Review // Pure Awakening by Aja James

August 16, 2021

Pure Awakening by Aja James

I have always loved him.
This is how we are meant to be.
I was created, made, born to love him.
Everything else is deception. He is my truth.

Pure Awakening by Aja James

Pure Awakening by Aja James


Pure/Dark Ones #7
Release - December 13, 2018
Genre - Paranormal Romance
Single POV - heroine/Sophia
Heat Level - 4 out of 5
Format/Source - ebook borrowed from Kindle Unlimited
Page Count - 107
Publisher - Indie

I have always loved him.

Though that love has evolved, metamorphosed, transmuted over time (and sometimes it felt a little—maybe a lot—like hate), what hasn’t ever changed is that I love him.

But I didn’t comprehend the depth of my love, the teeth and claws and desperate prayers of my love, until six hours ago:

They say he’s missing…

The Royal Zodiac—me and my inner circle—hasn’t been complete these past two years since the attack. Every time we get close to a potential candidate to recruit into our ranks, they disappear, the most likely scenario being that Medusa and her minions got to them first.

And now she has Dalair.

I won’t rest until I get him back.

My name is Sophia Victoria St. James. I am Queen of the Pure Ones.

This is my Awakening.

Buy it here: https://amzn.to/3yQqRUB

Free to read with Kindle Unlimited


I didn't love this book as much as I loved the previous six books of the series. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that, so far, I'm not a fan of Sophia. I haven't found anything about her to care about yet.

Honestly, she bores me. I was hoping that by the time I got to her book that she would inspire something in me, but I got nada. It didn't help that this entire novella is told from her perspective.

I did like getting some background on how Sophia was raised and I enjoyed watching the dynamic between all of these characters that I love. How could I not love seeing these people in a different light?

The scenes between her and Dalair were entertaining and had me on edge as to what would happen next. Would Dalair snap out of the mind control? Would his love for Sophia save him? And would Sophia have her Awakening and finally remember (and reveal) what happened between her and Dalair in her previous incarnation?

All I know is that I'm excited to see what the Creature has up their sleeve for my people. This guy is hilarious to me and I can never guess what they're up to or their motivations for doing certain things. So I'm off to read the next!

Check out the previous books:



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!

Visit https://aja-james.blog/ for more information!

Review // Dark Redemption by Aja James

August 14, 2021

Dark Redemption by Aja James

For a man who felt dead inside, this woman — Clara — represented the spark of life that inspired him to keep breathing, keep walking, in the hopes that, one day, he might emerge from the darkness that ever surrounded him.
That he might feel again.

Dark Redemption by Aja James

Dark Redemption by Aja James


Pure/Dark Ones #6
Release - October 10, 2018
Genre - Paranormal Romance
Multiple POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5
Format/Source - ebook borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Page Count - 230 pages
Publisher - Indie

All his existence, he’s fought for the wrong side…

Born and trained to be the most fearsome Dark warrior the immortal races had ever seen, Enlil of Anatolia had only ever known ruthlessness, brutality and rigid control. He was a weapon used by others, his life never his own.

Until he spits in the eye of Fate…

No longer able to abide by the atrocities he witnessed and engendered, he severs all ties to the past, risking his own life and sanity, and awakens a nameless man without memory.

And is taken in by a human woman in search of her own Destiny…

Raised in an orphanage, Clara Scott has always wanted a family of her own. Full of love, life and hope, she adopts a lost little girl and befriends a homeless man. In his eyes, she sees endless darkness and pain. But through his actions, she sees a strong, noble, imperfect, yet beautiful spirit—

She sees a soul worth redeeming.

Buy it here: Amazon
(free to read with Kindle Unlimited)


Did Aja James write a perfect villain redemption arc or what?!

I was already feeling for Enlil. He had many demons and I liked that he was finally going to confront them. To get a whole story devoted to him actually realizing the amazing male he could be... call it bliss!

All he knew was pain, sacrifice and betrayal. Anatolian males were taught from birth never to care for anything but honing their unrivaled skills as warriors. First his father. Then the first and only person to give him affection (screw you, Anu). After millenia spent alone and lonely, no wonder he felt so empty.

After severing the ties that bond, Enlil awoke with no memory. He was lost and yet he knew things. Things that made him dangerous. However, nothing in his past could have prepared him for Clara Scott. She was like a force of nature. Big-hearted, tender and kind, she was the perfect person to balance him out. He didn’t know what she saw when she stared so intently at him, but he knew what he saw: A beautiful faerie with dark red tresses, brilliant blue eyes, a curious mind, and a passionate heart.

Everything that grew between Enlil and Clara felt like magic. She was an orphan who was adopting an orphan (yes, little orphan Annie got a new mommy) and Enlil was a male with no family, no friends, no memories, and no home. She gave him everything he was missing. Passion. Life. Joy. She was all the best feelings Eli could imagine in one package, simply bursting with it. And he fulfilled her in such wonderful ways.

His beauty was so raw, so elemental and devastating, that it reached physically into her internal organs, deep into her blood and bones, and made the primitively female part of her sit up and growl—mine.

This story made me all sappy and I wish I could see a picturesque reunion scene between father and son. I think that would be the only way to improve on this perfection. Let Enlil and Ryu give each other huge bro hugs and have them mansplain their issues away so that we can all be happy together. Seriously, I can't get enough of this series and with all of the loose ends this book gave me, I have to dive into the next one.

And here are my kinda spoiler-y discussion points...


★ Who is the Pure female working both sides? I have my suspicions, especially after the whole description of bells around her ankles, but why is she doing this? What does she hope to gain? How could she betray everyone this way? When will her identity be revealed? When will everyone know? And does the author make her death especially gruesome, as she deserves?
★ It was pretty obvious that Dalair would be the latest inductee into Medusa/Anu's mindless minion brigade. However, if she no longer has her powers, how is she able to control all of these people? I can only hope he doesn't end up like Leonidas.
★ I thought for sure that we would find out more about Clara and what seems to be her own magical identity. Will this be explored in another book? Does she also possess immortality, without knowing? And will she and Enlil/Eli be part of the growing Pure and Dark alliance?
★ Will I get the scene I've been looking for... where Ryu and Enlil finally hash things out and come to some sort of understanding?
★ The Creature is evil. How the heck can he ever be redeemed? I know he is because of the spin-off series, but HOW??? He's making it hard for me to hold out hope for any kind of relationship with his family. After everything he's done and continues to do, how can he look Inanna, Ashtar and Tal in the eye. He helped to keep his father prisoner! He allowed for his torture! WTH?!

Check out the previous books:



“Your past does not define who you are, Eli,” she whispered against his mouth. The palm of one hand cupped his cheek while she pressed the other over his beleaguered heart.

“You still have the present and an uncharted future. I have seen the real you in the past couple of weeks, unburdened by birth, by title, by experience and expectations.”

She kissed him softly, tender presses upon his closed mouth. He felt the heat of her desire, but he also felt her understanding, compassion and care.

“You gave yourself a name, and it is a good one. You traced your steps here, to me and Annie. This is where you belong. In our hearts. This is who you are—the man I love.”

A shuddering sigh filled his chest as he opened his lips beneath hers, simply breathing her in.

Love me, he invited. Even though I don’t deserve it. Even though I’m afraid to accept it. I can’t stop myself from wanting it with every piece of my blackened soul.

She wet his lips with hers and swept her tongue inside, plundering all he had to offer, staking her claim.

You’re mine, her mouth said. Love is a gift given freely, and I want to give you all the love in my heart.

Slowly and deeply she kissed him, coaxing him to kiss her back, encouraging him to claim her just as she was claiming him. Endlessly, their mouths fused, their tongues tangled, their lips swollen with an insatiable, ravenous hunger to kiss and suck and drink and lap.

She pulled slightly away to murmur into his mouth, “This would be a good time to disappear our clothes like you did last time, ‘Lord Wind’.”


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!

Visit https://aja-james.blog/ for more information!

NEW RELEASES // AUGUST 8 - 14, 2021

Happy Weekend y'all! I hope this week was lovely for you and that you have an awesome weekend! And for those of you (like me) looking for something to read over the next few days, take a look through the books that were released this week.


Happy Hunting!


Gen Pop by Lani Lynn Vale

https://amzn.to/3yHVT0I

Hangry: adjective—feeling irritable or irrationally angry as a result of being hungry.

Sometimes, Crockett felt that in her soul. And, of course, the one time that she’s being ‘irrationally angry’ would be the time that the hottest guy on the continent walked into her place of business dressed in prison orange.

She should’ve been afraid.She should’ve taken one look at him and walked the other way. But, she didn’t.Crockett Archer, better known as a doormat extraordinaire, didn’t walk away from the people she knew needed her.

She’d never been able to do it with a father that didn’t love her, and she wouldn’t be able to do it with a man that didn’t think he deserved a chance at love.

One look is all it takes for Zach Caruso to know that Crockett could be his.

All he would have to do is snap his fingers, and she’d fall right into the palm of his hand.Which is why Zach turns around and walks far, far away.

He tries not to look back.He tries to leave her be. But then he sees how she’s treated by the people that are supposed to love her, and all cognitive thoughts seem to flee his rational brain. One second, he’s running in the opposite direction. The next, he’s playing her knight in dingy armor.

God help her.



Baring Grudge by Cynthia Sax

https://amzn.to/3xBs0Oq

No one in the universe is more determined than a cyborg warrior tracking his female.

Grudge, a C Model cyborg, has been assigned a mission – safeguard a Humanoid Alliance space station for his kind. Honor was once all he had, and he is determined to fulfill his duty.

That resolve is tested when a tiny human female enters the space station and sets the prettiest little explosives the warrior has ever seen. She is Grudge’s genetic match, the one being manufactured for him. He wants to touch her, kiss her, claim her in all ways, but first he has to stop her from blasting him into the next galaxy.

Taelyn has a self-appointed mission—to destroy every battle robot the Humanoid Alliance has ever manufactured. A huge gray-skinned, blue-eyed cyborg warrior with mismatched arms won’t prevent her from achieving her goal. She’ll escape him, leaving destruction in her wake.

Before she departs, she’ll experience one toe-curling moment of hatred-edged passion with her handsome foe. She’ll show him how skilled with detonations she truly is. He will have his universe rocked.

Then she’ll disappear.

Her cyborg, however, has no intention of ever letting her go.

Baring Grudge is a STANDALONE Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a determined, damaged warrior, an equally resolute human female, and an explosive game of predator and prey played across galaxies.



Spring Fever by Laurelin Paige & Kayti McGee

https://amzn.to/2VDF0pQ

It’s time for spring cleaning, but I’m not ready to toss Logan yet…

Out with the old, in with the new… a new me, that is. Now that Charlotte’s married, I, too, have decided to be mature. So Logan isn’t Austin--that’s okay. Better than okay. That’s what I’d wanted all along, someone just as kind and loving and--okay, smoking hot--as my roommate. But a kind, loving, smoking hot someone who likes me back.

Logan has basically been all my dreams come true.

If I could stop stressing about work for five whole minutes to appreciate it, I’m sure I would be really happy. Thank God I have Austin to keep me grounded. Literally, because he makes me garden with him now. And maybe it’s just the stress talking, but it kind of seems like he wants to put down roots too. How come no one told me maturity would be this complicated?

Episode five of six in the laugh-out-loud Dating Season series



The Vampire Wardens Box Set by Lisa Renee Jones

https://amzn.to/3AvawVB

HOT VAMPIRE KISS:
The werewolf population is entrenched in a century long civil war, and now they are plagued by a virus that is turning wolves into killers. The Brooks brothers pursue one such rogue werewolf to Temple, Texas. It is in Temple that Evan encounters a beautiful nurse named Marissa who instantly melts the hundred years of ice running through his veins. When she is brutally attacked by the wolf, he breaks the rules of the Vampire Council and uses his blood to save her. Now, if he doesn’t kill the wolf by the next full moon, Marissa will become a killer wolf, and he will be sentenced to death.

HOT VAMPIRE SEDUCTION:
The underground vampire population of Austin, Texas has taken to hosting orgies with human women who've been forced to indulge in a new aphrodisiac. The drug, Blood Red, is a mixture of a rare type of werewolf blood and that of a vampire. Blood Red creates an insatiable desire for sex in the user to the point of pain in the absence of pleasure. Sometimes that pain leads to death.

Vampire Warden, Aiden Brooks, has spent more than a hundred years enforcing the laws of his race, and life has taught him that anyone that he allows into his world ends up dead. Despite knowing this all too well, having painfully loved and lost in his past, when his search for the creator of Blood Red places coroner Kelly Riggs directly in both his path, and that of a dangerous clan of vampires, his desire for her goes well beyond offering her protection. He's drawn to her bravery, seduced by her feisty spirit and beauty, but he is determined to resist her, fearing he will put her in harm's way. But Kelly is already on the radar of the enemy, and when she gets too close to the evil vampire clan's secrets, she is given Blood Red. Now Aiden's hunger for her might be the only thing that can keep her alive but who will save her from him?

HOT VAMPIRE TOUCH:
In blood they will find destiny and the eternal bond of passion…

A Vampire Warden betrayed by a werewolf he loved, turned into something not Vampire or Wolf. The woman–the wolf–who will heal him…if he doesn’t destroy them both first.



The Trouble with #9 by Piper Rayne

https://amzn.to/3AxaRaw

Trouble.

One word that comes to mind when someone talks about me. I like to think of it as protection, watching out for the ones I love. But now I’m spending more time in the penalty box than on the ice and the team owner isn’t happy.

Finding myself across the room from the hot therapist I kissed on New Year’s Eve only makes me push my problems down further. I want couch time with her but not the kind she’s used to.

I decide to lie to her just to finish off my therapy so I can do what I really want—date her—even if she says she doesn’t date hockey players. Just when my therapy sessions are up and I’ve made some headway with Paisley, it’s my parents who throw another wrench in my plans.

If I abide by my parent’s wishes to marry the one they’ve chosen, I’ll lose Paisley forever. But if I go against my parents, I’m failing my deceased best friend all over again.



Finding Lexie by Susan Stoker

https://amzn.to/2VC7VKY

Lexie Greene hasn’t thought about Pierce Cagle in years. So when the popular boy she knew in high school shows up in the middle of the Somali desert, part of the SEAL team rescuing her and a coworker from kidnappers, she’s more than a little shocked. But her surprise turns to awe, then awe to respect…and attraction…when he saves her not once, but twice before they make it safely back to a US Naval ship. Before she can blink, he’s gone from her life again, but not before an emotional goodbye and a promise to keep in touch.

Pierce “Midas” Cagle hasn’t thought about Lexie in years. Though he’s not surprised in the least to learn that the shy, kind girl he knew is now an international aid worker, serving the poor both at home and abroad. His attraction to the woman she’s become, however…that’s definitely unexpected. He hates leaving her behind after his mission, but Midas is more thrilled than he can say when she chooses the Hawaiian branch of Food For All for her next assignment.

Their chemistry is just as strong as it was in Somalia, and neither Lexie nor Midas has ever been so happy. Nor could they possibly suspect someone is outraged that Lexie made it out of the desert alive.



King of the Court by R.S. Grey

https://amzn.to/3s8Td9K

We don’t get a lot of NBA superstars coming through little ol’ Pine Hill, Texas. That’s why everyone is all in a tizzy over the fact that the USA men’s Olympic basketball team will be training here of all places before this year’s Summer Games. With little else to talk about, rumors about the players have been spreading like wildfire, and there’s one man in the middle of it all holding a match.

Ben Castillo.
NBA champion.
Olympic gold medalist.
Widely hailed ‘King of the Court’.


The morning he walks into my dingy diner, I have enough sense to keep my head down and go right on wiping tables, pouring coffee, and serving up short stacks. A man who looks like that—superstar or not—has only ever meant trouble, and more trouble is the last thing I need, what with taking care of Nan and scraping by on tips from truckers.

If anything, he seems drawn to my indifference. His steely gaze pierces me behind the counter. My knees nearly buckle under the weight of his attention. But while Mr. Pretty Boy is probably used to snagging city girls with a smile, this gal is country strong.

I won’t be some clichéd convenience for him on his way through town.
So look over your choices carefully, Benny-boy. We serve up sides of hash browns here, not heartbreak.



Just Not That Into Billionaires by Annika Martin

https://amzn.to/3s4Qiiu

Francine is stunned when she discovers she’s been married—for the last ten years—to Benny, her surly, nerdy frenemy she worked with one summer in Vegas.

How in the world did they end up married? Though there was a certain drunken night….

She tracks Benny down, sure he’ll be as shocked about the marriage as she is, sure he’ll be happy to dissolve their union ASAP so she can get the documents she desperately needs.

She's surprised to find that Benny is now a cold, wolfish billionaire. And yes, he’ll sign the paperwork…for a price: she has to spend the next three weeks playing his adoring wife.

**These stand-alone romcoms in this series can be read in any order!**
Most Eligible Billionaire (Henry & Vicky)
The Billionaire’s Wake-up Call Girl (Lizzie & Theo)
Breaking the Billionaire’s Rules (Max & Mia)
The Billionaire’s Fake Fiancée (Rex and Tabitha)
Return Billionaire to Sender (Noelle & Malcolm)
Just Not That Into Billionaires (Francine & Benny)



Touching Embers by Airicka Phoenix

(Touch #3)
https://amzn.to/37AubXY

What if there were monsters who could make you see what wasn’t there? What if you learned your entire life had been a lie and no one could be trusted? What do you do when faced with the carnage you created?

The world I had once known is gone and every death is on my hands as Garrison continues his devastation. Only, he’s not the only one searching for me. He’s not the only one who wants to know what I am, what I can do.

Creatures much worse are stepping into the ring and I must stand between them and the family I’ve found.

I must protect them, even if that means protecting them from me.

Touch Chaos. Touch Destruction. Touch Embers.



Free Books & Book Deals - 8/13/2021

August 13, 2021


Happy Weekend! It's Friday the 13th, my favorite day(s) of the year and I'm in a great mood! Once again, I'm bringing you the book deals I've found on Amazon. Let me know if you found anything to binge this weekend because while I'm off to one-click some of these sales, I need to know I'm not alone. Happy hunting!!

Please Note: All books are listed for $2 or less (prices valid at time of post). I apologize in advance if the sale is over by the time you found yourself here.

Alessandra Torre

Amelia Hutchins

Amelia Wilde

Amo Jones

Anne Malcom

Ashley Jade
  • 99c - Fold (Complicated Parts #1)

Avery Flynn

Brenda K. Davies

Carrie Ann Ryan

Chelle Bliss

Cynthia Eden

Dylan Allen

Elena M. Reyes

Elle Kennedy

Gena Showalter

Geneva Lee

Harloe Rae

Helen Hardt

Ilona Andrews

Ilsa Madden-Mills

Jasinda Wilder

Jeaniene Frost

Julia Kent

Juliette Cross

K. Bromberg
  • $1.99 - Resist (Wicked Ways #1)
  • 99c - Reveal (Wicked Ways #2)

K.A. Linde

Karina Halle

Kat T. Masen

Kat Mizera

Katy Evans

Kennedy Ryan

Kylie Scott

L.H. Cosway

Laura Kaye

Lauren Landish

Lauren Layne

Layla Hagen

Lisa Jackson

Lisa Renee Jones

Lynsay Sands

M.S. Parker

Mari Carr

Melissa Foster

Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Natasha L. Black

Natasha Madison

Nikki Sloane

Penelope Bloom

Penelope Douglas

Penny Reid

Pepper Winters

Rachel Reid

Rachel Van Dyken

Rebecca Zanetti

Ruth Cardello

Sarina Bowen
  • 99c - Epic (a Him novella)

Sawyer Bennett

Staci Hart

Susan Stoker

Suzanne Wright

T.L. Smith

T L Swan

Tijan

Various Authors

Vivian Wood