Book review: BLUEBIRD GOLD, by Devney Perry

Lost Legends #1

Ilsa & Cosi

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Settling her father’s estate in a snow‑bound Montana cottage, Ilsa Poe finds herself caught between past regrets and new beginnings. What starts as a practical task—cleaning out the cabin and preparing it for sale—quickly becomes a journey of rediscovery, both of her family history and of her own heart.

Teaching math at Dalton High proves just as challenging as the icy winters. The students are behind, the system is broken, and the parents are quick to criticize. Yet Ilsa’s determination to give them the basics shows her resilience and stubborn fire—qualities that make her stand out not only in the classroom but in her personal life.

Enter Cosi Raynes, the local police chief, whose quiet strength and devotion to his teenage son contrast beautifully with Ilsa’s fierce independence. Their connection sparks first through attraction, but what makes this romance shine is how it deepens: he admires her stubbornness and courage, she treasures his kindness and protective nature. Watching them move from guarded strangers to partners who feel safe and right together is the heart of the story.

This isn’t just about chemistry—it’s about family, healing, and second chances. The way Ilsa bonds with Cosi’s son adds tenderness, and the gradual layering of trust makes the romance feel earned. Devney Perry balances passion with plot, weaving intimacy into the narrative without letting it overwhelm. The pacing of their relationship feels natural, the intensity of their feelings perfectly measured.

What I loved most is how attraction evolves into something richer: respect, care, and the sense of home they build together. It’s a romance that blends warmth with suspense, reminding us that love often arrives when we least expect it, and that the right person makes us feel both safe and alive.

Purchase links

Kindle: https://geni.us/opeXn

Audible: https://geni.us/ZJpgAEy

Paperback: https://geni.us/6wX86z

About the author

Devney Perry is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of over forty romance novels. After working in the technology industry for a decade, she abandoned conference calls and project schedules to pursue her passion for writing. She was born and raised in Montana and now lives in Washington with her husband and two sons. 

 

Connect with Devney

Website: www.devneyperry.com

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2kncXnb

Amazon: https://geni.us/nAXkP

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/devneyperrybooks

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/324585607979213/

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Book review: HELL OF A CHRISTMAS, by Abbi Glines

Mississippi Smoke # 9

Kash & Cressida

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Abbi Glines really knows how to grab me by the throat and the heart at the same time. She’s one of the few authors who can make me drop every other book I’m reading, sit down, and disappear into her world until I’ve inhaled the last page. And this story reminded me exactly why.

Kash and Cressida were the kind of high school sweethearts who burned too hot, too fast, and then detonated in spectacular fashion. One betrayal, one night, and suddenly he’s exiled to Alabama and she’s shipped off to Arizona, both of them shattered in ways they didn’t have the language for at seventeen.

Fast‑forward four years, and Cressida is back in Madison, Mississippi, not as the ambitious girl she once was, but as a waitress in a greasy spoon, scraping together enough money to survive. She’s running from a home that stopped being safe a long time ago, and you feel that ache in your bones. Then a glamorous woman walks into the diner and offers her a lifeline—room, board, a salary, and a chance to breathe again. Of course she takes it. Who wouldn’t?

And then Kash sees her. One moment on the street, one look, and everything they buried comes roaring back. Nothing is said, but everything is felt. And that’s the thing about first loves that never healed — they don’t stay dead. They wait.

But Madison is still controlled by the Southern Mafia, and when an anonymous text hits her new phone telling her to stay away from Kash, Cressida realizes she’s not just living quietly… she’s being monitored. Tracked. Controlled. Again.

What follows is a tangle of midnight visits, half-truths, and the kind of emotional tension that makes you want to shake both of them. Kash breaks into her room, demanding answers. She gives him pieces, but not the whole truth — not yet. And when they finally fall into each other again, it’s raw, painful, and so full of history that you can feel the weight of every unsaid word. He calls it closure. She’s left alone on the patio, heart cracked open all over again.

Cressida’s journey is especially compelling. She’s strong in that quiet, resilient way that makes you root for her from page one. Kash is the morally gray, emotionally intense hero Glines writes so well — the kind who loves with his whole soul and doesn’t always know what to do with that much feeling.

And the chemistry? Off the charts. The kind that makes you pause, breathe, and then dive right back in.

By the end, you’re left with that signature Abbi Glines cocktail: angst, passion, loyalty, and a love that feels both hard‑won and deeply deserved. Abbi Glines is one of those authors who hijacks my entire life the moment I open one of her books. Her morally gray heroes are deliciously unhinged in the best way. Her heroines are strong, vulnerable, and fighting for their own survival. The angst and passion hit at the same intensity, and the emotional bonds she builds between her couples feel like lifelines.

Purchase links

https://geni.us/HellofaChristmas

About the author

Abbi Glines is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Rosemary Beach, Sea Breeze, Vincent Boys, Field Party, and Existence series. She never cooks unless baking during the Christmas holiday counts. She believes in ghosts and has a habit of asking people if their house is haunted before she goes in it. She finally moved to New England into a home that is 200 + years old with it's own ghosts. She drinks afternoon tea because she wants to be British but alas she being born in Alabama, her life in New England is as close as she will get. When asked how many books she has written she has to stop and count on her fingers. When she’s not locked away writing, she is reading, and/or watching Netflix like the introvert that she is. 

You can connect with Abbi online in several different ways:

www.abbiglinesbooks.com

TikTok @abbiglines

Twitter: @abbiglines

Instagram: @abbiglines

Snapchat: abbiglines

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abbiglinesauthor

Book review: CURSED KING, by Julie Saman

Once Upon Ever After #1

Sebastian & Bellamy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The author insists this book is darker than her usual style… but honestly? What I found was something far more delicious: two main characters who fall for each other at first sight, even if they stubbornly pretend it’s just “attraction.” Please. The electric sparks arcing between them were practically screaming high romance.

Yes, there’s suspense. Yes, there’s a jealous madman. Yes, there’s even a royal curse whispered through the halls of a secluded palace. But all of that only adds to the fun of reading this story.

Eight years ago, Bellamy lost her mother in a car accident—one her father was driving. His breakdown uprooted their entire lives: he quit his psychiatry practice, pulled her out of school, and dragged them across Europe until Bellamy finally put her foot down and chose to study in Messalina, a fictional country tucked between France, Italy, and Switzerland.

Then came his early-onset dementia. Bellamy dropped out of university, took a job teaching English, and stretched every euro to cover her bills and her father’s care. No friends, no social life, no safety net—just grit and survival. And she keeps going.

Enter King Sebastian: grieving, grumpy, and absolutely ripe for sunshine. Three years ago, Sebastian watched his queen’s helicopter explode before his eyes while he and their three children waited in the garden. Convinced the royal curse was to blame, he locked his family away in a remote northern palace and hasn’t let them leave since.

Enter Bellamy’s father, who escapes his care facility with a toaster oven, thinking it’s a great invention and wants to show it at MIT.  Instead, he wanders straight into the palace. Bellamy rushes in to save him… and ends up being forced into the role of nanny in exchange for her father’s freedom.

The king had burned through eight nannies in three years. He wanted someone “different.” He had no idea that “different” meant a woman who would enchant his children within minutes and have them demanding she stay. Best decision ever!

What follows is a delicious grumpy‑meets‑sunshine romance. He’s beastly and brooding; she’s sassy and unafraid to poke the bear. The children adore her. The king? He’d love to fire her—mostly because she’s a menace to his self‑control.

Despite the author’s claims that this book is darker, her signature style shines through: a touch of suspense, perfect pacing, a beautiful love story, yummy sexy times, and children who desperately needed another mother—and found the best one in Bellamy.

There’s a hint of Beauty and the Beast: a remote castle, a three‑story library, a grumpy king softened by sunshine, and a legend that may or may not be real. For me? Perfect.

Purchase links

Amazon: http://geni.us/CursedKing

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3WN40GY

Preorder book 2 in the Once Upon Ever After Series today!

http://geni.us/CursedQueen

About the author

J. Saman is a USA Today and Amazon top 40 bestselling author who writes sassy, swoony, and scorching contemporary romances. She is addicted to Diet Coke, sour candy, and indie rock. She swears way too much (especially after a glass of wine) and has a penchant for sarcasm (or so her husband and children like to tell her).

J. is an admitted lover of second chance romances, enemies to lovers, and the perfect amount of angst. She is best known for writing funny and emotional romances filled with smart, strong women, and sexy alphas who have a softer side—especially for their women.

Connect with J. Saman

Website: https://www.jsamanbooks.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14923699.J_Saman

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.-Saman/author/B01FOIUR46

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jsamanbooks

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/jsamansradtasticreaders

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Book review: CRAVING REVENGE, by Michelle Heard

Kings of Mafia #6

Augusto & Yuki

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is an emotional roller coaster in the best way — a dark, gripping romance wrapped in family loyalty, trauma, healing, and the slow blooming of trust.

At its core, the story follows Yuki, a young woman raised under the crushing weight of duty and secrecy within the Japanese underworld. Her life has never truly belonged to her — every choice, every breath, every step has been dictated by the men who control her fate. The loneliness and quiet suffering she endures are portrayed with heartbreaking clarity.

On the other side of the world stands Augusto, the powerful Don of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Despite his brutal world, he comes from a family overflowing with warmth, loyalty, and fierce protectiveness. When their paths collide under violent circumstances, everything spirals into a chain of events neither of them could have predicted.

What begins as a clash between two criminal empires slowly transforms into a story about healing, identity, and unexpected tenderness. The romance is a true slow burn — shaped by fear, guilt, compassion, and the gradual rebuilding of trust. Watching Yuki rediscover her own worth, and seeing Augusto’s hardened exterior soften as he learns who she really is, is incredibly moving.

The author balances intense action, emotional depth, and cultural detail with a skill that kept me hooked from start to finish. There are moments that hurt, moments that soothe, and moments that feel like a breath of fresh air after years spent underwater.

All the elements that I love are present: slow burn romance, protective hero with soft heart, heroine who rises from trauma, found family, and hight stakes mafia drama (very gory!).

It’s passionate, violent, tender, and unforgettable — the kind of book that leaves you thinking about the characters long after you close it.

Purchase links

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FTV7D69F

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FTV7D69F

CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FTV7D69F

AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0FTV7D69F

About the author

Michelle Heard is a Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling Author who loves creating stories her readers can get lost in. She resides in South Africa with her son where she's always planning her next book to write, and trip to take.

 

Connect w/Michelle:

Website: https://michelleheardauthor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHeardAuthor

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