August 2021 Bookish Recap

September 01, 2021


How is it that summer is already over? My children are days away from school and August was all about reading what I love and back-to-school shopping. With my eldest going into her second year of university, my middle going into her 11th year of high school, and my youngest starting junior high, my hands are full! I am definitely looking forward to whatever September brings and I wish for all of you to be blessed and find some awesome reads :)

So let's get down to what all I did in August...

Best Books of August

August was a great reading month for me. So great that it's hard for me to nail down the best book because after starting the Pure/Dark Ones series by Aja James... all of those books deserve the glory! So I'll just share with you all of the amazing reads I got to enjoy this month...

Gen Pop by Lani Lynn Vale - 4 stars
Pure Healing by Aja James - 5 stars
Dark Longing by Aja James - 5 stars
Dark Desires by Aja James - 5 stars
Dark Pleasures by Aja James - 5 stars
Pure Rapture by Aja James - 5 stars
Dark Redemption by Aja James - 5 stars
Pure Awakening by Aja James - 4 stars
Pure Ecstasy by Aja James - 5 stars
Dark Obsession by Aja James - 5 stars
Pure Providence by Aja James - 5 stars
Pure Magnetism by Aja James - 5 stars
Pure Surrender by Aja James - 5 stars
Pure Darkness by Aja James - 5 stars
Bond of Destiny by Larissa Ione - 4 stars
Dark Possession by Aja James - 5 stars

Aja James is a hidden gem. I'm not sure why because her gift with words is outstanding! She has definitely made a place for herself on my must-buy list.

Book Haul

Physical Books:




Ebooks




Added to my tbr

I did pretty awesome with not adding too much to my list. One day, it will be zero so I can actually get through my dang TBR.



Reading Stats

I read a total of 4246 pages across 16 books. Most of these came from this fabulous series I found (Pure/Dark Ones by Aja James), although I did find some amazing ARCs as well. Not a whole lot of variety here :)





What Else?

Once again, I've got nothing. I'm looking forward to continuing the Pure/Dark Ones series. I love paranormal romance, especially when it's done to this caliber of excellence. I don't want it to end, but I can't stop now. If you happen to know any great paranormal or fantasy romance books that you think I'd enjoy, especially if they're hot without the mess of menage, please let me know!



What are you looking forward to for September? I hope it's as incredible as we deserve it to be!

Talk soon,


xo, Natalie

Review // Dark Possession by Aja James

August 30, 2021

Dark Possession by Aja James

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

Dark Possession by Aja James


Pure/Dark Ones #14
Release - August 1, 2020
Genre - Paranormal Romance
Primarily Dual POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - kinda slow burn - 4 out of 5 - several scenes
Format/Source - ebook borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Page Count - 266
Publisher - Indie

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?

Purchase Links

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


My Two Cents

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:







Quick Peek

“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.


About the Author

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 // Pure Darkness by Aja James

August 29, 2021

Pure Darkness by Aja James

The thing about pain is that your body gets inured to it after a while.
Your mind becomes numb.
Same with shame.
But the soul… The soul absorbs it all.


────── ♔ ──────


Pure Darkness by Aja James

Pure Darkness by Aja James


Pure/Dark Ones #13
Release - May 1, 2020
Genre - Paranormal Romance
Single POV - hero? It's The Creature's voice
Heat Level - 4 out of 5 when it happened
Format/Source - ebook borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Page Count - 170
Publisher - Indie

We are who we are…

For as long as it can remember, it has been known as the Creature. Neither he nor she, neither Pure nor Dark…a beautiful abomination to all races and Kinds. A faithful henchman of the evil Medusa, it has perpetrated dark deeds beyond redemption, even if its own hands have never directly taken a life.

We are who we’re made…

Once upon a time, the Creature was conceived in love, a True Love that endured across millennia of trials and tribulations. Its parents have never given up hope that they would one day recover their lost son. And, too, the Creature was not always as it is now. But circumstances shriveled its heart and suffocated its soul, forging a being who cares about nothing and no one—

Until now.

**WARNING: EXPLICIT DARK CONTENT INCLUDED.**

This is not a romance. But it is a story about love.

Purchase Links

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


My Two Cents

This book... if there was any doubt about the creative genius that is Aja James... this book is proof!

Who knew that The Creature, the one person who was like an evil puppeteer, manipulating events and causing death and mayhem to my peeps... Who knew that I would have such empathy for him?

I'm in love with how in love he is with his son.

Benjamin doesn’t let me get away with anything. It’s like he sees right through me. Or into me. Like he can see straight into my black, ugly, twisted soul.


OMG and his hero worship of Tal. My sweet, broken, beautiful Tal. With me knowing he's his father and him being totally ignorant... I think it made it all the sweeter!

I don’t know why I ever thought the male less than resplendently magnificent. Yes, he has more scars than skin. Yes, he’s blind and stripped of his Gift. But he’s the fucking Tal-Telal! Lack of empathy doesn’t mean I can’t admire. That’s what people do with legends. He practically oozes confidence, strength, leadership, determination, and pure sexual maleness out of every pore. If I were an unrelated female between the age of sixteen and six hundred, I’d do him. And I don’t even like sex!


Okay, maybe not the whole 'I'd do my father bit', but I'll give him the out because he doesn't know!

And then Tal's emotional response to the son he never knew he had, but loves so deeply anyway...

“Because you are mine to protect,” he says in that low, husky voice, his words sending me staggering, even though my physical self has not moved. “I was unable to do it in the past. I did not know about…you. I know now. I will protect you, Binu. I will always protect you.”


I love The Creature's sarcasm and wit. I love how broken he is and how it drove him to make certain decisions. I wish there was a way to brutally punish every person who ever treated this male unkindly. The horrors he suffered through, the betrayals, abuses, and pains... he deserves some form of vengeance... of justice. Poor thing!

Don't even get me started on how this male connected with Dalair. His feelings were felt. Strongly. At times I didn't know whether I was supposed to laugh or cry. My heart completely broke for him... again. This dude couldn't catch a dang break!

Over the years, Dalair and I grew unbearably close. Unbearably, because I didn’t know how I was ever to survive when this fantasy ended. When I lost my only friend and brother.


and...

Since I’d been reborn as the Mistress’s Creature, I’d never met another living being who impressed me more than Dalair.


and...

Please, almighty gods that be, don’t let anything happen to my heart and my light. I needed them in my life the way I needed air. It might have started in pretense, but the feelings I felt for Dalair and Kira were more real than anything else across the entirety of my existence. They made me feel alive. They gave my life meaning. I loved them, I loved them, I loved them!


I'm not saying I'm loving The Creature, but I'm definitely feeling him. I've always liked him and wanted to know more about him and now that I do... I can see myself falling for him. I'm a sucker for broken males and they don't come in more pieces than this one. I hope the Pure Ones can get through to him (if they finally reveal his truth) and that he switches sides. F-ck Medusa!

Check out the previous books:






About the Author

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!