Standalone - Larsen Bros #1
Release - April 7, 2019
Genre - Contemporary Romance / amnesiac / second chance
Single POV - heroine 1st person
Heat Level - slow build / a few descriptive scenes
Format/Source - ebook borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Length - 310 pages
Publisher - Indie

Goodreads * Amazon

My Two Cents

Excerpt

“Amnesia,” he mutters for about the hundredth time. Usually, ‘fuck’, ‘shit’, or some blasphemy follows that statement. This time, however, there’s nothing. Maybe he’s finally getting used to the idea. I sit on the opposite side of the booth, inspecting the cocktail menu. It’s as gross and sticky as the table.“Can I get you guys something else?” asks the waiter with a practiced smile.

“I’ll have a piña colada.”

“You hate coconut,” Ed Larsen informs me, slumped back in his seat.

“Oh.”

“Try a margarita.”

“What he said,” I tell the waiter, who presumably thinks we have some kinky dom-sub thing going on.

Ed orders another lite beer, watching me the entire time. I don’t know if his blatant examination is better or worse than my sister’s furtive looks. He’d suggested going back to his place to talk. I declined. I don’t know the guy, and it didn’t feel safe. So instead we came here. The bar is dark and mostly empty, given it’s the middle of the afternoon, but at least it’s public.

“How old are you?” I ask.

In response, he pulls his wallet out of his back pocket and passes me his driver’s license.

“Thank you.” Information is good. More definites. “You’re seven years older than me.”

“Yeah.”

“How serious were we? Did we stay together for long?”

He licks his lips, turns away. “Don’t you have someone else you can ask about all this? Your sister?”

I just look at him.

He frowns, but then sighs. “We saw each other for about half a year before moving in together. That lasted eight months.”

“Pretty serious.”

“If you say so.” His face isn’t happy. But I need to know.

“Did I cheat on you?”

Now the frown comes with a glare.

Despite his don’t-fuck-with-me vibes, it’s hard not to smile. The man is blessed in the DNA department. He’s so pretty. Masculine pretty. I’m not used to being attracted to people, and he’s giving me a heart-beating-harder, tingles-in-the-pants kind of sensation, which is a lot new and a little overwhelming. Makes me want to giggle and flip my hair at him like some vapid idiot.

But I don’t. “It’s just that I’m getting some distinct vibes that somehow I’m the bad guy in all this.”

“No, you didn’t cheat on me,” he growls. “And I didn’t cheat on you either, no matter what you might have thought.”

My brows jump. “Huh. So that’s why we broke up?”

“This is fucked. Actually, it was fucked the first time.” He turns away and finishes the last of his beer. “Jesus.”

I just keep quiet, waiting.

“You have no memories, no feelings about me whatsoever?”

“No, nothing.”

A muscle jumps in his jaw, his hands sitting fisted on the table.

“It’s called traumatic retrograde amnesia,” I say, trying to explain. “What they call my ‘episodic memory’ is gone—all my memories of events and people and history. Personal facts. But I can still make a cup of coffee, read a book, or drive a car. Stuff like that. Things that were done repetitively, you know? Not that I’m allowed to drive at the moment. My car’s sitting outside my sister’s house gathering dust. They said to give it some time before I got behind the wheel again, make sure I’m okay. Also, apparently the part of my brain in charge of inhibitions and social restrictors, et cetera, is a bit messed up, so I don’t always react right, or at least not necessarily how you’d expect me to behave based on previous me.”

“Previous you?”

I shrug. “It’s as good a label for her as any.”

“She’s you. You’re her.”

“Maybe. But she’s still a complete stranger to me.”

“Christ,” he mutters.

This is awkward. “I’m upsetting you. I’m sorry. But there are things I need to know, and I’m hoping you can help me out with some of them.”

About the Author

The man was downright drop-dead gorgeous.
I'm talking, beautiful, not going to change my mind that he's the sexiest thing in the world, better than the hero in my favorite book, stunning.

Rating: ALL THE STARS!!
Standalone - Souls Chapel Revenants MC #8
Release - November 9, 2021
Genre - Contemporary Romance with suspense elements / instant connection
Dual POV - 1st person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5 / several scenes
Format/Source - eARC provided by the author (thank you Uplifting Author Services)
Page Count - 259
Publisher - Indie

Purchase Links

Amazon ~ https://amzn.to/3BX40re
Apple ~ https://apple.co/3Cm2q36
Nook ~ https://bit.ly/3hIWGZo
Kobo ~ https://bit.ly/3hIhmAy
Audio ~ https://amzn.to/3ERPz9M

My Two Cents

Excerpt

Bruno

“Why Farmers Only?” I asked, wincing when I read the website’s name.

“Bruno, you have pigs. You’re a farmer. This is perfect,” Six assured me. “It’ll work out great. You can invite your date out to meet you at your farm. Y’all can go feed all of the animals. Then you can cook her dinner.”

I looked at Six.

“I don’t want to do this,” I told her bluntly.

“If you do this, I’ll never bring up you leaving me behind again,” Six declared.

I stared at her, wondering if her words were true.

I’d do just about anything for her to never bring that up again.

A long time ago, when we were in high school, her father had given me an ultimatum.

Leave Six alone, and never contact her again, or he’d make Six’s life a living hell.

The bad thing was, I knew that he could do it.

So like any dumbass seventeen-year-old, I’d done it.

I’d left her behind, gone my own way, and had never looked back.

At least, for appearance’s sake anyway, that was what I did.

In reality, I kept an eye on her from a distance, making sure that she was always okay.

At least, until Lynn, the man that might as well be my very own father, had taken a liking to her.

Then Six had come back into my life with a vengeance, and ever since she and Lynn had married, I’d found it almost impossible to get back into her good graces.

Which, might I add, was bullshit.

I’d done it for her.

Sure, once I’d ‘grown up’ I could’ve come back into her life, but who the hell would want an ex-con in their life?

I knew that I wouldn’t want anyone like me in Six’s life.

Hell, it was bad enough that I had to allow her husband, Lynn, to have a part of her life. If anything, Lynn was worse than I was.

But at least he loved her and would protect her.

That was more than I’d done for her.

“That’s not going to matter to him, honey,” Lynn said. “He believes that he deserves your ire, so he won’t care if you stop.”

That was true.

I did deserve her ire.

I’d left her, like she’d said.

Then again, I’d left a lot of people behind in my thirty-two years. Six was just one of many.

“Fine,” she said. “Then just do it because I want you to be happy.”

My eye started to twitch.

“I’m an ex-con, Six,” I said. “No woman’s going to want anything to do with me on Farmers Only. Or any website for that matter.”

Six rolled her eyes. “Bruno, you’re hot, successful, and you’re unattached. Trust me when I say that any woman is going to go for you, ex-con status or not.”

I sighed.

“I shot and killed someone. On purpose. There was no ‘oh, I might or might not have been high on adrenaline because he beat up my sister.’ I shot and killed someone. On. Purpose. People don’t just get over that because I’m hot,” I argued.

“You shot someone because you had to.” She waved my worry away. “And trust me when I say, someone out there will understand.”

Hell, I didn’t even understand.

And I’d been the one to do the shooting.

Granted, the guy had been a piece of shit.

He’d raped three women. He’d beat up his own mother. And he’d all but maimed a two-year-old with his careless actions.

But that wasn’t my reasoning for killing the piece of shit.

Hell, I hadn’t even known about all of that other stuff.

I’d known that the motherfucker had tried to kill me because of some suspected slight, and I’d had no other choice but to shoot him and suffer the consequences. That was it. Me or him.

I’d chosen me.

And then I’d spent the next eighteen months behind bars until the parole board had learned of all the other shit that the man had done in his life. Then they’d been all, ‘Oh, no. We need heroes like you on the outside.’ Which was a bunch of shit.

I was no hero.

“Are you even listening to me?” Six snapped.

“You know he’s not listening to you.” Catori, one of my brothers’ wives, chuckled.

“Where is your cut?” another woman asked. “You can’t take a picture like that. You have to have your cut on.”

I looked over to find Swayze, Trick’s wife, staring at me with her phone in her hand.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because leather and bikers go hand in hand,” she said. “If you don’t have your cut on, nobody will know that you’re in a club. And being in a club automatically ratchets up the hotness factor.”

I rolled my eyes. “It got dirty. Had to have it dry-cleaned.”

In all honesty, it got blood on it, and I’d had to douse it down with the water hose before taking it to the dry cleaners to see if they could salvage it.

If not, I might or might not need to find a new one.

I was hoping that it came out, though.

Or, at least, when I wore it, it didn’t look like I’d tie-dyed it in blood.

“Well that’s just stupid,” Swayze grumbled as she put her phone down.

“I have one from last week,” Blaise called out, pumping her fist into the air as if she’d hit the jackpot. “And he looks good in it. He’s not even scowling!”

I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, that one’s perfect. Send it to me.” Six was still typing away at the computer. “What do you think of this biography for a profile? Hobby pig farmer by day, Souls Chapel Revenant MC by night. Thirty-two-year-old man looking for a woman that isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. Anybody that can’t manage that need not reply.”

“I think we should add this…” Wyett suggested as she rattled off her idea of edits.

I sighed and sipped my beer, wondering idly how long it would take to get dinner figured out.

I was ready to go home.

Today had been long, and my fucking knuckles were aching.

Even worse, I think my back was acting up again.

I’d have to make another appointment at the chiropractor. The one that was scared of me.

Yay.

“Ohhh.” One of the ladies laughed, catching my attention.

“Oh, here’s one for you.” Six dissolved into laughter, turning the computer screen my way.

Wanted: Man to feed me Doritos so my fingers don’t get orange. No weirdos.

My ideal match: No animals, no kids, no annoying voices, doesn’t like beaches, can deal with me not talking, and doesn’t mind when I talk down to you or that I’m smarter than you. Also, it’d be ideal if you don’t like to cuddle, because my body temperature runs hot, and I don’t generally like people touching me skin to skin. Is blunt and doesn’t try to use sarcasm. Won’t try to get me to go out to places where there is a large group setting.

Again, no weirdos.

“This chick sounds like she’s perfect for you.” Six clicked on the photo, but she didn’t need to.

I’d seen the photo.

The woman was gorgeous.

Though I couldn’t see her height, I could make out other things.

She was curled up in a chair that looked like a cocoon of sorts. One with really tall sides, big, poofy cushions, and it was all hanging from a contraption from the ceiling.

She had her knees crisscrossed in front of her, and she was wearing a baggy white t-shirt, black horn-rimmed glasses, and had a book partially in front of her face.

That book happened to be one of my favorites.

Captain’s Fury by Jim Butcher.

In all honesty, that was the very first thing to catch my eye.

Her hair, which was so fuckin’ curly that I knew if I tried to run my fingers through it, they’d get caught at least a dozen times.

“She’s perfect,” Crockett declared. “Message her. But don’t make it weird. Make it… sweet.”

“Bruno’s not sweet,” one of the boys, likely Sin, called out. “Don’t make him come off as sweet. The chick will definitely know that it wasn’t him that wrote it.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Messaged her. Let’s see what she says.” Six squealed, clapping her hands.

I sighed.

“Oh, she already messaged back. Oh my God. She said, ‘Hell no.’”

My brows lifted at that.

“Oh, she’s perfect. I just know it.” Six snickered.

“Oh my God. I knew she looked familiar! That’s Belle Pena! One of my good friends! Sorry, Bruno. But there’s no way in hell that she’s going to agree to date you. She has a type,” Beckham said as she settled her son, Hiro, more firmly on her shoulder.

She looked like she was lagging, though.

I bent forward and caught the kid before Beckham, who really was interested in this whole mess, dropped her own kid.

Beckham didn’t even notice that she was giving him away to me before she was insinuating herself into the bullshit.

I tipped back the beer and settled the kid more solidly on my shoulder.

He snuggled in deep, buried his face in my neck, and promptly sneezed all down my neck.

Gross.

About the Author

Visit https://lanilynnvale.com/ for more information!

There is nothing I would not do for you.
In order to keep you safe, I would like, cheat, and kill.
Know it.

Standalone - Trouble for Hire #1
Release - May 25, 2021
Genre - Romantic Suspense / second chance
Primarily Dual POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5 / a few scenes
Format/Source - ebook provided by the publisher through Inkslinger PR
Page Count - 217
Publisher - Hocus Pocus Publishing, Inc.

Purchase Links

My Two Cents

About the Author

──────　♔　──────

Dark Purity by Aja James

An unlikely hero…

He was once known as the Creature. An indefinable “it.” His life had never been his own, used and abused by despicable beings. Worst of all, he never knew himself.

Despite his tortured past, despite the darkness inside him, he has chosen a brighter path. He has a name—Erebu. His first stand was to defy the Master who created him to save his son. But instead of destroying the greatest enemy of all, he himself was destroyed…

An unlikely love…

From distant lands, across fathomless seas, someone heard the Creature’s cries. He gave Ere a second chance, a miraculous rebirth that came at a steep cost, remaking Ere with his own breath, body, blood and soul.

This mysterious savior has a past of his own to face, and a future to define and embrace. Will Ere be able to find him in time? Will they forge their path together or pursue separate destinies?

An end and a beginning…

No matter their decision, one thing is certain: they must work together to unite all Kinds if they have a hope of defeating their ultimate nemesis.

The end is near…

And so is a brand new beginning.

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

I tried to read this book very slowly, but found it so hard to pace myself because it was DELICIOUS!! Let it be said... I loved Ere and Sorin together!

Not that I'm surprised.

To love Ere is to love anyone he happens to love. The list isn't large, but those he cares for are the best of the best and Sorin definitely deserved his place.

I fell in love with Sorin right from the start. How could I not? Oh. My. Gosh! I can't get over how Ere 'waxed poetic' about each part of his physical form, such as...




I was enamored by the connection these two males shared, even if Ere couldn't remember why they shared it. I couldn't get over the way his body reacted. Or the way his thoughts were obsessed with Sorin, making him feel things he's never felt before. Or the way his insatiable need for the man made him crave to be close to him. Well, I guess it went both ways.

Seriously, when I was only 16% in, I was a true goner for these males. I still can't get over how succinctly Sorin summed up everything awesome that made up Ere.


And how could I possibly not love how fiercely each male loved the other. Whether it was Sorin wanting to heal everything that was broken in Ere, or Ere wanting to give joy to overcome the sorrow he felt from Sorin's soul, these males gave their all to each other.






Aside from these two, there were other things that were explored with this story, such as The Dandelions. These people were the result of experiments and I was hoping to get more of them before The End. For example, Clara and her adopted daughter Annie were 'experiments'. So was Ariel. The Tech Master. Who else was there and how would they have featured in some way? What powers would they each develop?

I think my biggest shock, apart from the fact that Benji's heritage wasn't explored (I really wish my questions from the last book were answered), was the fact that Lilith/Wan'er/Fox Spirt was one of the original Twin Goddesses. What?! This evil chick was the Dark Goddess? I loved how the author created her back story, including her punishment to experience humanity as a lesser being. She obviously learned nothing, and her end was well deserved, and the author did an incredible job building and building and building to the ultimate climax of this story.

I found so much of this story simply beautiful and I adored how devoted these characters were to each other. I'm in love with the way this author captures romance and blends it so well with mythology and suspense. I'm at once thrilled and broken after experiencing this series. Thrilled that I got the chance to read it and broken because this particular journey is over. I don't want to say goodbye!!

Check out the previous books:

Before he even arrived at the table, the words he’d formulated in his head to say were already spilling out of his mouth.

“Welcome to Drink of Me. May I take your—”

The words stuck in his throat and died a hasty death when the stranger turned away from the window to face him, spearing his feet into the floor with invisible stakes with those unforgettable gold eyes.

“You,” Ere breathed.

The man called “Soren” merely stared at him, silent and brooding.

Well, Ere didn’t know if he was in fact brooding, but he had a “Heathcliff” look about him, all stormy and dark, filled with oceans-worth of emotions and unspoken turmoil.

Ere wanted to smack himself.

The purple prose in his mind was annoying as hell! But he just couldn’t seem to stop the melodramatic twists and turns of his fucked-up imagination.

“What are you doing here?”

He didn’t actually expect an answer, since the man hadn’t spoken a single word since their encounter yesterday. So he was knocked literally off his feet when the stranger said:

“Hungry.”

That voice!

For the love of Loki’s hairy balls, that voice!

It was fathoms deep, resonant, but smoky and husky at the same time, raspy and rough. Tinged with an erotic accent when he spoke.

(Yes, he meant erotic and exotic. Accents could be erotic, Ere was absolutely certain, because this guy’s voice conjured all kinds of carnal cravings and sinful deeds).

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!

──────　♔　──────

Pure Destiny by Aja James

Destiny is cruel…

Since the moment they first met, in another life time, another world, Dalair and Sophia could not deny the longings of their heart, their souls, for each other.

But the stars aligned against them, capriciously pushing them together only to heartlessly tear them apart. She was never meant to be his, but he gave all of himself to protect her.

Fate can be rewritten…

Both reawakened to their long buried memories, they fight desperately against the prophesies that shackle them.
Sophia, the first-ever Pure Queen, the reigning queen, and the Destroyer of races, must find a way to save Dalair’s soul before it’s too late.

Dalair, trapped in a body that no longer obeys his will, controlled by thoughts that are not his own, fights to the death to reclaim his soul. And to reclaim, in the process, the only woman he’s ever loved.

But at what cost?

The Pure Ones might have triumphed over one adversary, but the more devious villain remains, continuing to spread chaos and mass destruction. Will Sophia and Dalair overcome the odds and carve a new, better future, or will they succumb to the Darkness? Including the enemy within— him.

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

One of my favorite things about this series is that as much as I think I know... I quickly realize there is still so much I need to learn.

These stories about the Pure and Dark Ones have been some of the most brilliant, incredible, and emotional reads I have ever come across. And I'm a pitiful mess right now because as much as I've loved reading these books, I'm devastated that there is only one story left.


So much devastating events led to this moment... Dalair is a mind-controlled minion/general of Medusa and company's army. In Pure Requiem, after falling in love with Ere, and realizing that he was giving the good guys a chance to rescue Dalair (and so many other things), I knew that this book was going to be deep. I knew that I was going to watch Sophia struggle with controlling her Destroyer side, struggle with returning Dalair's soul back, and that everyone was going to struggle with Wan'er/Fox Spirit/Lilith. Can this person just die already? I also knew that this author was going to deliver because she has for Fifteen. Other. Books!!

The following are my thoughts, feelings, conclusions, and questions while reading Pure Destiny, so if you want to avoid spoilers — STOP HERE!

──────　♔　──────

1. I know people are gonna wonder... 'Does Natalie like or love Sophia now?' Hmmm... not really. I don't hate her, so please don't misinterpret this. She can just be a little annoying. And with her inane and repetitive internal monologues/malaise, apocalyptic tantrus, and her tunnel vision, I wasn't sure if the love would come. I didn't think I could ever get over how many times she allowed herself to descend into darkness. She needed to get a grip. Poor Benji had the unfortunate role of trying to bring her back. Benji is meant for greater things! But then there was this...

She slowly worked her way into my heart. I loved how devoted she was to Dalair, how hard she was willing to fight for him, and how bright her light could be. So yeah, in the end, I did love her!

2. I thought for sure that Aja James was done turning me inside out, but when Sophia was having her flashbacks to one of her previous incarnations, one I didn't even think about... I was not prepared for this surprise. I was blown away!

So let me get this straight... Sophia's soul used to be the daughter of the Fox Spirit/Lilith/Wan'er, the daughter of the Pure One who Queen Ashlu made into her Blood Slave, the same Pure One that we know is the father of Ishtar. That means that Sophia is Ishtar's sister. OMG that's crazy! Will this come out or be covered in the next book, seeing as it's the last in the series?

3. Was anyone else strangely turned on when Robot Dalair woke up, like a man on a mission (which he unfortunately was) and effortlessly incapacitated Immortals and humans alike to get to Benji? Dude is so hot!

4. I also can't be the only one who got swept away when Sophia shared her memories of when she first met Dalair (when she was the princess Kira). I loved getting it all from her perspective and how finally... finally... Dalair could believe in her feelings for him.

5. And while I have so many other thoughts and feelings about this story, the one that keeps repeating itself right now is this... is Benji the reincarnation of the Pure One that Queen Ashlu stole? With his little blips, like finding Wan'er familiar and sending thoughts to Sophia that ring true to her earliest remembered incarnation, does this mean that his soul was once her father? Meaning his soul is also the father to Ishtar's soul? And will this be revealed in the story to come?

Check out the previous books:

Dalair unleashed was like…

Sophia’s mind stuttered, as it always did when trying to come up with the right descriptors for her enigmatic warrior. Other males were easy to categorize. Human languages had a broad enough vocabulary to encompass all varieties.

But never Dalair. Not for her.

The essence of him couldn’t be captured by any adjective, or even a thousand adjectives.

He was always more.

More compelling. More magnetic. More addictive. More breathtaking.

He made her feel so much more. He awakened and inspired every part of her.

The modern feminist in her, the Gen-Z self-oriented part of her, felt as if she should rebel against the irresistible draw of him. She should be independent and self-sufficient, shouldn’t she? Whole unto herself. She shouldn’t need anyone else like this. She shouldn’t want to be dominated and protected and taken care of like this.

She was a queen! She was the Destroyer (not that she was proud of it, but still). She was one of the most powerful beings in the universe.

Why should one male matter so much? That she would move heaven and earth to have him by her side?

And yet…

Sophia would never lie to herself. The truth was: she wasn’t fully alive without Dalair. Only with him did she breathe freely, deeply, as if up to this point, she’d been suffocating all along.

He was her air. Her water. He was everything.

Dalair unleashed was like…

A supernova.

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!