Nothing is going to get between us, and nothing is going to hurt us.
It's you and me, together in this world.
— Lilly to Keller

Royally Not Ready by Meghan Quinn

So there I was selling bikinis out of my truck in South Beach Miami, getting ready to kick off a wet t-shirt contest when the world’s biggest grouch approached me - Keller Fitzwilliam.

The man had the sultriest British accent I've ever heard. And he looked like he just walked off a Viking boat and into a suit tailored specifically for his impressively muscular frame. Only problem is, he had the warmth of an ice pick and he kept telling me he was here to take me back to his home country.

Of course, I didn't follow him. I might be up for a good time, but I'm also educated enough to know leaving with a stranger isn't smart. Well, that's until he mentioned my mom's name. My mom who passed away several years ago.

So after some serious fact-checking, my bikini-clad bum went with him to a sub-arctic country I had never heard of just north of the British Isles, where I found out my grandpa was the king of said freezing country, and I was the one and only heir.

Desperate to learn more about my mom, I decided to give this princess thing a chance.

Good idea, right? Wrong.

Because Mr. Ice Pick was put to the task of training me and he’s not just cold as ice, he’s pompous, aggravating, and possessive. And did I mention we have to share a bathroom in a tiny castle?

We are oil and water every single day and even though he’s training me to be queen, I have this simmering desire to kneel before him.

Find it here: Goodreads * Amazon

After my not so great feelings after the last story I read from this author (I'm looking at you A Not So Meet Cute)... I went into this book with a bit of trepidation. Would I like it? Would this be the end, at least for awhile, of my relationship with this author?

Let me tell you what I quickly realized...


Within the first few chapters, I knew I was gonna love this book.
I was already giggling and swoonig and there was so much more to read.
I lived for every grumpy moment with Keller.
I anticipated every inappropriate thought and word from Lilly.
I couldn't get enough!
By the time I got to the end, I was extremely grateful that I didn't have to wait to read the next book because IT'S ALREADY OUT!!


Lilly is the long lost heir to a scandinavian kingdom and she was soooo not ready.
Keller was determined to shape her into someone worthy of the title of future queen.
Everything that happened in between, such as the humor and the heat and the banter and the... well, just EVERYTHING... made this a must-read for me.
I knew that it was going to get all of the stars.
It was like reading what I know to expect from MQ and so much more.

So I'm off to get my hands on Royally In Trouble, which I'm hoping is just as amazing (if not more than) this was!



#1 Amazon and USA Today Bestselling Author, wife, adoptive mother, and peanut butter lover. Author of romantic comedies and contemporary romance, Meghan Quinn brings readers the perfect combination of heart, humor, and heat in every book.

Standalone - Boys of Winter #11
Release - October 11, 2022
Genre - Sports Romance / brother's friend / forced proximity
Dual POV - 1st person
Heat - 3 out of 5 / a couple of semi-descriptive scenes
Format/Source - eARC provided by the author
Length - 181 pages
Publisher - Indie

My Two Cents

About the Author

Check out https://www.srgrey.com for more information

──────　♔　──────

Playing for Keeps by R.L. Mathewson

Done with being the world's biggest pushover, Haley decides that things are going to change starting with the aggravating neighbor who has too much charm and not enough restraint. What she didn't expect was to be sucked into his world, but Haley has a game plan and she won't let herself forget just what the bad boy next door is capable of.

The last thing Jason expected was for his little shy neighbor to go Rambo on him over some ruined flowers. After he decides to take her under his wing he can't help but that notice that she fits very nicely in his life. Now the only thing left is to convince her that this is anything but a game.



Reading this story again was like reading it for the first time. I loved it years ago and I've realized I love it even more now!

Haley and Jason were amazing together. Hilarious, sweet, sexy, and fun, they were a joy to read.

He was a neighbor from Hell before he became the best friend Haley could ever ask for. And then... he became so much more. He was reluctant to love, but when he did, he did it well. I loved the way these characters loved each other.


The drama Haley created was expected. I didn't like it but it did give me a heck of a lot of laughs. Jason was just as stubborn as she was and knew they belonged together. And when he gave up the fight and she took up the battle, I swooned. I love when the both characters can make me into a sappy mess.

All jokes about the food and Jason's never-ending stomach aside, this story was super sexy and sweet. I've already read so much of this series and I can't wait to read them again!


New York Times Bestselling author, R.L. Mathewson was born in Massachusetts. She’s known for her humor, quick wit and ability to write relatable characters. She currently has several paranormal and contemporary romance series published including the Neighbor from Hell series.

Growing up, R.L. Mathewson was a painfully shy bookworm. After high school she attended college, worked as a bellhop, fast food cook, and a museum worker until she decided to take an EMT course. Working as an EMT helped her get over her shyness as well as left her with some fond memories and some rather disturbing ones that from time to time show up in one of her books.

Today, R.L. Mathewson is the single mother of two children that keep her on her toes. She has a bit of a romance novel addiction as well as a major hot chocolate addiction and on a perfect day, she combines the two.

I won't sleep as long as I know she's not safe.
My own safety is only worthwhile as long as I can protect her.

Standalone - Corsairs #0.5
Release - May 7, 2017
Genre - SciFi Romance / prison trope
Dual POV - 1st person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5 / no intercourse until the end, but plenty of sexy times
Format/Source - ebook purchase from Amazon
Length - 135 pages
Publisher - Indie

Goodreads * Amazon (FREE with KU)

My Two Cents

Quick Peek

About the Author

For more on this author, visit http://www.rubydixon.com/

Standalone - The Court of the Underworld #4
Release - June 14, 2020
Genre - Paranormal Romance / mythological legend retelling
Dual POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - 3 out of 5 / a couple of descriptive scenes
Format/Source - ebook borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Length - 212 pages
Publisher - Thornstar Publishing Pty Ltd

Goodreads * Amazon (Free with KU)

My Two Cents

About the Author

Find out more about this author at https://alessathornauthor.com/

Standalone - Immortals After Dark #4
Release - April 29, 2008
Genre - Paranormal Romance / vamps, demons, valkyries, witches, ghost
Dual POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - 3.5 out of 5 / a few scenes
Format/Source - ebook borrowed from the library
Length - 401 pages
Publisher - Pocket Books

My Two Cents

Excerpt

You can find the prologue here: https://kresleycole.com/books/dark-needs-at-nights-edge/

About the Author

Visit http://www.kresleycole.com for more information

Ever since he laid eyes on Eveline Marceau, Ramses wanted to possess her. Inside and out.
He wanted to own every fiber of her being.

──────　♔　──────

Dark Possession by Aja James

Alend Ramses is not who he seems…

The first-ever Dark King, the most powerful vampire ruler in the world, was once the lowest of the low. A slave who became a Consort who became a King…he’s lived long enough to learn from his mistakes and never repeat them.

Or has he?

Eveline Marceau knows a lot…

The Pure Ones’ Seer and Scribe is an intellectual female with hidden depths, which no male across time has come close to uncovering. She is certain that Ramses is no different; she knows what she wants, and he is exactly opposite.

But she doesn’t know everything.

Their paths cross unexpectedly…

Pulled into the Dark Ones’ dizzying world of intrigue, violence and mayhem, the meek little “librarian” shows her steely backbone and holds her own. By all appearances, she is one of the Dark King’s possessions, a symbol and portent for a potential future as tensions between the Dark Ones and their enemies run high.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Can Eveline work with Ramses to steer Destiny in the right direction, or will history once again repeat itself toward a bloody, oppressive end?

Amazon CA * Amazon US
(free to read with Kindle Unlimited)

Once again, Aja James gave me an honorable, broken hero to sink my teeth into. Had me feeling like fighting Eveline for the privilege!

Matter of fact, Eveline wasn't doing bad herself. I absolutely adored the way she transformed once she met Ramses. Dark Possession a.k.a. The Evolution of Eveline was a sensually frustrating masterpiece.

Honestly, I found so much to love about this book... like the way Eveline was mesmerized by Ramses and his #phallus elephantas.

She had the almost irresistible urge to rub her face in his inviting crotch.

Could crotches be inviting? Apparently, Ramses’ was.

Unconsciously, Eveline licked her dry lips at the sight.

She was so, so starved.

“Thirsty?” He asked solicitously in that sinful, dark chocolate voice.

She swallowed with an audible gulp.

His chest seemed to shake, and if Eveline was paying attention to anything above his waistline, she would have seen that it was shaking with barely suppressed amusement.

“Hungry?”

He was taunting her. Some self-preserving part of her brain just knew that he was.

Right on cue, his penis bobbed and pulsed again, squeezing out more clear fluid, the fat, juicy head with its winking slit looking directly at her. (If penises could look, that was).

As if to say, come take a good long suck. Eat my cream until you’re full to bursting. I’ll satisfy all of your most wanton and depraved appetites.

Can these two be more delicious together?!

I loved that although this book heavily featured Ramses and Eveline, there was still something about their story that fed into the subplot that has been building throughout this entire series. For example, I need more information about The Eagle King. I was hoping that he and Ramses would finally have the conversation that seemed to be so necessary, but no. I want them to confront Ramses' regret over their first encounter when he turned his back on his own kind. I wanted the Eagle to share their origins and their bond. I want all of these beings to finally unite so that Medusa and Wan'er don't stand a chance.

If I didn't already not care a dang lick about Queen Ashlu before, this book... getting Ramses story... seeing how she used, abused, and manipulated him... I definitely hate her now.

When he was smaller, she used to sift her fingers through his ebony curls while she hugged him to her bosom as a loving mother would. She doted on him and carved time out of every day to spend with him. Playing, dreaming, making him laugh, feeding him food and drink from her own hands.

Was it any wonder that he loved her unconditionally? His beautiful, magical Dark Queen.

He never suspected that it was all pretense.

Good thing she's dead.

I did think that it took far too long for Ramses to wise up to who Queen Ashlu truly was. At times, I thought it made him pathetic. But then I remembered she had him since he was a baby. So it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that he would have a blindspot when it came to her. However, to die at the age of 11 as a Pure One because he gave himself to her when she didn't love him back (thanks Decline), to be reborn as a Dark One and rededicate himself to the same person who didn't love him... He took to long to walk away.

Although Ramses was disgusted and repulsed by having sex in order to expedite negotations between the houses, I'm so glad that Eveline quickly stepped up to sabotage his efforts. That entire scene where she cursed one of the vampire queens was hilarious. Like her, I didn't understand why he put himself through it all. He was a fearless leader. Feared and respected. It just wasn't necessary and it was gross and I'm just thrilled that I didn't have to go through seeing anything yucky.

After all these millennia, Eveline found him.

Though she, too, hadn’t been searching.

They’d found each other.

They’d come home.

I don't know what the mating of Eveline and Ramses means for the two houses. Will the Cove and the Shield finally operate as one unit? It would be smart, no? Will Ramses and The Eagle King have 'the talk'? Will The Eagle King feature in a big way in the story to come? And when the heck will Medusa and Wan'er finally die? They will die, right?!

I'm full of questions and curiosity and the only solution is to keep reading and falling in love with all of these characters, the author's writing, and the beautiful story that is too quickly coming to an end.

Oh, and what does this prophecy mean?

A queen becomes Queen

A slave becomes Mate

A King falls in flames

A winner loses in games

A queen gives way

A Mate displaced

A Champion reborn

A King transformed

A stone heart in fire

A soul dances higher

When True Love reveals

And old wounds heal.

Check out the previous books:

“Which part of me do you want to possess the most?” he rasped into her ear, softly biting the tender lobe.

“Which part of me do you hunger for the most?”

Her busy little hands gave his buttocks a hard, thorough squeeze before curving around his hips to grasp his manhood through his trousers in one fist while the other took a firm hold of his balls.

He shuddered against her and ground into her grip, fucking her hand in short bursts until his pre-cum leaked profusely from the head, wetting her palm even through the confining fabric.

“This?”

He knew without a doubt that she craved his sex, but he still wanted to hear her say it.

“Yes,” she breathed, squeezing him tightly with both hands, making him see stars.

At the same time, he was afraid. Females the world over wanted him. It was the primal maleness of him, the elemental strength and power. Ashlu had wanted him for the same reason, and he’d used her sexual desire to bind her to him.

But with Eveline, he wanted her to want more from him. To want him the way he wanted her.

Loved her.

He bit back a helpless groan at the truth of it. He loved her completely. Utterly.

He loved the way she stood up to him, since the first moment they met. She always held her ground, not giving him an inch. He loved the way she focused on her work, how she truly enjoyed and was inspired by her role amongst the immortals.

He loved the way she became doggedly obsessed when she wanted something, how despite being an imminently logical, intellectual female, she also had a fiery, implacable temper, a possessive, jealous streak as wide as the Nile. He even loved the quirky nicknames she thought up to call him in retaliation for his calling her “little sprite.”

Most of all, he loved her passionate heart, her courage and loyalty, how she didn’t hesitate to go after him, and to try to help a complete stranger in the eagle king, even after he abducted her.

This depth of feeling obliterated everything he thought he knew. The closest he’d felt to this before was merely obsession.

This…

This was irrevocable, permanent possession. His body stilled against her, though tremors of a different kind racked him. Doubt. Vulnerability. Surrender.

And undiluted, all-consuming love.

Aja James just completed the Pure/ Dark Ones paranormal-fantasy romance series in 2020. If you want your heart battered, bruised, shattered and skewered, then put back together in the most glorious ways, check out the series below. Every couple gets an HEA, but they fight like hell for it on the way.

Aja is now working on her new series, Dragon Tails, because dragons are her favorite shifters of all!

Standalone - a Demonica novella/1001 Dark Nights
Release - August 24, 2021
Genre - Paranormal Romance
Primarily Dual POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5/a few of scenes
Format/Source - eARC provided by the publisher
Page Count - approx. 200
Publisher - 1001 Dark Nights Press

Purchase Links

My Two Cents

About the Author

Pure/Dark Ones #7
Release - January 1, 2019
Genre - Paranormal Romance
Multiple POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5
Format/Source - Kindle purchase
Page Count - 239
Publisher - Indie

“I want you.”

She stated the words as if she were throwing down a gauntlet.

He looked back at her intently, searching those intense blue eyes for some depth of feeling beyond superficial lust.

But he couldn’t see inside of her. She was, and always had been, closed off to him.

One of Seth’s Gifts was the ability to detect the desires of others, the better to negotiate and mediate. All he’d ever felt from Jade was sexual aggression and hunger for pleasure. He could never tell whether these were the only things she wanted, or that these were the only things she allowed herself to want.

“My blood,” Seth clarified.

“Yes.”

“My body.”

“Yessss.”

“That is all?”

She narrowed her eyes.

What did he want her to say? She didn’t have patience for guessing games.

“That is plenty,” she said. “I want to renegotiate our deal. What do you want for your blood and body? Unlimited access. Sole ownership. Name your price.”

A sharp, splintering pain exploded within Seth’s heart.

“You want me to be your Blood Slave,” he rasped out, his eyes boring into hers.

Her gaze flickered slightly as if she knew she’d hurt him with her demand, but wasn’t sure why.

“We don’t have to call it that,” she coaxed. “We don’t need to formalize the ritual. You would simply give me your word that you’re mine. Only mine.”

“I cannot be owned that way,” he stated quietly.

“Everyone and everything can be had for a price,” she resolutely refuted. “It is how I built this Hive, the strongest vampire Hive in the world.”

The look in her eyes gentled slightly as she considered him.

“I would treat you well, Pure One,” she promised softly. “I would only take my pleasure with you, if that’s what you want. I would forsake all other males, and keep you always by my side.”

“Like a pet.”

Jade sat back as the waitress came to take their plates away and put the check on the table.

She was nonplussed.

She was offering him carte blanche access to her Hive, her resources, her power and influence, in return for mutual pleasure and gratification. Yet he was obviously extremely put out, if the muscle ticking in his jaw were any indication.

Perhaps she should have thought through her strategy better.

But this was their last day together. She wanted more days like this.

Infinitely more.

She was desperate to possess him totally, elated to know that no one ever truly had.

She wanted to mark him, claim him, own him before Destiny decided to loan him to any other female.

He was hers.

She needed to make him hers.

Mine, the primitive beast inside of her growled.

“We should go,” he said and stood, after paying the bill, his ever calm and polite mask once more encasing his face.

She took his arm as they walked out of the dessert shop together, the better to lean in and ask, “You’ll consider it?”

“No.”

“But—”

He turned to face her on the sidewalk and clutched her close so that their conversation couldn’t be overheard by humans going about their day.

“I will not be your whore.”

“That’s not—”

“I cannot be bought.”

“You—”

He held her shoulders and shook her a little, finally losing some of his cool.

"Don't," he ground out.

"Don't," he repeated when she opened her mouth to speak.

I do not f*ck on command. I am not built that way. I will never give anyone the power to reduce me into a collection of flesh and bones and blood. I am more than that. And if you wanted to pretend that you are my wife, you would know that. You would respect who I am."