Book review: THE HIGH PRIESTESS, by Michelle Heard

Mafia Empire #2

Cassia Dimitrou & Lincoln Knight 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Michelle Heard never disappoints!  In this new thriller, she joins a broken soldier with a vulnerable Mafia princess and together they join the pieces of her destroyed mafia empire and he gains redemption.  It’s a different vibe from the first book in the series, but it’s new, different and fresh.  I don’t know where the author gets her ideas but please keep them coming!

Cassia’s family was slaughtered by the Bratva, only she survived, saved by Knight.  He’s a broken man, driven by the destructive memories of his baby sister’s death. He has no purpose to live, except to kill bad people. However, when he saves Cassia from the Bratva, something clicks inside him, like a transfer of a force, and now he sticks to her like glue, determined to protect her and keep her alive. It’s like he needs her for redemption. It’s funny how Cassia tries to shake him off but he won’t budge.  When she finally realizes why, they join forces and the rest is another one of this author’s rollicking stories of mayhem, sex, emotions, and killing. 

Cassia was the heir to be boss of the Greek mafia, and her father was giving everyone trouble with his anger issues.  The Bratva come in a killing spree, Cassia escapes from the house with her two younger sisters but they are killed while escaping.  Knight is a sniper working for the Alliance, broken from the tragic loss of his baby sister.  He changes his alliance to Cassia, with the blessing of Dominic Varga, Santiago Castro,  Leo Toscano, and Enzo Oliveira, the other heads of Mafia who form the Alliance.

Cassia is usually scared spitless of violence and used to dread her future position.  Now with Knight in tow, he gives her the sense of security to engage and dominate.  It’s like she’s the brains and Knight is the brawn, a perfect combination.  She also gave Knight a reason for living again.  I loved their relation as they evolved from savior/captured, to conspirators, to a power couple, to being in love.  

As always, there’s lots of action, both in bed and outside as they take on the baddies in the story. There’s adventure, sadness and revenge, loss and redemption, banter and sass.  It’s hella entertaining, a page-turner kind of love story with some gore and guns, and I loved it.

Purchase links

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DVCH9G3H

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DVCH9G3H

CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DVCH9G3H

AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0DVCH9G3H

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

FB Readers Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/118971435201074

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Book review: WILDEST DREAMS, by L.J. Shen

Forbidden Love #2

Rhyland & Dylan

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Only LJ Shen can take two characters who appear to be losers and made them winners.  When I started to read this story and saw Dylan Casablancas, little sister of famous chef Ambrose Casablancas, just arrived in New York broke, jobless, with a precious four-year-old little girl, and in a broken down car, then saw Rhyland Cortridge, ex-gigolo, about to go broke, all his hopes on a dating app and a Texas investor, I had no doubt LJ Shen was going to make these two succeed beyond expectations.  

Initially I saw a single mom with unattained dreams and bad decisions.  And as the story evolved, I saw a genius who sacrificed her future so her big brother could fly.  Rhyland’s most important relation is his best friend Row.  After helping him for several years, he used his physique and charm and became a ladies escort with a lot of success, lots of money, and crap money management.   He hired Dylan as his fake fiancees because his potential investor only invests in family people.  And he nearly went broke paying Dylan, not just for his dream, but in support of her dream.  

From apparently shallow people, LJ Shen slowly and surely revealed to us their hidden depths, the goody parts of their personas and made us fall in love with them.  

The author also manages to entertain and delight with the perfectly placed humorous touches, sexy banter, and yummy sexy times.  I loved, loved, Rhyland’s babysitting style.  He didn’t cater to a little girl, he called her little stinker, bribed and cajoled, read her stories with different voices, protected her and slowly and reluctantly, fell in love with the little stinker.  From a man who projected child revulsion, he certainly gave daddy vibes at the end.  I was certain of it, when he begged to enter Gravity’s room after she had gone to sleep, just to get a sniff of her hair. Truly wondrous!

It’s a wonderful love story, a saga as this couple overcome their issues, fall in love, reject being in love, fight with their feelings, get jealous, possessive, deny being jealous and finally accept their happiness depends on the other’s happiness.  It’s romantic with bite, heartwarming with angst, and wonderfully riveting.  

Purchase links

FREE in Kindle Unlimited

Ebook: https://amzn.to/3zW9Luc

Deluxe Paperback: https://amzn.to/4haIp3p

Barnes & Noble Exclusive: https://tinyurl.com/wddpbbn  

Add Wildest Dreams to Goodreads: https://tinyurl.com/wdljgr  

 

About the author

L.J. Shen is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, and #1 Amazon bestselling author of contemporary, new adult, and young adult romance. Her books have been translated in over twenty different countries, and she hopes to visit all of them.

She lives in Florida with her husband, three rowdy sons, and even rowdier pets. She enjoys good wine, bad reality TV shows, and reading to her heart’s content. 

Connect with L.J. Shen

Website  www.authorljshen.com 

Instagram (@authorljshen)

Facebook group at http://goo.gl/QZJ0NC. 

Sign up for her newsletter at https://bit.ly/3LhsIrb, and text SHEN to 313131 to get new release alerts (United States only).

Join LJ's mailing list for exclusive material ➜ https://bit.ly/3LhsIrb

Website ➜ www.authorljshen.com

Book review: STILL BURNING, by Abbi Glines

The Judgement MC #4

Tex & Salem

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I started reading this book as soon as it hit my Kindle and didn’t stop reading until finished at 3:45 am, that’s how good this story was.  Completely thrilling, page-turner, riveting, everything and more than I expected of this sequel.

The action is practically non-stop, and we get all the feels that we love from this author.  There’s the ever lasting love between Rome (Tex) and Salem.  I got to read scenes where the love was all consuming and it filled my heart.  We also get the nasty woman who wants to get Tex however she can, by tricks or blackmail (Nixie).  And her comeuppance, which is important! We have the girlfriends who give constant support: Pepper, Nina, and Goldie.  And apart from Liam and Micah, we get a little bit of the Mafia boys, as in Blaise, King, Thatcher, Wilder.  And throw in some DEA and CIA just for funsies.  

We finally get to meet Brady Murphy a.k.a. The Ghost, we get irrefutable proof of the love Eamos had for Salem, lots more.  And what I love the best is that Salem had some sad and angsty parts in the first book, but in this one it’s Tex’s turn.  And I loved all of his angst, how he got into his feels real hard.

This book was completely satisfying and wonderful to read.  Now I’m only mad that I read it so fast that it got over too soon!

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩:

✔️MC Romance

✔️Second Chance

✔️First Loves 

✔️Morally Grey Hero

✔️Alpha Male

Purchase links

https://geni.us/stillburning

Read OLD FLAME, book 1 in Tex’s story:  https://geni.us/OldFlame

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: UNDENIABLY ENEMIES, by J. Saman

Boston Irresistible Billionaires #5

Jack Kincaid & Wren Fritz

I tried really hard to love this book, since it was written by J. Saman and I usually love her books.  There are brilliant parts, where her excellent writing shines and I was riveted.  Part of my problem is the enemies to lovers trope, where Wren was especially vitriolic towards Jack.  I saw Jack, sometimes taking her insults as humorous, answering as a sarcastic jerk, and other times her insults hit home and hurt him.

I felt for Jack because he feels he’s jinxed, all the important things he wanted in his life were taken away: his football career lost over an accident, also losing his career as a surgeon; then his fiancee, the woman he was planning to marry, cheated on him with his boss, took his apartment and his dog.  This caused Jack to be very closed off with high protective walls around his heart.

Likewise with Wren, who suffered horrible trauma in her past, so she keeps a distance from physical contact.  However, Jack was never hurtful and Wren knew to feel safe in his company.  Their strong attraction just sparked defensive stunts on each one.  I saw some of her scenes as immature tantrums.

Once the enemies to lovers was resolved, as expected, and they moved on to the lovers part, we are treated to humongous sex scenes, and I felt like the plot lost to them. It felt like there was a way-too-long sex scene every two pages, so there was a lot of skimming pages for me. I resent so many scenes because I feel it steals from the romance and emotional parts of the story.  Towards the end, I got my full dose of angst and love, so all ended well. There was just a lot of skimmed pages.

Purchase links

FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: http://geni.us/UndeniablyEnemies

Audiobook Narrated by: Teddy Hamilton and Samantha Brentmoor

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/42gFOAM

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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