moment.
"There are too many people who would rather torment you with your weakness than acknowledge you for your triumphs"
Saskia is so much more than Trickster's next plaything.
She is the reckoning
The twists! The lies! The lust!
Was worth the journey!
#newadult #romanticsuspense #amojones
Amazon  Kobo  Nook

Fawn by Elaina Jadin
Description:
We aren’t her saviors. We’re her worst nightmare.
We’ve been called vicious monsters. Brutal. Cold. Savage.
We rule the criminal underworld the same way we rule our pack—with absolute control. We take what we want, and demand complete obedience.
When she comes to us, she’s damaged. Fragile. Wounded. And oh so tempting.
Soft skin, haunted eyes, and a darkness inside her that sets us on edge.
She’s not broken… yet. But that’s what we do best.

My Thoughts 💭:
Dark + Mafia + Paranormal = YES YES YES
Soooo this was recommended in a FB group I belong to and it was available in KU and it had tropes from three of my fave genres - you know it I one-clicked and settled in that night to read this
As the dawn came began to shine through my window I was just coming up on 79% - It was that engaging
So this plays in the land of paranormal so immediately you know there is going to be a bit of stretching reality - that being said - it was pretty light in my opinion
I want to start with our heroine - Fawn - a very apropos name I must say. I always enjoy it when a heroine is honest about her feelings and desires. Nothing more irritating than a back and forth dialogue for 50 pages that changes absolutely nothing. Jemma had her moments where she stopped and questioned her feelings but she was all very real with herself.
Bryan is just a parasite ...
Now our three Alphas -
Draven is the top dog (couldn't resist) Mr. Calm Cool and Collect
Kade is the loose cannon but he is also IMO the gentler of the three when it comes to playing with their little Fawn
Bishop is darkness wrapped up in an OOOHHHH so sexy suit - under that calm intelligent facade is a darkness so pitch no amount of light can break through - he also is my fave. There is just something about an intelligent man who embraces all his sides that calls to my inner hussy
From the beginning I was hooked.
The characters are vivid and I connected with them right away
The suspense was a constant from beginning to end - this ends on a hellacious cliff hanger!
There is an undercurrent of darkness that was present throughout the story line - I think that is what kept me from setting this one down - I was constantly sitting on that edge
And don't even get me started on the physical --- HOLY HOTNESS
#darkromance #mafiaromance #paranormal #gothic #elainajadin #kindleunlimited
Amazon