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The Half-Orc's Maiden Bride by Ruby Dixon

Lady Iolanthe of Rockmourn Keep expects to be a spinster all her days. She is very tall. She is very poor. And she is thirty. What lord could possibly want her?

But then her father returns with news that he has found a bridegroom for her - one that is impressively tall. One that is strong, and bold, and wealthy. And best of all? He wants Iolanthe. It seems too good to be true.

And when Iolanthe gets her first look at her husband-to-be, she realizes why.

No one mentioned the 'orc' part of things...



I didn't know how this story was going to turn out, but I know what RD does, and that's deliver, so I wasn't even worried. So what if the hero was a half-orc? So what if I constantly wondered how his tusks didn't get in the way, especially when they came close to sensitive bits? This story gave me exactly what I was looking for — sweet, sexy, swoony fun!

I loved the way the author created this story. The relationship between the characters was so beautiful to me. Iolanthe had lived her life knowing she was unwanted. There was no one to tell her different. And Agakor believed that no human lady could ever come to love him. He was half-orc after all. But what neither of them could have expected... that there was someone who would be the absolute perfect someone for them. That's what they were for each other.

Agakor gave Iolanthe all of the love she had been missing and she did the same to him in return.

Loved it!

And now I'll leave you with some sexy Orcs...



When I imagined myself taking a human lady as a bride, I didn't think further than that. I wanted a son to cement my claim upon this land, and a bride to ensure that I would look legitimate in the eyes of the other lords. I want them to see me as just another lord, not a squatter or an interloper who bought his way to a lord's title and keep with coin. A bride was just another piece of the puzzle, another way to get respect. I imagined her as something to endure, someone that would be horrified at who she had to marry, but who would put up with me because of the gold I paid her father.

I never imagined someone like Iolanthe. Someone who would shyly meet me in all my desires, someone who is as fascinated at touching me as I am with her. Someone who looks at my run-down keep as her home and even now works to clean it from top to bottom and make it presentable. I didn't imagine that my wife would like me, much less be eager for my touch. From the moment she petted my cock like it was a puppy, she's held my heart in her hand.



Ruby Dixon is the secret penname of a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author. As Ruby, she writes sexy barbarian aliens, grumpy shifters, and domineering bikers.

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Rattle Some Cages by Lani Lynn Vale

It’s not every day that you see a dead body at the beach. Or the woman of your dreams sitting next to that dead body.

Price Crow first saw Sabrina Proctor in the middle of a hurricane.

She’d been sitting next to her dead best friend, who’d passed away on the beach, with no way to get her back home, thanks to the world’s worst luck, and one hell of a storm.

So Price does what any decent person would do: he carries Sabrina’s dead best friend to their beach house and doesn’t leave her side until he’s forced to.

He had every intention of bridging that gap, of checking up on her and making sure she was okay, but life is funny and has a way of making a mockery of the best-laid plans.

Despite one hell of a connection, under the worst of circumstances, they go their separate ways. At least, he tries to. But he can’t stop thinking about her, and it becomes apparent, very fast, that he has a decision to make.

Choose Sabrina, or live out the rest of his life making everyone else around him happy except for himself.



It was practically love at first sight when Price caught his first glimpse of Sabrina. He knew nothing about her, but she intrigued him. Whether it was a coincidence or some strange sort of luck, when he goes on a family vacation, Sabrina happens to rent the house next door. However, while he's there for fun in the sun, she's there to say a final goodbye to her best friend. And when she's at her lowest, it's Price who helps her pick up the pieces.

I had a lot of problems with this story and that's really saying something because everyone and their mama knows how much I adore this author. While reading it, I kept thinking... this is messy.

For what I think is the first time, I didn't like the heroine. I didn't care about what she was going through, I didn't care about her feelings, and I didn't care if she got her happy ending. The only reason she was even a factor for me is because of Price. I loved this man and was willing to put up with the woman he chose so he could be happy. But it wasn't easy.

My biggest issue with this woman was that she was supposed to be socially awkward and shy, but I didn't really get that. I got a person who made excuses for her problems and did nothing to change them. She kept looking to others for basic things. She seemed to know nothing about life and yet she had a job with the school board. Why didn't she ever seek out some therapy?

She was very judgy, which irked the ish out of me.


No. Really? Well, I've been living under a rock and didn't hear the news. Price is better than me. Why do I smoke? Hmmm... well I don't know you and guess what? Don't ask me stupid questions. Don't question me. Mind your damn business.

She was also nosey, presumptious, and kinda rude. I'm still wondering what she was doing with her life that she put up with her ex for so long. Where was her common sense?

And so, I had to average everything out... such as missing details, my intense dislike of the heroine, dangling plot points, etc., and give this book its due.

Again, I absolutely love this author and will read whatever she pushes out. This just happens to be my least favorite book yet.

About the Characters:

Main Characters: Price Crow and Sabrina
Children: Hercules & Faye
Price's Family:
Derringer Crow (father)
Reedy Crow (mother)
Tide "Rook" Crow (twin brother)
Haggard "Thief" Crow (brother) - found in Always Someone's Monster)
Callum "Shine" Crow (brother) - found in Make Me Your Villain
Bram "Reaper" Crow (brother)
Cannel Crow (sister) - found in Chalk Dirty to Me

Check out the other books from the series:

Lani Lynn Vale is married to the love of her life that she met in high school. She fell in love with him because he was wearing baseball pants. Ten years later they have three perfectly crazy children and a cat named Demon who likes to wake her up at ungodly times in the night. They live in the greatest state in the world, Texas. She writes contemporary and romantic suspense, and has a love for all things romance. You can find Lani in front of her computer writing away in her fictional characters world...that is until her husband and kids demand sustenance in the form of food and drink.

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Invaded by Lizzy Bequin

A planet of women invaded by an army of men.
A queen conquered by a warrior's obsession.

Like all women of Cytherea, Queen Lirilith had always believed men to be the stuff of fairy tales. Until the invaders came. Brutal warriors from beyond the stars.

It turns out men really do exist, and they are terrifying.

Their leader is Ultor, and he is the most terrifying of them all, a dark and dominating mountain of muscle and scar tissue. He has come to conquer Lirilith’s planet, but now she is the conquest he desires. Her womb is his obsession. He wants his baby inside her, and he’ll stop at nothing to put it there, even if he must destroy her entire world in the process.

Now Lirilith must decide. How much is she willing to surrender to save her planet from destruction?

Sometimes, the only way to best your enemy is on your knees.



I've never tried this author before, but this book was making the rounds and I had my reasons for trying it.

* it's scifi romance, one of my not-so-secret pleasures
* it mentions breeding kink — YUM!!
* sex, filthy sex, all the sex
* an actual plot

Did it deliver?

Why yes... Yes, it did!

I will warn you though... this book was long!!

Could it have been shorter? Probably. But then I'd probably complain about it lacking something 😝😝

I enjoyed it, which is all that matters. Will I read from this author again? You better believe it!





Hailing from the Deep South, Lizzy Bequin enjoys writing dark romance stories that explore the primal side of love and lust. When she’s not writing or reading, Lizzy is serving the whims of the two evil feline overlords who rule her home.

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Gluttony by Marissa Honeycutt

Can the most damaged of sins embrace redemption?

By night, fallen angel Triel Ekron is a successful nightclub and restaurant owner in Las Vegas. By day, he enjoys assassinating humans in the most creative of ways.

When his latest mark turns out to be highly gifted in the kitchen, Triel gives her a choice: become his new imprisoned chef, or watch her family be murdered in front of her before she’s killed too. After all, his last chef just met an untimely death—at his hand—and Triel is looking for some new flavors to indulge in.

Cassie Fleming has dreamed her whole life of owning her own restaurant, following in her beloved mother’s footsteps. But when her mother’s murderer finds her in Witness Protection, she’s left with an ultimatum—and saving what’s left of her family is the only option. She’ll do anything for them, including signing away her freedom.

Triel’s brutal demonic side will wage war against Cassie’s kind and forgiving nature, but it’ll take a lot more than the cruelness of a fallen angel to kill her spirit. And no matter how much Triel tries to avoid it, Cassie gets under his skin in a way that makes him question everything he’s believed for so long. Will he put aside his prejudices and admit he’s been wrong about humans all along, or will he destroy the precious gift his father has offered him?

WARNING
There are no heroes in this dark PNR series, only villains. It consists of explicit content, dubious, and graphic situations that some readers might find offensive.



Okay. Okay.
Still trying to catch my breath here.
I thought I was ready.
I was NOT ready!!
Can you ever really be ready for the disgusting and depraved and delicious imaginings of Marissa Honeycutt?

Triel followed Lucifer and was cast from Heaven. As second-in-command, he had built his own hell on Earth in Las Vegas. Every human was something to be toyed with. They were there for his amusement, his pleasure, his punishment. And oh, were his 'punishments' a tale of their own.

Cassie was a sweet girl who only wanted to be a chef and testify against her mother's murderer. Too bad her quest for justice put her in Triel's crosshairs. This kind and forgiving girl ends up at his mercy and quickly finds out he has none.

He brutalizes her. He hurts her. He disrespects her. He punishes her. He unleashes the beast and shows her how cruel he can be. Those scenes, as terrible as they were... that was some fine writing right there. Seriously, Triel's imaginative torture scenes were as beautiful as they were depraved. (Now I'm also thinking of Cole. Dang.)

My thoughts during certain scenes:
* omg
* can humans take that much?
* oh gosh, thankfully it's over
* wait, it's not over???
* after all that, Triel still found it within himself to make things so much worse?
* crashing and clanking noises in my head. Does not compute.
* I can't unsee any of this!

And honestly, I couldn't see how this fallen angel could ever be redeemed. The things he did were beyond compare and how do you even walk back from that? I still don't think he made up for anything, but in order for there to be a somewhat happy ending, I had to let my disbelief go. I had to go with the flow. And Cassie did spark something within Triel. She reminded him of who he used to be. Of who he could be once again. And I guess that has to count for something.

For all dark lovers out there, this is definitely right up your alley. There are no shades of grey. It's all black and inky, full of deadly shadows. It's a horrific paradise!



I'm an indie author that likes to write books that will make you feel! Dark is my primary genre with touches of romance, paranormal, political conspiracy, suspense, and thriller. I love meeting new readers, so feel free to touch base with me and introduce yourself!

I write for myself, but always keep my reader's hearts in mind. I follow my characters' lead and sometimes they lead me into the darkness, but there's always light somewhere, if you look hard enough. There's always hope.

Check out https://www.marissahoneycutt.com/ for more on Marissa